Total Newbie, Looking For Ways To Improve (complete Pics/videos Inside)

[Drizzall]

Hey guys! Super new to growing, in fact I only even though about growing 2 months ago, and then 1 month later I started growing, I did TONS of research and came up with what I thought, would be my best set up. So now that I have gotten started, 5 weeks under my belt, I am looking for some ways to min/max my set up and I also want a estimate on my total yield. (Just curious if I am ball parking correctly.

What I know I need:
Co2- I dont want to get that until I have a couple of grows under my belt, I still have a lot to learn to be adding in another big component.
A couple of oscillating fans-my old one blew a day ago, and 2 are coming with the next paycheck
A new non-batwing hood-Again next investment

My set up-Videos and pictures to be included
Hydroponic/bubbleponic grow with 3.5 gallon buckets and Dakine 420 nutrients with hydrogaurd
2 1000 watt MH bulbs with HPS ready to go
6 week total veg
First set is deathstar at 5 weeks
Second set is blue dream at 1 week(out of clone dome)
6 inch inline fan bringing in filtered outside air.
78 temp with 20% humidity
18/6 light schedule

Anything else you need to know please ask!


Video link to whole set up https://youtu.be/oiCJkKRvNiY
Multiple pictures to roots ect- http://imgur.com/a/fsrDl

 

[Hushpuppy]

Welcome to The Passion I'm not sure how much you actually know about growing MJ or anything else, but so far what you have in mind is close to what you need. If you aren't VERY experienced in growing MJ, I have to tell you that you are stepping into a very deep and challenging hobby/venture that has a long learning curve. Growing MJ is different from growing anything else. MJ is a very "need specific" plant that is also a very high energy plant that produces complex molecular chemicals(that we like and want).

Now the best way to get the most production out of your plants in any given setup or environment is to make the plants happy. That sounds over-simplistic but it is truth. If the plants are happy all the way through their lifespan, they will reward you with beautiful potent flowers. People try to "force" the plants to do things to produce better but it ultimately comes down to making the plants happy.

During veg, the plants can be bent, twisted, cut, sliced, diced, scattered, smothered, and covered,(sorry about the "Waffle House" reference) but as long as they are given what they need, they will grow and flourish. NOW, flowering is a whole nother animal. During flower, they absolutely want and need very specific elements and conditions in order to give you the flowers that you want and not give you a boat load of bad flowers full of seeds that are worthless.

Here are some absolutes: They must have as good or better ventilation than WE like. They need to breathe fresh, cool air that has lots of CO2. The addition of CO2 isn't needed for success if you are running a smaller grow. There is plenty of CO2 in the atmosphere that you can pull from.
To go along with the fresh air is the need for cooler air. You want to maintain a constant flow of fresh, cool air going to the plants in order to prevent the canopy and roots from getting too warm. Mid to upper 70s during daylight is good. They can handle swings into the higher and lower temps but longer periods of high or low temps will cause the plants to stop growing, and even go into stress, which isn't good.

Unfortunately I can't stay and explain more but others will be along to give more info. Good luck and green mojo. Don't be afraid to ask questions. We are here to help each other grow and learn, and share the joy of this marvelous plant.

 

[WeedHopper]

Read read read.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74

 

[Grower13]

I hope your legal....... and/or that isn't your real name on the youtube.

 

[Drizzall]

Again, I did a month of research before I even started growing, so I know all the basics and even most of the more advanced things to know, techniques, and the like.

What I can not read is the things actually happening. How they look, how my set up is, and what I can "ballpark expect" in terms of yield (i know that it varies, but I just like to hear guesses.

I may be a newbie and this is my first grow, I didnt jump into it blindly or unintelligibly. I did a month of research, and spent almost 2000 dollars on a strong set up. (Some of the money spent was silly mistakes, but that comes in learning)

So I am invested, and interested in hearing everyones opinions and critiques on my set up.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

First, I would recommend running veg lights 24/7. Cannabis will grow all the time that there is light (and food, water, and nutrients). Running your lights 18/6 will result in plants that are stretched, which results in less bud sites.

I would not even think about enhanced CO2 for many grows. Even after decades of growing, I have not added CO2 to my grows. I just make sure I am exchanging the air in my space 2-3 times a minute and my plants are fine. Looking at your video...is your 6" fan sucking the air through the light(s)--this is the way it should be set up. However, I see no place for incoming fresh air. Air exchange is essential for proper photosynthesis. A lot of us do not vent our lights and our space separately. I have a single 6" fan connected to my light, but it is not connected to the outside atmosphere. The exhaust fan pulls air in through passive intakes, this runs through the light, through the fan and then ducted to wherever. With 2 lights however, you may need another exhaust fan to keep things cool enough. I recommend speed controllers for your exhaust fans. You may find that you also need a carbon filter, but this will be for when you are flowering. There is no reason to connect a carbon filter before you need it...and several reasons not to. I would also try and take any sags out of the ducting. Sags and bends affect your air flow, so keep things as straight and sag free as possible.

Your space looks nice. I would recommend though not keeping your nutrients in your grow area. They do better when kept in a cool dark location.

To even hazard a guess at yield is foolish. There are far too many factors to even begin to speculate and any guess is only that...a wild guess. Besides, concentrate on growing and yield will come. Your month of study will help you, but growing cannabis can be difficult (especially hydro), so be prepared to continue learning every day.

 

[Drizzall]

I hope your legal....... and/or that isn't your real name on the youtube.

I am fully legal. No fear.

 

[Drizzall]

First, I would recommend running veg lights 24/7. Cannabis will grow all the time that there is light (and food, water, and nutrients). Running your lights 18/6 will result in plants that are stretched, which results in less bud sites.

I would not even think about enhanced CO2 for many grows. Even after decades of growing, I have not added CO2 to my grows. I just make sure I am exchanging the air in my space 2-3 times a minute and my plants are fine. Looking at your video...is your 6" fan sucking the air through the light(s)--this is the way it should be set up. However, I see no place for incoming fresh air. Air exchange is essential for proper photosynthesis. A lot of us do not vent our lights and our space separately. I have a single 6" fan connected to my light, but it is not connected to the outside atmosphere. The exhaust fan pulls air in through passive intakes, this runs through the light, through the fan and then ducted to wherever. With 2 lights however, you may need another exhaust fan to keep things cool enough. I recommend speed controllers for your exhaust fans. You may find that you also need a carbon filter, but this will be for when you are flowering. There is no reason to connect a carbon filter before you need it...and several reasons not to. I would also try and take any sags out of the ducting. Sags and bends affect your air flow, so keep things as straight and sag free as possible.

Your space looks nice. I would recommend though not keeping your nutrients in your grow area. They do better when kept in a cool dark location.

Ah thank you! Well written! To address some of the things you mentioned, because I do not have a second air cooled hood yet, I have left "some" slack, I intend to have it pretty tight once I buy that hood. Also that inline fan is connected to a window, so it is bringing in air from the outside. I am not sure if the video shows, but I cut small slits in the ducting going from my fan, to my big kahuna AC hood to bring in some fresh air, and to cool the room from my batwing hood. I did it slowly so I did not make the room too cold, seeing as it was coming outside.

I do intend to get speed controllers for my fans and eventually even temperature controlled/activated AC/Heaters

I do also have a carbon filter, its right outside the room, we are not in flower yet so it is not hooked up.

And the last, the nutrients, just brought them out so you guys could see what nutes I was using, I usually keep them out of the tent.

I do know its not a perfect set up yet, but I want to know as much as I can about MY set up. All I have been doing is reading about other peoples set up. Thank you guys tons for your posts so far, I look forward to many more critiques.

 

[Rosebud]

You have got great folks helping you. I just want to say welcome to MP. I kinda smiled when I read you had done a months research.. you sound like I did.:vap-Bong_smoker: Your set up is very clean and nice...

Your plants look nice.

I am an organic dirt farmer so I won't have much advice, just wanted to say welcome.

 

[Drizzall]

You have got great folks helping you. I just want to say welcome to MP. I kinda smiled when I read you had done a months research.. you sound like I did.:vap-Bong_smoker: Your set up is very clean and nice...

Your plants look nice.

I am an organic dirt farmer so I won't have much advice, just wanted to say welcome.

Thanks for the welcome! And I am glad my plants look good, its always a deep seated fear for me right now that in my inexperience I wont notice the plant is trying to tell me something and it will be unhappy.

And I think everyone can teach a new guy like me something! Even you dirty soil farmers ;.) <3

Thanks again for the welcome.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Slits cut in the ducting is not enough. If you do not have a fan to bring in fresh air, I would be for removing the ducting from the window and let the exhaust fan bring in fresh air through passive intakes. You want to exchange the air in your space at least every minute (or more). When you get your new hood and put up something permanent, you might want to think about rigid ducting or insulated ducting.

Your plants look great. That deep seated fear will not go away as you gain more experience. LOL--if anything, we become more aware about the myriad of things that can go wrong (I recently lost about 5 plants when a large air pump died and left plants without oxygenated water). While there are things with hydro that can happen overnight, keeping a close eye on your plants can go a long ways towards staving off problems. I don't think that a problem will go unnoticed if you do daily checks of your plants, it is more trying to figure out how to fix it. Doing your homework like you did will make a huge difference in your grow, but you never quit learning.

I will be checking out your nutrient line. I have never heard of it, but am always on the lookout for a good hydro nute line....ever since General Hydroponics sold out to Scott's, I cannot in good conscience support Scott's.

 

[Drizzall]

Slits cut in the ducting is not enough. If you do not have a fan to bring in fresh air, I would be for removing the ducting from the window and let the exhaust fan bring in fresh air through passive intakes. You want to exchange the air in your space at least every minute (or more). When you get your new hood and put up something permanent, you might want to think about rigid ducting or insulated ducting.

Your plants look great. That deep seated fear will not go away as you gain more experience. LOL--if anything, we become more aware about the myriad of things that can go wrong (I recently lost about 5 plants when a large air pump died and left plants without oxygenated water). While there are things with hydro that can happen overnight, keeping a close eye on your plants can go a long ways towards staving off problems. I don't think that a problem will go unnoticed if you do daily checks of your plants, it is more trying to figure out how to fix it. Doing your homework like you did will make a huge difference in your grow, but you never quit learning.

I will be checking out your nutrient line. I have never heard of it, but am always on the lookout for a good hydro nute line....ever since General Hydroponics sold out to Scott's, I cannot in good conscience support Scott's.

Its not slits, they are rather large "slots". I did this because without these slots and just doing the ducting made my room 95 degrees, but if I just let it blow in from the outside it dropped it to 50 degrees. (Im in michigan, so my outside temp is always below 30 right now. The "slots" allow me to control the temp a lot more. As I need them I open and close slots. Not a long term fix, but i had to do something until I get my new hood.

As far as the nutes go, my nearby hydro store really gives me good deals, they gave me sample sizes that lasted me for a month for free, and my big babies are beasting it, so I trusted and kept with it, since I dont know any better. Let me know what you find out for sure!

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

My point it that ventilation is for more than heat control. You NEED to exchange the air in your space at least once a minute (IMO) to give your plants enough fresh air for proper photosynthesis.

 

[MeNtAlPaTiEnT]

I've heard that if your air isnt exchanged enough, leaves can suffocate on the very gasses they exude.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I just got the chance to look at your pics and video. You have learned well what to do so far at the very least. The plants look to be very happy. If you are short on height you can bend the stems out to open up the plants. Take a look at scrog. There are variations of it that you can do to spread out the canopy in order to get greater light penetration into the plants which will give you better yield. Totally impossible to tell you an estimate on yield at this point.

 

[Drizzall]

I just got the chance to look at your pics and video. You have learned well what to do so far at the very least. The plants look to be very happy. If you are short on height you can bend the stems out to open up the plants. Take a look at scrog. There are variations of it that you can do to spread out the canopy in order to get greater light penetration into the plants which will give you better yield. Totally impossible to tell you an estimate on yield at this point.

Awesome, glad to hear its looking good, I wanted to look into scrog, but I am waiting to fully complete my grow room first. That way my scrog set up can be more permanent. I plan to add another 3 lights potentially to the room, having 5 total and growing 20+ plants.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I find that you can begin with scrog more as support and then learn along the way how to bend branches and get better fill in. Its a morphing, evolving thing that occurs the more you grow.

 

[Drizzall]

I find that you can begin with scrog more as support and then learn along the way how to bend branches and get better fill in. Its a morphing, evolving thing that occurs the more you grow.

I want to do scrog so bad! But its a little overwhelming! Idk how to build it or set it up around my plants, specially for my first grow!

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Scrogs need to be started from the git go--it is hard to take a plant that is a ways into vegging and do a real scrog. And I would not really recommend it for a first grow. When learning, keep things as simple as possible and learn about the plant and what it needs to grow and thrive. After you have a few grows under your belt, then you can start to experiment with advanced training techniques.

 

[Hushpuppy]

For a new grower that is the best advice. There is much more to learn then most would ever believe, but learning it, really learning the plants comes with experience. We can tell you and happy to walk you through something but getting that hands on experience is so important to becoming a "BUD Whisperer" There are many lessons to learn Padawan. You must learn those before moving to MJ 1105"mastering scrog".:chuck:

Not that I am real proud of my son or anything but he is a 3rd degree black belt Taekwondo and can swing 2 of those nun-chucks so fast you can barely see them, AND he doesn't hit himself