Back to freedom grow

Hey there! A long time ago in a state that is now far far away I grew a little here and there. Nothing major but enough to make me feel like a little gangster.
Well that was short lived. Wrong place. Wrong time. Wrong friends. We all know the story nothing original here. Soon after came the government sponsored pot growing/smoking vacation that lasted 9 years (shout out to Texas and my POS probation officer I hope you stub your toe 3 times a day every day for the rest of your life).

Fast forward to November of last year, when I once again became a man free of big brothers direct control. I now live in a state where I can grow and I have all the proper permits and I follow all the rules (YAY ME).

Now we find ourselves at the current day and I am a month into my "Back to Freedom" grow. I have spent the last 9 years working in kitchens doing research and development for different places and people. Now I make edibles! That background gave me a heavily detail oriented view on process management and I bring that level of obsessiveness to my grow. I document and capture data at every point I can. I realize most people just do not have the time to do this the same way I do so this is my way of hopefully helping others by sharing all my data and findings throughout this process.

A goal of this whole process is to recapture some of the experiences I lost out on over time and things I never got to finish. I am a huge lover of Banana strains. All of them. Hence the profile picture which is a neon light I actually own haha. 10 years ago I had a Banana kush that smelled like banana laffy taffy and I have been chasing that profile ever since.

Well enough about me. I will start at the beginning of my grow with the equipment and process and then start to fill in with all the pictures, data, and notes I have collected all the way up to current day!

-Rckola

So to start off I built my own grow tent. I chose this over a prebuilt because the space I have allocated for this is very specific and in order to really maximize what I can get out of this.

I used 1/2 inch pvc for the actual structure because if it is light weight and really strong.
Tent dimensions are 2'8 depth, 7' wide and 7' tall
I bought a roll of vivosun 5.5 mil Mylar panda film for 40$ on amazon
All of this plus 2 rolls of Gorilla tape was under 100$

Building took about a day and a half and I learned A LOT about correctly cutting mylar, but after wrapping I used the gorilla tape to airtight the whole box. I left the front facing side open for a door system that ended up being the hardest part of the whole build to get right. I left a 6 inch lip of mylar all around the front facing side to attach things to.

I soon realized that the front facing side had no support and spanning 7' really needed some because it was sagging with no weight. I remedied this by getting a 7' 2x4 and a 7' 8x1. I placed the 8x1 on the ground horizontally to create a bottom barrier and a place to attach the 2x4 for support. I used a fence joint to screw the top pvc into the 2x4 and reinforced with gorilla tape and now I (200lb male adult) can hang from the top no problem.

On the right side of the tent I cut a square hole to fit in an air filter I got from Walmart for around 8$ for an air intake and this works like a charm.

Now comes the door. This went through a couple designs before I settled on a drop down door that velcro sealed around the edges.

A couple things I learned about this process:
1. Don't use super strong velcro. I bought some marine grade 2" outdoor velcro and it was so strong I shredded the mylar without peeling the velcro apart.
2. Pool noodles are awesome for sealing things
3. Weak velcro works flawlessly
4. You can sew through mylar

We reinforced the velcro on the right and left vertical side of the cage by sewing it on one side and placed nylon strapping (think dog leash material) on the outside and created a mylar sandwich and this worked great.

Next step was a way to open the door. I made a handle out of pvc and did the same process we used to sew the velcro on except strapping was on both sides this time. Boom. Handle done.

Now the pool noodles. Remember that 8x1 that forms the ground barrier? I cut a line down the pool noodle and placed that on top and but another one in half and lined the vertical front face of the 2x4 with it as well and when you drop the door down to close it this seals it perfectly!

Now that the door was done I cut small holes to run 2 extension cords in. One went to a timer unit that controls the lights and the other ended in a surge protector that runs everything else.

Feel free to comment and ask questions/ request more photos or explanations!

So equipment and things I bought for this:

2 pb1500 LEDs fromm Maxsisun
2 clip on fans from walmart that were 8$ each
Govee bluetooth thermo-hygrometer (awesome)
7 gal fabric pots
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Fox Farm liquid trio (Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom)
Great White mycos
Roots Organic Cal/Mag
Honeywell desk fan
2 5 gal clear storage totes for Tomatoes and Basil (to fill in the sub-prime light areas)
Vivosun ph meter and tds meter
Terrabloom 4" inline fan and 4" carbon filter
2 gallon pump sprayer from Ace hardware
Also an air purifier that I had laying around just for kicks. It is only there to make me feel better about it. Whether it actually has an effect or not doesn't matter to me because its also a decent fan.
I also have a humidifier I bought at cvs a while back just in case it is needed and an adjustable space heater for the same reason. I live in the north.

Now for the plants!

We currently have 5 Plants going:
2x Topanga Bananas (Brisco's Bargain Beans)
2x Family Jewels from Humboldt Seed Co.
1x Cherry Wine CBD from West Creek CBD

I love banana strains so no shocker on the first pick
The family jewels was a joint (haha) decision between me and my brother. Heavy Sativa profile
The CBD is because I have back issues and occasionally enjoy mixing up a doobie of THC heavy with some CBD heavy for some extra pain relief

cool tent, do those strains really smell like banana?

xox said:

cool tent, do those strains really smell like banana?

Click to expand...

Thanks!

The Topanga Bananas yes. The other two no.

I also have Mrs. Peel and Big Banana Cocktail seeds both from Brisco‘s both going down when I harvest these. Both are very banana. I linked the Brisco Bean thread above. Lots of people who also have laid these down and their results. Also one of the reasons I chose these is because of that thread. Amos is a real cool guy and him and the others in the thread can answer any question about his genetics!

Rckola said:

Now for the plants!

We currently have 5 Plants going:
2x Topanga Bananas (Brisco's Bargain Beans)
2x Family Jewels from Humboldt Seed Co.
1x Cherry Wine CBD from West Creek CBD

I love banana strains so no shocker on the first pick
The family jewels was a joint (haha) decision between me and my brother. Heavy Sativa profile
The CBD is because I have back issues and occasionally enjoy mixing up a doobie of THC heavy with some CBD heavy for some extra pain relief

Click to expand...

Yay! I am so happy to see another grower incorporating CBD. I'm trying to do the same right now with some bagseed.

Rckola said:

So equipment and things I bought for this:

2 pb1500 LEDs fromm Maxsisun
2 clip on fans from walmart that were 8$ each
Govee bluetooth thermo-hygrometer (awesome)
7 gal fabric pots
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Fox Farm liquid trio (Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom)
Great White mycos
Roots Organic Cal/Mag
Honeywell desk fan
2 5 gal clear storage totes for Tomatoes and Basil (to fill in the sub-prime light areas)
Vivosun ph meter and tds meter
Terrabloom 4" inline fan and 4" carbon filter
2 gallon pump sprayer from Ace hardware
Also an air purifier that I had laying around just for kicks. It is only there to make me feel better about it. Whether it actually has an effect or not doesn't matter to me because its also a decent fan.
I also have a humidifier I bought at cvs a while back just in case it is needed and an adjustable space heater for the same reason. I live in the north.View attachment 4582708

Click to expand...

Yay! Another grower with companion plants. I'm trying to do tomatoes and other herbs too!