First Grow 400W HPS/MH in 3 x 3 tent.

loyaltytoafault · Dec 11, 2011

Should for sure.pull through the filter as you have it. Same setup as mine. Negative pressure is always good, it makes sure no smells leak out and makes everything go through filter. If I hold up a lighter near my passive intakes it sucks the flame right in! That's what you want!

ottawaliquid · Dec 11, 2011

loyaltytoafault said:
Should for sure.pull through the filter as you have it. Same setup as mine. Negative pressure is always good, it makes sure no smells leak out and makes everything go through filter. If I hold up a lighter near my passive intakes it sucks the flame right in! That's what you want!

Good to know.. I'll try that test

I transplanted the little guys today.. Need more soil to transplant the big guys.

I'll try to post some photos of the little ones in their new pots. but its not that exciting so I'll likely hold off.

One problem I've been having is with my temperatures. Last night my min Temp in the pots was 58.5 and 56 on the floor. I've slid some boards underneath the grow tent and put a small space heater outside the grow space to keep things a bit warmer through the night... going down to minus 10 tonight I think this is close to 10 farenheit

If I'm having temp issues now I can only imagine what will happen when I go to 12/12 in a week or so..

Starting to see some preflowers on the big dominas.. Hoping for all girls!

matthebrute · Dec 11, 2011

is your tent on concrete? maybe a small space heater with a thermostat you can set to 70F so it warms it up in there when it starts getting cool

roadracer413 · Dec 11, 2011

Looking good! I'll be checking this thread often. I am ordering my DR90II this week and also an air-cooled light. I'll probably set it up pretty close to yours. I'll be about a month behind you. How come you went with MH vs HPS? Are you using a digital or magnetic ballast?

ottawaliquid · Dec 11, 2011

roadracer413 said:
Looking good! I'll be checking this thread often. I am ordering my DR90II this week and also an air-cooled light. I'll probably set it up pretty close to yours. I'll be about a month behind you. How come you went with MH vs HPS? Are you using a digital or magnetic ballast?

Hey Roadracer.. thanks for following. I've got the DR90II as well I've got both MH and HPS bulbs. I got a sweet deal from a guy here selling stuff second hand on kijiji. a 400 w lumatek ballast and 2 MH and 2 HPS bulbs. he said he hardly used the first two and the other two were new!

The lumatek ballast is digital but I have a 250 with MH and a HPS conversion bulb for backup in case something happens with this used stuff.

roadracer413 · Dec 12, 2011

ottawaliquid said:
Hey Roadracer.. thanks for following. I've got the DR90II as well I've got both MH and HPS bulbs. I got a sweet deal from a guy here selling stuff second hand on kijiji. a 400 w lumatek ballast and 2 MH and 2 HPS bulbs. he said he hardly used the first two and the other two were new!

The lumatek ballast is digital but I have a 250 with MH and a HPS conversion bulb for backup in case something happens with this used stuff.

Nice setup. I looked locally for used stuff but either nobody is selling or the stuff I see on CL is new pricing. So, I am hitting a couple of hydroponics stores and getting it new next week! I'm super excited. Right after Christmas I am planting, my first grow will be some Barney's Farm LSD and Sour Cream.

corners · Dec 12, 2011

add a little more soil to the dixie cup if you think its still weak. Other wise a little breeze, or getting knocked over could snap it

iamaaror · Dec 12, 2011

Subbed to this post! I'm running a fairly similar setup to you minus the carbon filter

Good luck with the grow!

matthebrute · Dec 12, 2011

ottawaliquid said:
So I smoked and then proceeded to chicken out about transplanting right now.

I'm going to wait for the roots to establish a little bit more first.

What I did do is hook up my carbon filter.. This was a big deal for me because I had all kinds of issues with having an 8" AC hood and 4" carbon filters and inline fans. Check out the 8 down to 4 reducers those were tough to find here in Ottawa. Without paying a metal shop to do it custom (I sure as hell am not handy enough to do it on my own), I lucked out and one of the local hydro shops stocked them.

Also I was starting to get a bit of that sweet sweet smell that we all love but try so desperately to mask.. and I don't want any hassle from the missus about my new hobby.

I also sealed up all the lines with aluminum tape now instead of tuck tape. I figured the tuck tape was only so so as far as air sealing went.

Set up with Carbon filter no attached... MMMM the air is charcoaley sweet and odourless coming out of the exhaust

They look relieved that I decided to wait for transplanting.. don't they?

Okay a question for the RIU community.

Is this okay as far as drainage goes for my 5 gallon pots? Too much, too little? Hopefully its apparent the number of holes I drilled. They are all 1/2"in diameter

Please excuse the bad photos. I will get a better camera soon Our old Digicam broke a month ago, so after christmas we should have some nicer shots of everything. Plus my setup is in a tight spot in my basement which makes taking decent photos a bit of a challenge with a garbage blackberry for a camera.

holes are fine man, just make sure the soil itself has good drainage. if the soil itself has good drainage you really only need 1 hole, though i wouldnt recoment that

matthebrute · Dec 12, 2011

oh and after setting up my carbon filter and fans i realized that we have the same setup, i am sucking the air out of the cab. I think i just misunderstood what you were saying

Sorry for the crappy paint diagram lol

ottawaliquid · Dec 12, 2011

matthebrute said:
oh and after setting up my carbon filter and fans i realized that we have the same setup, i am sucking the air out of the cab. I think i just misunderstood what you were saying

View attachment 1930844Sorry for the crappy paint diagram lol

Yes, just I have my fan inside my grow area.. otherwise same principles

Updates:
1. I transplanted my little guys to 1.5 gallons had to go buy some new soil for the 5 gallon buckets and will be transplanting the big plants tuesday or wednesday.

2. To combat the colder temperatures I lifted the tent of the ground slightly with some 1 x 8 shelving and put a small space heater just outside the grow area so when it gets cold at night it should blow some hot air underneath the tent to keep temperatures up. Seems to work somewhat.. temps only went down to 62 last night compared to 58. I'm going to dial up the space heater a bit (no thermostat). My only concern with turning up the heater too high is that it is on the same circuit as my lights and floor fan so I don't want to trip a circuit.
I only want it to come on at night.. as I'm typing I've come up with a solution! I'll add a timer to the space heater and have it only come on during my lights off time.

Likely won't have many updates or photos until mid-week but thanks for staying tuned in

matthebrute · Dec 12, 2011

lol as i was reading i was thinking....timer on the heater so it only comes on when lights are off >< then i read your solution and was like dam..he stole my thunder

impatiently waiting for pics :joint:

roadracer413 · Dec 12, 2011

Ottawa what kind of fan are you using? That's kind of the last piece of the puzzle for me. They vary from $30 to hundreds, I want to get the right one.

ottawaliquid · Dec 12, 2011

roadracer413 said:
Ottawa what kind of fan are you using? That's kind of the last piece of the puzzle for me. They vary from $30 to hundreds, I want to get the right one.

Inline fan - I'm using an expensive Vortex fan 4" .. I paid $170 at a hydroshop for it

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vortex-Fan-6-Inch-Genuine-Atmosphere-Powerfan-6-Duct-/230577537767?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35af7e02e7#ht_1976wt_905

Looks like you can get a 6" for roughly the same amount on ebay. The 6" would be really overkill for your tent though. I have the DS90 as well 3 x 3 x 5.3 and my 4" vortex is rated at 177 CFM. Considering I only have about 48 square feet this would exchange the air almost 4x /minute!

I went with Vortex because they have a 10-year warranty. I figured if the company was willing to offer that kind of warranty its going to be built to last.

Note, that it was somewhat loud (can't compare it to any other inline fans however): I had to buy a fan control and turn it down to about 1/3 speed which is still sufficient for my space. I've heard that using a fan control does shorten the life of your fan though. With the fan control I hardly hear it at all.

For the fan on my plants I just have a cheap honeywell fan. Need to invest in one that oscillates but not a priority for me at this point

ottawaliquid · Dec 12, 2011

Okay so I went ahead and transplanted my biggest plant to one of the 5 gallons... couldn't wait. The crooked beast in the back left will get transplanted tomorrow as well. My wife wanted to start a movie so I got called up from basement! :wall:

Good thing I transplanted because the roots were starting to wind around the bottom of the 1.5 gallon I had it in. She was dying for more room to grow!

Ahhh.. she (hopefully) can breathe now

We even have some nice looking pre-flowers on her (below)

No LST here..

just a crooked little bitch

matthebrute · Dec 12, 2011

canabis will grow HUGE if you give them roots the proper medium and enough space, watched a youtube vid of a dude that had a plant that was bigger than his fence for his pool, harvested 3.5 lbs off of it lol

looks great, your ladies will be gratefull

roadracer413 · Dec 13, 2011

Thanks for the fan info. I am going to use a scrubber. I am spending big bucks on the light and tent so I want to save a little on the air system if I can. I just want to get a "good enough" fan. I think I am going to call Grener's and see what they say. I'm doing a garage grow and I think I'll eventually have to invest in an AC unit for my setup.

Wow--I wonder if that root growth is typical?

I am going to use 3-gallon airpots for my grow. It will be interesting to see the difference in our grows there.

matthebrute · Dec 13, 2011

roadracer413 said:
Thanks for the fan info. I am going to use a scrubber. I am spending big bucks on the light and tent so I want to save a little on the air system if I can. I just want to get a "good enough" fan. I think I am going to call Grener's and see what they say. I'm doing a garage grow and I think I'll eventually have to invest in an AC unit for my setup.

Wow--I wonder if that root growth is typical?

I am going to use 3-gallon airpots for my grow. It will be interesting to see the difference in our grows there.

yes it is normal for the roots to reach the bottom of the pot and change direction thus growing in between the dirt and the cotainer material

this is a picture of a plant that is becoming root bound and ready for a larger container.

ottawaliquid · Dec 13, 2011

matthebrute said:
yes it is normal for the roots to reach the bottom of the pot and change direction thus growing in between the dirt and the cotainer material

View attachment 1932622

this is a picture of a plant that is becoming root bound and ready for a larger container.

That's exactly what my big plant looked like before transplant.

@Roadracer if you've got a 400w I would consider the 5 gallon or even 7 gallon pots. you'll get a much bigger plant apparently. I think the only thing I would do different next time is skip the 1.5 gallon altogether and go straight from the solo cup to the 5 gallon... Plus this would give me room next time to do some LST on my plants for more yield.

Check out loyaltytoafault's grow for some LST examples. He's posted here in this grow log

matthebrute · Dec 13, 2011

ottawaliquid said:
That's exactly what my big plant looked like before transplant.

@Roadracer if you've got a 400w I would consider the 5 gallon or even 7 gallon pots. you'll get a much bigger plant apparently. I think the only thing I would do different next time is skip the 1.5 gallon altogether and go straight from the solo cup to the 5 gallon... Plus this would give me room next time to do some LST on my plants for more yield.

Check out loyaltytoafault's grow for some LST examples. He's posted here in this grow log

yep, the only thing your doing with the gradual upgrade in pot size is maintaining a steady growth rate. by putting the plants from solo cup into a large container you will see a stop in growth untill the roots have developed enough to support the plant, then the plant will grow extremely fast

First Grow 400W HPS/MH in 3 x 3 tent.

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Active Member

Active Member

Attachments

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member