Highocaine
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone!
For a first time grower, not the usual route taken, right? Lately I've been stressed out over school, and I found that one of my favourite things to do when stressed is to read up about cannabis. I did this so much during November that I decided to start a little project!
Strain
The strain is a cross of Lowryder #2 and Hindu Kush, dubbed "Devon Maid" by my seed supplier. It's an autoflowering Indica that he claims needs nothing more than 2L of soil and 24/0 CFL lighting, and is designed to be as easy to grow as possible.
Lighting
Homemade LED lights, as per knna/pinstripe (of icmag) inspiration. Osram Golden Dragon Plus. Constructed on aluminum U-channel (used to be part of some vertical blinds) using no-name thermal paste and miscellaneous adhesive. Flower light will be made using thermal adhesive!
Driver: Waterproof 670mA 36W Power Constant Current Source LED Driver (85~265V)-42906 from DealExtreme.
Vegetative (Kinda useless for AF strains, but why not): 10 Red 625nm, 4 Blue 470nm, 1 White "Cool" 6500K.
Current draw: 630 mA (bah, that's China for you!)
Voltage across 15 LEDs: 35.5 V (also a bit overvolted at 2.37V/LED, but whatever)
Wattage: ~22 W
Orientation: B-B-W-B-B sandwiched between two rows of R-R-R-R. About 50 mm seperation between LEDs.
Flower: 10 Red 625 nm, 4 White "Cool" 6500K. (not yet built)
Medium
When I started the grow I was going to go all-out soil, but decided to try Hydro since the startup cost (at least, low-scale) was in my budget. At least that's what I thought, until I considered nutrients. And hydroton. My advice to first timers: Try soil first!
Seedling: Peat Pellets
Once roots show: Peat in net pot, surrounded by hydroton. DWC.
Nutrients
Botanicare Pure Blend Organic
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And with that, on to the actual grow!
November 27th, 2012
Started germinating today. Lined a match box with sandpaper and scarified the 3 seeds. Paper towel method, heat blanket. Tap water. No idea on PH.
November 30th, 2012
No luck so far! Tried lots of different methods for keeping them warm. Most were too hot and dried out the paper towels too quickly. I was scared that I cooked them more than once, but read up and found that germination at 90 F (32 C) is sometimes more successful than germination at lower temperatures.
December 1st, 2012
Gave up and just planted the damned seeds. Peat pellets (not Jiffy), since I didn't have access to rockwool (at the time - future grows, rockwool all the way). Again, I had no good way of keeping the soil warm. Ambient temps in my house are around 17-19 C (63-68 F). I whipped up a temperature-controlled extension cord using an Arduino, a temperature sensor (TMP38GZ, I think), and a 240V solid state relay (which can be used at 120V just fine). Plugging a heat blanket into the socket keeps the soil at a steady 25 C (77 F), as long as the temperature sensor stays near the soil.
December 3rd, 2012
Two! Nice. The seeds husks are still on.... These seeds have really hard shells. At this point, I'm worried they won't be able to get the husks off!
December 4th, 2012 - Parcel day!
Stunned by the brightness of these LEDs. Definitely harmful to unprotected eyes. Got some sweet Lennon-esque shades to wear when I'm in here..
December 5th, 2012
Made a novice mistake today. Helped the shell off one seedling relatively safely, but with the other... I accidentally ripped the seed away from the stem. Rest in peace..
With that done, I berated myself for a long time, telling myself I should have just left them alone - and then promptly started germing another seed (skipped the artificial shit and went right to peat).
In other news..
December 6th, 2012
Oh what a good day.. Passed at least one of my courses (with a 13% buffer from the average I need to maintain)!
And then came home to this incredible cutie:
Also figured out how to work the manual focus on this DSLR I'm borrowing.. Expect better pictures from now on!
Is it normal for the leaves to curl back a little like that? The cotyledons aren't curling much though, so I'd assume heat and overwatering are out.. but what about light intensity? I went and raised the lights an inch or so. Today, I hooked up my light timer, and I'll set them on 20/4 starting midnight.
Also, I've started watering the bottom portion of the pellet instead of the top. I need the roots to grow down!
And for now you're all caught up. I'll (hopefully) be doing daily updates (or at least taking daily pics) for a while, because this is a pretty quick stage of growth for the plant. Sorry about the monster first post. Feel free to ask questions!
For a first time grower, not the usual route taken, right? Lately I've been stressed out over school, and I found that one of my favourite things to do when stressed is to read up about cannabis. I did this so much during November that I decided to start a little project!
Strain
The strain is a cross of Lowryder #2 and Hindu Kush, dubbed "Devon Maid" by my seed supplier. It's an autoflowering Indica that he claims needs nothing more than 2L of soil and 24/0 CFL lighting, and is designed to be as easy to grow as possible.
Lighting
Homemade LED lights, as per knna/pinstripe (of icmag) inspiration. Osram Golden Dragon Plus. Constructed on aluminum U-channel (used to be part of some vertical blinds) using no-name thermal paste and miscellaneous adhesive. Flower light will be made using thermal adhesive!
Driver: Waterproof 670mA 36W Power Constant Current Source LED Driver (85~265V)-42906 from DealExtreme.
Vegetative (Kinda useless for AF strains, but why not): 10 Red 625nm, 4 Blue 470nm, 1 White "Cool" 6500K.
Current draw: 630 mA (bah, that's China for you!)
Voltage across 15 LEDs: 35.5 V (also a bit overvolted at 2.37V/LED, but whatever)
Wattage: ~22 W
Orientation: B-B-W-B-B sandwiched between two rows of R-R-R-R. About 50 mm seperation between LEDs.
Flower: 10 Red 625 nm, 4 White "Cool" 6500K. (not yet built)
Medium
When I started the grow I was going to go all-out soil, but decided to try Hydro since the startup cost (at least, low-scale) was in my budget. At least that's what I thought, until I considered nutrients. And hydroton. My advice to first timers: Try soil first!
Seedling: Peat Pellets
Once roots show: Peat in net pot, surrounded by hydroton. DWC.
Nutrients
Botanicare Pure Blend Organic
Pro Grow: 3-2-4
Pro Bloom: 1-4-5
----------------------------------------------------------------------
And with that, on to the actual grow!
November 27th, 2012
Started germinating today. Lined a match box with sandpaper and scarified the 3 seeds. Paper towel method, heat blanket. Tap water. No idea on PH.
November 30th, 2012
No luck so far! Tried lots of different methods for keeping them warm. Most were too hot and dried out the paper towels too quickly. I was scared that I cooked them more than once, but read up and found that germination at 90 F (32 C) is sometimes more successful than germination at lower temperatures.
December 1st, 2012
Gave up and just planted the damned seeds. Peat pellets (not Jiffy), since I didn't have access to rockwool (at the time - future grows, rockwool all the way). Again, I had no good way of keeping the soil warm. Ambient temps in my house are around 17-19 C (63-68 F). I whipped up a temperature-controlled extension cord using an Arduino, a temperature sensor (TMP38GZ, I think), and a 240V solid state relay (which can be used at 120V just fine). Plugging a heat blanket into the socket keeps the soil at a steady 25 C (77 F), as long as the temperature sensor stays near the soil.
December 3rd, 2012
Two! Nice. The seeds husks are still on.... These seeds have really hard shells. At this point, I'm worried they won't be able to get the husks off!
December 4th, 2012 - Parcel day!
Stunned by the brightness of these LEDs. Definitely harmful to unprotected eyes. Got some sweet Lennon-esque shades to wear when I'm in here..
December 5th, 2012
Made a novice mistake today. Helped the shell off one seedling relatively safely, but with the other... I accidentally ripped the seed away from the stem. Rest in peace..
With that done, I berated myself for a long time, telling myself I should have just left them alone - and then promptly started germing another seed (skipped the artificial shit and went right to peat).
In other news..
December 6th, 2012
Oh what a good day.. Passed at least one of my courses (with a 13% buffer from the average I need to maintain)!
And then came home to this incredible cutie:
Also figured out how to work the manual focus on this DSLR I'm borrowing.. Expect better pictures from now on!
Is it normal for the leaves to curl back a little like that? The cotyledons aren't curling much though, so I'd assume heat and overwatering are out.. but what about light intensity? I went and raised the lights an inch or so. Today, I hooked up my light timer, and I'll set them on 20/4 starting midnight.
Also, I've started watering the bottom portion of the pellet instead of the top. I need the roots to grow down!
And for now you're all caught up. I'll (hopefully) be doing daily updates (or at least taking daily pics) for a while, because this is a pretty quick stage of growth for the plant. Sorry about the monster first post. Feel free to ask questions!
