Mikedin’s grow diary let’s go!

  • Thread starter Mikedin
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
hello all! Gunna be trying my first go at indoors and first grow in many years

Any and all input appreciated, any questions about anything I’m doing feel free to ask, always glad to hear how other do something if it works for them!

seeds put into cup of water on 4/14 5 seeds total, 2x Afghan kush and 3x candy kush. All Feminized auto flower from growers choice seeds

just had my gorilla glue auto flower seeds arrive so 1 was put into water 4/21 popped and put into wet paper towel 4/22 and will be planted into soil 4/24 (this will be placed in a 2 gallon plastic container (just to compare which I like better the fabric or hard plastic, plus the 2 gallon or 5 gallon containers

medium: fox farms happy frog (100%)
Light: KingLED 1500w
Grow box: ghetto as hell homemade grow box 60”L x 38”W made out of old 4x4’s wrapped with black contractor bags, interior lined with Mylar space blankets from light level down, 80” total height to work with, brought the floor up to approx 36” above floor level, light hanging down from ceiling to within 28” of seedlings
Water: Spring water so far
Containers: 5 gallon fabric pots
Air flow: so far only 2x 6” fans hanging at light level blowing down on seedlings
Exhaust: None as of yet , spider farmer 4” in-line ducting kit wit carbon filter and automatic humidity/temp controller in route will be installed once delivered
Random details: grow box is located inside a basement bedroom that I sleep in on midnight shifts, little bit of light leakage does not bother me nor does the minimal soil smell (which I suspect the carbon filter will take care of once it arrives and I install it)

current temps: 74-76 night 79-82 day
RH: 55-64 night 30-34 day

besides that any questions/concerns you feel are important feel free to ask I love constructive criticism, I feel I am very low tech compared to most of the grows I’ve seen so far, in the future we will be building a stealth room in the 6’x6’ range that will be unnoticeable to guests even if they where standing right next to it, previous experiences was 17 years as a general contractor so to start my grow box is rag tag is beyond the truth but I threw it together with materials that where around the house besides the light

anything I’ve missed please feel free to ask!

enough jabbering here’s the stars of the show
 
Mikedins grow diary first grow
Mikedins grow diary first grow 2
Mikedins grow diary first grow 3
Mikedins grow diary first grow 4
Mikedins grow diary first grow 5
Mikedins grow diary first grow 6
Mikedins grow diary first grow 7
Mikedins grow diary first grow 8
Heywood

Heywood

600
143
Welcome to the farm!

If you can get your RH up a bit more during the day, like into the 50% + range, your seedlings will thank you.
Since they don't have much root structure for awhile, they will be depending on drawing some moisture in through their leaves.

Regarding your fans being pointed straight down onto them, consider adjusting them so that you simply have some gentle airflow above the plants at this point instead of directly onto them. You can easily wind-whip these things to death.

One other bit of advice is to consider how you might handle having pest issues. It is always good to have something on hand, just in case. It sucks if you have a problem and nothing to help deal with it right away. Some people have Neem oil, others use BTI... there is a whole host of stuff. I grow in the same soil as you are and my choice is organic. For pest control I use Capt Jack's deadbug. It is organic and I know it works. Also since you are in soil, get some sticky aphid traps and put them out now and through the entire grow. Be proactive with that. I cut the cards in two and lay one each in each pot.

For further down the road, consider getting a jeweler's loupe or some other type of high magnification device so you can scope your beautiful trichomes when they come in. They will signal to you when it is time to harvest.

You mentioned spring water. Have you PH'd it to see what you are working with? Personally, I use RO water and I still PH adjust it every time (After all nutes are added in) to 6.3 - 6.5

I guess lastly, since you are going to build a stealth grow room, have you seen the design sub-forums here? If not, here's a link. May give you some good ideas.

 
Last edited:
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Thanks for the ideas! I do not know the PH of the water it is Poland spring water. I’ll have to check the PH of it tomorrow I have a pool water kit for water PH I’d assume that’ll work correctly just for PH, I did just pick up a soil PH kit (also has testers for nitrogen phosphorus and one other I’ll have to check tomorrow) I do see that when I water I have RH around 65-70% during lights on, lights off was getting high after watering 85-90% range which prompted me to put in the 2nd fan, I did add the bowl of water in the center of the plants just for evaporation, one thing I am suspecting is RH is higher than is being read as the meter is laying on the pots which has the fans blowing on it, not sure the best place to position it

I am planning to go as organic as possible so the aphid traps are a great idea I’ll pick some up as soon as I’m at the store and I’ll check out that captain jacks

one thing I am concerned about is if the single light will have enough coverage once these little seedlings start vegging and get into flower, I’ve used the PFFD meter for iPhone (I know it’s not perfect) and am getting around 250-300 currently at the plant tops but I don’t think it’ll hold up to cover 6 plants over the space I have, I’ll wait for more input on that before I pick up a 2nd one (I’d be buying a matching light to what I have the 1500w KingLED)

I do see a lot of RO water talk but I’m not familiar with that acronym ill check that out I posted this in my “introduce yourself” post but I’ll include it here as well since it’s a grow diary, I was planning to use the fox farm neuts as i have a local farm store that has pretty much everything in stock or can get whatever I would like from their line up quickly (less than a mile from me)

took a pic when I was there this morning

they sell all the soils etc in all available sizes
Thanks for stopping by and throwing out some tips!
 
C7B141D9 3DB5 437E 88ED 631224C0ED7B
Heywood

Heywood

600
143
It's exciting, isn't it?? I love growing. I hardly ever smoke, but I enjoy growing so much I don't mind what I've invested into it.

So keep in mind that the FF soil already has enough "food" in it to keep your plants fed for a few weeks. All you need to provide them with is some water PH'd to about 6.5

"RO" is Reverse Osmosis. It removes impurities to a certain degree. Many times you will see RO water dispensers at like Walmart, Safeway or other similar places.
You can buy a 5 gallon empty jug (or two) and fill them up for about $2. These dispensers at the stores do other treatment to the water as well such as charcoal filtered, UV light treated, etc. The machine will specify what it does.

Also, you don't need to add any nutrients to your soil for awhile. And when you do add, most times you can go about half strength of what the Mfr is telling you to do on the bottle. Same with the lighting. Your youngsters don't need 80% power with the lights hanging at 12"... even though that is what the Mfr may recommend. They'll get fried at that level. With almost everything you throw at the plants, you are going to learn that generally less is better.

Enjoy the forums! There are a ton of experienced growers here that have such great wisdom to share... I'm off to go pick their brains right now in fact.
Cheers!
 
Moshmen

Moshmen

8,218
313
Pick up a cheap ppm meter as well ck your tap water ? Most likely will be able to use it in some form- I mix my tap with ro to get it where I want.
Spring water is NOT ideal as it can contain high percentage of minerals that you just don’t want

just my opinion but I would not use the spring water of any kind
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Sounds good my local stores don’t have those dispensers I’m out in the sticks lol I’ll have to check when I go to work if any of the stores in the city have it. I do have a pool PH test kit and ran a quick test and it came out to 7.8PH way too high gunna make a quick run up to the garden store and see if they have some PH down, and I just ordered a digital PH pen that’ll be here tomorrow

and Yes I have my KingLED 1500 with veg switch only on Atm and it’s about 28-30” above the plants, just not sure if it’ll give full coverage of the box once they veg up and spread out,

my gorilla glue seed has a nice tail on her this morning so she’ll be hitting the dirt sometime this morning
 
Heywood

Heywood

600
143
Get PH Up as well. You will undoubtedly go below your target and will then have to use PH Up to get back. It takes some practice to dial it in.
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
I’ll have to pick some up, the ph down will be here tomorrow with the PH meter, store diddnt have ph up down or a ph digital meter,

gorialla glue seedling had a happy tail so she’s in soil now in the 2 gallon pot, she’ll grow out in that till finish, if that works better for the auto flowers than the 5 gallon fabric pots I’ll switch to them on the 2nd go around
 
9F799BAE EA09 4DDD A57B ABF57EDAB1F8
Heywood

Heywood

600
143
Be sure to calibrate your PH meter. Depending on which one you get, they may have different values to calibrate against.
For instance mine calibrates to either 7.0 or 10.0, so I use a 7.0 reference solution to calibrate with.

I've seen others that calibrate to very specific, odd values like 6.35 or something like that. So then you have to chase down that reference solution to calibrate with.
Some pens will come with a few small packs of reference solution mix, but it will not be enough for a season's grow.

The purists here will tell you the pens are worthless and to use PH drops and compare against the color chart... they should be in here shortly. 🤪

Anyway, this is the pen I use. Works perfectly fine, but I do calibrate it every time I use it.

Here's the reference solution.

 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Be sure to calibrate your PH meter. Depending on which one you get, they may have different values to calibrate against.
For instance mine calibrates to either 7.0 or 10.0, so I use a 7.0 reference solution to calibrate with.

I've seen others that calibrate to very specific, odd values like 6.35 or something like that. So then you have to chase down that reference solution to calibrate with.
Some pens will come with a few small packs of reference solution mix, but it will not be enough for a season's grow.

The purists here will tell you the pens are worthless and to use PH drops and compare against the color chart... they should be in here shortly. 🤪

Anyway, this is the pen I use. Works perfectly fine, but I do calibrate it every time I use it.

Here's the reference solution.

Haha funnily enough that’s what I’m using at the moment is PH drops for my pool kit, so I have both lol, figured if the pen is calibrated it’ll be simpler than pulling out the drops etc, but either works for me as long as I know what it is

the one I got comes with 3 buffer solutions so hopefully that hold me over for awhile also comes with a seperate 3 in 1 TDS meter guessing that won’t help me much with soil though lol
 
922564A0 0CFE 4CDA 9786 546B33C01180
1BF7FE38 463D 467B B5BF 3B8F93236DC9
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Looks like primo water is RO. The site says it is, if it is I can pick some up tomorrow on my way home from work
 
Maxwax

Maxwax

335
93
Hi Mike. I have that same PH pen works fine and I also run Happy Frog and its been good for me. I use the Fox Farm Big Bloom and Bush Doctor Microbe stuff. I also hit them with some molasses. If you use the Grow Big with the Nitrogen go easy....it really doesnt need it. At least with the Dosi Do I have going.
 
Heywood

Heywood

600
143
Looks like primo water is RO. The site says it is, if it is I can pick some up tomorrow on my way home from work

Yeah, Primo is one of the RO water vending machines around here they have at the supermarkets. And the 5 gal jugs I have are from Primo.

For me, I use RO water because it is readily available and within a few miles drive and 40 cents a gallon.

If it is a hassle for you to get, or a big distance to go get it, I would just stick with your tap water.
Otherwise you are going to hate it come flower time when they are drinking a gallon a day.

The way I would do the tap water is fill a 5 gallon bucket at least 24 hours before I was going to use it on the plants.
Let it just sit and off-gas chlorine and the like. If you walk by the container and it has bubbles clinging to the sides, give it a tap and knock 'em free.
I don't put a cover or cap on the container when doing that. It also brings the tap water up to room temp, which works for me.
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Yeah, Primo is one of the RO water vending machines around here they have at the supermarkets. And the 5 gal jugs I have are from Primo.

For me, I use RO water because it is readily available and within a few miles drive and 40 cents a gallon.

If it is a hassle for you to get, or a big distance to go get it, I would just stick with your tap water.
Otherwise you are going to hate it come flower time when they are drinking a gallon a day.

The way I would do the tap water is fill a 5 gallon bucket at least 24 hours before I was going to use it on the plants.
Let it just sit and off-gas chlorine and the like. If you walk by the container and it has bubbles clinging to the sides, give it a tap and knock 'em free.
I don't put a cover or cap on the container when doing that. It also brings the tap water up to room temp, which works for me.
That may work better if it’s just getting tap and letting it sit, the primo I can do through veg at least I can pick it up on the drive home, a gallon a day would mean buying 7-8 jugs at a time when I’m on my week off each month since I im a 40 minute drive from the store that has it lol, it’s fine if Im working and driving by it anyways, but just to grab water would be a pain. if tap will work with a 24 hour sit and some ph adjustment that will be easier
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Found some RO water on the way home from work today (primo) picked up 10 gallons for now so the girls just got a fresh bath lol
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Figured it’s early in the grow and now would be the best time to ask, I’m running a kingLED 1500w LED in a 60”L x30”w x80”H homemade grow tent, does anyone have experience with this exact light and know if my coverage would be sufficient during flowering or should I be buying a an identical light to cover that footage, I don’t wanna get weeks into flowering and realize my coverage wasn’t enough
 
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
Little grow box update spider farmer exhaust filter/fan installed, gorilla glue seeding popped through the soil, and 2nd KingLED 1500w will be delivered tomorrow (won’t be installed yet I don’t think it’s needed yet plants are too small to benefit from a 2nd light yet I don’t believe, please correct me if I’m wrong)

exhaust temp set to 78f and humidity max set to 85% fan set to 60% when it turns on seems to control temp with a few minute long run, plus I’m sleeping about 6 feet from the fan lol, ran the vent across the ceiling and installed a new drier vent under the deck outside between joists so it’s not visible 🧐 was a bastard to put a 4” hole saw through triple stacked 2x12’s but was worth it to hide it from prying eyes

those 2x Afghan kush are really kicking ass already double the size of the candy kush all sprouted the same day, the single gorilla glue in the smaller plastic pot is about 8 days behind the other 5

my wife wants me to move out of that room entirely and fix up another section of the basement and dedicate the full room to the grow lol, I may eventually but not sure if I need to expand that much, I’ll test through this grow with the box if we end up needing more room for the next grow then I’ll make the move we don’t smoke much I’ll be enjoying some for fun ofc but I have a few family members who could benefit from some and I’m not a fan of the commercially available garbage in the shops so a lot will be gifted, I just enjoy growing pretty much everything
 
00496508 3746 4033 96D3 B63903435F97
D8B008E2 5121 4AF2 8776 D73B15D47160
DA4B6E4C 2A85 4B1E A2F0 92A2B912202A
C154C518 0A03 41BB 9117 5FE74768279C
F885B343 687F 4B60 8CEB 0FCEC401BE45
41F32C90 50DD 444D B982 6B6888D8EC81
F544C733 77FA 4979 8EF7 6483E9B2E9B1
50ACB9EC 8508 46EA AAC5 91A4834ED597
80A48FD4 BF23 4325 B43F 27C400CB2019
Last edited:
Mikedin

Mikedin

Staff
Supporter
4,004
263
I’ve been seeing so many no pop seed issues with people or having low germ rates in general, am I just lucky to have 100% germ rate so far? My brother in law has a bunch of photo seedlings and I was considering grabbing one from him or grabbing some clones, atm I’m running all autoflowers but might not be a bad idea to grab a photo seedling to keep as a mother for future grows, I’m tempted to tell him to pollinate one of them if he pops a male just to bulk up on seeds if he knows the genetics
 
Top Bottom