First Grow..PC micro hydro grow case

Hey Everybody Merry Xmas Eve!

I've been on RIU for a while but just observing considering I was not/am not really that knowledgeable about growing. Anyhow recently I decided to take that big first step and start my first grow... Since i need stealth for the most part I took the PC case route.

I am VERY excited! And I play to update you guys on progress every day or so. However I do think I will need some help here and there so hopefully all of you Gurus can help me out when I need it.(thanks in advance)

ANYWAY, on to the journal...


Like I said PC/ micro hydro grow, I'm going to grow two plants and LST them the best I can in there due to the lack of space.

I ordered some Fem'd Royal dwarf auto seeds from attitude and they just Germed this morning!

I put them in the rockwool cubes and set the whole thing up... I do have a question though (i haven't searched it yet but i will as soon as I am done writing this first entry.)

I was wondering about nutes..I bought the GH flora 3 part series My question would be when to start using them? I read somewhere that since it's an autoflowering strain that I dont need to use all 3 parts - Any truth to that? Either way when should i start fertilizing them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...Atatched are some pics (sorry my camera is dead so they are from my iphone.)

Thanks again and Merry Xmas!

-JPC

Not too much going on with the grow, other than the temps being too high...high 80's low 90's. I can see the seedlings starting to form. hopefully by tomorrow they will be sprouted fully.

- I tried switching the fans horizontal of one another, hopefully that helps with the temp. I will check tomorrow when I can monitor it in the meantime i'm leaving the side of the case off so i don't hurt the plants.
- I might also go pick up a piece of plexy to put under the lights depending on if the snow stops anytime soon, and how long it takes me to dig out. nothing like 16" of snow. if not its gonna have to wait.

On a side note I am thinking about looking for a bigger case / or switching to a rubbermaid setup if nothing solves the heat issues.

I will post more once something more develops.

Ok, so 3 days after being in the case, Temps are down to a more manageable level ~ 84-85*F. PH is 5.7, and PPM is just under 500 (which is a bit high from what I understand.)

The girls are beginning to sprout although I am a bit worried about them, the color of the underside of the leaves from bigger of the two has a purplish/brownish tint. And the smaller of the two doesn't quite look like it has sprouted fully but has the same color...Pics attached (sorry for not the best quality working on getting some batteries for my camera being snowed in blows). I'm going to post them on another thread but if anyone sees this in the meantime Lemme know if this is something I should be worried about.

Other than that all is good.

Oh yea here is a pic of the updated case...

Day 4:

Temp: ~84*F
PH:6.0
PPM: A little over 500
Humidity: 25-30%

Everything is looking good albeit my humidity could be a little higher.

I added a cup of water and a sponge last night to hopefully make the humidity go up some but it isn't helping as much as I'd like. anyway...

After a night of having my girls under a humidity dome, they both are looking much better. And both now have 4 leaves. The one on the left has a little yellowish brown spot on the very tip of the leaf..nute burn maybe?(somebody let me know if its a problem) But overall looks pretty healthy. And the right and stronger of the two is moving along nicely. I figure a day or two more under the dome then I'll just let the light take its course. Pics attached...

-JPC

Day 5:

Temp ~88*F
PH: 5.2
PPM: 530
Humidity: 22-28%

Well my little microphone looking fan broke today, so temps are a little high, i guess i will just have to leave the case open until my new one comes.. I am going to try to put a frozen bottle of water in there to see if that helps as well. PH is a little low today too, I dont know why. I will have to get some PH up for tomorrow since I don't have any, but hopefully it corrects itself. Plants look good though, pics below...the right one is coming in very nicely, and the smaller one on the left no longer has that seed casing on the leaf i brushed it off after I took the pic. Other than that not a whole lot going on, taking the domes off tomorrow. Then hopefully the girls will really flourish.

***the pic on the right is really the one on the left...my B****

Day 8:

Temp ~80*F
PH: 6.1
PPM: ~580
Humidity: 20-30%

So Everything is doing well, The weaker of the two plants/left one (which I am for now on going to refer to as Plant 'A' until I can think of a good name for her) is doing well. Although she behind her sister she just sprouted the start of her 6th leaf. On a much much brighter note the stronger/right plant (LaShawndra) Is doing great. Her leaves are coming in nicely and are about double the size of her sister's. Pics attached..

Sometime this week I will be moving the girls into a new Rubbermaid grow box..I just need some time to put it all together.

Day 10:

Temp 87*F
PH: 8.0
PPM: ~600
Humidity: 20-30%


Ok so, WOW i dunno but since two days ago the PH skyrocketed. I threw in some PHdown so that should fix it, I have no idea why it is so high though. Ever since my fan broke, and my new one hasn't arrived yet, temps have been a little high. I did add another light so that probably has something to do with it as well. I've been leaving the case open to keep some cool air coming in there, that is until my new fan comes.

I got some work done on the rubbermaid case today It should be done by tomorrow or the next day. So that will help alot with temps, all things considered.

On a side note, LaShawndra is looking a little droopy.. I am not sure why. And Yolanda (the smaller of the two) is looking more perky than usual. Although it does look like there might be some slight yellowish coloring on her two round leaves. If anyone is reading...Any ideas what this might be? Are my girls in any trouble? Pics attached...

Day 11:

Temp 85/6*F
PH: 6.9
PPM: ~180
Humidity: 20-30%


Ok, So my girls look like they are hurting, PH is a little high, threw in a few more drops of down, should bring it back to optimal levels...i've switched to just Ph'd water and will continue that for the next two weeks...hopefully that helps. Yolanda is looking perky, but her two rounded leaves have yellow in them. And LaShawndra is droopy as hell. I have NO IDEA why they both look sick. A nitrogen deficiency maybe? I dunno. Hopefully just the water fixes it.

Day 14:

Temp 84/5*F
PH: 5.4
PPM: ~670
Humidity: 20%

Well it's fair to say something stunted my girls' growth somewhere down the line. considering their small size at this stage of the game...Yolanda has seen better days, her bottom most leaves turned yellow/brown and are wilted almost off. One of her tips of her topmost leaf is turning a little bit yellow but its the tiniest bit (can't really even see it in the pic.) N deficiency? I threw in like 2 drops of lucas' formula. to see if it will clear it up.. maybe who knows. LaShawndra is showing new signs of growth although is still very droopy- maybe due to the heavy leaf/ small stem ratio i dunno at all. But New growth coming, albeit very slowly.

New box is almost done then I will move the girls. Hopefully this will help with temps as well. Ideally I'd like it to be low 80's max.

Day 15:

Temp 82*F
PH: 6.1
PPM: ~250
Humidity: 20%

Well There is definitely new growth on the girls, although their leaves are turning yellow from the bottom up.(pics attached) Some sort of nute deficiency? I will research after I type this up. Also the smaller of the two's leaves are beginning to curl upward...I guess there has been worse grows lol. Still just running on ph'd H20. but i am strongly considering adding a small amount of nutes - maybe 1/8 or 1/4 strength of lucas' formula. If anyone is reading this please chime in....

hi dude, saw your post in the CFL help thread... I'll try to help here.. I see you already have the right equipment but I have a few suggestions:

1.lower temp, maybe some will disagree but I think 85 is too fucking much for seedlings, they looked stressed from this.
2.raise humidity.. when my babies are seedlings, i always spray cool water on them in the morning just when the lights turn off..
3.maybe I'm too stoned but I swear I didn't see anything about your lights.. might be me..sorry for that. In that respect I believe you should be using a few 6500k CFLs, or at least one big one since you're in a pc case. This greately promotes vegetative growth. When they will flower you can switch to a 2700k CFL. Size and wattage are up to your space and budget. CFLs can be as close as a couple inches from the plants so keep that in mind also.

This is all I can give now, sorry i didn't respond earlier to your query but I had a few days away from RIU, I need to tender my Betsy Good luck, I'm subbed to see how this is going.

Good luck! Peace!

HerbalBeast said:

hi dude, saw your post in the CFL help thread... I'll try to help here.. I see you already have the right equipment but I have a few suggestions:

1.lower temp, maybe some will disagree but I think 85 is too fucking much for seedlings, they looked stressed from this.
2.raise humidity.. when my babies are seedlings, i always spray cool water on them in the morning just when the lights turn off..
3.maybe I'm too stoned but I swear I didn't see anything about your lights.. might be me..sorry for that. In that respect I believe you should be using a few 6500k CFLs, or at least one big one since you're in a pc case. This greately promotes vegetative growth. When they will flower you can switch to a 2700k CFL. Size and wattage are up to your space and budget. CFLs can be as close as a couple inches from the plants so keep that in mind also.

This is all I can give now, sorry i didn't respond earlier to your query but I had a few days away from RIU, I need to tender my Betsy Good luck, I'm subbed to see how this is going.

Good luck! Peace!

Click to expand...

Ahhhh thank you much for the good info. +rep....

to be honest, I might not have said anything about the lights (i might have just been high lol) right now i have (1) 65k -20w and (2) 27ks-23w... I moved them to a rubbermaid setup, the temps are cooler but still too high for my liking. im going to redo my rubbermaid and use white paint instead of foil tape(that should help)...

As for the humidity I just now put in the cup of warm water sponge thing. Do you think I should put them back in humidity domes? Also do you think I should switch the setup to (2) 65ks and (1) 27k until later? I have room for more lights I just don't want to add them until I make their new home because of the raise in temps.....

Thank you so much for the help!

Scratch that- I just switched it all up.... (1) 23W 65K, (1) 13W 65K, (1) 23w 27K, (1) 20W 65K... thanks.

**************i dunno why the pics i removed are still there in the attached photos part. but they are all crap only the top ones matter*************