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Makeshift Greenhouse Problems

brown_thumb

Active member
It seems that outside grows are best in the ground, not in pots, due to control of root temperature? I'll research SM-90.

Cannabis, I haven't forgotten to reply to your post. I'm just getting online in short bits at the moment and I want to be thorough.
 

brown_thumb

Active member
The plants continue to improve (for now). I've been learning to balance the space heater setting with the ambient temperature/humidity and with moisture of the soil in the little pots. I'm 'flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' but it's helping. Since the ambient temperature is expected to be only 45F tonight and the soil is only slightly damp (not wet), I set the heater to 55F so I don't overheat the roots but will keep the roots warm enough without drying them too much. The heater is placed 24-30 inches below the 4 inch pots.

To those suggesting the purple or blue+red LEDs are wrong: I did research this and am trying screw-in (E27 socket) lamps but these have a variety of different LED colors including 2xblue, 2xred, UV-A and short IR wavelengths.
 
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brown_thumb

Active member
These continue to improve and grow. Perhaps I'm getting less lousy at this. I FIMed all but the two smallest plants. The larger plants are all small but have 4-5 nodes. I'll FIM the last two when they have 4-5 nodes.

DSCN0436_zpsvbskoeij.jpg
 

Cannabis

Active member
Veteran
Those are looking pretty good, by JoVe, I think you've GOT it! Happy Holidays Brown Thumb and everyone!
 

brown_thumb

Active member
I think my primary issue was indeed root temperature. At first, I set the space heater (placed 30 inches under the plants) to 45F degrees and that must have been too cold. Then I set it to 70F but I think the temperature was fluctuating too much because the lowest setting on that heater was 1250 watts. When I set it to 55-60F things improved. Then I finished building the makeshift insulated enclosure around the plants and replaced the 1250 watt heater with a 250 watt heater and set the thermostat to 60F. However, that tiny heater couldn't keep up when the ambient temperature dropped to 25F. So I replaced the 250 watt heater with a 600 watt heater. I think I finally found the right balance. I'll probably switch back to the 250 watt heater when the night temperature rises above 45F because using the smallest heater necessary to raise the temperature in the box to 60-65F at the roots is better at maintaining a constant temperature without huge fluctuations.

Anyway... it seems to be working. Happy Holidays to you too, Mr. C!! :D

Those are looking pretty good, by JoVe, I think you've GOT it! Happy Holidays Brown Thumb and everyone!


Ok I was reading along till I could find an excuse to start talking and here's what I see below, that I know a little about.

Like... you're not really permanently eff'd, you're having them shut down, when the root temps drop.

It doesn't create any form of poisoning per se, it's just that the chemical reactions slow down so far, that effectively, growth is nearly stopped.

If ya want to, look online for some google image searches about stuff like this. Let's see... ''root temp vs growth'' and this sorta thing will probably do it.

Since you might not know, there's a way to really, REALLY focus and intensify your search results, and that's to just do the same darn search, on 'web' and 'images' and 'videos'.

The images searches give you great variety in charts and things people put together so you can grasp it real quick.

Searching videos can give you super focused information on solving problems, associated with some kind of work like 'warming roots in a green house' -or whatever. I mean... I know this really isn't the answer at all I'm just saying, I know how it is to know stuff's out there and not really think about something like that as an answer.

Anyway I used to grow out in a little porch attached to my house; and I was growing some Super Silver Haze that kept going, and going... and eventually, it started getting cool. As soon as the temps started getting down to the 50s, stuff like this - the growth drops off,

and the thing is, you can go through even a whole day and not have the root temps get high enough, that the plants can kick off again.

There are umpteen dozen ways to warm a root set, or a group of root sets, and I don't really have a so-called ''THE ANSWER'' picked out for you cause I don't know exactly what kind of setup you have working.

Hopefully, some people who have warmed roots like this, will come in and offer you a good tip on keeping the roots warm, using some kind of standard product for that - they do in fact sell whatcha call a root mat or a rooting mat.

I used to grow completely fixated on using the cheapest, most guerrilla methods I could concoct/contrive for everything, and the method I finally relied on for warming my roots, was to sit the plants in some low tubs - these were hempy buckets - and the low tubs, I used to catch my run-off, I just laid those onto some styrofoam board I had, 3/4ths inch thick, and I ran - lol please don't laugh at me - some clear christmas lights, all around the outside of the tub, and then I just surrounded it all with blankets. Over the blankets, I layed some black & white panda plastic, which is one of those grower things that when you've got it, you just say 'Oh, I just fixed that shit with some PANDA plastic, and it was FINE!'' Everybody of course at that point says to themselves, 'Yeah, as soon as I blow a hundred bucks on a huge roll of black & white, I'll black out and reflectively align all my shit till it's perfect. Thanks.''

But in real life I'm not sure what the best answer is for you. You want to have those roots at about 65, 68 degrees F. If it gets up to be at about 70 and stay there, and it's hydroponic, unless steps are taken, (or if it's a hempy bucket which doesn't suffer root rot because the water gets drunk out, replenished, drunk down, replaced, and fungus can't grow in that) you could and will get root rot.

But when you get those roots, to where they're at about 65, 68, 70 degrees, the machines are gonna turn on, and they'll keep ticking along until you drop em again.

So get a thermometer and stick it into your media and I bet you come out with cold root temps man.
 

brown_thumb

Active member
BTW, this is a mixed lot...

Tora Bora fem (3)... I killed 2... started Oct 1
White Widow fem (1)... I killed 4... started Oct 15
Blue Mammoth auto (1)... I killed 4... started Oct 15
Blueberry fem (5)... all surviving... started Nov 7
Strawberry Kush fem (5)... all surviving... started Nov 7

I counted 5 nodes on the next to smallest plant and decided to FIM that one. The smallest plant has 4 nodes but it's so small I'm going to wait awhile to FIM it.
 
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brown_thumb

Active member
I just bought THESE WARM WHITE LED LAMPS to begin replacing the others within a week or two. I may only replace half of them. What do you folks think... replace half at first and run them awhile before swapping them all to the warm white? When I begin swapping the lamps I'll start cutting back lighted time. I'm running 18/6 now under the current lamps. Does 15/9 sound right to start cutting back on light? Then maybe 12/12 a couple weeks after that?

I'm sorry I'm so ignorant about this. I do research but the information is highly variegated. What's a newb to do? :dunno:
 
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al70

Active member
Veteran
how long have they been in veg B.T. ? i would'nt bother with 15/9 just go straight to 12/12 when you think they're ready, i usually veg for at least 8 weeks, you'll have to dial in you're lights off temps, goodluck.
 

brown_thumb

Active member
how long have they been in veg B.T. ? i would'nt bother with 15/9 just go straight to 12/12 when you think they're ready, i usually veg for at least 8 weeks, you'll have to dial in you're lights off temps, goodluck.

The Tora Bora were started Oct 1, the White Widow and Blue Mammoth auto on Oct 15, and the Strawberry Kush and Blueberry on Nov 7.

I realized these should be separated and lit differently but that's not an option right now.

I'm trying to force more growth from the Tora Bora because they started flowering when they were only 125mm tall. The Blue Mammoth were stunted too. The last crop of Str. Kush and BB are doing much better in veg.

The warm white LEDs will be here in a few days... maybe a week or perhaps early January. By then, most of the youngest plants may be ready to flip but I don't know. For this set (all of the plants) I'll flip them all at one time.

I'll be better prepared next time with separate veg/bloom areas. If I can afford to have the work done I may move the grow inside next time. Battling varying temperatures, humidity, insects, etc. is a PITA.
 

brown_thumb

Active member
I might transplant these into 5 gallon buckets after all. But as things are, I'll have to put three plants in each bucket so I can squeeze 5 buckets into the little makeshift shelter. No more than five buckets will fit inside. I can't raise the buckets off the ground because shelves will block vertical growth. As someone else suggested, I can use electric blankets under and around the buckets when needed through the cold months. The trick will be getting the blanket heat settings right.

I didn't plan anything properly. I know his isn't a difficult thing but I've grown stupid in my later years.
 

Levitationofme

Active member
No one will blame you for being nervous as hell. Growing weed can be very stressful.
Especially when it's not legal. My first couple tries were epically horrific, easily as difficult
a time as you are having. To top it all off everything ended up in my wife's compost pile.

That was where they actually grew. Big epiphany here, I was the big problem.
It took even more time for me to chill out and let my plants grow.

Keep going Mr. Thumb no one is an instant expert. One step at a time and keep moving forward. You will be posting nice pics of buds.

 
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brown_thumb

Active member
^^^ Thank you. I hope you're right. BTW, I have a few days of temperatures that won't drop below 60 so I unplugged the heater and opened the access door so I can run a fan during the light cycle.

Happy Holidays, everyone !!! :)
 

iffey

Member
In my experiences, BT, changing More than one thing at a time is not the best idea. One ends up with too many variables to deal with. Temps, lights and timings, one and live with the results. Half of this light and half of that when adjusting temps is tricky.. Light height for one light will differr with temps and intensity.. just me. Good progress.. Merry Christmas
 

brown_thumb

Active member
Thank you, iffey. My problem is I've been get nearly everything wrong. So I've changed everything. I'm getting better so the plants are doing better... until the next catastrophic mistake.
 

HarvestMoon303

Active member
I just bought THESE WARM WHITE LED LAMPS to begin replacing the others within a week or two. I may only replace half of them. What do you folks think... replace half at first and run them awhile before swapping them all to the warm white? When I begin swapping the lamps I'll start cutting back lighted time. I'm running 18/6 now under the current lamps. Does 15/9 sound right to start cutting back on light? Then maybe 12/12 a couple weeks after that?

I'm sorry I'm so ignorant about this. I do research but the information is highly variegated. What's a newb to do? :dunno:
I don't think that I've EVER had a "FIM" work. Topping? Sure, but actual "FIM" is very easy to talk about and not so easy to actually do. Did yours work? If I were you, I wouldn't cut a thing on those plants. Let it grow as healthy as possible for now, and then worry about tweaks to improve yield when you're not killing the plants on a routine basis.

How did you learn about "FIM", and yet skipped the absolute basics of growing anything? Honestly, I feel like you're just trolling us. 15/9? What?!
 

brown_thumb

Active member
^^^ I don't think my FIMing is working because it looks like the tops just keep growing. So as I see this happen I cut the entire top off.

I learned about FIMing, topping, etc. from other members here on ICM. Then I researched other forums and youtube.

Why 15/9 light cycle... followed by 12/12? Because I've read that decreasing light hours in steps is less stressful to the plants. I don't know if it makes any difference so that's why I'm asking.

A troll... really? If I had any feelings left you would've hurt them. I guess my fifteen years of marriage was good for something because all my little hurt buttons are broken. I do fully admit that I'm a dumb-ass though, as you seem to have hinted at. :)
 

al70

Active member
Veteran
hiya B.T., i think you should transplant before you flip them, another week or two in veg wont do any harm, transplant in one weeks time and flip after another week in big pots, goodluck and happy xmas.
 
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