First Perpetual Grow // LEDs // 12/12

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by KruiserIV, May 12, 2011.

  1. #1 KruiserIV, May 12, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2011
    Hello GC!

    I've been lurking around for several months while building my grow space and now that it's (almost) complete, I decided it was time to begin journaling the process. The main purpose of journaling my grow is to receive tips and criticism from the more experienced GC community so that as time goes by, I will be able to produce better bud more efficiently. I have three Nirvana White Widow seedlings and a bag seed, all two weeks old.

    First things first... The details of my grow space:

    I have two spaces, one for my mother and clones, and another for my flowering girls, both spaces are 12sqft. I'll be using the 12/12 method with only 3-5 days of vegging.

    The mother room is up top and the flowering room is on the bottom. They are separated by 2x3s, cardboard, and panda film. I plan on running the ventilation duct work between them so I only need one fan/filter.

    I currently DO NOT have an exhaust vent or carbon filter, but both are in the mail and will be installed as soon as they arrive. This is imperative as my temps have been in the 80-85F range during lights on and that's slowed my plant's growth considerably.

    I plan on running CO2, but I have to save up for a controller first, one that controls CO2 and ventilation so as not to waste either.

    My mother plants will be in FFOF, and I will flower 14 plants in hydroponics (aeroponics) and 3-6 in FFOF. I will have only four mother plants at any given time and 17-20 flowering plants. Nutes are AN Sensi Grow A&B for mothers and AN Sensi Bloom A&B for flowering. Clones will be dipped in Olivia's Rooting Gel and fed a small amount of Superthrive. The light for the mother and clones is a 4' T5 fixture with six bulbs, mostly 6500k, but two 3000k. For flowering I will be using three Spectra 290W LEDs from Grow LED Hydro. The light cycle for mothers and clones will be 18/6.

    I hope you can make sense of the pics. My laptop bit the dust, so I'm using an iPad and the GC App to make posts and I don't have as much control as I would on a Mac/PC.

    Right now my biggest concern is the temperature and I'm afraid that once I have my vent installed, itstill won't be enough to cool the spaces off. But, I'll hope for the best.

    That's it for now - if you have any tips or criticisms, please share them!

    KRUISER

    Edit: I've ordered a 200cfm in-line fan and 200cfm carbon filter, but I have no idea how I'm gong to run it. Any suggestions on how to install my vent system so that it efficiently cools both of my spaces? The entire space is approx. 100cu ft.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Reserved 5
     
  3. I finally received my Haze #1 seeds from Nirvana! All five are germing as we speak. Also got my heat mat + thermostat so I can keep my germination area at the riht temp.

    Two of the Haze 1 seeds will be used as mothers, but I'm only keeping the strongest. The other three seeds will be placed straight in the hydro upon sprouting.

    Has anyone tried the Sure To Grow stuff? I just bought 24 of the cubes for germing and 24 of the 5" net pot inserts for my hydro system. I'll keep everyone posted.
     
  4. Any thoughts?
     
  5. Hey man i really like your setup. I am going after something similar but I am in the process of getting all the environmental stuff ready first (RO, a/c, ventilation, reservoir chiller, humi/dehumidifier, etc) as I would like to deal with these issues up front. I am also looking into 2 x Spectra 290 and similar Advanced LED models for a 2x4 space, expecting a yield similar to a 400w HPS.
     
  6. Sorry for the reserved posts, I wasn't aware of any edit restrictions.


    My White Widows seem to be growing way slow, even for topped plants. The Haze are on par with my grow in college, but I'm only going by "feel" and not hard facts since I didn't document my college grow. Also, the plants are MUCH bushier than I remember my first grow being. They aren't really growing up, instead it seems leaves are growing on top of leaves. Like, I have so many nodes, just no vertical growth. Any ideas why and more importantly, is this a good or bad thing?

    Some of my bottom leaves have turned yellow and some have fallen off. Is that due to age and is it normal or should I be worried?

    Tonight I'll be finishing the flower chamber and placing my non-mother plants inside to begin the flowering process. I have two Haze and three White Widows to that I will be flowering. The rest will be used as mother plants, including the Mystery Plant I found. :)
     

    Attached Files:

  7. Hey GC,

    A few days ago I noticed brown spots on my White Widows' leaves! What's the deal?

    They're 1.5 months old, in pH 6.5 soil and I water them every 3-5 days, depending on how dry the soil is. The air is constantly exchanged via a carbon filter and 200cfm in/outtake and humidity is around 30% and temp 79F.

    Any ideas?
     
  8. look on the sick plants forum, it is a possibility that is its a cal/mag defficency. the guys on that forum will be able to better diagnose your problem than i can, but that is what it looks like to me.
     
  9. hey man i'm growing white widow also, i've noticed its really picky from what i've experienced. It doesn't seem to like small changes.. in nutes and whatnot
     
  10. High KruiserIV saw you post in Irish's journal so thought I would swing by and check it out. I like your setup man, well thought out.

    As for your ventilation question, may I recommend separate systems for a couple of reasons

    I dont think you plan on CO2'ing the mothers so if you are using the same ventilation, the veg area could get very warm when the fan is off while flooding the flower area

    Also, it could get somewhat complicated trying to trap the light between the 2 different area's, unless you had already considered that. Just a couple things to think about.

    Anyway, along for the ride

    [​IMG]
     

  11. Thanks for the feedback Sam. I believe I pinpointed the culprit after my last post. It was either a type of mold that I treated with a baking soda/water solution, or it was due to pH being off. Either way, I treated with the baking soda/water in case it was the mold and then flushed each mother plant with a few gallons of pH adjusted water. My soil pH is now around 5.8. I have a BlueLabs Soil pH tester, but unfortunately it doesn't work so I'm going to send it off for repairs. In the meanwhile I'm testing the run off in the water collection dishes underneath my plants.

    I cloned all of my mothers last week (18 June) and they are looking nothing short of FANTASTIC! I'm using an EZ-Cloner 30. pH is 5.8 and I've added 1/4 strength Superthrive as well as a CO2 tab from No Mercy in the Netherlands.

    I can't express how great this machine works. I have five Mystery Plants, five Haze plants, and eight White Widow cuttings now. About an hour after I placed the cuttings in the EZ-Cloner they wilted slightly, but after 2-3 hours and a little misting with tap water, they perked right up and have stayed that way ever since. I've since thrown in a few cucumber and tomato clones from the outdoor garden to see how they do in my hydro set up. I'll give them two of my 14 sites. The rest go towards the WW, Haze, ?Pot. Any extras will either be planted in soil or placed in a new aeroponic chamber that I've yet to make.
    I've posted a pic of my babies.

    Clones:
    • Planted in EZ-Cloner 30
    • pH 5.8
    • Roots are misted every 5 minutes for 30 seconds.
    • 1/4 strength SuperThrive in solution.
    • Using a 300W LED (until I can buy a 2ft., 4Tube T5).
    • Clipped 50% of each leaf off.
    • Each cutting has 4-5 leaves.
     

    Attached Files:

  12. #18 KruiserIV, Jun 22, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 22, 2011

    Thanks for the response! For now, I'm not CO2'ing either space for the very reason I don't have the resources to create two separate extractor systems.

    Right now, I have a 165CFM blower fan bringing in cool air (I ran the ducting outside the grow chamber to where it sits close enough to the A/C unit and I've directed the airflow from the A/C towards the intake ducting so cool air shoots straight into the bottom) into the bottom chamber, aka, the flowering chamber.

    Then, I have 6" ducting between the top veg chamber and the bottom flowering chamber and I have it arranged so that no light leaks from either chamber to the other, but also that the airflow is not hindered very much if at all.

    Finally, I have a 200CFM extractor fan in the top chamber, aka, the vegging chamber, connected to a 200CFM Carbon Filter. The fan pulls air through the filter and forces it out the back.

    What I want to do now (Keep in mind the cubic size of my entire chamber [flower and veg] is 100ft^3), is replace the 200cfm extractor fan with a 400cfm and then take that 200cfm fan and put it between the two chambers to help move air from the bottom to the top to improve overall air exchange while still maintaining negative pressure in both chambers.

    Any suggestions or thoughts on the matter? I need to do this soon, but unfortunately I don't have the funds at the moment. That WILL be my first upgrade though. And after that, I will buy a CO2/Fan controller with a photocell so that I can run CO2 in both chambers.

    After that, this chamber will be complete. I will be moving next April and one of the requirements for my new place will be to have a 10ft x 10ft x 10ft room that I will use solely for indoor gardening. Marijuana, veggies, herbs, etc. I plan on spending $$$$ to make it the best it can possibly be.

    Anyway, any suggestions for my current set up would be greatly appreciated and those that I've received so far have been great!

    Edit: After the "rust mold" scare, yesterday I removed everything from the flower chamber and cleaned it all, including my aeroponic system and the chamber itself, with a mild bleach/water solution. Whether it was necessary or not, it still gave me peace of mind and that's worth a million bucks imo. I'll probably clean this entire thing out once every two months and after every harvest.
     
  13. For those of you unfamiliar with Urban Garden Magazine, I HIGHLY suggest you peruse their site and read EVERYTHING you can. They recently went on hiatus due to most of their higher ups leaving, taking many of their designers with them. Basically, the future of the magazine is in limbo, but they have a wealth of knowledge on their web site and one more (that I know of, maybe more) issue about to publish.

    A truly great magazine (and website for that matter) with amazing articles, writing, stories, etc., that will truly be missed if they are unable to survive these rough times.

    Edit: www.urbangardenmagazine.com
     
  14. I've taken a few more pictures of my grow chamber. Some of my mother plants after clones were taken and LSTing.
     

    Attached Files:

Share This Page