Cannafan's Perpetual Grow White Widow-Master Kush Reveg & More! CFL's - LED - HPS

Lady Cannafan

Lady Cannafan

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Hi everyone, as my title suggests..I am one of the newest of newbies to growing and harvesting. I have learned so very much from this site and the community here, that I decided to start a journal on my attempt to grow medical cannabis.
I will be growing Indica and have chosen to form a hydro system to start, only because I have so many available materials to do that around here.
I've started with the grow room. I am using a basement room that has been long awaiting some purpose.
Here are pics of the main areas of the room:
Grow119.jpg

Grow223.jpg


This room had carpeting in it, I ripped it all out because I don't want any mold/mildew from moisture issues. I will probably be painting the floor white, as you can see I have already painted some of the walls white.
I have one of those large collapsing clothes closets on one end, it hasn't been used for years. Was thinking of lining it inside with some of the reflective styrofoam wallboard you see in the picture and using that for my veggie stage for my plants. The problem I might have is that it has zippers on it and I can see them going bad with time (nothing is made to last it seems) I do have lighting to hang inside.
I won't go into a lot of plans details right away, just wanted to get a good view of the beginning stages. I have two rolls of mylar ready and waiting for wherever I decide to put it.
This is going to be a long process, I have a full time job and only have weekends to work on this. I am also on a very very tight budget (budget? You have a budget?!? Lucky you!) so I am doing what I can to use what I have available and make it work. There are a lot of materials around here that can be put to use and I plan to do that.

I do have a first question if anyone reads this:
There is a sump pump very near to the grow room. Is it possible to use this to discard my used plant water when I need to change it? Will it cause any issues I need to be aware of? It would sure be handy to be able to get rid of the changed water there instead of lugging buckets up from the basement.
It does not connect to the septic system in any way.
Thanks so much and have fun everyone!
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Hi Cannafan,

Welcome to 420 Magazine and community of like minded folks that share on the website. Congrats on your first post and + Reps for starting a journal and sharing your journey with us. It sounds as though you may have already done quite a bit of reading in exploring the vast amount of knowledge and experience generously shared on this site.

Love the plans you've shared with us and likewise am a huge of fan of repurposing items on hand to acheive my ends.

Can't think of a reason in the world why you shouldn't be able to use the sump pump for waste water disposal. Out of curiosity only; if the sump isn't attached to the septic system, then to where does it pump any water?

I'd love to follow along on your journey so I've sub'd to your thread.

Be well and happy growing!
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Hi TanR!
Thank you for your quick response and for choosing to follow me along my journey.
The sump pump actually pumps to an outside underground drain field of some sort completely away from and in a different area than the septic tank and drain field. I've never had any problems with the way it pumps excess out, but have had to replace the pump recently. It was an old one and very mukky crudded indeed. YUK!

It is going to be much easier using that for disposing of water. :-) I have running water in the basement also, very close to the grow room, but it is softened water. My outside water is so full of iron that it cannot be used either. I can't afford a proper RO system right now, so will have to look into alternatives to that shortly.

I have a ton of stuff to accomplish today, so I better get back on it. You have a great day.
:thanks:
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

subscribed. I'm in your boat being a first time grower as well, but I'm going to enjoy seeing what you do with this room. Good luck my man.
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

KingJohnC said:
subscribed. i am not sure of the long term effects of pumping chemical salts into your leach field.
Click to expand...


It will be the greenest, tallest grass on the property. LOL A normal home septic system gets all kinds of waste and uses a leach field too. I wouldn't worry but I would pour it thru a screen.

I'm a county dweller w/hard water too. I use a rain barrel now. I did use the hard water once to cure an Iron deficiency.

Good luck and Build on!
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and well wishes! We do love green grass in the yard. ;-)

Techman: Being in the country with no real worries about smog or acid rain as much as big cities, I wanted to try the rainwater too. I just need to get some rain. LOL What kind of barrel set up are you using?

I've been working hard on the room this morning (first order of biz is always to get music in the area), and while I was putting down a liner I had a brainstorm that I wanted to fly out there for thoughts. I have a bunch of old white shower curtain liners that I will be cutting up and using as a base to help with any water splashes. While thinking about what to use for a front "wall" to the separate veggie and flowering areas I wondered if there would be a possibility to use the shower curtain liners as kind of curtains with mylar on one side of them. If I rigged up a line at the ceiling and hung them just like a curtain, I could just pull them back gently to get in to work on the plants.
Here's a pic with just a very rough idea, I have the curtains attached up top with clothes pins. Keep in mind the side walls are not completed yet.
Would the mylar hold up to being just gently pulled back if attached to the liner? It is 2mil mylar.
CurtainStyle.jpg

Anybody ever tried it?
Have a great day!
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

F_ _king no lack of rain here! It actually screwed up my outdoor garden this year. I was able to get a bunch of beans, peas, peppers & cucumbers before the rot and bugs set in. Gonna till that shit up and get ready for some winter crops. Maybe some broccoli & cauliflower once it cools off.

I have a 65gal black plastic barrel under a downspout. The water's ph is 6.0 every time. I have not had to buy water for almost a year. I was using the machines in front of the supermarket but that was a real drag. I have 5 5gal jugs I keep ready and the barrel stays full.

Anything that will block the light will work, my initial room was built out of Panda Film stapled to ceiling and walls. I made a kind of labyrinth so air would flow but light could not get thru.

.
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Subscribed and +reps

Congrats on starting your first grow! It is an exciting process which I am only 3 weeks into now. Looks like you have a great space.

Can't wait to see how the room transforms and what plants you decide to raise.
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Im sub'd.
Few words, I would have used soil tbh! hydroponics is best when you've succesfully achieved couple grows (IMO!), since its not as forgiving. Everything is looking good, remember to get a Hygro/termometer ! basements tend to be humid.
Are you growing some Indica Bag seed? Or you know which strain?, and which fert's will you be using in this grow? . Also, I dont think there is nooo problem with dumping you water that way :) wont hurt anything/anyone.

Peace, and succes. :ganjamon:
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Welcome to my newest followers. :thumb:
I am very happy to know there are others on this thread that are as new to this as myself, good luck with your efforts too!

Sinsemillis: In answer to your questions and comments, I do have a dehumidifier in the room. It's the big white thing on the floor in the first pic. When I first began getting this room ready my hygrometer showed I had a humidity level down there of 80%! After ripping up the carpet and getting rid of junk in the room, it took a couple of days to get the humidity down between a steady 49-52%. So, I believe I'll have that issue under control.
I struggled over the soil/hydro choice for over a month before I finally chose the hydro, because I would have had to invest a lot more into going with soil and so little to go with hydro based on my available materials. It scared me at first, because of all the reading I had done on it and the problems with no "forgiveness", but I will have plenty of time to keep a close on eye on things and I have a generator back up if power is lost.

I'll be hopefully getting my hands on some clones, White widow and some kind of kush to start with. I haven't nailed that down completely as yet. It's scary to try to order seeds off the internet, and no one I know has any decent strains of seeds for medical growing. I really do want to try growing from seed though.
As far as fertilizing and nutrients, I'm still researching and reading what people are using and haven't made up my mind quite yet. I want to get the room set up and ready first. I do get a lot of really good vibes reading about others' success with Blue Planet Nutrients line....but I'm still researching. Cost is a huge factor, but I don't want to buy something really cheap and wind up with really cheap buds either...bud. LOL There is only one good hydroponics retail place in my area, and they are really up there in prices. They own the market here right now, so no reason to price things competitively.
If any of you "seasoned" hydro growers have any suggestions, I read really well. :MoreNutes:

I finished up getting the holes in one of my DWC set ups for the pots. Gotta tell ya, the first one I cut I didn't have a hole saw...my only choice at the time was a dremel tool and my hands took a beating. That 4" hole saw is Swwweeet!
I'm sure you have all seen the tubs, but if you look close at my last picture it shows two of them on the shelf in the back. There are a total of 8 holes for 4" pots in each one. I'll get a good pic of them in here as soon as they are ready to operate.

Techman: Well, I got my rain barrel all set up waiting for this stupendous storm they predicted for my area last night....Hah! It went right under my fair city, so the drought is still on. ::Sigh::...Weathermen....the only job I know where you can be wrong 50% of the time and still get paid.
Grow on everybody!
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Well, seems like you have all the basics under controll. Its good that you have plenty of time to check them on a regular basis, the "Forgiveness" matter imo, its from timers not working at some point (If a water pump stops for a day or 2, it will most likely kill the plants!), nutes overdose, light in the water (algae, not mayor if taken care of in time) inssuficient oxigen in the roots. If you keep eye on those factors, you will most likely succed :cheertwo:

White Widow! So nice, classic, easy to grow, great yield, super frosty! I love ww, atm im growing a ww and ak47 strain hybrid!

I did hydro only one time back in my home country, I have to say its really really good once you get the hang of it, and plants grow usually faster, and could yield more. Although, in Soil, yield might be less (Not always though), quality always seem (To me at least) superior.

Cant wait to see how well plants love the setup! Good work on humidity control, these little things that we can easily over look, make a big difference. +reps to you.

Just to add, I always buy my seeds from Attitude seedbank, and Phatty seeds uk. Never been let down, and both have great farms and strains, super safe and fast delivery!

:peace: Jah Bless, Irie.
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Well, I changed my mind on the white shower curtains and found some dark curtains folded away. They will work out perfectly and I have just enough of them.
So I tried one of those emergency blankets as a liner for reflecting on the curtain (just had to try it, they are sooo cheap). I attached that on one inside end of the curtain and hung Mylar with black back on the other end. Amazing difference. I could see through the emergency blanket side and the mylar side was pitch black. Experiment tells me that the emer. blanket, although it does reflect some light, is probably going to lose light for me too. (not to mention that it is not exactly a stealth set up if you can see right into the grow area. LOL) I will use those two blankets as a shelf liner. ;-)
I'm hoping to finish up the side walls and get the curtains completed tonight and tomorrow morning and will upload some pics. I used liquid nails to attach the reflective styrofoam to the brick walls on the back of the grow area and it seems to be holding them pretty tight.

On the illegal rain barrels... I'm told that because rainwater flows out of some states and into others(I'm pretty sure colorado is one) , that the water is owned by the other state. Once it falls from the sky and hits the ground to be "run off", it is accounted for as owned via water rights. Crazy, crazy world.
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

On the illegal rain barrels... I'm told that because rainwater flows out of some states and into others(I'm pretty sure Colorado is one) , that the water is owned by the other state. Once it falls from the sky and hits the ground to be "run off", it is accounted for as owned via water rights. Crazy, crazy world.

Well if falls in your barrel it's not on the ground.... LOL......
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Okay everybody, I have some pictures to post. The curtains are going to work out great! I like the fact that I won't have to build an actual enclosure on this. It pulls back easily and clips with a simple clothespin off to the side. Hopefully it will last a while until I get the hang (pun intended) of things and decide to build something more permanent.
Here's how it looks with just one curtain lined with the mylar:
New_reflector_curtain.jpg


The next two photos are to show you what I did with a cheap-o bookshelf cabinet. These are the ones you used to find at Lowes and such, I think the brand was "Sutters"? pressed cheap wood particle board, not meant to last because they warp easily under any weight of books etc.
I added wheels to the bottom of one cabinet and used it as a wall with some reflective styrofoam attached. I'll probably put mylar on it anyway. The nice thing is that I can roll it out of the way if needed, and store my nutrients and such on it too. I'll probably be cutting an area out of the back to install a cooling fan that will rest on a shelf and blow into the grow area, I'll post that when I get to the project soon.
Rolling_Bookshelf_Back.jpg

Rolling_Bookshelf_Front.jpg


Now that got me to thinking....dangerous...lol. If someone were to put 4 of these together, corners to corners and shelves outside, with one on wheels, it would form a closet cubicle. You could line the inside with mylar, hang a light....well you know the rest. The one on wheels is your "door". Hmmmmm
Grow on everybody!:slide:
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Everything looking really nice, quite handy worker! :) Plants will be happy for sure.
I cant remember who's journal was it, he did exactly that, used a nice shelve thingy as his growroom door! Super stealth.
When do you think you are going to be ready to get some girls in there? hope soon! :peace:
 
Re: Newest of Noobs..from set up to growing and harvesting

Thanks Sinsemillas!
I do remember seeing a photo of a huge bookshelf door in front of a secret grow room, but more beautiful than this pressed wood stuff on wheels. It was definitely stealth! Originally I had used this cabinet to hide a very small room in my basement where I would put things away for safekeeping. It worked out very well and no one ever questioned that there might be something behind that thing. :;):
I can't wait to start growing, but everything depends on when/who I can get my clones from. I'm also still struggling on lighting, can't make up my mind there yet. "hurry up and wait" LOL
Take care and happy growing!
 
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