Bag o' Schwag, first grow, closet CFL setup

Gloryfades said:

I got home and tested the pH with a 6.0-7.6 liquid test, and my water was off the alkaline end of the chart on the first test! It took 30 drops of lime juice to get 1 gallon down to 6.6-ish. I also got some SuperThrive, since I've heard everybody talking about it so much. Should I wait to use it, or go ahead and add it to the water?

Click to expand...

If you're using tap water, let it sit out for a day or two...this will let the chlorine and other stuff evaporate.

Measure the PH in your runoff water and adjust from there, the nutrients in the soil will lower your PH about 3.0-4.0 points.

If you PH the water first, just get it around 7.0 and it should settle in at 6.5 or so after going through the soil..

What is Superthrive, even? The bottle doesn't really explain it well, and from what I've read on here it's not *technically* a fertilizer.

That plant looks like it turned out really nice, Muddy Paws! Is it outdoor? The lighting in those pictures looks really natural.

Hey dude thanks for looking in on my grow journal and now i am here looking in on yours
Anyway as has been said already you need to get rid of the tin foil and use just plain white material of some kind or buy some mylar.

I would suggest buying a bag of perlite and mixing it with your soil when your ready to transplant at a ratio of 80% soil 20% perlite.
I never feed my plants anything for the first 4 weeks.
There should be enough nutes in the soil to last that long and it can shock or burn them easily if you use it to soon.

I also use tap water and i found a 1 part nute for hard water that brings the ph to the correct level for me just by adding the correct amount of nutes to the water.
I also bought a bottle of citric acid for when i don't want to feed them to lower the ph to the correct level.
If you use a water filter it will bring your ph to low so you will need to raise the ph instead of lowering it,i know this from my own previous mistakes.

I am about to buy a small unit that destroys smells for only 24.99 and only uses 5watts of power.
It uses ultra violet photocatalytic technology to destroy smells.
It is suitable to remove smells from a 15 square metre area and a lot cheaper than a carbon filter.

Heres a link for one but i don't know where you would find these in your country but if your interested you can use the info in your own local search engine.
I don't buy mine from here as i can get it at Argos for 24.99 but this page has more detailed info than Argos.
PAP37705 - Compact Odour Remover [PAP37705] : Air Treatment Shop, Air Conditioning Equipment, Dehumidifiers, Air purifiers, Humidifiers, Fans, Heaters

Anyway as to your plants everything looks fine so far.
If you can afford it i would suggest investing in a 250/400 watt switchable hps that you can use blue bulbs in for veg and red for flowering.
Use the new 7200k mh bulbs for the best results

Muddy Paws--
natmoon--

I am English so i don't know where you might get them where you are.
Here is an English link to them so you can copy the info into your local search engine.
Best of luck with it
Grow Lights > Grow Lamps > Metal Halide Lamps

That Setup if kinda Ghetto but it could work i guess.. A Couple things you could do tho is get much bigger cups or some sort of pot, you are going to need them eventually.. best do do it early before the rooting system is more established.. also if you ave an extra 2 or 3 bucks you should consider picking up an emergency blanket.. and putting it on the walls around your plants You can find them at like wal-mart or target for cheap, they are in with the camping stuff.. They reflect light great.. Good Luck Man

natmoon--
MastaGkush--

Youd have to ask your supplier about that.
The prices in your links are in my opinion to high,you might find yourself better off searching for a cheaper supplier.
A decent place will sell you a 7200k mh bulb for about 50 dollars

Oh wow, that's good to know. I don't know where I'll end up after college, but hopefully I can continue to grow wherever I'm able to get a job. This has already been a rewarding experience! I've learned about 100x as much about marijuana as I previously knew, and I've gotten better at covering things with foil (which ended up being a bad choice) and building boxes with fancy doors! Not to mention the fact that seeing the faces of my children smiling up at me as they reach their tiny hands towards my bright little CFLs... one of the most heartwarming sights one can behold.

I'm gonna start construction on my new grow space now, hopefully I'll have pics up within an hour! Wish me luck, as I really hate fucking up.

Day 8

Today the little ones stretched their leaves up towards the light, looking like they wanted to give me a hug! Their soil is really dry again, already. I didn't dig in too deep, for fear of damaging the roots, but it was definitely very dry. I didn't water them, so let me know if that was a good idea or not. Piture time! Gather 'round and hold hands...

Pic#1:
This is before the move. You can see how they're stretching up to that light! They seem to like it a whole bunch.

Pic#2:
A close-up of the plants in their new grow box! The bottom panel is covered with plastic wrap so the foam core doesn't get damaged when the pots drain.

Pic#3:
Here's a lovely overhead view looking down into the box. I didn't make a new reflector yet, because I ran out of materials. Tomorrow, mayhaps?

Pic#4:
Ultra-High Security Locking Mechanism by GloryTech®. If you'd like to order one or two (or two thousand) send me a PM. I'll only charge you $10 plus shipping...

Pic#5:
The whole assembly and the new layout of my closet. Over on the right you can see the kind of soil they're in.

So what does everybody think for day 8? They've been put in moist soil and watered once. All but the oldest one have purple stems... Is that a sign of anything I should know about? Keep me posted!

Hi Glory!

Superthrive is basically a root stimulator, not a nutrient; use it only during veg times.

PH your water down to 7.0 before you apply it; the soil should adjust it down to 6.4-6.6; this is a good range for your PH.
Do a PH test on your runoff soil; this will tell you what your TRUE PH is.

Don't transplant your plants from the cup yet; let them get about 3-4 inches tall before you do that; when you transplant; water ONLY the top of the soil all around so the roots reach out sideways first; not straight down.

If you can, get a digital ballast; they are cooler, more efficient and quieter; I have the 6oo watt version of this and the place has great customer service.
Digital ballasts ARE switchable so you can use metal halides in veg; I just use HPS for veg and it works fine.

High Tech Garden Supply

Remember to get an extra bag of Perlite and mix some of that in when you transplant, it will help the roots a LOT.

A small amount of purple in your plants at this point is natural (no it doesn't mean anything..YET)

I personally avoid using the emergency blankets for reflective, they hold in a lot of heat! For now, you can get away with it since you're only using CFLs.

Still lookin great! Nice healthy babies.

Looking very good homie!

Day 9

They're really stretching toward that light now! You can see it pretty clearly in the pics...

Pic#1:
All the plants.

Pic#2:
Side view so you can see how far up they have their leaves

Pic#3:
This white stuff has been slowly building up over the last 3 days or so on one piece of mulch in this cup. Is it anything to worry about? It's not humid or damp in there, so I don't think it's mold. Any clarification is welcome.

Could be a salt buildup... you really need to lower your lights homie... those babies are starving for it!

The lights are raised so they don't blow out the pictures, but here's a look at where I had them and where I moved them to in pics 1 and 2, respectively. They were originally about 3"-4" from the plant, and now they're about 1.5"-2".

Pics 3-5 are of the blanket I threw over the whole thing to block the light. #3 is what my closet looks like now with flash, #4 is without flash, and #5 is the only place where light leaks out. The fan on the lights keeps it exceptionally cool in there, so I don't think the blanket will add any heat problems.

Keep up any suggestions!

Not sure what that white stuff is, it looks like a clean piece of Perlite.
I'd pull it out just to be on the safe side.

Lookin good, Glory; don't mess with em too much!

Well after lowering the light last night, and I'm not sure how much the blanket contributed, the plants got pretty hot and dried up. Here's pics of all of them saying "DO NOT WANT!"...

I sprayed them with a couple squirts of water, and their soil is really dry. I know the humidity is too low in my closet, and bowls of water aren't helping. I can't afford a humidifier, so short of flooding my closet, what should I do to fix the RH? If they're in the same shape when I get home from class in a few hours I'll give them a full watering unless you all have a better idea. I can't stand to see my babies suffer!

Good morning, Glory

What blanket are you referring to?


You can give them a good drink today, mate. The roots are probably into the bottom of the cup so give it a good drink (no nutrients!) til the water runs out the bottom; check your runoff PH with this water so you know what you'll need to do to adjust it to 6.5.

Don't worry they'll pop back in to shape; this is your first grow, things will get tougher before they get better, my friend.

Just be patient and try not to panic when you hit a bump. This will cause you to do crazy things and make it worse (trust me I know!) It's a pretty tough plant when you think about it.

I was trying not to panic. I just want them to be perfect!

The blanket is a couple posts back. I just hung it up around the grow box to block the light better, but now there's only a small vent hole in the shelving above the box, and the box itself is very warm. The plants are still a wonderful low temp, so I don't know if it's cause for alarm.

Oh, okay...i see what blanket you mean. Give them a good drink of water and if they don't bounce back, we'll figure it may be a heat issue but here hasn't seemed to have been a problem with that before.

I also shouldn't say it gets harder to grow; it really doesn't, especially with Miracle Grow. You can go all the way through flowering with just the nutes that are there and still get decent buds.

I hear you on wanting them to be perfect, I'm the same way! You've actually chosen the most simple route for good easy learning. You can mess with additional nutrients later on.