good advice. Id go to a 5 gallon tote. Man when you get hydro dialed in you can outgrow that space in 4 weeks. Stuffed to the nuts.
They sent that one broken >.> But I decided to switch to something deeper because it would allow for more vertical root growth and I cut down from 6 to 4 plant sites because of the limited space in that damn box I WILL be duct taping that container shut, and also searching for a replacement container. Any signs of root damage I should be looking for?
I'm doing 12/12 from seed and I'll probably just LST them like crazy. I just got some seeds from a friend that was gift shopping on herbies, so I may start those somehow.. 3 Feminized Autoflowering northern lights seeds by vision, 1 Feminized Autoflowering white widow by vision, and two regular seeds he got for free. I might just save them for a while until I get a little experience, but I hear that the northern lights is very easy to grow.
You can find plenty of nice containers online (just measure your box) and even at Home Depot. I just tapped mine black (it was spray painted black too) with Gorilla black duct tape and it got the job done nicely. Check out my thread its the same box as yours. I had some initial problems (first 2 pages) but seem to have everything going nicely now.
Alrighty then- here's what I got done today. Cleaned the reservoir and replaced the water Taped the reservoir with some black tape plus a layer of duct tape Germinated two fem/auto NL seeds over last night in a shot glass with warm water, planted today! Fixed up the ghettoness of the box in general Pics! The original seed packet for my Northern Lights Two seeds that got planted today- high hopes for these babies! Bag seed plant, has grown at least 2 inches since last post Overview of the box
I love the DYI set up. You have good genetics to step up your game.... No if you are doing a medical grow you will want to upscale plant numbers, grow space and most important lighting. Some people make it complicated but after what you have done there is working fine you just keep doing it on a larger scale. What you have going will be overgrown in no time. Your days of buying buds should be over soon.
That just made my day, snoop I read up on seeds and fem/autos, and I decided to go the easy way lol- No males, Northern Lights is an easy strain, hard to mess up the light schedule on autos. I bought the box off of ebay, I couldn't make something that looked nearly as good as this box, inside or outside! Nearly everything came with the box but I found that the lights were too high so the 12/12 from seed babies stretched wwwaaayyy too far, so I ghetto rigged that cable to be able to raise/lower the bulbs. I replaced the container myself, I've heard good things about having a deeper reservoir. This way I can grow a max of 3-4 plants, 2 comfortably and have room to LST them like crazy lol. Plus, that damn temperature thing was from some kitchen shop. Everything else came with it
Not much to report tonight, the bag seed plant is recovering from LST bit by bit. I decided to start the LST right after I made my last post, and started with a 30 degree bend or so the first night (the 12th), then on to 45 the next night and now she's about at 60 degrees. NL 1/2 have both cracked and are sending out their taproots- I happened to see them while adjusting the LST for my bag seed. The only thing I'm wondering about is this- These are the lowest leaves on the plant, and have started to brown and are somehow damaged, as if it's been cut or something. They're not very big of course, but I'm just wondering if it's anything to be concerned about. There have been no nutes added as of now- that'll come whenever NL 1/2 are ready for them. (By the way, when would that be?) Here's a picture of the bag seed plant after I adjusted her just a few minutes ago.
How are the autos coming along? It's hard to tell on your pic. Also, another thing I've read is - you will want to cover the RW with your rocks/hydroton or the RW will grow moss potentially. You are prob waiting until your autos get some height before doing that. Subbed to your thread since we are very similar grows.
They've not sprouted yet, I planted them on 4/13 in the afternoon. The mystery seed roots were slightly brown today when I looked at them, if it gets any worse I'll replace the water, wash the reservoir and maybe add some H2O2. I covered up the rockwool on NL 1/2, but I don't want to mess with the roots much on my mystery seed because I've got her tied down right now and want to keep her like that for at least another few days so she can bounce back from the LST properly. My box is running a cool 75 right now. Those leaves on the mystery seed that got damaged ended up drying up and turning yellow/slightly brown, I just pulled them, They hadn't grown for 3-4 days or so anyway. Lava, how are the carbon filters that came with the box holding up for you? I have both in right now, and I sometimes *THINK* I can smell a little whiff of weed, but it always goes away before I can check if it was coming from the box.
I dont have the filters on. No major smell yet, mystery is starting to smell but almost a fresh scent not too skunky.. My box is in a closet so I'm not too worried about smell yet. I'll cross that bridge later when girls are flowering and really putting out a smell
Nothing new today, autos still haven't sprouted. There has been little to no visible growth of the mystery seed, and I haven't put more stress on her from LST. I watered them and ph'd them, mystery's roots seem no more brown today than yesterday.
Sorry I didn't update this weekend, I had to go out of town Friday and Saturday. When I got back, the rockwool cubes were still moist on the inside but the topmost layer was dry. One auto decided not to sprout- damn :c I popped another NL seed and replaced the failed NL #1 seed. NL 2 has sprouted, but looks to be damaged somehow- one of the first leaves is brown/yellowish near the stem. Sadly, my mystery plant seems to be a male. If there's absolutely no use for it right now, I'll pull it and trash it. I'm guessing that it couldn't be used for hash/edibles currently. If I pull it I'll probably pop a free feminized seed that I got with my others. Here's a picture of the damaged sproutling And a picture of what seem to be the mystery plant's BALLS! Mystery's tiny cola thingy
Sorry to hear about the male, that 2nd pic definitely looks like a male! I had some troubles starting seeds myself (first 2 pages of my grow). I ended up getting rapid rooter plugs, they are a stretchy peat plug, and that works great for me. I found it kept wet better than rockwool. I've been using them to germ peppers and got a 100% germ rate so far. Might check that out if your having troubles in that cab with RW as I did.
Also - might go ahead and buy some hydroton i think its better in 3" cups than the jagged rocks that came with the setup. Also, been doing alot of reading that suggests top feeding into the DWC is best for a good 2 weeks, just let what falls into the dwc stay, run your stones to create 100% RH and don't flush the res until you have real roots sticking down, then you can taper top feeding and let the DWC do its job with a low dose of nuts for week 1 of the DWC up and running. Also, since we have the same setup check this out: http://shop.modularhydro.com/AIT-GRID-12-x-9-For-Hydroponics-AITGRID12x9Inch.htm I got this new toy today which I think will do wonders since it fits my res footprint perfectly. Also, it should fix the problem of running air stones in a shallow DWC. I don't think they do a great job of diffusing all the air bubbles for max. surface area coverage. In a deeper DWC i think an air stone is fine but since ours are shallow I think this is much more suitable for even air distribution. $20 not bad. I'll let ya know what I think when I get it setup in my journal.
.... That picture of the mystery.. Maybe its just me but that looks like a full blown male plant??? Journal: http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1290525-400w-MH/HPS-mixed
Welp, pulled the male and started a freebie seed from Herbies, Feminized "Strawberry Blue." I cleaned my res and refilled it, ph'd the water and cleaned my air stone. Here's NL 2, sprout has grown and perked up a little bit since I last saw it, I watered her and kept the lights off for a little bit to prevent any burning. Tomorrow I'm ordering a digital pH meter, I've just been using the paper pH testers that came with the box. I'm getting a different thermometer which also has a hygrometer in it. Also, I'll be getting actual hydroton and rapid rooter plugs like you have, Lava. I decided not to get the air grid right now, but I hopefully will be in a week or two. I'm trying to save money for a very special reason. Just kidding, I confess. I'm saving for this: http://www.grasscity.com/us_en/flaming-skull-double-ring-beaker-base-19-arm-perc-ice-bong-amber.html Don't forget, I still <3 smoking
Unfortunately, NL 2 died The poor girl had been disfigured since birth. I popped a regular "Hawaiian Skunk Haze" seed in its place just now. If this one doesn't survive either I'll be waiting until my rapid rooter plugs come in before starting anything other than bagseeds.
I used the paper towel method on my first go and both died. What I did was soak the seed for 24-48 hours in water in a dark place. By then the seed had slightly "popped" open. Then i put the seed with the sprout facing down in the RR plug and covered the top with a tiny pinch of soil. I then put the plug in a semi air-tight clear germination plastic box I got from home depot for 4 bucks. I kept this moist and the RR plug moist and placed on top of my cable box (1/2 on top of the box so it doesn't get TOO hot). Once the seedling sprouted 1/2 inch up out of the RR plug I then put the RR plug in the bottom of the net and then hydrton around the RR to keep it in place. Then just run plain water in the res with the airstones, 1 week later you should have a good tap root. During this first week run 1-2 CFLs ~6-8" above the sprout, 24/0. Really happy with the RR plugs, 100% germ sucess on my grow and 100% success on ~10-12 pepper seeds too.