High-Society's - Soil - First Time Budget Kush Grow - 2012

[high-society]

as the title says, its an organic soil grow on a budget. my equipment is as follows:
60x60x160 secret jardin dr2 tent
250w dual spectrum light, ballast and euro reflector and timer
175m3/h extractor fan, carbon filter and ducting
min./max thermometer and Hygrometer
this should all be ariving tomorrow and will be set up in the evening, so il be getting pics up of the basic set up tomorrow.
heres the info on the plants (seeds at the moment)

What strain is it? kush
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? mainly indica
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? still a seed
If in Veg... For how long? see how fast she stretches
If in Flower stage... For how long? 8-9 weeks??
Indoor or outdoor? indoor tent grow
Soil or Hydro? soil
If soil... what is in your mix?
If soil... What size pot? 11l
Size of light? 250w
Is it aircooled? yes
Temp of Room/cab? update on 30/5/12
RH of Room/cab? update on 30/5/12
PH of media or res? 6-7
Any Pests ? hopefully none
How often are you watering? Day A - watering, Day B - dry, Day C -dry, Day D - check soil
Type and strength of ferts used? BioBizz Bio-Grow, BioBizz Bio-Bloom, BioBizz Topmax

this is a complete novice grow, the only information i have, has been gathered has been from this and a few other helpful sites along with
greg greens-the cannabis grow bible. i have been looking into growing cannabis for sometime and got completely fed up of
drooling over everyone elses pictures on here and thought me and a friend could give it it a go
the first thing i found was the absolutely overwhelming amount of information out there. for someone who has no experiance
growing any types of plants i found it quite daunting, hopefully this thread can help a few others trying to get a foot in the
door of cannabis growing aswell.

right. well id like you all to remember that this isnt going to be a perfect grow. i dont mind making mistakes, its how i learn.

i am going to be germinating in soil for this grow, i looked into rockwool cubes and while the germination rate seems to be higher, my friends dad has been germinating his seeds in soil for years and swears by it, so with some of his guidance im hoping to germinate 3 seeds going indoors with one outdoors. rockwool will be used to germinate in my next grow. i want to keep the whole process as simple as possible. i currently have zero plant cultivation skills but hopefully il be a bit wiser at the end of this grow.

i hope i havent missed anything out, any questions or surgestions about the set up or my plans for the grow are more than welcome, but remember im no expert please keep them simple enough for me not to get confussed and keep in mind this is a budget grow,

thanks for reading should have a few pics up tomorrow.


H-S

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

right then guys
took a delivery of some parcels today, heres what we ended up with

pretty happy, took 2 hours to set up

got 3 seeds in there, OG kush, and 2 easy kush seeds i got me hands on.

all potted up

the fan isnt running while there germinating, and the plastic bags were a surgeston from my friends father.

the temp at the bottom of the tent is about 37C/98F while shes all sealed up and im worried this is going to be way to hot for both my seeds and when my plants are here.

anyone have any advice on how to lower the temp of the tent? or how to optimize my setup??

cheers guys

H-S

 

[growrook]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

Welcome high society! looks like I popped your journals cherry! That temp is good for germ but when they start your gonna want to get down to 70/78 degrees. I would turn on your exhaust fan that should bring it down, or leave your tent open if you can. hows your humidity?

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hey, thanks for the welcome

the exhaust fan is on currently, got her opened up right now and the temps gone down to 31.7C/89F which im a bit happier, i think i don't have enough fresh air getting in when shes sealed, would an induction fan help this or is there an easier way of doing it?

was also thinking of going for a dual spectrum CFL lamp, heard these run a bit cooler than the HID iv got in there at the moment, what do you think?
would moving the carbon filter/fan set up help at all?

humidity is down at 31% at the moment any ideas how to raise it?

thanks for the help and input its much appreciated



H-S

 

[glassONglass]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hey buddy. great start! i say keep the HID lamp and you'll be very happy you did come harvest time. do you have an extra vent open to allow air in? your ventilation is nice the way it is for when your girls get stinky but for now the carbon filter is unnecessary and you might want to save that fresh activated carbon for when you need it. the fan you're using appears to be inline which pulls air better than it pushes so try to get the outtake as straight as possible. you may end up needing to add a fan to pull air at the end of the line to keep the airflow up if its a long bendy run. good luck with your grow dude! the hardest part is getting your room dialed in to give your plants a healthy environment. once you've got it figured out, they should grow like.... well a weed!

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hey man, cheers for the kind words, il get the carbon filter out of there in the morning, i never even thought about it like that to be honest, caught up in the moment of getting it all set up haha.
the ducting is another thing i hadn't thought about, will probably just cut it short so it vents straight into the room.
i am hoping to stick with the HID, will save me money, so long as i can get the room temps at an acceptable level

thanks for the input, cant wait till i can get some proper pictures up

H-S

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

A bit of advice needed please guys.
the temps sky high with the light on, got a max reading of 98F last night, had a play with the ducting/ carbon filter and ended up coming up with this

my thoughts being that since its just under the light it might draw some of the warm air away from the plants a bit better. got a temp reading of 91F with all the lights on and the tent shut so it is slightly better, the carbon filter was only left on to get an accurate reading of the temps i can expect when it is in use. iv been reading up and i can see 3 clear options:

option 1. air cooled reflector (air cooled super nova) but id have to run that (and my carbon filter at a later date) off my one fan as i don't have the money or the space for a second one and a new reflector unfortunately.

tent>filter>light>fan>out

any ideas if this would be a viable option?

option 2. Would be change to CFL but i would like to avoid this if possible.

option 3. I could get an intake fan and run this in parallel with my current fan.

opinions and advice needed



H-S

 

[seagem]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

to community.

Tent is great an it look like alot to have in such a cramped space.I see only a few suggestions. If at all possible provide for air circulation all the way around the outside of your tent, not sure how much room you have but if you can run a regular floor box fan blowing on the tent, with air circulating about a foot away from the wall will help. I know what others say about do this an dont do that. But I can tell you to do what makes sense to you. I personally started 8 seeds in jiffy pod disc's in paper cups with Cfl's until about 2 weeks ago I veg'd them under the cooler lights about 2 inches from the light. Just need to check it everyday raise the light as they grow. Once they get out of the seedling growth and you begin to seethe stem thickening up and fan leaves showing with under growth you should put them back in the tent. I fear for you that if there is anyway possible to get the tent out of that corner,you may have to arrange the room differently, but try to stay away from windows, they can create temp problems there to

one of the fans needs to be gently blowing over the seedlings to allow the stem to strength. By using the cfl you get a bit of information under your belt and can relax some. The run cooler. There are some home-made on on here that are very good..

I grow at temps from seed at 73 - 78 only and now at almost 3 months for humidity, you can keep a open jug in their for humidity.

Go to the Grow Room and then go down to journals check out others set ups. one thing that makes it hard is to get several people chimming in and which way do you go?????

Once you have 50 post to any thread then you can send pm, so if you need some help or what ever send me a private and I'll gladly point you in the right direction...or send you over to someone I know.

On the mounted fan you have, consider heat rises, it might be of benefit to have the fan down low blowing across the plants. Cllo air falls. You didn't tell us where your temps are coming from top midrange or btm of tent. you should be able to leave the top flap down to about 1/2 way... there is a learning curve all of have had to Contend with and besides most of us here feel the same as you in the beginning.

I havent grown for over 40 years and had not smoke but just in the last year because of medical conditions. I had no idea of what I was doing and old ways are good and can last long, but I wanted to get them big freekin buds to.

Well, late here hope this helps, if you need something you can go to my signature and click on my Berry bomb grow, which I almost trashed because they went from showing males to hermin on a couple and now to female making buds.
Needless to say if I had to start more seeds then I would and get my 2nd going some how.

I bought a wal **rt clothes closet one for extra storage, white inside and zipped, I lined it wil the sliver bubble wrap, hung 2 flo's grow lights and they were right on top of the pants, only because they loved to stretch. I keep them short because I knew they are going to put on close to doublefrom going into flower. I still haven't got my 400W hps/mh in yet but should be here soon.

Well its late here so have a good one, dont feel overwhelmed, and best of all make friends enjoy yourself

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hey Seagem, cheers for the info. gonna be leaving the top half of the tent open for most of the day today while i consider my options. i do like your idea about circulating air around the outside of the tent but unfortunately the space you see is all the space we have, not ideal i know but im gonna try and make the best out of the situation. the temps taken from where the pots are right at the bottom of the tent, i just think with such a small space and limited air movement around the tent it'l be too hot in there for the girls.

just checked out your journal, looking good its amazing how quick they grow, il be keeping my eye on that one

need to get my post count up as well really but iv just been enjoying reading through the site and trying to soak up as much of the info possible.

i think il end up getting an air cooled reflector because i need to get those temps down fast.

thanks muchly for the help

H-S

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

made a last ditch effort to bring the temps down before ordering anything

temps at the bottom of the tent were sitting at 90F with the door closed. so the seeds have come out and the lights and filter turned off. seeds are now jamming on the window sill in the sun. im not hopeful they will germinate as they did spent a few hours at 90F+ but we can hope aye.

got a few bits coming tomorrow i hope so will get some more pictures of set up 2

gonna be potting 3 more seeds once iv got the temps where i want them, will put the other 3 in there as well, if they do germ il give them to a few mates not sure i want more than 3 in my space really.

so keep a watch for the pics tomorrow guys

H-S

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

Hi mate, great start to your journal, i see seagem has been giving you some advice, he has helped loads of people and knows what he is going on a about.

the temps are high mate, you will struggle with temps that high, it will stress the plants and if this happens later on in flower they will go hermie on you, i started my grow using cfls and trust me they really do work, i used the 6500k cfls for veg and i used a mixture of mainly 2700k for flower and some 6500k cfls for extra light spectrum, all of these where the household type cfls around 23 and 30 watt and they did work and got my plants well into flower.

so the way i see it you have a couple of options, either open the tent up as much as you can during the lights on period, even wire up a fan so its blowing the heat up from the bottom of the tent and towards the top, you dont want a fan blowing directly on the plants as this causes problems when they are young, a gentle breeze is ok as it strengthens the stem, any stronger and it will dry the leaves out and stunt growth, so if you are able to have the tent open when the lights are on and you can get the temps below 80f then id do that, but if their is no way you can get the temps that low then you may have problems, i notice the grow is at the bottom of the bed against 2 walls, this will cause heat to build up but as you say it cant be moved then thats something we can try and figure out.

could you possibly have a fan on the bed blowing into the open part of the tent when the lights are on, this will force cool air in and hot air out, this should get the temps right down, i do it with my room, im in a 3ft by 3ft brick built cupboard so cant be moved, sealed tight on 3 sides and a door that opens, so now my plants are bigger and in flower, and now im in summer i have to leave the grow door open with the fan blowing on the room from about 3 feet away, this keeps my temps stable at around 75 to 80f but if the doors is closed then this creeps up, my lights go off at midnight and back on at 12, sometimes if im out im later opening the door and i have seen no problems with my plants, if the plants are over heated the ends of the leaves will curl up telling us its to hot. so if you could get a fan blowing say upwards towards the light then this should stop as much heat getting down onto the plants.

failing that this early on you would be ok using cfls, cfls really do work, my grow started and got well into flower with cfls and they worked ok, i had no heat issues, the plants seemed to want to get really bushy using cfls and had very little stretch, so if you really are struggling to get the temps below 80 then id go with the cfls, this will prevent stress on the plants and will get them growing while you sort the temps out, they will grow well under cfls and most growers grow their clones under cfls for the first couple of weeks, so you could start with them and switch to the dual spec when temps are under control.

you either need to cool the room down the tent is in or get fans blowing into the tent to remove the hot air into the room, but if the room the tent is in is pretty small then you really need somewhere to vent the hot air out of, like leaving the door open to the room, just depends how secure your grow is or how secure you want it

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

id say 3 plants in 3gallon pots would be about all your going to get in their as it only measures 2 ft by 2ft, the other option would be to grow a 2ltr hempie grow, from either cuttings or seeds, for now id go with what you have got and keep an eye on the temps,

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hello mate,
id like to start with saying how impressed i am with the amount of support and feedback everyone has given me already and i haven't even managed to germinate anything yet haha. i'm not normally a fan of forums and i never really use them but 420mag and its members has changed my opinion

i am considering using CFL's if i cant get the temps down, im hoping for around 80F lights on and 65-70F lights off. iv just taken delivery of a fan im going to use as an intake. its rated at about 90m3/h and will have little ducting to maximize air flow into the tent. im waiting on an air cooled light reflector as well, if that arrives today there will be pictures once i have it set up and running. going to monitor the temps with the light on and door closed for 2 hours, the light on door open for 1 hour, followed by lights off door closed for another hour. if this doesn't bring the temps where i want them then i will be going to CFL.

the door will be opened for some of the day however during veg with the lights on 24/7 having the door open will not be practical all the time, its my fault really for thinking i could get away with the tent where it is, should have expected a few air flow problems.

i do like the idea with the fan blowing from the bed inwards while the doors open, il have to find a fan round the house i can use. i am going to re position the fan i have in there at the moment to blow air upwards from the bottom, hopefully this with the intake fan should help the situation while shes all sealed up.

security isn't really an issue in the house, the windows to the room are left open all the time for the air circulation.

i am going to be looking into CFLs today, since im waiting in for the light reflector it will give me something to do

thanks for the help don.paul.p youve given me a lot to think about

pics up later hopefully

H-S

 

[Electricthom]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

Welcome HS, this is the best place ain't it? Hard to add anything after those two members + being in my 1st grow. They are the cream of the crop for sure. I was going to suggest 6500K Cfl's as well. on a budget myself I did and got good results. I experimented with more CFL's higher just before flower and that raised them up right where I wanted them. I changed to 1000W HPS yesterday and heat was high. I opend three vents at the bottom walls of my tent even those against walls, placed a small computer size fan blowing the cooler low air up mixing with the hot air and exhaust up top(heat rises) to pull the heat out. One other thing I found is DON'T put the thermometer in direct light. Silly me did and it added 5+ deg F to the tents real temp. Other than that PH the water with a good meter not test strips. I lost plants and time due to PH. The bucket Hempy in my tent is the only survivor out of 11 and it was a seed that fell un-noticed into some loose coco in the bottom of the germ tray and grew. Once Ph was under control they grew like crazy. Enjoy it, it will be a fun ride even with errors.

 

[tazzman]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

Good luck on your grow! I am only on my second grow so not much information for you here! Once you get through the first the second seems to be a lot easier! Everyone here always have good help and answers for posters.

 

[seagem]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hello mate,
id like to start with saying how impressed i am with the amount of support and feedback everyone has given me already and i haven't even managed to germinate anything yet haha. i'm not normally a fan of forums and i never really use them but 420mag and its members has changed my opinion

H-S

Glad to see new members accepting to advise and cautions.

An Ideal indoor grow would provide air circulation all the way around your tent. It might not be possible but if you could re-arrange your room some how to compensate for the dead air space (where you have the tent) to something that allows full air flow. Yes your reflector will help (or should help). If after you get your trial and error with the temps still is not dropping I might suggest turning on the ac or if you dont have an ac there are some portable ac's out there that are small and for 1 room. You might condersider this avenue.

If you will look under the DIY's section you can find light setup's on the cfl's that others are using and make something similar. CFL's are good for heat issue's. I would disagree the use of them all the way thru the grow unless your grow is more concentrated on a hobby. Each grow is different and with as many strains out there.

One sure fast way to get help is to find the closest forum to your condition post in that forum and give information and pics.
Have a great one.

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

hey guys, thanks for the support, sorry i didn't get pics up yesterday, camera battery was dead.

i think iv overcome my heat issues

with that beast in there its running at 82f all sealed up (in the next pics you can see where the thermometer is sat) humidity is at 42-50% and about the same open. the carbon filter will be hung up top with the rvk100 that's currently cooling the light then this will feed into the end of the lights that open. in the rvk100's position will be sitting a rvk125 (found cheap, second hand on fleabay) to provide maximum air flow and cooling over the light. we tried to take as much of the advice that we could about air flow, we set up an old 8 inch fan blowing air over 2 faces of the tent and i really think we have the temps under control. massive thanks to everyone for there advice, when i first got it set up and saw the temps go through the roof i really didn't know what to do, if it wasn't for you guys i think id still be pulling my hair out

that was 11am this morning

5pm

that's the only one so far. majorly pleased as its the OG kush that i only had one seed of. just gave em a bit of a water, gonna to look into PH testing and nutes, with my friend and his father (his father has a fair bit of outdoor grow experience)

thanks again for the help guys, hope you enjoyed the update

H-S

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

woke up this morning to a nice surprise

Monica

Lolita

that's the other 2 kush seeds we planted just come up, majorly surprised.

shaniqua (the first one to germ)

sorry about the bad pic quality. need to get the hang of this photography lark

potted up another, gonna start with 4 and eliminate the weakest (or give it away) once space becomes an issue.

temps today are looking good, 77.5f all sealed up. got a cup of water in there as humidity is at 36%.

really happy

H-S

 

[donpaul.p]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

looking good, so glad you got the temps sorted out, you should have no worries now, nice set up by the way, great buy

 

[high-society]

Re: high-societys, soil, first time budget kush grow-2012

cheers donpaul.p
unfortunatly guys, my netbooks just packed up so im having to use my friends computer, meaning updating will be harder untill i get it sorted but i shall try my bestest

got some pics of the plants today at 5pm

they seem to be all happy

thanks again for the help guys



H-S