Kappy's First Grow Log! :D

Kappy · Oct 24, 2011

Hey Gnslngr, thank you for the warm welcome ^^

Thank you for the info, I will definitely have to do more research on here because you're very right, there is so much info, it's insanity. I have done some research on lighting but I guess what intimidates me is I don't quite understand wattage and voltage and what not at times and I'm afraid that whatever I may purchase may be what I need but I'm not sure if I've got the power/cords/outlets to run it. I realize that's probably a really silly thing to see here, but I've just never really worked with lighting before (I'm a female if it hasn't been realized yet, not that females don't know lighting, I just haven't been really exposed to it probably because of that fact heh). So I need to do more research on basics like that first to make sure I don't make anything blow up then I'll be ok with finding my own lights lol.

I checked out Pepper Ridge Farm's profile... I see why he likes the name now

That's crazy I never though I'd meet someone with that name lol. Kappy is my nickname but it came from my initials which is KAP and then friends developed it into Kappy at some point ^^; Anywho, it's nice to meet you Mr. Cappy

fishing4fun2 · Oct 24, 2011

Hi Kappy not sure if this will help you or not on lights as i am not sure it will work for me but i was able to purchase 12 45w 6500k cfls for a total of $44.00 and today at Menards bought 4 42w 2700k bulbs @ $7.19 each..
Not sure about posting sale links here as i am new but if your interested in cfl's 12@ 45w each for 44 bucks is a steal imo. Just not sure they would get the job done

gnslngr · Oct 24, 2011

Kappy said:
Hey Gnslngr, thank you for the warm welcome ^^

Its not cheating if you write it down and go to lowe's,home depot or similar outfit , most lighting sections will have uses posted,the flourescents usually will show spectrums and similarity to sunlight,also incandescent grow lights of various types...single bulb "blue" spectrum(very similar to typical outdoor flood lights)that fit in clamp on single bulb fixtures that are usually fairly inexpensive.These usually won't get you to flowering/fruiting however....but they will get your plants going fairly well till you can set them outside.I don't know what the pepper was but the tall one with no branching yet is just looking for light.
I won't be much help for indoor growing because I start inside, but can get em outside by March!Lack of lighting knowledge isn't limited to "girls" for sure,and there are lots of females on here that can help you too.

There is a section in growing that pertains to growing indoors/lighting etc-jump on there and plead your case(heck, just cut paste the above post and edit a bit)
and you should get some good replies.Lots of intimidating set ups out there, but they didn't start that way!

Also, find some cheap trays to put under your "pots"- this save you some clean up AND keep you from getting in trouble with that landlord because of any seepage.
And tell em to turn the damn heat on !!!!

S.S.Tupperware · Oct 24, 2011

patrick · Oct 24, 2011

The reason your buds are shriveling up and dying is lack of good light Kappy. Please, please get the tape and string construction replaced. There is a great forum that can help you immensely with lights, it's right under this forum. The knowledge is there, use it.

Leaving your oven on to get your seeds to germinate has got to be hard on your electric bill. What most folks do is get heat mats. If you do get one get a thermostat to go with it. That way you can control the temp of the medium you have your seeds in. 85F seems to be a great temp to get superhot seeds to germinate. That's without soaking them too.

Good luck.

PIC 1 · Oct 24, 2011

HD sells some nice small link chain, that's what I use, I measure what I need and order a little extra, so when I cut off all the open links I end up with all closed links for each piece I cut at the right length.

nicksmurf111 · Oct 25, 2011

Leave the light bulb isle of Home Depot and check out the fixture isle (where they have all the lights hanging from the sealing and the walls)!

They usually have the larger florescent fixtures up on one of the walls...I'm sure you've seem them by now. I doubt you'll find anything other than 4ft fixtures as budget friendly. The florescent tubes usually come separate. Or, you could wire up sockets to those CFL's, but you need to be even more careful how you secure things (no tape...think wood frame & screws). You'll need wire nuts to wire up most fixtures. If you want to plug them into a power strip: I've always cut the end off of a lamp extension cord...but you may want to consider a ground to the chassis for safety. My father and I actually electrocuted ourselves on an old magnetic ballast we had on our old plant starting stand...the chassis was hot because the ballast went bad.

They sell little clamps in the electrical section that keep the wire secured in the fixture. Get some of those if you need them for the fixture you pick out. You don't want your wires wiggling around in a sharp hole. Look for this in a smaller size: http://goo.gl/vvAQy

Since you were interested, this is what I start my seeds under:

I know...don't make fun of my tin foil!

I've always done the opposite of the chain link, as a child we raised our shelves on top canning jars. I have cinder blocks under the tables in the picture. But, yes...chain link works very well too, I just used what I had available.

Kappy · Oct 25, 2011

Thank you everyone for the responses and great info

First off I'd just like to say that the first setup is no longer in my room. I now have a shelving setup with my lights attached to the shelving units instead of the ceiling. I'll get some pictures of it later to post up. But yeah I also want to mention with how my lights were previously put up.. I realize it wasn't the greatest idea in the world, but it's what I had on me, the lights I had were barely even fixtures, they were very light weight, have plastic covering the actual light bulb, and they didn't have holes that I could see where I could attach chain to because they weren't made to have chain attachments I'm fairly sure (I would of had just used chain if I could of with those fixtures). If I had some actual fixtures with like t5 bulbs and stuff I would never had put them up like I did the lights I do have. Basically I just want to throw out there that I'm not a complete dumbass as it may seem like I am lol. I know that any light bulb is considered dangerous and could cause many problems if not used properly, so I didn't just use some scotch tape and some sewing thread or something like a kindergartener, I used sturdier materials and time, thought, and care went into putting everything up, I didn't just throw it all up there then walk away and hoped for the best.

Thank you fishing4fun2, gnslngr, patrick, PIC 1, and nicksmurf111 for all the help and responses.

fishing4fun2, thank you for providing that info on the bulbs, I'll definitely have to check out that deal

Gnslngr, you have provided some very good info for me, thank you! I have been considering getting some clamp on lights instead of tube lights to help support the lights I have now and see how that works out. Still thinking on it and doing research though, but it seems like the clamp ons could work out better for me than the long tubes due to the space I have. And about the women with lights thing, I wasn't trying to throw women under the bus or anything, but just how I was raised ("If there are men around why do women need to touch lights or anything electrical/hardware like? We'll take care of it, we're men, get back to the kitchen!" Is essentially how I was raised) made it so that I was never exposed to lighting. I don't have that sort of mentality though, just my parents, but I am very interested in learning more about lighting and such. So males and females please give me any lighting info, all of it is very much appreciated

Patrick, thank you for your response. As I said before in this post the old setup is gone and the new one is in so no more hanging lights from the ceiling lol. You're absolutely right though, there is a ton of information here, an insane amount, and I go through it every day. I'm a visual person, and sometimes with how I learn it just helps me to have a person who knows what they're doing have a conversation with me where I can learn their experience with them and then ask them questions. So I'm sorry if the questions I'm asking are already here on this forum, posted dozens of times with dozens of answers. I realize people get tired of answering those same questions over and over again, and I'm sorry for that, but I will continue asking questions as I need to and if they are things that have already been said, done, discussed to its last breath, then don't feel like you need to respond to it, I'm sure someone else will or I'll find the info I need just after some more digging. Also, I do not leave my oven on just to germinate seeds... I stated in a previous post that my landlords had not turned me heat on yet, so I turn my oven on to keep myself warm, and in the process of that I discovered how wonderfully it worked for my seeds. I keep my seeds above my refrigerator while germinating so my oven just so happened to be in the same area as them. But yes, leaving your oven on like that is extremely costly, luckily though my rent includes all of my bills, so as long as I don't have to spend extra money and the landlords want to continue giving me no heat, I'll use the oven lol

I've talked with them though and apparently the heat has been on for a few weeks now but there was a problem with it reaching my apartment. Problem has been solved though and now I have wonderful heat in my apartment. I will definitely be investing in seed heating mats soon though, I've had my eye on them for a while and I hope to get them soon when I have to do a big online purchase for lights and other things.

nicksmurf111, thank you for your response. I was in the light fixture and bulb aisle (one in the same

) and you're absolutely right on the fixtures, most were at least 4 feet long and it seemed better to be buying those than the 2 foots due to costs. I think my problem is I'm expecting to find a fixture with the bulbs that I need already in it and instead I need to focus on getting a fixture that works for me and then get the bulbs after. So next time I'm there I'll work on looking at things that way. I think ultimately though I'm going to need another pair of hands to help me setup the light fixtures. So soon I'll start to look for a light fixture savvy friend who can help out

I'm not laughing at the tin foil, I had quite an interesting setup myself so I have no right to laugh at others

Actually I've been having a hard time finding emergency blankets and the places I'm going to (walmart mainly) the employees have not a clue what I'm talking about, and I barely do either because I just know they are thick blankets with a silver/shiny reflective surface but I've never actually held or owned one. So I think until I can find these blankets I'll have to utilize the tin foil myself

Your plants look very happy and healthy under that one light, is that setup in your garage?

When I take pictures of my new shelving unit setup later I'll grab some of my peppers as well, they're doing really well and lots are flowering for me still ^^

Kappy · Oct 25, 2011

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/25572-my-first-sprouts-bhut-jolokia-and-questions-on-lighting/page__p__516081#entry516081 This thread is extremely helpful actually for what I've been thinking about with lighting. Thank you TylerInNiagara for the great info

PIC 1 · Oct 25, 2011

nicksmurf111 said:
My father and I actually "electrocuted" ourselves on an old magnetic ballast we had on our old plant starting stand...the chassis was hot because the ballast went bad.

Sorry..........if you did somebody else would be writing this........

Your plants look nice, although the cord coming off your ballast looks like a twin flat lead,

are your lights properly grounded ?......

nicksmurf111 · Oct 25, 2011

My setup is in my basement. I'm in Pennsylvania so I wouldn't be able to have it in an unheated area. Yes, I do need to consider grounding it. I need to find good ground first. I've had plenty of "why does this tingle?" experiences in my life.

Kappy, can't wait to see pictures of the new shelving unit!

patrick · Oct 25, 2011

Sounds like you're on the right track Kappy. I wasn't trying to get you to use the search function so please ask all the questions you need answers for. We all learn things that way.

fishing4fun2 · Oct 26, 2011

here is the link below where i got my lights i got a 2 Quantity = 12 lights ..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180665575475?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_3406wt_1002

Hope its okay to post a ebay link here if not mods please remove it.

Kappy · Nov 10, 2011

Ok so here's another update!

Here's my new setup, I'm going to be putting up another shelving unit like that next to it soon. The top shelf has 3 2 foot 75 watt fluro tubes with 4,500k lumens. On the bottom shelf is 4 of the same fluros and a desk lamp with a 2,700k lumen 150 watt bulb that sits next to the bottom shelf and is pointed towards only the bottom plants.

Here are some peppers, going to do some comparisons.

These are still unknown peppers. Though insanely tall, both have a lot of under branching going on.

This is another unknown still. This plant flowered but due to me changing around everything and then kind of not taking care of them for a bit, the flowers all fell off. Oh well, more are popping up now. The plant got a trim recently, it may be hard to tell with the angle of the picture, but he's gotten much bigger. Below the comparison is just an above picture of the plant now.

Kappy · Nov 11, 2011

Continued....

Here's another unknown lol. Flowers also all dropped due to rough conditions, more are coming in though, hoping to at least get one pod to set so that I can identify it, then I'm going to pick off all the rest of the flowers and repot this guy. Like the others, first pic is the older pic I posted of it, second pic is the new updated version.

It has a lot of nodes now

Ok and now just for a bunch of photos with no comparisons.

3 Explosive Embers and a Pretty Purple all the way to the right.

3 Prairie Fires. That tiny one has 2 buds on it o.o They are such tiny plants and all of them have buds.

Some Bolivian Rainbows.

Some Thai Hots, all have buds.

Kappy · Nov 11, 2011

Continued...

My Peruvian White Habs

One of them has 2 pods developing!!

Some Hot Tabascos, both have some really funky leaf thing happening to them...

Here are some of my new seedlings ^^

Starting on the top row from left to right, Fish Pepper, Early Jalapeno, Bulgarian Carrot, then on the bottom row in the little cups are all Golden Nuggets. I love the variegation on the Fish Pepper leaves.

That's all for now, I'll update again soon! Thanks for looking

gnslngr · Nov 11, 2011

Kappy said:
Continued....

Good- see the happy green more light brings? Those cups will tell you when to repot-just watch the roots.Great to see you still at it.

Kappy · Nov 11, 2011

Thanks Gnslngr ^^ yeah my plants are much happier now with this setup. Hoping they'll get much bigger by Christmas then I'll be saying goodbye to about half of them

then time for more germinating! Oh and yeah those cups are great, its amazing to see the root systems that happens at the bottom. All of them definitely need a good re-potting soon.

gnslngr · Nov 11, 2011

Kappy said:
Thanks Gnslngr ^^ yeah my plants are much happier now with this setup. Hoping they'll get much bigger by Christmas then I'll be saying goodbye to about half of them then time for more germinating! Oh and yeah those cups are great, its amazing to see the root systems that happens at the bottom. All of them definitely need a good re-potting soon.

I always wanted to find some clear 3-5 gallon containers..haha,ain't gonna happen I guess.Those peruvians will be toasty,but they are good.

Kappy · Dec 6, 2011

Alright here's a new quick picture update!

Added more to my setup. I have 2 shelving units, walls are covered in reflective material, there are 5 75 watt 4,500k lumen fluro lights and a 150 watt 2,700k lumen light. On the top section there are 3 of the 75 watt lights to start seedlings. You can also see my modded version of a Windowfarm on the left.

Here's my modded Windowfarm that I'm using for some herbs to test out. It is not hydroponic, I used soil, and I also used the 16 FL OZ water bottles instead of the 1.5 or 2 liters. If everything goes well I plan to create more versions that go well with my setup.

Ornamental Army

In the orange 3 gal buckets are a Hungarian Hot Wax, in the middle is a Cayenne pepper plant, and the last one is a Anaheim pepper plant.

Anaheim Pepper

continued..

The next 2 photos are suppose to be Peruvian White Habaneros, but I'm fairly sure they are instead Hungarian Hot Waxes

Thai Hots!