Wyogrow's 1st official grow "Bag Lady"

So since this is my first grow using bagseed..... I guess I'll name it my "Bag Lady" grow.

The cab is a Home Depot special... internal dimensions are 47.5"wide x 72.5" tall and 20"deep. So far the cabinet is split into two compartments. The upper is the flowering chamber. The lower will be a veg/clone chamber and storage of applicable weed related items. Only light going right now is a 6 bulb T5 fixture in the upper compartment. 342 watts pushing 28,200 lumens. Will swap out two of the 6400k bulbs for 2 50/50 actinic's to kick out some bluer light during the veg cycle of my initial grows. Won't need the lower compartment until we burn through all this bag seed. Figure we might as well grow the free stuff first so we won't cry as much when we screw up.... The cab is ventilated via one 4" inline pushing a carbon scrubber & two 4" PC fans pusing air into the cab. Right now the cab is positive pressure..... which I don't like. But I'll fix that here shortly when I install an additional 4" inline and another carbon scrubber.

Holding off on going the hydro route in favor of organic soil. My wife is helping me keep the grow going while I am away at work. The idea of hydro was too much for her just starting out. So..... I'm a dirtbagger. Going to grow in 2 gallon "Root Pouches", a smartpot knockoff.

7/7/2012 - germed 6 seeds in paper towel wetted with pH balanced RO/DI + Superthrive/Epsom Salt solution. Kept in a warm (90deg) dark place.

7/8/2012 - all 6 seeds cracked.

7/9/2012 - all 6 seeds now have taproots and were transplanted into 6 4" starter square pots. The soil is my standard container mix cut 50/50 with perlite. Each sprout was placed in a 1/4" deep hole and covered with soil and wetted with a spray bottle containing the same RO/DI + ST/ES solution. Planters were placed in a humidity dome and that was placed inside the now operational cabinet. Soil is misted 2 to 3 times a day to keep it damp.

7/10/2012 - 3 of the 6 sprouts broke the soil. Continuing with the misting for humidity and water for the kids.

7/11/2012 - No additional sprouts broke soil overnight. 2 of the 3 that have broke soil have shucked their seed case w/o help.

..... and now you are up to speed

I plan on running a 18 on & 6 off light schedule. For now I'll run full grows from seed to harvest in the upper compartment. I'm working on gutting an old power compact fixture from a aquarium to build a custom vented grow light for the lower compartment. Will have this going before this first grow gets flipped to 12/12. Just so I can start practicing on making and maintaining clones.

I have enough bag seed for 2 more runs starting with 6 seeds. Then it's decision time. I have Snow White, Mountain Kush, Blue Ryder, Bubblegun and Strawberry Haze seeds to pick from for my following grows. I'll get these purchased seeds grown and then I am switching over to running TGA gear. Looking at Vortex, Pandoras Box and Jilly Bean.

Pictures to come......

kick ass bro...i will be watching!...nugs

7/12/2012 - 2 more sprouts have broke the soil.

..... still working on pictures. My "smart phone" is smarter than I am and is making it too complicated for me to send pics to my email....

Sounds like you have a plan. Looking forward to some pics. Sub'd to see how it goes!

Thanks,

Nugs is probably one of my bigger inspirations so far. I'd like to get 1/4 of the results he gets. You can tell he listens to his plants. I hope I can just keep my hands out of the cabinet so I don't kill the damned things.

7/13/2012 - 5 of the 6 seeds are up. 2 have true leaves. Still spraying the soil down with a spray bottle.... I guess until the plants are a couple inches tall I'll continue to water this way. Cabinet temps have lined out. On average with all the fans running the completely shut in the cab runs 13 degrees hotter then the ambient temp in the garage. Bad thing is through the hottest part of the summer the garage can get up into the mid 80's. Not installing AC in the garage... yet.

The plant today is to gut an old power compact light I had used for years over a planted aquarium. I'm going to salvage the ballast and other do dads and rig up a veg fixture for the lower compartment.

Light built.... will get pic after I get a usb cable that runs to my phone to download pics....

With the dual 54W power compacts remounted on a adjustable "fixture".... that's a fancy term for hunk of leftover shelf material and a few eyebolts..... I'll transfer the wee ones to the lower cabinet and run the PC bulbs right down on top of them. And I can kick off the T5 fixture and burn less electricity.

7/14/2012 - One seed failed to take. One produced a shoot w/ no seed leaves and is toast this morning. 2 others look to have under developed seed leaves and probably won't make it. leaving me with two apparently healthy seedlings. Tis ok though.... I got a buttload of freebies from Sensible including four 20 count seed packets of Purple Widow. That's 80 freaking seeds I didn't order or pay for.... score. I've started germing 4 Purple Widow seeds to take the place of the 4 "Bag Lady" failures.

On deck for today... mount a adjustable light hanger in my veg compartment for my PC light. Might strip the mylar out of the upper cabinet in favor of a flat bright white paint job. I learned my lesson with mylar. Buy the good shit that comes in roles.... not go the cheap route and try to use "space blankets"... what a complete aesthetic disaster. And for a borderline OCD anal retentive dink like me that just won't do. Still have some rerouting and finishing of wiring to do. A few minor light leaks to fix. Temps with just the PC fixture on are 75 low and 88 high at the hottest point of the day. Still need to make the two chambers light tight from one another.... but I have a couple months to go before I flower.

7/15/2012 - The two sprouts with true leaves are doing good. Nice and vibrant green. The two with the under developed cotyledon leaves are hanging in there. But look no better today. Pregermed two more Purple Widow seeds to take their place. I have room in my tray for two more starter pots so why not use it?!?!


I'll get to radioshack today and pick up a USB cord that hooks to my phone.

link to cabinet at home depot? sounds like nice dimensions

Holy chit bat mang!!!!!! I can load photos.

The light you see around the outside is light from the other side of the garage. No light leaks. The shitty mylar job is the upper cabinet. One should be of my ghetto DIY 130 watt-ish veg fixture. And then there is my happy little ones....

The veg light fixture is adjustable on a single pull dual pulley setup. The big 4" hole between the veg and flower compartments is for passive ventilation. But what may end up happening is I'll put the 4" puck fan from the floor of the veg compartment up to the 4" vent hole between the compartments. I'll block off the extra passive holes with foam once I get the configuration right. Still going to put on an additional 4" inline pushing a carbon scrubber. The hanging wires are next on the list. Going to custom wire the entire unit in the next couple days.

7/16/2012 - the two seedlings with true leaves are doing great.... developing a second set of true leaves. Pre-germed 2 new Purple Widow and 2 more of the original "bag lady" seed. So when all up I'll be working with 6 plants. I've decided right out of the gate that I am not destroying all the males if I have any. I figure, fuck it...... it's bag seed and freebies. might as well see what kind of babies they make. I'll harvest pollen and manually pollinate choice male pollen with the lower buds of the best female.

7/17/2012 - not much to update. The two sprouts remaining sprouts are still going strong. Waiting for the Purple Widow and the 2 other bag seed to come up. I pre-germed them like everything else and planted them in starter soil light on nutes. Just waiting for them to break soil.

7/18/2012 - Took my little ones out to sunbathe for a few hours.

The two sprouts got their got their first proper watering today. Each got 1 quart of pH'ed RO/DI. Good runoff. Very good drainage and it seems as if the medium is stay damp but not wet. Just like I planed. Up till now they had been in a humidity dome getting misted with a spray bottle. Now they will go a couple days between watering. I have a question now.... in your more experienced... experience. Will bottom watering help encourage the roots to reach to the bottom of the planter faster. What I mean is in lue of watering from the top, I'd be placing the planters in a container with 1" of water in it and allow the water to be absorbed from the bottom up for 5 minutes and then set out to drain.

Was hot and dry yesterday. The kids looked a touch droopy when I opened the cab this morning. Figured they dried up quicker than had expected. So they got a good soak today, 1/2 gallon each, with pHed RO/DI with a drop of of Super Thrive, a pinch of epsom salt and 20 drops of concentrated liquid kelp. Both perked right up within and hour or so. The humidity dome wasn't sealed and I knocked it off somehow. With the heat and dry air yesterday.... dried out my other sprouts. So I am soaking the last 4 of the bag seed right now in Ph'ed tap water. Not as bright out today but I have the young ones out soaking up some rays anyway. My veg cab is lit 24/7. But I figure the real thing has to be best when i can get away with it.

The first ones leave appear to be purpleing at the tips. If this is a pheno trait I want it regardless of wheater it male or female. Hopefully I'll get 1 or 2 to take out of the last 4 bag seed being germinated right now. Hopefully at least one will be female. I'd like to see if that trait passes on in the seed they produce. Once I get stocked back up on seed then I'll start popping the higher end beans. Would be cool to have a half asses genetic project going...... but I am getting way ahead of myself.

They seem to be enjoying there sunbathing..... one is developing a touch of burn. Looks like my standard soil mix might be a touch hot. But they look strong and I think they will power through it. If the newer leaves start burning I'll transplant and cut my soil mix back by 50% with a 1/3 peat, 1/3 perlite & 1/3 vermiculite cut.

Surprised at how they are taking off. The one is still displaying symptoms of nutrient burn.... but not the other. Both were started in the exact same batch of soil mix. So I am wondering if it may just be this plant. The next few watering will just be straight pH'ed water though. As soon as I see a root poke out the bottom of the starter container they will both go into 2 gallon root pouches. Here is a few pics.....

One is definitely stockier and more bushy, which I like. The other seems to have a bit more leg to it. But not out of control. Will be interesting seeing how these turn out. If they are both male I'll damn the bad luck.... but I'll save the pollen from the most robust plant with favorable growing traits and give it another shot.

The rest of the bag seed beans wouldn't germinate. So now I am onto cracking a few Purple Widow seeds.

That one is looking a little better. You may be running a little hot. You may be a little light on the perlite, the soil looks a little heavy. Maybe a flush is in order next watering. I wish I could put mine in the sun during the day, nice.

I'm thinking that as well. But they seem to be adjusting to it well. This mix sometimes burns my peppers and tomatoes a little in the beginning as well. But I seldom lose plants in it. The soil actually has really good drainage and there is way more perlite in the mix than the pictures would lead one to believe. Most of the perlite is stained brown by the ingredients in my soil mix. The still white perlite you see is just the crap that floated free of the soil and didn't absorb anything. Either way, they both got a pretty healthy watering the last two times. About a half gallon each..... the runoff was as dark as espresso!!!

I will continue to put them out in the sun all day and then into there cabinets under lights until I decide it's time to flower or it gets too cold. Not in a hurry with this first batch. WIll get a good 8 to 12 week veg before flipping them. They are out sunbathing in my marigold patch today... to help avoid garden pests.