Basement lab

[Greenjourneyman]

That's v cool, I only hope I can get anywhere close to your amazing grows. And thanks for words of encouragement.

I'm just in process of setting up my first indoor tent grow (after 2 initial outdoor grows this season). The one thing that's causing me most thought/ire is the soil/growing medium setup. So many different options and opinions out there so can be hard to filter and pin down. I think I have a plan (one easy, other not so much), just need to choose and try it though I suppose.

Annoyingly I'm travelling at Xmas (can't leave them on their own for 2.5 weeks) so don't think I have enough days left to start/finish so will have to be as soon as we get back at New Year. Can't wait!

you definitely will not get a full grow in before Xmas. However if you are able to hook up a reliable fish tank pump on a timer you could solve your h2o problems while away, even for that long.

Any way you had an actually question about soil and substrate. You are right there are an overwhelming amount of options. What I have deduced is it’s a matter of preference of the farmer. If someone really like compost, you better believe they will find a way to use and succeed with compose in their grow. It comes down to what is easiest and cheapest for you personally.

Ive gone through many attempts to find “the best” substrate including the following: coast of Maine dense soil, coco only with liquid fertilizer, half and half coco soil topical and liquid fertilize, all dirt from the back yard, dirt plus compost, reused living soil, and only coco with topical fertilizer. Some had better results than others, but for time and expense and total energy I’ve settle for what it use now.
Ratio 3:1 store bought soil (happy frog / coast of Maine / whatever on sale) then adding fox farm topical fertilizer as needed.

reasoning for this path is cost and ease. The coco soil mix provides good drainage and initial nutrients in the substrate for needing to add ferts. I only have to mix up soil in a big Tupperwar. Liquid nutrients are really cool but it’s so much time in measurement and exact pH balancing.

good luck with the operational set up. What did you have in mind for lighting?

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Ratio 3:1 store bought soil (happy frog / coast of Maine / whatever on sale) to coco.
3 soil : 1 coco
then adding fox farm topical fertilizer as needed.

 

[lenhug]

you definitely will not get a full grow in before Xmas. However if you are able to hook up a reliable fish tank pump on a timer you could solve your h2o problems while away, even for that long.

Any way you had an actually question about soil and substrate. You are right there are an overwhelming amount of options. What I have deduced is it’s a matter of preference of the farmer. If someone really like compost, you better believe they will find a way to use and succeed with compose in their grow. It comes down to what is easiest and cheapest for you personally.

Ive gone through many attempts to find “the best” substrate including the following: coast of Maine dense soil, coco only with liquid fertilizer, half and half coco soil topical and liquid fertilize, all dirt from the back yard, dirt plus compost, reused living soil, and only coco with topical fertilizer. Some had better results than others, but for time and expense and total energy I’ve settle for what it use now.
Ratio 3:1 store bought soil (happy frog / coast of Maine / whatever on sale) then adding fox farm topical fertilizer as needed.

reasoning for this path is cost and ease. The coco soil mix provides good drainage and initial nutrients in the substrate for needing to add ferts. I only have to mix up soil in a big Tupperwar. Liquid nutrients are really cool but it’s so much time in measurement and exact pH balancing.

good luck with the operational set up. What did you have in mind for lighting?

Wow, thanks, that's really helpful.

The lighting will be this from their all in one grow tent setup which I got on sale:

IONBOARD S33, Full Spectrum LED Grow Light 240W, Samsung LM301H, 3x3 Ft. Coverage

Your source to create smart growing systems with components including advance grow tents, inline fans, clip-on fans, LED grow lights, and UIS™ controllers.

acinfinity.com

Advance Grow Tent System 3x3, 3-Plant Kit, WiFi-Integrated Controls to Automate Ventilation, Circulation, Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

Your source to create smart growing systems with components including advance grow tents, inline fans, clip-on fans, LED grow lights, and UIS™ controllers.

acinfinity.com

For the soil I was either going to go with apotforpot expansion kit (this is where I started so I trust their stuff) here as has it all but is (relatively) costly:

Refill & Expansion Pot Grow Kit, +1 - a Pot for Pot

With our Expansion Grow Kit, Grow an additional 8oz of quality weed in only 80 days. Use it to add another pot to your grow, or to refill a Complete Grow Kit

apotforpot.com

Or was looking at something like (and pls tell me if this doesn't make any sense!):

Coco, or peat moss - which though, help? Or instead the Promix organic veg soil seems to have a lot of fans?
https://www.harvesthero.com/shop/enhanced-perlite-soil-mix/ - this seems a great addition?
And some worm castings.

But I really like your soil mix as like you I want to keep it as simple as possible and not have to bother with nutrients / ph balancing, at least for now till I get far more grows under my belt.

 

[lenhug]

Thank you for the watering tip as well whilst away. I'll be out for 16 days give or take and may be able to corral a friend in to helping also.

I really don't want to wait till new year...lol!

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Hey Lenhug,
That light will be a great starter light. As time goes on you may want to put more power your tent. Speaking of the tent, if you have the room for a larger than 3x3 footprint you may want to go with something like the picture below as it has more compartments. As your growing skill improves you will want to clone and have more than one life cycle happening at once, you will need more chambers to accomplish that (of course more lights too).
As to your soil question. Coco and peat moss are very different mediums. Coco is high drainage whereas peat moss is the opposite; but they both have very little / no nutrients to speak of so you will have to either add fertilizer treated soil for food. I have seen people use peat moss, I prefer the coco. (Also from an eco perspective the peat moss is ruining the planet slightly faster). Worm casting never hurt add away. However, if you plan on using a fertilizer product (liquid or topical) the fertilizer would be doing the work of the worm castings so a redundancy there.
Good luck man. you should set it all up to be fully ready to plant.

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Day 16. (Not sure where I got 22 days last time, beans went in the ground Oct 15th).

most all have produced 3-4 leaf nodes, waiting for them to get a little taller then I can start the low stress training. Turn them all into sea monsters.

Close ups of the Ms Jillz x Golden Nugget and the Chem Haze. second grow on the haze it was pretty awesome the first time. I’m expecting big things again.

be well and grow on,

 

[Novaracer69]

Hey Lenhug,
That light will be a great starter light. As time goes on you may want to put more power your tent. Speaking of the tent, if you have the room for a larger than 3x3 footprint you may want to go with something like the picture below as it has more compartments. As your growing skill improves you will want to clone and have more than one life cycle happening at once, you will need more chambers to accomplish that (of course more lights too).
As to your soil question. Coco and peat moss are very different mediums. Coco is high drainage whereas peat moss is the opposite; but they both have very little / no nutrients to speak of so you will have to either add fertilizer treated soil for food. I have seen people use peat moss, I prefer the coco. (Also from an eco perspective the peat moss is ruining the planet slightly faster). Worm casting never hurt add away. However, if you plan on using a fertilizer product (liquid or topical) the fertilizer would be doing the work of the worm castings so a redundancy there.
Good luck man. you should set it all up to be fully ready to plant.

Yeah a 5x4 would make more sense if you have the footprint. A vivosun 5x4 is around the same price as a ac infinity 4x4. The vivosun tents are the same thickness with better reflection.

 

[lenhug]

Day 16. (Not sure where I got 22 days last time, beans went in the ground Oct 15th).

most all have produced 3-4 leaf nodes, waiting for them to get a little taller then I can start the low stress training. Turn them all into sea monsters.

Close ups of the Ms Jillz x Golden Nugget and the Chem Haze. second grow on the haze it was pretty awesome the first time. I’m expecting big things again.

be well and grow on,

They look fantastic, so healthy! Look forward to following them as they grow up. :o)

 

[lenhug]

Thanks @Greenjourneyman and @Novaracer69 for the tent advice, incredibly helpful!

I do have the footprint for larger and to be honest I'd considered it but let's just say I need to ease my wife in to the whole idea slowly...lol! So we'll go with this for now and then as I continue I can look to move up in size...hopefully! ;o)

I'll be putting them in the garage so concerned about quite large temp variations (I'm in SoCal) occurring but we'll find out and tackle that as we go. It's as sturdy weed so let's find out.

Also, thank you for the grow medium information as well. I've decided to go with the apotforpot expansion kit setup (Halloween discount swung it) for my next and first grow in the tent as I know that works so removes one unknown from it all. Then I can and will definitely try other mediums for the subsequent ones. I'm all for simplicity though so will give your 3:1 soil:coco mix with the topical fertliser a go as that sounds great to me. No peat moss if it is more damaging so happy not to use that.

I am currently in negotiations with a friend to cover my Xmas holiday as really want to get it all going, have some lovely seeds to try.

Oh and had a mare with the Santa Ana winds on my two outdoors plants that I'll add to my grow diary if you'd like to have a laugh. Let's just say one of them went for a swim!



p.s. Feel like I'm derailing your grow thread @Greernjourneyman so apologies for that!

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Hey Lenhug,
no problems, I’ve been growing and posting on this thread for a couple years now with little or no interest from the larger world / community. It’s nice to have someone to chat with and give advice. Thanks for coming by and asking questions. Also I’ve been doing this a while now and kind of take things for granted, you’re right I do have some amazing grows thanks for that validation. I see the big commercial guys and I think I have a long way to go.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, once you get a dialed In methodology it’s all just repeatable with different genetics. It sounds like you are on the way to getting it right the first time with your indoor set up. if you are thinking you’d want the extra chambers cop the bigger tent to start man. Trust me you’ll thank yourself later. (And yes I fully appreciate and understand the misses issue [the Bonnie Situation if you prefer] and negotiations to keep my hobby alive).
Ive only been out to Northern Cali but I hear your area is a beautiful one. I’m virtually a diagonal line all the across the county from you up in MA.
Im going to spend some time LSTing my plants tomorrow I’ll throw up some pictures then. See how all the little ones are doing.
be well and grow on,

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Did the first round of Low Stress training on these plants. The main goal here is to get the lower branches to jump ahead in growth. We’ll see in about a week the results of this action. I like doing this with the unknown gender seeds as it will grow many long branches than can later be cloned. These are all photo period plants and will have to be culled for gender at some point. I generally try to get a few clones per plant then immediately bloom the parents.

Pro Tip: the smallest sized clothes pins from a craft store are the best for pinning down leaves and stocks. My preferred LST method.

happy to see the peppers are also growing just fine a little behind the cannabis since they took much longer to germinate. It’s the first time I’ve done food in my grow lab, I think I will continue to experiment with it, seems super simple. Maybe some grocery store squash seeds next?

be well and grow on,

 

[lenhug]

Hey Lenhug,
no problems, I’ve been growing and posting on this thread for a couple years now with little or no interest from the larger world / community. It’s nice to have someone to chat with and give advice. Thanks for coming by and asking questions. Also I’ve been doing this a while now and kind of take things for granted, you’re right I do have some amazing grows thanks for that validation. I see the big commercial guys and I think I have a long way to go.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, once you get a dialed In methodology it’s all just repeatable with different genetics. It sounds like you are on the way to getting it right the first time with your indoor set up. if you are thinking you’d want the extra chambers cop the bigger tent to start man. Trust me you’ll thank yourself later. (And yes I fully appreciate and understand the misses issue [the Bonnie Situation if you prefer] and negotiations to keep my hobby alive).
Ive only been out to Northern Cali but I hear your area is a beautiful one. I’m virtually a diagonal line all the across the county from you up in MA.
Im going to spend some time LSTing my plants tomorrow I’ll throw up some pictures then. See how all the little ones are doing.
be well and grow on,

Thank you for the advice, it's so helpful. Especially from an experienced grower who obviously knows what they are doing. You stuff looks fantastic imo an di really appreciate the insights. We'll see about the bigger tent, softly softly I think is the approach for now...lol!

Looks like the LST went well, I was thinking I might give that go in the next grow (and be buying some of those clothes pins shorty no doubt). I'm just popping some Strawberry Mango Crumble, Newberry Auto and Froot Fuel for it tonight. Was gonna do two 5 gallon and one 2 gallon but I cant decide who gets the smaller pot now...lol! Maybe I'll just order another 5 gallon to be fair!

I use to live a lot closer to you (NYC) up until a few years back but legged it for the better weather and other boring life reasons. Love it over here but it is v beautiful where you live. I'm interested how you deal with the colder weather coming in!

 

[lenhug]

Did the first round of Low Stress training on these plants. The main goal here is to get the lower branches to jump ahead in growth. We’ll see in about a week the results of this action. I like doing this with the unknown gender seeds as it will grow many long branches than can later be cloned. These are all photo period plants and will have to be culled for gender at some point. I generally try to get a few clones per plant then immediately bloom the parents.

Pro Tip: the smallest sized clothes pins from a craft store are the best for pinning down leaves and stocks. My preferred LST method.

happy to see the peppers are also growing just fine a little behind the cannabis since they took much longer to germinate. It’s the first time I’ve done food in my grow lab, I think I will continue to experiment with it, seems super simple. Maybe some grocery store squash seeds next?

be well and grow on,

What peppers are they, this is my plan as well? Got some good chili seeds from my Dad and then add various herbs hopefully and of course our favourite plant all growing together in a happy family.

 

[Otto Bonn]

Hey Lenhug,
no problems, I’ve been growing and posting on this thread for a couple years now with little or no interest from the larger world / community. It’s nice to have someone to chat with and give advice. Thanks for coming by and asking questions. Also I’ve been doing this a while now and kind of take things for granted, you’re right I do have some amazing grows thanks for that validation. I see the big commercial guys and I think I have a long way to go.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, once you get a dialed In methodology it’s all just repeatable with different genetics. It sounds like you are on the way to getting it right the first time with your indoor set up. if you are thinking you’d want the extra chambers cop the bigger tent to start man. Trust me you’ll thank yourself later. (And yes I fully appreciate and understand the misses issue [the Bonnie Situation if you prefer] and negotiations to keep my hobby alive).
Ive only been out to Northern Cali but I hear your area is a beautiful one. I’m virtually a diagonal line all the across the county from you up in MA.
Im going to spend some time LSTing my plants tomorrow I’ll throw up some pictures then. See how all the little ones are doing.
be well and grow on,

Hey Greenjourneyman, I always like to touch base with people from my old stomping grounds in MA. I was raised and lived in Western Mass (Springfield suburb) I only grew outside once when I lived there (now in central NC) but have friends that still do. Are you just indoors or outside too?

 

[Greenjourneyman]

It’s an ongoing process with the LST. little bits on continuous adjustment, the goal here is to expose those under branches and have them get a jump on life. In that way I’ll have the main cola then then 3-6 large arms reaching upward as well.


@lenhug so for the winter time I have a space heater in my grow room. It sucks down The electrons but keeps the room itself at 60ish and the lights in the tents pump the plant temp closer the 72ish. I will say that it’s not ideal and I would like the plants at 80-85 but it is what it is. I manage.
the peppers are Habannadas which are a specialized cross breed of habanero pepper a cornell professor worked on for a decade or so. All the capsaicin has been bred out so they make your mouth tingle, just no heat. Super delicious.

@Otto Bonn hey man. Thanks for coming by. Im in the foothills towns just north of Westfield. Truly western mass, you ask a Bostonian they thin the state ends at Framingham mall. I do a winter indoor to set me up for an outdoor summer season. If you go back a page or two you’ll see the summer grow. NC is a great state I have a buddy in Asheville, also outer banks are amazing.

 

[Otto Bonn]

It’s an ongoing process with the LST. little bits on continuous adjustment, the goal here is to expose those under branches and have them get a jump on life. In that way I’ll have the main cola then then 3-6 large arms reaching upward as well.


@lenhug so for the winter time I have a space heater in my grow room. It sucks down The electrons but keeps the room itself at 60ish and the lights in the tents pump the plant temp closer the 72ish. I will say that it’s not ideal and I would like the plants at 80-85 but it is what it is. I manage.
the peppers are Habannadas which are a specialized cross breed of habanero pepper a cornell professor worked on for a decade or so. All the capsaicin has been bred out so they make your mouth tingle, just no heat. Super delicious.

@Otto Bonn hey man. Thanks for coming by. Im in the foothills towns just north of Westfield. Truly western mass, you ask a Bostonian they thin the state ends at Framingham mall. I do a winter indoor to set me up for an outdoor summer season. If you go back a page or two you’ll see the summer grow. NC is a great state I have a buddy in Asheville, also outer banks are amazing.

Cool, yeah I was a Boston 'burb guy originally but migrated west, does Westfield still have the bombers at the AFB?
I'm thin blooded now and left NE for warmer weather. NC has long Spring/Summer/Fall (and 8 weeks of shit weather IMO). I do NOT miss your Winters!

 

[lenhug]

Peppers sound delicious, might have try some of those. Though I do like the heat!

 

[Greenjourneyman]

Morning all,
first pic is the result of a few days of growth. All leaves facing toward the light, doing what solar panels are supposed to do. Another batch of the LST and it is really paying off, the lower branches are starting to reach up, those will be great future clones.

@Otto Bonn sadly the A-10s are long gone, I can remember seeing them fly over years ago. But there is an possibly a F-15 wing still there, theres sometimes afternoon flights.

@lenhug you mentioned to popped some seeds those that going for you?

 

[lenhug]

Hey man,

Sorry for the slow reply, got family visiting so been a bit busy. Saying that I did get my Ma to help me put the filter and fan in to the tent though...lol!

New seeds coming along well but a little worried they're stretching too much (particularly the Newberry!). See below:

5 gallon pots are all prepared and ready to go so need to finish the tent asap.

My other grow is just about done. Seeing amber now so I think time to chop is this week at some point. Quite excited I have to say.

How are your grows and the LST coming along?

 

[Captspaulding]

Sucks I was missing out on this thread.
Nice rig!
Nice plants!