1st Grow, come check it out.

Hey my names Jorge, recently i have decided to stop purchasing and grow my own. Its my first attempt and i just kinda dove into it. Any tips or tricks that would simplify my journey would be much appreciated.

Little about my grow:
Lighting:
-4 Cfls
-2x 6500k (23W), Bought these at lowes highest wattage i could find for that spectrum.
-2x 5000k (20w) had these laying around thought they would work for a little variety in the spectrum.
-So far doing 18/6 for vegetation and will be doing 12/12 for flowering with some 2700k-3000k bulbs.


Ventilation:
-2x 140mm Cpu Fans, I've got 1 pumping in air up top, and one blowing out opposite side down low.
Just put it in today I got a thermometer in there and it was reading 80% humidity and 95F. I checked a little after i installed them and the temp is at 79F and 55% humidity. Going to shoot for a dimmer to better control them.

-Watering
I water daily and just enough to get the roots wet.
Got some Fox farm nutes i'm gonna start soon. So far the ph is neutral, but im hopin adding the nutes will buffer it a bit. They are supposed to be set for 6.5-6.8, or at least i read.
-Got a basic ph reader and fertility reader that should come in handy.

Heres the fruit of my labor thus far.
Medium:
-25% vermiculite and 75% perlite
-Using the Hempy bucket method. With a whole about an inch up from the bottom. Once they outgrow these i'll switch to buckets.

-I'm going to adapt as the plant needs me to. I intend to get more lighting and space in there once it really gets going.

Questions:
-Will the containers being clear have any negative effects? someone told me the light would react and create algae? anything to this?
-I've heard temp should be about 75, but what should i expect humidity to be at if any?
-When should i start nutes? i know its gotta happen during the 1st 2 weeks, but anything i can look for in my sprout to let me know its ready?

Any feedback is welcomed and very much appreciated. Thanks!

Jorgewashington said:

Questions:
-Will the containers being clear have any negative effects? someone told me the light would react and create algae? anything to this?
-I've heard temp should be about 75, but what should i expect humidity to be at if any?
-When should i start nutes? i know its gotta happen during the 1st 2 weeks, but anything i can look for in my sprout to let me know its ready?

Any feedback is welcomed and very much appreciated. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Avoid using clear containers. During the veg. phase the humidity is not a problem unless it reaches 90% or so. although, some plants mold easer than others, so if you see any signs of white mold lower the humidity. During the flowering phase however, it is best to keep the humidity below 50%...30%-45% should be fine.
And with introducing them to nutes start with a low dose, If the nutrient calls for 5ml per gallon or a teaspoon, try a quarter of that first, see how they react and if no burn next time use a half dose, then full.. Start at about two weeks after the first set of leaves appear or if you notice any yellowing prior to that.

Great im gonna find a way to cover them. Probably use aluminum foil or something. Don't think it's a good idea to switch them now. I've got some fox farm and it calls for 5 ml per gallon or so. So roughly a mil per gallon. Should I just pour water in or should I most the nutes in? Also is there a way to check sex, or do I have to wait till flowering?

Thanks again

By most I meant mist lol

Is the lighting sufficient? Those were the highest wattage bulbs in my local lowes. I was really hopin to find some 40w ones.

don't mist.. u don't want to spray the plant. pour, but only after you mix the nutrient solution. i mix mine in plain old 1 gallon empty jugs. ohh and scrap the foil idea. get a new container. also.. that light really will only be sufficient for one plant IMO. and no there's no way of determining sex as of yet. it'll be a while.

Will do. Didn't want to pour resources into a male plant, but Oh well. Thanks for the tips!
Any ideas on harvesting? Had a buddy who had a whole harvest mold over. I'm not really familiar with the process at all.

You need more light! Imo

You need to read the forums dude. I've learned and taught a lot here. All the information is at your fingertips. Huge wealth of knowledge but like anything worthwhile it'll take effort and patience.

Basic Noob Pointers

First lesson I learned the hard way when I first started out.. and you'll hear it a thousand times. "Less is more." Don't over f*ck with your plants, stick to a good and regular feed regimen without over-feeding or over-watering and let nature take it's course.

Second... grow good genetics.. good starter plants for new growers, pick a stable well established strain that is proven to not be finicky or herm prone. I really liked TGA gear. Strains like Space Queen, Chernobyl, Apollo13BX.. they're a breeze to grow.

Third... Keep em as close to the light as possible after the seedling stage.. if you want to know how close is too close put your hand near the top of the plant, if it feels too warm it is.

& don't worry about Harvest yet. You'll get there. Just take it slow and read read read. Check out the online grow guides at Breedbay too. Less Noobs over there, Breedbay's Grow Faq section is probably the best online resource how too guide you'll find.

Thx bro been reading and will continue reading. I started all this about a week ago. So far so good thanks for all the help man I'm gomna go check tha FAQ out.

dude, you're doing the hempy bucket all wrong. if you're going to use verm with your perlite, mix it up, don't layer it. take my advice and use 100% perlite, it holds its moisture just fine, and for many other reasons (some of which i'll get into) it's better to just use 100% perlite.

man, where to begin?! when you do your hempy bucket, start your seedlings in a plastic solo cup, 16 to 20 oz, and you'll want to sprout your seeds to grodan or rockwool cubes (you can get 100 for probably 10 bucks on ebay) and then put that at the top of your little mini hempy...i have almost 100% success rate germinating by 12 hour soak to wet paper towel to seeing a taproot and putting it in a cube...also, you'll definately want to make your hole at LEAST 2 inches from the bottom, i was stoned, preparing 5 NL plants for their little mini hempies, and put the hole only 1 inch up...not even 3 weeks in, i was tilting the plant back away from the hole to hold more water and keep them from totally drying out (at the time i could only visit my plants once a day)...you may be fine there, cause there's a greater area at the bottom of your container though...be careful when watering, so you don't drown your seedlings too!

damn i guess i answered my own question, fox farm!! to be on the safe side, use plain water through week 2, then start out light...however, right NOW i have some, about half strength veg nute mix made up for 2 tangerine dream, and i have 1 ice plant i just sprouted a week ago...cotyledons showing only...i've just been feeding her the 1/2 strength nute mix twice and she's not showing any signs of stress...

oh yeah, 5.8, FIVE POINT EIGHT, that's the magic ph using a hempy bucket (100% perlite, please just use that when you transplant)...don't worry about any stupid ph meter, don't waste your money...i bought one of those little ph drop solution testers, and it works fine, you go just a little below bright yellow...did i mention i spent 6 bucks on it 2 1/2 years ago, and still could probably get me through another 2 or 3 grows, it's only this little ass bottle too, about the size of my thumb...but fatter, of course...

hempy buckets are so EASY, they will take so much shit, really over the past few years i have put plants through all sorts of shit using hempies, and they just want to grow! if you overfertilize, you can quickly and easily flush, and quickly bounce back, the ph neutrality of it is just great, it so helps the overall ease of growing in general...

when you water with a hempy bucket, you only water it when it's dry...the easiest way to tell is by weight, picking them up...when you water em, water til runoff, so you know how much it take to get to that runoff point, then give em just a little less the next time, so you don't have a mess...after you've picked up a dry vs a fully watered bucket, you'll be able to tell if you need to water...

your lighting, 6500k, very good! i also see you using the "Y" socket doublers i've used for years...just wanted to point that out cause i LOVE em...but man, you need more, like, as many as you can have without overheating your box...something i see that can help out with that is to take down that foil! it creates little points of light on your leaves kinda along the same ways a magnifying glass would with the sun...if you can buy some mylar (you can get it on ebay, 25 ft x 4 ft for 30-40 bucks), use that and put that up, but be sure to put it up TOTALLY smooth, or you run the same risk as the foil...it's good enough to just use white paint...but really, in all actually, using cfl's, it doesn't even matter, the lumens from cfl's just don't make it far enough for it to even matter...you worry about the reflective capabilities of your walls when you have a 600, or a 1000 watt bulb going...with cfl's, which i use for supplemental lighting for flower, and in my veg area, i have straight up touching the fan leaves, yes, you do burn spots right there where the leaf is touching the bulb, but the light the rest of the leaves and plant gets more than makes up for that, in my experience...

more on lighting man, more more more, in you do a full grow with only 4 cfl's, your yield will be as such that you'll probably be discouraged from trying again, and especially since you're only using cfl's, just run 'em 24 hours a day in veg, you're just adding more time to veg, by forcing the need to veg for more days to make up for the light loss, or if a certain timetable is being followed, your yield will be cut for the same reason

hempy buckets are for sure the easiest way to grow, not just for a beginner, for anybody, and extremely cheap. for gettin' sick of buying your own and jumping into it, you picked an awesome way to do it. i can say all day how much i've done with hempies, but just like with anything you read online, look into it more, but look for people with hempy bucket experience, it really is a different monster than soil, or even other hydro systems...ask them questions too and they'll agree with what i'm telling you...maybe nitpick over little things, but agree

if you wanna know anything, ask away, or PM me

something else i thought of, when watering, be careful not to water too close to your plant with that layer of verm, you don't want water being held right there next to your stem, that could promote rot...roots spread out to the side pretty well, so you don't need to get too close...

man, don't take my posts the wrong way or nothin', i'm fuckin' really excited seeing another hempy grower, so i'm all into spreadin' my knowledge if i can...i really don't know why, but people on here just don't grow using a hempy bucket for the most part! i've had a couple of real life converts, and after the first grow, same with mine, it was the same thing--"i wouldn't grow it any other way"

Well i've decided to change out the containers they are in. Any ideas on how to transplant them? I was gonna exacto knife the old ones and just kinda set it in ever so softly.

Also i've got a meter that works its real simple checks ph and potency of nutes, tested it and it checked out fine. On that note any ideas on how to lower ph? I was hoping it would be as easy as adding lemon or onion juice.
Any experience with them? or should i just go out and buy some lime?

I got a few more bulbs today, but it gets close to 90F when i had 6CFls in there. Now its sitting right under 80F with 4 CFls. I've got the fans going in there ones pushing in air from up top and the second pushing out at the bottom. Any ideas on how to keep the temp down? really dont wanna have more than 2 fans running if at all possible. Trying to keep the fire hazard down to a minimum.

I'm gonna take some advice from kyoinidaho and do a few adjustments, thanks for being straightforward i appreciate the info.



This is where its kinda headed at the moment i'll post more pics later.I was stoned and while watering accidently drowned the little one thats why its tilted. Really bummed about it but it seems to be taking it well.

if you're talking about transplanting right now, just wait, you already have them sprouting, growing just fine how they are...when you do go to transplant, it should be as easy as (carefully, of course) putting your hand on top of your growing medium, with the base of the stem sticking through your fingers like you're holding a cigarette, then carefully turning it upside down as to not to disturb the roots too incredibly much, and then a light tap will pop everything out of your container...it might be a little messy and/or difficult for you, cause you started out in those tupperware containers, but it should work just fine...if you let your plants grow a little bit, and allow the roots to grow, it'll slide out as a tupperware-shaped root mass, which you just sit in place in your next hempy, and fill in with perlite (or your preferred mix) where needed...

heat can be such a terrible thing to battle, and there's not too incredibly much you can do...i'm not sure of your setup, but it looks from the size of the container, that you're forced to do a smaller, stealthier grow for some reason or another, so piping in A/C'd air probably wouldn't fly for you...a couple things you might be able to do though, first, and easiest, and probably the most maintenence required, would be to have a steady supply of frozen 20 oz bottles, or something in the freezer, and you could rotate them in and out as needed...another possibility along those lines, if you could have say a little igloo cold lunch container, or something of the like...something you could put 6 or 8 frozen 20 oz bottles into, cut yourself a hole into the container and duct tape some tubing from the hole, going to one of your intake fans, so it's always sucking in that colder air...going that route should keep the ice in the bottles frozen a lot longer than setting 1 or 2 in your already-hot grow box...and a little lunch box sitting somewhere shouldn't be too obvious to anybody...OR, what is that, little PC fans you have there? what you might wanna think about doing is picking up a small 3 inch inline fan from home depot (about 25 bucks), they really do suck a lot of air, and what you could do with that is have that inline fan so it's sucking air out of your box, with your other hole, make something cheap like i was talking about with a lunchbox full of frozen 20 oz bottles, and attatch the ducting...sorry, i know i'm not explaining that well...with that powerful inline fan going, it's going to create a negative pressure environment inside your box, and will be sucking air into it from the easiest spot, which will happen to be from tubing coming straight from icy air...of course you don't want TOO MUCH pressure, you don't want the motor on your fan overworking itsself...

you can pick up bottles of ph up/ph down cheaply, say 8 oz bottles of each for 10 bucks combined...and that, like the ph testing drops, last many many grows...but for now, whatever you can find to raise or lower ph should be fine

how big is that grow area you have? is that the same area you plan on using to flower? i'm sure you already know you're gonna be a little cramped in there, if so...if you haven't already though, do a little bit of looking into LST (low stress training) and topping, to help keep your girlies short and squat

Just finished building my second enclosure its twice as big just stacked two rubbermaids together, and covered the inside with those windshield reflectors. Its just bubble wrap and mylar. The mylar does a whole lot better than the aluminum ever did.

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z448/jorgewashington/IMG_0155.jpg

Also got a couple more bulbs in there, still fighting heat but i'll figure it out. In this box i added those hoses for the dryer machine exhaust. I figure i'll be able to direct air in and out better.

I've got the intake right on the plants to provide fresh cool air. The exhaust is up top grabbing the rising heat and shooting it out.

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z448/jorgewashington/IMG_0154.jpg

I've been doing the 24/0 Lighting and the plants are reacting well. So far so good.

This ones the stronger of the two.
http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z448/jorgewashington/IMG_0136.jpg

heres the second one.
http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z448/jorgewashington/IMG_0142.jpg


As they grow i intend to add more lights about half way up, and raise the existing ones as needed. Also looking into getting a stronger fan so i can hook it up to a carbon filter and take care of any smell that might arise. About to start nutes at the end of the week. Gonna start at 25% strength and ph it down a bit, its currently at 7.0. I'll post more pics when they start making some real progress.

Had some free time in between class, so I thought I'd post some pics. Started some weak nutes on it yesterday.

lookin' good, man!

Hey guys went to check on my plants today and found this.


Bugs or is this normal? Just barely went through a gallon of 25% strength nutes. Next up is a gallon of simple h2o. plant was doing great till this. Not to worried About it at the moment but I wanted some input.

If it's bugs anything I can spray or do to help?

i wouldn't worry about it, unless it gets widespread...it looks like you possibly got some water on it when you fed her...

personally, i wouldn't feed your next gallon just straight water, increase your nutes up to 50%, especially since everything looks green and the plants seem to like it...only back down or do a gallon of plain water if it looks like they're starting to burn

Sweet been googling it and I'm sure your right. I've been keeping an eye on it and they dont seem to be appearing on the new leaves. I was gonna rule bugs out because the littler one isn't showing any spots.

I'm gonna take your advice bro. They took real well to the nutes. Got a gallon I'm phing down with some fish tabs I found locally. Says its safe for freshwater plants and fish.

Thx for the pointers.