New Grower 100% New to growing

[Smoking Frog]

With a shop that size,i predict a very nice big tent and other nice gadgets in your future!
...and some very nice LED lights too!
Welcome!

 

[420Forever]

Hey everyone, I found this forum the night that I started to germ and I was a bit overwhelmed and nervous to post as I didnt want to be ridiculed. But yall seem like a good friendly bunch of people so here we go...

I ordered 3 gorilla glue seeds and 3 G13 seeds. All autos of course. I live in Southern AZ and have a good sized shop behind my house. Since my job gives me access to PVC I started playing around and made a hillbilly rigged grow tent using pvc, shrink wrap, foil and a tarp. Inside I have 2x 2 ft. 19w feit full spectrum LED lights (the two tubes of LED w a switch) and 2x 16w feit full spectrum grow lamp bulbs rigged on pvc. 3x 5 gallon buckets. Soil PH monitor. Temp and humidity guage, a small heater and a humidifier.

Before I came here and read the advice I made the mistake of planting in Miracle Gro soil. So i started germing the GG seeds a few days back. 1 in a cup of water. And 2 with the paper towel method. They have all since germed and the taproot has appeared. I have moved them into the 5 gallon buckets after i moistened the soil a bit. Its hard for me to keep humidity up in the room so right now I have some syran wrap laying lightly over the buckets to help trap some in with the sprout. My guage shows humidity around 27-35% as long as I keep the humidifier running on high. The temp is pretty stable between 70-80 degrees.

One of the taproots has sprouted through the soil so I have one of my feit 19w LED lights turned on for it at a distance of 30".

What can I do to help this along and have happy, healthy plants? Any help would be welcome and appreciated

I attached a couple pics of how the grow room looked midway and before I put the tarp on the roof. It is now completely enclosed. Also attached pics of the lights im using.

Thanks everyone!

heya @Luketheduke and to afn! nice diy & thoze lightz will work to get em started, but they need to be way closer to the plantz happee holidaze & anything u need, jus give a holler

ppp &

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@Luketheduke Welcome to AFNI love DIY and you do it well!

Living in AZ you are going to need much more humidity adding capability. A small swamp cooler can do the trick. You want the space >40% <60% RH

You are also going to need much more light.

I bet you can rig something up

 

[nizmoKush]

@Luketheduke welcome to afn i like your diy grow man.. how about ventilation do you have any holes in that diy tent?
As far as lights goes youre gonna need more power for sure. Diy lights are the way to go if you want to save some money.

 

[Luketheduke]

@Luketheduke welcome to afn i like your diy grow man.. how about ventilation do you have any holes in that diy tent?
As far as lights goes youre gonna need more power for sure. Diy lights are the way to go if you want to save some money.

What do you recommend for diy lights?

 

[Luketheduke]

@Luketheduke Welcome to AFNI love DIY and you do it well!

Living in AZ you are going to need much more humidity adding capability. A small swamp cooler can do the trick. You want the space >40% <60% RH

You are also going to need much more light.

I bet you can rig something up

Yeah its def dry here. After playing w my settings i got humidity up to 75%. So i think anther humidifier will do the trick. What do you recommend for a good enough grow light to get me through?

 

[Death The Cultivator]

What do you recommend for diy lights?

Bridgelux EB gen 3

DIY LED Strip Build Designs for Samsung H-Series, F-Series, Q-Series, and Bridgelux EB Gen.2 - LED Gardener

DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...

ledgardener.com

https://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/partgroup/eb-series-slim-gen-3/91271

They come in 1/2/4ft configurations.

I have several DIY sets using their previous generation on Meanwell drivers. This is second cheapest option imo with the QBs below being a little cheaper on heatsink/frame. Aluminum channel or tubing works well for heat sink.

Then there's

Horticulture Lighting Group

QB132 V2 Quantum Boards

High Efficiency LED Light Engines. 132pcs Samsung LM301H LED per board

horticulturelightinggroup.com

The 120's are another option

QB96 Elite V2 Engine

QB96 Elite V2 is a white LED Board with boosted red spectrum. Each Board is powered by 64 high power white LED, 16 630nm Red LED and 16 660nm Deep Red LED.

horticulturelightinggroup.com

Then there's is the DIY kit I suggested to you

260W QB V2 Rspec LED Kit

Ultra High Efficiency LED Boards for DIY. QB288 has 288pcs Samsung 301H or 561C LED

horticulturelightinggroup.com

Here is a great informational on LED lighting metrics. Help you understand why and what you need.

Understanding LED Grow Light Metrics

Metrics Matter… Wait, What Are Metrics? Trying to find the best grow lights for your application can be an overwhelming process. In fact, researching the topic might leave you with more questions than you started with. After all, not all of us are qualified engineers or plant physiologists, and...

chilledgrowlights.com

 

[nizmoKush]

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Yeah its def dry here. After playing w my settings i got humidity up to 75%. So i think anther humidifier will do the trick. What do you recommend for a good enough grow light to get me through?

Well good enough or an investment for the future. LED last 50,000 hours so what you by now will be around for a while. Very few lights will be perfect on their own. A blue light heavy spectrum is good for veg and red heavy is good for flower. Seldom does a single light do both well. IMPO I would get a red heavy light and supplement the blue. Then as the flowers ripen you will eventually want to add some UVA to enhance the terpene (flavor and aroma) profile and UVB to enhance the THC levels. The boards recommended by @damien50 are all a good starting point. and I believe they lean red. It is a simple matter to ad some Blue with a puck.

You do not need these right away but as your skill level grows you will want to add them. To add the UVA and UVB ArgoMax is the way to go.




t548ho florescent bulbs. . You will run the UVA plus the last 3 weeks of the grow on the same schedule as your grow lights and the Pure UV 75% UVB 25% UVA a couple of hours mid day for the last 2 weeks.

These are very strong and dangerous to your skin and eyes. No joke a guy worked for a couple of minutes under the Pure UV and got blisters all along his neck and face.

I personally run ChilLed Grow Craft lamps as my main lights.

 

[Luketheduke]

Is mars hydro any good? Ive seen a couple people here say they grow with the mars hydro ts 1000w. I figured for a 3x3 150$ seemed like i could manage to buy 2-3. Think that would be any better? Im just operating on a tight budget w christmas around the corner