Let me start off by saying that I am a medical marijuana patient with fibromyalgia and signs of MS living in California. This is also my first time growing marijuana. I am using 120W of full spectrum LED lighting in a 4ft tall 4ft wide 2ft deep box. I have a total of 5 marijuana plants (2 Platinum OG, 1 KC Dog, 2 Caramelicious), as well as I have some cabbage, mustard greens and an assortment of cacti -- for our tortoise. Currently, I am using an indoor soil setup, but I am trying to converge my setup to aeroponics. The plants just turned 2 weeks old since they sprouted (I've had them for one), and here is this weeks picture. They are looking well (especially the Caramelicious plant in the back right), although I did have a bit of a close call a few days ago. In an error, I had chosen to use Miracle Grow Organic soil, as I was a little light on cash after purchasing everything else. Within 2 days, all but the one Caramelicious plant showed signs of burning. However, I have replanted them in FoxFarm Ocean Forest organic soil, proper organic nutrients from Humboldt Nutrients and root enhancer from General Hydroponics. This is day 3 on the new soil and nutrients and my are they already looking healthier and happier!
I am doing everything I can to keep away from traditional lighting. I know that the plant likes different spectrum saturations during different growth phases, which will be achieved through bringing in extra lighting in the needed wave lengths, but these will as well be LED. I'm trying to be lighter on the environment and my pocket book while growing quality buds!
Please don't get discouraged or take offense by what I'm about to suggest, instead realize that I want to help you have a successful grow. Now let me start by congratulating you on getting this far as well as taking the initative and ditching the MG soil, now on to your grow...we'll start of with your box - it looks like a cardboard box right, It's really a bad idea to grow in cardboard as its a fire hazard. I realize you might be lacking in funds but look to replace it as soon as possible. the size of your area - its a bit small for that many plants, I'd plan on something in on the order of 3x4 to 4x4 and increasing the height to 6 feet or greater. I would look to either buy a premade tent if you can afford it or building one. A cheap way to build a tent is to build a frame and then cover it with a non-flamable material. A good cheap choice would be to get some of those reflective emergency blankets, they only cost a couple bucks apeice and five of them will be enough to make a 4x4x6 grow box. You'll need a fan to circulate air in your grow room and an exhaust fan to bring new air in to your grow room. The exhaust fan can and usually does serve two purposes first to draw air in as afformentioned and as a means of order control which you must consider as MJ has very distinct and srtong odor. Last lighting, what you currently have is ok for your vegging but will not be sufficient by itself for flowering that many plants, Your LED light is only good for about 2.5ft sq. Also, when your ready to go hydro, I'm experienced in DWC(bubble bucket), let me know if you want some help.
Not a cardboard box no, but it is particle board (not the greatest but..), as well as it is covered completely on the inside with the 2mil reflective foil. There is still work to be done on the box, as it is an on going project. I knew lighting was going to be an issue, I was only able to afford 4 of the LED panels. I actually chose to use the particle board over a cloth tent because with the LED lighting I have a heating problem..it's too cold -- slightly -- so I wanted something that would hold the heat a little better through the night. However, this isn't helping as much as I had thought it would, so, after the holidays I will be working out a heating control because right now it's an old laptop that overheats and an air purifier to move the inefficiently produced heat around the box.
It's only dropping to about 64F without the laptop during the night, which I have heard is okay to let it get to around 65F, because those conditions would occur naturally, however, 76F-80F from what I see is when photosynthesis seems to be the most efficient for cannabis, but I'm worried about burning at that temperature.
Anythig above 60 is just fine, so really you have no worry when it comes to the temps, in fact as far as I'm concerned 65 is perfect! Hell outdoor growers in most fo the us don't see temps above 60 during late flowering, especially us in the northern half of the country and we grow some pretty good shit!
Well, today I added supplemental lighting to the box in the form of 4 x 26w CFL's. My box's lighting's total energy consumption is now 224w, and my girlfriend call's it "The doorway to the sun" -- and it should be, it's as bright as roughly 900w of traditional incandescent lighting. However, since the addition of the CFL's, I instantly got a total ambient temperature increase of roughly 12.2F. Right now, I have to run it with the face off, and use a house fan to draw out the excess heat, this will be replaced with an active carbon exchange I will build after the new year. I also have a question: I currently have my plants in 10" pots, and know I will need to transport them to a 12" pot before too long, but how tall should the plant be before I worry about it's roots becoming too large for the 10" pots?
Picts are always appreciated and they make it easier for others to help you with your questions!! A basic rule is for every gallon of soil you get 12" of growth so if your container holds a gallon then I would look to repot at 8-10" as you don't want the plant to get completely rootbound, also if your seeing the roots come out of the bottom of your pot it a real good sign to repot. To be honest I would skip the 12" pot and just transplant in the pot(s) your inteding to finish in. That way you transplant less and the plant won't need time to adjust/recover from transplanting.
Sorry, I thought I had attached it. What size should I be looking to get? I'm going to be switching to flowing in the new area once the plants get too big for the veg box -- I'm taking over our closet, my girlfriend *loves* that </sarcasm>
your plants won't need transplanting for a while longer, however you need to get your lights closer to the plants. As for what size pots when you transplant, depends on your grow area and amount/type of lighting your planning on using during flowering and grow technique. As you probably already know that 120w LED light is not going to be enough unless your doing a SOG, in which case its time to switch them to 12/12. If your planning on big plants you will need a min of 4sq feet(2x2) per plant. As a comparison, My current grow is a single plant in a 42"x36" area, as I like big plants!
Well, at a max, I'm looking at letting my plants get no more than 3ft tall, and I want a big enough pot so that the plant has a better chance of increasing it's size during flowering (as I hear this increase can be as little as nothing to 3 x the volume). I'm not looking for massive yeilds as I am simply growing enough medicine to get through to the drying of the next crop. Is topping a worthwhile practice for my situation as I will not be letting these gals get anywhere near their true size potential.
I also now have it rigged up for the CFL node to sit 4.5 inches from the top of the tallest plant (the shortest is only 2 inches behind that one)
Then a 3-4 gallon pot should do. Topping will give you more buds, you can also LST them to keep them shorter, I'd probably only top once. So how big is the closet your going to move to?
I have a total of 6 feet of vertical space in the closet, and 8 feet wide, and 2.5 feet deep. I also planned on having light sources from both top and bottom, to reduce shading of the lower nodes, which I hope doesn't break some law of potency or yield..
Good to know. Will be watching this as I plan on setting up at least a 120w setup but probably going to stay to 1-2 panels. Do you know the specs on your LEDs. How many bulbs/watts per bulb.
Well, the total number of lights is 225 per panel, which means these are your standard 0.13w diodes -- the common computer indicator diode. I would honestly spread it out across multiple panels to reduce heat output, also, remember not to treat the LED's like other lights. Without a spectrum spreader (like mine do not have), you should *not* set these as close to the plant as possible. Hold your hand under the panel, and slowly pull back until there is no distinct light circles visible, and thats about how far you want to be. With my panels, this is about 10".