Han's mini-SOG (hopefully someday)

Alright, I've decided to go against my better judgment and post a grow journal.

Right now I have 2 plants, plus a clone that may or may not decide to take root in a rubbermaid container under 3 26W and 2 20W cfls, as well as one of those piece of junk 14W led panels. For ventilation I'm using a 120mm pc case fan running at about 6V for a good combination of ventilation and stealth.

I have MiracleGro potting soil. Yes, I know, it's not popular, but I don't want to hear it, my options were limiting so I'm growing with what I had available. I hope to go organic when I've finally used it up. The clone is in an unknown organic potting soil.

I've been watering with tap water mixed with Maxicrop at 2 capfuls per gallon along with a few capfuls of lime juice to bring the pH down, nasty water we've got here. I recently picked up some Down to Earth organic ferts, I used a bit of their rose and bloom mix on Felicity about two weeks ago.

Here are a couple of pics of my box, I'm just going to break this down into multiple posts for organization's sake today, maybe one day I'll get ambitious and resize my pictures... until then, attachments it is. Oh, and I use a Kodak easyshare, so photo quality is about what you would expect from such, I'm working on it.

I named my Mango plant Felicity, she is currently 77 days old and is in day 53 of flower. I've been growing her in a 1-L Mountain Dew bottle with the MiracleGro soil from the start. She was topped in a freak watering accident shortly after she showed sex, which has turned out to be alright. She has two of the 3 26W cfls in the grow box devoted to her, which gives great coverage. She has some yellowing leaves, probably from heat stress during the week without ventilation while they were showing my apartment. When they were done I turned the fan back on, but raised the lights anyway and the problem seems to have been addressed. I was planning on chopping her on the 11th, but she doesn't look like she's going to be done by then, so she gets a reprieve for awhile.

Ideally, I will be able to reveg her and turn her into a mother plant this summer, but I don't know where I'll be living and working this summer, so my whole grow scheme is kind of up in the air. If I wind up going home, I think I can handle one small plant without problems, I might try to do two, but that would be pushing it. I think the little box in my room at home can handle 3 cfls max.

Anyway, here are some pictures for y'all. I believe the first two pictures are from last weekend, and the other three are from yesterday. There isn't a whole lot of change for today.

Chenequa came from the package of "Premium Seed Mix" that I bought along with the Mango seeds. I'm still not sure of the wisdom of this decision, but it has been interesting at the very least. She is 62 days old, and still has not gone into bloom. Occasionally she'll pop out a preflower, but then I typically prune her heavily to knock her back into line. At this point I don't want her to bloom, but I don't have the lights to have a second box on 18/6 right now, so hopefully she'll wait until after I harvest Felicity to express her sexual tendencies; by then it will be too late.

Chenequa is growing in MiracleGro potting soil in a gallon milk jug with the top cut off. Love where I get my pots from, eh? I took a clone when I pruned her yesterday, it's growing in a peanut butter jar. She has 1 26W and 2 20W daylight cfls devoted to her, and she receives the brunt of the LED panel's light. I don't think Felicity feels left out.

Anyway, let's get down to the good stuff, pictures. The first picture is from last weekend before the pruning, the second is from yesterday after the pruning. The yellowing is a pH-related iron deficiency, which as of today, appears to finally be under control, it had me worried for a bit. The last two pictures are of the cutting I took yesterday while pruning. It may or may not make it; I'm leaning toward may not, but I figure it's worth a shot. I am kinda liking the clone pics, I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that my camera's photo quality doesn't seem to decrease when shooting through plastic.

I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that my camera's photo quality doesn't seem to decrease when shooting through plastic.

That sh_t cracked me up man . It's crazy to se how fat those calyxes are on the Mango, and very cool colors.

That sh_t cracked me up man . It's crazy to se how fat those calyxes are on the Mango, and very cool colors.

Sweet! Thanks for stopping by man. I'm not so sure the calyxes are that fat, they're nice, but I think my photos are lacking a sense of scale. I might have to do the obligatory picture with the bic for scale in the next few days. I am, however, very pleased with what the yield is turning out to be.

So... update time! The first pic is just my box with all of the plants moved out. Next up is Felicity, who looks about the same as she did before, just a few more hairs coming in.

Chenequa has responded to the pruning by rearing her head and telling me that she will not be beaten back so easily. I beg to differ, more pruning may be in order. I really hope that I can turn her into a gnarly mother plant this summer. She's still kinda yellow, but I think, I hope it's getting better... finally.

The cutting, is well, a cutting, it seems to be doing alright though, hopefully it survives, maybe get a head start for the summer, or just a smaller version of Chenequa if I wind up going home this summer.

Dude you have to have some of the freakiest looking plants on GC, like they're from another planet.

Is the Mango as dense as it looks? Kind of a weird question.

Dude you have to have some of the freakiest looking plants on GC, like they're from another planet.

Is the Mango as dense as it looks? Kind of a weird question.

I suppose that's a compliment. The Mango is pretty damn dense, it's also very small, that's a 1-L Mountain Dew Bottle it's growing in. The purple is really just because it gets cold at night, but I'm not about to turn the heat up. Other than that, I just LST the living shit out of them, and Chenequa receives some heavy pruning from time to time.

interesting grow boss. i like the looks of that mango. where did u get it from?

She was topped in a freak watering accident

Great line.

Felicity is looking very sticky. That's going to be some good smoke.

It looks like you have the Miracle Gro under control. That stuff made my life miserable when I started growing. I had it in 7 gallon pots. I hadn't added any perlite. It was incredibly dense, like cement. Flushing the soil was an ordeal. Half a liter of the stuff may be more manageable.

So I purchased a bag of Fox Farm Ocean Forest online. It cost me $42 bucks delivered. Great stuff, but that's a bit steep for a bag of dirt.

Now I'm using the coco coir. I haven't flowered with it yet, but everything in veg is doing really well with it. The advantage of coco coir, if you happen to live in a county like mine that does not suffer the presence of grow shops, is that they sell it in compressed, brick form, just add water, so shipping costs will not make you weep. I mix the coco with an equal volume of perlite.

That's a nice micro-grow you've got going, Han. I'm glad you decided to start a journal. I won't be a stranger.

Hey thanks for stopping in guys.
Wes, all of my seeds came from marijuana-seeds.nl, I've been pleased so far, I had some germination issues, but I think they were more noob mistakes than bad seeds.
Alatar, good to see you here, I have the MiracleGro under control for Felicity, I think she got enough perlite, Chenequa on the other hand starts bitching whenever I give her a good watering... I'll have to work on that.

No updates today, I just got back from visiting the girlfriend's parents for the weekend, it went well, I officially have the approval of both parents now, but the lights are off, so updates will have to wait until tomorrow. Friday I found my first amber trichome, so Felicity is well on her way to the chopping block, I was hoping to harvest before hempfest this weekend, but the girlfriend's mother and grandmother and aunt will be in town, and I don't think she'll quite be ready by then, so later it is.

Congrats on the approval man .

Congrats on the approval man .

Thank you sir. I really wasn't too worried. I talked their daughter out of dropping out, they have to like me.

I checked on my plants this morning, Felicity is looking about the same as usual, and with harvest imminent, I flushed her fairly hard, I think I gave her about a liter and a half, but it's hard to say, I didn't measure, but quite a bit. I might do it later in the week. I'm thinking I'll chop her Saturday.

Chenequa, rebellious as usual has gone through a growth spurt since last weekend, and since her death by iron deficiency no longer appears to be a threat, she has decided that now would be a good time to go into bloom. I attempted to take pictures, but of course, my camera sucks, so the pistils are not visible. Hmm, it looks like maybe if you don't zoom too far and you look closely, maybe you can see one of them... maybe. I might post one of them anyway. I have another 1-L Mountain Dew bottle now, so I'm thinking the correct procedure for putting her back in her place is to prune her hard, trim her roots, and cram her into that sucker. I'm planning on switching to 18/6 as soon as Felicity gets harvested, but knowing Chenequa, she'll probably hermie out of spite.

The cutting is looking alright, but it appears to have company in its peanut butter jar. It seems that the ginkgo sapling I that occupied the jar previously was not dead as I had assumed, but merely dormant, and in the warm bright environment of my grow box, it has decided that spring has come and it's time to play again. I'm not sure what to do about this... which is more important, pot or ginkgo? I think I'll wait and see if the cutting puts down roots.

EDIT: Nice product placement on that wine, don't you think? Maybe I could talk them into sponsoring my grow.

Edited by handaman, 12 April 2010 - 09:48 PM.

Nice product placement on that wine, don't you think? Maybe I could talk them into sponsoring my grow.

Mountain Dew should be writing the checks. They're in half the shots. Hell, you've got me drinking the stuff right now.

Next thing you know, I'll be smoking pot.

Mountain Dew should be writing the checks. They're in half the shots. Hell, you've got me drinking the stuff right now.

Next thing you know, I'll be smoking pot.

Damn right! What's their number? I need some money!

Edited by handaman, 14 April 2010 - 02:02 AM.
Just because I'm a grammar nazi doesn't mean I'm perfect.

Today is day 59 of flowering for Felicity... she still doesn't quite look ready yet... oh well, anyway, business as usual, no watering for her.
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Chenequa is continuing her rebellious growth spurt, and is starting to develop buds. Very soon I'll have to call her in flower... if I let her get that far. I'm very tempted to just flower her and then try to reveg when she's done, but I keep telling myself I don't have the lights to do it. Truth is, I probably do. So now I'll have to make a decision sooner or later... oh well. The first pic is self-explanatory, the closest branch has some nice preflowers, the second pic is inside the jungle, pretty claustrophobic in there if you ask me.
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My cutting doesn't look so well, but it might just be that time in its life. The ginkgo on the other hand is looking pretty great, it's kind of visible as a lighter spot on the pic. I kind of hope the cutting doesn't make it, I want that ginkgo.
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I may have found an apartment today, I'll check it out tomorrow, but it has a walk-in closet, which would be pretty awesome. The only problem is that the power bill is included in rent, so I'm going to have to keep my electricity use down, which means I might not be able to go quite as big as I had hoped, but I might still be able to pull it off, I have some ideas to optimize my grow op, I think I need to look into some T5s, I figure if I keep myself around 250W or so, maybe a bit more I shouldn't raise any eyebrows.

I think I need to look into some T5s, I figure if I keep myself around 250W or so

My T5s are rated at 216 watts. The 4-ft HO T5 tubes are 54 watts each.

My T5s are rated at 216 watts. The 4-ft HO T5 tubes are 54 watts each.

I'd probably be trying to find fixtures even smaller than that, I'll still be growing in rubbermaids, so I'm kind of limited as far as size goes.

I'd probably be trying to find fixtures even smaller than that, I'll still be growing in rubbermaids, so I'm kind of limited as far as size goes.

The HO T5 bulbs for 2 foot long fixtures are rated at 24 watts a piece.

The HO T5 bulbs for 2 foot long fixtures are rated at 24 watts a piece.

Now that's more what I'm thinking of. Thanks man.

Today is day 60 of flower for Felicity, in 10 days, she will have reached the 10 week point, which is the maximum of the range given. I'm still not seeing much in the way of amber trichomes. Frustration... Anyway, here are some pics. And of course, a couple with a bic for size reference, now you can see just how small she really is.
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Chenequa is still at it, busting out preflowers all over the place. If this continues I may be in trouble. Not really, but I'd prefer she just buckle down a bit. This is day 69 of veg for her, of course, it's 12/12 veg, but it's still veg, right?
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Today I had the epiphany that I could remove the cutting from its bag for the photoshoot. In theory this would increase photo quality... unfortunately, not today, it's a nice shot of that wire though. The ginkgo is happy as ever, that's somewhat comforting. The cutting itself is stable, I guess, it doesn't look good or bad.
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I checked out that apartment today, I think it's workable, but it's in the basement, so it's kind of dark and gloomy. I have enough lighting to brighten things up considerably, but I'd like something better. It's also nonsmoking, but I'm sure there are ways of getting around that, I'm thinking an extra carbon scrubber and a bit of air freshener would do the trick. The walk-in closet is pretty good for growing, it has an outlet inside, so I wouldn't have any suspicious wires coming in and out, and it has a nice door, so what smell makes it past my filters should stay in there. If I can get a job here this summer, I think I'll take it, otherwise, who knows what the hell I'll do. It would be nice if my girlfriend's parents weren't so damn conservative and I could just live with her and her friends.