First indoor grow AK47 / LowRyder #2 Auto Fem, CFL + LED

Hi all, this is my first grow journal, first indoor grow, in my homemade grow box.
I will be making an entry every day or so along with a photo of the progress of the plants.
I hope someone will benefit from my Journal as I have learned everything from you all here at GC, and now it's time to give something back.
Please feel free to ask questions or make comments either positive or negative.
I will start by giving some of the specifications.
The box:
1/2” plywood covered with Mylar on the inside.
24”w X 30”h X 18” deep. all cut from a single piece of 4X8 plywood.
I used screws to hold it all together.
Holes for the passive air intake and exhaust fans vented to the attic.
The box is in my garage so it will have cool air during the winter.
Box has rails in the back so I can raise or lower the wire shelf as needed.

Fans are 2 120 mm computer fans. running off a 72-78 deg Thermal cube that turns the fans on at 78 and off at 72.

For lighting I have 12 26w, 6500 kel, 1750 lumen, CFLs + 4 12x12 225 LED, panels for side lighting Any one of which can be turned on or off as needed. Lights will run 24 / 7

Germinated the seed in water for 24hrs, then transferred to peat pucks till they sprouted (2 days).
Then Solo cups filled with Coco core, pearl light mix. Watered with ph of 5.5, No nutes.
I will do a final transfer to 5 quart tubs for the duration of the 60 day grow.
Hope to get 30g out of each of the 3 plants.

 

Day 2. not much to talk about today. Just looked at them and they look about the same as yesterday.
Temp in the box next to the plants is 85, the exhaust temp is 71.

 

I'm stopping this journal here and moving it over to Deacons thread were all my friends are.

 

Sorry about any confusion this my cause, but I'm starting this journal up again and will be posting to get caught up to where I am now at day 31.
Please come back and check me out.

 

\t\t\t \t\t\tThis weeks addition of VTX's indoor garden grow features 4 photos of the 3 EasyRyder
(AK-47 LowRyder) Fem Autos I'm growing in my space station grow box.
They are 10 days old and seem to be doing well so far.
I have just started giving them nutes yesterday at 1/4 strength.
I have never grown this strain before so I don't know what to expect from them in terms of size and output. They should top out at 18” and be ready to harvest at 60-70 days.
So far I'm only using 8 out of the 12 CFLs in the box and none of the LEDs, the temp is at a steady 85 deg. in the box. Looking back now, I should have had more ventilation in the box, so for the next grow I will add 2 more fans and open the intake holes.

 

My Easy girls are doing well in the space station. But I think I F----d up when I chose that strain for the box as I now realize I have 3 girls in there that will soon out grow their little house. I thought the EasyRyder was almost the same as LowRyder, but after doing some reading, I see that they will get bigger than 18” and spread out more like a regular plant as opposed to growing like a little 18” Xmas tree. I now have to figure out how to keep them from getting too big. I could do an LSD (sp) but I think that would still fill the 24”x18”x 30” area and be right up against the side lights. I'm thinking that if I keep them in 1 gal pots, trim the tops and fim. I might be able to keep the size down and still get a nice crop out of them.
They are still in the Solo cups but will soon be moved into 1 gal buckets.
I'm using Coco and AB nutes, MagCal, and super thrive. Watering every day 1/2 cup, 1/2 strength nutes. Box temps are 73-84.
Here are some pics at day18.

 

Ok guys, this is my Easy Ryders @ 26 days. They are doing well as far as I can tell. I have nothing to judge them by as I have never grown them or any thing else indoors. It seems that each one is growing at a different rate and in a different way. I've tried moving them around in the box, turning the plant every day, but they are still looking like 3 different types of plants. I've heard that this can happen. That same seeds can grow very different from each other so I'm not worried. I just have to treat them as individuals and let it go at that. I topped them a few days ago to keep them short. So far I have plenty of room in the box, but next grow will be Lowryder #2 so I wont have to do anything to keep them short.
It will be interesting to watch them grow. I'm lovin it.

 

This is the latest photo of the space box grow with 3 EasyRyders in there. I took these tonight after being away for 2 days on the east coast. I'm having to move them down an inch a day even though I topped them last week. I'm going to start fiming them this week but first I have to find out if that is going to have a negative result on an Auto.
Any one have any idea how to keep them low?

 

Thanks Navy bud,
All the girls are doing great today, had to move the center one down an inch. They are growing so well and so fast. Don't think I will top or fim anymore as I would only be cutting off good buds. They are spreading out nicely with good bottom growth. When they are a little bigger I will Scrog them and hope they don't get too tall for the 30” box.
I'm thinking of adding a bottom extension to the box to give an extra 6-8 inches to it's height. But will wait on that till absolutely necessary.
More pics tomorrow.

 

Thanks for checking out my grow. They are 225 led panels. There are 4 in the box, one on each side. I don't have them on yet as they are to be used for side lighting when the girls get bigger. Right now I have only been using the 12 cfls on the back and door of the box and the plants have been doing exceptionally well. As you can se from the photos, they are very full and short. I think partly because I keep them within 2” of the light.
There is a shelf and some 1” pieces of foam I use to adjust the height of the plants. Hopefully they won't get too tall for the box.
Come back soon y'all.

 

Hi Kaptain, the LEds are red/blue. Although Autos don't need 3700-4400 Kelvin to flower or 12/12 light. They do very well with 6700 and 20/4 or 24/0. which is what I'm running. I did think the roots deed to rest as much as other people say/think they do.

 

I plan on doing a scrog in my space station, but I can see it will be more difficult than just placing the screen over the plants. In my case I will have to move the screen down along with the plants as they get taller. Considering I have so much light in there and all that Mylar, I'm wondering if I really need to keep the plants as close to the lights as they are now ( 2” ) or just move then down to the bottom and lit them grow up as they need to.
What do you think?

 

Well it's time for today's photo up date, and we can see that the girls are doing very well so far. No sign of fert burn or any other kind of problems with the leaves that would indicate problems with the plant.
Growing about an inch a day, I have to move them down accordingly.

 

Go for it man, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
There is so much satisfaction in growing your own weed. Not to mention the financial benefits. If you haven't read up on how to set up your box, please do so and save yourself a lot of time and $.
Good luck and let us know how it's going.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the scrog. I have time to think about it as the plants are only about 8” tall, so too short for scrog right now.
As for the seeds, I did the same thing with a bag seed before I went with my White Widow seed. Actually the bag seed turned out to be a nice sativa and smoked very nicely.