Stealth Grow - Gutted Entertainment center

[Princ3nsimilla]

Alrighty... This is my second Grow - I was originally growing in a HUGE rasta toybox, but my ferrets managed to chew their way into it, and then consume my plants.

Annnywhore, I miss it dearly, so I am attempting to do this again. This time I am doing somewhat of a MicroGrow. The space is about 25" high x 25" wide x 18" deep. I lined the interior with heavy duty aluminum foil, and Light proofed all the cracks including the space inbetween the doors and the frame. I have a 16" CFL on an adjustable shelf, and an 8" window fan i dismantled and "custom fit" into the cabinet. (I later realized that the fan blows backwards, if this makes sense, and flipped the fan around). I also drilled about 50 small holes for ventilation, and covered them with black material thin enough to let air in and out, but dark enough to keep light from penetrating. I let the whole box operate on its own for a week before I started my two babies, and monitored it every day in that week to make sure it maintained an optimal heat and humidity range... and as far as I can tell, it will work out splendidly.

Since I'm on somewhat of a time schedule here, I decided to use bagseeds. One seed is from a strain called Maine Dirt (its an Indica - and dont be fooled by the name, its ugly, but its powerful) and the other is a mystery. They both were planted 3 days ago today and seem to be pretty happy. I'm using a type of MiricalGro formulated for tomatoes (heard that would be best if I can find one that suits my needs) and I also happened to have a Bottle of Liquid Fish Fertilizer and a heafty bag of All Natural Blood Meal ( pretty convenient)

Given the size of the space, I was planning on using LST to keep them relatively short. Like I said previously, this is only my SECOND grow. I am still very much a novice and I will have TONS of questions. Here are a few pics of the set up (shitty camera on my phone) and my two little ladies.


Grow Box


Maine Dirt


Mystery Strain

[Goofybongs]

Plants seem healthy, and thick stems for there size, nice nice. How often you gonna update their growth?

[LittleGreenMan1]

get rid of the aluminum foil (will create hotspots and major problems down the road). just throw down for some mylar. WORTH IT.

[Princ3nsimilla]

Im planning on updating it daily if i can remember (stoner's memory)... but yeah, im really pleased that they are lookin healthy. i think i went for a good soil.


and about the foil, i did notice it gets a little warm in there on its daytime cycle... i can find Mylar at Lowe's or something, right?

[Princ3nsimilla]

and here are my babies at 4 days old

[Goofybongs]

Yeah i had alumin foil walls and one day i came back and the plant was just dehydrated and shriveled, the day a love one died. RIP little plant.

[Princ3nsimilla]

damn... gotta get right on that then.

oh, and i transplanted the babies today. they'll only be a week old tomorrow, but they seemed like they needed to be put in bigger pot.

pics soon

[Princ3nsimilla]

okay.. been kinda bad at keeping this up, but my camera was FUBAR there for a few days.

my babies are now a week and a half old. they seem to be doing good, minus ONE leaf on the mystery strain - which is a little twisted. but its only been like that since the day i opened up the cabinet to see the leaf touching the light. i was told that the plants COULD touch CFL's with no issues, but it looked to me that the leaf was trying to get away from it. no burns or scorching, just a little twisted. i moved the light about 2" above them and all the new growth looks healthy to me. here are a few pics of the little girls...



This is the mystery strain from the top, that has the twisted leaf (right one in pic)


this is the same plant, but from the side. its exactly 3" tall


this is "Maine Dirt" from the top. my baby


same plant from the side, she's about 2.5" tall



any feed back is appreciated. especially since im a novice in the world of pot cultivation...

[Princ3nsimilla]

started to LST my girls 2 days ago. theyre a little young but they seem to still be pretty happy. pics soon

[Princ3nsimilla]

alrighty then... just got my laptop outta the shop, and i can post again.

soo, my babies will be 4 weeks old this sunday... although, i have this sneaking suspicion that they may be a little behind in growth. as i said in my last post, i started to LST them at just two weeks. that didnt go as planned. both of them survived, but they literally stopped growing for a week. lesson learned. they seem to be doing alright now. they're starting to get stinky... and although they are only 4 weeks old, i have them on 12/12. i read through a few threads on here where people changed the light cycles really early to get them to show sex and begin flowering earlier. was this a mistake? a buddy of mine who's been growing for years has his plants on 12/12 from sprout to on through flowering until harvest, so i figured id give it a shot...

pics tomorrow, cause right now they're in their dark period.

any opions or advice is welcome...

[sUpA nOvA D9]

Get a fan to blow on them so the stem gets thick enough to support them as they grow.

Don't worry about a twisted leaf...it will not affect the plant in any way other then apperance right now.

Looks good so far but I would cut the soda bottle down a tille bit more so its not blocking wind from the fan.

[Princ3nsimilla]

okay.. as promised here are a couple of pics of the babies. they're 4 weeks old today, and they look good to me, but like i said, im concerned that theyre a little small for their age. any opinions?

[Princ3nsimilla]

ah so the girls are about 5 1/2 weeks old, and today i opened up the cab to see PISTILS... yes both of them really are Girls. made my day this i guess is what i could call their flowering period, week 1. i had them on 20/4 light schedule up until they were 3 weeks old. then i got impatient and put them on 12/12. pics sometime today, also, just bought an AeroGarden. its just an AeroGarden mini, but i had two lowryder seeds, so i figured id give it a shot. they both sprouted, and one of them is on their first leafset already, its about 2.5 inches tall today. the garden came with an herb set and herb nutes. im only using the root starter nutes and the veg nutes (the starter is 20-10-20 and the veg nutes are 20-20-20)

feedback is appreciated!

[DrazyHaze]

Your plants look really nice.

Im not a big grower, yet...i'm hoping to grow in a year or so, but anyway. I think switching to 12/12 so early might bite you in the butt in the long run.

Depending on how the 12/12 effects your plants, they might end up flowering too early and lose a lot of growth.

Anyway,

keep us updated, im anxious to see how this grow turns out

[Princ3nsimilla]

yeah, ive read a lot of forums and guides that argue that starting at 12/12 will not affect the plants and others that say that you need to ease the plants into the flowering cycle.

but thanks, im pleased with the progress. hopefully i can get a hold of a camera that has good enough focus to grab a shot of the first pistils. theyre so tiny im lucky i caught em.

im very excited.

oh, and im not really going for quantity, this is only my second grow... and im surprised i got as far as i have