After playing with the lights and temperatures overnight, I’ve decided the HID/MH is too hot for the way I’m set up right now. I will either eventually hook up larger fans or I will purchase another LED. I’m also looking into getting an air cooled hood for my hot lamp.Today I decided to move all my coco coir potted seedlings into their big pots and even though they’re still a little young, move them into the tent. Hope I didn’t just kill all my plants.The first thing I did was researched my butt off and found out 4 gallon pots seem to be the standard. My cat litter containers are a little bigger. So, being an industrious engineering fool, I cut the tops off of all but the two shortest ones. I could have used a hacksaw, a very tough knife, or some other method, but I used my table saw. THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS! I STRONGLY SUGGEST IF YOU DO THIS, DON’T SMOKE FIRST!Why did I cut them and not just leave them the way they were? Research (and Robert) says 4 gallon pots and these cat litter containers are just a bit larger. I also wanted to make mine shorter to give me a little more grow room.To get 4 gallons, I used math. One gallon is approximately 231 cubic inches, 4 gallons is 924. So, I measured the containers and figured out I could cut off the tops and have the following dimensions. 8.88 w * 10.88 L * 10 = 966 cubic inches. This gives me a little room to play with and still have a good size container.
Once they were all cut, I made sure they all had holes drilled in the bottom to let water out. A single layer of rocks.
Then enough perlite to cover the rocks. (just because)
Next, I mixed 3 parts fox farm Ocean Forest soil with 1 part perlite. I understand Ocean Forest already has some perlite in it, but I wanted more. I mixed everything in a separate container and then dumped it into the containers I am using for the plants.
Once all the containers were nearly full to the top with the soil mixture, I took them to my trusty garden hose and filled them to the rim to settle the soil down.
After filling the containers with enough water to settle everything down and evening the soil in them, I moved them all to the porch and set them up to drain.
While they were draining, I prepared the Coco Noir pots I had planted the seedlings in to start them.First I trimmed the top off bringing the pot down to soil level.
I’m sorry I didn’t get pictures of the next part, I didn’t want to touch my phone/camera with (wait for it)… (wait for it)…(wait for it)…With batshit on my hands. (I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve wanted to use that every since I found out Fox Farm has Bat Guano in it.)I made holes in all the containers large enough to put the coco noir pots completely under soil. I then put the pots in, and used unmixed Fox Farm Ocean Forest to cover them completely up.I then put them into the grow tent and started up the LED light while I took PH readings and arranged things to make it easier to work in there. SSH plants are to the left, WW plants are to the right. My WIFI Linksys camera is set up to make checking temperatures and humidity quick and easy from my computer. (No, I did not set it up to be accessible off my network.)
And now, I watch and wait and keep track of things. I’ve already learned what I consider lesson number 1. Don’t panic and make sudden changes just because you noticed something. Watch, research, determine if it even needs to be fixed before you decide what to do to fix it.
Today was pretty much monitoring everything. I did do a PH check on all the seedlings. I checked each side of the plant, rear, forward, left, right, and took an average for each plant. It’s difficult at this point to believe my meter because it has different readings at different places in the soil. I would get a high 69/70 one day, and a lower 61/63 the next. So, I checked four spots in each pot (No, I don’t spend my whole day watching the grow, I have a camera that sends me a snapshot every hour of the hygrometer.)
Another day of very little, added some water to facilitate PH testing. (When the soil is too dry, the meter stays at 7 and doesn’t move. If the soil is moist, the needle jumps and then slowly comes back to the correct reading.) Temperatures are consistently in the good range now. I’ve ordered another fan, which should be here Tuesday and allow me to move even more air in and out. This may allow me to use both the LED and the HID lamps once the seedlings are a bit taller and sturdier.
I figured the total money I’ve spent for this grow. Although it looks to be expensive on the surface, most of the items on the list will not have to be replaced for future grows. Other things I didn’t list because they were laying around and had been purchased for other projects that are already completed.
You can do most of this without the original outlay of money, I just wanted to have the toys. 
And I’m not done yet, because I’m already planning a hydroponic system for inside that grow tent.
After exhaustive research and testing, I am able to have the Metal Halide lamp on at 50% without raising the temperature above 81. It goes between 79 and 81* F all day, and when the lights go out, the space heater keeps the temp at around 75.
To do this, I moved the lamp to just below the outlet fan. That was all. Now the hottest air is immediately vented out and the tent stays comfortable. I’m thinking when the other 6 inch fan gets here, I’ll be able to turn up the lamp to at least 75%.
Plants are doing fine so far. One runt Super Silver Haze and one that only had one of the first pointed leaves. The runt is still behind the others but it is growing. The other one just looks a little lopsided. 5 total Super Silver Haze in this grow. The White Widow plants are a bit smaller, but I’m thinking that’s strain specific. 3 total White Widows.
There are also 2 bagseed plants that I’ve been “practicing” my pruning technique on. They seem to be surviving my butchery rather well.
It has occurred to me that the most difficult part of this process for me is the absolute slowness. When I’ve grown outside, I didn’t do daily checks, I did weekly or even bi weekly. So, the changes were much bigger. These plants I’m watching daily, so the changes are smaller.
I was bored yesterday. I know, the tubes are too big, and I probably screwed up the mixture. (8 cups of sugar, 1 packet of yeast, hot water.) But it started bubbling a little while later. I did have to pull the long tube out of the short bottle to let all the liquid out, then push is slowly back into the water in order to get the bubbling to start a little early. Nobody died from CO2 poisoning. Plants seem to be smiling this morning.
It’s interesting how many youtube videos are now showing people getting stoned and then trying to teach us how to do this or that. Some pull it off quite well, others not so well. But it’s fun researching.
I’ve turned the MH light up to 75% and will be monitoring the temperature in the tent. I’ve also opened up two vents near the bottom. I wonder, will I be able to leave those vents open when I flower? More research…
Love it! You are going to be up to your eyeballs in foliage real soon. 
I’ve mentioned my Linksys PTZ camera before. Here’s a little background. When we were having baby animals occasionally out in the barn, I had a couple of range expanders. This allowed me to wifi out in the barn. Using wifi, I hooked up wireless cameras all over so I could see what was going on out there. Once babies started popping our, we grabbed our stuff and went out to help.Now that we’re not in the baby critter business any longer, (I’m just too old to spend all night birthing goats) I use the cameras to keep an eye on things around the house. (no bathroom or changing clothes pics unless you want to see me naked. I didn’t think so.) So, here’s a picture from the PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) camera in the grow tent.Now, you might ask what’s all the stuff in there…The little white disk is a gallon can plastic cover that’s just keeping the MH light from shining on my Hygro-Thermometer. The triangular piece of wood is what keeps it from falling off. The plastic bottles in the middle I’ve discussed before, that’s the CO2 generator. The three seedling you can see on the left are Super Silver Haze, the seedling on the lower right is White Widow. The taller plant on the left is one of my bagseed test plants.Here’s what my camera menu looks like…
24 hours…
Looks amazing. And great ingenuity to go with it! I’m going to have to think about the CO2 that is again a nice touch.
Left image 48 hours before the right. Shows growth. Front row of 3 are White Widows. Back row of 3 are perfect Super Silver Haze. Two in the middle - Left one was born with only one pointed leaf and was subsequently behind. By now it’s catching up. Right one struggled to get out of the seed. Eventually needed help with tweezers and ever so careful coaxing to have it’s seed leaves free. It took longer to start growing. I was afraid it wouldn’t make it. Now I’m happy to say, both are doing fine.
Got a PH tester for liquid to finally see what damage my water is doing. 7.8. I will be adding acid to it to make it closer to 6.5 before the soil gets to soak it in.
PH…
My water PH is 7.8. I’ve added miracle grow’s replacement for Miracid, but that adds nutrients. One jug of PH6 and one jug of PH5 to mix with my water, doesn’t really make much of a change. So, the decision’s been made to go with distilled water.
Now, although I have not yet had to add water to the plants, I’ve already seen a PH adjustment from the first time I added water to the soil.
I think this will be my final challenge on this grow. I’ve fixed lights, heat, and airflow. Last fight will be PH and I’m throwing in the towel and buying distilled water. Although I do have my eye on a distiller that will provide 5 gallons per day. To be honest, my water will probably encrust any distiller within hours of starting it.
Water filtration systems are often one of the bigger investments many growers end up making, most people use R/O systems to get zero or near zero PPM water. I have not heard of many people using distillers but what ever will work best in your situation and would be the most affordable.
14 days of vegetative growth. I’m not sure if they’re doing well or not. My experience is outdoor plant and leave alone growing. This is my first indoor since I got caught in 73 when I told my teacher I was raising tomatoes for a science project and brought my cannabis plant in to be graded. How was I to know my science teacher was a pothead?
They look like they are doing good to me.
Yeah, they look good from my experience. Just not used to tight nodes like these girls have. We were kind of amused at how wide the leaves got early on. Usually I see leaves as long fingers from the beginning. These girls threw out fat leaves that slowly lengthened.
We’re already noticing the smell on occasion. (when my output fan is slower than my input fan)
Submitted the photo below to the forums. What I’ve been doing to alleviate my PH problem is to use Miracle Grow for acid loving plants (Miracid is what it used to be called.) The bad news is that the NPK for that mix is 30-10-10. In great enough quantity, this can cause a nutrient burn in the plant as is shown here.
I’m flushing with distilled water and if I get impatient, I’ll use Fox Farms Sledgehammer. I’ll be able to begin adding nutrients by the time I go into flower.
Each day the new growth has smaller “burn” marks. I think I won’t have to use the sledgehammer. If I do, I can always do it during flowering.
Speaking of which, my Super Silver Haze girls are at about 15 inches tall. If they grow 2 1/2 times that during flowering, They will be past the lights. I’m not worried about the White Widow, but I’m nervous about the haze.
So, I just adjusted the timer to start flowering stage tonight. (Impatient? Me? :roll: )
Nice, my Blue berry autos are exploding in and now with two of the three in preflower growth. Excited! Good Looking Plants oldgoat!
I had a ceramic heater in the grow tent in case the temperature got below 70ish. I thought it was a good idea. I even made a little flap to cover the lights from the readout. It got down pretty low last night in the back room, I heard the heater kick on as I went to bed.
This morning I found out that it’s not such a good idea. The two plants closest to the heater (not even in front of it, beside it.) got some leaf burn.
New plan. Heater is outside the tent, fans are running 24 hours, and I put plastic on the windows and taped the outside door to keep the temp from dropping so much during the night. The heater is not far from the intake fan and should take care of any cooler temperatures in the room and that should take care of the temperature inside the tent.
According to my calculations, the White Widows should be ready around the 11th of January, and the Super Silver Haze around the 26th.
Same light setup, 2 300 Watt grow LED’s, 1 400 Watt HPS (at 50% because of the heat.) Distilled water. They seem to need water once a week. The LED’s are about 18 inches above the plants, the HPS is about 36 inches and is mostly there to keep the grow tent warm. It gets turned off when the inside temperature gets above 80 degrees F.
The Nitrogen overdose seems to have settled down by adding just distilled water. I added Tiger Bloom, Big Bloom, and Open Sesame. (least amount of Nitrogen) This weekend I’ll be flushing them all with distilled water and Sledgehammer. That should allow me to start using all the nutrients in the Foxfarm soil feeding schedule starting with week 6. I’ve also been sprinkling Espoma Sulphur on top of the soil before watering. The PH is gradually lowering into the range I want. (just got below 6.8, aiming for 6.5.)
Speaking of sulphur, I’ve tried to mix the Espoma with my tap water to bring the PH down. It would take an incredible amount to bring it down below 7, much less to 6.5. So, we stick with distilled water.
The most important thing I’ve learned so far? Be flexible. Have a plan, be willing to change it as you get more information. But don’t make multiple changes or huge changes. Small steps does a much better job of keeping things going in the direction I want.
End of week 1 flowering stage…
