Arrrrrggghhhh!!!! (full blown Rant)

Disaster after disaster after disaster has been my luck with this grow. It's been a learning experience for sure. I've invested about $3,000 and haven't gotten as much as a joint out of it yet. I've got a splitting headache and my throat is raw from screaming. I was having some problems with 4 plants in my hydro unit; I transplanted them two days ago and they were looking really crappy. I changed the water, babied them, mixed up some foliar spray. Then I decided to take out the CFL's and put in the HPS. I set the 400w light about 4-5 inches above the tops of the little plants ("little" because of all the shocks and setbacks). I came back about 30 minutes later and they were toasted. It was 105 degrees in the grow box. I read somewhere on this forum that HPS was cooler than CFL's; if I find who wrote that I'll track you down and choke your ass to death with my bare hands. I have a remote ballast and I thought that was where all the heat came from; that's what I read on here. Wrong!! I guess I'll be soaking more rock wool and getting ready to germinate new seeds tomorrow. The Blueberry is maybe not the best for a noob grower. I've got some Big Bud and some Sour Diesel; maybe I'll give those a shot instead.

lol i usally keep light at least 18-22 inchs for 400 hps..and yes u need to vent that bitch.. for 3000 i would have thought u would have a hood witha fan and nice exhaust.. anyway i guess 3k doesnt go far hehe jk peace

Ive spent a lot less money and a lot more time reading, and thats why I would never put an hid within inches of my girls... they dont need a tan.

Just eb happy you got that kinda money

You said it haze. 400w and you spent 3000? Do you have a golden grow box? Super Venting? Sucks you lost your baby's the Bigbud would be a nice easy grow. Good luck for next time around.

a cool tube with a decent fan will let ya get it that close... you can diy one, or go throw some more dough at a really nice one...

but i'd stick with the hps...

lol omg?! 5 inch away from plant with a 400hps? You can't even do that with a 100w incandesant bulb!

You should start a journal and post every step that your doing so that people on here can help you, atleast people that think they know something, then us expert can come in and correct those people and possibly shut them up.

Yikes 5 inches was pretty close especially in a grow box. I can get my 600 watt light at most 8-10 inches with an open room. The heat will come from the bulb the ballast adds extra heat.Not sure what the hell you spent 3 grans on even a complete shitty BC grow box is less then that and would have had ventalation on it.Can you post up what you paid 3 grand fro. For 3 grand you can have a really nice grow op. 4 x 8 Flood tables lights.light movers ,co2, fans ductiing ,res, pumps and nutes.

I took alook at your gallery but couldnt see more then $100 max with all the different stuff there. Things that were bad were bad soil in the pots, small pots, small cfls wrong color fro veg, and for gods sake mirrors..

Right on Filthy, 3k is alot of money to spend, a simple tent, bubbleponic system and light would probably cost least then 1/3 of that!

I just saw the pix in your gal also, maybe thats a old grow i dont know, but u should make a journal so that you'll get more help that way.

wow that must be a nice setup for 3 grand.maybe the person you should hunt down is the one who sold you the equipment,not someone trying to help you on a web site.but hope you get it right the next time.

yeah i think you need to be spending more time reading and less monety spending on junk that wont work in your favor.

if i had 3k to blow my room would be top of the line

I didn't post pix of all my stuff but what I have is two full hydro kits, a 396 gph pump, dual line air pumps, 3 timers, 4 huge 65w full spectrum CFL's, 2 HPS, 2 MH, a bank of 20 25w CFL's, a digital pH/ec/cf/ppm/temp meter, Advanced Nutrients: Grow, Micro, Bloom, Sweet Leaf, Big Bud, Bud Blood and Final Phase. 2 full sets of GH nutes (switched to the AN), a soil tester for pH/moisture/something else, 1/4" tubing, 30 net pots, rock wool out the wazoo, Olivia's Cloning Gel, 2 fans, power strips, aluminum ducting, 2 flange adapters for venting, ONA liquid, pH test strips, drippers, mylar, materials for the grow box, 5 gal buckets, paint strainers to filter the rainwater I collect, reflectors, a dozen pH up and down, aluminum foil, vinyl fence post (for my new grow design), end caps for the fence posts, vinyl glue, digital thermometers, about 30 lbs of hydroton, duct tape, a scalpel, 2ea 6" bubble stones, 2ea 18" bubble stones, a 10x hand-held microscope, Vermiculite, Perlite, potting soil, peat pots, a seed starting set, an herb starting kit, other trashy nutes bought out of ignorance/enthusiasm and probably a couple of other things I can't remember right now. ...and 100 blueberry seeds, 10 big bud seeds from Nirvana. I think the big bud will be more forgiving and tolerant of my mistakes. I'm really trying and I won't make the same mistakes over and over. You have no idea how much time I spend on here, searching for info on things and saving the pages for reference. I'm just trying to overcome this damn brown thumb I have always had. Hopefully, with your help, advice and kicking me in the ass every now and then, I can do it. I have a grow journal but I've kept it as a draft in my email; I'm not sure if I started one on here but I will next grow. Meanwhile, I put 7 big bud seeds in a paper towel, soaked it in pH'ed water, wrung it out slightly and put it in a baggie then put it in my shed out back to keep it warm. I mixed up some pH'ed water and am soaking my rockwool cubes in it til Monday. My last batch sprouted in 3 days so I'm hoping to be planting on Monday.

Peas and Love

A quick way to determine if your light is too close is to hold your hand at the top of the plants and if your hand gets too hot then your lights are too close!

for the record, i don't have any experience with CFLs but HIDs get hot, hot hot! vent those lights outside your box and use a glass reflector cover it you want to get them closer.

start slow with a ton of reading and asking questions. then figure your space and build start small and build from there this way when everything hits the fan not such a loss.i built mine for wwwwaaaaayyyyy less than that and i have fans ducting arbon scrubber hydro pumps the stuff you really need and then i did alot of reading and then some more reading and asked the dumbest questions and after i thought i made myself look like a tool on these forums i was setup and growing some pretty good stuff. and after all the stress and swearing i can sit in there and listen to the radio and it is so relaxing i just love growing to me it is alot of fun watching my buddies smoke it and say where the hell did you get that from. i like it. i am not a pro by no means but been doing it for a number of years if you have any questions just ask someone will now the answer here alot of smat people here. have fun and be patient it will happen just step back take five and think about it...

first you need to know what you want to grow in because you just have a whole bunch of stuff. I tend to 300+ plants in flowering and you probably have more crap laying around your place then i do. First decide if u want to go soil or hydro then just plant your steps from there, and since their germing right now its a good time to test all your system, that includes lighting, temp, and ect.

Thanks guys. I'm feeling a lot better now; I have 6 Big Bud seeds that sprouted from 7 seeds I germinated on Friday morning. I'm about to put them in rock wool cubes that have been sitting in pH'ed water since Friday morning. I'm going to start them off in that and by the end of the week next week maybe add a trace of nutes. Waiting to see what Nongreenthumb recommends.

I'm just astonished taht someone can spend that kind of money on something they obviously know little about...

What a terrible investment..

after going with cfls start your hps light pretty much as high as you can get it ,for the 1st day.second day go half of that. And by the 3rd day you should be at least 10 to 12 inch away from your light.those babys are powerfull.

omg....you though hps was cooler than fluoro's!!!!!????? Jesus....as soon as I read that you put the 400w only inches away from the babies, I knew it was too late. HID lighting will never be as cool as fluoro's that is why everyone says to keep a fan or some sort of cooling agent in the room!!! Whoever said it was cooler, just needs to be banned. lolz, ridiculous. I heard that big bud is really easy to grow. Do not give up, try try again. Good luck.

did anyone look at the time/date of the original post? it is from six months ago! i think potpimp has got it straightened out since then