New grower, new space, new age!

I had a little area in the basement closed off from the rest of the space, a root cellar/closet if you will.

After caulking some cracks and spaces between some of the cinder blocks to keep any little bugs at bay, I gave it a fresh coat of bright white paint, insulated between the floor joists above, and sealed up with sheets of  thick rigid plastic that we use at work. I added some framing to the ceiling to attach supports for lights, fans, filters, or what have you. Next I framed the openings for the doors. Being limited in space I decided to use Panda film and zippers so as not to have swinging doors taking up valuable real estate in the lung room. Then went around and caulked all joints to keep everything as tightly sealed as possible. Next step was running my electric. There was a single light receptacle in there when I started, and that wasn't going to cut it. I have years of experience with home wiring and feel completely confidant in my abilities, but I suggest you consult with an experienced electrician if you have any doubts at all. This is one area you don't want to skimp on. I have a dedicated 20Amp breaker for the room. Then I installed a fan for each room, with the Veg room exhaust controlled by an InkBird humidity controller. When needed the humidifier is plugged in to the InkBird as well. The Flower room is controlled with the AC Infinity T4 fan. The veg room is exhausted into the lung room, since the 4 LED pucks don't create excess heat, I use the InkBird solely for controlling humidity. The Infinity fan exhausts completely outside the grow, with a carbon filter keeping the odors scrubbed before being dumped into the basement. One last passive filter was cut into the door and uses a furnace filter to keep out bugs, dust, etc.

With the construction completed I was ready to install my lights. The biggest chunk of my budget was spent here, but I feel it's one of the most important components to growing. The Flower room has 6 ChilLed Logic Pucks from Growmau5 with the 660nm deep reds, 3 each running in parallel on 2 MeanWell HLG-320H-48B drivers, capable of 638 total watts. As a bonus I added the far red initiator puck for helping the girls go to sleep faster.

The Veg room has 2 pair of the Logic Pucks with the Royal Blue leds, each pair on a MeanWell HLG-240H-C2100 driver, with a maximum 200W per pair for a total of 400W.

I'm pretty happy with the final results considering the restraints I had to work with. The benefits of growing in the basement means cooler temps in the heat of summer, and less energy needed to add heat in the winter. I switch from a dehumidifier in the summer, to a humidifier in the winter, with a small oil filled radiant space heater for temp control. No air conditioning needed. As a bonus, the "bunker" is discreetly hidden, and can survive an F4 tornado or a near nuclear blast! OK, maybe that's yet to be tested?

My growing media is a DIY soil recipe consisting of peat, compost, vermiculite, worm castings, rice hulls, gypsum, BaS craft blend nutrient pack, kelp meal, humic acid, bio-char, coffee grounds, & rabbit manure, with Recharge and Wildroot for added mycorrhizae bennies. 7 gallon fabric pots, hand watered with rain water or RO water depending on the seasons. I'm also using some compost teas occasionally.

I didn't get everything set up until I was well into a long veg cycle with some cuts that were gifted to me by a friend. They got abused pretty hard with bad lighting, fluctuating temps, and beginner watering mistakes, so I didn't expect a lot from the run. I managed to get a small harvest of sub quality flowers, but I mostly used it as a test run to get things dialed in. I've got a second grow going now that has the benefit of being cared for properly. Starting week 4 of flower as I write this, with some minor nutrient deficiencies I'm working through. Both runs were of Blueberry and Girl Scout Cookie, started as clones. I'm keeping mothers of Grand Daddy Purp, Pineapple Haze, and Strawberry Mango in the Veg room for later runs. That's about it for my set-up, I hope you enjoyed my intro. Looking forward to the NYGC and growing with you all. It should be as fun as it is educational. Growers Love ❤️ 

Happy Saturday and Winter Solstice!! Guess what arrived in the mailbox today? I'm so excited. My breeder's choice is Breeders Cake. Only 10 days to go...tick tock!

Bring on the New Year! 🥂 ❤️ 🙂 I'm ready!

And with this first step, a journey begins...

Happy New Year and Prosperous Growing Everyone

Happy New Year NYGC'ers! 👍 All four babies have arrived, and are snuggled safe and warm in their new beds. The transfer from paper towels to the jiffy pots was a little nerve wracking but went very smoothly without incident. Now time to get the seedling lights ready. Love the way there's always a next step to prepare for. Growers Love ❤️ 

Oops almost forgot to post the pics! 😮 

Day 3 and all the girls are up! Four little helmets popping up out of their foxholes.

👍 👍 👍 👍 

Had the dome in the veg room under the 400w LED's but I started to worry about too much light stressing the youngsters. That and the fact that they would be under a 16/8 light cycle, which is not ideal either. The lights were at about 40 inches above the dome, which seemed to be enough distance, but the temps were only in the low 70's. Made a decision to move them out of the room for now, and put them under 4 CFLs. Threw together a makeshift frame to hold some light sockets, and now the lights are much closer and keeping the dome at a cozy 84 degrees.

As for the little girls, the last helmet was tossed off sometime during the day. I had to pick a small piece of the membrane off two of them, but they slid off easily and without incident. They show very little stretch so far, which could be due to the added Royal Blue spectrum on the veg room pucks. We'll see if the CFLs make a difference or not. Overall I'm very happy with how things are progressing, and I'm super impressed with Kyle's seeds. Reports from the group are showing a very high germination rate, with the majority of us having 100% success! That's some solid genetics!

A couple quick pics of their size when first put under the CFLs. Just for a comparison later on. The longest one was also the girl who had her seed casing stuck on a day longer than the others. Could the extra stretch be related to that? Was she growing harder in her attempt to release herself from it?

14 Hrs later under the CFL's. The 2 Breeder Cakes look like twins, but the NERC's are growing at a different rate, at least so far. Gave them all some mycorrhizal diluted in a few drops of water, just to get the baby roots off to a good start. Opened the vents slightly to lower humidity down from 99% to 80%, with temps holding in the 82-84 degree range.

Checked the babies tonight and found two of them showing roots out of the bottom of the peat pots. Time to get them into bigger pots. Then added the extension to the humidity dome to give them a little more head room. Removed the CFL's and increased the brightness of the LED's slightly, to about 60-70%, but keeping the height at 48". Showing good growth, with only the NERC #2 looking slightly stretchy. We'll see how well they adapt to the Royal Blue pucks and all the delicious nutrients they're about to discover.

3 days in the new soil and the mycorrhizae has taken hold. The girls are enjoying life and growing well. Second set of leaves now showing. Everything going smoothly and I'm relieved to be past the first transplanting. Adjusted the lights just a bit closer as the girls didn't seem to mind the transfer over to the more powerful LED's. Keeping a close eye on them, as I'm not sure how much light they can take at this stage. This is my first grow started from seeds, and I don't have any experience with these lights and new seedlings, so I'm taking it very slowly. Not much stretch, but I expected that with the blue spectrum. The leaves are getting bigger, so growth is happening. They seem to be a little behind everyone else, or at least a little shorter, but I'm not sure comparing them to others is fair. We'll see how things progress from here.

There's a fungus among us!

OK figured it was time for a quick update. Lowered one set of the pucks to about 18" at approx. 50% power, and slowly raising intensity a little each day. Keeping the dome on, but vents fully opened to keep humidity around 70%. Since initial transplanting, I've only done a light misting of plain water. Both Breeder Cakes have an unusual pattern of leaf pigments that is very unique and interesting. NERC #1 is by far the strongest growing girl of the bunch but they all seem to be happy and loving life. ❤️ 👍 

Grower Love