Loft grow...

Hi all,

Ive been reading loads on the site and getting as many tips as possible form all the veterans here. Ive also watched Jorge Cervantes DVD and read his book almost cover to cover.

I must be really lucky in some ways because my fiancee bought me a grow kit for christmas. It included a 400W HPS lamp with ballast and hood, some Bio-Bizz medium, plant pots, manuals, a roll of black/white plastic (is there a 'proper' name for this?) and of course, 10 Dutch Passion skunk #11 seeds. Apparently if I cant grow these I can't grow anything!

I constructed a grow 'tent' in my loft built around my hood and hooking up my electrics so that they were no where near any water. I also did some heat and temperature tests so that there was no risk of fire.

I have found germinatng seeds no problem, transplanting them into the grow medium, no problem and sprouting them no problem. All done in my warm, humid airing cupboard. The seedlings go under the lamp, 18 hours on etc. Water three times a day, not too much and no nutes. The air is circulated (fairly poorly) by a fan heater which also regulates the temperature, pulling in air from outside the tent via an improvised hole.

The problem I have had several times is that after 3/4/5 days in the seedling stage they are, kind of withering and dieing. The air in my loft is fairly stagnant, the tent is fairly small and the temperature isnt very low (although low enough to need a heater during the night) therefore the heater is not blowing in fresh air very often. Can I just put this down to bad air circulation ??????

Sorry this is war & peace. I do tend to waffle.......

Are u using the 400hps.. how close is it to your plants? Might be over watering. Whats your water ph? A picture is worth a 1000 words... whens your birthday a camera would be nice. Your wife is no dought a smoker or a banker.lol

Dursky

Just measured the distance between light and plant which is exactly 2 ft. Im now thinking this is too close. Sorry I dont have a ph tester so I cant test the water but Im in a hard water area. Ive got nutes but just haven't started to use them yet. Im going out to get a fan today and some other stuff so Ill try and pick one up.

She was a smoker yeah. But the funny story is we found out on boxing day that she's pregnant, so I have 9 months to do this before i have to give up for 18 yrs! It's cool though, you gotta do what you gotta do right?!

Hope the photos help, its not the greatest camera......

(nice laptop)
that baby looks like it was stretching and then got toasted! look at how brown that stem is...I say start off the seedlings under cfl's or fluoro tubes at first until a couple weeks before your ready to flower..man look at that pic..I almost feel bad for the little sprout...

One of the most important things is your water ph Its easy $12.00 Any aquarium store has a (ph tester kit that comes with ph up & down). Get that kit and keep your water ph at 6-6.5 and let your water sit in a bucket for 24hrs to get rid of the cloreen. This should help alot.

Sweet, now I know exactly what Im doing. Or at least how to move forward. I am inexperienced and this is my first grow, but I have some spare cash and time to do this properly so give me a few hours to pick up supplies (and a 1/4) and I will post picks of my whole grow setup. I have two more seeds which are just into day 2 of germination so they will need to be planted later today or tomorrow. Im really grateful for all your help, and believe me I nearly cried when I saw her this morning!

but ....

Ok here are some pics of my updated grow area, its now split into to so I can nanny my seedlings into some strong mothers that I can take some clones from to flower.

Firstly, the vegetation room, as you can see I picked up a few fluorescent tubes and have built a new tent for them. The idea is to keep the lights stationary and move the plants up and down, hence the stack of boxes. On top of them is an incubator, which is apparently self watering with a trough underneath and 'mat' which soaks up the water. The fan heater is keeping it at a steady temp, but I wasn't able to buy a desk fan from the shop I went to. It'll have to wait till tomorow.

Couldn't get a ph tester either strangely, but it wasn't an aquarium so that will come tomorrow too.

The second area faces the veg room and holds my HPS lamp. The material used to build the tent is an old white sheet which is surrounded by black plastic on the outside. Because I have limited height in the loft the HPS is fixed at about 3 1/2 Ft. If this isn't gonna be high enough I will have to move it out to the garage which Id rather not do.

Anyway, what do you think?

Im gonna skin up now. Bloody tired.........

It also looks like u over-warered...u don't need to water 3 times a day. Just water as needed. You know you need to water when the dirt is dry...don't water until then.
Hope i helped.

2 ft is ok for your big light.. try to get it to 18 inches.. with your flourecent you want them no more then an inch away.

again u want to get the lid off your plants and get them close.

Thanks guys. I think I got three times from a grow DVD I watched, but I may have been giving it too much each time. I will cut it down.

Ive just planted my two germinated seeds in the incubator under the tubes. I have moved it up a couple of inches using VHS boxes so the dome is almost touching the lights. I'm gonna leave the dome on untill they've sprouted because its worked for me before and Ive read several times that humidity is needed at this stage.

Ill post pics when they sprout......

Thanks again

Hi joker, and welcome to the forum. Goos is right, you are over watering. Your are drowning your plants. You probably picked up the watering three times a day from a discussion of Hydroponic growing. Stop watering. You have your seeds in a humidity dome. Its probably 80% relative humidity, which is fine for a few days with seedlings and clones. Once the seeds pop through the soil they will need to have more air, less humidity, and then you will want the light to be closer so they don't have to stretch to reach it. An oscillating blowing gently across them as it moves from side to side.
Get a moisture meter, they are around $10.00. The tendancy for all of us new growers is to overwater. You should be watering maybe every two or three days. When you water, any run off should be emptied out of the tray. And of course you will need to ph your water. With that soil mix you should need to add nutes for at least a week after the seeds pop through, maybe two.
3 1/2' will not be enough height. The pot will take a foot of that height or more. You will want the 400watt light at least 1' away from the top of the plants, which leaves about 18" for the plants. Hope this helps. VV

Thanks Vic, big help. Ive been back up in the loft with my tape measure because I really don't want to have to move the bloom room downstairs. I think I might be able to pull back just enough room, but its gonna take a few tricky adjustments......

A humidity meter is on the shopping list along with the fan and ph tester, which Im picking up today.

Im gonna have some Q's about the nutes you mentioned though mate, Ive already got some but Im not confident about the mix. Ill post when they sprout....

Thanks

Ok, I have my seedling(s) back to day three. One sprouted three days ago and is looking good, although as was pointed out before the stem looks slightly brown. The second hasn't spouted yet but the soil was broken above the seed this morning so I am confident it's on its way. They have both been under my 40w flourescent tubes.

Love to know what you think!

Sorry the pics aren't great again........

Lookin just fine, joker, just make sure you heed Victor's warning. Don't let what you learned from that DVD make you think you have to water 3 times a day. It is better to underwater than to overwater; you can always let your plant tell you it's thirsty, and understanding relative pot weights for your individual grow helps too. Even easier, just keep an eye on your soil Keep it up, lookin good so far!

OK now I have two happy little seedlings. As you can see from the pics the second seed has popped up. It had a bit of trouble shedding the seed casing and I think this caused it to stretch a bit as the leaves couldn't see any light. I took it off last night and its beginning to sort itself out.

Ive hooked up a 'blower' in the top corner this is flushing all he old air out the back of the grow room and pulling new stuff in the front. It's a bit noisy so it may not last very long, but does a great job of keeping the air fresh.

I have read that the water I am using shouldn't be a problem (according to the LCA here in the UK). But it did mention that rainwater would suit it better. As you can see in my previous pics I have part of the guttering system that passes through the loft. Shall I tap in?

Also, is it time to start the nutes yet or are they still too young, There's a pic of the Bio-Bizz stuff I've got and I have some bloom nutes too, but their for later. Any advice would be well appreciated!

This is day five and currently equaling my record!

OK, just a quick update. Ive transplanted the seedlings into small pots today. Roots were appearing at the bottom of the incubator and I was worried about damaging them on the watering matt. Ive also given them a weak solution with the nutes in the pic above, just to start them off. They are back under the flourescents, and so far so good. Transplanting has been a time when Ive failed before but there were other factors like overwatering etc.

Fingers crossed, and eyes, and legs...........

Some more pics taken today just before their second feed. As you can see they've been transplanted and I think they look fairly happy. It's much cooler and airier in the new grow room than the HPS room was before I butchered it. The plants are right up close to the flourescent lights and Ive even put some homemade CO2 in there.

It's a bit early to talk about flowering just yet, but I think it would be really useful for me to use the LST technique with the limited height under the HPS. Am I gonna be OK doing this first time round? Or am I gonna have to start learning all over again?

Please let me know if you spot any really dumb mistakes hehe.....

Ever get the feeling your having twins?

What a difference 4 days makes! And they still look happy to me, BTW any confirmation of that would be really usefull! I'm still really serious about the LST and have decided to follow the instructions in the thread below. If anyone has any experience of this procedure and can offer any help at all I would be really grateful. I'm particularly worried about when I should make the first bend. They are only an inch tall maximum at the moment so I think its a bit soon, and they're very close to the lights so are not gaining much height either. (?) Am I worrying about nothing.........

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/6834-how-lst-low-stress-training.html

Thanks! but