Troutie's Green O'matic Stealth grow

today went out to check overnight temps... there very stable now and i'm happy with 1-2 checks a day now... new leaves seen in pictures above have almost doubled overnight (or so it seems), noticed that humidity was clocking 40% and the towel was almost dry to the touch... so i rinsed it tru and spun off the most of the water and hung it back in there... within 10 minutes meter was reading 46% .... again well impressed (i would use 2 or 3 towels in my tent as i'd have more room)

so other then that not much to report, i feel happy with there growth so far.. i've never grown these before so i can only guess. colour seems good and growth may be speeding up a little i hope ...maybe

Is looking good so far Troutie speaking as a non experienced grower lol

But your chamber looks impressively tidy compared to mine. And loving the 'damp towel trick' I may give that a go too, but I'm really concerned now about my temps, now that I have a thermometer and it's telling me 'too hot!'

yeah its a trial .... but i think your on your way to fixing that problem ... its always simple little things that make the difference

and as for mine looking tidy.... i've been mucking around with it for days and its amazing the amount of sins a roll of bubble foil and ductape can hide , and i got lucky with the freebee wardrobe... so i can shut the door on it lol

seems you have one of the most important qualities on your path to growerhood, young grasshopper.... ingenuity! *high fives*

caseyjones: smoking around your plants causes the stomata to close..... you probably won't notice a difference, per se, but they (especially the young'uns) don't like it.....

mellokitty said:

seems you have one of the most important qualities on your path to growerhood, young grasshopper.... ingenuity! *high fives*

caseyjones: smoking around your plants causes the stomata to close..... you probably won't notice a difference, per se, but they (especially the young'uns) don't like it.....

Click to expand...

thanks Mrs kitty... (blush)

and well there we go casey..... well i hope my little en's forgive the passive smoking i've subjected them too

but it did remind me of when i use to work in a pub i was only 18-19 (nearly 15 yrs ago in todays money) ... me and some mates use to go out in my austin mini and rip several bongs with the windows up...and the one who had to get out or open the window first had to walk home hehehehehe .... i was the driver so i never walked

yeah well it's all relative.... (mr kitty smokes in The Room.)
the purist in me says, "don't, if you can help it", but it's not like "OMG, don't smoke in your room, they might DIIIEEEE!!".... and it comes down to personal preference/availability. (lots of guys i know HAVE to go smoke in The Room, because their wives won't let them smoke anywhere else in the house so it's not like it's a BFD or anything, just wanted to point out that it's not beneficial is all.)

ahhhhhh gotcha....

So far so good dude, how big are ya hoping to grow them? - STELTHY

Welcome stelthy Bro and thanks for having a look

they are autos...and max out at 20" from what i've seen 55-60 days total.... i'm using a single duel spectrum 125w cfl so i dont expect them to be record breakers.... my question to you is, do you think i should put a couple more 2700k bulbs in there?.... or do you think one cfl will be enough to reach anywhere near there potential... i dont know how to work out the lumen calculations

my first attempt was with florecents and cfl's and my bud ended up really fluffy and I didn't end up with very much smoke at all, everything I've seen pretty much says that if you arn't having cooling probs and you can and are willing to spend more on lights then do it. More light = more flower growth aka bigger more dense buds. I'm not a pro but that is my opinion and also the reason that I'm running a 600watt MH/HPS now.

yeah i can't wait to unbox my 600 watt'r .... but not till we've moved into our new place... so i'm thinking this one will be done by then ..... and cooling isn't a problem i can get 4 x the amount of air out of of my cab that i am currently, so more 2700k bulbs it is

i wonder if cumbers is up for a little time share

last night i had a quick ask in newbie central about my watering method .... i have been giving very little to them each time, but have found i was doing everyday and the soil wasn't holding moisture like i thought it should.... i don't think its because the light is too close, my seedlings seem to be fine no heat stress and i've done the back of my hand trick and i can move it much close to the lamp before i can feel any heat from it... so lamp heat aint the problem

so my soil is just john innes seeding soil and about 30/40% crushed perlite (i wanted smaller chunks for my seedlings).... when i have watered it has been about 50-70ml .... not much at all ... but enough to get a little run off each time (so i know its been getting down to the bottom) so i posed the question am i watering too little too ofter?? the two responses i got about this was i was indeed watering too little too often

so this morning when i checked them all three pots were dry again and had no real weight to them .....and the soil had shrunk leaving a 2-3mm gap around the edge of each pot.... so this time i gave them i'd say twice-three times what i normally do .... and then after waiting a couple of minutes removed the run off water........... lets see if that helps or if they are dry tomorrow morning?

That's something I've considered too.
I tend to water a little every day, but then I have no trays underneath and don't really want a lake in my chamber. Though I upped the amount last time, to two coke cans worth (about 2/3 of a litre) for all 5. No run off and seems to be okay so far.

I'd like to know what volume of water you're feeding each one pls

well mine are in 3" pots .... and was giving them roughly 1/4-1/3 of a Coke™ cans worth each time... (and was seeing run off) and i am watering around the edge of the pot to help root spread.... this time easily 2/3rds of a Coke™ cans worth ... and had a fair amount of run off
i used 1 small tea plate ... put it under each 1 ..... watered it... waited 1 minute max.... and then tipped run off back into my jug and moved the tea plate to the next one and did the same... removing the tea plate at the end...and had no runoff remaining after i had put them down, so i guess the purlite has scoffed the rest

i will check the soil again tonight and see if its holding moisture better.... i hope its sorted now

ok on the subject of water... i hate little jobs.. i'm lazy and would rather be indoors getting lean then in the shed mixing feed..... so i have devised a plan


i have obtained 1 20-25ltr water can..... used for fresh water only, so far..... i have washed it through with hot water and all is good, i used an empty 2ltr (pepsi and i can't stand pepsi) bottle to fill the can with 10ltrs of tap water.... i then with a good sniff of the tip, i marked the can with a bingo pen at the 10ltr mark .... now i use rain water only to water my plants .. it kicks the crap out of tap water and as i said before i'm too lazy to go buying distilled or spring water for my hoes!... so cost free, almost ph perfect and available in mass quantitys for me PLEASE hehehe ... i intend to drill the rather large chunky screw cap with 2 holes ... 1 as a breather hole... and the other i will run a fishtank airline with a little airstone to keep the water fresh and up the Co2 level (i'm hopeing???.....)... then i will mix up 10ltrs of water and nutes at a time .... leaving the other half of the can empty (just incase i have to water down the mix)

what do you think?

You're devised plan appears to be a good one!
10L tank of rain water with an aeration stone - dude, you're full of good ideas
I'm tending to use 4L (2L Coke bottles) of tap water left overnight before mixing the nutes. With a once a week pure water feed to help dissolve and wash out remaining salts. Sort of a semi-flush. They like it so far so I won't change it.

I too considered the idea of using aquarium lines, one each to each pot coming from a single tank with a tap on the main line to make feeding time an easy process of just turning the tap.
Frankly, that requires much more energy and cash than I have to spare. So I haven't considered it further lol

I've been thus far avoiding any run off, but I can see why it would work and it makes sense. And I do like your idea of doing one at a time and allowing for the run off to complete, then reusing the run off for the next plant. But again, energy consumption is a big factor for me - lazy ass mofo - so I may actually have to go and buy some trays!

My pots are standard 6", and I had intended to leave them so throughout. Do you think I should transplant into bigger pots later, or do you think my plants could be happy staying in there current houses? Again, it's the cash issue. I want to not have to buy stuff if it's not necessary.

thanks cumbers .... i've commented on your repotting in your thread bro, and yeah i'm with you on the spending front.... i just managed to have enough left to grab a bag of soil from the hydro shop earlier, i will say its a great shame... my local hydro shop is run by a bloke who is totally void of any person skills... when asked a question he reluctantly looks up from his laptop (which he was using to look at porn, i could see the reflection on the glass beside him) and grunt the most unhelpful comment, and never wants to give any information about anything from nutes to the dreaded dwc setups he sells ... he just says we do all types you need to know what you want!..... fucking moody prick! i apologise for my foul mouth... but that bugs me

but on a lighter note... here's my bag of dirt!


now this says it has enough nutes to last 1-3 weeks... so i have 1 week left before transplant and i'd start with 1/4 strength nutes after 2 weeks in the new soil.... and use that every other water until ive used the 10ltrs... then double the mix to half strength and start adding bloom enhancer to it as flowering should be underway by then... thats the plan anyway ... every plan so far has been back to the drawing board so i won't be suprised if this does too lol

might have to add bloom feed into the first mix depending on how long it takes to use 10ltrs lol... just thought they might be ready before i am lol

Cumbers - I like it! lol Can't say I agree with the time share though...

Sounds like your shop keeper is an arsehole... it's a shame I think, when someone is in such a position to help so many people, but decides to be a miserable c**t instead. My mate goes to a local grow shop and he reckons the guy in there is the best help ever! Answers all questions and even offers suggestions... I think maybe you're going to the wrong shop?
I've never been (As you know I'm using only stuff from round the house), but I do intend to go in at some point to see if there're any bargains for me.

As for the soil... I can't really help with that one, or even comment as I'm using cheapo homebase top soil which cost about £3 about two years ago lmao I bought it for some house plant re-potting and it's just been sitting in my shed since then.
I intend to keep veg feeding them a week into flowering before switching to the bloom feed. I also use a little touch of babybio in the mix. Dunno why just wanted my own cocktail I spose lol but they're not complaining so I'll keep doing it
Someone actually said that I shouldn't use babybio, even, shouldn't go near it!! but people use it for their tomatoes no? So I don't see the problem... I'm not relying on it, just adding a little touch, like cayenne pepper to the bolognese

ahhhhhhh baby bio that might explain that little sick one of yours .... when i was about 14 i tryed to grow some bag seed on my window sil (mum discovered them and hit the roof! HAPPY DAYS lol) ..... but they were all yellow and hanging over the side of there pots with baby bio poisoning .... its kinda harsh stuff and i got told not to use it ever with young seedlings by my grandad (i think) when i started asking questions about it... its probs ok but being an idiot child i went mad with it

wonder what them seeds would have been like given propper care... i remember the weed use to mess me right up.... use to be called the whitey kid back then hahahaha

yeah my hydro shop keeper is an A-hole... i even asked him if he minded me looking around.... he said nothing just did this weird nod with shoulder shrug... thats how uncomfortable i felt

right back to my girls .... things seem to be going well... growth is steady and shows each day, watering went well yesterday seems to be still nice and moist and doesn't require any today... i now have a constant humidity at 48% with the aid of that damp towel, and lights are still 23/1

next on my list are.... sorting out an airpump for my water can.... and my week 2 or day 12-14 update

this morning during parade.. it suddenly dawned on me... (update!) i was looking at the tiny new growth at the top of each seedling, the new third set of leaves ... when i noticed that the lower growth (true leaves#1) and they are wider then the top of the pot now... so does this mean like with most tree's that the root spread is approx the same as the canopy??? if so i best start thinking about moving them into the bigger pots much sooner then i'd imagined, tomorrow maybe? ...... which my guess was end of week 2 maybe during week 3.

opinions would be very handy right now folks!!