First Grow - 260W(Veg)/230W(Flower) CFL - Cabinet ScroG

Discussion in 'Indoor Grow Journals' started by trippykrippy, Jan 27, 2011.

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  1. #1 trippykrippy, Jan 27, 2011
    Cheers everyone! (Sparks a bowl)

    I've been hanging around here for quite some time; researching, reading along with some more researching and learning and reading. I've decided to take the plunge. I ordered a mixed bag of feminized Dutch Passion seeds (Blueberry, Orange Bud, Mazar). This first grow however, will be Kannabia's Power Skunk Feminized, which came free with my order from Attitude; I'm gonna try and work out any kink's before I jump into the good stuff.

    Anyways, on to my setup.

    Box: 34.5" W x 46.5" H x 18" D - Custom Built
    [​IMG]
    Lighting: 260W 6500K CFL (10 x 26W) for Veg; 230W 2700K CFL (10 x 23W) for Flowering
    Ventilation: Custom DIY 4" Inline Fan with a DIY carbon filter (Exhaust); DIY Carbon filter (Passive Intake) I'll probably be adding 2-4 120mm PC fans to move the air and cool the CFLs a bit.
    Soil: ??? Might try and find some Fox Farm soil around here when I go to transplant; using some Organic Home Depot soil meant for exotic plants; peat moss, compost, perlite, mix.
    Nutes: I'm still deciding on nutes; I'll be relying on the natural minerals and nutes in the organic soil to get used up before I start supplementing with my own.
    pH/ppm Testing: I have an Eco Testr TDS Low meter; it has a ppm sensor but I'm hoping it does pH too, as the guy at the hydro store said it does... But it doesn't... Guess I'll have to buy a Milwaukee that does both.

    I'll be doing a ScroG. I may be a bit ambitious, but I'm a perfectionist and I want to get the highest yield out of this first experiment and all subsequent grows. Even if I only do .5g/W, I'll still get a decent amount. I intend to fill the whole screen before I switch to flower. :)

    I'll have pics up of my setup soon!

    I hope to have a successful grow as I hope to get some great feedback from this amazing community!

    Seed popped it's tap root 01/19/2011. Planted on 01/20/2011
     
  2. #2 trippykrippy, Jan 27, 2011
    Day 6: She seems to be growing quite well I think. Temps range from 76-84ish; though that's with only two lights on. I may need to convert the intake to an exhaust fan and install an intake near the top. Humidity is really low at 26ish%. I'm going to pick up a small cool mist humidifier tonight. Hopefully that does the trick. We'll see. Without further ado, here she is so far.

    [​IMG]
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  3. #3 SoloGrowr, Jan 27, 2011
    That setup looks really nice. It seems like the plant stretched up a bit. Othan than that she looks healthy. What ever you do, I don't think you should bring the humidity too high. I have a cool mist humidifier and its was creating what seems to be mold.. I now have it on its lowest setting. Take a look at my grow, hope it helps.
     
  4. #4 trippykrippy, Jan 27, 2011
    Day 7: She's doing well. That's about it. Leaves grew a little.

    Thanks Solo. I didn't have the box complete before she broke the surface, so she stretched a bit.

    As far as the humidifier goes... RH is around 39%... Humidifier has been running for roughly 16 hours. :( I figured if I got the room to 50% the box would just pull in that air; I think the humidifier is too small for the room.

    Anyone know of small humidifiers that might fit inside a box? I noticed a Walgreen's humidifier that used a water bottle; sadly, in Canada, we don't have Walgreen's.
     
  5. #5 BDups, Jan 27, 2011
    Hey your setup looks great, could you let me in on how you did your lights? It looks like you're intending to raise them as she grows, how do you secure them at each height interval?

    I'm thinking about a simiar setup so I'd be grateful for any nugs of info.
    Good luck in your grow and thanks for the help!
     
  6. #6 trippykrippy, Jan 28, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 28, 2011
    @BDups: Thanks man. Basically, I took equal lengths of string, 10' long in my case. I folded them in half and tied off the ends to make one big loop. Then I tied knots every 2.5", creating a string chain. You just hang one end loop on a screw, and adjust the height by changing the other loop you hang it on. I can take a closeup pic if you can't visualize my explanation. Good luck!
     
  7. #7 SoloGrowr, Jan 28, 2011
    Have any pic updates?
     
  8. #8 trippykrippy, Jan 28, 2011
    Ooops. Yep. New Pics. Second leaf set is visible. Here she is.

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  9. #9 BDups, Jan 30, 2011
    Trippy;

    It looks like your babies are coming along nicely. Thanks for the info on how you raise the lights. Do you think I could pick your brain as to your wiring setup and how you attached the bulbs to the tubing (I think it's tubing). This looks like a very clean setup to me, I would love to get as much detail as you want to spare!

    Do you think you'll have any temp problems later on, having both the intake and exhaust on the bottom of the box?? (I assume you put them both on the bottom to allow for the lights to be raised?) Or will the fan you add later be able to circulate the air enough to keep it cool??

    Thanks again for the help, i'm hoping to start my own shortly. I'll be following your grow, hopefully I can help you out along the way..I'm a newb too, so i don't know how much help I will be, but I'll try.

    Thanks again!
     
  10. #10 trippykrippy, Feb 3, 2011
    Sorry for the delay GC! I've been quite busy the past few days. I maybe be having some issues with my girl; although she does look healthy.

    Environment is a bit off; 84-86f, 20ish RH. DIY humidifier was leaking a bit so I had to add silicone. Still waiting to try it out and see if it works; I'll have to re-configure my box to make a store bought one work if mine doesn't quite cut it.

    Anyways, here's are some pictures. If any more experienced farmers come across this and see anything wrong with her, I'd appreciate the info. Also, it's Day 14, I'm wondering if I should expose her to the full 260W and transplant her. I'm thinking she's outgrown her little party cup by now?

    Day 14:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    @BDups: I'll try and take some closer pictures when I move the lights while I transplant my girl. I may have some temp issues with all lights on; I'm hoping the cool mist humidifier can help with the problema bit. If not, I'll be converting the other intake into an exhaust, and I'll be adding 4 smaller intakes above the lights to maintain their adjustment potential. I'll try and give you more detail later tonight, or tomorrow.
     
  11. #11 trippykrippy, Feb 4, 2011
    Day 15:

    I finally put in a humidifier. Temps dropped to 79f above lights, 81f ground floor. RH went up to 53%. I'll have to watch it; I may have to put it on a timer to maintain an RH of 50%; the humidifier doesn't have an auto-shutoff.

    She's looking good atm. I'll be transplanting her into her final 5gal tote. I'm thinking 70% organic soil or unfertillized and 30% perlite. I read somewhere that adding gravel to the bottom helps with proper drainage; should I be doing this?

    I'll have to go pick up some nutes if I decide to forego doing the organic thing. I'll have more updates later! Now, I just have to re-do my intakes to make the humidifer fit. I'll be converting my current passive 4" intake into my DIY 4" inline. I'll be adding 4 smaller 2" intakes above the lights in order to balance the temps and humidity now that I'm running the humidifier. I'll post my results soon!
     
  12. #12 trippykrippy, Feb 6, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 6, 2011
    Veg-Day 16:

    I transplanted her into a 5G tote; used Premier Horticulture High Porosity soil. I picked up some nutes today along with my soil purchase; Botanicaire Pure Blend Pro Grow 3-2-4 for veg, and Pure Blend Pro Bloom 1-4-5 for flowering.

    I used 400ppm Spring Water and added 1.8mL/4L of Pro Grow nutes + 0.3mL of pH Down to hit 500ppm @ 6.5pH. 3L was used for my first watering after the transplant.

    Humidifier is running on high at the moment with dual exhaust, one intake; 208W of lights are on at the moment. Temps are running a little high, 81.1f and holding!

    I'll be modifying my intake as stated earlier; I'm hoping the air movement from top to bottom will stabilize my temps so that I can run the full 260W for my ScroG.

    Anyways, here are some pics of my lady; she's really fucking bushy with a really long stem. I want to top her but I can even tell where on set end and the other begins. Hopefully she'll grow a bit more and stretch out between those nodes.
     

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  13. #13 TheWaterBoy, Feb 6, 2011
    Looking good! :D
     
  14. #14 MX Grower, Feb 6, 2011
    Hey Trippy!

    Thanks for stoppping by my grow, bro.

    Your ventilation will work best with a forced exhaust at the top venting out the warmer air, and an intake at the bottom. A passive intake (no fan) would work fine in your small-ish box. Your plant(s) would also love a fan in the box keeping all the air moving all the time, especially once she gets a bit bushier.

    I do believe that that look on your leaves with the edges curling up a bit is a low humidity issue, but I think she'll grow out of that. Once she has some size to her, just the plant itself will bring your humidity up. For now, you could just keep a spray bottle of water and just spray the hell out of the whole inside of the box anytime you open it.

    By the way, low humidity sensitivity may very well be specific to that strain. If you look at Russy's journal, his Utopia Haze was doing that same curl while the rest of his plants were fine. He did nothing and she's pretty much grown out of it now.

    Low humidity is rarely a real problem for MJ growers, so don't spend too much effort on it.

    I'd hold off another week or so to transplant and maybe a bit longer before you top her. Let her grow to about a foot tall or so, then try to top at a node where the next two pairs of growing shoots all end at about the same height. That should give you 4 main colas and the rest should fill out nicely.

    Good luck on this grow, Trip!
     
  15. #15 TheWaterBoy, Feb 6, 2011
    Hey Trip! Good info there! When you say "low humidity is rarely a problem" what kind of problems can arise from low humidity? I live in Denver and struggle to get 35% in my tent... Humidity usually sits around 28-35%.
     
  16. #16 trippykrippy, Feb 6, 2011
    @MX Grower: Thanks MX! Nice to see some experienced growers chiming in :)

    I already went ahead with the transplant so that piece of advice was a tad late; though, I had a looong ass root coming out of one of the drainage hole in my party cup. I figured I might as well.

    When I first designed the box, I intended to have everything contained; that restricted the position of the intake/exhaust. However, now I WILL have to move the intake. Maybe next time I'll design a different box, and use this one for clones.

    I think I'm only going to top 2 times.. Get 4 mains and let those fill out the screen; unless more tops = better for a single plant scrog? I'm following LBH's scrog method, and he tops twice.

    @WaterBoy: Thanks for dropping by! Humidity helps with plant transpiration from what I've read. If the outside humidity is low, plants close their pores to avoid losing moisture too quickly; however, as they close their pores, this slows down it's cooling mechanism. Thus, raising the humidity allows the plant to keep up with the moisture loss via intake through it's roots, and it doesn't cook itself.
     
  17. #17 StinkyBuds, Feb 6, 2011
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    ^ this thing worked like a charm for me...i went from low 20s% RH to high 30s%/low 40s%

    (sorry for the huge pic)

    $20 at walgreens, just throw it in your cab, fill with water once a day and plug it in. hope it helps :D
     
  18. #18 ME BUBBLEDUSTY, Feb 7, 2011
    MX knows his stuff, its a good tip, I was going to suggest the same thing, fresh cool air in from the floor, and warm stale air exhausted from top of box:)
     
  19. #19 MX Grower, Feb 10, 2011
    Thanks, Dusty. :)

    On the problem with humidity, seems that Trippy provided a pretty good text book explanation. I'm not educated on the science of it, but i can share what I've experienced after a little over a year of growing out 40 or 50 plants of various strains.

    What I've learned is that high humidity is hugely beneficial throughout the cloning process, from cutting to around a week after planting. For plants beyond this stage, the effects of lower humidity levels are not so pronounced. Significantly low humidity (in the 20's) seems to retard growth affecting yield, but not necessarily plant health and not potency. I say not the plant health, but any less-than-optimal conditions can intensify other issues, so in that way it could adversely affect plant health.

    I flowered a Blueberry under an MH400, under very good grow conditions. rH in the 40-50 range. It grew impressive doneky dick colas full of foxtails and they were fairly icy too. It looked bitchen, but really wasn't all that good as smoke.

    A clone cut from that same plant was flowered in a closet of an unheated room. About 150 watts of CFLs were used. The temps in that closet were in the 50-65 range, usually just under 60. Humidity was usually low 20's, as low as 20. That plant grew like an indica, with small, hard and tight, super icy buds! You wouldn't believe they were the same strain, let alone clone relatives! And here's the kicker - the cold, low humidity grown buds were much more potent and tastier too! In the jars, these actually smelled like blueberry, whereas the donkey dick plant's buds smell more hay-like.

    I'm not going to sweat my CFL closet's low humidity issue. There's an AK-47 in there now and she's looking damn fine for flowering under household CFLs. There's an update from yesterday in my thread if you want to check her out. If my main grow rooms got below say 25, I might pull out my ultrasonic humidifiers (like StinkyBud's). But it never gets that low. Between the lows of winter and the highs of summer, my rooms range from 30 to 60, and I'm fine with that (don't really like above 55 tho!).

    It also appears that lower humdity is more easily tolerated under low heat conditions. So if your grow room runs hot (like above say 82 or so), then you might want to put some effort into either getting your humidity up to around 40 or better, or getting your temps down to the 70-80 range.

    Besides retarded growth, I believe that a low humidity/high heat combo can lead to leaf edge curl and leaf twist. I don't know this to be true, but it sure seems that way to me.

    There you go. That's all I got on humidity. :) Sorry about the huge post. :eek:
     
  20. #20 trippykrippy, Feb 11, 2011
    Thanks for the "practical" explanation MX! Very good info. It's nice to connect theory to a real world application :)

    I'll have some pics later; I'm in the process of replacing my hinges as my cabinet doors have warped due to the humidity.

    This is probably a dumb question... My lady hasn't grown in about a week... She just got a bit bushier... Stem looks more developed and sturdier; A redish tinge is visible. I've kept my lights about 4 inches away. Should I raise the lights a bit to promote growth via stretch? Or should I just leave her be and let her grow and inch closer towards the lights and raise them after?
     
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