Getting setup for a new grow, 5g Hempy w/ Third Dimension & Wappa

This would be Day 1 veg from rooted clones, I had 11 going with anonymous bag seed but to save myself the hermie heartache I decided to just lose them and go with these 6 clones I have. I am going to be introducing a couple more strains soon but can only have a maximum of 12 plants so not any significant numbers maybe 1 of each for the next. I have (3) Third Dimensions and (3) Wappa going 2 of each in 5g and the other 2 are in 1.5g that I had from before. There's 2 of those bag seed plants hiding behind it all but ill be keeping a close eye on them (they are NY Diesel) my room is not built yet, I have a lot of the framework done (it's just going to be 8x8 plus the veg area you see here which does not take from that space.

Currently all I have is a 600W MH running at the moment @ 75% and am planning on adding 2 600's for the flowering area within 4-5 weeks from now (when I'll probably flip I am guessing) I will have just a few going and every 2-3 weeks add another plant or two just so I can keep myself busy and not have to do everything once every 2 months. I have a 470cfm carbon filter, hydrofarm 6" fan and a various other stuff but nothing is 'in place' yet, I may get an in-room portable A/C unit as I am thinking about running vertical bare bulbs in my flowering room (depending on how I train the plants) I have always wanted to try that configuration.

Wanted to go Co2 originally but right now I am not going to put all my focus on a sealed design, plus I don't know if in-room window vented air conditioners have any kind of seperation inside them or if I'd just lose all my Co2 from the exhaust hose... always wanted to know never got any solid answer. I can't go with a minisplit I am not trying to get too carried away, a $400-500 portable unit would work just fine and be simple. Just wish I could keep my Co2 if I wanted to go that route, I know I can hid mid 80's but I have trouble believing I'd even hold that too easily lol.


Oh yeah, Nutes... GH Flora 3-part standard stuff, Rapid Root supplement (black bottle, cant remember exact name, friend gave me), Floralicious Plus (friend gave me), New calmag plus (friend gave me) and some very old Liquid Karma that 'seems fine' I decided to try it for one feeding and see if it has any ill effects, it's a few years old but looks as if it always did. Might be garbage but whatever, if it doesn't hurt the plants I won't worry too much and if it does I'll toss it. My buddy gave me some Pineapple Rush too but no clue if I am going to run something like that or not.

So... here we go... hopefully things run smoothly, it's been years.

Temps were a little up there when I snapped the pics too, and that last one does not have dark/discolored leaves at all, it's just the camera doing a poor job of working with that crazy light. Just fed them again too with some H2o2 in there, sucks waiting for roots to reach the reservoir that's for sure.

Here's 2 shots of the space I have to work with, still framing and putting up walls... it's 8x8 plus the veg area... some random crap just laying around at the moment too.

Beginning of Day 3 / End of Day 2... you can see the smaller 1.25/5'ish hempys are taking off a lot quicker than the 5g variations, roots must be nestled into a nice moist nutrient rich environment in the smaller ones but the larger ones have a lot longer ways to travel. I think the 5g plants are going to get nice sized if I let them though. It's funny how sad the 5g plants look in comparison, none of them look 'great' right now and I am sure I have nutrient quirks to work out for sure but they're alive so that's good news.

Honestly I don't know if it's 'really' day 4 or day 5 now, I may have had the days off from the start... but here's day 4/5 just a couple shots, the smaller hempy's still growing the quickest obviously but I feel that the larger ones are just about there as some seem to be reaching a bit more than drooping at times, especially when I have the light at 100% I sometimes run it @ 300/450W to keep temps in the high 70s as I do not have an air cooled hood or anything, very seriously considering getting a smaller (12k or so) mini-split in here but it's just way more fuss than I wanted to deal with... It's more hassle than cost to me since I won't have someone down here installing it into my grow room.

Leaning heavily towards a DIY window unit with fabricated ducting for intake/exhaust mated with some hydrofarm fans or something to do the work and get that hot air gone fast... then draining the condensate into a drum with a hole cut a few feet up from the floor so the overflow will drain into my basement drain that would be shared with the washer and so on... that way I always have excellent water I can use.

Perlite looks kind of nasty btw due to my nutrients, I got some of the 'thick & nasty' ones in my mix as well... not just the nice clean crap lol.

I am using (depending on the situation, I don't always use it all)

GH 3-Part Flora series (grow/bloom/micro)
GH Floralicious Plus
GH Pineapple Rush
GH CAliMAgic
GH RapidStart Root Enhancer
Botanicare LiquidKarma (old stuff, just have it down here too... also have their full line but it's old as well)

and I also have PH control solutions, Peroxide if needed, a Dehumidifier is making most of my water for me but I have a spigot setup to get it when it can't keep up the work. I have a few other random things that I cannot seem to remember off the top of my head too but for the most part that's about all I am working with at the moment. I am about to order 2 more 600's, unsure if I will use hoods or not as I wanted to go vertical... my 'ideal' setup I put together in my head was using 2 air cooled hoods a couple feet apart from each other and a vertical 600 hanging between them lower to get the entire surrounding plants. This is exactly why I would need an air conditioner in an 8x8 space, I want to supplement Co2 as well, however I am not setup for it yet... I have a tough time believing I could maintain 85 or lower with all those lights going so I think I'd definitely need a moderate sized AC.

I know this is a very boring journal right now too... I am hoping you guys will start stopping in when you see how much work I actually plan to put into this though... I figure within a month, or shortly thereafter I will have it pretty far along to where flowering by then. Not sure if I am going to veg for 4 weeks, 6 weeks, what yet but I do find joy in training the plants more than just about anything else so I may veg for a while. Individual SCROGs was always the plan but I don't have enough room to navigate the buckets w/ scrogs attached outside of veg area and into flower area due to the framing... sucks.

Got out the Duct Tape for some LST on the two smaller containers, also fim'd a couple of the plants but for the most part waiting until they get a little bit larger so I can do more easily to them. Here's a few 'DAY 5' shots. It's a little hot in there at the moment (82F) so I can see they're not too keen on it, I have to turn the light down I think it's at 100% right now. Seems to go over better in the evening but I am in a basement so the climate does not fluctuate much down here regardless of what time it is.

2 more of my 600W lights are on the way along with some testing meters, room setup supplies and so forth... should be ready to run a full cycle within a few weeks I am thinking but will be continually adding advanced elements as I see fit and have money for.

Day 7 updates... you can see one of my plants (nearest to me) is looking pretty rough, I flushed them all today so we'll see if that one bounces back or not. I think that thermometer is highly innaccurate and reads a few degrees higher than it actually should. I compared it to my homes thermostat and it's not comparable in readings anyway... says 75 when it's actually 71-72 in the house so I am hoping when it says low 80's it's actually OK, planning on Co2 anyway though.

Got all 3 of my 600's now, who knows may add another one eventually -- Also bought a new window A/C unit for about $150 (6000BTU) so I am hoping it will be sufficient enough to maintain low 80's during my lights on, plan on building Intake/Exhaust ducting and using a 6" Hydrofarm fan to suck the heat from the back with passive intake based on other DIY write ups I have seen, hoping it gets the job done considering I failed at finding a decent used unit.

Air conditioner is working great, I rigged up a really ghetto exhaust system for it just to test it out (I wanted to try something now, so I could not wait to buy materials) I found a plastic tote that just amazingly happened to be the exact size of the unit and gave me a large champer behind it to collect the hot air, I have a hydrofarm 6" fan attached to that sucking the air out and it sucks it out crazy well, have not routed it to the window yet just away from room for testing purposes and it gets damn chilly in there (with only 1 600 running though) and even dropped the veg area which is 8 feet away down a few degrees and that's a small closed in space... So this should in theory work well, I just cant figure out where the condensate is going to drain from. There is one small hole in the bottom of the chassis but that doesnt even make sense in placement, I suppose that could be where it comes from but it is NOT the lowest place on the chassis.

I don't want to drill holes if I don't need to, I ran it for an hour to see where the water would come from... nothing, I tripped it in both directions, nothing, then I picked it up and carried it somewhere and got soaked with no idea where the water came from, I almost think it came from the face/front area near the bottom when I lifted it up against my chest to carry it but I cannot figure out where I want to attach a hose yet to collect the condensate, blah! Otherwise, pretty awesome for only $150... it's small but I think it's plenty for my application.

Day 9 updates, it's safe to say the ones in the smaller buckets are definitely at the reservoir, that one 3D (overhead shot) is getting pretty wild... looked nothing like that 3 days ago. They seem to be doing well for the most part, I see some deficiencies and other small problems here and there among various plants but I am getting everything ironed out still, I am sure I'll have it all dialed in within the week and finally be where I'd like to be. I should have the room finished up, A/C in effect and everything else within a couple weeks from now too I am thinking, probably flower 2-3 of them at the same time and introduce 2-3 more every few weeks so I always have something to do.

Do people generally stray away from journals that are not in flowering or created by a senior member of the forum? I'm still gonna keep at it just wondering if anyone's actually out there!

I have been training some of these quite extensively, I feel kind of dirty duct taping my fan leaves to my containers but it's definitely the easiest and efficient way... I just taped down about 5-6 more areas around the plants and I have a feeling on some of these I am going to have quite a few main colas. The sativa dominate ones might get a bit tall but they're receiving the least training. (which seem to be backwards, 3D is supposed to be Sativa and Wappa 100% Indica... yet my source claims they are not 'mixed up')

Was going to run vertical lighting but depending on how my canopy and height looks may do that later on.

Day 9 (late) update, a little training and the A/C is getting tested right now, also trying to source where the condensate will come from so I can get some kind of hose setup, it's just got catch pan under it now... ducting is not visible but it's back there. Not just spewing hot air into my crawl space or anything lol.

The sick looking plant, any ideas? I have tried flushing... different amounts of nutes, it's the furthest from the heat/light, not sure what's up... I have all kinds of nutrients and supplements, I don't know what really to nail down for this one but it's continuing to grow just looks like shit.

Setup looks good! Are you going to run all 3 600s in that space? You might want to look into air cooled hoods they will def kick some heat off. Ive never grown hempy but that plant doesnt look unhealthy. Has it hit the res yet? From what ive read thats when the take off in a hempy style grow.

mnmobbin said:

Setup looks good! Are you going to run all 3 600s in that space? You might want to look into air cooled hoods they will def kick some heat off. Ive never grown hempy but that plant doesnt look unhealthy. Has it hit the res yet? From what ive read thats when the take off in a hempy style grow.

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Hey thanks for chiming in! I will be running all 3... one for Veg 24/7 (maybe 20/4, 18/6 depending on how much I like my Electric Bill) but I was hoping to go with bare bulbs if my temps will stay under control.. if not I had planned at one point on getting nice air cooled hoods so it still may happen. wanted to try vertical bulbs at some point too, depending on how tree like I veg these I have been more focused on training them low and bushy so far but I am sure they'll get huge if I veg a month... going to introduce some more strains too, will be semi-perpetual so I'll throw some in every few weeks.

I wish the thread titles were editable like some forums, I picked a crappy title that basically sucks to even peak interest.. lol, wattage/size/grow style would have been cool.

Hempy cought my interest. I wanna try it with atleast one clone someday. But soils so easy its hard to give up lol. Where are you venting that ac to? I wanted to try building a box to use a window unit (not mounted in a window) but ended up buying a portable ac for my needs. Next summer Ill need more cooling power though.

mnmobbin said:

Hempy cought my interest. I wanna try it with atleast one clone someday. But soils so easy its hard to give up lol. Where are you venting that ac to? I wanted to try building a box to use a window unit (not mounted in a window) but ended up buying a portable ac for my needs. Next summer Ill need more cooling power though.

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I dunno man... Hempy is basically 'marketed' as being extremely easy, I have to say the maintenance has not been bad and I finally just had my reservoir get too dry for the first time (did not expect it lol) All it took me was 2 gallons of nutrient solution to get all 8 fed to the point of run-off coming out of the drain holes and I probably won't have to water for a couple days again. This is my first hempy run but so far I am liking it and they seem to thrive a little more every day too.

My AC is contained in a makeshift kind of box on the rear then I have 6" duct coming off that for only about 12-18" attached to a Hydrofarm 400CFM fan (way overkill, I am sure) and at that point it's blowing directly out because I am still working on building a 6" vented panel for my basement window which is where it will go (it's right next to my setup too so it's convenient) but for now I just tested it for an hour or so having the hot air blown outside of my grow room but into my basement, it warmed it up some but the grow area stayed frigid and it's not even sealed (not even a door!)

Not sure how well it will do when I have 1800W going but we will see, might end up at 2400W but I am not sure yet.

Day 10 update... Starting to tidy up the veg area as well with poly film... Still need to hang a ton more of it and tape everything up in the 8x8 area, sealing that area up is going to be a real pain in the ass due to the ceiling and all the crap (hard pipes, HVAC ducting, also going to be hard to hang my lights as I don't have all accessible mount points for hooks with the HVAC ducting in the way. I'll see what I can do or have to get creative, vertical lighting would be WAY easier here due to my restrictive light orientation options, just need to find a close to center point and hang the light... put plants around it in a circle or something lol, almost considering 3 600's two horizontal reflectors to cover top of canopies (2 sets of 4 plants) with a vertical lamp in the middle of the two sets so they're all kind of surrounding it and the horizontal lights are over each grouping... seems like that would work extremely damn well because I am not giving up one option for the other in lighting.

Might give it a go... Also just purchased 50ft of Romex 10/2 (going to just run 120v, simple and it's what I have cords for already) I am going to install a 30amp single pole breaker in one of the remaining spots I have available and wire up 4 outlets in an electrical box for my lights, should be simple enough and work just fine I may find some kind of hard wired in timer for this too, I know I can use water heater timers but I don't know if that's really convenient for me or not. I may just run plug & play timers if need be since I am only powering 600W ballasts.