[Building] First closet, 1.5m x 0.6m, 300W HPS, 4 buckets

[SpaceCat]

Hi there !

After a first grow that turned out to be a male grow, I wanted to make a nice bubbleponics setup. Required stuff finally arrived and I started to build my closet in a 1.50m by 0.6m area. Lighting is done with two 150W lamps that I had in a box.

Extract will be done using the top right tube which is connected to toilets but in don't need it there. Intract is achieved using the old garbage pipe, still in this closet.

I will use 4 differents seeds :
- LSD from barney's farm
- Muñeka Rusa (Russion Doll) from Kannabia
- Sweet kush from Original Sensible
- Ltd Edition cheese from Original Sensible

More stuff :
- Root riots starting cubes
- GHE nutrients
- Chinese PHmeter and ECmeter
- 7.5cm hydro baskets

Hopefully I will have my first roots by next week !

Take care.

[SpaceCat]

A few update here.

It was my first time germinating a seed and I think I should have diluted Formulex to soak it. Luckily it was a dummy seed and I will try with an other one.

Meanwhile, I made a few leak tests and bucket still have the same water level after a night. There is a hole for air pipe + pump wire and a hole for "water level/drain tube". Picture doesn't show final setup.

I also took a photo of used products (I also want to use for tomatoes and starting bonzais). I still need to buy some flora bloom.

[alltatup]

Looks good, Cat: may all your sprouts be females!!

[D.A.A.S.69]

Looks great, good luck with everything.

[SpaceCat]

Thank you guys ! I should get females as I bought feminized seeds. But you never know...

[SpaceCat]

A few news here, I pretty much failed the whole thing
I broke one seedling, my cat ate an other one, one seed didn't germinate and the last one folded because I forgot to remove it from the dark place (and it died).

I also bought a timed socket and I will go into the arduino stuff later. Right now, I have to find some new seeds and start again, with all these lessons (not fails) I learnt.

May someone tell me if it's better to put my seed in my starter cube using bubbleponic setup or shoud I germinate and then place the thing in my bucket ?

[DingusKhan]

Hi SpaceCat, good job not letting this get you down. You've done so much beautiful work on your closet, you will easily master the seedling thing.

I like to soak my seeds in a shot glass of water until they sink, and then they go in RapidRooters or similar until they sprout in a cloning dome on a heating pad. I set the rooter plug into the grow cup with hydroton balls when it's about an inch tall and has small roots showing from the bottom, and turn on the top feed.

[SpaceCat]

Thanks for sharing your habits, I felt like doing in a similar way but using a plastic bowl as a dome. Even if some seedlings grow quicker than others, it won't be a problem for light, isn't it ?

[DingusKhan]

Light isn't a problem, they don't need it, nor do they require darkness. Some will keep a close near by for the warmth, because temp is important. That the light is immediately available for the emerging seedling is also beneficial.

Humidity is also important, the little ones and their rootlet can dry out fast.

A bowl is fine. Some use shot glasses or clear plastic cups as does. I sometimes use my cloning dome, or if it's crowded in veg area, a rotisserie chicken tray from Costco on a seedling warming pad.

[alltatup]

And SpaceCat, you have to be like an intensive care nurse taking care of preemie triplets (or however many seeds you've popped! This is the one time in their lives when you really do have to check on them throughout the day for moisture leveles and appearance of roots. When they need moisture, they need it fast. When they need light, they need it fast. Etc. They have to be your babies, so to speak.

[SpaceCat]

DingusKhan this is pure chance, I didn't know anything about this family of spiders before meeting one during a forest hike. I agree it's so cool to meet a guy with some knowledge on this topic whereas spiders ususally a bad surprise for growers.

[DingusKhan]

alltatup is full of all kind of surprises, a true wealth of knowledge!

[alltatup]

Those three spiders were spirit guides. They wove safety and power all around my house.

I've always loved spiders; when I lived in Texas, I had a bunch of tarantulas that I raised from little babies. BTW, I'm a gal with spider knowledge. ;-}

[SpaceCat]

On satuday, I received my latest order made of 6 seeds, one of each strain :

• Homegrown Seeds - Jack Herer
• Barney's Farm - LSD
• Original Sensible - Black destroyer (freebie)
• Zambeza seeds - White Widow XL
• Original Sensible - CBD Lemon AID (freebie)
• Buddha Seeds - Purple Kush auto

I didn't notice that purple kush was an automatic strain so it will be my first time. I chose to put only 3 seeds instead of 4 in my closet in order to still have 3 seeds for my next grow.

Current grow plans are :

LSD => 75x60cm (~30x25")
CBD Lemon & Purple Kush => 37x60cm (~15x25")

Seeds got soaked on saturday evening and they drowned yesteday midday. Seeds were inserted inside rapid rooters with the right labelling (that I forgot last time) inside a hamster water bowl with hydroton balls to hold cubes. I then placed a plastic box over the bowl and put the whole thing in a shoe box which was placed near my internet modem to get some heat.

I also poured a bit of tempered water with a small amount of nitrozyme (2mL/L) that I use to germinate seeds (20mL/L). Luckily, we have clear water from moutains here, without any chlorine.

I also tried to fix light leaks in my closet but it will require more than acrylic joint... Right now I cannot upload images, I will show you later, happy growing !

[SpaceCat]

Some news here :

Once again, I failed my seedlings, I think it's due to non-phed water because my seeds germinated and they were in good conditions (heat, humitidy and dark). Luckily, I still have 3 available seeds ready to grow, this time will be the right one

I will try with phed water, seeds in rapid rooters and directly in DWC.

tommorow will be time for Jach Herer, Blac destroyer and White Widow XL. Even if I am sad to lost 3 seeds, I keep in mind that I am still in a learning period. Hands up, grow is coming !

[DingusKhan]

Ah crap. I'm sorry to hear that, but good job keeping your spirits up, and getting back in the game! You'll get this.

Remember, you can de-chlorinate water by just running some bubbles in a bucket for a couple days. You really don't even need the bubbles, but it's faster that way. And your seedlings will like the oxygen.

[SpaceCat]

I think my seeds drowned because I put too much water in the bowl. I am also lucky to live in a town where water doesn't contain any chlorine but I will surely prepare some water before putting it in my buckets.

[SpaceCat]

And, here I am again !

Last two tries were total fails but I didn't give up. This time I went with a functionnal closet and I took great care to use ph-ed water. Tap water is around 7.2 and I have usually lower it around 6.

I broke tap root of Jack Herer, it's sloooooowly recovering... I can see a shy leave but not sure if it will survive. My bad for trying to move it while it was a baby.

Everything is going slow, mostly because I need more oxygen in water and I only turn pumps ON every 30 minutes for 30 minutes. My air pump is way too weak for these buckets and lifetime of these cheap water pumps was really 500 hours...

Currently, I am waiting for a new water pump, bigger hose (8mm internal diameter) and better air pumps. I will switch to one water pump for 4 buckets and I will connect them to share their water level and I am also going to have one air pump for each pot. This will be way more convenient to clean buckets and to fill with weekly filling.

Anyway, I am really happy to see 4 nodes per plant

Keep growing.

[DingusKhan]

Yay! Now you're rolling!

[SpaceCat]

Some update here. Jack Herer seedling didn't survive, it rotten so I removed its bucket.

An other water pump also broke. As I have only one now, water flowed into two buckets but the connecting pipe was too small. So my left bucket was full and the right one was empty which caused the pump to get out or service.



I put some garden hose and it's all right now. It was also time to cut first leaves following Nebula's guide. Here are some pictures

[Tdh101jr]

Absolutely love the closet renovation man! I started a closet grow day after xmas but no major renovations like this! Also super curious and worried about trying hydro but was thinking about doing 1 of these 5gal bubbleponics till i feel comfortable with hydro. Anywho you have an amazing setup just get more comfortable with it and im sure youll be growing full and vigourous ladies in no time! Also got alot of info on germinating but my 2cents i use the damp paper towl till about 1/4" tap root pops then i place in my jiffy peet or rockwool and always seem to take off 1 week after moving from damp paper towel. But Gl and keep at it 👍✌.

[SpaceCat]

Hi bro, thanks for looking at my small setup. It's my first attempt to grow in a closet and it still needs improvments like aluminum on walls and better light system to be able to add a second floor.

It was not easy to get into hydro, mainly because I had no idea of what I was doing but after 2 fails I was happy to see it going well. I don't know which gallons system I should use here so I will stay to say these buckets are 10L each.
Maybe it will lead to 40 or 80cm plants, I have no idea but it's convenient because all nutrients are given for 10L volume.

Finally, I tried soaking and paper towel methods but I got best results with rapid rooter placed into bucket and always watered. This is also way more convenient because there is no risk of breaking tap root - provided you don't be a fool like I did -

I will keep updating, thanks for your support !

[SpaceCat]

Girls keep growing but I might have topped left one too soon... Its leaves are weird shapped and base of its trunk has strange white spots. I will condiser adding anti-pest for next filling. I also tried to fold its leaves but I made a crack on the right of the node. I hope it won't kill this part :/

Right one is really vigorous and I started its main-lining. 2 holes in the plastic net made things easy.

[SpaceCat]

Triple weekly update. A lot ot new things happened

First, Black Destroyer (BD) grew really well, it became a nice little bush. White Widow (WW) recovered grom its too-early-folding.
I cut biggest fan leaves and kity loved it !

[SpaceCat]

Then came bad news with what seems to be root rot. Not sure but I think it was because of this brown color. I washed my buckets and added more air (see next post). It's really hard to find hydroguard here but I might buy 1 gallon.