xebeche
Well-Known Member
Since I took photos of my new growcab for another thread, thought I'd start a grow journal while I'm at it. Unfortunately, this won't be a journal from clones to harvest, since these plants have already been in flower for three to four weeks now. Didn't plan to post until the next grow, but...what the heck.
I currently have seven plants in a UHaul cardboard wardrobe box. The box was originally built to house my mother plants...but work on a new flowering cab (also in a wardrobe box) has been painfully slow, and I had a few extra plants and clones sitting around, so I thought I'd try flowering with CFLs (3 ea 42w 2700K) for the first time (just to see how it compares to my 150 HPS). The strains are Maui Waui, Sweet Tai and Early Widow. Three of the plants were going to be kept as moms, but I decided I didn't need them (already have one of each), so I set them to 12/12 on Jan 1. These are in 5" black square pots, and they were about a foot tall when they went in the cab.
I also added four clones (in various pot sizes) a week later. These clones were put in after only about a week of potting, so they had minimal veg time. They were about 4 or 5 inches tall. This is really just an experiment to see how feasible it'll be to grow in a 24" x 21" x 48" cab. Trying to determine optimal number of plants, veg time, etc, while I work on a new flowering cab. So far, I like the looks of the clones in the tall, narrow pots (the manufacturer calls them "short treepots")...my current design would accommodate twelve of these in the new cab. My main concern is the 4' height restriction...that would give me probably a max of two feet for the height of the plants. I'm used to growing in closets, so I've always had more height than this...therefore, I'd usually let them veg for a month or so before 12/12. Not sure I could get away with that in a 4' cab.
Anyways, I added some pics of the cab here...and some of my ladies. The plants are in Roots Organic coco mix (+added perlite), and I'm feeding them with Pureblend Pro Soil Bloom + Liquid Karma + CalMag (pH'd to about 6) every ten days or so. Four weeks in so far for the larger plants, and three weeks for the smaller. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be flowering these for, since my last (closet) grow of these same strains had to be shut down due to a severe spider mite infestation. Still got some pretty good smoke out of it, but I chopped all of the plants after seven weeks and had to water cure most of that harvest just to get rid of the bugs. So far, I've had no problems with mites on this grow. I have a small humidifier (on a timer) in the cab to keep the humidity around 40%. I might have to turn that off as flowering progresses, but for now, I feel like it might be helping to keep the mites away.
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I pulled the two in "treepots" out in the yard to snap a pic. I was surprised how fast these clones settled in to these pots. I saw roots coming out the bottom after only a few days. I thought for sure it would take a few weeks for that to happen. Anyways, they're looking good at the three week point. Sure, they're small, but I'm not going for massive yields here...it's just an experiment to learn how feasible it'll be to grow in this small of a space. They're starting to smell pretty good already.
Biggest issue I anticipate having with this grow is the smell. This cab wasn't intended to be used for flowering, so I only have three pc fans for (exhaust) ventilation. I don't intend to attach any carbon filter to the cab at this point. I have a S&P TD-100x fan attached to a phat filter sitting on top of the cab right now, and odors are pretty well controlled. I'm a little worried about how bad it'll be at seven or eight weeks flowering...but I guess I'll deal with that when I get there. It's in my garage, so I don't expect the smell to get into the house. If it does, I may have to shut it down and finish building the new flowering cab. I intend to exhaust that cab only through a carbon scrubber.
So far, I'm surprised at how good the plants are looking under the CFLs. Of course, it's still early, so the final results won't be in for another 5-6 weeks. So far so good, though.
I currently have seven plants in a UHaul cardboard wardrobe box. The box was originally built to house my mother plants...but work on a new flowering cab (also in a wardrobe box) has been painfully slow, and I had a few extra plants and clones sitting around, so I thought I'd try flowering with CFLs (3 ea 42w 2700K) for the first time (just to see how it compares to my 150 HPS). The strains are Maui Waui, Sweet Tai and Early Widow. Three of the plants were going to be kept as moms, but I decided I didn't need them (already have one of each), so I set them to 12/12 on Jan 1. These are in 5" black square pots, and they were about a foot tall when they went in the cab.
I also added four clones (in various pot sizes) a week later. These clones were put in after only about a week of potting, so they had minimal veg time. They were about 4 or 5 inches tall. This is really just an experiment to see how feasible it'll be to grow in a 24" x 21" x 48" cab. Trying to determine optimal number of plants, veg time, etc, while I work on a new flowering cab. So far, I like the looks of the clones in the tall, narrow pots (the manufacturer calls them "short treepots")...my current design would accommodate twelve of these in the new cab. My main concern is the 4' height restriction...that would give me probably a max of two feet for the height of the plants. I'm used to growing in closets, so I've always had more height than this...therefore, I'd usually let them veg for a month or so before 12/12. Not sure I could get away with that in a 4' cab.
Anyways, I added some pics of the cab here...and some of my ladies. The plants are in Roots Organic coco mix (+added perlite), and I'm feeding them with Pureblend Pro Soil Bloom + Liquid Karma + CalMag (pH'd to about 6) every ten days or so. Four weeks in so far for the larger plants, and three weeks for the smaller. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be flowering these for, since my last (closet) grow of these same strains had to be shut down due to a severe spider mite infestation. Still got some pretty good smoke out of it, but I chopped all of the plants after seven weeks and had to water cure most of that harvest just to get rid of the bugs. So far, I've had no problems with mites on this grow. I have a small humidifier (on a timer) in the cab to keep the humidity around 40%. I might have to turn that off as flowering progresses, but for now, I feel like it might be helping to keep the mites away.
View attachment 1409084View attachment 1409085View attachment 1409086View attachment 1409087
View attachment 1409088View attachment 1409089View attachment 1409090
I pulled the two in "treepots" out in the yard to snap a pic. I was surprised how fast these clones settled in to these pots. I saw roots coming out the bottom after only a few days. I thought for sure it would take a few weeks for that to happen. Anyways, they're looking good at the three week point. Sure, they're small, but I'm not going for massive yields here...it's just an experiment to learn how feasible it'll be to grow in this small of a space. They're starting to smell pretty good already.
Biggest issue I anticipate having with this grow is the smell. This cab wasn't intended to be used for flowering, so I only have three pc fans for (exhaust) ventilation. I don't intend to attach any carbon filter to the cab at this point. I have a S&P TD-100x fan attached to a phat filter sitting on top of the cab right now, and odors are pretty well controlled. I'm a little worried about how bad it'll be at seven or eight weeks flowering...but I guess I'll deal with that when I get there. It's in my garage, so I don't expect the smell to get into the house. If it does, I may have to shut it down and finish building the new flowering cab. I intend to exhaust that cab only through a carbon scrubber.
So far, I'm surprised at how good the plants are looking under the CFLs. Of course, it's still early, so the final results won't be in for another 5-6 weeks. So far so good, though.
The Buddha was just OK, but, as I said, the Cali Orange was fantastic. I haven't yet found a strain (out of nine others that I've grown so far) that I liked as much...so I decided to just buy a few beans and grow some new moms for when my cab setup is up and running. Set one seed of each in wet paper towels on Fri...both are popped this morning, so I'll be potting them up today, hopefully. Only bought one WR seed (and three Cali Orange), so this'll be my one shot at White Rhino. I'll post some updated pics later in the week...hopefully with my new baby girls as well as.
We're on the same schedule, so we'll probably be harvesting at around the same time 
As long as my wife and I don't move into a new house before then, that is...we've got offers out on a short sale and a foreclosure, so if one goes thru, I may have to pack up a little early. Meanwhile, I'm just letting my girls do their thing as long as I can.
