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**Aloner** · 07-05-2017, 01:38 PM

Got a front row seat!

**ellz** · 07-05-2017, 02:24 PM

07/05/2017 (continued)...

12:27PM: Went out to check on everything again and it looks like only one of each plant has started to sprout for sure. The other two are trying. I relocated the internal clip fans so that they would bring cool air down from the intake to the charcoal filter while passing over the plants themselves. I have attached a couple of photos showing how everything sits now...

01:45PM: With temps blazing outside at 107ºF and the humidity down to a measly 10%, I decided to go check everything and I was happy to see that the cabinet was still sitting in the mid 80s with only around 30% humidity. I decided to test out my temps with the light on and the swamp cooler blasting and I am still pretty nervous about the high temps but we shall see how that goes. I watched as the light added an extra 10ºF to the air, raising the inside temperature to around 93ºF after only a few minutes. However, I was able to slow the rate of increase by placing the cooler in a position further away and focusing the vent upwards towards my cabinet's intake. Rather than raising half a degree every few minutes, it had slowed by half with the change. I also think moving my fans was a good idea since the air flow is much better inside and there is nothing at all in the way of my grow space! I turned my light off and left everything else running and will check on it later. The 2 sprouting seeds haven't broke the surface just yet so I will hold off on the light until they do. Maybe by then the temps will go down outside but from what they say it's only going to get hotter the rest of the week! Maybe this will be a short lived heat wave and by the time I am ready to turn the lights on it will start cooling back off. Fingers crossed!

9:30PM: All four seeds that I planted have started to sprout! Two are really coming up and the other two are just a bit slower but the seeds are all open and the tap roots are all out! I turned my light on around 9:00PM and plan on giving them a few hours of light and check on them before bed. If they haven't stretched at all, then I will turn off the light for the night but if they pop up farther I am going to leave the light on from now until flowering, but may swap to a 18/6 hour cycle if the heat gets too bad during the day time. I can easily turn the light off during the hottest 6 hours of the day if need be. With the light on for about 30 minutes, the inside cabinet temperature had risen from 88ºF to 94ºF and seems to have leveled off at that. I also have the swamp cooler going because it's still hot outside (~86ºF). I will likely turn that off before bed so the humidity doesn't get too high in the garage.

**ellz** · 07-05-2017, 11:33 PM

07/05/2017 (continued)...
10:00PM: Did a temperature check on my cabinet and it had dropped down to 93ºF so I am okay with night time temps if I need to leave the light on. All of the seeds have popped and are on their way to growing up big! I have posted pictures of their 2-day progress below, but I am very impressed at how fast they opened and started to root! 2 days in the cabinet with the water and air running, no light and now they look like this! Awesome! Probably going to turn off the light at 11:00PM and check on the sprouts in the morning. If they have come up more I will turn on the light for good, but I want to let them come up some more before I really start pushing them.

**ellz** · 07-06-2017, 01:17 PM

07/06/2017:
11:00AM: Turned on the light after seeing that all of the seedlings were now above the surface or just at the surface of the Rapid Rooter. The White Poison ones are doing the best right now. The Rug Burn is still trying to figure out which way is up! LOL. Either way, they are ready for the light and they have it now. I also modified my ducting to eliminate the sagging from the extra duct weight. I just used standard duct tape and squeezed the duct together at the end and wrapped the tape around and voila! It definitely helped bring the temps down a bit since the air can flow much more freely. I also ordered an inline duct booster fan because I believe that will help bring the temp down a lot more. That won't be here until Saturday so I am going to see how the system does without it during the next couple of days. Outside temps are supposed to be over 100ºF each day through next week.

**berrypilot** · 07-06-2017, 06:34 PM

🌱 I am so excited to see this! You have almost the exact same hydro setup as me! Well yours is cooler because it's in a cabinet but I had it in a grow tent. I'm not growing hydro now, but I did it with a 600W and two 10 gallon tubs, though only one plant per tub for me

It seems like you're doing a really great job with the temperature so far consider how hot it is outside. However, if you are having trouble keeping the temperature down in the grow space, it can help to reduce the amount of ducting the air has to go through. The less ducting, and the straighter the ducting, the more effective the exhaust system. Long ducting with a lot of turns and curves reduces the efficiency. This page has some ideas on how to keep the ducting relatively short while also having a carbon filter if you decide to change it up later. I set mine up just like the diagram and it works really well and kept smells inside! I also struggle with high temperatures, and I honestly felt my plants grew far better when I gave them 18/6 and put the break in the hottest part of the day. I feel like plants are also more resistant to stress if they get at least a short dark period.

I am so super subscribed to your grow! 🌱

**ellz** · 07-07-2017, 12:49 PM

07/07/2017:
Notes: During the night (around 1:30AM) I decided to turn off the water pumps and let the seedlings sit in moist Rapid Rooters overnight. I also had set my light timer to turn off between 11:00AM and 5:00PM (during the heat of the day).

11:00AM: Went to check on the cabinet to make sure the light timer did in fact turn the light off and was happy to see it did. I also plugged my water pumps back in. I have one sprout on the White Poison side, the other was droopy which is why I turned off the water pump. It appears to be a bit better after doing that and hopefully will grow okay. As for the Rug Burn OG, both were doing fairly decent, not fully sprouted but getting there. Probably see those come up by tomorrow if I had to guess. With the light off, the cabinet is staying in the mid 80ºF range so I am happy with that but I still want to get the inline duct fan installed for when the light is on. I will also most likely try to shorten the duct hose because the tape is not holding as well as I had hoped. Plus, when the hose is collapsed down like that, the inner diameter shrinks, thus reducing airflow. I will update the post with some pictures tomorrow when everything is done. I have added a pic of the White Poison sprout as well...ain't it cute?! :P

05:00PM: Checked to make sure the light came back on and it did. I also unplugged both of the water pumps to let the net pots dry out a bit. I ordered a timer for the water pumps that will be here Monday so until then, I am unplugging and plugging in every few hours until I figure out the best watering cycle. I also cut the duct hose down a bit so that there was no sag in the lines. The extra fan will be here tomorrow so that will get installed as well. I may have to cut the duct down a bit more when I add that. I found that using a razor and a pair of wire cutters, along with taping off the line you want to cut makes cutting the duct simple. I did want to leave some slack just for the light to be able to go up and down without stretching to hose too much so I think I have found a good balance. I have attached photos of that, along with the cabinet overall (I added another fan down below). I also have added photos of all the seedlings as they sit now. Will update tomorrow when all the other modifications have been installed.

**berrypilot** · 07-07-2017, 11:32 PM

🌱 Just to make sure, when you're turning off the pumps you mean you're turning off the water pump/top feed, right? You should never turn off the air pump/bubbler as this adds oxygen to the water which is really important to prevent drooping and root rot. Air pumps should be on 24 hours a day, every day.

I've found that if the Rapid Rooters actually look wet or shiny, they are too wet for seedlings. Seedlings seem to do the best when the Rapid Rooter is moist to the touch but not soaking. I do the same thing as you - turn off the water pump for a few hours if it seems like things are getting too wet. In fact, in the past I've put the water pump on its own separate timer, and get it to turn on for 10 minutes every hour or something like that. That way the top feed turns on every hour and keeps the Rapid Rooter moist, but isn't constantly making things super wet. Once the roots hit the water I turn it on 24/7 again.

If it's still there tomorrow, make sure to remove the shell that's stuck on that one seedling. Sometimes they have trouble shaking it off, but if you gently grab it between your fingers or with tweezers you should be able to easily knock it off (if it hasn't fallen off on its own already). The seedling will start growing faster as soon as its leaves get exposed to the light!

So far you're kicking butts and taking names! Great start! 🌱

**oldjarhead100** · 07-08-2017, 05:44 AM

wow eliz sounds like you did yoour homework I grow in coco but love to read about hydro so Im in. I may not have alot to say good luck to you

**D.A.A.S.69** · 07-08-2017, 06:00 AM

Morning Ellz I'm kinda like OJH I don't know much about hydro ,but I still enjoy reading bout it. You are doing a good job ,really like the locking cabinet to keep kids out. Keep up the good work.

**ellz** · 07-08-2017, 01:11 PM

07/08/2017:

11:00AM: Went out to check on the light and ensure it had switched off and it did. I left the water pumps off overnight so that the net pots would dry out and they really dried out quick! By the time I checked them about 8 hours later, they weren't even damp any longer. That is what I wanted to happen so that the roots would start searching for some more water. I also left the swamp cooler on medium last night and let it run all night while the light was on. The temperature in the cabinet this morning was down to 77.6ºF and the humidity had increased to a whopping 45%! Inside the garage, the humidity was level at 50% and the temperature was about the same as the cabinet so I feel confident that the air flow is good inside the grow space. I have the water pumps turned back on now but plan on turning them off and on throughout the day and tomorrow. The timer will be here Monday so that will solve that for good. As for the inline fan, that is arriving today. I also ordered two little Honeywell Vortex fans to put down by the plants. They are mostly plastic where as the one in there now is all metal. As you know, metal and humidity don't like each other and tend to result in rust. As for my seedlings, which is what this is all about, they are doing great! 3 of them have sprouted their initial leave sets. The other one had a bit of an issue yesterday. When trying to pull off the remaining seed shell, the whole seedling came out of the Rapid Rooter. Well, the tap root was incredibly long and would not go back in without curling back up on itself. Basically it was in but the top of the plant was so heavy that it fell over. I accidentally broke the tap root off half way down while trying to gently insert it back in with a small piece of 1/4" tubing. I basically stuck the broken tap root back into the Rapid Rooter and hoped for the best. It looks like it has taken hold since that because I nudged the shell and it came off but the root felt as if it was grabbing so that is good news. I imagine it will grow a bit slower to start with but should do just fine. All-in-all, things are looking great. I planted these seeds on Monday and already they are this far along! Plus, I have learned a lot of what not to do as the week has gone on. Hopefully I have documented everything in a manner that will help both me and the readers of this journal avoid those issues next time.

Below, I have included a couple of pics of how they are doing today.

**D.A.A.S.69** · 07-08-2017, 02:22 PM

Hey Ellz I can tell you are doing a great job just by reading all the details you wrote. I'm sure the one that broke will do fine at least i hope so. I grow in soil and really try to let my soil dry as much as possible before starting to wilt before watering again, but signs of wilting is not that bad either if you water them soon. I also believe in letting them hunt for the water also I believe it promotes faster growth, and stronger roots but that's just me others might think differently. Keep up the good work.

**ellz** · 07-08-2017, 06:38 PM

07/08/2017: (continued...)

05:00PM: Got the inline fan in and installed just before the light came back on. I turned the main exhaust fan down just a bit via the inline fan controller. I put it on medium versus high. That way it's not over powering the little inline guy. I turned my water pumps on for about 10 minutes and let them water the net pots fairly decently then unplugged them. I will most likely plug them in for 10 minutes around 9:00PM and then leave them off for the night after letting them run about 15 minutes. I can't wait until my timer gets here so I can set it and forget it! Other than that, all the sprouts are up. The one I broke the tap root on is a little shorter than the others, and not all the way opened on its leaves but the other 3 are doing great!

09:00PM: I took a piece of duct left over from when I cut down the ducting and wedged it in my exhaust vent and ran the other end down to where it exits the window in my garage. It's not air tight by any means but it works well at pulling the hot hair from in the cabinet outside of the garage altogether, and it allows me to use the blackout curtains without worrying about restricting exhaust airflow. I put my hand near where the duct meets the window screen and wow! That worked great! I have included 2 pictures of that setup at the bottom of this post as well.

Now a question for you guys and gals reading this....I was thinking about installing my carbon filter up above the light. The only issue with that is the fact that my intake fans would blow almost right on it unless I build some kind of deflector that pushes the air down. I was just wondering what others thought about having the carbon filter at the bottom like I do versus up top where the heat builds up? Currently, the idea is that the air all gets pulled down from up top and sucks out the bottom, creating a cross breeze in the process across the growing area. The only big problem is that heat rises and the heat is being pulled down across the plants. In the winter time I will likely need to do this as it can get really cold here and my only heat source would be the light itself. During the summer, however, well....that has been documented already with my journal....it gets hot! I know that the tutorials suggest the opposite of what I have set up. Originally I was going to put the fans down low but I was worried about splashes and moisture from foliar feedings, plus they would have been blowing straight into the plastic totes hindering the air flow. So I decided to install them up high so that no water could hit them. Also, any light bleed from the fan hole itself will be up in the ducting area, and less likely to make it down to the plants (not so much of a factor now but it will be during the 12/12 light cycles). Either way, any input would be welcome on this. I have also included some pictures of the inline fan and the net pots as they sit now.

**ellz** · 07-09-2017, 02:47 PM

07/08/2017:

11:00AM: Went out to plug in the water pumps and ran them for 15 minutes before unplugging. All of the plants are looking good now. The temps are doing much better with the extra inline fan and with running the swamp cooler for long periods of time, I have increased the humidity to nearly 50% in the cabinet! I am very pleased with that considering the average humidity outside is around 10-20% at best! I imagine when there is more foliage, the humidity will go up a lot more in the cabinet without the need of the swamp cooler, but we shall see.

Side Note: I know I mention the swamp cooler a lot, and there are some out there who may not know what that means (I was one of those people for a long time until I moved to Colorado). A swamp cooler, or an evaporative cooler as it's professionally called, is nothing more than a fan that draws air in across moist pads (often paper or straw) and uses the evaporative properties of the cool water to cool the air. So basically there is a water tank (some have a continuous feed hookup like mine that you can connect a garden hose to and they will refill as the level gets low in the tank), a water pump with drip system, a media for the water to soak into (paper, straw, hay) and a fan. You could literally build one yourself if you are handy like that! The benefits of a swamp cooler are that they use a lot less energy than an A/C unit, they create humidity instead of removing it, and they are relatively inexpensive to buy and maintain than an A/C. However, they only work in places that have low humidity, less than 60% relative humidity is recommended for proper operation. An A/C, on the other hand, removes moisture from the air and introduces coolant to cool the air going back into the room. This process requires a lot more energy (4x what a swamp cooler needs on average) and removes humidity from an area. Also, they are much more pricey than swamp coolers and more costly to repair if they break! So basically, my point is that if you need to cool your grow space, and you live in a place with low humidity, a swamp cooler is definitely the way to go over A/C! If you live in a humid climate, A/C is your only option besides good old fans! A swamp cooler will not help you at all. Hope this helps those who may have been confused.

**ellz** · 07-09-2017, 09:53 PM

07/08/2017: (continued...)

08:00PM: Wanted to share some pictures of the sprouts as they sit now. Everything is looking good. I was a little nervous earlier when I drained my swamp cooler because while doing it saw that my cabinet had gotten up to 100ºF inside without the swamp cooler running! I got it all drained out and refilled an have it running so the temp is back down in the 90s again. Whew! Also wanted to share some pictures of the swamp cooler so in case anyone wanted to try to make there own they could use this as an example.