I just went to bubble buckets last night and am planning on trying to keep a grow journal till harvest. I'm gonna do my best to update every week or two, but who knows if that'll happen with my schedule right now. This is my first grow ever, so please feel free to comment all you want. My design is a little ghetto, but it's working for me for now. Here it is: 4x4x6.5 Mylar Tent off of Ebay - 100$ I think 1 Oscillating fan set on low for now 4X4 SCROG screen hanging from the tent ceiling made of chicken wire and pvc BELOW IS A CRAIGSLIST BULK BUY 150$ (Which is why everything looks a little thrown together at the moment) -400w HPS/MH Ballast -Large Reflective Hood -400w HPS Bulb, Brand New Never Used -Cheap Inline Duct Fan (maybe 70cfm). Just ordered the Soler & Palau TD-150 today -This is only half of what I got, but all I'm using for this grow 3 -5 gal Bubble Buckets with passive flow between all 3; 1 being the res. Buckets based on rumples design 6" net pots with Hydroton pebble for medium -1 Top Fin 8000 with one 5" air stone per bucket (no stone in the res) Nutrient system is GH Flora Micro and Flora Bloom. I'll be using the Lucas Forumla pH meter is an older YSI pH 100. The probe needs to be replaced, but I cannot find one online. Strain is Easy Rider; I picked ER because it is supposed to be easy to grow for first timers and a good high when smoked. 8/29/2011 Been in Veg since August 1st and they already smell so good! I can't wait to smell these girls (hopefully) a few weeks into flower! They started in Soil (compost, organic soil, verm mix) and just went to the buckets yesterday. Man it took forever to get all the leaks fixed, add nutes and pH everything. Like I said before the pH meter probe seems like it needs to be replaced. It's really slow to find a pH and just kinda scares me with accuracy. I'm using the drops that came with the pH up and Down and some 14 to 0 Test strips I've got to double and triple check. Anyway, the two plants are under a 400w HPS 24/0 with a oscillating fan constantly blowing on them and a 4" duct fan pulling air through the hood. My temps are staying really high, around mid 80s, and I've been debating on what to do about it. I ordered a good fan today so we'll see if that helps. If not, I'm seriously thinking I'm going to run a 6" line off my A/C ducting into my tent to solve the problem. Clones will be taken from each plant right before switching to 12/12 on 8/31. Hopefully I'll get at least one female from these two and the clone will become the mother plant. I'll get some pictures up tonight or tomorrow for everyone. I think that's it for now.
Ok so I've been doing a little more reading and searching about the strain I'm growing and I'm getting come conflicting info here. I'm seeing that some Easy Rider strains are autoflowers, and some aren't. Autoflower wasn't mentioned when I ordered my seeds (Buy Easy Rider marijuana cannabis seeds from Holland.) so I'm leaning towards these are not autoflowers. Any comments or thoughts? And yes I'm a total noob here if you haven't figured that one out yet. I'll definitely have some pictures up tonight! Sorry my weeks already hectic. pH is holding in the low 6s, but temp is still in the mid 80s. Going to change some venting around this week to fix the problem.
Hey man.. I checked your seeds out, they're regular photoperiod seeds, meaning they'll flower based on a light cycle. They're not autos. I love marijuana, and I hope you have a safe grow that helps you get so high ok man?
Sounds like you have a decent setup so far. The S&P 150 works so good dude and Its quieter than my bathroom fan is. Scrog that shit!
Yea man I can't wait for that thing to get here! I'm pumped! After that is my carbon filter, and my setup will be complete! Whew, who knew you could put so much $ into a simple set up
Ya no kidding....it should prove to be worthwhile though. One note: You gotta get a good ph meter dude... I use the HM waterproof digital one and it works great and the replacement probes are easy to find and cheap to buy.
Yea that too. I'm planning on getting one from hydrosource that was suggested on another thread for this grow; then I'll step it up to something bigger once I harvest and/or get some cash flow. It's like 25$ and has pretty good reviews. I'm not so sure I'm going to buy a TDS meter this go around. I'm thinking I can squeeze by with just the pH meter and temp guage.
Ok so here's my set up. I finally broke down and ran a 4" line from my AC duct into my tent. The temp is already dropping! The first pic is the whole set up. 3 buckets taped black, one being the res. 2 and 3 are pretty self explanitory. The root systems are already getting down into the water and it's only been two and half days! The lower leaves are yellowing, and that's a bit of a concern; but I'm gonna give it a few days before I really start worrying. The 4th is the venting. Like I listed, I've only got the cheap inline fan pulling air from the light right now. The upper ducting just hanging there is the AC coming in (fiance is going to kill me if she finds out. The 5th is the line coming from the AC
OH aaannnddd I broke down and my cheap as bought this pH meter today on the recommendation of Tihspeed PH-035 Waterproof Pen-type pH Meter with Temperature Display PH-035 Waterproof Pen-type pH Meter with Temperature Display
I noticed this morning that the leaves on one of my plants are curling upward a little bit length wise (maybe think something like a taco shell, just not as dramatic...). I'm thinking this is due to me using full strength nutes right off the bat and not cutting them at all. Anyone have any opinions?
Won't be from not hitting them full strength... IMO Do you have a fan blowing directly on them? I've heard and seen that doing it that way can cause the leaves to do that as it speeds evaporation and its their defense mechanism to try an retain moisture...
Yea I actually do have a fan blowing directly on them. I guess I won't worry too much. What I'm seeing now is that I'm only getting new root growth in one of my plants; the plant isn't wilting or looking like it is nutrient dificient, there just doesn't seem to be any new root growth. I'll get some pictures on here on my 7 day update (so sunday or monday), just wanted some opinions till then. Still waiting on my pH meter and S&P TD-150 to come in. Venting my AC into the tent only seems to be making a difference in temp when it's running (I picture people reading this being like, "no shit dude, what'd you think), so I'm still in the mid 80s when the unit is off. Hoping the 150 makes a difference. Thanks for the comments guys, keep em coming! OOOOHHHH And I almost forgot. Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, is the start of college football which will also start THE Alabama Crimson Tides' reign over the SEC this year! Can I get a moment of silence outta respect!!!!!!
So it's been an exciting day in my tent! I went out of town Friday and when i got home last night I checked my buckets and found POND SCUM in my level indicators. I think it had just started, because it wasn't in any of my other buckets. So I drained the water, wiped everything out and changed the level indicator tubing and taped them black. That was the only thing that wasn't taped black. The good thing about the tape is that I can peel it back in a day or so to make sure that there isn't any more pond scum growing. My temps in my res are staying around 80, but there's nothing I can do about it right now. On to my other problem: yellowing leaves. I realized while I was outta town why I was getting yellowing on the lower branches; When I mixed up the nutrients last time I guess I was so caught up with making sure everything was done right that I only put in 8mls of micro and 16 of bloom per bucket instead of per gallon. So I'm thinking my plants were nitrogen deficient. Hopefully the yellowing will go away with the new nutrient mix. Also getting great root growth outta one and starting to get better root growth out of the other. Planning on taking clones this week and constructing a small bubble cloner. As soon as the clones are taken, I'm going into flower so I can sex these things. Pics below are from today. Keep the comments and feedback coming. Anyone with scum experience please throw in, I'd be much appreciative!
Your in veg correct? Why are you not using pbp grow? and i dont see why you should be feeding bloom at this stage . PBP are stand alone nutes for each phase. The yellow leaves are from an N def with out doubt. use grow and the symptoms will go away. Dont start using bloom untill 12/12 where you will introduce it at half strength the first week along with a half strength shot of grow. 2nd week of flower get rid of the grow and kick up the bloom
Yea I'm in veg right now. I'm not using pbp grow because I'm using GH nutes and following rumpleforskin's suggestions on the Lucas forumla so just Bloom and Micro. He grows some monster buds so I figured, why change something that's working amazing for him. I'm just making all the rookie mistakes, but getting the hang of it. Thanks for the confirmation on the N definiciency. I'm hoping using the correct nutrient amount will stop the yellowing in it's tracks. I may look into the PBP next go around, but I'll probably stick with GH's nutes right now.....mainly because I'm tired of spending money on this grow!
F'ing christ it's one thing after another. I just went to check to make sure everything is going ok after the nute change this afternoon and found a HUGE root cluster floating around in one of my buckets!!! It was hanging on by a single root thread and I thought I was careful enough moving the lids around this afternoon, but I guess not. This and I'm worried I'm starting to see some brown sludge on some of the roots, but that may also just be some dirt residue from the soil switch. I'll keep an update in a couple of days if I do think it's sludge. Beneficial bacteria may be in the mail soon
So i got my S&P TD-150 today! I tore open the box like it was freakin christmas, and then realized I have to wire the damn thing myself! Anyone have any experience wiring fans? Is it pretty much universal or is this going to be one of those things that ends up taking me forever to do? It does look sweet sitting in my floor though
Alright GC it's been an interesting week in the world of marijuana for me. There have been a few changes made, some new equipment added, and some clones have been taken...some twice . But, my plants have basically doubled in size and the root bundle is getting f'ing huge! Loving the correct amount of nutes now! Earlier this week my pH meter and S&P TD-150 came in. My pH wasn't really all that high once I finally got to check it and now I'm keeping it right around 6.0. But the big story this week is the new fan installation! This thing is F'ing BA and has totally changed my tent temps, and I'm assuming the happiness of my plants! The old inline fan I was using had fallen off the attached ducting and wasn't venting the tent at all Friday, so the whole house smelled like grass and I had family coming in for the weekend! I got the 150 wired and running and within two hours the smell was gone! It's seriously sucking the walls of my tent in, and is quieter than the oscillating fan thats running in there! So that's done. Next I decided it was time to take 3 clones from each plant so I could throw them into flower and sex em...so I made this ghetto ass bubble cloner and subsequently killed 3 clones. I learned my lesson and took 3 more to replace the ones I F'ing wasted and used rooting hormone and dirt this time. Hopefully these will go better. But my mother's are two days into flower so hopefully I'll know something within a couple of weeks. Next, I walked into the house and my fiance was like, "the spare bedroom smells like pot, why is that?" Of course I was like, No Idea, and immediately ran downstairs, unhooked the ducting from the AC where I attached it in, and patched the line. So that idea went to shit too! Whew, now that that's over I have a few questions for everyone. My clones are under a clear plastic tupperware container with a cup of water sitting beside them to increase the humidity. Is this going to work? Or do I need to mist them as well? Also, I've got a 150 hps about 3 ft above the clones. Will this be too strong for them? Thansk for the help guys
And sorry about the shitty pictures. I'm gonna start using my camera instead of my phone. Hopefully that'll help