not your ordinary first grow

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i didn't see the post above the second one. sorry!

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[daihashi]

good looking daihashi! what about the fan situation. would they be fine exhausting at their current location and just adding the passive intake low on the box? or should i put all the fans on the top? i'll do whatever is best. and i've left the door cracked where to where i can feel the best exhaust from the fans. it keps the temp at about 83.9 (ambient ~81. and the humidity is about 39%. i appreciate the quick responses and plan on making the changes accordingly, asap!

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well to be fair I'm not sure you're going to get any lower than 83.9 with your current cooling.

To answer your question. Yes it's fine to leave your fans where they are. it should work ok, but moving them up top all to a central location would probably be best.

The passive intakes are what's most important at the moment (and changing all your fans to exhaust). If your ambient (your room/house temperature) is 81, and your cardboard grow room says 83.9 then I'm not sure you're really going to drop much lower.

ie: I keep my house at 75 degrees in order to keep my grow room running at 78 degrees. And I have a lot of ventilation, 2 inline 6" 424 CFM inline fans.. 1 fan dedicated to a cool tube which houses a 600 watt hps and another 6" fan just for the room itself, for a 4'x4'x7' room.

Cooling will generally be equal to the cost you spent on lighting or very close. Photosynthesis is optimum at around 78 degrees (about 72-78) for every degree over 78 degrees photosynthesis drops dramatically until it comes to crawl/stop at around 85-86 degrees. 78 is optimal, but if you can't hit 78 then as long as you're below 85 degrees then you're that will have to do.

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okay, about to do surgery to frankenstein. i'll be back with the details. thanks again!

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ok. i put all of the fans in the top blow-hole style, after flipping the box upside down and using the previous fan holes as intakes and covered what was the top hole and cut the new intake in the back of the box. if it sounds confusing i will post pics.

i've seen it get back up to 88 i think. right now ambient is ~79/80 and the box is running at 83.9. i've also set up a floor fan blowing in one of the intakes at the bottom.

i think part of the problem is the styrofoam that i'm using as a shelf. i did this to keep the plants close enough to the lights. it's blocking airflow i know, but it does have holes in it. i'm trying to find a better shelf that won't block as much airflow or lower the lights. i think i got it down to 82 and some change last night without anything in the box. i know it's not but about 5 degrees above ambient, but i'd still like to get it to cool off more if possible.

pic 1 - the top part of the shelf. the long hole face towards the back of the box.

pic 2 - inside of box, you can see the styrofoam shelf and intake on the right side. there is a 6500K bulb hiding behind that 2700K bulb.

pic 3 - top of the box, exhaust.

pic 4 - top view of shelf as looking into box.

pic 5 - what the shelf looks like inside the box a little closer to eye level.

should i make some reflectors for the lights? just trying to make it as optimum as can be with what i'm working with, ya know? thanks for the advice. keep it coming.


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edit: to upload pics. doh! and the pics got scrambled. dammit!

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i was running my ac to help with the heat issue. luckily a cold front came in. the current temp outside is 68. the indoor temp is 79.5. i have the grow box by an open window. things are going pretty good, once i figure out why a few plants are still saggy. i guess it was the heat with over-watering.

i've read 200ml is good per plant and that i want the soil just damp, not wet. is this really enough water? the plants have 3-fingered leaves. is it okay to go with a half/three-quarter dose of miracle grow? they are pretty parched. i misted them this morning. i will water tonight.

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[daihashi]

i was running my ac to help with the heat issue. luckily a cold front came in. the current temp outside is 68. the indoor temp is 79.5. i have the grow box by an open window. things are going pretty good, once i figure out why a few plants are still saggy. i guess it was the heat with over-watering.

i've read 200ml is good per plant and that i want the soil just damp, not wet. is this really enough water? the plants have 3-fingered leaves. is it okay to go with a half/three-quarter dose of miracle grow? they are pretty parched. i misted them this morning. i will water tonight.

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for regular watering there is no SET number for how much you should water. This is one of the hardest things for new growers to comprehend and was a problem for me as well.

Here's what you want to do:

1. Water your plant until you get some runoff coming out the bottom. You don't want just a few drops but at the same time you don't want it to be a 30 minute stream of water coming out. You want a decent trickle that lasts for about 2-5 minutes. After it's set for 2-5 minutes let it sit for another 5-10 minutes. This ensures that all the water makes it's way down and you get no dry pockets.

2. pick up the pot around the rim of the pot and memorize with your hands how heavy it felt.

3. Pick up your plants daily to check how much they weigh. Once they weigh approximately half of what they weighed when you watered them you will want to water them again.

4. Repeat step 1

This is how you water a plant.

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on thursday night i watered and added 1/4 strength miracle grow. 4 out of the 6 plants have taken off in growth. the two that haven't really done much do look a little better but still are droopy. the plant in the clay pot was planted a week to 10 days after the 5 in the plastic pots. i know the clay pot is big but it was the last one that i had on hand.

i was thinking of stepping up the dose of miracle grow. should i just go about half or 3/4 strength or can i go to full? all of the plants have 3 fingered leaves. and as far as feeding with nutes, i've read many different thoughts on when to feed. i've heard each time, every other time, the third thursday on a full moon on a leap year.....ok so i made the last one up but you get my point!

and what about humidity? i've read that you don't want more than 50% and then i've read that you want to keep it at 80-90% and everything in between. my humidity pretty much hovers around 40%. any suggestions?

as for the temp, well it's running pretty nice at around 78 give or take a degree or two. it get's down to about 68 at night.

here are some pics for all of you visual type, and aren't we all when it comes to this subject matter?! sorry that they aren't that great, my camera sucks. i'm in the market for a new one. thanks for the help again everyone.

i'm off to research LST.

pic 1 - one of the droopy twins.

pic 2 - twin two.

pic 3 - seems to be doing okay.

pic 4 - also seems to be doing fine.

pic 5 - and the last of the original bunch.

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pic 1 - this is the newest planted of the 6.

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for anyone interested or that may be follwing along. wednesday i watered the plants and hit them with 3/4 strength mg and diluted 3% h2o2 and finished it off with a little extra nitrogen.

i will be looking into getting some flat white paint for the inside of the box. also i found some super thrive at lowes. i was thinking of picking some of that up. i also wanted to possibly pick up something to replace the mg. something that i can pick up locally that is inexpensive. any suggestions?

i'll post some pics sometime this evening, my camera is not here at the moment. they are looking pretty good. them seem to like the dry then water cycle and the nutes seem to be working as well. still looking to improve my methods.

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preferrebly something organic for the nutes!

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