Hi all,
First thread so be kind! Any advice on anything welcome as I am completely new to this and have zero experience on growing any plants other than a cactus! Will try to keep this as detailed as possible as i have read loads of other journals which have given me loads of useful info so hopefully this will help others.
Decided to give growing a go as feel there would be nothing nicer than smoking your own and knowing exactly whats gone in to it so here goes...
After a week of searching i managed to find complete grow setup fairly local to me so just to help people with costs etc I paid £200 for all of the below.
Black orchid 1.2 x1.2 x 2m grow tent (not using it)
Mars hydro reflector 96 (480w)
Carbon filter/ducting/extractor fan
Desk fan
Fox farm nutes (triple pack)
4 plug extension lead
Plug timer/thermometer+hygrometer x2/ph testing strips and ph down
And various other bits like foil tape rope ratchets etc.
Think i got a pretty good deal considering it was all pretty much new (used for one grow everything was mint!)
I also separately purchased 4 x 10L plastic pots - £4 for all 4
Biobizz light 50L - 13.99 delivered.
3 seeds plus the one free cost £25 delivered.
Emergency mylar blankets 3 at £1 each delivered and i think thats about it. Im a gas engineer by trade so took a few room stats just to check temps are right, big and bulky but do the job.
Im growing 3 x Top shelf elite San fran sour D and one heavyweight fruit punch bought from a well known online seed bank. All auto’s and feminized. Wanted things as simple as possible so this is what i went for.
I initially was going to grow in my loft but thought the led plus cold uk winter would make temps very difficult to control without the use of heaters etc so cleared out a small closet in my bedroom to use instead. Its roughly 90x90x200cm. I covered the walls and door in the emergency blankets.
After reading its best to keep autos in final pots i filled them up didnt compress it down so it stay light and fully soaked them with water on friday morning and allowed to fully drain for roughly 6 hours then put the seeds straight into the soil, i did not germinate before hand. Next time i think i will leave soil for 24 hours. I dropped the seeds about 1cm into soil (one was about an inch deep as i’ll get to in a minute...) I put the pots in a cupboard in my utility room/downstairs toilet. My boiler is in there and the cupboards are above a radiator its only a small room and has a big south facing window so stays very warm around 25 degrees constantly as i kept the door shut and boiler door open. The humidity also stayed around 70-80% i did cover with cling film on sunday with a few small holes but not sure if this helped at all. I did keep an old jumper in the cupboard that i soaked with water every day in there too in the middle of the pots as i felt this would help keep humidity up. Now i did ph test my tap water and its around 7, however i forgot to ph the water i used to soak the pots before planting. So tap water left out for 24 hours is all they got. And to be honest i actually run out of water whilst pre soaking them so used probably 3-4 litres straight out the tap! Not ideal and will be ph’ing water to around 6 In future.
I was not expecting these seeds to show for 5-7 days from what i read, however on monday at around 2pm 3 were breaking the surface. At 8pm they were 1cm above. On tuesday my lack of patience got the better of me as i was concerned that one wasnt up (due to lack of experiance) and I sterilized a small knife in boiling water and VERY carefully moved the soil above. Basically after a few minutes i saw the seed about an inch under the surface (too deep) but it was growing and was about a cm in length. I covered with half a cm of soil and tuesday evening it was above surface. I know that prodding around is not a good idea but lack of experience and curiosity led me to do it! I know in future to makesure they are all no more than 1cm ish under soil but doesnt appear to have done any harm.
3 that had sprouted were put under lights at 10pm on monday temps 23c-25c degrees and around 20c lights off humidity 55-62%. The other one was put under lights on tuesday. I did have the light originally at around 44” monday to Wednesday evening and pots next to walls not directly under lights as i was worried about the light being to close however they did stretch a little so i lowered this to 22” on Wednesday eve. Lights will always be 18 on 6 off cycle and i am using the mars light from start to finish. The biggest seedling had around 1 mm of slightly yellow/brown tips on first set of leaves, not sure what this was did not affect any others though and hasnt affected plant in anyway. It may be where the fan was blowing over it too much (fan was positioned blowing down one side of the wall not directly pointing at any seedlings.) Also cotyledons were open on all but one on wednesday, and it looked like a little cap on top of it, again lack of experiance i ended up very gentle rubbing my finger over it and brushed it off and within hours cotyledons were open. I think in future best pracice is to lightly spray it with water and let the plant get rid of it itself (think it was part of the shell membrane?).
Yesterday i set up the extractor fan and ducting. The closet is very well ventilated through small gaps in the door and wooden floor beneath but wanted to ensure a constant negative pressure to draw in fresh air and keep smells contained later on. The fan however has affected temps which during lights on get to around 21c - 22c and 20c when off. Humidity has also dropped to around 45-52% which i think is ok? Im not comfortable with the lights on temps though so will be leaving extraction off for now and buying a fan speed controller as i think it is too powerful currently for the little space i have.
As you can tell these plants have not had an ideal start, but seem to be doing well any opinions on whether they are a decent size for the age or not would be appreciated. Ive learnt a lot in this last week and already feel like next grow will get off to a much better start but im still extremely happy with everything so far. I do have a few concerns the main ones being grow room size with 4 plants, will the light be powerful enough for them and yeild. Ideally i would like an ounce off each no idea if thats realistic or not so any opinions on any of these are more than welcome!
I think thats pretty much it for now, as said all advice is welcomed and hopefully this will help anyone thinking about doing there own grow!
Will be doing regular updates so stay tuned! Pictures to follow!
Sam92
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