First Grow And Box Design

brandon873

Well-Known Member
This is my first grow. I have always wanted to try growin a plant but never tried until one day it occured to me that hydroponics was probably very simular to growing plants in my fishtanks. i already had extra pumps, ph testers, lights, tubes, etc etc. the only thing i needed was a place to do it in. seen alot of diy boxes on the internet. thought i could make a good one since im a steel fabricator by trade. so here's how its goin so far
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
the reason for the box i because i needed a safe place to grow the plant. and by safe i mean, out of sight and lower the fire risk. now i decided to put it in the closet like most people. i didn't want it takin up the whole closet either and i didn't want light to be seen when the doors are shut. plus if the doors are open i didn't want people to automatically expect somethin was up. the box is about 27 inches deep, 21 wide, and 48 tall. my grow is at the flowering stage. so i don't have as many pics as i should but i think i got enough to give an idea of whats goin on. as for paint. i used glossy black on the outside and glossy white on the inside. i later heard that flat white would be better. but it worked fine for me.
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
you can't see it but i cut a hole in the back of the box for ventilation purposes. also angled metal around it so no light can be seen yet air can move freely. later in the post you will see what the inside looks like. it has the plant in it and i don't want to show the grow out of order.
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
i went to a local book store and bought the cannabis grow bible. (yes its actually called that). in the end this book was priceless. it explained about seedbanks and how to tell if they were legit or not. never even heard of them. i was just goin to use bag seed. so i ordered Ak-47 lowrider seeds. took a little over two weeks to get em. i was relieved. those things are expensive. i still have them though. decided to use bag seed to experiment on cuz i am new and even though you hear people sayin "ohhh its just a weed", well those can be killed to. i would hate to have a hundred dollars of dead weed on my hands. the seed i used was from a friend that loves his swag.
As for a light i had bought a Hid Hut led ufo from ebay. that suckker will blind ya. for the rest,
4- 2.5 gallon buckets
170 gallon air pump
air tube
cheap stones
general hydroponic nutrients (micro,grow,bloom)
 

Essex

Active Member
sweet, a bomb proof grow box, if they start fallin get in there with ya plants n be safe! lol

Thats mental, pigs would have to cut it apart wiv angle grinder to get in!
 

Essex

Active Member
thing's may ya need if ya aint got em?

Temp and RH tester
PH tester
EC meter

about £35 if ya like e-bay, they help so much in hydro
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
(mid january) i used water from my fish tank to dampen a paper towel which i put about 6 seeds in. i then put the paper towel in a zip lock back and set it on top of my receiver undre the tv so it would stay warm 24/7. and in less than 48 hrs the seeds had sprouted. i was glad to see the seeds were good.
around two days after they had sprouted i thought the root was long enough so i put it in a 4inch net pot that was filled with clay pebbles. (i now know to use rockwool. way better) i did this for 4 of the seeds. 1 for each 2.5 gallon bucket.
ok. backtrackin here. each bucket had its own hose and airstone that was hooked up to the 4way airpump.
in each bucket i added 1/4 of the amount of suggested nutrients of the micro, grow, and flora. DO NOT ADD THE FLORA is what i found out. burned the crap out of them. screwed up 3 of the 4 big time. luckily i was able to save the 4th cuz for some reason it didn't burn up. i remade the water to just have micro and grow. that worked out fine. still strong but not as bad. here is a pic of the one plant i saved. burnt.jpg
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
hahaha.thats awesome. at least me and my weed will be safe!!!! i used the lightest metal i had. it looks like a huge safe. but actually i was able to get it into the closet with out a whole lot of effort. and yes i hope you noticed the double pad locks.. nobody is goin to be able to see whats goin on unless they got a warrant or i unlock it. ohh. and price for the box.. a whopping $60. and that was paint. lol. the one perk of my job. all the scrap metal i can need.
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
Damn went all out fire proof looks nice , need some fan action!
i have a squirrel cage type fan blowing out the back vent and two 4 inch fans inside to circulate the air around the plant. on top of this i have no worries about someone gettin in my box so i can leave the closet open with the ceiling fan going to help move the hot air out of the closet.
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
bout 4 days after changin the water the plant is lookin better. i have been keepin the ufo about 6 inches from the top. at that point i thought the ufo was workin great.
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
i don't have a real good time table here as you can tell. i really didn't start keeping a journal till after these pics. it was my girlfriends recommendation that i do so. smart girl. anyways these are over the next couple weeks. i clipped off the old burnt leaves everytime a new set grew out. thats what i do with my aquarium plants because the those plants spend all their time trying to repair those leaves and not grow new ones. so i figured why not for this plant. little then did i know what that was doing. but now i know and glad i did it.
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
ok. now i have a time line goin on. i started in january. it is now march 16th and i think that the Led ufo sucks. the proof is in the plant. i have seen many forums on the web with plants way bigger for the amount of time. so i am takin that light out and am goin to use my 96 watt, 20 inch, 6700k coralife aqualight that was on my small fish tank. i figure i need it more that the fish do. lol. it shines well enough to grow plants under whater so why not my herb. hmmm. u think it will help???? here are pics of it and the ufo side by side in the growbox. ohh and one more note. this was a 24/0 light cycle. i am adding the new light and doing an 18/6. i have been changing the water once a week with the same strength and water of a ph of close to 6
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
it is now 9 days after changing the light from the hid hut ufo to the coralife aqualight. and is 6 days after the last updated pics. on this day i also took a 2 liter soda bottle and added sugar, yeast, and water to add more co2 in the air. i am still clipping off leaves that get burnt bad. which is mostly the bottlom fan leaves. its odd cuz i am only adding 1/4 tsp per gallon of micro, and 1/4 tsp per gallon of grow. not much at all. but i have never grown a plant before so its trial and error. its not getting burned as bad after i change the water here lately. i am relating that to the larger size of the plant.
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
on this day i added more ph'd water to the bucket because with all this new growth it is really sucking it up. believe it or not this plant is only 5 inches tall. looks bigger. bushy little sucker huh?
 

brandon873

Well-Known Member
on this day i decided to just go ahead and change the water out completely since i had extra time. i upped the grow nutrients by and extra 1/4 tsp per gallon and left the micro the same. the plant is lookin great but some of the bottom leaves were lookin a little yellow in the middle.
 

Attachments

brandon873

Well-Known Member
I had been reading my book and even though i was afraid to hurt the plant i just figured screw it and topped the thing just like it showed. tried to get a picture of the the cut but wasn't too successfull curious to see how that works out...
 

Attachments

Top