Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil - CFL & LED - AK99 - BB & Random Bag Seed 2014

[Buddy McNugs]

Hello Everyone. I am excited to be joining the community here. Now that it is finally legal to grow in my state, I have decided to try my hand at doing a small grow with only a couple plants for personal use. I am completely new to growing anything, so all help and advice along the way would be much appreciated. I have been researching the forums for a while and have a basic understanding of what I need to do, but am still having trouble finding some things like watering guides, fertilizer guides, etc. I will go into more detail about that a little farther down in this first post. Now for the good stuff. Here is the basic info:

What strain is it?
Joey Weed AK99 and BlueBerry. Also a couple random bagseed.

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Seedlings - 2 days since they popped above soil

Indoor or outdoor?
Indoor

Soil or Hydro?
Soil

If soil... what is in your mix?
Foxfarm Ocean Forest mixed with perlite

If soil... What size pot?
Starting in Solo Cups then moving to 3 Gallon pots for rest of grow

Size of light?
Starting with 6-8 23w 6500k CFLs for Veg and then getting a 200 - 300w LED for Flowering

Type of grow area?
Using a Sterilite Plastic Storage Cabinet I got at Walmart - 26"(W) x 18"(D) x 36"(H)


I have some very old seeds I am using for this grow. These seeds are over 8 years old, lol. The first two strains I am using for this grow are from Joey Weed, which I believe is no longer selling seeds. Those two are AK99 (AK47 x Cindy 99) and Blueberry. I had started germinating old random bagseed first to get some practice before trying the AK99 and BB. I found that my best method with these old seeds was to give them a 24 hour soak in a cup of tap water then move them to a wet folded paper towel between two paper plates. I then sat that on top of my TV to give it a little heat since my house stays around 68 degrees. After 2-3 days they started showing roots so I moved them to Solo Cups with plastic wrap over them until they pop soil.

In the Solo Cups, I mixed around 60% Foxfarm Ocean Forest soil with about 40% perlite. Here are four of the seedlings while I wait for the rest to pop soil.

One of the seedlings has two white spots, does that mean anything? Notice anything else I should be aware of? When I planted them in the Solo Cups, I put the soil mixture in, poured in warm water until it started draining out the bottom, let it drain until it stopped draining. I have not watered the seedlings since then it has been 2 days since they popped above the soil. It feels moist to me, but I am certainly no expert. Should I water them again? When should I first water them and how much? I definitely don't want to over water them as I read that is one of the biggest mistakes new growers make. I know the FFOF soil is rich in nutrients so I probably won't have to feed them anything for a while, right?

The seedlings are now sitting under a bright CFL light on my lamp while I finish the cabinet. I did some research and decided on getting the Sterilite plastic storage cabinet from Walmart:

They sell the smaller one and another that is basically two small ones stacked on top of each other. I am using this cabinet for the Veg cycle and am planning to get a bigger cabinet/pantry to use for flowering. From what I read on forums, that Sterilite cabinet shows the light through the sides and doors pretty bad so I got some flat black spray paint and painted the inside first and let it dry. Then I used spray glue to attach mylar throughout the inside. Tomorrow I plan to work on building the CFL lighting fixture using two power strips with 3 to 4 23watt 6500k CFL bulbs on each. The plan is to use a piece of wood, maybe 2x4, maybe 1x2, and mount the power strips to both sides of the board and either hang that from the ceiling of build some kind of frame to hold it above the lights. I am doing the 6 or 8 CFLs during Veg in the cabinet and then plan to have a 200 - 300w LED by the time they switch to flowering. I plan to cut a vent in the back of the cabinet near the floor for a passive intake and will use 1 - 2 pc fans for an exhaust at the top that goes into some kind of DIY odor cleaning box. I will take some pictures of the cabinet and lights after I get it put together tonight or tomorrow.

Now for some questions I have. Does anyone know of a simple idiot proof guide to watering plants based on their age? Something like week 1, water this much, week 2-3, water this much, etc. If something like that has been written up, I would love a link to it as I have been unable to find it using search. A fertilizer feeding schedule like that would be awesome too.

All questions, comments, and advice is welcome and appreciated. I am learning as I go, so I am hoping I can lean on the forum community here for help along the way. Thanks for reading, looking forward to learning all I can during this grow.

 

[Light Addict]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Subbed
Ok nice start, on watering less is indeed more! Check the weight of ďry soil in a solo cup. Then you have a base to work from.
You are correct no feeding for a good while! The two white spots aren't anything to worry about, it could have been a water droplet or something, but it'll be fine.
Best of buds and good luck, holla at me anytime if you need anything.
Welcome to 420

 

[BlackPolo23]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

I went through about 400ml of distilled water in 3 days, but I only had 2 babies going. So maybe 100ml every watering.
You could have a dry cup of soil sitting around as well, just to compare wet weight to dry weight.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Hi, thanks to both of you for the welcome and advice. Good to know I am on the right track by not watering or feeding them anything yet. I like the idea of going by the weight of dry vs wet soil in the cup. Hopefully you are right about the white spots. I will keep an eye on it.

I finished putting all the mylar on earlier today and just went in with foil tape and filled in the gaps a little. I tell you one thing, attaching rolled mylar using spray glue is not an easy task, ESPECIALLY when the panels they are going on have bumps, odd shapes, gaps, etc. to fill in. I will put the cabinet together in the morning and take some pics of it and post them. Then it is on to figuring out my design for the CFL power strip fixture.

These seedlings seem to be growing fast now. One is getting pretty tall. I'm pretty sure my lighting is nowhere close to adequate yet. Question about the lights. Based on this space, how many do you think I will need? Would 6 23 watt 6500k CFLs do it for Veg or should I go with 8?

Thanks again for the advice and I welcome any others to pop in and say hello.

 

[Light Addict]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Simply put give them the max light your temps/ ventilation allows!

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Ok, sounds good. I think I will try 8 lights and bring it down to 6 if I run into space/temp issues.

This morning I put the cabinet together and used foil tape to fill in gaps. I used Duct tape to cover the seams where the panels connected then covered that with the foil tape so I hope that helps keep light and air in. Here are a few pictures of the completed cabinet(Sorry, for some reason a couple of the images ended up sideways even though they were the right side up on my computer, will work on that next time I upload):

Now I am going to start working on the CFL power strip fixture to go inside the cabinet. One of the seedlings is stretching like crazy so the sooner I can get them under proper lights the better. Here is a close up of them:

I will take some more pictures after I have the lighting set up.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

I have been thinking about my lighting setup and am considering doing LED instead of CFL for veg. I was going to do 8 23w CFLs for veg but think LED may be a better choice. I was going to do LED for flowering anyway, but I think I may buy a smaller LED for veg. Here are the two I am thinking of:

LED Grow Light 100x3w - Mars Hydro - TOPLed 100x3w

or

Reflector LED Grow Light 48x3W - Mars Hydro - TOPLed 48x3w

My cabinet measures 26"(W) x 18"(D) x 36"(H). What does everyone think? These LEDs should be better for temps in my small cabinet, wouldn't they? Which do you think is better? The first one appears to be an older model but says 300w vs the second one is a newer reflector model but says 150w. Both are basically the same price. It looks like from the coverage ratings on their site either would cover my small area. I know that more wattage is usually better, but seeing as how they are both basically the same price from the same manufacturer, does that mean the second newer model is more efficient and is as good or better than the older model 300w one?

I would like to make the purchase by tomorrow morning, so any advice, experience, or comments would be appreciated.

 

[Metjohnny]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Looking good. Just be careful with the cups, on the pictures they seem a bit translucent, it's allways better to have them opaque.
Regarding the soil, I am quite far away from USA so I have no idea if you can get it or not, but if you can, I really advise you to get soil Compo Sana Universal, it has the perfect mixing for weed...I mean perfect. Take a look on my journals, in one of them I have a picture of a soil bag.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Hi, thanks for stopping by. I will keep an eye on the cups, but I have seen a lot of others on here using them with no problems so I hope they will be ok until it is time to move them to the 3 gallon pots. Thanks for the advice on the soil, I am already using some good soil I think, just need to figure out my lighting.

Also, I wanted to update my lighting question above, I am looking for a LED for only the Veg period. I will be using a different LED I get later for flowering and will also be flowering in a different taller cabinet. So I am trying to find out which of those two above are best for Veg. I would not be using it at all during flowering. So, if I got the one with the switch, I would probably not turn the flowering part on until late in Veg before going to flowering. This has me leaning towards the 100x3w unless someone advices otherwise.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Well, I have been told that my cabinet is not tall enough for a LED since the LED would need to be around 18" from the plants. Back to CFLs, I hope 8 23w CFLs will be good enough.

I have another question for anyone that knows about using CFLs. I read that when using CFLs for Veg, you want to get 6500k. I have looked at my local stores and have only been able to find 5000k CFLs. I assume these would work but just won't be as good as the 6500k? Is that right? Should I just go ahead and get those 5000k ones or keep looking around until I find the 6500k CFLs somewhere? Is it that big of a difference? This is only for Veg.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

After doing some more research it looks like most say 6500k is better, but some say 5000k is better. Either way, I cannot find the 6500k bulbs around here for a good price so I am going to buy the 5000k ones to use during veg. Good news is I happened to find a couple 6500k cfls that I will mix in with the others so I should have a mix of about 6 23w 5000k cfls and 2 23w 6500k cfls. Maybe having the two different types will help.

Now I am trying to figure out how to get my lights in the box. I don't really want to hang them since the whole thing is plastic and don't want to start putting screws in it. I am thinking of building a stand out of either pvc pipe or thin wood with legs on the left and right sides of the inside of the cabinet and a simple frame with a 2x4 connecting them at the top across the middle of the cabinet and attach the CFL power strip fixture to that. Anyone know of a simpler way? I will be using two power strips with 4 CFLs on each. I assume since a lot of the tents use PVC pipe that there wouldn't be a problem from me having exposed pvc pipe inside my cabinet, right? Anyone have experience or tips here?

 

[BlackPolo23]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Cab looks nice!
How are you going to ventilate?

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Thanks! I have been working on it the past couple days to figure out how to get my lights in there but finally have all that set up. For now I am keeping the doors open when the lights are on and am going to be cutting out the intake/exhaust in the next few days.

Ok, here is how the cabinet build is going. I was going to build something to hang my lights from but happened to find a metal wire shelving unit that were almost perfect dimensions to fit inside my box. With a little squeezing I was able to get it in there and it is working perfectly. Here is a picture of the cabinet with the shelf inside:

I found a new in box air coolable HPS reflector hood at a yard sale and talked him down to $10 since it was missing the glass, which I don't need anyway. I got a small piece of wood and cut it to length and attached two power strips to it using cable ties. I then mounted the piece of wood to the top of the inside of hood using more cable ties connected to eye screws that I screwed into the wood. Here is a picture of that completed:

Then I took some plug in sockets and dual socket adapters and plugged them into the power outlets and then plugged in 8 23w 6500k Daylight CFLs. I was going to hook up 10 in there but I messed up one of the adapters and will get a replacement in the next couple days. Here is a picture of the hood with lights in it:

Then, I hung up the hood with lights from the top shelf of the shelving unit using the hangers that came in the box with hood. Here is a picture of it hanging in the cabinet, luckily, it JUST fits inside with doors shut:

And here is a picture of it with the lights on:

I know the plants are too low in this picture, I am going to stack some stuff under them to get the tops of the plants 2-3 inches from the lights.

How does the setup look? Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

lol this hood is taking up so much room in the cabinet. But it looks like it is doing a good job reflecting the light. Maybe it being so big is a good thing, keeps most of the light down on the plants. I can feel it is a little warm in there but not too hot. I don't have a regular thermometer yet. I put a meat thermometer in there for a few minutes and it was around mid 70s. Ha, not sure if that even works the same. I will get a thermometer in the next couple days. I guess a cheap digital thermometer from Walmart or Target would work, doesn't have to have any special functions? Will I need to worry about humidity with this setup? If so, should I get some kind of gauge for that?

 

[BlackPolo23]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

A cup of water in the box every few days should help with humidity. But a store as Walmart would have a thermometer that also measure humidity for fairly cheap.
Nice snag on he reflective hood that's a good setup. I'm anxious to see how quickly the plants grow.

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I will keep that in mind. You are probably right about the thermometer too. I will see if I can get one that does multiple things for a good price. Probably all around the same price. I got lucky getting the hood so cheap, and it looks like it may work perfect for what I am doing. I am hoping all this new light will make the plants happy. Hoping to flower 2-3 females.

 

[J189RFC]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Nice little set up. Your making good progress

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Thanks! Learning a lot as I go. Lots of great information on the forum. Now to figure out my ventilation..

 

[Buddy McNugs]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

Wow, this little cabinet gets hot when the lights are on with doors shut. I got my thermometer today and mounted it inside. The temps were in the low 70s with the doors open. I tested it with the doors shut for 10 minutes and the temps were already up to low 80s. I have the doors open now and will have to keep them open during light period(going to be doing 18/6) until I can get my fan(s) installed.

 

[Antics]

Re: Buddy McNug's First Grow - Indoor Soil w/ CFL & LED - AK99, BB, & random bagseed

I would nix the shelf. It's killing a few inches top and bottom.

You need as much space as you can get in here. I would also zip tie the bulb socket to the power strip. If one falls out, it can kill a seedling easily.

I would also grow 1 or 2 plants tops in here. You don't have height to work with so you have to train them short and wide. With 4 plants they're going to be too crowded. You'll end up yielding from 4 plants what you could yield from 2.