First Journal Sort of a Stealth Grow

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Well I decided to move into a nice little house in town to try the city life (and get closer to my job) Unfortunately though after introducing myself to the neighbors I found out one of one of them was a local state boy. Who automatically assumed I was a pot head but proceeded to let me know "he won't bother me about it because he believes it should be legalized" I still ain't gonna trust him though! So since I've been to afraid to set a room, I decided to try something a little smaller. I can't stand buying weed when I know I can grow my own cron!
We run through 50gal drums of coolent at the shop all the time and my boss said were free to take them whenever we want.
So I came up with the idea to try growing a plant inside one.
I cut a door out, and framed it with some 1x3 for strength then lined it with weather strip to try keeping it air/light tight.

I then spray glued reflective mylar everywhere on the insides.
Im using 4 T5 HO around the walls, and a 180w UFO L.E.D up above. Then I attached a 4" exhaust fan to the top and bottom left.
and finally here it is set up

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

I'm using a 2 bucket DWC connected with 1" tubing, and an added drip feed system.
Week 1
I placed seed directly into rockwool and used drip feed to water. Turns on every 2 1/2 hours for 5 mins. Water was half RO+Tap+3ml/gal of pro-tekt which came out to 100ppm.

Week 2 Water is RO+2 1/2ml grow+3ml pro-tekt+1/4ml cal-mag/gal which came out to 300ppm

i didnt check the ph for a couple days though for some reason :/ and i noticed it got a little low and she started turning yellow.

corrected pH last night. Hopefully she'll darken back up soon, but I'm sure she's alright.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Any ideas on how to train her in here would be nice. Its a freebie red drawf auto I got and its my first time growing an auto.

 

[29menace]

Looks sweet in here m8 , can either Lst her or top her then Lst any side branches u get.

Keep up the good work!!

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Looks sweet in here m8 , can either Lst her or top her then Lst any side branches u get.

Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for the advice man! Im kinda afraid to top her though cause I heard you don't really want to with autos.
I believe last night was the end of week 2, could be off by a day or 2 so here's some more pics.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Took a pic of her roots last night since I was raising the pH in the water again. I think I'm gonna change it when I get home.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

I changed out her water last night, and bumped her up a little. Now she's got 3ml pro-tekt + 1/2ml cal-mal +3ml Dyna grow Grow per gallon = 350ppm pH5.9

I feel like I might take a lot of pics but I like watching her progress She's working on node 6 right now. Should I top her?

 

[davejohnson62]

Dude I love the build man. looks like it came out real good. I'm new to the growing thing but lst is working for me I put screws every few inches around my pot than take the main stem and round the pot and as the side branches show up strap them down to to keep the canopy low and flat to save room for when it starts to flower. Idk if it's the best way to go about it but it seems to be working for me

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Dude I love the build man. looks like it came out real good.

Thanks man! I was surprised at how good it turned out myself, but I've already got a bunch of ideas on how to improve the next ones.

I'm new to the growing thing but lst is working for me I put screws every few inches around my pot than take the main stem and round the pot and as the side branches show up strap them down to to keep the canopy low and flat to save room for when it starts to flower. Idk if it's the best way to go about it but it seems to be working for me

Not a bad idea, I was thinking I was gonna have to tie her down somehow anyway since I'm to chicken to top her.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

How about a little update.
She's growing quite fast, although after wondering why I have to raise the pH everyday I realized I had forgotten to soak my rockwool cube before using it. After doing a little research I found out there still full of lime from the process of making them, which is why your supposed to soak them. Luckily though I've been keeping an eye on it so she's doing great!

 

[raiden9250]

Love your bucket grow!!! I found it easy to mount lights through the side using the "domed" fixtures because the socket end is threaded. Hole saw the exact size if the socket made quick work of it.

http://rollitup.org/t/first-grow-ever-ilgm-ssh-fem.856642/
Check out my grow, I just got done FIM'ing and am starting LST to stay in the confines of my space.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

I'll check it out now, just from these pics I can say your setup looks pretty badass!

 

[raiden9250]

Working on uploading some photos of my LST right now, I love your hydro setup. I was looking at dabbling in the waters, but love the forgiveness of soil.

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

Working on uploading some photos of my LST right now, I love your hydro setup.

Thanks man! Every time I go to your page it opens a new link where I'm not signed in and I don't remember my password I can't like anything but it seems like your doing pretty good. I was hoping you'd be farther ahead of me though so I could copy some techniques for control.

I was looking at dabbling in the waters, but love the forgiveness of soil.

Give it a try some time, its easier than people think and the results are always explosive when done right.

 

[raiden9250]

 

[raiden9250]

I'm to the point of needing to flower, a little more time for my LST to take before the stretch then flipping them to 12/12

 

[davejohnson62]

Not a bad idea, I was thinking I was gonna have to tie her down somehow anyway since I'm to chicken to top her.

yeah man I'm the same way I feel bad talking a knife to my ladies lol I uploaded a pic of my pants they have been growing for 7 weeks and there only a few inches above the top of the pot

 

[Relax i'll be your Doctor]

I'm to the point of needing to flower, a little more time for my LST to take before the stretch then flipping them to 12/12

Hopefully it all goes well and it taste great man! Ill probably follow along to compare progress between our grows, who knows maybe we could help each other out.

yeah man I'm the same way I feel bad talking a knife to my ladies lol I uploaded a pic of my pants they have been growing for 7 weeks and there only a few inches above the top of the pot

Hard to see the green under all that violet but they look like there growing great!

 

[davejohnson62]

I will have to take a pic oUT of the led to show you guys

 

[raiden9250]

Right on man!!! I still feel I need all the help I can get.

I'm going to use a lot of your design for my expansion section. Going to cut the top and bottom off of another barrel, flange all pieces so it's a tube. That way I can have 5 foot of grow space.