Well I was pretty satisfied with my last grow, check it out, the link's in my signature, and I'm back to do another one, and I intend to do it better than last time too, I'll grow vegetative with fluoros, but I'll use HPS for flowering. I've got to get my hands on a camera, we'll have pictures soon.
Ok, I'm back for another grow. I'm going to use the same hollowed out wall unit as in my last grow. The difference this time is that I've had some time and have showed some patience in making the unit a bit safer. Only one of the four electrical connections was grounded last time, that kind of scared me, last grow was what, 2 1/2 years ago? So I've rewired everything so that it's all grounded and so that the wires are not in the box anymore. I now live by myself so there's no landlord to rush my harvest, though I'm still going to do my best to contain the odour; I'd like to still be able to have people over. The box is 24" wide X 54" high X 15" deep. It has four standard light sockets that I will fill with Compact fluorescents. Here's my current lighting. 3 Compact Fluorescents - Daylight Extra @ 3500K (cool white for vegetative growth) 23W Putting out 1600 Lumines each 1 Compact Fluorescent - Soft White @ 2700K(Warm to supplement the lack of red light) 23W Putting out 1600 Lumines 2 48" T8 Bulbs - Cool White @ 4100K (cool white for vegetative growth) 32W Putting out 2800 Lumines each I may add another two t8 bulbs later. But as it stands I have a total of 6 fluorescent bulbs with a total of 156W putting out 12000 Lumines, although I won't be using them all right away. No need when plants are only so big. I have a bathroom exhaust fan with a more than adequate cfm rating for the space it's ventilating. I bought 12 Northertn Lights seeds from BCBudDepot.com deilivery was quick. I started germinating 5 seeds yesterday in paper towel. Two broke open already and I put them into a soilless medium designed for starting seedlings. I bought it at home hardware. I read that keeping them between 70 and 80 Farenheit provides best germination rate and it seems to be true, two having opened before 24 hours time. Actually Jorge cervantes says 78 so that's what I'm trying to keep them at. One good idea I had is that I'm going to have the plants growing in my bedroom. The unit is inside my closet. THe plants will sleep while I'm at work, and the'yll be awake when I'm asleep. That way While I'm sleeping I'll be providing natural and free carbon dioxide to the plants which they need during their lights on period. I did this last time too but not intentionally only after did I think of it. This may be why I had pretty good results with only Compact Fluorescents. I like to feed my plants naturally. First a good organic soil mix is needed. I'm going to do a little research and order some ingredients off the net. Last time I used manure, top soil and triple mix, i think peat moss too. I supplemented waterings with fish emulsions and molasses (especially good for budding) . I mulched with crushed eggshells, coffee and teagrounds. I had success there so I think I'll stick to that. But a better soil is something i definately want to invest in.
Good News. I Just checked the seeds and two more had germinated, so now 4 are planted in soilless seed starting mix leaving one germinating in paper towel. Putting final touches on the electrical work.
I've got some pictures of the wall unit with all the electrical finished. I'm also going to be re-painting it flat white later.
Yeah, I gave it two coats of flat white paint, nice and sterile now. Alos, I ordered my soil ingredients yesterday. Im going to use equal parts each, perlite, vermiculite, peat moss and worm castings. Any other suggestions as to how to make this soil mix better are welcome too. Let me just say that I'm pretty happy with bcbuddepot.com. The seeds I ordered arrived in about 8 days. I ordered 12 and got 13. Bonus. Then when I germinated 5, 4 showed their roots after only 24 hours. That I would assume means strong healthy seeds. So if you have any doubt as to whether or not to order seeds from BCBudDepot.com, go ahead, I'll do it again.
I'm pretty excited now, the fifth and final seed, I just checked, has germinated, so that's a germination rate of 100% in 48 hours. Also i bought a small ceramic heater for $30 at home hardware with a temperature dial, it doesn't show temp. but I have a thermometer. So now I am able to completely control the inside of the box as far as heat is controlled. I have been able to stabalize the temperature at 78F. the heater runs for about 45 seconds every 8 minutes. They also have some pretty cheap humidifiers there that I'm gonna check out. So now I have 5 Northern Lights seeds that have germinated and are preparing to become seedlings in a light fluffy soilless seed starting medium. They will be kept at a temperature of 78F until they show their first set of true leaves, at which point the temperature will fall to 75F (as Jorge Cervantes suggests). Humidity will soon be under control.
Four of the the five seeds I planted have sprouted and are under lights, the other one is still in darkness. Pretty good success rate with these seeds. +rep to BcBudDepot.com I added a removable shelf that can go up and down. I always found that easier, moving the plants down rather than moving the lights up. I found a cool magazine at the convienence store, it's like a High Times brother magazine or something, "Skunk". Anyway I found a cool article called stickysides, where the guy coats theinside of his containers with molassess then stripes each side with bone and blood meal, bottom too. I'm thinking, I'll try this.
Here's some pictures. Two are just pics out of high times i put on my cabinet. The monkey's friggin cool. Cooler than you. Also, the medium I'm germinating and growing seedlings in, and a pic of the seeds germinating in their peat pots. Mind you the pics are a day old, they've sprouted now and are under light.
Im in love with the Grape Ape poster and will offer you large lump sums of cash for it. Also like the cab your using. Look forward to watching the plants grow. Have you found a lot of success with cool white bulbs? (4100K). I know some ppl swear by them despite the color spectrum absorbency. Look forward to seein the updates
My luck is turning around. I'm probably the luckiest person you know. Plus I love BCBudDepot.com I ordered 12 seeds from BCBudDepot.com couple of weeks ago. I ordered 12 Northern lights. Last week They came in the mail from Belgium. They came ina folded up piece of paper, with my initals and NLx12 written on it. I got thirteen, 1 extra. I dunno, they must have screwed up over there cause today i got another envelope in the mail also labeled NL X12, only instead of 12 i got 16. Bonus! I don't know who does their counting but thank you lordy. So i got 29 seeds for the price of 12. BONUS!
I've only ever done a couple of grows but the only one I had any real success with is the wall unit grow in my signature, you can see there. There are pics of the fully formed buds. I got two ounces off two plants, but it was surprisingly really good weed. Alot of people told me so cause I like to share. One guy my friend works with got a joint off of my friend. Said he smoked it on the way home and it started raining. Said he was so high he had to pull over. And he's a regular toker too. can't get a better review than that i guess.
Im the same way, ill take Quality>>>>>>>Quantity every day. I hate smoking the icky thats why i've decided to grow my own. Then I have no1 but myself to blame if I'm smokin up on some bunk weed lol. Its such a nice treat to smoke weed that makes you feel like you did when you were 16-17 again....good times
Fair enough, I'd compromise a little quality for some quantity but it does have to be heavier on the quality size.
Ahhh the joys of working in a scrap metal yard. Today i got three double socket standard fixtures. I put two in so now instead of 4 cfl i've got 6. and space is being used more efficiently. I also got two 400W MH ballasts, bulbs and reflectors. the only problem is that the transformers in the ballasts are blown so I have to get a ballast kit, They're less than a hundred bucks, Sure beats paying $300 FOR a prefab light. I also got a perfectly good 100 W HPS ballast and case, just need a bulb. I also got two other cases but they're kinda messed up, still, they have all the electronics inside for one 100w hps and one 150w hps My fifth seed sprouted. 100% success rate. The other four are nice and green with tiny little true leaves sticking out from above the little false leaves. Everything is going well. I'll get some pics up soon
I read about an organic fertilization technique, that I'd never heard of, It involves striping organic fertilizers on the side and bottoms of your containers before you put your mix in. I already made a thread on it where I go into waymore detail check it out. Sticky Sides - Advanced Organic Fertilization Technique
Bad News! The seedlings are dead. The lights alone were keeping the seedlings at a perfect temperature so I turned off the heater. Then when the lights went out, the temp fell below 50! The seedlings died in the 6 hours of frigid air. Oh well. Time to start again, I only lost 8 or 9 days. I'm going to start germinating five seeds, again. Finally this time I think I'll use peat pellets, it's just easier to moniter the moisture levels.
Ok, I germinated five more seeds, this time I kept them at a constant 78 F and all five germinated in 24 hours. I planted them all in a new mix i made out of perlite, vermiculite , peat moss, and worm castings. I ordered the four ingredients off the net. They'll prolly sprout by tommorow night.
Well, two have sprouted so far, I anticipate the other three will have sprouted by tommorow afternoon if not by early morning. I'm interested to see how these seedlings like the soil. The last seedlings were very impressive in root structure, very vigourous growth. The seedlings barely had true leaves, barely an inch tall and they had a nice cluster of roots. that was probably double the above ground mass. This mix has a good amount of perlite and vermiculite so it's pretty well aerated, they should do just as well. I planted the seeds in the mix in peat planters. First however i put about 1/2 inch of worm castings at the bottom of the planters, that way, when it's time to transplant, the roots will be consuming the high amounts of nitrogen, and growth shouldn't be deterred too much. Anyway, I'll update tomorow.
That's it! All five have sprouted, again lol. Growth is pretty vigourous, I noticed the seedlings developed their true leaves faster this time and they grew bigger faster, though they're still small. I mulched with a crushed eggshell, tea ground and worm casting mix. I watered with a teaspoon molasses to two thirds litre water (equivalent two two tablesapoons to a gallon) It's all natural so the seedlings won't get burned or anything, and the molasses and worm shit should help to promote our valuable little micro-buddies. Hopefully I'll get some pictures in soon.
I'm getting super excited now. Last week I got some extra hours at work, plus i got my tax return and cashed out my vacation pay. So I went to a hydroponics store and got a bunch of treats. I got some Bat guano for veg. Liquid kelp Dolomite lime rooting hormone fish emulsions w/ blood meal I also got ONA Blcok (will be place inside flowering chamber) Ona Liquid & Soil Moist (will go into odour neutralizing machine) Finally I got myself a 250 W HPS Ballast Bulb and Reflector. Like I said, I'm getting pretty excited. I'm brewing a tea right now for the plants. Here's my mix (derived from the sticky in organic section of grasscity) Seedling Tea 4 cups distilled Water 1 tsp Liquid kelp 1 tbsp Molasses 1/5 cup Worm Castings I'll stir it on the half hour and i'll administer it in 24 hours. The seedlings grew a bit today, not much. They all have a tiny set of second true leaves. I expect they'll start growing pretty quickly now. I decided I'm going to grow a second unit for flowering. Since i have 250w Hps, I'll make it 30" X 24" That's 2.5 sq ft. 50 watts per sq foot mind you I'll side supplement with cfl. Anyway check you later.