Grow Room for Volksgarden

L

leonardo

New Member
Hi everyone,

I'm trying to set up a great grow room and get my mothers growing strong before I purchase that Volksgarden rotary hydroponic system. This is my first grow so I could use some expert advice.

Here's a video to show what I've got so far. Please chime in if you've got some constructive advice. Thanks!

Link to video: YouTube - Volksgarden Grow Room Setup
 
How far away is the T5 light fixture? Seems like it could be a bit closer. Light intensity gets weaker exponentially as distance increases.
Your room has plenty of air for your plants, I wouldn't worry about the circulation.
If the plant does have mildew (i'm not an expert so I can't comment if it is or isn't) couldn't you just cut off the leaf instead of trashing the plant?
Just wondering, why did you decide to use coco instead of soil?
What is the NPK rating on the nutes your using right now?
Awesome video BTW
 
I don't know if cutting that leaf will help or not, maybe someone else will. The leaves on the 4 Limes look a little sad and droopy too. The Grand Daddy Purples are priority one so I've got to keep those healthy.

If by NPK rating you mean the 3 numbers on the bottles, they are:
Master A: 4-0-3
Master B: 1-5-6
Verde: 16-1-2
I'm using about 3-4mil/gal each right now.
 
Thanks Sociq420.

Also, does anyone know anything about dual hose portable air conditioners? I'm wondering if the air that comes through the intake hose just goes out the outtake hose without mixing much with the air already in there???
 
You can use baking soda and distilled water for the powdery mildew. Use one tablespoon per quart/liter. Shouldn't hurt the plants at all, and you don't have to rinse it off.

What ph are you using to water your plants?

EDIT: I have the same ac unit. It looks like you've set it up really nicely. The exhaust for it is perfect. The unit is pretty efficient at really getting the hot air out.
 
leonardo said:
Thanks Sociq420.

Also, does anyone know anything about dual hose portable air conditioners? I'm wondering if the air that comes through the intake hose just goes out the outtake hose without mixing much with the air already in there???
Click to expand...

I would just air condition the bedroom and allow the tents intake to draw the cooler air in. Even better would be get air-cooled reflectors and put them on a closed circuit to the outdoors. This way your A/C does not have to combat as much heat that would normally get exhausted off the HID's. getting the A/C out of the tent will free up room in there for your tons of clones you will need to fill the volksgarden. Great video, great setup. Is the volksgarden going in the tent?
 
well leo,

first let me say welcome! always nice to see more rotational growers in the mix. i think we are really doing something here to show that this style grow is very doable and highly efficient.

your video is great, it really shows us what you have so far so that we can give you better advice. wtg. your first grow?!?!? very nice, you have alot of the terms down pat, and you have most of the important equipment. . . you must have done your homework! very nice setup, you have a lot of good stuff to start. it should help you be successful!

a few notes about the video.

1)air. there are a few things you can do:
a)exchange air in the tent continuously - this will keep the air supply fresh with co2, and help keep the temps and RH down. the only problem with this is that you are using an AC unit and throwing electricity down the drain when you exhaust the nice cool air and bring in the warmer air from outside.
b)you can exchange the air on a timer - say on for 1/2 hour, then off for an hour or two. this will help you keep the bene's from the ac, and cut down on how much it will have to run. if you were running CO2, you would only want to exchange the air in the tent once in a while.
c) if you were injecting or generating CO2, you wouldn't have to exchange air with the outside at all. this is what i do. I don't run a carbon filter (i have one just don't need it) because i don't exchange air with the outside so it doesn't smell outsde.

the only reason you need to exchange air is to make sure there is enough CO2 in the air (naturally it's about 300-400ppm) if you inject, then you can bring it up to about 1500ppm, which is better for the plant, and you can eliminate the use of one 6" power guzzling fan. even without co2, id put your exhast fan on a timer and run it a couple of times a day. that should be enough to keep the co2 up.

2) about your plants. they are looking pretty good so far. DFW gave you pretty good all around advice. i wouldn't trash the plants, that seems too extreme. you can def remove the leaf that shows that, but more importantly you need to find the cause. and if need be, fight it with the appropriate actions from a mildew thread in the how to grow section. I have never had a mildew problem before so i'm not experienced with that.

one of the things most new growers struggle with is being overly proactive. trying to make it too perfect. especially when it comes to watering. DONT OVER WATER! the best way to check is to just pick the pots up and feel how heavy they are. when they are dry, they should be much lighter. you can wait until they start to droop a bit from being too dry. it is very important to let them get pretty dry between waterings. at this young age you should be feeding them pretty lightly. and make sure every other watering is just plain water. this will flush the nutes and leach the salt buildup out of your dirt. 3 times a week seems too often to me for the amount of dirt you have compared to the size of the plants. i don't think they are that thirst yet. I am only watering my mom about once a week right now in a 3 gal bag, and its bigger than your girls.

3) dfw - more good advice. my friend has that same t-5 setup. you should have it about 4-5 inches above your plants so that they can really soak up the light.

a couple more words of advice. I have really noticed a difference when I use beneficial enzymes like hygrozyme, and beneficial bacteria like those in AN's piranha and tarantula. they will keep your roots healthy and plants growing at a good rate. they will also fight any bad bacteria that tries to get a foothold. I think you would really benefit from adding these to you regimen.

now for some questions:
where are you getting your water from? tap? RO? distilled?
how much nutes are you feeding them? full strength? half strength?
I saw a PH and TDS meters, what levels are you feeding with PH and TDS?

it looks like you are off to a great start! I'll be here for the duration, i'm sure you'll do great. we can get to cloning and such when it gets to be time.

glad to see you here, and am looking forward to seeing the volks arrive. with 6 plants, you could be ready to fill her in a month easy.
 
I actually tried to use that ac unit to cool a room with a grow going and it did do some good, but I think the way you have it set up here will work out better, because the space it has to cool is smaller. Just MO... ;-)
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone!

WheelO... wow, you really opened up some options. I didn't realize I could put the exhaust on a timer or that I could just not run it if I get a CO2 tank and controller. For now I think I'll just turn the fans way down just to keep a little fresh air circulating until I gain the confidence to take it to the next level.

For water I am just filtering my tap water (it's about 50PPM, PH 6.8), I've thought about buying a tank and filling it at the grocery store. I just can't afford to buy an RO machine yet. I've been watering with the PH at about 5.7-5.9 and the PPM was about 550 when I watered them yesterday. I've fed them nutes every time I've watered so far so I think I'll water heavily on wednesday with no nutes and then wait a few days to water again with nutes. I have a soil reader that puts the Coco medium at the boarder of red-green even a few minutes after watering well, so I just don't know what to do? Unlike soil, I know that Coco has no nutrients at all so I've got to supply them, so what if they aren't getting enough nutes because Coco drains too fast?

MsFox, so I should just give them a good misting of bakingsoda and water? Ok I'll try that on the 4 Limes tomorrow when I water them, and maybe the GDP's later if it works out for them ok. Has anyone else tried this?

Thanks again!
 
50 ppm is nice and low. they should like that. i think your ph is a bit low. hydro likes it nice and low but dirt needs to be more neutral, i usually keep around 6.3-6.5. ppm sounds good. i would suggest only feeding every other, or perhaps two on - one off, if they like to be heavy feeding. it all depends on the strain. its better to start off light and increase, than to start out too heavy and have to go the other way. and really - make sure they lose most of the moisture that is in the pot before watering again. this will allow the roots to breath and get fresh DO when you water. if it stays saturated, they will get root rot.

never did the baking soda thing, but have read about it many times. makes it alkaline and uninhabitable by mold. should do the trick. good one foxy.

oh yeah, and mcbuds suggestion about air cooled hoods is great. will save you lots of cooling electricity. I do this and it works great. the volks comes ready to take advantage of this right when you get it. I use two duct assist fans that i got from home depot for 25 and 30 bucks. they prob pull 20-30 watts and they are more than powerful enough to keep my room 10*F cooler easy. i have an 8" vortex but it is overkill, i dont use it. but then again I don't get cali temps this far north.
 
I'm only going to flower these six plants for a practice run before I upgrade to the volksgarden, so I'm going to buy the cheapest reflector I can find. And I'm not too sure what you guys mean by air cooled hoods, I thought the volksgarden came with a tube that you cool with a 4"inline fan???

I'll clip that leaf with the powdery mold and spray all the Limes with the baking soda tomorrow and water without nutes. If I see anything on the GDP's I'll do the same, but I want to take it easy on them until I get the Coco and watering dialed in.

If anyone has experience with Coco and might have insights as to how it drains and how often to water, please jump in.
 
While baking soda can be effective try to stay away from it as it is sodium bicarbonate and the sodium buildup will become toxic to the plant. Stay with a potassium bicarbonate based product like greencure.

leonardo said:
I'm only going to flower these six plants for a practice run before I upgrade to the volksgarden, so I'm going to buy the cheapest reflector I can find. And I'm not too sure what you guys mean by air cooled hoods, I thought the volksgarden came with a tube that you cool with a 4"inline fan???

I'll clip that leaf with the powdery mold and spray all the Limes with the baking soda tomorrow and water without nutes. If I see anything on the GDP's I'll do the same, but I want to take it easy on them until I get the Coco and watering dialed in.

If anyone has experience with Coco and might have insights as to how it drains and how often to water, please jump in.
Click to expand...
 
yeah, the cool tube is 6" not 4, and is the same idea as an air cooled reflector. it just has an intake and an out hookup so you can vent it directly outside of the tent, the same way you are doing the AC. if you circulate the outside air past the bulb you take a lot of the heat with it, and stop it before it ever gets into your tent. your AC will kick on less and save you electricity and money.

although its 6", even a 4" vortex would be over kill for me. my temps are easy to control.
 
Ok, before I spray them, I will swing into the hydroshop and hope someone there can help with the powdery mildew, maybe they sell greencure or something like it.

I've been busy on the google trying to find watering tips for the B'cuzz Coco medium I'm using and it sounds like it's hard to over water with it because it drains well. So I've decided to try watering them every morning until water fills the saucer and see what happens. I'm going to try to find a plastic syringe somewhere tomorrow to use to drain the saucers in a neat and clean way, I hope anyway... I'm also going to try to keep the PH at 5.9-6.0 and test the water in the saucer after I water. What do you think?
 
according to humbolt master 2 part feeding schedule for run to waste, in coco, you should maintain a PH between 5.5 and 7.2. its supposedly a wider ph range due to multiple chelating agents. so that should work fine.
 
Try a wet/dry vac very quick and easy..

leonardo said:
Ok, before I spray them, I will swing into the hydroshop and hope someone there can help with the powdery mildew, maybe they sell greencure or something like it.

I've been busy on the google trying to find watering tips for the B'cuzz Coco medium I'm using and it sounds like it's hard to over water with it because it drains well. So I've decided to try watering them every morning until water fills the saucer and see what happens. I'm going to try to find a plastic syringe somewhere tomorrow to use to drain the saucers in a neat and clean way, I hope anyway... I'm also going to try to keep the PH at 5.9-6.0 and test the water in the saucer after I water. What do you think?
Click to expand...
 
looks good for your first grow..if its goona be your first..i would surly not start with a rotational grow... do like a 3 by 6 flood with 6 inch rockwool blocks and then drips..or even ebb and flow .. or better yet soil.. very easy forgiving.... rockwool cna hold tremendous amounts of water and when you think that its not tooo wet..it is and your plants are drowning..you have to be very picky about rockwool...its almost like a love/hate relationship... with anything growing you never want to start big right off the bat...you want ot slowly work you way up and get all the basics done..trust me i have wasted a lot of years and 1000's$ trying to grow big right off the back and a month or 2 into it and it ended it complete fuckup;..ex GIgrow 240 site.. for the first time i did hydro.. but with anything it will take a few runs to dial it it..but as wheel said yea bring that light way done..and if your turing those plants to mums.. i would start to do some LST...and no topping unless you have time..take the top of the plants and tie them down to edge and space those out..and if you have that 600 yet shine that...they will surly grow faster then that...
 
Nice looking set up Leonardo, and welcome. For powdery mildew I have used whole milk diluted 10 to 1 with water, and it worked better then anything I tried off the shelf at the hydro store.
:popcorn:

Cheers,
Maxx
 
Omenman, you sound superstitious with a name like that! Thanks for jumping in, I appreciate your concern and advice, but I figure my learning curve is so big that I might as well just learn to do what I intend to do, rather than learn and buy a bunch of stuff I'll never use or want.

Maxximus... 1 part whole milk and 10 parts water? I've never heard of that, are you sure its safe? And what about 2% organic milk? Has anyone else tried this before? Thanks for the advice, looking forward to hearing what you have to say!
 

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