Hi Friends. This is my first time posting on this site, and my first grow attempt. It's going to be an indoor grow, utilizing a 4' x 4' x 6.5' grow tent, and a 400w MH / HPS lighting system. I'll be growing four lucky ladies in Sunshine #4 in 5-gallon buckets. I am going to include the prices of everything I buy, the total of the purchase, and pictures of everything for cost comparison and visual aid for the beginning grower like myself who read on the forums, watched Jorge Cervantes' Ultimate Grow DVD (the first one, the second one sucks), and for those who seek general education on the topic. The purchases I made today are as follows: 1 large bale of Sunshine Mix #4 (3.8 cu.ft. / 107ml, 73.5 lbs!!!) for $44.99. 1 Sun System Yield Master II supreme 6" air-cooled reflector, for $119.99. 4 5-gallon potting buckets with trays (buckets- $2.22/ea, trays $1.75/ea) 1 Rapitest Electronic 4-Way (soil) Analyzer, $34.99 1 set of Fiskars Pruning Snips, $13.99 1 8-oz. Dyna-Gro Pure Neem Oil, $9.99 A free 188-page catalog for Sunlight Supply, Inc. All they had at this store was the large bale of the Sunshine, because it was a hydroponic grow store. I bought the hood reflector for my light for now, with my next paycheck I'll buy the bulbs and (switchable) ballast that allows me to use both a 400w MH, then when it's time for flowering, switch the bulb to a 400w HPS, without having to buy conversion bulbs. The selling points for that reflector were because it was by far the best bang for the buck. Most of the other hoods there were far more expensive, upwards to $3-400 dollars. But this one mounts the bulb horizontally, is air-cooled, has tempered glass and COMES WITH THE SOCKET AND A 15-FT CORD!!! The 5-gallon buckets were a steal, I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for anywhere else, and they had inferior buckets for far more money. I wanted these 5-gallon black buckets with the drain holes pre-drilled. I'm going to be watering them with reverse-osmosis water. I bought the soil analyzer because I need to know the pH of the soil to keep them healthy, and on a similar note I bought the Neem Oil for the inevitable spider mite infestation, but I'm hoping to keep this grow extra clean in the grow tent. I bought the pruning snips for the bountiful harvest I'm hoping to get.
Hey guys, just a small update... I just picked up 2 digital humidity/thermometer gauges from Walmart for $12 each, and some 1-gallon jugs that I plan on using for the fertilizer/water mixtures. Tomorrow I'm going back to the store to get the remaining things I need to start, such as the ballast, bulbs, fans, etc. that I posted earlier. I'm going to be using Fox Farms' Grow Big for the vegetative, and Tiger Bloom for the flowering state. I'm also going to be purchasing a reverse osmosis filtration system so as to be feeding my babies pure, clean water. Later I'll be posting step by step instructions with what to do, and as I start growing, posting my daily undertakings.
Sorry there unholy.... That stuff pisses me off... nice to get rich on other peoples endevors.. But the city wont stand for it here... Im tagging along my friend... Looks like youve done ur homework... great start,,
Hey Doc and Bud, thanks for dropping by! I've got some GREAT NEWS TOO!!!! I just got my 4 plants today from a friend. I have two G13 females, and two Blackberry females, all from cone mothers. Three of them are already showing their sex! The other one is still early in the vegetative state... I bought these plants off him for $100 because he told me these were the ones he could get rid of. They are infested with spider mites, so I showered them with a water/neem oil mixture (1&1/2 tsp per 32oz. water). I'll keep treating them with the neem for another week and see how we do from there. I just pulled off all the bad yellowing and dead leaves near the base. I don't want any mold issues. I also trimmed off some burned tips, it looks like these plants need some nutes. The two on the left are the G13, the two on the right are Blackberry. Blackberry Showing the female pistils This is the clearest picture I could take of the spider mites Nitrogen deficiency I measured the pH of each plant, and they're all sitting at 7.2, so I need to bring that down to an average of 6.8. I have a fan blowing on them as well, so there's good circulation. I took them out of the tent just for these pictures. They're on a 18/6 for another 3-4 weeks, then they go into 12/12 to flower. I'll keep posting updates as I go. This is a one gram nug of the G13 that I'm growing :
I think my setup is quite more sophisticated than at least 90% of the grow ops I see on here. People buying cabinets and using those, closet grow rooms... very amateur.
I just ordered Blackberry from attitude and I've been waitin for the beans to arrive. I'm glad you have this log going, now I can see what I'm in for.
Well thanks for stopping by! I'm skeptical about that Blackberry plant in front, It looks like it wasn't receiving enough light so it stretched. The good news is the other Blackberry plant is doing so well that I can clone it immediately. I think I'm going to wait another 2-3 weeks before I take clones so that way they are in full vegetative state, but also because I don't want to add any more stress to them with this spider mite infection. I sprayed some neem again on them tonight, and I'll do it again first thing in the morning. I'm also going to LST them, so we'll see how that turns out. I'll try to get some better macro shots of the Blackberries in the morning for you...
So I have an update guys! The girls are looking pretty good! The yellowing leaf that was on my runt Blackberry plants was dying so I plucked it off. I'm starting to think she may die... But the other good news, is that the other three plants are doing great! I took alot of hi-res photos for you. I've also started to LST the three healthy plants. The healthy Blackberry plant is looking great, and I'm pretty sure that the neem treatments have been a huge success. I usually spray them three times a day, and completely saturate the plants in this stuff. I start on the underside and spray upwards onto the bottom of the leaves and once they're saturated, I move to the top. I've done a really good job of eradicating them, so I'll continue to spray them through the rest of this week to be sure I genocide them all! Healthy Blackberry: Healthy Blackberry: Bottom of new growth leaves on the Blackberry: Top view of new growth on the Blackberry: LST'ing the larger G13 plant: Healthy Blackberry: G13 growth: I know it's huge, but I left it that way on purpose. You can see them remnants of the spider mites:
Another Update! I finished all my shopping today. They didn't have my reverse osmosis filter in stock, nor my grow tent, so they special ordered those for me and they're coming in on Thursday. I just transplanted my babies, fed them some Grow Big, and they're taking it all in under the 400w MH. They're in my closet for the times being, because unfortunately their real home won't be here until Thursday. Here's some pics!
So today is day 2 of the transplant, in week 6 of vegetative. I watered them really well last night after the transplant. In a 5-gallon container, they got about 1 1/2 gallons each of a Grow Big/Water solution. The tops are starting to look great and they certainly look revived under the 400w MH. Their pH is reading around 6.8, which is good. I'll post some pictures on Thursday once they're in their new home, with everything hooked up. I really need that charcoal filter hooked up to my fan!!!
did you catch how long the flower period is for Blackberry? I have a source that says 8-10 weeks. But I just received my seeds and they say 9-11 weeks.
To be perfectly honest, I would just wait til about 8 weeks, then start looking at the trichomes under a 20-50x microscope. They say a 50/50 mix of amber to clear trichomes is the time to harvest, but I prefer to harvest when the trichomes are still early in development when they're still milky. The high is more soaring and energetic.
I got some more pictures for you guys. All the plants are looking healthy. The temperature usually stays around 80, and I need to get a humidifier because the humidity stays between 30-35%. I've just done some general maintenance on the plants, such as trimming off some of the smaller dying fan leaves and such. I had to stake two of the plants because they were growing too heavy Enjoy!
Plants look nice and healthy. Just curious how you have your exhaust set up. Are you pulling air from the reflector into the tent or out of the tent? If you are pulling air out, then you should have that carbon filter hooked up to the other end of the reflector, so the air goes through the filter, into the relfector, then through the fan and out of the tent. If not it's going to smell real soon. Other then that, you have a sweet set up. I'm jelous. I'll be tuning in for this.
Yea, but he also has 2 canfans, one connected to the carbon filter at the top of the tent, the second one connected to the reflector, with the piping going out the front of the cab, without a filter. That is my only concern
they might be amateur but its people working within thier limits not everyone can afford pricey set ups and many new peopl to the sport like me dont want to invest alot of money if it doesnt work. my grow op is using a old freezer, amatuer probably but will it grow bud just fine? click on my sig and take a look
In regards to the fan issue, I have 2 4" fans. One is used to intake air from outside the tent and into the hood to cool the bulb. The second is for the remaining air in the tent to be sucked through the charcoal filter and exhausted outside the tent. It works very well. I'm only growing in 104 cubic feet. Those fans are both good for 170cfm. I have no issues with temperature, especially with that heat shield on the reflector. I only have a humidity issue. I need to increase the humidity by about 30-35%. I think I'm going to let them grow another week and I'll put them into flower.