180w Blackstar LED in GL60 tent Organic soil (First grow)

[fourtwentyish]

I wish I could give you more rep, you have been a huge help man. I thought that might be the case and am still only feeding them minimal (ok maybe a little bit more than minimal) amounts of distilled water. I wasn't going to start adding nutes yet but I was tempted to put a small amount of molasses in there. I was worried that it might be a lack of nutes though so your comment is reassuring. The timely response also meant I wasn't worrying about them all day. Much respect to you Hudson. I appreciate your help very much.

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

NP man, its all good, I learned from someone else, and the knowledge (or at least the advice) is passed on. Heres a question: Whats the temperature in there? I Had some really slow seedlings and jacked the temp up to like 75-80 degrees and it was like rocket fuel

 

[fourtwentyish]

It seems to bounce around between 74-80 mostly but have seen lows of 71 and this morning it was at 82. I still have them sitting on a heating pad since it can get pretty cold in the closet. So the heat is mostly concentrated under them, I keep the thermometer lead right by the plants though.

 

[Bushyar]

Subbed. I will be watching this one. I am thinking about a similar setup with some Short Ryder autos. How many degrees above ambient does the blackstar keep your gl60?

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

I can tell you that the exhaust air is roughly 85-88 degrees. The surface if the LED lens as well as the heat sink don't surpass 95 degrees. I have an open top grow room so the ambient temp is kinda hard to tell (I am also running an HID with it as well)

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

PS How are those seedlings?

 

[surgedup]

happy growing bud!!!

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

dude hasn't posted since the 7th, hope everything is okay...

 

[fourtwentyish]

Hey, sorry for the lack of updates everyone, thanks for waiting patiently. There hasn't been much to update, they don't seem to have grown very much at all. The second set of real leaves (not the cotyledons) are just showing. I am hoping it picks up the pace here soon. I forgot to check on them yesterday so when I looked in on them this morning they were bone dry and looking a little sickly. I watered them and will check on them in a couple more hours and see if conditions have improved. If they still look bad, I will post pics to help get a diagnosis.

I don't know that the small UFO I am using brings the temps up much at all. Maybe a little but it isn't something that I would rely on to maintain a temperature difference. I still have a heating pad in the tent to keep everything from freezing (which is highly possible w/how cold that closet can get).

Again, thanks for the patience, I will keep going w/this thread, do not fear. My attention has been a little split as I am also trying to get a shroom grow going and have been doing all the research and shopping necessary. Spores should be here w/in a week and I am spending today trying to track down some vermiculite.

 

[fourtwentyish]

Well I watered them this morning at around 9am and gave them around 4 hours to enjoy the water but they are still looking pretty rough. I could use some advice as to what may be wrong with them or if it was simply lack of water and they need more time to recover.

 

[fourtwentyish]

This uploader is so confusing to me on the order it chooses to upload. Far left and 3rd from left are one plant. Far right and 2nd from right are the other. The far right one is very droopy and quite yellow. The far left is not droopy but has some odd discoloration. A little yellow but also another coloring. The far left ones seed leaves are looking much worse than the far rights as well. They were both looking quite healthy the day before yesterday when I last watered them.

I still have added no nutes. I have a diy co2 bottle going w/yeast and sugar water. The only circulation going is what the UFO exhaust provides. I was planning on waiting till they were a little bigger/stronger before I turned the fan on them. Still giving them nothing but distilled water. Also I noticed a gnat or something flying out of the tent when I checked back on them to take the pics.

Any/all advice will be much appreciated.

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

Thats a fungus gnat. Go to your local agway or garden store and look for something called spinosad. I also just used fly paper and that worked really well. Their eggs are in your soil when you bought it, once the soil stays moist enough, the eggs hatch. They aren't devastating, but they are a nuisance.

 

[fourtwentyish]

Good to know about the spinosad, I will get some soon. What about the looks of the plants? Do you think it was just dehydration or am I looking at a deficiency of nutes or what?

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

Thats all temp man. Those might be toast soon if you can't jack that closet up temperaturewise (perfect temps for shrooms though). You need to get the temp up in there to almost 80. I would get rid of the CO2 as well, those yeast ones are pointless at those temps anyway (on top of hardly providing any CO2 at all to begin with). If anything they just invite mold and bacteria into the grow.

I haven't really understood why people love yeast and sugar CO2 so much anyway.

The long and the short of it is that those seedlings will not grow unless the temps sustain at a min of 76 degrees, and don't go lower than 60 with the lights off. Maybe get a fan to pump some of the warm air in there.

What kind of soil are you using in there?

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

Get a moisture meter (11 bucks at lowes or HD), that will give you a much more accurate guide on how to water the seedlings. With the LED you should be watering more than 2 times a week.

Well I watered them this morning at around 9am and gave them around 4 hours to enjoy the water but they are still looking pretty rough. I could use some advice as to what may be wrong with them or if it was simply lack of water and they need more time to recover.

View attachment 1441208View attachment 1441209View attachment 1441220View attachment 1441229

 

[fourtwentyish]

The temps are fine in the tent, the closet the tent is in gets cold though. The temps in the tent stay between 75-80*. The light is on 24/7 so there isn't a time for it to cool down. I put the co2 in there because I don't have any air coming in from the outside since I don't trust the quality of the air in the closet the tent is in. It is a 2'x2' tent, it doesn't need much so having a small amount is fine.

I do water more than twice a week, typically once a day. They are in such small cups that I couldn't get away with much less. And they got all dehydrated from me skipping 1 day. There have been a few times when I have had to water twice in a day because I don't put a lot of water in there each watering, just enough to moisten them, not enough to drench or anything.

So now that you know it isn't the temps, what else could it be. The one was still droopy today when I checked on them.

 

[fourtwentyish]

I added a 26 watt 6500k CFL today to help out a little bit. The light was purchased for the shroom grow but they wont be needing it for a few weeks. Also added a humidity gauge to help me keep track of everything.

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

DO NOT WATER THAT OFTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thats killing the poor things. Water twice a week period.

The temps are fine in the tent, the closet the tent is in gets cold though. The temps in the tent stay between 75-80*. The light is on 24/7 so there isn't a time for it to cool down. I put the co2 in there because I don't have any air coming in from the outside since I don't trust the quality of the air in the closet the tent is in. It is a 2'x2' tent, it doesn't need much so having a small amount is fine.

I do water more than twice a week, typically once a day. They are in such small cups that I couldn't get away with much less. And they got all dehydrated from me skipping 1 day. There have been a few times when I have had to water twice in a day because I don't put a lot of water in there each watering, just enough to moisten them, not enough to drench or anything.

So now that you know it isn't the temps, what else could it be. The one was still droopy today when I checked on them.

 

[Hudsonvalley82]

I put my seedlings in clear cups so I can see how deep the soil is dry - Just a tip

 

[fourtwentyish]

Mine are in jiffy cups and I can feel/see the moisture level by the cup. The plants were doing just fine until I went a day and a half w/out watering. Once they are transplanted to bigger pots I obviously wont have to water as often, as it is, the little cups just don't hold that much water to be able to get away w/twice a week. Plus I don't saturate them fully, I typically only water them to where the jiffy cup is only wet from the top half up.