First Grow-Aero-Stealth Box

[Skybound]

You can make a mix of sugar and yeast! great Co2 producer. Look up for "Poor man's Co2".

I'm definitely gonna do that when she gets a little bigger and funds are more available. I was reading through that thread last night and found a ton of useful info in it, but for know I went with what I had available which was baking soda and vinegar. I filled about 1/4 of a 16 oz. cup with vinegar then added almost a teaspoon of baking soda. It fizzed over the top into a saucer then I poured the gas from above the liquid out of the cup into the co2 chamber as depicted. I saw a video last night on YouTube where the poster made the solution and when the fizzing stopped, he poured the gas onto a lit candle and the flame immediately went out, so I knew I did not have to visually see the gas to know it fell into the chamber. I will leave her in there with no fan for about an hour then remove the chamber and turn the fan back on.

 

[Skybound]

Status update and question

Being as though we're in an unknown soil composition, I felt it best to give her an hour session a day (this is 2nd day BTW) in the CO2 chamber (pictured in previous post), hopefully to aid in nutrient extraction and water uptake. I tried to check the soil to see how much water was still in it and could barely penetrate the surface with my finger. It felt like tightly compacted wet sand and was only able to burrow my finger in maybe 1/4" to a 1/2". Not to mention that she is only under a single ((warm??)) CFL. I keep it about 2-3" from the top with decent to good air flow. Temps I predict to be roughly 80F, but dont know due to lack of thermometer.

Below I took some pics as the leaves look to be deficient of something, but I am not versed in what appearance suggests what deficiency. Not that i'd be able to begin resolving anything until tomorrow, I'd still like an idea of what is in that soil by what the plant is trying to tell me is NOT in it. Anybody that can spot any symptoms, please share b/c I haven't the faintest clue yet.

P.S.
Cotyledons are about 70% consumed if that aids in diagnosis.

 

[Sinsemillas]

Since your girl is still a small baby, a little fan moving the air around should give her plenty Co2 to eat! dont worry too much about it now honestly! Its better to make a plan for Co2 once they are flowering.
Cotyleidons are part of the plant's food, so once she starts starving or lacking a certain nutrient, she will eat them. Nothing to worry about bro!
Shes looking great, and getting bigger! Keep up the good work.

 

[KingJohnC]

i do not see any deficiencies with your plant. with your C02 project plants do not normally get such a high dose of Co2 so i am unsure what effect if with have on your plant. if this is an experiment to see if it helps the plant then continue, otherwise i would not bother it may hurt the plant more then help.

 

[Skybound]

In all my years of experience of imagining growing a cannabis plant, I've never heard of CO2 being a bad thing. at this point in life, everything is an experiment because it's all so new to me. I just wanted to compensate for lack of nutrient that I know this soil does not have, plus lack of good 6500k light that I'm hard pressed at the moment to find. I'm ordering my 400w hood tomorrow so maybe when that comes I'll put her on the beach to bask. I noticed the leaves are starting to get a yellowish hue about them. I won't post a pic of that unless it worsens. Is there a mild tea I can mix to her water (distilled) that can get more of what is needed for early growth? I am fortunate enough to have a hydro store about 10 minute drive from here, plus Lowe's and Home Depot are near by as well.

 

[Sinsemillas]

I make my own humus compost tea! I have a box where I keep about 500 earthworms, and feed them with all my compost. You can always buy humus or compost and make a tea!
What I do atm, is fill a bucket with 50 liters of water, and get a pantyhose and fill it with a mix of humus / compost, add fish oil, about 1/4 or 1/5 for clones and seedlings, get the air pump with an air stone, and let it bubble in a dark place for about 24 to 48 hours.
In flowering, I use guano instead of humus.
If you dont have an air pump, make sure you stir your tea to get some air into it, to feed the benefitial stuff!!
Irie

 

[Skybound]

I think I will go to the store tomorrow and get a small bag of potting soil and vermiculite to make a good base, I already have some perlite. I will also look for humus and fish oil, I think they have both. Can you suggest a decent potting soil? i have literature that says 30-30-40 of perlite - vermiculite - potting soil.

 

[Sinsemillas]

From all the reviews I've heard, recomendations, etc! In North America this are in my opinion the best brands

Fafard Professional Potting Mix
Kellogg Potting Soil
Supersoil Potting Soil
Sunshine All Purpose Planting Mix
Scotts Potting Soil
Miracle-Gro Potting Mix
Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix
Fox Farm Ocean Forest
Fox Farm Happy Frog

I dont like to use soils that tend to stretch the medium with too much vermiculite/perlite. Good peatmoss compost does the job! In Europe, the best brands are

CANNA Proffesional
Plagron
CompoSana
Klassman
BioBizz

Try not to get too strong soils if you are planning on adding nutes yourself, otherwise get a well round NPK soil!. And remember, Organic is the best choice ALWAYS if possible.

 

[Skybound]

This was (in my mind) supposed to be a side project, but somewhere along the way i began to care more about the outcome of this plant. so now I am taking my already strained budget and taking away from building a pretty good hydro setup and am now finding myself purchasing materials for a soil grow. especially when buying at the local hydro shop, materials are almost twice the price of what I can find online, but I buy there sometimes to support the local merchant.

Being as how I am pretty close to having my hydro setup to a point where it can function as a whole, would it be bad to continue focusing my purchasing on that medium and transplant from soil to hydro in as little as a week? the hydro store has a plethora of General Hydroponics nutes, and a few other brands, plus all the hundreds of $s I spent so far were to make a great affordable hydro setup. Any thoughts on that?

I know many forum members strongly suggest using an organic medium, but it seems when going that route, one needs to acquire many devices and materials to support that environment. i don't want to side track myself too much as taking over the role of primary care giver to this seedling has already taken a great deal of time, attention and some $. Though in a more perfect world I would have more funds to equally distribute between the 2 mediums, but reality is that I have little to work with each week and since I already picked a medium that I wanted to focus my attention on and I spent accordingly.

 

[Sinsemillas]

I would say in your situation stick with soil! get a good whole round organic soil, any you like!, 1 Veg nute (can be the fish oil /tea), and 1 flower nute (Any bloom/flowering one). and keep it real simple, after all its a 50/50 it could be a male, so I would invest as little as possible!

But, if you wish to transplant from soil to hydro, its quite a shock for the plant, I dont see how can she go into hydro from where she is now tbh.

I love soil really, I know hydro makes it all faster etc etc, but nothing compares to the smoke quality of soil, + it requires much less attention!

In few words, I would keep it small, dont give it too much time / attention, see how it goes little by little. Like some people say "Do not bite off more that you can chew".
all the best,

 

[KingJohnC]

I use General Hydroponics Flora series nutrients, the Flora series is a 3 part chemical nutrient that can easily be adjusted for all stages of growth. the Flora series is for hydroponic, soil and soiless growing. many members on 420Magazine also use Blue Planet Nutrients with good success, Corey is a member here and is quick to answer questions.

 

[Skybound]

didn't know hydro nutes could be fed to plants in soil. Thanks for that tidbit John

 

[Skybound]

UPDATE:

Did a little shopping today. Ordered my 400w HID kit, TDS pen, pH adjustment kit.
Went to the hydro store and got a bag of FF Ocean Forest, some brewers yeast for CO2 later down the road, a soil pH/moisture tester and we got to discussing a few different topics and as I was walking out, I said "I didn't know you can feed Flora nutes to a soil grow". His reply was, "sure you can!" Him knowing that I am building an Aero setup, I told him I'd be back in a week or so for those nutes and he gave me a Flora series sample for free. So now I got great soil that I mixed 60/40 with Perlite, and a start up nute kit (8oz. each x 3) that I can use when I get my aero off the ground, and have something that can be used to feed the seedling if need be. I am stoked to say the least. Had you (KingJohnC) not just mentioned that last night, I'd be waiting a couple more weeks to have the funds to get 3 gallons, so once again, Big Thnx John!!

I built a small wooden box to fit into a discrete place that I can continue this grow, plus I want to transplant once more (2nd time this week) before I post more pics. For now, the little fella is looking OK I guess. the first true leaves (singles) look in rough shape, but the 2nd and 3rd nodes look just on the lesser side of healthy and the 4th node is just popping out (maybe 1/8" long). I just hope it survives the transplant. Gonna do some reaserch before I do that though. Hey, thanks again John and others!

 

[KingJohnC]

sorry i missed one of your previous questions, for my cloner i use 2 inch net pots with the mesh cut off to secure the neoprene pucks into and for my Deep Water Culture bins i use 3.75 in. net pots.

 

[Skybound]

Ok, I transplanted the seedling roughly 48 hours ago into a 60% FoxFarm Ocean Forest/40% Perlite mix. I just checked the moisture content of the soil and it is roughly 30% and the top 2 inches feel pretty dry. When I transplanted from the mystery soil, it did not go so well. The high content of clay or whatever made carefully breaking apart the root ball very difficult and I do believe I likely damaged the root system by tearing off a lot of the roots b/c when all was said and done and I had all the dirt removed, in my hand was a seedling that looked more like a clone. the root area had a single main growth with very small secondary growth coming out of it. I believe there was a good amount more roots before these clumsy hands got a hold of it. I can clearly see that the plant is trying to recover, but the visible stress I've caused is evident.

Question, should I water the mix again? I understand that I should resist the urge to keep the soil wet to allow for lateral root development, but the soil is well aerated and drains quickly, plus there is little surface area in the root system to acquire needed nutrients and water. I could (if advised to) mix a foliar spray with the General Hydroponics Flora samples I got, but I do not know how to do that yet.

Any suggestions?

 

[KingJohnC]

the FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil you have will have some nutrients in it already, i would let your plant recover from transplanting before treating your plant with more nutrient or water and let the soil dry some more. lift the pot and feel how heavy it is and let that guide you for waterings. it is important that in soil or soiless the soil the plant is in is allowed to dry, not enough to wilt the plant but enough that the nutrient solution is used by the plant. i would not add any more nutrients to your soil yet or foliar feed.

 

[Sinsemillas]

Heya, Congratz on the shopping, great choice for the soil!

 

[Skybound]

Thanx for the input fellers. About an hour after this post I added a little less an a cup of distilled water only, allowing some to hit the foliage to cool it off a bit till an answer to my question came in. I figured better to have and not want. As of this morning, she appears to be on the road to recovery. Her first nodes still look like hell, but all nodes above appear to be a healthy shade of green and consistent throughout. I'd also like to mention that her pot is a 6" pot and the way I have the box (a cardboard box) setup, it's a bit of a pain in the junk to get the pot in and out, so I see why many growers start with smaller pots instead of dropping a seed into a 5 gal. or whatever.

 

[Skybound]

Another update;

Here is a smaller box to be used in a closet. It is for 1 plant, 2 at most. Inside dimensions are 12.75"D x 23"W x 25"H and will begin with 2 20 watt 6500k CFLs, a covered passive air inlet on bottom (to mask light) and a 110CFM PC fan to pull the heat through a 4" hole up top. From the fan, air must travel across 2 baffles to conceal light and add noise dampening as the PC fan is pretty loud for it's size. I think I might cut a piece of this AC filter for the inlets, but that is dependent upon the fan's ability to move the air in and out around so many turns. If it has the extra capacity I will add the prefilter. I also have another 110 CFM PC fan if needed and 20 LBs of activated carbon on hand for when the stinky happens. I finished the build and put some white paint on the inside, tomorrow when it is dried I will hang it and post more pics of my baby in her new home. Here's the pics;

 

[Skybound]

In spite of transplanting into FF Ocean Forest, I suspect that there is either a deficiency of some kind, or the double transplant has stressed the seedling substantially. If this be the case (I think) there is little I can do, but if there be a deficiency I'd like to research what and how to fix it. Here's some pics with and w/o flash;

Can someone post the leaf deficiency chart? I tried looking throughout the forums for it, but can't find any organized charts to reference off of. TYIA

P.S. The soil is bone dry (fluffy) for the top 2 inches and moist from there down. I also do like the node spacing. Don't know if that is genetic, or just because it's a seedling.