BlueCollarBob- Bumbling Through My First Grow

Just back from visiting some friends. We chatted a little about getting close to harvesting my first grow. I mentioned buying a tent and etc. to dry in. Also, said I might get a light and try a small indoor grow when I'm done using the tent for drying. My buddy gets up, goes to the basement and brings this HPS light up. He told me to take it and and use it if I can. If not, no foul. He said it has a newish bulb. I haven't studied lights much and the little nosing around I have done has been LEDs. So, time to study up.

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Nice score Bob!
You have a solid and well cared for 14 year old HPS/MH all in one light. These have been discontinued but inside parts like the ignitor which is what usually breaks down can be bought and swapped out if it ever stops working but these ballasts are workhorses and can accrue a lot of hours before that happens.
You can use a 400 watt MH lamp for veg then a 400 watt HPS for flower. In the final two weeks before harvest you can switch back to the MH for a ripening blue spectrum that can enhance resin production.

The caveat to these lights are they need to run hot to get to full brilliance. You'll have help with the glass between lamp and canopy acting as a heat shield so it won't burn up the plants and on the exhaust you'll need an inline fan to pull heat out.
What you don't want to do is have cool air go thru one side of the vent, passing over the lamp, and cooling it down reducing it's effectiveness. So ya figure a way to remove heat but not cool the lamp if that makes any sense.
It will cover a footprint for flowering around 3.5'x3.5' and you'll want it around 12-20" above canopy during flower. For seedlings and veg, much higher at 30"-40". It will easily grow plants up to around 3-4' tall
 
Nice score Bob!
You have a solid and well cared for 14 year old HPS/MH all in one light. These have been discontinued but inside parts like the ignitor which is what usually breaks down can be bought and swapped out if it ever stops working but these ballasts are workhorses and can accrue a lot of hours before that happens.
You can use a 400 watt MH lamp for veg then a 400 watt HPS for flower. In the final two weeks before harvest you can switch back to the MH for a ripening blue spectrum that can enhance resin production.

The caveat to these lights are they need to run hot to get to full brilliance. You'll have help with the glass between lamp and canopy acting as a heat shield so it won't burn up the plants and on the exhaust you'll need an inline fan to pull heat out.
What you don't want to do is have cool air go thru one side of the vent, passing over the lamp, and cooling it down reducing it's effectiveness. So ya figure a way to remove heat but not cool the lamp if that makes any sense.
It will cover a footprint for flowering around 3.5'x3.5' and you'll want it around 12-20" above canopy during flower. For seedlings and veg, much higher at 30"-40". It will easily grow plants up to around 3-4' tall
Thanks for the good info Bandit! I was wondering what the switch labeled MH was for. I've poked around a little bit on venting excess heat off of the lamp. Of course the inline filter I bought for the tent is 4" and the shroud is set up for 6". I could probably reduce it, if the fan itself is sufficient. Over the Winter, I may be in a situation where I'll want to retain some of that heat. Guess I'll find out.

Lot of unplanned stuff happening here, lol. I like building things and was thinking that I would make a project out of building a grow room and maybe a hydro system down the road. Then I decided I wanted to dry these outdoor plants in a tent. That got me to thinking, I might as well research and get input from you guys for an LED light and try growing a couple plants in the 2X4 tent when I'm done drying the outdoor stuff. Try to get a little experience while I figure out what I really want to do. Then this light drops in my lap. I still might end up buying a decent LED. Decisions, decisions...
 
Just click "watch on youtube"

I don't have an account and am able to watch it.

How do you think they know your old enough? When you installed the app it made your account. No thanks. Nothing I need to see that bad. 🤷‍♂️
 
Butter Waves is drying in the tent. Daughter and her friend helped trim :) They sampled the scissor hash and both think this is going to be a good smoke.

Trimming seemed to take forever, lol. I need to look up an electric trimmer like recently mentioned in @Stoneyluv's thread. Guess I could dry trim and get a trim bowl. Not sure, yet.

IMG_7613.pngIMG_7615.pngI think I'll look up the electric trimmers recently mentioned in @Stoneyluv's thread. Or, I might go dry trim and get a bowl trimmer. Not sure which way to go, yet.

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I have the inline fan set to switch on at 62% RH and off at 59% RH. The fan ran all night and RH was only getting down to 54%. I lowered RH on basement thermostat this morning and everything lined up pretty quickly. Now, I just need to figure out the right high/low RH targets and max fan speed to slow the curve. I suspect I may raise the RH set point on the basement dehumidifier when the moisture content in the buds drops low enough. We'll see...

I'm not running inline fan to temp. Temp is pretty close. So, I'll just tweak RH if dew point swings significantly. Sorta hoping I'm running "close enough" for good drying conditions.

6" fan is aimed at the top left corner of the tent. I just manually entered a low set point of "2" for fan speed. "2" was just a guess. Sounds like we only want light air circulation and not directly on the buds to prevent drying too fast.

Current situation in the dry tent:

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Nice score Bob!
You have a solid and well cared for 14 year old HPS/MH all in one light. These have been discontinued but inside parts like the ignitor which is what usually breaks down can be bought and swapped out if it ever stops working but these ballasts are workhorses and can accrue a lot of hours before that happens.
You can use a 400 watt MH lamp for veg then a 400 watt HPS for flower. In the final two weeks before harvest you can switch back to the MH for a ripening blue spectrum that can enhance resin production.

The caveat to these lights are they need to run hot to get to full brilliance. You'll have help with the glass between lamp and canopy acting as a heat shield so it won't burn up the plants and on the exhaust you'll need an inline fan to pull heat out.
What you don't want to do is have cool air go thru one side of the vent, passing over the lamp, and cooling it down reducing it's effectiveness. So ya figure a way to remove heat but not cool the lamp if that makes any sense.
It will cover a footprint for flowering around 3.5'x3.5' and you'll want it around 12-20" above canopy during flower. For seedlings and veg, much higher at 30"-40". It will easily grow plants up to around 3-4' tall
"ripening blue spectrum that can enhance resin production." ah ha there is a good use for blue lights. maybe switch out reds for blues the last 2 weeks or add through the day & leave reds alone....good talk....Blues eh?
 
So, major fail on my part. I procrastinated trellising the plants and paid the price. Can't chalk this up to a rookie mistake. I knew better and just didn't get it done. Got home from work and checked on the plants about an hour before dark. We had some pretty heavy rain and some wind. I found varying amounts of damage to the plants.

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I gathered up the broken limbs and taped some up, that looked like they might make it, hoping to buy some time. I also jammed in some stakes and ran some garden twine around to provide some support against further damage. I just did as much as I could until dark and the rain starting back up shut me down.

Next I pulled Butter Waves out of the dry tent to make room for incoming casualties. Luckily she'd been in there for 9 days and was ready for cure. I knocked the buds off the stems, weighed her and put her in grove bags. I decarboxylated the dried trim from Butter Waves and put that in a grove bag while trimming the damaged limbs I had collected. 15.1oz flower plus 5.3oz of trim. Everything was in a rush and I'm a noob, so not claiming I did a great job. I know I didn't. Here are some photos:

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A high tolerance buddy who only smokes concentrates dropped by and sampled Butter Waves. I love feedback, good or bad, from others. He made a couple comments that were encouraging. "Are you saying this can actually improve with some cure time?" and "Whoa, I think I hit that [bong] too hard!"

I set about a rushed and loose trim job of the busted branches. I consoled myself by saying I'll try the bowl trim when it's done drying. Wrapped up the night close to 2:00am. Hung the new stuff in the dry tent.

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My original plan was to chop Slurty3 and Sour Diesel this weekend. They are both ahead of the Indica-leaning Jet Fuel Odder Popz. I didn't take photos, but I did look at her under the wifi microscope. She is just barely showing some amber. It's supposed to clear up Saturday. I hope to chop whatever is necessary before daylight and before the rain resumes Sunday. I wish I had bought a 4X4 to dry in. No way I'll get it all in this 2X4. With luck I'll be able to save what is left of Jet Fuel until Slurty and Diesel are finished drying. A positive is there's no sign of bud rot or pm (that I can see), so far.

No matter how it pans out, I've already exceeded my expectations from when I started. I was imagining 3' plants that I hoped would produce a few ounces of smokeable weed. There's so much bad shit happening in the world that I won't whimper too much. I'm having a blast, looking forward to a first indoor grow over the Winter and I have learned a lot to improve outdoors next year :) Just today I learned that I oughta be washing this stuff 😬

PS- Slurty and Sour D look like they have higher yield than Butter. Hard for me to guess on Jet Fuel. She's shorter and a lot wider with smaller buds.
 
Nice save. 👍

When I did my one big outdoor I got two long sticks and stapled a big netting between them. Put it over the top of the plant. It held it together so it moved as a single unit. No breaks or splits even after some big storms. My net had the 4” squares iirc.

Pics for example.
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Nice save. 👍

When I did my one big outdoor I got two long sticks and stapled a big netting between them. Put it over the top of the plant. It held it together so it moved as a single unit. No breaks or splits even after some big storms. My net had the 4” squares iirc.

Pics for example.
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That plant looks great. Do you remember what it was? That's a good example of where my lollipopping should have been, too.

That's exactly what I needed to do. I bought four packs of that netting, but, being the procrastinator I am, never installed it.
 
That plant looks great. Do you remember what it was? That's a good example of where my lollipopping should have been, too.
Sadly it’s unknown. I just call it my strain or Z-Weed. Gifted from my buddy who gets his weed from a childhood friend. One went to seed so I ended up with hundreds to learn and start with.

Got lucky as she’s strong, hardy and pretty mold resistant. Good smoke too. 60/40 to 70/30 on the sativa side.

That's exactly what I needed to do. I bought four packs of that netting, but, being the procrastinator I am, never installed it.
I got that crappy nylon net by mistake. Never planned to grow outside. But then stuff happened and it was the perfect solution.

Every grows a new set of lessons. Hard part is shaking off the laziness. Had a few hard lessons myself. 😒
 
Lot happening. I’ll update when I get a minute. Hoping I can get some advice on this bud rot (I think). Should I just cut the entire cola off? It’s the only spot like this I can find, so far. Dry tent is full, but should be able to free up half of it this weekend. That’s if they survive the rain and humidity. Thank in advance.

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Lot happening. I’ll update when I get a minute. Hoping I can get some advice on this bud rot (I think). Should I just cut the entire cola off? It’s the only spot like this I can find, so far. Dry tent is full, but should be able to free up half of it this weekend. That’s if they survive the rain and humidity. Thank in advance.

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You can try to remove the infected buds, spray with h2o2 first though to reduce spores spreading.
 
Chop it.
If what is above it is worth drying do so.
I think you are going to have enough with or without that cola eh?😁
Yessir. I am more concerned about it spreading. I’ve already exceeded my expectations. The best looking stuff is still out there. I’ll save it if I can.

Super fortunate to only be dealing with saving weed and minor basement flooding. So many people mourning the loss of loved ones and total property loss. Absolute devastation for many.
 
Lot happening. I’ll update when I get a minute. Hoping I can get some advice on this bud rot (I think). Should I just cut the entire cola off? It’s the only spot like this I can find, so far. Dry tent is full, but should be able to free up half of it this weekend. That’s if they survive the rain and humidity. Thank in advance.

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I lost three half colas and a chunk out of another on Jilly Bean. I used two bottles of peroxide in a spray bottle over two sessions a day apart.

It ran and foamed. Got some leaf burn, more from doing it with the lights on than anything else.

But it nailed it. Got lucky. We just cut and wet trim. No mold yet. Looks good. Results pending.
 
I lost three half colas and a chunk out of another on Jilly Bean. I used two bottles of peroxide in a spray bottle over two sessions a day apart.

It ran and foamed. Got some leaf burn, more from doing it with the lights on than anything else.

But it nailed it. Got lucky. We just cut and wet trim. No mold yet. Looks good. Results pending.
Awesome @Zen_seeker! Hope that was the end of it and it’s smooth sailing from here on out.
 
The last couple of weeks have been an adventure in drying conditions and trying to get the remaining outdoor plants through this recent rain and high humidity.

Drying my first ever harvested plant went about as well as I believe it could have. Ideal conditions made it pretty easy for me to stay close to temp., RH and thereby dew point targets that @Stoneyluv and others pointed me towards. Honestly, I was tickled pink with round one. It hasn't been that way with what's currently drying as I battle high temperatures and humidity. House A/C failed on 19SEP24, the guys who did the repairs found that the expansion valve failed closed, preventing the refrigerant from circulating. They ordered a new valve.

The next day, I came home to our little creek running a tad high:

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I went inside after checking the creek out. There I discovered the basement had a couple of inches of water in it. Turns out that the pump bracket was loose and the pump fell against the wall. That prevented the float from lifting and switching on the pump. Of course, this made for high humidity. I pumped the water out and fired up the old dehumidifier to help out the new one. The higher temperatures have been the bigger problem, but the guys came back and brazed in a new expansion valve and I have air conditioning again. The silver lining is that I really needed to clean a bunch of junk out of the basement and this will free up space for an indoor grow. So, I've been carrying stuff out of the basement for the land fill and Salvation Army in the evenings. Mopping and disinfecting as I go.

I snapped a few picks of remaining plants while the guys worked on our air conditioning. One of them had commented that he didn't know how we canstand the smell. This was a good 40yds from the plants. I laughed and told him that I rather like it. He just blinked and then laughed.

I should be back on track for a better controlled dry, now. The weather looks good through the weekend, too. Plus there was a nice breeze blowing today. So, fingers crossed that my little stash will grow some in the coming weeks.

Bowl trimmer is on the way. I decided to try this 16" trimmer from Vevor.

Slurty3:
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Jet Fuel Odder Popz:IMG_7694.pngIMG_7693.png

Sour Diesel:
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The trimmer is a little pricey. Hope it does es well for you.

Plants are looking good. 👍

Bad luck with the pump. My mom has one or two. Great when they work right. Hope the cleanup goes easy and fast.

Creek looked pretty fast. Any fish?
 
The trimmer is a little pricey. Hope it does es well for you.

Plants are looking good. 👍

Bad luck with the pump. My mom has one or two. Great when they work right. Hope the cleanup goes easy and fast.

Creek looked pretty fast. Any fish?
Vevor has a sale going on. The trimmer is $40 off, currently.

Weather is stressing me out, lol. Cleared up during the day, Yesterday. Then heavy rain again for the evening and over night. Hoping the plants make it a few more days. I'm probably going to chop the premium colas from the tops to fill up the dry tent. Not enough room for all of it. Maybe the rest will be worth chopping a week later when I free up some more drying space. We'll see...

The sump pump usually does great. We don't finish the basement because every few years we'll have severe enough rains to get water down there.

The creek dries up a lot in the Summer. There are pools that hold fish. Native stuff is a variety of minnows, chubs, fall fish, hornyheads, smallmouth and redeyes. When I was a kid, my dad dropped a couple logs across the creek and we used a huge section of conveyor belt to dam the creek. We'd catch trout and bring them back alive in coolers to put in the creek. They were like pets. They'd swim up to you looking for food. Probably not ideal food for fish, but the butcher at the nearby meat market chopped scraps into fine chunks to feed them. They'd nearly come up on the bank after it. They grew big and fat. Every Winter high water would wash them down the creek. Every Spring I'd take buckets and a seine to scoop them back up and return them to the dam.
 
Drying has been tricky. More rain yesterday and all night. I’ve had the dehumidifier on/off since I hung them. Unplug at 40%, plug back in at 65%. Entire basement is holding at low 60’s so it is what it is. 🤷‍♂️
Does it hold low 60s with out running the dehumidifier? Sounds like that would be nearly perfect unless temps are just way off.
 
Vevor has a sale going on. The trimmer is $40 off, currently.

Weather is stressing me out, lol. Cleared up during the day, Yesterday. Then heavy rain again for the evening and over night. Hoping the plants make it a few more days. I'm probably going to chop the premium colas from the tops to fill up the dry tent. Not enough room for all of it. Maybe the rest will be worth chopping a week later when I free up some more drying space. We'll see...

The sump pump usually does great. We don't finish the basement because every few years we'll have severe enough rains to get water down there.

The creek dries up a lot in the Summer. There are pools that hold fish. Native stuff is a variety of minnows, chubs, fall fish, hornyheads, smallmouth and redeyes. When I was a kid, my dad dropped a couple logs across the creek and we used a huge section of conveyor belt to dam the creek. We'd catch trout and bring them back alive in coolers to put in the creek. They were like pets. They'd swim up to you looking for food. Probably not ideal food for fish, but the butcher at the nearby meat market chopped scraps into fine chunks to feed them. They'd nearly come up on the bank after it. They grew big and fat. Every Winter high water would wash them down the creek. Every Spring I'd take buckets and a seine to scoop them back up and return them to the dam.
Some fish really thrive off meat protein.
Many of the worlds best discus breeder are still using Beefheart as a mainstay for feeding.
You can train fish believe it or not.
2 post in row from you I like the way you think beyond our given common ground.
I got my 13 inch spinner for $64.
They are all basically the same imo.
 
Some fish really thrive off meat protein.
Many of the worlds best discus breeder are still using Beefheart as a mainstay for feeding.
You can train fish believe it or not.
2 post in row from you I like the way you think beyond our given common ground.
I got my 13 inch spinner for $64.
They are all basically the same imo.
I definitely believe you when you say they can be trained. Ours were more conditioned than trained. The butcher used to get me out of going to church on Sundays. He promised my mom we'd have our service on the river bank. That was over 40 years ago, but I remember someone digging up info on, well... trout nutrition. Apparently, the meat scraps didn't provide a balanced trout diet. I'm glad nobody told the trout, because they sure grew big and fat. The creek got too low one super dry Summer and we moved the trout to these caves on private property that have a spring running out of them. There is deep hole at the mouth where the spring goes underground. Some weeks later we couldn't see any trout in there. I even drug a canoe up there and paddled back into the cave looking around. Later we learned that some other kids found out about it, went up there and caught them out.
 
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Does it hold low 60s with out running the dehumidifier? Sounds like that would be nearly perfect unless temps are just way off.

It’s at mid 60’s for now.

It keeps climbing into high 70’s so I turn on the dehumidifier until it hits 40. Then I unplug it and wait for it to climb to mid 60’s before plugging in again.

First time I’ve ever had to do that for drying. Basement bathroom is usually good if not perfect for drying. Just to much rain this year. Keeping things damp.
 
I definitely believe you when you say they can be trained. Ours were more conditioned than trained. The butcher used to get me out of going to church on Sundays. He promised my mom we'd have our service on the river bank. That was over 40 years ago, but I remember someone digging up info on, well... trout nutrition. Apparently, the meat scraps didn't provide a balanced trout diet. I'm glad nobody told the trout, because they sure grew big and fat. The creek got too low one super dry Summer and we moved the trout to these caves on private property that have a spring running out of them. There is deep hole at the mouth where the spring goes underground. Some weeks later we couldn't see any trout in there. I even drug a canoe up there and paddled back into the cave looking around. Later we learned that some other kids found out about it, went up there and caught them out.

I used to offroad in the area of Marmora Ontario, town has an iron strip mine. It was closed for years, left to rot. It’s back in use last I heard.

It flooded with a natural spring feed long before we went there. It’s supposed to be over 300’ deep and has had mini subs tested there. IMG_0774.jpeg

I loved fishing and tried to catch a few trout I saw there but no luck. Waters extremely clear too.

Lots of good little lakes and rivers there. Old rail beds where great for getting around without roads. The ones around the mine, which is huge, had been all blocked off with boulders last I saw years ago.
 
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