Fall 2011 Tent Grow - 1000Watt HPS/MH Soil & Hydro

[kicker]

Setup consists of the following:

Currently 4 Plants in Solo Cups, bag seed

• Environment: 6x4 closet, with a GrowLab120 Tent
• Hydro Setup:General Hydroponics 5 Gallon Grow Bucket 10" Mesh Pot
• Nutes: Advanced Nutrients SensiGrow A&B/SensiBlow A&B/Big Bug/B-52/Overdrive/Final Phase
• Ballast: MidNight Sun 1000 Watt Dimmable Ballast 1000/750/600
• Lighting: Eye Hortilux 1000 Watt HPS & Eye Hortilux 1000 Watt MH
• Reflector: HydroFarm DayStar AC w/6" Vents
• Venting: 6" Inline Fan, Duct hose and other duct shit.
• Odor Control: 9.5"x18" Carbon Filter
• Fans: 4 Computer Fans, 2 Mini High Flow 120V Fans

Plans are to veg the soil cups for another week, then transplant into bigger pots. Hopefully by then I can take clones and get the hydroponics system setup. I am using a single bucket system, however the bucket is using a 10" Net pot so I have tons of room for a large plant.


Here are two of 4 plants, day 7. Im a new grower, but Im thinking these are going to be sativa by the looks. Short and bushy.

 

[motherlode]

howdy and welcome

you have to upload your photos to the farm or they wont work

also I moved your thread into the grow diary section

 

[kicker]

Thanks, im looking forward to seeing what this community has for me. Hows the plants look?

Single Seed Centre Order:
1x Sativa Seedbank - Raspberry Cough - Regular
1x World of Seeds - South African Kwazulu - Regular
1x Green House - TrainWreck - Feminized
1x Free - 2 Free Feminized Seeds (orders of £20+)
1x Green House - White Rhino - Feminized

Edit Seed Order:
Pyramid Seeds - Wembley (Feminized) - 1 Seed x 1

Ill update on the seeds when they come in if they come in. Also I plan on ordering from Attitude once these arrive and germ.

 

[Dr.Dankz]

Hi Kicker. Your plants look adorable I hope they all come out girls for you. Welcome to the farm.
I have a few things I have learned along the way I would like to share. I hope you dont mind and maybe they might help you have more success.
You soil looks super wet make sure you let it dry out some before watering again you don't want to cause roots to rot in the dirt. Your cups are clear. Any roots which grow toward the edge will die in the light. The way the edges of your leaves are pointed up at the light tells me they are too warm what are your temps like? how close is that massive 1k light? I think your more likely to have indica from bagseed short and bushy would also be a sign of Indica.

Just my 2 cents

 

[kicker]

Thanks Dr. Dank. I do let the soil dry out a lot before watering. Indica is what I really wanted so thanks for that, I had it backwards

The 1000 Watt light isn't being used right now, and I plan on dimming it down to 600 for the Veg and 700 or 1000 For flowering. It kinda depends on how many plants I have then.

Right now they are all under a custom cfl setup.

As for the cups, i have wrapped them in black vinyl and plan on transplanting into the black pots this Friday. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[kicker]

Update: One of the two best plants lost a limp last night. :mad0233:

And in result is kinda drooping on some nodes now. Will it be ok?

Heres the current setup current at 150 CFL Watts which will be replaced with a 125Watt Feliz CFL. I hope to convert into the final setup tomorrow. Stay tuned.

 

[JonathonStrange]

Did you attach those cfls to that refector yourself or was that how it was made?

 

[Producer]

haha! Jonathon, always so curious about your lights and reflectors. Thats good bro. Keep learning eh.
And sweet setup Kicker!
Looking good man!!

 

[kicker]

haha! Jonathon, always so curious about your lights and reflectors. Thats good bro. Keep learning eh.
And sweet setup Kicker!
Looking good man!!

Thanks but I need some serious help, I got my tent setup and I flipped the Ballast on and my temps are going bizzerk. Reading 93 degrees right now.

I have a 6 inch 188 CFM Rated Fan venting the Daystar reflector out of the tent and into the attic.

I had no Idea this was going to be an issue. I have no idea what to do.

Did you attach those cfls to that refector yourself or was that how it was made?

I attached them myself, I got the metal reflector at home depot for $3 in the air ducting section. :icon_animal26:

 

[Producer]

How close are your leights to the plants or your temperature guage?
Is it the whole room thats hot or just immediately around the plants?

 

[Producer]

If you're using MH or HPS they should be about 1ft and half to 2ft away from the plants. In the pictures we only see the Fluorescents.
Post some updated pictures with the "daystar reflector" and we might have suggestions to help out. You might have to dial down your ballast as well, depending on the heat. I dont know the conditions man, its hard to help.
Post more info.

 

[kicker]

Right now the light is 3 feet away from the plants, the thermometer is right below it by a few inchs.

Im about to transplant to some half gallon containers and set those on the ground. Im using a tent inside of a closet and the thermometer is right inside the tent. Room temp is about 78-80.

 

[kicker]

Update:

Just water'd the babies and transplanted them into bigger pots. Fed RO Water ph 6.5-6.6. Had to recalibrate the ph meter for the first time as it was acting up, it was quite easy calibrating it. PPM reading 300-310.

Im thinking of making a homemade Air conditioner to fight the heat using the following:

fan
copper tubing
rubber hose
water pump
cooler
ice
water

:)

 

[crom]

Try to straighten out your ducting as much as possible as any curves are going to reduce the effectiveness of the fan extracting the hot air. The cords on ballasts are conveniently long so that you can locate your ballast outside the tent, ballasts are adding to heat. Get a real fan in there to mix the air up. A good tip for safety is to keep all electric stuff like power strips,extension cords, etc. above the waist, and all things wet/water below the waist. This seem like a pain when you can just put it there, but if that stuff gets wet from run off or whatever you could ruin your gear. (Think spilling a whole cup of coffee on an Ipad)
You should hang your carbon filter as high as possible so that it exhausts off the hot air that rose from the floor level, where it is cooler. Also if you have an extraction fan on a day/night temperature controller it will help you dial in your environment. Remember you are playing mother nature inside, and need to provide EVERYTHING in order to get the kind of results you see when you close your eyes at night and smile! Your off to a good start.
One thing that I wish I was told about when I got started was pests, and deficiencies. I can look back at old pictures of my plants and see deficiencies and signs of slight pest issues that back then I was not aware of. Read everything possible about plants, but mainly focus on the basics of cannabis growing, like pH,RH,temperature,light scheduling. I mention the pest issue because you are just starting out, and you probably don't have any bugs at all since you started from seed. BRING NO CLONE INTO YOUR GARDEN UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED/CLEANED/TREATED FOR BUGS! I can't stress this enough. I would love to have had a chance to prevent it from the beginning. Also, not that you are or would, get a great combo meter for testing your pH/EC,PPM/TEMP. Drop the cash and be happy that you won't have to replace it like once a year like the cheap ones. Ask questions and post pictures. The more info you provide us(the Farmers) the better we can assist you. Be nice as this is a professional/compassionate community here. Welcome, and I look forward to seeing you around the Farm! Hit me up if you have any questions or need help.

Cheers,
Crom

 

[Producer]

Pretty well everything Crom said!!
Straighten out the duct work. Less bending and winding.
And try to put your Carbon filter up higher. I made that mistake too.
Right now your carbon filter on the floor is just taking your fresh air around the plants which is vital and blowing it out. And all your hot air staying at the top. Remember, hot air rises! So your carbon filter up top should help allot.

 

[kicker]

Hey crom, thanks for the reply. I moved the ballast out last night before bed and it has helped slightly with the heat issues. Especially since it was red.

I got the carbon filter yesterday and was totally confused about where to put it, thanks for the tips on that. The ph Meter I have is a Hannah and I love it to death so far, the calibration process is very easy and only takes a minute. Just picked up a GRO Digital Timer and currently making my hydro setup.

I plan on flowering early so I can tell sex so only 1-2 more weeks of vegging. By then I will have some nice seeds for the hydro setup. Should I expect better veg growth with my ballast set on 600 from the CFLs? Im kind of excited to see what happens over the next week.

This grow tent was 100% worth the money that I paid for it. Heavy duty zippers, windows, passive vents, fan out takes, plenty of places to hang lights and ballasts. Lots of room. Water proof floor with an extra floor inster. :banana1sv6:

As you suggested fixing the ducting, I cut off about 15 unneeded feet and straightened it out as much as possible as seen in the photos below. I hope it makes a slight difference.

The plants are getting a cool 80ish coming in right at them.

Again the carbon filter is not in use atm, however the 6 inch duct fan is near the top sucking in hot air and out to the attic.

 

[Producer]

Is your carbon filter even hooked up to tht duct!? It looks like the duct is just floating above it!?

 

[kicker]

Is your carbon filter even hooked up to tht duct!? It looks like the duct is just floating above it!?

Carbon filter is not being used at all, its not needed during the first month of vegging.
That duct hose is floating above the carbon filter, its pointed at the plants. Its an intake fan outside the tent ducted inside the tent.

 

[Producer]

Hmmm....the carbon filter might not be needed for smell, but its still a great way to get rid of your heat...If you're having heat problems i'd just plug that in for a day or two and see what kind of difference it makes.

 

[kicker]

Carbon filters help remove the smell and the one I have will remove the smell completely.

I will use it also when I dry the buds.