First Ever for GardensGrow

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Well it's not as bad as I thought it was... I was away from the house and the water hose on our washer broke and gushed water everywhere. Luckily my roommates girlfriend was home and eventually walked out of his room to see it and turned off the valve after 15 minutes or so. Anyways the hallway is pretty wet (even after sucking 7 gallons of water out of it with the ShopVac) so the "carpet guy" is coming by tomorrow to check things out.

Water didn't get too far in my room but I'm still going to have to keep the MH light off tomorrow since it shines like a beacon from under my door. I'm going to keep 2 small (6500K) cfl's on in the closet so that the plants don't think it's time to start flowering. It definitely won't help them grow any but at least I can just stuff a towel under the door, lock the door, and the "carpet guy", should he need to work in my room, will never know the difference.

Hopefully he can get everything done tomorrow so I can get back on schedule!

Besides all of that drama, all the plants are rocketing and they will be planted into either bigger pots, or the Earthbox, very soon. I'll know in a few days which to do.
 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Well the carpet guy came and went without any issues. Once he left I got to working on my grow. I put all the ladies into the Earthbox!

You won't believe this but the plants (from left to right, back to front) are Michelle, Sally, Jessica, and Cindy. Sally and Jessica healed marvelously and are now growing faster than Cindy.

Raul you called it, the roots were getting bound up at the bottom of the pot. But due to the fact that I had originally buried them so deep to deal with stem stretch all the roots were in the lower half of the pot; none at the top. Hopefully they'll have a lot more room to spread in the Earthbox.

Oh yea, and they're starting to smell :hump:


 

Hawk

Well-Known Member
Looks great! :weed:

How's that Earthbox work? Some sorta auto-watering?

Clones, eh? That was way more than I was ready to bite off. I'd love to see you do it though so I can learn. I'd like to take clones once I get a separate veg chamber running. I think I like one of my plants better than the other two. It would be nice to have a cloning option for keeping good genetics alive. Too late for that now but next time....

So are those four going to grow out to the end in the Earthbox?




Here's how I'm doing. Day 49 of 12/12.




I couldn't help making a taster (or two) out of a few secondary buds.
 
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GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
How's that Earthbox work? Some sorta auto-watering?

So are those four going to grow out to the end in the Earthbox?
Thanks Hawk. The Earthbox has a reservoir of water at the bottom with a drain hole so I can't over water. In two of the corners of the reservoir there is potting mix packed so that it can uptake water and distribute it into the bulk of the potting mix that sits on a grate above the reservoir. Check out Earthbox.com for more info; it's pretty interesting.

The idea is that two of those will finish out in the Earthbox. There should be plenty of room for two I hope.

P.S. I still can't see your pictures. I wanna see some pot pron!

Great job GG. They all look very healthy. Even though they smell, isn't it a wonderful smell!:hump:
Thanks again Raul. You're right, the smell is fantastic!!! Too bad I'll have to scrub it though. I wish I could let it infiltrate my whole house!
 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
I installed the filter since the smell is increasing daily. I hope that it's big enough!

Also, my plants are looking a little bit droopy. I know during a transfer this can happen but I decided to lift my light from 7" to about 11" just in case it was the heat that was getting to them. I've also been watering from the top a little each day (even though the Earthbox says not to) because they look a little dry to me and I can imagine it takes a while for the water to pull itself from the lower reservoir towards the top where the roots are at.

Hawk, I can see your pictures in that thread and they look amazing! Did you prune the bottom leaves as the buds grew bigger?


 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Nice, looks like the LST paid off for you big time. I think I may follow suit with some form or another.


BTW I'm thinking about trying this technique for sexing before the flowering stage: GROWFAQ

I think it's pretty logical...objections anyone?
 

jayzero

Well-Known Member
^ If the bag is suitably opaque and won't make a sort of mini-oven then I expect that it could work just fine. Ideal may be something more like black sackcloth rather than a plastic bag - something that would still breathe a bit but block out the light.
 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Thats a good idea. Hmmm I wonder what the local materials store would turn up? Maybe a durlap type material would work? jayzero thanks for posting by the way. I'm currently on Page 3 of your Journal. I'll post up when I get through it.
 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Thanks Skibumm and good luck! Let me know if you have any questions. The people here on RIU were essential in helping me get this grow up and keep it going (namely Hawk, ceestyle, and RaulFarquar); the least I can do is try to give back.
 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
A quick update and question for anyone interested. The first picture is an overall view of progress. The second picture is a close up of Jessica's (front left) newer leaves. They're looking a little sickly: yellow, curled, and "folded". Two of the other plants show the same characteristics to a varying degree. Does anybody want to reassure me that there is nothing wrong or is my paranoia possibly real? Thanks in advance!


 

GardensGrow

Well-Known Member
Well I just learned that my roommates girlfriend knows about the grow op because she smelled it in the house. I have a filter but apparently it isn't doing anything. I normally wouldn't be too worried about it because she's cool but I live in a duplex so I have to confine the smell to my grow closet ONLY. With it exhausting into the attic, and since the attic is shared between our half and our neighbors half, it's even more essential. I'm considering cutting off the grow early... Maybe it's just better to wait until I have my own place.

:-|
 

jayzero

Well-Known Member
Well, they look really healthy to my eyes - the folding is normal, it's because they're brand new leaves and they haven't yet completely unfolded and flattened out yet, don't worry about that. They'll darken with a few days of exposure to light as well - they'll always sprout a bit pale like that when they're new leaves. Only if they're coming out really yellow is it anything to worry about.

As for the neighbours it's tough to say - maybe get some nice aromatherapy oils and daub a bit on the inside of your exhaust pipe with a q-tip or something.. Drown out the smell with something nice like lemongrass or orange essence. See how long it lasts and then just top it up every few days.
 

Hawk

Well-Known Member
Damn. Tough decision. I almost hate to comment one way or the other since the threat and your risk tolerance is hard to judge. However, I'd be pretty dang "uncomfortable" if someone detected my grow. Even if they were cool with it, it's the security breach itself that is the problem. The next person might not be cool.

Come to think of it, I had a small odor issue early on. Can't remember if I mentioned it. I had to scramble to build my carbon scrubber ASAP. The plants started to smell and quickly overwhelmed my first attempt at odor control. I knew the first attempt was only going to be temporary--but it went from working to not working real fast.


So you think the smell was leaving the closet door and into the rest of the house? Is the door open much?
Do you think the smell came down from the attic?



I might approach it all like this:

--Do I know how the smell escaped and was detected?
--Can I do anything to stop it from happening again?
--And Can I complete the fix quickly enough to keep the plants going?

If the answer to any of those questions is no....



$0.02
 
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