Greetings all! I've been lurking for a while now.....reading the journals, taking notes and asking questions. The holidays are over and it's time to get the show on the road. My focus has been primarily on threads and responses from Tharealmclovin , Jakesterjammin, and Tihspeed. Thank you gentlemen for making this a killer place to enjoy our hobby. Of course, there are numerous others who devote their time and knowledge to these threads also....so if you come across this post Thanks to you too! If newbies haven't spent the time to enjoy the above threads, I highly recommend them. I bought my beans from BuyDutchSeeds. To be honest, I didn't (or don't) know what I was doing, and hadn't discovered this site yet. I just knew I had the space and time, so I wanted to grow. How I came across BDS and chose BlackJack is still a bit of a mystery. When I was looking around their site, they had a promotion that would include 10 seeds of Indica / Sativa mix if the order size was over a certain dollar amount. I wanted to get a little more for my money, so choosing BlackJack was more about price than anything else. In the end, I got 5 BlackJack feminized seeds and 10 "throw ins" for $70 or so. (If anyone is interested in the actual dollar amount, PM me and I'll look it up.) The package arrived quickly, and I got a kick out of the packaging. Stealth! Originally I planned to use an old dual 250 watt aquarium light I had, but after buying bulbs I found out the ballast was bad. I'll probably end up rebuilding the ballast and using the light later in life, but for now I bought a 600 watt light, wing, and ballast from The Hydro Source. I've been out of town for the holidays, so I payed for it but asked them not to ship it until I called. I'll make the call tomorrow. I also ordered the Advanced Nutrients 3 part formula. I've done a ton of reading here and the PH Perfect line has gotten good reviews. I also like the idea of not having to dick with the PH. I have a ton of experience with complex systems, so I'm thinking hydro / DWC shouldn't be too bad. Patience, control your environment, only change 1 thing at a time. My grow space is inside a "toybox" trailer that is inside a large shed. Heat will not be an issue as it is in the 20's (Fahrenheit) today. Smells shouldn't be a problem either, although it would be nice if I don't have to worry about anyone smelling the crop from inside the shed. I built the "tent" I'm going to be growing in. It is 5' wide and 4' deep. I chose the dimensions to accommodate the aquarium light mentioned above. After more reading, I'm glad to say that I accidentally squeaked under the watts per square foot guidelines. If I build the scrog to 3'X4', I'll still be at 50 watts per foot. I built the tent out of Panda plastic and wood. It also has a 5 1/2" inch tub bor a bottom. Hopefully I won't have to worry about my totes splitting and flooding the trailer. The corners of the individual walls are rubber-banded together, so I should be able to get around three sides of the grow if I need to. (The back is against one side of the trailer.) The nute mix tote and reservoir were built following Jakesterjammin's advice on Tharealmclovin's thread. Here's a pic of the nute tote. I'll post more pics of the setup when it's in place and I move the seedling to the clay balls. That's it for now......gotta go drop a bean in a cup of water.....
Hey thanks for the invite man... One thing I'm concerned about is lights off temps within the shed/chamber... How are you going to handle the night temps??? I know inside my house my chamber will go from 84 to 65 within a matter of a couple hours if I do not open the heat vent... How are you going to germinate the seeds???? Meaning what starting medium are you going to use??
Thanks for stopping by Gentlemen! The trailer has a programmable thermostat on a built in propane forced air heater. (It's a nice trailer, full kitchen, full bath, etc.) I'm in the process of testing it. The only real question is how often I'll have to fill the propane tanks. I filled both 7 gallon tanks today for $30 or so. I think I can go at least 3 or 4 weeks between fillings. Germination will be in Rapid Rooter plugs. I just dropped the seed into water about a half hour ago. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon or so it will be on the bottom. I transfer to the RR plug when it sinks, correct? The seedling period will be spent on top of a heater that runs constantly in the basement. It's barely warm to the touch, so I don't think it'll be too warm, but it will be a consistent warm temp. I'll put a CFL lamp on it when we start to see leafs. Sound like a plan?
Good thing about the heater because that's creating Co2 as well... Personally I'd do the seedling in the trailer with the heater set to 80.... Reason being is because you're going to keep them warmer, and again within a rich Co2 environment... I don't like the water soaking personally and I have been just putting them directly in the RR, but about 20% failure rate... So this past couple rounds I went to the paper towel which if the seed is alive, 100% success.... Once it cracks open in the towel, I drop them root side down in the RR... That seems to be working out the best for me personally... I do not like the whole setting on the heater thing.... What you need to do is set a small tray of water about 1" deep on it for 24hrs and see just how hot it is... You can use a small tupperware tray with a lid so you do not loose heat or water and get an accurate reading... Sure feels OK to you, but your body is 98, so anything under is going to feel cooler to touch, but 85 will cook a seedling...
Subbed for dank.....i'm thrashed or I would have better comments, haha....ill keep a close eye bro, can't wait for more pictures
The propane burner vents outside. I think it just heats a tube the inside air blows through, so I doubt I'll get any Co2 inside. I read about Co2 a little, I think for this run I'm going to have to go without augmenting. Hopefully my incessant in and out to tend to the ladies will be enough to get a decent air exchange. If it's not, I have a couple of places I can pull fresh air, but it'll be 40 degrees. As you wish, Master (...bows....) I set the thermostat to 80. I'll move it out there when it goes in the RR.
Well you do not want to dry them out.... lol But 80 until they pop, then back down to 78 under the cfl... And really IMPO, only under that cfl for a day 2 tops... I'd also be lookin at a way I can get some of dat Co2... Fucking JJ DIY fooo shoooo...... EDIT: And the reason I'd want to get them under the HID is because I do not want them to get tall... I want to get as intense light as I can on them without causing harm to stop that little stretch they always get when starting out as seedlings....
Good explanation, Thanks. If my light from THS doesn't get here in time, I'll hang the old aquarium light. One side still fires. How high do you think it should be? For 250 watts and for 600 watts...... Regarding the temperature, I read somewhere that we want the temp to drop at lights out, but not more than 10 degrees. I was thinking of setting the thermostat to 76 lights on / 70 lights off. Thoughts? If you have an idea, I'll take a crack at building something.
OK what you're shooting for your baseline..... Day: 75 - 78F Nite: 70 - 73F (colder nights promote more stretch, no more than 10 difference) RH: Always 50-55% (this depends on strain as well, Blackjack may like it 55-60%) Nutrient is always 65-68F Lights are 10-12" with the Batwing and 14-18" for seedlings.. I always use the hand test, put your hand just above the top and the light should feel like a warm sunny day on the back of your hand... Not a hot summer day, just a nice warm day out... LOL And ya, I do not even know how them camper heaters work... So no go on this end...
Maybe its just me but you may want to invest in a way to monitor the temps if its going to be away from a living space. If that camper heater should give out. I use one that monitors my water temp, humidity, and air temp. I can check it on the unit itself or look at a web page for the info, it updates every 15 minutes and I can set it to even text me if it goes past the parameters I set. All in all it only cost me something like 40-50 bucks. It has worked like a charm and it was well worth the money. The only drawback is you have to have a networked connection in there be it a wireless router or wired connection. This is the unit that connects to your router and also requires an outlet to power it. This is the sensor that you can put where ever the conditions you want to monitor are. This also as a waterproof probe to monitor liquid temperature as well. No that short wire is not the liquid probe either. The liquid probe is like 8 feet long lol and this sensor operates on batteries so you do not need an outlet for it. Good luck and don't forget a fire alarm out there as well. I am not sure how a gas heater works but you definitely want to keep an eye on it.
Right On! One of my next projects is to run cat5 cable to the shed for Internet access. Great suggestion! Thanks!
Went out to check the bean just before noon. It was still floating, but it was stuck to the surface tension. When I poked at it, it sank - so I transfered it to the Rapid Rooter and put a little plug in the RR hole. The trailer is at 80 degrees. The Co2 might be higher than normal anyways. The trailer is inside a garage/shed/workshop and I could smell the exhaust from the propane. It'll have to work. I'm in this more than I anticipated already, so Co2 tanks/regulators/controllers will have to wait for another grow. Also spoke with THS today. They said they'd ship the light, ballast and nutes. I'm pretty sure she said they usually take 3 or 4 days to get up here, so hopefully I'll have them by the weekend. Got a couple of thermometer's that display RH as well as temperature and extremes. Humidity in the trailer is 36%, so I got an old tote, filled it with water and pointed a fan into it. We'll see tomorrow if it raises the humidity. Cheers!
Update Well....we have some action! It's good to know it's a viable seed. Looks like the tap root came out the top, but it's bending down and I don't want to mess with it. Instead of jamming the RR plug back into the hole I cut it up and gently brushed the pieces into the hole. So......NO MORE PEEKING UNTIL THE LADY IS DRESSED! (Well......I hope she's a lady...ya never know these days!) I'll probably have to get a humidifier in the near future. Checked the RH again this morning and it's down to 31%. The tub of water with the fan blowing in it did nothing... I'd rather have a nice, clean grow room anyways. Tubs of water with 110 volt fans suspended over them are a disaster waiting to happen. Anybody have ideas on humidifier types they like better? Evaporative vs. Impeller? Warm vs. Cold? Does it really matter? Welcome aboard, Geoff! Or, in the words of Mr. Cooper: Welcome to my nightmare I think your gonna like it I think your gonna feel you belong Cheers!
I got the cool most large room humidifier from Walmart. It has a digital humidistat that I can set from 20%-60% or just on. I set it to 55 to get my tent to 45. I think it's Honeywell brand. About $60
Not much to report today. Temp's are stable at 80 degrees. The seedling is starting to break ground. I can see some white pushing up the RR debris I filled the hole with. Tomorrow I'll post a pic. I'm going to get the old light going. It's an old aquarium light with 2 250 watt MH's and 2 4' T-5's. Originally I was going to use this for my grow, but then found out 1 side of my ballast was bad. (Yes, it's an old dual magnetic ballast) I bought new MH's and new T-5's before I learned that the ballast was bad, so at least they'll get a little use. As a side note, The Hydro Source has a magnetic ballast rebuild kit. I'll probably rebuild it sometime in the future. Being that I'm a freak for schedules, here's a rundown of my anticipated milestones. Start Monday 1/7 13 Days Seedling - 13 Days Total - Ends 1/20 37 Days Veg. - 50 Days Total - Ends 2/26 7 Days Transition - 57 Days Total - Ends 3/5 60 Days Flower - 117 Days Total - Ends 5/4 7 Days Flush - 124 Days Total - Ends 5/11 Obviously, the veg'ing and the flowering will be dictated by the plant, so who the hell knows where we'll actually end up. If the schedule holds, I may be harvesting on my 18th anniversary. TRM - Thanks for the note. I'm going to Wally World today.... Cheers!
I love you new daddies that line up all the kids in a straight line, everything is set for the perfect day... Until little Suzy starts fussing, then little Tammy, then next, and next, till pretty soon you're going Oh My Fucking God... After you've raised a few kids, it's more of a "you better keep in line or I'll kill you and make another one just like you"... hehehehehehehe
"Okay children, single file line. If anyone steps out of line or makes noise, Daddy will pull your arms off and feed them to the dogs." "Don't tell Mommy"
Update Watchin' the Niner's kick some ass !! Day 6 Overall - Day 3 seedling So far so good. Got my package from THS today. 600 watt lights for both veg and flower, and AN's 3 part "pH Perfect". Woo Hoo! Been battling the humidity wars. Can't seem to get my area over 35%. Tomorrow after I hang the light and position the reservoirs, I'm going to close up the "tent" and see what I get. It's been running with 1 side open. Maybe the smaller space will raise the humidity. I have a small humidifier in there, but it hasn't done much. Here's some pics. It's right at 1 inch tall. Cheers! P.S. Niners moving on!!
