CFL Dresser Grow (stealth) - Auto Assassin, Auto Blue Himalaya

[pcn3rd]

Hi to all! I finally got everything situated for my first grow and started officially on 4/20/2011 @ 4:20PM.

Grow Box
I'm using a dresser that I converted. The dimensions are width 2.5' x depth 1.5' x height 4' ft. That's 3 cubic ft of grow space.

Strains
3 x ShortStuff Auto Assassin
2 x Short Stuff Auto Blue Himalaya

Lighting
I have 7 x 42 Watt CFL Lights for a total 294 watts. I will be using mixed spectrum (2400k & 6500k)for the quick veg period of the auto plants and then slowly move up to full 2400k towards the last few weeks of flowering.

Intake/Exhaust
I have a 10" exhaust fan located at the top back rear of the dresser and 2 4" passive intake ports at the bottom back rear of the dresser. With all 7 lights on, the temps in the box get to around 82F with exhaust fan on high and ambient outside temperature at around 77F. Humidity is around 36% to 45%. I will have to do something about that humidity to get it up to around 50%. Probably a Bowl of water with a sponge.

Soil/Nutes/Pots
Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil
Fox Farm (Tiger Bloom, Big Bloom, Grow Big)
Pots 6x6x7

Germination
Started using "Paper Towel in Baggy" method on 4/20/2011 @ 4:20PM.

Expected Yields
I am expecting to yield about 1oz per plant considering I have 294 watts of lighting which is ideal for the amount of plants I'll be growing.

These pictures are from various stages of the build. I do not currently have a "completed" build picture but will get some soon. The first one below is the closest to it being "complete" as I have right now.

 

[pcn3rd]

Here is a pic of some bagseed I am growing. Mostly the point of this bagseed grow was to test the germination method i wanted to use and work out any issues my box might have. These 2 seedlings are 6 days old from seed. I do not plan to raise these as I will be giving these to a friend as I'm concentrating on my auto-flowering strains.

 

[pcn3rd]

It's been 28 hours since the assassin and blue himalaya were germinated. I checked the seeds and all 5 are swelling up. 1 has barely begun to show its taproot. I suspect by morning I should see a little more progress. I will plant once I see at least 1/2" taproot.

 

[pcn3rd]

On 4/22/2011, 2 x Auto Assassins were planted into 6x6x7 pots and set in humidity domes. Their taproots were 1/2" or more so it was time to plant.

This morning 4/23/2011, I checked progress on the last 3 seeds.. The blue himalaya taprooted and is more tan 1/2" so that will be planted today. The other auto assassin is barely showing a taproot so I will still wait to plant that one. The other blue himalaya still is showing no signs of a taproot, I think it might be a dud but I will still wait on that one.

 

[crazytrain14]

hey man looking good cool set up. i am germing a blue himalaya diesel right now looking forward to watching it grow to compare to yours

 

[pcn3rd]

hey man looking good cool set up. i am germing a blue himalaya diesel right now looking forward to watching it grow to compare to yours

Sweet man! Thanks for the reply.. Lookin foward to seeing yours as well..

 

[pcn3rd]

When I checked the taproot on the blue himalaya earlier, it was over an inch long! I planted it directly into it's final pot which is the 6x6x7 pot. That was this morning and already, the seed shell is popping out of the soil.

The 2 assassins that I planted yesterday have already sprouted and are currently spreading their leaves. These things are growing much faster than the reggie bagseed I have growing right now. I'll post up some pics tomorrow when they've gotten a little bigger.

The last Assassin seed is still growing it's taproot and should be planted a little later tnite or possibly tomorrow morning.

 

[crazytrain14]

right on man ill be putting my seed into the paper towell to germ then soil sometime tomorrow im sure. my grow is in my sig if you wanna check it out. its real long but ive got many autos harvested in it from start to finish

later

 

[pcn3rd]

right on man ill be putting my seed into the paper towell to germ then soil sometime tomorrow im sure. my grow is in my sig if you wanna check it out. its real long but ive got many autos harvested in it from start to finish

later

Just checked out your lowryder grow and that was a great grow! I hope my plants stay that healthy throughout..

 

[pcn3rd]

Just checked the last assassin seed and blue himalaya seed. The assassin taprooted about an inch so i put that one directly in a 6x6x7 pot and under a humdity dome. The blue himalaya still showing no signs of popping. I'll leave it for another 48 hours but I think it's dead..

The 2 assassins that sprouted are about 3/4" tall and almost completely uncurled. They seem to be growing at the same rate. The blue himalaya is a lil further out of the dirt but has not started to uncurl just yet.

 

[crazytrain14]

put my bhd in the tupperware to germ. hopefully she'll pop today and be i soil by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. the current grow i have going is flash purple mazar and advanced lowgirl. both flowering in my perpetual auto grow link if you havent checked it out.

peace bro

 

[pcn3rd]

put my bhd in the tupperware to germ. hopefully she'll pop today and be i soil by tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. the current grow i have going is flash purple mazar and advanced lowgirl. both flowering in my perpetual auto grow link if you havent checked it out.

peace bro

awesome! i'm gonna check out your perpetual grow in a few minutes after I post an update and get baked..

 

[pcn3rd]

Today I have 1 Time Lapse video of the Auto Assassin seedling growing overnight. Quality of video isn't that great. I will get a better camera and do some better time lapse vids in the future.

Time Lapse Video: click image below to play video


Auto Assassins are growing great. Blue Himalaya has almost shed it's seed and should be upright by tnite. The auto assassins are in the box now under 82 watts of light.. They aren't that close to the lights yet as they still haven't opened up fully and I feel that it's a lil too much light for them at this point to be 4 inches away.

The other 2 bagseed seedlings are doing pretty good. I transplanted them 2 days ago and I tore some roots by accident so the leaves on the bigger one curled under. color is still really good on both and no yellowing or dying leaves.. There was no growth after transplanting and I was a bit worried. Overnight tho, new sets of leaves started growing on both seedlings.

 

[pcn3rd]

Humidity in box was at 37% which is pretty low. I put a half gallon tub of water with some ice in there. Humidity rose to 42% and dropped temps by 1 degree. I am now freezing a half gallon tub of water to see how well a block of ice will work on raising the humidity. A bowl of water w/ sponge doesn't do much.

The bagseed seedlings were watered as there pots were very light. I also added more soil to fill in the 1/2" gap and to help support them a bit more. They seem happier with the addition of the soil..

 

[crazytrain14]

looking good. did you put a webcam or somthing in there to catch that?

 

[pcn3rd]

my lenovo s10-3t netbook has a built in webcam. I used that in conjuction with a software program that takes a picture every 30 seconds and also streams the webcam so I can view it from anywhere. Pretty sweet when I want to check on my plants every 15 min! LOL i need to get over the obsessive checking...

I do have a bit of problem. I noticed that the 2 seedlings I planted look much different from each other. One is tall and long.. The other is short and stalky.. from what i can gather, one is sativa dominant and the other indica..

The tall one (sativa?) has leaves that seem to be drooping quite a bit but also, new growth is showing a twisting.. I read that twisting is a PH problem and I think that makes total sense since I also read on these forums that distilled water should be PH'd down to 6.5... I've been using straight distilled water thinking 7.0 PH would be fine.. I tested the distilled water again and it was 7.0.. I ph'd it down to 6.5ish..

My question is, do I just let the soil dry out and then water with the newly ph'd water? I've watered the bagseed today but before I ph'd the water.. I haven't watered the others since their first inital watering, with pre-ph'd, 7.0 ph water.

I'll need to test PH of runoff to be sure but I just want to know what the proper steps are for readjusting soil PH.

 

[crazytrain14]

i normally just water with strait distilled i ph it down after i add nutes. let it dry out and only water when they need it. you dont want to over water and hurt the roots while a seedling.

 

[pcn3rd]

i normally just water with strait distilled i ph it down after i add nutes. let it dry out and only water when they need it. you dont want to over water and hurt the roots while a seedling.

I got to ur post a lil late and well.. I hadn't watered them all that much to begin with as I was afraid of overwatering... so I watered them with the ph'd water and tested the soil run off and it was right at 6.5ish. runoff was clear.. i'll wait now until soil is dry and water and test again... soil has very good drainage and does not get muddy, clump or crack... by any means. it always just stays like crumbly..

On another note.... I also read that indica can tolerate higher PH levels than sativa.. this is probably why the sativa is showing signs of ph stress and the indica is not..

 

[pcn3rd]

All 3 assassins are currently almost fully opened and are showing good growth despite the PH mishap and/ overwatering. The Blue Him is almost fully open as well. All assassins have their first set of leaves.

now on to the bagseed seedlings. The indica is doing good. A little droopy due to the overwatering she received yesterday but color is good, no yellowing, no curling.. The sativa seedling is ok..but the first set of leaves are starting to change a bit of color at the tips. She is still curled at those leaves but all new growth seems to be ok.. Twisting of new growth seems to have stopped.. her stem is getting to be a bit stronger. they are bouncing back a bit now from the transplant and overwatering.

I have a timelapse video of 2 assassin seedlings growing over a 10 hour period.. I don't think its going to show much growth but we'll see a lil later when I put it together.

 

[Dominathan]

I like it! If you can find a better way to hang your cfls, you should. So little light is emitted from the "top" of the bulb that you're wasting all the strong light!