Hello

[ruan99]

Hello all,

I want to introduce myself here, ruan99, 31yrs old from southern MI. I am a new MMJ patient/caregiver. I went to Dr. Crocker last week and now the state has cashed my check I have about 2 more weeks until I hit day 21. The weird thing is the state's endorsement says Indianapolis, IN.hmm.

 

I am also going to grow my own and caregive for a friend. I have been an information sponge for a couple of months now, youtube is wonderful for learning anything, about many different growing techniques/strategies/tips and so on. This forum has also helped answer many questions. What I want to do is sort of a journal of my first grow from start to finish. Does anyone have any tips as to what I should include in this online journal?

 

What I am planning so far is a continuous flow deep water culture system for veg/flower. I am still deciding how to do the clones, leaning towards bubbles. As for lighting in the veg/clone room I am going with T12's, 4100k 3350 lm, 40watt. Originally I built an led light with 144 led's for the clones, but have since been convinced that led's aren't quite up to par just yet. It is one bright mf though. The system I built myself after a nice trip to lowes. Veg room has 8 5 gallon buckets plus 1 control which I plan to run 27 gallons through. I am still deciding whether I need a reservoir.

 

Anyway, as I've said I would like to post pics/updates weekly in a grow journal. Tentatively starting from seed in Feb and harvesting June/July. So, if anyone has anything that will help me post an interesting and accurate journal I would much appreciate it.

 

Ruan99

[mike44]

Hello all,

I want to introduce myself here, ruan99, 31yrs old from southern MI. I am a new MMJ patient/caregiver. I went to Dr. Crocker last week and now the state has cashed my check I have about 2 more weeks until I hit day 21. The weird thing is the state's endorsement says Indianapolis, IN.hmm.

 

I am also going to grow my own and caregive for a friend. I have been an information sponge for a couple of months now, youtube is wonderful for learning anything, about many different growing techniques/strategies/tips and so on. This forum has also helped answer many questions. What I want to do is sort of a journal of my first grow from start to finish. Does anyone have any tips as to what I should include in this online journal?

 

What I am planning so far is a continuous flow deep water culture system for veg/flower. I am still deciding how to do the clones, leaning towards bubbles. As for lighting in the veg/clone room I am going with T12's, 4100k 3350 lm, 40watt. Originally I built an led light with 144 led's for the clones, but have since been convinced that led's aren't quite up to par just yet. It is one bright mf though. The system I built myself after a nice trip to lowes. Veg room has 8 5 gallon buckets plus 1 control which I plan to run 27 gallons through. I am still deciding whether I need a reservoir.

 

Anyway, as I've said I would like to post pics/updates weekly in a grow journal. Tentatively starting from seed in Feb and harvesting June/July. So, if anyone has anything that will help me post an interesting and accurate journal I would much appreciate it.

 

Ruan99

Welcome to the forum, I suggest you include as much info in your journal as possible, that way if you run into trouble the many experienced growers on this site can give advice. Set up your pictures in an album in your gallery, this can be done through your profile, and will make it easy to load your pics into your journal. Good Luck!

[Honeyoil]

Welcome to the site! There is lot's of good grow info in the forums. Enjoy!

[drtarzanmd]

Welcome " ruan99 " to MMMA

 

[Hempcheff]

Welcome!

[ruan99]

Thank you all for the warm welcomes. My Tshirt is on it's way from Attitude seed bank. I am choosing to start my first grow from seed because I am very hands on and get a sense of accomplishment doing things from scratch. I will be making/acquiring clones in the future. I will start my grow journal when the plants get a couple leaves. I am choosing 2 or 3 strains to grow right now. Does anyone have any suggestions of which ones to grow first.

Selections are:

TH Seeds Sage n Sour Feminized

Serious Seeds White Russian Feminized

Resin Seeds Cannatonic Feminized

 

and of course the freebies are:

UFO World of Seeds Legend Collection Strawberry Blue

UFO World of Seeds AUTOFLOWERING Northern Lights x Big Bud Feminized

UFO Samsara Seeds Sweet Black Angel Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Emerald Jack Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Grapefruit Krush Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Trinity Kush Feminized

 

Which 3 should I start first?

Edited February 5, 2012 by ruan99

[newbie313]

Good luck

[jimmy]

Welcome..The knowledge here is second to none..Those are some nice strains..I like the Northern LightxBig Bud..I got a freebe from Attitude..I haven't pop it yet but I like the genetics.

Edited February 5, 2012 by jimmy

[Croppled1]

Thank you all for the warm welcomes. My Tshirt is on it's way from Attitude seed bank. I am choosing to start my first grow from seed because I am very hands on and get a sense of accomplishment doing things from scratch. I will be making/acquiring clones in the future. I will start my grow journal when the plants get a couple leaves. I am choosing 2 or 3 strains to grow right now. Does anyone have any suggestions of which ones to grow first.

Selections are:

TH Seeds Sage n Sour Feminized

Serious Seeds White Russian Feminized

Resin Seeds Cannatonic Feminized

 

and of course the freebies are:

UFO World of Seeds Legend Collection Strawberry Blue

UFO World of Seeds AUTOFLOWERING Northern Lights x Big Bud Feminized

UFO Samsara Seeds Sweet Black Angel Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Emerald Jack Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Grapefruit Krush Feminized

Emerald Triangle Seeds Trinity Kush Feminized

 

Which 3 should I start first?

 

Might as well see if that Strawberry Blue is a male if it is you can isolate it and save the pollen then brush a few lower buds on your other strains creating a cross of the two and become self sufficient with the new creation . Though they will be regular seeds . It is always a comfort to have quality seeds in ones travel kit to trade with other breeders or donate to a patient in need of genetics especially those of limited means . Clones are more difficult to pass and transport undetected . Remember the Act allows unlimited seed possession . But of course with time they degrade and will no longer germinate ( 2 yrs is a good guideline ) . I don't know what they do at the major seedbanks but I have found they have improved germination rates over bag seed . I don't know why , if or how they condition them but they spout great . If anyone does pass the knowledge on I am all ears .

Edited February 5, 2012 by Croppled1

[The Digital Nomad]

get to a local club - they should educate you with teaching demos on growing.

 

Better yet, get to the Jackson market or the MOCC. Clones and teaching by some of the best people you will meet in the MMMP.

 

If you want to get serious on growing, I still suggest a 600watt to 1k watt light for flowering.

Lighting needs go something like this:

 

Clones 1,000 lumens

Veg 2,500 lumens

flower 10,000 lumens

 

That was based on the plant's need for light during its growing stages. You can use more light, but for clones - they do not need so much light energy while rooting. Vegging, plant has may growing areas exposed to light and has not gotten dense yet to require more powerful light to penetrate. vegging plants are also shorter, so the light is closer. In flower, the more light the better - this is the stage where the plant is using light energy to make buds! The plant is also dense and needs light to penetrate the deeper foliage. The plant is taller, so the more powerful light has more lumens at 2 feet away.

(ie 80,000 lumen 600watt bulb. At 2 feet, it will only have 20,000 lumens - that is still great for flowering.)

 

HPS is ok for all stages. I have mixed MH and used only MH, HPS seems to be the best all around bulb. I use Lumatek 600watts (x2) with EasyCool 8"s. Two lights make a bigger footprint on the floor.

 

Fluorescent systems are ok, but pretty much all the top growers use HID in the flower stage. No one I know has LED in 'serious' use in their grow, experimentation seems that its only good for veg. Good ol' CFL twisty bulbs are popular for veg and clone rooms. Upto 85 watts.

 

You'll want to check out some grow rooms, physically seeing what a grow room is like.

 

DN

[HeartoFgreen]

welcome, and happy growin.

[anonymousgrower?]

Welcome

[ruan99]

get to a local club - they should educate you with teaching demos on growing.

 

Better yet, get to the Jackson market or the MOCC. Clones and teaching by some of the best people you will meet in the MMMP.

 

If you want to get serious on growing, I still suggest a 600watt to 1k watt light for flowering.

Lighting needs go something like this:

 

Clones 1,000 lumens

Veg 2,500 lumens

flower 10,000 lumens

 

That was based on the plant's need for light during its growing stages. You can use more light, but for clones - they do not need so much light energy while rooting. Vegging, plant has may growing areas exposed to light and has not gotten dense yet to require more powerful light to penetrate. vegging plants are also shorter, so the light is closer. In flower, the more light the better - this is the stage where the plant is using light energy to make buds! The plant is also dense and needs light to penetrate the deeper foliage. The plant is taller, so the more powerful light has more lumens at 2 feet away.

(ie 80,000 lumen 600watt bulb. At 2 feet, it will only have 20,000 lumens - that is still great for flowering.)

 

HPS is ok for all stages. I have mixed MH and used only MH, HPS seems to be the best all around bulb. I use Lumatek 600watts (x2) with EasyCool 8"s. Two lights make a bigger footprint on the floor.

 

Fluorescent systems are ok, but pretty much all the top growers use HID in the flower stage. No one I know has LED in 'serious' use in their grow, experimentation seems that its only good for veg. Good ol' CFL twisty bulbs are popular for veg and clone rooms. Upto 85 watts.

 

You'll want to check out some grow rooms, physically seeing what a grow room is like.

 

DN[

 

Thank you for the advice. From what I have read 600W are the most efficient. I plan to use two 600W HPS for the flowering room. I briefly thought about LED's because I got a bunch from china and built my own light. I believe it could work for clones but that will be an experiment for later on. So far I have built a 9 bucket under current deep water system for veg. I built this system for very little money, parts mostly from Lowes (10% military discount there). I couldn't see spending $800-$1200 for a set up.

 

This is what I've built so far. Not too hard to do and not costly either.

Edited February 6, 2012 by ruan99

[The Digital Nomad]

semper fi OOo-AAH and all that ; )

 

I knew you were up on your learning there.

 

I too worked with a chinese manufacturer, I even designed a concave shape so the LEDs would focus more on a 1x1 or 2x2' area. 1 watt and all those specs. But more and more, the KISS principle and what works today is HID. The new electronic ballast are quieter and not so hot. I use 2 lumateks, I do have the dimmer switch, but it has run at 110% since 2009. The ballast have never stopped running since 2009, either doing 12/12 or 18/6. I only use the dimmer on the extreme hot days of summer, to make the room 'overcast' and reduce heat energy from light.

 

some more tips -

Use rigid duct work. I pipe the air out of the room through the two aircooled lights via a 10" inline fan on speed control set at low. The room is sealed air tight with plastic, so the inline fan has a negative air flow effect - air should be pulling into the room via the cracks/doorway, not being pushed out. Intake vents should have a furnace filter over it. You have to bring in fresh air, that is your C02.

 

Here you can see the middle connector between the 2 8" aircooled lights - it is a 8" to 6" reducer. It was an experiment to control the airflow and i like it. The other side is a 8" to 6" reducer for the 6" pipe that carries the air out of the room. The inline is on the floor. I found that rigid pipe did not kill airflow as bad as the flexible pipe, even a 90 degree bend is not effected so bad. The inline fan is rated for 590CFM, the room is about 800 CF and it runs at low to keep the air temp .5 to 1.5 degrees within ambient temp.

 

I use a indoor/outdoor temp/humdity gauge to see what the house temp is like and compare to the room temp - the room should have a consistent baseline - 72 degrees in the house, means 73 in the grow room etc. As the humdity outside scales up, so will the temps, but it will be consistent because you designed a great room and used the best gear. sort of like getting a RRA m4 vs a Yugo Ak47 eh?

 

more tips? guess you can find me here or at a MOCC event!

 

DN

[The Digital Nomad]

in short, you want to cover those walls, ceilings and floor with plastic. 6mil.

Tarp on the floor as the plastic is not strong enough for wear. Plastic will protect your house from humdity and water. It also helps control a 'mini-environment' separate from the house (the grow room is more comfortable than the house - cooler in summer, mild in winter)

 

You see in the above pic I found a reflective insulation at Home Depot - something like 30ft for $30, the same stuff I saw at a grow shop for $100! White paint is fine, but I did see an increase with more reflective. Mylar is ok, but it degrades from sprays and use.

 

DN

[Medcnman]

Anything with "Sage" in it gets my vote! I love that strain! I just picked up a couple "Kushage" babies from the Jackson Market last weekend. Its OG Kush X Sage. They were clean, healthy and happy clones. A big shout out to Todd for my girls! I cant wait for harvest day! Medcnman.

[ruan99]

Working on finishing the veg/clone room. Everything looked ok then I plugged in the air pump. Out of all the things I never imagined that the air pump would be the loudest in there. It hums and buzzes through my walls and into my neighbor's apartment. Aside from sound proofing the entire "closet" with padding are there any good ways to deaden the sound? It helps if I hang it up but still goes through the walls. I found plans on Google for a small sound proof box. Wonder if there is another way or do I have a faulty air pump. It is brand new.

 

Also, my next purchase is a 4" inline fan. Is this going to be loud as all hell too? I'm not opposed to sound proofing the room but not looking forward to it.

 

Ruan99

[Dman]

You can sound proof it a little. But then the Air pump tends to run hotter. Mount it on a wall or in the air above the pails. That way if you have a power issue water won't back up into it.

[ruan99]

Cell phone photo. The CFL's seem to cause these green lines.

 

 

Is this ready to take out of the humidity dome? This is 1 of 2, number 2 has not sprouted at all. Both germinated in damp paper towel for about 36hrs and cracked nicely. They have been in the dome for about 24hrs now. Should I be worried? As a reminder this is my first grow attempt and I am keeping this humidity dome under CFL.

 

edit: both have sprouted and looking nice. plan to transplant to hydroton when they get leaves. I am keeping the strains I chose first a mystery to the forum. We will see who can figure it out when they're done.

Edited February 28, 2012 by ruan99