I have one unsuccessful outdoor grow(2016) and one very successful outdoor grow(2017) under my belt and have decided to take it inside. I am always open to criticism and advice but trollers/haters please scram. I am learning so much from all of you here on GrassCity and I hope to give back with the documentation of my grows. The Tent I am growing in my basement in a 2x4 Gorilla tent without the height extension. Overall, the tent is well designed and constructed. However a couple of the zippers are not as smooth as I would like. I use this zippers every damn day and I'm hoping the get smoother as I use them more. The Gorilla tents are priced pretty high when compared to other manufacturers and my expectations were high and ultimately not met. The canvas is very thick and will last a long time. The Lights I decided to give GrowMau5's ChilLED version 2 Logic Pucks a shot. I bought the 2x4 DIY kit from RapidLED.com and assembled it myself. Assembly was smooth and tolerances on the rails, pucks and heatsinks are super tight. The pucks boasts a chip-level efficiency of 2.48 uMol/Joule. So far, the seedlings are not stretching at all. The light is about 2 feet above the top of the tallest seedling. The Medium Coco coir seemed like the most logical choice since I am used to growing in soiless medium. Coco Bliss by Plantonics has tested out to be pretty high quality coir. Soaked it and tested the slurry. Came back very clean, almost no increase in EC. I bought the 10lb bricks on Amazon. I strained out all the fine particulate and used only the medium to large sized fibers. The Containers Cheap 5gal fabric pots made by Garden4Ever purchased on Amazon. Pretty good quality bags with two double stitched, vinyl straps for easy transportation. The Nutrients After much consideration, I decided that I would use the JRPeters Jack's formulas in the 3-2-1 combination. Since my seeds sprouted I have been watering every day with 33% strength at a high PH of around 7 for a week while I waited for my adjustment kit to be delivered. I have not seen any issues. Also using CalMag from Blue Planet and sprinkling Great White mycorrhiza when seeds go into coir and at transplant. From what I have read, I will be trying to keep the PH at around 6 to 6.5. The Water I am using tap water. Queue the "gasping audience" sound effects. I know, I know, I should be using reverse osmosis... especially since my starting EC is 400 μS/cm. I'm going to try not to panic and just go with the flow. If I am able to confidently associate any issues that I have to my tap water then I will install an RO system. The Seeds I am starting from scratch so had to pop some seeds. On my first iteration, I decided to pop 2 dispensary bag(container) seeds from a strain called, Superman OG. Also popped 2 Feminized Critical seeds from Royal Queen. Soaked them in a cup of tap water for about 24 hours after which I poked the seeds and they sunk to the bottom of the cup. Filled plastic cups, slits cut in the bottoms for drainage, with Coco coir, made a small depression with my finger. Then I sprinkled mycorrhiza and popped in the seed, then pushed some coir over the depression. All 4 seeds broke the surface in 48 hours. The two Critical looking much more "normal" and healthy than the Superman OG, as you will see from the pictures. The PH/EC meter Testing PH and EC in hydroponics is terribly important. The bottom of the barrel just won't do. I also don't have the greenbacks to drop on the highest quality probes or monitors. I settled on the PC60 from Aperia Instruments, also purchased through Amazon. I was happy to see that the kit comes with a good amount of both PH and EC two-point calibration solutions and enough PH sensor storage solution to last a while. The kit also comes with a nice plastic case with storage foam cutouts for all pieces of the kit. I marked one side of the kit with "top" to endure that the case is always stored in the correct orientation so the PH sensor is submerged in storage solution, which is critical to extending the life of the sensor. The EC sensor can be stored dry, so to conserve storage solution, I used enough to just barely cover the PH sensor. The Temp/Humidity Sensors There is a TempStick.com by Ideal Sciences inside the tent at soil level under the lights. This little sensor is pretty cool! It connects to my WiFi network and sends data to Ideal Sciences cloud service, which I can view from anywhere I have Internet on my ohone. From the phone app, I can setup email and text alerts triggered by configurable thresholds for high/low temp and humidity. It also provides graphs of temp and humidity over time. Graphs can be viewed in various slices like "Last 24 hours" or "Last 7 days" or a custom date range. Outside the tent I have the remote sensor from a cheep In/Out temp/humidity digital set that I bought from the hardware store. I use this to monitor the house temp near the kitchen(In) and the small closet-like room(Out) that the Gorilla tent is in. The Scrubber and Exhaust system The iPower 4-inch 190cfm kit is a little overkill even with the speed controller on the lowest setting. The sides of the tent are sucked in pretty far and will be encroaching on the plants when they get bigger. I even have one of the 3" power ports on the tent open all the time. I have tried ordering the High CFM kit from Gorilla but they have been out of stock for weeks. Exhaust fan only runs while the lights are in for now but in flower it will run 24/7 to scrub the air so my wife doesn't bury me in the backyard. The Watering System I have physical disability so lugging water in 5-gal buckets from upstairs or the backyard is not an option. I have tapped into one of the cold water supplies and installed a hose bib in the grow room. To get the water, or nutrient solution, to the plants I have assembled a submersible/in-line water pump connected to Hydro Halos. Runoff is collected inside of a Botanicare 2x4 tray, which is a little too big for the tent and is sitting catywompus on one corner or the floor frame tubes. This actually works out pretty good though because all the runoff collects in the front corner where I remove it with a small wet/dry vacuum. The Environment Controls Well, right now all I have is a small space heater outside the tent to keep the grow room temperature up. Being in a basement has one great advantage, stable temps. I likely won't even need an air conditioner in Summer. These LED lights put off very little heat. Humidity is where I am currently struggling. Average around 30%. Have not yet decided on a course of action to keep humidity in check. Temps under the lights at soil level is around 80F. ~bigolbear
Some pictures of the seedlings. Broke the surface on Jan 17th. 10 days later, roots on the two Criticals were coming out of the bottom of the cup so I transplanted. Critical #1 Critical #2 Superman OG #1 Superman OG #2
Hey Papa Puff, Thanks for taking a look! Any advice is greatly appreciated, especially from experienced growers like yourself. One outstanding detail is how to maintain humidity levels. I don't anticipate all four seedlings to turn out female, so I plan to grow out one or two. When I start watering more and the plants are transpiring more the humidity will be higher. I'm not going to stress about the humidity unless it gets too high, then I will begin running the exhaust fan 24/7 and maybe find a dehumidifier. Until I get a feel for how the room and tent affect each other, just going to monitor and react. Lower, rather than higher, humidity is desirable. I do not want mold. I am a way off from drying my harvest, so I have some time to figure it out. Will want pretty tight control when drying in the tent. ~bigolbear
Quick update. Growing pretty slowly. Upped the nutrient strength from 33% to 50% a couple days ago. They are 3 weeks old from when I planted them. Got the Hydro Halos mocked up for testing on the two Criticals. Seems to be working good. I ordered a short interval timer to run the water pump on a schedule so I don't have to do it manually. Critical #1 Critical #2 Superman OG #1 Superman OG #2
Three weeks above the soil. Keeping the lights about 18 inches above the tallest plant. All are staying pretty squat. Huge fan leaves on the Criticals. Critical #1 Critical #2 Superman OG #1 Superman OG #2 ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2
Ok I will get booed. But I quit fighting low rh. High rh u have to fight. I flowered critical outside also. It is a great strain when its happy. It is a very versatile strain. Here is a pic of a good one I grew Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Airflow is critical. Fans and fresh air. What are ur rh reading if u have a gauge?? Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
Hey Papa Puff, Thanks for stopping by! Those flowers look good and sticky. I am just hoping to finish this grow successfully. Would be nice to harvest some huge nugs but my expectations are low. The daytime environment in the tent is 75F and around 40% and at night 65F and 50%. The plants already smell a little even though they are not flowering so I am running the exhaust fan with carbon scrubber 24/7. The TempStick is pretty cool. ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2
Took a couple of pictures tonight. Fan leaves on these Critical plants are huge. Also, the underside of the leaves on one of the Superman OGs is turning purple. What do you think it could be? All four plants are in the same medium and getting the same water/nutrients. ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2
Cleaned up the tent a bit and snapped some pics. Moved the plants around. ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2
Little defoliation on the two Criticals. They are so damn squat and thick. Bent them over to try to shape them into the small space. The two Superman OGs might be male. They are looking really lanky and not much terminal growth. At 4 weeks 5 days since they broke the surface. ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2
Had one of the Superman OGs turn out male. Flipped to 12/12 light schedule 3 weeks ago. Heavy defoliation at week 2. ~bigolbear Hate less, grow more. Current grow journal: Royal Queen Critical in Coir - ChilLED Logic Pucks v2