OldWolf's First Grow LED Stealth Closet

[OldWolf]

This is my first grow ever, and my first post I have so many questions but after reading some amazing journals I decided a journal was probably the best way to go. I had a limited budget and no experience so I am starting with some decent bag seeds I acquired. Figured I should learn to grow healthy plants before spending tons of money on equipment and seedbank seeds. I am growing for personal use, I have bad anxiety attacks and Mary Jane seems to be the only really effective and reliable medication I've used thus far. That said I am going to follow the guidelines here How to Make a Grow Journal

I began by walling off a small section of my basement, 7 ft tall, 2 1/2 ft wide in the front and 4 ft wide front to back. Friends and family come thru daily so stealth was necessary. I made a carbon filter and hooked it to a 6" pipe with 2 x 200mm 80cfm whisper fans, both pulling thru the filter. I mounted a chain on the center of the ceiling for my LED light, hooked up an electrical outlet and lined the walls and ceiling with black plastic to keep the light in. I hope to cover the walls with some reflective material soon. Heres a few pics

this is the room in stealth mode, gonna paint soon...

here it is opened up

Hopefully my pictures aren't too big, the photo guidelines limited file size but I didn't see a res size limit please correct me if I am wrong. I had some old mirrors laying around so I threw them in there, thought it might help bounce some light around

Here is my exhaust

I got a brinks electronic timer hooked to the light on 18/6

Guess that's it for the room itself, if there is any more info I can add please let me know.

On to the details!

I Started with 6 bag seeds of an unknown strain
I chose plump healthy seeds, soaked in water for 24 hours, planted into peat briquettes, all 6 germinated within 3-4 days, as they emerged I put them under the light and administered a 25% strength solution of Formula Flora root start stimulator

They are 6 weeks old now and in the veg stage on 18/6 light schedule.

I am using a 5-Band Tri-Spectrum 90w UFO LED its called the "Illuminator"

here is the site I got it from:
https://store.------------------.com/Illuminator-90W-UFO-LED-Grow-Lights-p/illuminator ufo 90w.htm
I almost ordered the 180w but because it was so expensive I decided to go with the 90w first and just grow 3 plants, then I realized if I started 6 plants with bag seeds probably half would be males... so I germinated 6.

I just transplanted all 6 from 2 gallon pots to 4 gallon pots.
I used miracle grow potting soil, and 2 inches of miracle grow garden top soil, an old lady I smoke with swore by it lol

I purchased some Formula Flora fertilizer from here :
Home :: Combination packs :: Start all-in-one pack

I used the root start 2 times (once a week for 2 weeks) at 50% strength because I read that most new growers over-fertilize, now 6 weeks in I have not fed anything else, guess I would like some advice before I do any damage. I noticed because the LED light doesn't generate much heat at all that the soil has stayed pretty moist for 3-4 days before the top starts to dry out. So I have stayed on a once every 3-4 day watering schedule. But that was before I transplanted to the larger pots.

I have been monitoring the temp and humidity, Temp has been 70-75 daytime and 68-72 nightime
Humidity has fluctuated quite a bit tho between 55-80% but stays around 65% most days

So Its been pretty quiet with them so far, I did have one bad incident, I was gone for 3 days unexpectedly, and left the day I was supposed to water, so they went for almost a week without water in the smaller pots, when I got back I found them all very droopy and crispy a lot of the lower fan leaves were brown and yellow, some fell off on their own and I clipped a few of the really bad looking ones, but after a good watering and a few days to heal they all perked up and seemed to be ok. I read somewhere that stresses like that can increase the chances of them being male, is this true? Below are a few pics of the worst looking one roughly a week after I watered them.

I planted them all off center cuz I'd like to try some LST but I don't know how long I should wait after transplanting them. I also want to top them but again don't know how much stress is too much stress.

So any advice, encouragement or constructive criticism is welcome, I'm not looking for a huge yield or anything just the learning experience. Thanks for looking. Peace dudes

 

[donpaul.p]

Hi, i just had a quick read through the start of your journal, starting with the grow space, mirrors are no good at reflecting light, all mirrors do is reflect heat, they actually absorb light so the best option and cheapest would be to get some flat white paint, not gloss as that is shiny and creates heat spots and absorbs light, so white emulsion is the best to use, so paint the insides with that, or go to the auction site and order some mylar rescue blankets, these are very cheap and provide the best reflective properties you can get, they are better than flat white paint, but flat white paint is 100 times better than using mirrors. so thats all i can advise on making your grow room a better place for the plants.

now for the plants, im not sure what nutrients your using, but the plants look a light green to slightly yellow colour, this is either a sign they have been in the dark for a long time, or that the plants really need some nutrients, your going to need 2 types. 1 for the veg stage and 1 for the flower stage, you need something high in N from the NPK rating during the veg stage and high in P from the NPK rating for flower, the best product i have found is blue planet nutrients, they do some great nutrients at low prices so check their website out, but for now id get some kind of tomatoe base feeder, liquid feed is better, now id start using the nutrient mix at half strength and see how the plants respond, you should see that within 48 hours the plant will start looking a whole lot better and a nicer darker shade of green, they really look like they need some nutrients,

another word of advice, dont over water them, the roots prefer dry condition so they can absorb oxygen, so only water when the pot is completely dry, now i was watering ever 3 or 4 days, water so that the water drains out the bottom of the pot then stop, now leave the plant for 3 or 4 days before you water them again, they prefer a slightly dry soil to grow in, im sure your plants will soon start looking better.

good choice joining this site theirs loads of top growers on here, if you have any questions just ask, or pop over to my journal and have a look what i got going on and ask any questions that as im sure their are loads of growers who follow my journal that will come over and have a look at yours and offer some help and advice if needed.

 

[OldWolf]

Thanks for the advice, I mixed up a 50% strength solution and fed today, I will water them when the soil looks dry from now on. Also can you advice me what is the optimal RH and temp I should aim for? I will check out your journal post haste again thanks for taking time to help me out.

 

[donpaul.p]

its no problem mate, i grew my 1st plant 9 years ago and i didnt have a clue what i was doing, but it worked and this is the only grow i have had since then so im still learning, im glad you asked about temps and humidity, my plants where stunted at the start, but im in the UK and temps have been cold until the last few days so i struggled with low temps and this stunted growth loads,
perfect temp is anywhere between 70f and 80f, 78 is suppose to be the best growing temp and produces the most growth, since my plants have been around 78 or slightly over they have really grown, but now im in summer temps have been hitting 90f so i have got a big fan blowing now when the lights are on, so 78 is about right but anything above or slightly below 70 will work, id say upto 85 at a push for the upper growing temp, but anything in the 70s should be perfect for them.

humidity for veg should be around 50 or 55% and in flower around 40%, but anything either side of these would be ok,

my temps where down in the 50s and my plants stopped growing, but i was using cfls when i started and now im using hps im struggling to keep temps down now its summer, but im just about got it all under control, i hope thats some help to you, ask any questions you like and ill do my best to answer them, also ask any questions you like on my journal about your grow or mine and im sure you will get loads of answers and when you get to know more growers you will soon have loads of them checking your grow out and giving advice if needed, i knew nothing when i joined this site, but the results im getting now really do speak for themselves.

im glad you got some nutes sorted out and began feeding, you should notice a difference within 24 to 48 hours so the leaves should look darker and the plant should grow a bit quicker, start at half strength when you mix for the first couple of feeds then slowly take it up a bit each time till you are at full strength, some plants wont take full strength so if you go up slowly over a couple of weeks you should have no problems, but when you notice a yellow patch on one of the leaves then you know the plants reached the limit for its nutes so back off the strength slightly then that will be your level till you switch to the flower nutrients, then do the same again.

but if you are in the usa do check out blue planet nutrients, their cheap to buy and designed with these plants in mind so can bu used at full strength from seedling stage, loads of growers on here now use bpn, i saw the results and said how gutted i was that i lived in the UK and wouldnt be able to afford to get any, anyway another grower on here called teSmp jumped in and him and another grower paid for the nutes and delivery, cost about $80 all together as delivery was the expensive part, but as soon as i started using it my plants totally changed pretty much over night and they have grown really quick since feeding bpn, so if you get chance and are in the usa then have a look at corey he is the bloke who makes the nutes, and try and get hold of some, they are a lot cheaper than some other brands and they really do work.

for getting seeds id go to herbies head shop, click their pick and mix seeds and he sells seeds for as little as £1.24 or $2.50 plus postage which is £3, not sure how much to usa but it wont be much, herbie always gives away free seeds with every order even if you only buy 1 seed, if you look at my last post on mt journal you will see what i got for free when i purchased one seed, well i say 1 seed, i paid £2.65 for a pack of 6 seeds as it was a mixed pack so i got six seeds from certain strain and all are award winning plants so the seeds will be from some of these plants,

 

[Happy Kitty]

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