Equanimity's First Grow - Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

[Equanimity]

Alright, so this is my first grow and I've decided to keep a log of it and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process!

The specifics:

Name: Project: Serenity.
Strain: Lemon Kush.
Seeds: 10 x Feminized, Non-Autoflowering. (there may be some free seeds which will be set aside for another time)
Number of Plants: Five (Saving 5 seeds for next grow or if i fudge this up)
Indica/Sativa: Not sure, could be beef for all i know
Environment: Indoors; in the cupboard under the stairs.
Lighting: Starting with two 30w (150W) CFL Spirals of the 6500k variety & ramping up to a maximum of eight.
Growing Medium: Canna Coco Natural (it's coconut husk bits)
Nutrients: I'll be using Canna Coco A+B
pH things: On the laterbase.
Pest Control: Diatomaceous Earth & Neem Oil.
Pots: I'll be grabbing those later today.
Photographs: Will be posted at the bottom of each entry.


So, the first thing I've had to do is prepare my work area.
My grow room is the cupboard under the stairs; it is 32 inches deep (from door to back wall), 55 inches high (floor to ceiling) and 37 inches wide. It does, however, have a sloping ceiling (the stairs).
The walls and floor were quite manky due to it having been disused since i moved in, so I've painted it with all the paint available to me, leftovers from doing the rest of the house. Blue bathroom paint on the walls (it has it's own mold prevention shizzle apparently) and black gloss paint on the tiles on the floor.

The blue room has an air vent on the bottom of the door which i might avail of in the future.

The lighting will be fixed to a rack I've made out of old scraps of wood; later today I'll go and pick up the light fittings and fix them to the unit.

The plants will be placed on a box under the rack to be close to the lights; I want to work in such a way that the plants move while the lights remain stationary; though this may change down the line.

Some of the items i require have been ordered or built, others have not (due to budgetary constraints ) so i have to stagger this project, in this fashion.

First: prep the area, get the lighting ready, order the seeds* & get the pots.

Next: the growing medium & the nutrients. It's at this point I'll be ready to plant.

Finally: Pest Control products, pH related things & any loose ends I've overlooked.

*Seeds ordered first as it's the first time I've bought marijuana seeds and i want them to be with me (as opposed to with customs officers) before i press on.

Images of the prepared room and light rack follow:

The television on the wall is 42"; this gives you an idea of the size of the blue room.

Closer shot of the blue room; ignore the wiring, the floor is still drying. This will all be tucked away.

Inside the blue room; it is small but bigger than it looks in the photos.

The lighting rack; made from scraps of wood, I'm still deciding where to put the light fittings, the black rings show where i had planned to put them but after reading these forums I would like to have the CFLs positioned horizontally as opposed to vertically.
This object may be wrapped in reflective material at some point.

This grow is still in the planning & setup stage so if I'm doing anything wrong maybe you guys can let me know and i can nip it in the bud before human lives are put at stake.

The reasons for my choices are all budget related, in case anyone was wondering.

Thanks for looking

 

[Tamir]

Re: Equanimity's First Grow; Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

Very innovative... Curious to see how this grow goes. I'm subbed

 

[BOFH]

Re: Equanimity's First Grow; Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

Nice setup! Can't wait to see it at work!

Have you considered building reflectors for your CFLs?
I built mines out of beer cans, if you take a look at my journal you'll see them ::

Good luck with your grow!

 

[Equanimity]

Re: Equanimity's First Grow; Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

Nice setup! Can't wait to see it at work!

Have you considered building reflectors for your CFLs?
I built mines out of beer cans, if you take a look at my journal you'll see them ::

Good luck with your grow!

I'm planning on covering the walls in bacofoil and such, and the rack will be getting a lick after it's been wired. i want to see how many lights i can get onto it first, i was thinking of turning it upside down and putting the lights on that way using clip holders; just a little unsure about how many i can daisy chain on a single 240v feed. I need to keep a plug socket free for a small fan and the TV plugs into that cupboard lol


this little adventure will be a good way for me to test how well an exposed hard disk drive responds to heat and humidity

 

[CO Finest]

Re: Equanimity's First Grow; Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

Very nice intro. I will check out what you got going for sure. Have a good one

 

[Equanimity]

Re: Equanimity's First Grow; Lemon Kush - Canna Coco - CFL

Later this afternoon i was able to source some extra funding for my grow to help expedite things.
I have placed most of my orders for things on Amazon due to my local stores being less than adequate and more expensive. I have ordered:
The lamp holders for the rack, six of these which will be wired in a parallel circuit, I'm going parallel so that the lights can operate with empty fittings as i want to test these two 'iBoutique' bulbs before i commit to another four.

I've ordered the ph testing kit, cabling for the light fittings and the diamatecous earth from Amazon as well due to the cheapness and free delivery, I'll be expecting several things to arrive by post and all on different days; these will end up being miss and collected from my local post office in one go.

Tomorrow i will go out to the local hydro shop and get:
the canna coco media, the coco a+b neuts, the neem oil and the ph up&down.
I'll hit argos or the likes for a small desk fan for the air flow and then poundland for the pots (because they're basically plastic tubs, i can modify them for drainage if i need to)

I expect to get the seeds on monday and if all goes well i should be planting either that evening or some time on tuesday; depending on deliveries of course.

I'm really looking forward to my first grow, I'm just disappointed I left it until this late in my life to start. I'm trying to plan for each stage but I'm still afraid of screwing it up.

thanks for the replies by the way

 

[Equanimity]

So, Day three in my quest.

I've purchased some coco coir which came in the form of 'briquettes' (in northern ireland, and maybe other places, people heat their homes by burning Peat Briquettes).

Apparently, these need to be rinsed, I've researched it and will be washing this stuff out in an old pillowcase, to get the salts etc out of it. at £1 each, i got three, these will expand to fill a rather large area apparently.

I also picked up my nutrients, the ph up and the ph down.

next i went to a hardware shop and grabbed the shitty bits; timer for the lights, cable clips for the wiring, lock for the door... the random stuff.

Got the pots; small propogators for my seedlings and some bigger ones.
For some reason I could not find the larger pots ANYWHERE so what i did was hit up Pound World and collected five buckets & spades (for sand castles) and then just ragged off the handles and spades and I'll do holes in the bottom. Bigger pots = done.

I have everything else coming from Amazon; some of it on prime, some of it not. the Prime was a free trial so does not count in the budget (i am keeping track and doing the whole thing as cheaply as i can and I'll do a breakdown at the end for the newb on a budget to reference).

I did, however, get a mini windfall and so I've ordered two each of the following bad boys:

FoxHunter Euro Dutch Barn Reflector Wing Lamp Shade Hydroponics Grow Tent Bud Room Light Kit

300w dual Spectrum CFL grow light lamp for Hydroponics

These will not be counted in the budget as i consider it cheating, however, i do imagine they'll improve my grow immeasurably. I'm also still going to use the CFLs I've already ordered.

As of today, Thursday, the seeds have been despatched from sensible seeds uk; i did research this thoroughly, i was put off Nirvana because they're'off world' (not in the uk) and Bonzas website put me off, a bit snazzy, reminded me of a 90s spam site from where you typo a web address and some scammer has bought the typo domain and put up a site to catch people unawares. I'm not badmouthing a partner site by the way, it's just how i felt at the time and i ordered the seeds before i came here.

So, got almost everything in, just waiting on the Amazon crap and the seeds and then the magic can happen.

Wish me luck.

 

[CannaNewbie]

Subbed. Good luck on your grow.

 

[Equanimity]

Day 6: Little has happened since I'm still waiting on some objects but i thought I'd update this anyway:

All the light bulbs have arrived but disaster struck; one of the 300W CFLs arrived in itty bitty shards but there was a silver lining in that amazon refunded me for the pair, so I've made a profit there.

The other light bulbs; the iBoutique ones and the LongLifeLightCo ones also arrived; the iBoutique ones being the best even though they're of a lower wattage. Since my E40 reflectors have not yet arrived, I'm unable to test the 300W bulb. I'll buy another of these off amazon to replace the smashed one, wish me luck for it being intact.

As for my planting area, I've made strides in the prep for this; I've created a rack made out of grill pan racks tied together and supported by PCI Backplates (from computers); this rack will hold four plants in big pots and give me enough room to go "dutch tree style".

I had to buy plastic party plates as saucers and sand castle buckets for pots; I've put the relevant drainage holes in using a soldering iron.

The pots sit in the saucers which sit on the rach, the rack is placed on the "everything tray" and this is on a slight incline for easy draining and water removal.

I've received my pH tester, hygrometer and all of my chemicals except the neem oil.

Seeds arrived yesterday, they are a good colour (no white ones).

I'm just waiting for the lighting gear now; the bayonet fittings, the cable and the Edison 40s. Then I'm go.

I have a question though; My girlfriend wants me to go to the caravan next sunday night until Monday afternoon; my seedlings will be days old or less; will they survive being left alone for 18-20 hours or should i tell her to jog on? lol

"Dutch Tree Style" is something i saw in holland when i was a kid; they basically trimmed and trained their trees to grow horizontally on rails; i think you guys know it as "main lining" but that phrase makes it sound like im injecting heroin in my ballsack, so, I'm calling it dutch tree style or "Espalier".

 

[Equanimity]

Day 6 (the real day 6, the other one was day 4, what was i thinking?)

Almost all of my stuff is sorted, i'm waiting for four lightbulbs - three of the small ones (pics below) and one of the meaty 300W doo-dahs.
That's literally all that's holding me up now.

The first thing i wanted to mention was the Bitch Rack

The bitch rack is made from wood and those metal wire racks you get in grill pans, ovens etc.
There's two of those strapped together using Twistix, i've stabilized them using PCI Blankout panels from computer cases.
These are attached to the wood using those white cable hooks, the piece of wood across the back is to stabilize.
A smaller piece of wood juts out from the crossplank which has the hygrometer mounted on it.
I felt that since it would be practically the centre of the room, it would give me the most accurate readings.
There's a black tray underneath the bitch rack which slides out, this is for water run off etc


Next up are the lamp stands. I abandoned the original lamp stand in favoure of two seperate ones which i feel are more manageable.
They take three bulbs each and are positioned either side of the bitch rack. The flat panels with LEFT and RIGHT on them are spare pieces of laminate flooring; their purpose is to stabilize the lamp stands and indicate which side they go on (as it does matter, due to how i made them; haphazardly lol)
Inside the room these can be moved forwards, backwards or 90 degrees to be over the plants initially.
See them now:


Then we have the lamp reflectors; these are particularly awful and large things and were approximately two inches too wide to go in the blue room; What i've done is overlapped them and punched holes in both at the same time and then made a surprisingly sturdy Twistix seam, joining them together.
They've been joined again by their top hooks using heavy duty cabling to facilitate hanging.
Inside the blue room they are hanging from a metal wardrobe bar; i used the leftover white wire from making the lamp stands, pulled out the three wires (earth, live, neutral) and plaited them to make a pulley system so that the lights can be lowered and raised as required very easilly.


This is what the room looks like with everything inside.


The black cables at the back are going to get tidied, the multicoloured cables on the left are part of the pulley system for the top lights. On the right (behind the wall) sits the fan and a kitty litter tray where all the crap to do with my TV lives (to keep it separate).

The room is now under a testing phase; checking temperatures and RH with half the total amount of bulbs that i will eventually have (they're all in the post).
I want to test for at least 24 to 48 hours to make sure:

The lights don't pop/fall down.
The room doesn't get humid and stuffy.
The room doesn't catch fire
The electrics don't blow.

But everything is looking good so far.
Just need those other bulbs. As soon as the bulbs arrive i can plant.

Any thoughts/opinions greatly welcome, of course

 

[Equanimity]

Day 7

Planting!

So, the last of my bulbs arrived (still missing two CFLs but no biggie; tomorrow for sure.

Washed out my soil and sterilized it; some people said don't, others swore by it, being a clean freak, i just had to.

Filled my pots and then poured some warm plain (but pH'd) water in, tested the outflow; exactly 6pH.

Threw diatomaceous earth around the grow room and the tops of the pots quite liberally; as a prophylactic.

Here's the picture of my girls; they'll sprout soon i hope.



Wish me luck guys!

 

[cardkeeper]

nice work man i wish you the best of luck man

 

[smoking bob]

wow nice bud

 

[Equanimity]

thanks guys

still waiting on sprouts, at the moment im ragging apart an old VGA cable to make into a sort of seal to get rid of the light leaks in the room

 

[Equanimity]

Day 8

So, no sprouts yet but it's early days. temps are a lot higher than I'd like; we're at 36.7c. I have an extractor fan on the way that I'm going to attach to the existing vent, hopefully that will bring them down a little. So much for CFLs being cooler.

anyhoo...

I got a free seed with my order that I've decided to plant, it's called "Auto Speed Bud", info on t'internet is pretty sparse. This is planted in a seperate grow cupboard i quickly cleared out.
See her here:



I am aware that the tiny CFL on the left is about as useful as balls on a girl so I'll replace that later on, I'll get some lights on her when she pops, she's warm enough for now though, she's like a little side project. something to experiment on. my frankenpot.

 

[Equanimity]

could anyone tell me if my lights are too close or too far away?
They're 300w CFLs, i lowered them about a foot cos it seemed too far away


Sorry it's sideways, on my phone..

 

[Equanimity]

Day 11

So, I've modified the grow a tad, decided not to use rings for mainlining, gonna just use 8 sticks instead, it's a bit less flexible but i can't get hold of decent rings anywhere and the home made ones were not working out.

Also, i have sprouts, 2/5 sprouts so far.
One of them looks lovely, perfect set of cylons, the other is a bit fucked looking but i won't count her out just yet; sometimes the runt of the litter ends up being the best pig.

 

[PeytonManning]

I'd probably put them a little closer, as long as they don't seem like the heat is bothering them

 

[Equanimity]

sweet, I'll drop em in the morning when the lights come back on. thanks

 

[Equanimity]

as soon as they have all sprouted (or if any die, I'll replant and wait), I'm planning in starting to play music to my plants. Strings; bit of classical. Studies have shown that plants can respond well to music and although it might seem wacko, my girls will be an intrinsic part of my life from now until the day i die (now as I've started, I'm never stopping), as such, I'll be treating them how i want to be treated and therefore, a bit of music is most salubrious.