First Grow, First Journal & Hoping For First Harvest

[Edzzed]

So I had started a thread when my seeds did not come up after 7 days. Back tracking I planted seeds on February 4th. They took about 10 days to show themselves. That was yesterday morning. Happy Valentines day. So I have two white widow, two purple kush and two chocolope. waiting on one chocolope and purple kush to show themselves. I started them in Peat pellets and have now moved them into jiffy cups with some more peat in it. In about 2-3 days I plan to settle them in fabric pots with Viagrow coco and perlite mix. I was having an issue with low humidity so rigged up a towel and water pumping system to keep the towel moist. At this moment the plants are under 10 inch tall plastic domes that once had jalapenos in them. Cleaned and washed. Temperature is about 78 and humidity is 50% I am doing drain to waste and have pumps, timers fans, two Viparspectra par 600 lights but only using one right now. Once I go from veg to flower I will switch the light to my home made cookie sheet lights. They are HLG 550 v2 equivalent. I took a page from the Chinese and reverse engineered it so it's done my way. The cookie sheets are 2700K and 3500K so should avg. out to 3100K. Time will tell but I can say they are bright. My setup is going to be fully automated so I should be able to go a week without being home.

 

[Blew Hiller]

 

[ScrogNub]

I'm in! Want to see how the light works out should be ok, G/L!

 

[beez0404]

What is the cost to build a light like the one shown? Parts and shipping?

 

[Edzzed]

What is the cost to build a light like the one shown? Parts and shipping?

Came in right around 420.00 USD. Strips were 22.00 a piece, Two drivers were 47.00 and 27.00 being a used part for the 2nd one. Then cookie sheets were 19.00 each aluminum C channel was 20.00 Thermostat wire was 20.00 for 50 feet. double sided heat transfer tape was 20.00 then there was screws, nuts, bolts, incidentals and such. Much cheaper than doing it HLG.

 

[beez0404]

I'm kicking around ideas for some side lighting to use when I try to grow a larger size plant in my tent and I'll need to help out with more lighting. I think what you built looks stellar. Great job.

 

[Edzzed]

I'm kicking around ideas for some side lighting to use when I try to grow a larger size plant in my tent and I'll need to help out with more lighting. I think what you built looks stellar. Great job.

Thanx, Appreciate it. My wife says I have a bit of Macgyver in me. FYI, were I going to do side lighting, What size tent. Depending on what size tent. The strips I used are 15.8" x 1.2" x .2" . Run 6 of them and you'd want an HLG240-24A meanwell driver to run them. That I know 4 sure. 12 strips and two of the aforementioned drivers will suffice. Or one HLG480-24A should do but don't quote me on that. Confidence is high but not 100%. Just sayin. You should be able to use C channel aluminum to run the circumference of your tent. Just drill and bolt them together, One on top of the other. Structurally they'll take it if 1.5 inch x 3/4 or 1/2 inch C channel.

 

[ScrogNub]

@Edzzed What size tent are you putting your diy light into or you doing a room?

 

[Edzzed]

@Edzzed What size tent are you putting your diy light into or you doing a room?

4x4. Knowing what I know now, I probably would have bought a smaller tent since my wife has made her opinion known on how many plants I was going to grow. 4 plants is the law. Didn't seem to matter to her that we have a legal suite down stairs as I had planned 8. Told her that was the purpose in buying 15 seeds as she was standing right next to me at Crop Kings sales desk. Could have spoken up then. Tried germinating 6 to account for duds and seems 4 is what I have going on. Two others have not poked out of the peat yet.

 

[beez0404]

Give some consideration to germinating in a hempy solo cup. My personal results are a very high rate of success.

And if you veg your plants longer and end up in 7 gallon pots (or bigger) you should have no trouble filling your 4x4 tent with four plants.

 

[ScrogNub]

4 in a 4x4, nothing wrong with that!

 

[Edzzed]

Give some consideration to germinating in a hempy solo cup. My personal results are a very high rate of success.

And if you veg your plants longer and end up in 7 gallon pots (or bigger) you should have no trouble filling your 4x4 tent with four plants.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did view a you tube video and since we are only allowed 4 plants. I plan or hope to make the most of it with 4 plants.

 

[Edzzed]

So update. I did mix up the coco and perlite then read about buffering. WTF. hadn't heard of that so I bought some Fox farms ocean forest. I know I heard it's hot. I will do coco next round but for now it's fox. Kinda sucks because it looks as though I will not be able to use the nutes I had bought. They are specifically made for coco. Cocotek a + b grow bloom and what not. Looks like I might get the Fox farms nutrient trio unless it being a hot soil, do I need all 3. ROOKIE HERE. Anyhow moving along. I have FFOC mixed with perlite at 42 liters soil and 3 gallons of perlite. I assume the fabric pots are measured in US gallons. Hope I calculated correctly to about 30%. It'd be nice if The USA went metric. I know I was against Canada when we changed but it really is so much easier to work with. I mean who decided a MILE WAS 5280 FEET. A kilometer is 1000 meters. So I now have the jiffy cups in soil for 24 hours now and all plants look good. I did it that way as to leave some wiggle room or a barrier of sorts to a hot soil until the plants were ready for it. The roots go digging they will like what they find or run like heck. I also fully automated my setup. I have a heat - cool switch for heater and poor mans humidifier. Pumps water into a towel hanging over a bucket. Got the humidity at 60% and will be getting a humidity switch to turn on an exhaust fan till humidity drops. Lights are automatic, I also have a switch to turn on a water pump to drip over the soil. All I will have to do for the next 3 weeks or so is make sure water is in the bucket. Question, I have bottled water that says TDS 1152 should I use it or lose it.

 

[High Wally]

The rumors about FFOF being too hot are untrue. People do neglect the pH of their water and learn the hard way. I had started many seeds in FFOF without any issues at all. You will be just fine starting them in the pots they will finish in but I think transplanting is necessary for better root development. I don't remember you saying, these are feminized seeds, right? As for those bottles, yes you can used FF Bottles, but you won't need them for about a month or more. The FFOF has enough nutrients for that length of time. I started with 4 Fem seeds in a 5x5 on my first grow. I topped them often and trained them well. I will take a seat here.....Cheers man!

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• High Wally
• Jan 3, 2019

 

[Edzzed]

They are all feminized. Bought directly from crop king seeds in Vancouver BC. Didn't get dinged for shipping. they are only 30 minutes away

 

[420BudzFreak]

Those lights are sweet! Looking forward to seeing them rock. I’ll hang around for the show if you don’t mind! Happy growing !

 

[Magicdvdfarm]

I’m in. Seat taken. I was just at CKS , awesome bunch of peeps. Happy growing Magic.

 

[Greenlizard]

Hey nice grow. I am growing CKS Purple Kush as well. Can't wait to try it.

 

[Edzzed]

I haven't pH'd the water. Been using Nestle pure life water. It is bottled in Hope BC. Same city they filmed First Blood in with Stallone. I do have a pH pen as well as TDS pen. The plants seem to be liking the soil and water right now. Took this pic moments ago. The Chocolope and white Widow appear to be taking off compared to the Purple kush. Their leaves are much larger. Light height is about 2 1/2 feet. The plants are on an elevated tray as I was going to do ebb and flow. I think I am going to pull the tray out and whack off some of the legs height. I figure do it now before the plants get taller.

 

[420BudzFreak]

Looking great! They looks super healthy. Good job. Happy growing!