Ognennyy's New Growroom Jackberry

Just for the most part finished up on my first ever grow room that's a true room, not just in a box. Still have a few tasks left to be done in there, but I'm probably going to hold off until this first grow is out then push the pause button.


Location: walkin closet


Dimensions: 5x9x8


Light: crappy magnetic 400w MH from htg :/


Wall covering: shitty 1mil mylar that gave me a fuckin anger management chrisis while attaching


Booster fan: cheap ass 6" Suncoast from Lowes that makes a lotta noise


Inline room fan: 6" 450cfm Vortex


Ducting: most all insulated 6" ducting, some flex, and sheet metal HVAC for intake / exhaust


There are also 2 small box fans blowing on the leaf canopy. The 6" Vortex is controlled by a temperature relay, routed through a speed controller that runs the fan at 2/3. Call me crazy but it might be louder with that damn controller on there. Swear to god that thing makes the motor hum on the fan.


This has been a bit of a roller coaster right from the get. I'm dumb and germed the seeds before I had the room set up. This I did because my first grow it took like 10 days to germ all the seeds (Dutch Passion Blueberries). This time it only took two days so I got caught w/hand in the cookie jar. I had to move the plants in and out a few times before I got the room to a state where I decided the set up is okay for now.


The plants are Jackberry F3s from Sannies Shop, whose customer service btw is excellent. There were also five free Kush seeds. I've lost a few of them along the way, probably due to the rushed condition I was in and not really doing things 100% properly. To Sannie's credit all the seeds germinated.


I rolled sandpaper up and shook the seeds for 30 sec or so, then soaked 36 hours in room temp distilled water. Took them out, a few had cracked already. Put them in peat pellets which I placed inside a humidity dome, in the dark, @ around 65 degrees. In half the seeds I dropped a few lil crystals of RTI Mykos innoculant. ALL the seeds in that half germed nearly a day ahead of the other half. But when I went to transplant them it was just a pain in the ass to try to get the mesh off cuz roots of the Mykos half were already hanging an inch out the bottom. So I ended up not cutting the mesh off cuz I didn't wanna risk damaging the roots.


All seeds fully germinated. I transplanted them to 1-gal grow bags. Couldn't afford pots for this go around cuz I hada spend it on sound insulating the fuckin walls (sure glad I let hydro shop dude talk me into the "super quiet Vortex" for only $220). Transplanted them into home-made soil. Home-made compost derived from straw, leaves, chopped sticks, stale cereal, kitchen scraps, long grain white rice, molasses, peat moss, green sand, worm castings, epsom salt, pulverized lime, bone meal, alfalfa meal, soy bean meal, kelp meal, and coffee. Mixed this compost 50/50 with BX ProMix HP, added 20lbs. bag worm castings, 1 cubic foot of perlite, moistened and aerated once a day for a few weeks. Plants went under 400w Halide at this point. Watered them in with a fresh round of compost tea, and mulched the top of the soil


So needless to say I'll be going 100% organic w/this one. Using "proprietary" composts from the garage and my diy turbo vortex tea brewer. Anyway here are some pics.


Vortex brewer. God DAMN IT she is SEXY





You guys know what this scene here is? This is organic liquid dankity dank dizank, being aerated by 110lpmfm(liters per mother fucking minute), self-agitating with the whirpool it creates. Muwahahhahahhahaa (<--- mad chemist laugh at hydro growers' expenses)





The room is equipped with 2x6" HVAC portals from the adjacent room that enter at the growroom's floor, hidden by a dresser on the other side. Currently one line is capped, the other is acting as ambient intake from the next room. This line serves as room intake.





The alminum line seen above acts as intake to the room, and vents directly into the plants at soil level.





There are 2x6" HVAC portals to be used as exhausts above the door to the adjacent room. Currently one is capped, the other is being used as an exhaust for the light booster fan.





Finally there are 2x6" HVAC portals running into the ceiling, then over to an attic. My room exhausts to this attack, and I pull cold air from there through the fan.





Through the same path as those insulated ducts, I ran wire up to the attaic from the grow room. The ballast sits in the attic. I need to reduce the length of the ballast-->lamp cord (thanks for clarifying that for me you guys), and I think I can get it to about 6'.


Carbon filter





Temp relay and speed controller





If you look closely toward the left of the picture you can see that this section of wall is slab of cherry. This is an access to the atrium of the house. It drops straight to the basement. This summer I will add new lines to utilize the free A/C here.





Speaking of temperature, it's finally right around freezing outside now. The grow room is showing it.





Humidity is only that high because I just fed compost tea, left em in the room while feeding, so they're still draining a little.


So it's been about 2.5 weeks from sprout. Here are what the plants are looking like.





Wide leaves on these lil fuckers, for being so young.

















BY DATE


10/31/11 Began germ process


11/O1/11 All fully germed


transplanted to 1 gal bag


under 400MH


watered in with mild compost / EWC tea


11/02/11 Topped bags off with mulch


11/13/11 Began 90 degree rotations and row/column shifts


11/15/11 Started brewing compost for feeding before weekend outa town. In 5 gal tepid water, 1 cup compost, 1/2 cup EWC, 4 TBSP molasses, 1/2 tsp fish hydrolysate, pinch of rock phosphate, 2 TBSP epsom salt.


11/16/11 Stopped brewer, dilluted 5 gal tea into 10 gallons using tepid water. Carried tea to grow room and left overnight to bring to room temp.


11/17/11 Fed tea by root soak in 4" water. Noticed leaves drooped a little for about 30 min after soaking. Oops . Room temps now hovering around 70 degrees cuz of outside temps dropping. Didn't know what else to do so I turned on the radiant electric heater in the adjacent room (yep, it's on a different circuit) to low, hoping that might help bring the temps back up. I'm worried I'm stressing them :-(

 

Nice set up. :thumbs-up:


Peace.....

 

Yeah let's all coroborate


Nip and Duc, let's be the first three to post full grow logs I'm kinda hoping we get those sweet ass pretty pink phenos too. I think I have 19-20 Jackberry seedlings, so assuming >= 10 females that gives me a decent shot. If I'm not mistaken, the pink phenos are pretty and smoke well but yield less, correct?


Yeah Duc I gotta purchase a small space heater w/a thermostat to keep in there. I may even reroute some venting again. Right now the grow room pulls fresh air outa my bedroom and vents to the attic. The light pulls from the attic and vents to my bedroom. But even right now, when the attic is around 35-40 degrees still, the air blowing into my bedroom is hardly warm at all. Somehow I have a feeling that will change when I upgrade to 600w or 1000w.


But for the moment I just turned on the electric heat in my bedroom, hoping that might help. I'm super worried the temp change is going to push more males into the pack. Furthermore I'm gone for the weekend so i can't even be there to check the temps and see what's goin on.


Anyway, I'll be sure to post accurate notes here every step of the way so we can compare & contrast. Take care all and peace!

 

Home from weekend trip update


I will definitely post at least weekly but more than likely a bit more often. I tend to be perfectionist and worry too much about things. This leads to a tendency to more often share my thoughts looking for advice.


Without further ado, my current worry.... I remember during my last (first ever) grow of Dutch Passion Blueberry I kept wondering why the topmost and newest leaves tended to be so small, yellowed, and at times twisted and/or curled. I thought for sure I had some kinda pH or deficiency issues.


As it turns out I did actually have some issues with the medium. However, I'm now starting to realize that the problems with upper leaf twisting, curling, and dwarfed size, was more than likely problems due to the light setup.


I'm getting the same leaf twisting,yellowing, and dwarfing problems starting again with these Jackberries. Only this time I know about ten times as much about my soils as I did this time last year when I began the blueberry grow. I'm about 99% certain that this problem has nothing to do with the soil.


The common factor here is the light. I'm still using the same crappy magnetic 400w MH from HTG supply. According to most users on this forum HTG products blow donkey.


The light is not too close I don't believe. It's still about 10-12" above the canopy, and it's a vented reflector. It's not very hot under the light. I think due to the shitty bulb I'm getting hot spots. I believe the problem was exacerbated due to being gone all weekend and not rotating / shifting the plants for nearly four days straight.


Hopefully in about another 1-2 weeks I'm going to grab a new Lumatek ballast (still can't decide on 600 or 1000) and a nice Hortilux bulb. That should solve most of the problem I would guess. I think I'm going to keep my current reflector to save money, and it seems like a decent reflector.


The plants are organized in a square fashion, as seen above. I'm wondering if I should elongate the arrangement into a rectangle and use a light mover. I've heard that can solve hot-spot problems.


On the bright side the plants seemed to have experienced explosive growth while I was away. I'm not sure if A) it just seems that way because I haven't looked at em in four days or B) they really did explode. I think mostly B because I just gave em a nice compost tea on Thursday before I left, and I can see their roots sticking outa the bottom of the grow bags now. So probably now that the roots have reached the edges they're focusing more on upper growth, and I'm sure the compost tea helped em.


I'll post some pics when I get home in a few hours.

 

I'm tuning in.


I too tend to be a bit obsessive about making regular grow log posts too. And about sharing my thoughts. Could it be that people aren't all that interested in hearing my thoughts? Nah! At least that's what I'm thinking.


On the occasions when I've had to leave my plants alone for a few days, I've always been amazed at how much they've grown when I get home. I think when you're used to checking every day, maybe multiple times per day, you notice every little difference in every plant. At least I do. It's amazing how much those little differences can add up over only a few days. It always makes me think, maybe I should leave them alone more often.

 

Ha, those are probably words of wisdom for the ages of MJ growers brother


Alright Here are a few more pics going along with my earlier post today.


They've certainly grown some since last post





But they're also not nearly as compact as I'd hoped they would be.





Couple top-downs





In this picture I've crudely circled a leaf exhibiting the twist / curl I referred to earlier. I believe hot spots due to a shitty light bulb to be the culprit.





So here's the dilemma that I now face. If a cheap light bulb is, in fact, to blame for the leaf curling / twisting / dwarfing that I'm seeing, I only see one real option. I've heard that if you believe you're having hot spot issues you should move the light up. Of course, using a light mover or buying a high quality light bulb are great options, if you have $ for that lol.


The poor little guys are already stretched and stemmy enough. I'm worried that if I move the light up they will just stretch more, and internodal length will increase even more. Of course I don't want em stretching. Also they're not having been rotated or shifted for the last four days isn't helping matters any, and I've moved them since I came home from the weekend outing.


Thoughts on how to improve this situation anyone?

 

They lookin good... a bit leggy. so i would pinch those puppies between each and every node. Id pinch em once a week and maybe if the internodal space is big enough do 2 pinches between those. then top em as well.

 

Topped


Hey Bud I actually did top them last night. maybe it's cuz I just woke up, but what do you mean by pinching them between each and every node? I mean should I be tearing sets of leaves off, or just pinching the stem? Is there a section of the forum I can read that details the process?


Thanks man.

 

I think BB214 was meaning pinching the stem.


Find a spot between 2 nodes. Pinch it hard enough to hear a little crunching. Not so hard you crush the stem. This will make the plant expend energy to heal where you pinched it as opposed to vertical growth.


Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.


Peace.....

 

Ooohhh that


Yeah I've read articles on here about doing that. But I thought that was a form of LST designed to supercharge the vascular system of the plant. I had no idea that it will suppress apical dominance any further than the plant pauses apical growth until it recovers from the wounds. In other words, does pinching actually cause a shift in hormonal balance to low quantities of auxin, and higher quantities of giberellins?

 

That was a lot of big words. Now my heads hurts and I'm going to smoke a bowl.


Peace....

 

I might actually give the pinching a shot later on this week. Really what I think would help me out a lot is a new, high quality light bulb. God only knows what region of China my current light bulb was made in, and it's definitely putting out hot spots that are dangerous for the plants. One of my plants that unfortunately got stuck in the worst hot spot for 3-4 days straight while I was away this last weekend literally looks like it has freckles. It has little light green flecks/spots all over it where the chlorophyll has been bleached out of it.


I really really don't wanna move the light up, cuz that's just gonna make stretching worse. I reset the hi/low function on the thermometer last night, and as soon as the lights come on I'm going to go in there and see how low the night time temps are dropping. If they're dropping enough to cause a 10 degree differential, I'll buy a small space heater w/thermostat to keep night temps up before spending money on a bulb.


Additionally, last night I began double shifting the plants' positions. Every day now I will shift them one row front---> back and one column left---> right. Hopefully this will help mitigate hot spot damage as well.


I hadn't planned on buying that carbon filter til it was time to flower but holy shit now I'm glad I did buy it. Those little bastards are starting to slightly smell already.


What reflectors do you guys use? Keep in mind I need a vented hood. I'm really paying a lot of attention to reflectors now too if I ever buy one again, cuz I know they can contribute to hot spots. As of right now I think I'm only going to buy new light bulbs, in order to save money cuz I gotta build a clone cab soon. But in the near future I'd like to purchase a new reflector and ballast as well, and was wondering what kinda experiences w/which reflectors ya'll have had. BTW, will be using a 600W or 1000W light to cover 16 plants in 12square pots over a 4'x4' area.


Peace all. Wonderful holiday wishes to you, and much love to your families.

 

Pinched em, moved em around, and moved the light up. I didn't wanna move the light, but felt I had no option. I think the light burn on the leaves will do more damage to the plant than the potential for a little more stretch. Space isn't exactly an issue, but still I want em bushy (but not dmged and wrinkled up)


I pretty well sold on the fact that I have a shitty light, and it's to blame for the leaf damage I'm seeing. Only problem is I can't really vouch for the quality of the reflector. Then again, it was a different reflector last grow and the same thing happened. So... off to the hydro e-store to get a new bulb sometime soon.


I pinched in hopes that will keep the plants from stretching any more until I get my new light bulb. To be honest I remain dubious as to how effective pinching might be in making the plant *bushier*. I believe it will keep the plants shorter for sure. But when I really think about it, all pinching will do is cause a wound response. Sure, the plant will stop growing up in consequence of this wound response. However, it will also stop growing outward as well.


I may be way off on this one. Can't wait to see how they respond. Either way, I hope pinching can at least be a short term solution til I get the new bulb.


I've eliminated temp differentiation as a factor contributing to stretch. Over the last 36-48 hours the max day temp was 73 and min night temp was 69. I believe that's well within optimal range, if I'm not mistaken.


Gonna give em another few days and see how these changes manifest themselves.

 

Ognennyy, I'm going to enjoy watching your grow. Nice thread.


I've been pinching for years. what it does is slow down the vertical growth, but at the same time the plant is healing the area you pinched it will also start pushing out new side growth. The pinching also seams to help shorten the internode spacing so you get more and denser bud if done correctly. :bong-2: