Old Timer's first time.....

Hi all. Want to preface this with saying thanks to the forums for providing incredible information. After scouring the internet for knowledge and understanding, I have settled here for a chance to describe what I am doing and to possibly learn from those who definitely know more than me.
I have the benefit of having alot of space, too much time on my hands, and a wife who suggested this hobby. So after weeks of research, development, and a few "stoner boners", this is what we came up with.

2 storage racks on wheels framed in and sided 4'w x 4'd x 6'h. on wheels.
inside is lined with relflectix bubble foil. Double doors allow access from both sides.
originally the lighting was to be a custom board of (14) 100w full spectrum cfl, (4)LED flood lights with 165 leds per, (6) 1'square led grow panels. This entire board only took 4amps to run. And was bright as hell. This creation was short lived as a friend handed me a "pioneer VIII" flouro fixture. Cutting two bars out of my custom cage and it fit perfectly.
Above the light at the top of the box I have a custom built 6" carbon air scrubber loaed with activated carbon. run on thermostat , A 4" vortex fan sits outside on the top of the box pulling air thru the carbon and displacing in my 1000 sf garage. no odor. no problem. constant temp of 79f maintained.
The furnace in my garage provides incredible co2 for the plants. as I live in a cold climate.
I settled on a hybrid system for growing. (2) 27g black reservoirs with a 3/4 line connecting at the bottom allowing for draining and filling of tanks easily. Black plexi lid lined with reflective tape holds eight 5" netpots. Air stones is weighted to hang under each net pot. A small pump in each tank circulates the water back and forth to each other thru a vent line on top of tank. A broken fountain provided an ultrasonic mister that I made a 4" float for. It floats in tank A while a 4" muffin fan charges the sysytem and distributes the mist thru both tanks. Fan also cools the tank water.
All pumps, tank fan, and mister run 2on 2off. After lining tank with insulation, and installing a fresh air vent for tank fan, a reservoir temp of 66f is easily maintained.
The plan is to install a 2" white plastic fence 9" over plants and weave them into a blanket of love.
This entire box and all inside have been professionally wired so that it all boils down to 1 plug leaving the box and going to the wall. 12 amps tops!
Don't know the names of the strains, so 2 will be called "MS#3", and six will be called "rosemary" after my 2nd fave herb! All are female so no worries there! Rosemary has shown to be extremely sticky and potent. MS3 (mystery seed #3) has yet to be proven, but comes highly recommended as a heavy producer.
Am using Ionic nutrients that are as far as I can tell are idiot proof!
ph 5.97
ec 1.8 @ .5
tds 454 ppm
box temp 79f amb temp 62f h20 temp 65.9f

if anyone has any questions about the LEDs (they work!)
or my custom scrubber....please let me know.



I have never done anything like this before and it has been a thrill getting it started.

wish me luck!

More soon.

Ok now that I have figured out (with the help of V.V) how to make multiple journal entries I will do so....

Amb 66f ph 5.79
Box 81f ec 1.8 @ .5
h2o 71f tds 456 ppm

plants are a little over two weeks old. MS3 is slowly starting to grow roots and getting over the shock and awe of being placed into my chamber of love.
All of the Rosemary are exploding with extremely tight nodes. Stalks are getting beefy at only 8" tall. Should probably start pre-training for my screen.Root examination shows them starting to filter out and down from the 5" pots. FIM'd 5 out of 6 Rosemary hoping for the Ms3 to catch up. After 2 days I can see the outcome of the FIM. ! plant appears to have 4 shoots starting to rise out of the cut. I may have cut to low on some, but this is my first time so I will consider it all to be a learning curve.
Was having issues with my airstones. Switched up to 4" fine bubble stones hanging under each of my pots. Bubble output is incredible.
Am paranoid of my reservoir temp so have switched the pumps and fan back to a 24/7 regime. Am afraid to run vent without mister for fear of drying out exposed roots. Anyone have ideas on that topic?
Will try get pix of all of this up here soon. I have another little project box with a 30" plant in it being lit with 4 12"square LED(red and bluw) grow panels (1 each side/2 on back). a homemade light fixture sits on top with (4)par38 floods containging 165 leds each/. and (3) 100w full spectrum cfls. The floods are either all blue, or all red. I switched to all red 1.5 weeks into bloom. The results are really amazing. Small popcorn size flowers all up and down the eight or so branches. My desrciption can't do this one justice. for the lights I have used, I am amazed at the results.

Thanx for reading. Will work on the pix.

MW

sounds cool.i wanna see pics!!!!!!

gonna work on that.....I dig your signature!!!

yeah,cool isnt it! so true aswell

So I had replaced all 8 1" airstones with 4" stones. Found my eco-4 airpump was not providing enough to all eight so I splurged for another airpump. My reservoirs now look like they are boiling.
Dropped my flouro times to 18/6. LEDs will stay on 24/7. Growth is really starting to get explosive. FIM plants all showing nicely. May have just topped a couple. I see my screen going in place within a week. Will top the MS3 when it hits the screen. Rosemary will be a FREAK of Nature by that point and I am sure I will be in 12/12 mode by then.

6:30 am amb 66f ph 6.02
box 70f ec 1.8
rh 47% tds 450

Smaller LED box is still continuing to amaze me at 2.5 weeks 12/12. I predict over an oz for the 2 foot beauty.

If anyone reading this has had anyluck with the extended light timings mentioned in advanced cultivation, I would love to here what you have to say about it. Am considering trying it out on my LED box starting at week 3.5 for 2 weeks duration. then back to 12/12 for the last 2.5 weeks. Any thoughts?

I promise to get pix up soon!!!!!

My laboratory!!!!


Self made carbon scrubber


"Nessie" My 54 gallon reservoir.

More soon!

is it better to post links to pix, or post them in my journal. How does one do that?

You were a tradesman in the construction industry before you retired weren't you ?

The system looks too good for the average guy

Looking sweet. ++Karma to you. I sense mid-summer smoke in your future!

yea that shits nice.what a way to start.you'r getting ready to become so addicted to this hobbie, theres nothing like it.that mylar is tight.

Yeah....it's addicting.....Not retired.....to damn old to feel this young.....am only 41....

thats a very clean setup brotha, i hope it brings you delicious ganja

you're my new friend... lol VERY NICE AND CLEAN SETUP!! Rep for U! can tell NOT YOUR FIRST GROW!!! but let's see more and more outta this one 4 sure!!

jordann9e said:

you're my new friend... lol VERY NICE AND CLEAN SETUP!! Rep for U! can tell NOT YOUR FIRST GROW!!! but let's see more and more outta this one 4 sure!!

Click to expand...

Thanx for that....Other than a couple of plants in the distant past, this is definite my first REAL attempt at the art. Definitely my first hydro....the internet IS good for something other than porn!!!!

here are a couple of pix of the LED box....it was a momma that got raided for clones then I tripped her to 12/12 these are at 18 days

and in the cfl light

So everything seems to be running smoothly now. I can tell that the roots are loving the new air quantity. At 8" some are lookiing like monsters. It's fun watching the new growth where I attempted to FIM.
Aside from a little ph drift up....nothing is changing.....they each have a little over 5gal apiece to work with.....so I plan to let this tank run awhlle longer than the avg every 2 week change....anyone have thoughts on this?

amb 64f ph 6.1
box 79f ec 1.8
h20 69f tds 456
rh 55% (think this was do to a massive snowfall that got brought into the garage)

Life is good.....

Are those L.E.D. panels on the side of your room? Or is it a reflection?

Blunted1 said:

Are those L.E.D. panels on the side of your room? Or is it a reflection?

Click to expand...

Yep and yep....the small box has 1 on each side (L/R) and two in the back
the big box has 4 total at lid level.....I don't rave so much about the panels as I do the par 38 floods.....165 leds per.....the plants love it!!!!!

you've done research on LED grows Mstr??

jordann9e said:

you've done research on LED grows Mstr??

Click to expand...

Searched the web for a bit. Got saddened by the prices. Found them overseas at half the price, so I took a gamble. I was sceptical at first, but it truly produced a bushy, healthy plant. When we we raided her for clones, I decided to throw her to bloom. She stayed on veg nutes (in soil) with blue leds for 1.5 weeks. I then switched to red, added the boxes to the side and back, then hung an addtnl 2 cfl on side.The blue lights stopped the stretch cold. I switched to red too early I think because it jumped 2.5 inches then stopped all together. Buds are filling in beautifully. Thinking about 1` more cfl for the other side. The entire box is wrapped in refletix, so it gets around good, and it is a little over 1 amp. More pix of them soon

Welcome treez, here is what I do. I will click on the subject that I want to start a thread in, Lets say I want to start a Grow Journal. I would click on that subject, Grow Journals, its the last entry in every thread line, Subject. When you click on that it takes you to the Grow Journal Forum, you will see there are a few there. At the top left hand corner it says like New Thread or Start a Thread, some thing like that. Click on it, enter your Title, and share your plan. Details are helpful, pictures are a must. Before you are done with your post, Scroll down to the bottom where it says notification, and make sure you are getting notified if someone posts in your thread, That way, you can put all of your unanswered questions in one spot. I think you start out in Advanced Mode, if not select Go Advanced. This will allow you to post pictures right in the thread. You just scroll down to Manage Attachments>Brings up a new WIndow were you can Browse> and Upload>Close this Window> and Preview Post. They will show up as thumbnails in the bottom of the post. Submit Reply.
We do have a Grow Journal Contest going, GardenKnowm is heading that one up, check it out, second place is still open. lol Welcome VV
Hope this helps. Can you get some farther away shots, I am old and can't get the perception of actual size, you said 4' that look like a pipe set up for a hotel with that shiny surface. It looks tight, wish I could see it. Thanx. VV