Hey guys! This is my first grow journal so lots of feedback would really help. The Break down: Cab Space Width = 36 inches Hieght = 36 inches Depth = 9 inches Lights 4 - 27 watt Daylight Cfls 2 - 30 watt Bright light Cfls Soil Shultz moisture plus potting soil Pots 4 - 6x6 inch pots Fans 2 - 120mm DC fan Buds 1 - G13 Skunk #1 fem 1 - Kc Brains Northern lights special 1 - Barneys farm Night Shade 1 - G13 Thai S-Skunk So The past couple days I turned the cab from a shitty flo stick powered box that had very limited growth to a new CFL powered one. First task was to build in Two intake vent ports. I was just lucky enough to have a power drill with a 2 inch hole maker. Im gonna spray paint the insides of the pvc pipe black to kill the glow second was to build an exhaust hole. However the big ass metal elbow i bought from home depot looks a lot more obvious behind my cab then i hoped, and my drill can only make 2 inch holes effectively without me bashing out wood chunks with a hammer. SO as it is i have a big as 2 inch hole at the top middle of the back of my cab that i need to figure out how to make a little bigger so that i can mount an exhaust fan and put some kind of elbow that i can attach a carbon scrubber to later. My power supply i was gonna use for my fans doesnt seem to work as i hoped so im gonna have to figure out how to rewire the fans for a basic plug system. Right now im gonna go get my 4 seeds germinating in some wet paper towels so i can get them planted and growing! No ferts bought yet. I have some 20/20/20 fert from last grow i may use during veg and then throw them on a molasses diet in flowering. Thanks for the feedback
update: Got the 4 seedlings in a gladware with some wet paper towels on them. Just got to wait on those to get started. Any suggestions with the Fan issues/exhaust ideas would be useful.
Update: the Skunk Fem seed has a little white root tip coming out. Im gonna wait for the other 3 to catch up. no reason to get these fuckers on diff scheduels so early.
Update: The northern lights, nightshade and skunk fem all got their tap roots out now. i dropped the skunk fem seed out of the tweezers onto the floor during my transplant from the tuperware so hopefully that didnt kill it. The other two went in fine. Still waiting on the Thai-skunk to show some signs of life. I still got 4 more Thai skunk seeds so if it doesnt i wouldnt be too upset.
I say dont use Shultz moisture plus potting soil You want some basic potting soil. no time release ferts, or the water crystals can screw up your watering.
Too late for that I guess. Got all 4 seedlins in the dirt now. I had used the shultz in my last grow so i know it at least works. After these girls get cut down ill prob make a nice organic mix.
pic update: The Northern lights seed has poked his head out. I turned one of the cfls on it for a little bit. gonna start 18/6 prob tommrow morning. Hopefully the other 3 will germinate soon. If the skunk fem doesnt germinate its because i dropped it on the ground during planting.
two wire the computer fans up, find a old cell phone charger that runs splice the cords so you have your positive and negative, so the same with the computer fans hook the yellow and red together thats positive and black negative, then touch them to the cell phone cord and watch for which one is negative and positive usally they arnt marked so its a 50/50 shot it wont shoot sparks if you do it backwards the fan just wont spin so your safe
My fnas are ust red and black wires. i wired them up to a 5v old LG charger i had and got it going. it isnt putting out that much air tho, i think the fan requires a little more energy then the shitty old charger and put out. I got another one with some more juice in it to try out tho. The nightshade also germinated through the night. got two babies up, and two more to come. hopefully. Also gonna have to set my lights up differently, prob gonna have to build some sort of ballast myself.
Update: All 4 Seeds germinated!!! the northern lights is the front runner of the 4. prob because he had to deal with the most dark time while germinating and stretched a little. the other 3 are pretty close to the soil still.
Pic update: So the NL baby is stretching out but getting bigger leaves a lot faster then the others, probably because it was exposed to a long period of dark right after it germinated while the others were just emerging as the lights were turned on. Problem- the Ns baby as you can see in the second picture is laying flat on the ground, i cant tell if the fan broke it and blew it over or it was just stretching funny to max out its light. I changed up its positioning and when i get back from work ill see if it bent back up. problem2- I cut the cords of my fan and connected them to a cell phone charger. i didnt put them in the butts yet to get them together because when im just holding them to it the fan doesnt go that fast. Def, not enough to cool the box. It had gotten up to 100 degrees in there so i had to keep the door open and blast my ac unit in the room. I have the door cracked now with a fan blowing in it untill i can figure out my fan situation.
Pic update: SO all 4 plants are lookin nice and healthy! the Nightshade baby is having trouble growing up and was kinda lying on its side so i put a nail in the soil and used some floss to tie it to the nail. the skunk baby is nice and stout, she isnt growing as tall as the others are but the stem is a lot thicker. The Northern Lights baby is tallest closly followed by the thai skunk. right now i got pics of the nailed NS. the tall and lanky NL. and the stout Skunk female. My cell phone chargers werent giving enough energy for the fans to run full force so to combat serious heat issues ive had my gab opened with a big fan blowing lightly into it. I went to radio shack and bought a 12v adapter but im gonna open up a bigger exhaust hole in the back now so i can mount the fan before crimping the wires together. will save me time and effort later when the plants are bigger and i need to be stealthier. Gave some more water today cuz the soil was gettin dry. hopefully ill get some good growth overnight!
good call plus rep! I have to completley agree my plant is at similar stage but a has only a 1-2in or so stalk. I'm using daylight cfls with one 42 watt bright so its not the lamps as oiurs our very similar. You just need to get it closer. The furthest lights are 6in off the plant and the closeest are just 2-3 in. If you transplant again you can always bury it up to the first node. Im gonna do that with mine even tho its pretty short.
I was having some heat issues since my exhaust fan isnt up yet and my cell phone charger wasnt giving me enough watts for my cooling fan. ill drop the lights today and try and get some cooler air blowing around. Is it ok to have a fan always blowing on the plants? i dont have an ossillate function and my fans are on the same timer as my lights.
Pic Update: So all the babies are looking good. I got both my fans wired up to a dc converter and running at full speed now. The exhaust area was made by adding an 2inch hole attachment to my power drill and making 4 of them in a square then bashing out the area in between with a hammer. With both fans running the box is running from 84 to 91 degrees depending how hot it is outside the box. Im gonna need a better cooling idea if you guys got one. I was thinking about putting in another intake hole in the bottom then light proofing the box. I havent been to on top of light proofing yet because they are still veging but when they are flowering its gonna need to be done. As for the pics. We got 1 of my exhaust system, you can see the 4 holes i put in and the shotty hammering job to try and square it out lol. also is a pic of the Thai Skunk plant which is right behind the Northern lights one as far as size goes. The third pic is of the Thai Skunk and my baby Super Skunk fem. The S Skunk girl isnt growing very large yet and im not sure why.
Well it seems i have a heat issue. I got both fans going full blast but cant seem to get the heat to get below 88 degrees. if i open the box door it drops to 84 but i would rather keep it closed. I might get another fan but im afraid that it will just push more hot air around and not work to cool anything. Any suggestions?
Are your intake holes a good amount bigger than your exhaust? Also, what is the area like that the box is in?
I'm having the exact same issue with my box, they still seem to be a healthy color but the temp is varying between 84-92 depending on ambient temperatures. Another intake hole is the option I'm about to go unless someone has a revelation.
is 3 feet by 3 feet by 9 inches. And no the intake holes are about half the size of the exhaust hole. Should i put another intake hole you think? the exhaust vent is made of 4 2 inch circles with some hammer work done to make them 1 big hole. the intake are just two 2 inch holes.