This marks the beginning of my fifth grow, and first in 3 years. I've had quite a bit of time over the last few years to piece together what my "ideal" grow setup would be. The exciting bit is that we moved out of our crappy apartment and just bought our first house, so I can do this little hobby whenever I want and safely without fear of trouble. Lighting: Dimmable 400w Revolt digital ballast MH 24/0 for veg, HPS 12/12 for flower 6in cool tube reflector Room: Jardin DR90 tent (3x3x6ft) Intake is a 240cfm 6in inline fan on a dimmer Outtake starts through a 6-in carbon scrubber, to the cool tube reflector, out the tent, through a 6-in 420cfm inline fan (controlled by a dimmer), and finally vented outside through the drier vent. Temps are staying steady at 68F. Hoping to get it up a little bit into the low 70's. Might have to turn the heat on in the basement a little bit... Soil: 4 parts Fox Farm Ocean Forest + 1 part perlite Nutrients: Grow Big (for veg, don't anticipate needing much though) Tiger Bloom (for flower) Big Bloom (to feed from time to time...never used it before but I'll give it a try this time ) Strains: 4 x Mr. Nice Seeds Black Widow 1 x OG Sour Jack (feminized) 1 x Dinafem Amnesia (feminized) Seeds were germinated last week within a few days of each other. 3 Black Widows and the Sour Jack have sprouted and started showing leaves. Amnesia and the fourth Black Widow have just poked out of the soil. My goal is to take 1 Black Widow, 1 Sour Jack and 1 Amnesia to harvest. We'll see how it goes. Tent: Air Outtake The colony One of the Black Widows Hope the next several months go smoothly. Will update periodically as things progress.
Thanks man. I'm really liking this whole tent thing too. It's new for me, but so far seems miles better than the little closet I used to work in. Thanks. Keeping my fingers crossed for a smooth grow...
I was a little worried about the temps in the tent. It's been running a steady 66-68F (it's in an unfurnished basement), which I thought was a little on the cold side. So I bought this tiny space heater and pointed it in towards the intake fan on the low setting. With the extra heat, the tent stayed a steady 79-81F last night. I think the plants will be happier now. On a sadder note, I'm not sure the Amnesia is going to make it. Although she's still showing signs of growth, she's just well behind all the others and even the one that was germinated a few days after it. Oh well.
This marks 6 days of veg. Watering with distilled water once every 1 to 1.5 days. Lights are on 24/0. So far, the 4 Black Widows and 1 Sour Jack seem to be growing nicely. The Amnesia is kind of a runt though, so not expecting much from her...she took forever to open up, and her second set of leaves grew in the same direction as the first set rather than 90 degrees off. Never seen anything like it before. With the addition of the space heater in front of the intake fan, the temps are running steady at 77-79F. I am loving this tent thing...gives you SO much control over the grow environment. Pics: Black widow #1. The fastest grower of the bunch. Black widow #2. A little yellowing at the tips of her leaves, but it hasn't gotten worse in the last few days and none of the other plants are doing this. Not sure what is going on, but she's still growing strong. Not too worried at this point, but will keep a close eye on it. Black widow #3: Black widow #4 (she was germed a couple days after everyone else, which is why she's a little bit behind). Sour jack: Amnesia (the runt).
For the sake of learning and just for fun, I'd love it if you leave the runt to keep growing for a while. That's really interesting how it grow that way. I can't wait to see if it was stunted temporarily by whatever made it grow funny, or if it's permanently stunted. It could start growing like a champ soon once it gets a couple sets of leaves. Who knows? A while back a had a batch of seeds where all the leaves grew forked at the tips like snake tongues. But it didn't seem to effect their growth at all. It turned into some nice purps.
Day 13 of veg. Temps are running 79-81F. I noticed a couple leaves this week starting to curl at the edges a little bit...I thought this might be due to low humidity at 20-22%. I bought a humidifier, which has bumped the tent up to 36%. It's not as high as I'd like (I think my ventilation in the tent is a little too good ) but it's a hell of a lot better than what it was, and I think the plants are appreciating it. It's annoying though to have to fill up the humidifier every 12-18hrs. Hopefully I only have to keep it going through the first parts of flowering. We'll see how it goes. I bought some 3 gallon buckets and filled them with 4 parts FFOF + 1 part perlite. We'll probably be transplanting tomorrow or the day after. Amnesia, however, will not be transplanted. There's just not enough room for her in the tent with a bigger pot. She's still growing and looking surprisingly healthy, but damn she's the slowest growing plant I've ever seen. She'll stay in her current small pot and I'll keep her running in that small pot until she dies, whether that's tomorrow or until the end of flowering. I plan on running 24/0 for one more week, then 18/6 for another week, and then starting flowering. I can only do 4 weeks of veg due to time restraints...the wife and I are going on vacation at the end of February, which on this schedule gives us exactly 9.5 weeks of flower. Based on my grows in the past, this should be enough. I don't like being on a time crunch but we just moved to the area and we don't know anyone well enough at this point to let them in on our little "hobby" so that they could water them in our absence, ya know? I'd rather take bud that's just slightly sub par and re-grow again this spring than either not be growing or ask co-workers,etc to baby sit our plants for a week. The colony: Black widow 1, the largest and fastest grower of the bunch: Black widow 2: Black widow 3: Black widow 4: Sour Jack (fem): Amnesia (the runt):
We transplanted 5 of the 6 last night into 3 gallon pots (4 parts FFOF + 1 part perlite). Amnesia didn't get transplanted though...she's not big enough yet and there really isn't room in the tent for another 3gal pot. I'll keep her going though. If she gets big enough and one of the black widows is a male, then I'l transplant. Got my new pH meter yesterday too. Seems to work well, with the standards at least. Temps = 79F, rh=40%.
Day 20 of veg. I just switched from 24/0 to 18/6 yesterday. I wanted to start giving them some time in the dark so that they adjust to flowering a little quicker, which I will start in a little more than a week. All plants are doing well I think. There are a few spots on one of the black widows (#3). Not sure why exactly. Seems hard to believe a nute def. problem since they were just transplanted into fresh FFOF less than a week ago, and I haven't yet given them any nutes either. Amnesia looks healthy and strong but she sure is growing like molasses! She must have gotten a dwarf gene or something. Still growing her out though to see what happens. I did give her a little FF Big Bloom yesterday and she seems to have liked it. Temps are around 77F, rh ~37-41%. When I turned off my lights last night for the first time the temps went down to 68F. Hope that isn't too much temp swing during veg...? The colony: BW #1 BW #2 BW #3 BW #4 Sour Jack Amnesia
looking niiiiice, ill be watching. 68 degrees lights out is perfect. You want to aim for a 10-15 degree drop in temp, as long as it doesnt get in the 50s you should be set. I bought a little 200w oil based heater ($20 on amazon) for my tent and it helps keep my temps very consistent. I too grow in a colder basement and this is the best solution that I have come up with without heating the entire basement and jacking up my electric bill.
Glad you stopped by! Thanks. Good to hear the temp drop won't be an issue. I have a little space heater (this one) which works pretty well and is the only reason the temps are at where they are. My only complaint is that it only has two settings...the lower setting isn't quite enough but the higher setting makes it hotter than I want. I find myself constantly futzing with it to get it just right.
$180 with free shipping on ebay. This is my first grow using a tent and I have to admit I'm a big fan.
It's supposedly Haze x Northern Lights. Sounds like a great combo imo. Sad that she is such a runt though! But she still looks healthy and strong. I'm keeping her going, and when I weed out the Black Widow males more room will open up in the tent for me to transplant her into a 3gal pot. She may not yield much, but anything from her will be better than nothing.