My 1st Grow setup ideas, improvement's and help

[Mouse777]

Hood and Lights for Grow

I'm getting ready for my 1st grow will be using 6 100w CFL lights with 4 60 watt LCD grow lights with a homemade hood I put together and wired up. I tin foiled up the inside of the hood to help in the reflector aspect I pretty much got the spec's on building the hood from a hydro store bought standard size super hood.

Cannabis Strain and Nuts/PH

I plan on growing Bubble Gum from clones for my 1st grow and will use Super Moon Juice for the microorganisms,amino acids and organic enzymes as I will be growing in Organic.
I plan on keeping a PH level of 6.5 Has anyone used Super Moon Juice ? Please let me know your thoughts.

Good Soil

I bought a high end Organic Potting Soil that has bat guano,earth-worm castings,
chicken manure along with some other good stuff in it.

Grow Room Prep and set up

I have the soil in 5 gal pots for ready for veggie start then 15 gal pots for transplant a week before flowing my fans are in place along with good ventilation and CO2 is covered I really would like any grower thought's and help now as my clones are just about a week out from being ready to go into the 8 x 8 grow room as I wish to avoid making costly mistakes. The old saying a ounce prevention can go along way,


Ideas,Help welcome!

I have done research and study for my grow before joining 420 and posting in hope to avoid dumb costly mistakes and feel I'm ready and on the right path to a nice 1st grow but because I have read and seen how quick a grow can turn into a nightmare I have made this post to ask for Help and Input from all you longtime growers.

I want to thank you for reading and for any helpful tips and idea's that will help improve my set up.

I will post pictures soon

 

[Icemud]

Re: My !st Grow setup ideas,improvement's and help

Hey, Welcome to 420 Magazine Mouse777!!! You have found a great place to mingle, learn, grow, and share your adventures with others. So many cool people here at 420 magazine!

Sounds like you have a good setup and plan so far, Have you thought about starting a grow journal here? I will post the links below for you of how to start one. Its great because people can watch, cheer you on, answer questions and things like that.

As far as help, here is what I can help with...

You mentioned you Tin foiled the inside of the hood. I would suggest removing the tin foil, and either using flat white paint, or getting those mylar saftey blankets for pennies on the dollar online, and using either the mylar, or flat white paint to reflect the light instead.
The reason I say this is tin foil (aluminum) only reflects about 75% of the light back, where white paint reflects about 93% back and reflective mylar about 98% back. So just a suggestion to get more out of your lights... Tin foil would work as opposed to wood color or black or some odd color, but best route is as suggested above.

I have never used Moon Juice before, but I want to let you know, Moon Juice is not organic as a whole. The additives such as the microbes and enzymes they added are, but they use Synthetic Chelation chemicals like EDTA which is not organic, and it actually is banned from agriculture in some countries because it does not Degrade over time. Just wanted to point that out. Organic is definitely great, and I've used Earthjuice (5 part line, grow, bloom, micro, metak, catalyst) and its fully organic. I also have used some of the General Hydroponics organic line "general organics" and I know other growers here use it with great success as well. Most nutrient companies have an organic line, even advanced nutrients, humboldt nutrients, botanicare and more all have organic and synthetic products. I can only vouch for what I have used and Earthjuice definitely works in my book

If you are growing organic, another way to really beef up your plants health is making compost teas. All you need is a bucket, airstone or 2, a paint strainer or a box of womens knee high nylons and then your additives of choice. There are many kinds of teas, additives and functions and I will let you research that to figure out what you want to add but basically you add whatever you are using, whether its soil, humus, worm castings or all the above and more. You add this, about a ball the size of a tennis ball to the nylon/paint strainer, fill the bucket with water, hang the nylon/paint strainer in the water, and let the airstones bubble the water, within 24-48 hours, use this tea to water your plants and even spray the leaves and they will love you.

As far as your grow room, being 8x8, I don't know if the lights that you have will be enough to successfully grow in that large of a space. I am not a CFL user, and haven't, but I don't know if that seems right. I personally use around 600w of LED in my 2.5'x5'x7' tent which illuminates it perfectly. So for a room about 5x the size of mine, I think you may need more lights. Maybe some CFL users will chime in. Just thought I would point it out and see what others say. This would also help your plants actually use more of the CO2 that you are adding to the grow area, plants use more CO2 as light intensity increases but adding CO2 will not increase growth by much at all and would be wasteful to some extent if there is not enough intense lighting available for the plants to make use of the CO2. I definitely would ask some CFL growers if you have enough lighting. If you do decide to get more lights, I highly recommend LED and 420 magazine has a bunch of LED sponsors. I have used 2 of them now and both work great.

Well overall it seems like you have a good plan and I would love to see you start a journal and I would be happy to follow along and help along the way if needed. It sounds like you have definitely some solid soil, very good size pots, and with your care and the support of 420 Mag, I think your going to do great!!

Well Here is some links I usually post for new members, helpful areas to explore and learn, and also some links to our contests and sponsors. Enjoy and have fun!!! (the following below is a copy and paste message I created)



Here are some useful links that will help you learn about growing, and how to get it right the first time
First rule of thumb is, do the research first, if you can't find the answer anywhere, then ask. I can almost guarantee that
The question has been asked before. There are tons of resources and kind and knowledgeable growers at 420 magazine
and I am sure you will find it a great home!

Make sure to check out the forum rules and guidelines. We have a great community here and I welcome you to check out..
Forum Guidelines - Please Read Before Posting


Are you new to growing and don't know where to start, here is a link that will teach you everything you need to know
How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know

If you couldn't find what your looking for in the last link, you can find many of your answers by visiting The Grow Room.
THE GROW ROOM

Do you have sick plants that need answers, check out our Problems, Pest's and Disease control forum at
Problems, Pests & Disease Control

Another great way to get started in your new membership is by starting a grow journal. This allows you to document your grow, add photo's
and share your experience with all of us!! Remember to be detailed, so if you run into problems we can help you fix them and have a successful
grow
How to Make a Grow Journal
Photo Gallery Guide: How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

Are you looking to purchase new growing equipment, nutrients, growing or smoking accessories, check out our sponsors!
As a member you can take advantage of specials that are run time to time
Sponsors : 420 MAGAZINE ®

Well I hope you enjoy exploring our wonderful community and feel free to make yourself home

By the way, don't forget to check out the monthly contests where you can vote, enter, and win prizes!
420 Contests

 

[Mouse777]

Re: My !st Grow setup ideas,improvement's and help

Hello Icemud

I want to first off thank you so much for your warm welcome to 420 made me happy to get such a wonderful welcome.
I have read your input on my grow room set up and I enjoyed it alot some great heads up in areas I was in hope to get help with.

I will be upgrading the following per your advise

The Hood

I will be following your advise and remove tin foil from inside the hood and paint flat white to reflect better light of from 73% to 93% wow around 18% improvement on my light refelection great advise and a easy fix.


Nutrients Super moon juice and organic grow

I did check into the Earthjuice more great advise I will be going with it over moon juice keeping my grow organic.
This is a quick easy upgrade fix a good plus I don't have to use Synthetic Chelation in my garden.

Compost teas

Great advise wow I will have to give it a try beings the plants you say really enjoy it and seems easy enough and cost effective and I want my babies happy.

Grow Room Size

This is just more wonderful advise I had not thought light vers room size but I have a easy cost effective fix I will hit home depot up buy some 2x4s and dry wall, flat white paint frame up a wall and split the room down to a 4 x 8 beings how I have the material to build two more hoods giving me a new total of three hoods I will paint them flat white also and install another 6 100 watt CFL lighst in each along with the LEDs keeping to my 1st hood design and light setup this should give me about 2000 watts or more output while keeping my energy cost low with enough room for 6 plants. I also want to be able to go into the room check adjust and care for grow needs.

Journal to come

I will also for sure start a journal after I have made corrections to my grow room,get it fired up and growing while I'm upgrading my babies will be fine for now in my closet under lights.

Links

I have not had time yet to check the links out as busy making list for buying material,nutrients ect.

I want to thank you once again for your wonderful help and great advise.
I have one more favor to ask from you Icemud please check my list of upgrades and make sure I'm not forgetting anything I respect your input.

 

[Icemud]

Re: My !st Grow setup ideas,improvement's and help

Hello Icemud

I want to first off thank you so much for your warm welcome to 420 made me happy to get such a wonderful welcome.
I have read your input on my grow room set up and I enjoyed it alot some great heads up in areas I was in hope to get help with.

I will be upgrading the following per your advise

The Hood

I will be following your advise and remove tin foil from inside the hood and paint flat white to reflect better light of from 73% to 93% wow around 18% improvement on my light refelection great advise and a easy fix.


Nutrients Super moon juice and organic grow

I did check into the Earthjuice more great advise I will be going with it over moon juice keeping my grow organic.
This is a quick easy upgrade fix a good plus I don't have to use Synthetic Chelation in my garden.

Compost teas

Great advise wow I will have to give it a try beings the plants you say really enjoy it and seems easy enough and cost effective and I want my babies happy.

Grow Room Size

This is just more wonderful advise I had not thought light vers room size but I have a easy cost effective fix I will hit home depot up buy some 2x4s and dry wall, flat white paint frame up a wall and split the room down to a 4 x 8 beings how I have the material to build two more hoods giving me a new total of three hoods I will paint them flat white also and install another 6 100 watt CFL lighst in each along with the LEDs keeping to my 1st hood design and light setup this should give me about 2000 watts or more output while keeping my energy cost low with enough room for 6 plants. I also want to be able to go into the room check adjust and care for grow needs.

Journal to come

I will also for sure start a journal after I have made corrections to my grow room,get it fired up and growing while I'm upgrading my babies will be fine for now in my closet under lights.

Links

I have not had time yet to check the links out as busy making list for buying material,nutrients ect.

I want to thank you once again for your wonderful help and great advise.
I have one more favor to ask from you Icemud please check my list of upgrades and make sure I'm not forgetting anything I respect your input.

You are very welcome for the introduction and the help! I hope you find 420 Magazine your home! I've been a member for 3 years and love it!

Sounds like an excellent plant to split your room. I would suggest using one side for flowering, and the other for veg, then you can cut your growing cycles down to 1/2 the time... I run a similar system, known as perpetual, in grow tents, one is always vegging, one always flowering, and this brings me fresh new meds every 3 months or so, give or take.

When you pick up Earth Juice products, make sure that you get the organic ones, because they make a few different nutrient lines. The organic ones are called "grow, bloom, microblast, meta-k, catalyst". They work well! I also have been hearing a lot more about humbold nutrients organic line as well as general organics. You might want to check out the General Hydroponics "GO Box" which is a kit that contains all you need for organic growing, great kit!

I'm not sure where you live, but you mentioned 2,000 watts as keeping your energy costs low...that would run me here in Cali about $500 a month to run that kind of power! You must have some killer electric rates! WoWee!

You look like you have done your research my friend, and I wish you luck! When you get your grow journal up, let me know. Also feel free to come tag along in my journals and join the fun

 

[Mouse777]

Hello Icemud

Oh I'm sorry let me clear this up I sometime have a hard time explaining this I will be using CFL and LED Lights in my 3 hoods the total amount of lights usage of the 3 hoods is around 575 watts I will be getting output of about 2000 watts of light and the CFL and LED lights run much cooler as you know.

I think you have another great idea using one side of the room for flowering, and the other for veg. sweet that free's up the closet for clones wonderful I see this is coming together.

I ran into a problem while testing the room out a pre run test as I wanted to check cooling,vents, humidity levels and so on.I found my heat did go up to 90 degrees high heat and I also had a low humidity of 36% Bummer. I'm looking for a nice sweet 85 degree heat or little lower and at lest 50 percent humidity for veg.time growing.I understand a humidity of 40% at flower time is great but I'm at Veg time and wanted to correct this problem and keep cost low while doing so..

I built a home made indoors swamp cooler out of a 2 1/2 gal bucket with lid,a small computer power supply fan and 1 swamp cooler pad it works. I brought my heat down and to 83 degrees and humidity up to 50%.

I will say this is cheap, simple, and it doesn't require anything other than what I had lying around.
This could be a big plus for all the low budget growers here having heat and or humidity problems.

This is how to build one if anyone is interested.

What you need :

* Power supply - for this I used a 9.6v power supply
* black electrical tape
* 1 Swamp cooler padding
*1 Fan, shroud, and mounting hardware try to use a fan that matches up with your power supply as well as possible.
* Container I used a 2 1/2 gal bucket and lid a you could use a 5 gal or bigger for bigger rooms I would also then use a larger fan.
* Drill and a 11/64 bit


Step 1.
Cut hole for fan in top of the bucket lid You want this to be about the size of your fan blades. I placed my fan on the lid, and traced around the inside with a pen.
For cutting I used a exacto type knife.
Centering the fan as much as possible is desired.

Step 2.
Mounting your fan on top of the lid hole you cut out I used a computer type fans they have the direction of air-flow labeled, which is a convenience as air flow is to be pushed up out from the bucket.
You need your fan to be drawing air through the bucket and out the top of the lid.
Wire the small 9.6v power supply to the fan wires for power and electrical tape each wire up good.

Step 3. Drill holes in sides of bucket all around the bucket 2 inches apart from each other and 2 inches from lid top this will let the fan pull air flow through the swamp cooler pad and bucket and out the top into the room.
See picture below.

Step 4.
Install the swamp cooler

just cut the pads a little bit bigger than what you think and install it all around the inside of the bucket and then trim them to fit. You definitely don't want air traveling through the container, without constant contact with the swamp cooler pad.
The entire purpose of the pads is to soak up water and stay wet along with the air flow being pulled in the side holes and pushed up and out top should give a small swamp cooler effect for the grow room.
Think about a house Swamp cooler it will cool and put humidity in a room as will this home brew small cooler

Once you get the swamp cooler pad set up, be sure to test with the lid in place and fan mounted you should have a nice easy air flow coming out the top, if it's a low lying lid you might need to trim some excess off your pads fan should pull air out of the top easy.

Step 4.
Fill the bucket up with water

Fill up your bucket to about 1/4 inch from top of holes (and make sure it's not going to drip all over your house). Test it out and let me know what you think. I think this is a fantastic pumpless design, that will cool a small room or on a bit larger scale with a bigger bucket and more powerful fan whole area!

Well Icemud that was my work around idea corrected my heat and humidity problem without having to spend a bunch of money I'm all about low cost growing with big yield I think less can be more


UPGRADE ( SWAMP COOLER DRIP LINE)

I did a upgrade on the above home brew room swamp cooler as my idea was to make a small swamp cooler for a room that would work like a house swamp cooler.
I wanted to see if I could make this work even more effective in doing so.

What You Will Need:
1 small submersible water pump.
10 1/4 inch drip line couplings.
20 inches of 1/2 air line and and a 1/2" to 1/2" to 1/2" Tee coupler
2 screws I used a screw on each end of the air line to close the ends off.

Step 1.
I cut 5 inches of the air line and attached it to the water pump then installed the Tee at the top of the air line.
I took the other 15 inches and cut in half the installed the 7 1/2 inches for each side of the Tee and install a screw in each end to close the ends off.

Step 2.
I put the pump in the bucket ran air line up the center of the bucket to top of the swamp cooler pad.
AI then every inch or so installed a 1/4 inch drip line coupling to the under side of the air line facing down at the swamp cooler pad.

I ran the two 7 1/2 inches line around the top of the swamp pad one each way to cover the top of the swamp cooler pad with all the 1/4 inch couplings face down into the swamp cooler pad making the design work better and a more true swamp cooler effect to my room by keeping the water flow going through the pads.


This made the home brew room swamp cooler work way more effective!

Without the home brew cooler I had a high of 90 degrees heat and a low 36% humidity I now have a room at nice high of 78 degrees heat with a sweet humidity of 68% proof is in the pudding this little home brew room swamp cooler works!

I would have to say anyone that builds one of these do the drip line upgrade the extra effects on heat and humidity are well worth the few extra dollars.


The picture below shows what the swamp cooler drip system upgrade looked like.

I hope you pass this information along and it helps someone out that's having heat and or humidity problems..
Have a great day Icemud I enjoy your input

 

[Icemud]

Awesome build of the swam cooler!!!! You should create a new thread in the DIY area and copy your instructions and photos!!! Awesome job!!!

 

[Mouse777]

I did a reply post on the following if anyone is interested on the idea of a Home Brew Humidity dome with small home brew Co2 set up for clones/seedlings.

Thread's name Stickydank's Basic CO2 Method

My Reply post linkStickydank's Basic CO2 Method

This is a great cheap way of getting Co2 to the youngsters and if made on a bigger scale works great for small closets as well.
I use for both and my report is that the system is sound it works without spending high dollars for a small area grow.

I posted pictures of the set up I use.The complete set up is a Humidity dome,small light hood with small home brew Co2 system.
I have to say clones and seedlings reposed well.
This is a easy build and is a great little home brew Co2 system, plants grow crazy fast and seem to enjoy the humidity and Co2 combo.
I find my clones root faster with the home brew Co2 humidity doom set up.