indoor closet grow suggestions. HELP!!!!

[bkordel]

ok so i have grown many times in the past but i was never really fully committed. it was more just to see what would happen and it worked out almost every time.

Now i have committed the money and time and i'm very anxious to get this done. I know there are MANY people with much more experience than me and i would greatly appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM....main point being constructive

Ok first i'll tell u my setup:

STRAIN: Trainwreck feminized x10, although only 9 of them germinated properly.

LIGHTS: 2x 400W (800 total) HPS, about two feet from the plants. Lights set on 16-8 cycle, i know many use 24 hour lighting but i opted to play it safe. I know the lighting isnt quite enough for all of them but i didnt want to have a few extra seeds laying around so i just decided to do all at once as not all are guaranteed to fully mature.

SOIL: All natural soil, 11-5-18 ( i know its not ideal but the grow shops here kinda suck) mixed with perlite. i change out the soil after ever transplant. I water the soil as needed as thats not hard to figure out.

VENTILATION: OK this is where the most concern is with me, i have a table fan circulating the air in my grow room, not blowing directly on the plants. Although i dont have any fan bringing in fresh air as i dont want to knock a hole in the wall (renting apartment). What i do is, during the light cycle i leave the door to my room cracked enough to keep some fresh air flowing in.

GROW ROOM: I use a large walk-in closet (not sure the exact specs but plenty of room) I've coated the walls in aluminum foil because the color of the walls were not the best choice and i cant paint the walls as i am just renting the place and i couldnt get a hold of mylar. Now i know the room is kind of "ghetto" but i rent the place so theres a limit to what i can do....

TEMPERATURE: OK another big concern i have...The temperature on average is 28-29, but sometimes it reaches 30-31. I know thats a little too high but i'm not too sure what i can do about that....any tricks would help greatly

OK thats about it i think....let me know if i forgot anything.

The babies are about 7-8 days old (sorry not exactly sure)

CONCERNS: Ok the first thing i've noticed is that on some of the plants the tips of the leaves are curling under, on most its not an issue but a few are worrying me. I know that can happen if the lights are too close but i dont think thats it. And another is the on 2 of them they are not growing straight, they grow kind of sideways. please refer to the pictures...

OK....i think thats about it....



Much appreciated:thumbsup:

bkordel Reviewed by bkordel on 03-23-2009. indoor closet grow suggestions. HELP!!!! ok so i have grown many times in the past but i was never really fully committed. it was more just to see what would happen and it worked out almost every time. Now i have committed the money and time and i'm very anxious to get this done. I know there are MANY people with much more experience than me and i would greatly appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISISM....main point being constructive :) Ok first i'll tell u my setup: STRAIN: Trainwreck feminized x10, although only 9 of them Rating: 5

[bigtopsfinn]

Hey there... Nice to see someone else growing the Trainwreck. It is fucking awesome!

Sounds like you have things pretty much under control. 18" is pretty close, especially this early into veg. They really don't need all of that light until about 1-2 weeks old. Remember the plants are very delicate at this stage...

You should really do something about ventilation, because those TW's are gonna stink up your apartment. I was growing one plant and thought I wouldn't need ventilation or odor control... my friend could smell the weed walking into my building, let alone my apartment. Now I have my inline fan, cooltube and carbon filter, and I don't have temp or odor problems anymore. If you don't want to cut holes, maybe go out and find a similar sized door that you can make holes into.

Also the tinfoil is useless... how about some flat-white colored poster boards???

Good luck and keep us updated :jointsmile:

[bkordel]

yeah theres not many growing trainwreck out there, which is disappointing because i hear the high is amazing, i checked out your past grows and they look fantastic! I hope mine are half as good as yours.

I raised the lights by about 7 inches, the only reason i'm hesitant to do that is because i dont want stretching....yours were nice and bushy and thats the exact thing i'm hoping for.

The great thing about my apartment is that its on the top floor of a 3 story building. I have no neighbors on my level and no neighbors on the level below me which is why i'm not too worried about the smell. Now i'm starting the rethink that...

The walls in the room are a kind of very faded white, more extreme egg-white so i wasnt sure about that hence the tinfoil.

I'd like to know exactly when u starting the flowering period as i'd love to duplicate your grow as much as possible :thumbsup:

I'd also like to know what you think the cause could be of those concerns i had ( the bent growing and curling leaves)

thnx for the advice:hippy:

[bigtopsfinn]

First time around I vegged with a 21w flouro for a week, then the used the hps for veg until it was 30 days old, then switched the lights. On my current grow, I used the flouro and a couple small cfl's for about 2 weeks while I was getting my closet together (of course they were pretty useless after the first week), so I vegged for about 5 weeks total.

Greenhouse says to veg for 2 weeks, but I think that would hurt yield a lot since the roots don't have a chance to grow enough. The yield with the TW is nothing special to begin with, so I'd say 4 weeks of veg with proper lighting will give you good results.

I don't want to make you paranoid or anything, but growing in a rented apartment is also risky in case a maintenance person comes (happened to me and I think the guy didn't care, but he had to have smelled it), or anyone who comes for that matter. As soon as you open your front door, the cat's out of the bag... You never know who will show up, better safe than sorry.:thumbsup:

[bkordel]

ok thats great to know, i'll be sure to keep you updated. hehe can i be your apprentice ? I'm a huge fan of GHS but you cant always listen to their advice because their budget is almost endless and they have all the resources in the world to maximize every stage of the growing process.

I've thought of your advice about the foil and decided to tear it down, do you think egg-white walls are a problem?

The thing about my apartment is that i have literally NEVER had any unwanted guests and i've lived here for 2 years now. Its far out of town and the only people here are very trustworthy friends. But i'll talk to my "investor" and see what he thinks about all this.

thnx again

[cigarettes42]

you need some cfl's or flouros on those seedlings pronto. to me they look pretty stretched out already. notice how one almost cant support itself and is almost falling over? that soil looks way damp too!

[bigtopsfinn]

I've been thinking about the stretch myself, but its hard to imagine that they need more light... maybe it's a heat issue. This is totally off the top of my head, but could they be "running away" from the hps because of the heat? The young plants will enjoy lower temps; in flowering it's ok to have a little higher temps as long as it's in range.

I think the egg white isn't going to reflect very well, but probably better than the tinfoil anyways :jointsmile:

Apprentice? Hehe, I'm flattered but still a noob in many respects :weedpoke:

I like to help if I can, though!

[headshake]

tinfoil is not useless. just make sure to use the dull side as the shiny side will give you hot spots. but flat white is a better alternative. and you can veg you girls under CFLs with no problems what-so-ever. i ran my whole grow with CFLs and did fine. i also used foil for most of the grow.

be careful with your soil. it does look much too wet. it looks like one of them has the problem with the stem rotting. i can't remember the technical term at the moment. make sure to keep your soil mixture as close to the top of the pot as possible. at least within an inch. stale air can sit here and wreak havoc.

-shake

[bigtopsfinn]

Tinfoil might be ok with cfl's, but the fact that cfl's are only effective up to a couple inches, the light reflecting from the tin foil/white walls won't have much effect on your plants. I have never seen anyone recommend tinfoil just because of all the problems (wrinkling reflects light where you don't need it, hot spots), especially since he's got 2 HID's, and not cfl's. Only way to know for sure is to use it, but since people have had more problems with tinfoil than success, I sure wouldn't use it nor recommend it in this case, or any for that matter. Just my :twocents:

[bigtopsfinn]

This is from another site:

Aluminum foil is no more than 55% reflective - if used, make sure that the dull side is the one that is used to reflect the light. When it becomes creased its reflectivity is even lower (around 35%.) It is also very dangerous to use because it creates hotspots easily, is electrically conductive, and is a fire hazard when it is in close contact with HID lighting. Attaching this to walls is a pain and usually using aluminum tape or glue is the best way. This should only be used as a last resort, and even then its usefulness is questionable. Getting the most from your lights. - Grasscity.com Forums