First Indoor grow! HID(den) in the closet!

Hey GC what's up?

First off I'd like to say that I love the GC community and have learned most of what I know from you guys. I'm mostly a lurker, sneaking around and garnering all of the information I can.

Now, I've been wanting to grow indoors for about 4 years now, and increasingly since every one of my 3 outdoor grows has been destroyed by animal pests. I have never had a good opportunity to do this until now. One day I decided to bite the bullet and just buy a bunch of equipment. Judging on how long I've been wanting to do this, I really shouldn't feel that bad about it. These things are quite expensive, though.

I'm not even sure that I will be able to grow next year, so I'm hoping to be able to make my investment back after my first 3 harvests. I'm currently working on a second veg cab that I can use for perpetual growth/harvests

But without Further Ado, I'll tell you all about my setup.

Strain: Sweet Seeds Fast Bud - It's an autoflowering strain, that claims to be done in only 8 weeks! I put 3 of these seeds into paper towel on Nov 13th. That is considered Day 0 for this grow. Oh yeah and these are feminized.

I really don't know what to expect from these seeds, because I can't seem to find many grows featuring them. I'm sort of worried that autoflowers were a poor choice, but I figured with such a short grow time, it couldn't hurt that much to try them. If anybody knows anything about Sweet Seeds Fast bud, let me know.

Tent: LED wholesalers 36"W X20"D X62"H - Love the idea of growing in a Tent to keep everything at optimum conditions.

Lights: First 9 days were under 6*23W Daylight CFLs. Those things put out quite a bit of light! I'm designing a smaller veg/clone cab and that thing is going to be stuffed with these lights when it's complete.

My HID setup is a 400w dimmable MH/HPS system with a batwing reflector. On last Wed, (day 10), I also made a DIY cooltube (Only cost me ~$20!) based on Duckfool's tutorial on here. I have been running the MH at 200w since I installed it on Wed, but kicked it up to 300w to see how the temps were affected. I think when the ladies get bigger I'll want to kick up the wattage, as long as the tent can handle the heat. My new cooltube setup seems to be pretty damn effective even though I'm using such a small tent. My grow footprint is quite small @ 5 ft^2.

Growth Media/Nutes: This will be a soil grow (I haven't had enough success yet to try anything else ). I've got three, 3gal. pots that have a mixture of 3 parts FFOF, 2 parts Perlite, 1 part Sphagnum Peat Moss.
For nutrients, I'm using Ionic brand (I think it's a local thing)
Veg: Ionic Grow for Soil and Coco
Flower: Ionic Bloom and Ionic PK Boost

Ventilation: Carbon Filter ==> Cooltube ==> Fan ==> Roommate's room
This seems to be a pretty kickass setup. All I really have to do is figure out how to stop the fan vibrations from transferring to the house. If I can do that, it's a fairly quiet system. I also have the fan on a speed controller, so it's easy for me to turn it down if the extra suction is unnecessary. My roommate doesn't mind because he gets free heat! If the smell starts to get past the carbon filter, I'll have to do some sort of ONA trick to get rid of it. Hopefully that won't happen though. My carbon filter takes up like 1/2 my tent, so I'm assuming it's legit. (hyperbole)

Right now is Day 13 for them, and I officially have them named (I always name my plants after they get about this old). Their names are Betsy II, Maria, and Lucy. Betsy II is a memorial of the first plant I lost to deer, Betsy I. She was a great plant. Hopefully Betsy II can fill her shoes. Lucy is looking like the fast-grower of the bunch. I'll be sure to keep my eye on her. I have a bunch of pictures attached so that you all can get a visual on their progress since day 0! I look forward to this grow and can't wait to get feedback from the GC community. As I get started with my next grow in a week or so (new veg cab), I will post updates in here for that as well.

 

Hey Closetgrassman, Thanks for stopping by!

Yes, I have done my fair share of homework, and even quite a bit of planning for this grow, especially since it is such a large investment!

I guess I left out a few important details about my future plans lol. Right now I'm just running these auto's for a quick crash course in indoor growing. I'm actually kind of scared that I will be disappointed by them. Any bud is good bud though I suppose.

I also have 5 Rokerij Seeds Silver Haze (fem) and 1 ea of CH9 Seeds Bubba Kush 33 (fem) and Aroma (fem). So I have some photoperiod seeds that you didn't know about. The last two were freebies.

I think I'm going to germ the freebies and grow them in my (work in progress) veg cab while the autos are finishing up. I might also throw in another Fast Bud auto to finish off in the veg cab just for fun (just change most the bulbs to 2700k). I constructed the cabinet a few days ago, and it fits perfectly. I just need to mount some CFLs to the spare wood I have lying around, and get the proper PC fan for exhaust, then I'm done. The dimensions are ~23"W X 21"D X 40"H.

I still need to do a fair share of experimentation with cloning/mothers etc before I can plan a perpetual harvest that way. Right now My plan is to plant some seeds about every month, try taking a few clones here and there, and see if I can master those techniques.

Here's some pics of my girls today. They are loving the 300 watts! Temps are up a bit but only @~85. On their next watering I'm going to give them a bit of food! Hopefully that's not too early. The FFOF comes with a good bit of nutes in it (I have diluted it with perlite and peat moss, though).


And here's a few pics of my newly constructed veg cab. As you can see, it fits neatly in my closet. It should provide ample space for my vegetative needs.

All are welcome to reply! I highly value the insight and knowledge of the GC community!

 

It is an awesome tent! It is very well made (material won't rip), the supports are incredibly strong (metal), and it is absolutely light-proof.

For me, it was literally the perfect purchase. It's got small dimensions, which fit properly into my closet, and it can be disassembled for easy transportation when I have to move.

So yeah. You're going to be happy with this tent. Until you want something bigger, that is.

My ladies grow so much every time I see them! I want to post pics, but I'll wait a few more days so that it's more of a surprise (plus I'm lazy and want to sleep).

I don't think I'm going to feed them this week like I said I was going to. I'll just opt for the pHed water again, and maybe wait till week 3 or so before food. They seem to be just thriving on the FFOF /mix that I gave them, and I always hear from the experienced growers "less is more."

That's it that's all, folks! catch ya on the flip side GC

 

Hey Grasscity, what's happenin'

Well it is definitely time for an update! A lot of growth has happened and I have some surprising news!

PREFLOWERS!!

Yes indeed these auto's all revealed their pretty little pistils On the same day (Yesterday), Day 19. Here are some pictures


And here you can see the growth that they have pulled off in the last few days. I'm really impressed.


Since they showed their preflowers yesterday, I decided to switch my bulb from the MH to the HPS today. So far, the temps seem to be down overall, with them @73 last time I checked. With the cooltube, I could probably pull off running the full 400w easily. For now, I'll just leave it @300, just to save on electricity a bit.

I thought I was pumped about this grow before! Now that they're flowering, it makes it that much more exciting to come home.

It will be scary to leave them later this month when I go on vacation. I plan on rigging up some sort of automatic watering system. Shouldn't be to hard since I could even put the water on a shelf above the tent and just let gravity bring it down. The only obstacle would be a regulating mechanism.

One thing that I'm kind of concerned about is their short short height. They're all @ about 4" from the soil to the tops of the plants, and they're already showing preflowers. I hope they can produce a respectable amount


I started germing a couple of random bagseeds earlier today, just for the hell of it. I might move them in the tent or something later this week. If I get a female, maybe I'll try cloning her and doing that whole bit. I think I might start the Bubba Kush and Aroma fems either next weekend or the weekend after that. Hmmm. Maybe I'll even wait until after christmas. Anyway here's a picture of me contemplating the decision to germ over my Iolite.

That's it for now GC.
Leave a comment!

 

Hey chimera thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the heads-up! Have you grown any autoflower strains? If so, how did they turn out for you?

As far as hydro goes... Would I like to try it some day? Yes. Do I have the time and money necessary to learn hydro right now? Not really. I've already done some experimenting with soil in my past outdoor grows, so I already have a little bit better grasp on how all that goes. Hydro does sound really fascinating to me, but as I said it's just not within my means right now.

I have read many a grow journal about noobie growers overwatering and overferting their plants, so I have been pretty careful in that respect. I have not given them any nutes in their water yet, because I know that FFOF is quite hot on its own. I also have only been watering every 3-5 days, depending on how heavy the pots are.

This morning they are looking a tiny bit droopy and the pots are feeling pretty light, so I think I will go ahead and water them again sometime tonight. I don't think the droopiness is being caused by anything other than thirst. I test the water and runoff pH and it goes in @ ~7 and comes out closer to 6 every time (just using pH paper).

I think I may also hit them with their first little bit of food. Today is day 21 for them. I will start out with just 1/8 strength of my Ionic Bloom nutes, and see how they respond. I don't really plan on going overboard with the nutes, and don't see myself going full strength until maybe week 6 or so.

Since I switched from MH to HPS yesterday, I think I have already noticed a growth spurt. Also, the stems look noticably thicker today.

 

Hey GC

Wow I haven't updated in forever!
My ladies are 4 weeks old now, on day 28. They have been flowering for about 9 days now, and they've grown quite a bit!



They're all @ about 9" tall now

Now for the sad news: My plants have shown some signs of sickness in the past week. Since it has been so busy of a week for me, I didn't have a chance to really diagnose or fix the problem until last night. Their leaves were curling under, and starting to show a slight amount of (interveinal chlorosis?). There is also a bit of a pattern emerging on a few of their fan leaves below.



I have been using pH papers to check my runoff (which it turns out, are pretty innaccurate ), and remember adding some pH down to my water about 11 days ago, right before they started to flower and I switched the bulbs. I also used sphagnum peat moss in my soil mix, which is pretty acidic.

I think I have it figured out

I decided to buy a digital pH meter, to rule out the possibility of pH nutrient lock out. I took a scoopful of soil and soaked it in water, took the pH. it was 5.1! I think this has been the problem for the past week or so. I am pretty sure that's acidic enough to cause problems.

So I decided to flush my plants w/ tap water (pH reads 7.6 or so..) to get rid of some of that acid. Maria was raised from runoff of 5.3 to 6.25, Lucy was raised from 5.21 to 6.20, and Betsy II was raised from 5.55 to 6.25. I didn't feel like getting more water, so I figured that at least now I'm near the optimum range haha.

Observations:
Betsy II was by far the healthiest. She also had the highest runoff pH.



Likewise, Maria was better than Lucy, and she had the second highest. I hope I'm not just blowing smoke, but I think I may have found the way to solve the problem.

I will check them again shortly. Crossing my fingers...

 

Update!

Here are the ladies 24 hours ago:



And here they are today!
*note I rearranged their pots. Rotated them clockwise:



I think they've perked up a bit!

At least I think so...

 

GC! I think I need your help!

I have to leave either tomorrow or the next morning to spend Christmas with my family. I've been stressing about it and devised an automatic watering system with a small fountain pump and a timer.

Just when I thought I had everything going smoothly, my plants started showing some bad signs.




I think it's a cal-mag deficiency. What do you guys think, GC? I mixed up some very dilute (~10% reccommended) General Hydroponics CaliMagic and applied it as a foliar spray. I think tomorrow before I leave I'm going to water my plants and give them a 3/4 dose of their bloom nutes and 3/4 dose of cal-mag listed above.

I really hope they recover! I think the pH issues and the subsequent flushing could have caused it? After the flush, I just gave them some pretty weak nutrient solution, about 1/4 strength or maybe a little less. It was Ionic Bloom for Soil & Coco.

I've read a little bit about people flushing w/ nuted water. Anybody try this with good results?

I don't know much about my water, I get it from the city, and it doesn't leave any residues in the tub or anything, so I'm assuming it's not too hard.

I also am wondering what I should put in my reservoir for the automatic watering system!! (just tap? Dilute nutes? Cal-mag or no? )
I will be gone for 7 days, and it will water twice for me over that period. At least that's what I'm planning right now

 

Hello Grasscity!

I hope everybody is having a good holiday season. I'm very proud to say that my ladies have survived my Christmas trip, and I will be harvesting something within the next month or so!

Now, as promised here are some pictures of the buds! They're bright and shiny!






Other big news!:
I just bought two [awesome] new fans: One for my veg cab (Scythe Gentle Typhoon 21 dba, 45.9 cfm)

The other will replace my flowering tent centrifugal fan that is currently noising up the place:
Introducing the S&P TD-100xs
Yes this is the brand new (in the US) TD-Silent version.
203/108 cfm Hi/Lo -- supposedly whisper quiet. Especially for a 4 in.
I might still place some egg-crate foam for whooshing.

Bubba Kush and Aroma seedlings survived the trip as well!

The nutrient deficiencies/?? problems that my plants are having are seeming to affect the yields. I'm really thinking it's a Mg deficiency with the rust spots and the yellowing. I've heard "Praying for Mg," and it seems that Betsy is doing just that!
Lucy seems like she's going to produce some nice fat buds.
Stay tuned everybody!

 

Hey Chimera!

Yeah they smell absolutely dank-nasty! When they first started budding I could smell a little diesel from some of them, but now they've taken on this deep, pungent aroma that might be described as "Rotten rocket fuel."

I want to know so badly what they will smoke like. I surely have at least a couple of weeks left before harvest even, so I'll just have to wait. This crop will definitely satisfy, that's for sure. Maria looks lanky compared to the other two, but she also looks like she'll take longer to develop. The other two have fattened up considerably while I was gone, and hopefully they will continue to do so.

Finally, about the leaves. I don't exactly know what's going on with them, but I kind of doubt that it's nutrient burn. I did what you said and just gave them pHed water while I was gone, and the problem only seems to have gotten worse. On top of that, this problem only started directly after I completely flushed them with water. I also don't think it's pH, because my runoff pH has been stable @ about 6.5 for quite a few weeks.

I may look into testing my tap water. I continue to believe that the micronutrients are the culprit. Perhaps they're competing w/ one another or something. I don't have a ppm meter, and my city's website offers nothing substantial. I might call the city pretty soon here. Or buy a ppm meter.

I decided to add some epsom salts to my ladies when I got back. 1 tsp per gallon, as many suggest. I haven't noticed any improvements or problems with it either way, but then again I don't think it has been long enough for them to really take it in.