Hi all, I'm starting this journal to document my first grow. I hope all goes well - any insight and advice greatly appreciated! I have a cedar closet in my attic in which I built a grow cabinet out of 1x3's and 1/4" masonite. The cabinet is 2' X 4' X 6.5' H and has hinged doors on either end and is painted flat white on the inside. Ventilation is via 6" intake and exhaust ducts to/from a window in the closet. The fan is a 6" inline rated at 530cfm (way overkill!) with a speed controller (turned all the way down) and a duct muffler. The cabinet has a 400W HPS, oscillating fan, and a small heater since it's cold now where I live and I'm bringing in air directly from outside. The heater keeps the cabinet temp at 75 deg. F. Last month I got a combo pack (non-feminized) of 10 WW, 10 Ice, and 10 Crystal seeds from marijuana-seeds.nl along with 5 freebie Silver Surfer Something-or-other beans. A couple days ago, I germed the 10 WW seeds with the paper towel method. They all popped and I put them in 18oz party cups. I'm using Coast of Maine Bar Harbor blend organic soil and plan to use Fox Farms BB, TB, and GB nutes. I've been keeping the party cups fairly moist and, as of this morning, three have sprouted. I'm keeping the light pretty high at a 18/6 schedule. I'll take the 8 best seedlings and transplant them into the 8 5gal grow bags and hope to get at least 3 good females out of the bunch. That's about it for now. Any words of wisdom from the guru's would go along way. Thanks in advance!
Hey, Looks like a great setup man. What are your temps? Best of luck! I'm keeping an eye on this one! -Kyung Yi
Thanks man. These days, outside temps are about 60 deg. during the day and down to 35 deg. at night. The small heater w/ built-in thermostat keeps the cab temp at an even 75 deg. lights on or off.
What kind of heater you using? I'm having the same problem. Now that winter is coming, my temps are good during the day but once night hits, my temps are hitting low 60's and sometimes lower. I just get kinda shaded out about having a heater in a different room running, even though I got smoke detectors and such. Are you using a heater that only comes on to keep the temp up then shuts off? Best of Luck -Kyung Yi Drop by my grow if you get a sec. It's on my sig.!
Nice set up. It should rock 1)With all the time & money in your set up why didnt ya get feminized seeds? 2) Why are you bringing in air from outside? I'd rather exhaust to the outside. Your N.E. temsp are too cold to bring in, plus it allows you to bring in pollen from other plants that could hermie your plants. Can you just bring in fresh air from the cedar closet?
Kyungyi, The heater I'm using is a cheapie I got for $12 at Target. Yes, it starts and stops based on the thermo setting. Here's a link: Holmes HFH111T-U Heater Fan with Thermostat 77401, Yeah, in retrospect, I wished I'd got feminized seeds but what's done is done. Hey, I'm a noob. As far as bringing in air from the outside, the cedar closet is hermetically sealed and sucking air from it would create a vacuum at some point. I didn't think about the hermie problem though. I could probably re-route the intake to suck from the main attic but would that be as "fresh" and cool as outdoor air? Would it be better to heat cold outside air (and risk hermies) or deal with wildly fluctuating air temps of an attic?
Is it sealed that tight? What about under the door? As long as somewhere there is a sliver of an intake. Do a test run on the vent? During your winter, pollen in the air may not be as big a deal. The successful grow op's on here are all sealed. Personally I vent out And into my attic, I have an inch between the bottom of my door and the floor. Mine is not sealed & mine isn't successful yet. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Yeah, it's sealed THAT tight! Not even a sliver of light shows through. I guess that's how cedar closets work. I'm definitely thinking of cutting a hole in the closet and sucking from the main attic. With non-feminized seeds, the last thing I want are hermies although where I live (suburbs), that risk is probably pretty low. I can't leave the door cracked due to security/curiosity issues IYSWIM. If I sucked from the main attic, by cutting a hole in the closet side in a discrete location, should I crack another attic window to bring in fresh air?
I checked the cab this morning and 9 out of the 10 party cups have sprouts starting to pop through YAY! I'm concerned about over/under-watering though. I'm keeping a party cup with just dry soil to gauge the heft between wet and dry cups so I can get the "feel" of when to give them a drink.
It all depends on how tight the rest of your house is, the new the tighter, But I can only imagine any house can find 530cfm of intake with out making more holes. All houses breathe a little and vent that little bit to the outside or attic won't be noticed. Congrats on the sprouts, I cant' help with the watering, I'm into Hyro
Day 9 from sprouting. The ten little indians were a little thirsty since I've been out of town for a couple of days. I gave them a drink and they should perk up.
I made some mods to my grow box. First, I've decided to keep the inlet air coming directly from outside since it's like free A/C and I can keep the light very close to the plants without burning. I was concerned about sucking in 'foreign objects' though (thanks 77401) so I built an inlet air filter. I went to Home de Pot and bought two 6" x 14" register boots which have been fitted together and duct-taped. Inside is a 6" x 14" 3M Fitrete 1700 sub-micron air filter which supposedly traps pollen, dust, mites, and mold spores. We shall see...
The second mod I made was to the grow box itself. I had planned on using 5 gal. grow bags but I'm not too happy with them since they are a little unstable for my liking. Plus they're sitting right in the overflow saucers. I built a raised support system out of 1x3's that the saucers can slide under more easily for emptying and ph testing. Then I put the grow bags inside of cheap Home de Pot 5 gallon buckets. I'm going to try to keep the saucers filled with water since it's a little dry in the grow box (45-50% RH) and I'd like to bump it up to 60% or so.
great looking setup. love the raised pots, thats thinking ahead. i noticed u dont have much room for side branching,will you be pruning heavily?. i would also reccommend using the foxfarm solubles during the flowering stage. they help out tremendously with budswelling and oils. also look into the molasses regimen. good luck.
Thanks Thunder, Yeah, not much room right now. I'll prolly only end up with 3-4 females out of the 8 so that will give me more side room. I definitely going with the FF solubles - thanks for the heads up.
It's been several days and the seedlings growth has stunted. I think I over-watered them. They all have droopy leaves and are a very pale green like the pics below. The cotelydons are starting to turn a little yellow. I flipped the plants and pulled the cups off to see the roots. The bottom was still moist and roots had grown down and circled around the bottom of the cup where there is a kind of channel formed in the cup. It looks like water can easily collect in that channel and not drain out. I punched more holes in the cups in this channel. I hope my plants live...
Very nice ... I like it. You have a knack for the ducting. R U In the trade? I'm new to dirt myself, but how do you know if they are over watered or under nuted? Mine look like that from time to time & I put in full strength nutes & they seem to perk up. Don't take my advice, its not advice, just a question....
Thanks 77401, No, I'm not in the trade - just an amateur. I'm an ol' IT guy actually but I like playing with stuff and building things - and I read A LOT! DIY carbon filter with external air plenum going in in a few days. +rep on your siggy btw - it really rings true with me. Over-watered? Under-nuted? I have no clue! I understood that young seedlings don't need nutes for the first few weeks - that they get their nutes from the cotyledons and the seed shell. Plus, I'm using a "premium" organic soil roughly equiv. to FFOF which, if anything, would tend to be more on the hot side. The way the roots grew straight down and formed a ring in the cup's recessed undrained channel makes me think that the roots have been sitting in water for several days, slowing suffocating the plant. I'm gonna let 'em dry out for a few days I think before I take further action.