Mr. Benjamin's 1st Grow

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for checking out my thread. I'm very new here to rollitup.org but I have already fallen in love with the site. You guys are my #1 source of information and I want to thank you all so much for that. Without you guys I would of never figured all this mess out. (still have TONS to learn)

The setup:

growlab tent
sun system 150W light
floranova bloom 4-8-7

I have a bucket with a net pot lid filled with hydroton. Inside the bucket I have an air stone that is hooked up to a pump. Also inside the growlab is a small fan. I am also using just bag seeds. (I want to master this before I spend $$$ on seeds).

I am really anal / ocd about things so for safety / ocd reasons I only have one plant going. If it turns out to be a male I will just kill it and start over.

What I've Done:
set PH to 5.8

I am planning on vegging for 4 weeks with a 18/6 cycle and then flowering with a 12/12 cycle.

Keep in mind I am a total NOOB. I am very excited though.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I am debating if i should do a 12/12 cycle from seed or an 18/6 veg cycle first.......

My growlab's size is a concern

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Nice setup, looks alot like mine as far as size.. Im on my first grow too but I can give you some things you need to consider, as i was going DWC hydro when i first started i had to make some changes. For starters you need to make sure than you can keep the water in your res under 70 degrees. That HPS is going to get super hot, i run 3 intakes and 3 exhaust fans and a fan on the light in my cab to keep temps at 75-80 degrees. I switched to soil because i had no real way to keep my water temps down. Also if i were you id run the 18/6 for a while, go ahead and get your plant nice n thick before you go into flower. Since your running bagseed if you run into any problems its not a HUGE loss atleast. The water temps and good airflow in and out of the tent will be your big concern right now, if the water in the res gets over 70 you are going to start brewing alot of nasty stuff, and probably end up with root rot.

And DO NOT give it nutrients for a few weeks while it still young, common mistake that ends up just burning your youngins, they don't need nutrients at a young age, also you may want to pick up another nutrient thats ment for veg- meaning higher in Nitrogen. Best of luck on your first grow buddy! I know its going to get crazy at times but just stick with it.

Heres a pretty good website for reading up on a few basics and some things you might not know. Theres alot of guides on this site.

mandalaseeds.com/Guides/Marijuana-Nutrient-Problems

here a link to my journal if u want to check out my cab setup.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/445752-hank-danks-mulligan-organic-soil.html#post5937742

Thanks for the info!

I put a little bit of nutes in the water so far. I won't add anymore until the plant looks stronger.

Yea I am a littler concerned about heat. It feels a little warm in there to begin with.

Any tips on keeping heat down?
I was planning on purchasing another computer fan to go at the top (there is a little opening there)
Maybe that should be sucking air out instead of blowing air in? (to suck out the hot air at the top of the growlab)

Yeah adding that fan will not hurt anything in your operation thats for sure. Id invest in a good thermometer/hygrometer so you can check your temps and humidity inside the box. This is REALLY important information to have.Your lookin at spending like 20-25 bucks on that if you go with the digital kinds and a few bucks for a cheap mercury filled one to drop in your bucket to check water temps. One way you could try to keep the temps down a little in your water supply atleast would be to 1, either paint or cover the black around the lid as it absorbs the light and warms the bucket, plus you could invest in some insulation material, like the kind they use to make the sun blockers you put in your car windshield. Wrap that around your bucket will help keep temps down too. Its important that you keep your water temps down when running with hydro. You may want to even invest in a "duct booster fan" you can find them online, even at walmart, they range from 20-30 bucks too. But you can run vent tubing like you have on your dryer with those to really pull the air out of that box.
Really man its something your going to have to mess around with and run tests to see how low you can get your temps. If you cannot keep the water under 70 you may have to rethink your setup and run soil inside your box.
Im running my DWC still but i have it at a friends house where the space is much better for the grow.

Subbed, looks good so far. I agree with HankDank words but do not worry to much if your reservoir goes above 70; you can start to worry if it goes above 75 for longer than18 hours or so.

regards,

ru4r34l said:

Subbed, looks good so far. I agree with HankDank words but do not worry to much if your reservoir goes above 70; you can start to worry if it goes above 75 for longer than18 hours or so.

regards,

Click to expand...

Im sure this is sound advise, i've never grown hydroponically, Im only going by the information that came with my DWC, stated that over 70F you give various water molds more fertile spawning grounds. If he says under 75 is cool, then you just need to get some decent ventilation going and maybe still insulate your bucket to still help keep it down, i know my water stayed at whatever heat the HPS was keeping the room at

I cannot explain how much fun I'm having growing. It basically consumes my mind throughout the day. I can't stop opening my growlab and checking to see if it grew. NOTHING compares to waking up, smoking a bowl, and checking on your baby.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a timer? Brand? Etc....

I have just been shutting off the light manually the past few days and I can't see myself being able to do that for 3 months on time everytime.

Mr Benjamin said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for a timer? Brand? Etc....

I have just been shutting off the light manually the past few days and I can't see myself being able to do that for 3 months on time everytime.

Click to expand...

If your planning on sticking with the 150W for flowering any old dial timer will be good enough and you can pick those up almost anywhere (here is a single outlet from Lowes for under $10.00

regards,

Thanks so much! Just what I was looking for.

*** noob question incoming ***

Am I supposed to soak the hydroton?

I put down some hydroton then put down the soil cube then filled in hydroton around the soil cube to hold it in place. My water level is touching the bottom layers of hydroton but I'm not quite sure if it is touching the soil cube.

Is this ok? Will the hydroton absorb the water eventually and spread it around?

Day 2 in the growlab......

Yeah the water thats popping up from the bubbling action of your air stone, will wick up through the hydroton eventually.
As far as soaking it? I believe you dont really need to do that, just needed to rinse it off good before you put it into the pot thats about all ive heard.Id say if it starts looking dry in a few days or whatever, water it a little of course but i think it will wick on up before then. Looking good tho, cant wait to compare our grows side by side..my NLauto looks like yours right about now

Thank you. That is what I was hoping.

I know man! That will be fun

I wonder how many of the more seasoned growers here still feel like they did their first grow, its exciting and fun as hell, i just started and already i want to do this for a living

That would be sweet.

I just hope mine is a female. That would suck to grow it for 4 weeks and find out it's a male.

Very nervous

Just checked on my baby and she was basically falling over.

My theory is that she was not getting enough water.

I removed a ton of the hydroton which lowered the soil mass my baby was sitting in a few inches.
She is now around very moist hydroton.

When I was moving the soil mass I saw the root of her and it was around 4-5 inches. It seems very very long to me for being so young. Is this normal?

my root was a good 3 inches at the end of the day that it first sprouted in the cup, id say thats good it shot out looking for water. If the rockwool was dry feeling then yeah that was for sure your problem. How does she look now thats shes had some water?
I think its good that the roots so long, means it will get down into your res and get access to the good water it wants to be in

I had to find out the hard way that underwatering looks just like overwatering, except the fact that the stem will be very thin looking if its lacking moisture

Not sure yet. Just put her back in water. I'm pretty sure that was the problem. She was in about 2 inches of dry hydroton.

Yeah i got another NL going in my DWC at my friends house, basically letting him do the run, its just a seedling too, got really tall then fell over bad till it was touching the table basically, we gave the cube a little bit of water and not an hour later it was sticking straight up, and it was almost 2 1/2 inches tall at that point