First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

S

socaljuls

New Member
Greetings 420Magazine forum members!!!

This will be the journal of my first indoor grow. I have seen numerous grows from start to finish over many years, have been working in the medical marijuana industry in southern California for the last 7+ years and finally decided to try my hand at growing.

I will be starting to catch up my journal on here by entering my pictures & notes I have on hand since the start of this grow. As I begin to make posts to this forum, I am on day 36 of flower. The clones were purchased through a service I found on Weedmaps.com with great reviews. Will link to them in the future...

Date Clones Purchased: 11-28-16
Total Veg Time: 36 Days
Veg Lighting: T5 and then later (2) 600 Watt MH Conversion Bulbs
Total Flower Time: TBD
Flower Lighting: (2) 600 Watt Eye Hortilux Bulbs

Clones: Gorilla Glue #4 (4 Plants) + Green Crack (5 Plants)
Medium: Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil
Nutrients: Fox Farms Trio (Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom)
Preventatives: SNS 209 (fed twice through whole grow)
Pots: Clones in rockwool cubes, going in 1 Gallon Plastic, transplanting to 5 Gallon Fabric Pots

Enviroment:
Sealed Room Enviroment in a Vivosun 4' x 8' x 6.5' Grow Tent, inside a garage
Avg Day Temp 82F (79F-84F range)
Avg Night Temp 73F (70F-73F range)
Avg Watering Temp 68F-70F (using a submerisble water heater)
Humidity 45% (45%-55% range)

Equipment:
4 Foot 8 Bulb T5, for veg (in separate 4' x 4' tent)
2 Magnum XXXL 6" Reflector Hoods (Air Cooled)
2 600 Watt Eye Hortilux Bulbs
2 600 Watt Sun System Harvest Pro Ballasts
6" Hurricane Inline Fan 6" (For Lights only) w/ 6" "Dust Shroom"
30 Pint Ideal Air Dehumidifier
8000 BTU Kenwood Portable A/C Unit
Photocell day/night temp controller
Atlas 2 Co2 Controller
20 lb. Co2 Tank & Regulator
16" Hurricane Oscillating Fan
Zmodo Wireless HD Camera (For wirelessly monitoring temps)


Pics to follow...
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Clones on the way to their new home :)
purchased_clones.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

The setup for the room with my Flower Tent (Vivosun 4' x 8') and Veg tent (Apollo Horticulture 4' x 4')

tents1.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

The AC unit takes up much floor space and blows directly on plants so I decided to keep it outside of the room with it ducted into the room, hooked up to a day/night photocell thermostat inside of the tent. It does create tons of positive pressure and makes the tent want to explode, however, it's winter and between the cold ambient garage temperature + air cooled lights, it idles well and doesn't spike in temperature. The AC unit is exhausted outside of the garage via a garage vent port (same port as the light exhaust)

ac_unit2.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Nice setup! Subbed!

And welcome to :420:
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

The lights are "cooled" by using a 6" hurricane centrifugal inline fan, pulling ambient cooler garage air (not too cold) through the reflector hoods. The fan is connected to a speed controller to increase or decrease the air being pushed through the hoods depending on the ambient temperature of the garage. Colder days its set to very low, normal days medium, and warmer days high or 100% mode.

I have a "dust shroom" attached to hopefully prevent any dust or anything else from entering the reflector/glass/bulb etc...

light_exhaust.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

@smokiebear

Thank you! I've been viewing these type of forums since I was a youngster and my new hobbie has led me to my first journal on here many years later! Thank you for the sub and cheers :thumb: :thanks:
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Area for ballasts, nutrients and other supplies away from tent, on a cool surface

ballasts_and_nutrients.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Note: Also, in the back of the previous couple pictures is a 8" fan and carbon filter for use if odor is out of control. And currently at day 36 of flower, there are times its a very mellow odor in the garage. However, smell isn't a huge concern; my neighbor is aware of the grow & medicates :)
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

The backside of the tent, sitting away from the wall to allow rear entry access

The drain for my dehumidifier fills every 3-4 days so looking to move this in the future to empty into my watering reservoir

Also, behind the drain bucket is the 2 exhaust ducts with a towel to prevent any light leak from entering the room (will build something better later)

dehumidifer_resevoir_and_exhaust_ports.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

For Watering:

Hand watering thus far. Using a boogie blue plus filter attached to a RV house from our main backyard spigot. This removes chlorine & chloramine from the water and was suggested by a 30+ year grower to me so I purchased that and decided to use tap water instead of RO water.

For a reservoir, using a 32 Gallon trash can combined with a submersible water heater & air stone is what I am using for about a weeks worth of waterings... I fill it about half way, and fully empty and clean 1 time per week.

water_reservoir.jpg
 
I wanted to be able to live monitor via mobile or web from anywhere anytime. So I purchased a pair of Zmodo Wireless 720p HD Cameras and have it pointed at my thermometer to remotely view my temperature/humidity at any time.

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re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Clone time:

One of my first lessons learned. I purchased 15 total clones originally, AND already had about 10 seedlings going... Expert growers helped me where my common sense wasn't -- that I have too many plants in this small space. So I discarded a couple of the not so great looking clones & kept most of the seedlings. I was not accounting for how fast everything would grow and start taking up space. I was just very eager to see something growing as my equipment had been setup and sitting there for a few weeks and there was no growth in sight! Now its a jungle!

I started to understand that feeling of wanting to have the most plants for the most yields in my space was going to get me into trouble, so I adjusted as the grow evolved.

clones_w_names.jpg



roots128.jpg



new_clone_and_a_transplant.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

After all clones were transplanted, the tent began to take shape. Pots in saucers, a smaller oscillating fan, the almighty dehumidifier & T5 light began to give my girls a beautiful environment.

Note: the bushier plants were B-witched from Ocean Grown Genetics & some still in red solo cups were Obi Wan OG Kush; I eventually took a couple clones from each plant and got rid of the original.

too_many_plants.jpg


veg217.jpg


veg_tent_start.jpg
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Time to consolidate...

I decided to break in the 4x8 flower tent for veg as I had too many plants. After all, I was anxious to see everything turn on and work without any issues... I then fired up the lights it has been smooth sailing! The plants then moved into their new home a few feet away :)

I setup the flower tent as if it were a sealed room, initially with the AC unit inside. I also started my veg in the flower tent using (2) 600 watt Metal Halide Conversion bulbs that worked with my current HPS ballasts.

Advice given to me by experienced growers suggested that I remove the glass from the hoods as the dust buildup affects various aspects as well as "cooling" an HID bulb is not ideal. Also, to let the AC act as a dehumidifier & let it run to combat the lights heat output and that I was in the clear with a 8000 BTU cooling 2 600 watt bulbs.

I used this setup for the rest of the plants Veg growth which lasted until Jan 3rd 2017.
So from clone, 11-28-16 until 1-3-17, that brought my total amount of Veg days to 36

The only downside to this setup was my AC was constantly running due to excessive heat coming from the bulbs & dehumidifier. My electric bill went from 230 to about 450, which was expected, but still trying to keep it as low as possible (who isn't?).
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Veg Day 16


A couple shots from the flower tent (being used for the rest of Veg and throughout flower)

day_16_veg_in_flower_tent_LEFT.jpg


- The dehumidifier was on top of a (clean) upside down trash can to allow for easier access to empty the reservoir. Also, the carbon filter and fan never have been used in this tent. It was just there in case I decided to use as an exhaust and pull fresh air into the room via the flaps at the bottom of the tent. In the future I would be running this as a sealed room so i removed the fan and filter completely.

day_16_veg_in_flower_tent_RIGHT.jpg


- Plants coming along nicely and growing fast under the MH Conversion dual 600 watt bulbs. Light is very important and these bulbs performed well for only ~$20 per bulb from Vivosun, purchased through Amazon.
 
re: First Indoor Grow - GG#4 & Green Crack 4x8 Grow Tent 1200 Watts

Veg Day 25

I only used nutrients a few times in the whole veg cycle. According to the soil feeding chart from fox farms website, I only used 1/4 strength, maybe even a tad less just to air on the side of caution.. Since using tap water & soil, didn't want to run into any nutrient burns or issues of that nature.

day_25_veg.jpg

- The plants were definitely on cruise control for a majority of Veg... Not trying to go above and beyond here.. No LST + Super crop + Scrog... I just topped the plants once, or twice and lollipopped them vigorously before flowering and first week or two of flower if I noticed any dangling lower branches.

I forgot to take notes on all of the details. Next journal though... it's almost flower time, ohhhh yeaaaaaa :)

day_25_veg_bulldog.jpg

- Bentley aka Bubba, the Bulldog on a rare appearance in the garden (he hates coming in the garage with the noise and large tents, among other things lol

day_25_veg_equipment.jpg


day_25_veg_close_up.JPG
 
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