Spark up with ~V~

Greetings yall!

Been hooked to the massive forum community for the past days and glad to finally get membership so I can see all the pics I've been pulling my hair out for ;P

Just starting to work my green thumb which is how ended up here. I rent, so the site is a friend's who owns and has a spare room of which we are converting a small walk-in closet to a dual cycle setup. We have the space to do some good things, so I hope to be able to prevent/tackle some newbie issues as quickly as possible. There were 18 seeds germed from a put away chronic bagseed stash of 8 years (paper towl 21st, rockwool 23rd). I already feel like I'm losing 3 of em, so flustrating to think I might kill a great strain >.<, I'll get pics up asap..

Till then,

~V~

Sup again smokers,

Lights avail:
4x 24w cfls (blues, prolly go to 6)
2x 400W hps
1x 74w red spec cfl

Here's a view of half of the closet space, sorry for the clutter, MUCH a work in progress. Door just to leftof pic, room is the same on both sides, hope to veg half and flo half. Note that the space steadily pinches off.
halfroom.jpg

1 1/2 wk since germ. A number of them seem to be quickly losing their will to live... blamable on poor seed storage, temperature fluctuations, over nut, and lights too close too early. The healthy ones will be going into soil (dropping the rockwool straight in) within the next day or two - organic + extra perlite (edit: tonite)
sprout.jpg

Suggestions welcomed! and thank you!

*About how many lumens should I be using for the rooting tray.. just about 3k? when should I really be stepping up the lighting... when new leaves begin to form? when I transfer to first pot?

*The space needs to be divided...since we have only once cycle needed at the moment, I'm figuring we have up till veg is about over to finalize the partition-
a) blackout/mylar draped as a wall with some sort of velcro/zipper door dividing the room down the middle ("rooms" would then consist of the area in the pic)?
b) section off the veg portion with something more solid such as 1x2 frames or some sort of cabinet/box setup?
c) drape mylar/blackout across the room so that from the entrance, you would enter the flo room, and in the back as the roof slopes down, the veg is partitioned in the back of the room. (this would have flo cycle leftside of the pic and veg on the right)


Unfortunately I can't be at loc more than about once a day, the house owner is capable of making adjustments and preemptive maintenance, but is as inexperienced as myself. We do have an experienced consultant which completes the circle (or triangle in this case ;P). We're working on ventilation (in/out to attic), plan for a carbon filter to set up there ASAP. More notes to come, and I'll try to get a better shot of the room as I fear it might be hard to get a feel for the space with the quick shot I took.

~V~

Back, soiled em. Nearly soiling myself with anticipation of new things to come!

Seems most the babies have recovered and 14 or 15 have begun popping new growth! Tossed one deader, looks like 2 are shriveling bad.

Q) When are those two round starter leaves unecessary for the sproutling? A few of them are hurt and I'd like to get rid of em or if they fall off soon I'll just leave em alone

A few more pics of the room so far in case anyone has some input.

If I continue with alot of updates as I hope I'll start into a journal. Thanks for checkin in!
room1.jpgroom2.jpgroom3.jpg

~V~

hey bro.. hows things going??

the set up looks like its in the right direction... not much to for warn you about yet... i would suggest getting some sort of fan blowing air on those babies tho.. keep em cool and strengthen them up!!

ill be watching along with ya... ask anything you may have questions about!

simpsonsampson420 said:

hey bro.. hows things going??

the set up looks like its in the right direction... not much to for warn you about yet... i would suggest getting some sort of fan blowing air on those babies tho.. keep em cool and strengthen them up!!

ill be watching along with ya... ask anything you may have questions about!

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm hoping to learn quickly and other than experience the only other way is to be open to other's willing to share.

Things are good, weather's gorgeous today! Hoping my babies are liking their new home, I'll check on em later tonite. Started the bones of a journal.. mom always said one should have a diary ;P

Hope your fresh cuts are having a good time hanging out!

~V~

As I predicted when prepping to go to soil from rockwool, the other 2 strugglers are goners, left with 12 strong ones and 3 skiffy ones. Giving em several days to settle from the transplant shock and initial watering before allowing myself to be anymore concerned.

I'm using the 20someW (100w output) CFL's with those circular hoods which conceptually should focus the light down more.. it seem like CFL's emit their light fairly radially.. is it an even distribution for strength in nearly 360s? I see many people angling their cfl's sideways/perpendicular to their plants. Just want to make sure there's not a weaker spot directly in front of the spiral for some reason. Think I should prolly mylar some walls around the area if alot of the light is beaming away as the lights stick out just barely past the end of the reflector.

about how much area can i hope to Flower with 2 400w HPS if I plan to start the cycle when they're appr 1ft? two 3x3 blocks?

~V~

11.5.09 - Mostly quiet on the field. Sproutlings have seemed to take to their home, New growth, some awkward... a bit concerned about lighting distribution. Watered primarily the cubes a bit yesterday and today as a few are exposed and getting a bit dry, the soil is moderately moist still tho so laying off watering much of that until tomorrow. In addition to testing the soil with my finger by digging down and checking for moisture, I got a new toy! Some of them were slightly banged up so I got 50% off the meter. Hindsight, it's not too expensive so I should have just sprung for the non bent one, maybe I'll just go back and get another.
matsealtester.jpg
The meter tests ph/moisture/light! Was $8 down to $4. (the stuff behind was used to help seal the door for light and temp control)

With this I did alot of testing with the light meter from my young sproutlings. The lights are dist between 3-4 in away from the younglings. It seems most of the CFL's are sending about 500 lumens a piece to the least lit sproutlings, these have 2 within the similar distance so I'm assuming those sproutlings are receiving about 1k lumen. the one's sitting directly under a CFL get high on the meter.. reading at like nearly 2k lumens (I do NOT, by any means, standby these readings as fact since they are based off of a non professional meter ;P). Some conflicting opinions on the optimal environment have led to the raising of the lights to >4 inches for the most part... our consultant suggested that it is a bit too early to be giving the sproutlings such light and also too early for the fan to be blowing on them as I had placed in hopes of figuring on giving them strength in their stems. Comments welcomed!
sprout1.jpg

~V~

WELCOME TO ROLLITUP!
I hope you hang around and enjoy the site.



Roseman's DIY Bubbleponics Tutorial - [URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"][URL="https://www.rollitup.org/"]Marijuana[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL] Growing[/URL] < a great tutorial to learn if I must say so, myself.

coming alongalongalong,.,.,.,ure on the rite trak keep it up

Thanks Rose, your DIY's are awesome. and I defintely hope be to be a BubbleHead soon as I get a few earthbend's under my belt.

Encouragement and approval appreciated CB200,babies are coming along, I expect the next week will be more movement as the roots bust outta the rockwool and find soil. trying to find someone to order some seeds to drop, partner will invest.. we'll get a credit card from a supermarket loaded with cash and a third party.. too paranoid? or don't even try it from the US?

also.. strains? lookin at blue mystic, bubbleicious, n light, jack frost, nightshade, red dragon, idk uhhh so many.. to fem or not to fem? i'm /drooling with the possibilities and anticipation!

~V~

edit: decided on blue mystic, bubble and night shade. starting to lose patience looking for someone willing to be the 3rd party orderer and thinking of ordering them myself as the op is not at my place. opinions?

or maybe PO box? I really want to get sum soon to drop another round to get a nice cycle going. ~V~

people order seeds all the time.,.,.,po box is co0l tho.,.,they usually ship stealth.,.,u wouldnt know it was the package if ya wasnt "hip".,.,lol

11.13.09: (Friday the 13th) OP's safety compromised as pigs showed up on the location's doorstep in response to complaints of heavy traffic. Immediate site shutdown.

The sproutlings had seemed to stagnate since the rockwool was dropped into soil. Previous to that many leaves were most likely affected by heat stress. Taking the dome off too early + not misting enough. I don't believe it was overwatering as rockwool is rumored to breathe amazingly. At 3 weeks the sproutlings are green but have shown little growth. With all the little kinks and this move, I hope the babies will survive. They're currently droopy with the old leaves light green/yellowing but new growth is green. Any thoughts?

I'm beating myself for putting so many eggs into one basket. ~V~