My 1st Grow - Constructive Criticism Accepted

MediheaLed said:

I'm not here for a pissing contest or an ageist argument. He asked for ANY advice/criticisms. Those were mine.
Cfl's all day for Veg. Anywho, Good luck on your grow, Never seen a grow like this before. Good mention on the pots Kervork, Never be afraid to upsize more slowly, think, small yogurt cup, big yogurt cup (solo Cup), one gallon, then final. (Well not final for some but you get the picture)

Whenever I use too much soil too soon, those poor roots never use it all.

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Well I wasn't aware anti LED/auto flower was constructive criticism as opposed to personal preference, but anyhow not everyone is gonna beable to jump into hps/cmh on their first grow nowadays with cheaper alternatives readily available at the click of a button, lol. I'm not hating on any specific products either I am really eager to try many different types of lighting including the higher quality LEDs down the road, I'm not discounting them at all personally, nor autoflowers considering not everyone is gonna beable to grow full sized plants.

I wouldn't personally sway someone from not buying a cheap UFO 135w if thats what they had budget for, the experience is fun I don't think too many would regret it, most likely if they started with cheap leds and autos, and really wanted to grow they would continue to improve the setup anyhow, so really I don't see what effect you were trying to accomplish by offering that opinion but its all good just thought it was a little bit "hps vs xmas lights" type remark, I'm sure anyone interested has read the 10,000 threads and opposing viewpoints, ancient keyboard warriors who were slain and such.

They could merge all those cfl/led/hps/cmh/light refraction threads n just rename it "never ending debate"

dictate said:

Thanks guys, posting pics when i get home from work this evening

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Thanks for sharing bub.

Hi guys, here's my update. All my autos are now in the 2-2.5 week range. I will post a pic and list what it is and how old it is. I also have a photo which is 6 days old, I plan to make it a mother plant. It's a Positronics Blue Rhino.

Yesterday was my first watering where I saturated the entire pot until I saw run off. I will be feeding at the end of this week 3 mL per gallon of Buddha Grow and Trinity. The mix has been prepared and has been sitting out. I will PH before I feed. I'm watering on average every 3-4 days still.


Blimburn AK Auto - Week 2 Day 4
This guy has been the 'alpha' of the crop thus far. The top growth seems to be slightly lighter green. You can't really see it from the pictures, but the fan leaves are a deeper green and the top growth is lighter. Not sure if that is ok or not.


G13 Diesel Auto - Week 2 Day 4
The diesel has been right there with the AK auto in terms of growth, these guys are very similar. Same here, top growth is light green


Dinafem White Widow Auto - Week 2 Day 4
This was the runt of the litter initially, I'm still not sure what caused it to stunt (perhaps overwatering, perhaps too much heat). I still need to measure my runoff, which I completely forgot yesterday when I watered I'm reallly realllllly hoping I can save the yield on this guy and get at least 3/4 an oz



WoS Kush Ryder Auto Plant 1 - Week 2 Day 2
The first kush ryder, still very small'ish. I'm hoping it's because it's an indica. Looks kinda healthy.


WoS Kush Ryder Auto Plant 2 - Week 2 Day 2
My 2nd Kush ryder, also kinda smallish.


Photo: Positronics Blue Rhino - Week 0 Day 6
Looks like a healthy seedling? This is the guy which germinated with only 1 cotlydon

Note: I didn't fully seal the tent up until I got my Exhaust Fan (Soler Palau 150S) and Carbon Filter (Vantech - which I'm not currently using) and that was 3 days ago. The tent is now sealed with two intakes open at the bottom and the exhaust up top. The Ambient hovers around 75-78 and as you can see from picture 2, the radiant is around 88.

The above pics are shitty and were taken from an iPhone 4S

Hey Man looking good, you will learn to fall asleep with the repetative humm of the fan, trust me you will eventually not be able to sleep with out some kind of noise. Your doing fine, no need to over think it, LED you need not water as much, make sure you let the soil dry out a bit before you water, and if the soil has some nutritional value to it go easy on the nutes, you can do alot of damage and frustrate the shit out of yourself with nute lock, If you havent bought a PH or a PPM meterr get them soon, you will need them for feeding and checking run off.

Peace

Sativa Dragon said:

Hey Man looking good, you will learn to fall asleep with the repetative humm of the fan, trust me you will eventually not be able to sleep with out some kind of noise. Your doing fine, no need to over think it, LED you need not water as much, make sure you let the soil dry out a bit before you water, and if the soil has some nutritional value to it go easy on the nutes, you can do alot of damage and frustrate the shit out of yourself with nute lock, If you havent bought a PH or a PPM meterr get them soon, you will need them for feeding and checking run off.

Peace

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Thanks, my humidity blows here and I keep about 30k in lumen of T5s withen 1.5-2 inches of the plants. I do the finger check regularly, but I may have to cut watering back to 4-5 days instead of 3-4.

I have both a PPM meter, PH meter, and the PH strips I do check my PH regularly before I water. I do need to start checking PH run off. My nute mix contains 300 PPM right now, started with 3ml a pop.

You should feel if the soil is damp, if it is don't water it, You will see the soil turn lighter when it drys out a bit, you have a lot of soil that will hold alot of moisture.

Peace

Nope. As far as cost goes, every grower I ever met has either sold/traded/gave away their first light setup. Im just trying to save him $ in the end. I've spent thousands over the years, improving. Shoulda just bought the 600 hps enclosed hood, cool tube like i wanted so many years ago.
IF you can grow any seed, you can grow out a "FULL" sized plant. Topping, FIMing, LST'd plants can be 8 months old and kept as small as you want (chop, chop).
I just belive that auto's are a bad thing for the gene pool.
Xmas? lights, never even THOUGHT that.
Furthermore Cherry and too much, I have looked into you both and well, I will happily respond on your own thread or profile.
I do not want to hijack any thread that isnt one of yous own.

dictate,Your plants look way better, they look like real bud plants now.

Thanks, I understand the pros/cons for each lighting system. I know it's highly unlikely HPS lights will explode on me, or overheat and catch fire. Just don't want to have to deal with dialing in the heat. Based on my research, T5s will provide me MORE than enough for my own personal use.

I understand that HPS's will provide 2-3 X more yield. But I don't need that much. I'm not in this for the money. If I can have some good steady smoke for me and my friends, I'm a happy man, minus all the headaches from the HPS.

As a matter of fact, I'm starting to order the DIY stuff for a 300w multispectrum LED panel. It's been about 10 years since i've soldered or worked on any circuitry (college ) but hopefully I can remember. I'm going to start another thread for that DIY.

Coming along nicely dictate, esp the ones in the first couple of pics. My only reservations is same as a couple of posters above and not to go gung ho on the nutes when they are still so young.

dictate said:

Thanks, I understand the pros/cons for each lighting system. I know it's highly unlikely HPS lights will explode on me, or overheat and catch fire. Just don't want to have to deal with dialing in the heat. Based on my research, T5s will provide me MORE than enough for my own personal use.

I understand that HPS's will provide 2-3 X more yield. But I don't need that much. I'm not in this for the money. If I can have some good steady smoke for me and my friends, I'm a happy man, minus all the headaches from the HPS.

As a matter of fact, I'm starting to order the DIY stuff for a 300w multispectrum LED panel. It's been about 10 years since i've soldered or worked on any circuitry (college ) but hopefully I can remember. I'm going to start another thread for that DIY

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.

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Heat is a bitch, I know. As far as yield, I don't grow for that, but I DO need that much. Either spend $900 on meds a month, or Do what I do and have enough for several months of buds, butter, lotion, concentrates, etc, etc. and only spend bout 100 a month on electricity;
I can appreciate your hands on approach, I wish you luck.
To each their own, that's why I'm here, to observe, note, and ponder...

Hey, it's the nature of the business. It's a science and allows for alot of tweaking, swapping out, debating... it's what makes this a hobby. The ability to change up so many of the factors and still end up with similar results. It's why we love this hobby

So, I went to Lowes this afternoon on my lunch break and was taking a look at ducting insulation. The ducts that come with insulation all have fiber glass, I want to avoid fiber glass. So what I found was, another brand of cotton duct liner:

http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/quiet_liner/quiet_liner.htm?d=0

It's 1 inch thick and I plan on wrapping each 12 inch section of my ducting and using duct tape to put it all together. Hopefully i have some time this evening, if not I will tomorrow when I work from home. I'll let you guys know if it reduces the sound any. If it doesn't I may have to suck it up and buy a 6'' Phresh Silencer and attach it to the end of my ducting on the outside of the tent, as it will not fit inside with my filter and fan.

So assuming this duct liner takes care of some of the "wooshing" noise, what can i attach at the end of my ducting (exiting the tent) to reduce the whistling / howling? I know a silencer will work, but is there DIY type of thing that will dispurse the air evenly so it doesn't make any noise on exit?

Bilbo Baggins said:

Coming along nicely dictate, esp the ones in the first couple of pics. My only reservations is same as a couple of posters above and not to go gung ho on the nutes when they are still so young.

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Yup!! I was originally gonna start 3ml buddha grow 3ml trinity 3ml Cal-Mag, in 1 gallon of distilled at week 2, but decided to hold off another week to week 3. Which will be this thursday on the dot.

The howling of the air is really starting to piss me off, I'm not spending 100 dollars on a Phresh Silencer.

I decided to piece together some things from Home Depot and put together my own Silencer.

1. 8inch diameter x 2 feet long Duct Pipe
2. 2 x 8 inch to 6 inch duct reducers (for both ends)
3. Hardware fencing wire
4. adhesive spray
5. 12''x12'' acoustic foam tiles that I found on craigslist
6. metal duct tape
7. wire cutter
8. will need to borrow metal crimpers, they're like 25 bucks... what I might do is just crimp the duct pipe at the store

This should run me like 30-40 bucks. I'll post some pics this Sunday

I also need to build a mini table to lift my plants up about 1.5 feet. Currently my lower intakes are just above my T5s... I want to raise the plants enough so that the intakes are below my plants and the air goes from bottom to top and out of the exhaust. I will accomplish this, not with a buncha milk crates or 5 gallon buckets, but probably buy a 36'' x 36'' piece of play wood and nail some cut 2x4s to make a mini table. I may also purchase some panda plastic to cover said table.

Lemme know what you guys think

just a random fact that is factually true that my friend uses, In expensive Hi Fi speakers where there is a need to transmit minimum vibration from the speaker to the stand/ surface where the speaker is situated the substance that proved to be most effective in reducing vibration was........Blu tack ....by the same rule if you want to position your extractor fan on a surface and want to almost completely abolish any vibration related noise roll some blu tack into little centimetre diameter balls and position your fan on top of these, even if the fan is positioned inside a noise proof box like you are intending to construct. Just a thought, good luck.

Hi guys, just wanted to throw up a 4/20 update on my babies.

Blimburn Ak Auto: Week 3 Day 2 since germ. The plant is looking healthy, it's the 2nd biggest of my 5 autos. This is supposedly the time for "explosive growth" however, i'm still waiting. The stem on it is really thick in comparison to the other plants.


G13 Diesel Auto: Week 3 Day 2 - This guy is by far the bushiest and biggest of my 5 autos. The stem is shredding and getting huge. Besides the burn on the fan leaf (I believe this is from me putting the PL-L 54 T5s too close. I just fed the plant 3ml of nutes on Thursday, but these burns were already there and that was my first feeding. If it is by chance nute burn, it would have to have been whatever was already in the soil. I'm just gonna go with light burning it. Otherwise it looks pretty healthly


Dinafem White Widow Auto: Week 3 Day 2 - This guy was the runty one of the group, had initial stress during germination. It seems to be picking up. The stem is still real scrawny and it is developing the slowest. Hopefully it picks up and yields something nice.


World Of Seeds Kush Ryder 1: Week 3 Day 0 - I raised the lights on all my plants to approx 6-8 inches, with a supporting 85 CFL hanging, the plants seem to be liking this much more. This kush ryder is starting to get bigger, I think it's also on the brink of a growth explosion.


World of Seeds Kush Ryder 2: This is my 2nd Kush ryder, it looks to be the same size as the 2nd one, but slightly larger. Looking pretty healthy.


Positronics Blue Rhino (photo): Last but not least, is my last plant, and also my first photo. This will be a mother. She was germinated on April 9th, so approximately 11 days old. Just watered her, since she started in a rapid rooter.


Lemme know what you guys think. I've spent alot of money and time on these guys and have been babying them, since it's my first grow. I watered/fed nutes on Thursday 3ml Buddha Grow 3ml Trinity 3ml Cal Mag in 1 gal. Also started with some distilled water. I used alot of water this time, so my next watering will be 5 days, Tuesday. I will post pics again on that day.

Did acouple things yesterday and today. Decided to go out to home depot and purchase some DIY material. I built my own silencer and also added my carbon filter. I also built a makeshift table, the dimensions are the size of my tent. I wanted to elevate the plants to be level with the intakes, to provide better air and reduce the heat.

I think sealing off one side of the fan reduced the noise some, however, I don't think i'm utilizing the silencer properly, as I think the noise reduction is only from sealing off the fan with the carbon filter. I have ducting between the fan and the silencer, which resides on top of my tent. I think the bulk of the noise is from the fan itself and the air moving through the ducting. May have to look into building a wooden box around the fan and then using the insulated quilt liner for the ducting that I purchased. The Soler Palau is relatively quiet and manageable now with the CF attached, so I may hold off.

Anyways, on to the pics of my setup:

My tent as a whole:


The DIY Silencer:

Today is day 4 no water since, my 3ml feeding of nutes. I did a quick finger check, still sliiiiightly moist about 2 inches down. I will give it another day and do a full watering, perhaps tomorrow night. Pics to come tomorrow.

They are all large enough to full saturate the pot, I'm going to drop 1/2 gallon per 3 gal pot. Is this ok?

i did a semi half-assed run off PH check the last time I watered and I was showing 5.9. Used a turkey baster to suck out some of the water, then dropped my PH meter into it.

Should I water with 7.0? or raise the PH a bit to like 7.5 to bring up the soil PH more?

Well I know most nuts given lower Ph to 5.5-6.0 range. Just figuring if u continue using your normal h20 you been using already raises up your Ph given that the tap water is normally 6.9-7.2 depending on area. Your grow looks good. I really wouldn't change anything unless its needed. Maybe more nutrition down the line but besides that looking real good bro

I read this journal from page one, and have been questioning your ph from the start I think it may in fact be a little too high (unless you are growing in acidic medium). However, that being said you have nice green growth( which implies a ph not too far off..), I've seen very seasoned growers try out auto flower seeds to have a 1 gram plant pheno types. If you can test your run off water that ph would be more valuable. If I personally knew you were doing everything else right, I would blame genetics.