So after lurking around GC for a long while and having to move and lose all my connections I decided to take it upon myself to supply myself and others in my house with bud. I got to thinking, originally I wanted to do a computer stealth grow, but I have an attic attached to my room with a little room in the back which seemed much smarter. Now, I didn't want to turn my entire attic into a grow op, because, well thats just too much for just me. So I spent part of my week off work looking around for a cheap cabinet to build into. Well I found it yesterday night and have spent most of today messing around with it. The dimensions are 30 X 29.5 X 12. The materials I have used/bought so far are: Flat White Paint (I am looking for mylar right now for cheap.).... $4 The Cabinet .................................................................... $15 2 keyed patio locks .......................................................... $10 2 75 watt CFLs 6500k ....................................................... $7 2 75 watt CFLs 2700k (not in use yet) ................................ $7 Weather Stripping ............................................................ $8 MG organic potting soil (wish I could find non mg, but its all organic so I hope it works out, if it won't please tell me and I will return it and find something else hopefully) ................................................................. $9 4 pots with drain built in .................................................... $8 Cheap small fan ............................................................... $6 Digital thermometer .......................................................... $4 Various pvc parts ............................................................ $8 2 Light fixtures ................................................................ $6 Digital pH reader .............................................................. $22 A few seeds, and other materials I have lying around .............. Free I started germinating the seeds today and hope they will be able to be put into pots by the weekend. I hope these pictures load. So far, I have created a light mount, hung that, painted the inside white, light prooofed the cabinet which included a lot of weather stripping and filled a bunch of holes. I plan on giving the cabinet another coat or two tomorrow to make sure it is REALLY bright white, re-cleaning it, and seeing if I can find a tray for the bottom. The piece of wood in the middle where the pots are right now can move and I like that, as I can keep the plants close to the light with out much of a hassle to me.
Today I repainted the cab inside. I might give it a 3rd coat assuming I have time. The seeds germinating are starting to split. I am excited. 3 have cracks in them already after just 24 hours. I hope by Saturday I can put some in pots. Does anyone know how long the little tap root should be before I plant them?
Well the seeds cracked open and a root began to show so I planted them . The box is done in its final resting place now, looking at it I am actually proud of my work. I hope it all pays off in the end. Here are a few pictures from today's work. 2 of the seeds have roots growing out, 1 is cracked, the 4th I think is dead You can seed the seed if you look close enough, ready to be covered. Both pots in place, covered, ready to grow! The others are just close ups of each. Hope to see sprouts soon! Hope everyone is doing well!
Even a 1/4" tap root is long enough to plant. Planting is simple, too--take any slender cylindrical object (I used a pencil's eraser... your finger is probably too wide, but it isn't rocket science) and poke a hole about 1/2" deep. Drop the seed, taproot down, into the hole, then gently cover the hole. A couple days later... Ta-da! Seedlings. Keep the light down within a couple inches of the seedlings, that'll prevent s-t-r-e-t-c-h. I use 4 23W 6500K CFLs and have no problems with stretch at all. Ya can check my grow if you want, the link is in my sig. Just make sure you don't water your plants too often, as I see you have an affinity for drowning things. If your pots have drain holes, you can water until you have run off, and then let sit until bone dry (2 days at the least). If your pots don't have drain holes, get some that do. You can set them in a plastic tray at the bottom of your cabinet and you won't lose any noticeable vertical space. All-Season Supply is a great hydro shop in Nashville, by the way. They'll have all the premium nutes and ferts if you're still looking to upgrade that MG soil. They're very easy to miss, they're on 8th Ave, just south of downtown. I think they're on the intersection of 8th and South St, even, but I could be wrong about that. Look em up, very friendly people, I still paid with cash when I got some things from there a while back, but ya can never be too careful.
I appreciate the input. I do have an affinity for drowning things but I did make sure all my pots have drainage holes. Thanks a lot for the recommendation of the hydro store, I need it for my tomato garden as well. I will be sure to check them out when I transfer my babies (assuming they make it that far). I will def check your grow out as soon as I am done posting here.
Having trouble with my heat already, and I am pretty sure i will need a third light. The good news is, since the plants are still not popping out I have time to fix all this. I am thinking a small exhaust fan is def needed, so I think I will make one and put it on in the next few days. I just turned off one of the lights for now and let some of the hot air out of the cab. The problem with my room is it is so sensitive to heat fluctuations and it is hotter today, but will be cold by Monday. In other news, I did plant another seed today so that should be good. I figure I will get at least 1 female this way.
Man these things sprout fast, I leave to go buy 2 computer fans (the more expensive one fried of course) and come back and the two I planted yesterday are already poking through, I finish dinner and they are out with the seed shell off, I bet by time I wake up tomorrow they will be looking at the lights! I am hoping I get my heat under control with a very ghetto rigged exhaust fan (for now until I find the right parts). Once I do get that settled I plan on adding a 3rd light, maybe one of those little LEDs for the bottom to help under growth, or maybe another CFL, not sure yet. Monday I plan on buying some better soil. Should I get Ocean Forrest or light warrior? Also what nutes should I get? The store has: AMERICAN PRIDE BIG BLOOM GROW BIG OCEAN FOREST LIGHT WARRIOR MARINE CUISINEâ„¢ FOX FARM ORIGINAL Happy Frog Tiger Bloom
Im not an expert but im using ocean forest and im happy with it. Its well airated my roots have been growing well in it. As far as nutes ive been using botanicare Pureblend Pro it works good as is cheap. Good luck
Im using the 3-2-4, it was what the guy at the hydro store reccomended cuz its fairly in-expensive, its reliable, and pretty mellow and easy to use. Like I said im happy with it, my first night using it I forgot to PH my water and fed the babies a really acidic mix and they were able to bounce back just fine. Whatever you decide to go with im sure it will work just fine.. good luck Idro
That is a highly debated subject bro, let me break down the pro's and con's of starting early: PRO: it will help stimulate healthy growth and provide a lot of extra nutrients for the plant, which can help increase yield and possibly decrease growing time. CON: using nutes on a seedling could be detremential because the PPM's could be too high for the seedling and any nutes you use are going to be acidic, which could potentially kill or harm the plants. OVERALL: You can start using nutes now if you want to just make sure your PH is well adjusted. The nutes have a seedling dose level and if your going to try start with 1/4 to 1/2 dose. Just remember that good soild FF or any other good soil is going to have enough nutes in it to sustain the plant for about 3 weeks, so since your seedlings or so small I would wait a week or 2 and then start a light nutrient dose. Good luck bro
Jeebo, I am glad you answered lol. I am going to wait until I see some growth before I start. I need to get a ppm meter. I am still trying to figure out the whole pH thing too. I am using distilled water but when I test it, it comes out to around 5.9-6.0. This is too acidic right? So I need to get pH up and down and the nutes when I get to it tomorrow. I am supposed to aim for around 6.5 going in right? Will nutes bring the pH to more basic or more acidic levels? In other news, I added more lights to bring the actual wattage up. I am now running 4 CFLs with 6500k 24 actual watts. I also cleaned up the exhaust fan more and realized I got more pull on that when the doors were open so I drilled a 1" intake hole on the side, and I might drill a second into the floor just so I get more fresh air in. I need to find a car shield to butcher. That sounds like my job for tonight.
I use FF Ocean Forest, a lot of people swear by it. As far as nutes, I like Fox Form Grow Big and Tiger Bloom. I've given nuts as early as a week, just use a real low mix to start and work you way up...
Hey dude first off nutes (at least the botanicare nutes im using) are very acidic and every time i use them they drop the ph way down. So what I have to do is use ph up to bring the ph to a proper level where the plants can really suck up all those good nutrients. PH up and down is available at any grow shop, and I know there are natural things you can use to adjust ph such as lemon juice. Being able to adjust your ph is obviously vital because its the only way to get it to the right point. In terms of Ph most say you want it going in the soil at like 6.5. I did some research and master gardner Soma claims that if you water with a ph of 6, and its going into soil that is around a ph of 7, then that water of Ph 6 will slowly rise up to the level of the soil. If you get a ph soil testing kit you'll see that a soil like Ocean Forest is a ph of about 7 as it is. So keep that in mind when gardening, IMO just make sure that your water's ph when feeding is never above 7 or below 6. Good luck and let me know if you got any more questions PS- this obviously only applies to soil growing, I know that Ph in hydro is a much different story.
Having SERIOUS problems with heat now. Went in and it was near 100! I drilled more intake holes to try to correct the problem, but the damn room it is in is just too hot. I am thinking a move is in order, I just hope I didnt ruin my cab with so many damn holes. I did manage to pick up nutes, better soil, and ph adjusters so that should make it better when I get the heat dealt with. Still need to go buy a car shield.
hey dude... im a newbie grower too but ive learned a lot here... im a week away from shuttin off the lights. im growin with cfls- 210w. now heres the thing, when using cfls u have to count real watts not the equivalent watts. so if its 23w equiv 75w then its 23w. u need to have about 100 watts for the first plant and at least 50 for each additional plant; i had plants die on me n not grow cuz of that. otherwise u look good. dont introduce plant food or anything until at least 5 weeks. reason being... the soil u used [im using mgoc too] should feed ur plants for 3 weeks. by then u should transplant into larger pots, adding more soil which should feed for at least 2 more weeks. then u should introduce the food but at like 1/4 of the strength every 3 feedings... check mine out n lets keep in touch =] edit:: oh and hey, as for the heat... u can get a window fan, double sided with intake n exhaust mode n lay it on top of your cab. then get some ona gel n dont worry about the smell =] i went tjru heat issues too. for now ur plants wont smell. id suggest cracking the door of the cab if u could. if not at least open the window of the room its in. when i opened the window it helped me a lot.
The cab doors are open a crack now, and the babies have the fan almost on them, so they are cool, its just the rest of the cab. I put a big ass fan outside the cab near the intake holes and its constantly pushing cooler air into the cab, but I can't crack a window because it is a crawl space behind my room. I am going to have to move it into a closet or something, because te room its in is just way too hot