First dedicated dryer grow 6 Norhterns and 3 Afghanis

I'l start by saying I have some veg experience, well more like an example of how not to grow, lol. But I've never made it to a month without having to ditch it for various reasons, and they were hastily set up with little improvement from there.

This time however the moons have aligned for me and things are going great so I'll lead you through my set up and hopefully soon I can get you all some pics.

I had an old Dryer that I gutted from the past and painted flat white which I used the last few times. For some reason I saved the drum and I'm so glad I did because now that I'm better educated it makes the perfect round veg/clone box so no shadowy corners wasting light.

How I made it(hope you have a good imagination)
I had an air conditioner housing about a foot tall with no top and missing one side(basically a vented empty steel box). Anyways my drum balanced perfectly and stabily on top.

Imagine looking into the dryer your use, that opening at the door is the bottom of my veg box that is sitting on the open top of the airconditioning housing. This hole is where my exhuast is.

We did so renoing around the house and I salvaged the fan from the bathroom and rigged it to work for me. But the opening at the dryer bottom was to big so I grabbd a white christmas tree stand and cut it to sit nicely just inside the dryer door hole. Then I put a screen on top and placed my then clones on the screen.

I then hung my 400 watt MH bulb from the floor rafters(it's in the basement) on a chain to raise and lower it.

We are still adjusting and working out kinks though, hopefully I can figure out a nice way to enclose it so as not to waste so much light and maintain the temp, which is aound 78, our humidity however is at 25% most of the day and only at night raises to 38% when the lights are off but the heater is on (to keep it at about 68, we're working on that), I've put dishes of water in and mist but our ventilation keeps the dry winter air moving through there real good keeping the temp down but sucking the moisture out. I think soon we need a humidifier.

My plants

On the 15th a buddy droped by very unexpectedly with what he told use were 8 northern lights and 2 Afghani just rooted clones. He brought them in a cardboard box and they were only in little rock wool cubes with roots exposed. We had notheing not even soil so we misted them(this will come up later) and put them in the closet under the bulb. It took us 2 days to get sunsinemix and the temp raised to over 90,but we got them out of there without any wilting and only a little browning on the tips of the lower leaves.

So we set up out dryer and stuck them in. I noticed these little yellow spots on some of the leavesthat weren't there before.Being in experienced I thought for some reason that the 2days in the hot closet and misting left droplet of water on the leaves which magnified the heat and burnt them(we were so rushed and they were a little neglected those first few days). Anyways buddy comes over and introduces me to the spidermites sucking on my babys. So I ran out and picked up some doktor doom botanics insecticide. I've been giving it doeses of that and spraying with soap and the mites are non-existent so far. and now I I educated myseklf about mites and plan to take alot more precautions and care for my plants.

I also started advanced nutrients grow, micro, and bloom. I got a catalogue with that and have been following the instructions. I transplanted them last weekend, during which I pitched out 1 northern that was pretty much gone(never rooted well) and found that another northern was actually an afghani. I really should have watered them that morning but wanted to wait till I transplanted them. So they were about 5 inches and in little yogurt cups. I would go downstairs grab a plant bring it up transplant it and bring it back down to get the net plant. When I got plant #3 they were all fine, but when I went back for plant #4 the ones left in yogurt cups were wilting before my eyes from drought! I hauled ass and the next day they recovered nicely and exploded form there. My large afghani's and Northerns are up to 10" bussy, and have fan leaves almost the size of my hand(I'm a chick I have little hands, but I'm still excited). The smaller ones are at about 7-8". They are looking really healthy and dark green and I can get a few clones from a few plants but want to wait a bit.

I have on Afghani that is a little stunted and I don't really want clones from for that reason, but it has 2 good branches. I haven't had any experience with clones so I think soo I'll take one from it and fool around a bit since it probably won't produce well anyways. That way once the ther plants are ready with clones I'll be a little more prepared.

I want to rotate crops but am only allowed 8 plants, Dh and I agreed so I have alot to figure out and hope to keep you updated. GTG

Peace

Hey Chrissy, that setup sounds pretty wild. You have to get some photos of that dryer up here!

I'm working on finding some way to get photos, but need someone to get a camera off of.

Update on the grow
Yesterday I noticed calyxs(sp) and all but one afghani, my stunted one. I guess names will help more when I have pictures but I call this one Petti, she's my smallest at 6" compared to my largest which are peeking out the top of the drum. Petti was one of my stronger clones that was least effected my the spider mites. Early on she had two branches one about and inche behind the other, I think this is why she is half the size, because she has two main stalks. I really should weed her out but since this is my first grow and her smaller branch is about five inchs and pretty leafy I figured I'll experiment with some cloning right away. That way she might just shoot up after that, and if she doesn't or the clone doesn't work out no big loss.

Jaz is my largest Afghani the one peeking over the top, she's got about 3 good clone sites that need about an inch more before I take them, but I don't want to fuck these ones up because they should be great plants like Jaz so I'm being very patient.

My last Afghani is affectionatly called Mrs. Bin Laden she's the Afghani that was hiding out as a northern, Shes just a little behind Jaz and doing just as great.

Foxy is my smallest northern at about 7 inches and was the only other plant not nailed by mites, which is so weird since the ones that got mites the worst was Jaz and Mrs. Bin Laden, and the two that had the least mites were the two most stunted. I've kept everything the same for all the plants including transplanting and mite treatments. It's after the transplant that the others took off and these ones didn't so maybe my answer is there but if I sit and analyze it all this will be a super long post. Anyways Foxy will be eliminated soon since she's small and has itty bitty brances.

She is female, but me and DH agreed that I can have a max of 8 mature plants at any time, hopefully he'll be a little lax about a few extra clones. I want atleast one clone of each plant so I can know their history and know which ones I want to keep and which strains aren't as productive. So I see some negotiating coming up.

Bella is my huge bushy northern. She's ready to be cloned but I'm not sure about her yet, she's doing great but is a little different. She has the northern leaves, but while the others are a dark healthy almost shiny green, she is about two shades lighter and while the veins in her leaves are uniform there are about half as many other then that she's just as happy looking as the rest of the northerns and doing just a little better, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The other northerns are donig just fine, but they are pretty much all the same, so I'm suspecting they my have all come from the same mother and that could be why Bella looks so different.

With my plants growing out of the drum there is alot of work and planning going on downstairs. First off I made one of those DIY odor nutralizers just without the crystals. By the next morning not only could I not smell anything from the basement but the dog shit on the floor upsdtairs in the kitchen and while cleaning it I could barely catch a whiff. so I think it's working great. I could use a few more holes in the bucket to increase airflow. I just ran flexible ducting from the exhaust fan in the bottom. So now the temp is up to 82, but with the decreased airflow the humidity is up to 30% from 25%.

I also did a precautionary spray for mites last night since I don't need them popping up now.

I am also building a cab in the corner of the basement that is 53"x33"x6', and picking up a 400w HPS ballast bulb and reflector for about $200(supporting the new grow shop 4 blocks away).So I'll be ready come flower time if I don't get the dryer finished up soon enough.

Stage two of the dryer is what I should really be working on. I have the outside housing of the dryer I got the drum from, it's what I used before but with a complicate self distructive set up I won't even bother explaining. Now I have simplified it and have built off the drum concept with a few changes. The dryer itself is 2'x2'x2.5'. it has the door which is the same size as the exhaust opening on the drum so it it just a matter of mounting the fan on the wall of the dryer this time. The back is removeable providing me access and I'll just pull the top off so that the light can hang from above. Since this will be a larger veg room I'm not to concerned about light proofing it, the new flower room will be though, that in itself is a work in process. so with the vegging plants in the stage 2 dryer they can grow to 1.5' and I can set up some cfls for the drum just to get clones started.

On top of all this by the end of today or tommorrow I need to mix up a new batch of nutrients, and decidewhether to start increasing my P to prepare for blooming or the keep the same system I have going now which theplants seem to be doing pretty good on, plus I don't really want the shock them now. That reminds me it's time for a flush.

well peace out, hope to have pics soon:jointsmile:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chronic Chrissy

I'm working on finding some way to get photos, but need someone to get a camera off of.

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I got a cam. I see by yer flag we're in the same country. If yer in southern Alberta, eastern BC, or western Saskatchewan, and feel like making a road trip, pm me and I'm sure we can work something out.

I wanna see this dryer thing, too! :D

Thank you very much for the offer. I'm in Manitoba actually so it would be a bit long of a trip. I've been pretty busy setting up today though and I think my MIL may let me borrow hers to take pictures of our daughter. I know my set up sounds off the wall doesn't it? We're pretty much broke most of the time just like every one else so I like to use what we have if I can. It may not be perfect but it's better then our once 90 degree closet that my DH had going when we first met. lol we didn't even get 4 grams off 3 plants and it wasn't that great, but we knew next to nothing then, it was years ago.

Ok I now know I have a Phosphate deficiency. All the plants I've ever seen had some purple on the stems, I thought it was normal, turns out(as you most likely already know) it's not normal. I'm glad I figured this out now so I didn't have to wait for another feed. I found mite eggs on two of my smaller NL, and I'm already over my limit of 8 and want to start playing with clones soon so I think we will say goodbye tonight:( , because all the other leaves are clear of mites and I don't want to risk reintroducing them.

A light justwent off in my head about why Bella is doing so much better. The leaves on my other plants are turning down very slightly on the tips, but Bella's aren't, But she is a little purple, she must be dealing with the P deficiency better then the othe NL, so much makes sense now I can hardly keep myself from ferting them, but if I do they'll be overwatered and stressed, plus I have to flush so hopefully tommorrow they'll be dry enough. I'm so happy.

I have a camera till monday so I have to figure out how to post pics. I'll be back soon to fill everyone in.

hey, just did a run through, i left a large excerpt on cloning in you topping thread...

I can't upload the photos it says there is an error:confused: