My July 2020 Grow

Indoor Growing Growroom Diaries
#1

I’ve been enjoying the site for quite a long time. I always wanted to join in but didn’t have the right situation. Past attempts were either due to poor planning and inexperience or just not a good place to do it so it had to be chopped down.

I remember when this site taught me how to convert a 100 watt security HPS to a grow light and I tried that, which worked great, but definitely made my bedroom too bright at my parent’s house.

Right now my current situation is I have a 10x7 “bedroom” that could be closed in and turned into a walk in closet. My guess was at one time this was probably the laundry room which was converted into a child’s room. There’s a small 2x3 closet in this room also. I’m currently about to turn that closet into a first run and eventually would like to expand out to 2, 4x4s but curious about how I’m going to manage the space using this grow and the experience to help me learn.

I’m thinking once I expand out, the closet will turn into a veg chamber for a mother and clones.

This week I covered the windows with some insulation sheeting on the inside to keep the hot summer sun off the back room from about 3 PM to sunset. There’s nobody nearby to see this and the neighborhood is full of old houses that are remodeled so this looks OK or also looks like an upgrade of somebody stapling/push pinning a sheet to a window as a curtain. I’ve got some small temp/humidity sensors back there to keep an eye on everything.

The room has it’s own A/C vent from the ceiling so it gets cool air circulating but I’ve got some exhaust fans coming to circulate air in the room. I have the option of also getting up in the attic to move one vent into the closet ceiling. I also chose this room because one of the walls is shared with the inside electrical panel if any expansion would be needed such as adding dedicated breakers, it would be a very small run of wiring from the outlet back to the panel.

I have a Spiderfarmer 1000 on the way and should be here soon. I’m very excited as this is my first actual off-the-shelf grow light and not something converted, like security lighting.

The plan is a 2x3 scrog setup with 2 plants inside of 7 gallon office style heavy duty trash cans as a way to dip my toes back into it and learn everything again. My soil setup is coco husk and all the amendments needed to make it great. I’ve been gardening in the meantime so I still haven’t lost that knowledge.

I can’t wait. I think I’ll start preparing my soil this weekend with the goal of the next 2-3 weeks of starting.

16 Likes
#2

Glad to have ya here @flawduh more enough knowledge floating around these threads Im glad ya finally came out of the closet ! No pun intended looking forward to your grow… don’t be shy to ask questions were all here to help! Welcome to OG!

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#3

Nice :slight_smile:

welcome to OverGrow

Dequilo

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#4

Sounds like fun, I’ll pull up a chair! :popcorn:

Cheers
G

4 Likes
#5

I have a chair for this one. :chair:

#6

Beer and Fatty in hand to watch the show…

#7

I apologize for this, but I’m a weirdo. I’m a creep. Strike that! Reverse it! Please cue Flo Rida “Right Round” and rhyme along for an immersive experience please.

Hey, walk out that house with your swagger
Hop in there with dough, You got seeds to grow!
People to see, time is precious
I looked at the colas, are ya out of control?
Just like my mind where I’m goin’
No women, no shawties, no nothin’ but dro!
No stoppin’ now, my Pirellis on roll
I like my flowers that’s always on whoa!
I know the chop is comin’
My pockets keep tellin’ me it’s gonna shower
Call up my homies, it’s on
Then pop in the next 'cause this ounce will be ours
We keep a fade-away shot
‘Cause we ballin’ it’s Platinum Kush that be ours
Lil mama, I owe you just like the flowers
Girl you the dank with all that goodie powers
You spin my head right round, right round
When you go down, when you go down down
You spin my head right round, right round
When you go down, when you go down down

Welcome to OG. Gang Gang!

1 Like
#8

Welcome to OG @flawduh. Nice to see you. I think you’re going to do real well in your new space. Looking forward to seeing the results! :vulcan_salute:

2 Likes
#9

I picked up some supplies over the week, including everything to start the soil.

  • 10lbs of coconut coir husk compressed.
  • 1 bag of Black Kow
  • 1 bag of perlite which will probably last me forever.
  • Bone and blood meal.
  • Earthworm castings are on the way.

10lbs of coconut coir husk easily filled a 20 gallon storage tote I was using in the shower to spray warm water with the showerhead onto the block, let it soak for a minute or two, then break up with my hands. That tote got very heavy when it was done so I dragged it out of the bathroom and dumped it into a kiddie pool that I have.

I mixed about 2/3 of the Black Kow in and about 1/4 of the bag of perlite until everything looked good by eye with what I’m familiar with gardening or if you’re not, just what “premium gardening soil” looks like with consistency and water retention. Over the week I’ve been spraying water on it to see how it retains water and its doing it pretty good.

With the bone and blood meal, I would pour a small amount along the edge of the kiddie pool then do another ring inside that one probably about the width of my hand and poured a little bit more in the middle. I took a shovel and made sure everything was mixed up well, even pouring some of the mix in the 7 gallon containers I had to stir up even more then back into the kiddie pool.

I think if I get into this soil mixture for my outside containers, I might make something to tumble all of this like a ball mill minus the balls probably something out of an old dryer drum.

I woke up to an interesting smell. That was fun but I’ll just get used to it. I guess that’s one thing of the filter’s job is to mask that but I think it’s just simply I have a whole kiddie pool in my living room full of soil ready to go. I might be out of room in the pool for the 5lbs of earthworm castings but I think that I can put maybe 3lbs in it, mix, and sprinkle some in out of the bag when filling up the container.

Sensors look good so far with temp/humidity from my central HVAC so I might not need a dehumidifier or additional A/C. I know once I expand out that I’ll probably need a mini split because I keep doing research on better lighting setups and the DIY kits that are available. for assembly. I’m capable of metal fabrication with all the tools ready so I think it’s something I’ll look at in the 2nd grow.

6 Likes
#10

sound like a very good start :slight_smile:

all the best

Dequilo

2 Likes
#11

I like to top dress with fresh castings. As you water, all the humics, microbes, and nutrients will make their way deeper into the soil, conditioning it.

2 Likes
#12

Yes, excellent idea.

A few stray fruit flies decided to have a massive reproduction party in the pool so I had to compact the loose stuff down and put up a 3x5 yellow double sided sticky card. Already in 4 hours the damn card is already covered on one side. What I do is walk by and use an empty 5 gallon water jug to hopefully kill them if they’re in the compact stuff but I drive them over to the non-compact side where the card is at by lightly pounding the soil.

1 Like
#13

Pick up some S.F nematodes and water them in. They will actively hunt the fungus gnat larva.

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#14

These are clearly fruit flies.

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#15

They will eat both types of larva.

3 Likes
#16

The light is in and it’s just amazing at the advancements of technology compared to when I had a 100w HPS security light converted in a similar sized closet quite a long time ago. Almost feels ancient. I mean even as a kid my first TV that I bought with birthday money was black and white which had a Nintendo hooked up to it before I started doing side work to get a 12 or 13" color TV.

I closed the door as a test for a few hours on the closet and with no fans at all the temp went up from 76 to 77.8 F when I checked it then turned the light off. I’m running it roughly 18/6 with 2 seedlings to get an idea of the new month and the upcoming utility bill on it. I’ll play this weekend with ventilation as I do have some fans available. Even with just a small floor fan that I keep by my bed at night, it dropped the temp by 1 degree F to 77.6 without the central HVAC running on a peak hot summer day.

Also on the agenda this holiday weekend is replacing the closet door with a sheet of plywood that I can modify with a hole saw without feeling bad that I’ve modified that old, solid closet door. This isn’t a hollow core door at all due to the age of the house. Everything is solid. Also pre-drywall with the slat and plaster.

I’ll fix the heat issue once I get that plywood replacement door in to pull in fresh air from the A/C vent through ducting and pull out warm air.

When I expand to a 4x4, I’m already planning out a DIY LED setup based on some YouTube recommendations from LED Grower and others. I’m perfectly comfortable saving some money using knowledge of fabrication and electronics but also tools that I already have so this is win-win for me versus spending 30% more for something off the shelf. Framing it with 2020 aluminum extrusion and T nuts is absolutely simple.

I already have my space mapped out on graph paper.

I had a hilarious idea - everybody is doing grow tents and the insulated foam sheeting at home improvement stores is pretty cheap but also probably more insulating than the fabric/reflective tent material, maybe do a 2 chamber, 4x4 each chamber foam grow box using metal conduit or similar to the tents to support lights or using scrap lumber that I have more than plentiful access to as outside framing.

This gives me roughly 3x10 to have as space for things on wheels and maybe a small 1x3 folding table.

My 3x5 sticky card traps are working great. I’ve trapped so many fruit flies that I think I’m avoiding their next cycle of laying eggs. They get big enough to mate and see their friends wiggling around on the card unable to fly away then fly down thinking its the mating dance and get stuck. I’ll know in another 40-50 days if another swarm pops up like what happened over the past few weeks because in the house is optimal conditions. I’m about to put a few more cards down this weekend too on my kiddie pool of ready soil. I’ll probably add nematodes into the mix in the future in anticipation of this happening again or as an extra layer of protection.

I’ll update everybody in a few days. I hope to see something sprout out of these water bottles that are my temporary seedling starting containers. I was curious about how the soil would work and wanted a full view too so thats why I reused a water bottle. I just cut off like 85% around the last ridge near the top and left a cap to cover it to keep the humidity in.

1 Like
#17

My seeds are bag seed from a guy who was getting fresh top shelf flowers.

He had Blue Dream for the longest time, which I didn’t mind at all, and one 1/8 had 5 really nice looking seeds in it. So I go back to get more hoping to get just as lucky. He tells me that what he got “was full of seeds” so he offers me a discount and in a 7g bag I find 5 more equally just as good seeds. I put each 5 seeds in the bag I got them from and put them away then just recently found them so I’m hoping they’re these seeds because I remember putting them away in two separate, equal amount of seeds in each bag. I did happen to mark some high CBD, low THC stuff I had so that really confirms that these are the seeds that I got.

When I expand, I’ll get better genetics. I just need some testing and experimentation before I start on fine tuning genetics.

2 Likes
#18

I remember my 9” b&w tv. And how great the 13” color tv looked. But It was the original Atari hooked up to it!!

1 Like
#19

I’ve seen the debate about germinate in soil versus the learned pre-K/elementary school technique with a wet napkin in a plastic bag or plastic container. I’ll say the wet napkin wins because less than 24 hours, another batch of seeds I had already had a sprout coming out and about 30 hours, 2 of the 3 new seeds are already sprouting. I dug up the 4 seeds out of the soil filled water bottles I had and put them in a similar setup. Nothing yet from them, no sign of even the seed splitting to show off some white, and probably the next 24 hours or so no action from them I’ll probably toss them.

The new seeds were bag seed from like generic “kush” taste/look/buzz buds from last month where if you got this 85-90% of the time you got a bag, you wouldn’t be upset. It made me sleep good which is why I decided to keep the seeds.

I just checked the seeds again. The “tail” is getting a little bit longer, no leaves yet, so I’m just patiently waiting a few more days before I put them in the water bottles I have for sprouts then under the light so they can get started. I plan on taking clones and trying to start them as soon as possible so I can get comfortable in them being ready when towards near harvest.

#20

The third one is starting to crack at the end too. I just planted the other two and put them under the light. I just put a thin layer of soil over the leaves so it’ll remain moist until it hits the next spurt of energy to start growing.

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I’m doing more research on 4x4s and keep leaning towards HLG quantum boards because I want to wire my next light for my space.

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