first low budget indoor stealth grow in a growbox of my own design

so i wanted to start this journal the first day i joind rollitup but i dont own a digital camera and i cant take pics on my moms or that would kill the secret (and she would kill my plant). one of my friends came over and took a few pictures on his phone and emailed them to me.
i designed this mini growbox myself and its still incomplete but the plant im growing right now is an experement anyways. the growbox started with a nike shoe box lined with plastic and then alluminum foil. i still need to get my hands on a small fan to build into the box, but until then i need to leave the door open, which seems very stupid and dangerous to me, because if i close the door the temp goes well over 90 degrees and has no air circulation. if you look closely enough at the top of my box i punched 2 holes hoping they could vent a little now and make it easier to install my fan and vent tube when i get them.
my plant, named melanie-jane is about 11 days old since she was planted. the plant is from a bagseed of some (and i hate to say this) quality mids. she is expendable and i hope i can get her to flower but if i lose her its no big deal those seeds are a dime a dozen and all i will lose is time and effort but gain experence. the light is just a household flouresent bulb and its on a cord so i can move the light so its always an inch or two above the top of my plant. if the plant grows more than the full 14 in i allow it i will need to remake a larger box so evrything can fit. i already transplanted my seedling from a shot glass to this home-made pot. i want to keep the plant small so i hope keeping her in a small pot will keep her from growing out of her home. she grows exponentally evry day, for example the picture was taken yesterday and today each little leaf has two mini leaves sprouting off and annother set of micro leaves sprouting from the very top of the plant. i water her with H2O evry other day and spray the leaves with a good mist evry morning

i dont think this is going to work for your right now man. Not having the right equipment, and trying to hide it at the same time is not going to mix.

You need to get some more lights.... and what are you going to do once it starts to smell?

not trying to come off as a dick, but i tried the same thing as you but in my own house and still failed miserably, hopefully this time i can do some work. The advice i will give is to read as much, and dont just plan out and then start, but actually set up your whole grow before you even germinate. Good luck my friend.

neMMMM said:

i dont think this is going to work for your right now man. Not having the right equipment, and trying to hide it at the same time is not going to mix.

You need to get some more lights.... and what are you going to do once it starts to smell?

not trying to come off as a dick, but i tried the same thing as you but in my own house and still failed miserably, hopefully this time i can do some work. The advice i will give is to read as much, and dont just plan out and then start, but actually set up your whole grow before you even germinate. Good luck my friend.

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u dont sound like a dick at all, more polite and tactful than many people who jump conclusions here. this is just the first step while i play around with the idea. it it works out then ill keep it going if not than this little room is just a starter if i absolutely need to move it out into the woods. my plan is to expand on my little grow box untill i know the plant can nolonger flourish inside of it. if i have to (and can) build it better i will. if not i will get on my friends atv ride the plant miles into the woods by my self and mark the location on a gps so i can find it and go back when the sunlight is naturally 12 light 12 dark

that might be the best idea, outdoor plants can do great and yield an incredible amount. Just watch your temps, don't water too much, and get some ventilation. Veg for a bit and see how it goes, if it goes well, keep going with it. If not, then at least u learned some things and next time u will be 100x more prepared and more like to succeed than before.

subscribed for now, let us know how it goes.

a few hours after posting this i walked into my room to find my cat nibbling on one of the big leaves. the cat got misted with the spray bottle and banished from my room. its only one leaf with only one little hole in it so i think she will pull through. i never thought my cat would be one of the predators i would have to look out for. other than that little mishap she is doing fine, the stem looks a little thicker and it gets like 2 new little leaves every day

yah you are about that alot with cats eating plants, slick little fur balls . how are the plants?

neMMMM said:

yah you are about that alot with cats eating plants, slick little fur balls . how are the plants?

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it looks great! the little leaves double each day and the existing ones double in size. i was woried that she might be too skiny to suport her own weight but i think she will be just fine. the whole in the leaf is almost all cleaned up in just two days.

im starting to think i shold give her almost 24 hrs of sunlight a day and water her less often. right now she gets between 16 and 18 hrs of light and gets watered( i dont hav any way to measure) enought to moisten the soil evry other day. also i heard molasses works wonders on plants but havent been able to find any for free

i dont have access to a camere otherwise i would have shown pics of the day she got chewed up and how much better she got after 2 days. maybe ill sketch her and scan the drawing, or maybe ill just wait

looks good love the secret way of trying this out....i cant do that my mom gets blazed with me, lol....anyways man looks good fo sho keep it up...have to start somewhere!!!! im subscribed ill keep watching!!

not bad really, im trying to do the same thing except with a dresser that i dont use any more lol.

so i think she is looking really good, i just wish her stem were thicker. she has 3 nodes, two big single bladeleaves and 4 leaves (two big and two smaller) with three leaves on each leaf. in the middle of the top (3rd) node are two more tiny leaves that get bigger each day. today i was looking closely at where the nodes meet the stem. this morning it looked maybe like little pistls or some female hairs. i jumped the gun, its way too erly for that. after more light on closer inspection they look like the tiny pre leaves on the top of my plant. also she developed a slight pot smell today.

the bad news is tonight i saw and killed 3 little gnat things, one on a leaf and 2 more flying around the light. i killed them but im woried that there were enough of them to have a little gnat orgy and lay some eggs around my little baby

also i found out im going away for two weeks at the end of the week or this weekend, i think im going to hav to plant it outside before i go. i transplanted it from a starter cup a week ago and i dont know if it can stand annother transplant so soon. today i could see 5 or 6 strong root tips through my translucent pot so i covered it with a strip of duct tape.

any tips about gentle pesticides? i know out doors ill have more pests to deal with, should she get pesticides outdoors? i havent been fivig her any nutes because im growing low budget, but do you think giving her some over the next week (she would olny get fed once or twice) would make the stem thicker or prep her for the move?

Any updates? get a fan on them and the stem should thicken a bit. Not sure how to handle gnats (never had em) but theres tons of info on here about em!

i still havent gotten my friend with a good camera-phone to come over yet and thats why a have been waiting, but i have some updates.

first i havent seen a single gnat (YET) but im still planing on moving it outside before i go on vacation and know there will be more pests. i will be moving her outside either this weekend or before tuesday

the stem, well its not really any thicker yet but it is stronger. today i got a fan to blow on it while the door is all the way open, but if i want to be descreet then i need to cut off a little air flow.

in my oppinion the best development is that the two little club leaves that hold cloraphyl untill the plant has enough leaves no make its own have turned yellow, one is withered up and ready to fall off and the other one is following. would it hurt the plant to pull these off? i think i could do it gently but would rather let them fall off on there own. im also excited to have a pair of leaves with 5 leaves on them and i think the little tinyest leaves are the cutest things

KaleoXxX said:

i still havent gotten my friend with a good camera-phone to come over yet and thats why a have been waiting, but i have some updates.

first i havent seen a single gnat (YET) but im still planing on moving it outside before i go on vacation and know there will be more pests. i will be moving her outside either this weekend or before tuesday

the stem, well its not really any thicker yet but it is stronger. today i got a fan to blow on it while the door is all the way open, but if i want to be descreet then i need to cut off a little air flow.

in my oppinion the best development is that the two little club leaves that hold cloraphyl untill the plant has enough leaves no make its own have turned yellow, one is withered up and ready to fall off and the other one is following. would it hurt the plant to pull these off? i think i could do it gently but would rather let them fall off on there own. im also excited to have a pair of leaves with 5 leaves on them and i think the little tinyest leaves are the cutest things

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Sup! liked your little shoe box idea! maybe you can grow midget plants? haha
oh and as for the fan, i'm sure you can attach a little pc fan. probably find that at radio shack for 10.

well subscribe. do the same for me and check out my plant it's a week old as of today! updated pics!

i'm gonna have to copy you with the little shoe box thing kiss-ass

Hauvert said:

Sup! liked your little shoe box idea! maybe you can grow midget plants? haha
oh and as for the fan, i'm sure you can attach a little pc fan. probably find that at radio shack for 10.

well subscribe. do the same for me and check out my plant it's a week old as of today! updated pics!

i'm gonna have to copy you with the little shoe box thing kiss-ass

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ya i plan on starting this plant indoors and moving this one outside real soon. the other day i got a bagseed of this funky haze from a friend who was as excited to find it as i was that he gave it to me. when i get back from vacation ill germinate the little sucka and start a new project. maybe rebuild the exact same grow box in this big old timey chest i found. best features? i could lock it up and have like 4 feet to grow

flaws of my growbox:
i heard alluminum is not the best reflector, next time i will use some of those fire blankets

the fan is not self contained, ya it makes my plant dance around and blows the faint smell out the window but i have a feeling i could get caught because the doors open so the fan can blow on it

i need more better lights to go much further allong than i am

not like i have the height for it, she has almost grown out of her home

i think an automatic timer would take away half my cares

kinda broke, but even if i had a small fan, the strcture is flimsy in some places and sturdy in others, t think i fan could topple it

its all good cuz ive almost done all i can with this little girl in this little box with the time and suply i have

KaleoXxX said:

a few hours after posting this i walked into my room to find my cat nibbling on one of the big leaves. the cat got misted with the spray bottle and banished from my room. its only one leaf with only one little hole in it so i think she will pull through. i never thought my cat would be one of the predators i would have to look out for. other than that little mishap she is doing fine, the stem looks a little thicker and it gets like 2 new little leaves every day

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this was from post #1 of my first journal and my first plant. Apr of 2008.

April 20 plant 1 poked it’s head out of the ground. I have it in a 2 litter soda bottle with potting soil. I also planted 6 more bag seeds to see what would happen.
I’m keeping plant 1 in the window sill. On a few sunny days it set in the back yard.

During this time my kitten chewed off half of one of the second set of leaves.

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this was my fisrt pic i posted on rollitup (back left is the kitten chewed plant)

I was shocked to learn just every thing wrong.

but this is a clone from that first plant.

thanks randy, i knew i wasnt in an empty ship, but its good to know people were in the same place as me exactly when they started. its a real confidence booster to see you had problems at first and then to see that bad assed plant cloned from the original batch. people i talk to think im some pot growing mastermind, but really i owe a wealth of knowledge to riu, couldnt have gotten this far without the support of 1000 experenced growers.

next time i post pics ill show how well the cat-nibbled leaf is healing

oh my god im gonna kill the cat! the afternoon after we talked about cats, i cant belive it! i got some clothes together to do some laundry, came back to get annother shirt or something and found my cat in the corner where my growbox is. i picked him up and went to check what he had done. when i looked inside i felt more dead than the plant. all that is left is a 2 inch stem, he ate the whole top of it! im gonna kill him for killing my plant! i couldnt find a single trace of the top of the plant, it was devoured! im so pissed off right now, worst thing i have no bud to calm down. im about to flip the fuck out! if he had just decapitated her i would have run to the closest hardware store to get sum root stuff and go through the steps like i were cloning. but i cant find a leaf or anything just the stem poking out of the soil

do you think theres a 1/100 chance of leaves growing off this stem or should i scrap the project untill i come home from vacation?

KaleoXxX said:

oh my god im gonna kill the cat! the afternoon after we talked about cats, i cant belive it! i got some clothes together to do some laundry, came back to get annother shirt or something and found my cat in the corner where my growbox is. i picked him up and went to check what he had done. when i looked inside i felt more dead than the plant. all that is left is a 2 inch stem, he ate the whole top of it! im gonna kill him for killing my plant! i couldnt find a single trace of the top of the plant, it was devoured! im so pissed off right now, worst thing i have no bud to calm down. im about to flip the fuck out! if he had just decapitated her i would have run to the closest hardware store to get sum root stuff and go through the steps like i were cloning. but i cant find a leaf or anything just the stem poking out of the soil

do you think theres a 1/100 chance of leaves growing off this stem or should i scrap the project untill i come home from vacation?

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FUCK! i thought you were only kidding when you said your plant was beheaded!!
i'm sorry bro just water it and leave it outside. no need to hide it since it's a stem only. and if grows when it comes back then cool. but if not start over and cut your cats legs off so she/he don't go inside your room! i'd be pissed too!

so poor Melanie-Jane got buried in the woods. i put her roots in half a two liter bottle with fresh potting soil and one last water. i doubt any miricles will happen but ill see if she rises from the dead.

i have three new seedlings of this "mystery haze" as i named it. the bud was good for seedy weed so i bought it more to grow than smoke. i think the weed really could be haze that someone didnt take very good care of. the girl i bought it from sold me a g for 15 because i told her i wouldnt pay any more. she told me she charged 20 a g and 25 a g to some people. i cant believe what some people pay for bud!

i germinated the 5 good seeds (there were a few white underdeveloped ones) in the one gram. i had a bit of a problem with the germing because they weren't kept in a warm location. i put them ontop of the playstation and cable box and they poped overnight

so i can only fit two cups in my little growbox, ill bet your wondering how i fit the third plant in. since i really only want to take care of a plant start to finish, and make sure its a flowering female, i put the first two seedlings to hatch in solo cups and let them get all of the light. the third seedling is in a narrow cigar tube with a hole punched in the bottom. if this plant dose anything i hope it gets rootlock and stunted and can act as an emergency plant in the case anything happens to the others. i imagine leafs sticking out of the tube with roots reaching to the bottom

when these babies get tall i plan on remaking my growbox in this old chest i have. the chest is about 20x the size of my curent box and its lockable and sturdy enough to build things on/into. ill get real mylar or atleast emergency blankets for a better reflector, a few y splitters (when i can ever find them at walmart) and when i have a few flowering plants ill have a few florecents and a lizard tank bulb.

to keep the plants short and figure out the gender quickly i will start flowering my plants assoon as possible. the seedlings, which sprouted yesterday will get 24-22 hours of light for a few days to boost growth. starting on monday i will give them 22-20 hours or light the first day, then 20 hours a day for the first week. after this i will decreace the hours of light by two hours evry or every other week, untill im down to 12/12 and can force flower my plants. depending on growth and finacial situations, i will definatly make the bigger growbox, but dont know how extravagant it will be the first week of its use

so for anyone who was following the last grow, theres something to read about again. ill get some pictures when my girls have some nice leafwork going, but right now there the same saplings you always see. i hope the emergency sapling works out, i think its an ingenous idea since all my last grows ended in ruin. weel see how this one works out. none of them have names yet other than "mystery haze"

the sprouts are 3 days old and i just noticed they look different from each other already. i labeled them abc to keep track of them. plant a has a shorter wider pair of pre-leafs than ive ever seen that are almost shaped like superman symbols. also the stem on plant a has a blueish tint. plant b has a pair of straight narrow leafs and a green stem. plant c, the emergency plant, is the goofiest seedling ive ever seen. the stem spirals up the tube, it has a short pair of stuby leaves and i can see the roots exploding in the tube. today i pulled the top of the coiled up plant c out of the top of the tube so it could get better light. all of my plants are leaning a bit towards the light, i really need a y splitter or two so i can add mor bulbs but walmart is always sold out ive asked them to order the splitters but they will only order them if i order 8$ worth or sumthing, they want me to leave a deposit and information i really just dont want them to file