Hey Guys, So this is my first grow ever. I did a lot of research and i have helped a few buds grow some bud before so i do have a little know-how when it comes to a few aspects of growing. I started with 6 seeds out of a bag of some decent bud. It would have been better if it wasnt so seedy. I wasnt planning on doing anything with them other then put them in some pots outside but after a 2 months of vegging and they were only about 15 inches tall i decided to do go big or go home (a.k.a. Threw $1600 at my closet). BEFORE Day 1 When i introduced the plants into the garden they were all sick and not looking good. They all had very pale leaves and the lower sets were yellow and purple. They were very short for being 2 months old outside (12-18 inches). There were also sure signs of stretching due to the bad lighting. Again, I never intended on these plants doing much of anything but when i saw how bad they were doing i felt bad for them and decided to do something about it. So after doing some research and had some extra cashflow i decided i was going to attempt a full on perpetual grow. I figure it is an investment because right now i spend $800-1000 on tea every month. I also love science and figure it will be fun to experiment with different styles or techniques. The Garden My closet is 8' Tall x 8.5' Long and 24" Wide. It isnt a whole lot of space but i do have a decent amount of height available. I sectioned it off in the middle to have one flower and one veg. So each "room" is 4'wide. I Lined the entire closet with black/white plastic and made two doors in one side of it to have access to both rooms seperatly. luckily there are also two doors in my closet so it works perfectly. I open one of my closet doors and unzip without disturbing the other room at all. I think it will work just fine for now. Veg Room I have a 4' 4 bulb HO T5 hanging. I built a table that sits 30" off the ground so i have storage space underneath and still have ample room for growth. Flower Room 400w HPS w/digital Balast and xtrasun 6" air cooled reflector. There is a carbon filter on the ceiling the ducting runs to the light then into the veg room where the 6" inline fan dumps the air. Then i have an exhaust vent in the veg room and and intake in both. Plants will sit on a table that is 20" off the ground. Again, for the space. I needed a place to dry my bud so i segmented off the lower section of the flower room underneath the table to dry. My Plan At the moment my plan doesnt mean shit because the one i had a month ago has changed about 100 times. But My overall goal is to produce a small crop every month to be able to support my usage and eliminate me from having to buy my tea. Right now in the veg room i have 8 clones and 7 seeds in a hydro set up. Along with 2 mothers. My hydro set up is a hydro farm ebb and flow table with a res below. It has 15 spots for plants. I started the seeds and clones in rockwool and now they are in hydrotron. The system runs for a half hour every 3 hours. Not sure if thats too much or two little. So far the plants have seemed fine. My flowering room has 4 plants in their 1st week. I moved them in there last night. The 4 plants that are in there are all going to be harvested at the same time but when my 15 plants in the hydro set up are ready to flower i will be putting it in the flower room along with 2 potted plants. My goal is to have 2 large plants in pots and good soil along with 15 small ones in hydro at all times. No rhyme or reason behind this. Like i said earlier, Im really into plant growth and science so i will be journalling and documenting every single thing i do. I am going to try new things and experiment with ideas and theories. I know this isnt going to run as smoothly as im thinking but i am a very good problem solver so im sure ill be just fine for my first grow. Ill be posting up pics soon for you guys to check out my handy work. I would appreciate it if you guys could chime in and give me some pointers and help me correct some mistakes. Im all for constructive criticism. Also feel free to ask me any questions if your sitting there scratching your head and saying to yourself "what the fuck is this fool doing?" Haha, ok, im going to go load the teapot. Peace Peeps
forgot to mention my damn dog ate part of one of my plants that are vegging. you can see it in one of the pics. there are two branches sitting on the table next to the plant. that first one was 3x bushier. My dog loves bud just as much as i do. i was planning on cloneing it and then just throwing her outside because i dont have room in my flowering room and its already getting dark early enough to naturally flower.
I have a bit of an algae problem right now on the tops of my rockwool cubes. after "consulting" with my fellow potheads i figured im going to need to dose some hydrogen peroxide and completely cover up the rockwool cubes with hydrotron. Another Note: My RH% has been high 60-70% in both my flower and veg room. I know thats not good and need to find a DIY de-humidifier somewhere or just go buy one with a humidistat. Not sure the route i will be taking yet. Im sure there are people out there that have the same problems. Any help would be great guys. ++Rep for sure
i mixed some water and hydrogen peroxide today in a spraybottle and just sprayed the tops of the cubes. Then i added more hydrotron and covered up all the cubes. hopefully this stops the growth of algae. I was also having a problem keeping the cubes damp so im thinking that adding more hydrotron on top of the cubes will slow down the rate of evaporation. They are little and their roots have not been able to reach the water when the tray is full. There is a lot of new root growth so it should just be a matter of days before i dont have to worry about that anymore. It is also day 4 on my 4 ladies that are flowering. Things are going well. My only concern is my pot size and the humidity. 3 gallon pots and the plants are roughly 30" tall with basically 2 months of flowering to go. the humidity also is 60-70%. I know im going to have to transplant i just dont know the best time. ALso know im going to have to get my humidity % down below 50.
3 out of my 4 plants started to flower...FEMALE!!! 3/4 aint bad. there still isnt any sign on the last one. How cool would it be to get 4/4 female from bag o weed seed. im stoked. They look good. Ill take some more pics too.
Nice work brotha. Veg room looks very efficient, and the humidity isnt too much of a problem there. Sounds like you know what you gotta do about that humidity. But dont wait too long to get it straightened out. I wish i could give you some pointers, but i am still struggling with airflow myself. I think i just need to throw down and get 4 nice 16" fans and be done with it. I like the idea of just using the RW clone cube too. I think you could get it deeper into the ind. pots. I put my 4" so that the highest flood point comes to the middle of the block. If i were to try it with those smaller cubes i would try to flood the bottom 1/4 or less of the cube. What are you rocking for nutes? I started with Botanicare, and switched to Fox Farms, and now im on to Advanced Nutrients. I am pretty sure i wont be looking back. I dont think i will run all there supplements, but the Sensi 2 part base is amazing. It laughs at FF and blows away Botanicare. The best thing about Advanced is the pH balance is perfect. I add A then B and BAM 5.7 and its the only line that stays balanced over a few days with my setup. Its been 3 days, and the pH hasn't moved from 5.7-5.9. Both FF and Botanicare needed a TON of down all the time. If you cant tell i HIGHLY recommend them. If for nothing else than the pH thing. And there is easily 50 times less salt build-up than FF, and 20 times less than Botanicare. It truly is amazing. Good luck with this. Thanks for all the props. I will be dropping by regularly.
Im using the FF series. I have it backed off though. My max is only about 75% of what they say. Its to early to really see how well the hydro thing is going to go. I started it on Sept. 21st. my soil plants have been growing longer and 4 of them are now day 4 into flowering. I am one to try different things out and see which one works best so im sure im going to be going through different nutes. Ill go with what your saying next time and see how my garden likes it. I did notice i could have dropped my cubes down an extra inch in the pots to make it easier for the plants at a young stage to get what they needed. I also think i put them into hydro too soon. But i only lost one so im happy with that. -Teapot
UPDATE: my last plant showed sex...female again. im stoked. out of 6 total seeds planted they all germinated and of the 4 i started to flower, all 4 are female. i just hope their very stressful childhood outdoors doesnt make them go hermie. Since they were brought inside they have been loving every minute of it. my big girl is 30ish inches tall right now and not even a full week into flowering. how tall do you guys thing she will get?
Another update...My temps and humidity are getting high. the max measurment taken on my hygrometer says 81% RH and 90%. im not worried about the temp thing. I can handle that. I have exhaust and intake with a 6" 440cfm inline fan. There is plenty of air movement and i think i forgot to turn my fan on this morning and thats why it got so high. the high RH% is what im worried about and i still havent been able to get the DIY dehumidifier going. I need to go to the hardware store asap. So far the plants have grown decent in these conditions but i know that once i start to produce larger flowers there might be a mold problem. I have pleanty of air movement as well as fresh air coming in and old air going out. Can i get away with RH 60-75%. its been as high as 82% or am i going to have to really figure out a way to bring those % down. any help would be great guys. -Teapot
In that area, you can get by with a 30-50 pint/day dehumidifier as long as the air is circulating nicely. I wouldent mess around with it there cheep enough. I got the Fridigaire 50 pint and its pretty good. just make sure it has a constant drain feature, cause the buckets fill up in about 8 hours. or less. GL with that!
ok, ill see if i can find one somewhere for cheap. if im going to buy one i want one with a built in humidistat so i can set the RH and not worry about it.
yes you will need a dehumidifier or lower your humidity somehow when the buds begin to form to prevent botryitis (bud mold). my rh was around 70% until i installed an AC unit. This brought my temps and humidity down. My rh is 40 to 50% all the time now. Im not sure if this is an option for you or if it will even help you. Other wise i would invest into a dehumidifier. good luck.
yeah i know im going to need to get one. I also need a trimeter. damn, i thought i was going to be able to save some cash right now. its all good. Ill be saving some cash in 7 weeks. this is my first grow and i hope to yield 4-8 zips from those 4 plants. 4 is doable, 8 is a stretch. but hey, one can dream right?
Nothing constructive from that^^^ Help the guy out brah dont just make him feel bad. Anyways... If you can control your humidity and do everything right otherwise you may get more than you expect. I have surprised myself a few times and being your first grow you might surprise yourself. best wishes brother and may your grow be very perpetual.
Ive been stuck in a situation like this before where I was faced with having to come up with some unexpected $$$ to ensure the success of a part of my grow operation that I wasnt expecting. The way I always rationalized it was that any necessary items you need for a grow will always pay for themselves either with this grow or the next. They will pay for themselves in money saved from buying quality herb, experience gained, use with a future grows and with elimination of the headache an unexpected problem brings. Its an easy-to-rationalize decision.
And i have kinda had that thinking the entire way through this grow. I dropped a lot of coin in this. And by no means did i have the cash to do it. I didnt think it was going to run this much. But i know that if i do it all right the first time i could potentially pay most of it back the first shot. I was pricing a good dehumidifier and found a few in the $170-220 range. im going to try and find a working used one on craigslist. I thought it was constructive. so no probs there. I want to do it all right the first time. That way i can dial my system in quicker and start to produce more quality tea. I didnt think it was that big a deal. Im glad i know now. it makes me feel better about spending $200.