xPeaceofMindx717
Member
Hello Fellow Growers!
My garden has been doing alright, despite some obvious deficiencies that I'm going to need help diagnosing. I suspect it's all PH related but I'm not totally sure yet. So onto some details. The point of my garden is for personal use. My fiancé and I both use Cannabis medically as well as recreationally. I have no interest in selling my harvest as I'm doing this to not only save us money, but to get us away from the shady element that tends to be involved in procurement of this sacred herb around my parts. Yields, therefore are not my top priority. I'd rather grow less of the good stuff than a buttload of shwag. But also, I'm aware of the limitations of my setup and realize that I'm not going to be producing anything worthy of the cannabis cup. I chose to avoid HID lighting because I live in a rental and cannot get away with cutting holes into the ceiling for ventilation. Also stealth is a major concern.
Closet/Ventilation:
1.5'Dx2.5'Wx3H (or up to 4' if I move the coat hanger bar up to the top of the closet. The closet is located in our bedroom. The door to the closet is always open due to heat restrictions, light is contained (not completely) by using a "blackout" curtain that has a flat white back. Walls are also flat white. Ventilation and cooling are accomplished by two 24" box fans and a window AC in the main room. One fan is right next to the plants and leaned pointing up into the lights and across the tops of the plants. This fan has a passive intake beside it accomplished by the curtain being tucked under the corner of the fan. Exhaust is accomplished by the second box fan at the top of the closet above the curtain. It just blows the hot air that makes its way up the closet, back into the bedroom. When I attempted to use the closet with the door closed, the temps were getting into the mid-high 90'sF. With my current setup, "daytime" temps are stable around 75F. Nighttime gets to the AC setting of 65F. Fans are on 24/7. Currently in the process of building a coffee can carbon scrubber which will be powered by a stupid powerful Honeywell desk fan. That's only a few days out seeing as there is already a faint but quite definite smell coming from the babies.
Lighting:
4x: 23w 5000k CFL, 1600 lumens each
5x: 23w 2700k CFL, 1600 lumens each
2x: 55w 2700k CFL, 3800 lumens each
Total actual wattage: 317
Total actual lumens: 22,000
One 23w is in a desk lamp for adjustable supplemental lighting. All the others are mounted to a homemade fixture made of wood, tinfoil, and various fixtures that I'd found for free or very cheap, gutted a few trash picked lamps. I also realize that 5000k lamps are not ideal, however it was what I could get my hands on at the moment. I plan on purchasing a set of 85w photography cfls that run at 6500k. Found them on Amazon for about $50 for a four pack (also WAY cheaper than hydro stores for comparative bulbs.)
I have six of the ugliest little green babies you could think of right now. They were all germed in paper towels with a light fish emulsion solution (1/2 strength 5-1-1). Nutes have only been given to the oldest when signs of deficiencies started (classic miracle grow 20-20-20 at 1/4 ratios for indoor plants, it was like a half teaspoon in a gallon of water). I ghetto tested my soil for ph by adding some vinegar to a sample and there was some definite fizzing, so therefore I concluded that the soil was slightly basic. to attempt to correct this on the cheap, I mixed a tablespoon of Braggs apple cider vinegar with a gallon of water and thouroughly watered each of them. They have seemed to take it not too badly, as I heard drastic changes in PH can shock young plants. They are still green and growth at the nodes continued over night. I found a friend with a soil ph/light/moisture meter that he said I could borrow. So I will be able to get some real numbers for you all soon. Currently I have two that are three weeks from seed. Three that are two weeks from seed and one that's about a week in. They are all bag seed and fairly old bagseed at that. I started topping them pretty early because I want to make them as compact as possible. If all six end up being females, I want to keep all six despite my space restrictions. But I will probably only end up with a couple if I'm lucky. The losers are going to be eaten in various ways for health purposes.
Any input would be appreciated. But please remember that I'm on a stupid tight budget so any jerry rigging advice is preferred to "go out and spend all your money on this shit that might not work anyway". I'm trying to keep this grow as simple as possible!
This is a new forum for me and I'm working on trying to upload pictures as this site doesn't support mobile uploads (we don't have a computer or TV/home internet). Any advice on how to circumvent that would also be appreciated. I know you guys need to SEE them to be able to help me diagnose my deficiencies.
Thanks for browsing and we hope you stick around!
My garden has been doing alright, despite some obvious deficiencies that I'm going to need help diagnosing. I suspect it's all PH related but I'm not totally sure yet. So onto some details. The point of my garden is for personal use. My fiancé and I both use Cannabis medically as well as recreationally. I have no interest in selling my harvest as I'm doing this to not only save us money, but to get us away from the shady element that tends to be involved in procurement of this sacred herb around my parts. Yields, therefore are not my top priority. I'd rather grow less of the good stuff than a buttload of shwag. But also, I'm aware of the limitations of my setup and realize that I'm not going to be producing anything worthy of the cannabis cup. I chose to avoid HID lighting because I live in a rental and cannot get away with cutting holes into the ceiling for ventilation. Also stealth is a major concern.
Closet/Ventilation:
1.5'Dx2.5'Wx3H (or up to 4' if I move the coat hanger bar up to the top of the closet. The closet is located in our bedroom. The door to the closet is always open due to heat restrictions, light is contained (not completely) by using a "blackout" curtain that has a flat white back. Walls are also flat white. Ventilation and cooling are accomplished by two 24" box fans and a window AC in the main room. One fan is right next to the plants and leaned pointing up into the lights and across the tops of the plants. This fan has a passive intake beside it accomplished by the curtain being tucked under the corner of the fan. Exhaust is accomplished by the second box fan at the top of the closet above the curtain. It just blows the hot air that makes its way up the closet, back into the bedroom. When I attempted to use the closet with the door closed, the temps were getting into the mid-high 90'sF. With my current setup, "daytime" temps are stable around 75F. Nighttime gets to the AC setting of 65F. Fans are on 24/7. Currently in the process of building a coffee can carbon scrubber which will be powered by a stupid powerful Honeywell desk fan. That's only a few days out seeing as there is already a faint but quite definite smell coming from the babies.
Lighting:
4x: 23w 5000k CFL, 1600 lumens each
5x: 23w 2700k CFL, 1600 lumens each
2x: 55w 2700k CFL, 3800 lumens each
Total actual wattage: 317
Total actual lumens: 22,000
One 23w is in a desk lamp for adjustable supplemental lighting. All the others are mounted to a homemade fixture made of wood, tinfoil, and various fixtures that I'd found for free or very cheap, gutted a few trash picked lamps. I also realize that 5000k lamps are not ideal, however it was what I could get my hands on at the moment. I plan on purchasing a set of 85w photography cfls that run at 6500k. Found them on Amazon for about $50 for a four pack (also WAY cheaper than hydro stores for comparative bulbs.)
I have six of the ugliest little green babies you could think of right now. They were all germed in paper towels with a light fish emulsion solution (1/2 strength 5-1-1). Nutes have only been given to the oldest when signs of deficiencies started (classic miracle grow 20-20-20 at 1/4 ratios for indoor plants, it was like a half teaspoon in a gallon of water). I ghetto tested my soil for ph by adding some vinegar to a sample and there was some definite fizzing, so therefore I concluded that the soil was slightly basic. to attempt to correct this on the cheap, I mixed a tablespoon of Braggs apple cider vinegar with a gallon of water and thouroughly watered each of them. They have seemed to take it not too badly, as I heard drastic changes in PH can shock young plants. They are still green and growth at the nodes continued over night. I found a friend with a soil ph/light/moisture meter that he said I could borrow. So I will be able to get some real numbers for you all soon. Currently I have two that are three weeks from seed. Three that are two weeks from seed and one that's about a week in. They are all bag seed and fairly old bagseed at that. I started topping them pretty early because I want to make them as compact as possible. If all six end up being females, I want to keep all six despite my space restrictions. But I will probably only end up with a couple if I'm lucky. The losers are going to be eaten in various ways for health purposes.
Any input would be appreciated. But please remember that I'm on a stupid tight budget so any jerry rigging advice is preferred to "go out and spend all your money on this shit that might not work anyway". I'm trying to keep this grow as simple as possible!
This is a new forum for me and I'm working on trying to upload pictures as this site doesn't support mobile uploads (we don't have a computer or TV/home internet). Any advice on how to circumvent that would also be appreciated. I know you guys need to SEE them to be able to help me diagnose my deficiencies.
Thanks for browsing and we hope you stick around!