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First Grow - 250W Cab - Hydro drip system - F13 from seed

greenpenguin

Active member
I have been reading about growing and marijuana for years, I've always wanted to grow my own but never had my own place to do it. My goal is to be able to have plenty of personal connesseiur quality smoke and to learn as much as I can about this wonderful plant. I can read all I want, but I don't believe I can learn much more without growing on my own.

So enough of that boring stuff and onto the setup and the plant....

Seeds: DJ Shorts F13, got 10 seeds from the seed boutique







Cabinet:
I started this cabinet in the spring time but by the time I was ready to grow it was a very hot summer so I opted to wait till the fall when the temperatures stablized so I wouln't have to worry too much about cooling. Anyhow I'm using a C13 like cabinet from homedepot.
it measures 48"w x 21"d x 71"h



It is split into 4 parts, the lower parts are 4' high.
On the upper left I have my utility room.
On the lower left I have my veg room.
On the lower right I have my flower room.
and on the upper right is an extension to the flower room.

Exhaust: I have the panasonic whisper fan, 80 CFM with a DIY carbon scrubber. I definitely wish I had gone for a higher CFM but this fan/scrubber was the first thing I built and I wasn't aware of what CFM I would need. I do plan on buying another fan and a CAN33 carbon filter later on in the process for two purposes.
1) If my carbon filter ends up not being good enough I can replace it with that
2) When I harvest I'll definitely need another carbon filter in the room while I harvest and trim.


VEG ROOM:
I have 6x27watt CFLs for lights with a 18/6 light cycle. A recirculating drip system, a 10gallon res, a homemade grow tray.


FLOWER ROOM:
I have a 250W HPS bulb, recirculating drip system, a 10 gallon res and home made tray. I also have a SCROG screen that was a pain in the ass to make. I also have a cutout between the extension and the flower room to allow the light to sit fully in the extension without taking away vertical grow space from the flower room.












I started the germing about 2 weeks ago, I used the wet paper towel method and used a broadband modem and a towel as heating pad, all 4/4 seeds popped, one grew much faster than the others.





and about a week ago I planted them into rockwool cubes. I dont know what the hell happened but only one of those (the fast growing one) sprouted. I did the same thing with all of them and only one of them sprouted. I'm still waiting on the others but I dont have much confidence in them. Because of that, 2 days ago I started germing by dropping 3 more seeds in a cup of water, they've already cracked but I'm waiting for a good root tip before I drop them in my cubes.


So how about the one that sprouted? Well I've transfered it into a larger rockwool cube and started feeding it.



So about feeding.....
I have GH Flora nutes, I'm using tap water though I may switch to brita water depending on how stable this tap works for me.


Right now I am feeding my sprout a little less than 1/4 strength nute solution. My pH is at 6.0-6.1, ppm is sitting at around 510ppm. Unfortunately I think I might have started feeding too early as it seems I might be getting nute burn on my first spiked leaves. I'm not gonna panic yet but I'm considering stopping my feeding for a while and just let the sproute soak up the light and use whats in the rockwool....


Anyhow I will be attempting to employ, LST, FIM and SCROG. Lets see how this goes... Btw, I'm open to any comments/criticisms/advice. Like I said, I'm here to learn and I dont claim to be a guru of any sort.
 
M

mrred

maybe you waited to long on the seeds, those in the pick, i would of already put them in rockwool

thats a huge cabinet, is it heavy as hell? how much it cost?
 
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greenpenguin

Active member
yeah I might have waited too long, it's a bummer, I'll see if my other seeds will make it, i'm not using a heating pad either, just dropped them in water and put them in the dark.

The cabinet is indeed very very heavy, I fear the day I have to move it. The cabinet itself was only about $130 I think but putting everything together? I lost track, I think I must have spent at least a grand putting this whole system together, I still need a few parts for the flower room :( The fun and education should be worth it though.
 

Jansjukebox

Member
rock wool also needs to be soaked to nutrilaze the PH. I learned that the hard way last year. This set up looks like you've put a lot of work into it. Nice job. Can't wait to see something grow in there....Good luck!!
 

greenpenguin

Active member
Hi Jan, I soaked my rockwool twice in pH 5.3 filtered water. I did initially get a large pH swing the first day of feeding (from 5.8 - 6.6), I adjusted it once and it seems stable now after another day.

Here's a pic of the leaf damage I was talking about in my first post:



I've pulled off the dripper for now. Not sure if it's nute burn or what but I have a feeling i'm not supposed to be feeding it just yet.



Here's my germing seeds



I usually wait till there's like a quarter to half inch root tip coming out before planting, but the color of the shells worry me a bit. I'll look again tomorrow morning and maybe plant them.
 
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justanotherbozo

Active member
Veteran
nice job man, it's easy to see you've put a lot of thought into
your set-up.

i've had great success germinating right in those little starter
cubes. what i've done is to pre-soak the cubes in a weak, ph
balanced solution of water and thrivealive red, just a couple of
ml per gallon.

then i take the pre-soaked cubes and put them on a tray with
a dome, place one seed in each cube, stuff some pieces of rock-
wool into the holes, put the dome in place and then, just wait a
couple of days.

i've had about a 99.99% success rate with this method of germination.

anyway, that's my 2 cents. i like the cab man, i look forward to
following your progress.
 

greenpenguin

Active member
So last night I planted the seeds I was germinating. As you saw they cracked so I'm trying to plant earlier and stick them in pre-soaked rockwool starters and I pushed some of the rockwool over the opening to cover things up like bozo does. I really hope they sprout.
 

justanotherbozo

Active member
Veteran
greenpenguin said:
So last night I planted the seeds I was germinating. As you saw they cracked so I'm trying to plant earlier and stick them in pre-soaked rockwool starters and I pushed some of the rockwool over the opening to cover things up like bozo does. I really hope they sprout.

just put them inside a dome and they should all pop.

good luck man
 

Thex420

New member
Good looking setup, too bad about the beans. I just wondered how the cab was ventilated. I couldn't tell from the pictures, but is the large box in the electrical portion a fan/filter combo?
 

greenpenguin

Active member
Thex420 said:
Good looking setup, too bad about the beans. I just wondered how the cab was ventilated. I couldn't tell from the pictures, but is the large box in the electrical portion a fan/filter combo?


Yes it is, I followed the DIY howto for the Panasonic Whisper fan/scrubber. I used caulk instead of duct tape and created a top screen for it. Air comes in from the back/bottom of the flower and veg room, from there to the util room and out the upper back.
 
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greenpenguin

Active member
My one thriving sprout is growing at a good pace I think.

lets compare yesterday and today....
Yesterday


Today



I put it back on feeding... I figure with these leaves it probably needs it, I've been adding more filtered water to my res to lower the ppms.
 

justanotherbozo

Active member
Veteran
greenpenguin said:
My one thriving sprout is growing at a good pace I think.

lets compare yesterday and today....
Yesterday


Today



I put it back on feeding... I figure with these leaves it probably needs it, I've been adding more filtered water to my res to lower the ppms.

it's not ready for food yet, if you give them anything, make it very weak.
it's just a baby still.
 

greenpenguin

Active member
justanotherbozo - I pulled the dripper, how do I know when it's ready for food? I thought after the first spiked leaves grow you could feed it a light mix.
 

justanotherbozo

Active member
Veteran
greenpenguin said:
justanotherbozo - I pulled the dripper, how do I know when it's ready for food? I thought after the first spiked leaves grow you could feed it a light mix.


at this stage they are still very fragile and so you should wait until
you have 2 - 3 nodes and then you should begin introducing nutrients,
and very weakly at first, you don't want to shock them with food at
this stage of life. lol, you wouldn't give a human baby a pork chop
to gnaw on would ya?

you have to put the dripper back in, you can't let the seedling dry out,
just run it with straight water for another week.
 

K.J

Kief Junkie's inhaling the knowledge!
Veteran
Congrats, it looks like you've done your homework and have built yourself a nice little cab. I'll be watching this one for sure. I too will be working with a self-built cab and a 250w HPS, so I'm interested to see your success.

:joint:
 

greenpenguin

Active member
Thanks for the advice bozo, I'm soo glad you're watching my grow :wave:

KJ, Thanks, I'd be interested to see yours once you get yours started.


Anyhow here are some updates... I'm gonna have to try to not update every damn day but I get too excited...

I have another sprout!!!



Here's where I'm sprouting (in the flower room since it's not in use)





And here's a today shot of my thriving seedling




It's looking pretty healthy so far I think. I installed a fan in the veg room and have it blowing indirectly towards the plant so whatever bounces off the wall hits the plant. I'm gonna be dumping out my res and replacing it with straight pH'ed water.
 

greenpenguin

Active member
I now have 3 babies! That sprout from yesterday grew super fast, it's taller than my 12 day plant already! That plus another one sprouted so I transfered them to larger 4" cubes and put them on drippers. Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it

 
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