first grow, budget grow box - grow log from zero to 420

Heres the pics, as you can see the light on the left fell down, it broke free of the tape.

I now have both sativa's on the right tied down with two knots.

Wow - you are really laying this grow out for us in a very professional manner! Plants are looking great man! You are taking the scientific approach as far as documentation, and it will benefit you later down the road! You will be able to look back at this and have a timeline and details to find out where you went right or wrong. Great grow and PLEASE keep at it on the forum!

Wow, VERY NICE JOURNAL! Great detail. and your plants look great! seeing how you spent a decent amount building a wooden one isnt too expensive, i just spent roughly 50$ on all the wood, and i will have extra. you can pick up ply wood for like 15$ a peice or even less. im using somthing a little stronger then plywood and im in the middle of building it, im pretty much done and i havent spent more then 2 hours on it.

I bought some final supplies that i'll need for the flowering stage, and for perpetual harvesting. Walmart has damn cheap CFLs but you can only get them in 2700k. I found an inexpensive pH/moisture meter at lowes that i'm using for $10. I found out my tap water is nearly perfect 7, which is good. I may end up returning it though, now that I know what pH my water is, the finger test is pretty accurate for judging soil moisture.

I added four more 26 watt 2700k bulbs in the mix higher up just for the hell of it. The additional 100 watts pushes temps up really high, so I may have to keep those lights off when I have the door closed. I have to crank the 9" fan up to high to push all the heat out.

Once I go 12/12 i'll switch out some of the bulbs with the 2700k's, and use the 6500k's for clones.

I've been looking but so far I haven't seen any signs of preflowers yet. Each little thing coming out of the stem turns out to be just a new leaf. I provided a macro image to show you what i'm talking about.

I think what i'm going to do is just take clones within the next few days, probably after I give them their next watering. I'll begin vegging the clones, and pretty soon start 12/12 so I can find out their sex. I'll make sure to remember what clones came from what plant, and discard the clones that end of coming from a male plant.

This should be the quickest way to determine sex, I can't be wasting electricity on males.

I'd also like to point out since my pot/container is translucent I can see plenty of roots hitting the side of the container on all four sides. My plants have narly root growth, which means they're probably strong enough for 12/12 now when ever i'm ready.

Sooner or later i'll provide a pic for you guys of what the root system looks like, but that container is damn heavy with 40lbs of soil in it, so i'm procrastinating.

As you can see in the pictures, I have started LST on all five of my plants except my indica in the top left. The indica i'm pretty sure is my Afghan plant, it's stem is already too stiff to be bent. I drew outlines on the first picture of how the stems are bent so far under the foliage. I just bent them over an hour ago, so they haven't perked up yet.

Since I can no longer edit the first post here is an updated price breakdown on supplies:

$0 boxes
$6 clamp light
$6 clamp light
$6 clamp light
$6 clamp light
$3.50 23 watt CFL 1600 lumens 5k
$3.50 23 watt CFL 1600 lumens 5k
$3.50 23 watt CFL 1600 lumens 5k
$3.50 23 watt CFL 1600 lumens 5k
$4 seed starting soil
$6 electric timer
$25 10 seeds
$5 seed shipping
$0 plastic cups
$3 twine
$3 Y-socket splitter
$3 Y-socket splitter
$3 Y-socket splitter
$3 Y-socket splitter
$3 26 watt CFL 1600 lumens 6.5k
$3 26 watt CFL 1600 lumens 6.5k
$3 26 watt CFL 1600 lumens 6.5k
$3 26 watt CFL 1600 lumens 6.5k
$0 copy paper
$0 staples/duct tape
$0 scrap hookup wire
$2 Y-socket splitter
$7 digital thermometer/hydrometer with min/max memory
$0 60mm 12v computer fan (exhaust) 18 CFM
$0 70mm 12v computer fan (intake) 32 CFM
$0 some old 12v DC adapter
$2.50 Y-socket splitter
$2 simple plug socket adapter
$2 simple plug socket adapter
$2 simple plug socket adapter
$2 simple plug socket adapter
$10 9-inch fan
$6 clamp light
$4 MG bloom nutes
$9 plastic storage bin
$9 potting soil
$12 perlite
$6 power strip
$1 screws
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$2 26 watt CFL 1700 lumens 2700k
$10 pH/moisture meter
$0 scrap light fixture
--------------------------------------------------
$207.50 total


I provided a chart to show where my expenditures went. After the initial supplies, my monthly electricity usage should be about $42/mo.

very very nice!! I will be coming back here for sure!!!!keep it up bro!!

That's a nice set up..

this is so organized man keep up the good work!

I took clones yesterday, 12 total. I don't know the sex of the plants yet so I took clones of each plant and labeled em. I bought a $1 spray bottle so I could mist them regularly. My grow container for the clones is a basic wood box with clear saran wrap over it, nothing fancy. I have three 26 watt CFL's going 24/0 over it, 5000 lumens total. They serve to keep it warm/constant light. I cut them from the lower branches, at a 90 degree angle and immediately soaked them in water, which seems to be the preferred way. This is my first time taking clones so i'm hoping some of them survive.

I also did some minor LST adjustments, and moved the lights up two inches. One of my jock's in the rear ended up pulling up it's hook so I kind of messed that one up, the stem is now too stiff to bend it back down closer to the ground. I'm getting a lot of fast growth from the side stems now, the plants are beginning to look like they should with proper LST.

I'm only watering about once every 4-5 days, giving them a good 3 gallons each time. I notice after the last two times watering the plants seem to like it that way. I let the soil dry out until it's almost dusty on top, and the leaves start to curl slightly thats how I know to water. Once I water the next day the plants EXPLODE with growth, gaining about an inch in 12 hours.

I'm still not feeding them any liquid nutes, the soil was prenuted. I haven't seen any burn or lack of nutes in the leaves yet. I was worried at first that since I was using cheap soil it may cause problems, but I guess i've been lucky.

Now that I have my clones i'm going to wait a couple days or maybe a week to let the plants recover from the circumcising and then start 12/12. All the plants are getting pretty big, my Afghan (indica) is 9 inches tall, the others their stems are between 12 and 16 inches.

I also took some pics of a couple of the stems to see if anyone can spot some preflowers, I certainly can't. It's all just new leaves.

Here is a fun pic from about the same angle showing how much it's grown. From poor little root locked seedlings to money shot LST.

y do they look likethey r broke in haf

are you referring to the low stress training?

robtoker said:

y do they look likethey r broke in haf

Click to expand...

They look like they are broken because of the LST method. LST is when you bend your baby's stem and pin or tie it down, and let it grow a few nodes upward. Then you tie down the new growth after a few nodes and let it go again. One can pretty much repeat this as many times as will allow during the veg state. This method allows for the plant to grow its colas from its side, keeping extremely low profile with added yield. Hope this answers your questions...

Low Stress Training 101

lmn8r said:

are you referring to the low stress training?

Click to expand...

Yes, LST is Low Stress Training

anybody see any preflowers yet? I can't seem to find any, maybe they're too young?

this looks real nice. i hope my plant will look like this

Keep up the good work man! Great job done so far. I'm following...

this is nice i will be coming back for sure!! organized!!!

2 day old clones, getting some air

been in my makeshift humidity chamber with 2-3 mistings a day

they all have perked up from the light, no idea whether any have begun rooting yet