Whats up guys? this is my first grow and grow box and id love some feedback. Ill post pictures of their progress. Im using 4, 18 watt 6500k CFLS for veg and 23watt 2700k CFLS for flowering. Only using the 18 watters cuz thats what i had laying around( free! i bought a G with the savings). Im using a standard DWC Hydroponic system to grow. I have a 1 gallon tank for 2 plants. 2, 4 inch net pots, hydroton rocks, rockwool. 2x 6inch airstones( more bubbles the better right?). Currently I have one computer fan connected to a 12v cellcharger as an exhaust. And the fan in the box is a relatively powerful metal desk fan. I used velcro tape to secure the powerstrips and the weird box on the back is my Ghetto light killer for the fan. Im going to Lst these babies and start flowering around day 20. They are seeds from some supposid "Blue dream" i got a month or so ago. The pictures are them today, its day 5. I think thats some nute burn on the one plant. you can see some leaf discoloration. I emptied the nuted water and added some nut-free water( i recently found out you dont need to Nut for the first week or so? true?). I really dought its leaf burn since im using such low powered lights. The temp in the box is 84-92F. I still need to install the second exhaust fan which im putting directly ontop of the first one. Im also going to install a second intake elbow on the oppostie side of the back. Also still need to paint it with the flat white paint I bought but have been too lazy to do so. Total cost-120$ What do you guys think?
thanks, i spray painted it with 3 coats of black paint but if i hold it up to the light i can see some getting through, I hope thatll do. Is a little light getting through going to cause any big problems for me?
yeh with the cfls so close, light can start some mold to grow in the water...just throw some tape over it and it should be good. sometimes a little green mold or white fuzz mold can grow on the rockwool also..keep an eye out for it and if you see and just cover the hydroton with a piece of paper or something to block light...I usually cut a circle of some foil and make it like a pacman.
Ok, im going to tape up the container real well, that'll be an easy fix. This may be a better question for the hydro threads, but how much water should be covering my hydroton/rockwool? I currently have the bottom half of my hydroton in water and about the bottom 1/6th of the rockwool is submerged. Is this going to keep the rockwool too wet and cause mold?
rockwool has a tendency to stay real soggy..it will absorb far more water then the hydroton...If your roots are sticking out of the bottom of the netpots,I'd lower the water level to about the same level as the bottom of the netpots...but not lower..this alows the hydroton to stay moist from the bubbling while the RW can dry out a little..you also don't want an 'airgap' between the bottom of the netpot and the water level..this cause roperoots to form which seek out water and are far less efficient then then furry type roots that form in the moister environment.. ..gonna be a delicate balance with such a shallow container..might want to look into a slightly bigger one once they start drinking +I wouldn't worry about the RW being too moist and creating mold...the problem with too much moisture is it can suffocate the roots when they're so small...they need just as much oxygen as water..
thanks for the tips B-sauce. My only hesitation with using a bigger pot would be less growth area in the box. Do you think that more root space, but less flowering Height, would create a more potent/healthier plant? Or should i go with less root space and more flowering height potential?
well cfls are only gonna penetrate so far..about 8-10 inches..anything more then that isn't going to develop. It looks like if you could find a slightly squarer container that fills out the sides better you wouldn't lose much headroom. your grow is totally possible in that container...I'm just saying a larger rez is easier to deal with once they start drinking a half gallon a day.
Ya u want a couple hundred watts for sure, check some shops they have 125 150 200 250 and 300watt cfl lights, much easier to have one light
It's actually more like 100% nute burn PLUS your burning the outside of the pre-forming leaves to a crisp by putting the light so close, too soon. Pull back on the nutes your using is good, but it wouldve been better not to use any in the first place for the first two weeks to let the routes naturally form.. Just saying. It's cool if u learn from it tho since its your first grow. Definately, make sure you move the light farther away from the ya girls. You don't it'll be nothing but your own loss!
Here they are at day 11. I moved the lights up so they are about 4 inches away from the girls. The one is still having some nut burn problems i think. Also the leaves look like they are curling up weird, how are my babies doing?
They look like they turnin out pretty good, the reaching could just be from moving the light or mayb(hopefully) they are just going into overdrive and trying to get all they can to use up the excess of nutes