SAM's Indoor Medicine Cabinet - Perpetual Veg - 300W LED

[SAMtheAPman]

Where:
Indoors (stealth)

What:
DIY grow tent (from some left over aluminium tubing, plus new mylar film)
Size of tent - 88cm x 66cm x 120cm high (2ft 11in x 2ft 2in x 3ft 11in high)
Homemade potting mix - coco coir, vermiculite, perlite, compost, vermicastings, blood meal, rock minerals - all cooked outside in a black garbage bin for 1 month. Seedlings have been started in coco, vermiculite and perlite only. Will transplant to potting mix after 2-3 weeks.
300W Marso Hydro LED (mixed spectrum)

Why:
My girlfriend has been sick for a long time (+10 years) so we're trying various MJ treatments. Have an outdoors grow which will obviously flower, and be used for vaping, oil, edibles, etc, but wanted to try juicing as well as I've heard amazing things. By growing indoors, I'm hoping to have a constant supply of fresh leaves for a few juices each week. These plants won't be flowering.

Strains:
2 x CBD Blue Shark Fem
1 x CBD Critical Cure Fem
1 x Strain Hunters Money Maker Fem (cloned from outdoor plant)

These are mainly indica dominant, low THC/high CBD, with the exception of the Money Maker. This has been included because the mother is growing really nicely outdoors, and producing a lot of leaves.

Lighting cycle:
12 on / 5.5 off / 1 on /5.5 off

The tent:


Accidental pin hole camera (covered by zipper when tent is closed - so no light leaking out):


Money Maker mother:


I think that my biggest problem is going to be temperature. The tent is in my garage, which was 80 deg F yesterday (and summer has only just begun). Inside the tent was 90. Have switched over to having the lights on at night for the 12hr period, to help with the temps, as well as stealth. The fans (1 x oscillating and 2 x computer fans), along with the LED fans make it too loud to have on when people might visit unexpectedly.

And I'm looking at adding either another computer fan, or maybe a bathroom exhaust fan to help bring down the temps.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

So this is my first ever indoor grow.



Are these burnt leaves because:

a) too hot in tent (91 deg F when lights on)
b) light too close (1.5 ft above seedlings)
c) left it too long between watering (~2 days)
d) other....

It isn't nute burn because no nutes have been given.

EDIT: Actually, it could be nute related. I remember that I was feeding the new clone and had a bit of diluted fertilizer left over so poured it around the edges of the seedling pots for the roots to grow out to. Probably a combination of the heat and the nutes.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Moved the light up another 6 inches or so, so it's about 2ft off the plants now. Have also ordered some high flow (2 x 110cfm) computer fans to increase the ventilation as the fans I originally purchased are only about 50cfm each. Hopefully get those temps down!

 

[nhteatime]

Following along, im on my first indoor grow also. Good luck!

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Good to have you along nhteatime. Let's hope the seedlings bounce back. I've actually decided to take them outside until I get the better fans installed. Hopefully soon because it's 35 deg C outside today anyway!

 

[nhteatime]

Are you worried bringing them back and forth inside and out might attract mites or some other critter? A few on here say you can infect your inside grow area doing that. Just a thought

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Yeah, I am worried about that. But I don't think they'll survive the heat if I don't leave them outside until I have the new fans (hopefully today or tomorrow). They are in a fairly "safe" place in relation to bugs (I think anyway). I am going to have to re-pot them one day so was thinking of possibly leaving them outside until then (2-3 weeks). I thought that the re-potting would help eliminate cross contamination.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Seedlings (new growth anyway) seem to be making a slow recovery outside (apart from getting nibbled):


Haven't watered for 4 days and will leave them for another day or two until the pots feel super light.

Hopefully getting my 2 x 122cfm fans today (not 110 as I previously thought). Should sort out the problem with too much heat in my tent!

 

[nhteatime]

Looks good, these plants are so resilient its amazing. Whats nibbling on them? That didnt take long

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Probably the grasshoppers. I usually kill at least 5-10/day.

There's still a long way to go though for these little seedlings.... fingers crossed.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

So the more powerful computer fans arrived and have been installed. Much better than the original ones I was using! The sides of the tent were fully sucked it before I cut some inlet holes and put the old fans there. They're not hooked up to the power supply as I don't have long enough wires, but I think I will, just to help with the airflow as much as possible.

Did a quick test and the temp only got up to 86 deg F, instead of the 92 that it had been. Much better but could still be slightly cooler. Will see how it goes with the powered inlet fans.

Have decided to leave the seedlings outside for a few weeks while I get all of this sorted and will bring them inside when they're ready for fertilizer (as the re-potting process will add fertilizer - it's already in the potting mix I made, baking away in the sun).

 

[SweetSue]

Sam, I'm curious as to your choice of lighting schedule. What effect should this have on your plants? I'm still very new to the process and I don't recall coming across this schedule before. Intrigued.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

It's called "Gas Lantern Routine". I just saw it here on the forum and thought I would give it a try. Some people say it works really well for veg, others say why bother and it stresses the plants, just do 18/6 (but it seems a lot of the people who diss it haven't tested it).

I decided to give it a go for three reasons - because of the heat problems I've been having - less time on with the lights the better. This follows on to only having the lights on at night - when no-one will stumble into my garage and the temp is cooler. But I also wanted to try it because the people who like using this technique and have tested it say that it really does increase veg yield.

Right now, my tent is on 24hr dark with buds from outside drying:

It's just too hot here (middle of summer) to run the tent without artificial cooling. The seedlings are outside and growing well:

Blue Shark & Critical Cure

Money Maker clone

They will have to be moved inside as soon as possible, as most of the other outdoor plants have started flowering (and the indoor grow was aimed at veg only).

 

[SAMtheAPman]

So the plants have been moved back inside today:

They had just started to flower (which I didn't want) and the temps have cooled somewhat so thought it was high time I moved them. It still gets a bit hot inside the tent, but now the plants are larger I'm hoping that they will be able to tolerate the heat.

They've all been LST'ed, supercropped and tipped, giving quite a lot of upright branches/stems for me to work with. Will be interesting to see what happens as I start to harvest the leaf/tips on a regular basis.

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Have changed the lighting schedule to 16/8 as the GLR didn't seem to be returning the plants to veg (they'd just started budding outside before bringing inside). Can't go 18/6 because of stealth issues. Will see how it goes....

 

[Bonzmoking]

Gday mate, just came across your grow and thought i would follow it along as i am interested to see your results as a 1st time grower. Subbed

 

[SAMtheAPman]

Good to have you here Bonzmoking. I've mainly been focusing on my outdoor grow (link in signature), but now it's cooling down slightly, I'm hoping that this small indoor tent will give a steady supply of juice-able medicine for my GF. Have you got a journal?

 

[Bonzmoking]

Gday mate, no i haven't made a journal as of yet. I am in the process of finishing off my 1st indoor grow under a 300w led using african violet mix as my media it has a slow release fert in it so i just water with tap water and occasionally mixed in a bit of an organic nutrient i should be pulling them in about 2-3 weeks. It has been a hard learning curve for me as i don't have a tent and the room i built is pretty hard to keep a constant temp/enviroment for the girls. However taking that into account i guess i didn't fail miserably i have 2 girls from to seeds i planted, and they are getting nice buds on them (won't be a lot of bud but still bud) Anyway if i have the room sorted properly next time round i will be making a journal. I will get some pics up if you want to see my 1st go of it

 

[SAMtheAPman]

The plants seemed to be drying out very quickly... I think I had too much in the way of fans - 4 x PC fans (2 inlet, 2 outlet) plus a 20cm oscillating fan. Have removed the oscillating fan. This actually reduced my temperature by a couple of degrees F too, which is a good thing (although maybe it's just that the hot air isn't being blown around so much).

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

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I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.