Elephant Man's Grow Journal, 1st attempt

[Elephant Man]

Ready, set, grow!

I am going to try to archive my grow here if you all don't mind. This is my first attempt so please feel free to jump in and help if you think I need it.

This is my mother and clone room:

 

[Elephant Man]

Sorry about crappy phone cam pics. Can't see 14" stem fan in there, exhaust fan is 210 cfm.

I have several bagseed I germed like this:

Ordinary tupperware with wet paper towel wrapped loosely around seeds. Placed to warm on cordless drill battery charger, quarter inch taproots in 3 - 4 days.

This pic is 1 week old, I use a germ heat pad now under tupperware.

 

[Elephant Man]

This journal will start kind of slow, so please bear with me, I am building veg and flower rooms as we speak. My bagseed after 2 days in 50/50 Fox Farm Ocean Forest and Light Warrior.

 

[Elephant Man]

I have about 10 bagseed going, so far 100% germ rate. Tomorrow I think my White Widow and AK48 will be ready for soil, next day Troublemaker and Biggie Small. I think an 85/15 Ocean Forest/Light Warror might be better ratio, anyone agree?

 

[Elephant Man]

My veg room, first pics are before (what a mess).

 

[Elephant Man]

I have been shopping too:

General Hydroponics
Flora Series Nutes
Ebb and Gro 12 pot setup
1000 watt Halide with 4' track and Cool Tube reflector

5100 btu AC is installed in veg room window

Hanna 24/7 ph + ppm moniter

Parts to fab my own cloner (dome, heat pad, air pump & stones)

1620 cfm attic gable fan

more to come

 

[Elephant Man]

Plan is to send the bagseed ahead in dirt while the mothers are veggin' and getting sexed (gonna need help with that in a few weeks), that way I can get my groove with lights, temps, and ventilation.

Once the mothers are ready to clone, I plan to run 12 in the ebb and gro in the veg room. Then I plan to duplicate the pre-made ebb and grow in the bloom rooms. I plan on 12 plants in each bloom room, each with 1000hps on tracks with a 12 hour flipper.

So 3 1000 watt lights, 2 on flipper, one month to veg, 2 months to bloom in alternating bloom rooms.

Sound like a plan?

 

[Elephant Man]

Pretty sure couple 1000 and an AC unit are all I am going to get out of this

 

[Elephant Man]

This is completely based on info I have found on this wonderful forum, with great attention paid to Stoney's current setup (multiroom, multistrain).

Right now may seem to be a bunch of store bought stuff, but I intend to duplicate this GH Ebb and Gro, with store bought parts (DIY) and once I get a little more experience, I plan to attempt an aeroponics setup (DIY).

Refer to this thread:

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6295

I got no responses on that, but I am going to try anyway.

I think I will redo the mother/clone room too,once the veg room is done. I plan on overdriving flouros and remote mounting ballasts, also plan on taking advantage of in room window.

May seem like a big operation, but the goal is not big output. I am more thinking in the summer it will be too hot or too expensive to run.

 

[Elephant Man]

Bagseed today, 5 days in dirt.

 

[Elephant Man]

Another pic of mother/clone room, Ebb and Gro controller, and AC installed in veg room.

I am thinking of building the other 3 rooms out of styrene, should keep in the cold, reflect light as well as panda poly, and I'm thinking if I duct tape it up really well - should keep bugs out. Good idea?

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Wow man that is a very nice set up. Will be following this grow from beginning to end. Man i cant wait.

 

[Elephant Man]

Wow man that is a very nice set up. Will be following this grow from beginning to end. Man i cant wait.

Wow, really means alot coming from TBG , I certainly hope guys will hang around - I need all the help I can get.

Speaking of help, where is my green mojo? I know TBG has plenty to spare!

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Here is some GREEN MOJO for ya.

 

[Elephant Man]

Thanks TBG! Gonna save the first green hit for ya!

I found a flipper to cycle the 2 bloom lights in 2 seperate rooms, but I read on another forum that they can be harmful to your ballasts. Something about the ballasts seeing power 24/7, but isn't that the case in the veg room? Are we supposed to temporarily disconnect power periodically to save the ballast in the veg room? Is there a better way to cycle 2 lights 12/12? Or would I be okay to just interupt power to all the lights from time to time?

 

[Elephant Man]

Sorry for the early start, not going to be much going on yet. Should have some nodes next week to post pics of. When my first light gets here (better be next week) I should get the veg room done, waiting on the track to build the roof, pics of that could be cool.

Finally got my Hanna Combocheck (yes, I am an idiot for starting without it) and luckily my water is not that bad. Tap after sitting read 6.8, round 400ppm. Some store bought I have read 7.0, 28ppm, so I am going to continue to use tap, seedlings are doing great on it with great color. Once I add nutes, I will try and bring it down a little, alot for the hydro. Looking into RO setup...

Meanwhile here is one more pic of the clone room, and yes you cab guys, this is under my bed. 10 bagseed guinea pigs (1 week ahead), and 5 various real strains.

 

[Elephant Man]

I forgot to mention, in order to try and battle desert temps in the summer, I am considering trying to contain veg and both bloom rooms into closed setups. Still researching concept but when I consider that:

I have the AC
Duct valves are easy
My lights are sealed
possible 100 degree temps daily thru summer (90+ at night)
pretty sure that by 3pm today (Oct 22) my AC in veg room would be on (warm climate)
No humidifier needed here
Already have Air bottle and can probably fit the rest of the co2 equip in my budget.

I can keep the rooms a little smaller by mounting everything outside, resevoirs, etc. (3 seperate rooms inside a big garage) to keep Co2 usage down, but need to make this decision soon. I understand co2 will give me more heat and bug protection (garage).

Probably going to need a water chiller anyway, so wouldn't hurt to have resevoirs outside rooms (inside garage)

Thanks
Anyone add anything I missed?

 

[Elephant Man]

One week in the dirt - little bagseed baby girl looks healthy, doesn't she?

 

[Elephant Man]

Overnight growth pic and baby widow I see 5 leaves on miss bagseed.

 

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Whats up Elaphant Man. If you are running your ballast 24/7 7 days a week it's a good thing to shut it off for about 15 minutes one of those days. Your babies are looking great by the way. Keep up the great work and keep those updates coming.