Indoor Organic Soil - Phoenix Genetics NL Express Auto's - 2x2x4 Budget Grow

[HumbleToker]

Hey all!

Figured it was time to start my grow journal since 3 out of 4 of my seeds have already sprouted and I shouldn't let it get away from me before recording it.

Equipment:

2x2x4 VIVOSUN Grow Tent
300W (136W true power) VIPARSPECTRA LED 'Full Spectrum' Grow Light
Hygrometer w/ Thermometer VIVOSUN brand
6" VIVOSUN Inline Duct Fan w/ Built-In Speed Controller
6" VIVOSUN Carbon Filter
5 Gallon VIVOSUN Fabric Pots
Pro-Mix Organic Vegetable and Herb Mix (The only soil I could find in winter close to where I live)
Mega-Crop Nutrient Mix (Only to be used if/as needed)
Watering with tap water coming in off a township pipe

Seeds:

Northern Lights Express Auto's from Phoenix Genetics, purchased from Seedsman

Growing Conditions:

The tent is setup in a basement utility room. Outside-tent ambient air temps fluctuate from about 17C - 20C, ambient humidity around 10%.

Inside the tent, running the light 24/7 and not running the ventilation, temps sit around 26C - 27C and humidity stays at 55% - 60%.

Why I'm Growing:

Became interested in growing after I got tired of the dry, dusty, expensive medicine I was getting from dispensaries. I try to be careful with what I put in my body, so growing seemed like a logical next step so I can control how the plant is produced.

This is a budget grow coming from someone who, traditionally, has not been very good at gardening. I figure with enough care, patience, and advice, I should be able to grow some quality medicine.

I'm sure I'll have many questions as the grow goes along. If you notice something and want to provide advice, feedback, or constructive criticism, I'm all ears.

Looking forward to harvest already!

 

[HumbleToker]

January 24, 2020 - Planting:

Watered soil until moist with tap water, but did not flush soil as I did not want to lose organic nutrients. Let soil sit with LED light on for a couple days to stabilize heat and humidity in the tent. Planted 4 seeds direct-to-pot on January 24, 2020. Covered seeds with clean aluminum cans to protect them from the 24/7 light running to keep heat in the tent (yep, it's a budget grow in every sense).

Checked seeds once per day, lightly spritzed tap water around seeds to keep top layer of soil moist which ensures humidity stays healthy in the tent.

Temp: 27C
Humidity: 60%

January 29, 2020 - First Seedlings:

Did a daily check of the seedlings around 2pm and noticed 2 seeds had sprouted. Removed the cans on these plants and lightly spritzed the soil around seedling. Other 2 seeds had not sprouted as of 2pm, but around 1am when I did a final check of the seeds I noticed a third seedling was nearly sprouting. Left the can on that seedling overnight.

Temp: 26.4C
Humidity: 55%

January 30, 2020 - New Seedling:

The seedling I noticed around 1am last night had fully sprouted by this morning. I removed the can and took some photos, then carefully spritzed the soil again. The other 2 seedlings have sprouted true leaves. No joy on the 4th seed yet, but we'll give it a few more days to pop.

Temp: 26.8C
Humidity: 57%

Pictures:

I'm a fairly long-time hobbyist photographer so I'll do my best to get quality photos! I shoot with a Nikon D7000 and process with Lightroom. For these pictures I used a vintage Nikkor 55mm 3.5f 1:2 Macro (plants) and a Nikkor 10-20mm 4.5f wide angle (tent shot). I process the photos in Lightroom, but the only color editing I do is removing the purple/blue cast from the LED light. Otherwise it's simple crop, exposure, sharpening work. I don't add false colors to my images.

Apologies in advance for the slight softness in the macro photo's. I didn't feel like pulling out my tripod so I shot it hand-held which isn't great for macro. On to the pictures!

This is my tent setup in all its budget glory, I added annotations to identify the plants:


This is plant #1, I was pleased to see this one sprout because the seed was very small and pale green, nearly white:


This is plant #2, I'm very pleased with its progress. Nearly 2 inches at this point, so I'm hopeful this will be a healthy girl:


And finally here's plant #3, freshly sprouted from the soil this morning:


That's all for today's update. I'll check plant #4 before I go to bed tonight to see if any little sprouts are making their way through the soil. Thanks for reading!

 

[OttoCBD]

As a fellow budget-minded grower, I'll follow along.

 

[HumbleToker]

As a fellow budget-minded grower, I'll follow along.

Thank you! I'm following your build now as well, I love seeing small grows. Best of luck on your grow!

@hope2grow I remember you asked me to tag you into my grow, so here it is

 

[OttoCBD]

Thank you! I'm following your build now as well, I love seeing small grows. Best of luck on your grow!

Thanks! Sometimes less is more.

 

[420Forever]

January 24, 2020 - Planting:

Watered soil until moist with tap water, but did not flush soil as I did not want to lose organic nutrients. Let soil sit with LED light on for a couple days to stabilize heat and humidity in the tent. Planted 4 seeds direct-to-pot on January 24, 2020. Covered seeds with clean aluminum cans to protect them from the 24/7 light running to keep heat in the tent (yep, it's a budget grow in every sense).

Checked seeds once per day, lightly spritzed tap water around seeds to keep top layer of soil moist which ensures humidity stays healthy in the tent.

Temp: 27C
Humidity: 60%

January 29, 2020 - First Seedlings:

Did a daily check of the seedlings around 2pm and noticed 2 seeds had sprouted. Removed the cans on these plants and lightly spritzed the soil around seedling. Other 2 seeds had not sprouted as of 2pm, but around 1am when I did a final check of the seeds I noticed a third seedling was nearly sprouting. Left the can on that seedling overnight.

Temp: 26.4C
Humidity: 55%

January 30, 2020 - New Seedling:

The seedling I noticed around 1am last night had fully sprouted by this morning. I removed the can and took some photos, then carefully spritzed the soil again. The other 2 seedlings have sprouted true leaves. No joy on the 4th seed yet, but we'll give it a few more days to pop.

Temp: 26.8C
Humidity: 57%

Pictures:

I'm a fairly long-time hobbyist photographer so I'll do my best to get quality photos! I shoot with a Nikon D7000 and process with Lightroom. For these pictures I used a vintage Nikkor 55mm 3.5f 1:2 Macro (plants) and a Nikkor 10-20mm 4.5f wide angle (tent shot). I process the photos in Lightroom, but the only color editing I do is removing the purple/blue cast from the LED light. Otherwise it's simple crop, exposure, sharpening work. I don't add false colors to my images.

Apologies in advance for the slight softness in the macro photo's. I didn't feel like pulling out my tripod so I shot it hand-held which isn't great for macro. On to the pictures!

This is my tent setup in all its budget glory, I added annotations to identify the plants:
View attachment 1154320

This is plant #1, I was pleased to see this one sprout because the seed was very small and pale green, nearly white:
View attachment 1154321

This is plant #2, I'm very pleased with its progress. Nearly 2 inches at this point, so I'm hopeful this will be a healthy girl:
View attachment 1154322

And finally here's plant #3, freshly sprouted from the soil this morning:
View attachment 1154323

That's all for today's update. I'll check plant #4 before I go to bed tonight to see if any little sprouts are making their way through the soil. Thanks for reading!

budget growerz unite! ppp

 

[Smoking Frog]

Welcome! Growing is addictive,be aware!
Couples of things i noticed.
You will need a circulation fan in the tent at some time...and probably sooner then later.
Running the exaust fan even before the smell is noticeable will help bring fresh air in.(i know your temp will go down a bit,just run it at the minimum speed)
6'' exaust fan is a bit overkill in a 2x4...but you'll already have it when you get a bigger tent!
4 plants in 5 gals bag in a 2x4 is a bit tight IMO.Presently have 2 in 3 gals bag and plants are touching each other and sides.
Wish you a good first grow and have fun...it's only weed!:smoking:

 

[Proph]

Welcome! And Happy growing! I guess you take the "go big or go home" saying seriously, lol. A good thing about being a new grower is having an excuse for anything that may go haywire.. Another good thing is that this forum loves helping newbies! With that said, let me give ya a pinch of salt, lol. Four 5gal pots in a 2x2 tent running 135w, northern lights genetics (usually tall, branchy plants), and with alllll that equipment inside, might not be a pretty sight 60 days from now, lol. You may want to consider scaling down a bit. Not only will you run into space and hieght issues, 135w won't properly cover four plants through flower..

For example.. I have a 2x2x5 tent with nothing in it (you really don't need any of that extra stuff in a small tent). No exhaust, no carbon filter, nada.. I just use a simple rotating clip fan. I grow one plant in a 5gal pot under a 120w quantum board. One plant fills the tent from top to bottom and from side to side with ease.

Just think.. You have a 2x2x4... The pot itself is about 12 inches tall.. The light hangs from the top of the tent by about 12 inches at least.. Then you need 12-18 inches from the light to the canopy.. So your 4 plants have about a foot, or a foot and a half of total vertical growing space.., not including the space taken up by the 6" fan and carbon filter. Even less space horizontally. Just a little food for thought. You can search the site for 2x2 tent grows for other examples. You won't find many with more than one plant. We are all here to help though, that's for sure!
Good luck on your grow!

 

[420Forever]

might not be a pretty sight 60 days from now, lol.

NL = can anyone say -> "b u s h"-?? me agree, 4 NL in 5gal bagz in a 2x4 is def gonna be, well, (can anyone say "w e e d e a t e r"-?? ) jus sayin...:smoking: ppp

 

[HumbleToker]

Welcome! Growing is addictive,be aware!
Couples of things i noticed.
You will need a circulation fan in the tent at some time...and probably sooner then later.
Running the exaust fan even before the smell is noticeable will help bring fresh air in.(i know your temp will go down a bit,just run it at the minimum speed)
6'' exaust fan is a bit overkill in a 2x4...but you'll already have it when you get a bigger tent!
4 plants in 5 gals bag in a 2x4 is a bit tight IMO.Presently have 2 in 3 gals bag and plants are touching each other and sides.
Wish you a good first grow and have fun...it's only weed!:smoking:

Thanks for the insights, I do have a clip-on fan from Amazon that I'll be ordering shortly to provide circulation.

You're 100% right that the 6" fan is too big for my tent, even at the minimum speed it sucks out a lot of air. Running it even for 20 minutes can drop the temps below 20C and the humidity below 10% (cold and dry in my basement suite). Would that be an issue for the plants once they're more mature? Or could they handle the shift in the environment?

I had wondered about running 4 plants. I've seen a couple other grows elsewhere on the internet where they did 4 plants in a 2x2, but really the reason I planted 4 was a lack of confidence. Figured with 4 plants I could lose a couple and still get a yield. That said, one of my seeds hasn't popped so I might remove that one from the tent and grow 3 plants.

Welcome! And Happy growing! I guess you take the "go big or go home" saying seriously, lol. A good thing about being a new grower is having an excuse for anything that may go haywire.. Another good thing is that this forum loves helping newbies! With that said, let me give ya a pinch of salt, lol. Four 5gal pots in a 2x2 tent running 135w, northern lights genetics (usually tall, branchy plants), and with alllll that equipment inside, might not be a pretty sight 60 days from now, lol. You may want to consider scaling down a bit. Not only will you run into space and hieght issues, 135w won't properly cover four plants through flower..

For example.. I have a 2x2x5 tent with nothing in it (you really don't need any of that extra stuff in a small tent). No exhaust, no carbon filter, nada.. I just use a simple rotating clip fan. I grow one plant in a 5gal pot under a 120w quantum board. One plant fills the tent from top to bottom and from side to side with ease.

Just think.. You have a 2x2x4... The pot itself is about 12 inches tall.. The light hangs from the top of the tent by about 12 inches at least.. Then you need 12-18 inches from the light to the canopy.. So your 4 plants have about a foot, or a foot and a half of total vertical growing space.., not including the space taken up by the 6" fan and carbon filter. Even less space horizontally. Just a little food for thought. You can search the site for 2x2 tent grows for other examples. You won't find many with more than one plant. We are all here to help though, that's for sure!
Good luck on your grow!

Appreciate the advice, thanks. On the issue of height, it's definitely tight in that tent. I've mounted the fan and carbon filter outside the tent, as the carbon filter is rated to filter pushed air not just pulled air. I went that route so I can cinch my light pretty close to the top of the tent if needed and it makes it easier to manage things in the tent. And since I share the house with an upstairs suite I needed something to manage the smell.

I did ponder putting 4 pots in the tent, I figured it would be tight. I've seen other people do it but of course that doesn't mean it's a good idea. But, it looks like 1 of my seeds may not pop so it'll probably become a 3 plant grow. I went for 4 plants mostly out of fear that not all would make it on my first grow, and I wanted some leeway to lose a plant or two and still get something at the end.

That said, based on yours and Smoking Frog's advice, it's likely a better idea to pull the pot with the seed that hasn't popped yet and run 3 plants. I also plan to stay on-top of LST to try and manage the growth.

Thanks all for the advice, I appreciate it!