The Mechanic
Well-Known Member
Hello 420 community,
I am The Mechanic and I will be starting my first grow journal. I have been lurking around this site for years and finally decided to sign up and become a member of this awesome group of like minded individuals. Im sure things will go slowly at first for me but as I settle in and get more comfortable with this platform I plan to update as frequently as possible and I will be constantly working on my photo taking and journal writing skills.
Any criticism is welcome and i will try to answer any questions as soon as possible. I am usually fairly busy, my wife and I work opposite shift of each other so when I get off work I get the kids and then she goes to work, and on top of that she is currently expecting our third child so we definitely have a lot going on right now. If I don’t answer anyone for awhile please forgive me I’m probably busy.
Now on to my set up:
I will be growing in my closet within a 32”x32”x63” tall tent from eBay that cost me 55 bucks. Not the best quality tent but it fits perfect in my closet, I could put 2 of these side by side if I had another. For now I have 24”x24”x48” tall tent on the left side of the closet from my previous grow that will eventually be turned into a mother/veg room when I get more lighting.
Lighting:
For my bigger tent, 32”x32” or 7.111111sqft, I will be using (22) 12 watt led bulbs for a total of 262 watts of screw in leds (SILs) for flower. Just under 37 watts per sqft. Currently I have (16) 12 watt SILs for vegging. (27 watts per sqft). I’m mixing 2700k and 5000k bulbs, I have (9) 5000k and (7) 2700k. I’d use only 5000k bulbs for veg if I had that many, although, now that I think about it, a mixed spectrum is not a bad thing veg/flower, I just happen to veg my last grow with the (9) 5000k bulbs only. Anyway I think I have 8 more 2700k that will be added soon. I will be building another light fixture, ASAP, that will house the 22 SILs and I will try to detail the build in this journal. But since I’m kind of rushed and limited on time (and journaling skills...)
I may not get as detailed as I would like. And also it’s not a super impressive set up it just works and I can put the light sockets where I please and change the spectrum and wattage at will. Simple and Flexible. 
Grow Medium:
I’m using 5 gallon pots filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest (ffof), mixed with about 25% Fox Farm Light Warrior (fflw) and I added a gallon of hydroton to the soil (...instead of perlite because budget won’t allow and I’ve had the hydroton laying around for years...) and a small layer of hydroton at the bottom to take up space in my 5 gallon pots.
(“Small details about last grow”)
My last grow I used (4) 5 gallon buckets in a 2x2 tent with the same mixture of ffof and fflw but without the hydroton and it was way too much soil. I know I should probably use 2 or 3 gallon pots for one plant per sqft with soil.... (could get away with much less “root space” in hydro or passive hydro or soil feeding with synthetic Nutes probably)... but not watering as often was nice and I wasn’t sure how much “food” would be available in the ffof mixture, and since I’m not using synthetic nutrients I knew 5 gallons wouldn’t hurt.
Bigger pots = More roots= Bigger buds right...? Not always true, especially when you keep the soil too moist without dry cycles in veg (overwatering)... although I got good results I did not allow enough dry cycles to build a root system that would fully fill the 5 gallon pots... I still ended up with really good smoke and over 1gpw so the lack of dry cycles didn’t seem to affect me this time and probably saved the plants from getting too big for their tent actually. Here’s one pic of that grow. I know I’ve said a lot already.
I feel like I could type forever sometimes. Somebody stop me please. Haha.
What’s next:
Oh the current grow-
The strains are 3x white widow feminized and 3x AK-47 feminized seed. Currently my ladies are vegging but I will flip soon. From sprout they are about 6 weeks old. They were transplanted from Solo cups to 1 gallon pots on 6-7-19 and my 3 white widows were transplanted from their 1 gallon pots to 5 gallon pots on 6-28-19. Ive made sure to give the girls their wet/dry cycles this time and everything is looking good so far. I topped around the 5 node I believe and got 4 main tops on each plant. Recently I did some bending to the tops to flatten them out and signal the rest of the plant to “push” more tops up. I don’t think I can call it supercropping since I did not pinch and bend to the point of damaging the internal structure of the stems, more so I “massaged” the stems till they were soft enough to stay flat or folded at 90*. I guess it is still somewhat damaging to the stems but I’d like to call it LST because it really seems low stress and the plants don’t seem to notice a thing. They just push more tops and stay flatter.
So I’ve been too busy to transplant the AKs but I don’t think I will end up keeping all of them anyway cuz I know I will be limited on space. And WW is my favorite of the 2 strains anyway.
Environment:
Temperature stays between 68f and 84f. Usually 77 to 79 with lights on and the humidity stays between 35% and 55%, sometimes higher at lights out time. I’m venting the tent with a 435cfm 6” hurricane inline fan from my tent, that resides in my bedroom closet, and into my bedroom. I have the fan at about 70% power and it’s more than enough to vent my tent but my little problem is the bedroom that this setup is in, is upstairs and its the hottest room in the house. I aimed the exhaust vent hose toward my open bedroom door so I get fresh air in the room and hot air out. I know it recirculates in and out of the room so the temperature will rise slowly over the course of the day and I have to have my wife turn the house ac on and off a few times per day while I’m at work.
I plan to add a 8000btu window shaker A/C soon that I will make... “portable”... and use 6” hose to bring air in to the heat exchanger and another 6” hose to get it out of my bedroom window. I will keep my bedroom door closed when I run the ac. I may use a 6” inline fan to push air thru the heat exchanger and out of the window if I see that the a/c is not performing like it use to. (...Ive used this ac for about a year at another grow where I was venting (2) 600watt air cooled hoods thru the heat exchanger with (1) 6” fan and it ran flawlessly. But the constant heat from the lights may have shortened the life span of this baby.... we shall see) So the only reason I’m doing it this way is because my HOA doesn’t approve of window A/Cs but I can have the portable units hose assembly in my window so I’m making my own. I will post pictures when I get around to making it.
Nutrients:
So please let me quickly explain my logic then I’ll show a pic of what I have. When I was looking at what I should use to feed my ladies I thought about simplicity, affordability, a million other things, and since I was interested in organic grows I thought what kind of organic nutrients I could use. Also I thought going “organic” I may be able to get away with not ph’ing my water. Correct me if I’m wrong but Ffof and fflw are not considered organic. But I question what’s in it that deems it not organic..? I have not done enough research to truly define what would make a soil not organic other than adding synthetic nutrients to it. So anyway I thought I would take an organic approach with this grow and basically feed the soil rather than the plant via liquid organic nutrients. Here’s my line up, and, a random unrealistic scinerio, if i was only able to keep 2 of these to use it would be the liquid karma and the cal mag.
This was all I had to use through my last grow and all I will need this round... hopefully. But I may possibly add Epsom salts for a mag boost and I want to buy some food grade diatomaceous earth for the benefits of silica which I think should be used from little babies on... when appropriate and with proper dosages of course. Anyway most of the time i will be watering with just the cal mag and liquid karma, some of the seaweed plant food here and there and In heavy flowering i will use a good amount of the HPK and some of the fish fertilizer as well.
Is anyone bored yet... I’ve been working on this first journal post of mine for awhile trying to detail the basics of what I have going on here and I could keep going but I think now might be the time so show pictures.
So I will end the first Mechanics log entry with a thank you to anyone who took the time stop by and here are the pics. Don’t mind the messy set up just yet it will all come together soon.
I am The Mechanic and I will be starting my first grow journal. I have been lurking around this site for years and finally decided to sign up and become a member of this awesome group of like minded individuals. Im sure things will go slowly at first for me but as I settle in and get more comfortable with this platform I plan to update as frequently as possible and I will be constantly working on my photo taking and journal writing skills.
Any criticism is welcome and i will try to answer any questions as soon as possible. I am usually fairly busy, my wife and I work opposite shift of each other so when I get off work I get the kids and then she goes to work, and on top of that she is currently expecting our third child so we definitely have a lot going on right now. If I don’t answer anyone for awhile please forgive me I’m probably busy.
Now on to my set up:
I will be growing in my closet within a 32”x32”x63” tall tent from eBay that cost me 55 bucks. Not the best quality tent but it fits perfect in my closet, I could put 2 of these side by side if I had another. For now I have 24”x24”x48” tall tent on the left side of the closet from my previous grow that will eventually be turned into a mother/veg room when I get more lighting.
Lighting:
For my bigger tent, 32”x32” or 7.111111sqft, I will be using (22) 12 watt led bulbs for a total of 262 watts of screw in leds (SILs) for flower. Just under 37 watts per sqft. Currently I have (16) 12 watt SILs for vegging. (27 watts per sqft). I’m mixing 2700k and 5000k bulbs, I have (9) 5000k and (7) 2700k. I’d use only 5000k bulbs for veg if I had that many, although, now that I think about it, a mixed spectrum is not a bad thing veg/flower, I just happen to veg my last grow with the (9) 5000k bulbs only. Anyway I think I have 8 more 2700k that will be added soon. I will be building another light fixture, ASAP, that will house the 22 SILs and I will try to detail the build in this journal. But since I’m kind of rushed and limited on time (and journaling skills...)
I may not get as detailed as I would like. And also it’s not a super impressive set up it just works and I can put the light sockets where I please and change the spectrum and wattage at will. Simple and Flexible. Grow Medium:
I’m using 5 gallon pots filled with Fox Farm Ocean Forest (ffof), mixed with about 25% Fox Farm Light Warrior (fflw) and I added a gallon of hydroton to the soil (...instead of perlite because budget won’t allow and I’ve had the hydroton laying around for years...) and a small layer of hydroton at the bottom to take up space in my 5 gallon pots.
(“Small details about last grow”)
My last grow I used (4) 5 gallon buckets in a 2x2 tent with the same mixture of ffof and fflw but without the hydroton and it was way too much soil. I know I should probably use 2 or 3 gallon pots for one plant per sqft with soil.... (could get away with much less “root space” in hydro or passive hydro or soil feeding with synthetic Nutes probably)... but not watering as often was nice and I wasn’t sure how much “food” would be available in the ffof mixture, and since I’m not using synthetic nutrients I knew 5 gallons wouldn’t hurt.
Bigger pots = More roots= Bigger buds right...? Not always true, especially when you keep the soil too moist without dry cycles in veg (overwatering)... although I got good results I did not allow enough dry cycles to build a root system that would fully fill the 5 gallon pots... I still ended up with really good smoke and over 1gpw so the lack of dry cycles didn’t seem to affect me this time and probably saved the plants from getting too big for their tent actually. Here’s one pic of that grow. I know I’ve said a lot already.
I feel like I could type forever sometimes. Somebody stop me please. Haha.
What’s next:
Oh the current grow-
The strains are 3x white widow feminized and 3x AK-47 feminized seed. Currently my ladies are vegging but I will flip soon. From sprout they are about 6 weeks old. They were transplanted from Solo cups to 1 gallon pots on 6-7-19 and my 3 white widows were transplanted from their 1 gallon pots to 5 gallon pots on 6-28-19. Ive made sure to give the girls their wet/dry cycles this time and everything is looking good so far. I topped around the 5 node I believe and got 4 main tops on each plant. Recently I did some bending to the tops to flatten them out and signal the rest of the plant to “push” more tops up. I don’t think I can call it supercropping since I did not pinch and bend to the point of damaging the internal structure of the stems, more so I “massaged” the stems till they were soft enough to stay flat or folded at 90*. I guess it is still somewhat damaging to the stems but I’d like to call it LST because it really seems low stress and the plants don’t seem to notice a thing. They just push more tops and stay flatter.
So I’ve been too busy to transplant the AKs but I don’t think I will end up keeping all of them anyway cuz I know I will be limited on space. And WW is my favorite of the 2 strains anyway.
Environment:
Temperature stays between 68f and 84f. Usually 77 to 79 with lights on and the humidity stays between 35% and 55%, sometimes higher at lights out time. I’m venting the tent with a 435cfm 6” hurricane inline fan from my tent, that resides in my bedroom closet, and into my bedroom. I have the fan at about 70% power and it’s more than enough to vent my tent but my little problem is the bedroom that this setup is in, is upstairs and its the hottest room in the house. I aimed the exhaust vent hose toward my open bedroom door so I get fresh air in the room and hot air out. I know it recirculates in and out of the room so the temperature will rise slowly over the course of the day and I have to have my wife turn the house ac on and off a few times per day while I’m at work.
I plan to add a 8000btu window shaker A/C soon that I will make... “portable”... and use 6” hose to bring air in to the heat exchanger and another 6” hose to get it out of my bedroom window. I will keep my bedroom door closed when I run the ac. I may use a 6” inline fan to push air thru the heat exchanger and out of the window if I see that the a/c is not performing like it use to. (...Ive used this ac for about a year at another grow where I was venting (2) 600watt air cooled hoods thru the heat exchanger with (1) 6” fan and it ran flawlessly. But the constant heat from the lights may have shortened the life span of this baby.... we shall see) So the only reason I’m doing it this way is because my HOA doesn’t approve of window A/Cs but I can have the portable units hose assembly in my window so I’m making my own. I will post pictures when I get around to making it.
Nutrients:
So please let me quickly explain my logic then I’ll show a pic of what I have. When I was looking at what I should use to feed my ladies I thought about simplicity, affordability, a million other things, and since I was interested in organic grows I thought what kind of organic nutrients I could use. Also I thought going “organic” I may be able to get away with not ph’ing my water. Correct me if I’m wrong but Ffof and fflw are not considered organic. But I question what’s in it that deems it not organic..? I have not done enough research to truly define what would make a soil not organic other than adding synthetic nutrients to it. So anyway I thought I would take an organic approach with this grow and basically feed the soil rather than the plant via liquid organic nutrients. Here’s my line up, and, a random unrealistic scinerio, if i was only able to keep 2 of these to use it would be the liquid karma and the cal mag.
This was all I had to use through my last grow and all I will need this round... hopefully. But I may possibly add Epsom salts for a mag boost and I want to buy some food grade diatomaceous earth for the benefits of silica which I think should be used from little babies on... when appropriate and with proper dosages of course. Anyway most of the time i will be watering with just the cal mag and liquid karma, some of the seaweed plant food here and there and In heavy flowering i will use a good amount of the HPK and some of the fish fertilizer as well.
Is anyone bored yet... I’ve been working on this first journal post of mine for awhile trying to detail the basics of what I have going on here and I could keep going but I think now might be the time so show pictures.
So I will end the first Mechanics log entry with a thank you to anyone who took the time stop by and here are the pics. Don’t mind the messy set up just yet it will all come together soon.
