If you are interested, my first grow so far.

[GunBarrel]

I recently purchased a system i know nothing about, which i guess sounds daft, but we have to start somewhere.
I have a grow tent
a 600w hps air cooled lamp
a carbon filter
6 containers for plants
1 container as a resevoir
a water butt
an air pump
some 6mm tubing attached to air stones in growing buckets
6 cuttings (clones i believe?)
and some pebbly type growing medium.

Im following some paperwork a friend gave me, and am finding everything quite easy to do.
Im amazingly happy with the results and hope that you all in here feel its successful so far.
start date 27/05/2006
started flower lighting 18/06/2006.
pic 1 = day one
pic 2 = 1st week
pic 3 = 2nd week
pic 4 = 3rd week
pic 5 = today.

[BlazedMind]

I like your setup so let me know how it works out for you. How easy was the grow tent to use? I saw one listed on some website and I couldnt tell if it was sturdy or flimsy. The reason I ask is because I didnt know if they had slots cut in it to allow fan placement for keeping temperatures down. Are you growing in a open room or closet if you dont mind me asking. I hope to set up something similar.

[GunBarrel]

It was the tent itself that made me buy the equipment there and then.
I was expecting a floppy tent that would give me all sorts of hassles, but it really isnt floppy at all.
The tent i bought is called a Homebox. I hear there are many imitations which are much lesser quality, and i suppose my tent could be imitation too but the quality is superb.

The poles are a small diameter but it is rigid enough to support my light, carbon filter and the extraction fan with no problems at all. In fact i would quite happily hang another light without worrying about it.
The material is like canvas on the outside, but smooth white plastic lined inside. It is easy to clean, and keeps the light from escaping brilliantly.
No holes need be cut, there are vents all around the bottom to let air in, all of which are covered to prevent light getting out. There is also a hole in the roof, and lower side to allow for extraction and cables/pipes to go through. Each hole has a sock type affair on it so you can tie the thing tight, again to prevent light leakage. The light emitted from a closed tent isnt really sufficeint to see what you are doing in a dark room, not bad when there are 600 watts inside!!

Basically, in my personal opinion, it is absolutely perfect for the small home grower.

:D

[Garden Knowm]

VERY nice.. thanks for sharing the info!

[latewood]

nice job...goodluck on your grow...you got all the good stuff,
peace

[Legalizdahurb]

Looking good. I almost went for a tent but i thought they would be to flimsy.
Ah well i have my wardrobe now but if i setup again i may go that route.

[The White Snoop]

:thumbsup: NICE:thumbsup:

[GunBarrel]

Hello again,
Thanks very much for your positive comments, its making me feel quite confident. For the very small effort im putting in, all seems very productive :D (though i suppose ive paid instead of struggled (approx - £1000))

It seems many people think, as i also did, that the tents may be very flimsy, saggy, clumsy and just generally a bit useless.
Well if ive said it before im sorry, but seeing the tent in use at a hydro store made me buy this set up there and then! I parted with a £250 deposit before i left the shop! Seriously.

Ive taken a couple of pics that may give some of you an idea as to how good the tent is. This tent is called a Home Box.

Also, a pic of the plants too. 9 days into 12/12. They were 15" tall the day i started 12/12, they are now 24" tall :thumbsup:

Ive also shown you the air pump. I was supplied with a little pump which was supplying air to the airstones in the buckets. I wasnt happy with the quantity of bubbles, so i bought this one. As you can see, it should supply 12 stones, i have it running 3 on one hose and 4 on the other. The extra stone is in the resevoir, although i was never told to put one in there but i thought it a good idea because the more oxygen the better..

[BlazedMind]

If you dont mind I have some questions about how you have the intake set up. What type fan do you have at the top of the cage and is it pulling air in or out? Im assuming it pulls air out? It seems to be a squirrel cage fan but im not sure. I didnt see in your picture any optional air intake fans so what kind did you end up going with. My post is up from yours and im kinda using the same setup so anything you can post will surely help me. Thanks.

[bobbydabud]

hey nice looks really good how much did all of that cost?

[GunBarrel]

The fan is an just an inline duct fan. They may also be known as squirrel cage fans, but im not sure. They are a common type, generally used in bathrooms for extraction i believe. The fan is sucking air out, through the filter and light. My tent is in a room with the windows open, and air comes in from vents (holes) in the bottom of the tent. The only other thing i have is a fan to blow the plants a little.
Im not sure what you mean about optional air intake fans? What you see is all i use. :)

[KHAN]

Looks good, dont let those plants get to high for your tent :)

[Zandor]

I assume you have a cover for the control bucket so the light is not getting into the water to make alga?

Of course you do, it was just off to show us your setup right?

[BlazedMind]

What style carbon filter is that?

[GunBarrel]

Zandor,
I do have a cover, its only a plate but it serves a purpose. I also have an airstone in the control bucket, i wasnt told to put it there but assumed it could only help, not harm?
As it happens, the real lid is still in the shop, i just havent got round to picking it up and as the plate works fine im not really worried. :)

And Blazed,
Ill try and find out for you about the carbon filter. I bought the display one so have no box or anything.
Let you know as soon as i can. :)

[florida boy 3]

very nice set-up, good looking plants, good job.

[Zandor]

:thumbsup:
Zandor,
I do have a cover, its only a plate but it serves a purpose. I also have an airstone in the control bucket, i wasnt told to put it there but assumed it could only help, not harm?
As it happens, the real lid is still in the shop, i just havent got round to picking it up and as the plate works fine im not really worried. :)

And Blazed,
Ill try and find out for you about the carbon filter. I bought the display one so have no box or anything.
Let you know as soon as i can. :)

Air stones in the control bucket is fine as long as you take away from the other buckets too. This growing system is easy and has great results :thumbsup:

The more air you have the better because that means the more bubbles you will have and that equals more buds in the end. :dance:

[GunBarrel]

Well im 2 weeks into flower and im very happy with the results so far. I didnt really expect the speed the plants are growing. From the bottom of the stalk the plants are all nearly 31" tall.

The only thing i have changed since the start of my grow is a crude attempt at reflecting more light around the tent. I think for future grows i best invest in a wing (any good?) or maybe another light. I may opt for 2 more lights because i can get 150w lights from work on a long term borrow basis.

Here are some more pics from today, sorry though, the camera isnt too good on closeups.

[elcheapo]

Hats off to you Gunbarrel! Your plants are in fantastic health. No wonder they are growing so fast. I can see a little nute burn and some curling at the leaf tips but otherwise all looks great.

[GunBarrel]

A couple more pics for you all to see how its going.
Sunday will be 3 weeks of flowering.

[Weed4Life]

those look awesome. do you know what kind of strain it is.

[GunBarrel]

Hi all,
Just taken a couple more pics, thought you might like to see them.

Weed4Life, the strain is Mango!!

[Legalizdahurb]

All I can say it a big :thumbsup:.

[Zandor]

I bet they will overgrow the cabinet before you are done. :dance:

Happy growing, looking good so far dude. :thumbsup:

[KHAN]

I have to say dude, on my grow I wish i'd gone for less plants I believe I would have had more buds... Your tent looks like it would be better to have 4 plants rather than six.

When it starts budding make sure you keep on taking those big fan leaves out so the light can get down.

Lastly, If you put a tube light at the bottom of your grow when they're a little older it will make big buds under the cannopy! take a look at my grow to see what I mean.

Hope it helps!

[GunBarrel]

I agree with both of you (Zandor and Khan)
Yes i feel i may have my tent overgrown a little, and yes i think 4 plants would have been a better idea.
But hey, im a mj growing virgin and can hopefully only learn from my mistakes, and all of your advice.

Thanks for all and any positive comments and advice, im feeling quietly confident that ill have something half decent at the end.

I will try some more light under the canopy soon, but for now i am quite successfully dealing with the fan leaves by removing some, and tying back others.

As a guide to others, i started flowering when the plants were 15" tall. A mate reccommended i waited till they were 18" tall, im glad i didnt.
They are now 40" tall, and everytime i look at them i see more and more flowers.

One of the plants out of the 6 has its leaves turning a little yellow, its the leaves surrounding the flowers not the big fan leaves and i have no ideas why??
All plants are getting exactly the same treatment, so im not worrying about it too much, but any ideas as to why its happening would be helpful..?


Thanks again everyone.. (more pics at the weekend)

[GunBarrel]

Week five (day 35) of flower :smokin:
The one that has turned yellow is still doing fine, and im well chuffed with bud and thc development in general!
Hopefully only three weeks to go. Woo hoo!

[GatzBurst]

would i be correct in assuming someone hooked you up with the plants? As you said cuttings (clones i believe). Or were you just using clones as a synonym for the cuttings? Do you know what strain they are? They appear to be sativas or sativa dominant to me.

[BlackBliss]

Very Very nice........hope you enjoy your results/rewards.
(keep us posted)
Cheer's,
Bliss

[smokealot123]

how much if u dont mind me asking did everything cost ?? everything ?? please and ty lol :)

[GunBarrel]

I could safely say i havent had any change out of £1000
But im not complaining, its looking like its been worth it. :)

And GatzBurst,
I was hooked up with tiny clones. (i said about cuttings cos i didnt know what they were)
I was told the strain is Mango. Lets hope so, cos ive had some before and liked it lots.

[BlazedMind]

GunBarrel,

Looking good. It seems the tent worked out well for you. I hope to have similar results when I finally get mine up and running. Only difference is ill be using a 3x3 ebb and flow tray.

Did you have any heat problems with your setup and what temp do you run everything at?

[GunBarrel]

This might sound a little un-caring, but i have not once taken the temperature in my tent. Although the light gives off a fair amount of heat, it is air cooled so the plants dont suffer too much. I also have my fan blowing across the underside of the light which is increasing the cooling i get.
If i had to guess, and it wouldnt be very accurate, i would say my tent fluctuates between about 23-28'C.
As its my first grow, i havent really put much thought to temperature or humidity. I feel i may look into it more next time, but if my result is good enough, i may not bother..
Are you using ebb and flow for a reason? I only ask cos what i use is so user friendly. The only mechanics i have to worry about is my air pump, whereas youll have water pumps and time switching to deal with. Just an observation but the more gadgets, the more that could go wrong? (only a personal thought, not knocking the system at all)

Good luck when youre up and running Blazed,
And thanks everyone for all positive comments. :D

[GatzBurst]

unfortunately i cannot at the moment calculate fahrenheit to centigrade, but ideally it would be 78-85 degrees, but not in excess of 95F (Most strains, some can take heat much better than others). They may droop a bit under heat, and thc production is not optimum, but you can still get good stuff. Oh, and discoloration may also occur (purplish color).

[GatzBurst]

*When i said droop i meant with regards to temperatures in excess of 95F, as a general rule of thumb.

[pmorris]

nice 1st grow :)

[BlazedMind]

Well im using ebb and flow because it seems pretty easy to do. The reservoir sits below the flood table which sits on a stand. I dont have to change out nutes often at all and I can be away a few days without worry of anything going wrong. Just seems to fit my needs better. I was originally going with a setup like you but im going to try ebb and flow this time.

[GunBarrel]

GatBurst, I just converted the temperatures you mentioned and they are nearly exactly what i guessed my temps to be. so 78-85f is the same as 24-29c.
Its just lucky im getting those sorts of temps because im not trying to alter it. Maybe next grow i will consider keeping the temp at an optimum.

Blazed, glad your using the ebb and flow cos it will be interesting to see the differences.
I only have what i have because i thought it would be the easiest, but i have now lost 2 plants cos my airstones clogged in two buckets so may consider another method. Although they are gone, i only have 2 weeks left of flower and the 2 that had to go have supplied some nice stuff... :rasta:

[KHAN]

Looking real nice dude, remember to take out any fan leaves that are shading good bud sites ;)

[GunBarrel]

Well, they are looking really happy now.
Although i lost 2 from not realising the airstones were blocked (still gave me 1 1/2 oz of nice smoke), the remaining four are lovely.
I am prob harvesting saturday, only 7 weeks? but looking ready.
I havent got a scope, so will try to get one later..

Anyway, heres a couple of pics.

[GatzBurst]

24-29? Got it. i will try to remember that for future ref.

[MegaOctane12]

Pretty good man, judging from the quality of the tent I'd say that was a couple of hundred £. Good stuff.

I have a similar tent made from PVC and the frame is much thicker. Only problem I have is that its a pull down door, in otherwords you have to pull open the door everytime you want a look and attach/re attach with velcro at the bottom sides and base, the potential for light leaks is very high and its a pain in the ass in general, wish it came with a door similar to this one.


All the frame work at the top comes as part of the tent right? That's pretty nifty.


One thing I notice is that your light is in parallel to both walls, not the door, is that deliberate tactical genius or just lucky planning?

Smart decision also on the light, I fucked up and spent the extra on a aircooled one, except there's only one hole in the hood, which in actuality is pretty good, except I have to take air directly out the hood with the fan and place the filter on the outside of the tent, instead of sucking air through the hood itself.


What's the exhaust like on that fan? Must be pretty noises if its dispersing straight out. Mind showing me a picture of the intake holes? Thanks man, any info appreicated.:smokin: