First grow - almost ready

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FloridaSunset

New Member
Well, wish me luck! I'm almost ready to start my first grow in a couple of decades and my first hydro grow ever - yay! Had a little experience back in the day with indoor, but it was all soil and things have really changed since then!!

I think, finally, I've resolved the 'heating' issues with my 2x2x4 grow tent (would like to have had a larger one all around, but space is extremely limited so had to go with this little guy) and my 300w Mars Hydro LED (from all the reading I'd done I was under the mistaken impression that they ran a whole lot cooler than the actually do).

Still a little above where I'd prefer it to be, but the best I can do for now until I can rustle up another fan. Have a 100 CFM inline venting out the top now and two of the side view windows open for extra ventiliation (I plan on building light boxes for them well before flowering starts) but the temps still hang in the mid-80s. Had hoped I'd be able to get it under 80 by a bit, but the average light-time high continues to be about 84.5. Oh well...

As I said this will be a hydro grow (1 single plant/5 gal modified bubble bucket/no drip ring) using Advanced Nutrient nutes. Right now it's just the 300w Mars Hydro LED, but I plan on adding a couple CFLs for side-lighting later. The 'modification' on the Bubble Bucket is that I didn't use a 5 gal bucket - used a storage tote instead to save on height.

As for seeds I'm still trying to decide between Female Seeds BubbleGummer Feminized and Royal Queen Seeds Critical Feminized that I got from Bonza Seeds. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated from anyone who has experience with either of these two strains.

Plan on running a scrog to try to help compensate for the lack of headspace I've got with the tent. That and any other training method I can come up with that will accomplish the same goal - limit height of the plant.

Planning on popping the bean either later today or tomorrow! Bonzai!!

So, again, wish me luck! And any comments or suggestions on any aspect of my planned grow will be greatly appreciated. I'll be trying to keep everyone up to date on my progress as time goes by and hope to have a 'Grow Journal' going before to far into the grow.
 
Good luck floridasunset! It's a fun journey. I definitely think you should figure out how to get those temps down to 80 at the very least. Think about starting a journal!
 
One might suggest that you get a very firm handle on heat issues before you start dabbling with hydro. Drain to waste systems (hempy buckets) don't have the heat issues associated with other forms of hydro.
I tried MANY various system types including chillers. I was unable to grow anything. Went back to soil, then discovered hempy buckets. They work very well for me growing in a very hot grow room.
 
I didn't stumble across Hempy pots until very recently and I have the same problem with them as with the 5 Gallon bucket - limited headroom. That's why I decided to go with the modified Bubble Bucket instead. It's a 5 gallon tote and is substantially shorter than the bucket.

If the hydro doesn't work out this time I might consider a Hempy for the next grow if I can figure out how to deal with the headroom problem. Do you think a Hempy could be made out of a tote?
 
I take it the hole for the bottom reservoir stays at 2" regardless of the vessel being used as the bucket? I have a spare tote (sans lid 'cuz I screwed up drilling the hole and broke the darn thing in half) that I could convert to "Hempy" and try in this grow. Would have to pick up some perlite and poke the 1" hole and that would be about it I think...
 
I use a 7/16th bit to drill my drain holes. 1" would allow all the perlite to flow out of the hole.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend using a tote. Just seems like you're going to waste a lot of space and nutrients using a tote. You really want to try to match your plant size to your bucket size. Since the root ball will be round, a round container would be best. Look around you in your world... find something round, but shorter and fatter than a 5gal bucket.
 
You can save a few inches getting a 3.5 gallon bucket, but not a whole lot and you lose that valuable room for the roots.

I too use the hempy medium, with a 7/16" hole, and I've been pondering the same question of using hempy with shorter/wider containers. For any solid mediums (including soil), many people say it is better to have a deeper container than a wider one. I'll be testing this in the coming months by using two containers of the same volume, one tall and the other wide, but that doesn't really help you now...

I'm looking at designing and building a grow cabinet with limited headroom, so I'm interested to see where you end up!
 
FloridaSunset said:
Still a little above where I'd prefer it to be, but the best I can do for now until I can rustle up another fan. Have a 100 CFM inline venting out the top now and two of the side view windows open for extra ventiliation (I plan on building light boxes for them well before flowering starts) but the temps still hang in the mid-80s. Had hoped I'd be able to get it under 80 by a bit, but the average light-time high continues to be about 84.5. Oh well...
Click to expand...

OK, so I tried every thing I could think of short of adding another (6") inline fan to reduce the interior temp with no success. So today I swapped out the LED for a CFL setup hoping that would do the trick. The CFL is a 400w (actually 4 32w lights on y-splitters) and I thought that would be a whole lot cooler than the LED. Well, I closed off the two side view windows that had been open when the LED was in thinking they shouldn't need to be open for extra ventilation, and the temp is still hovering in the mid-80s!!

The only thing I can think of to get the temps down any more is to either go with less CFLs or to add another (6") fan to the exhaust system. Problem with adding the fan is that the tent, due to placement requirements, is tight against the wall on the back where the other 6" vent is on the tent so all I'd have available for venting is the 4" vent I'm already using to vent the 4" inline fan I'm already using.

Any thoughts or suggestion on how to lower the temp, or why I can't get it down, would be greatly appreciated. Hope all this rambling made sense - or a little bit anyways...
 
Tead said:
Perfect sense.
The only way I was able to overcome the issues is with AC. Even with AC, our local temps have hit 'evil' and I've shut down my shed for the summer and moved my vegging babies inside... probably until September. It's tough out there!
Click to expand...

That's the problem - it is an inside grow in an a/c room. Still can't get the temp in line. I thought CFL were supposed to run cool! These are running darn near as hot as my Led...
 
I've always felt they were quite warm. Both the tube itself and the ballast in the base. I run one of the big huge 150W CFLs. It cuts out the multiple ballasts that you get with all the smaller ones, but it's still plenty warm.
You might try creating some sort of sealed enclosure... I've seen folks use foil turkey baking pans. If you can enclose it and run venting thru it.... perhaps it would be easier to enclose the LEDs...
My 400 HID is a cool tube design. An enclosed glass tube with a light fixture in it. I have it hooked to some air ducting with an inline fan. Pull input from outside the grow room and exhaust out the other side of the grow room. Very little heat from it except the radiant heat of the light itself. The tube is always cool to the touch.
 

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