Journal #2 - Back After 5 yrs ! - Mystery Seeds

Hello Everyone !

Names FT for short and it's been quite a while since I've been on here. Back in good ol '08 I had a nice lil grow box and journal i posted on here with some amazing info from at that time some great contributors (link in sig). Perhaps some of you have even read my CFL FAQ, stickied in the forum, hope it helped

On to the reason you clicked the thread, the grow !

Seeds: As most old growers/stoners do, I've gather some seeds over the many years and completely forgotten to label most. I'm 80% sure it's 1 Hindu Kush seed and then I have 4 Mystery seeds germinating.

Plants: They'll be named numerically to keep things easy. #1 being the first to sprout #5 being the last...(should I be lucky enough to have all them germ)

Space: Converted Old Dresser (30"W X 36"H X 17"D)

Lighting: As with most CFL grows, this is only what's going on right now, as this journal goes on the lights will change, +/-
1 x 42W 6500k, 1 x 23W 6500, 1 x 23W 2700k (extra's 1 x 23W & 13W 2700K) I clearly had more 2700's kicking around

Temps: Are what I'm working on controlling perfectly still, its a constant battle but my temps are ~85.5(night) - 88/89(days)..Currently have 1 x 6" fan circulating air and keeping the stems "moving", There is a pc fan acting as an exhaust on the box as well. I've got more fans for when I make some moves with more bulbs.

PLAN: Veg: 24hr light till the plants are roughly 15-18", then hit them with 12/12 for the duration I'd like them to get as close to 30" as possible.

I think that covers all the basics, as the journal goes on i'll be posting more details whether on my own or to answer any questions that pop up. I found that looking thru my old grow and just having a digital copy was awesome, thanks to RIU so I figured that's why I'd post this journal, if nothing else for a future record for myself.

I'll likely be updating pictures on a 3 - 5 day basis, unless shit changes then i'll be on this thread non-stop !

that's as stealth as it gets! Are this seeds feminized?

subscribed + rep for comeback

@md97 Thanks for stopping in, the seeds are sadly not feminized so this will be the typical crap shoot type grow. Unfortunately being as it's been so long, I have no way of getting clones, so if all goes well perhaps I'll clone one and keep a new mother. Can't get too far ahead of myself !

I was pretty happy with how the cabinet came out, other than a few small give-aways its pretty awesome, thanks

Nice start up, iv noticed a lot of ppl from 2008 threads have vanished

Ill be goin CFL for at least this grow, was up all night looking for HPS and HID

@Smoke , Thanks for joining along....Ya we had a nice little group of people back in '08 lol. I've lurked from time to time since then but am going to try and be back more "full time" if I can be !

I was looking at a 70W HPS bulb from H.Depot ($29) and debating adding it into my CFL's but other than a significant jump in heat, the bulbs I'm not sure will add enough to make a big difference. Its something to consider for the future.

Good Morning RIU CFL'ers !

Minor update, As I had previously mentioned I've got 5 more seeds germinating at the moment. It would appear that after only ~24hrs 2 of them are starting to show a crack and white line, Horray for taproots !

As for #1, it grew ~1/2" overnight in all directions, I'm going to hold off taking what will become my typical pic with tape measure for my own reference. So expect some pictures later this afternoon/evening.

Have a good one !
-FT

G'mornin RIU !

So I noticed as I went to take some pics last night that nothing really changed, there's no point in my putting up pics for the sake of putting up pics...With that said, this morning... height virtually the same, but we had some nice leaf development last night that was noticeable enough to upload some pics. I've always been very curious about the potential benefits of LST to small CFL grows. The proof is clearly in all the threads and success stories, however I've always been very hesitant to mess with how my plants grow, well with this plant, I'm going to do a tiny bit of bending and leaning to start and perhaps 1 or 2 tie downs as "she" gets bigger. The reason I mentioned that is you'll notice a bit of a lean to my plant. It's not the typical trying to get to light lean, its a slight "love touch" from me, to test the limits.

About the Pics: If anyone wishes to chime in, I'm a bit curious about the "gimpy" leaves, I'm not sure which of these factors likely caused it: Transplant, Coming from outside sun to inside CFL's, Lack of Humidity, Too High Temp, Under/Over Water (although very unlikely), lack of nutrients as to this point its only had water w/SuperThrive.

Thanks for your input,
-FT

6/7 (for my records)

G'mornin !!

Minor update this morning, of the 4 other beans I had germinating 2 are just opening and I can see a itty bitty tap showing. So as an experiment I decided to plant 1 of them in an 8oz plastic cup and chuck 'er into the box. The other I'm leaving in the paper towel to see which "grows" faster. Other than those 2 beans, nothing really major going on. Some great new growth overnight, it really never ceases to amaze me just how fast these plants grow in the right conditions. A neighbour of mine, planted 4 germinated seeds into his vegetable garden to let them grow outside whilst he prepared his grow box. We started around the same date and while his were left outdoors I brought mine in about a week or two after she sprouted above soil. The difference in our plants is very, very significant. I never realized that they grew that much slower outdoors or perhaps his are just not getting enough sun light. Either way, I'm done blabbing to no one !

Thanks for viewing, don't be afraid to pipe up, questions, comments, insults lol w/e
Take Care
-FT

Friggin stoner, TOTALLY forgot the pictures lol, Here's this mornings "growth" shots ! Enjoy - FT

nice work with the mylar

BeastGrow said:

nice work with the mylar

Click to expand...

Thank you...I think

Day 12

This morning's post I'd like to ask those with more experience some questions as well as I'd like to get some suggestions. I'll start off with my plant, so far still looking very pretty for a seedling, however I've noticed that the growth seems to be slowing down when it should be taking off still. Which leads to my first question, which of this is the most likely culprit for my slowed growth, Temp, Humidity and/or Watering (over/under/nutes or lack their of)

Avg Temps: Day 88/89 - Night 83/85
Humidity: Always sitting around 25-28% (which I believe is way too low) - To combat I've been trying to use water misting, but it's failing
Watering: I'm trying to water only when the plant needs instead of a solid schedule. Using tap water that's been out for 24+ hrs and pH adjusted (lime/lemon juice)
Nutes: Nothing really so far, only some SuperThrive in the water

So giant brains of RIU and those who just think they know, please make your voices/opinions heard I'd greatly appreciate it !!!

As for my germ'n seeds, one of them has a nice little taproot this morning, so it's getting put into a 8oz cup and into the box it'll have a small clear plastic cup with a mist sprayed in to attempt to keep up some humidity.

Take Care and Enjoy the pics heh
-FT

Maybe a little heat stress? You are reading 88-89*F @ you thermometer, it can be maybe 4-7* more hot between the light & plant.

BeastGrow said:

nice work with the mylar

Click to expand...

Yep. Especially when it's a CFL setup, Mylar is your best friend. It does have tendency to trap the heat, but in terms of % reflectivity and cost, Mylar is the only way to go.

Morning Folks !

First up, md97 thanks for being around man, and offering up advice I really do appreciate it ! I took your advice and raised the lights up to try and potentially alleviate some of the heat. EZmoover thanks for stopping in, I really appreciate it. This is the first grow I've used so much mylar coverage and I'm sure it's a part of my heat problem. Last time I just used white boards.

Day 14

There's not a ton here to update, as previously mentioned I raised my lights up a wee bit and removed a dvd case I had below the pot. That seemed to help a bit after a few hours, I also waited till the soil was like super dry which I don't normally do but I mean the pot was light as a feather. I did all sorts of fun little math with my PureBlend Grow to figure out how much I'd need for roughly 250ml of water. Luckily I had a dropper that drops 1ml so it wasn't a problem. And low and behold this morning i feel like my lil girl is looking a bit perkier ! Enjoy the pics !!

-FT

ps: Sorry for the side ways pics, I forgot to turn em around !

Minor Afternoon Update:

I decided even though I'm already sorta battling heat that I'd up my bulb count and therefore adding extra lumens ! More is always better...right... lol
Anyway i decided to pick up a 3 pk of 26W 6500k's, bringing my bulbs to a 1 x 42W & 4 x 26W all 6500K, no mo 2700's for now...I'm currently battling the new higher temps and the added weight of the bulbs is stressing my current rig, so I have to beef that up a bit too, perhaps pics later, or hopefully just new growth in the AM.

-FT

FarmingToronto said:

Morning Folks !

First up, md97 thanks for being around man, and offering up advice I really do appreciate it ! I took your advice and raised the lights up to try and potentially alleviate some of the heat. EZmoover thanks for stopping in, I really appreciate it. This is the first grow I've used so much mylar coverage and I'm sure it's a part of my heat problem. Last time I just used white boards.

Day 14

There's not a ton here to update, as previously mentioned I raised my lights up a wee bit and removed a dvd case I had below the pot. That seemed to help a bit after a few hours, I also waited till the soil was like super dry which I don't normally do but I mean the pot was light as a feather. I did all sorts of fun little math with my PureBlend Grow to figure out how much I'd need for roughly 250ml of water. Luckily I had a dropper that drops 1ml so it wasn't a problem. And low and behold this morning i feel like my lil girl is looking a bit perkier ! Enjoy the pics !!

-FT

ps: Sorry for the side ways pics, I forgot to turn em around !

Click to expand...

Great work on the cab! and the plants aren't too bad either!

Subbed

Day 15 (feels like it should be a milestone of some sort...but it ain't, lol)

G'mornings RIU !

Darth Budder thanks for the compliments and stopping by, hopefully you'll have some gems of wisdom to potentially add to my thread

On to the morning update, so on a weird side note, my friggin dog decided to sleep on half my bed last night which in turn woke me up a few times through the night. Each time I woke up being the nut job that I am, I decided to check the temps of my cabinet to see how she was handling the new bulbs... conclusion...not well. The temps even in the middle of the night were 86 - 88, which frankly is just too high for my liking, I feel like the added temps is going to slow growth down. So I decided at like 3am to remove 1 of my new 26w's to see if that helped out for the rest of the night. Upon waking up this morning, the temps seem to have settled at around 85.5 +/- 1 degree. Still not really happy with that, so my plan for this morning is to figure out HOW I'm going to either put in a new intake (passive or small pc fan) or whether I just need another exhaust. I'm leaning towards an intake as I've already got an exhaust fan running and I think it does a decent job.

I'm off to go measure 15 times and cut once to hopefully dial in this temp thing for good. Also probably have to go pick up some women's stockings or something like that to use to block out light from whatever holes I end up making. My cell/camera is dead, so once it's got some charge and I'm done my cabinet surgery I'll pop up some pics of the new intake as well as how my plants be doin this morning.

Have a great one !!!
-FT

FarmingToronto said:

Day 15 (feels like it should be a milestone of some sort...but it ain't, lol)

G'mornings RIU !

Darth Budder thanks for the compliments and stopping by, hopefully you'll have some gems of wisdom to potentially add to my thread

On to the morning update, so on a weird side note, my friggin dog decided to sleep on half my bed last night which in turn woke me up a few times through the night. Each time I woke up being the nut job that I am, I decided to check the temps of my cabinet to see how she was handling the new bulbs... conclusion...not well. The temps even in the middle of the night were 86 - 88, which frankly is just too high for my liking, I feel like the added temps is going to slow growth down. So I decided at like 3am to remove 1 of my new 26w's to see if that helped out for the rest of the night. Upon waking up this morning, the temps seem to have settled at around 85.5 +/- 1 degree. Still not really happy with that, so my plan for this morning is to figure out HOW I'm going to either put in a new intake (passive or small pc fan) or whether I just need another exhaust. I'm leaning towards an intake as I've already got an exhaust fan running and I think it does a decent job.

I'm off to go measure 15 times and cut once to hopefully dial in this temp thing for good. Also probably have to go pick up some women's stockings or something like that to use to block out light from whatever holes I end up making. My cell/camera is dead, so once it's got some charge and I'm done my cabinet surgery I'll pop up some pics of the new intake as well as how my plants be doin this morning.

Have a great one !!!
-FT

Click to expand...

Hi FarmingToronto, I wish i had something for ya, but I have been battling heat in my 8x23 watt cfl veg box unsuccessfully for a while. I try to balance the heat and stretch with the hight of the light, but its difficult without any exaust (all my air moving equipment is in flower). I switched from a light box to an open V design to let more heat escape but its not doing me much good. Doesnt help that ambiant room temps are in the mid to high 80s.

Lowering the temps outside the box and bringing the cool air in is the only thing i can think of that will without a doubt make a difference. if your outside temps are in the 70s, i might try reversing that pc fan so its an intake, you could make a pasive exaust at the top of the cab. That fan you have circulating the air, I think, is just making it a convection oven in there without a cool air supply.

My 2c, but it probably was obvious lol. Im only on my second grow

DB

Darth Budder said:

Lowering the temps outside the box and bringing the cool air in is the only thing i can think of that will without a doubt make a difference. if your outside temps are in the 70s, i might try reversing that pc fan so its an intake, you could make a pasive exaust at the top of the cab. That fan you have circulating the air, I think, is just making it a convection oven in there without a cool air supply. DB

Click to expand...

DB, if I may lol ... 2nd grow or not, just by putting your 2c out there it gets me thinking as well as a discussion going, so i thank you for that. You know I really never even considered either 1) removing my 6" fan (it probably is a convection oven, I'll try some chicken later) 2) How this escaped me is a mystery but thank you for the suggestion... Why haven't I turned the bottom fan around lol. I think I'll give that a go before I make any other move.

Plan A) Add back extra bulb(s), Remove 6" fan but leave the rest as is
Plan B) Leave the box as is, add the extra bulb(s) back and reverse pc fan from exhaust to intake
Plan C) Same as above, but removing 6" fan

I'll give it about 10-15 min after each experiment, to give the temp a chance to even out !!

Thank you again DB, for getting the creativity and discussion (even if its just us 2, lol) started !!

-FT