My first grow setup - seeking advice!

I had 5 bag seeds not sure of the strain, looked alot like ak47, kinda leafy bud, great smoke, 2 seeds germinated within 24 hours, a 3rd seed took about 30+ hours, other 2 seeds did not germinate, so here i am 6 days later with my 3 little babies, looking well and healthy, buying my lights tomorrow as i read somewhere that your not to leave seedlings for more than 2 weeks without lights, theyre growin in the skylight window atm, so want to ask advice on setup SO FAR:

6ft wardrobe completley white inside and out, superb for reflection, perfect for hanging lights inside also, thermostat/thermometer (measures inside and outside grow box), fan, and like i said im buying my lights tomorrow, and wanted to ask - is this ok for growing 3 plants;

1x 150w HPS (son-t grow light)
1x 150w Metal Halide (cdm-t bulb)

remember this is inside a wardrobe, thanks in advance

Lights sounds good, what about ventilation?

Well this is my first grow thats why i came here, can you suggest ventilation for me? cant have it being too stinky in there..parents etc
edit*: lights will be on a 24hour segment timer at 16/8
cheers man and thanks for your reply

GanjaDwarf said:

Well this is my first grow thats why i came here, can you suggest ventilation for me? cant have it being too stinky in there..parents etc
edit*: lights will be on a 24hour segment timer at 16/8
cheers man and thanks for your reply

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Parents etc? Are you growing in your parents home without them knowing? if so i wont be able to help you.

yeah it's generally a bad Idea to star a grow in your parents house, as I have soo nearly found out a few times, luckily they moved out XD

as for ventilation a 150w light shouldn't take too much to cool/vent, you gotta get it running pretty much silent else you'll get busted. depends how much money you got I'd go for acoustic ducting attached to an inline (quite small CFM fan) I just use bathroom extractors though... the cheap option, but loud. I'm running a 400w hps in a smaller space than you have, and I need to make up a home made cool tube (or buy one) at some point. heat is a killer.

again I wouldn't recommend doing it with your parents around, you'll need a lot of smell control, carbon filter, ona gel or something or all of them. its just more expensive and hassle to start up like that imho.

either way good luck on getting some good bud

thanks for replies guys! im 20 years old, parents know i smoke weed , its not that they wouldnt want me growing it, id just rather they didnt find out until after the plant is grown, incase they be stupid enough to tell people and il get busted by the police! il show them it when its ready to harvest lol parents are cool in a kinda weird way, its hard to understand for some people but im not hiding it from parents like alot of kids growing it in their wardrobe, also hiding it from my bro cos if he finds it hell start smokin the bud before its even ready to harvest!! so hoping some1 can catch my drift here

I have an old bathroom fan we ripped out a few months back, noise can be loud, as im not growin these in the house, theyre gonna be growin inside an old wardrobe about 30-40 feet from my back door in 1 of the garden sheds (I live in a quite big area of land)

just thought i would throw this in here..... my friends first grow was success and a half and here was his set up..i know y'all gonna laugh...

"500w HALOGEN" lamp
thermostat (the same 1 im usin atm, he loaned to me)
a fan
tin foil perimeter
NO ventilation

he also added bud nutes "vitalink buddy" which il also be using with my plants at flowering stage

his yield was 46g (LEMON SKUNK) - for some1 in ireland thats good lol

I know another guy who had his own ventillation using 2 sewer pipes, one ach side of the grow box, both went outside into the open air and it worked like a charm, 1 for intake the other for outtake, obviously it was good enough to create a cirrcular form of ventillation seems stupid i know il not be using this method lol, and it aint that hot here anyway, its about 17C today with winter coming,

thanks mathcbox man! appreciate the help - think il go with the bathroom fan idea
will post pics asap
thanks guys
Ganja

i guess he didnt need ventilation because the room was big enough
hence why i came here for advice and not him,

alright fair enough about your parents being cool, I dont have to worry bout it anymore cos they moved out when I was 20 still visit as 'landlords' tho XD

halogen = no lol but other than that and no ventilation it doesn't seem so bad. how many plants did he have?

so long as you can shift air it doesn't matter what type of ducting you use.

If you have a grow box I would recommend 2 bathroom fans, one for intake and one for outlet.. drill a couple holes in the bottom of the box as well for passive intake.

all depends on your budget, I'm running 4 bathroom fans, 2 for box intake and outlet, and 2 for cooltube intake and outlet. and some flexible ducting. all in all my ventilation has cost about £100, where you can spend that on 1 inline fan from a hydro shop so :/

Unless you smoke pot in your shed I would say at some point get a carbon filter, or make one... my plants are only vegging and they're stinking out my room and flowering is uber strong XD

Matchbox said:

alright fair enough about your parents being cool, I dont have to worry bout it anymore cos they moved out when I was 20 still visit as 'landlords' tho XD

halogen = no lol but other than that and no ventilation it doesn't seem so bad. how many plants did he have?

so long as you can shift air it doesn't matter what type of ducting you use.

If you have a grow box I would recommend 2 bathroom fans, one for intake and one for outlet.. drill a couple holes in the bottom of the box as well for passive intake.

all depends on your budget, I'm running 4 bathroom fans, 2 for box intake and outlet, and 2 for cooltube intake and outlet. and some flexible ducting. all in all my ventilation has cost about £100, where you can spend that on 1 inline fan from a hydro shop so :/

Unless you smoke pot in your shed I would say at some point get a carbon filter, or make one... my plants are only vegging and they're stinking out my room and flowering is uber strong XD

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Halogen = is a BIG NO lol i know that already, ive already got some holes drilled in the bottom of the box for the ventillation matter, and from helpful people on here i have learned that using just 1x 400w hps will be cheaper to buy, plus it has more lumes output over 2x 150watt (obviously)

i understand that contamination can be so easy for these plants, and so therefore i have never (and never will) smoke in the shed, its for gardening equipment, quite a large shed too

they guy with no ventiallation had only 1 plant, he bought the seeds in the dam, germinated 2 because he only wanted a small grow, 1 female the other was male so he tossed it out, im sure i can buy a stench filter closer to the time when they start to stink the place up, good to see another sterling spender on here, every1 else seems to be from the USA lol thanks mr londoner
Ganja

heheh no worries mate!

and an ounce off one plant with a halogen isn't too bad

Yes upgrade to 400w's for flower at least more watts = more weed XD I got a 400w dual spectrum lamp ballast and reflector for £104 buuut I would recommend getting or making a cooltube (especially for 400w) they're about £50 or you can make one if your lucky enough to get hold of the parts for about £25+ because they put out a LOT of heat!

You should check out the UK growers thread lol everyone spends the squids there XD

Il check out that thread right now man, il maybe shoot u over some pms if get stuck throughout my grow because u seem to have a better idea than i do! lol i read ur journal there, dam u had alot of problems, maybe me being irish will knock out problems with luck xD my seeds germiated within 24hrs except for 1 which to a few hours more, since then ive planted 2 of them in a mixture of just potting soil/sand with a 2:1 ratio, I planted the 3rd which took longer to germiate (6 days old today), into just potting soil alone, so far the 2 growing in the soil/sand mix are doing alot better (1 week old today),ive had no problems at all (thank fook) im using only aged rainwater to water them, will only be adding veg nutes when they start to veg, then flowering nutes when bud time comes, thanks for the help mate, appreciate it alot, il proabably be perstering u alot over the next while, lol but bare with me, its my 1st grow too
cheers mate
Ganja

lol no worries, glad to be of assistance as you said I have had pretty much every problem out there in the 1st 2 weeks hehe but I have done a shit load of reading, research and all sorts so at the moment my knowledge is only that, but i'm slowly getting the practical side though all of my problems have only turned out good, so lucky me I guess

I've just learnt, Don't rush, if you got a problem don't panic like when I lst'd my plants and cut it in half and snapped the stem of the other one lol panicked a little bit...

but yeah go for it I'm happy to help in as much capacity as I can!
(though i think you need 50 posts to send pm's) don't hold me to that, just what I've read XD

ok just jinxed myself whereas the luck is concearned, watered them last night cos the soil was dry, checked em this morning they were fine, checked them 10 mins ago, one of them is "dead" i think, not sure if i can revocer it back to health, but 10 mins ago i just checked, soil was dry, one of the 1week olds (which was the tallest of all 3) has slouched over, and all its leaves have dried up and curled into nothing, leaves are only 1/3 the size they were this morning, so ive watered it and put a support stick in to keep upright, is it pointless or will it grow back again? kinda psd off now to be honest, also the stem is kinda white unlike the other 2 healthy plants help

do you have a grow journal?

usually if they slump over they are over watered so propping it up and leave it for a few days see if it picks up. Should be alright. post up some pictures and more people will help!

Soil Tends to hold water a lot better than other mediums so it's quite easy to over water.

there are a couple of general rule of thumbs to keep in mind when watering:

1- Stick your finger in the dirt a few inches down and if its dry they need watering if not they're fine.
2- If you can pick your pot up really easy and its quite light with a crusty top they need watering.

generally you can water anything from once every 2 to once every 5 days depending on how good the drainage in your pots is.

also check the plant problems thread, very useful info.

I can't see what mediums your using, maybe post some more info on what your doing then people will be able to help easier without asking what your doing etc.

thanks man, dont have an online grow journal although i think il start one now, i always check the soil a few inches down before watering, the top of the soil was crusty dry on all 3 plants and the plant that slouched had completley dried out soil, im gona move them from der small pots into bigger pots today, but i dont know if i should move the dried up little baby incase it will stress even more than it already is, i know why too (skylight window thermostat was near 40 degrees C) the heat must of picked up over the past 2 hours cos teh sun came out, thats obv why they dried up, altho i cant understand why the other 2 didnt die, il post some pics soon as i move them to a larger grow pot (dead plant may have outgrown its pot?) , but for now, will i keep the "dead" plant in the pot or should i transplant it too?

using just soil/sand medium, no nutes (except aged rainwater/for nitrogen etc, i have veg and flower nutes but cant use em yet), a friend uses this method a gets great results, he's a long term grower, although he aint always around for advice

cheers mate
Ganja

see if they recover first.. yes 40 degrees C is Waaay too hot, you get different phenotypes of the same plant, like tall, short, nute resistan, heat resistant etc so thats possibly why they didn't die, and would be a good plant to grow and clone if it turns out female.

Just a quick question comes to mind at this point, if 40C is too hot, then how do some wild plants grow in the likes of africa and california which would be alot hotter than 40C in the afternoon time?

good luck with the grow!
Im getting seeds this weekend growing indoors ireland.

GanjaDwarf said:

Just a quick question comes to mind at this point, if 40C is too hot, then how do some wild plants grow in the likes of africa and california which would be alot hotter than 40C in the afternoon time?

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well it depends on your strain.. some are heat resistant for instance if you have a strain from india or whatever they'll most likely enjoi the heat!... plants that grow in africa and along the equator have been doing so for millions of years so they've had plenty of time to evolve ways of surviving etc

though pretty much any plant can survive at around 20-30C it's kind of an optimum temp.

weed tends to come from quite hot countries anyway but since the majority of seeds these days are bred in a lab crossed etc they have somewhat de-evolved as breeders pick out traits such as high yield, good leaf to calyx ratio and all that jazz, then cross the best...

you will still find different phenotypes that are for instance heat resistance just because their natural blood i suppose you could say comes from a hot country. no one seed is genetically identical to the other (unless you can get twin seeds, i don't know about that) the only way to do this is is by cloning and you'll get exact traits of the mother, which is why most growers plant several seeds and keep the best females i.e the heaviest producers, hardiest, taller, shorter or whatever as mothers and continually take babies off of them.

peace and happy growin'!

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