My Epic Rubbermaid Growing Room

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by piper32, Jun 25, 2009.

  1. #1 piper32, Jun 25, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 28, 2009
    ***DUE TO RECENTLY FINDING OUT THAT THE WEBSITE I WAS USING FOR PICTURE HOSTING ARE A BUNCH OF NARC'S, I WILL PICK UP WITH PICTURES AT THE END OF THE POST AS OF 6/27*****

    lesson learned b4 bad things happened


    This is my first post or reply or anything on this site so I figured I would start with a bang(bong?). I am kinda doing this as some form of learning journal of a plant that I am sharing with this wonderful website. I welcome ALL criticism, comments, thoughts, praise, questions etc. That's what forums are for right? Note: If ur not ready for an epic, detailed, humoristic ride of this grow, then turn away.

    I was cruising some of the pictures of some gardens and set ups on this site late one night and came across somebody that was starting out a Rubbermaid garden and it hit me like a ton of bricks. "I know I can do that", I said to myself!

    Not only could I start this with basically everything I already had around my place, but anything I didn't find was easily bought for a very small price. I have been taking pictures since about the 2nd day of sprouting.

    This has been so randomly, spontaneously, and extremely jerry rigged that I just caught myself laughing out loud at how easy it was. I understand completely that this can be improved significantly and also that I can foresee some serious problems that WILL occur in the future(that I will discuss later).

    I have had 2 successful seasons that were several years ago. I used several shop light style fluorescent lights throughout the entire season on both and had small, but happy results. Always soil, always seeds. I enjoy growing things just to grow them; I am pretty much happy with most results as long as they don't die or become bug infested(which neither have happened, thankfully). Everything has been in a closets until now

    Honestly, I found a few seeds in a gigantic bag of some primo shake I had recently and said fuck it; if it grows male, at least I got some experience at making a tiny grow room or something. I already had the Rubbermaid bucket and most of the cords and even the soil and pots. I am also growing some garden variety herbs as well in there with the little girl(I always refer to them as female until I see balls) so that is what you will see in there.

    Here is the first picture I took on 6/19:

    Ok first things first. Problems I saw immediately;
    1. The larger bulb is the wrong kind(spectrum) for the vegetative stages, imho.

    1A. Also it releases a serious amount of heat which would in turn force me to have the light too far away from the seedling, and I don't have that kind of room right now. I checked the temp after about 20 min with this set up closed and the room got over 93 deg. which I believe is bad. I plan on having the lights stay on 24/7 until sexing. I still need to buy a timer so I gotta do that soon.

    2. Other than a small 3" x 2" hole in the top lid and a couple of holes on the bottom for the fan and socket cords, there was absolutely no ventilation and the grow room would get too warm when the lid was closed. So i did this behind the fan:
    . . . Which did absolute wonders for ventilation and not so much for stealthiness. I am the only fucker in my room(EVER), so I'm not really going for stealth.
    So, as you can see it is a basic, cheap ass extension cord with a light socket-plug adapter that is all wired up with, yes, twist ties(talk about ghetto:hello:):

    then I got these lights which were the right spectrum I needed and also the largest wattage I could find at this moment by using the general stores and wal town. For the most part I am just concerned about spectrum and temperature right at this point:

    yeah they are sad, I know. Then today, 6/24, I was strolling through wal town again and I was thinking about lining the underside of the lid with a couple of small tube lights when I came across this (LOL) lamp holder :


    Oh yes i did:

    An when I saw how perfect it was surrounding the girl:

    That's when I started laughing and telling myself "This is some ghetto shit" But as you can see in the pic my basil, thyme, sage, and random flower(?) are loving it as well. All of these plants sprouted 8 days ago. 6/17

    OK. so there is the set up here is all that is used for soil and stuff:
    1. peat pellets
    2. O.S.H. basic brand potting soil pH Balanced to 5.5 to 6.5. .19 - .20 - .06 mix
    3. home delivered distilled/reverse osmosis water pH Balanced at 7
    I use this for my Venus Fly Traps so I figured it was a good fit and with the pH being just about perfect when the 2 are combined, I am not gonna change anything as far as nutrients or balancing pH(I really don't want to put the money or effort into it right now at this moment)

    I read a Seemorebuds book where the dude did a beautiful Mango plant with the basic kind of set up in (i think) 63 days or something. That's kinda what I am going for(but I gotta find bigger bulbs) so I was thinking about sexing within the next week and 1/2 - 2 weeks. But as far as the plant goes I have noticed some unusual things happening:

    6/19 looking good with second set of leaves starting to grow(2nd day):


    Then I skipped a couple of days of pictures and:


    6/22 2nd set of leaf I guess, and not only that, I think I started to see that the main stalk wasn't growing either. I am planning on topping after the fourth node unless this is the case. The room pretty much stays at 76-87 F. My herbs need a lot more frequent watering because of the poor soil they are in but the sweet little darling has been on about an every other day schedule as far as watering goes. As far as I can tell the plant is green and doesn't appear to have any kind of deficiency yet but all my plants historically have always had some red on the stems of fan leaves.

    6/23 Still no sign of a main stalk but what appears to be third node leaves, are growing well with 3 leaves. That second leaf node is growing big. gave it some water. temp is a little high so I have been leaving about a 3" portion of the top to not be fully closed. I am still using the orange spectrum bulb because I accidentally broke one of the daylight bulbs and I needed more wattage than just 100 W. The big orange one is 150W. 250>100 was my thinking. I did not want the stalk to stretch this time.


    6/24 OK! Now I am almost 99% certain this plant somehow or another is acting like it got topped already. Not really that big of deal, I guess. The first nodes of the 2 new stalks look like good ones.

    These next pictures I just took as of finally finishing writing up to this point. The sky is turning blue, my eyes are heavy and for some reason I have tennis on the TV. Never really been into watching tennis much. Oh yeah but I did watch #14USA whoop up on #1Spain yesterday in soccer. That was pretty cool. so here you go.

    So yeah, just as I expected, I have red streaks on the big fat leaf's stem. I believe this is because of a potassium deficiency. Not really sure how to correct only this. The rest of the leaves and plant look great, I think. I am afraid to use to much food because the potting soil has time release food in it. I have burned plants b4 and don't wanna do it again to the little ladies. A dead ringer now on being topped already. I would bet a sac on it.

    Here are my other herbs as of now, if anyone cares:

    That basil in the middle is starting to look yummy.

    Please leave whatever questions or comments you like and I will be back later to make more rounds and add more pictures. Good day to all who read this.

    Smoke weed:smoke:
     

    Attached Files:

  2. wooooooah. i've heard of this before. some seeds can fubar like that and it splits itself into two main colas. that girl does look pretty messed up though. o_O at least the newest sets are looking more like MJ leaves. :p

    haha. you weren't lying about humor. thanks for making my smoke more enjoyable.

    as for the shabby rubbermaid approach it is looking good actualy. is that tinfoil? take it down and try plain white printer paper, or maybe one of those space/emergency blankets but those fuck with heat too.

    haha, i'll check back again
     

  3. Hehe. Yeah that's foil. I figured it was better than nothing and I have foil on the underside of the lid also and when you start closing the lid you can tell it gets brighter. I used white painted walls in the closets that I have grown in before and that worked pretty well. Don't have any printer paper at the moment but the next time I go to wal town I will buy a stack and see how it goes. That stuff shouldn't be pricey at all so I will give it a shot.

    Thanks for your reply I will be writing more later with some more pictures when the sun goes down. :smoking:
     
  4. #4 piper32, Jun 26, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 28, 2009
    I couldn't wait to post some more pics so here they are as of 3 pm PST.


    Yeah you can see the red streaks pretty good now on the one large fan leaf. Anything anyone can help me with for that would be greatly appreciated. Until later.
     
  5. [​IMG]

    R.I.P. You will be missed Michael.:cry:
     
  6. rofl. my roomate is watching CNN coverage on michael. i just kinda shrugged

    um. but redstreaks? all i see are 3 funky looking leaves then two stalks of a baby MJ plant. :p
     
  7. MAJOR part of my musical life as a child. I will ghetto ass a picture in Paint and show what I mean about red streaks.
     
  8. i bet that funky lookn plant is going to be a fckn awesome plant when it gets older. not kidding.
     
  9. I hope this works. The circle is tiny because I am noob to photo editing.
    [​IMG]
     

  10. Thank you much for your optimism. She needs it.
     
  11. I have learned in life if your expectations are low you are never dissatisfied. rofl:cool:
     
  12. So I figured I would get into the problems that I will foresee in the future:

    1. Size. I don't think this bin will be able to hold a plant from seedling to harvest, even if it's 3 months old. I will have to move around lights or get new Y joints to add more lights. I don't want to grow this plant with only 290 watts. I would much rather have around 600-800 watts and unless I get new bulbs I am gonna have to keep getting the same 100 watt bulbs(one is 90) and attaching all kinds of Y joints. That in itself, I think, presents an issue; I don't think the bin will hold it all inside without possibly burning the plants or collapsing.

    1A. If I add more lights then I need to reinforce the lighting power supply. I think what I will do is use a power strip that allows for screws on the outside to properly hold it in place. I am really laughing at the twist ties. Is this all worth it if it outgrows the bin? Should I start looking for another avenue to grow in? I have a closet but it's full of junk that I can't put anywhere else. It would totally be perfect. The other issue is that I live in a house with several other people who don't know; and I would like to keep it that way. . .

    2.ODOR. If this is the kind, that we as growers, want to keep(luscious with buds), I have no idea what I am gonna do to prevent others from smelling it. I already have issues when I open my jar of chronic and the entire house smells like it. I am hoping to find a way to keep odor down to an absolute minimum. This is my biggest worry out of everything because this could mean me having to move. This is a highly unlikely situation that I will get kicked out of my house, but anyone who does not consider ALL possibilities, I believe, is incredibly naive, and deserves it.

    Please leave questions/comments if you have them. more later
    Smoke weed:smoke:
     
  13. those streaks happen. i don't know why but every sprout i've had has shown some red streaking until the 2nd or 3rd node. i believe it to be a PH problem in seedlings or something

    you brought up some good points, looking in the future. size is going to be an issue, yea. this container you have is perfect for vegging some plants a few weeks but not to flower.

    also, since smell is going to be a huge factor for you i would think heavily about some type of custom, fully sealed flowering chamber. it wouldn't have to be anything amazing. just something air/light tight that you could put a filter on. mini-fridge is my love in that department. they come built that way!

    about your lights - exactly how many watts of CFL do you plan on using? you showed the package for your lights. they are 26w (100w equiv. this number is meaningless to Mj growing). i would think that six of them could get the job done. and eight or ten would make top notch buds if you were able to position the lights very custom-like.

    as long as you're vegging then ventilation isn't much of a worry. just control the temp
     
  14. #14 piper32, Jun 26, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2009
    please go further into this mini fridge method you speak of for flowering. I am very interested.

    Also why is the 100 watt output meaningless to MJ growing?
     
  15. lmao, what an awesome plant
     
  16. TYVM! She heard that, I think! Definitely has her own characteristics, she does.
     
  17. #19 nomel90, Jun 26, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 26, 2009
    Hey man, I've got a few solutions for your problems.

    1- Size; LST. (I'll get into more of that later)

    2- Odor; Dryer Sheets

    Well first of all, I'm glad you asked about size. Have you thought about LST'ing your plant? (Low stress training) Heres a Guide on How To; LST

    It pretty much involves wrapping the main stem around the pot and all the branches grow upwards. This will not only keep your plant short, but you'll yield way more bud since the light can penetrate areas that it normally would not be able to do if the plant was standing straight up. My girl has been pinned down 2 times so far and I'm about to do it again.

    Odor, well there are MANY ways to do this. IF you are only growing 1 plant then make sure your grow box is air tight and have an intake and an exhaust. On your exhaust somehow fit 5-10 layers of dryer sheets over the exhaust and it will conceal MOST of the smell (not effective when growing many plants, however). You'll still be able to smell it within close proximity of the box but its going to be overpowered by fresh clothes smell. There are also guides on here about how to build a carbon filter out of supplies from a pet store. I've also heard putting a plate of vinegar in the grow box will mask the scent but I've never seen it done.

    Happy to help man, I'll be checking back from time to time.

    Goodluck, +rep :wave:

    edit; oh also keep in mind that she wont start smelling until she starts flowering (and producing bud), so you've got a little while to worry about odor :)
     
  18. My sweetheart, for some reason, wanted to top itself after the first node. So now I have 2 beautiful stalks starting. How will this affect the LST process? Just tie down 2 instead of 1?

    Thanks so much for the input. I really appreciate it. Knowing that you went from ghetto to what you have now is very encouraging and makes me want to try harder.

    You have inspired me sir!
    I am gonna smoke some AK my friend just delivered and get these garbage bags in and get some pictures done.
    Smoke weed!:smoke:
     

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