A
AlkaloidContent
Guest
Hello Everyone!
Let me be the first to welcome you to my grow log. This will be my first log posted online. I have a quick introduction in the proper board for that purpose, but basically this isnt my first grow. I have had a few successful grows both indoors and out. However I would like to get a little more in depth with my grows and dwell into more important topics such as PH, nutrient ratios, etc. As opposed to germinate, sow (in pre nuted soil) and grow. With that said this isn't going to be me just posting pics of dying plants asking why I shouldnt water them every 10 mins. I understand many of the concepts behind this and dont wish to disregard the pro advice whilst offering what I can to the community.
* So you will see that my setup will not include all I need to grow through harvest YET. Understand in this economy there is no reason to purchase things like $20 carbon filters for your exhaust until the ladies begin to stink, for example.
GROW ROOM:
I have decided to go with a grow room inside of a closet to allow for extra security, light blockage, and merely to contain the "environment" from the rest of the space.
DIMENSIONS: 2'D x 3'W x 5'H.
So basically Im looking at about 12 sq ft of growing space. 2 feet back times 3 feet across times 2 foot high plants(end of flowering) Considering if allow you them to grow up to around 7-8 inches and then flower. They should shoot to around 2 ft by the time they are done. So out of the 5 ft in height I have I only need to utilize 2 feet of vertical grow space with lighting. Which seems it would allow for plenty of space for wires, materials etc. On that note....
LIGHTING:
I have decided to go with CFL lighting, being that the grow room (per se) will not only be enclosed once but twice being that it is in a closet. Heat will be the biggest issue. With CFLs heat is kept to the minimum in ratio to light output. CFLs only put out high intensity light at close distances so its imperative to keep them within inches to the plants.
ENVIRONMENT:
I will get a large sheet of one-side mylar 1/2" thick foam board. Velcro that up against the closet walls to create the room. In this large closet there is a shelving unit in the middle so basically you open up the double doors, shelves right in the middle, then two areas to the sides with the dimensions listed above. However on the left hand side the shelf is down low with the hanger rail. The right side I use for clothing as the shelf and rail is alot higher. So the areas are basically boxed in with only the one corner facing out of the closet being opened. So Ill put the cut-to-size board pieces, mylar side out up against the walls and bring them to a point where that corner is opened up, BAM you have your self four walls.
Now the roof will be the same material, however it will have a circular cut out about 10" wide feeding into a DIY carbon scrubber eventually. For now I will most likely just set a mylar piece on top of the room and let just feed hot air out through a dryer tube, to keep trace light out, but still fedd out the hot air, until I set up the carbon scrubber. Which will simply be the outpiece feeding thru aluminum screening with a carbon filter wrapped over that and a duct cap on the other end. As far as intake that will be at the bottom where the corners meet behind the closet doors. It will simply be a PVC elbow, sprayed black on the inside, wrapping from the side of the room into one of the shelves where no light can bounce through just in case. I will have a rather strong exhaust fan but no intake so that the room will have a negative pressure to it and exhaust exactly how much it intakes from the bottom.
I will have a fan inside blowing through the plants to give even more air circulation. I plan to build a CO2 generator and allow it to leak slowly into the room. I open the closet doors during the light cycle just to freshen the closet so I wont worry about CO2 build up as it should never reach high concentrations and the closet is practically sealed off with winterproof strip as it is.
The fans will be controlled by thermostat plug outlet. It simply kicks on and off based on environmental temps. The one I am getting will kick the fan on when the temp reaches 78 degrees. It also is made to kick something on if temps reach below 72. Unless I am mistaking. However it will be setup so that the final point of control will be that switch for the fan so when temps get too high most likely humidity is too and the exhaust will kick on bringing in fresh air.
In the end I plan to have a mix of warm 2700K CFLs and cool 6500K CFLs.I would like to post the whole wattage, lumen per sq ft math I figured up. However I did it on paper and do not have it to reference. It works out to about 3,000 to 5,000 total lumens per sq foot needed.
I will have three hoods with outlet extensions, going to a Y adapter feeding two Y adapters. So 4 bulbs per hood most likely 2 cools and 2 warms, and the rest of the bulbs will be placed lower in the canopy to allow much needed light the whole way up the plants, also mixed cools and warms throughout.
* I would like to go ahead an note that I will not have all these lights up all at once and only add lights as they are needed to spread over a larger area during growth. I also will only be using cools during veg and will not begin to add the warms until later in the grow as we make our way towards flowering. Once into flowering I then want a 50/50 maybe even 60/40 or 70/30 ratio cools being more dominant in veg. warms dominant in flowering. I never thought just using one spectrum or the other cut it. Naturally it isnt like that so why allow it to be enough.
NUTRIENTS: As of right now I am using blood meal sprinkled lightly (less than 1/4 tsp in a 10" pot, holding 5 babies. So far I have only watered once with tap water and that will change since the system has a water softener and I do not want sodium buildup. So eventually distilled, but anyways I sprayed them and used the rest of the water to pour into the pot, therefore beginning the release of the nitrogen from the bloodmeal. They are only about a week old and dont NEED Nitrogen since the two rounded leaves supply the plants with it in the first couple weeks, but they are in re used soil until this weekend that was flushed with hot water so Im sure they were glad to get something. However, I do not like to simply put anything in my veg soil, and I use organic soil, with less then 1/10 of a percent nute value of any nute, mixed with perlite and things for air and water balance. Once they grow up a little bigger I will feed with concentrations of blood meal brewed into a tea. For other nutrients I will likely go with a fish emulsion or the like just so they do get all they want. Even though I will focus on the main nutrients needed with foods high in said nutrients. I want to go as organic as possible not because it makes any large difference or that one shouldn't use chemicals (all nutrients are sourced from the same elements) so really there is no difference between chemicals and organics. Its just chemicals are meant to be easily absorbed where as organics must interact with micororganisms in the soil. Simply put I would rather my babies eat naturally instead of being fed through an IV. Really its simply to make a smoother cleaner better tasting/looking smoke. I mean if were going for medicine here might as well treat it as a medicine and make it as pure as possible.
Now for flowering I will be using the same type of soil but will go ahead and add bone meal to the soil so the plant has its needed Phosphorous food throughout the flowering cycle. Since bonemeal is not readily dissolved in water and other organic sources are not readily available in stores its the best option. Also will be feeding with organic plant food for other needed nutrients throughout the grow. Flushing with nothing but distilled water in the last couple weeks.
Now that we got through future-ness of the setup let me tell you where we stand as of now.
As I stated above for those who are still awake. I currently have 5 babies in a 10" pot in the closet. It is simply sitting on a shelf unit with one light hood holding 2 23W 6500K Daylight CFL. I have a meter that reads lumens, moisture, and PH. All analog. So I use that and some common sense in my waterings. This early in the grow there isnt much to say. They are coming along okay. They do show some early signs of slight nute issues but nothing too drastic. So far they are only about 1 week old. They arent booming along yet. I have to give them all more room so I will be buying 6 - 10" or so size pots and put two babies in each one. My mother-in-law is also growing but on her 2nd floor outside deck. Great idea for outdoor growth but she doesnt quite have the green thumb and her babies while bigger than mine since they are older they are showing signs of...well...unhappiness is all I can say. She has about 6 of her own so I am going to adopt them and get em inside. With 6 pots holding a grand total of 2 plants each I can get em back where thet need to be with some fresh soil, PH balanced feeding on a set schedule, and proper light timing. Nurse em back and then hopefully out of 12 total plants getting a few ladies, ripping and hashing the males, and finishing off the girls. Hopefully it will work out that all the females end up in their own pots. No matter what, I plan to *** and turn to flowering by the time they are about 7-8 inches. So no matter what I do not have to worry about space issues.
I apologize for not having picutres yet. I plan to go get the rest of the rooms materials this weekend and once everything is set up, Ill get some shots of the babies in their newest of homes.
Thanks for stopping by! Talk to ya soon!
Let me be the first to welcome you to my grow log. This will be my first log posted online. I have a quick introduction in the proper board for that purpose, but basically this isnt my first grow. I have had a few successful grows both indoors and out. However I would like to get a little more in depth with my grows and dwell into more important topics such as PH, nutrient ratios, etc. As opposed to germinate, sow (in pre nuted soil) and grow. With that said this isn't going to be me just posting pics of dying plants asking why I shouldnt water them every 10 mins. I understand many of the concepts behind this and dont wish to disregard the pro advice whilst offering what I can to the community.
* So you will see that my setup will not include all I need to grow through harvest YET. Understand in this economy there is no reason to purchase things like $20 carbon filters for your exhaust until the ladies begin to stink, for example.
GROW ROOM:
I have decided to go with a grow room inside of a closet to allow for extra security, light blockage, and merely to contain the "environment" from the rest of the space.
DIMENSIONS: 2'D x 3'W x 5'H.
So basically Im looking at about 12 sq ft of growing space. 2 feet back times 3 feet across times 2 foot high plants(end of flowering) Considering if allow you them to grow up to around 7-8 inches and then flower. They should shoot to around 2 ft by the time they are done. So out of the 5 ft in height I have I only need to utilize 2 feet of vertical grow space with lighting. Which seems it would allow for plenty of space for wires, materials etc. On that note....
LIGHTING:
I have decided to go with CFL lighting, being that the grow room (per se) will not only be enclosed once but twice being that it is in a closet. Heat will be the biggest issue. With CFLs heat is kept to the minimum in ratio to light output. CFLs only put out high intensity light at close distances so its imperative to keep them within inches to the plants.
ENVIRONMENT:
I will get a large sheet of one-side mylar 1/2" thick foam board. Velcro that up against the closet walls to create the room. In this large closet there is a shelving unit in the middle so basically you open up the double doors, shelves right in the middle, then two areas to the sides with the dimensions listed above. However on the left hand side the shelf is down low with the hanger rail. The right side I use for clothing as the shelf and rail is alot higher. So the areas are basically boxed in with only the one corner facing out of the closet being opened. So Ill put the cut-to-size board pieces, mylar side out up against the walls and bring them to a point where that corner is opened up, BAM you have your self four walls.
Now the roof will be the same material, however it will have a circular cut out about 10" wide feeding into a DIY carbon scrubber eventually. For now I will most likely just set a mylar piece on top of the room and let just feed hot air out through a dryer tube, to keep trace light out, but still fedd out the hot air, until I set up the carbon scrubber. Which will simply be the outpiece feeding thru aluminum screening with a carbon filter wrapped over that and a duct cap on the other end. As far as intake that will be at the bottom where the corners meet behind the closet doors. It will simply be a PVC elbow, sprayed black on the inside, wrapping from the side of the room into one of the shelves where no light can bounce through just in case. I will have a rather strong exhaust fan but no intake so that the room will have a negative pressure to it and exhaust exactly how much it intakes from the bottom.
I will have a fan inside blowing through the plants to give even more air circulation. I plan to build a CO2 generator and allow it to leak slowly into the room. I open the closet doors during the light cycle just to freshen the closet so I wont worry about CO2 build up as it should never reach high concentrations and the closet is practically sealed off with winterproof strip as it is.
The fans will be controlled by thermostat plug outlet. It simply kicks on and off based on environmental temps. The one I am getting will kick the fan on when the temp reaches 78 degrees. It also is made to kick something on if temps reach below 72. Unless I am mistaking. However it will be setup so that the final point of control will be that switch for the fan so when temps get too high most likely humidity is too and the exhaust will kick on bringing in fresh air.
In the end I plan to have a mix of warm 2700K CFLs and cool 6500K CFLs.I would like to post the whole wattage, lumen per sq ft math I figured up. However I did it on paper and do not have it to reference. It works out to about 3,000 to 5,000 total lumens per sq foot needed.
I will have three hoods with outlet extensions, going to a Y adapter feeding two Y adapters. So 4 bulbs per hood most likely 2 cools and 2 warms, and the rest of the bulbs will be placed lower in the canopy to allow much needed light the whole way up the plants, also mixed cools and warms throughout.
* I would like to go ahead an note that I will not have all these lights up all at once and only add lights as they are needed to spread over a larger area during growth. I also will only be using cools during veg and will not begin to add the warms until later in the grow as we make our way towards flowering. Once into flowering I then want a 50/50 maybe even 60/40 or 70/30 ratio cools being more dominant in veg. warms dominant in flowering. I never thought just using one spectrum or the other cut it. Naturally it isnt like that so why allow it to be enough.
NUTRIENTS: As of right now I am using blood meal sprinkled lightly (less than 1/4 tsp in a 10" pot, holding 5 babies. So far I have only watered once with tap water and that will change since the system has a water softener and I do not want sodium buildup. So eventually distilled, but anyways I sprayed them and used the rest of the water to pour into the pot, therefore beginning the release of the nitrogen from the bloodmeal. They are only about a week old and dont NEED Nitrogen since the two rounded leaves supply the plants with it in the first couple weeks, but they are in re used soil until this weekend that was flushed with hot water so Im sure they were glad to get something. However, I do not like to simply put anything in my veg soil, and I use organic soil, with less then 1/10 of a percent nute value of any nute, mixed with perlite and things for air and water balance. Once they grow up a little bigger I will feed with concentrations of blood meal brewed into a tea. For other nutrients I will likely go with a fish emulsion or the like just so they do get all they want. Even though I will focus on the main nutrients needed with foods high in said nutrients. I want to go as organic as possible not because it makes any large difference or that one shouldn't use chemicals (all nutrients are sourced from the same elements) so really there is no difference between chemicals and organics. Its just chemicals are meant to be easily absorbed where as organics must interact with micororganisms in the soil. Simply put I would rather my babies eat naturally instead of being fed through an IV. Really its simply to make a smoother cleaner better tasting/looking smoke. I mean if were going for medicine here might as well treat it as a medicine and make it as pure as possible.
Now for flowering I will be using the same type of soil but will go ahead and add bone meal to the soil so the plant has its needed Phosphorous food throughout the flowering cycle. Since bonemeal is not readily dissolved in water and other organic sources are not readily available in stores its the best option. Also will be feeding with organic plant food for other needed nutrients throughout the grow. Flushing with nothing but distilled water in the last couple weeks.
Now that we got through future-ness of the setup let me tell you where we stand as of now.
As I stated above for those who are still awake. I currently have 5 babies in a 10" pot in the closet. It is simply sitting on a shelf unit with one light hood holding 2 23W 6500K Daylight CFL. I have a meter that reads lumens, moisture, and PH. All analog. So I use that and some common sense in my waterings. This early in the grow there isnt much to say. They are coming along okay. They do show some early signs of slight nute issues but nothing too drastic. So far they are only about 1 week old. They arent booming along yet. I have to give them all more room so I will be buying 6 - 10" or so size pots and put two babies in each one. My mother-in-law is also growing but on her 2nd floor outside deck. Great idea for outdoor growth but she doesnt quite have the green thumb and her babies while bigger than mine since they are older they are showing signs of...well...unhappiness is all I can say. She has about 6 of her own so I am going to adopt them and get em inside. With 6 pots holding a grand total of 2 plants each I can get em back where thet need to be with some fresh soil, PH balanced feeding on a set schedule, and proper light timing. Nurse em back and then hopefully out of 12 total plants getting a few ladies, ripping and hashing the males, and finishing off the girls. Hopefully it will work out that all the females end up in their own pots. No matter what, I plan to *** and turn to flowering by the time they are about 7-8 inches. So no matter what I do not have to worry about space issues.
I apologize for not having picutres yet. I plan to go get the rest of the rooms materials this weekend and once everything is set up, Ill get some shots of the babies in their newest of homes.
Thanks for stopping by! Talk to ya soon!
