New Grower First grow, Joint Doctors Diesel ryder. LED MICRO GROW

[kamko15]

Yo, Kamko here with my first EVER marijuana grow.! So i've been "medicating" for a while now and have become infatuated with the idea of growing my own. After a lot of thought I decided to start small with a grow box. I looked online and I really wasn't diggin the prices. SOOOOOOOOO... I made my own. Everything is DIY even the LEDs. I figured that auto flower plants would be the best for this type of grow, because I didn't wanna get to much into scrogging just yet and It "seemed" easier. not the case, but you live and learn.

Without further adue heres some pix of my grow.

I've been giving it miracle grow all purpose plant food and Hollands land o giants seaweed powder all PH'd 6.5. The soil is some cheapo stuff I grabbed at K-Mart organic soil composed of Peat moss, Turkey crap, wood chips, lime, and yuca meal. The light i used up till about to days ago was a 70Watt overhead LED that you see in the pix, but I have changed to the two 90Watt vertical panels. I really want to run all three, but I am having heat problems so that is out of the question for now.

Okay so its about 4 weeks old some pistils showing and smell is becoming quite pungent. if you have any questions please feel free to ask, and if anyone can tell me how to make this SOB get some height PLEASE let me know.

 

[BxElmo]

We first off Kamko welcome and she looks sexy. I'm a noob with the auto's. Now the soil you have is good enough the mircale grow soil. I'm not so sure but not to sound rude ditch the MG food. It used it once and never again. There is many types of Ferts out there ten times better then mircale grow for the same price almost. I myself love LEDs but I'm working with CFL's as well. I have a 12w LED Growspot mixed spec on top and 158w CFL's (6 27w each on sides and bottom). Check my posts. At 3-4 weeks she wonderful but for that vertical growth get some lower watts on the side then higher on top but not sure. Many techniques to resolve this.

 

[BxElmo]

sorry for the mis spelling

 

[agito]

keeping the over head led would be better as the leafs face upwards just drop one of the sides. impressive looking setup

 

[TaNg]

That's so f#%kin weird just last night I was thinking how cool it would be to produce/buy a grow box with LEDs mounted in the walls and the picture in my mind was pretty much what u have made...I'm very impressed but I would strongly agree with above,you need your strongest light above the plant so they can grow towards it. Your heat problem could be solved with a more powerful extraction fan.

 

[Muddy]

I agree with Agito, the overhead light will serve you better, but of course, even better if you can run all 3. What is your ventilation setup? Maybe it can be improved to reduce your heat. I also agree on the MG nutes, ditch them in favor of something that's been developed specifically for growing weed. Also, next grow invest in some good soil or a soil less mix like Pro Mix or Sunshine Mix. Your plants will love you for it.

Take a look at this, it should give you an idea of what to expect from your plants: https://www.autoflower.org/f44/life-cycle-auto-flowering-cannabis-5113.html

 

[kamko15]

Thanks all for taking the time to check out my grow :thumbs:. i appreciate the advice on my top light, i've never grown pot before and I have never grown indoors so any info given is good info in that regard. Now about the nutes, they are not the best i know but they were free and I was really trying to keep my cost down on this first run Im more of an organic grower so this was a sin for me, but hey free is free.

Today
I realized the importance of the top light (thanks to you guys) and switched it on so now i have all three panels running giving me 240 watts of LED in a 1.5 sqft growbox. I know i mentioned that I was having a heat problem well its still a concern but i gave the plants a good watering and foliar spray. The watering combined with the cpu fan i have blowing over the plant has dropped the temp a few degrees, the box is now at 83 F which is not where i want it at all but for now it will have to do. I know and you all know that the heat will rise throughout the day so im gonna toggle the side panels to switch off on one side to save my lady some stress. this is going to be my plan until i can fix the heat issue.:hot:

She's also feminized if that makes a difference. I believe it dose.

My Ventilation is one 80 CFM outake and one 62 CFM intake.

The problem is the cooling of the LED panels. I assumed when I made them, the thick aluminum sheet and thermal adhesive would be enough to completely dampen the heat. WELL i was wrong, imagine that, these LEDs need a bigger heatsink and honestly the heatsink itself needs to be cooled. More to the point, the front of the LEDs do not produce any heat it is all sucked out of the back and into the heatsink, but the heatsink holds that heat which radiates from it. I can fix this but Im not planning on it during this grow so...

If there is a way i can get into a good temp range without having to making air cooled encasements for my panels then I would be uhhh In the money as some would say.


Shout outs to BxElmo, Agito, J TaNg, and Muddy waters haha. That Life Cycle thread is awesome and I have been referencing it for a while now thanks for posting that.


pass..

 

[Muddy]

How big of a fan are you using to draw the hot air out of the box? Also, what is the temperature in the room that the box is in?

 

[kamko15]

92mm or about 3.5 in, and yano im not sure. the house is about 71 degrees, but i have it in a closet so the heat is dispersed into that room than recirculating back into the box.................... im not sure what the solution would be here besides a small ac unit or a more powerful fan. anything more powerful would be to loud I think but im willing to try.

 

[Muddy]

That looks like a PC type fan you are using. If so, it's probably just not strong enough and is not moving enough air. With the room temp of 71, and enough air being pulled through, I would think you should be easily be able to keep your temps around 80. I would suggest you get something like this: http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/active-air-165-cfm-in-line-duct-fan-p-2755.html. When you mount it put some rubber between the fan and the wall. That will help to cut down on vibration and noise. You can also hook it to a variable speed controller which will give you better control. You may find you don't need to run it at full speed. Reduced speed will also help to cut down on the noise.