First Closet Grow...NL with 600w HPS+ 4 CFL's

Right, this started as an experiment to see how successful I could be growing my own smoke really cheaply, but soon kinda escalated as I'm sure most of you have experienced! I'm actually around 2 weeks into my grow and am starting to get lil problems I thought a journal could chart and everyone could help me with (hopefully!). Go easy on me pls!! I'm a newbie, I'm really not sure what i'm doing, and to be honest, i'll be happy with half oz on my first attempt! (Of course,.. I'm hoping to get a lot more,.. but let's not set my sights too high lol)

I started with a single 20w 6500k CFL (a poor effort I know!) and I germinated 5 NL seeds using the wet tissue paper method in my airing cupboard on the 11th Oct and had them in the soil on the 14th. I'm using a decent quality compost from the local garden centre with (claimed!) better drainage. They have 24hr light and I wanted to keeep it that way for as long as possible. They'd all got above ground by the 19th, and at this point I realised I needed more lights!!!

(Pics attached)

3 more 26w CFL's added (4 in total) and my most recent purchase (today 28th) is a 600w HPS hanging about 1.5m above the plants.

This is where I think I'm gonna experience problems! I have been maintaining the temp at a constant 24-25C (75-77F) throughout and have been getting good results, but with the 600w bulb the temp has just shot up to 33C (91F). With the doors to the closet wide open (not ideal with the blinding 600w light!) the temp drops back to around 27C (81F). Is this gonna be acceptable?? I've got a fan blowing on the light with the idea it will help the heat upwards and out of the vents. (forgot to mention, it's in a large cool boiler cupboard with vents).

Now,.. that's my first problem. The other is this really funny looking plant!!! I've attached pics. Its alot smaller than the others but new growth is coming through. The leaves just seem to be curling all over the shop and it has remained quite small and stubby.

Any help with these probs would be appreciated. In the meantime, I'm gonna post as often I can, include pics, and cross my fingers this all goes to plan!! Wish me luck,.. and happy reading!

i know that extractor fans are expencive but worth it with a carbon filter it would take the temp down, but as the plants get more folage the temp will go down too hope that helps ant sure about the plant in pic maybe its just a slow starter lol

Yeah I thought about an extractor fan, but the missus is gettin fairly hacked off with my eternal ability to keep throwing money at something which started for £20!! lol

It is going to be a problem tho. As I had to leave the doors open on the closet, and the way our house is laid out, the light was absolutely blinding through the curtains and thus had to be switched off not long after I went to bed. I left the CFL's on, and the plants have grown well yet again by this morning, but i don't wanna keep switching the hps off at night cuz I'm sure this will induce flowering.

My next plan is to raise it. It's currently sitting about halfway up the closet, and is pinned to the bottom of one of the shelves. There is 1 more shelf in there (2 in total) but it's around 2m above the plants. Presumably I will lose alot of the usuable light by the time it travels to the bottom of the closet?!? Still,.. Don't see I have any other option at the moment with my cashflow issues, so that's the plan. I'll report back on the temps after I've done that. So you say the temp will def go down once the plants get a bit more dense?? Is this because the plants will absorb more of this heat?

As for lil stubby,.. she (hopefully!) is definitely growing!! Just gonna leave her to it and see what happens.

Anyway, more pics to come this evening!

Hi...

I hope you don't mind me suggesting more expenses...

I have a small homemade tent... 36" x 20" x 60"...

With a cool tube... and the light 10" away from the plants, I have a temp range of 65F to 95F... and I use a thermostat to keep it at 75F...

A cool tube with the proper vent set-up, will allow you to treat it almost as if it were a fluorescent...

I am running over 19.000 lumens per square foot... with no heat issues at all...

Here are some links that might be useful...

GrowFAQ

How do I build my own Cool Tube?

Hit me back if you got any questions...

Here is a picture of my set up...

Cheers...

Gypsy...

As for your small plant.. don't worry, it happens sometimes...

I have two that are very similar.... they had a little trouble early on and had their growth stunted... they are fine now... and both of them have 3 sets of nodes instead of the usual 2...

It'll be fine... probably will turn out to be your best plant...

Cheers...

GypsyBush said:

Hi...

I hope you don't mind me suggesting more expenses...

Click to expand...

I don't mind anyone suggesting anything Gypsy! I welcome it in fact, that's why I'm here. The issue being that I was made redundant a couple of weeks ago so money is REALLY tight what with my rent and bills! I'm not sure I can even afford to spend another £10 on it for the moment.

GypsyBush said:

With a cool tube... and the light 10" away from the plants, I have a temp range of 65F to 95F... and I use a thermostat to keep it at 75F...

A cool tube with the proper vent set-up, will allow you to treat it almost as if it were a fluorescent...

I am running over 19.000 lumens per square foot... with no heat issues at all...

Click to expand...

Do you think that I will be losing too much light with the hps positioned so high above the plants?? I do have a cfl hanging just 2" above each plant also. And I've not actually moved the hps yet, so am yet to find out if it fixes my temp problem anyway, but I will do in the next hour or so and will post pics of before and after. I'd love you to have a look gypsy.

GypsyBush said:

Hit me back if you got any questions...

Here is a picture of my set up...

Click to expand...

Your setup looks nice tho man. I ultimately think I will switch to something like that but am gonna see these seeds through to the end first. I have another 15 NL seeds along with 10 Sensi Skunk (from Sensi Seedbank) to fire off afterwards.

Thanks for stopping by though. I appreciate it

ok,.. So I've decided I'm going to have a bit of an overhaul today. The closet really needs to be painted white, the hps needs to be raised to (hopefully!) help with my heat issues, and more importantly,.. I NEED TO TRANSPLANT!!

They're currently in 1 Litre containers (about 4 or 5" diameter) and are 15 (?) days old. I have more room in the closet now and the plants are shooting up quite well so I figure now is the time to move them.

So.. I'd LOVE peoples input on this.

Is this a good time to transplant?
What size pots do I need to see me through?
How do I go about transplanting??
- Do I need to flood them with water after?
Any other tips?

Also, I have 3 diff stages of nute. Ionic Bloom for soil: Grow, Bloom and Boost. When is a good time to start using these? At what strength? How often? (e.g. every watering?).

Popping out for couple hours now but plan to start when I get back. Hopefully I'll have some good suggestions. Cheers

Poon69 said:

Popping out for couple hours now but plan to start when I get back. Hopefully I'll have some good suggestions. Cheers

Click to expand...

100% hydro here... no soil... no help ... sorry...

Right,.. it took a lil longer than I thought it all would but i'm finally there!

So yesterday I cleared the closet completely and painted all the walls white. I know I shouldda done this first but hey, it's done now! Found 2 nice little grills onto a chimney too to help with the heat from the boiler so I'm seriously considering fitting some kind of extractor fan behind one of them. Does anyone know if I'll lose alot of heat like this and can anyone suggest a good cheap option I can get hold of in the uk?? Too skint for the moment tho so we'll see.

I also raised the hps to the shelf above but found the light was too far away. So after alot of tinkering with fans (and the addition of a 2nd bloody great one) I've managed to put the hps back to the lower shelf and still get the temp back to around 79-82F. I've still gotta leave the door ajar and the big fan is pulling hot air from the bootom and blowing it out of the door. That's the plan anyway. It seems to be working.

I also transplanted them all into their final 5 gallon containers and although they look a lil droopy now, I’m sure they’ll pick up. The new soil was pretty cold so I think it's just down to that.

Fingers crossed the cold soil isn't what's bringing the temp down! It'll piss me right off if the temp shoots up again later lol

Few pics attached of the setup now and I’ll post some more of the plants once they pick up a little. Oh and as you can see,.. I've stuck the CFLs back in again. Why not eh.

Poon69 said:

Whilst I'm here, can anyone let me know exactly what 'flushing' is? I mean, I know u chuck a shedload of water through the pots but what is achieved by it? how much water should i flush through? How often should I do it? Should I raise the pots off the ground for a period of time after to let them drain thoroughly?

Thanks guys, appreciate it​

Click to expand...

Hey man... your set up looks nice... lots of room for improvement, but you are on the right track...

I really hate to hammer you, but you are a prime candidate for a cool tube with a good fan... you would be able to treat your 400 as if it were a fluorescent... your plants would love to have 400 watts 10" away with no heat issues... mine do.... it's just amazing what the 600 HPS is doing in my box.... with zero heat issues....

As for flushing, the idea is that in the last 10 to 14 days of flowering, just before harvest, you stop giving fertilizers to the plant, with the idea that it will use up nutrients stored within the plant itself...

Some growers suggest that by flushing you will improve the taste and get rid of some of the harshness...

I flushed my hydro for 10 days... but couldn't really tell you how well it works.... but it tastes good... it almost seems like it would add extra stress at the end there... but I guess you're so close it doesn't matter...

So yeah, you would keep your watering schedule the same as it has been... but just no nutes for the last 2 weeks....

But again, I am not an indoor soil guy, so there may be something to rinsing the soil... but I know nothing of that....

Hope this helps...

Cheers...

hey man nice grow keep us informed!

So I think i've finally cracked it!

I've installed a small extractor fan (pics attached) which I found in the shed into the closet and that along with the big fan means the temp has finally settled at 81-82F. It's enabled me to lower the 600w light to around 16" above the plants too and have the dooor on the closet pulled almost closed.

The plants are LOVING it. They are still looking quite droopy which I'm still hoping is down to the transplant. They have grown a massive amount since they've been in the new pots and and under the new light and are shooting out new stems with leaves at the first, second and third nodes. I'm wondering if the droopy'ness is down to nutes in the new soil perhaps?? It's West Advanced soil. Or perhaps they have too much water. I flooded them when i put them into the new pots and the pots still feel a lil damp. Gonna wait a few days for them to dry completely to see if they pick before I water them again. Not worried too much though cuz like I said, the growth has beeen immense.

The pics were taken yesterday evening, I'll post some more tonight showing them today to see the growth comparison.

Hey, looking great there, Poon 69! You can probobly get it down a few more degrees by getting that ballast out of there.....you need to do that....

Great luck to you!!

growinman said:

Hey, looking great there, Poon 69! You can probobly get it down a few more degrees by getting that ballast out of there.....you need to do that....

Click to expand...

growinman said:

Great luck to you!!

Click to expand...

Thanks man! Appreciate it. Good call with the ballast idea tho. But i'm struggling for holes in the wall to get the wires through! lol. I'm thinking I could raise it, perhaps onto the shelf which holds the light. hmmm,.. I'll let ya know if it helps!

ok I moved the ballast and it has helped a little. Not much mind, but every degree helps. Here's the latest pics I took this morning. I've started a thread in the plant problems forum just to see if the wilting is normal. I think they need quite alot of water but I thought it best to check with the pro's! lol. They're are still growing like crazy under the new light and there's some nice new growth coming through at all the nodes.

Any suggestions.. keep em coming. Cheers

Hey, looking great there, Poon 69! You can probobly get it down a few more degrees by getting that ballast out of there.....you need to do that....

Great luck to you!!

ill be honest mate but its really not gonna benefit you that much.... tried and tested and put it back how it was!

also mate the wilting is quite possibly the same problem i had on my last plant and that was moisture content in the air... with that light in that room the air gets very dry in there and ull probably notice the plant perk up in the morning and wilt as the day goes on if thats your problem...

you know I reckon the air is really dry in there. The boiler comes on and off as well and the light is pretty close.

So how can I get more moisture into the air regularly?? Is it worth spraying a mist of water in there a few times a day or would that make hardly any difference at all?

hey man sorry ive not been on for a while! see as daft as it sounds i rely'd on water evaporating into the air.... See when i water my plant it site just off the bottom of another pot and so there is room for about an inch of water in the bottom... if you get me? with the temp in there so high it doent take long to evaporate into the air so it wont go stale and its done me the world of good doing that!

Mine turned out male which is a bit of a wounder becuase she was really startin to stack on weight and height! ive now put into tissue paper 5 bagseeds and 3 of my northern lights seeds to crack open once cracked im gonna plant them all into peat pots too take root and then im gonna choose the best 6 and frow them... gonna change my setup slightly too and lower my light instead of lifting my plants up to it which should create more air in the room... then just sit all the pots on the floor! once ive got it all sorted ill post ya the link to my new journal! keep us posted on these mind how they comin along?

Yeah they are coming along really well mate. Have had no end of problems with them drooping really bad and getting yellow patches on the lower leaves though. The stems were going really red on several branches too. Finally cracked it tho. They messed up when I initially transplanted them into new soil. Had too many nutes in it (was some super advanced grow shit - silly thing to buy really) and burnt a few leaf tips and made them all droop really bad.

Put them back into the nute free stuff they started in and gave them a real good watering but they just weren't improving at all! One suddenly picked up so I've been nursing that one and to be honest I just left the others to do their thing but they weren't growing anywhere near as fast as the other one. Well anyway, yesterday morning I gave them a small amount of water each (prob only 300mill each) with about 2/3 of the recommended dose of ionic grow and FUCK ME! Within 3 hours all were picking up. By the time I retired to bed last night ALL of the leaves on all the plants were really reaching for more light, and by this evening they've all grown noticeably. I think I just messed up and overwatered them once they were bk in the good soil and were dying for food.

I'm really happy with how they look inside tho. I'll post a few pics later. The branching inside is just crazy. Nodes every 1 inch and the branches have all split into 3 several times now! I just want them to put on a bit more height now so will maybe flower in a week or so. They've all got pre-flowers now.

Read about your male mate. That's depressing eh. I was looking forward to see how yours turned out too as it was looking real nice. I've also started a couple more off. Just 2 more Sensi Skunk#1 from the seedbank. Made a new lil grow cupboard too so I'll let ya see how that looks. Definitely start another journal tho mate.

Are you sure you're definitely growing NL? Its just that mine look SO different to yours. You can tell mine are indica.