Rumplestilts
New Member
Episode IV: A New Growth
Hello Friends!
I'm finally getting around to posting a journal, but my ladies have been above ground for over a week now. A lot has happened in that week, but I'll get to that in a minute.
I want to make this journal as easy-to-follow as possible. I read a lot of journals before starting this one, and I appreciated the ones that explained everything the grower did. I will try to do that, too.
My set-up is fairly minimal, but I think it's well-engineered for my purposes. I started with an old dresser that my girlfriend was going to throw out. I removed all of the drawers and converted the bottom into tool storage space. The cabinet and upper drawer portions give me a total grow area of 26" x 14" x 26". Not much vertical space, so I'm going to try to keep my ladies short and stout.
I call this my Growdrobe, and I rolled it into a back closet (4' x 6') that I can moderate humidity, temperature, and light in.
Those are four 120mm computer case fans wired into a controller in the tool storage area. Three fans draw air in, and one pushes air through an attached dryer hose into a homemade activated carbon filter. I'll show the parts to that in another post.
Here is a shot of the filter assembly before I added the carbon between the inner and outer filter elements.
The light is a 300W LED from a manufacturer that I will not name, in accordance with the forum rules. So far I love the light, but ask me again in 3 months after I (hopefully) harvest.
I ordered 5 Northern Lights seeds of an 80% Indica / 20% Sativa phenotype. I promptly dropped one down my kitchen sink when opening the package. Now I have 4 Northern Lights seeds.
I put two of my four seeds in a bowl of water in a cabinet for twelve hours and then planted them in about a half an inch into top soil. I planned to leave them in these topsoil-only buckets for two weeks or more, but that didn't happen. More on that in a minute.
Call me superstitious, but I won't name a plant before it has broken through the surface. So for now, the buckets are labelled "A" and "B".
After three days, "B" decided to show herself, so I named her Brandy. Twelve hours later, Angie also popped up.
I haven't quite figured out the right white balance setting on my camera yet, so my apologies for the sometimes-pink, sometimes-blue pictures.
This was going well, but got a little carried away with the light. I tried the "more light is always better" approach and boosted my little seedlings to within 3 inches of the LED. Brandy's leaves curled up and showed obvious signs of LED burn. Oops. I moved them back to 20" from the light, and they both seem to be opening back up. I will leave them there until they are a little more established.
I figured that one traumatic experience per plant was enough, so while they were already stressed I transplanted them into their permanent garden planter with humus, peat moss, and manure soil. The ladies seem to like their new digs, but time will tell if they thrive.
I have been battling dry weather since the start. I have a 2-gallon humidifier running at all times and a wet bath towel hung up to keep relative humidity above 35-40%. Not mention how thirsty the ladies are. I had to water them every day in the starter pots, but I'm hoping the planter and new soil retain more moisture.
I seem to be fighting a pest problem, too. I can't seem to keep this pest out of my grow room. Any suggestions?
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and feel free to throw in advice or observations!
-Rumples
Hello Friends!
I'm finally getting around to posting a journal, but my ladies have been above ground for over a week now. A lot has happened in that week, but I'll get to that in a minute.
I want to make this journal as easy-to-follow as possible. I read a lot of journals before starting this one, and I appreciated the ones that explained everything the grower did. I will try to do that, too.
My set-up is fairly minimal, but I think it's well-engineered for my purposes. I started with an old dresser that my girlfriend was going to throw out. I removed all of the drawers and converted the bottom into tool storage space. The cabinet and upper drawer portions give me a total grow area of 26" x 14" x 26". Not much vertical space, so I'm going to try to keep my ladies short and stout.
I call this my Growdrobe, and I rolled it into a back closet (4' x 6') that I can moderate humidity, temperature, and light in.
Those are four 120mm computer case fans wired into a controller in the tool storage area. Three fans draw air in, and one pushes air through an attached dryer hose into a homemade activated carbon filter. I'll show the parts to that in another post.
Here is a shot of the filter assembly before I added the carbon between the inner and outer filter elements.
The light is a 300W LED from a manufacturer that I will not name, in accordance with the forum rules. So far I love the light, but ask me again in 3 months after I (hopefully) harvest.
I ordered 5 Northern Lights seeds of an 80% Indica / 20% Sativa phenotype. I promptly dropped one down my kitchen sink when opening the package. Now I have 4 Northern Lights seeds.
I put two of my four seeds in a bowl of water in a cabinet for twelve hours and then planted them in about a half an inch into top soil. I planned to leave them in these topsoil-only buckets for two weeks or more, but that didn't happen. More on that in a minute.
Call me superstitious, but I won't name a plant before it has broken through the surface. So for now, the buckets are labelled "A" and "B".
After three days, "B" decided to show herself, so I named her Brandy. Twelve hours later, Angie also popped up.
I haven't quite figured out the right white balance setting on my camera yet, so my apologies for the sometimes-pink, sometimes-blue pictures.
This was going well, but got a little carried away with the light. I tried the "more light is always better" approach and boosted my little seedlings to within 3 inches of the LED. Brandy's leaves curled up and showed obvious signs of LED burn. Oops. I moved them back to 20" from the light, and they both seem to be opening back up. I will leave them there until they are a little more established.
I figured that one traumatic experience per plant was enough, so while they were already stressed I transplanted them into their permanent garden planter with humus, peat moss, and manure soil. The ladies seem to like their new digs, but time will tell if they thrive.
I have been battling dry weather since the start. I have a 2-gallon humidifier running at all times and a wet bath towel hung up to keep relative humidity above 35-40%. Not mention how thirsty the ladies are. I had to water them every day in the starter pots, but I'm hoping the planter and new soil retain more moisture.
I seem to be fighting a pest problem, too. I can't seem to keep this pest out of my grow room. Any suggestions?
That's it for now. Thanks for reading, and feel free to throw in advice or observations!
-Rumples
