First grow in a decade.

Well my friends.
I thought I would start a journal for myself; its been quite a while and this really is quite informative as others chime in.

This grow will be done with a 2'x4' tent (really 2.5' x 4.5').
I will be doing soil, I think hydroponics is superior, but I simply like soil better.
This is my first grow with LED's. I chose AgroMax PRIME 600w LED - 3000K; we'll see how it does; it is advertised as full spectrum and 100K lumen.
I wanted to stay away from HPS this go around due to heat issues I always experienced before.
The plants will be in 5 gallon buckets.
Pretty typical setup except my exhaust fan (6 inch inline) and carbon filter are on the outside of the tent as I want to keep as much room as possible inside.
I still need to calculate my CFM's and get a better variable switch for the fan and a couple small fans for internally (to keep air moving) and a filter for a smaller inlet for some fresh air to enter easily when the exhaust fan kicks on.

Of course pics will come as the project moves forward this week. I currently have Cheese, Afghan and White Widow germinating. I will be growing 3 plants in total.
They will be planted in Fox Farms soil with extra perlite and come coco chips. I won't start any regular feeding for 3-4 weeks however.

I am interested in 2 things if someone would not mind chiming in.

A) I am looking at a drip irrigation; anyone have any decent plans/sites on that? I want to have my reservoir outside the tent and the lines passing thorough the tent to the plants limiting how much have I have to get into the tent (less disruption).

B) Has anyone used Exhale's C02 in a bag? https://tinyurl.com/d86mkv8s <--amazon link -- FYI
Are they worth it? Do they even work? I've never used C02 in my grows before as they were different than tent grows.

OK, welp...onto some finish work (running electric cleanly inside the tent, testing cfm's, testing temp, environmental controls...blah) and getting the little ones planted in some manageable soil..

Glad to be back..

Welcome back to growing, the difference in ten years is ricockulous, technology wise. Good luck and happy growing.

I'm not sure if the pic will show it, but for hanging the exhaust blower, I cut a rubber bungee in two and mounted each piece between floor joists of the above room to dampen vibrations (and a few decibels; which it did) in tests so far.

Frankly Dankly said:

Welcome back to growing, the difference in ten years is ricockulous, technology wise. Good luck and happy growing.

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Appreciate it. And yeah, the tech has "grown" leaps and bounds. Its almost hard to know what to trust moving forward into better growing being out of the game for a bit. Alas though, there is RIU for my naivety.

Look into living soil organic, we may not get the biggest numbers, but quality vs quantity. I love not worrying about ph, ppm, ec, etc., and I feel the flavor speaks for itself.

I love when they first break through; the possibilities seem endless.

Still a few seeds germinating yet and they will go under a smaller LED light for a couple weeks before heading into the tent.

I am still looking for feedback about:

Has anyone used Exhale's C02 in a bag? https://tinyurl.com/d86mkv8s <--amazon link -- FYI
Are they worth it? Do they even work? I've never used C02 in my grows before as they were different than tent grows.

Welcome back to growing!

I took a similar, 8 year break before returning. The basic information still applies, just have to learn some of the new technology.

The consensus is the co2 bags are worthless. Save co2 until you have a sealed room w/controlled environment and either co2 tanks or generator. Welcome and good luck with your grow!

Rurumo said:

The consensus is the co2 bags are worthless. Save co2 until you have a sealed room w/controlled environment and either co2 tanks or generator. Welcome and good luck with your grow!

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Good input, thanks.

Unfortunately, the Afghan and Cheese just won't take. I germinated a couple more seeds that are barely popped now. Guess I'll see what happens in a couple more days.
The White Widow is doing well. I might germinate a few more as I don't have high hopes for the two on deck.
It happens. I will say, I won't be shopping at "high supplies" any more due to multiple bunk seeds; I'm wondering if it had anything to do with the seeds taking 3 months to arrive...ugh. Won't make that mistake again.

I'll have to visit a seed thread here and see what folks are getting their warez from.

Was dialing in the blower and testing the light, blower variable speed settings etc.. I discovered more air inlets were needed as my first test damn near imploded the tent when the blower kicked on full blast! I wasn't expecting that; should have, but my buzzed ass didn't.

I opened an inlet however it basically shot the air straight through to the blower duct and did no good.
I placed some 6 inch flexible duct in for testing and the results were really good when the duct hung down low inside the tent.
I couldn't find a decent flange to mount the duct correctly, so I had to modify a couple Lowes cheappies into something decent that would get the job done as long term flange (Honestly, I would not have really cared if it were not for a good seal around the duct between inside/outside. It was just hanging loose)



Its been working well and the temp is very steady now that the duct is sealed better. I do have to address light leak on that inlet though. The plants sleep time will be daylight. For the next couple days I will manually shut the flap.

My humidifier arrived yesterday and not a moment too soon. I am experiencing a humidity problem due to just coming out of winter. Very dry here.
I found out quickly that using the humidifier within the tent turned it into a rain forest. The light and blower were not on at the time so I am certain that played into things. None the less, I decided to try the humidifier outside the tent pointed at the inlet I just finished. That seems to be working pretty damn good right now. It also makes it easier to change/refill water and with the duct I can put the moistened air almost where ever I want it "pointedly" while overall the humidity is raised in the tent.

(work to do yet, this is more testing/proof of concept).

I'm hoping by late spring, early summer my problem will be de-humidifying; I'm much more used to that and overcoming those problems.

I had forgotten one of the tertiary reasons I like to grow; grow room setups, growing ideas, fabricating ideas to address problems. Striving for a "bountiful grow".

*edit -- Is there a way to post videos here? Is there a preferred hosting service RIU members trusts more than others?

Han_Cholo said:

A) I am looking at a drip irrigation; anyone have any decent plans/sites on that? I want to have my reservoir outside the tent and the lines passing thorough the tent to the plants limiting how much have I have to get into the tent (less disruption).

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Congrats on getting back into growing!
There’s a lot of good data/results from Blumat systems, which eliminate the need for timers and pumps. I’d recommend checking them out, there’s plenty of videos on YT to get an idea if they are something you will want. They rely on the water tension within the soil to determine when to drip water. Pretty neat stuff.

Sustainable Village is the online retailer for them in the US. They have kits for various container sizes for quick and easy setup.

SNEAKYp said:

Congrats on getting back into growing!
There’s a lot of good data/results from Blumat systems, which eliminate the need for timers and pumps. I’d recommend checking them out, there’s plenty of videos on YT to get an idea if they are something you will want. They rely on the water tension within the soil to determine when to drip water. Pretty neat stuff.

Sustainable Village is the online retailer for them in the US. They have kits for various container sizes for quick and easy setup.

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Thanks! These look up my alley. If nothing else, I have something to go on now.. I will be planting in 6-7 gallon bags this go around (used to use buckets). I can see lots of potential.

SNEAKYp said:

Congrats on getting back into growing!
There’s a lot of good data/results from Blumat systems, which eliminate the need for timers and pumps. I’d recommend checking them out, there’s plenty of videos on YT to get an idea if they are something you will want. They rely on the water tension within the soil to determine when to drip water. Pretty neat stuff.

Sustainable Village is the online retailer for them in the US. They have kits for various container sizes for quick and easy setup.

Click to expand...

I ordered a blumat kit for larger potted plants. Can't wait to try it out. Hopefully it arrives next week and I will hardly have to get into my tent.

Finishing up what should have been done a few weeks back; tidying up the wiring.
Before cleaning it up; I became accustomed to having the variable speed for my blower readily accessible So I accommodated myself.
Since I work from my home, my tent climate is monitored from my home office (Temp/Humidity) with the remote sensor inside the tent and base station on my desk.

Power to/from the variable switch.

Mounted with hot glue and a couple screws with washers as could be seen in the previous pic.

Finished up the jungle of electric.

Almost done...
Zipping it back up for the night; done.

Found a runt tonight. This was my second attempt at germinating cheese and afghan. This is Cheese and it looked like it just popped and died.
I planted it anyway and it came up but the cotyledons looked straight dead. I gently pulled it from the small potter and there was green at the top, just beneath the cotyledons. I didn't think much of it and now, the little gal is trying. Its my runt I guess..

Han_Cholo said:

Found a runt tonight. This was my second attempt at germinating cheese and afghan. This is Cheese and it looked like it just popped and died.
I planted it anyway and it came up but the cotyledons looked straight dead. I gently pulled it from the small potter and there was green at the top, just beneath the cotyledons. I didn't think much of it and now, the little gal is trying. Its my runt I guess..

View attachment 4864508View attachment 4864509

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Fuck yeah! Hopefully you'll end up with a little weed to go with all those veggies!

Killaki said:

Fuck yeah! Hopefully you'll end up with a little weed to go with all those veggies!

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I wish I could give credit to the RIU member who posted a pic (only his tent was much more progressed) with some garden plants inside. It just looked wholesome. haha...
My veggies are moving out in a couple weeks as soon as the cold snaps pass my region by. Still, gonna use that tent a helluva a lot more than the original plan which was cannabis only.