Hey everyone, this is our first grow attempt. We are using bagseed from a beauty batch we had earlier. The plants were started in a closet (we have to be fairly inconspicuous). The seeds were germinated in some paper towel and sprouted nicely after just a couple days of being in soil. They were running underneath 60 watts of soft white light with just a couple clip fans for ventilation. Some were planted into 16 oz. cups and some into some peat cubes. All using miracle gro soil. After 12 days a couple of them started filling out with leaves and looking fairly healthy. We had perused these forums enough to decide on a rubbermaid stealth unit. We are using two large rubbermaids, stacked and gutted. They are lined with mylar and for the time being have only one 4 inch intake fan and one 120mm pc fan for exhaust. This will likely be an upgrade very soon as our box is currently sitting around 89 degrees. Our humidity has been fluxuating between 40 and 60%. Any idea on how to master this? We have been trying both damp cloths and cups of ice for both temperature and humidity purposes. The box now is running with (5) 20 watt 'gro better' lights. (OTT LITE) and (1) 42 watt soft white light at 2700 k. For a total of 142W, how does this light setup sound? The lights are arranged in a custom setup (see pics). Our 'best' looking girl was starting to get a little tall, likely from having the lights too far away initially, so we began lst on her on day 12. We used a hook made from a coat hanger and clipped it in at her 3rd node of leaves. The fact that it was done after transplanting in the same day, and its youth made us nervous, but low and behold, just hours after she was looking towards the light and leaning hard! Depending on how the other plants go we will likely just keep one more in another of the same 3 gallon pots and do the same lst. Today!!! - DAY 13 We went and chatted up a hydro store and after telling the guy where our girl was at, he suggested we use a couple of very light nutes. One for growth and one specifically for roots. They are both from 'Canna". Canna's Terra Vega for growth and Cannazyma for roots. Used just a half tsp of the vega for 1.5L of water and only a quarter tsp of the zyma. Anyone with some experience, or anyone with just some plain interest let us know what you think of our setup and what we should be looking to do to have an awesome yield! Daily updates /w pic to come!
I am also having trouble with the heat and humidity in our rubbermaids. What CFM is your exhaust fan? we just bought some 110's online. Hopefully those will help out a bit.
Hey our exhaust fan is at 80 cfm. Since night has fallen, we are now staying right at 89 degrees. Getting it down a little more would be nice so perhaps one or two more exhaust fans would just be perfect. I have heard that having a 2:1 ratio of exhaust to intake is the best way to reduce temperature. So tomorrow we will make some additions and of course let ya know how it turns out.
Awesome. When do you have your lights on? We changed ours so its off during the hot hours of the day. 10am-4pm. Seems to help a little. The hottest it gets in there is 90. But yea, it would be nice to be closer or lower than 80. :/
We actually have the same lighting schedule right now, We are running our lights from 4pm till 10 am (trying to keep it cool at night) and of course off from 10-4. For the first 2 weeks we added one hour of light from 1-2, as i heard that this can really jump the plants chemistry into action. I cant confirm or deny that this did anything, but now that were running stealth its straight up 18 hours on, 6 off.
Cool. Make sure to tell how the second exhaust works. If that gets your temps down we will probably do that too.
Will do for sure. Have some downtime tomorrow before work so it should be up and running by the time lights go on and update sometime after work!
So i woke up today with everything looking in good shape. The weather has been a little cool lately and will stay so for another couple days i think. Our temp is hovering right around 80-83 while humidity is at 50%. I think i will hold off on buying more fans until it is really necessary. I pulled the box out of the closet last night and maybe the extra air flow in the room assisted the temperature decline. All is well in plant world for now. Will update again after work later tonight. Strongly considering getting one of the other plants into a bigger pot tonight, any ideas?
No were not... what is the benefit aside from helping keep the beautiful smell at bay? (which were likely still a ways away from)
Well, no big update last night... our temperature and humidity are still doing great and that is without adding to the exhaust setup. Later on tonight i will be transplanting one of the other girls into a 3 gallon pot to go along with our thriving baby (who has been officially named FIONA) I figure maintaining two plants very well will work out more in our favour than trying to keep 4 or 5 without sufficient room. I will take some pictures tonight as i need some advice on placement and whether or not our lights are too close. Im not sure if burning is something to worry about with our light setup of mostly 20 watt bulbs. Until then enjoy the day, burn one down and thanks for reading.
DAY 16 So this is day 16 now and one full day after moving some things around. We had a few plants that just werent making the cut, so we continued with our plan of sing two 3 gallon pots and just maintain two plants. After all, with unknown genetics in seeds its practically 50/50 for a female, so 2 plants means at LEAST one. We have added to the rest of the light setup with 8 bulbs. Will have to monitor the temperature on that but so far so good. Its staying right about at 80 degrees and around 50% humidity. I feel like Fiona has been doing pretty good. Theres all sorts of new sprouting action and im sure she'd be pretty tall if we were letting her stand all the way up. In fact hopefully she grows another section or two in the next few days and i'll have to continue the lst on her and see how thats treating her. I'm not too sure how the smaller potted one is doing, anyone have any ideas, or suggestions to bring back a little strength? Now for picture proof
Its funny how all the seeds went down in the same day, and they were all together in the same environments. Fiona is just doin great there, but her partner, the only other seed put into a 16 oz cup never grew anything more than cotlyedon. But anyway im hoping she just keeps on keepin on in there. The pictures make the soil look super dry but its not actually, maybe get some water early tomorrow, but im waitin to dry her out just a bit more. They got so much water after being moved around. That also makes me want a way better camera. Anyway, off to smoke some future Fiona.. enjoy
quiqsilver, we are running our box on an 18 hour on and 6 off light cycle. This seems to be working very well for our little vegging babies. I watered everything tonight for the first time in a day or so, and they are all looking very good. Fiona is getting quite bushy and i counted 15 sets of leaves on her now. The growth rate is so fast i cant help but look every half hour. I also pinned down a couple of the side leaves to allow them to get more light. This whole lst thing, doing it makes me nervous but i hope it all works out. Bigger update with pics to come this weekend. Time to smoke some....