Walk's First Grow!

This is my first grow people, here's the specs:

-3x3.5x4 Plywood Box
-Mylar all around, light-proofed
-80CFM outtake
-Ambient Temps 56F
-Northern Lights Seeds (nirvana)
-104w Florescent for Seedlings
-600w HPS for end of veg/flower
-Peat plugs for seedlings
-Ocean Forest once I up-pot
-No neuts used so far (might get some bloom for flowering)
-PH 6.8-7.0 Water

Day 1 -
Paper towel germination, put it in a sealed peanut container and put it under a tissue box ontop of one of my computer fans (runs 96F)

Day 4 -
Placed 9/10 seeds in peat plugs and put them under 104w Florescent, under humidity dome, covered holes with ocean forest. First Water.

Day 5 -
Got eager and watered again, after trollin forums a bit more I decided I'm not watering again for another few days

Day 6 -
Starting to show signs of life! Real excited, saw a seed sitting on top of the soil so I panic'd and poked it, it was just the seedling pushing it off itself
Also added a few open cups of water to hopefully bring the humidity up a bit, and I closed the vents on the humidity dome(duct tape <3)

Pictures:
1. My setup with the florescents up

2. The seed that i brushed away revealed this!

3. Some shots of my babies in their plugs

4. A hairy little thing pokin through the soil!

Comments are welcome!
-Walk

It's been an exciting last couple of minutes! Just got home from class and... my ballast finally came!! (usps blows)

Anyways, I hooked up my 600w HPS and plugged her in to see what temps were like with it running.. I'm sitting at 72F with it and the floros on, so I'm just going to take the heater out of the room and use both lights to veg these babies.

Here's some updated pics! (file names are the names of the plants ) Along with a pic of the setup now that I have the HPS glowin!

I also bought a 360Sprayer today, and misted the plants after I watered, hopefully that'll help and once they get a little bigger I have some liquid seaweed I'm going to use to spray them down with too

I'm planning on up-potting in 18ish hours (when I get off work tomorrow), so I'll update then!

Feel free to comment!

Quick update, after posting my last update I went and checked temps again and it was high 90's, so I installed a 6" (280cfm) exhaust right at the end of my light to try and suck some air away, it seems to do the job for now but I can't have my oscillating fan on or it stirs the air up so that I'm exhausting cold air, which is bad.

Plan is, order a 6" cool tube and hook it up to the 6" exhaust I have now (leaving 4" 80cfm exhaust for the air in the room) so I can turn my oscillating fan on again.

(by the way, my sprout from earlier, Anne, finally showed her leaves and looks almost as good as Mr. Franklin does!)

Still using 24/0 light, with a 600w hps and 104w flors. Misting really helped the humidity (up to around 42-5% right now, but I'm sure that'll go down as the night goes on)

Is 82-85 degrees F healthy for my babies?

Any comments/suggestions feel free to post! I like getting feedback! Especially if it's advice from experienced growers!
-Walk

When I returned from work today, to my dismay I saw temperatures of 91F, with the max being 95F.

Two of the plants were laying down (anne and ben) after opening the door and turning off the light as temps returned to normal, I went to the local hydro store and picked up a 6" cooltube (paid a lot more than i was planning to, but it couldn't wait shipping time)

After about 2 hours of installing the cooltube (they're a lot longer once they're in the grow box, i swear... not to mention moving 6" ducting around isn't my idea of a good time) it seems ben is going to make a full recovery, anne on the other hand, like the untold story of the history books, got incinerated beyond recognition.

Now temps are govering between 79-81 (hooked up the webcam so I can moniter from outside). The plants that survived the toasting looked healthier than ever, with 2 plants having 2 sets of alternating leaves already!

The two stringy looking ones I had going turned out to confirm my suspicion, they weren't stems, but roots. They shriveled up and died.

I'm down to 3 plants so I might have to start looking into some LSTing to keep usage of my grow space. That or I might do Uncle Ben's topping for 2 main colas and plant the cuttings as clones.

Either way, I'm thining I'll have to install an intake on the other end of the cooltube (right now only the exhaust is hooked up to ducting) because even though temperatures are bearable at the plants height now, if the plants can't grow close enough to the tube I'm going to have serious limits on my growing space.

Again, feel free to comment! I'm doing this somewhat to organize my thoughts, but mostly so I can get some feedback!

-Walk

Got home from class and went and checked on em, temps seem to be bearable with the max temp being 87, but im still thinking i'm going to have to get an intake on the cooltube, maybe sooner than i thought... or atleast get an intake into the box itself!

The 3 I expected to live are looking great!

They seem to be leaning towards my CFL's a bit (had to move it to the side because of the new light fixture) but nothing bad!

Here's a few pictures, I'm thinking with the HPS cookin I'm going to have to water every day because it's drying out the plugs quite fast!

Any advice on when to transplant? Might do it tomorrow, depending on if I get some input or not.

I think they look great, and I'm hoping they're female!!

Again, feel free to comment!
-Walk

Up-potted the 3 survivors today. They look great. I MIGHT have accidentally ripped the root structure off of one of the plants.....

Not sure how it's going to turn out. I was having problems keeping temps down, but I think I have them under control now. I want to expand to a 4x4 Grow Tent for flowering.

Don't have any pictures of them, but just picture last updates, 1/4 larger, and in 1.5 gallon pots.

I hope the plant I ripped up survives.

-Walk

I would have waited for the seedlings to developed a bit a root ball.
Well good luck with your grow.

MetroidThatSmokesTheGanja said:

I would have waited for the seedlings to developed a bit a root ball.
Well good luck with your grow.

Click to expand...

A lot of the seedlin's had a fair amount of roots, all of them had root showing at the bottom of the plugs, and most of them had 4-5 roots poppin out of the bottom.

That and the watering was iffy, I had to water every day, and with the location of my grow room that's a little difficult!

Wow, I'm surprised any survived. Seedlings don't need HPS light, your fluros were plenty. And you re-pot once you have plenty of roots showing at the bottom and sides of the plug. Good idea for the tent upgrade, will be easier I think. Good luck, any questions and I try to help.

FileError404 said:

Wow, I'm surprised any survived. Seedlings don't need HPS light, your fluros were plenty. And you re-pot once you have plenty of roots showing at the bottom and sides of the plug. Good idea for the tent upgrade, will be easier I think. Good luck, any questions and I try to help.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! I'm kind of surprised they survived too. My jig-saw work isn't very good, along with the fact that their temperatures have been between 90 and 60F throughout their seedling life...

Do you think the hps is still too much for them? I have them under it right now and can't fuss with them till tomorrow but once I can would you suggest turning the HPS off? Right now I have the CFLs about 3-4 inches from all of them and the HPS about a foot away, temps are fine (doesn't burn the back of my hand, infact I can't even feel the lamps heat unless I hold my hand 1-2 inches away for a few seconds, and even then it's slight..

They seem to be loving the new light, and I don't see any signs of transplant shock, but what do I know.

All 3 are starting to show signs of their 3rd set of leaves, but there isn't any stem in between sets of leaves.. it's just leaves inside of leaves, is this a problem?

They all have turned themselves towards the hps, so I'm thinking I'll let them sit where they are, and maybe let them grow a little closer (it isn't even noticably a temperature change until I'm almost touching the cool tube) so I'll adjust as needed.

With my 80cfm fan for exhaust, 280cfm fan for cooling my cool tube, and a 3.5x3x4 grow space, 42cf grow space... I'm replacing the air inside like 6 times a minute, is this bad?

And my last question, are the seedlings strong enough for an oscillating fan now?

-Walk

You likely have no stem because of the strong light, it's the opposite of stretching By all means, if the temps are fine leave the light in there. Also, you can't have too much fresh air so keep the exhaust running. You can turn on the oscillating fan but not directly onto the plants. Make it indirect so the air bounces of the wall onto the seedlings and keep it on low. They should only sway very gently.

Hope this helps.

Gl!

How are you doing on fans?

MetroidThatSmokesTheGanja said:

How are you doing on fans?

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean? I have a 280cfm fan exhausting from my cooltube, intake from the room. Also have a 80cfm fan exhausting from the top of the box.

Don't have an oscillating fan yet as walmart, target, best buy, home depot, office depot, and hhgregg all don't have personal fans. But they all have heaters...

Temps stay about 75-80 with lights on, not sure what lights off temps are, I'll check once lights come on at 8EST

Alright, here's some pics of right after watering!







Temps hit 65F at night, fans turn off right when lights do.

The first pic seems like he's alright, 2nd is the one whose roots got ripped during transplant, so she looks good considering, 3rd still has the seed on that right leaf, but otherwise looks good.

Am I giving them too much light? Looks like they might be growing slow? I dunno.

Comments are appreciated!

-Walk

Opened the grow room today and was pleasantly surprised, got a lot of leaf growth and they are starting to get a little thicker and don't look as flimsy!

Here's the pics!




I started misting with ph'd water + some liquid seaweed I got from the hydro shop, the dude said foliar feeding during veg helps a lot, I may be using under the recommended dosage though, kind of just eyeballed a few drops into my spray bottle

Comments are welcome! I added a fan blowing gently towards the plants, can't see much effect on them but it's there (i can feel it with my hand)

Again, any comments are welcome! Especially positive ones! I'm still a noob so anything to ease the mind goes a long way

-Walk

Didn't check on these babies in a few days, and I was pleasantly surprised when I looked in today and saw this! (they had 4 leaves when I checked them last; 2 days ago)


Not a very good pic, but it's with the phone so whatever.

Been doin some research on my strain, Northern Lights from Nirvana.. not sure if it's #5 or whatever but from what I hear it's a very neutral odor, and taste... I was looking for a little taste but I'm used to smokin mids so I'm sure it'll be an upgrade!

-Walk

Haven't updated in a while.

Plants a few weeks in:


Had a little N deficiency but through the use of the forums FAQs I figured it out, remedied by my moms Schults 10-10-10 plant food @ 1/4 strength.

Put them into flower two weeks ago, here's a pic from 2 days ago:


Started to (super-low)LST the biggest plant (on the left in the pics), also added some side lighting, planning on putting another fixture on the other side soon.





Ordered a vaporizer yesterday, should be here soon. Gonna make the most out of this harvest ) any tips/comments are welcome.

-Walk