First Grow - Coco Coir - Expecting 3Lb+ Each Plant

Hey guys n girls! As the title of this post indicates, this will be my first ever grow! I will be growing 8-9 feminized White Rhino, using a 1.2m x 2.4m x 2m grow tent, 2 x 600w MH/HPS lights with digital dimmable ballasts, cool tubes, 6" inline fan for outtake, carbon filter, 2 oscillating fans inside the tent to keep temps down, and I will be using Coco coir as the medium, probably mixed with Perlite and Worm Castings too, as yet undecided as to the ratio, and I fully expect to yield at least 3lbs per plant, making me the most awesome grower ever. 

If by now you haven't detected the sarcasm, you probably don't know me very well. 

Writing this journal mainly because as many journals as I have read, I have never yet found one that goes from the exact moment of deciding to grow to the end result (for an absolute beginner). Truth is I can type all of this stuff in the first paragraph, and make it sound like I know what the hell I'm talking about!.(I have no clue).

I can only do this because I have read many journals over the last few months written by people that do actually know what they are doing. The best way I can describe my previous horticultural experiences would be to state that I once bought my wife some artificial roses on the way home from work and still managed to kill them within the 30 minute journey home......If I succeed in growing, trust me, anybody can! 

Okay, so as I mentioned, this is for absolute beginners like myself......pick a good tent!. I went for a package deal that included everything from dimmable ballasts to cool tubes, MH/HPS lights and fan/filter etc....seemed like a wise idea at the time, but in hindsight, the quality of the individual items are never going to be great (all made in china, probably available for less separately). 

The tent itself I love!, way bigger than I imagined, even though I knew the size, just takes up a lot more space than I anticipated within the room. If I wasn't so stubborn I would have called the wife to give me a hand zipping it up once I got the cover over the frame, instead I almost killed myself doing it alone....words of wisdom....if you have a friend you trust, get them to help!. 

As I touched upon, package deals are probably not the best way forward when starting your first grow.....might seem easier, and most likely cheaper, but in essence that just means they give you the cheaper quality products in a bundle.....I love the tent, but the filter I doubt is anywhere near as good as say a Rhino, the lights are unbranded, and the fan is louder starting up than my old RS Turbo....and the neighbours used to complain about that!

So my advice so far, buy separately! you might spend an extra 60-70 quid, but trust me, it's worth it in the long run! I now have to buy another fan, and will be purchasing Lumi HPS 600W lights once I go to flower, and probably a decent carbon filter too if the quality of the other extras is anything to go by. 

Anyway.....seeds should be here any day now. I will be propagating them using a root!t kit, then transferring them to 5l pots, and then onto 20l pots......Not sure if this is the best way, but based on my lack of experience I have decided to transfer as little as possible, not feeling too confident right now lol. 

Oh. one last thing for now, yoyo hangers are absolutely shit! I got some with the tent, and they don't work, wouldn't trust them in a million years....using 2 of my daughters old skipping ropes to support my lights right now, and I have more faith in them than those pieces of shit! 

Well for now this is it....got the tent set up, still absolutely clueless as to the best way to attach the ducting to the lights, to the filter, or hang the filter etc.....so if any of the more experienced growers could chime in and offer much appreciated advice, that would be sweet!.   

 

 

Well I won't lie, little bit sad that nobody with any experience has bothered stopping by to offer words of wisdom but oh well, I'll crack on regardless, just remember not to bother asking for tips once I grow these 3lb plants!  

In all seriousness though, my growing area is a little under 3sqm, so using the simple maths of what the seed bank tell me (900g pmsq) and dividing that by my actual knowledge and competence, I feel confident enough to state that I will at least have a nug or 2 in 3 months time.... I guess time will tell. I chose the White Rhino strain specifically for the Indica dominance, because I plan on going for either a scrog or heavy topping & lst, or a combination of both, and will need at least an 8 inch gap at finishing height to take pics of all those heavy dank buds! (or so I hope)

Anyway, back to reality for a moment lol.....if any experienced indoor grower could throw a few pearls of wisdom my way regarding the best way to set the tent up, well that would be just sparkling  

Peace - Breezey
 


 

 

 

Cheers mate, I do try to entertain while I educate.....(not quite sure what anybody is likely to learn from this journal just yet, but as long as it doesn't wind up being a "do the exact opposite of that guy" manual I will be a happy camper!) lol  

The whole tent kit cost me just shy of 450 quid, so not that cheap really....my thought process was that it would be easier and possibly better value to get it all in one go.....this was mistake #1 lol.....it turns out that ordering a package deal essentially means they can stick together a whole load of shit that doesn't sell individually....mainly because of the whole being shit thing. The tent itself seems quite decently made, but everything else is as you said, cheap Chinese junk....unbranded lights with poorly fitted cool tubes and a  no name carbon filter that I'm fully expecting to get a good 3-5 days use from. 

But the piece de resistance is most certainly the 6" fan! All I can imagine is that between the design team and the production floor somebody somewhere got their wires crossed....and then subsequently crossed the wires in the fans wrong too! Only thing I can think of, because it doesn't seem logical when designing a fan to put "make it sound like a low flying commercial airliner is about to crash land" as a top priority?. But they have.....this will be the first thing I change once funds allow!. 

So for anyone reading this in the future that is contemplating buying a full kit setup, please don't! Trust me, the extra few minutes you spend sourcing quality items individually will save you a lot of shit and a lot of money in the long run!

For nutrients I'm going with the Ionic range, it was recommended highly to me by an experienced grower on here, (cheers GG) so I'm giving it a whirl. I ordered the hydro nutes initially for some strange reason lol, but fortunately they got my email right as it was being loaded onto the van, and changed it to the coco greenfuse package....crisis averted!  

Still not entirely certain as far as the medium goes....I was planning around 70/30 Coco/Perlite, but then I read rave reviews about worm castings, so decided to throw them into the mix too, but probably only once transplanted to the 20l pots.....being the most novice gardener on the planet, I have no scientific reasons for this approach whatsoever, but if I somehow manage to grow monster trees, I will of course come back to this post in a few months time, and edit this small section to make it seem like I knew what I was doing from the beginning and it wasn't just sheer luck at all.  

Thanks for subbing TMFJ, glad to have you along for the ride!
 

Thanks BH!, yeah I read some quite remarkable posts about increased yields with the use of worm castings, so I guess we shall see....although seeing as this is my first grow, I'm probably not in the best position to make the best judgement either way, good or bad....however if I end up with 3oz from 8 plants then it's safe to say it's entirely down to the worm castings and they are no good, and similarly if I produce 300oz, then it's a combination of worm castings being amazing and my natural gardening abilities...lol  

As my cooltubes are Beijing's finest, I'm not entirely confident they are going to do the job they were made for.....I have heard people remark that with 1000w HPS in a cooltube they are able to place their hand on the glass for 30 seconds without too much heat....Problem I have right now is that as soon as I flick the switch for the lights, I'm diving for cover, not walking towards them! lol.....wish I bought quality products from the outset! haha   

Best of luck with the upcoming harvest BH!   

Peace guys - Breezey 

 

Decided to make a slight revision to my original masterplan. For a little bit of variety, instead of growing 8 White Rhinos, I'm going with 5 WR, 2 Ice Breakers, and a Feminized Big Bang 2......Stuck in the house all day waiting for everything ordered from eBay to arrive and found myself purchasing more seeds....Damn it's a good thing I'm filthy rich!.....Oh, hold up.....I'm not....shit. 

Being smart I had already anticipated the various problems I might encounter by growing 3 different strains at the same time, such as differing flowering times, growth patterns, etc etc, and therefore devised an intricate plan that virtually guarantees me success!

In hindsight, a lot of hoping and praying doesn't seem quite as intricate and success guaranteeing as it did initially.....but oh well, guess I will live and learn.....probably best to make all the mistakes on my first grow so I know better next time around at least.  

One quick ? that somebody with a bit of wisdom may be able to help with......Is Ice Breaker Indica or Sativa dominant?.....Can't seem to find the answer anywhere.


Peace - Breezey   


 

 

As I'm expecting the seeds to arrive tomorrow, and due to the fact I made the rookie mistake of spunking most of my money on a complete tent kit deal, I decided it would probably be wise to at least try and rectify the main problems myself before spending more money I can't really afford on replacement items. 

Most pressing issue is without doubt the fan.....nothing shouts out to the neighbours "I'm growing weed!" more than a previously empty bedroom suddenly sounding like terminal 5 at Heathrow 24/7. Initially I did lay all the blame for this on the build quality of my particular fan, but after reading a bit more about others experiences, it seems that unless you can afford to shell out $$$'s at the start for the top of the range models, noise problems are a common occurrence. 

I constructed an mdf box within which to house the fan, cutting 6" holes front and back to attach the ducting, and filled all the empty space inside with towels and a blanket.....placed it in the far corner of the tent, and it has made a big difference, although still not quiet enough, so I'm hoping that spending 10 quid on 5 metres of acoustic ducting, and hanging it with bungee ties will reduce the sound even further...I will let you know.  

The quality of the cooltubes is debatable.....they arrived barely connected, and covered in tiny red flecks of paint?. Screwed them in tightly, and used glass cleaner to remove the shit on them. All the bulbs (2 600w MH + 2 600w HPS) are no name products, but as yet untested, so I guess I will have to wait and see how they perform before passing judgement. (If they turn out to be amazing then I will highly recommend them....little difficult without a brand name of course, but if you call China and ask for the ones in the plain brown boxes I'm sure they will know which ones you mean)  

I don't understand the logic in selling a tent kit with yoyo hangers and only providing ceiling hooks? lol....but to be fair they suck anyway, so I will be purchasing ratchet straps for the lights and filter tomorrow, only 15 quid and I will sleep a lot better using them as opposed to cheap plastic crap. 

So all in all, if I can manage to fix the immediate issues for under 30 quid I will be rather pleased with myself  

Enjoy the day guys!

Breezey 

 

Well things are coming together at last.....in a fashion lol. 
 
Seeds arrived on Monday, or at least 7 of them did....the Big Bang 2 is being sent separately for some unknown reason (my guess is they forgot to put it in the first order). So a little annoyed that it's going to be a couple of days behind the others, but given that I have no clue as to the varying heights I will have in my canopy anyway with White Rhino and Ice Breaker I suppose it's not too much of a problem

I was hoping to be able to transfer the plants straight into 5 litre pots once the second set of leaves appear, but they arrived today, and looking at the size of them I realise I'm going to have to get maybe 1 litre pots to begin with, then transplant to the 5's, and then finally the 20 litre ones they will be finishing in....(fingers crossed!)
 
Ordered some ratchet straps this morning too, only 8 quid and I'm certain they are going to be a million times better than the cheap plastic yoyo hangers that came with the tent kit. 

Sooo, got the seeds germinating between plates as I type, going to check them in a moment and see if any have sprouted yet.....using a root it propagation kit once they do, and adding a little of their first feed nutrient to the water I soak the sponges in prior to popping my babies in......after that it will be Ionic greenfuse coco nutes all the way. 

Oh, also ordered 5m of acoustic ducting too, hoping that will prove to be an effective and less costly method of quietening the noise from the fan (says 52 db on the box, I could swear it's more like 152!). 
 
Well that's all for now folks....hopefully soon I will have some amazing pics of my babies growing into trees, otherwise I will have to resort to telling jokes to keep you all interested.....and trust me, nobody wants that!   

Peace - Breezey 

 

All 7 are now fully sprouted and doing nicely....so far so good! struggling slightly with temps and RH though, seems keeping them around 80cm away from the 250w MH increases the humidity to over 90%, and taking the lid off the propagator reduces it to 55-60%, trying to find a happy medium......I will get there. 
 
Temps are just over 30 degrees, not great I know....got a fan going inside the tent, window open, and apparently cooltubes, but so far I have to say they seem to be pure shit.....not judging cooltubes in general, just the poorly manufactured ones I bought. 
 
One plant seems to be thriving way more than the others.....was an inch tall before any of them had even popped through the medium!....not sure why given that they are all receiving the same conditions and nutes etc, but I'm not complaining!

Got some ratchet straps to use for the lights, way better than the shitty yoyo hangers that came with the tent package....Still clueless how to use them, but sure I will figure it out......(light is currently suspended with my daughters old skipping rope lol) 

When I began germination, I made sure I knew which 2 were the ice breaker strain, however when I stuck them into the propagation unit, I messed up and didn't look which was which....guess I will find out in due course. 

Still expecting 3lb per plant.......top grower in the making right here!  

 

 
Nice looking plant mate!, whats it smoke like?. 

Cheers bud, yeah I went for the fan outside the tent, currently only have the one 250 MH on, so not needing the inline fan to extract just yet, temps are staying around 25-28 now with just the window in the room open and the vents open on the tent....really hoping the acoustic ducting fixes the noise problem with the fan though, I will need it on 24/7 very shortly and it's insanely loud! 

 

Thanks mate yeah I did read somewhere that bungees help a lot with the noise, definitely on the shopping list! I'll get some pics up tomorrow night too.
 
Peace - Breezey   

 

Cheers mate, glad to have you along for the ride! 25 - 28 degrees is around 77 - 82 fahrenheit....My wife is American, I guess I should really have known that without having to use Google lol. 

Yeah the lights are definitely not the highest quality, but like you say at least it's something to get me growing. Strange thing is the digital dimmable ballasts seem to be quite decent, yet the cooltubes are far from the same standard......put my hand on it earlier and it was far from cool! lol....I'm thinking the ballasts came from a slightly better factory up the road perhaps....

Not bad at all for a first grow and for killing them bud! lol.....I'll be more than happy if I can get them all over the finishing line for my first time around......and plenty of sweet buds to smoke at the end of it is a very nice bonus as well!