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Hey man, I noticed that you must have had quite a bit of money to put into this!! I did the same thing on my first grow and because I did I had great results! That along with doing my homework really helped. I more than made all my money back. Anyway, good luck............oh, and I dont mean made my money back selling what I grew, I mean the money I saved smoking my own!:thumbsup:
Hi lebeef - I don't have a bottomless bank account, but I have committed to spending what it takes to produce some decent results. I would have really liked to go for one of those complete systems, you just plug it in, and add seeds, so to speak. Those were upwards of $3000, and a lot higher if you wanted to go for the flowering and vegetative chambers. My goal is to have two cabinets going at one time, with one being the cloning/vegetative and the other flowering. For now, this new one will serve as the flowering and vegetative, but eventually become the flowering. After assembling all of this, I found that swapping the lights would be too much of a pain for each cycle. I hope to make the money back, as you pointed out - in money I'm not spending on buying weed. My goal for this first grow is two ounces. That's should cover about a third of what I've put out so far.
I've attached an updated photo of the cabinet. This one has everything installed except the mylar and the fan. I'm still struggling with where to mount the fan. Once I get that fan mounted, I'm going to try to go into flowering within the next week, and move the plants in. Hopefully, adding the T5 lamp to the side will help mitigate the absence of mylar.
Speaking of plants - they are growing really well. The leader has a stem of almost 1/4" in diameter. There are new leaves every morning. They range from 9 to 11" in height. All have at least five nodes.
Hello Joe-Grow, I'm a fellow neophyte midway through his own first grow and log. I've popped by to say, firstly, excellent start and setup!
Secondly I'd like to ask a question about your cabinet. How's sound transference though the metal? I bought the particle board model partly because I imagined it'd dampen fan noise. Has it been an issue, or is the steel shell less resonant than I'd thought?
Hi CCIE ... thanks for the kudos. To answer your question, the cabinet is not very good for soundproofing the exhaust fan. I bought particle board first, as well, for sound and reflective surface. However, I could not find one that was both wide and deep enough for my gear. The cabinet was a change of direction from my original plan of getting a hydrohut. Availablity of the hut made me change directions, since I had already started. The cabinet is stored in a utility room. So, for now, I intend to say that the noise is just the HVAC.
Status update on the cabinet - it's up and running. However, I hit a small snag. The HPS system would not power up. According to the instructions, it will not power up if the bulb or the wiring are bad. Well, I checked the wiring for over an hour, and could not come up with anything. The first hood didn't work when tested at the store either. I suspect this one is faulty as well. I didn't like it much - thought it was pretty cheap. I think I'll take this one back, and pick up a Hydro Farm hood. After this amount of time, I will probably have to eat the cost of this one.
To compensate, I installed the T5 lamp at the top for now. The lamp I have uses 4 - 24" cool tubes, 6500K. If I can not get to the hydro shop beforehand, I may have to start flowering with what I have. My question is whether I'll produce anything? I've seen another post where someone is going through their whole grow cycle with the T5 lamps. However, I believe they used a mixture of cool and warm bulbs. Will it matter that much, not to have the warm bulbs? They seem to be growing very well now, but I understand that flowering is a whole other process. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Attached are a couple of updated photos. The first is the full cabinet. The second is a close-up of the plants. They are growing fast and consuming a lot of water. I upped their nutrients two nights ago to 2/3 strength. I'm hoping to go to full strength within the next couple days during a water resevoir change. I now have a ppm of ~930 (total).
As tall as they are now, and as thick as their stems are - should I plan to go into flowering soon? It's been over a month since my seeds were first planted in the starter cubes. I understand that after they switch to the flowering stage, that they will continue to grow. I think they average about 13" now, and I could probably handle another 12" or so. They are growing fast though. The second picture was taken around 1AM (about 12 hours ago). I just checked, and they are now within a couple inches of the lamp already.
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You really should LST those gals, you can tell the light isn't penetrating very far down, or get some side lights. Otherwise, they're pretty and healthy.
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Nice grow Joe. :thumbsup: They're looking nice and green. I would remove some of the interior leaves so more light gets into the branches.
It looks like our grows are more than just chronologically parallel. My own new electronic ballast is refusing to fire bulbs regardless of type or known-good status. I gave up on it and bought a cheap magnetic replacement for this run's flowering stage (which had best arrive soon).
In my case I suspect the ballast's igniter is faulty. Does a proximity voltage meter register power flowing through the bulb when you plug it in?
Hi faithless - yes, I think you're right, as close as they are, and as big as the canopy is getting, light is going to be a problem. My plan was to use the T5 lamp for side lighting. However, my HPS decided to not work, so I'm stuck with the T5 until I can get back to the hydro store.
Hi PTS - thanks for the tip. Will cutting out leaves have any adverse effect? I've exchanged a couple messages earlier in this thread about pruning, and it came up about the leaves being important to leave on. Should I LST, as faithless suggested, instead? I think I'm going to try to at least lean them outward to see if that helps. The lower leaves are definitely looking less healthy as time passes.
Hi CCIE - I'm not sure if it's my ballast or not. It did work at the shop before I purchased it. Then again, the whole setup worked before I left the store. I may see if I can get some warm bulbs for the T5 and ride this one out with that. There's another thread of someone using the T5 lamp, even through flowering. I've not tried the proximity voltage meter, since I don't have one. Even if I did, I'm not sure I would know how to use it. :o When I flip the power on the system, I could hear a slight phlit-like sound (think of the penguin or cat from Bloom County). If the holiday guests don't get too demanding, or stay too long, I am going to try to make it to the hydro shop this weekend for mylar and replacement parts for the HPS. I hope you can get yours working soon! How many weeks are you into your grow?
By this weekend, I plan to change the water, up the nutrients to full strength, and switch to the 12/12 cycle. They are growing very fast now. I've read that using aeroponics, and T5 lamps would cause accelerated growth, but in the last two weeks, it's been amazing. They have tripled sized and leaf/node growth.
Attached is today's photo. Thanks for dropping by. :)
Howdy Joe-grow - for the sake of streamlining I'll answer the question you asked in my old cab thread here.
(I moved my active log to http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=84094 The older one's been relegated to just a cabinet description.)
The cabinet is a standard Lowes C22 46" wide, 20" deep, 6-foot model, and is the cheaper version of the one Jamstigator used when making his iconic original. There are pictures of his in this thread, 15th post: http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=86903
Lowes isn't the only store that carries them. A "C22 cabinet" Google search shows numerous regional and internet suppliers. Fan noise outside the cabinet is muted but audible - about equal to a well-ventilated computer with an open case. Be warned that the packed unit is herniatingly heavy. I've been a serious weightlifter for 15 years, and carrying that box through the twists of my house left my knees buckling.
As for your Phhhlit-ing ballast, I say buy the guests some movie tickets and sneak off to the shop to get it working. :dance:
I've got my own replacement working, and the light penetration is amazing! I think the fellow who grows with T-5 only has 12-16 lights arrayed all around his grow space.
As for which week I'm in, I suppose week 4 since that's when I actually managed to grow a plant over 2", but I'd been trying since the end of September. :o
Hi CCIE ... Thanks for the response here. I would have gone to check your thread, but thanks all the same. I knew you had started another grow thread, but my question was specific to your grow box. That's why I posted there.
I looked around at my local Lowes, but could not find a cabinet 20" deep. That's why I went for the office supply cabinet. :( I'll just have to make due with this one for a while. The cost of this 'project' has approached $1500, and I've yet to show anything for my effort. It was tough getting my wife to buy into the idea at $1000 estimated costs.
I know what you mean about heavy. Now, I've not been the weightlifter you have. At least not in the last decade. But, I believe it's safe to say that my cabinet was pretty damn heavy. Fortunately, I had someone help me carry it to the basement. Delivery guy left it at the door. The first cabinet, which was that fantastic particle board, was even heavier, and that was at least 50% smaller. I can only imagine what yours must have felt like.
It seems that things are getting worse. I was never able to get away from the holiday guests, and visit my local hydro shop. Subsequently, I was not able to replace my Phhhit-ing ballast. As a temporary measure, I've lined the cabinet with a reflective insulation, Reflectix.
CCIE, you've been growing a little longer than I have. I started around mid-October. I had great success at first, but things are looking like trouble now. My plants grew very quickly, once they shed their shells. Now, I'm not sure if I have lighting deficiencies, bugs, or nutrient amount problems.
I went to full nutrients last Wednesday, along with a new supply of water. In addition, I switched to flowering schedule (12/12). The plants were getting too big, and I was worried I'd run out of cabinet height. Since I've switched, one of them seems determined to outgrow the cabinet. So far, no flowers, and no gender indications.
The first photo is all the plants in their current environment. I attempted to spread them out with wire ties, as was sorta suggested by faithless with the LST comment. I thought that might help get some more light to the lower leaves. You can also notice a lot of drooping branches, and dying leaves.
The second photo is a close up of the center of the plants. I still seem to have some healthy looking leaves & stems. The bad ones are increasing, though. :(
The third photos is a close up of the tallest plant. It has some pieces missing from it. I'm not sure if this is getting too close to the T5 lamp, or if I have bugs.
Sorry about the delay in updating this. I really haven't had much progress, except height and some more branches. I expect to see some flowers within the next week. I sure hope there is at least two females out of the four plants.