Losing My Virginity. Growing For The First Time.

Sativus said:

Ahhhh, I get it. Your all perverts who only like to watch... LOL

Well it's cool to know there is someone watching guys, thanks for that.
It's funny, cause after I smoke a joint I come on here and look through all the other threads without really posting. It never occurred to me that others may just be doing the same thing lol.

Last night I changed the lighting to 11 on and 13 off. The plants are also taking well to the 30% nutrient mix.

I still have some fan leafs and also some smaller growth that that is all being shaded by the canopy. The leafs are drooping a little and the bud sites are not growing well, all from lack of available light. I had my reservations last time about trimming and pruning but I ended up doing it anyways and everything turned out very well. I am wondering if I should do it again to anything that is not getting light or doesn't have potential. I just don't know if it would be better for the health of the plants to trim up or leave it as is. If I leave the small growth I can use it for hash after, but is it using up precious resources that would otherwise be put to better use by my main tops?

Any opinions welcomed.

Well, thanks for all your kind words. I will continue to update.

Click to expand...

hey first off let me say nice lookin grow.
looks like you got everything sorted to me..
subbed for sure and + REP for doing such a dam good job with flouros!!!!!
can't wait to see how this turns out man.

and about the trimming you'll hear alot of argument for both sides of this battle!!!! lol i personally agree with Gidgit, i trim the first few branches that are very spindley, and then a couple of the fan leaves that might block light from lower side, but i only trim once im at about 3 weeks of flowering.
thats just the way that always worked for me, after letting them grow natural a couple times and then trimming and seeing what i thought was a slight improvement.
anyways goodluck man, i'll be whatchin!

Hey thanks for that m8. I'm at 3 and a half weeks flowering right now, and I trimmed and pruned about a week or so ago for the first time. But now at this time, it looks like I could have taken a little bit more of the small branches that are below the canopy. Do you think that this slight improvement in bud size from pruning would outweigh the benifits of the hash I would be making from all those small popcorn nuggets I would otherwise cut off? I only want to do it if the difference is generally significant, because I love my hash too .

Thanks to you guys that posted. I am working my way through all your journals and will be leaving feedback.

Thanks again.

Upon further consideration, I have decided that I will not prune off any more flowering growth. I do think though that I should still remove some of the lower larger "at end of life cycle" fan leaves that are blocking light to the remaining flowering growth. Tomorrow night before I water I will examine them closely and determine if any of the leaves that do not have trics on them can go. I know there are at least a couple on each plant that are no longer pulling their weight.
Any suggestions or objections welcomed.

Good luck man, sweet set up!

Congrats on a nice first grow.

1.) Your camera says its 2006. Party like it's 2011.

2.) The power strip style timer in this picture:


...has a battery life of 3 months or so. THe battery inside the power strip WILL die and when it does the clock/program timers go blank and the outlets it times either stay ON or OFF depending on the cycle the battery fails during. That can spell very troublesome news for a grow room. You should replace this as soon as possible. Its made to last a month or two for christmas lights. I speak this from experience, I had four of them. They did look pretty at home depot though for $19 didnt they?

Keep up the good work Ryan

Hey thanks for that guys! Yeah, I got it for $24 at Canadian tire, but still fair price I think.
Yes, I was aware of the battery. The digital timer runs nothing but the fan, which comes on and off 7 times a day for an hour and 45 mins at a time, so if it dies it will not effect my lights at all. I am using the old analog timer for the very simple light cycle. Very much appreciate the heads up though. I will be sure to get a few spare batteries on hand. For some reason I assumed that while the bar was powered on (which it always is), there was no draw on the battery. So again, very much appreciate that m8.
Yeah, your not the first to comment on the date either lol. I actually set the date the other night, so from now on it should be the proper date, which will be helpful for referencing pics in the future.
May I ask your opinions on the large lower fan leaf removal? Some are starting to droop a little and are not getting much if any direct light. Better to tuck and let die, or trim? I just don't want the plant using resources to try to heal the leaves that I would rather see go...

Again, thanks for the comments!

Edit: Didn't take any pictures, but all is looking ok in the box. Seems the cat got in there sometime last night and nibbled on two or three leaves. She was looking very comfortable laying on a old mattress when I went down there this morning. lol
While looking and smelling the plants, I noticed what looked like a piece of webbing that went between two fingers on one leaf. I could not find it anywhere else that I could see in the box, and it was located right at the very front of the box near the cracked open door. Now I am sure that it is possible that my cat could have had something to do with it, but there are some bugs down there in the unfinished basement. None of which I have ever but once seen inside my grow box.
I will inspect the plants very thoroughly tomorrow night when I water them, and I will take pics if I see anything like it again.
I defiantly see several fan leaves on each plant that are severely limiting light to bud sites on the lower parts of the plants. I am thinking about a "if blocking light to buds and has no trics it goes" strategy for tomorrow night.
Would really appreciate anyone's opinion who might be reading this.

Ohhh what a beautiful smell it was. They just began releasing that mouth watering aroma.

Will update again tomorrow night.

Ok, so it's the 23rd. Watering day.
I inspected the plants when I pulled them out tonight. There is no sign of any other web like stuff on any of the plants.
I also trimmed the plants before I watered them taking only leaves that were blocking light to lower bud sites.

Looks like more than it is, I felt like I barley cut off any at all. Let's see how they react over the next week...

I fed them with about a 35% feed this time. The plants showed no major signs of nutrient burn from the 30%, so I upped it just a tad.

I also installed my exhaust fan tonight, and for it I bought an additional timer.


The fan is just a plain 50cfm bathroom exhaust fan sucking air out of my grow box. It is on it's own timer which is set to come on for 30mins at a time while the circulation fan is off. I will probably reduce that because it wont take that long to change the air and I don't want it running for nothing.
Still need to drill a few holes in the bottom of the box for inlets, just left the door open a crack tonight cause my drill died.
Here are a few more pics I took:


The plants smell just wonderful.

That's it for tonight.

Ok, so I made a schedule for my exhaust and circulation fans and I would like opinions.

Every 1 hour and 15 mins, the Circulation fan comes on for 15 mins and cleans and circulates the air in the grow box.

Every 3 and a half hours, the Exhaust fan comes on for 15 mins and exchanges the air in the grow box.

The fans are never on at the same time.

Both fans are I think roughly 50cfm, and my grow box is roughly 60cf or so. 15 mins of on time should allow each fan to completely move all the air in the grow box 10 times over (unless I misunderstood the math).

I am thinking that I will be making a activated carbon filter very similar to this one:
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/101248-best-diy-ez-walmart-carbon.html
And will attach this to my exhaust fan outside of the grow box.

Any opinions are greatly appreciated!

Your hugely underestimating the amount of air pot needs to grow......... My computer exhaust fans is 50cfm.

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2010/07/planning-your-grow/

Scroll down to "Ventilation" and it gives you the exact formulas you need to determine what to do......

Hello, Ryan Sativus. I just read your journal. Nice work so far. Those plants look healthy and good.

I'm very impressed by your training... especially for a first timer. Someone is giving you pointers?

Anyway, great job. I have one quick question, tho. Do you have the front of your box open just to take photos or is it open like that all the time?

@lordjin, The front of the box is not always open like that. I have been leaving it open a little because I did not yet have my exhaust fan installed.
No one is here helping me. I simply read and apply.
Thanks for the kind words.

@kitty, I must be off on the cfm than because both fans put out a lot more air than I have ever had pushed out of a pc fan...
I'm a little concerned now though.
The temp inside is low because the flouro tubes hardly put off any heat, and the air is well circulated with the fan being used. I wouldn't want the air being shot out of the top of that fan to be blowing on my plants for any extended period of time, as it would probably kill them. So maybe 50cfm is not accurate. I'll update on that later this evening.
The exhaust fan is 50cfm though, and it puts out a lot of air. Almost as much as the circulation fan inside the box.
Are you saying that I need to refresh the air more often or that I need the fan on more often or both?
I will read that link you posted, but any specific pointers would be appreciated.

Edit: Ahh ok I see, your saying that I should be replacing the air in the box more often. Once a minute for 15 mins every 3.5 hours is not enough.
If I run the exhaust fan 24/7, then I would basically meet the requirements in the link. But I really don't want to do that.
I will heed your warning though and increase the time on for the exhaust fan.
All the air every minute though? Is that really necessary? Thus far I have had no exhaust fan and only circulation and everything was seemingly well, so I assumed that the exhaust fan would only make things better...
What are your suggestions if you don't mind?

Thanks to both of you.

About air movement, I wouldn't be too concerned with cfm ratings with a space as small as yours. Instead, get a feel for how the air is moving inside the grow area with your hand and the amount of quiver on the branches and leaves. If your intake flow is creating a nice (but not too strong) draft that is causing a gentle quiver in your branches, that's all you need to see. If you have some sort of exhaust sucking the stale air out as the intake blows a gentle draft in, you're golden.

Well, the intake will be passive. A simple grate in the middle of the door is what I am thinking. But it is not the intake that moves air around the plants. Separate from the exhaust fan, I have another (Ionizing/Hepa/Carbon Filter) fan which is circulating the air inside the grow box. It does not blow on the plants, but creates enough draft to lightly "quiver" some branches on each plant.
Both of these fans are on different timers and can be set to come on and off several times a day.

The exhaust is exactly for that. To suck stale air out of the grow box several times per day.

One timer I have has 7 available time on/off cycles. The other cheaper (d'oh) one has 20 available cycles. So I am trying to find the best timer and schedule for each fan.
I had figured that the air circulation should be run more often so I thought I would give it maybe 15-30 mins on every hour and fifteen minutes.
And the exhaust fan would come on for 15-30 mins every 3 and a half hours (which should be more than enough time for the exhaust fan to exchange the air).

You think that's sufficient for my little grow box?
Kitty, you still think I will have a problem?

Again, thanks for your input.

Always exhaust. Always try and make the leaves flutter in a gentle oscillating breeze. Do that and you win.

In fact, you'd really benefit from one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Duracraft-DY-012-Oscillating-3-Speed-Tower/dp/B000FVX6D2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308954166&sr=8-1

Not that one in particular, but one like it, that blows gently around under those plants 24/7. You can probably find em at Home Depot / Wal-Mart for $20-$30 or so

Your description sounds fine.
But yeah, researchkitty is right. Better to have a bit of gentle air movement 24/7.

I actually have a fan very similar to that. You can see it in my earlier pics. The fan I replaced it with is much better at moving the air around the grow box. The other fan even on low was kind of too powerful and no longer oscillated.
Ok, so the exhaust fan needs to be replaced. I was uncomfortable leaving the old one on for long periods of time, and when I checked it last night it was quite hot. So now the door is cracked open again and I have unplugged it and have the circulation fan on 24 hours now on low.
Now, Kitty, could you suggest a type of exhaust fan that would be suitable to run 24/7 like you suggest? My concern is not about hydro, my concern is for my family living upstairs. I don't want to have a fire start while we are sleeping or something... I do have a smoke detector in the box in case of such an occasion though.
Unfortunately, it's going to be next Friday before I can purchase another exhaust fan, so I will be leaving the door open, but the plants are gonna begin to smell very good in the next week or so, so I need the exhaust fan and activated carbon filter installed soon.

Edit: Last night when checking on them, I went and arranged a top so that it would not touch the light over night. After doing so I noticed just how sticky my fingers were from doing so. I was shocked that my fingers were all sticky, abd aww man they smelt soo good.
Now I don't have any way atm to measure the humidity in the box, other than sticking my head in and feeling the air directly after opening the box. I had a humidity issue a few weeks back, and after buying the new circulation fan and de-humidifying eggs I felt that the humidity went down considerable.
Now I thought I read that a less humid environment encouraged the plants to produce more resin cause they want to protect themselves from drying out. And that would be beneficial to the grower.
Am I correct with that assessment? Is sticky buds a sign of a good humidity level?

I ordered a Light/pH/Moisture tester off ebay the other day to give me a rough idea of what the plants have available to them.

Equipment still needed:

Exhaust fan
Activated Carbon Filter
Humidity gauge

Thanks for your opinions, they are appreciated even more than you know.

You wont have to worry about a fire. Its a light bulb. Weed room fires are usually as a result of a flood and electric cords on the floor, or some idiot stacking ballasts one on top of another with no cooling. Your flourescent lights will output LESS heat than most desktop computers.

Ignore the light meter. I'll sell you mine if you want real cheap. (I'm kidding though, we cant sell or transact here). Light meters wont do you any good. Is the light on? It works!

The ph/ppm meter is a requirement, no grower should be without one. I'd choose using bag seed and a ph/ppm meter over using dank seeds with no ph/ppm meter!

As for the exhaust fan, it is a small area, but you still want more airflow. Plants use up air as quick as a leaf can flutter. If the leaves arent fluttering, they arent breathing as much as they CAN and ergo you are hurting your yield. If the plant can breath and transpire through the atmosphere you'll get more of a yield. You dont want a wind tunnel, just enough flowing air. Your exhaust fan should change the air in the grow box once every minute or two (which means its continually on, but takes 1-2 minutes of being on to exchange all the actual air in the grow box). You know if it is by knowing the CFM (cubic feet per minute) and knowing the cubic footage of the growing area. Fan CFM >= Box Cuft. If >= then you win!

Your plants do look marvelous for their first or tenth grow so far.

The fire concern is not about heat from the lights. I am concerned about leaving a fan on 24/7 and it overheating or something like that... I need to get a fan that I know can dependably run 24/7 for the next 2 months...
My circulation fan does a fantastic job of circulating the air in the box. The plants have air flowing around them perfectly. I would just like to exchange that air in the room several times a day (or constantly if the next exhaust fan permits).
The meter I ordered was a 3 in one. I got it mostly to get an idea of the ph of the soil. The light meter and soil moisture meter are just bonus's. Paid 2.50 for the damn thing lol.

Thanks for the input on the health of the plants. I think they are doing really well so far.
If I can get on top of this exhaust issue, I should be all set to sit back and just watch for the next 4-6 weeks.
I don't have a ppm meter, but I do know that the tap water I am using is in the 700's straight from the tap. I live in the country and farmland all around. Used to be a chicken farm here too, so the ground is saturated with ferts so to speak. My outdoor garden grows HUGE cucumbers LOL. We have a RO system for our drinking/cooking water.
But the plants seem to love it anyways.
The cubic feet of the box is roughly 56, so a 50+ cfm exhaust fan and carbon filter should be able to do it at least once every 2 minutes. So I just need to find one I am comfortable running 24/7.

Maybe if I am really lucky, by my tenth grow my basement will be finished and my grow will begin to look a little more like yours

Thanks for all your input Kitty, really really appreciate it.

So I have found an exhaust fan that I think will be suitable.
http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/Heating-Ventilation-Cooling-Home-Comfort/Heating/Furnace-Parts-Acc/Accessories/FAN-BOOSTER-DUCT-6/_/N-2pqfZ67l/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN/R-I5532220?Ntt=duct+booster
I have enough scrap wood here that I am thinking I will simply build a carbon filter to attach to the outside of my box.

Here is a group pic from last night:


And here is a close up on a top: