BBBold
Active Member
My log of my first grow ever.
Backstory: I've always wanted to grow, but never really had the inclination to do so. Because I'm tired of having to find something I feel should be legal anyway, I took it upon myself to setup a little grow lab in my attic. It's a relatively perfect location. Completely out of the way, isolated from anything human. I hadn't been up there in at least 10 years before this, so you can imagine the mess.
There was insulation everwhere. Old insulation. Insulation I at first was afraid could be asbestos. And we all know how good that can be for you. After doing some homework, it turns out it is not asbestos - so the wheels really start turning.
What do I need up there? Power. Air. Water. Power I was the most worried about before really going up to explore the attic in detail. I thought I would have to run my own electricity. Now I don't like playing with electricity, and although having wired a million things in my car before, including a whole blown out car audio system back in high school from start to finish, I wasn't quite as comfortable with household electricity. Long story - short, there was a cable in the attic already, hooked to a switch on the floor below. After doing tons of research on how to safely wire a plug, I did. And it was suprisingly easy.
So now I have power. With power comes light, and the opportunity to clean up the attic after being untouched for at least the past 10 years. I rolled back the insulation to reveal a perfect concrete floor. Awesome. Vacuumed the floor until kingdom come so its all nice and clean.
Now I noticed that the only thing seperating the attic ceiling from the outside was basically roof tiles and plastic sheeting. It definitely is not 100% air tight, which poses a small problem with climate control. It pretty much completely leaves it out of my hands. Aside from insulating the entire crawl space (which I'm not interested in doing), all I can do is try to live with it. And so it is. Enough pretext, let the story/pictorial begin.
Some facts for my grow:
Seeds: Bag Seeds from Amsterdam [Barney's Quazar Haze]
Soil: Store bought Compo Sana Flower Soil with Nutrients and Perlite
So originally I didn't have the right indoor growing equipment. I decided to go with soil and pots because the hydroponics thing looked way complicated to me. Maybe in a year or two I'll consider it. So on April 5, 2009 I threw the seeds in a baggie with a wet towel, and a few days later the seeds started growing! I had done this a million times before, but never taken it any further.
So I went to the store and bought some small pots and soil, and on April 16, 2009 (a week and a half later) I threw the growing seedlings in some soil. About a half an inch deep. And out they grew. Once I potted em, I left them under my desk lamps for about 2 weeks. Not suprisingly they got somewhat burnt because the lights put out way too much heat, and not the right frequency of light. Better than nothing.
I knew it wasn't long before I would have to have the proper lighting. At the moment I was only lighting the pots with two desk lamps on an 18on/6off schedule, which I had gathered was the right time from various sources (including here). I let them grow like this for about a week. (Wish I had pictures)
At this point I had ordered a couple supplies:
400w Ballast
400w HPS Lamp
400w MH Lamp
Cool Tube Reflector
An inline carbon filter
An inline air extractor
Finally when these things arrived I setup the attic. I wanted little to no maintenance, so everything was going to be based on timers making it completely self sufficient. I didn't want to have to climb up there all the time.
Not long after receiving and setting up the stuff, my children moved upstairs. Here's a few pictures from earlier days:
The following pictures are from Week 4 (May 5, 2009):
You can see all the disgusting insulation. As long as you don't touch it or blow on it hard, all the dust and dirt stays put. Cleaning it up I could barely breathe. And you can see the lid I made for the hatch to the attic. There already is a trap door that opens downwards, but I wanted something to hide both light and noise, so I took a sheet of plywood and nailed sound deadening foam to either side. It works absolutely flawlessly.
I have just a typical table fan blowing into the tube to cool the lamp. I'm not worried about getting the heat out just yet, since most days are relatively chilly where I live, at least this early in the year. You can see some supplies in the background - distilled water, the charcoal filter in a box to the left.
More supplies. A fan to keep air moving, some potting soil, and a few spare pots.
Lastly, the little seedlings. The one in the foreground was broken during transport, and the hope was this support would help keep the plant alive (which it did!).
Backstory: I've always wanted to grow, but never really had the inclination to do so. Because I'm tired of having to find something I feel should be legal anyway, I took it upon myself to setup a little grow lab in my attic. It's a relatively perfect location. Completely out of the way, isolated from anything human. I hadn't been up there in at least 10 years before this, so you can imagine the mess.
There was insulation everwhere. Old insulation. Insulation I at first was afraid could be asbestos. And we all know how good that can be for you. After doing some homework, it turns out it is not asbestos - so the wheels really start turning.
What do I need up there? Power. Air. Water. Power I was the most worried about before really going up to explore the attic in detail. I thought I would have to run my own electricity. Now I don't like playing with electricity, and although having wired a million things in my car before, including a whole blown out car audio system back in high school from start to finish, I wasn't quite as comfortable with household electricity. Long story - short, there was a cable in the attic already, hooked to a switch on the floor below. After doing tons of research on how to safely wire a plug, I did. And it was suprisingly easy.
So now I have power. With power comes light, and the opportunity to clean up the attic after being untouched for at least the past 10 years. I rolled back the insulation to reveal a perfect concrete floor. Awesome. Vacuumed the floor until kingdom come so its all nice and clean.
Now I noticed that the only thing seperating the attic ceiling from the outside was basically roof tiles and plastic sheeting. It definitely is not 100% air tight, which poses a small problem with climate control. It pretty much completely leaves it out of my hands. Aside from insulating the entire crawl space (which I'm not interested in doing), all I can do is try to live with it. And so it is. Enough pretext, let the story/pictorial begin.
Some facts for my grow:
Seeds: Bag Seeds from Amsterdam [Barney's Quazar Haze]
Soil: Store bought Compo Sana Flower Soil with Nutrients and Perlite
So originally I didn't have the right indoor growing equipment. I decided to go with soil and pots because the hydroponics thing looked way complicated to me. Maybe in a year or two I'll consider it. So on April 5, 2009 I threw the seeds in a baggie with a wet towel, and a few days later the seeds started growing! I had done this a million times before, but never taken it any further.
So I went to the store and bought some small pots and soil, and on April 16, 2009 (a week and a half later) I threw the growing seedlings in some soil. About a half an inch deep. And out they grew. Once I potted em, I left them under my desk lamps for about 2 weeks. Not suprisingly they got somewhat burnt because the lights put out way too much heat, and not the right frequency of light. Better than nothing.
I knew it wasn't long before I would have to have the proper lighting. At the moment I was only lighting the pots with two desk lamps on an 18on/6off schedule, which I had gathered was the right time from various sources (including here). I let them grow like this for about a week. (Wish I had pictures)
At this point I had ordered a couple supplies:
400w Ballast
400w HPS Lamp
400w MH Lamp
Cool Tube Reflector
An inline carbon filter
An inline air extractor
Finally when these things arrived I setup the attic. I wanted little to no maintenance, so everything was going to be based on timers making it completely self sufficient. I didn't want to have to climb up there all the time.
Not long after receiving and setting up the stuff, my children moved upstairs. Here's a few pictures from earlier days:
The following pictures are from Week 4 (May 5, 2009):
You can see all the disgusting insulation. As long as you don't touch it or blow on it hard, all the dust and dirt stays put. Cleaning it up I could barely breathe. And you can see the lid I made for the hatch to the attic. There already is a trap door that opens downwards, but I wanted something to hide both light and noise, so I took a sheet of plywood and nailed sound deadening foam to either side. It works absolutely flawlessly.
I have just a typical table fan blowing into the tube to cool the lamp. I'm not worried about getting the heat out just yet, since most days are relatively chilly where I live, at least this early in the year. You can see some supplies in the background - distilled water, the charcoal filter in a box to the left.
More supplies. A fan to keep air moving, some potting soil, and a few spare pots.
Lastly, the little seedlings. The one in the foreground was broken during transport, and the hope was this support would help keep the plant alive (which it did!).
When should I be expecting signs?
) than will really be required on normal days.
