first time grower here, no previous experience growing anything, so this is quite a challenge for me, many questions and lots of worries
Started with feminised autoflower (can’t recall which strain, but i think it might have been silver haze or northern light), planted it in peat pellet. Managed to make the first seed rot… Tried again, and the second seed sprouted successfully!
I did not have a grow light and thus the sprout grew tall ~12cm. Planted it in a 12 liter pot, used 50% compost 40% peat moss 10% Perlite soil mix.
Bought a full spectrum LED grow light (216w UFO LED Grow Light), seems to be working fine for now. LED is ~50cm from the top of the plant on a 18/6 cycle.
I do not have a grow tent, thus made a makeshift open top “Tent”, with one side of it being semi open for natural air circulation. It is a cylinder as wide as the pot, with the grow light positioned at the top:
Question:
There are some lighter green spots on the leaves and seems like the leaves are starting to curl up. I am watering the plant every 2-3days. Soil does not seem to dry out (the dark soil color on top is from watering 2 days ago), i am thinking it might be overwatered?
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Are you getting water on the leaves when you water? From what I can see, looks like circulation of air couldn’t be good. Also looks like the humidity is a little bit low. Should be 60-70.
did not get any water on the leaves, so shouldn’t be the reason.
Suggestions on the positioning of the fan? I have a usb powered fan, i assume it should be enough if i direct the airflow through the side of my “tent”? The LED fan should be creating some sort of suction from the top, i assumed that would be enough… I guess my theory is wrong…
Any suggestions on how to increase the humidity, since i don’t have a proper tent and can’t fit a humidifier? Spray water on the sides of the “tent”?
problem is that this is my upgraded light, started out with a 50w full spectrum LED (10w draw)…
what would be a recommended light for a single plant without a real tent setup? I am not looking for maximum yield, but at the same time i would like to succeed.
I am thinking of buying a full marshydrow grow kit, but it is rather complicated to get it shipped where i am (reason why i have a cheap LED at the moment as that was the only locally available LED).
A lot of growers say humidity is huge during the seedling/veg stage but I started my grow in a Chicago winter. My RH never got above 35% and I grew successfully. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
As far as air flow goes… gonna be tuff without a tent but I would just continue with what you have. Some air flow is better than none.
Def didn’t mean to insult your setup or light etc. If that’s all you have, it’s all you have. I’ve seen people grow with a plastic coke bottle and a window sill with indirect sunlight. I see you mentioned your light is 216w. Is that how much it actually draws from the outlet? (should be in the specs of the light) If that light is all you have/all you can afford, go with it. I’ve read that you can expect about a gram of flower per Watt of actual power that’s being drawn. For example, one of my lights (sf-1000) says it’s a thousand watts but its actually only pulling about 100-150 from the wall. So, with the gram per watt theory, I should have 100-150 grams when everything is done.
Anyway, the light you have will work with your setup. Just won’t give you huge yields. Maybe go with that one and if you aren’t satisfied with the results, look at getting a tent with a larger light.
I tried the fan, but no matter how i set it up - the air flow makes the plant shake a little bit. Is that ok?
None taken, don’t worry I was not planning on using any light or anything else when i planted the seed - was only interested in seeing if it will germinate. After it did - plans changed, but not enough to go full out and buy a decent full grow kit. Kind of ended up midway between not doing anything (lights, tent, fan and just growing it on a window sill) and a full proper grow tent setup…
The problem is that i would have to ship any decent equipment from another country with which comes certain risks and i’m not sure i am prepared to risk it at this time.
LED count 72 total:
Red LED - 52 (640nm ~ 670nm);
Blue LED - 12 (440nm ~ 470nm);
White LED – 2 (3500K);
White LED – 2 (6500K);
IR LED - 2 (710nm ~ 730nm);
UV LED – 2 (380nm ~ 410nm);
The only reason i have the makeshift tent made is that i’m worried UV light might bleach/damage the floor and surroundings. Otherwise i would keep the plant without tent to improve natural air circulation? Am i overthinking this and 2 small UV LEDs would not have any impact on surroundings and thus i should just remove the “tent”?
I am not after huge yield, i am interested in just growing it successfully as the plant itself just fascinates me
You’re light won’t harm the floor. Typically, and I would imagine in your case, the tent walls are reflective to maximize how much of your light gets to your plant. Your wattage is fairly low so you’d want to get every photon to your foliage that you can.
Would it be a good idea to line the walls with Aluminium foil and move the light even closer to the plant ~30cm (12inches)? Currently the light is ~50cm (12inches) from the plant.
I wouldn’t drop the light crazy low because you don’t want to burn her. But reflective materials won’t hurt. Those mylar emergency blankets are super cheap. I made the mistake during my first grow to add reflective after 2 weeks but didn’t adjust my light up to accommodate the difference… they were really unhappy about it for a few days.
Watch how far the node spacing is and adjust your light. If it’s too low she’ll stay really short, too far anyway and she’ll get spindly.
Yep. As long as it’s not bending them over with hurricane force winds, I think you’ll be ok
Don’t worry about it hurting the floor. You’re fine. Now that you know that, you can probably make a makeshift tent that’s a little bigger and throw some reflection on the sides.
You could use a plastic garbage can two computer fans one down low blow fresh in and one in the lid blowing the heat out instant grow room paint the inside of the can silver or white; My son used on of these in collage worked great
Be careful with the water. The roots need oxygen too. I don’t water my seedlings for days at that stage unless the leaves droop.Solid plastic pots are prone to over watering. I recommend fabric pots and a saucer tray.
The plant shaking a little bit is very good and important later on. The movement causes micro-fractures in the stalk and stems that stiffen when they heal. This helps support the weight of the buds. Essential since the autos grow so fast and do not have time or energy to make strong support structure otherwise.
I think i will keep it the way it is, seems about right the way it is as it is now strong enough to stand on its own. After potting it, i had to support the stem, as it was falling over due to not having any light for the first week after germination…
They are and i have 1-2cm layer of clay pebbles on the bottom of the pot too.
Could it be that the plant at this moment is too small for this pot and thus it fails to absorb a noticeable amount of water which leads to overwatering? I read that it needs 2-3cups of water every 2-3 days, but that seems way too much for my plant and i have been watering maybe 1 cup every 2-3days when the top soil felt dry’ish.
note taken, this is what i came up with. Feel happy with the end result, there is a noticeable increase in light on the plant and ok air circulation. Maybe i should place the fan at the top of the tent to draw the air from the room, rather than having it inside on the floor? Any comments?
I think you will be surprised, as I was, at the exponential growth to come. You may want to start thinking about how to “contain” the aroma when she starts to flower. At a minimum, I found some carbon filter material you can cut to size that I use to cover a cardboard box during drying.
