Gwiito's growing Evolution

First off this is my first grow, ever. so bare with me. I am learning. I have studied how to grow many different ways for the past few years and am now going to attempt to do something with the knowledge that i have obtained. I chose to build a Stealth PC Grow Box, instead of buying one. it was much cheaper. The internet is selling them for around $300 now, give or take. I spent around $60, over a long period of time. I have been gathering and experimenting for the past 6 months on making this thing just right. I chose to go all natural because this is my first time and lets face it, messing with the PH on a few hour basis is difficult and defeats the purpose of stealth. Now theres the introduction, lets get started shall we.
Any Suggestion would be appreciated. lets be polite to.

Items used:
2 30watts 1600lumens each CFL disc lights (Main Lights)
1 10watt 250 lumens cfl spiral light (used for under lighting/ spot lighting)
2 2in computer fans (Intake and outake exhaust system)
1 1.5 in computer fan (Extra circulation)
1 Automatic light timer
2 mountinging brackets made for the circle CFL bulbs
1 surge protector
1 extension cord
Cardboard
an ass load of duct tape aka "the handy mans tool" Thank you "Red Green"
an ass load of reflector tape
some paper clips
2 Plastic cups
Velcro
Hot Glue
computer tower (unsure of demensions as of now)
Pot
water catcher
All Natural plant fertalizor (will be experirmenting)
All natural Plant Soil (loaded with the goods)
TOTAL COST = around $60 (the price of an 8th that is claimed to be, (enter lingo for really good bud))
good investments = priceless

The electrics are enclosed in a seperate compartment that has been enclosed. I used a piece of cardboard that i cut down to fit perfectly inside the case. I cut 2 square holes in said cardboard to mount the fans. I mounted the fans using Hot Glue and duct tape. There is one fan for intake and one for out take of air. on the enclosed side of the cardboard i used 2 plastic cups to protect the fan blades from the wiring. i cut out a hole on the underside of each cup and then cut the cup down to size so it was flush agaist the back of the computer case. I then nicely placed all the wiring inside the eclosed area. The only cords showing out of the back are the surge protector, the timer, the extension cord for the lights and the extension cord for the fans. I left this space open until the very end of setup so I could move things accordingly. The surge protector is velcord onto the back of the computer case.
I did a layer of reflector tape for the grow area. I then mounted the 2 circle CFL bulbs ontop of the case so they are secured. This is the 2nd edition on making a PC growbox and trust me secure the bulbs one way or another. It is much easier to raise the pot with bricks or books then it is to mess around with lights that swing around everytime you want to check up on your girl. after I mounted the lights I mounted the little fan to the right of the grow area, for extra circulation. The fans are what set me back in this grow. I ordered them off line, they are the kind that have power cords that can plug into to any socket because lets face it, i am no electrician or computer builder. I have no idea how to wire fans onto power source...blah blah blah. anyways. after mounting the little fan I mounted the spot bulb. after everything was good and snug i then used more Reflector tape to go over all of thw wiring that was running about. The spot light can be adjusted via paperclips. the small fan can be angled via by bending the 2 paper clips it is secured to. After everything was nicely taped away with the reflector tape i turned her on, to ensure it was light proof. I used more reflector tape to touch things up, as far as the spots that leaked light. The only place that leaks light is the back of the unit. I Migivered light blockers using paper clips and duct tape. The is one opening per light blocker, so the fans can still circulate the heat and fresh air. I made sure that the plastic cups that were flush against the back of the computer case were also light proof and for the most part air proof. The only light escape is from the fans through the back of the computer case. The lower fan is where the fresh air is coming from. since heat rises and because the lights are ontop, i obviously placed the exhuast fan there. It is behind the left bulb. I have tested the temp. inside the grow area with 3 thermostats. they all read 85F-90F after a 24 hr cycle. After everything was set and all was good I duct tape the rest of the electrical compartment up. for the most part the air and moisture from both the grow area and the electric compartment are their own entities... Im high.
I will be using 3 seeds to start out with. I got the seeds out of some killer "cali dro" if you will. it is of the kush family however my connection has dubbed it "big buddah." If all is successful and i end up with a lady or two i will come up with a sutable name for her. I figure if i am lucky and produce something that is smokable, it doesnt matter how potent it is. It will be the best god damned pot ever to me because i am the one that grew it from seed to please. If i am lucky that is. I still have yet to figure out a quality watering system that is reliable and efficient. I am going to try some sort of a drip system. other wise i will have to water manually every day. not that its a problem however again it sort of defeats the purpose of a stealth grow. I want something that is sustainable on its own for at least 3 days. howver the urge to check up on her will be hard to control. Because this is my first grow ever i am going to stick with just one plant. There are 3 holes on the back wall of the computer case that are exposed. they are perfect for little medal rods so i can LST my grow. I plan on LSTing in a layingdown S pattern. I will add diagrams later perhaps, or if i get lucky i will just update with pictures as I progress to better understand what i am speaking of. Again I am very high right now as i type so grymatical errors are just to damned bad. if you have read this I hope you have learned a little something. I will continue to update as i progress.

Toodles.
W

So here i am again. capitolizing words that dont need to be, on accident. spelling horribly and using improper grammar. I have revamped and rethought some things. Shown in one of the pictures is a screw that is screwed into one of those three holes i had mentioned in Blog 01. instead of using a medal rod i chose the next best thing. a screw. only because there were little threads in these holes, so it only seemed right. I however only got one because thats all there was at the time. i will be getting 2 more. Also Is an edited version of a previous pic, I have MS painted my way on there. The black dots represent the screws that will be used to LST my flower. The green line represents the main stem of my flower. If all goes according to plan I hope to curve it around alittle to let it grow alittle and perhaps bonsai her alittle. My question is this: If I bonsai some main leafs will it sprout another stock much like if you were to top her. I dont want that, this time. This time im keeping it simple...hopefuly.
The seeds have been put into germination I will check up on them in 24 hrs. Posted is a pic of what i am using as a pot, for now. I have the tupperware filled with seedling pot siol for now, it retains water better. ontop of that is a paper towel, wetted down. then there is a row of 4 "big buddah" seeds, and 8 bag seed. I am sure i can get at least a few to sprout. hopefuly the better of the two. fingers crossed.
I have also fasioned a "hold me over" irrigation system. I am using the drip irrigation method. I used a regular pop bottle, cut down to size. a hose. some more hot glue. and a drill to drill a hole in the bottle cap. I also used paper clips to make a hanging contraption so it actually drips. Inside the hose I stuffed some hemp fabric to control the speed of drip. I had to really just do trial and error to get the right speed. I then used a paper clipped that is folded around the hose so I can place it in the soil and it will stay. It works pretty well. I have about 6oz of water in there and it lasted 24 hrs. Now I am not sure if that is enough. it does not seem like enough, however it will suffice through out the day when the "sun is up" and its hot. I will be keeping a close eye on it for the first week or so to test out the right amount of water. After a seed or two have spouted I will let them develope for a couple weeks and then throw them into flowering. This way I will be able to tell the sex at an early age and kill of the Males to let the female have all the room to her self.
I am using a shallow but long tupperware with holes drilled into the bottom so the water can drain. This is placed inside another tupperware and has about an inch of room from the base of the bigger tupperware. This is where the water will drain into. My hypothesis is that if i have standing water in the base of the tupperware then during the day time it will evaporate and cause humidity. It only makes sense, to me at least. again the container is at a cool 82F right now because the lights are off so the Seeds can germinate. *spark*
The fans are still running to keep the air circulating and keep it nice and cool..... something something something.

Wow...
haha!
until next time ( tomorrow...)

W

So technically day three but only 24 hrs after germination was started, so from here on out tpday is day one and tomorrow is day 2. confused yet?
to my surprise the paper towels were almost completely dry. however the soil was still very very moist, leading me to believe the soil acts as some sort of sponge like entity and retains the water. So being that my seeds were in a warm damp dark environment for a full 24hrs i decided to just put them directly into the soil just alittle bit. the four big buddah seeds all had cracked so i placed the cracked side down into the soil and then did a light dusting of soil on top. i sprayed the top of that down to get it all nice and moist and than I MiGivered a mini green house for the 4 seeds. being that the other seeds that i had started were just bag seed i decided to put them somewhere else to see if they would spout a different way.
As for the green house that i rigged up. I used the top of a clean take home box that was cut down to size to fit over the tupperware. i then used tinfoil to secure it in place. I sliced some slits in the clear cover so they could breathe and condesation will build up. I also rigged the drip irrigation system to drip into the tupperware. it is dripping away from the seeds only in hopes to keep more moisture inside the green house. I have the spot light directly above the greenhouse achored onto one of the screws i have set up.
Now I wait another day. hopefuly in a few days i will beable to see some spouts. that would just be the bees knees.

W


Before ( mini green house)


After (mini green house)

So there it is. I have started. 3 days in. hopefuly in a few more i will have something for my hard work. please leave me comments for i will be checking up very frequently. until next time. stay stoned.

W:smoking:

That looks like a really sweet homemade box

I am excited to see what comes of it!

didnt read all the info u wrote yet. guess im gna have to cuz i didnt understand how this works from the pics but thats fine.. wow very creative i like it! gl w. ur grow man

EDIT:
almost forgot to ask, r u leaving this plant in there for its whole life?? looks too small 4 it (sry if u answered my question already)

Edited by naorb, 04 August 2009 - 06:25 PM.

No worries man, I wrote all of that over a few day period of time and just mass uploaded everything so its a bit much. to answer your question, yes i will be keeping it in here for its whole life. The internet claims that you can grow up to 3 plants with their system. I am only going to focusing on one plant after i determine the sex i will kill of the others keeping only the strongest and sexiest looking one. I am only going to be growing it for a fews weeks to let it get a good root system and alittle strength before i switch it into flowering. also since the pot that its growing in is sort of shallow i hope that this will stunt her growth as well. Who knows We will have to wait and see.

I have seen those thread on here and other forums about mini grow competitions and people being able to grow from start to finish in one shot glass. So if that works i dont see why this wont. But only time will tell. keep the questions and comments rolling.

Stay stoned.
W

We have germination. The four bug buddah seeds from cali have not produced any sprouts yet. ill give it a few more days. however the bag seed that i set aside for germination a different way has worked. I used the bowl plate and papertowel method. 48hrs later three of them had cracked and spouted their little shoots for me to plant them. That is exactly what i did to. so hopefully at least one out of the eight seeds i planted right now will allow me to practice with it. hopefuly.

hey bro good luck with you grow i to have a pc case grow started so ill check in on yours. maybe we could give each other some pointers since this is my second grow but first pc. also gc member Kushkilla has a pc grow to you might want to check in on as well.

p's

"hey bro good luck with you grow i to have a pc case grow started so ill check in on yours. maybe we could give each other some pointers since this is my second grow but first pc. also gc member Kushkilla has a pc grow to you might want to check in on as well.

p's"


Thanx dude, for sure, the more help he better. out grow big bro. right? anyways. ill deffinetly check out your thread and that other dudes as well. until next time

stay stoned
W.

day 4. I already have some growth goin on. one of the bad seeds have started the cycle of life. its shootin about an inch out of the soil and getting ready to push the rest of that shell off. sometimes it amazes me how fast something can become a living plant. im very excited. now its time to try and keep it alive.

stay stoned.
i am.
W.

PS. i will have pix soon. right now its to small to tell the differance between it and the soil. so when it gets some green on it ill be taking her candid pic.

Edited by gwiito, 06 August 2009 - 02:57 PM.
fprgpt something

you can tell that was made by an italian

Finish, actually. close enuf tho. Gwiito is just a name i got because a friend of mine for like 6 yrs was drunk one night and couldnt say my real name. which i wont be typing here. but ya it just stuck with me. especially when people were drunk. Do you not like the box. do u have any suggestions for me?

W.

So I am on day 6. It only took about 4 days max to get some sprouts. being that sprouts are so small an I dont have the best of digital cameras. I wasnt around for a few days with an update only because I couldnt show the progress and lets face it the majority of us learn from visuals and not so much reading making most of this useless. anyways.
I cracked her open this morning and much to my surprise i am progressing quite well. a few spouts have made it out of the ground and have died. I believe this is because I did not plant the seed deep enuf in the soil. they continued to grow but much to far out of the ground and horizontally, flush with the soil. I didnt really think they would recover from this so I took them out. I let them sit around for a couple days to dry out and then i wrapped them up with a Joint. Not because i thought i it would add anything to the high. But hopefuly for good luck. I also have 6 sprouts left that are looking mighty fine. There are 3 Big buddah sprouts (the really good cali pot) and then 3 bag seed. 2 of the big buddah seeds are looking the best out of all. and one still has its shell, I am sure it will be loosing it with in the day. I have been able to spray them down every 12 hours or so. the soil is keeping moist the entire time which is what its supposed to do. I am just making sure the leaves dont dry out. The mini spot light i believe is helping this process along greaty only because the 3-4 sprouts that are directly below it are the prettiest of them all. I would recommend installing a spot light or two, depending on the space allowed. It doesnt produce any heat and is very compact. The Cirlce CFLs are doing their job as well, again producing little heat. I have been checking the temp every 12hrs or so and it has been maintaining an 88F temp. I have the mini fan blowing directly over the top of the green house and the intake fan blowing directly to the left side of the tupperware.

My question is this, to anyone that is actually reading this. I plan on transplanting a few of the best looking sprouts to their own pots. leaving them to veg for another 2 weeks, give or take a few days. and then put them into flowing in hopes that one of the three will be female. How soon should I transplant them? How deep do the roots enitially grow? The few srpouts that i had taken out because they werent planted deep enuf were about 1.5in or so but hardly any of the root was actually in the ground. So I dont know if that would stunt the roots growth at all. Also. Since this is a small grow i know i cant have a huge pot or anything so what do you suggest I transplant them into. I was thinking little flower pots that are about 2-3oz. Then after i determine the sex and only have one plant remaining transplant it again into a larger pot maybe 10oz or so. I know that I need to train my plant but I have also read places where you need to limit the root growth to stunt the hieght of the plant. is there any truth to this? I dont want to become root bound or have rote so i know i need to limit the water. What is the bare minimum these plants should get as far as water goes each day. so far i have not been keeping track of the amount i am watering. I have just been watering until the top is moist and the sprouts are wet. I will stop this tomorrow and start a regular water cycle. so any suggestions? I know all grows are different but i want first hand opinions, not something i read somewhere because some guy/girl thinks they know all. I want a rookies/novices opinion. any help is much appreciated and as always if you have any questions for me. just ask.

stay stoned.
W.

Mini greenhouse


one of the lost sprouts. only about a quarter inch was in the soil


Sprouts



There are 4 sprouts in a line, in the middle of all of them. those are the big budda seeds. 3 of which are dark green and looking beautiful. i am keeping my fingers crossed and focusing on good karma. everything counts. remember

Sorry these pictures show 8 sprouts. 2 of which are appearing to look and act like the ones i have plucked already. since they are still in there, should i leave them in? maybe it will spring back and have trained it self to stay low? any thoughts?

honestly bro before you do anything you need to put each sprout in its own container whether its a red beer cup or a flower pot of some sort. all those sprout so close together is a big problem because the roots could start to tangle and you can damage everything when you try to split them apart.

Thank you for the advice. I am planning on doing this in the morning.

actually I am thinking. since i am going to kill all but one off do i need to seperate them? Originally i wanted to so i could experiment with my nutes. I was going to kill all but 3. I was going to have all 3 of those one a different nute strength schedule. However since i have good seeds in this pot I dont want to risk splitting them and ripping roots. so What will happen if i keep them all in the same pot have them on the same water and nute schedule and just kill all but 3 off. will this perhaps stunt the vertical growth due to limited space for the roots to grow being that there are a few plants instead of one. What does everyone think. Im high sorry if this was a bit of a ramble.

holly crap those pics r so big they dont fit on my screen lol keep the pics comin man!
GL

I'm sorry to say, but in that space you have there, you probably can only have one plant at a time. Remember how much room the roots need! Plus you need to add a lot more light (Like 2-3 MORE 26watt CFLS) It's important that you realise that the 'equivalent' wattage doesn't mean anything. Instead, just pick up some 26 watt lights. Good luck.