I've got student financial aid coming in a couple weeks and I'm looking to do something like this too. I have a grow closet in full effect with four plants in their first week of flowering, but I'm looking to set up a clone/veg tent for a constant cycle. Thanks for the links to the site where you got the tent and light!
Got my 4" inline fan today. With my hot room and small tent I am still getting pretty high temperatures. Good thing I didn't go with HPS or CFL's because they would just be too hot for the tent here in the summer. Planted two seedlings today, they have been taking ages to germinate so hopefully they don't have any problems and they sprout up soon.
Ouch I hate high temps! What's your light schedule? You can shave off a good 10 degrees if you use an 18/6 schedule and have the lights go on at night. My lights are turned off during the hottest part of the day (11-5pm) so it doesn't get as hot as it used to. Also, with those seeds your trying to germinate, how did you germinate them? Or did you just plant them? I would grab a couple plastic baggies and put them over ur 2 pots so it can retain humidty. New seedlings need a lot of humidty when they first start. When you see them popping out of the soil, go ahead and take out the baggies.
I have a 19/5 schedule now. I think I will take your advice and change my light schedule if I can't get the temps down at all. Temperature really isn't a problem at all during night. I germinated them using the paper towel method. Started all 3 at the same time, the first germinated within 48 hours, but the other two took nearly a week and a half. And they still only have a little bit of the sprout popping out of the shell. I planted them regardless because it didn't look like they were going to make any progress, if I lose them I don't mind because I'm not sure if I can fit two plants comfortably anyways. I had a couple of domes on the two sprouts earlier, but took them off. Maybe I will put them back on.... Thanks for the advice.
Thanks again man. Any light leaks to it? I'm contemplating on the GL40 or the DR40.. I think u had the same dilemna?
I did have the same dilemna! I'm still not sure I made the right decision as I've never seen a growlab before. I just went ahead and got the DR40 because I could find a bit more information on darkrooms, and felt like it was more of a guarantee than the growlab. Although, I seriously doubt you can go wrong with either brand, I'm sure they're both awesome tents. I have no light leaks whatsoever from my tent besides the 4" exhaust, obviously. At first I had a couple of very faint leaks coming from the zipper, but only because the tent was wrinkled from being in a small box. So basically, you're almost certainly not going to be disappointed in the DR40, and you probably won't be disappointed in the GL40.
Haha thanks man. Does the DR40 have intake ports on the bottom? I read from someone that they had to modify the tent to get better intake.
There are no fan intakes besides the 4" on the very top. However, there are 3 windows that can be used for passive intake. With an HPS in the tent, I would guess modification would be required.
Thanks, I think I may go with the GrowLab because of the extra intake holes. I'm nervous bc I have a 150w hps.. and since your having problems using LED, I might have the same problems if not worst.
Yeah, not a bad idea. The only way you're keeping an HPS cool in this tent is by modifying the exhaust/intake hole to fit something stronger than the 4" inline fan it's meant for.
Sadly the plants aren't doing all that well. I trashed the third, never really germinated fully. The second has just stopped growth, and looks like it is still trapped under the second layer of the shell. The first has slowed growth a little bit and started to droop. I decided I almost certainly had been over-watering, so I went out of town and didn't water for approximately 48 hours. When I came back it was completely limp, and the leaves developed a pale yellow color. I watered it, within 30 minutes it was much less limp. Now 24 hours later, the plant looks like it did when I left. Still somewhat limp and now yellow. I have only watered once in the last 3 days. Anyone know how I can remedy my problem? Maybe tell me exactly what I did wrong? Could over-watering be my only problem? My tent has been 78-90 degrees (depending on the time of day) as well, could that be it?
Fox farms ocean forest. I was watering way too much, a couple times a day. I've started giving the plant watering breaks and it's definitely started looking better in just two days. Still yellow and slightly limp though. Hope it pulls through. I also surgically removed the bit of shell that was left on the little sprout. It didn't look like I had any other options, and now the sprout has opened up in just an hour or so and looks healthy. Things are looking much better, hopefully I didn't stress out the girls too much!!! Although, Growth has been really slow the entire experience so far. Does anyone know if over-watering will stunt the growth? What about heat?
Sounds like you are struggling with the old "little bit hot in there", "peat pots are drying out in 30 seconds", overwatering blues. I'd ditch those peat pots if it were me, and it's not; they are a pain in the ass for MJ. You hit the nail on the head pretty much and are on the right track. You might consider transplanting them into some 1 gallon SmartPots, and really pare the watering back to when that whole damn thing is nearly dry. It's tough to say, but often when you stress them like that real young, they take some time to get settled back in. You may well see slow growth for a few weeks, but get them in a bigger container, let them stretch their roots a bit, and stop watering so much and you'll be back on track.
Thanks for the advice. Yeah, the peat pots are worthless haha......especially for starting the seedlings. Exactly like you said, soil at 1-2 inches is completely dry within an hour after watering, so I tried to compensate for that when I just should have transplanted them into something different. Oh well, valuable lesson. EDIT: Plants have been re-potted. The 2 gallon smart pot has a soil mix containing the following: 2/3-3/4Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil 1/3-1/4 Perlite 5 tbsp dolomite lime for PH
I'm subbed in and I'll be lurking in the background. Hope everything goes okay for you. I'm researching LED technology, but there are so many providers out there it gets overwhelming. I hadn't hear of the Pro Grow until now. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
I'll be following you as well, I have little one that's just days ahead of your sprout. You can check out my thread too if you want.
Thanks a lot, glad to have you. Yeah, I basically just bought mine as an impulse. Hopefully all the good things I've heard about pro-grow eventually pan out!