New Grower First grow with DIY kit

[Eclectic Elle]

Well here I am with an attempt at a journal. Those of you that have been kind enough to comment on my intro thread know what I've done, but for others here's a recap:
I'm in the Canary Islands with limited funds for play, and very limited resources. I've built a 4 panel tent 50 x 70 x 120 high out of pvc pipe and black and white sheeting, and duct tape. I've built a light and reflector out of a foil lasagne dish, wiring, 5 E27 sockets and 5 CFLs total 133W. I don't want to use a lot of electricity because I'm in a rented place and I don't know how much it is per KWh.

Before the tent was built my two older plants were outside on our terrace getting up to 6 hours a day of direct sunshine, but the roots may have been getting chilled at night for the last few nights they were out.

Anyway here we are. We have a Sumo White Widow Original at Day 36, and Sweet Seeds Sweet Mix Auto at Day 2 (just) and peeking through the CFL forest is a Sweet Seeds Sweet Special Auto at Day 25. Temps in the tent are 27C max 24C min, humidity from 50% to 65%. All looks good so far. WW had a weak feed at last watering and didn't suffer for it, so she can get a bit more next time round.

All comments and encouragement welcome!

 

[iampepe]

Looking good sir. I see a couple things to comment on
That seedling looks like its sitting in water, is it? It really shouldn't be if it is.
Fill your pots with soil, your plants will love you for it. The soil packs over the grow but initialy settles pretty fast especially after watering. To minimize this I fill the pots full, pick up the pot a few inches and drop it several times and then top off the pot, drop it once or twice more then I Plant my meds. Don't manually pack it down.
I have not grown with CFL's but I'm thinking the light would be best used if it were spread out a bit creating less shadows.

Happy Growing!

 

[Bailey]

Subbed for the ride I totally agree with everything @iampepe just mentioned just to explain the taproot can start to rot

 

[arpowre3]

Looking good sir. I see a couple things to comment on
That seedling looks like its sitting in water, is it? It really shouldn't be if it is.
Fill your pots with soil, your plants will love you for it. The soil packs over the grow but initialy settles pretty fast especially after watering. To minimize this I fill the pots full, pick up the pot a few inches and drop it several times and then top off the pot, drop it once or twice more then I Plant my meds. Don't manually pack it down.
I have not grown with CFL's but I'm thinking the light would be best used if it were spread out a bit creating less shadows.

Happy Growing!

For sure bro. It looks like 4-5" of soil could be put in that pot, and that jiffy pot shouldn't be in standing water

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[Eekman]

I too would add some good soil. I like the dropping the pots idea.

 

[tripaholic88]

ok im subbing up for this grow man.... sending your way!

 

[F.N.]

As was said spread your lights out my man and raise a few inches

 

[Eclectic Elle]

Great, thanks for all the comments so far @iampepe @Bailey @arpowre3 @Eekman @tripaholic88 @Fairlynew

I tipped the standing water away yesterday and I'll see about getting some more compost into the pots. I don't know if I can move the lights further apart, I don't want to rip the foil tray but I'll have a look at it shortly. Moving it further up is no problem.

I'll go check on the girls now. BTW lights - I'm running 20/4 at present.

 

[Eclectic Elle]

I've put another inch or so of compost in the pots which has taken the levels up to the lower lip - there isn't room for the 4-5 inches @arpowre3 suggested, maybe you meant centimetres dude? 25 litres of compost costs 7EUR so I've been quite sparing with it so far as I have to bring it home in a taxi when I get it - not much stealth there! One of y lights was flickering when I turned them back on but it's fine - probably just a dodgy wiring job by my OH lol.

 

[Eclectic Elle]

OK a little update: The WW and SSA are tarting to put some decent growth on now. Both are showing sex. The SMA (seedling) is now in a full size pot as all its roots were poking out of the jiffy. The two bigger girls had a small feed on Monday and are looking good so far. I'll see if I can do a pic later.

The stability of the tent is a bit of an issue. Whenever I open the door it twists the right hand panel slightly and it has tipped over this morning due to the weight of the lights. No damage, but a pain in the rear end. Not entirely sure what to do about it, as I'm at my limit with what I've spent on it. Any ideas anyone? Each panel is 4 pieces of pvc pipe joined at the corner by simple elbow joints. Any restructuring right now will probably cause me aggro anyway, but suggestions are welcome.