$500 open rack grow

[medicaloutlaw]

No tent but I had these 2 racks in storage, The Wife gave me a budget of $500. Bought a (2) HPS600 and a small LED to start sprouts. Roots organic and Roots Lush, a dozen 5-gallon fabric pots. 3 bags of FF Ocean (not using) some seed starters rapid rooters and a box full of misc items with a few bucks to spare. The two racks I bridged with extra shelves so over all footprint in 54 x 54 and 72" tall. Shelves are easily raised or lowered as needed and there are plenty extra if needed. Since heat rises and it is open heat should not be a problem. As for smell this is a single car garage converted to a den and not part of the HVAC system so I hope that will help the smell problem. There is a mini-split heat and cool unit mounted directly above it and I can add a carbon filter to it. I ordered seeds that just arrived but a friend already gifted me enough seeds to get started and those are coming up now....so now its officially started. WoooHooo!

 

[medicaloutlaw]

The three are Durban Poison (5 days old) and the sprouts coming up are Maui Wowie and Thailand. Just moved the DP under one of the HPS at the 400 setting 30" above and they have doubled in size in hours. I swear I could see them growing...lol The sprouts broke ground after the second day in the rapid rooter and now are three days old and still under the LED. A couple of old 11 year old seeds havent come up yet but Im hoping. Maybe tomorrow I will see the second leaves start to appear and move them under HPS with the others.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

I moved at day 5 under MH at 400 watts about 24 inches above. They looked like they were stretching so the next day instead of lowering the light I just bumped it to 600 watts. Newby mistake and by Day 7 I started to see the signs of light burn. The lower leaf started to curl and look unhealthy. Dropped back to 400 immediately built the dirt up a little on the stalk and raised the light to 30" Put them on 18/6

Here they are at day 9 and looking and growing nice since I raised the light up.

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Looking like a nice start up!
Will this be your first grow?

With a large area you should be able to keep heat down hopefully.might be hard keeping humidity where you want to in the same breath.
You’ll learn lots, and hopefully your having fun too.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Looking like a nice start up!
Will this be your first grow?

With a large area you should be able to keep heat down hopefully.might be hard keeping humidity where you want to in the same breath.
You’ll learn lots, and hopefully your having fun too.

Yes first grow. I did some Autos about 10 years ago but this is my first real try with photoperiod plants "legally". Im sure I will make many mistakes but it is fun! Thank you!

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 12 for the three Durban Poison. These are regulars and might do a seed run with them. I guess they are coming along as they should. The smaller Maui and Thailand (Fems) are running about 5 days behind. Got a couple of freebie autos that popped a few days ago. Zkittles and a Gorilla Glue. The Wife wanted to try her green thumb at them outside on the deck as soon as this cold front moves out. The rest will stay inside. Cant hardly wait for the Bola Mintz that I won and the Captain Future I ordered from chosenseeds.com to arrive!!

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Strange how 2 of the Durbans' were very large and robust seeds and the other was a very tiny seed. It came up the same time as the others but has stayed noticeably smaller.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 14 Two Weeks on the 3 Duran Poison regulars ready for transplant into 5-gallon bag planters in another week. The Maui and Thai (Fems) are 5 days behind and not growing as fast. Maybe transplant them into larger as well. I had to bury them a little deeper with the rapid rooter since they stretched more than I like. They dont have alot of room for root growth in those small 10oz fiber cups.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 17 on the Durbans. Outside of the lowest burnt leaf from my light blunder are they looking on track? The cotyledon is starting to yellow. Wanting to transplant into 5 gal fabric pots at Day 21 with the Roots Lush mixed in.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 22 Transplant Day. Fired up the second light and got it going. Both are on the 400 watts setting with MH bulb. Ive had a problem burning plants using the 600 watt setting so I';; leave them at 400 until they get settled in to their new homes. I let the soil dry to transplant and in the two hours it took one of the Durbans started to get a little droopy. Gave them all a good watering. The Maui and the Thailand stunted in those little cups so I put them in a larger planter but didnt have the time to prepare the 5 gal fabric pots for them.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 24 - Its a good news-bad news type of day. The three Durbans have responded wonderfully to LST and new growth is everywhere and getting bigger by the hour. I will have to do some more training but Im impressed just by bending the plants over and moving a few big leafs out of the way. The bad news is that the 2nd Vivosun 600w HPS/MH quit after only 5 days use. I went to water and saw it out and the plants reaching for the other light a few feet away. I moved the smaller 6 planst to the floor closer to the light temporarily until I slide a rack down for them. I contacted Amazon and they arranged for a tomorrow pickup and a credit so I can reorder as quick as possible. I'll finish this grow and the next under HPS but next year Im going full LED. I already have a baby Viparspectra P600 for just the seedlings/sprouts.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 28 Got them back under 2 HPS600w. Had to replace one of them Meant to repot the 6 younger plants but havent had the time to do it yet. Training away on the DP. Topped a couple of the MW and Thai man they get tall quickly.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Tomorrow is flip day. Wanted to let the Maui and the Thai get a little bigger since they are 10-12 days behind the Durbans. The Durbans took to LST very well. Those tall stringy Maui and Thai dont like to be trained so topped and FIM a couple and let them go. More than anything this is a learning grow.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

No pics on this update but flipped to 12/12 a couple days ago.

 

[mae]

They look great!

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

How long you gonna flower these? They’re all longer strains. Should be nice

 

[medicaloutlaw]

How long you gonna flower these? They’re all longer strains. Should be nice

Until they tell me they are ready

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 60 for some Day 50 for others. This was a couple of days ago. Have about 15 flowers sticking through the net now.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Noooo two in two days. Two Durban Poison down.

 

[medicaloutlaw]

Day 65 update. Pictures before the stupid Flower Fuel stunt I pulled earlier today that had me freaking out when my plants turned into limp noodles 30 minutes after I fed it to them. (Pictures of that and my PTSD kicking in on another thread...lol) I should have searched it out here first but I got sucked in with one of those sweetly worded amazon ads promising big buds. The thing is Ive followed everything I could on this forum and the advice from others and I should have a healthy harvest WITHOUT this kind of crap I used today. Another lesson learned and narrowly missed damage. I tried to tone down the yellow a bit from the HPS