Totally new to this! First grow: Journal

[randomlygrow]

Right well everything is moving great now, i've got absolutely everything i need apart from the carbon filter stuff. I've been testing the temperature today but can't work out what my cheap digital thermometer is saying, i have an in and out measurement which i assume in is the probe and out is the LCD, but the temps change weirdly and the probe is always more than the LCD even if theyre both in the tub. Either way seems that temps are too high, in20(68F)/out38(101F) and about 50% humidity this is without plants in though so i expect humidity to rise obviously.

Temps need looking at big time, i need to make a bottom intake somewhere so my exhaust doesn't struggle and is actually effective. I'm not totally sure where and how big i'll make it yet, or if i'll just put lots of little holes in the side at the bottom (this might scatter light outside though and i don't want it lighting the place up... Alternatively i could also put holes in the very bottom pointing towards the floor and elevate the whole thing i might be swaying towards this...

As you can see i've got the water bag (not yet testing properly) ready and hung up and plumbed in which means i can put 10l in there and then leave on a slow drip (or set the drip fast and manually water from the 10l every so often, that should work well

I'm also gonna hold off germinating until i get back later this week like you advised.

heres some more slightly newer again nothings changed really just little additions as things have arrived in the post!

//Edit: Oh thats one thing the new mylar seems great, but the whole tub lights up visibly with the lights on, so i assume this means the mylar actually reflects/absorbs less light than the foil? Can i put another skin of mylar round the inside to stop the extra light soaking outside? I started duct taping around the outside but grew tired very quickly

 

[johnnytsmitw]

looking good man. Passive air intake on the bottom of the bin, with it put on a few legs to lift it up off the ground a couple inches, would help. I recommend at least a fan up top pulling air directly out from the top. your little pc fan thats in the bottom now could be used for just circulation and plant exercise.

just my two cents. but I havent decided what to build my cab out of myself. I am leaning toward stealth dresser.

 

[randomlygrow]

looking good man. Passive air intake on the bottom of the bin, with it put on a few legs to lift it up off the ground a couple inches, would help. I recommend at least a fan up top pulling air directly out from the top. your little pc fan thats in the bottom now could be used for just circulation and plant exercise.

just my two cents. but I havent decided what to build my cab out of myself. I am leaning toward stealth dresser.

Thats the plan mate, the fan inside was always going to stir, and the top was always going to be exhaust. Going to have 4 holes in the bottom large enough to just about keep it in negative pressure. I'll raise it about 6" off the floor easy as well.

Quick trip via pets at home to pick up £7 box of carbon and B&Q secured me a 200mx250mm metal mesh sheet for £8! I'll be moulding it into a cone of some sort, for a £15 carbon filter! Bargain!

Also made a make shift thermostat, with two SPDT switches for each fan, so i can have the fans independently on/off/temp depending on what i want to do

Last thing now is a cheap way to block light from the exhaust without hindering airflow, saw some dryer duct today but the cheapest one wouldn't have blocked light as it was thin plastic, then suitable one was £15 i think, which isn't bad and was aluminium etc... But i'll see what i can fashion up on the cheap first. As this "little project" costs me £15-£20 everytime i do something!

Would be nice to actually start ****ing growing soon, i have FAR too much patience

 

[bouche753]

Quick trip via pets at home to pick up £7 box of carbon and B&Q secured me a 200mx250mm metal mesh sheet for £8! I'll be moulding it into a cone of some sort, for a £15 carbon filter! Bargain!

Also made a make shift thermostat, with two SPDT switches for each fan, so i can have the fans independently on/off/temp depending on what i want to do

id like 2 c how uv done both of these, iv just had a go at the junction box seems 2 b workin

Last thing now is a cheap way to block light from the exhaust without hindering airflow, saw some dryer duct today but the cheapest one wouldn't have blocked light as it was thin plastic, then suitable one was £15 i think, which isn't bad and was aluminium etc... But i'll see what i can fashion up on the cheap first.

u could try wrap the cheap 1 in something, may b foil

 

[randomlygrow]

id like 2 c how uv done both of these, iv just had a go at the junction box seems 2 b workin

I'll do a mini write up on this too, show you how its wired and what i used. I just nipped the local electronics store and bought a few components, then used the two 120mm fans and 12v power supply i've already got.

Basically for now before i draw up some pics. Think of it this way, two circuits, one 12v, and another parallel 12v but temp controlled on and off. Each SPDT (centre off switch) can either switch to the 12v circuit or the 12vtemp circuit (or ultimately off). Both fans wired the same in parallel so don't affect each other. The temp circuit is basically a little similar to this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=31698&doy=search. But more basic, involving just a potentiometer/thermistor (for control of temp cut off) and a logic gate/amplifier (i forget the name now) to give it a defined on/off as opposed to anologue curve to temp. Thats getting a little complicated i know

u could try wrap the cheap 1 in something, may b foil

Nah i don't think that's practical, i don't have any other solutions but i'll come up with something in time i'm sure

 

[johnnytsmitw]

hey pal. hows it going? any updates?

 

[randomlygrow]

hey pal. hows it going? any updates?

Hey man! Yeah been away for a bit longer than expected, so good job i didn't dive into things. Germination started as of about 2 hours ago, they're in a glass of water now waiting until the drop then into peat bags in a germination chamber. Worried about how cold our flat is though, heating is broke and its not cold, but not exactly warm for germination now.

They're in a small cupboard so i'll fill a hot water bottle up and keep it in there with them hopefully raise the temperature a bit in there

Whilst i've been away i've done absolutely nout to the grow box. Still needs bigger holes and legs etc... But that will happen over the next few days, whilst i germinate them. I propose a trip to homebase!

Woop, excited now!

 

[randomlygrow]

****ing pissed off right now, spent the last few hours ****ing around with some mesh trying to fashion something with activated carbon and tights over the hole you see up there, and i've got ****ing nowhere, nothings worked out at all. It holds the carbon but i can see quite clearly that its sh*** coverage and i doubt it will work filtering at all. Its all taken back off atm, and i'm looking for inspiration and help, i can go buy some more cheap mesh which i can do whatever with, but i can't see a sensible way to fashion it...

Seriously pissed off right now for some reason! I'll get on with other things for now, cheers guys

 

[bouche753]

any ideas on blocking the light out from the extractor fans yet? iv got the same prob

 

[randomlygrow]

Right took a breather got my act together and i think i've sorted the carbon filter faily decently, i'll put pics up later

For blocking light the carbon filter *should* take a fair bit of it i hope, and then after that i've bought 1m of ducting for a few pennies off eBay and i'll see how that does first.

My temperature sensing circuit doesn't work, but i don't know why and i don't have a multimeter to actually test it. It's probably going to just be bypassed. So i'll now have two fans with a switch each changing it from 7v/12v or off. Which is simpler and should do anyway!

 

[johnnytsmitw]

I feel ya on the frustrations. I am racing against time right now getting my cab done because my ladies are starting to put up a little stink. I bought the wrong kind of hinge and spent a couple hours trying to make it work. I look forward to seeing your filter, that is my next step as well.

 

[randomlygrow]

Hmmmm worried about my seeds germination. Basically left them in water for 24h then poked them with something each one sank, so they were good to go. Wrapped them in damp paper towel and left them another 24h. Then just popped the seeds into some expandable peat pellets and a little propagator on top of a hot water bottle because the temps in my flat are freezing right now (15C daytime) and i don't have anywhere warm for them. But i noticed that the temp of the propagator had hit a high of 30C sometime which i think is probably far far too hot for the poor little seeds. Another day has went by and no activity yet out the top so i'm just hoping i didn't kill the poor babies off...?

Hot water bottle has been removed and replace with a small reptile heating pad i scavenged from a friend which i'm gonna monitor for now to see how hot it gets, hopefully this makes things more stable...

What are my chances or shall i just go buy some more seeds now ?

 

[johnnytsmitw]

I dont have any experience with the glass of water method, or peat pellets for that matter. I use the paper towel method myself. I dont know Celsius but my apartment was about 70F when I germed mine. It only took two days for them to come out an inch or so from their seed casings. Did they have little roots coming out when you put them in the peat cubes? I would say you have some reason to be alarmed, but to wait another day and then to see if you can uncover a little bit of the cube to see if any action has started. sometimes its too much burden for them to push up.

 

[randomlygrow]

Crisis averted checked them today poked a tiny bit below soil with a fork and can see a little shoot going for it, they just seem slow, but all four are good it seems, when i think i only really have room for 3 anyways...

So updates to the little grow box, well extensive testing with house plants yesterday and today and i can see i can keep it an avergely nice temp and humidity. No light escapes from the carbon filter (theres a fair amount of carbon in it!). But loads is escaping from below its like a massive night light, so i'll probably tape some kinda binbag skirt to it. Both fans work a dream in their off/7v/12v configs and i can really control the temp in there My Big Drippa works like a dream, so it means i can water without messing round moving the top and i can slowly drip water them over the course of the day and have excess drain out through the bottom if need be, good for leaving them along if i'm away a weekend etc...

Have made a stand for it (which is why i need the skirt) this works perfectly. And theres now a tube coming out with a screw cap lid attatched to which i can screw bottles of yeast for co2.

Very happy with everything. So as of now my to do list which even thought i always say im finished tinkering keeps growing stands at:
Make a skirt to block light
Make some split cone reflectors out of the left over mylar and something i can fold cone shape. These will just sit coiled on top of each pendant in the hope of pushing more light down if necessary...

I'd say we're on the right track though and things are running smooth

Pictures!:
Mesh

Bent:

Fitted with tights outside filled with carbon, squashed and faffed with duct tape to make sure its airtight and passes air through said carbon.

Three way switches on top

View of 10l water bag and pipe routing moved to outside (easier to work with)

Line up perfect!

Little sprouts :

//Edit: Ok slight technical problems and pics of sprouts aren't playing game just yet

 

[johnnytsmitw]

looks really nice man. Wish I knew someone with your technical expertise. the cab I am working on is wood, and I am a little nervous about it insulating too well, but the size youre working with is probably pretty close to mine so this gives me some confidence. will you be sticking it in a closet or are you not really concerned with stealth?

 

[Kroniq]

that is 1 ghetto ass setup. i like it lol

 

[randomlygrow]

It probabaly won't be going in a closet just sitting in my room like that with a big sheet thrown over it. But its fully portable and only uses one socket for everything. If need be it could be moved into a closet where we have a second frigde/freezer. My flatmates know of this and don't really care as long as it doesn't smell (which it won't ).

Seedlings have hatched big time, and stretched loads in the dark overnight it seems, just moved them to the windowsill now as i think they're sorely asking for some light now! Although none have shown any cotyledons yet so aren't totally ready for photosynthesis. I think its a better place for the now though Pictures are still an issue atm (my memory card is being mental for some reason).

 

[randomlygrow]

Memory card thrown away and replaced it was definitely dead So new pictures little seedlings first and last my real world testing of my watering now. After some calibration it would seem that overall i'm emptying at about 1l/h overall, balanced almost perfectly over each nozzle so each plant there would get 250ml every hour which is still too fast as water goes, but makes water a much slower natural process as opposed to drowning them. I basically fill up the bag with as much water as needed let it run out slowly and refill if they need more. I'm leaving it dripping into 4 pint glasses on equal levels to see which reaches the pint level first and tag them with speed ratio.

Two Super Lemon Haze

Left Lemon Skunk, Right Himilayan Gold

Still not too sure about my seedlings too much they look super fragile, and slightly yellow.

Here's the testing of the flow/drip rate of the nozzels

 

[johnnytsmitw]

The seedlings look pretty good. I would start hitting them with the light though. I like the water setup. I am going out of town for 13 days in two weeks and have to leave mine with my buddy. I may rig something like this up so he doesnt accidentally overwater.

This is definitely one of the least ghetto, of the the ghetto grows I have seen. were not producers so keeping it cheap is the whole point. I think it looks like something off a cheap star trek episode, which I can dig because I am in the habit of getting baked and watching star trek.

I am a little concerned with the size though. I am not sure if you will be able to fit all four plants in your cab through flower. but now that youve done it once, getting another one rigged up would probably be pretty easy.

 

[randomlygrow]

Yeah man i hear you, one little seedling had reached his height restriction he's in a pot now and i heavily watered with a spray until it felt damp ish on top (i really don't want to over water here and i feel the expanded peat pellet held quite a lot of its own moisture ). Other three are in there in the propagator ontop of the other 3 plant pots. Lights are set to go now 20/4 and i plan on doing a slow reduction in lights to 18/6 hold there for a bit then a slow change to 12/12 (talking a bit to far ahead here!).

It's defo gonna get cramped in there, but i doubt i'll be keeping all four, i'll see where it takes me, biggest survive basically, if i really feel like it i might rig up another but tbh thats still a fair amount of hassle and then it just sounds like where do i stop kinda thing? Too much trouble for me... Might give it away to a friend you never know! Technically i've got about 150l of space to play with but its too vertical.

I got my water nozzle rate waaaaay off as well, as of now they've been going for 5.25 hours and were maybe 3/4 of a pint each almost all exactly the same maybe 10-20ml in difference over ALL of them. SO i'm mucho impressed with that. Since its more what i was after.

//Edit: Right they just reached the pint level pretty much, i'm saying 7 hours per pint which is 81ml per hour, which means i'd drain the whole bag in about 36 hours. Which would still be way to quick to ever leave. But it does mean i can water them slowly over the coure of their day, over a litre a plant if i really need that, which i doubt!
//Edit

Current temp (remote probe is next too my little loner seedling) is 22.5C with 41% humidity both fans on 7v no filter attached which i'm happy with Propagator thermometer would pretty much agree as well.

So good times, now i've set this up and it seems stable i'll be able to sleep well! Apart from the blazing light from it which i'm still to sort.

One question that springs to mind. Now i've set my photoperiod up when should i be aligning it with my day, how do you guys do it? Basically its gotta sleep for 4 hours, when should i set that? Atm it's between 10 and 2 which will stretch to 10 and 4. My only reasoning is that temps in my flat get cold enough in the day let alone night. So its best to balance against those by leaving the "night" in my photo period when our flat is naturally warmest around midday? Sound good?