Ready.. Steady.... GROW ! .... Vento's First Grow journal 18/06/10

[Vento]

Hi everyone ( who looks heheh )

"Not sure if this is the correct forum so this may be moved "

Im Vento ....and im a total noob

This Grow Journal is OPEN , Feel free to chime in with any input you feel may be of help ...It's ALL very appriciated

After reading around this forum for a while i have been inspired to attempt my first grow and post updates on it as i go , My hope is that i will be lucky and get help and encouragment from some of you more experienced growers that are kind enough to help me as i go...and hopefully meet some new friends and have a right good laugh on the way

A Bit about me and my Progress so far :

Age , Old
Location , Top secret UK
Marital status , Depends on whos asking
Education , Streetwise , Worldwise , Dyslexic....
Motivation , Learning something... pushing it past that and going futher .... Then passing it on to others .
Current Mood , Happy excited and a bit scared


Ok so , Here i go !

just popping on some music ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TzKm4Kqd4Q&feature=related

I have been a smoker for as long as i can remember , Been lucky in the fact that i have not had to trawl the streets to find gear , A buddy of mine has been growing for a long time and i have allways had a good supply ( sometimes broken ) and been happy with that , He has been telling me for years that i should start and that i would be good at it as i do tend to pay attention to detail and often come up with solutions to things that just need to be thought of out of the box .... i just nod and agree ... score my gear and go .

A few months ago i decided i would give it a go and began to do some reserch ... I have to say i was hooked from the start ... been eating sleeping and dreaming about nothing much else for a while ....i get very into what im doing and enjoy the learning aspect and im driven to do as best as i can .

You might ask why am i telling you all of this ?....I just want to show you that im intent on doing this and giving you guys an insight on how passionate i am about it

Ok enough about me and why and how

I started with a box room that was used for storage ... cleared it all out and disinfected it and began to build a dividing wall with a door across the middle Inside of the room dimentions are about 5x5x7




I lined the walls ,floor and celing with sheets of thin polystirene and sealed all joints then fixed 25mm board to the walls ,floor and celing and sealed all joints with silcone to make it airtight and light tight .
Then lined the whole inside of the room with Reflective insulation again making it as airtight as possible ( A note on the refective insulation : I seen it as a cheaper alretnative to other stuff thats used and it comes with a very good safty rating , CFC free and heat resistent ...and as i said it was cheap and very reflective.... Take a look for yourself >>>> http://www.screwfix.com/prods/29949/Building/Roofing-Insulation/Thermawrap-Loft-Insulation-600mm-x-7-5m)




In the Room i have fitted the light with easy-rollers , fitted the 6" intake and exaust ducting and connected a RKV 420m3/3hr fan for exaust (Getting a smaller air intake fan next week and getting filter when i begin flowering ) and wired it via a dimmer switch to regulate its speed .

I know the extraction may be overkill for the small room but it means i dont have to have a smaller one running full blast to make it effective ( Tip from a friend )

Right now i have just put everything in the room and will get time over the weekend to make the door seal more air and light tight and tidy everything up ...I will be reciving my babys on Monday ( 4 ) and will be ready for them to go straight into the room to Veg .

Over the weekend i will be checking temps thru the day to get a hang of things and keeping a record based on outside temps vs inside temps as we may be getting some warm days here soon ...right now its dark damp and cold

I will be adding to this section as and when i come up with anything ... so stay chooned

Wish me luck and thanks for watching

V

 

[Vento]

Hi guy's and Girls

I posted a question in Newbie Central but it never got much attention so i will tag it in here

I was in the market for a PH tester and my supply guy had just taken on a delivery of new testers ... It was a cheaper alternative but he could not tell me to much about it , So i wanted to know if anyone here has one or have any input on it

Tec-hu PH Tester http://www.udopea.de/product_info.ph...o-14-0-pH.html

Thank you ..... and Happy Weekend

 

[Vento]

Hi ya Guys and Girls

Hope your all having productive weekends

I just have time to update a little and give some info on products i'm going to be using for my first grow

Like most people i'm on a tight budget and with this being a new project i don't want to throw a lot of cash at it , Just incase it all goes tit's up

With that in mind , Here is a Checklist of what i have so far and what i intend to get .

I will be Growing 4 plants (Clones of ) " Pot Of Gold " indoors , In pot's of Canna Coco under a 600 W HPS after vegging under a 125 W Blue CLF Ecolight .

Got...

125 W Blue CLF Ecolight with Euro reflector ( For veg stage )
Coco Pro Plus 50L
150mm A1 HVK Extraction fan 420m3/hr
Digi Min/Max Thermo Hygrometer
Tec-Hu TE10 PH Tester
Easy rollers for susspending lights
Dimmer switch for controlling Fan speed
2 Smoke alarms ( One can never be to safe heheh )



Need to Get ..

600w - Compact

Euro lighting system includeing reflector, ballast and bulb .
13amp Relay Contactor to protect timers
150mm - 480m3/hour Carbon Filter .
Small Inline air intake fan with controller .
Fire extinguisher ( Again ... one can never be to safe hehehe )

Will update as i collect each part.



Again , Like most of you new growers, Budget dictates what i can get right now ....But that don't stop me WANTING STUFF !! hehe .

Im gonna make a little wishlist here of things i would like to add in the future that i think would round off the enviroment and make control a bit more automated or safer .

I say safe coz right now im just running extentions into my room and i would prefer it to have its own isolated power thats high enough rated to take more load to handle more lighting and things like aircon and dehumidifiers and the like ...all feeding from one tit




Wish List ...

Breaker box
Controller unit for air intake / extraction ( one that monitors room temp and air movment and ajusts to stay at a set temp )
Heating unit timers ( to replace plug ins ...Im thinking a central heating timer may be more stable ? )


TBC

 

[riddleme]

scribed

looking for some green in that room, LOL, room looks good

 

[Vento]

scribed

looking for some green in that room, LOL, room looks good

heheh Welcome and thank you !

It should have a few specks of green by monday LOL .... Picking up my Clones from my buddy and by then the room will be ready for them ... with more to add as they progress

Thanks again for taking the time...It's appriciated greatly

V

 

[Delux83]

pulling up a chair lets see what ya got!

 

[jimmycent]

scribed, show me the green, SHOW ME THE GREEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

 

[Vento]

Hi ya Delux & Jimmy

Thanks for hopping on guys ... hope we can all learn a thing or two here

Progress today ( Sunday ) is waaaaay slow but im attempting to seal up the room a bit ready for tomorrow when my girls come home

So just for a giggle .... Heres a quick joke for ya

Did you hear about the drug squad raided a farm ...

they told the old farmer that he was going to look around for illegal marijuana growing

Farmer say's " Go on ahead, just dont go in that fenced field over that way"

The copper said (Shoving his badge in the farmers face) "SEE THIS BADGE! IM WITH THE POLICE.. THIS BADGE SAYS I CAN GO ANYWHERE & DO ANYTHING I WANT!"

Farmer said " Ok .. Go on ahead "


A few minutes go by, the farmer hears a blood curdling scream, seeing the coppers running across the field with his prize Brahma bull closing in fast. The farmer jumps up on the fence & yells.....YOUR BADGE! YOUR BADGE! SHOW HIM YOUR BADGE!!!



heheh

All excited about tomorrow weeeeee


V

 

[Vento]

Hi Guys

Had a bit of a busy few days sorting out other life issues so my update has been slow

BUT ... I Can Confirm ... My babys have arrived ( Pic's comming soon ... my cam is mheee hehe ) They look a bit beaten up ... not sure why ....but a few of the tips of the leaves look a bit crunchy , My buddy who was watching them may have had a problem with PH as we just found out his PH meter was on the fritz ... But we will see

I have them under the CFL about 8 inches off the tops and my temp meter sitting at pot hight and its sitting at about 80f - 82 f... I have a fan on but not blowing directly on them ... just a very very slight breeze touching over them ...Im watching them pretty well today and will get some pics here asap to see if the crunchy leaves issue can be addressed

And so it begins

V

 

[Bonzi Lighthouse]

I'm in.

Let me know if you have any issues with heat (you will, but you have the foundation to fix them). Remember you want to suck air out of your room/s, fans to move the air around and passive intake.

*edit Wise money would be spent on a vented hood, you can control your temps better and run the lights closer to the plants.

 

[riddleme]

What are you feedin em, and how often?

 

[Delux83]

CFL should be more like 1-2 inches away from your plants 8 is to far

 

[machnak]

Yes, you can lower the lights quite dramatically. You could hold your hand under the light, and CFL's don't put off much heat, to see where the point is to where it doesn't feel hot on your hand and have the canopy right below that. Easy way to gauge it.

 

[JustinWafroGuy]

Subscribed but please don't post anymore awful tunes lol only jokin pal. Good luck with your first grow. I'm here to learn with you mate

 

[Vento]

What are you feedin em, and how often?

Hi ya Riddleme

Ok a bit of background :

The plants are now 17 days old and the clones was cut and put into moistened Rootriot blocks with Clonex Rooting Gel under a 125 w eco light for 24/0 for a week to root .

In my humble opinion the light was to far away but my buddy is the one helping me so i let him take charge of the proceedings .... Hes a seasoned grower that produces good quality gear with a fast turnaround so i kind of take what he says even if i dont fully agree with it .... We just found out that his PH meter was borked so it may be the case that the PH was wrong durin the cloaning process .

After about 8-9 days roots was showing and the babys was xplanted to small pots of very moist Coco that had been PHed ( maybe wrong ) and fed a thimble of Cana A + B + Rizotonic mixxed 1/2 ml of each to 1 ltr of PH ballanced water and then the light set to about 8 inches .

When i got them on monday the soil was still pretty moist but some of the leafs had the browning ... Since then i have been trying to ge the light closer while dispersing the heat with a fan and i have finaly managed it and got the light down to about 2 inches by using a deflector to channel the the airflow to the light but not blow to much on the plants .... and allready seeing some good new growth that looks really healthy .... i may be imagining things but even the browning looks like its repairing a bit ...i dunno... The plants do look like they are enjoying the new enviroment though.

So this morning i checked and the Coco is drying up really nice... very dry on top now and i think that later today they will be ready for another feed of the same mix ( this time with my PH meter doing the water )

Any advice befor i do ?... any questions on the above ?

 

[Vento]

CFL should be more like 1-2 inches away from your plants 8 is to far

Hi ya Delux & Mac

Thank you ... I have been trying to get the light as low as i can but even at 125 w its still giving off a little bit to much heat to get it that low durin a hot day ... I have a meter sitting at pot hight and at 4 inches of the top of the plants i was getting heat of about 86 F ... But now i have managed to get the airflow from a fan to blow under the light but not on the actual plants to much ...so im able to get a lot closer ..and they like it Thank you

 

[Vento]

Subscribed but please don't post anymore awful tunes lol only jokin pal. Good luck with your first grow. I'm here to learn with you mate

Hi ya Justin

Thank you for hopping on man ... hope we can learn and grow together

LOL ... my taste in music is all over the place ... Breakbeat ( Old Skool an Nu-Skool ) ... Dubstep .. rave ...Pavarotti LOL ... This you might like a bit more

Enjoy the tallent and creativity of this .... and the message in the lyrics is very inspireing for me

[video=youtube;UiInBOVHpO8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiInBOVHpO8[/video]

 

[JustinWafroGuy]

I like my Drum & Bass a lot, as well as loads of other genres too, i just don't like D&B remixes of Oasis lol.

I'm liking the room set up, kinda like a walk in NASA closet lol, and your safety first attitude. I'm already getting paranoid, i'll end up with 5 alarms and a sprinkler system set up in my room haha. Keep us updated pal

 

[Vento]

omg ... i make a long post .... upload a few pics and then told i need to log back in ...and lost the lot

I will update a bit later ... ghaaaa !! lol

 

[Vento]

Hi guy's

Here we go again for try X2 .... I made a post and got logged out and lost it all when trying to log back in ... Any way to stay logged in for longer ? lol

Ok anyways here goes ..

Day 24 , My babys are responding realy well to the new enviroment , I'm monitoring temps and humidity thru the day and night and all seems stable with just a fan blowing a very light whisper between the tops and under the light ... Light now set at 2 inces .... Temp at the top of the plants is between 82f in the day and 79f at night around 42% avarage.

No extraction used yet but my air intake duct at the bottom of the room is bringing in warmish air and i leave the door open on the room slightly for a very slight thru draft .

I have Numbered my plants from 1 - 4 ... 1 being the better of the 4.

Number 4 looks a bit stunted but is progressing slowly , The other three are around the same hight and fattening up nice .

Water and food :

I'm now watering and feeding about every 2 to 3 days after letting the coco run dry , Still on 1/2 mil Canna A + B & Rizotonic in 1 ltr of PH ballenced water , PH at around 5.8 with water that has been sitting out over night to de-clori ( Im getting an airstone and pump at the weekend to give the water a bit of bubble )

Number 4 seems to take a bit longer to dry out but im feeding her at the same time as the others .Shes dry but not as dry as the other 3 , I fed them this morning by pouring my mix around just the edge of the pots and then dipped all 4 in a tray with with an inch of the mix for a second just to wick some water in the bottom of the pots... the center of the pot near the stem is pretty dry ... My thinking is it will promote root groth to have water around the stem and under it rather than right on top of it ...seems to be working ok

I think that about covers it for now ?

Here are some pic's and i will add to this when i can think of anything

Thanks for watching and i look forward to your comments and pointers

V