Decided To Start A Grow Diary With Room Upgrades Along The Way.

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TheKoreanKid

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Well I am presently on day like 6 of flower.
Im a first time home owner and I told my wife that I have always wanted to grow once we have a house.
Well lets just get to know me before I get into this. (If you dont wanna read my junk look for ****** which will be my mark for back to the grow)
First time smoking was my freshman year of college. Y'all I grew up in a Christian family so doing this was needless to say, rebellious. I am still Christian for sure, I just have different views than those I grew up with.
So clearly this little seemingly insignificant plant has caught my attention. Heck, I smoked a couple years before I had my first beer. I liked how cannabis is organic and you don't have any processing involved. All natural, I was all about it. I even voiced my opinion at the time that alcohol was bad but weed was good. Kinda backwards thinking for most now? Probably, though I no longer think that.
FF (Fast Forward) 2 years I am graduating college and found the love of my life. We only dated a matter of a half year but we were enthralled with each other. One thing led to another and we decided to get hitched. Move in together and end up living in two completely different apartments across a 2 year span.
The whole time we were in apartments I went on and on about how I can't wait to own a house so I can finally grow some bud.
That brings us to a couple months ago when we got a house and I immediately started growing.
**********
I will get some pics posted along with commentary during this growing and room building endeavor.
I built myself a little PVC and tin foil tent. I thought it was gonna be plenty for my entire grow. This thing was maybe 3.5x4.5x3
I popped some beans from some very meh bud, but the nugs were impressive in size I will say.
Ended up getting about 8 seeds to pop. Let them grow a bit in a dome, not much more than 4 inches tall then I transplanted them to solo cups. Things went well for the next 2 weeks but thats the point when I started messing up.
I transplanted them from their solo cups once they were maybe 7 inches tall and had 2 nodes. I put them in nectar for the gods #8 where I mixed in lime, EWC, bat guano, gypsum, and powdered alfalfa. Little did I know I was about to really freak my plants out. I burned them all pretty bad and I had lost hope. I think that's when I started posting on here. After everyone's input they completely bounced back. It was about 1.5 weeks after they bounced back that I had to leave the country for an extended amount of time. Got a close friend involved in helping water while I was away.
He did a great job, because once I got back my whole tent was full of life. Realized that I NEEDED a legit room to grow. I picked a spare storage room as my space. I built a false wall with a door that is hidden.
I now have a 4.5x10.5x8 room to work in. I lined the walls and ceiling of the room with some reflective insulation you can get in rolls at menards, then painted the floor white.
For lighting I started with a little 300watt viraspctra or whatever LED all in one kinda deal. It was sufficient when they were small and a few weeks of vegging but I knew I needed more.
Added a 1500watt yehsence led full spectrum board with bloom and veg switch.
JWM2 suggested utilizing my headspace, so I built a clone cabinet at head height.
FF a couple weeks and I go to a local hydro store to stock up on supplies for next grow. This was yesterday actually. The manager was a super chill dude who gave me lots of good info about lighting. We never confirmed that we grow but he threw lots of insinuating remarks that I understood and showed I kinda knew what he was talking about. He talked me into getting another light, a MH light but I will have to look at the wattage as i forgot.
What do you guys think for lighting? I dont want to deal with the heat from these kinda lights so thats why I am avoiding HPS. Is this MH light a good addition to the 1500w and 300w leds I had running already?
PICS TO COME SUNDAY NIGHT
 
Phylex

Phylex

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I consider HPS, MH, and CMH in the same category in regards to heat and power consumption. I look at LED's and COB's as the other side of the spectrum generating less heat and drawing less power. That's just me. Cool story too bro. Congrats on the home and meeting your significant other.
 
JWM2

JWM2

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Awesome back story bro. Glad I could help any way possible.

I grew up in a mixed race household. My father was American and was stationed in South Korea in the 70s while in the army. There he met my mom. Was also raised in a Christian household but I’ve since gone another direction once I was exposed to the inner workings of the church and organized religion. Anyhow it makes no difference, just my experience. I respect those who believe and those who believe in something else or nothing altogether.

Anyhow back to your grow. I agree with @Phylex that MH is on the same level as HPS and cMH in that they do produce a large amount of heat. cMH is the evolved technology of MH and much more efficient but I’ve not used one so I won’t say wether it’s better or worse than LEDs. I just know that good leds like quantum boards put off very little heat at all. In fact heating the grow space becomes more of an issue as with a proper ventilation system there is simply too little residual heat to stay at the right temps. So you do end up having to plan for that but in the summer it’s great because many times you don’t need much cooling to stay in the right temp zone.

No matter how you slice it you’re making progress and that’s awesome. I’m happy that you’ve made it this far and if there’s anything we can do to help just let us know :-)
 
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TheKoreanKid

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Awesome back story bro. Glad I could help any way possible.

I grew up in a mixed race household. My father was American and was stationed in South Korea in the 70s while in the army. There he met my mom. Was also raised in a Christian household but I’ve since gone another direction once I was exposed to the inner workings of the church and organized religion. Anyhow it makes no difference, just my experience. I respect those who believe and those who believe in something else or nothing altogether.

Anyhow back to your grow. I agree with @Phylex that MH is on the same level as HPS and cMH in that they do produce a large amount of heat. cMH is the evolved technology of MH and much more efficient but I’ve not used one so I won’t say wether it’s better or worse than LEDs. I just know that good leds like quantum boards put off very little heat at all. In fact heating the grow space becomes more of an issue as with a proper ventilation system there is simply too little residual heat to stay at the right temps. So you do end up having to plan for that but in the summer it’s great because many times you don’t need much cooling to stay in the right temp zone.

No matter how you slice it you’re making progress and that’s awesome. I’m happy that you’ve made it this far and if there’s anything we can do to help just let us know :)
My mistake, it is indeed a cmh lamp. Shit wasnt cheap either. It was like $350 for the ballast, reflector, and bulb.
 
JWM2

JWM2

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My mistake, it is indeed a cmh lamp. Shit wasnt cheap either. It was like $350 for the ballast, reflector, and bulb.

Oh nice. Well at least you’ve got current technology. Do you have an enclosed reflector for it so you can suck the air out and not heat up your space too much? I always ran HID with a glass shield so if the bulb some how burst it wouldn’t cause a fire. It’s very rare but it can happen.

With LEDs it’s not so much of an issue. The driver can catch fire but meanwell drivers have a thermal shut off so it shouldn’t ever get too hot. You can also run the drivers in an area that won’t catch other things on fire such as a metal heat shield that would prevent flames from contacting combustible material.
 
crimsonecho

crimsonecho

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Oh nice. Well at least you’ve got current technology. Do you have an enclosed reflector for it so you can suck the air out and not heat up your space too much? I always ran HID with a glass shield so if the bulb some how burst it wouldn’t cause a fire. It’s very rare but it can happen.

With LEDs it’s not so much of an issue. The driver can catch fire but meanwell drivers have a thermal shut off so it shouldn’t ever get too hot. You can also run the drivers in an area that won’t catch other things on fire such as a metal heat shield that would prevent flames from contacting combustible material.


Also with leds i would suggest a buffer. Like 10% of the voltage capacity should be left unused to ensure a cooler operation. I put my 6 drivers on a spare heatsink that i have no use for at the moment. Not mounted, no thermal compound. Just sitting on top of it and i gotta say they run very cool. It only gets warm like 30-35 C.
 
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JWM2

JWM2

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Also with leds i would suggest a buffer. Like 10% of the voltage capacity should be left unused to ensure a cooler operation. I put my 6 drivers on a spare heatsink that i have no use for at the moment. Not mounted, no thermal compound. Just sitting on top of it and i gotta say they run very cool. It only gets warm like 30-35 C.

For sure. I know a lot of people run them full bore and imo that just reduces life expectancy and raises the electric bill. I can’t tell much of a difference from 100% to 90%. I use a kill a watt to check the wattage. I can crank my 260w fixture up to 275w but I like to run at about 230-240w.
 
crimsonecho

crimsonecho

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For sure. I know a lot of people run them full bore and imo that just reduces life expectancy and raises the electric bill. I can’t tell much of a difference from 100% to 90%. I use a kill a watt to check the wattage. I can crank my 260w fixture up to 275w but I like to run at about 230-240w.

Yeah, i know people think that they’re saving money when running them at full capacity but in the long run its much more feasible to just get one more driver.

Lower heat, higher efficiency, lower chances of catastrophic failures due to heat and degradation etc etc.

And when you think about if, if you’re building something you can use for at least 50000hrs with nearly no loss in quality and intensity, why not build it to last and consider long term savings.
 
Balanque

Balanque

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You will not regret CMH if that's the route you go. Get a vertical hang if you are concerned with heat , I'm seeing a solid 5 degrees cooler temps since I switched to vertical. Of course, I have unlimited cooling for most of the year, so depends where you live and what you can deal with I suppose. Firm believer in the power of UV.
 
NHWhites

NHWhites

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CMH is good tech but does run warmer than led’s/qb’s. The nectar sample pack is awesome as well. Get some URB Natural and you’ll be all set
 
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TheKoreanKid

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Day 9 of flower. Is it strange to be more excited about the next grow instead of the current harvest? So many things I did wrong, looking forward to applying everyone's knowledge next time!
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TheKoreanKid

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Some photos you will see white specs, thats some dust from drwall cutting and I was not far enough away :( tried to blow most of it off, though I missed a few
 
Axel Rose

Axel Rose

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Not at all, at least I definitely dont feel strange. I'm a few weeks from harvest and have a good crop going. But honestly I really just want to get those out and the next ones in there and see the results from the things I changed.

I'm digging your grow room, it looks like you've got plenty of space to get some monsters in there!
 
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TheKoreanKid

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Not at all, at least I definitely dont feel strange. I'm a few weeks from harvest and have a good crop going. But honestly I really just want to get those out and the next ones in there and see the results from the things I changed.

I'm digging your grow room, it looks like you've got plenty of space to get some monsters in there!
Thanks man!
Especially since I now have nectar for the gods product line on the way it makes me way excited to use good nutes. The room is like 4.5x10.5x8 so I def have room. I'm thinking of a maximum 8 plants in there. Really banking on cloning the clippings at harvest. Gonna give every clipping a shot to make sure I get a good chance at 8 surviving!
 
Medigrow

Medigrow

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Same here! Have some seeds on hand and just want to order a zillion to try them but well.. :)
 
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TheKoreanKid

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This morning I went into Micro room and the dark just to check one more time for any light leaks. It turns out I accidentally left the screen on for my inline fan on my filter system. It's a very soft blue light, not strong at all but in Pitch Black you could see it. Did I just ruin my plants or does it take a few days of light leak to screw them up?
 
NHWhites

NHWhites

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Give ethos Genetics a try, first time growing them and the plant structure and everything is pretty awesome, give em a look, and exotic genetics is pretty
Watch for hermies with the ethos gear. All their stuff looks killer but I’ve heard that the hermie ratio is pretty high
 
Cookiebone13

Cookiebone13

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Tha
Watch for hermies with the ethos gear. All their stuff looks killer but I’ve heard that the hermie ratio is pretty high
that would be a let down forsure, this is my first time with them and they are growing pretty awesome so far, we will see though
 
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