Dresney
New Member
Hello and welcome to my humble grow! I finally decided to bite the bullet and start a journal, even though nothing is 'technically' growing yet.
But I did get this in the mail yesterday....
And now I have two seeds soaking - GrandDaddy Purp and Trainwreck. I have no idea which strains are my favorite, but I really wanted to try some good sativa. I'm a bit lazy naturally, so I love an energetic high - that's about the only way my floors are getting mopped
Anyway, I ordered a wide selection of seeds, and I'm just going to smoke my way through them and see what makes my hot-dog stand. I also figured I'd start with the cheapest seeds I ordered, so I can work out the kinks of my growing process by the time I get to the high-dollar ones.
For my grow area, I really wanted to keep cost down as much as possible by using what I had available. After seeing so many other ingenious uses of readily available furniture, I decided to go with a shelf in my basement. It's about 16"x4'x6' (is that the right order?... LxWxH...
). The great thing about it is that the shelves are easily adjustable and it's super easy to attach light clamps to.
My dog photo-bombed with her booty
Luckily, I already had a 4' fluorescent tube and a few cfls from trying to grow adenium obesum to bonsai last year. (Google them, they're beautiful.) I had some individual hood/reflectors that I stole from my husband's photography light box and an adjustable lamp with a clamp.
I knew I needed to get some reflectivity in there somehow, so I ordered some 2mm mylar with black poly attached to the back. At first I was unsure of how I wanted to attach it since it's a bit delicate and obviously would be stretched between two poles with nothing solid to support it. So I decided to attach it to cardboard/thick poster board panels and then attach those to the shelves. I really like the way it turned out, as they're easily detachable for cleaning and much more durable. I'm sure my cats would have crashed through un-reinforced mylar sheeting while going through their nightly action-movie scenes.
I'm not finished with the mylar panels at the top yet, but I don't think it's a big deal, as the bottom of the middle shelf has mylar panels attached to it. There are gaps I can fill in later, but it's covered for the most part. I also have a large mylar-covered panel to cover the front of it when I'm not staring at the plants, beaming them my mind's love-juice.
So here's a shot of what it looks like today.
For ventilation, I have a large oscillating fan outside the grow area. My husband has some computer fans he's promised to wire for me in the next couple days that I plan on attaching to the bottom of the middle shelf.
For my medium and nutrients I'm going to try to stay as organic as possible. My medium is roughly 40% worm castings, 30% perlite, 30% vermiculite. (My husband called the worm castings 'wriggler doodle' earlier and I about tinkled my pants.
) The pots I have are quite large, maybe 6-7 gallons, I'm not sure. I do plan on putting my seeds directly in those to avoid having to transplant.
The nutrients were the hardest decision for me. There are soooo many choices. After digging and digging on the forums and venturing elsewhere on the web, I chose some that weren't so well-known, but seem to be in-line with what I was looking for. They are from Blue Mountain Organics. All the reviews I could find for them were extremely positive. I got the combo pack that contains 'Super Plant Tonic' (root inoculant/plant tonic), 'Grow It Green' (grow fertilizer), 'Flower Power' (bloom/fruiting fertilizer) and 'Foliar Harmony' (foliar fertilizer). The combo pack includes a 16 oz. bottle of each solution and each bottle mixes up 32 gallons. For the whole pack it was $37 with shipping!
Here are the ingredients for the nutrients, if anyone is interested:
Super Plant Tonic - Artesian Spring Water, Worm Castings, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Azomite, Unsulphured (Blackstrap) Molasses, Endo and Ecto Bacteria, and Humic Acid
Grow It Green -NPK of 5-2-5- Artesian Spring Water, High Nitrogen Bat Guano, Worm Castings, Azomite, Unsulphured Molasses, Humic Acid, Beet Root Extract, Comfrey Hay Extract, Alfalfa Meal Extract, Endo and Ecto Bacteria
Flower Power -NPK value of 1-8-7- Artesian Spring Water, Fossilized High Phosphorus Bat Guano, Fossilized High Phosphorus Seabird Guano, Worm Castings, Azomite, Unsulphured Molasses, Humic Acid, Beet Root Extract, Comfrey Hay Extract, Alfalfa Meal Extract, Endo and Ecto Bacteria
Okay, aside from all that, I have some crappy pH strips I've tested my water with, and luckily it seems to be around 6.3-7.0 right out of the tap. My mom-in-law just asked me to make a wish list for Christmas and I'm thinking I'll ask for a decent digital meter. There's another hard decision.
I'm also planning on switching to HPS lighting for flower. I'm thinking 400watt. I might put a ballast and bulb on that Christmas wish list. (She always sends presents early.) We'll see what I find - I don't want her to break the bank for my grow. Although she'd be happy to smoke the fruits of my labor, so we'll see how it goes.
As for my soaking seeds, they went in the jars at 10am this morning. I'm thinking I'll let them soak for at least 12 hours and then put them directly into my medium. (I keep calling it that because I'm confused about soilless vs. soil... I guess I have no 'soil' with wriggler doodle, perlite, vermiculite).
Thanks for looking at my long first journal post! Hopefully I'll have a decent update soon! Also, I welcome/hope for any advice, thoughts, considerations, encouragement. I'm terribly nervous!
But I did get this in the mail yesterday....
And now I have two seeds soaking - GrandDaddy Purp and Trainwreck. I have no idea which strains are my favorite, but I really wanted to try some good sativa. I'm a bit lazy naturally, so I love an energetic high - that's about the only way my floors are getting mopped
Anyway, I ordered a wide selection of seeds, and I'm just going to smoke my way through them and see what makes my hot-dog stand. I also figured I'd start with the cheapest seeds I ordered, so I can work out the kinks of my growing process by the time I get to the high-dollar ones. For my grow area, I really wanted to keep cost down as much as possible by using what I had available. After seeing so many other ingenious uses of readily available furniture, I decided to go with a shelf in my basement. It's about 16"x4'x6' (is that the right order?... LxWxH...
). The great thing about it is that the shelves are easily adjustable and it's super easy to attach light clamps to.
My dog photo-bombed with her booty
Luckily, I already had a 4' fluorescent tube and a few cfls from trying to grow adenium obesum to bonsai last year. (Google them, they're beautiful.) I had some individual hood/reflectors that I stole from my husband's photography light box and an adjustable lamp with a clamp.
I knew I needed to get some reflectivity in there somehow, so I ordered some 2mm mylar with black poly attached to the back. At first I was unsure of how I wanted to attach it since it's a bit delicate and obviously would be stretched between two poles with nothing solid to support it. So I decided to attach it to cardboard/thick poster board panels and then attach those to the shelves. I really like the way it turned out, as they're easily detachable for cleaning and much more durable. I'm sure my cats would have crashed through un-reinforced mylar sheeting while going through their nightly action-movie scenes.
I'm not finished with the mylar panels at the top yet, but I don't think it's a big deal, as the bottom of the middle shelf has mylar panels attached to it. There are gaps I can fill in later, but it's covered for the most part. I also have a large mylar-covered panel to cover the front of it when I'm not staring at the plants, beaming them my mind's love-juice.
So here's a shot of what it looks like today.
For ventilation, I have a large oscillating fan outside the grow area. My husband has some computer fans he's promised to wire for me in the next couple days that I plan on attaching to the bottom of the middle shelf.
For my medium and nutrients I'm going to try to stay as organic as possible. My medium is roughly 40% worm castings, 30% perlite, 30% vermiculite. (My husband called the worm castings 'wriggler doodle' earlier and I about tinkled my pants.
) The pots I have are quite large, maybe 6-7 gallons, I'm not sure. I do plan on putting my seeds directly in those to avoid having to transplant.The nutrients were the hardest decision for me. There are soooo many choices. After digging and digging on the forums and venturing elsewhere on the web, I chose some that weren't so well-known, but seem to be in-line with what I was looking for. They are from Blue Mountain Organics. All the reviews I could find for them were extremely positive. I got the combo pack that contains 'Super Plant Tonic' (root inoculant/plant tonic), 'Grow It Green' (grow fertilizer), 'Flower Power' (bloom/fruiting fertilizer) and 'Foliar Harmony' (foliar fertilizer). The combo pack includes a 16 oz. bottle of each solution and each bottle mixes up 32 gallons. For the whole pack it was $37 with shipping!
Here are the ingredients for the nutrients, if anyone is interested:
Super Plant Tonic - Artesian Spring Water, Worm Castings, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Azomite, Unsulphured (Blackstrap) Molasses, Endo and Ecto Bacteria, and Humic Acid
Grow It Green -NPK of 5-2-5- Artesian Spring Water, High Nitrogen Bat Guano, Worm Castings, Azomite, Unsulphured Molasses, Humic Acid, Beet Root Extract, Comfrey Hay Extract, Alfalfa Meal Extract, Endo and Ecto Bacteria
Flower Power -NPK value of 1-8-7- Artesian Spring Water, Fossilized High Phosphorus Bat Guano, Fossilized High Phosphorus Seabird Guano, Worm Castings, Azomite, Unsulphured Molasses, Humic Acid, Beet Root Extract, Comfrey Hay Extract, Alfalfa Meal Extract, Endo and Ecto Bacteria
Okay, aside from all that, I have some crappy pH strips I've tested my water with, and luckily it seems to be around 6.3-7.0 right out of the tap. My mom-in-law just asked me to make a wish list for Christmas and I'm thinking I'll ask for a decent digital meter. There's another hard decision.
I'm also planning on switching to HPS lighting for flower. I'm thinking 400watt. I might put a ballast and bulb on that Christmas wish list. (She always sends presents early.) We'll see what I find - I don't want her to break the bank for my grow. Although she'd be happy to smoke the fruits of my labor, so we'll see how it goes.
As for my soaking seeds, they went in the jars at 10am this morning. I'm thinking I'll let them soak for at least 12 hours and then put them directly into my medium. (I keep calling it that because I'm confused about soilless vs. soil... I guess I have no 'soil' with wriggler doodle, perlite, vermiculite).
Thanks for looking at my long first journal post! Hopefully I'll have a decent update soon! Also, I welcome/hope for any advice, thoughts, considerations, encouragement. I'm terribly nervous!
forums. 
