Secret garden under my house

Botanist Bob

Well-Known Member
Hey fellas, total noobie at growing hydro, so suggestions and criticisms are most welcome.
I recently moved house, and to my delight, discovered a hidden space behind a wall under my new house. I haven’t grown weed since I was 16, living at home growing in my closet, from cuttings taken from my mums veggie garden. An important time in my life, as watching those plants grow all those years ago inspired a career working with plants.
This is a picture of the removable wall, under a shelf in what you guys might call a basement.
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Planning on replacing the old piece of plaster board with a door made from similar material. The gaps are there to allow fresh air flow to the inlet fan positioned just inside this wall. See below.
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In the foreground is the rather large inlet fan. An out let fan of a similar size exists at the top of the grow room (rear of the picture). The board to the right of the foreground stops any light from behind showing under the door. I’ve left the curtain slightly ajar so you can tell what it is. The curtain of reflective insulation stuff I got from the hardware store sticks together with Velcro, and a second curtain of thick plastic drops down for that extra level of protection.

I wasn’t really ready for it, but germinated some seeds obtained from a friend within a week of moving in. Like I said the space was already there, and had obviously been used for the same reason, but the previous occupant had taken all the light proofing down. So I separated the room in anticipation for having separate veg/flowering rooms. There’s soooo much room down there, 3mx1.8m that’s (that’s about 9.6 x 5.7 feet for you). The problem is height, only about 4 foot. (I feel stupid even saying that after seeing some of the insane compact grows on here), but would have liked some more hight.

So I threw together a simple drip system with nutes pumped from a rez below the table, 15min every 2hrs. No nutes at first, then half strength, now a few weeks in, and she’s on full strength, pH 5.5-6.
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The extra spikes are for all the seedlings I hoped to have, but only one germinated L, I think due to the extreme cold down there (its winter here) and I’m only running a fluro tube, which generates no heat. Don’t worry after spending the entire weekend reading from this site I will be obtaining a HPS or setting up some CFL’s. Had a HPS when I was 16, swapped it for a Kombi van. LOL. Good swap at the time, but gotta buy another light now.

Light is on 24hrs. No rest for the wicked!
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So with only one soldier, am hoping for a girl, gunna clone ASAP for sexing, and to have enough plants to fill the room, prob 6 or so.
Planning on using A DWC Setup like Wolfman Zen’s from now on, https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/103903-best-diy-ez-walmart-dwc.html, (absolute kick ass idea BTW)

Prob use the back room for flowering with a HPS, as it already has the exhaust fan, and set up fluro’s for veg and clones in a room yet to be built.

Stay tuned….
 
hey bro, im from OZ too. If u ever get the chance, put some seeds outside in spring which is coming up soon. They grow into monsters!
peace
 
Yeah, sorry, bout time for an update. Been about a month.
Things moving slower than I would like with the grow. Finding it hard to get time down there when the missus isn’t home.
Looking at the size of the plant it has been a while. Here she is now, post trimming of some fan leaves to get more light to the branches I plan to clone (is this a good idea or not?). Also staving her of some nutes slightly, as I read somewhere on here that Nitrogen can inhibit root growth in the clones.

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Planning on moving her to a flood/drain system that I finally finished building today, and using that tray for the clones.
Been working on the room too, built a door to replace the old piece of plaster board, and planning on building a flowering room, and installing some ducting so both rooms run off the one inlet and one outlet fan. Plan is to clone the mum this week and flower a clone for sexing.

Also obtained from a mate, four more seedlings that were germinated in soil. So I built a bubbler, washed the girls off and whacked them in. Running a 90L/min air pump with two air stones, in a very weak nute solution. Pics below.

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Oh yeah, added 2 20w CFL’s and a warm white 4 foot fluro to the one cool white 4 footer I had. Added the warm one to raise the temp cause it was very cold down there. Temp is now around 80 (Ok???).

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Quick (crap) job on the bubbler I know, but purchased a 20L black tub with a lid to transfer these pots into.


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Got bubbles?


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Just enough room there for the clones. Hopefully within the week..
 
Lookin good there bob would luv to see sum pics of the clones and the flower room under construction & an overall view of the whole room + pics of nutes and all accessories
 
update

below are the 4 littleuns in the bubbler 2 weeks older. have started adding a small amount of nutes (using Dutch Master if not already mentioned).

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Growing well for 4 weeks old i think


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cut 6 clones 4 days ago (pictured below).

expected them to wilt before springing back, thats what i've read anyway, but they didnt.

they've looked exactly like that the whole time.

just feeding them on pH'd water 3 times a day.

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Getting crowded in there, still yet to start construction on a flowering room, but soon as its done, will move the clones in, and prey.

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more soon
 
Not sure what the fire hazard is.

If you mean the cords? they hang outside the room once the curtain is closed.

She's apples mate.
 
good work mate, wish i had a secret room under my house! have you got 2 seedlings in one? or did it just grow like that from the start? how is the bubbler working, looks good! i like to keep it simple and yours seems that way.
happy growing
 
the clones look very small.
when i do clones that small they rot and die.
also you need more light.
do you know the sex of the bigger mother plant also what strain?.
what day and night temps you getting?.
and yes i would tie the wires up.
murphys law???.
 
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