First Grow! Sealed/Closed Room, 2400 watts, CO2, Mini-Split AC, SmartPots, Dehum!

Hello RIU!

I'm relatively new here, but have been soaking up information like a sponge since I first stumbled onto this site in hopes of figuring out how to grow marijuana. I have learned a shit load since then! So this is my first "REAL" grow. I did have one prior grow of one plant in a stealth box. It turned out alright. I'm currently curing about 2 ounces of dried bud off of it... Anyhow, this time I'm looking for something serious because I already have some basic understanding of the marijuana plant and its life cycle, the various stages of growth, and nutritional requirements and deficiencies.. plus, this time I have real equipment and a real room!

I have been working on designing, building, and implementing this room since June. Its a great room for me to really dig in and learn with! I still have a couple of minor tasks left to complete on the room (as you'll be able to see from the pictures)...such as ducting the lights, installing the Panda Film tarp doorway to seperate the veg/flower sections of the room, and installing the CO2 setup. I'll be posting pictures as I complete the room/grow the seedlings up! Follow along with me and we'll do this together!

This room is located in a basement in a non-medical Midwest US state. It is a sealed/closed grow environment with AC and CO2. With the background info out of the way, let me just jump right into it...

Sealed Room Specs:

Dimensions: 4.5' Wide x approx. 17' long x 10' high (ceilings).
Volume: 765 cubic feet

Lights Exhausted from basement through the Roof (3 story home)

Equipment Used in Room:

Lighting - 2400 watts Total -- 1mil Mylar lined walls

Seedling/Clone Area: 400 watts (SunBlaze 48 Flouro Panel-- 4', 8 lamp, T-5 HO Flouro Panel with 6500k lamps)

Veg Area: 800 watts (2-400w Hortilux Blue mH lamps in Cool Sun 6" AC Reflectors running on Lumatek Digital Ballasts)

Flower Area: 1200 watts (3-400w Hortilux Super HPS lamps in Cool Sun 6" AC Reflectors running on Lumatek Digital Ballasts)

Electrical -
Veg and flower each have their own electrical panel. Timers for my HID lights are Intermatic T103 Analog Timers. All outlets are heavy duty outlets on their own individual 20 amp circuit. Way overkill, but wtf right? It was my first time and I didn't want my house to catch on fire from electrical problems! This way I can expand and will never ever ever need an electrician down there hopefully!

AC -
Mitsubishi 9000Btu Mini-Split Ductless AC Heat Pump

Dehumidifier -
Danby DDR7009REE 70 pint per day Dehumidifier

CO2 Setup & Environmental Controllers -
Sentinel CHHC-4 Total Environmental Controller with 20Lb. tank and Titan regulator

Air Momement -
EcoPlus 16" Oscillating Wall Fan (for general room circulation)
Vornado 530 Compact Tabletop fan for veg area
Vornado 630 fan for flower area and CO2 dispersal

Cloning -
EZ-Clone 30 site clone machine

Genetics -
10 Barney's Farm LSD (feminized) ordered from Attitude in June, with 1 Jock Horror Autoflower (feminized). The wife wants 1 sativa!

Soil -
A mixture of Fox Farm's Ocean Forest and Light Warrior at a 2(OF):1(LW) ratio. I have also added about 1/4 Coarse Perlite, additional Humisolve powered humic acid, Azomite, Epsom Salt, Dolomite Lime. I have mixed this soil, watered it, stirred it 2x/week, and let it sit out for 30 days. Its a modified version of Subcool's super soil (without all the extra guano and bone meal).

Nutrients -
Currently have the entire Fox Farm's lineup, Bloombastic, and several other additives. Trying to get my hands on House & Garden before this really gets going, but will probably have to use Fox Farm's for veg and Bloombastic for flower this round. I want to move entirely to H&G once I get the products in-hand though.

Water -
RO Water from the Stealth RO-100 unit and a 48 gal reservoir. The RO water comes out at 0ppm and about 7.3 pH. I pH it down to about 6.5 before watering my babies.

Monitors -
BlueLab Guardian for pH, temp, and TDS/ppm measurements. Calibrated every other week using 7 and 4 scales.

Containers -
1 gal, 3 gal, and 5 gal smart pots. I germinate em in Solo cups and work my way up the Smart Pot line-up (flowering in 5 gal smart pots)!



GERMINATION:

10/21/10 -
I germinated 10 LSD fem seeds and 1 Jock Horror Auto fem seed using the wet paper towel/DVD warmth method. All produced nice long taproots in two days.

10/23/10 -
Dropped the germinated seeds into solo cups filled with Fox Farms Light Warrior.

10/24/10 -
5 of the 10 LSD's and the lone 1 Jock Horror have popped ground. The Jock Horror seems to be in a grow race. It had a huge ass taproot curled around in the paper towel, was the first to pop ground, and is currently the best looking/tallest little sprout!



Without further ado, here are the initial pics of my setup (keep in mind its not quite finished). I will be posting updates all along the way throughout this grow until completion. Feel free to comment or post whatever you want. Please keep it positive. I'd love all the help I can get!!!



Room View (can't see all of flower, but some):


AC and wall-mounted fan:


Lumatek Ballasts on veg shelf:


Electrical Timers and outlets:
(the "IN" and "OUT" switches are wired to inline FanTech booster fans inside the ceiling that are boosting the airflow INTO and OUT OF my HID light loop. These booster fans are in addition to the two EcoPlus Supreme 6" 440CFM fans you see in the pictures. I have a 3 story run to my roof where the lights exhaust at, so felt it necessary to add additional booster fan support.)



Flouro Panel with 10 LSD & 1 Jock Horror Seedling:






COMMENTS WELCOME!!!

Thanks RIU,

X

You spent alot of money there friend but it seems you thought it out. Remember read the plants not the labels!

They seem to be a lil on the heavy side as feeders and definitely P hogs in flower. The LSD I am inferring here.

Love the mini split...I am gonna use a window unit for mine but it is also smaller than your. 'scribed

Namaste'

Illumination said:

You spent alot of money there friend but it seems you thought it out. Remember read the plants not the labels!

They seem to be a lil on the heavy side as feeders and definitely P hogs in flower. The LSD I am inferring here.

Love the mini split...I am gonna use a window unit for mine but it is also smaller than your. 'scribed

Namaste'

Click to expand...

Yeah, we did spend some $$$, hope it will pay off for us in the long run. Growing for personal satisfaction and for medical use of a family member who actually does use it to alleviate pain and muscle spasms. So in my mind, it was all worth it!

I have heard the LSD's are indeed very piggish for the nutes! SouthernWeed mentioned the same thing to me before he left RIU. He suggested top dressing the soil in week 4 of flower with some high-P guano to help feed their cravings..along with your normal feeding schedule. I picked up some Jamaican bat guano just for this purpose!

I love my Mitsubishi mini-split also!! Thanks for the compliments! We are getting a $1500 tax credit for it also due to it meeting the 2010 Federal Economic Stimulus Package offered by Obama for energy efficient applicances. If you purchase one, make sure it meets these criteria so you can get some cash back for buying it at least!

Glad your along for the ride, I will DEFINITELY need all the help I can get, I'm the first to admit I'm pretty noob at this....but I've got loads of good people here to help me out! Plus the Jorge Cervantes Grow Bible, and the new Ed Rosenthal Grower's Handbook (official Oaksterdam course book..haha!). Both have been incredibly helpful in this journey. I've also been an avid reader of Urban Garden magazine which is fucking incredible.... loved the VPD article! Local shop gives me free copy everytime it comes in. Check it out and glad to have ya here!!

X

Check out Mel Frank as books go...

Namaste'

Nice Looking set up. I too have a few barneys Farm LSD (fem)View attachment 1231369 going. You can look at my journal. I just started the flowering 2 days ago. Good luck and I will be keeping an eye on this grow

Top left and right and bottom right plants are Barneys Farm LSD

Stlmatt

WEEK 1 VEG (Monday 10/25/10):

Currently running 24/0 light schedule for these seedlings. After the first solid week or two I'll drop it down to 18/6 to help establish better root growth. I think starting them at 24/0 should help them get moving. Then we'll back it down to the normal 18/6 veg. I plan on vegging about 6-8 weeks and then flowering. I have plenty of space with the 10' ceilings in my room, width is a bigger issue than height.

UPDATE! I have moved the seedlings on top of my EZ-CLONE box to give them a bit more light and get them closer to the flouro panel. I need to measure how far they are from the flouro lamps, but I'd estimate it is about 12-18". I also took some more pics! I now have 6 baby LSD seedlings and 1 Jock Horror Seedling that have popped soil! I think I killed one of the LSD seedlings as I was spraying it with water and noticed that the little top just poking out of the soil got all bent down from the force of the spray bottle's spray! Oh noes! I think its most likely dead, chalk it up to a lesson learned...spray very very lightly around new babies!

I also took my ExTech HD 400 light meter (reads up to 40,000 FC) and took some light measurements around the seedlings. The flouro panel I have is T-5 HO 6500k lamps...a bit strong, so I am currently only running 1 lamp out of the 8 lamps in the panel. That one lamp is providing me between 300-600 foot candles of light depending on where you take the measurement from (bottom of the box vs. top of the solo cup).

Is this too much light?

The reason I ask is because they seemed to be stretching so I moved them closer to the light by putting them on top of the box, but my Jorge Cervantes Medical Grow Bible says that seedlings/clones should not receive more than 375 foot candles of light.

Am I risking damage to them???? Should I take them down off the box and put them back on the floor?

Thanks for the tips everyone!!


The babies on their new EZ-CLONE BOX STAND:


The light meter readings:




Close-ups of seedling sprouts:





Comments welcome!!

stlmatt said:

Nice Looking set up. I too have a few barneys Farm LSD (fem)View attachment 1231369 going. You can look at my journal. I just started the flowering 2 days ago. Good luck and I will be keeping an eye on this grow

Top left and right and bottom right plants are Barneys Farm LSD

Stlmatt

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking Stlmatt! I have sent you a friend request and have subscribed to your journal as well. I'll be following along to learn everything I can from you!! Please comment away and keep me in line if I do something stupid and noobish!

Thanks for the help!

X

Thanks Xivex, I too am a newbie with growing indoors. I am hoping the next 65 days goes as well as the first 6 weeks have.
I will say I was amazed at the speed these LSD grew at. I did very little feeding while in Veg, as I think the Fox Farms Ocean soil has alot of what they needed. I will start useing Big bloom and Tigerbloom this week......I cant wait to see some flowers
I did notice when I flushed them last week, they had some WHITE roots hanging out the bottom of the pot.......the roots looked very healthy, but I wasnt expecting them to be comming out the bottom of my 3 gallon pots........aleast not yet.

Best of luck, I cant wait to watch what yours do......these are some very hardy, bushy, strong growing plants.

Stlmatt

xivex said:

WEEK 1 VEG (Monday 10/25/10):

Currently running 24/0 light schedule for these seedlings. After the first solid week or two I'll drop it down to 18/6 to help establish better root growth. I think starting them at 24/0 should help them get moving. Then we'll back it down to the normal 18/6 veg. I plan on vegging about 6-8 weeks and then flowering. I have plenty of space with the 10' ceilings in my room, width is a bigger issue than height.




UPDATE! I have moved the seedlings on top of my EZ-CLONE box to give them a bit more light and get them closer to the flouro panel. I need to measure how far they are from the flouro lamps, but I'd estimate it is about 12-18". I also took some more pics! I now have 6 baby LSD seedlings and 1 Jock Horror Seedling that have popped soil! I think I killed one of the LSD seedlings as I was spraying it with water and noticed that the little top just poking out of the soil got all bent down from the force of the spray bottle's spray! Oh noes! I think its most likely dead, chalk it up to a lesson learned...spray very very lightly around new babies!

I also took my ExTech HD 400 light meter (reads up to 40,000 FC) and took some light measurements around the seedlings. The flouro panel I have is T-5 HO 6500k lamps...a bit strong, so I am currently only running 1 lamp out of the 8 lamps in the panel. That one lamp is providing me between 300-600 foot candles of light depending on where you take the measurement from (bottom of the box vs. top of the solo cup).

Is this too much light?

The reason I ask is because they seemed to be stretching so I moved them closer to the light by putting them on top of the box, but my Jorge Cervantes Medical Grow Bible says that seedlings/clones should not receive more than 375 foot candles of light.

Am I risking damage to them???? Should I take them down off the box and put them back on the floor?

Thanks for the tips everyone!!


The babies on their new EZ-CLONE BOX STAND:
View attachment 1231449

The light meter readings:
View attachment 1231451

View attachment 1231452

Close-ups of seedling sprouts:
View attachment 1231448

View attachment 1231450


Comments welcome!!

Click to expand...

give 'em the light my friend... Had my cfl's very close from early on....I would turn on more bulbs and keep it farther away for now

Namaste'

Nice set up. I am new to the growing scene as well I just cut down 14 girls that had started to produce seed 7 weeks into flowering. I received a free rocklock from reserva privada and that thing grow some bananas and i noticed to late the bananas had already hit all my so called girls. OG#18 nlights and ww. The only one that i can salvage is the white widow becuz it was almost done. But anyway dont relax at any point during the grow. I dont know much yet but i do in know that I didnt pay enough attention when i thought i was paying to much. My next round is 3 weeks into veg. You can only imagine how disappointed i was anyways good luck.

The reason they cant have a lot of light at first is because its during the dark cycle that excess energy is taken to the root. after they start they can eat up light. but some dark time help, some studies show the root size determines bud growth more than veg size. i would recommend putting that puppy right down to plants, maybe 4 inches above and they will take off and keep good nodal spacing. Im excited to see what happens, very nice setup and plan overall. best of luck

October 28, 2010 (Day 5, Week 1 of Veg):

So today is about day 4 or day 5 since my babies have first popped soil (depends on which one you are referring to as to exactly how old it is). I just call it day 5 for simplicity!

So the babies are starting to grow. Previously, they had stretched a LOT because I had them too far away from the flouro panel with not enough lamps running (was only running 1 lamp to start with, then went to 2, then 4, now all 8. So yes, now I am running the entire 8 lamp T-5 HO flouro panel (40,000 lumens). With my seedlings about 12" away from the lamps (measured).

Today I labeled all the cups so as to distinguish which was which down the road for clones/keepers/mother ID, etc.

To combat the stretching that had occured, I added more soil to the solo cups today. I took my Fox Farm's Light Warrior and topped off each cup, trying to build a little mound to support/fill up the stretched stem area as best as I could. When I transplant them into my smart pots in about 2 weeks I will bury the stem as much as possible to combat the rest of the stretching and it should eventually turn to root and help support the plant.

While topping the soil level off, I accidentally dropped one of the solo cups onto my tile floor, spilling the seed and dirt everywhere! OH NOES!

Luckily, it was one of the two LSD seeds that hadn't popped soil yet. I tried to find the seed, and replant it, but I couldn't.... long story short, I just threw it away. Fuck it...this is why I planted 10 LSDs.

There was one other that hadn't popped soil yet either, so I investigated. I dug around in the cup with my finger and found it was lying sideways about 1/16" below the top of the soil. The taproot looked rotten and wasn't buried. I threw it away also, figured it was rotten at this point. Again, this is why I planted 10 and planned to only flower around 6-8 (picking the best ones, culling males, hermies, runts, etc.) So all that trauma out of the way, I finished cleaning the mess I had made up (soil all over a floor is messy!)

I needed to water, and I had read Light Warrior needs feeding within 5 days of sprouting as its a very "cool" (as opposed to "hot" like FFOF) soil. So I took my Fox Farm's Big Bloom and my Root 66 and put some food into my 1L spray bottle. I sprayed the soil down thoroughly with this making sure not to get any of it on the tender seedling leaves. We will see how the results of this in the next couple days. Do you think that is too strong of nutes to give them?

First Feeding:

1L RO Water
6.3 pH/250ppm
1 tsp Fox Farms Big Bloom
1 tsp Root 66


Here are the pics of my babies on day 5...Enjoy! Comments welcome!

Group shot of the remaining 8 LSD seedlings and the 1 Jock Horror seedling (LSD #4 and #10 are the missing ones that got trashed):

The Best looking two LSD seedlings (#5 and #6):


The worst looking two LSD seedlings..the runts (#1 and #2):


Broken/rotted seed LSD #4 (ended up getting trashed after I dumped it):

LSD GENETICS & STRAIN DESCRIPTION (courtesy of Attitude SeedBank):

Sex : Feminized
Type : Indica / Sativa, Mostly indica
Flowering : Photoperiod
Genetics : Mazar x Skunk #1
Flowering Time : Short, Medium
Outdoor Harvest : Mid September
Height : Medium
THC Level : 24 %
Characteristics : produces a euphoric, almost psychedelic experience

Barneys Farm LSD Feminized is an old Skunk variety crossed with Mazar. - Called LSD by the Farm crew because of its powerful trippy effect. Developed from ancient genetics long established in the Farm seed bank. Crossing Skunk #1 with a potent Mazar we have created a very powerful Indica strain. Barneys Farm L.S.D. Feminized is a hardy, disease resistant plant and it's cannabis seeds responds well in all grow conditions. With just a little care and attention, the Barneys Farm L.S.D. Feminized strain will give the grower high yielding award winning powerful results. The flavor is intense earthy chestnut with a sweet musky smell. The Barney's Farm LSD Feminized cannabis seeds produce a euphoric, almost psychedelic experience. It’s a super-trippy and very powerful stone, a Barney’s Farm special. Yield optimum indoor is 600 gr/m2, indoor height: 50 - 60 cm and flowering time is 60-65 days.


LSD GROW PLAN:

*** GOAL 1.5 Pounds (672 grams) @ Harvest! = 0.56 grams/watt (1200 watts flowering) ***

VEG -- 8 Weeks (October 24, 2010 - approx. December 19, 2010)

FLOWER -- 60-65 days (as defined by Barney's Farm)
(approx. December 19, 2010 - February 15/20, 2011)

HARVEST -- February 15/20, 2011

DRY (estimated from previous grow in my climate) -- 5 days
(February 20, 2011 - February 25, 2011)

CURE (estimated 4-6 weeks)
(February 25, 2011 - March 25/April 8, 2011)

SMOKE REPORT - approx. March 26/April 9, 2011



Let's hope everything goes according to plan and this LSD is as good as everyone says it is!


Thanks RIU!

Things go right and you will best your yeild hopes

Very good producers them lsd's are

LOVING YOUR SETUP

Namaste'

Fucking legit set-up. Nice to see someone doing their homework and purchasing quality gear. If I saw another "shoe box with flashlight bulb grow" I was going to puke.

Subbed and plus rep. Posting pics to my grow thread today. My plants exploded this week.

xivex said:

LSD GENETICS & STRAIN DESCRIPTION (courtesy of Attitude SeedBank):

Sex : Feminized
Type : Indica / Sativa, Mostly indica
Flowering : Photoperiod
Genetics : Mazar x Skunk #1
Flowering Time : Short, Medium
Outdoor Harvest : Mid September
Height : Medium
THC Level : 24 %
Characteristics : produces a euphoric, almost psychedelic experience

Barneys Farm LSD Feminized is an old Skunk variety crossed with Mazar. - Called LSD by the Farm crew because of its powerful trippy effect. Developed from ancient genetics long established in the Farm seed bank. Crossing Skunk #1 with a potent Mazar we have created a very powerful Indica strain. Barneys Farm L.S.D. Feminized is a hardy, disease resistant plant and it's cannabis seeds responds well in all grow conditions. With just a little care and attention, the Barneys Farm L.S.D. Feminized strain will give the grower high yielding award winning powerful results. The flavor is intense earthy chestnut with a sweet musky smell. The Barney's Farm LSD Feminized cannabis seeds produce a euphoric, almost psychedelic experience. It’s a super-trippy and very powerful stone, a Barney’s Farm special. Yield optimum indoor is 600 gr/m2, indoor height: 50 - 60 cm and flowering time is 60-65 days.


LSD GROW PLAN:

*** GOAL 1.5 Pounds (672 grams) @ Harvest! = 0.56 grams/watt (1200 watts flowering) ***

VEG -- 8 Weeks (October 24, 2010 - approx. December 19, 2010)

FLOWER -- 60-65 days (as defined by Barney's Farm)
(approx. December 19, 2010 - February 15/20, 2010)

HARVEST -- February 15/20, 2010

DRY (estimated from previous grow in my climate) -- 5 days
(February 20, 2010 - February 25, 2010)

CURE (estimated 4-6 weeks)
(February 25, 2010 - March 25/April 8, 2010)

SMOKE REPORT - approx. March 26/April 9, 2010



Let's hope everything goes according to plan and this LSD is as good as everyone says it is!


Thanks RIU!

Click to expand...

ya LSD is a great producer, but im pretty sure you meant flower, cure and smoke in 2011. if you didnt please message me the plans for your time machine

Looking good!

2011?

jihammad said:

ya LSD is a great producer, but im pretty sure you meant flower, cure and smoke in 2011. if you didnt please message me the plans for your time machine

Click to expand...

LMAO. No plans for a time machine. I've updated the post to reflect the current year...jeez, talk about a stoner.. LOL!

Thanks for looking out bro!

X

PS -- Update about to come as soon as I get it written!

legallyflying said:

Fucking legit set-up. Nice to see someone doing their homework and purchasing quality gear. If I saw another "shoe box with flashlight bulb grow" I was going to puke.

Subbed and plus rep. Posting pics to my grow thread today. My plants exploded this week.

Click to expand...

Thanks dude! I'm subbed on yours as well, hoping to learn a few things, lord knows I could use the help!

X

October 29, 2010 (Day 6 of Veg)...

So today I had to go check on my babies and see how they reacted to their first feeding yesterday! They seemed to be doing very well, I don't see anymore stretching now that I've got the entire flouro panel running and they are sitting at 12" (from lamp to top rim of solo cup). Their first set of true leaves is developing and coming along nicely in all the seedlings, several of them already have nice broad leaves. As far as I could tell all the leaves looked to be in great shape, nice light green shade, seemed to be standing up tall and strong, flat expanded leaves reaching out for the light. No curl or strange things yet.

The top of the soil looked a tad dry today and since I added the extra soil yesterday for the really stretched out seedlings to help support their elongated stems, I figured I'd water them down a bit more today. The article I read in Urban Garden regarding Vegetative vs. Generative (Flowering) environmental steering encouraged moist soil in veg to help development...so I've been trying to keep them moist, but not drenched.

1L RO Water
6.3 pH, 350 ppm (seems the Silicate and Cal-Mag are heavier than the Big Bloom and Root 66 I added yesterday)
1/4 tsp Botanicare Cal-Mag+
1/4 tsp Grotek Pro-Silicate

I sprayed the soil down pretty good with that mixture. Due to the changing seasons here its starting to get cooler and dryer. My humidity the other day was measured at 35% in the room so I decided to add a humidifier. I got it running last night and filled it up again this morning. Set it to 55% and will check on the min/max as measured by my hygrometer tomorrow morning.

Here's a group shot of the seedlings on day 6 of veg (#5 and #6 are my favs still ... front right by JH and back left):


Damn I'm still being lazy about finishing the last few tasks in this room! I need to install my tarp doorway to seperate veg from flower, adjust the lights in flower about 6" to the left, and install my CO2 setup!!

On a positive note, my modified soil mixture has now sat outside for 30 days. So I shoveled it all up and into two large trash cans and wheeled it into my garage. I'll transplant into the soil mixture when these get big enough. Not sure, but I'm thinking I might just go directly to 3 gal smart pots and skip my 1 gals. What do you think? Then 1 week before flower transplant into 5 gal and throw em into flower!

Comments Welcome!