Virgin grow - Semi-stealth Barrister's Box

I have finally started my first grow. This is the Barrister's Box, at least for now. Got them germed about a week ago. Using bagseed. I've sprouted three. I wanted to do four to give me a 50/50 chance of having some ladies, but once I transplant to their permanent homes, I don't think I can fit more than three pots in this box. They have been in soil for about 5 days. I started them in MG starter soil. I know, I know, MG is shit blah blah. I just didn't have the money for FF right now. But rest assured, when I transplant I will be transplanting into FF. I've heard mixed reviews on going from MG to FF, but I'm going to give it a try and see how it shakes out.

The box is an old TV stand/media center I found on the side of the road months ago. I just took out the center shelves, sealed up any holes and added doors on the front and back. I was going to do just a wall on the back, and a door on the front. But I thought that if I can access it from the front and the back it would make things easier since it will get cramped if I'm lucky and get to keep all three plants. I painted the inside a flat white because mylar was more expensive and I just didn't feel like messing with the shit. As you can see, the doors are not painted. That is getting done tonight. After I cut the doors yesterday, I ran out of paint. I did weatherstripping around the doors, but need to add another layer to completely seal the light.

The light fixture turned out to be a thing of beauty. I got the idea from another forum. I basically made a square frame of 1.25" PVC, with sockets in T-connections. I am running six 23w CFLs, 5000K for veg. Lights are on 24/0 right now. I will likely keep them on 24/0 for the first two weeks, then switch to 18/6 (unless someone tells me why I should do something different). I wired all the lights in parallel. This morning I noticed two of the lights were not working. They must not be screwed in well because they were working last night. Need to check that tonight as well. I used a piece of galvanized vent pipe cut down and painted white as a reflector. Got chains on the fixture with S-hooks so I can raise or lower. Want to find something like a pulley system or something to make it easier to raise and lower.

Modifications for the box to be completed within the next week:

• Need to finish sealing light leaks
• Paint inside of doors
• Cut passive intake and active outtake air flow holes (and get PC fans installed)
• Also thinking about adding two more lights on the side walls to give more light to lower branches

That's about it for now. The plants look like they're stretching a little bit. That could be due to the fact that for the first three days they were in soil, I only had them under two CFLs because my lights weren't up and running yet. Hopefully now with better lighting, and once I transplant to bigger plants they'll start to fill out more.


Any suggestions on pot type and size? No way I can get more than one 5 gal bucket in there, so I need something smaller. I'd love to find some smaller square pots. Basically I need to find the smallest pot that will still provide enough room to carry the plant through to harvest. Thanks. Oh, and sorry for the shitty pictures. All I had was a Blackberry. I'll get better pics when I get my camera.

 

Ha, pharildo. I got em closer than a mafucca now. I'm transplanting them into bigger pots and putting them close to the light as we speak.

 

Making some progress. I finally got some bigger pots with better drainage. I found these cheap black plastics from Lowe's. I think these are about 7 or 8 inches across. They have a little raised screen type deal in the bottom to collect drainage. I left the screen in there, but drilled more holes on the bottom and a few on the bottom sides for better drainage. I also like the rims on these as I was able to drill holes around the rim to make LST'g easier. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, I can't really fit more than three pots of this size in the box. So, if I'm lucky and end up with all three females, I will either have to leave them in these pots or figure something else out. I'll cross that bridge when/if I come to it.

FINALLY transplanted from the bullshit MG in the solo cups to FFOF in the bigger pots. This is my first experience with FFOF. I'm amazed at how much better it is than MG already. Just based on look, feel, texture, drainage, etc. I'm glad I got out of the MG and solo cups too. When I cup away the cups and gently pulled the plants out, there was a layer of about 0.5-1" of solid mud-like shit at the bottom of the cups. So I know they weren't draining well.

I was having some intense seedling stretch in the solo cups, so I buried about half or more of the stems when I transplanted. Thankfully, I don't think the MG did much or any harm. Other than a little tall and lanky, they look robust and healthy. I'm just getting impatient waiting on them to fill out some!

As of today, they've been in soil for one (1) week. I plan on taking them to two weeks at 24/0 then starting 18/6 for veg.

I installed my passive intakes and cut holes for my two fans. I've got two 120mm fans that should be here today or tomorrow and will install them as soon as I get them. Still contemplating sticking a small fan somewhere on one of the walls or doors just for general circulation. Also thinking about installing one or two more lights on the sides for better coverage.

Checked my pH last night. Raw water pH was around 6.6 or 6.8. Then I tested runoff from all three pots right after I watered. Runoff was about 6.2 or 6.4 for all three. I guess that's getting borderline low, so I need to watch it. I know I will definitely have to get some pH adjusters when I start feeding. Here are some updated pics, again, sorry for the quality, only have my phone right now.

 

I posted this in the sick plants forum also, but figured I'd throw it in here also so hopefully I will find out what's going on. Plants look fine after the transplant. Except I noticed tonight on one of the plants, the underside of the two big leaves looks black. Almost like they have been charred or dusted with graphite. However, I guess it could be fine soil particles that the fan blew up on the bottom of the leaves, because I didn't try to rub it off, but I highly doubt it. And this is only on one of the plants. I'm attaching a pic but I don't know how well it will come through because I used my phone, don't have my camera right now. Other than this underside blackening, the plant looks fine. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Damnit. I can't attach the picture because I've already uploaded it in the other thread. I tried changing the file name as well as the extension, but the GC machines are smarter than I am and said "not so fast, wisenheimer." So here is the link to the thread if anybody wants to see the black leaves:

http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-pla...derside-leaves-look-charred.html#post14242521

 

That's the only thing I was thinking. Could be some residual stress from the transplant, coupled with the fact that I switched soils also. Since other than that, all looks well, I'm going to give it a few days and watch for changes. Thanks, G.

 

Thanks, gents. I was extremely impressed with how well the light rig turned out. I'm not an artist, but I am definitely mildly OCD and a bit anal about things. I'm extremely attentive to detail. I can't take full credit for the idea. I saw it on another forum but their's was bigger and had two more lights, so I improvised and put the two lights on the sides. I made an adjustment last night. The two side lights on the fixture were pointed lower than the other lights so they would touch each other. Well, this sort of screwed up the uniformity of distance of light from plants. So last night when I was making some adjustments, I twisted the side lights up, so instead of pointing down, below the other lights, they're now pointed up into the hood.

Also, I don't think it's getting too cold. It's nice and warm down here right now, and I've got lights on 24/0 right now. However, I don't have a thermo in the box. But I am planning on hanging a thermo within the next few days. My fans come in today and I will get them in tonight, so I may get a thermo when I go get bolts for the fans tonight. Thanks for watching, brosefs.

 

No doubt. I just went outside to run some errands on my lunch break and got the ass sweat rolling. Regardless, I thought about over-watering as well. And I think that could be the culprit. Because the solo cups they were in weren't draining worth a shit, and the bottoms of the cups were just stagnant, almost solid, mud. So hopefully in a few days the purp stems will clear up. However, still no word on the leaf blackening. I'm going to watch them as well.

 

No need to. That was in the solo cups I initially had them in. And it basically separated from the rest of the roots/soil when I removed them from the solo cups. So all is well now and they're in FFOF and bigger pots.

 

The black charring I was seeing has cleared up. So I think it was just shock from the transplant. They're starting to fill out a little bit so that's encouraging. I finally got my passive intakes installed and active outtakes. I'm using two 120mm fans, 12VDC, 0.35a, Cooler Master. They're brand new so I'm not really used to them, but they're pretty quiet and move some air. I'm attaching a picture showing the passive intakes doing their jobs. I still need to put some weatherstripping around the light traps I built for the fans so they will seal better. I'm getting some air loss (and light leakage) where the light traps and fans are mounted to the box. The light traps turned out well. I made them out of black foam board and cut three different half walls in the boxes around the fans to block light. Once I get them sealed up and flush with the walls, they'll work perfectly. I need to get the thermo in there this week to monitor temps.

I was gone all weekend and the girls got a little thirsty. In fact, as you can see, #1 was curled down a good bit when I got back so I watered them and let them drink up while I installed the fans. Hopefully she'll get her vigor back tomorrow.

I'm going to keep them under lights 24/0 for about 5 more days and then go to 18/6. Once I get one or so more nodes, I'm going to start LST'g. Let me know what you think. The girls look pretty dark and lush. They look healthy for the most part. Anyone see anything I'm missing? Thanks for watching.

ETA: Check out the inner-nodes(?) on #3. It's like a set of triplets. Anyone seen this before? I'm sure it doesn't mean shit, just thought it was neat.