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New Grow Planning

C

changeofpace2014

New member
Hello G.W.E community

Planning to grow again but it has been "Some Time" last time was inside with a simple 400w (2) MH / WMH using a wick system in about a 4 x 4 or 4 x 5 area.

Fast forward now things have changed or at least the options have changed and now the plan is 450 actual watt Vero 18 (dive them at 1.5 amp) 5 3000k and 5 3500k - one is a spare! they will be on a 2 x 3 aluminum frame. Seems like there might be a need to fill in some extra lights between the spacing. Maybe 23w cfl or 32w led w/ screw in socke both are 6000k range. I could of just ordered more cobs but the drivers are such an extra $. Perhaps I will give a go at some of the great driver schematics out there and order some fetts from digikey in the future build a useful driver circuit, but for now it on a to do list.

The grow area needs to be 3 x 4 x 6.5 ft but tent option do not come in this size (drop ceiling issue!) Might have to fab a tent with 2 x3 studs and panda, or flat white paint on mdf hardboard with some moving blankets but the tent seems to be such a better option....

Hypothetically the plan would be for 9 plants in 5 gallon smart pots, that is 3 per row but that might have to be adaptive to restrictions.

I want to grow multiple strains, three are sativa and one is a cotton candy kush. The three sativas are Strawberry cough, Old Skool ( Colombian Gold and Hawaiian Sativa maybe a form of Mawi) the other is Tye Stick. I know the these three strains are 12 - 14 weeks and tall. The target height is 4 ft maybe a bit more but it depends on how close the fixture can be. I realize I will have to prop the C.C.K up on something to adjust the height.

The grow style will be manifold and supper cropping in C.C medium, maybe some form of drip like Campesino set up. ( she does cad pretty good and her pdfs duplex right)

I think there is enough info here to entertain the questions.

The germination consensuses seems to be 80% out of 100 will germinate and the 50% of these will be either male or female with regular seeds ( that is what I have). All seeds look healthy except the Tye Stick they look much smaller and darker with only one seed appearing normal.

My thoughts are to germinate 5# of each does this sound right or overzealous. If 80% pop then that would be 16 and half would of them might be male.

Feed back on the germination numbers wold be most helpful and any suggestions on to where you think the plants should be placed in the tent, front , back ect.

Thanks for any feed back guys.
 
I get 100% germination rates when I buy seeds from a quality breeder. I store them in vacuum sealed bags with a few rice grains (to remove excess moisture) inside the refrigerator and they last years.
As in m-f ratios... there are ways to make more female populations even with regular seeds.see link.
And plants should be centered in the tent and focused directly under your light.

http://www.1stmarijuanagrowerspage.c...bis-plant.html
 
Last edited:
Toker1 said:
I get 100% germination rates when I buy seeds from a quality breeder. I store them in vacuum sealed bags with a few rice grains (to remove excess moisture) inside the refrigerator and they last years.
As in m-f ratios... there are ways to make more female populations even with regular seeds.see link.
And plants should be centered in the tent and focused directly under your light.

http://www.1stmarijuanagrowerspage.c...bis-plant.html
Click to expand...

thanks toker1 for the feedback. Perhaps 3# seeds from each strain would be a better target, the only exception would be the Thai Stick since these seeds appear to be much smaller and darker. 15# or 20# germinated seeds would be way to many. I am not sure how many I can start safely with the hope of pre sexing them to pull any males or stragglers, however I do want some new seeds and pondering which strain to keep to pollinate with.

The plan for the outside cobs is to slightly angle them towards the wall to increase the coverage a couple inches. My thoughts were to have the fixture centered in the 2 x 4 area and this approach would leave 6"in on each side. However I do not have everything together yet but only have the Vero 18 with the drivers coming from China (??) when ever they show up.. I still have to order the Alpine heat sinks and build the frame.

When the light is fabricated and wired up safely then I can check the light pattern to see if I can get away with a slight angle on the outside cobs with out giving up to much precious over head space. I will have 6 1/2 ft to work with, maybe 6' ft 7 in if I end up building the tent.

I did read the sex is determined by the environment and is set with in the first 3 weeks. Nebula's germination articles seem to indicate "not to use high humidity" for the seeds as this approach is only for clones but the higher humidity seems to help with the female ratio. The plan is to use a well vented dome with a seed heating pad. The Bonus here is my lovely wife said she would sew the needed smart bags for me seeds. I was thinking about 4" in dia and 5" in tall to accommodate the rapid rooter plugs in coco / pearl light mix.
 
If you end up with kore than 1 malr but cant decide you can send it off for genetic testing (usually a leaf sent in or a paryial piece) this can let you know its genetic make up so you can figure your phenos in a breeding program
 
SinsemillaScientist said:
If you end up with kore than 1 malr but cant decide you can send it off for genetic testing (usually a leaf sent in or a paryial piece) this can let you know its genetic make up so you can figure your phenos in a breeding program
Click to expand...

Hey SinsemillaScientist - I will have to keep that in mind. Perhaps when the market returns and we can sell I will be able to have a proper set up for some form of homegrown strain but for now I will have to be content with some beans. Hopefully only on select buds (hopefully). I will not have the room to separate them and will have to keep a very diligent eye on them before going to flower schedule. Really, Really hoping I can sort them out in the pre-sex stage.

For now the grow set up is moving at a snails pace and have one more online order to make for the heatsinks, then I will be able to shop locally for the remaining supplies.

Target is to grow over the winter. I suspect after this my wife will want her own tent (ha, ha) because she has a green thumb and would probably enjoy growing and might even enjoy smoking if I find the right giggle weed.
 
China came through....ya - 10# 1.5A led drivers arrived, one is a spare - They are a really small about the size of a single Mounds Candy bar - MY lovely wife has been sewing smart pots for me / us - Have some little short ones for the Rapid Rooter plugs (3 1/2 x 4 ) and working on the (11 x 10) there about, these should be around 4.5 gallon.
 
Smokesteve said:
I'm subbing this because you have some strains that are mega interesting
Click to expand...

Hey Smokesteve - If you want info on the exact strains check out MSNL sent them cash and had beans with in a few weeks across the pond. The wife grab the stealth item and I never had a chance! ha ha

I have found some discrepancy with the old skool definition and the strawberry cough when comparing msnl definition to strain review data base or at least with the size and time windows.

I need one good set of balls for this, but am undecided of which male to keep, ya I know it will be a new and interesting set of beans to grow as it will be all mix up (damn little stud)..

All the seeds are regular and my grow space is shrinking (3.3 x 3.3 x 6.5) not sure how to mix it up, I was thinking the starter smart pots (3.5 x 4) to (2 g)smart pot that way I can hopefully weed out the best pick and select one male to keep before they go in (4g) smart pot. Ya can only fit 9 but I am thinking that will be really crowded. Kind of risky to just grow one of each. The target height is 4ft maybe a bit more depends on the light and how the heat and coverage work out, have to weight for heat sinks now....

Cheers
 
Moving along at a snails pace the Alpine heat sinks arrived, but I cancelled the Aluminum order because it ended up being a 45 day delivery window! I will buy it local...And we decided to build the grow tent with 2x3, white tarp for reflection and moving blankets tucked nice and neat over the frame. They should work out ok as they are heavy and black to keep the light and noise in.

O found a 4"in plug below the 6"in duct adapter going in to the chimney. Looks like who ever installed my wife's furnace (before my time) had to cut a second hole in to the chimney for the furnace and h.w.h. I plan to use the 4" hole which is below the active 6" hole for the exhaust. Convenient Yea. The furnace chimney runs along the side of the F.P chimney, actually there are two F.P chimneys one downstairs is real wood and one upstairs is gas, but on the roof there are three separate stacks, one for gas, one for natural wood and one for furnace / h.w.h.
 
update - Things I have learned with the new grow setup. First Buy A Tent and save your self the trouble and cost, unless you just really want to get invested and connected to your project... This is my conclusion in hind sight, as I still have to frame the intake and exhaust outlets before skinning this beast. Also make sure of your COB lay out if you build your light before hand. I had to move two rows after the heat sinks and fans were installed, because I was not thinking!!

Be careful with the fan hook up if your using cpu PMF because they will (POP if hooked up backward) learned that the hard way.. I should of verified what I thought I understood before wiring them up, thankfully I only have to reorder one Alpine fan. They are really quite for 9 fans, in fact they are quieter then one old cpu fan running.
 
Unless you are growing a sea of green and flipping fo 12/12 very early I di nit think you can fit 9 plants in there. I tried that and had to use another tent for 3 plants. Well actually it has 4. The other tent has 6.
 
Redwasp said:
Unless you are growing a sea of green and flipping fo 12/12 very early I di nit think you can fit 9 plants in there. I tried that and had to use another tent for 3 plants. Well actually it has 4. The other tent has 6.
Click to expand...

My Grow space has ended up at 38 x 38 x 6.1 and with the carbon filter and lights that put me around 5.5 ft maybe a bit more. I was planning on 4ft plants, they are all Sativa strains. First thing ordered for this venture. The custom smart pots for the final transplant are 11.5 x 12.

The leds are on a 3 x 3 frame and spaced evenly but I moved them in to be about 8 " apart for the three rows of three. A little over 2 x 2 area and I have no way to know how much coverage I will end up with until the light / then / exhaust are up and going.

Have 4 strains, 3 sativa and 1 Kush, might have to reduce the planned number because there is no where to put them if I run out of room.
 
Well found out the white tarp is some what translucent, dam have to add another layer, thinking of the cheap winshield foil suncreen (2 x4) on sale . They look lile some form of Mylar.

The intake worked out great, light prrof with a 77 CFM Fan. Kind of like a Corn Maze paineted black and some smart pot material / wee material glued in the straight away. Actually 3 90 degree bends. There is a Dcb difference with the top on and Off but it is is still prett quite.
 
Well the doors have industrial hook and loop that my wife sewed on. Dam Dollar stores just do not carry the same inventory. I thought I hit pay dirt with windshield mylar screen for 2$ but sold out, now it looks like $60 roll of hydro store mylar.. Wife came up with a great plan for the door roll up and I just started to wire the terminal blocks and the A/C side of the LED drivers.

Before I even think about mounting the LEDs I will have the carbon filter / scrubber in place ( still hast to be built) but I might work on how to hang the 3 x 2 led fixture level, with minim height loss before I put the Veros on the heat sink. The standard hanging mechanism seems to eat up precious inches of grow space so I am trying to come up with a means to minimize the loss.
 
Sorry been really busy and my grow tools and works tools overlap..so I do not bring them in unless I have days off, might forget them in the morning...

So I have wired the ac side of half of the led drivers and realized they needed to be grounded. The bottom of the led are epoxy and the mounting tabs are plastic, so there is no Fu"" way to use the included ground wire, it is redundant! One has to either run a ground wire across the led drivers and secure it with aluminum tape or better use a 1/16 angel aluminum and press the row down and with end bolts. Then you can ground the led aluminum frame to the securing angle. I choose the cheap way with the wire but the better way would be to press the row of drivers down with angle / aluminum tightly that way you would have more contact.

Have to be really grounded because you do not want a row or two of 120 v led driver UN-grounded on the light frame. God forbid you stumble and reach up to grab hold/ with an unknown issue. Electricity can sit there and float for ever but if you provide a ground to a problem you will never forget it...

Hot glued thick plastic across the completed 120v connecting terminal strips for the same reason..

Out of heat shrink and solider so I have to hold off until I can gather some supplies.

On another thought I worked at a food place (catering) facility to day and they had some GREAT Insulated Mylar Rolls, about 3ft by maybe 100ft DAM had to constrain about asking for some.... must purchase from hydro store... Just saying... but that would of been the Fix....
 
FYI for you guys planning a build. My wife the CA did a cost sheet for my project and we are up to $700.00+ . Wow the big ticket items were the Veros, the heat sinks both were over $100.00. The Aluminum frame for the fixture was $40.00 and all the small stuff, tarps, tape, moving blankets, staples , wire, heat shrink,solider, CFL sockets, 18/2 and 16/3 and that does not include the needed mylar, or 14 /3 for a new circuit. GGCI might have, but it was pulled in the kitchen because of issue. I think the cheaper GFCI trip with old kitchen equipment because the neutral and ground are bonded together r better ones do not trip. Hoping I can use the kitchen reject.

So far the total is around $700.00 and all I can say is the small stuff adds up QUICK. I might do a build post to complement Nebulas recent post as it would drive home her point about building a grow tent ect.

Moving on I wired the other half of hte led drivers A/C side and put the dc whips on for the led's. The Vero 18 have a stab in connector and they SUCK!! I have not found the right size of wire to use. I have tried 18 gauge stranded, "To Small, !^ gauge stranded to big but i stripped it at 18 and tinned it, best so far but not comfortable with the fit, tried coax as it is solid and must be around 16 still to small. One would think they would use a industry standard wire gauge to fit the stab in.. Damn E"" s.
I will post what works. I have some conductive epoxy but that s" is really $. Bought it for the broken defraust on the rear windshield of of the wrangler. It worked but ....

Dam thinking I need to finace this grow with promisarry notes to family ect.... ha ha bad idea...jus saying...
 
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