Zinkopig's Unknown Collection CFL LST First Grow

[Zinkopig]

Hello I will just use this thread as an introduction to myself and my first journal for personal record keeping and to show this community what im up to. Hopefully at least someone will learn something throughout the life of this thread, i have learned an unbelievable amount of information just reading here for the last few weeks or so.

I am Zinkopig, and this is my very first grow. I have wanted to grow my own medicine since i was 16 and now that i have my own house i can finally make my dream come true. These plants are only being grown for medical purposes to treat severe long term depression. And well i sure do love MJ!!

Im not really trying to be too cheap on this grow, but i do want to stretch my money as far as possible (I get some sort of sick joy out of Ghetto riggin everything). Im using a cabinet my parents had lying around, actually most of what im using I or my parents had lying around there house.
So lets get to the details... and then pictures, and im sorry but this thread will have a lot of pictures, even of the babies, im trying to use this as a personal tracking experience for myself as well.

What strain is it? There are 4 growing that are bag seed (reggies?). The rest are seeds that were collect over 25 years by a long time connoisseur from the best batches of chron he ever had.

Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Veg

If in Veg... For how long? 4 Days

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil

If soil... what is in your mix? 10% Perlite 90% Ph flushed MG Cactus and Citrus well draining soil. (i know not ideal but im rolling with it for now)

Size of light? 8x 23w(100wEQ) 6500k 1900lumen. + 2x 2700k for veg, Opposite for flower

Is it aircooled? Yes, Right now i have one medium fan blowing directly on plants from left, from the top i have one intake above the lights and one exhaust (PC fans). I then have a white (reflective?) box fan in the front of the box now pulling tons of air out. Which is going to be relative to me first question of this grow.

Temp of Room/cab? Average, Finger testing, i live in the Southwest our temps range from a low of 40 in the winter to a high of 120 in the summer. My fingers are very adept to telling temperature and i am positive its an average of 70-83 in my grow box at plant level.

RH of Room/cab? Unknown

PH of media or res? 7.5ish... Idk, trying to get it down, which will lead to my second question of my grow.

Any Pests ? Bugs don't do well here. Unless crickets count.

How often are you watering? Multiple times a day (small amounts just enough to sink to roots)

Type and strength of ferts used? Nothing so far

With that said, I have a few questions for all you pro growers. First, I have a heavily ventilated box, a lot of air flows through there, and i did this so i could get my plants very close to the light and they seem to love it. But obviously the humidity suffers greatly for this. Is this an acceptable trade off for now?

My second question is, at the hydro store they recommended Aluminum Sulphate (sulphuric acid?). Is this okay to bring down the PH of my soil? Or should I not risk it?

Thanks all for reading, im sure there is a ton of things i missed but i look forward to having a good grow experience with all of you... here is some pix, they are weak at the moment and the 1mb ul limit doesn't help...
By the way i planted these on 3/10 (did not use towel or whatever used plugs) and the latest photos are today 3/14. They stretched a bit so when i transplanted the plugs into my pots i buried stems on a few.

Comments welcome tips highly appreciated!

Day 1 Early

My box (Temp setup)

Example of voluntary ghettoing

This one stretched broke from a breeze and i pulled to make way for chron plants, IM ONLY GROWING 2 FINAL PLANTS!

This is when they were stretching (day 2 or 3 from seed)

I have more pix but ill stop there. Sorry if any doubles, not quite organized on that front yet.


Peace,
Zinko

 

[Zinkopig]

Too bad you can't keep original pic size on here, oh well, these are much more detailed, but as my plants grow my pix will get more and more detailed. Anyone got answers to my original questions? Help much appreciated!

 

[TomatoPie]

Love the detailed pics, this is gonna be a nice journal with some nice photography

Ghettoing it is the ONLY WAY!!!

 

[Zinkopig]

Cindy99 was an amazing plant! I hope my first grow is half as good as yours! Good work man, hope you like my grow i can't wait to see what I got from this collection. This is probably the most excited I have ever been about MJ lol

 

[gangalicious]

Hey Zinko. I don't know anything about plant uptake of aluminum and I'm certainly no pro grower, but I just wouldn't want significant amounts of aluminum ending up in my plant or my body, so none of it goes into my soil. For inorganic, I'd rather go with phosphoric acid, which I think is in some common pH-lowering solutions. I use guano and blackstrap molasses, both of which seem to lower the pH and keep the soil microbes nice and happy. Just my thoughts.

About the humidity, just how low is it? A $20 cool mist humidifier from your local mega-mart will fix you right up. I got one when the humidity in my cab dropped and it worked great. Good luck!

 

[Zinkopig]

Thanks for chiming in gang, that's kinda what i thought too. The guy at the hydro store told me to buy it for lower PH, but he obviously didn't know i was going to smoke my "flowers" .
I didn't know what it was and thought it was organic and couldn't hurt, but then i got home and researched Now i know better and im going to get some molasses like you said and maybe just some PH Up and Down...

As far as humidity i just looked it up and outside its 53% so i don't imagine it's too bad in my box... I put a lot of water in my water catcher to let it evaporate i have no way of knowing the humidity and rent is due today so i won't be able to purchase for the grow till friday

Anyway i just cant figure out if im better off with very close lights, lots of airflow and low humidity... or more distant lights with less airflow and more humidity...

I do have a light meter and i can tell anyone growing with CFL's that they are double as strong at 1 inch than they are at 3 or 4... It's pretty crazy


Last night I killed 2 personal bag seed plants to make room for more sprouts i just got from that unknown chron collection, pix later!

Zinko

 

[Spike69]

I would sure keep that fan on low,I got a 5 inch fan at wallys for 9 bucks.

look good though and healthy little fellers,keep up good work. +reps

 

[Zinkopig]

Cool, thanks man... They are set on low except for my PC exhaust fans, those things are on crack!
Anybody have an opinion on adding these 225 LED GROW LIGHT PANEL RED BLUE HYDROPONIC LAMP 110V to my CFL/T5 setup? Im adding T5's as soon as my wallet permits. Im going to flower with CFL T5 and a 400W hps.

Would these make a difference? 45$ is pretty cheap to pass up if they work well...

 

[TomatoPie]

Hey, you can use some lemon juice or also vinegar in soil as a pH down. The organic matter will break down naturally. Otherwise nitric acid or phosphoric acid, depending on veg/flower.


Are you gonna go organic or salt nutes? If organic, I'd look into aerated compost teas Soil Foodweb



Those LED's don't look TOO terrible, but for 45$ you could buy 4 45W cfls

 

[Zinkopig]

Good call on the lemon juice man i actually have a bottle in the fridge!!
Very informative link ill have to take the time and take that all in, i was actually in the middle of figuring out what im going to do for nutes.

Thanks man!

-Zinko

 

[mako]

Nice grow, i'm doing a similar CFL grow, ill be watch yours, as for the LED from what i've read there good for VEG but are bad for Flowering, 45$ isn't that much and couldn't hurt so i would say go for it

 

[Zinkopig]

Cool ill be watching yours too man! Any opinions on this AQUARIUM PHARM PROPER PH 6.5 240 GRAMS - A Black Horse.com, Inc ? Seems too easy right... I know its for aquariums but would it work in soil too?

 

[Zinkopig]

Update 3/16

I spent last night until 2 am ( 4 hours past my bedtime lol ) re-designing my box, and well, the end result was complete shit, nothing worked horrible air flow temps outrageous ext...
SO I moved my shit to a bigger closet and set up there, this isn't a stealth grow my girl and I have our own house.
This setup seems to be working way better!!!
Last night i bought 8 more 6500k 100w cfls, making for 14 total (Ive broken 4 thus far or i would have 18 lol) 3+ cfls for each seedling, and im only growing 2 in the end..
I bought a bathroom fan that pushes 65 cfm which for the record really sucks!
I also bought aluminum tape if anyone cares, never used it before, but it's awesome!!
Today i bought Fox farms grow big and big bloom.
So here are some updated pix
I have a problem as you will see in my pics, my favorite little seedling is developing brown spots and I am scared!!
Here is the breakdown of possible things that could have happened...
I have used NO NUTES
Chances are a lot more of the roots are coming out into my MG cactus soil from my plugs, i was worried about this soil, but it says it only has nutes for 3 weeks, not three months, and i flushed it over and over before i planted. I used this soil because of its very high levels of nitrogen... Little did i know that MG was bad at the time, but like i said before im gona roll with it...
Im working hard to get the ph below 7-7.2
They got hot today because of my box mishap...
He has brown spots on both of his leaves, check out the pix and help me PLEASE! She's such a pretty broadleaf!!

Nutes

Leaf damage*HELP!*

More damage

Cute grls(hopefully)

Macro

So happy

Plant profile(height)

Same

New closet setup

Hope you liked my pix, i know seedling are less than exciting but i would really appreciate some help with my sickling, i have a feeling it could be from water drops + light, but it would be pretty convenient for it to be on both leaves of only one plant, right?


-Zinko

 

[TorturedSoul]

Hello Zinkopig,

First off, thank you for posting a journal!

To answer a couple of your questions: While the jury is still out on just how affective the higher-quality (and priced) LED fixtures are and which of them is better than others, I'd say that cheap LEDs are... cheap. I personally would avoid them like the plague, although YMMV of course. As far as pH-adjusters, I'd suggest you go with a quality product that is designed for plants, as what is best for aquariums is not necessarily best for plants (and vice versa). I have used and recommend General Hydroponics' pH Down, for example, because not only does it seem to produce stable affects, the ingredients used are actually usable to the plants (such as the phosphoric acid in it, which plants use as food - especially when in flower).

Your last post's photos seem to have been posted as links instead of the images themselves. Hopefully a staff member will notice and fix them for you.

 

[Zinkopig]

Thanks for the answers Tortured i appreciate it!! I fixed my pix a few seconds after post i did url instead of img lol. You can see them now right?
What do you think those spots could be? They don't appear to be getting bigger and this plant is growing like a champ, hes so lushes for 6 days old.
I added pure lime juice to some of my soil and then rinsed it downwards with RO water tonight and dropped the ph from 7 to more like 6.5-6.7 i hope it stays that way from a while! I also sprayed some water on the leaves and let them sit in dim light for about an hour maybe to hydrate leaves? I have low humidity at the moment and im pretty sure my girl is done with my spending for this week humidifier is next on my list

 

[TorturedSoul]

What do you think those spots could be? They don't appear to be getting bigger and this plant is growing like a champ, hes so lushes for 6 days old.

I don't think that damage like that ever goes away from a leaf (I could be wrong). If they aren't getting better than it's probably cool. Probably caused by your pH problems. Plants so tiny only require a VERY small amount of nutrient, as in "I wouldn't feed them anything unless they are grown in a completely non-nutritive (READ: soiless or hydroponic) media," but they do require some, and an out-of-range pH would prohibit them from having access to it.

I added pure lime juice to some of my soil and then rinsed it downwards with RO water tonight and dropped the ph

Might not be of utmost importance, but whenever adding something (that isn't a "long-term" dry component that you work into the soil), you're probably better off to add it to the water. Especially something strong (lime and lemon juice are quite acidic). I'd just hate to have it hit the roots and shock the plants.

I also sprayed some water on the leaves and let them sit in dim light for about an hour maybe to hydrate leaves? I have low humidity at the moment and im pretty sure my girl is done with my spending for this week humidifier is next on my list

Plants can take nutrients (etc.) through their leaves when the stomata are open, but for the most part any "hydrating" is done in the other direction. When temperatures are high and/or humidity is low, a plant will attempt to uptake more water (through its root system), send it all through the plant, and transpire it (outward) through its leaves. I have read that on a hot summer day a fully-grown elm tree, for example, can easily take in 350 GALLONS (and possibly as much or more than 1,200!) worth of moisture from the soil and transpire the vast majority of it in an attempt to cool itself in a 24-hour period.

If a plant is very thirsty it will start to wilt. A few cycles of water/dry (or at least a grow or two) will help you find the rhythm and you don't want to let them get too dry (although cannabis generally doesn't like "wet feet" lol). Plants that small aren't likely to be able to transpire much, which I'd expect means that as long as they don't get too completely dry, they're not going to suffer unduly.

But yes, a decent amount of humidity is not a bad thing until late in flowering. Keep in mind that while you're moving a lot of air through your growing area the air will likely have some humidity in it unless the source (where your air is coming from) is very dry. You might, if you feel that the humidity is low enough to be a problem, try adding shallow (for more surface area compared to total volume - to promote evaporation) pans of water to the grow area.

Oh yeah, lol... I'm on the downward part of my mental cycle right now so if my words seem to be lacking in intelligence - or complete nonsense - than I apologize and suggest you take them with a grain of salt. It usually happens after I take my night meds (fair warning).

BtW, I see Grow Big and Big Bloom but no Tiger Bloom in your picture.

 

[CFL man]

Im liking your setup, i hope to see and learn more

Im subscribed

 

[Zinkopig]

Dang man thanks for the lengthy healthy reply Tortured, you are very kind to take that time to answer a strangers questions THANK YOU THANK YOU! It's funny you say about the water pans, because i already did that! ha i don't think the humidity is too much of an issue after reading your post but as summer comes along in the midwest, well let me show you, Arizona Relative Humidity Map - Air Sports Net and thats now (spring) summer is way worse!

I just picked up a giant ass bag of OCEAN FOREST and im about to transplant out of MG that shit was just giving me too many worries.
I picked up a giant bag for 15 bucks, everyone else in town had it for 18+ So i felt lucky, plus this place has cheap nutes, infact everything at the nursery was cheaper than the hydro store, and they actually knew what i was talking about!! So im just sayin if you don't have a hydro store or don't like the one by you, try a nursery it's a good shot!

Tortured, about the tiger bloom, it's coming soon because bills are now haha

CFL MAN, thanks for following bro, do you have a journal going? I really do hope people can learn throughout this grow, i will be for sure! The info ive gathered from other journals has been invaluable and i would like to give back!!


Pix later..

-EDIT- I just transplanted out of the MG and into the FFOF it's amazing how different the quality is, and the price is relatively the same...

-Zinko

 

[TomatoPie]

Support your local nursery!

Half the stuff in a hydro store, you can find at a nursery, the other half, you can find at a hardware store, without the "boutique" markup and salesmen trying to trick you into buying their unnecessary products!

I get my hydro specific nutes and lighting at a hydro store, and that's it!

...12$ airstones my ass... 3$ at the petshop.

 

[dohmixer]

-EDIT- I just transplanted out of the MG and into the FFOF it's amazing how different the quality is, and the price is relatively the same...

-Zinko

Nice journal, I think this is a good place to watch, learn and hopefully help. Ya cant go wrong with FFOF.