if you are interested in the phototron, search for thread that is “phototron style trimming for nowadays style growing” or something like that. it is a thread i started when i first got here to see if it was possible to use the knowledge i got from the phototron . in there is a post that has an article written by a guy who used the tron for some years, it was very interesting. i only had one harvest and then circumstances in life made it difficult to continue. i wish i had that manual and phototron still but probably wouldn’t be able to get the twisted “u” shaped vitalites (florescent) now anyways.
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I just checked my plants for my afternoon look, the two i watered this morn (trixie and the new guy who i am going to designate as homer because he was slow) both look good. homer has gone from 1/4 inch yesterday to over an inch today. looks like i might have to water the other three before bed tonight, but i am going to try to save that for tomorrow morn.
because of the stretch on homer and the other three seedlings i have decided to get my 630 up tomorrow, screw the tent. i called tree house and have them boxing it up, told them i wanted the 4200 light and it of course is on back order, supposed to be in this coming week so will take a 3200 instead, that will work but i will get the 4200 in as soon as possible. also called my electrical buddy, he knows how bad i am at tools and he is going to help me get the hooks in the ceiling and get the light mounted tomorrow before noon. i am planning on keeping 3 or 4 ft separation to begin with then having the light sneak up on the seedlings by lowering every couple of hours by half a foot. i will put my hand under light and establish where my hand gets warm by leaving under for 30 seconds to use as a “don’t get this close” point for the lamp.
did night time check on seedlings. all are about 2 or 2 and half inches tall. all had dry pellets so gave a good soaking by spray. i put a fan about 3 ft away on low which makes the stems quiver a bit. i am still concerned about stretch but will get light up tomorrow in hopes of helping that. the first serrated leaves are now about half inch on 4 plants … all except homer, but he is 2 days younger than his buddies. temp is 73, humidity is 20. plants are 3 days old now.
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morning check 4th day
it is incredible, but homer is just as big in height as her buddies. she does have smaller leaves though. leaves are a little over half inch on other plants, homer is about quarter inch. one of the plants was laying down to almost 70 degrees. fed the plants because pellets were dry and went back 2 hours later and the reclining stem was back up almost vertical.i have the 5 a21 led blubs within a couple of inches of plants now and ta da!!! the sun is shining today so have them in a south facing window. temp was 75 degrees, hum is 21. i have a fan blowing on low from about 4 ft away and it makes the stems tremble a bit.
The second part is me being really po’d at tree house. i called them to see if my light was ready for pickup today as i was going to just mount it to the ceiling to try to stop what i considered excess stretching of the white widows. i had talked to them yesterday and they said they would have it boxed up and ready to go today. i called them before i left and they don’t have a ballast for it and won’t have it until tomorrow when it is supposed to show up. so my tent, my ballast, my temp/humidity meter, my items to make it easy to move the light up and down in the tent are all on order or back order. the guy i talked to has convinced me that putting my 630 up even with just one bulb is too much for 4 day old seedlings and won’t stop the stretch, he thinks stretch is normal and it probably is. but having none of the stuff i want is agitating me and before i got off the phone with them the second time after calling back i made sure that they will have the exhaust fan, filter system, intake fan, and a fan or two for inside the tent all ordered or on site so we don’t have any ,more of this “waiting” for things to arrive. to me, part of a turn key service is them taking care of this stuff so it isn’t always en-route when it is needed to be on-site. anyone know how long it takes to get stuff from Amazon? they allegedly ordered the camera from Amazon for me 6 days ago.
i put three twelve inch diameters soup bowls around my little girls and hung a super thick towel which holds over half gallon of water w/o leaking in area, humidity went up 3% and then went back to 20% or less when it shows LL on display. i didn’t think this would work because of the huge area but had to try so that i could say that i did. checked the lights and they are more like 6 to 8 inches from plants. pellets were dry on top but still have some moisture to them so will wait to water them til night time check. two of the girls grew another half inch in last 5 hours. three of them hung out about the same height.
I am thinking of filling my 72 place jiffy tray in which i’ve removed 67 pellets with water to try to help alleviate the humidity problem. i know that i don’t want to have bottom of pellets in water constantly, but with the dryness of the room, i think that the bottoms will be out of the water in a couple of hours. i am going to monitor the bowls of water to see how long it takes to lose the 1/4 inch it would take for the pellets to be out of water. i’d like to hear what anyone thinks of trying this as a desperate measure. @dbrn32 @MattyBear @SlowOldGuy
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Do you have domes over tge seedlings?
no, i thought i was supposed to take it off when they got past an inch or so high
You don’t have to take it off. If you’re fighting low rh using dome is great way to keep it up. Just mist inside of dome with spray bottle.
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kk thanks for help
humidity went from LL to 55% in 25 minutes and temp went from 73 to 78 over that same time. i gave the pellets a good squirt before i put the dome on because the pellets all had dry tops. should i back the lights off now because of temp?, they are within 6 inches of plants, 4 inches from dome. just looked at the "transpiration rate " table and it is within parameters for the first time (is close to low rate for vegging and i think it will get there. i am planning on checking in half hour, will add spray to dome if it doesn’t get up to the 60’s or 70%. it looks like i need to lower it’s temp some and raise the humidity some to get to the “low” rate on the table. @dbrn32
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this would be the best way to get RH in check.!!
shoot for 50%, but be happy with 30-40%.!
can u give us some pics of the seedlings.?
it’d be nice to know how much stretch (if any) u r battling.!
idk if this helps, but, these were a little stretchy…
they got more light after their stretch and turned out fine…
when transplanted u could not tell they ever stretched…
sorry for the chitty pics, spent all my money on lights, fans, and filter.!
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78 is fine, even a little higher wouldn’t really be anything to be worried about right now. I agree that you should manage light heights by what seedlings are showing you.
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my camera is supposed to be on it’s way, see above post, i’m pissed lol. i have to wait on getting good environment controls on room because my budget right now is on tent, lights, and associated paraphernalia to get the grow system working. room environment is first on list after the 3 tents, two more lights, two filter systems. All that will be done by the time i harvest this first batch, i will start my second tent when this tent gets a couple weeks into flowering. two of my seedlings are 2 and half to 3 inches tall at 4 days old and 3 are about 2 inches tall.
it is likely i will have to buy two room dehumidifiers before i buy the two room humidifiers i will need to control this room because of timing LOL. gonna be three months before i can start doing something about room.
i just got to thinking about what i just said, and that would be stupid. my next check is going to be to finish off this tent and light and get started on next tent and light. going thru with the second tent and light should be a less priority than getting the room situated for properly growing in one tent, i will just have to post pone getting veg tent running until i get room fixed. right? @dbrn32 @SlowOldGuy
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oops, i did not see the bottom of your last post,
that is exactly what i would do.!!
since your equipment is in limbo still, may i suggest…
get a great light, one for now,
get good to great temp control for the grow area,
with okay to great RH control,
get all this mastered then go for full scale production.!
while accumulating equipment, keep in mind the final goal, if a small a/c would work for now but a larger one will be needed for the production grow, go with the larger one.!
it is way easier to start small and expand then it is to go big from the beginning.!!
a lot of ‘go big’ growers quit after their 1st run or 2,
u seem mature and i doubt the speed bumps will make u quit, but is it worth the pain and aggravation to try and have more right now…???
treat the 1st 2-3 runs as a hobby and u will be MUCH happier this 1st yr of growing.!!!
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@SlowOldGuy yes thanks, i am going to go that way and just consider the first a “dress rehearsal” because of the screwed up way that ended up happening and if i get anything out of it i will be happy, doesn’t mean that i can’t still get a decent grow out of this. but my second or third grow will have all the stuff in place to make a good run at top bud. i just watched your vid post of what to do to get great buds and commented to you that it looks like 5 years before i will be able to grow the buds i want. after 50 years of smoking i am not here for the short haul and know that it takes work to get things done properly. mostly these first 3 to 5 grow are just for experience and knowledge.
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i planned my current grow for 8 yrs, when enough kids left the nest and it was time to spark it up, lol, i ran the a/c and dehu for 3 days, then turned on the grow box and monitored temps for another 3 days, at that point i felt confident that the environment was suitable and planted some bag seed, timers have been buzzing ever since.!!
those pics above r from my 1st run of seedlings about 10 months ago.
my name pic, avatar, or what ever its called is from my 1st run of coco/perlite, 6 months ago.
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cool, we just got legalized and this at first was just a “heck it’s legal now, lets do this” knowing that it would take a lot of study, time, and trial and error to get somewhat decent at growing. but decent was never enough for me, always had an obsessive compulsive component to my make up and it has done me well to help me accomplish what i want out of life or situations. and i want to grow “exceptional tasting, smelling, and buzzing buds” so i got my work cut out for me for the next 5 or ten years lol
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ah ha, got it to 82% humidity and 80 degrees, now within the blue on the table for low transpiration. wooo hooo, almost over did it and will keep an eye out and check it every half to one hour.
okay, been struggling for the last couple of hours trying to get the seedlings under dome straightened out. thanks to @dbrn32 for telling me to put dome back on my jiffy tray as i have 20% humidity in the room and i have had to douse the pellets 3 times in 2 days due to the dryness. so when i started on this fix the pellets were dry again and i was going to water them later so decided to water them now. the humidity topped out at 91% and temp topped at 81 degrees. i opened the dome and swished air around and that got temp and humid down but it went right back up although the temp stopped at 79. so i then went upstairs and raised the light a couple of inches and took a paper towel to some of the water lying around on the floor of the tray and that got me to 90% humidity and 77 degrees. i went up again in a half hour and checked. it has steadied out at 77 degrees but humidity was at 86 a couple of times so i still tried toweling up lay around moisture. if i can get the humidity to stay at 70 to 80% at 77 degrees i will be at the target of blue on the transpiration table. this looks like a good chance for me to work on “doing what the plant needs” instead of “doing it because that’s the way ur supposed to” and try to get that thru my thick head. i want to thank dbrn32 and @SlowOldGuy for their help and patience in getting this thru to me.
last check was 86% humidity and 78 degrees. i raised the light another inch and raised the pellet holder part of the tray and wiped more water from tray and holder part.
It looks like i will be able to get by without the tent until it arrives by getting another dome and running my plants under dome for the couple weeks it will need to run in solo cups. i will have to get a different tray and tree house has one that has dome that gives you more room for plants as the dome for the jiffy pellets is only two inches height added to the tray. so it looks like i have a viable path to getting plants to survive til tent arrives. i’m sure i’ll find more ways to mess this up in the next couple weeks and if i get thru that i know for sure i can mess up the tent LOL.
I never started mine in a jiffy puck, I dropped the germinated seed into a solo cup. At 2 1/2 - 3 inches, shouldn’t it be ready for the solo cup? I had to move mine from the Solo cup to a 1/2 gallon pot when it was about 2” tall because the roots started wrapping around the bottom of the cup. Not familiar with the pucks but thought they were just meant to sprout the plant.
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hey @BobbyDigital. what you did in solo cup, i’m doing in peat pellet. i will let it grow until get a couple of nodes of leaves or until roots show on pellet. i have seen on here that if you pull apart a pellet with the stem of plant in it with just one set of leaves on it the plant has hardly any root which proved to me that i can keep in pellet until get some good roots going.
my plants are only 4 days above ground and both people on here and at treehouse said it was too early to need to move to solos.
oops and btw bobby, my camera is supposed to be here tomorrow so i will get to show some pics when i get it figured out how to post.
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