JohnGalt's 2nd Grow (1st Indoor) - Soil SCROG

[JohnGalt]

I will update this first post with vital details and major dates as they become available, but will also post replies below for more linear reading. My goal is for this post to be sort of a table of contents to make this journal as easy to read and reference as possible.

This is my second grow ever (never even owned a house plant before my 1st outdoor grow - see signature for link). I chose indoors for security reasons and so I can better control growing environment. I chose Scrog mostly due to the shorter veg period (my goal is to get 4 crops a year). My goal is to have rooted clones from the club put into 1-gal pots by 10/6 (next Weds).

What strain is it? TBA - leaning toward Shiskaberry, but depends on what the club has in stock
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? TBA
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? TBA
Rooted clones planted under veg light on: TBA
Flowering (12/12 switch) started on: TBA
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Fox Farms Ocean Forrest Potting Soil + Perlite
If soil... What size pot? Will plant in 1-gal then transplant to 3-gal
Size of light? 600W HPS
Is it aircooled? Vented reflector hood with glass lense
Temp of Room/cab? TBA
RH of Room/cab? TBA
PH of media or res? TBA
Any Pests ? TBA
How often are you watering? TBA
Type and strength of ferts used? Fox Farms liquid trio
Screen size = 3'x4'
# of plants = 12

Journal Table of Contents:

Intro & general info - Page 1, Post 1
Grow hut & equipment info - Page 1, Post 2

 

[JohnGalt]

First, I want to walk through my setup. It's been a huge DIY project that's been in the works for several weeks. It's not quite finished yet, but wanted to post what I have so far. Will be running ventilation and light tests tonight and putting on finishing touches.

Grow hut is 3.25'x4.25' and is about 7' to the inside ceiling. On the roof of the hut I have a sheet of plywood laying across the rafters to hold my ventilator, inline filter, and light ballast.

Vented hood has a 6"-to-4" reducer. Ventilator is rated for 174CFM, and is connected to a speed control switch. At max speed it is no louder than a household box fan on it's lowest setting, so no noise or vibration issues so far.

The walls and ceiling of the hut are panda poly. The two long walls of the hut are secured with long Velcro strips (used two 15' rolls at about $13 each). This allows easy access from both sides so tending the plants will be easy.

The floor is some random hardware cloth I found lying out by the barn. It's a bit rusty but it's the only thing I had on hand that could hold the hundreds of pounds of plants, soil, and water it holds up. Floor is suspended about 8" above the cement to allow space for a catch tray. This tray is a simple wooden tray with panda poly laid in it (black side up to reduce reflectivity). I'll use a $20 wet vac (the one that is just the motor & filter and attaches to a 5-gallon bucket) and a turkey baster to remove runoff from the tray.

The inline filter is home made using a 4"x2' PVC pipe ($8) and charcoal. It holds about 2.5 pounds of charcoal. Insect screen holds the charcoal in the pipe. Added a dryer sheet to the exhaust end of the pipe for extra odor control and to keep small pests from entering while the ventilator is not running.

Air intakes are made by pulling 4" ducting through holes in the panda poly. Making those holes without ripping the entire wall open was a lot easier than expected, but took some care to make just the right size. The intake ducts are about 1.5' long, and are bent at two 90-degree angles for light-proofing purposes. Each one also has insect netting and a dryer sheet over the end for insect-proofing. (I read that spraying the dryer sheets daily with Safer Soap will even keep mites out.)

Pictures for the reading-impaired (or in my case the writing-impaired):

Inside view of air intakes. Note that they are centered roughly at the height of the top of the 3-gal pots. My plan is to have two small fans in front of the intakes to blow fresh air under my screen/canopy.

Inside view of the ceiling corner where my vent duct goes out

Outside view where vent duct comes out and goes to ventilator

DIY inline filter

 

[JohnGalt]

Forgot to mention... my hut is NOT sealed completely. Due to poor design, the bottom of each wall simply hangs on the floor. I wanted a removable catch tray, and I'm not handy enough to build that into my design. I plan to lay 2x4s on the slack to help seal the bottom, but I'm not sure that will work yet.

So, it's possible my insect-proof intake valves will be nothing but aesthetic. The ventilation will suck air from the path of least resistance, which is quite possibly going to be through the floor. This shouldn't affect my overall air circulation, but may cause issues when it comes to pest problems.

However, insect-proofing is almost certainly futile... I live on a farm, so there's a ton of foliage for mites and thrips to migrate from, plus a ton of dust being kicked up every week or two. And with a Scrog you pretty much have to get in there and work every day, so I'll probably be bringing them in on my person.

Mostly, I'd just be happy if it is light-proof enough to not confuse the plants... and it would be nice if the whole damn thing doesn't just collapse in on itself.

 

[JohnGalt]

9/29/10 - Smoke test shows good circulation. Light test successful (with a couple very minor additions of duct tape). Still need to better cover the exhaust (insect/pest screen) and run it over the exterior wall (under the eve).

Apparently you can't edit older posts on this forum, so there goes my wonderful idea of making my journal more user-friendly... So I'll do it the crappy way and make every person read every single page to find out what's happening. >.<

With lights and fan running it was about 80F and 45% RH in the hut. To be fair, the light was only on for about 30 min, but these numbers seemed pretty steady by that time, so I doubt they'll go much higher with longer duration. (Note that outdoor temp was around 70F and 85% RH; indoor was probably about 75F and 60% RH - though I failed to take the ambient room measurements.)

 

[JohnGalt]

Sorry for the delay... been a crazy week. I'll try to be brief with this update, as the pics speak for themselves mostly.

Finished the grow hut. Covered the exhaust duct similar to the intakes and put it out so it vents under the eve. The duct itself actually goes to the outside, but it's not easily noticeable from the outside (took me 2 minutes to find it and I knew where it was).

Also installed two intake fans... kinda. Pictured below are two Wal-Mart specials suspended using baling wire. The fans were $6 each. They only have one speed, but it's good enough to help airflow and circulation... at least for now.

 

[JohnGalt]

As you probably guessed from the above pic... I got the clones in!

10/8 - Brought home the new babies from the club. I wanted smaller clones, but they only had "large" clones. They were pretty cleaned out, and I wanted all 12 to be the same variety (mostly to keep it as simple as possible for me as a newbie grower). Ended up going with Blue Dream (Blueberry x Haze - 80% Sativa).

When selecting from the 30-ish Blue Dream clones in stock, I went for ones of average size (to more evenly fill the screen).

Without further ado... PICS INCOMING!

Wide shot of all 12 (had to be cropped considerably due to file size) - the white round thing in the middle is the "outdoor receiver" for my digital thermometer/barometer/RH meter. The "indoor" part is located in the room outside the hut. So at any time I can check ambient and in-hut temps/RH without opening it up.

Side view

Another side view (auto-color-adjustment feature on my camera worked this time!)

 

[JohnGalt]

By the way... those are 1-gallon pots. I was expecting smaller clones, so I'll be transplanting to 3-gallon pots sooner than expected. Almost think I should have just gone straight to 3-gal, but due to security issues I was working at/past dusk and mixing more soil was not in the cards.

Decided to go with 24-hour photoperiod.

Further updates of the past couple days:

10/8 - Transplanted and watered. Adjusted lamp to 24" above plants (the cheapo light meeter in the last pic maxes out at about 30", but with a 600W HPS I'm certain 24" is safe.

10/9 - Had an hours-long struggle to keep it that low. 174CFM ventilator running at full speed plus a box fan drawing cooler air into the room wasn't enough. Had to also open the two "walls" of my hut to let the ambient air cool things off. Outdoor temps were in the mid-80s. The room the hut is in has a south-facing brick wall. Found that spraying the outside wall down with water helps cool things off. When all was said and done, in-hut temps topped off at about 86F with 50% RH.

10/10 - More heat problems. Even warmer outside today. Even with hut walls rolled up it got up to 89F. At that point I decided to move to 18/6 photoperiod with the time off being during the heat of the day. Ventilator will still run 24/7 until this heat wave passes. Also added a box fan suspended from the rafters so it blows across the exhaust ducting and out into another room with a higher ceiling and attic ventilation. These dropped the room temp very well.

Also watered today. 2 gallons tap water + Superthrive, pH'd. After watering and all the above adjustments temp was around 86F (and dropping about 1/2-degree every 5 minutes) and RH came up to about 70%.

By the way, my collection tray idea works like a charm. The shop vac got enough of the water out that there wasn't enough left to collect with a turkey baster. Very happy with how it worked out.

 

[JohnGalt]

Almost forgot...

Soil is Fox Farms Ocean Forrest with roughly 30% perlite mixed in.

Won't be using nutrients for around the 2-week mark since the soil is pretty loaded with good stuff. Not sure when I'll have to transplant to bigger pots, but the plants are already almost up to the mark where the screen will be... so might have to raise the screen.

 

[wifecaretaker]

Looks really good. Like the drain off platform. Those pots are ony 1 gallon? Ladies are pretty big aready. How much longer before 12/12? Gotta keep it cool with hybrids. Blue Dream hates the heat.

 

[JohnGalt]

The hydro shop called them 1-gallon pots, but they don't look like they would hold a gallon. The "3-gallon" pots look more like 2-gallon... so I'm not sure.

I plan to go to 12/12 after about a week or so of veg. I'm not sure how much this strain stretches during flowering, but I hear doubling or tripling in size is average for most strains. Since these clones were the "large" ones, it actually reduces the time they'll need to veg.

Yeah we're having a little heat wave in my area (I guess probably over most of CA). It's not terribly hot outside, but my grow room gets toasty with the lights on. Gonna be a rough few days... supposed to get up to 90F the next few days, but this weekend is supposed to be mid-70s.

 

[JohnGalt]

10/11/10 - Soil feels almost ready for water, but rock wool cubes are still pretty moist. Noted some leaf curling (curling under) on many of the plants, but not the entire plant in any case. Also a couple leaves turning a bit yellow. Two or three leaves crinkling up, but good color.

Also noted a couple of very small holes in a few leaves. Nothing visible on any of the leaves, so not sure what caused that either...

Think I'm going to track down some AzaMax in a hurry and apply it. With as much as I've had to keep my tent open to control heat, I'm sure spider mites have found their way in by now.

For now just going to closely monitor for changes and try to figure out what these symptoms mean... only 4 days in and already feel like I'm putting out fires. Will try to post with pics and any updates tomorrow.

 

[Mmmmick]

Hi JG, lots of work going on in your grow. Looks like a good setup. Won't be long until you can sit back and just let things grow. In for the ride, good luck.

 

[JohnGalt]

10/12/10 - Watered with 1/4-dose Fox Farms Grow Big (6-4-4) and 1/4-dose Superthrive. Gave them a good drenching. Then sprayed with Safer Soap; coated plants and entire inside of tent.

Got the heat problems pretty well under control. Still no idea what caused the damage to the plants. Not much in the way of new damage, except for one leaf that appears to have been munched on a bit. Due to heat issues the tent has been open a lot more than I like, and I'm constantly killing moths and other bugs attracted to the light (I sometimes have to leave a door to the outside open in the evening). Hopefully the Safer Soap will help.

Noted some pretty impressive growth in about half the plants, and new growth on all of them. 5 plants are at least 3 inches taller than they were 5 days ago. The other 7 show new growth, but nothing spectacular. Moved the shorter ones directly under the light and taller ones to the edges/corners. Maybe this will help even them out... and if not then the big ones will just fill in the screen around the small ones.

Notice the left-most 3; awesome growth (will probably have to start LSTing them as they're already about 3 inches too tall for my screen).

This view gives a realistic gauge of height. Notice the runt of the bunch in the back on the right side of the picture. (I've since put it in the middle directly under the lamp.)

 

[JohnGalt]

10/14/10 - Got very hot today. Brought in an extra fan, sprayed the roof and exterior walls, etc. Still got up to 90F in the tent (ambient temp was even higher). Plants looked stressed: many top leaves shriveled up and a few lower fan leaves starting to discolor.

Not sure if this is from the heat or something else. Only a few leaves showing this symptom, so I'm not too worried yet.

 

[JohnGalt]

10/15/10 - Watered with 1/4-dose Superthrive. Been hot so they were pretty thirsty. Smallest of the bunch is looking a little more sick. Hopefully it will pull through, or i'll just have to make a couple of the bigger plants fill in some screen space.

10/17/10 - Been cooler the past couple days; no heat issues in the tent. Plants are all more perky and showing further growth. Little sickly plant looks much better. Think tomorrow might be the day to transplant them and top the big ones (think I'm gonna try to FIM them). I'm not sure if it's a good idea to do both at the same time or not. Any input would be helpful.

 

[JohnGalt]

10/18/10 - Watered with 1/2-str Grow Big and Superthrive. Decided to wait until I see the first root poke out before I transplant. After a bunch of reading here and around the web it seemed to be the consensus that this was the right move.

Due to heat issues the past couple weeks I didn't move the light down at all (24" away is pretty far for a 600W). Now that we're seeing some fall weather (finally!) I can start moving it closer so the light penetrates lower and the bottom leaves will hopefully stop dying off.

... now off to do some reading on topping...

 

[Tmac12]

Hi John, a good monitor is a hanging yellow sticky. I also balance a sticky mouse board across my pots to get any crawlers. Gonna follow your grow!!

 

[Two Tokes]

Now I know who John Galt is....he's a pot grower. Makes perfect sense.

Signing up to follow along.

I am going to be starting a scrog in a couple of weeks.

 

[JohnGalt]

Tmac12 & Two Tokes,

Thanks for dropping in. I hope you find this thread informative and/or entertaining. If nothing else I'm sure you'll be able to learn from a few of my mistakes.

Now for an update...

10/21/10 - Checked on the plants at noon yesterday, then again at around 1:00 AM tonight they were all dry and droopy. (So it's been 2.5 days since last watering, not 3 days... for those who are keeping track.) Watered with 1/2-dose Superthrive (no nutes).

3 of the plants are still very short, but bushy as hell. 2 of the plants are monsters, and I'm getting worried they'll be too big for my scrog. The other 7 are what I imagine is "just about right." (Keep in mind this will be my first scrog, my first indoor grow, and my first experience with this strain - so hopefully I didn't overgrow them already.)

Still interested in feedback about combining steps. I need to (1) transplant to bigger pots, (2) top the plants, and (3) switch to 12/12.

Anybody know if all this would be too much stress to do all at once? Should I transplant - wait a few days - top - wait a few days - switch to 12/12?

Getting scary like a jungle in there.. so I don't want to wait too much longer. (After doing some reading I realized they should have been FIM'd like a week ago.)

 

[JohnGalt]

10/21/10 - Decided to transplant so i can get things moving soon; I'll give them up to 2 days to recover, then 12/12. Turns out 8 of the plants were ready to move anyhow; good root growth filling in the entire top 90% of the pot. The 4 runts had barely rooted outside of their rock wool cubes. But even if the 4 runts don't make it I'm fairly confident I can fill the screen with the other 8.

Tomorrow I think I'll try LSTing them instead of topping.