UVRay
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
After much reading and then more reading about growing indoor hydro with CFLs I decided to take swing at it.
I bought a nice grow tent off ebay, it's 4' x 2' x 7'. I ordered some lights from 1000bulbs and got a few more at Home Depot, etc. I was ready to go.
I'm using bagseed for the first round. I germinated them in the usual heated matt domed incubator. I used SureToGrow cubes instead of rockwool. Seems to work well for what I"m asking of it.
Anyway, the seeds started sprouting around Valentine's Day. Shortly after getting the first few pairs of leaves on I had to head out of town on business for a week on short notice. When I got back the plants didn't look that great. Really didn't catch the reason for a few days, my ph was high and the plants didn't seem to like the water after that ph climbed. It took a bit of time to get them back to the point where the leaves were soft again instead of starting to get still and feel like paper.. Also they pretty much stopped growing and the two smallest seedlings were nearly lost a few times in the first few weeks. So I'm trying to learn about growing in DWC and finish out the grow room while growing my first lot.
I was going to use a flood and drain type system at first then soon realized that wasn't best for what I needed. I'm using 5 gallon buckets with 6" net pot covers and running air stones in each bucket. When I first started the plants I made a home made drip ring system to help the seedlings get going. It worked really well and it wasn't too long after getting through a few tough times out of the gate the roots started expanding and I really worked to find my EC levels vs. ph levels. My ph climbed a lot early on and that didn't help growth much at all, finally seemed to find a middle ground where the ph climbs just a bit every day, a few tenths or so and my ppm is dropping slightly so I assume that's good news.
It wasn't long after the first (largest) plants roots found the bubbling pool under the net pots and when a few good roots connected I pulled the drip rings on each pot. It seemed like once the roots got hooked up to the bubbling water things started to happen quickly compared to before to all the plants.
Also, I was completely surprised at the odor of a few of these plants. I mentioned earlier this first grow was from some decent bagseed. I recall it being a bit skunky and I typically only keep the better quality seeds out of habit. I honestly don't know what some other seeds were, they were put back in before and marked keep! so I kept them.
When these plants got their first set of 5 leaves, the third set we could smell skunk from a few feet away. Now a few weeks older and the whole closet, the room and hallway smell like skunk damnit! I have built a carbon filter but don't yet have my fan to pull the air through the tent like I want/need so for now I've not been able to seal the tent up, I've had to leave the front open and have some small fans blowing to keep air moving as much as possible. I was surprised the CFLs put out more heat than I thought they might. Sure I'm using a dozen or more and I guess it all adds up and without changing the air properly I'm fighting to keep the water cool enough not to have problems. I'll have a proper fan soon to get that air moving through so I can seal her up and everything should work even better and not odor! I'm going to vent the air out the top of the tent and up through a hole in the closet into my attic. For now it'll be just getting the air moving through and up into the attic. When I get a good blower fan I'll tie the carbon filter in as I feel I'm really going to need it, these plants reek of skunk at such a young age and it's getting stronger daily! I can only imagine what bloom time will smell like round here.
Anyway, I've got some pics of what I've been doing, not really a grow journal but just some pics of the plants when I'd think about taking some.
The earliest pics were taken on March 10th. Then some on the 12th, 14th then the latest are taken on the 18th, I had to head out of town for four days this past week and man what a site they were when I returned, they just about doubled their size in four days.
I'm using about eight 23w 6500k lamps, four 27w 5000k lamps and three 32w 2700k lamps. I have a lot of 2700k lamps waiting for the bloom cycle where I'll swap some 6500k and 5000k lamps for 2700k and add several more 2700k lamps including a 68w 2700k that's rated like a 300w incandescent bulb so I think I'm good on lighting, I can always add more if needed.
I was concerned about stretching and hoped I wouldn't have to top all the plants or bend the tops to increase branching before I got started. However it seems that won't be a problem, I've never experienced plants grow so densely. These things aren't very tall and they are branching out like crazy, they are so full I now worry about light getting to all the leaves as it's so bushy. So far they seem happy and are growing like... weeds!
Here's some pics taken over the last week from 24 days since popping out of the grow cubes, the last pics shot on Friday night they were 32 days old. If I hadn't had those problems early on I'm sure they would be a good bit further along and taller but I'm just going to let these first ones go on and veg until I feel they can support the bloom cycle to come, looks like it'll be in a week or two depending if this latest growth spurt continues on. The stalks are nice and thick now and all the branches are strong as well.
I'm about to start some more seeds tomorrow. I have my tent set up so I can clone, seed and veg in the lower part of the tent. I've built a sturdy table and have the bloom area at the top where it can handle about 42" in total plant/pot height at the end of flowering. I hope this is adequate, if not I'll get the skil saw out and whack those legs a bit on the table I built.
here's a few pics I took on the 10th of March:
Next pics taken 3.12.11:
3.14.11 pics:
Pics 3.18.2011:
Any comments or tips are appreciated!
After much reading and then more reading about growing indoor hydro with CFLs I decided to take swing at it.
I bought a nice grow tent off ebay, it's 4' x 2' x 7'. I ordered some lights from 1000bulbs and got a few more at Home Depot, etc. I was ready to go.
I'm using bagseed for the first round. I germinated them in the usual heated matt domed incubator. I used SureToGrow cubes instead of rockwool. Seems to work well for what I"m asking of it.
Anyway, the seeds started sprouting around Valentine's Day. Shortly after getting the first few pairs of leaves on I had to head out of town on business for a week on short notice. When I got back the plants didn't look that great. Really didn't catch the reason for a few days, my ph was high and the plants didn't seem to like the water after that ph climbed. It took a bit of time to get them back to the point where the leaves were soft again instead of starting to get still and feel like paper.. Also they pretty much stopped growing and the two smallest seedlings were nearly lost a few times in the first few weeks. So I'm trying to learn about growing in DWC and finish out the grow room while growing my first lot.
I was going to use a flood and drain type system at first then soon realized that wasn't best for what I needed. I'm using 5 gallon buckets with 6" net pot covers and running air stones in each bucket. When I first started the plants I made a home made drip ring system to help the seedlings get going. It worked really well and it wasn't too long after getting through a few tough times out of the gate the roots started expanding and I really worked to find my EC levels vs. ph levels. My ph climbed a lot early on and that didn't help growth much at all, finally seemed to find a middle ground where the ph climbs just a bit every day, a few tenths or so and my ppm is dropping slightly so I assume that's good news.
It wasn't long after the first (largest) plants roots found the bubbling pool under the net pots and when a few good roots connected I pulled the drip rings on each pot. It seemed like once the roots got hooked up to the bubbling water things started to happen quickly compared to before to all the plants.
Also, I was completely surprised at the odor of a few of these plants. I mentioned earlier this first grow was from some decent bagseed. I recall it being a bit skunky and I typically only keep the better quality seeds out of habit. I honestly don't know what some other seeds were, they were put back in before and marked keep! so I kept them.
When these plants got their first set of 5 leaves, the third set we could smell skunk from a few feet away. Now a few weeks older and the whole closet, the room and hallway smell like skunk damnit! I have built a carbon filter but don't yet have my fan to pull the air through the tent like I want/need so for now I've not been able to seal the tent up, I've had to leave the front open and have some small fans blowing to keep air moving as much as possible. I was surprised the CFLs put out more heat than I thought they might. Sure I'm using a dozen or more and I guess it all adds up and without changing the air properly I'm fighting to keep the water cool enough not to have problems. I'll have a proper fan soon to get that air moving through so I can seal her up and everything should work even better and not odor! I'm going to vent the air out the top of the tent and up through a hole in the closet into my attic. For now it'll be just getting the air moving through and up into the attic. When I get a good blower fan I'll tie the carbon filter in as I feel I'm really going to need it, these plants reek of skunk at such a young age and it's getting stronger daily! I can only imagine what bloom time will smell like round here.
Anyway, I've got some pics of what I've been doing, not really a grow journal but just some pics of the plants when I'd think about taking some.
The earliest pics were taken on March 10th. Then some on the 12th, 14th then the latest are taken on the 18th, I had to head out of town for four days this past week and man what a site they were when I returned, they just about doubled their size in four days.
I'm using about eight 23w 6500k lamps, four 27w 5000k lamps and three 32w 2700k lamps. I have a lot of 2700k lamps waiting for the bloom cycle where I'll swap some 6500k and 5000k lamps for 2700k and add several more 2700k lamps including a 68w 2700k that's rated like a 300w incandescent bulb so I think I'm good on lighting, I can always add more if needed.
I was concerned about stretching and hoped I wouldn't have to top all the plants or bend the tops to increase branching before I got started. However it seems that won't be a problem, I've never experienced plants grow so densely. These things aren't very tall and they are branching out like crazy, they are so full I now worry about light getting to all the leaves as it's so bushy. So far they seem happy and are growing like... weeds!
Here's some pics taken over the last week from 24 days since popping out of the grow cubes, the last pics shot on Friday night they were 32 days old. If I hadn't had those problems early on I'm sure they would be a good bit further along and taller but I'm just going to let these first ones go on and veg until I feel they can support the bloom cycle to come, looks like it'll be in a week or two depending if this latest growth spurt continues on. The stalks are nice and thick now and all the branches are strong as well.
I'm about to start some more seeds tomorrow. I have my tent set up so I can clone, seed and veg in the lower part of the tent. I've built a sturdy table and have the bloom area at the top where it can handle about 42" in total plant/pot height at the end of flowering. I hope this is adequate, if not I'll get the skil saw out and whack those legs a bit on the table I built.
here's a few pics I took on the 10th of March:
Next pics taken 3.12.11:
3.14.11 pics:
Pics 3.18.2011:
Any comments or tips are appreciated!
