After almost two years of trolling the forums and absorbing information, I finally get to start my grow! The setup Grow Room: The grow is located in the closet of my friends apartment. My friend is supplying the space and financing most of the equipment, so I'll pretty much be the sole caregiver. The inside of the closet we are using is painted white and has the following dimensions: 4ft x 5ft x 6.5ft. Lights: I'm currently using 4 26w soft white CFLs. This is only temporary until our real light comes. Today we ordered an Inside Sun 400w HPS, with a white reflector hood. I'm planning on getting some higher wattage CFLs to supplement the HPS during flowering, but I need to do a little research into what I should get. Soil: I picked up a locally mixed organic soil, containing blonde sphagnum peat moss, composted manure/plant material, perlite, vermiculite, other organic adatives, and minerals. Nutrients: For nutes I went with the General Hydroponics 3 part Flora series. I'll probably end up using some sort of bloom-booster for flowering. The plants I picked up a pack of Purple Tops (high quality seeds, indica dominant), Durban Poison (nirvana, full sativa), and TroubleMaker (freebie from Dr. Chronic, full indica). I started germing 3 of each on 9/3 and by 9/7 I had 3 Purple Top sprouts, and two Trouble Makers. I started a second set of seeds on 9/7. I got 2 to germinate out of the 4 I was soaking, but thanks to me being high at the time I mixed the seeds up and cant remeember what I planted. They could both be Durban Poison, or I could have got 1 Trouble Maker and one Durban Poison. Since the Durban is full Sativa and the Trouble Maker is full indica, it should be pretty easy to identify the plants. My last plant sprouted yesterday, 9/15, I'm 80% sure that its another Durban, but I wont know for a few days. So I have 8 plants total: 3 Purple Tops, 2 Trouble Maker, 3 unknowns. So far they are growing really well, and they all look super healthy. I'm planning on using LST for this grow, but I would like to switch over to a SCROG once I can start working with clones. The one problem I've ran into so far is ventilation. There is simply no way I can start drilling holes into my friends walls, so I have no idea how I can install intakes or an extraction fan. I've been planning on just leaving the closet door open for a while each day, but it doesn't seem like that would get enough fresh air into the room. I'm also really worried about the smell since I wont have a good way to filter the air. The one solution I can think of is to section off the closet with some black plastic. This would allow me to install an extraction fan/filter inside the closet, and I could leave the door open to allow some air movement. This would work pretty well, but I would love to hear some other suggestions. I'll get some pics of all the babies up later tonight. They are already growing fast, and I'm pretty pumped to get them on the HPS and start LST.
Pics! The first pic is of my three Purple Tops at day 9. The second pic is of the Troublemakers at day 9. The one on the right is my favorite plant so far, all the plants I've ever seen are Sativa, and this one is just a perfect example of an Indica: short, bushy, with fatass leaves. The third is of the unknowns at day 7, and day 2 (I'm pretty sure at least 2/3 are Durban Poison).
i actually do have a suggestion for you. i would take the door off its hinges and measure the length and width of the door, then get some plywood from you lumber store and cut it to fit the door, then get some padding to staple around the wood to get a sure tight fit in the door. Then use the old hinges off the old doorto fasten the new one and then make a handle somehow, either tying it off or something creative. then cut the holes for the extractor and intake fans in the plywood door so you dont cut the hell outta the one to the apartment. Store the good door under a bed or soemthnig. then google homemade carbon filter and im sure you will find a way to make one with humidifier carbon replacement screens, i have a link saveed but its on my laptop. then install the fans with the filter to the top of the plywood door with the intake at the bottom and you will be all set with vent and smell!!! the only problem i see is if you dont wanna take the door off cause the landlord might ask questions if he saw his closet door gone from the hinges, lemme know what you think and if you want i could draw it out for ya on paper and send it to ya!
or you could buy the filter on ebay for like $150 and get an intake for another 50 if money sint an issue
Making the filter and setting up the fan isn't really the issue, its finding a place to install the equipment without sawing holes in the walls. Making a different door for the closet is a great idea, and its pretty similar to what I was thinking of doing inside the closet with the mylar. Unfortunatly there is simply no way we could pull off using a different door because if where the closet is located.
Got a quick question for you guys. If you look at the pics I posted above, the front right Purple Tops, and the rear left Unknown both have a yellow tip. Is it normal to be getting yellow tips this early? I'm worried that there are already nutes in the soil and I'm going to end up burning the plants when I start using nutes in a couple weeks.
Got another question for anyone who has grown Purple Tops before....What can I do during the veg and flowering cycles to make the buds as purple as possible? I think I remember hearing that most of the color comes from the cure, but I want the absolute maximum amount of purp that I can get...Without sacrificing the quality of the high of course.
Hey, another idea for your fan problem. This worked for me, since i'm renting a house, I was concerned about cutting holes in the walls, but after my first crop died from lack of enough ventilation/ overheating, I said fuck it. That's what i'd do if i was you. I'd say fuck it. When you stop growing, just spend the money to put in a new piece of drywall/spackle/ i'm just gonna wallpaper over the holes and hope my landlord doesn't notice. Just a thought. I have 1 more idea. If money isn't an issue, i'm sure that opening the door a few times a day for like 10 minutes would get the plants enough of an oxygen/c02 exchange, so you could just by a personal air [water] conditioner for the room. they are a bit pricey, but it will drop your temp like nothing. try a cool tube on your bulb too, i hear that helps and plan on ghetto rigging one here shortly. Peace man... Good Luck
Oh, about the purple tops, I read this article in Cannibis Culture by Ed Rosenthal, and he said for potentially purple strains that if you change the light cycle to 6/18 or 4/20, and the drop the temp an extra 10 degrees in the last 1 to 2 weeks and of flowering it will draw out the purple color. Apparently it's caused in part by long cool nights at the end of flowering. I'm about to plant some Nirvana Purple Haze I got from Dr. Chronic. I'm planning on changing those variables at the end of flowering. cause i'm also growing white widow, and the same process is supposed to draw out more of that 'white' THC glands. hope that helps bro. you can watch those babies grow here: http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-jou...c-als-my-first-journal-ww-hz.html#post1221095
I'm not really that worried about the heat at this point. Vermont is a pretty moderate state to begin with, but with winter coming temperature shouldn't be a problem at all. To make up for the lack of ventilation I'll be making a couple CO2 soda bottles, which will also help with the heat if that becomes a problem. I'm hoping that between the bottles, and opening up the door a few times a day ventilation wont be too much of an issue. Thanks for the info on the purple also. I'm not sure how my other strains would react to that kind of treatment, so I may have to make an experiment out of it sometime in the future.
i Grow purple tops, it will knock you on your ass you will love it. As for Color, its mostly dependent on temperature, my outdoor purple tops dont turn purple at all except for very little. Indoors it turns more purple because of the temp being between 75-78F but so far no where as potent as the outdoor version. This is why i opted to grow it outdoors only.
Just a really quick update. I've been insanely busy with school so the plants, and this journal have been a little neglected. The plants look amazing other than a couple that are a little wilted. My hps is here and the room is almost set up, but there is still a little bit more work to do. I'll get some pics of the plants and the setup on here within the next few days. How far from the plants should the hps be at this point? The tallest is about 7inches.
gotta give u +rep for being a neighbor [o yah, and 4 all yur good work.] i also got some bonus trblmkr w/lowryder . will be watching p.s. yr prob not a chuck if yr a student.....luv ya anyway
Thanks for the +rep reasoner . You're right, I'm not a Chuck, but I know plenty of them. ... Day 21 The HPS is functional, and the plants are growing great. All of the plants except the late started have been topped. Temperature is looking like it will be a big issue with this grow... The closet was sitting around 95F before I opened the door and got it down to 88F. I'm going to get two CO2 generators in the closet tommorow to help with the temperature. 2/8 have been transplanted, and the rest will be repotted tommorow when I can go and buy more soil. There is still a lot of work to do. I have my last exam for a a few weeks tommorow, then I'm spending friday-sunday on the Long Trail with a friend, but once I get back I'll have way more time to give to the plants... Within then next few weeks I plan to: Finish the grow room: Get all of the extra crap moved out, get the floor completely covered with plastic, seal up the room, build 2 CO2 generators to help with the temp and lack of ventilation. Start Nutrients: A couple of them are definitely big enough... I'll be starting out with a 1/4 strength solution and work my way up from there. Start LST: I'll probably follow Vokal's method, but I'm sure I'll be mixing it uip and trying out different techniques on different plants. Start 12/12: I know its still pretty early in my grow, but I'm shooting for a mid-late december harvest (before I head to Australia for a few weeks). I was planning on starting 12/12 around the 20th of October. Will this date give my plants enough time to Veg, and enough time to flower for a mid Dec harvest? As for the pics... The first is a closeup of my favorite, one of the Trouble Makers. I hate having that yellow glow on my pics, is there a camera setting you can use to filter out the light? I have a Sony S-60 cybershot. The second one shows our temporary ghetto setup.
Well, I came back from the Long Trail and the plants had been without water or light the entire time. My friend got sketched about it being in his apartment and decided to pull the plug. I'm incredibly dissapointed, but I dont really blame him for getting freaked out. Since I'm moving into my own place within a week I was planning on taking cuttings to get a small stealth grow going, but he killed the plants before I got the chance. I gave a few of my seeds out to friends, so hopefully I can get a cutting or two to get a new flouro grow going at my new place.