Lowryder, first time grower

lovemug said:

see if you can find some ferti-lome soiless potting mix at any of the gardening centers around you. it has perlite mixed in it and a starting charge. the stuff has been amazing for me running fox farms for nutrients.

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I will keep my eye out for this. Thanks for the suggestion

tritons said:

thanks man , and by tha way i bought these seeds from Attitude bank like you ! i had 3 fem seed , one i gave to friend, 2 i put in pots but only one survive. after this grow ill send another part but i think a different one good luck man!

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What would you have done different the first time around knowing what you know now?

Got my delivery from Attitude. Got in 7 business days. Being kudos for shipment time. Had a nice XXL NYC Diesel white t-shirt and smarties...and I know I am forgetting something...hmm...

So far so good. Now a trip to Home Depot, Lowes and local shop to pick up the last few things and I am ready to go...

BuddhaDawg said:

What would you have done different the first time around knowing what you know now?

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i dunno man ! maybe one thing , at the begining start grow in big pot , not transplant 3 times like i did ! otherwise roots cannot grow deepa n deepa ! but i didnt gave such a big attention on her cycle like a average growers ! sometimes i switch on da lights for a 24h-0, 12-12 ,6-18 ,smt plants was without light for a 2dayz !

tritons said:

i dunno man ! maybe one thing , at the begining start grow in big pot , not transplant 3 times like i did ! otherwise roots cannot grow deepa n deepa ! but i didnt gave such a big attention on her cycle like a average growers ! sometimes i switch on da lights for a 24h-0, 12-12 ,6-18 ,smt plants was without light for a 2dayz !

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Excellent advice about the "big pot". I have read numerous times about the need for around a four gallon pot to give ample room for growing roots with plants. I got silver 5 gallon paint buckets from Lowes. A friend bought up a good point to me about making sure I clean out the buckets well before using because there is no telling what kind of residue that is in them. It reminds me make sure to make the environment as sterile and clean as possible to ensure a healthy grow.

Light cycle is definitely a must, the plant needs to be put in an optimal natural setting to thrive. I plan on starting with 24/0 until buds start to form then going to 18/6 until the last week of 12/12. Does this sound like a good plan, or do I need to tweak it some?

How did your first grow work out considering all the transplanting and differing lights times?

I think much better

Someone talk to me in how often do you find yourself watering on average. I realize it has to do with medium, bucket size, plant , etc. I would like to get a good general idea what would constitute an average. Anyone have any thoughts on the amount and frequency of water during a grow?

(2 foot deep by 6 foot wide) How much lighting for this small space? 4 plants. Looking at CFL's. Either full spectrum bulb or cool/warm mix to get veg/flower best combination.

600 watts for 12 square feet with proper mix of yellow and red light spectrum? 4 foot 4 bulb (mixed cool/warm) T5 set up? Would this work?

Pictures of my closet. I plan on making blocking off two feet of the left hand side to make it a 4 foot wide closet instead of it existing 6 feet. It is 2 foot deep and 7.5 feet tall to the ceiling. The shelving is roughly at 5 feet, this is what I will hang my T5 4 foot 4 bulb lights from. The buckets are 5 gallon buckets which I will poke a couple of holes in side of near the bottom of bucket. I will be hanging mylar on the inside of the doors and wall which will cut off two feet from the left hand side. I will put mylar underneath the buckets as well. I am not sure what to use for water overflow. I would like some thing simple, easy to move and clean when necessary...something that will keep the carpet from getting wet.

I do plan on cleaning the closet thoroughly before doing anything. I will also clean the buckets. I am also trying to figure out what kind of chain mechanism would be best in order to adjust my lights up and down when needed easily.

I will have to think about fan positioning inside the closet. The closet opens onto a normal sized room with a ceiling fan, so it will get fresh air daily as I do whatever chores are required. Up above is a 18" by 18" access panel to the attic, this could be helpful for air circulation if needed I suppose. I have a carbon monoxide/smoke/fire alarm especially for the room. I have an air filter if needed. I have timers for the lights if needed. I will be growing in a perculite/vermiculite/hydroton mix. I have 3 inch cups to put the seedling in. I surmise I will put hydroton in the 3 inch cup and put the seedling (which will be in rockwool, coco coir, Jiffy or something) just a 1/8 inch into the hydroton filled cup. Then put the 3 inch cup into my 5 gallon bucket filled accordingly.

Anyway, those are the pics. I am walking through all the steps methodically to make sure I get it as correct as possible. I know mistakes will be made, but I believe in being prepared.

Any suggestions or idea will be greatly appreciated.

tritons said:

thanks man , and by tha way i bought these seeds from Attitude bank like you ! i had 3 fem seed , one i gave to friend, 2 i put in pots but only one survive. after this grow ill send another part but i think a different one good luck man!

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How is your grow going?

I ordered on Friday and got it this morning from HTG. I am impressed with the quick turnaround. The packaging of the fragile components was done very well. I set up the light and viola, I have light. It is a very nice and strong light (4 grow bulbs). The 4 flowering bulbs work beautifully as well. I hope this will translate to happy, happy, happy plants.

I also picked up a two sided three pronged timer for my lights. It has manual on/off switch on top which gives me control of the lights at one spot without the all the unplugging and turning off several switches.

lookin good man! here are some pics of my set-up I just recently finished, gonna be putting 4 northern light autoflowers in the closet today or tomorrow. looks like were in the same boat both doing our first closet set-up/grows and both using autoflowers lol good luck!

veg area:


closet flower room:

im gonna try me some lowryders from attitude along with some kush strains. cant wait to see pics of your lowryders!

BuddhaDawg said:

How is your grow going?

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Slowly like in flower period !and last 2 days wuz rainy !! by da way nice closet , did ya already get da seeds ?

tritons said:

Slowly like in flower period !and last 2 days wuz rainy !! by da way nice closet , did ya already get da seeds ?

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Slowly can be a stress, but at least they are progressing.

I did get the seeds. At this point, I just need to get myself some perlite/vermiculite/hydroton, a drainage tray, wire to hang the t5 light and coir/peet for the seeds. Everything else is good to go. I have had a helluva time finding perlite/vermiculite/hydroton locally. I really do not want to buy it online, the shipping cost as much as the materials. I will be germinating those beauties by the weekend.

SoljieMon said:

lookin good man! here are some pics of my set-up I just recently finished, gonna be putting 4 northern light autoflowers in the closet today or tomorrow. looks like were in the same boat both doing our first closet set-up/grows and both using autoflowers lol good luck!

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That is a nice and organized set up you have there. I hope one day that I can say the same. I am sure there are many tweaks in my future.

The autoflower dynamic just fit the inside grow very well in my opinion. Now hopefully that hypothesis will hold true.

Let us know how those Northerns work out, I thought very seriously about choosing them instead of the Lowryder for my first grow.

Well, finally got the little gals in some coco fiber under the lights hoping they will pop up in the next few days and say hi to the world. I soaked my coco fiber as per instructions in water for 30 minutes. The water pH was adjusted to between 5.5 - 6.0. My tap water is over 8.5, I was surprised. So after the nice soak, the coco fiber swelled up with all the water. I took my 3 inch net pot and put them in coffee cups. They fit nicely but do not touch the bottom of the coffee cup. I took my coco fiber, squeezed lightly then put in my 3 inch net pot (then put the net pot in my coffee cup). I make a small hole with my pinkie about 1/6th of the inch down put the seed pointy side down and covered (but did not pack down). I put my seedlings in my closet underneath my lights (12/12), they are over 3 feet up. They make the closet nice and warm. I figure this is basically as normal as normal can be inside. I have heard about papertowels, dunking in water, and so forth. I surmise the seeds should germinate in the environment I put them in. Any thoughts?

All four said hello to the world between last night and this morning. I have between giving them a little water each since Friday afternoon (around 5.5 pH), 12/12 light with a little bit of mylar. I added a fan today, figure it is good to start the gals off with a little breeze. I will have finish up the closet and get those little bundles of joy into their permanent home in the next couple of days. I will also will increase the lighting to 18/6 and probably to 24/0 throughout the cycle until the last couple of weeks. Anyway, it appears I am off to an excellent start.

I moved my 3" plastic net pot from my coffee cups to my Lowe's paint buckets (with 2 holes on sides at bottom) which sit on plastic drainage trays on top of mylar sheet. I have my chain and s-hooks set up in order to adjust light up and down as needed. I put a 50/50 mix of vermiculite/perlite in my buckets making sure to put a layer of perlite on top. I figure the white will be help the little gals a bit as well. My plants are: Layla, Leela, Lola, and Lulu. All are growing well, but I dropped Lulu when taking her out of the coffee cup. I think she should recover just fine. Leela is not a Lowryder #2, she is a freebie (Short Stuff Super Cali Haze -auto). It will be interesting to see what she will do inside. Anyway, so far so good. I have kept coco peat moist on a daily basis (always around 5.5 pH). The new Lowe's buckets were cleaned out and the perlite/vermiculite was moistened. I dug a little hole, inserted the 3" pots and covered. Tomorrow I will water the bucket until just a little bit of water comes out of the bottom, then we are off to the races. Next stop will be increasing dosages of nutes until full strength, but that is a little bit in the future.

1 gallon water pH 5.5: Micro 0.15 (5 ml), Grow 0.075 (2.5 ml), Bloom 0.075 (2.5 ml).

I plan staying on this until end of week, then on a slightly modified nute schedule from the GH website because this is 7 to 8 week grow instead of a 10 week standard grow.

Any suggestions on Lowryder grow is most welcomed.