Cannafan's Perpetual Grow White Widow-Master Kush Reveg & More! CFL's - LED - HPS

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks TanR! Glad to have you follow me too. I am using this journal as a journal. Even if no one reads it but myself, I'm going to want to look back on "notes" that I have listed here. This is great!
I'll be doing some more reading this evening, so many journals to go through and so little time!
Have a great day

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I got my answer on the CFL/Socket issue by posting in the lighting thread. It would be a problem not only with the heat from the ballast on the lights but on the wiring possibly drawing too much current than it is rated for. I am so glad I posted that question. This is an awesome forum!

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Do you know if the above requires signature?

When I ordered from Single Seed Centre there were two delivery options if I remember correctly. One was "recommended" and the other was clearly not covered by the company if something happened to it. So I choose the recommended delivery option, that way if something did happen to the seeds I could contact the company and have them reship. The recommended option did require a signature upon delivery, and I was totally asleep when it showed up. When I went to check the mail to make sure my seeds weren't roasting in the mailbox, I saw they had left me a registered mail slip thing that just says they tried to make a delivery and to come pick it up at the post office. I drove down to the post office and got the package that day before they closed. Took 7 days from day of ordering, including weekend.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks Hijinks...I'm not comfortable with that signature confirm and picking up from the post office. My mail carrier appears to be a very nosy person, I recently bought some grow materials online and when the box arrived it had two holes pushed into it on the bottom and the top enough that you could see the contents. I contacted the seller to see if those were already there, and he said no they weren't. We agreed it was postal service being nosy. So...visions of postal inspectors or feds slapping cuffs on me for ordering seeds came dancing in my head.
I will think this over a while and make up my mind today.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Water, water water. We have rain! Woot woot!
On that thought, I emptied my dehumidifier reservoir last night and thought what a shame it was to not be able to use that water. Well, "why not?", I thought. So I researched it and have determined that If I get a better filter on the unit (the ones that come with them are useless imho) and then pour through a filter into a plastic tote, I can use some h202 in it at proper levels per gallon and use the water for my hydro system. I realize I will have to keep an eye on PH etc. Here's one of the posts I found online about the subject:

"Water from an A/C or Dehumidifier, are both fine, provided you do not see any thing floating in the water, it does not have a TDS reading exceeding 80 ppm, or extreme pH issues.
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If you do see anything floating in the water, pour it through a paper coffee filter, and hit the water with three teaspoons of Hydrogen Peroxide per gallon. Then wait one hour, & check TDS.
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If the water is under 80 ppm, use it. It should be a very low TDS, because it should be nearly pure water.
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Pure water has a reading of 0 ppm. R/O water is usually 20 ppm and under, depending on the type of prefilter & quality of the R/O unit itself.
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If the TDS reading is greater than 80 ppm, you have metal leaching into the water, from the zinc plating on the drain pan and/or interal parts, or from the coils themselves.
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Water with metals that have leached into them are a potential problem. A wise grower will avoid using such tainted water.
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So to recap, if there are no chunks, TDS reading is good, then check the pH & correct as necessary.
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The water coming from either unit is usually very good. But always check, before using. Better to know than to guess....
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Better safe than sorry......"

My dehumidifier is fairly new, so I don't have to worry about old style copper issues.
Any thoughts on this my friends?
Happy growing!
.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I finished the lights today. I attached the light fixtures to boards so that I can add reflectors on them later. Turns out the chain I had won't work. The links are too small to fit over the hanger hooks. :-( So, I will have to buy some chain or look around for some other types of hooks so I can raise and lower these lights effortlessly. I wasn't happy with the plug in wire I used, it seemed a bit flimsy, so I went to the dollar store and got some regular extension cords and used those.
Here is one all finished except the reflector wings I'm going to make later:

I know you all want to see plants.....I'm getting there. Really! Time time time

So, I'm going to take a break and watch a ballgame. Got the munchies...not much in the fridge. Dutch Gouda cheese, sweet dill pickles and ritz crackers. It is actually really good! I'm going back for more.

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Nice job on the DIY light fixture. I'm thinking about CFL's for my mother plants and so I am going to need to do something similar myself here soon.

I wish I could chime in about reusing dehumidifer water, but I would go with the "better safe than sorry" approach. Most people seem to get by feeding their plants with plain old tap water after letting it sit out for 24 hours to rid it of chlorine. A lot of people prefer reverse-osmosis water to tap water as RO water is virtually pure (depending on your filtration). So far I've been using my RO water to water my plants. It comes out with a pH around 7.

I would go with the 'better safe than sorry' approach!

 

[KingJohnC]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

So far I've been using my RO water to water my plants. It comes out with a pH around 7.

have you mentioned this before? if yes you will need to supplement calcium and magnesium.

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks for the heads up

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks ya'll!
My tap water is through a water softener due to the extremely high mineral content (mostly iron) in my well water. It is so bad that growing plants of ANY kind outside around the sprinklers is almost impossible. It eventually makes everything a brownish dirty color and stunts the growth, some plants just plain die out. My trees have a permanent ring of brown around them where the sprinklers hit them every day. LOL RO system is well out of my budget right now too.

I have another idea on an adjustable side lighting, you've seen those swing arm lamps with the heads that turn this way and that? Yeah, gonna rewire one of those and see if it works out.

I've been reading the "grow lighting" thread and there has been some most interesting conversations about the reduced effectiveness of CFL lights after one grow. The brightness and lumens begin to diminish is what I got out of it.
Now I'm wondering about that. I will have a lot of money invested in these bulbs and if the effectiveness is good through only one grow and force replacements of them, then I have to look at the cost through time. I can't afford a high electric bill on a month to month basis with the HID lamps and Heat reduction set ups, not to mention the additional worries about noise and getting the heat out of the building. The bulb packaging states 5 years life and more, but that is based on average household usage. It is not based on continual running for up to 18 hours a day I'm sure.

I will be researching a lot more on this before I invest in any more high wattage CFL's this week.

Happy growing all!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Alllrighty then! My seeds have been ordered and I got two feminized freebies with the order. Small first order, but I want to be sure this arrives.
Wish me luck!

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Nice - I am excited for you. What strains did you decide on?

I can't answer your questions about CFL, I haven't used them myself.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks Hijinks! I have started with White Widow and Master Kush (Nirvana seeds)...just cuz I had my mind made up on those early on. LOL
Next order will have Big Bud and maybe Northern lights. My freebies this time were: Fruit automatic and Royal Haze. I have yet to look into those to see what they are, hopefully today sometime.
I ordered from Attitude seeds and typed in an old discount code I found online and it worked. Got a 10% discount. Woo hoo!
I want to stay mainly with the strains that I know are popular in my area for patients. I'll experiment more when I get some experience under the belt. ;-)
Well, I hear Lowes is having a clearance on Lawn and Garden supplies, I'm heading there to see if the germination kits are priced to sell before heading for work. Work...a 4 letter word if I ever saw one.
Have a great day!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

HI everybody, things are "rolling" right along here. Working on light fixtures this week with an awesome Idea from another member here in the grow lighting thread using PVC pipe. Hopefully will have that done by the weekend.
Now, a question:
Could someone enlighten me on what the actual difference is between a clone and a "cutting"? I have someone that is going to supply me with some "cuttings" and he says they aren't clones. Being so new to growing here, I'm a bit confused on that.
Thanks!

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I think he probably means he can supply you cuttings from a mother plant, but they wouldn't be rooted. A propagated cutting would be a clone. You would just take the 'cuttings' and put a rooting hormone on where the cut was made (hopefully recently) and then put it into a cloning medium (rapid rooters etc) and then into a humidity dome. Keep the leaves and dome moist for 1-2 weeks and you should see a big enough root system from the 'cutting' to consider it a clone and transplant it into a pot with some dirt.

That's my best guess what he means, anyway. Otherwise there isn't really a difference between a 'cutting' or a 'clone'. It is just different terminology for the same thing.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks again. HIjinks to the rescue! LOL

Okay followers, you're going to find me strange here. I've changed my mind on the growing medium. I'm going soil on my first grow instead of hydro.
Two main reasons for this, one being the availability of large quantities of water that has to be prepped for use due to my mineral content and the water softener. The other is...the more I read about people using the hydro system the more I think I might be biting off more than I can chew on my very first grow.
So, soil it is. I'll be getting some pots and soil preparation this weekend in addition to finishing the lights.
I have also decided that the Veggie area is going to be in a totally separate room. I don't need near as much space for veggie and I will for flowering and the small room available for it already has everything I need to hang lights. The flowering room will be what I've posted in the pictures already. It is a light tight room, so I won't have to worry about that issue at all if I have things in veggie stage in a totally different room.
Have a great day all!

 

[Hijinks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I don't think that's strange at all! I was pretty wary myself about starting with hydro. Could you imagine having a power outage and losing your whole first crop because you didn't have any pumps?! I definitely want to try it out in the future sometime though - I see the benefits.

 

[stealthgrow]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I found the y socket adapters at Lowes for a bit over 2 dollars each and a couple other things so I can rig up a hanging light using the CFL's tonight if all goes well.

Also, wanted to share good news...I will be LEGAL for medical marijuana use and to be a caregiver for others on August 8th!! I was getting worried that I would get a denial letter cuz I'm just not a lucky person , but good news today!
Grow happy girls everyone!

Congrats man!! that's awsome.

 

[CascadianDank]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

I don't think that's strange at all! I was pretty wary myself about starting with hydro. Could you imagine having a power outage and losing your whole first crop because you didn't have any pumps?! I definitely want to try it out in the future sometime though - I see the benefits.

You could always try Hempy buckets Then you dont have to worry about pump failures. Its Hydro you just water like soil in a container that could be any size you want

 

[RainStacks]

Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Congrats on your first grow Canna! Looking great so far. I really like the DIY lights you made, well done. I am looking forward to seeing some little seeds pop. I would love to see the seeds themselves too before you soak them or anything. I am in the market for a new batch. I just started my first grow as well. Feel free to come check it out, it is linked through my signature. I read a really good thread on hempy. I looked really cool, and seemed very simple. There may be some advances since this one since it was a couple years old, but the results were very solid. You might want to check out Doc Bud's threads too. He is the best I have found when it comes to soil. He actually tests the sugar levels of his plants and optimizes the soil with special rock amendments. Fascinating stuff. Subbed and + repps friend.