the custom door is just a wood panel from the local DIY store. Just added some hinges and a couple of locks (for looks mostly!). It costed less than $20 total. The IKEA frame is really great since there are already some pre-drilled holes in the horizontal bars. So all I needed to do is screw everything together. Also, since I did not need any stock door nor shelves, it ended up costing less than the catalogue price temps are still varies between 82 and 85F for ambient of 72/73F. Again, this also really depends where I measure the temperature (in direct light it will read about 85/90F; if I place the sensor under the leaves, it will not go above 75F)
Thanks dude. Building one on Wednesday. I need something smaller. For your sensor probe don't place it above the leaves mine is taped to a bamboo stick which is in one of the pots. I keep it about a inch above the tops of the plants. Gives me some breathing room.
--24th day under light-- less than 2 days after the last watering, the soil is completely dry and the leaves are looking tired again. Obviously those big plants need a lot more water than before but I'm also feeling like it's time to upgrade those pots. So I bought some bigger ones today (3 gal) and will transplant tomorrow or as soon as the soil is dry enough. Any tips are welcome! The growth is still ok, but I really feel like cutting those sick leaves down. Any reason why I should not do that? I also moved the temp reader to about 1 inch higher than the tops, and it's now more like 83/85F. I should probably get a second ventilator there... It's also time to build a SCROG so I'll look into that tomorrow if I have time. no more traces of bugs so I'm also happy about that
I watered more this time... there was a clear runoff. I also chopped off a couple of sick leaves in the end. I think it might have been nutrient burn from the water splashed on them when I water.
--26th day under light-- I finally managed to transplant to bigger pots. The roots were just starting to crawl around so I guess this was good timing. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but everything went well. The leaves are looking tired again, but that's because I just watered them. I usually water in the evening, just before the lights go out, but I now realize that it might be better to do it during the day so that the plants can use the energy from light to drink all this. Any thoughts? Otherwise, growth is still good: Critical and Wappa1 are doing great, and Wappa2 and Sunk#1 are a bit behind, but not by much. There are still some burned patches on the bottom leaves, but I guess it's probably the nutrient burn from earlier, plus some splashing from when I water (I should get some better gear for that). But look how many tops are coming through! Tomorrow, I'll try to find something to make a SCROG with...
You should make a scrog where you are attaching the fan. seems like a good place to put it. then you should have room to raise the lights a bit
--27th day under light-- With the SCROG in place, this is starting to look like something now... Can't believe it's only been a month Seeing how good the growth is, I guess I can switch to 12/12 in about a week or so. I'm sure the SCROG will fill in very quick. I can already count over 25 tops so that's very promising!! I promised a few clones to a friend so I might have to cut a couple off I turned off the two CFLs today, since temps are rising too much (around 85F now) and I'm not sure those 2x23W make much difference anyway. I will add some more reflector tomorrow to compensate for the loss of light. Does anyone know how high the buds are going to grow while in flowering? I'm a bit concerned I might not have enough space above! There is only around 20-25 cm (about 8-10 inches) left to raise the light, so if they grow taller than say 12 inches, it's going to be too tight. On the other hand, that would also mean that I'd be harversting up to 25 x 12 inch buds... by the way, the FIM was a failure. All I got in the end was crooked leaves and still the same top... must have done something wrong. So I topped the Sunk#1 today.
After just 2 days in the SCROG, I think it's clear that this is high time to switch to flower. Look how dense they've grown. I can count well over 30 tops in this 2' x 2.5' box, so I guess that's pretty good. I will also probably cut off 4 branches with tops and try to make clones for a friend. I am actually very worried they will grow too tall and touch the light. Not sure what size they will be, but if they grow more than 10-12 inches taller, they will fry. Anyone knows what I should expect? I have a Critical, a Skunk #1, and 2 Wappa's. I think I'll have to set up a second screen and keep bending them as much as possible... saw this in evilhoodlem's journal Tomorrow, I'll leave them in the dark a bit longer while I go to the shop to buy a 250W HPS bulb; and we'll be entering the final stretch before harvest!
The plants might grow twice or 3 times its current size. But you dont have to worry about that cuz your scrogging. Just keep tucking them under and fill every inch of that screen. Check my sig... im doing the same thing
My current grow I started flowering at 8, 22 days later one is 25 inches still growing, another 23 others are 19. So all 4 more then doubled closed to tripling for some.
looks like i'm going to have to bind them pretty tight under the SCROG... otherwise I'll just have to move to a bigger box or finish them outside.
--1st day of flowering-- Omg this is getting real now. The HPS bulb is in and I was pretty excited to turn it on today for the first time! I was a bit concerned about raising temps during the approaching summer here, so I decided to invert the light cycle (lights on at night and off during the day). Since I wanted to have an extended darkness period during the switch to 12/12, I figured that was the perfect moment to do it, so when the light went off yesterday at 1am (at the end of the normal 18/6 schedule), I left the girls in the dark until today at 8pm, when the HPS bulb fired up for its first 12h cycle. During these 19h of darkness, the plants stretched about 2 inches (sorry, forgot to take picture) so I had to work on this SCROG for about 30 minutes to make it all fit. It was quite brutal, and I even had to supercrop a couple of stems (actually more like hard pinching). Also trimmed a few leaves... I wasn't really in favor of this technique so far, but this time it was just too much and it also really helps seeing what's going on and making good decisions on where/how to bend those branches. I would say that about 80% of the screen is full now, but there are new nodes and tops popping up everywhere so that is going to be a busy SCROG in a couple of weeks... question: can someone tell me when I should stop training them and let them grow vertically? I have about maybe 12/13 inches left above the screen. I don't want to take this too far and prevent good bud development obviously, and I'd really like to see a 12 inch cola! Also sprayed for bugs (organic insecticide) on the surface of the soil and in the bottom trays. Although I try to clean/drain them as much as possible, there is still a bit of stagnant water and debris and I'm pretty sure that is highly unhygienic... No traces of bugs anywhere though, so that's just a preventive measure.
Hows it going man? Regarding your questions I have to copy past Pentax' comment: "Keep training till your satisfied with where the bud placement is. More light to bud = more bud. Ive trained as far as week 5 and have noticed better gains in those areas trained (always seems like the sides and back corners..) The whole point is to level the canopy out, so do whatever it takes. The method only works if the canopy is 'placed' for best light dispersion. Keep in mind, your girls are much more resilient than un-scrog'd girls, and can take a bend at any point" How are your temps with the 250w HPS? I got 90F plus with mine so I had to get a cooltube.
--7th day of flowering-- quick update: not much happening. still training and scrogging a lot. Those plants are growing very fast and it's sometimes hard to figure out how I can make everything fit. The inverted day/night cycle is working great. Temps are always between 80 and 85F, so I'm happy with that. I just hope there isn't any major light leak. No sign of flower yet, but I guess it's still early.
very nice man things sure are moving along quickly lol if they do stretch like crazy put the extracter out the opposite side and cut the ducting down that way from look at ur pics u can move the light up easier? correct me if im wrong lol i'll be watching this peacee
Hey that's true! I can definitely save some space in order to bring the light up a bit. I just didn't really need it so far (and was also too lazy), but I'll definitely get around to it soon. I'm starting to ease up a bit on training. I know they might grow much taller so I should not give up completely, but it's just becoming dense as a jungle below the screen and it's just very hard to move anything! A free tip I just learned the hard way: Apparently, it's not a good idea to do scrog training just before watering, as the (now dry) stems will break a lot quicker than when they are full of fluids. makes sense but I never thought about it before...