400W organic soil stealth cab - TGA Apollo-13, Mr. Nice Medicine Man, OG Kush

Look in the vertical section of the forum. There's nice 250w very and some others. Lots of good very on icmag. That's where I started with very pl-l lights.

Very close to done with the cabinet. Pretty much all that's left is getting some more 4" for the other 2 holes (i tried to cut the one i had with wire cutters but that motherfucker was tough and would not be cut (at least by my $10 wire cutters) - hence the duct tape in the middle. Have to fasten the board in the center into place with L brackets and paint as well as install weather stripping around the doors and get all the crevices leaking light. This thing is not very stealthy at all other than if it's off it won't look like much. But the fan is too loud for stealth -- if it's on the room basically sounds like the interior of a passenger jet while you are sitting waiting for the crew to complete the preflight checks. No, not stealthy at all. The light leaks I can deal with. Lights are 20" from plants, which may be too close we'll see. I had the light at 3' above them or so last night and the medicine man's still stretched. I will back it off if it appears to be inflicting any harm. I put the last coat of paint on the doors and a few rough spots. The vent hole actually came out pretty good. I ended up getting a jigsaw -- wish I'd thought of that earlier. It was relatively easy and I spent as much on the circular dill bit as the jigsaw and sawblades.

End of Day 3


Apollo 13


Medicine Man


OG Kush

Here are my babies end of day 3. So far they appear to be looking good to me for 3 days. Not sure where they should be. As far as I can tell the light and compost tea don't appear to be hurting anything. They are growing and most you can already see the 3rd leafset buds coming in now. Giving them a bit of natural light now before they go in the dark for 4 hours. The heat in the cabinet is good it's probably between 78-80 in there though I have no meter. Definitely not much more than 80 if it is. I think the humidity is probably very low and may need to give the plants a bit of water tonight -- I didn't really give them a full watering yesterday just a really good foliar feed with lots of drainage into the soil. Will see how dry they feel by weight at lights up. The stragglers are now catching up to the early germs.

Plants keepin' growin. A bit worried about pH issues due to using a chemical pH test that's color based (and having multiple people giving different interpretations of the results) -- have ordered a pH pen and soil pH meter that should be here in 2 or 3 days. The cheapest pens the hydro store had were like $80+ -- ripoff. I put a tiny little bit of lime (about 1/4 tsp) in the top of each cup and worked it into the top layer of the soil before watering to help buffer. I should've gotten these earlier hopefully my interpretation of the pH of what they've been getting is closer than who I asked yesterday. I also moved the light up about 6 more inches to prevent stunting plants due to light.

They seem to have had good growth last night. First leaves are almost double in size compared to yesterday (now about 2-3x the size of cotyledons), and 3rd leaves are starting to emerge from the 3rd leafbuds. They are looking decently green no obvious signs of pH issues yet. Doesn't look like giving them compost tea did them any harm I'd be expecting to see burn issues starting by now if so. Don't see any burning, discoloration or deformation.

End of Day 4


OG Kush


Medicine Man #2


Medicine Man #1


Apollo 13 #2 (#1 was a fuzzy shot)



Definitely thinking pH issues... will definitely be repotting tonight and going to get some kind of different pH test strips at the hydro store to give them a proper pHed watering before it's too late. They need to be repotted regardless because soil isn't holding moisture more than one day under the light (too airy) and I'm going to be gone for close to 3 days later this week.

Cluttercab in full effect

Leaving your girls is scary! I had to leave the Drewberry for about a week over christmas and they were looking trashed by the time I got home... I lift those pics out of my post

I like the Cluttercab and love to see the new little plantletts! keep it up!

I transplanted them into 16oz cups of foxfarm light warrior soil tonight. Got the majority of the old soil out. One of them got really roughed up during its transplant I hope it doesn't have too much stress. Last 3 were no problem. I also put plant success tabs in the bottom of the cups.

OGK had the best roots going, the small apollo surprisingly had the second best.

The foxfarm is SUPER light. It almost feels like you haven't watered even when fully saturated. I sure hope it can hold moisture.

You can leave them in a shallow pan of water and let them wick up. If you hadn't just repotted I would of said to build up a temporary passive wick system for the time you're gone. Of course I mean that as a helpful suggestion.

Let me know if you get the test strips. Curious about price and amount. I've got to get fan controllers for my ventilation so I'll have to wait on the ph meter.

May do just that voidling -- due to the transplant the roots are not in the bottom soil yet so there wouldn't be any root rot issue. I hadn't thought of that great idea.

I am thinking since I have a pH pen that will be here by the time I'm back and I'll be gone after tonight I'm just going to wait. I checked the foxfarm light warrior and it said it has crab shell or some such "for buffering" so guessing it will be fine with a couple of un-pHed waterings of distilled water.

Plants looking good despite transplant no apparent shock even with the roughly handled one they all appeared to have grown overnight, some by a good bit. I didn't even use superthrive or any other root promoter like I have in the past. I actually went by the hydro store yesterday but they are closed mondays and the smoke store that also has grow supplies nearby didn't even have a test kit (just reference bottles), tho they did have an inexpensive TDS meter but I don't need that.

Will be checking on the girls again at lights out when I come home for lunch. Am I the only one who (being from Texas) times his night cycles to the hottest part of the day to avoid temp issues? It's cool enough still now that that's not any kind of problem but give it another couple of months...

Hey Senseimilla.. looks great. You seem to really know what you are doing.

I'm a total noob so I don't feel right in dispensing any advice but I have read that adding myco's to your teas, they just get gobbled up by all the bacteria/other fungals within your tea. As they need the root exudates from a plant to survive/thrive/multiply.

I have heard that adding the myco products to your tea a couple of hours before using is a great idea though.

I did a little experiment with mycos and some lettuce ... you can see it here in my journal.. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/494251-first-grow-400w-hps-mh-19.html#post6951200

Subbed up and eagerly awaiting updates.

Like your avatar ottawa Thanks for the myco info had not heard that.

Here is the latest. Transplants didn't seem to set them back... they all grew last night. Ironically the one that probably was roughest handled grew the most?!? The one that was best repotted seemed one of the least to grow Who knows This new soil is like a sponge. It would be a perfect soil based mix for a drip/spray irrigation system. Like hydro for soil.

I'm no expert, just have a few grows under my belt enough to not be a total newb But starting over again after several years not growing I feel like one again.

I hope they start to thrive and hit a growth spurt soon... so impatient

End Day 5

OG Kush



Apollo 13


Medicine Man #1 (#2 fuzzy)

Repotted into 16oz cups -- the tall one is the one I transplanted roughly last night and screwed up the repot.

Yeah not sure how many get the "Half Baked" reference.. I would hope even the younger stoners have seen that film. Should be required viewing in high school.

I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not but I also dust with my myco product on every transplant to help the new roots establish post-transplant.

Do you add any extra perlite to your soil? I made up my own modified supersoil as well for my second round that I'll be starting soon but I'm using Sunshine Mix #4 as I don't have access to any good organic soil at the moment. (Garden centres are all but shut down up here until March).

Also we don't have access to Azomite

I do on standard soil mixes but the last 2 I've gotten (roots organics and foxfarm light warrior) have plenty of perlite and adding more would be overkill. i don't think i've used sunshine before but I've heard it's fine can't remember if you need to add perlite. If it looks like there isn't enough there is not in my experience. It's far better to have a little too much perlite (more frequent watering) than too little (root rot/lockout).

I didn't use a myco this go round because light warrior already has a bunch of mico in it and i also put in plant success tabs which are slow dissolving myco tablets that also have beneficial bacteria.

Senseimilla said:

I do on standard soil mixes but the last 2 I've gotten (roots organics and foxfarm light warrior) have plenty of perlite and adding more would be overkill. i don't think i've used sunshine before but I've heard it's fine can't remember if you need to add perlite. If it looks like there isn't enough there is not in my experience. It's far better to have a little too much perlite (more frequent watering) than too little (root rot/lockout).

I didn't use a myco this go round because light warrior already has a bunch of mico in it and i also put in plant success tabs which are slow dissolving myco tablets that also have beneficial bacteria.

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Yeah I'm trying to grow Organic but the guy at the hydro store recommended the Sunshine mix when I was starting out and didn't know anything. I've amended with dolomite, castings, Guanos, bone, blood and kelp meal but considering the main mix is soilless I think I'd be better off with a good organic soil

Good news is Rona (think French Canadian Home Depot) stocks a canadian organic soil with mycohrizzae added in. They'll be getting flats delivered in March.

Thanks for the comment about the perlite. I think I'll add some before starting my second round.

Yeah I have a tds meter that's also a water thermometer, just need a ph pen. Will probably buy a cheapish one off ebay the first time around.

Subbed and along for the ride. This is very similar to what I am doing, so it's good to see how they progress. I just got the big bag of Roots Organic, 2CF Perlite, and 30lb Worm Castings. I also have big bag of peat moss. I am trying to decide how much peat moss, perlite and worm castings to add into the RO soil to kind of mimic a light warrior seedling mix for my babies. The hydro store was completely out of Fox Forest soils, but I was super stoked that I got the last bag of the RO soil. I know it is a hot mix, so I am thinking it needs to be diluted a little, or at least put down at the bottom of the pot with a lighter mix up top. The hydro store also had a pH/light meter/soil moisture probe for like $10, so I guess I got lucky there.

Just FYI, from research I did in my aquarium days, I think you cannot really pH test distilled water (same should be true for zero TDS RO/DI and rain water). The reason being, is there are absolutely no ions in the water, so you can get test results ranging from 5 to 8 and it is all bogus. Distilled water, by definition is pure and neutral on the pH. Hope that helps.

+reps dude, keep the updates coming.

NoahEbin said:

Subbed and along for the ride. This is very similar to what I am doing, so it's good to see how they progress. I just got the big bag of Roots Organic, 2CF Perlite, and 30lb Worm Castings. I also have big bag of peat moss. I am trying to decide how much peat moss, perlite and worm castings to add into the RO soil to kind of mimic a light warrior seedling mix for my babies. The hydro store was completely out of Fox Forest soils, but I was super stoked that I got the last bag of the RO soil. I know it is a hot mix, so I am thinking it needs to be diluted a little, or at least put down at the bottom of the pot with a lighter mix up top. The hydro store also had a pH/light meter/soil moisture probe for like $10, so I guess I got lucky there.

Just FYI, from research I did in my aquarium days, I think you cannot really pH test distilled water (same should be true for zero TDS RO/DI and rain water). The reason being, is there are absolutely no ions in the water, so you can get test results ranging from 5 to 8 and it is all bogus. Distilled water, by definition is pure and neutral on the pH. Hope that helps.
.

Click to expand...

I come from a chemistry background and a netural pH would still have a balance of Hydronium ions to present in the water. (H30+) I would assume these are still being tested for as analog pH testers are nothing more than voltmeters and are simply calibrated to show pH instead of voltage. Distilled water by its very definition is neutral in pH and neutral always means 7.

Maybe the meters start to fail as the electrical conductivity of water goes down (Pure distilled water isn't a great conductor of water, however once any amounts of salts are it greatly increases, and I don't claim to know all the inner workings of pH meters) however it would still be close to 7. Don't want to disrespect as you seem to speak from experience and I haven't actually worked in the field with pH, my knowledge is strictly from the classroom (and a long time ago at that). I just don't think distilled water can range from 5 to 8. Maybe 6.9-7.1 if it wasn't properly distilled.

I like your idea of adding your RO soil and amendments to the bottom of the pot and allowing your seedlings to grow into it. I'm having issues with some plants I'm vegging now and I have them in peat and all my amendments.. (I didn't top dress with the more neutral peat-mix (Sunshine mix #4)) Next time I will try with my "super soil" with Sunshine Mix on top and allow the seedlings to grow through into the supersoil

You shouldn't need to add anything to the roots unless you want extra amendments. It's a quality soil with no perlite or peat or anything needed. Peat would just make a mix heavier in my experience.

I've never heard that about distilled water... i used a chemical test kit and pH was nowhere near 7 unless that chemical pH test just doesn't produce correct results.

So I had an accident earlier... when taking plants back to cab for their night from taking pics one fell on the floor... ironically, it was the one that was roughly handled and badly repotted -- after I scooped it back into the cup and put soil back in it was actually properly repotted and it did not appear there was root damage. It has not shown any issues since and it sure likes the babies all grew a bit during their nap. Maybe they just look bigger to me

So I figured out the best way to water light warrior for me and it's a pain... basically my plain old watering spout from walmart pours water in way too fast... it's just about useless... the water goes right through the soil immediately and most of it doesn't get retained. So today I spent 2-3 minutes for each cup using a spray bottle to foliar feed the plants and soil. After 2-3 minutes they just started dripping and were perfectly, fully watered. I am curious to see how much they retain tomorrow. I think after this better watering they will probably go a couple of days with no watering. I may have to rewater tomorrow morning though since I am going to be gone for 2-3 days. My friend is going to come buy thursday night and check on them and water if needed. He don't know shit about growing though and crazily is barely even interested... which I can't even fucking comprehend. To me these plants are magical and endless fascination. To him they're just any other plant that just happens to get him high

ottawaliquid said:

I also dust with my myco product on every transplant to help the new roots establish post-transplant.

Do you add any extra perlite to your soil? I made up my own modified supersoil as well for my second round that I'll be starting soon but I'm using Sunshine Mix #4 as I don't have access to any good organic soil at the moment. (Garden centres are all but shut down up here until March).

Also we don't have access to Azomite

Click to expand...

Since I am going to be xplant soon, can you briefly explain your "dust with myco" technique? And I have been doing a lot of research on RIU on soil mixes, and I think you do want to add like 10% perlite to Sunshine. If you just search Sunshine mix 4, you will see lots of posts of people asking what to do with this mix. And as for Azomite, I can probably get it, but what does it really do? I imagine the RO has some in it, but Subcool adds some to his, especially for that hot mix at the bottom of the pots.

Supposed to supply trace minerals... $15 bought me a bag that will last years. Can't hurt i don't believe RO has it in it i could be wrong