PiperPete's White Rhino, Blackberry, and Bubblelicious in Soil, 1/5/2014

piperpete;1953077 said:

Beginning of journal for PiperPete's White Rhino, Blackberry, and Bubblelicious Grow.

• Number of grows under my belt: 0
• Seeds
6x White Rhino normal seeds.
2x Blackberry Feminized seeds.
2x Bubblelicious Feminized seeds.
• Soil
Current seedling: 50% CoCo, 50% ProMix.
Planned Veg: 50% CoCo, 25% Roots Organics, 25% Promix.
Planned Flower: 50% CoCo, 25% Roots Organics, 25% Promix.
• Water
H2O run through a SmallBoy to get rid of sediment and Chlorine (has upgraded filter).
Nutes as needed/recommended by the growing gods on 420 forums.
Currently adding .5ml of pH down to get water to a pH of 6.2.
• Grow Pots
Germination: Paper towel with spring water, in a zip lock bag, between two plates, in a warm place (on a seedling warming mat).
Seedling: Cell pack inserts. (seedling trays).
Veg: 1 gallon round pot.
Flower: 3 gallon round pot.
• Grow Room
4x2 for germination/seedling/vegetation.
4x3 for Flower.
Tents are locked in a 10' x 7' room.
• Lighting
2x T5 Stick CFLs for germination and seedling.
4 Tube, 4 Foot Fluorescent for Vegetation.
600 Watt HPS for Flowering.
Going with 24/7 light for Veg under Fluorescents.
Planning to go 12/12 for flower under HPS.
• HVAC
1500 Watt Oil filled radiator style space heater.
CVS Warm Steam Vaporizer
2x 6" Oscillating Fans.
• Current Operating Environment
Veg: 74.5F - 76.5F, 55-60% rH.
Flower: Unknown.

First thing to note is that the room where I have the tents is located in a basement. The house is relatively new construction, and is forced hot air. It is located in the North East part of the country. At this time of year, we are getting down into single digits. Given the house is well insulated, the basement gets down to 40F at night. The main house stays at living temps.

In addition to the temp issues, I have a humidity issue. When the forced hot air comes on in the main part of the house, it seems to suck any moisture in any part of the house out. The meters show that when the heat in the house comes on, the humidity goes from the low 40% range, to the high teens. Yes, that’s right. I've tested using 5 different meters.

In order to combat these two problems I have been testing the use of a warm steam vaporizer, and an oil filled radiator style heater that I bought from home depot for $50.

In terms of monitoring the heat and humidity, I knew this was going to be a struggle, so I went and purchased a couple of digital thermometers/hydrometers. I can plug them into my wifi network, then control them from my computer. I can also control the power strips that my heater, humidifier, lights, and exhaust are plugged into. In the software that controls everything, I can write rules like "When the heat drops below 74.5F, turn the heat on until it reaches 76.5F." Or, "When the humidity drops to 45%, turn on humidifier until it gets to 55%", etc…. Very powerful. I've got this hooked up to both my Veg tent and my Flower tent. I tested over the course of the last two weeks during the day and night with the lights on as if I was doing a grow. Everything works, and the temp stays within a 2F degree range, humidity stays within a 5% range 24/7. The exhaust comes on every 5 minutes to vent the room, supply fresh air. Once things go into the Flower room, the Exhaust will need to stay on constantly during the plant day cycle (due to heat from the HPS), and then will go on an every 5 minute schedule during plant night cycle (heat never rises enough to need it for heat alone).

So far, I think I have everything working from a hardware perspective, please comment and let me know what you think about the hardware setup, any adjustments I should make.

Seeds were put into the zip lock bags on 1/5/2014 at about 9pm. Checked every 12 hours. At 24 hours, half the seeds had begun to crack and show a little bit of a tap root. At 36 hours, they were all out, with at least 1/4 inch of a tap root. Planted them in 50% CoCo, 50% Promix in the Cell style seedling trays. I cut off 12 cups. They were placed in a greenhouse dome, and placed in the tent on a warming matt. Temp in the dome is about 80F with 79% humidity. I believe this is what the seedlings like before they break ground.

Question:

When do I take them out of the dome? I've heard some say keep them in there for 3 weeks, or when I am ready to transplant to the next sized pot. I've also hears some say that I need to take them out of the dome as soon as they break ground, so they can get warm/circulating air. Not sure about this.

I'll post pictures, as I did check this morning and noted that they were popping out above ground now.

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