cire420's first grow, with pics.

[CirE420]

Well here it is..Finally decided to stop being lazy and post this up.

1st off I have to give credit where its due. I got my setup str8 from chronaholic's grow. Thanks for the inspiration...lol

What we have here:
-----------------------
c25 cabinet
600w hps w/digital balast
6" vortex blower
6" suncourt inline duct fan
8" fan


Well...the plants are about 4 weeks old. They started growing outdoors while I was away and preparing their cab. They went under the hps 1 week ago.
I gave them their first shot of nutes (foxfarm) about 3 days ago, they caught a lil burn, but are doing pretty well (i guess) as of today.

I have posted some questions with pics on some other threads. You can go here http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/110269-what-am-i-lookin.html and here http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/110176-nute-burn.html to catch up to speed.

The plants are in scotts potting soil with added P. I'm working on getting better soil. Thinking about either foxfarm blend or your normal peat moss, perlite and verm. mix

The temp in the cab never hits 90 even if I have to open the doors to cool it down. I have an a/c in the room to try and keep the room cool..I also hooked some tubing from the a/c to the cab..so the cab gets some kind of direct cool air. I try to keep the temp anywhere from 75-85.
The humidity in the cab is usualy around 30-40%.

I guess that's all for now...now onto the pics...

[CirE420]

I opened my lil tupperware container and I'm happy to say that 6 seeds out 8 sprouted. I immediately put them where they should be.

I'm thinking about adding some pc fans maybe 2 for starters..the reason y is because today I need to keep the door open to keep the heat down. I just noticed that my humidty went from 40% to 20%. Hopefully adding 2 pc fans will allow me to keep the doors closed.

If anyone has a c25 setup, can u please tell me how many pots you have been able to fit in it.
And do you think my light is too far from the plants? Should I raise the plants up more?

[PropheCy604]

c25 cabinet is 3' X 2' X 7' ?? You will probably able to grow 3 plants BUT...

do you realize that you have a 600 HPS in this small cabinet?!?! YOu even have a 6" vortex that take about 20% of the space...! I dunno how you will grow a plants to maturity in this cabinet with a 600 hps. 600 HPS need to be at maybe at least 15 inchs from the plants...if you have 1 feet tall pot....you have a big 10 inchs to grow a plant!! I know this because I bought a small cabinet and nothing was entering in it...so I bought a bigger one and I hopefully bought a 4" vortex + cooltube 6" + canfilter 9000. All fit tight and I have now 30-32 inchs of net growing space. Dunno how I would have fit a 6' vortex without creating the same problem that I had with the small cabinet (lost of net growing space). Not to be rude but I share you my experience with small cabinet.

[Num]

may be an idea to grow in a low flat tray rather than a tall pot - u still have plenty of room for root growth, but u will need to support the plant as it grows.

[PropheCy604]

Forgot to say...more heat = less humidity. Heat kill the humidity. You need to have big intake to have good balance in airflow.

[PlanA]

Looks good. but like the other guys said. The light is too far from the plants. maybe you could build a shelf and slowly lower it away from the light as it gets bigger. leaving about 10 inchs from the light depending on how hot it gets.... Lovely feat of engineering you have though.

[CirE420]

Thanks for the responses.
I purchased the cab first. It was supposed to hold a 400w light. The 400w ended up being on back order so they upgraded me to 600w for free. I couldn't pass it up. Thats y I shoved a 6" vortex in there. I was gonna go with a 4".
Yesterday I added 2 pc fans and I'm now able to leave the doors closed. Temp is stayin in the low 80's and my humidity is 35-40%. I'm really hoping that it will all work out. I'm just worried about the space issue. Adding a movable shelf sounds like a great idea. I will be looking into that.
I really don't expect to have alot of plants even tho I just added 6 more. If I can find a way to just house 4 plants in this cab I will be more than pleased.

Well. 2 out of the new 6 plants are already poking out of the dirt. wooHoo!
Here's a pic I took last night with the new pc fans in place. I didn't do a great job putting them in...I just used some double sided tape and stuck em there.

[CirE420]

I went out a got a ph kit from the pet store. I tested the water and its 7.8. Now I'm supposed to put 2 drops of ph down per gal. I have put about 6-7 by now..its been close to an hour since i put the 1st drop.
My question is how long does this damn thing take? The kids need water..lol

[DierWolf]

PH down is IMMEDIATE what are you waiting for????? drop the drops stir and check again.

[CirE420]

I tried that...as soon as I put in the first set of drops..I checked the ph and it was still at 7.8...I just checked it not too long ago and its at 7.2ish. I fed it to the plants anyhow...they needed it.

no real growth on the bigger ones.. and 3 out of the 6 are out the dirt.
I'll post up some pics in a few. I'm currently in a nice baked situation..this world's funniest commercial show is funny.

[DierWolf]

Your plants are suffering becuase of nutrient blockout due to high PH.

simply put more drops, 2 drops per gallon isnt very accurate way to do it as every water is different, hard water is harder to bring down in ph than soft water for example.

PH of your water should be between 6 and 6.5, with 6.4 being best.

By now your soil is probably well high in PH matching what you have been giving it from day one which is 7.8, so it safe to say you need to water it a couple times at 6.0 to bring the soil ph down.

Like i said, dont be afraid to put drops in, it is immediate, just a good stir. Also your probably using tap water which has in chlorine which is also not good for the plants and should be left out for at least 24 hours prior to using it.

[CirE420]

Here are some pics to check out.

the littles are on their 3rd day...big ones are goin into their 4th week...umm, quick question. How long till you see new sprouts from when you LsT 'em? I'm hoping for it to happen that way I can veg longer and hopefully hold off flowering till the small ones catch up. If possible.

[DierWolf]

How long has it been in lst? you should see resulting branching within a week.

Find the plants are small for 1 month old.

[CirE420]

I lst'd em 6 days ago on the 18th.
I pretty sure all my probs were due to lack of water. After I drenched 'em yesterday, today they are doing very well. Mostly all ,except for the ones that burned, are uncurled and pointing in the right direction. I swore I even saw a small green spot on the bend.
How important is my humidity? Is it something that I really need to worry about?
I'll post some pics in a couple hours...I'm glued to the tv again.

[CirE420]

Here they are, again....
Temp is at a steady 83, but my humidity is at 20%