"educational growing experiment"

Hello everybody and greetings from eastern Europe
I have bought recently some seed, i really don't know what strain is, nothing.
I have done alot of research this month, about growing... now i'm a lil' bit more documented, hope this helps.
I've just germinated one seed, another 6 are on the way. Hope they all sprout.
Does anyone use a PH-meter for water ? I saw that the pros use a value around 6.5, so nearly acidic.Momentarily i have a soil ph meter, i saw that it cannot be used to count ph of liquids, i tried with pepsi that it's like 3.4-4 ph.. and it indicates nearly 8 ... so this drops...
I've also can say i saw some of dr green's videos on sites like youtube and other canadian videos that tend to be very useful.

Till now i have bought the folowing :

* Caps for germinating & cloning
* 2 x NPK : 13/4.5/6.5 bottle nutrients
* 2 PC case fans for air circulation
* Electric On/Off programable timer

Light setup :

2 x 23W 6500k cfl
2 x 23W cfl - warm white (doesn't write the K value but i belive it's around 3000 Kelvin)

3x 1.5 W Blue Led
1x 4W Red Led Array (50 pcs)
3x 1.5 W Red Led

Momentarily i have only the cfl lights set up in my grow area.. about 40x30 cm.. i'd like to make a mini (not micro) grow... i belive 1 week of extra veg life after the first 8 healthy leafs appear, hope they all will be girls.
This next week i'll buy another 5x1.5W Red + 2x1.5W blue to make the finnal led light array

I was wondering if anyone could help me with the ph issue and other suggestions.
Can i buy a ph test for aquarium ? would it be ok ? Or do i really need one of the expensive ones ?
Thanks in advance and i wish you all the big, happy, chunky, fat THC buds

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Hi slice and greetings back at you from the good old conceited US of A!

For your pH question, you can use any method that will test liquids, like a pool tester or a aquarium tester. The best are the wand-like units that chemist or wine makers use, but they are expensive and you will won't use it to it's ability until and if you go to hydro. I have one any it's defitely overkill for just testing the water and runoff. Some people use the pH paper, but I never liked that stuff. I am a trained lab chemist and I can't tell the color change accurately half the time!

Good job mixing the types of CFL's, but I'm not sure about using the LED's yet, the results from people that have used them in side-by-side grow experiments seem mixed at best. If you want to stay micro, go with bigger CFL's. 50 or 100 watt'ers in a PC case or small cab is enough. Shoot for 50watts per square foot (0.3 square meter) of space being flowered and you should have good flowering. If you are going to use a cabinet then consider a small HPS, 70w, 100w, or 150w. As you increase the wattage of CFL's, there is a point (around 200w of CFL) where the heat issue is about equal for CFL's and the HPS. I just put an 150w HPS in my cab with 2x 42w CFL's and it seems to be a little cooler in my cab then when I had 200w of CFL in there. I don't have a digital thermometer to measure and be sure, but the "back of the hand test" indicated that it is cooler.

No matter what you decide, you will tinker and play with your setup from now until you are happy. I've changed my setup a billion times since I initially setup in December, I strted with CFL's in a rubbermaid tub setup.

Good luck!

Hello!
Thanks for the quick long reply.
I forgot to tell you.. my inside temp is about 23 Celsius.. so just below 80F.
What do you think about the nutrients ? NPK 13/4.5/6.5 is ok ?
Now about the CFLs, i think there is a lil bit of confusion here that i didn't understand... when you say 100W CFL , do you mean 100W consumption CFL ? or the equal of 100W incandescent light ?
My CFLs are rated @ 1200 lumens @ 102 W with power consumption @ 23W.
About your proposal... do you really think that a 70W HPS is better than my current setup ? Is it better on the light spectre or what ?

slicerro said:

Hello!
Thanks for the quick long reply.
I forgot to tell you.. my inside temp is about 23 Celsius.. so just below 80F.
What do you think about the nutrients ? NPK 13/4.5/6.5 is ok ??

Click to expand...

Temps look good, just keep it right around where you have it. For nutes, I use a 5-1-1 Fish emulsion mixed with 2 drops of superthrive and Schultz 10-15-10 liquid concentrate for every feeding.. I ph to about 6.5, and put a pinch of epsom salts every other feeding.

slicerro said:

Now about the CFLs, i think there is a lil bit of confusion here that i didn't understand... when you say 100W CFL , do you mean 100W consumption CFL ? or the equal of 100W incandescent light ?My CFLs are rated @ 1200 lumens @ 102 W with power consumption @ 23W.

Click to expand...

No, the light is a 105watt CFL that is equal to a 500watt incadescent. These are real grow lights, not light bulb replacements. Try here: http://www.1000bulbs.com/2-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent-Screw-In-Light-Bulbs/

slicerro said:

About your proposal... do you really think that a 70W HPS is better than my current setup ? Is it better on the light spectre or what ?

Click to expand...

It is definely better for foliage penetration, but I mix in the cool CFL's for the spectrum mix. I don't know about a 70watt, but a 150watt in that spot in your pics would fit just fine. Keep it well vented and you won't have any temp troubles.

If you can't see it, the center bulb is the HPS, the side bulbs are the 42w CFL's.



Good Luck!

Thanks again for the info!
Nice picture, and nice lil buds.. what strain is it ? Are the other 2 ones clones or grown from seed ? What kind of vent system do you have that you put the HPS so close ? Isn't it a lil bit too windy in there ?

slicerro said:

Thanks again for the info!
Nice picture, and nice lil buds.. what strain is it ? Are the other 2 ones clones or grown from seed ? What kind of vent system do you have that you put the HPS so close ? Isn't it a lil bit too windy in there ?

Click to expand...

They are some random bagseed. The one plant I am getting ready to chop in a week or two. She has really started to fill out and she stinks! I think I've heard of a strain called "Grapefruit" before, and while I don't know the strain, she smells exactly like bitter, fresh-cut grapefruit. I'm going re-veg her after harvest to get some clones.

The small ones are clones taken from some random bagseed. I haven't flowered out this strain yet, so it will be interesting to see what I get. I'm starting a SoG in the cabinet, I'm starting 2-3 new clones every week until the cab fills up, them will harvest two plants every week once they hit maturity. I'm going to keep rolling over the clones and just play with the bagseed plants until I get all the details dialed in, then I'm going to order some seeds with known genetics. Those seeds are too expensive for my noob ass to just kill off with a stupid mistake!

The reason I can get the HPS so close is because I have a sheet of plexiglass between the bulb and the plants with separate ventilation for the light area. The whole upper chamber acts as a "cool tube" for all three bulbs in there. I have a small fan (it's one of these: http://www.target.com/Honeywell-Sup...-8931005?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k:fan&page=1 ) that sits on the top of one of Red Greenery's DIY rubbermaid carbon scrubbers. I have 4" vent tubing that runs from two locations on the box, one directly above the right side CFL and one in the top right of the flower chamber (you can see it under the right side CFL above the big plant)

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask, I'm still kind of new at this and love to help alone the people behind me just like DrBudGreenJeans and Red Greenery have helped me.

next step

next step

Today i put almost half of the rest of my seeds that cracked in the pads, i hope they will rise up soon and healthy.

hello! i have a lil problem with my plant.. i think one of the small leafs doesn't look to good... is has turned a lil' bit inside...
What could it be ?