Mr. Cheap And Un-Proffesional tries a little bit harder.

[wotnwhy]

Hello one and all, welcome so my Sweet Seeds Competition Grow!

Lets start, shall we, by putting things into context with a brief history of how I ended up at this point and what I plan to achieve from here on in

History

Well I'll try not to waffle on to much and start by saying that my first grow started because I was fed up of lining the pockets of skum just to get my hands on our sacred herb.

There was a lot of mind changing, choping, moving and general fafferie. All of which is outlined in my diary here! But (for those who don't want to trawl through my past inane ramblings )things eventually settled with a 250w light and desk fan in a bare cupboard, with 4 auto's alongside a regular. The Auto's (although lovely), yeilded poorly due to the abuse I bestowed on them throughout their life. The regular is still in my cupboard, and very near completion. But I felt it was lonely in the cupboard all alone so stuck in an Afghan Kush Ryder (auto) to keep it company and, in the name of experimentation, I will not be doing anything to her

And so I find myself here, firmly bitten by the growing bug! I have seen that with no effort and poor treatment, it is still possible to grow a plant to completion. But now it's time to get a little more serious (but only a little, serious is not in my nature.. ) and see if I can grow something well enough to finally cut all ties with the evil dealers!

The Plan

Seeing what can be done with just a light in poor conditions, I'm excited about seeing what can be achieved if I put some effort into improving these conditions.

Over the coming weeks I will be documenting my upgrading of the 'drobe, and getting used to the setep, as the Afghan Kush finishes. Then the REAL fun can begin as the Sweet Seeds go in!

- I will hopefully be following the same pattern as my first grow, in that I will be vegging 1 reg alongside auto's, then switching to 12/12 once the auto's finish.

- I will be keeping things as simple as possible with feed. Fish mix and maby some bloom boosts towards the end. Thats it.

- I will be doing as little interfering as possible with the auto's, then training up the reg to keep it low.

So! Thats about it for the time being As soon as the bits arrive I will start upgrading the 'drobe and updating this thread!

Yep, nothing else I need to say... So taraa for now!

Just double checking I've included everything... Sure have, so laters

Oh wait! how could I forget... The seeds I'll be popping are

Edited September 27, 2011 by wotnwhy

[se7en]

firs t in!

good luck mate!in the end we all going to be winners...

7

[Serpent]

Good luck with the grow and comp dude

[Guest Thicky]

Good luck wotnwhy Come on then......which strains?

[beanpopper]

welcome matey. Sounds like a brave plan you got there,

just a peek at your diary, did you ever round to getting a Fan and Carbon filter?? it will stink

+ Fresh air is an important part of your environment.

looks like its going to be an interesting one forsure .

Ill keep popping back I love the cheap check out my comp diary from last year that whole thing cost me £60 to build

All the best Pal

[wotnwhy]

se7en, Thanks for popping in! I think it's simply outstanding the opportunity Sweet Seeds have offered us here so yes, we're all already winners! Thankyou everyone involved!

Serpent, Thankyou I've spent a lot of time reading you diaries, hopefully some of it has sunk in!

Thicky, Why thank you I shall announce the strains when they arrive

beanpopper, Thanks for the comments I will be setting up properly for this one. Over the next few weeks I will get the 'drobe sealed up, fan & filter etc etc. I will be documenting it here before I start the grow. And don't believe I've seen that diary, I will check it out!

For now..

peas/OUT!

[puglins]

good luck with your grow

[Sweet Seeds-tommy]

Thanks for starting your grow diary mate!

Seems like it's going to be another interesting operation, judging by your plans, hehehe

Good luck buddy, keep it sweet and high!

|tommy_g|

[Guest Nu Jerzey Devil]

Wishing you all the best

[Guest La Viva Sativa]

welcome to the party buddy.

[wotnwhy]

puglins Thankyou with the way I do things, I'll be needing some of that luck!

Sweet Seeds Nice to see you in here! Thankyou again for this amazing opportunity!

La Viva Sativa Thankyou, best of luck to you too!

Right, the fan, filter and various bits arrived, and I've spent the last couple of days getting everything thing fitted out, so I can now bring you:

Preperation

This is how the 'drobe was beforehand. Just a light and fan. Temps ranging from 18 to 35c, and in the days leading up to the upgrade, humidity had gone from 20 to 80% to an extreme of 91%! Worrying to say the least, but luckily avoided and mould/rot.

I took my inspiration and lead for fitting out from Church's fantastic step-by-step thread here as I have virtually the same cupboard. This thread was invaluble and made the whole process smooth and trouble free. I guarentee this would not have been the case had I cracked on alone, so thankyou Church!

Step 1 Fit shelf for carbon filter

Luckily I had this shelf in my bathroom which saved a trip to the shop!

Step 2 Cut holes for ducting

This was really quite an awkward affair, and it was really hot. Sweat and sawdust is horrid..

Step 3 Hook up fan

Hooking everything was smooth and hassle free. Church talked of fan vibration noise in his thread so I stuck a bit of speaker lining foam underneath to cut down noise.

More after the break....

[wotnwhy]

...Welcome back

Step 4 Line the 'drobe

I used diamond reflective sheeting as apparently the embossing reduces hot-spots in the room. The sheet was exactly as wide as the height of my 'drobe which was a really nice supprise and made things much easier! And there was even a little bit left over to do the floor with! :wink:

Step 5 Test equipment

With everything back in and hooked up it was time to test things out! Flip the swith. The fan starts up. "Not bad" I think to myself. "Fans fairly quiet". Fan revs countinue to build. "Ok, it's a bit noisy, but not bad". Revs continue to build. "Sound like an aeroplane about to take off!"

Ok, maby a bit of an exaggeration. But the it's a lot noisier than I was expecting. That said, it's been on for a couple of nights now and I think we'll be able to get used to it

Step 6 Time to get settled

With the plants back home I'm now getting used to my new setup. The first couple of nights have gone swimmingly, with lights on stats peaking at 28c (32c 5" under light) and 48% humidity and lights off peaking at 21c & 73%, pretty good methinks!

Thankyou for stopping in! For now...

peas/OUT!

[puglins]

looking good bud

[Tony Montana]

Party time

[wotnwhy]

puglins Thankyou I'm pleased with how it's turned out. Though the test of time has shown the tape holding it up to be insufficiant as it's slowly peeling off...

gunner99 It is indeed! The Afghan Kush has really thrived in this new setup. I'm very excited to get the Sweet Seeds in there!

Sooo... It's been almost a week since the 'drobe was upgraded. Lets have a look at whats been happening shall we?

Testing

As I mentioned to puglins, the tape holding up the reflective sheeting is slowly coming unstuck, so a more heatproof tape is needed. Other than that everything seems to be in order!

I've kept a diary of temps and humidity which is as follows:

Sunday ______Light off = 21c 80%______Light on = 26c 56%

Monday______Light off = 20c 81%______Light on = 28c 48%

Tueseday ____Light off = 20c 81%______Light on = 23c 63%

Wednesday___Light off = 19c 81%______Light on = 22c 69%

So night time temps are dropping (light is off at night atm) but humidity seems to be staying constant, and high.. My bedroom is humid anyway, and of course this is the air being drawn into the 'drobe.. So not sure how to combat this. I have a cloakroom dehumidifier to put in there, but that wont be able to draw moisture out of the air as quickly as it's being pulled in... So do I turn the extraction off to allow the dehumidifier to do it's thing?? Any suggestions/ideas?? Also, with the weather turning tuesday, daytime humidity has also risen..

Temps seem to be good. Getting a little high in the daytime with the heatwave, but settled now. Once it's just the Afghan Kush in there on it's own I will switch to a 13 or even 14/12 cycle until the light is on overnight and off in the day, to help keep temps steady as we head into the cold of winter.

So overall testing is going well, and I hope to have things running smoothly by the time the Sweet Seeds get in there!

Oh yeah... The Sweet Seeds... They have arrived! Unfortunately in my stoned stuper I couldn't have been more UNclear about what I wanted for the comp... My intention was to get all auto's and use the regular Green Poison seed I already have as my 1 regular. Well as it turns out i now have 1 pack of auto's and 3 regs, so the plan will have to change a little bit. But I'll come to that in a bit, for now..

The seeds

My auto strain is Cream Caramel, joined by the regulars Black Jack and S.A.D I will probably leave the Green Poisen out now due to space restrictions

The Plan (revised)

- Grow 6 plants in smaller pots (sorry, don't know how many liters) is a SOG or maby ScrOG style

- Seeds will be germinated in water and transfered straight to final pots

- Light cycle will be 12/12 from the beginning

Unconventional I know. Bad idea? Probably maby.. But hey, it'll be intersting to see what happens!