If you can come up with a small enough fabric pot, I'd think it would keep the soil/roots cooler as there'd be more air flow. (Doesn't ceramic hold heat?) However, it would also dry out more quickly. I would suggest playing with a pot of soil in there for two reasons: the temp and once you start watering, the humidity will fluctuate some. I think you'd be okay for quite awhile with even 2 lights but surely with 3. Fox farms ocean forest will last at least a month as far as nutrients, maybe longer. As you get into flower, you could top dress with more soil (as it is fertilized) and kelp meal & earthworm castings. Those two amendments will serve you better than anything else you could buy for nutes, imo. You might need some calmag but not anytime soon. The plant should be at least two weeks old before you even think about nutes anyway, not to mention the fert in the soil. Good job on the case!! Btw, ph'd water would give you peace of mind but tap would be fine, just leave sit open for 24 hrs to dechlorinate. Personally, I have never ph'd anything. Soil will fluctuate and, most of the time, will correct itself. From watching others, messing with ph causes far more problems that it solves. If you were hydro then ph is another story. You'll figure out pretty quickly what works for you. Have an amazing day!!
Thanks! For now I'm just working out the bugs. But, thanks to a friend, I'm planning on trying Diamond Girl for the first grow.
Thanks! I've been thinking about replacing the current pot because it's got a pretty long crack around the side. I'm sure it's fine for growing but I don't want to risk it. I'll look around for a fabric pot. Is plastic generally shunned for growing? I mean, outside of the Solo cup challenge. (one day I'ma enter that!) I'm defiantly going with the Ocean Forest soil. While I'm there I'll check the prices for the kelp meal & earthworm castings. And as I've proven time and time again, I'll be leaning on you guys to let me know what I need when I need it As far as water, I've got a case of bottled drinking water just sitting there. I'll probably just use them for watering if they're going to be good enough. The pH water looks to be more work than it's worth at this point. Maybe after I get a few grows under my belt I'll look at hydro. Thanks Mona!
Yep that's what I was saying about the fabric pot. Earth worm castings are good you won't need to add any with ocean forest at first though. Just later on by working it into the soil or making a tea. Plastics perfectly fine as long as it's light proof man!
Awesome! I'll look for some fabric pots this weekend. Meantime I decided to remove one of the bulbs in the case to see if that would help with the heat. Looks like it did as it's at about 78 degrees in the lower section, with 58% humidity. I moved the fan closer to the light and put the thermometer in the clay pot to get a reading there. Looks like things are coming together. [Edit] After a few hours it was 85 degrees and 58% humidity inside the pot under 3 lights. Is that still too hot? I've turned off the lights and fans to see how cold it gets now. Next I'll be testing the flowering lights.
All sounds good, slew!! If 85 is your high end, you should be okay. Mine get to about 84 and that's about what it'd be outside. The bigger issue would be a temp drop at night. I would want to keep it within 10-15 degrees. Sounds to me like you've bout got it. 😀
I left the lights off overnight and it got down to 63 with 53% humidity. This is remarkable because the temprature outside the case was 55! As it gets colder this may be an issue but we'll see. I can always wrap the case in a blanket =]
Today I got the last of my supplies: Fox Farms Ocean Garden, a 1 gallon cloth pot, a soil pH testing kit, and for fun a perforated pot. The pot was only $2.00 so I figured it'd be worth a try. Bad idea? I've packed the soil into the plastic pot and put around 8 fl oz of bottled water into the soil. I've got the pot [no seed yet] under 4 veg lights. When I left it was 64 degrees and 48% humidity at the soil level. Looks like I'm ready to go! I'm going to go through my current bag and find some interesting looking seeds to get started. Thanks to all! Looking forward to finally getting started!
Looks good man, those bottles helping? You can use that plastic pot. You may have issues with dirt coming out of it when you are watering. But it'll work better than the fabric pot but fabric pots are great. I usually plant in thees or at least transplant into one.
I dunno if they're working that great or my meter is just too hot to get a good humidity reading. It's always 30-35% humidity at the soil level. After 2 hours with four veg lights it was 97 degrees and 20% humidity. I took out one of the bulbs and after 4 or so hours it's 86 degrees with 35% humidity. So I got the heat down but can't get the humidity up. Might be different once I get life in there. As an experiment I turned off the bottom fan, the one pointing at the light. I've left the exit fan on. I want to see what the temperature / humidity will do, especially overnight. It's pretty chilly out there at 55 degrees so we'll see how it does with a colder night. In other news, I've started 3 seeds! I think I picked females, according to a few guides. We'll see, I suppose. These are from the infamous Bagseedius Maximus strain. I've got them sitting in some moist tissue between two plates in the grow case. I figure the soothing sound of the fans spinning would help them germinate with ease. With any luck, one of these beauties is going to live her entire life inside the comfort and security of a Slewcid brand Growtopia. Thanks for stopping by!
It's 86 degrees in the case, so they're staying warm for sure =] It might be a little cooler at the bottom. I moved the thermometer down there so we'll see how it looks in the morning.
Maybe you can get that fan that's at the bottom on the top, blowing over the cfls tha will help with temps a bunch trust me on that. They don't put out all that much heat and with air moving fast over it it's even harder for them to produce heat.
Maybe you can put it up a the top on the left hand side. Where the switch for the power cord is. If you can fit it there blowing onto the lights it will help man
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=170943171359 This ones 100cfm You can get ones up to 200 there a it as loud as the ones you have now but much stronger this would be a good exit fan
Thanks dude, but I can't buy that atm. I've moved the bottom fan up a lot closer to the lights. When the grow case was a computer it had 3 fans in it. I took 2 out and put them in my current computer, and I was hoping to buy an adapter for the last case fan to hook it to a usb power source. Instead of doing that, I just made my own with an old 12v power cable. It's pretty powerful at 12v and it has a regular power plug instead of me having to use a usb converter. I think I can get it to fit so it blows across the lights. I've got my timer set to 18 / 6 and this morning it was 56 degrees in the case. Too cold do you think for 6 hours? I could put a blanket over the case which might help a bit. I'll have to keep an eye on it for sure.
You might just try a heated pad on a timer man? If you wrap in s blanket you'll have to worry about it getting to hit once lights come on. The pc fan will do good and that's what I was saying about the adapters haha hopefully you get the temps all figure out man