Wonderland Grow

AliceGG said:
So you grow without any intake and extraction? Isn't it necessary to refresh the air to get CO2 in for photosynthesis? It's what I thought so far.
Click to expand...

you are correct in your thoughts. I have a small clip fan at the top of my tent blowing hot air(it rises) out of the top, and the vents at the bottom are cracked slightly with another fan pointing upwards.... remember tents aren’t sealed, they do breathe a little through the material and the zippers...

what I was trying to say was that you might not need as much extraction as you think for a small tent... I like the fan I suggested above because it comes with heat/temp sensors which turns it on/off depending what you have it set to.
 
Fans do a few things well and why I run several all the time.

First thing, bugs hate wind. Blow the critters to the curb with fans.

Plants do a thing called Transpiration. This is how the plant moves water from the root tips to the shoot tips along with nutrients. When the wind is blowing this does 2 things for the plant. Helps keep the leaves cool from the heat of sun/lights (keeping stomata open) and also moves moisture away from the leaves. What this does is promotes water uptake (along with nutrients) and this process helps grow bigger stronger plants and lowers the chance of mold forming.
 
So many useful tips and bits of info, thaks everyone! :cool:

This tent I'm ordering has an exhaust hole on the top, instead of it being on the side, which got me thinking again. I know that, ideally, the pipes leading the hot air out shouldn't curve, they should be a straight line to let the air flow. Can I install my exhaust fan (and then, of course, my carbon filter too) vertically? In setup videos I can see that most people install them horizontally. I don't know if these fans are designed to work horizontally, or it's just that they are easier to hang that way. Moreover, how much of a back pressure does one 90° curve cause? Probably I shouldn't even worry too much about it.

Old Salt said:
I use shot glasses with water from my RO, and a bit of CALiMAGic until they sink, and then send them to a paper towel between two saucers. When the tap root is 1-2cm, or 3/8 - 3/4" long, they go into a 10cm or 4" nursery pot filled with my coco/perlite medium. All of this is on a seedling mat until I top them.
Click to expand...

1-2 cm sounds quite a big taproot compared to what I've got from my seeds. Both of them were like 0,1, maybe 0,2 cm long, so they were barely out of the shell when I put them in the rooting cubes.
This is what they looked like:
1741907
With the first one, I considered it too small to plant her, but after waiting one more day, the root didn't grow a tiny bit in the paper towel, so I just put her in the cube. She was already dead at that point, probably.
 
I run my extrator fan (vent fan) horizontal - they have legs or feet so its meant to be either feet on the ground or attached to the ceiling.

The filter you can have it standing on the top sitting on the floor or hanging from the ceiling on it's side as the intake filter. A lot of folks put the filter first inside the tent and hang it from the ceiling (removes the warmest air and filters @ same time).

I run my intake pipe into the top of the room --> extrator fan that is outside the room --> filter also outside the room. So my filter is last in the chain and sits on the ground top side down on the floor in another room.

Many ways to set up. I don't like hitting my head on a big ass stainless steel filter while I'm in the flower room working. Also don't wanna worry about it falling on a plant either.
 
So there was quite a bit of new info for me again in your post, bobrown. I thought the filter has to be connected to the fan, I only saw it this way so far. Well, common sense says that it can, of course, filter the air if it's just sitting at the bottom, but I never really imagined it not being connected to the fan. Anyways, if this tent will be sturdy enough, I'm going to hang it from the top, connect it directly to the fan, and then a shorter pipe to the fan, leading the air out. If it's not that sturdy (in which case, I'll be a bit disappointed :confused: ), then I guess I will have to make it sturdier :D

Now, the bad news for today. :eek:
I got home about an hour ago, went to examine the little one. I forgot to mention it yesterday, but she was already stretching quite high. I put a lot of boxes on a table and put the cup on top of it. It was done to get her quite close to the room's "main" light and I also put the small desk lamp onto the boxes, she was getting light from two directions, from quite close distances. The stronger lamp was about 30cm above her, and the desk lamp was even closer. I did it yesterday, then when I got home today, all I could see that her leaves haven't got bigger, not even by a milimeter, and the plant kept stretching. At this moment I lifted the cube for the first time to see if there's any sign of her roots reaching the surface of the cube. God, I wish I made it earlier. Her tiny little root was twisting all around the bottom of the cup like a worm. I put her back and immediately started mixing my lightmix soil with some perlit. She got transplanted to her new (and final) 15l pot in 5 minutes, but she was already drooping a lot. I guess I stressed her by lifting the cube and putting it back to the cup, onto a surface where the root had nowhere to grow. All in all, she is now in the large fabric pot, I gave her fresh water and put her back under the lamps. I'm sure she will survive, but I might stunted her quite much with this action.
I'll upload a few pics tonight. I know this journal would be much more interesting if you could see pictures about what I'm talking about, my only problem is that my cellphone has a shitty camera, so I make the pictures with a Nikon DSLR. I have to take the SD card out, and copy the pictures from it to my computer. This, of course doesn't take more than 3 minutes, but I'm a bit lazy sometimes :D

I'll check back later! :green_heart:
 
Still with the shell on.
1742530



After dropping her cap.
1742531


1742532



The setup :D
1742538



The root.
1742534



Already in her new home.
1742535



She looks like this now, it was taken 10 minutes ago.
1742536



At what stage do you think I should put the led into use?
I feel like now it would only be waste of electricity, since she is still so small. My best guess is, when she recovers and will start to push her leaves out, I'll put her under the led. That should be a few days, hopefully my tent will arrive by that time.

Jack Herer haven't cracked the shell yet, I'm waiting patiently. :meditate:

edit: Notice the flower pattern on the side of the plate on pic2, it's how hard I tried to create an ideal environment for them :D:D:D
 
Pjs420 said:
Looking good! I’m not overly familiar with autos but I’d raise the led light as high as you can and get the plant under there from the start. Autos are on a timer from start to finish, so you want as much light as possible for best growth.
Click to expand...
Alright , I'll find a way today to hang my light somewhere.

Jack Herer pushed her taproot out, but it's still very short, I'm waiting for another 10-12 hours before I put her in the cube.
 
I started my first sprout with a incandescent grow bulb in a desk lamp like that it certainly worked but OMG did the following sprouts like the LED better! Should be a recommended height for seedlings for it?
 
I see you figured out the pic posting thing! lol.

Very nice pics you have there.

Ok now since you have little ones above ground ( woohooo)

What's your camera setup??

Oh I have a suite case and a lamp just like you. That's awesome.

You are on your way!!!

Oh on the filter, It's all connected with 4" dryer vent tubing.
I mentioned how I do it cause I do everything backwards cause left handed.
filter is good where-ever as long as there is air flowing thru it.
 
Pbass said:
I started my first sprout with a incandescent grow bulb in a desk lamp like that it certainly worked but OMG did the following sprouts like the LED better! Should be a recommended height for seedlings for it?
Click to expand...

The led is not in use yet, I'm waiting for the tent to arrive. I can't hang it so high, and putting a 190w led 30-40 cm above a little seedling might stress her out.

bobrown14 said:
I see you figured out the pic posting thing! lol.

Very nice pics you have there.

Ok now since you have little ones above ground ( woohooo)

What's your camera setup??

Oh I have a suite case and a lamp just like you. That's awesome.

You are on your way!!!

Oh on the filter, It's all connected with 4" dryer vent tubing.
I mentioned how I do it cause I do everything backwards cause left handed.
filter is good where-ever as long as there is air flowing thru it.
Click to expand...

I have a few years old Nikon D3300, it's just an entry-level DSLR, but I love it ;)

Thanks for the support, this weekend was tiring.
I'll upload some pics with more details. Jack Herer lengthened her root, so I put her into the cube yesterday evening, but this time, I put the cube right into the final container.
The AK seedling is pretty much stunted, her first two true leaves got bigger in the last two days, but I wouldn't call it explosive growth. What I noticed is that her leaves are pointing straight up, I don't think much light can hit the surface of the leaves in this orientation. Should I just leave her be or is this a thing I may do something against? I've read in various places that seedlings tend to do this "praying", and it's all ok, but I'd be glad to receive approval.
 
So there's something buzzing in my head again. This tent has two holes, one at the bottom of the left side, and the other one for exhausting is on the "roof". I don't have plans to use any intake, it will be passive. But then, do I need something to cover the passive hole? Light leaks are not a problem for two reasons. The led will run on a 18/6 cycle, but these are autos, so I guess (?) they wouldn't care much about getting a bit of light in darktime, but apart from it, I don't think that any light will leak into the tent, because the tent wil be placed in a dark room.
So what's my question then? Well, I'm worried about odor leaking out of that open hole. In theory, if I run the exhaust fan 24/0, air should only travel from outside to inside through this hole, but that's only theory. Does it work like that in practice too? If not, what's your best solution for it? I can see that there are these things called non-return valves, but those are for non-continous airflow, if I'm right, and either way they are quite pricey too.
Any idea?
 
Pbass said:
Duct Tape :passitleft::yahoo:
Click to expand...
If I ducttape it, then there's no intake at all :D

Now wait, because I've just freaked out. :oops:
There's a tiny brown worm in my soil. I have seen it crawling on the surface when I watered it 5 minutes ago. It was like half a milimeter in diameter, and about 6-8mm long.
Does this mean that there really are little animals in commercially sold, air-sealed soils? Or did it get there in the last 2 weeks after I opened the plastic bag? Is it ok for my plant to have worms (and who knows what else :eek: ) in her soil?
 
Well won't you be blowing the smell right out the exhaust hole or are you drawing air in from outside and pumping it out inside? Are you concerned with the smell outside? OMG you shouldn't have passed me that joint. I'm baffled.

I think the commercial stuff can come with bug and worm eggs in it, I've read it here before. You know those damn egg laying things can plop out their spawn and it can sit for ages before they hachum. I think the consensus is worms are good, you should wait for some smart guys to verify before you go worm hunting.
 
Pbass said:
Well won't you be blowing the smell right out the exhaust hole or are you drawing air in from outside and pumping it out inside? Are you concerned with the smell outside? OMG you shouldn't have passed me that joint. I'm baffled.

I think the commercial stuff can come with bug and worm eggs in it, I've read it here before. You know those damn egg laying things can plop out their spawn and it can sit for ages before they hachum. I think the consensus is worms are good, you should wait for some smart guys to verify before you go worm hunting.
Click to expand...

I will install the carbon filter and suck the air through it with an exhasut fan, then through a ducting to outside the tent. The question is: can I leave the other hole (which would work as a passive intake) open without anything covering it?

Smell is a huge concern, because here I cannot grow cannabis legally and my landlady comes for the rental fee once every month. I rent this flat from her and her husband, they are a very nice couple. I'm not really worried about them accidentaly discovering my little garden, but only if I keep it discreet. The noise of the fans are not a big issue, because I can just turn everything off for 10 minutes before she arrives, but the odor is something I have to be more careful with.

So my initial plan is to leave that hole open and use the fan non-stop, not on a timer. I can cover the hole and turn the fan off when I need to. The thing I'm not sure about is, will odor "leak out" from the open hole if the fan is running and sucking out air from the top of the tent?

Now about the worm :oops:
lisztkukac-egyenkent.jpg


It looked like this one, but it was very very small. This one in the picture is used by fisherman to catch fish, I believe.
I really don't want them to multiply their numbers down there and invade the room. I'd be f***ed up then :D
 
Yes @AliceGG , I agree that's a yucky looking worm. Fly or moth larvae i would say. Not the earth or red worm type that I envisioned at all. But, I am totally not a wormologist or even a worm enthusiast. Can we get some helminthology guys up in here please?
 
Reave said:
You don't need that intake hole open. The carbon filter will suck air through the zippers and such. A so called negative pressure.
Click to expand...
If you want a low air flow, then you are right. If you need a higher air flow to get rid of heat and/or humidity , they may need to be opened.

What I suggest is trying it with the intakes open. Turn off the fan, and leave the flat for half an hour. On your return, if you can't smell the grow, you'll be fine.
 
Thanks for the tips :green_heart:
I've just ordered a plastic non-return valve (I don't really know what it's called in English, it's like a flipflap door, that opens easily if there's pressure). I will see, how the tent behaves if the hole is left open, and then if it's any better with this plastic thing.

Now some pictures :cool:

This is how she looks like now. I'm not sure if this orientation of the leaves are ok, but apart from that, she looks ok to me.
1745056


Look at that, like an eagle with its wings wide open :D
1745057



From another angle.
1745058



Just found this in my soil, no idea about what it might be.
1745059


And finally, the little bastard. I watered the side of the pot, then waited for long minutes. I almost gave up when I noticed it, trying to escape from water. I don't know what kind of worm is this, but I had to kill it ( :confused: ), I don't really want uninvited guests. I can only hope that I won't find more of them in the future.
1745060
 
Back
Top Bottom