My grow room + some newb Q’s

[CurrDogg420]

Hi guys! Long time smoker, first time grower here. My state finally legalized it for recreational use!!

A little background: My mom, sister, and girlfriend have all had medical use cards for a while. I probably could have gotten one myself but honestly it was cheaper for me to get it from friends. I smoke around 1lb of flower per year myself, and the ladies of my life prefer the edibles. Now that it’s legal, I decided to take up a new hobby, and save myself and my family some cash!

My girlfriend and I both enjoy gardening, and last year we really got into it. For a while there food was pretty scarce in the stores, and the nurseries were all shut down at the beginning of gardening season. So, I started buying some seeds and building an indoor grow room to get our garden going. I never dreamed I’d be growing weed in there! Legally!!

Our grow room started out in a small “bedroom” - which was really more like a large walk in closet. This year we moved it to the basement, into a larger 12x12 room we had down there.

The racks and shop light LEDs along this wall were the “old” grow room:

After the move to the basement, we added a pair of 5x5 tents (veg + flower), some budget lights from Amazon, and the rest of the necessary goodies:

But I guess those pics will have to wait! As a noob I can only upload one at a time!

So I guess I’ll get on to my noob question. I started some NYC Diesel and Lemon Kush seeds - from Homegrown of course! - a little over two weeks ago. The plants are pushing out their 4th node, but they’re only around 4 inches tall. Stems are getting sturdier but still only about 1/16” thick.

Too early to top? They’re photoperiods of course.

Thanks!
CurrDogg

[CurrDogg420]

[kmac03]

What beautiful plants you have there! Growing some peppers, too? If those were my plants, I’d top. Most might wait a bit more, but that’s my opinion. Do you have a fan blowing them about midway for toughening up the stems?

[Mrb53004 (Mike)]

@Kmac is correct…better to top now for a more controlled growth and training. 4th node is perfect for fim / top adjustments. Then you can top again after those tops are developed and have nodes. After it is done, try to keep the canopy even so it doesn’t mess up the lighting.
Guess you are New York? You got a basement…Out in the west, LV, NV, no basements here…Sure do miss them and they were cooler. Could use that here. They went legal in NY recently, aye?

[CurrDogg420]

Thanks @kmac03 ! Yep, we’ve got several different varieties of peppers - Carolina reaper, scotch bonnet, habanero, cayenne, jalapeño, bell, and a few others. We’ve also got some San Marzano tomatoes, beans, and cukes waiting another couple weeks before going outside into the garden. That’s the best part of starting from seeds - you gain access to the varieties that you want, instead of only what the nursery has available.

We have a total of 3 fans blowing on the racks from different heights and angles. The tents each have two more apiece.

[kmac03]

Beautiful! I’m in adoration! I love making my own seeds, too. I have more on the way, flowers and trees. I just planted some Christmas trees, Blue Spruce, specifically.

[CurrDogg420]

That’s some pretty good detective work @Mrb53004. I’ll just say, you’re not too far off…

Yeah, I think the basement is going to work out great. I wasn’t considering the fact at the time, but this space benefits from geothermal - the temperature down there only varies by about 10 degrees all year. In the height of summer it only gets up to around 65, and it only gets down to 55 in the dead of winter. I’m hoping that means we won’t need any supplemental cooling - I can just pull air from the side of the basement that I’m not heating.

[CurrDogg420]

Garden update - moved the girls into their final pot. They’ve had their training and they’re ready to go to work on this 5x5. They start this week.

Which brings me to my next newbie problem. Getting to the second row for watering is gonna be a pain. I can really only access this tent from the front side. Didn’t really think about that before now.

[HippiePa (Dale)]

Same challenge but now I’ve gotten in the habit of bringing them out of the tent one at a time to get watered, inspected, and one on one quality time

[Noddykitty]

Beautiful looking grow . I am impressed by your veggies too.

I would just get a pump sprayer with the wand on the hose. It should have plenty of reach with the wand to get low by the pots. If you take the back pressure cap off it dribbles like a hose instead of a pressurized mister.

[Noddykitty]

Or you could cut up the backside of the tent and put a slit in. I saw the grow shops around here sell several brands of “add a zippers” that basically duct tape onto each side of the slit and then have light tight zippers. I guess it depends which bugs you less. Carrying a jug, or cutting the tent.

[Noddykitty]

That quality time is priceless one on one. You may miss it.

[kmac03]

What @Noddykitty said. I bought one. I don’t like that it’s plastic. Doesn’t appear to be the friendly kind.

Separate issue: I need to find something that can hang on the wall in the sunlight that can hold two liters of fermenting fluid. Yes, I said fermenting fluid.

[Noddykitty]

Maybe something like this? Sans the fish for fermentation.

This one came up first on Amazon and holds 1 gallon of liquid to the brim.

[CurrDogg420]

You guys ever see anything like this?

It’s a cut I took from one of the plants. It’s growing 3 sets of leaves and 3 sets of branches at every node. At least, until I topped it. I dont think the new branches are growing that way. The mother plant isn’t like that, it was just this branch.

(I think the discoloration is due to the foliar watering with my dechlorinated tap water)

[Noddykitty]

Currdogg I have seen that a few times but not often. Usually after a FIM instead of a clean cut. The new growth is usually in even pairs. I have seen 2s and 4s way more than 3s.

The weirdest thing I’ve ever seen are leaves that grow pistols out of all the leaves. Even the big sun leaves. It’s like if the leaf was your hand, you would have a couple pistols growing out of your knuckles. So weird. It was from a black cherry soda I had crossed a few times. Never seen it since.

[kmac03]

Excellent idea! Thank you!!

[kmac03]

Apologies for my yammer on your thread.

@Noddykitty But, pistols out of knuckles? Hahaha! Like Freddie Krueger, but not!

[CurrDogg420]

These girls have been THIRSTY from all their hard work. They’ve been splitting a 5 gallon bucket every morning. It’s become a 45 minute chore to hand water the garden - daily - and I have to start right when the lights come on to make sure I don’t end up late for work.

So, I splurged on a luxury upgrade - a Tropf BluMat drip irrigation system. I think it’s going to take a bit of fussing to get it dialed in, but hopefully it’s going to save me a lot of time and let me get away from the house for a weekend to go camping or whatever.

Anyone else out there using one of these?

[Noddykitty]

Is that a hibiscus in there by your reservoir?

I have an old college housemate that was broke and owes me for years of rent and utilities and cable. The lease and everything was in MY name so it still had to be paid. (Many moons ago). Anyway to preserve the friendship I added it up. Every single freaking dollar he owed me and made him sign an IOU contract. The deal was whenever I go on vacation he gets to come over and water my garden. He basically house sits. I never take his money back even now that he has a real job. I still make him water. I guess it was just after college, but anyway we are still great friends.