SilusBotwin's Medical Tent

[silusbotwin]

So, here we go, this is my first medical grow and I'm about as excited as a man who owns a monkey in a football uniform I'm legal in my state to cultivate 12 plants as of now and hopefully after my first grow I can expand a bit and take on new patients to give care

My tent is 5x10x7 and it's from a company called California Nursery. Surprisingly quite durable. I'm vegging with a 325 watt, 6-bulb T5HO all 6500K bulbs:


I'll be sprouting in straight Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil in 3 inch square pots and transplanting into a 2:1 Pro-Mix BX/Ocean Forest mix. Any opinions on that?




I'm debating on whether I should go with the Fox Farms grow micro bloom or Advance Nutrients' new Jungle Juice lineup. I've never played with soil PH so the thought of using the non ph perfect Jungle Juice scares me a tad I hear the Fox Farms is PH adjusted so I shouldn't have to use the PH Up/Down. I have both along with some Big Bud for flavor and size, and some Neem Oil in case of emergency. Also in below photo is some PH Up, PH Down, 3 part PH meter buffer calibration solution, some rockwool that I decided not to use, and the cheap ass microscope I got from Hong Kong for 12 bucks.



Not setup yet but planning on using this for flowering. A single 1000 watt dimmable/switchable ballast with a HPS bulb. It came with a parabolic reflector but I won't be using it. Instead I will be using a 6 inch "Straight 6" cool tube from HTG Supply being vented with a 425 CFM Hydrofarm centrifugal exhaust. The cool tube is pictured below, just cant tell it's a cool tube because of the wing reflector covering it. Planning on getting a carbon filter before I flip to flowering. Also pictured, some Hydroponix MX clone gel from a new Michigan based company called HydroponiX Nutrients. Got it as a free sample via the net.


Here it is all setup aside from the 1000 watt HPS and cool tube. I'm really not in a huge hurry to get it setup. I definitely want to have it well setup and have the tent all dialed in before flipping over to flowering. I have a digital thermo/hygrometer with MIN/MAX memory so I can see the lows and highs while the lights are on and off along with a couple 6 inch clip on fans to control temps by the lights. Pictured are what I have sprouting. Germed in paper towel.




Germing the following:
4 x Greenhouse White Widow fems, 3 showed a root 1/4 inch in 36-48 hours so I put them in pots of FFOF covered with baggies. The 4th is still germing hopefully successfully.

1 x G13 Labs Pineapple Express fem germed in about 24 hours. Now sprouting in FFOF covered with a baggie.

3 x Dinafem Original Amnesia fems, only 1 germed and planted so far. The other two have cracked but not the root is just peeking out. Left them to germ some more. Planted the one in FFOF covered with baggies.

2 x Greenhouse Jack Herer fems none sprouted yet. Still germing.

Total of 5 finished germing and 5 still germing out of ten feminized beans.

Yeah, I know the tent skin is upside down and the vents should be on the bottom. I had to build the tent by myself in a cramped area with barely any room. There was only 2.5 inches of clearance between the tent frame and ceiling to maneuver the skin over the frame. I did not want to take it down and rebuild it by myself again with no room to move. I know its a bit half ass but I can make up for it by throwing a couple 6 inch intakes in the holes at the bottom of the tent and velcroeing the vent flaps shut at the top. I already have a few extra small booster fans perfect for the job so it won't cost me a penny. Do you guys think this will be just fine or should I tear everything down and try again? Mind you I'm a bit disabled with herniated disks, scoliosis, degenerative disk disease and all kinds of other terrible stuff so it's a bit difficult to handle a 60 pound tent skin when it's spread out about 30 feet long unzipped.


I plan to get a seperate tent to use just for vegging after flipping these girls to flower and using this 5x10x7 tent for flowering only. I'm going to add a second 1000 watt HPS with a cool tube after this grow. Only planning on vegging for 30 days or so to try to keep em short.

Any and ALL opinions, criticisms, compliments will be GREATLY appreciated. I'm so damn excited these days I can't even sleep. I have ADT coming to install a security system some time this next week and until then, this forum is my only outlet for excitement lol.

What are your thoughts? Have you grown using a similar setup? Grown any of the same strains? What were your results like. Anything I'm forgetting about here. inb4 PH tester. I have a Oakton PH Testr 20 for that When should I begin feeding? Which nutes should I use and what schedule?

 

[silusbotwin]

Decided to tear the tent down and put the shell back on the correct way (intake vents on the bottom). I might as well do it 100% right instead of half assing it. Also I got my Cooltube/HPS lighting and ventilation all hooked up after picking up some ratchet hangers from my local hydro shop. While I was there I also picked up a small 10 dollar air pump with a decent airstone to oxygenate my bucket of distilling water. Yeah, I know the bucket is pathetic but it will have to make do for distillation until I can get my hands on a decent size reverse osmosis and a drum or something similar to make a better resevoir.

I don't like the way the airpump, powerstrip, and fan control are just hanging from their cords that are double wrapped around the tent poles. It will have to do until I'm able to get a decent shelving unit. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with this productive day I might go rig something up to clip my fan control onto in a minute here after I smoke this Grape Ape




The only seeds that made it through germing and sprouting are 3 of the White Widows, a single Jack Herer and the Pineapple Express. I kept them soaking for too long and I think I drowned them. I tried to save them but accidentally planted them upside-down so the shells never popped off to expose the cotyledons and eventually, they just rotted out. Also, I planted the first 6 germed seeds into hot PURE FFOF. That was mistake number 2 is planting into such hot soil. The Jack Herer I planted in Pro-Mix is thriving like mad. From now on I will be sprouting in plain Pro-Mix and transplanting into FFOF/PM mixed. I also picked up a bag of perlite today to add to my soil mixture.



A friend is donating a Grapefruit Crush lady who only has about 3-4 weeks left until it's ready for the ol choppy chop so I need to figure something out for my T5 and seedlings so I can stick the Grapefruit girl in the tent. I feel like I'm wasting a ton of light energy using a single 1000 watt HPS for a single 2.5 foot tall plant in such a gigantic tent. Hopefully I'm able to engineer something to make it work without too much wasted power. Well, hopefully this time tomorrow I'll have a tiny bit of bud porn. I need to get to the drawing board and design something quick. I'm also planning on building a couple DWC buckets just to practice hydro with.

 

[silusbotwin]

Not much has changed since my last update. I just got all of my paperwork in an open ended envelope and taped it to the inside of my tent. Alos put a few nutrient schedule posters up inside out of boredom. Also, the one White Widow has been battling to be the biggest baby against the Jack Herer baby. Every day the Jack gets bigger than the WW, then the next day the WW gets bigger than the JH. I'll be following the two closely to see what happens. One thing I have noticed big time is that the sprouts in the Pro-Mix took off much faster than the ones planted in pure FFOF. Also the one in the Pro-Mix has shown zero signs of stress while the ones in FFOF have shown slightly twisty leaves as well as purpling of stems and leaves, I would imagine brought on by the soil being too nutrient rich. They have fought through it and I think it's safe to say all five that made it are all officially past the seedling stage and on to vegetation.

 

[silusbotwin]

Just a couple photos. The Jack is in the lead.

 

[troutie]

we're pretty much neck and neck ... give or take a few days ....very interested in how your grow pans out, looking good (mine needed repotting about now.. massive root growth with autos)...

i'm subbed

 

[silusbotwin]

we're pretty much neck and neck ... give or take a few days ....very interested in how your grow pans out, looking good (mine needed repotting about now.. massive root growth with autos)...

i'm subbed

Yeah, I noticed our grows should be timed pretty much synchronously Pretty cool mate I'm going to be following your OP closely and keeping an eye on the beautiful love (bud ) you produce. Thanks for stopping by and commenting man. I could really use some tips, criticism, or advice on anything and everything possible but it seems that nobody gets active in a thread until some bud porn is on hand I might just go re-create this thread in a different section and make a link thread here like I see everyone else doing. Again, thanks for showing interest pal

Namaste!

 

[silusbotwin]

Figured I would make an update since I'm bored out of my gourd here. Not much changed aside from me sprouting a few new beans and adding a 2nd air pump to my shitty reservoir. My pal has a connection to some 35 and 55 gallon plastic drum barrels for only 20 dollars a piece and they are spic and span clean. Picking one of the 35 gallon ones up as soon as I can afford it.

Heres the photos. Kinda lame I know but hey, it helps expel my excitement . The three that are covered in plastic are regular breeder seeds from Seedsman and they are called "The Purple Bud". I know I'm getting a bit carried away in terms of variety but I'm trying to make this as perpetual as possible and until I'm able to get some cloning gear, the seedlings will have to work. I still have room for 4 more plants to meet my legal plant count limit. I'm waiting for my pal to take some clones from his mommies to hook me up. So for the 4 spots I have left, I have one Grapefruit Krush that only has 3 weeks remaining until harvest and I'm hoping to fill the other 3 slots with clones. He has an awesome variety of genetics and I'm super lucky to have him as a pal anonymous pal, you know who you are, my buddy, you rock.

The first photo is a pic of my ballast. When I bought it on ebay it said it was digital but it doesn't say anything about being digital on the sticker. Also, It didn't say in the auction but it's dimmable too. It has a 1100 watt setting that I'm afraid to try for fear of burning out a 100 dollar bulb. I hope I didn't get screwed. The second photo is the 5 babies and the 3 "Purple Bud" beans that were soaked for 24 hours then planted into 2 parts FFOF, 2 parts Pro-Mix, and 1 part perlite. As soon as they sprout some cotyledons, I'll remove the plastic domes. 3rd photo is the view inside the tent from the side. 4th photo is my 1000 watt HPS in my cool tube.

 

[bodyshop54]

its good to see the michigan boys in there gardens mine are from clone so there a bit further

 

[troutie]

Yeah, I noticed our grows should be timed pretty much synchronously Pretty cool mate I'm going to be following your OP closely and keeping an eye on the beautiful love (bud ) you produce. Thanks for stopping by and commenting man. I could really use some tips, criticism, or advice on anything and everything possible but it seems that nobody gets active in a thread until some bud porn is on hand I might just go re-create this thread in a different section and make a link thread here like I see everyone else doing. Again, thanks for showing interest pal

Namaste!

yeah mate ..... i got couple of good lads who are doing roughly what i'm doing at the same time... so our threads are mostly us helping each other out ... with the odd passer by here and there.... but your right it takes buds to bump up the traffic... also i have found putting a link to your journal in your signiture helps people find your stuff and saves you going into too much detail when you ask a question in the forums as they can just look at your journal too see your details (thanks cumbers for that tip)

no worries buddy catch you on the flip side


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=

 

[troutie]

Figured I would make an update since I'm bored out of my gourd here. Not much changed aside from me sprouting a few new beans and adding a 2nd air pump to my shitty reservoir. My pal has a connection to some 35 and 55 gallon plastic drum barrels for only 20 dollars a piece and they are spic and span clean. Picking one of the 35 gallon ones up as soon as I can afford it.

Heres the photos. Kinda lame I know but hey, it helps expel my excitement . The three that are covered in plastic are regular breeder seeds from Seedsman and they are called "The Purple Bud". I know I'm getting a bit carried away in terms of variety but I'm trying to make this as perpetual as possible and until I'm able to get some cloning gear, the seedlings will have to work. I still have room for 4 more plants to meet my legal plant count limit. I'm waiting for my pal to take some clones from his mommies to hook me up. So for the 4 spots I have left, I have one Grapefruit Krush that only has 3 weeks remaining until harvest and I'm hoping to fill the other 3 slots with clones. He has an awesome variety of genetics and I'm super lucky to have him as a pal m1ndless my buddy, you rock.

The first photo is a pic of my ballast. When I bought it on ebay it said it was digital but it doesn't say anything about being digital on the sticker. Also, It didn't say in the auction but it's dimmable too. It has a 1100 watt setting that I'm afraid to try for fear of burning out a 100 dollar bulb. I hope I didn't get screwed. The second photo is the 5 babies and the 3 "Purple Bud" beans that were soaked for 24 hours then planted into 2 parts FFOF, 2 parts Pro-Mix, and 1 part perlite. As soon as they sprout some cotyledons, I'll remove the plastic domes. 3rd photo is the view inside the tent from the side. 4th photo is my 1000 watt HPS in my cool tube.

i just shot my load

 

[silusbotwin]

So I picked up that Emerald Triangle Grapefruit Krush plant this evening and it's much bigger than I though it would be. The fella who gave it to me is a member here but his activity as of late is limited to lurking. Maybe the bud porn will arouse some interest in my thread. Well, I've got to go figure something out for my seedlings to veg in while this plant finishes out. I'm guessing it only has 3-4 weeks left. Wish I could take some clones from it.

 

[silusbotwin]

All tied up and standing tall now.

 

[silusbotwin]

So here we go, it's been 12 days since they sprouted and I do believe it's time for an update. The Purple Bud seeds haven't shown any growth at all. I'm going to continue germing them and hope they are long germers but I do believe they are a few years old so I'm not getting my hopes up.

The Grapefruit Krush lady is standing up nice and perky now. I'm continuing the same regimen that the donor was using. He uses the Lucas formula with great success and since the Jungle Juice I have is supposed to be a better quality clone of General Hydro, I'm able to continue his exact regimen of nutes. Temps have gotten pretty high @ 90 degrees and lows of 66 degrees at night. Temps were monitored right at the main cola via tieing the outdoor sensor on my thermo/hygro to the plant's stake\ at an equal distance from the cooltube as the main cola. I think it has definitely showed some heat stress with alot of pistils turning brown and receding into the calyxes. The night I got it, it was FULL of pistils and they were 100% white and healthy. Now, around 10-15% of the pistils have changed color.

The Jack and the Widow are neck and neck and it's about tied up right now, and I'm surprised at how fast the White Widow is showing secondary side growth. Keeping the T5's only 2 inches from the plants has really kept them super compact. I'm planning on buying some 3 or 5 gallon Smart Pots in the next week some time to transplant into. I haven't rigged up anything still for the seedlings to be seperated from the flowering GFK. I'm hoping the 12/12 they have been getting the last 2 nights doesn't stunt them too much. I'm going to work it out tonight before the lights go out so I can keep them vegging. I'm beginning to think I may have mislabeled the pots when germing somehow because of the variety of leaf characteristics among the Widow's.

Tent Temps in the last 24 hours.

---canopy/main cola temps---
Min:63 degrees
Max: 88 degrees

---ambient temps---
Min: 66 degrees
Max: 84 degrees

Humidity: 45-55%

Fed today
Here are some lovely photos

 

[silusbotwin]

So I just about murdered my sister an hour ago. I came home from visiting my father in the hospital and it was time for the lights to come on. I go to the tent and my sister sprinkled boric acid all over the place outside of the tent to combat a insect problem irrelevant to my garden. Luckily my ventilation system shuts down when my lights shut down so I was able to clean it up before the fans kicked on and sucked a cloud of it into the tent. I tried to sweep it all away but it was causing clouds to kick up in the air so I let it sit for ten minutes to settle and rinsed the whole floor with a bucket of water. Seemed to do the trick without getting a single bit of boric acid dust into the tent. I went online to do some research and it turns out, boric acid is actually a good thing for gardens. Just not good to have clouds of it being sucked into the tent through the intakes. It works well to sprinkle it around the walls of a grow room to deter insects. It can also be used to treat cannabis plants for Boron deficiency by adding boric acid to the water when watering. I found a thread here a guy made where he found spider mites on his plants so he sprinkled the hell out of them with boric acid. It effectively killed the mites but it made his plants look like shit. So all in all, disaster avoided. I will be putting a door and a lock onto the entrance way of the tent so nobody can spread ignorance into my garden ever again.

On an unrelated note, the GFK lady seems to have taken to her new home rather nicely. I stated in an entry earlier that alot of the pistils were dieing off from shock of moving it or heat, not sure which but she is now spitting out new white pistils in mass quantities. Shes looking pretty. Seedlings have shown massive growth in the last 36 hours. I can't even believe they are the same plants

 

[silusbotwin]

Small update. Just a couple photos of breakfast. My hands are seriously massive just so you know. I'm not kidding when I say massive. I can palm a basketball easily.

 

[silusbotwin]

Finally got around to rigging up a little veg box to veg my seedlings for the next few weeks while the GFK is living in the tent. I just took the box that my T5 came in and used it as a base. 4 cardboard angle bars for support columns in the corners, followed by a wrap of USPS priority mail boxes that were free from the post office and voila! One clone/seedling cabinet For lighting I just took some power strips, Y-adapters and wall-to-light-socket adapters from a previous grow. 12x26 watt CFL's. For ventilation I wired up 2 12 volt PC fans at the top for exhaust and a single 12 volt pc fan for an intake on the bottom of the opposite side of the box from the exhaust fans. It only has to work for a couple weeks until I harvest the GFK. The little baby girls spent a total of 3 nights at 12/12 light cycle. I wanted to get it done sooner but I've been pretty busy with visiting my cancer fighting father in the hospital as well as helping my mom out with everything she needs done.

1st photo is a general perspective shot. The little box plugged into the left power strip is a ultrasonic pest deterrent. We've had problems with mice and the last thing I need is for the little bastards to burrow into the roots or eat the foliage. 2nd photo is a view inside through the exhaust fans, and the 3rd is a view of the front when it's closed. Granted it isn't sealed but I'm not so worried about light leaks considering nobody goes into my basement or even comes over to my house even.

Tent Temps in the last 24 hours.

---canopy/main cola temps---
Min: 68 degrees
Max: 92.5 degrees

---ambient temps---
Min: 71.2 degrees
Max: 89.5 degrees

Humidity: 45-55%

I've raised the lights because I noticed one of the colas was beginning to burn and the temps were way too high at the canopy anyways.

 

[machnak]

Clean set-up, can't wait to see it full of green

 

[silusbotwin]

Temps stabilized at 82 F highs and 70 F lows. Couple photos here.

 

[oldschoolhydro]

Real nice set up, that Jack and WW look great.

 

[silusbotwin]

Real nice set up, that Jack and WW look great.

Thanks man! I'm about 95% sure I mixed up the labels but it won't be a problem fixing them especially once they flower. I'm debating on whether or not to put two of them into flower now so my harvests are a bit more spaced out.

The buds at the nodes under the colas are the size of golf balls and hard as a rock I hope my I'm able to do right enough and care for my babies as much as my friend did for this sweet smelling GFK. This strain has the most lovely bouquet I've ever had the pleasure of smelling. It makes my entire house smell like citrus grapefruit, tangerines, oranges, and peppery hints. I just wanna have a tall glass of it with my morning breakfast because it smells better than Tropicana

Small update. Just a couple photos to document growth. I have stabilized humidity at 45-50% and Temps between 68-80