second attempt at grow/room

[cutman]

hey dude dont swet it just like me i started in soil and still use it.and built a hydro set up. but it not in use yet im still learning that process. My hydro shop guy wanted me to learn this first and then move me over,hes a smart guy as well as the guys on this site.just keep talking to them hell but in on there talks that what i do they will help you, just as morris there.. get you a ph tester a must,i use a digtal its werth it to buy,fox farm organic soil,ocean forest or happy frog it has more little criters in it that will help, you should have some veg, and flower formula,i use botonic veg, and botonic pro bloom flower ,works well for me there a lot of solutions out there.i use 400 hps lights with ducking connected to suk out the heat,it allows me to keep lights closer to the plants.To keep streching down, i learn that on my first grow, and put fans on to help with heat, a/c unit isnt bad i have one i use all day so. As for the smell i use 6" ducking off lights use your fan hook it up to a good filter just spend the money its werth it, and vent out side if can,there is no smell coming out of my wall, i dont worry about nieghbors. beside 6" ducking being releast in to the air it speads out pretty quickly so no worrys. i run my light 18/6 in veg=12/12 on flower,and my babys and clones i have a 5t 4 bulb flouresent grow light it runs 24/7.

 

[wtfirl]

ok, i am about to head to lowes and buy some soil to get started. i read i need vermiculite, perlite, top soil and lime. i hope lowes sells all this. how do you switch nutrients? fox farms isnt sold at lowes, so its not an option. i guess ill go look around at a couple gardening places and see what they got.

 

[wtfirl]

OK back from lowes and the other ghetto garden places. here is what i bought. please tell me i got what i needed. i also picked up 4 8inch pots that you can see still in the bag. i am GUESSING that 4 plants in those 8 inch pots would be good for my size flower chamber. is this correct? anyone agree? is what i bought what i need? i also read i need lime, but lowes doesnt sell it. they only had 50 lb bags in the lumber area. is the lime impairative? and whats its purpose? how do i mix what i bought? how do i know its enough? or how much to add of each? how much when they are small? do i have to remix the soils every week like i do the water in hydro? some basic info on what i need to do next would be great.

they need to be transplanted ASAP. they are dying quickly. maybey the soil can save them. how do i mix what i bought? and am i missing anything impairative?

 

[morrisgreenberg]

yooo chilll , i and a few others suggested you go soil cus its simple, lowes and home depot dont carry fox farms, nice eye picking up blood and bone meals, but you already just made it more complicated than it should be, especially since this is your first foray into soil, got your reciept>? bring all that stuff back to lowes and get a refund, keep the perlite and vermiculte, go to any online hydro store, i shop at HTGsupply.com and get FOX FARMS OCEAN FORREST, be patient and let them mail it to you, about those pots 8inch should be 2-3 gallons, you need a gallon per foot your gonna grow, so if you want a 5 foot plant u need a 5 gallon pot, dont worry about the lime, get your soil first and we'll take it from there, and dont worry the soil is about 20bucks a bag and is atleat 1.5 cubic feet which is pretty big, shipping costs may double the price, but money well spent if you cant get it locally, that cow manure you got there may only be suitable for lawns, im not sure, ok get soil, ph up and ph down, get a cheap PH tester, General hydroponics makes one that is like $4, they are the drops, i like them, also get fox farms grow big and Tiger bloom,about $18 each, you can also get big bloom but i suggest get tiger bloome cus it has all the micronutrients in it and the other doesnt, ok so we covered soil, PH+-, tester and nutes, if those pots arent atleast 3 gallons or 12quarts(check the bottom) take them back too, you can get pots from HTG or grow bags which are .25cents...the reason we are all high on Fox farms is it has amazing shit in it, stuff most other soils dont have like real earthworm and guano in it, plus myccorhizal, which is a great beneficial bacteria, dolomite Lime is a good PH buffer, but its not immediatly accessable to the plant, you have PH up and down for immediate action, this is how easily we get jammed up dude, a little planning will get you a long way, the stuff i just listed will get you Grade A finished product with no hastles, all you need is there....anyone else am i missing something? all that should get you right up and going for the least amount of money, you got high output CFLs you may want to use all of them at once to get up the lumens, oh and before you order that soil online look for a hydro or indoor gardening place near you on google and also check ebay for those items, you will get excellent deals there and cheap shipping

 

[morrisgreenberg]

before going any further, you need to get on youtube and watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkItnrozre4&feature=PlayList&p=DF9FB4157E9669C8&index=0 its a 9 part and there many excellent videos on here, theres also a 2nd dvd of this also you need to check out " see more buds" dvd 2 and 3 all on you tube, i think you will benefit greatly from seeing all this, all i wanna do is give you a hand and not make this costly, it would be too easy for me to tell you get top notch eqiupment and expensive nutrients, you can be all high tech and still not produce, i wanna make this close to idiot proof, and i feel with what i listed above is all you need to grow CHRONIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[wtfirl]

awesome. thanks for the advice. i have no credit card at the moment, so it makes it impossible to order online at the present. is there no possible way to create a suitable soil from what i purchased? i know your trying to make it idiot proof and all, but feasabily is more practical than ease right now. i would undoubtably lose my plants if i was to find a way to order as well. they are on thier last leg. i know i dont have the absolute best materials, which is why everything i have is DIY. what about the hydro nutrients i have? i have tons of them. can they be used as well? i hate to have wasted all that cash.

 

[morrisgreenberg]

sure why not, lets go for it, i never make my own mixes, unless you have some experience with quantities i wouldnt do it, but you can go ahead and open that potting mix, make a mix of 3/4 soil and 1/4 perlite, also find out what nutrients are inside of the soil this will help you determine its strenth, you wont need to feed for a while if it has some nutes in it, usggest doing this in an area where you can get messy, get some plain water, PH test it and adjust it, water the soil thorough like a gallon per pot, make a hole in the middle for your clone,around 3 inches deep if the clone is tall enough and ever so gently place it in, while holding the stem, backfill with soil, and gently push down around the clone so its in place pretty well,then add a tad more water, if need be you can add some more dry soil if you didnt put enough in, and hopefully she will survive this stress and i hope she makes it through the root rot, i had to do this exact same proceedure last month, i couldnt control water temps in a small space and spring sprung and weather got warmer and they wound up flourishing, what nutes you have?

 

[cutman]

hey you got dirt you can grow. something for sure.about your other sound like there in a bad state already,i want to be hopeful but, buts a bad word get some more seed germinating, and dont use any nutes for a couple weeks, soil should have all it needs. water every other day if needed. you can use ph up or down if you cant find it then lemon juice,is a ph down,and baking soda is a ph up. USE SMALL amounts 6.0 is good . If theres no rain water ,tap will have to do.let it set out a day or 2 so the colrine will lower from the sun. Thats the bets you can do with tap. Youre pot are good for starter pot but 1-3 gl would be better.1 gl will work if you stay small and flower early. Say 2-3 in veg, im doing 3 week from seed should be about right for ya. get started and keep posting.gl

 

[wtfirl]

ok, i found a recipie that fit some of the stuff i had had bought from lowes. its like 5 parts potting soil, 3 parts cow manure 2 parts pearlite 2 parts vermiculite. i didnt add any blood or bonemeal into this mix as i figured the potting soil has more than enough to get these babies going again, or get new plants started. i was told that often simply potting soil can carry you to flower without additional nutrients. speaking of nutrients. i know this is a dumb question but....what ARE the required soil nutrients? for hydro i had 3 bottles and a label on the side telling me how much of each to mix at each stage. i am guessing that the blood and bone meal are purely types of nutrients. is there like 3 or 4 different nutrients that are needed? since i started with hydro, its a different story to learn now. perhaps somone could let me know the absolute basic requirements for soils.

i transplanted the 2 plants into plastic cups, drilled holes in the bottom and watered slowly till it drained through. is this correct or am i retarded? they are now in the little veg room with quite a bit more room. im glad about that.

and a opinion question next: i have 1 fem white widow seed, 2 fem himalayan golds, 1 fem lemon skunk and 5 un-fem thai-skunks. which should i try to germ? these are the last of the seeds i have, and i have no clones ect. hopefully that changes soon.

 

[cutman]

now that you are in dirt and ready to grow, take your pic on beans and enjoy, you are going to need some vegetative nutes,and flower nutes, as posted earlyer, what are those that you have now, take a pic so morris can see, my pro blend is 1 4 5. what are those ,it should be on the bottle, remember as newbe like my self if i doing less is better than doing alot. until you get it down pat,. Dude i screwed up probly 2 bill of seed and clones so dont feel alone.nut hey thats how we learn right plus talking on here with others has got me through well almost my 1rst grow, with 3 more right behind it going,Its all pretty cool how it works out, so keep a kicken you'll get it.

 

[wtfirl]

thanks cut. ya its great how people are all here helping each other with ideas and whatnot. ill take a picture of the hydro nuts i have and there is a pic of all the soil stuff i bought at lowes on here somewhere. should be my last pic. im heading to lowes now to get stuff to add another dedicated electrical box for the timer. since it eats up all damn 6 slots because of its size. the plants are in cups now and havnt fallen over. i have a nubulizer running in the veg room up top right now keeping humididy around 58-60. the highest its ever been. so that might be good in helping them recover. pics inc when i get back.

 

[wtfirl]

here they are after i have transplanted them to the soil mix i made. its more or less 1/2 potting soil, 25% pearlite and 25% cow shit compost. i didnt add any blood meal or bone meal as i am not sure how to mix those and when i should. i am told the potting soil will give them more than enough nuts to carry them to flower. is bone and blood meal all they will ever need? am i missing something?

here they are:

 

[wtfirl]

btw. they dont look good from root rot caused by the previous hydro setup, so the yellowing leaves ect were like that before i transplanted. i guess i should look to the new growth as an indicator as to what they need or are missing?

here is another wider shot of the grow cabinet. i just added another marine outlet box dedicated for a timer. since the timer eats up so much plug space, i just gave it its own and that leaves me 6 plugs on the plate above for accessories.

 

[morrisgreenberg]

lookin good, you actually have a very nice setup, and i assume this is forself consumption, you should be producing atleast 4 3-4ft plants, you could probably sqeeze 6 pots in there for vegg, but i would spread out for flowering, i assume this is 2 feet deep and atleast 3 feet wide, see what happened to the clones and how yellow they got? that shit gets on the roots and doesnt let the plant take up nutrients, how did the roots look when you put them into soil? did you spray them down and try to clean em up?

 

[wtfirl]

ooh no. dont tell me i should have done something to the roots before i put in soil! the small Church plant had hardly any roots left. just a taproot basically. the great white had a pretty nice root mass about twice the size of the plant. about 70-80% of those roots were good. some rotted ones where definately in the mass when i planted though. i figured it would be best to leave them alone. i guess i was wrong. which is kinda cool because i always prefer to be active rather than passive. its hard not to mess with them, and i know sometimes you can overdo it, but its good to know taking action might can be better than leaving be. will the root rot stay and spread in the soil now? what are my options and what you reccomend i do? the grow cab is 6.5 feet tall almost 4 feet wide and almost 2 foot deep. i was taking a guess at 4 plants being optimal, and it sounds like you agree morris, so thats awesome. what do you think of my cfl setup in veg part? i could probobly switch to small 24 inch floros and put like 4 along the top. that would give me alot more room i bet, but arent CFL's much stronger light?

what kind of lights should i use for flower? i know i am not to the point again yet, but its something i need to be considering because i am very poor and cant just order expensive grow lamps. i used 20 100 watt replacement cfls to flower my sausage-fest of males on my first grow. they seem to grow them pretty well, but then again i have nothing to compare to. Also, when i was last at home depot they had these 300 watt replacement cfl's. 68 watt actual power. the bulb is 2700k and would be good for flower. i bought 1 and its plenty bright wow. and puts off quite a bit of heat. i could buy more of those and use them and the 100 watters or should i just try and find a way to come up with enough cash to order a HPS? which would produce bigger yeilds in that cab? if HPS, what wattage would be optimal for that cab? which produces more heat? 15 cfl's or a 400 watt hps?

 

[morrisgreenberg]

i thought it was 3 feet wide, you can veg 8 plants and flower 6 just perfeclty, go 6 plants no problems, hows the plants today? get a 400watt hps with an air cooled hood, and thats it your finished, the last expense you will go for, check out HTGsupply for lighting kits, they give whole packages and if i can remembver you may score a 400 for around $200 with a upgraded hood, my first set frm them was 150bucks without the hood, i only use floros for seedlings and clones, but i do know the difference is MASSIVE, growth rate and size is out of this world, if you do one day get a set up , get a MH conversion bulb in the package, great for vegging

 

[cutman]

i use 2 400hps for veg and flower and flour.. for seedling and clones as well,this seems good enough .400 would more than enough for what you have there, 600 night put off to much heat.

 

[wtfirl]

i thought it was 3 feet wide, you can veg 8 plants and flower 6 just perfeclty, go 6 plants no problems, hows the plants today? get a 400watt hps with an air cooled hood, and thats it your finished, the last expense you will go for, check out HTGsupply for lighting kits, they give whole packages and if i can remembver you may score a 400 for around $200 with a upgraded hood, my first set frm them was 150bucks without the hood, i only use floros for seedlings and clones, but i do know the difference is MASSIVE, growth rate and size is out of this world, if you do one day get a set up , get a MH conversion bulb in the package, great for vegging

what is a massive difference? the hps lights vs floros for flowering? or floros vs MH for veg?

concerning the plants, they just look exactly the same as they have for 3 weeks now. nothing has changed, not a single new leaf, not a chute, nothing. but the stems are rigid still and i dont think they would ever fall over. its as if they are dead standing. is that possible? im not giving up on em yet though. i did start germinating 2 more seeds though just in case. a lemon skunk and himalayan gold. speaking of that, i better go check them.

here is a pic of the pots i bought and the space below. its not quite 4 feet wide. but more than 3. my 4 foot floro fixture wont fit in there by about 5 inches or so. the doors on the cab WILL still close lined up stright like that, so i could put 2 more in there for 6 pots total. lemme know if thats a good idea or not.

 

[wtfirl]

also. since the top of the box for veging/clones, how much light can i give them? is the 3 100 replacements as much as they can use? i have 5 more of those plates and fixtures and bulbs for each. so i could easily up the amount of lights in the top chamber if it would help plants grow faster. i could add as much as 12 additional 100 replacements to the top shelf. i would assume that would be major overkill and the walls would basically consist of bulbs, but what would be the most they could possibly benifit from before it becomes overkill. heat in the top cab is not a problem whatsoever at the moment.

another question: where might i find salvage ballasts to make my own lights? i drove to all the junk yards locally and most all of them said they DONT accept ballasts. Hmm must be for some enviromental reason. whatever the case, where do you think people take them then? the non-english speaking laborers didnt provide as much info as i was hoping for. Where might i look locally for HPS equipment? ordering online is a problem since i loaned my credit card to a collection agency.

 

[wtfirl]

hmm. the leaves on the bigger one are now starting to curl inward and still havent made any growth. its been a month since a leaf has grown, are they dead on their feet?