No Money, DR80 Tent in Soil & CFL

[DarkLance]

I am a broke college student who needs to self supply, so I borrowed a Darkroom DR80 Grow Tent from a friend and built a CFL array. Plan on doing a perpetual in soil, Foxfarm Ocean Forest Soil and some kind of nutes.

Got a couple of OG Kush clones today and put them in there. My plan is to get them big enough to start taking cutings and build a SOG.

This is the tent


This is how I setup the bars on top. Anyone have any experience with these tents and know what they're supposed to look like? Dude didn't have the directions.


These are the light sockets I used for my bulbs.


I wanted to use the flat ones with the terminals on the outside, but they were sold out. These had to be wired to the bottom.


What I ended up with is 3 lights in series, then two sets in parallel, for a total of 6 sockets. This is what I ended up with:


I installed 2 x 27watt Daylight (Blue), 2 x 23W Soft White (Red) and 2 x 14W Soft White.


I have since found a deal on 23w Warm White (which also happen to be dimmable, anyone know if this makes a difference?) so those replaced the 14W'ers.

Installed in the tent:


Another friend dropped off two OG Kush Clones, here's a shot from above:


They've got some huge leaves on them, hope to get some cuttings soon.

On the right is Clone #2, on the left, #1

#1:
#2:

 

[DarkLance]

First day of full 24hr light, temp never exceeded 28C. As of yet there are no fans or other equipment to move air. Just the tent with some of its intakes opened.

I've not watered or done anything to the clones, their leaves are beginning to perk back up, so I think we're doing ok.

OG #1 is 7.5cm tall
OG #2 is 10cm

Any guesses as to the age of these plants?

How long do you think I will have to wait before I can start taking my own cuttings? These might both become mother plants, or at least one and the other will be flowered for review.

I've done a fair amount of reading and have started two other grows that had to be terminated early. Plus its summer holiday, so I've got plenty of time to devote to my new project.

 

[Vegan]

ermerson nice lookin clones ya got there..cfl's will make em strech quite abit ..keep that in mind

good luck

 

[potsbestfriend]

Put the cfl's closer. 2-3 cm is a good distance.

 

[hippiegrower18]

bruddah, i feel you on being broke and in school

subscribed

hg18

 

[growMEDS]

Lookin good. I'll be watchin :smile:

 

[DarkLance]

nice tent, growMEDS

gotta survive, am i right hippygrower? unfortunately, the gov'ment says we gotta do it underground

potsbestfriend, good call on movin' the lights. They're down to like 5-6cm, kinda scared to move them closer. Here's a pic:


This is OG #1, day 2


This is OG #2, day 2



And.... a group shot with the lights on, now closer. Notice how the lights are kinda tilted? Well, I took advantage of that and moved the plants so that the shorter one is on the right.


can anyone can tell me how to get thumbnails for my album photos?

 

[DarkLance]

dark spots?

dark spots?

So I looked in today and I noticed that the clones had dark-bluish spots at some leaf points. I took as best a photo as I could:



I'm thinking its stress bruising, but a friend suggested it got too cold last night. I'm on 24hr light, and it never gets below 15c outside. I sleep with only a sheet in my room, so its got to be fairly warm in here. Need to get a good thermometer that records high and low inflection points.

 

[DarkLance]

Raising the Lights!

Raising the Lights!

Had to bring the lights up a notch today.

OG Clone #1 is at 8.5cm
OG Clone #2 is nearly 12.5cm

The rockwool is starting to become less moist, still don't need any water I think.

One of the leaves on #1 has got some yellow and brown spots, pic here:


Still have black/blue spots, here's a better picture:


I plan on flowering the big girl asap, and turning the other into a mother, as it already has 5 nodes.

EDIT: Yay! I figured out how to post images w/ thumbnails

 

[DarkLance]

on second thought, I lowered the lights, fearing strecthing. I can't believe how much bigger they are since I've gotten them. Both have gained several centimeters in two days, need to slow 'em down as I've got to get transplant medium for them to go into

 

[hippiegrower18]

DarkLance: man for sure, with this economy.

 

[Raphael]

Hey how's it going DarkLance I like your avatar haha I don't know how to make mine custom but w/e. Those dark spots aren't really a problem man they might be from not enough air flow about the room or just a pheno from that strain. I'd suggest getting a small osc fan to keep them leaves bouncing.

aloha

 

[DarkLance]

new fan

new fan

Whats up papa smurf? what are you growing these days?

I know I'm over-reacting about the spots, think it might be the plant killing off the whacked out leaves from stress growth. These things doubled in size already, got five leaves on some shoots.

So I took your advice about the fan, I dug out a room fan that was sitting in my garage. I cleaned it up and just stuck it in there on the drip shield. Moved the wires around to accommodate everything and seal up the door (had the powerstrip running through the zipper before).

here's a pic:


The fan is on low at night and medium during the day. I woke up late this morning and didn't get the vents open, so it was pretty hot in there. Borrowed a thermometer for the day and the max I hit was 29.5C. I'm under 29C now.

Everybody looks happy inside, so we're doing well, still no water or anything. Thinking of transplanting tonight and beginning flowering on one and setting another aside for mothering. Have a friend who says he can help me get it setup.

Little update photo:

 

[DarkLance]

we had a hot morning here today, the thermometer read 31.5c at one point. I'll need to keep the ambient room temperature lower in the early morn

Think its time to water today, the rockwool is dry to the touch and I've got seriously sagging leaves.

 

[growMEDS]

get um planted!

 

[DarkLance]

water & cut

water & cut

trust me, i can't wait! I need to get some money together to get some perlite to mix in with the ocean forest i've got. anyone know the ratio for this?

i think tomorrow I'm gonna go to the store and get the Miracle Grow Perlite, its only 7.5l but less money up front than the big bag. Pretty sure its the same stuff.

Then I'll transplant tomorrow eve after they've de-stressed from the cutting I gave 'em today.

Watered with RO and trimmed back some of the out-size leaves. Also cleaned up any dead stuff.

update pic:

 

[hippiegrower18]

I usually go for a 70/30 mix of of to perlite

My shop sells gallon bags of perlite, maybe so does yours?

 

[DarkLance]

Thanks HippieGrower, I did a 2:1 ratio ocean forest and perlite.

I bought the perlite at my local home improvement store, it was the Miricle-Gro brand perlite. It mentioned some kind of nutrient mix already added, which I did not want. I emptied the whole bag into a tub and rinsed and strained everything. Plenty of grey muck at the bottom when I was done, so I hope I got everything out except perlite.

Pulled the paper off the rockwool and put them into the 3.75l pots I bought. Then I put this into a bath of RO water, not overflowing and allowing the water to work up through the soil. Then I drained and added a bit more soil & water to the top.

IN OTHER NEWS: Rampaging felines attack grow! One of the house cats sneaked into my room last night and feasted on one of the plants. Luckily, he did not eat any new growth, just the fucked up leaves I wanted to prune off anyway. The plant (OG Clone #2) looks very depressed now, hoping a new home and plenty of clean water will bring her around in a day or two.

I found a broken screen door in the garbage, which I cut up and mounted inside the tent to cover the door.


I'm thinking I might have to add another strain to my grow, Nepeta cataria, Catnip! Anyone ever grown this stuff under CFL?

Update Photos:
OG Clone #1:
OG Clone #2:

 

[hempknowsis]

Looking good, sure it'll turn out great. Keep those cfl's close, but not too close.

 

[DarkLance]

Update

Update

Update



Stretching has not been a problem, these girls keep it nice and short. I've FIM'd both and done a little LST.

Both girls got nutes for the first time. 1/2 strength Foxfarm Grow Big. I water every three days now by nearly submerging the whole pot in RO water. This allows the water to come up through the soil and force gas exchange.

Took 3 cuttings from each plant yesterday to begin cloning.

Clones are dipped in Schultz TakeRoot and then placed in pre-soaked (70/30 mix of tapwater & RO) grodan delta. I followed the ALL ABOUT BONSAI MOMS thread HERE

Mist the cover and left overnight, figure I'll begin burping in 3-5 days at least.