My First Time

[mainlylost]

So not sure where to start, this is my first time trying anything like this I went into my local hydroponics shop, and the guy set me up with roots organic original soil and the aurora masterpack for nutes (I definitely dont think I needed the masterpack for my first time but he was really convincing. I think I will just use the buddha grow and buddha bloom for my first time) For a seed I was supposed to get 10 lowryder/sour diesel hybrid clones, but that's kind of in limbo right now. I am hesitant to send cash overseas for drugs so for now I am using a seed found in some really delicious lemon weed (don't know the specific strand). I germinated it using the wet paper towel method and am now about 9 days in. I'm hoping it is a female so I can just clone it a bunch of times. I used a dresser converted to a stealth grow cabinet.

Anyway here are pics of the grow area.

veg chamber

Showing the fan that pulls air from veg to flowering chambers

Shows dual partition between veg/flower chambers (so that light doesnt leak through the hole where the fan is)

5x23w cfl and 1x42 w cfl =10800 lumens also dual fans in the airtight top of the chamber pull all the heat out of there

showing the readings of the flower chamber, I have a humidifier sitting directly on top of the dresser and cant get the humidity up... :/

Heat shield and carbon filter in the veg chamber

1x42w and 2x23w Cfl in veg chamber=6000 lumens

zoomed in on seedling

Close up of my baby

from the front

I know height is going to be an issue, I have a total of about 2.5 feet from floor to ceiling of interior
Anyway my question is, is my baby ready for nutes yet? its been about a week since planting the germinated seed, I was thinking of using a half strength formula (.25ml/gal water) and then next week going to full strength nutes

 

[TanR]

Hi mainlylost.

Welcome to 420 Magazine!

Very ingenious design and build of your cabinet. I hope it serves you well.

I suggest you hold off on using nutrients until your girl (here's hoping) has grown to the point of having at least 4 or 5 nodes (branches). Realistically you may be able to hold off even longer than that as you'll likely need to transplant just about the time it reaches that size and the new soil into which it's planted will have nutrients enough for another couple weeks after that.

Having reviewed the info on roots organic original potting soil, I couldn't find much info about what additives are included in it. Judging by some of their other products that do provide some insight into the ingredients, it likely contains at least some compost. I did note that the product description of the original potting soil indicates it is appropriate for " fast growing and heavy feeding plants". This leads me to believe the soil is already supplying at least some nutrition.

If this were my plant, I would wait until I begin to see a noticeable yellowing of the leaves indicating a lack of nitrogen before supplementing with any nutrients. It's much easier to fix an underfed plant than it is correct nitrogen toxicity.

Be well, happy growing and again - to

 

[mainlylost]

So on some advice I got in another thread I put stuff underneath the shelf the plant rests on to get it closer to the lights. While doing it I accidentally knocked it off the shelf onto the floor on its side :0. It looked mainly undamaged So i jus put it back in.I raised it up enough to make it horizontal from all three lights, right by them. This morning the thermometer (which sits right next to the plant) read 100.4. YIKES I moved the plant just a bit farther away and left the back door of the box off for a while to bring it down. Now I sealed it back up hoping the temperature stays to a better zone. I'm trying to keep the door to that room closed more to bring the humidity up and have put a moist towel in the chamber with the plant. If that doesn't work I will pu the humidifier right on the box on a timer so it only comes on intermittently.

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

Nice little set up you have there. Put a small bucket of water in the chambers to get the humidity higher during Veg. You don't want it too high, because of mold issues.

Now you have limited vertical space. Read up on LST and Topping, it will control the height of your plants & turn them into a bush instead of a Christmas tree. You can get your plants real close to those CFL's. The closer the better to get tighter nodes and more side branches.

I suspect that you'll be pleasantly surprised with your neat little set up.

+ Reps

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

Any updates?

 

[mainlylost]

So yesterday (the day after I raised the plant closer to the lights and dropped it) I opened the box and the whole plant was shriveled. the leaves are fairly green still but they feel brittle. The soil felt very drive even though I watered it yesterday. I watered it again and unscrewed a light (im worried that between the high temp and how close it is Im baking it.) =[ gahhh. I will try to upload pics of how it looks as soon as I am, but it won't let me upload pics through the proxy.

 

[mainlylost]

So yesterday (the day after I raised the plant closer to the lights and dropped it) I opened the box and the whole plant was shriveled. the leaves are fairly green still but they feel brittle. The soil felt very drive even though I watered it yesterday. I watered it again and unscrewed a light (im worried that between the high temp and how close it is Im baking it.) =[ gahhh. I will try to upload pics of how it looks as soon as I am, but it won't let me upload pics through the proxy.

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

Hey ML,

Can't see any pictures. Other members are having difficulty uploading photos also. I read in a thread if you hit the camera button in the task bar, you can insert your pictures from there.

 

[mainlylost]

Hey ML,

Can't see any pictures. Other members are having difficulty uploading photos also. I read in a thread if you hit the camera button in the task bar, you can insert your pictures from there.

Did you click the links? they arent formatted to display them in the thread. Also wht camera button on task bar? I don't see one :/

edit: I think I had set the permissions wrong, they should work now.

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

I clicked on the links, nothing shows. When you reply to a message, the task bar is on top. The camera button is the 3rd button from the right.

 

[mainlylost]

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

They don't look all too good pal. I think heat & humidity got them. Do you have a thermometer that measures the high/low temps with a humidity indicator? If not, it might be a good investment.

 

[MaineSmoker]

I'd say that knocking it over and the 100 degree temp got the best of the little thing.

 

[mainlylost]

I know. =[ Do you guys think its garbage time now? or still saveable. The temp was pretty consistently around 90 degrees until I moved it closer to the light. =[ I think its because I raised the whole floor up towards the lights. It probably shrank the volume of air between the lights and floor by 75%. That must have caused the heat spike

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

Yeah, I think it's better to pop a couple more seeds than to try and salvage those for sure. I'd germinate outside of the box though, at least until the seedlings are 2 weeks old and then put them into the closet. By that time, you should have you box dialed in with the temps, ventilation and humidity.

 

[mainlylost]

That was my only seed. I was trying to avoid mail ordering them, found that guy locally. Looks like Ill have to send away after all. :/

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

Bummer, but look at it this way, what would have happened if it turned out to be a male? You'd have to start again.

 

[mainlylost]

Yup, back to the drawing board I guess. Is there anything I can do at all to try to save that guy? if not Im just shutting the whole thing down until I can get some seeds in

 

[Buddy Ebsen]

I don't think so, it looks like it is to far gone. Seeds take about 7-10 to get, depending on where you live. I would continue to work on your setup in the mean time.

 

[mainlylost]

OK, so moving on. I'm going to order seeds, my first thought was lowryder for the height/yield. But I want to stay way from autoflowering if possible since I want to be able to clone and grow forever (or at least a while). Maybe norther lights? I can get it photoperiod, it is short and supposedly easy for beginners.