Indoor LED Soil Grow (DIY low budget)

Hello Everyone!

It is a pleasure to be back in the RIU community. It was many years ago I joined and attempted my first grows using CFLs, hidden/stealth cabinets and smaller plants as a result. I've done several of those grows, but the time has come to seriously work towards eliminated the high cost of cannabis in my life and the lives of my circle.
Prepare to follow me on my newest endeavor. This introductory post will be followed by a first entry with photos, but I'm not quite committed enough to have individual pictures of my gear/supplies etc. for this introduction, but am happy enough to answer questions about them if anyone would like to know more.

Grow Space?, Check!
I'm fortunate here, as it is not issue to allocate space for this, and stealth/privacy is not an issue here.
I had a whole bunch of free wood sitting around from work, and a few larger sheets of mylar, which I can definitely improve upon even before my first grow is over, but for now it is an excellent compromise, tho I do have some doubts and am looking for feedback/ideas etc. for improvement. The perks of what I have now is that it is adaptable and very easy to work around/with.

Lighting?, Check!
I've gone ahead and purchased a 600W LED from Amazon that was quick and easy and I knew would be more than anything I've grown with in the past. I also am looking to test out LEDs and get introduced to them slowly and cheaply, but am looking forward to seeing what I get/need etc.

Soil and Container?, Check!
Nothing overly special here, went for 2 decent sized planters that suited my desires of being a little stout and wide to fit within my grow space nicely and provide enough, but not too much soil for my ladies to grow in.

Cannabis?, Double Check!
So, you think I'm being silly, but no really I checked this one off twice by accident....
Initially when deciding to grow again I immediately went shopping for seeds because clones are not readily available to me, and I'm not keen on getting them from an unknown source etc.
Immediately I hoped on here and looked around, found myself pointed towards Crop King Seeds and was delighted to shop around. Deciding to go for something different/interesting I ordered myself 5 feminzed Durban Poison seeds, and received 3 Northern Lights Auto-Flowers from another genetics company, that I was super surprised and also stoked about!
The day before they were delivered an unexpected surprise visit from a friend plopped 4 Firsian Duck clones into my lap...uh oh...here we go! I only intended to grow 2 plants at a time, but I decided to use the clones as a chance to tune my set-up...being as they were free and nobody will cry if they don't make it.


So, here we are...shall we being?
Hopefully the length of my first post doesn't scare you off, it was just to make my return to RIU and my first post of this new journal something to remember.

Thanks for coming along on the journey, hope to hear from my fellow RIU community members!
Look for me following and posting in your grows as well, always excited to see what is happening.

Journal Day One - Tuesday October 23rd
The actual date of these photos and Day 1 is Tuesday October 23rd, hence the title, the entries that follow should be posted that day of from now on, but I wanted to make sure there was no confusion in this entry.

The set-up went smoothly and the Firsian Clones that I recieved had a rough journey from Ottawa to Waterloo, and definitely could have been handled better etc. However, I was willing to give them a chance instead of popping my delicious looking seeds (as they can wait...clones can not).

I'll let photos speak for themselves and answer questions as they come.
I am dealing with a slightly low temp early on, looking into it tho.
Temp // Humidity
66 // 60

Journal Day Four - October 27th
Photos taken day of, and you'll notice something immediately if you browsed the pictures before reading, but if not you'll see that I have removed one of the clones that was plopped into the pot, and in it's place I've trained the longer of the clones into a relatively low, tight bend at this early stage.
This will be the earliest I've ever bent a stem that...sternly, and I'm not confident it isn't to tight there, however, the purpose of these clones remains the same, fine tune my set-up, and the heat issues remain...
Part of this issue is a pure lack of proper insulation and heating etc. in the place I am renting, which is more costly than I'd like, so a space heater in the room the space is in will be my first endeavor, but this may dry things out more than I'd like. We shall see by the end of the weekend. I know the girls are suffering without some warmth right now tho.

With that said, I took individual photos of the plants for reference sake and they all show a little promise. Plan is to give them some time to impress me, but hard to look away from those delicious genetics I have sitting in their packaging...
Temp // Humidity
65 // 60

good luck!


turn the leds off when u take pics, we cant see the color of the plants too well

Journal Day Seven - October 29th

wompaa said:

turn the leds off when u take pics, we cant see the color of the plants too well

Click to expand...

As requested. I am trying to learn to read the LED light as I grow with it, it is important not be able to understand all that you are seeing and the high spectrum of these lights allows another perspective that does offer its own information.
Thanks for the first member posts!
Also, that's a nifty heater, however, our heating issue has been solved successfully with a space heater that doesn't blow stale air, just radiates the heat nicely and was able to bring the temperatures up, it obviously did drop the humidity, but I'm happy with the extra warmth for their root development.
A few days of the higher temps and managing the humidity over the lights off period is really encouraging these little girls to giddy up and grow. Yesterday was the second heavy watering they've received since planting.
Temp // Humidity
73 // 54

Day Eleven - November 2nd

So, a few things have happened since my last post and I'm playing a bit of catch-up with this one.
Two sets of pictures are included and labelled as such. Day 10 and 11 pictures included here.

Day 10 another of the plants was trained to its side and the first plant to be trained was retrained with a second lean. Very pleased with the growth so far and excited to see them take to the LST.

Day 11 the pics show how quickly the plants took to the training and I also initiated both of the spectrums available on my light, instead of just the VEG spectrum. Also gave a good watering today.
The growth is sure to increase and I'll be looking to start adding small amounts of nutrients into the watering.
Happy to hear recommendations here for good nutrients.

Temp // Humidity
66-72 // 55-68

How are things looking?

I'm not gonna lie to you, that light is messing up your grow. just send it back mate.
Order a proper LED unit or buy yourself some HID gear...
That blurple shit is OK for growing lettuce.