First off, this is a newbie grow journal. I'm a newbie myself, and I want the journal to highlight what new growers may face, so It will probably be more inclusive than other grow journals. In other words, if you don't want to read walls of text and see tons of images of pre-flower plants, this might not be the journal for you.
The background. I've done two grows before, one outdoors and one indoors. The outdoor grow went great with very little effort. The indoor grow went OK under CFL's, but I wasn't satisfied with the quality. I learned a lot during those grows, but I still have a long ways to go.
That was two years ago. Fast forward to now; I just bought my own house and I have an extra room that is pre-vented to the dryer ducts and wired for 220v. Keep in mind I don't smoke much. I love to grow, but for whatever reason I just don't feel the need to toke up that often. With that in mind, I'm growing mainly for quality, yield is secondary. I want to get a few mother plants on hand so I don't have to rely on seeds, so for this first grow I'm putting 5 plants in the tent--the White Widows are unsexed, Northern Lights are feminized. Hopefully between them all I'll get a decent selection to choose a clone for mothering. For future grows I plan on growing hyrdo, one or two plants at a time SCROG.
The Specs:
I've decided on a 400 Watt Ceramic Metal Halide, to be used inside my Secret Jardin DR80. I ordered up the bulbs and went with a Sun System 2 reflector based on feedback from others who had used it with CMH. That was a bad choice on my part--low and behold the SS2 measures 32", precisely 4" shorter than my tent is wide. Even with it in the tent diagonally, it's just taking up too much room and I feel that it will inevitably complicate things. I ordered a smaller Sunleaves Sunspot 6" that should fit the tent perfectly with ducting and all.
I also ordered a new sunleaves 6" inline fan--with two fans I should have enough ventilation options to keep heat in check. I'm hoping the 6" flying solo will be enough, but it doesn't hurt to have options. My initial heat tests with the SS2 unvented, passive air intakes and my 4" can fan pushing air from inside out had temps holding at 80 degrees. With the reflector diagonal and vented, it went up to and held at 84 (that kind of surprised me). I haven't tested the new rigging as it won't be here until tomorrow
The 400 Magnetic CAP Ballast I got for the CMH is virtually silent. I expected a lot more noise based on what I'd read but quite frankly, even if it gets a little louder you'll never hear it over the vent fan.
For this grow I'll be growing in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I started the seeds directly in Rapid Rooters. In my past grows I started directly in Miracle Grow seed mix and all my seeds popped. I used that strategy based on input from the folks at Mandala Seeds and so far it's worked great. I know that Rapid Rooters have given people mixed results when it comes to seeds (great for clones from what I've seen). Luckily, all five of my seeds popped. I'm chalking it up to luck for now, but I really feel that with proper heat and moisture control presoaking and paper towels aren't necessary.
And those are my seedlings. The 3 White Widow's in the fore were planted 6 days ago. I moved them under the cfl's a little late so the two early birds stretched more than I'd like. The two Northern Lights in the back were planted three days ago and are already popping up (the heat mat seems to be working great) when I took the photo yesterday. They peaked out under CFL's so hopefully I won't see the stretch. I plan to plant the RR's into peat cups in a few days with some seed mix, then after a week hopefully they'll go into their permanent homes, some 3 gallon pots with the FF OF and in the tent under the big light. The stretchy ones will get planted up the stem a bit to strengthen the base. Also once they go into the peat cups I'll get a light breeze on them.
That's it for now. I'll be updating often and I'm sure there are details that I've missed. Please feel free to offer advice, ask questions or pitch me shit. I will update with pictures of the setup tomorrow.
The background. I've done two grows before, one outdoors and one indoors. The outdoor grow went great with very little effort. The indoor grow went OK under CFL's, but I wasn't satisfied with the quality. I learned a lot during those grows, but I still have a long ways to go.
That was two years ago. Fast forward to now; I just bought my own house and I have an extra room that is pre-vented to the dryer ducts and wired for 220v. Keep in mind I don't smoke much. I love to grow, but for whatever reason I just don't feel the need to toke up that often. With that in mind, I'm growing mainly for quality, yield is secondary. I want to get a few mother plants on hand so I don't have to rely on seeds, so for this first grow I'm putting 5 plants in the tent--the White Widows are unsexed, Northern Lights are feminized. Hopefully between them all I'll get a decent selection to choose a clone for mothering. For future grows I plan on growing hyrdo, one or two plants at a time SCROG.
The Specs:
I've decided on a 400 Watt Ceramic Metal Halide, to be used inside my Secret Jardin DR80. I ordered up the bulbs and went with a Sun System 2 reflector based on feedback from others who had used it with CMH. That was a bad choice on my part--low and behold the SS2 measures 32", precisely 4" shorter than my tent is wide. Even with it in the tent diagonally, it's just taking up too much room and I feel that it will inevitably complicate things. I ordered a smaller Sunleaves Sunspot 6" that should fit the tent perfectly with ducting and all.
I also ordered a new sunleaves 6" inline fan--with two fans I should have enough ventilation options to keep heat in check. I'm hoping the 6" flying solo will be enough, but it doesn't hurt to have options. My initial heat tests with the SS2 unvented, passive air intakes and my 4" can fan pushing air from inside out had temps holding at 80 degrees. With the reflector diagonal and vented, it went up to and held at 84 (that kind of surprised me). I haven't tested the new rigging as it won't be here until tomorrow
The 400 Magnetic CAP Ballast I got for the CMH is virtually silent. I expected a lot more noise based on what I'd read but quite frankly, even if it gets a little louder you'll never hear it over the vent fan.
For this grow I'll be growing in Fox Farms Ocean Forest. I started the seeds directly in Rapid Rooters. In my past grows I started directly in Miracle Grow seed mix and all my seeds popped. I used that strategy based on input from the folks at Mandala Seeds and so far it's worked great. I know that Rapid Rooters have given people mixed results when it comes to seeds (great for clones from what I've seen). Luckily, all five of my seeds popped. I'm chalking it up to luck for now, but I really feel that with proper heat and moisture control presoaking and paper towels aren't necessary.
And those are my seedlings. The 3 White Widow's in the fore were planted 6 days ago. I moved them under the cfl's a little late so the two early birds stretched more than I'd like. The two Northern Lights in the back were planted three days ago and are already popping up (the heat mat seems to be working great) when I took the photo yesterday. They peaked out under CFL's so hopefully I won't see the stretch. I plan to plant the RR's into peat cups in a few days with some seed mix, then after a week hopefully they'll go into their permanent homes, some 3 gallon pots with the FF OF and in the tent under the big light. The stretchy ones will get planted up the stem a bit to strengthen the base. Also once they go into the peat cups I'll get a light breeze on them.
That's it for now. I'll be updating often and I'm sure there are details that I've missed. Please feel free to offer advice, ask questions or pitch me shit. I will update with pictures of the setup tomorrow.
Lesson learned.
The tent flap is covering up a little fan that circulates air inside the tent--that's all I have in there at this point. The Sunleave's 6" fan pulls the air from outside the tent. It's a little noisy, but not too bad with the speedster running it at medium.
