Crane's Organic Soil 315W CMD OG Kush Grow Journal, 2018

[Crane]

Hi all. I have a closet I repurposed into a small grow room. The effective space is about 3'x4' with a height of 6'.

I have a Lumii Solar 315W CMD lamp with a Lumii 3200K bulb (was too broke to get the veg bulb as well...). I vent to outside of my house through a fan and a carbon filter. The intake is passive.

My soil mix is approx. 10/10/20/60 perlite/home compost/coco/garden center bagged soil. Also threw in a cup of gypsum and a cup of worm castings (in a total amount of maybe 13 gallons). I have 4 three gallon square pots, and actually also a two gallon extra pot (for the fifth germinated seed). The small extra pot has 20/20/60 of perlite/vermiculite/home compost.

Six days ago I put five Dinafem OG Kush feminized seeds into a plastic jar on to some moist paper, three of them cracked in only two days and the rest of them a day later. I put them all in their pots as soon as they'd cracked. Today the are all up and alive, so I guess this is day 1 for them. They are on 18/6 light cycle.

I've grown weed before years ago, and I have quite a lot of experience with general gardening and such. Indoors it is just pretty different, mainly I worry about the temps which have been around 76-82.

I wanna keep this grow organic, I have BioBizz Grow and Bloom, and some seaweed extract. Having the seedlings straight in the big pots is probably going to mean that I won't have to water them for weeks at first, which is maybe not optimal because now I can't feed them either?

I would like to get a fast harvest and was thinking to veg them only for maybe 3 weeks or so. I would just need suggestions to whether I should top them or LST or anything,because five bushy plants maybe overkill for my small space? Should I just sog them? How much would that reduce yield?

I'll post pics when I get home.

 

[Blew Hiller]

I plant seeds straight to soil as well. You will definitely need to make sure their developing roots have access to water. I usually water on the outside of the pot, making the plant the bullseye center. The water is there for their roots to find but not so much that is rots the roots. They likely will not need to be fed for the first 2-3 weeks.

4 bigger plants will yield more than 5 plants in the same space. If you are interested in trying the different strains, then grow them all.

 

[AngryBird]

Hi and welcome to the journal section.
Sounds like you have it all figured out.
Happy birthday to the little babies
The indoor is a bit different from the outdoor gardening, but in a lot of ways, still simple gardening. Airflow and ventilation along with humidity control and temp are the most important things.

Go as you flow on the rest. Topping has to be done at the right time and maybe it would be easier?
I think I would just let them grow as is, until I get the hang of the rest. Some manage to get better yields and some don't. What ever you feel comfortable with doing.

 

[Orlando Scout]

I'll pull up a chair and tag along if you don't mind. Sounds like you made yourself a nice little set up!!!

 

[Crane]

And there they are,those tiny green dots in those huge pots

I went and bought a hygrometer today, an analog model that you can calibrate. I just started wondering is that useable in a small space with moving warm air? Hmm. We'll see about that. Right now I have it inside a damp towel to see if it's reading right,should show 95-98% after an hour.

I also noticed a little stretch in the seedlings, so trying to combat that I lowered the lamp from 40 to 30 inches from the soil surface. I hate lanky seedlings. I have no idea how low I should/could have the lamp so I'll have to lower it bit by bit.

And lastly I think I found the answer to my own question about what to do about training these plants; I think I'm gonna try "quadlining" them,that technique looks like a suitable compromise between scrogging and LSTing,right?

 

[AngryBird]

Hi little ladies.
You just stick your hand under the light and just where it starts to feel hot, that is how far away the light needs to be from the plants.

 

[Crane]

The weather's turned warmer here and this morning the temps in the closet were 90! Ugh... and the new hygrometer showed barely 30% so I guess measures must be taken.

My extract fan has a higher setting but that will take the extract speed a little over the rating of the carbon filter... I still think I'll have to try that out and see what happens. I will also put in a bucket of water with a towel in it to try get the RH up at least a little.

 

[Crane]

The temps are beginning to be a real problem. They were over 90 this morning. Only thing I can think of is, that do I not have enough air coming into the closet? I have a 4 inch hole in the wall and 10 small 3/4 inch holes in the door. The outlet is a 5 inch hole and now the extract fan is pushing at full speed 380 (what is that unit?). So I was thinking should I go get a small blower for the intake as well? I really can't make anymore holes anywhere in order to keep this operation stealthy.

 

[Peppers]

Hi Crane I would definitely have a fan bringing the air in, don't get me wrong holes do work but having a fan at the intake will get cool fresh air in alot quicker and help regulate your temperature.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Mind if I pull up a chair Crane?

 

[Crane]

Hi Crane I would definitely have a fan bringing the air in, don't get me wrong holes do work but having a fan at the intake will get cool fresh air in alot quicker and help regulate your temperature.

Yes I installed a small intake fan and it seems to help a little, temps now at 82, that I can live with. RH is about 35% during the day, but today as I checked in just after the lights went on it was 55%.

 

[Crane]

Mind if I pull up a chair Crane?

Welcome! I'm very happy for all help and advice!

 

[Crane]

Did some remodeling in the closet once again. At the right I have that new small intake fan, and I have it blowing into the bucket with the wet T-shirt that's some diy optimizing Then the girl in the small pot got an extra, cheapo led bulb next to her, because the light area of the main light just doesn't quite reach that far. I'm gonna let her grow without training,maybe get that one cola out of her hopefully.

The ladies in the bigger pots got a little lanky and wobbly because I had the light too far away when they sprouted (now the height is about 18 inches), so I had to give them some support in the form of some barbeque sticks and plant ties. Also, the ones on the left have been closer to the oscillating fan and seem to haven taken a bit of a beating because of that,they are noticiably smaller than the right side ones. I adjusted that fan now so should it be ok from now on.

They are only like 5 days old now, I'll wait couple of more days before I feed them some very dilute BioBizz Grow. The soil is still moist just an inch below the surface,so I'll just give very little.

I think I'm slowly getting the grow space dialed in. It did take some stressing out

 

[Peppers]

Hi Crane as they grow the humidity will rise so I think your on to a good one. Nice space you have I think you'll do great.

 

[Crane]

Today's day 6 after emerging above ground. I've still not gotten a hold of the temps in the closet, I'm already starting to suspect even my thermometer.

Anyways, pretty huge differences in size between the seedlings. Very Indica leaves,too. I haven't watered them yet,maybe a little dash tomorrow. I have misted them with seaweed extract, and plain water in between.

 

[Th34v4t4r]

Hi crane. I'm tuned in now and all caught up.

Nice little setup. Get on top of that air intake maybe think about out take as Well. If the closet is getting stuffy. Have cold air circular in from the bottom left corner and out the top right . It's always easier to warm up rather then cool down..

 

[Th34v4t4r]

Maybe try and lay off the water as well and letter soil fully dry out for a few hours. Thosenleaves are really droopy. They look heavy

 

[Crane]

Yeah I'm gonna make some more holes today, to get some more intake air coming in. The temps have always been my nemesis, I even oversized my extract fan on purpose this time around, but here I am again.... the air outside the closet is like 65F so I want to believe that if I just get enough of that into the closet fast enough the problem will go away.

Btw, I have my eyes on some Sensi Seeds Hindu Kush seeds, might go pick them up tomorrow. Can't grow them until January probably,but I just gotta get some Sensi ready to go.

 

[Th34v4t4r]

Yeah I'm gonna make some more holes today, to get some more intake air coming in. The temps have always been my nemesis, I even oversized my extract fan on purpose this time around, but here I am again.... the air outside the closet is like 65F so I want to believe that if I just get enough of that into the closet fast enough the problem will go away.

Btw, I have my eyes on some Sensi Seeds Hindu Kush seeds, might go pick them up tomorrow. Can't grow them until January probably,but I just gotta get some Sensi ready to go.

I like the sensi strain. At grows well and the yield my 1st time round, although it was a strssed plant. It pulled off a nice couple of ounce. I didn't do it justice last time under a 300w led that's basically a 250hps at best. . My grow space was too big for that little amount of power. Lesson learned buy more lights ,

Taking air in faster is going to pose you problems like wind burn. It's not about the speed in which you draw it thru. If you can raise the amount of air drawn thru with out more speed could help.

But I Thu j you should look at your lighting I bet that lights giving off tons of heat and it's just being trapped. Concentrate on removing that heat from the top of your grow room. The air intake will take care of it's self when the hot air is pushed out... also if you swapped to leds younwouldnt have to deal with so much heat being trapped..

 

[Crane]

So yeah, we had a power outage this morning. The closet went dark for a couple of hours before the end of the "18h day", then couple of hours later the lights had come back on (I wasn't home anymore), and then off course the timers started counting from where they were last, and again after couple of hours 6 hrs of dark.... there's not much to do but hope for the best,that the plants didn't freak out. I am happy that I invested in a small safety device (whatchamacalltehm?) that cuts the power from the wall when there's something funky happening with the current; some other appliances in the house had gone on and off several times by themselves, probably wouldn't have been too good for the lamp.

I've been stressing way too much over getting this grow going and the closet setup right, and now with this power failure I'm feeling really stressed out... I know, I should try not to. Maybe time for a little