Round 2 - Its about time. A [Soil - CFL - Closet] Grow

Alright completely rearranged the setup, everything is close to the fan, and the fan is turned on medium instead of low. I took out more CFLs, and now I am left with 2 40watts, and 1 23 or 26 watt w/ reflector.

The temperature is now staying around 83.3 degrees, I couldn't get it any lower... but the fan is now blowing on all 3 plants enough to move the leafs.

I have more pictures I will post soon, should I see a recovery from the 100 degree to 83 degree temperature changes?

Tomorrow when my rooms not so polluted with smoke I will open my window and my closet door to cool down the closet, since the air in there is around 80 degrees, a fan blowing 80 degree air isn't gonna lower the temp.

I may also bring in a bucket of snow to help cool down the closet.

Hygrometer:


Day 8 - 12/27/07

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=10983

Setup fix

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=10984

Opening your window and closet door will most certainly help but if you get the temp low then high repeatedly by opening and closing the window you may be risking stressing out the plants resulting in hermation, a steady temp I think would be best...

You may be on the right track with that bucket of snow, I would definitely give it a shot, specially if I had plenty of it.. does it snow a lot and do you have access to it throughout the winter? because if it works you'll want to keep it up....


PS: By them images yur plants dont' look that bad to me...

The temperature is now around 78 degrees, I will try to keep it here, outside the box is 70 degrees. If the temperature rises later on, since this is morning and we just got more snow, I may add the snow, but right now I dont need to cool down my closet anymore... but only 3 lights on right now, hopefuly it works, 2 of them are 40 watts.

thanks .

I turned the fan on low, and added my watering bottle with holes in the lid inside the box, to attempt to raise humidity a lil, I may put a cup of water with a paper towel dipped in it later, that should definitely raise the humidity.

Temperatures staying around 78.5 degrees. Should I try to keep it there?

I should try to get humidity somewhere around 50%?

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I just added in a cup half full of water with a paper towel dipped in, and filled up a cup of water with a small paper towel in it, then theres the pitcher with a lil water and the watering bottle all on the table, trying to raise humidity, its at 22%.

I suspect the low humidity is why my plants looked so dry on this grow, and my last grow. Leaves are so narrow because of the high temperatures... and the plants seem to have stopped growing, may shock from the 20+ degree change in less than 8 hours, after being baked under the 100's for so long... hopefully they will recover from whatever wrong... because the tips are yellowing and become crumbly on two of the plants. One of them still looks about fine, just it hasn't been growing noticeably.

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Temp went up to 79.4 I added a pitcher of snow a few inches behind the fan, maybe the fan will suck the air so that it runs by the snow and gets cooled slightly. If this doesn't help the temperature, the pitcher goes in the box too haha.

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Its now down to 77.2 degrees, I guess I didnt bring in very much snow haha forgot to pack the pitcher, but I filled up red cups with snow and put them around, 1 is right behind the fan touching it, and after going back the temp had dropped. So I think so will work. I ended up putting the hygrometer where the fan exhaust comes out, so I can find out what temperature the air being blown out of there is, which is currently about 74 degrees, and still 77.2 degrees near the lights.

Humidity is not budging though, my closet is around 3-4' x 8-10' x Roof height (or 3' x 6' x Roof height, if your counting the space that isnt occupied by boxes, stuffed anamals, clothes, crap like that all piled in the back and stacked on the sides)... so not much room to humidify, but still theres so much open water around and it hasn't budged -_-.

The plants are growing really weird... I may germinate a few more juicy fruit seeds and plant 3 more, since the temperatures fixed for the most part now.

Temperature is staying around 76.5-78.5 degrees. Humidity was at 23% when I left. The exhaust being blown is below 74 degrees now.

... better idea to raise humidity, its 65% humidity outside, so open my window, raise the humidity in my room, which is like 26% yesterday when I used it... then air out my closet, hopefully I can at least get the humidity up to 40%, because I am leaving my window open for a while.

Alright humidity wont change at all, its either 21% or 22%. I found a humidifier in my closet haha on a shelf... at least I think its a humidifier, but theres not even an on switch, just a plug in... but there is a water reservoir... but I really hope it doesn't make a startling noise when I plug it in, because I am literally scared to try to use it lol its like 10 years old... I will clean it thoroughly first though.

from what I read having a humidity at around 50-60% is very important to the plants resporation and getting rid of water and such... maybe the low humidity is why I have to water them so much, and why they are drying out... the airs sucking all the water out of the plant.

I think the humidifier works... wow. No noise either. The humidity is now at 27%... thats 4% higher than I have EVER seen it, and its just been about 15 minutes so far.

The plants are turning to crap fast though... leafs drying, yellowing, theres yellow spots now... I may have to start over.

Tonight I will water them very thoroughly, its been a few days.

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Now 31%, so this thing definitely is working... and you know, the temperature of the closets starting to drop, its gone down almost 1 and a half degrees near the lights so far... so once humidity's up, I may be able to add in a few lights.

Nice man looks like you're handling it,

maybe the low humidity is why I have to water them so much, and why they are drying out... the airs sucking all the water out of the plant.

Click to expand...

BINGO!!

I took the fan out of the side of the setup, and made that a wall, the fans now in the front... I think the air in the back was so hot because it was carrying the hot air from all the lights it went past, so the back had warm/ hot air blowing on it... so a fan blowing on everything equally should help. Temperatures staying at around 80 degrees, and humidity was 50% went I first went in and made changes, 43% when I left, I did move the meter that measures the humidity to the back of hte grow box though.

hey Brokenhope,,good efforts on tryin to remedy your problems,,not to undermind you or anyone else,,I have 4-42 watt cfl's in a small area,,but I find these lights are better about 3-4 inches off them,,especially in there first week or so of growth when they are so fragile,,like I said,,I keep my 4 cfl's at least 3 inches off the plant,,thing I found also Broken,,is less fuss is better,,get the temps reasonable,,and the 20-30 percent humidity is not the greatest,,but not absolutely plant threatening,,then walk away and let em do there thing,,I think you should consider a transplant soon,,cups are small and confining,,and when dealing with plastic,,I only use black,,not red white or clear,,roots live underground,,they don't see light through the side of a red plastic cup,,if ya have nothing else,,try some electric tape around them next time,,wish I could send ya a saw,,lol,,a proper box with proper venting in and out would be a great asset to you since it seems you are determined and much more grower educated by this time,,here's a pic of 7 days above dirt just to show you close isn't everything,,sometimes just enough is good too,,keepin an eye on ya,,good luck man

Keep on Growin

HoLE

The humidity isn't as bad anymore, it stays around 45-50% with the humidifier on, but its also raising the temperature to 80 degrees in there now. As soon as the humidifiers off, I am sure the humidity will drop right back down to 22%, and very fast... just judging on how it went down 4% pretty quick... and 22% seems to be where it wanted to stay originally. But I do have bigger pots, much wider, they are yellow plastic, so yeah, I will break out the black duct tape around those... but they are only like 2 inches at most, deeper than the cups... should I go for something bigger? I also only have 2 of the yellow pot things.

I will lower the plants a bit away from the lights, and see if that helps any... tonight I think I am gonna germinate some more seeds... I may have to start over again! These plants are looking badddd... worse than my first grow... and my first grow I made it past growing for 2 months... these current ones you could hardly tell they're not dead -_-.

The temperature is at 80 degrees now, so basically it has gone between 70 and 80 degrees today... not as bad as it was.

Thank you for your reply . That plant is much farther ahead than mine, thanks for the picture... my plants are on day 9 and not even half the size of that.

More pictures...

New setup and humidifier

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=11013

Day 9 - 12/28/07

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=11014

after being watered... they did not totally need it, I felt very slight moisture when I stuck my finger down a few inches... but it made the plants not look so bad...

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=11015

is there hope?

when I left, temperatures 80-81 degrees, humidity 45%.

5 more seeds are starting to germinate... so in about 3 days I will have 3 new sprouts in the box... hopefully by then temperature and humidity is under control... these new plants should do much better than the last 3... which I will still keep growing... but they may die anytime haha.

I just did the first transplant when I woke up, not only am I not sure the containers big enough to even be worth it, an inch maybe two deeper than he cup, but a lootttttt wider... most of the soil mass fell to pieces, there was hardly any roots, and they hadn't reached the bottom of the cup yet, so I guess the other 2 should be alright for now. After replanting it as best I could, I pet the soil ontop and watered pretty decently. I took down the last thing lifting the plants in the air, so all the cups and pots are on the ground now, farthest away from the lights as possible...

temperature went down to 74 after that... ran out of water in the humidifier overnight and refilled it today, humidity is now getting slightly above 50%.

Plants still dont look very healthy, but atleast I will be starting over again soon.

What are some decent temps I should aim for? Right now I am getting about 73-81 degrees... will I be alright if I can stay in that range or should I try to bring that down more?

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Humidity 64% and rising slowly, temps at 80 degrees.

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Same humidity and temp. I can now see noticable growth compared to when I looked 4 hours ago... its on one of the better looking plants... but maybe there is hope for 2 out of the 3 0_o... its been about 12 hours since I started germinating

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Uh oh, temperature of the air in the room, 81 degrees, near the lights its almost 84 degrees. Humidity is at 65%... and it hit 72% earlier.

plants still look really dry... but I did rub one set of leafs on one of my plants and my fingers reaked of pot lol.... last time I grew and rubbed my plants leafs they didnt smell nearly as strong... probably because last time was shwag, this time is juicy fruit... but the 3 plants are still alive, and growing extremely slow.

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Temp stays around 82 degrees and humidity goes between 65-72%, I opened my closet door and left it open and in minutes the temp dropped 2 degrees and humidity dropped 10%... so I think I have better circulation in the closet now, the fan blows straight from the front now, and I removed the back, so theres only 1 side sort of covered now, and the only other reflector is the hood. Since the air in the grow room gets to about 79, 3 degrees cooler than the air is near the lights, I dont think another fan will be benifical, it doesn't cool the air... which is what I need to do to bring the temp down... so I guess the high temps can be blamed on the small closet packed with crap, and not much room for heat to spread out. I am probably going to try to clean out a bunch of crap in there to make more room, and hopefully that will help the room stay a bit cooler. Other than that, theres no problem with me opening hte closet door time to time to cool it down a few degrees... except for when my rooms full of cig smoke or blunt smoke etc... which is about always except the first 5 sec when I first wake up hahaha... but I will see...

I know I have to remove a lot of my old yugioh, pokemon, and dbz cards and crap and old boxes that action figures came in, because of how high the humidity is in there, i dont want them damaged... so that alone makes some room.

the transplanted plant was the worst looking one, and it still looks just as bad... and if anything is yellowing more.

the 2 others are doing decent. both are getting slightly greener, and I can clearly see new growth... tomorrow morning the seeds could be done germinating and I will plant 3 more, which means Tuesday or Wednesday I will have 3 new sprouts in the grow area haha...

I added the second gooseneck, the temperature was at 79.9 degrees before I added it... but there hardly any lights anymore and they need more light. Theres now 2 40watts, and 2 26watts... if anyone can help me with the spectrum and what wattages belong to what amount of lumen's in what spectrum... I have 23, 26, and 40 watt bulbs, and I think I have one other lower than 23... which ones would be best to use? the 23 and 26 watt are different spectrum's, I am just not sure which ones good for vegging.

Be careful transplanting young plants. Should wait to see roots at the bottom of the current pot before transplanting. It is best to only transplant once if possible (I have had to transplant twice so far in my 1st grow). I would transplant into 5 gallon pots or buckets. Soak every 3" layer of soil with your choice of transplanting solution(diluted w/ water, I use SuperThrive) and mist the roots with it before applying soil under and around the root ball. This my first time growing but I did a lot of research and this worked great for me. However I transplanted after 11-12 days out of soil from a 8.5 oz. cup into a 1.5 gallon pot and 12 days later it had roots growing out everywhere, now I have all my plants in 5 gallon buckets and waiting to see how they react to the transplant, they still look happy. Use this forum and search button do some research in the GROWFAQ area. Sorry stoned rambling on.... Good luck on your grow.

Thanks for the reply, just how big is 5 gallons? because I believe I do have some buckets that are 5 gallons or bigger but I dont know what 5 gallons would look like... and yeah I would definitely prefer to do only 1 transplant because I make a mess when I do it haha.

But I only did transplant the sickest plant that I will end up killing later most likely so its all good. The 2 other healthier plants are still in the red cups, roots are probably getting close to the bottom but it can wait another 4 days or so.

The addition of the extra gooseneck seems to have had no effect on the temperature... so thats good. But then again, its getting colder outside as its becoming night, and so is my closet, so it might have just balanced out haha. The temp in my closet is about 75 degrees, near the lights 80.5, humidity 60%, the humidifiers running low on water and ill have to refill it soon... damn a refill every like 14 hours... I am not sure how fast the humidity will drop when the things off.

gay, I cant upload any more pictures to the gallery, so I guess attachments from now on.

I labeled my plants with greek letter names, alpha, beta, and chi. Alpha is the worst looking, chi is growing fastest, but has really droopy leafs haha.

Temperatures below 80 degrees, humidity about 60%, I refilled it.. I will have to clean it again tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I can plant the germinated seeds if they have fully germinated, I havent checked yet but its been a day.

this is day 10, 12/29/07.

Its noon, sunday, 3 of the seeds have germinated so it is time to plant them... heres what I do.

Get 3 plastic cups, put 2 small holes in the bottom with a cigarette. Then clean off any ashes, fill with soil, water it thouroughly, leave plastic wrap lightly ontop of it, and wait about an hour, then I plant the germinated seeds, and leave the plastic wrap lightly ontop of all the cups, to help keep moisture in while they are trying to sprout...
I put the cups in a drawer in my room and just check on them about every day to see if they sprouted yet, as soon as they do they can go under the lights.

in the past when I didnt use the plastic wrap the soil would dry out and the seed would just die.

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5 hours later, still havent planted them, but the 3 plants are finally growing, more noticable growth in the last 5 hour period on all 3... theyre still growing very slow though...

Its almost 9 and they are finally planted in the soil. So there is now 3 new red cups with seeds planted. One cup has 3 seeds planted in it, just because I had extras, I will end up killing the 2 extras. Pictures in about 3 and a half hours.