Ghetto grow box - My first attempt

looks great man keep it up

brandon873 said:

i don't ever want to grow a sativa again. in fact i threw away three sativa clones yesterday. two were a few weeks old and the other was a couple months old. those take so freakin long to flower. some people have the patience but mine wore out along time ago. this is a 6 month old plant. will be 7 months by the time its done. had to make room for the ak47's

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Wow! I hope that isn't the case with this grow! So far, things are looking good. Plant is as tiny as ever at current growth, and with the LST will be kept small...
I guess I will force flowering earlier than later.
Being my first grow, it's more about getting my bearings right.

I'ma start playing them some music for a couple hours a day. Just coz I can

dyzel said:

Wow! I hope that isn't the case with this grow! So far, things are looking good. Plant is as tiny as ever at current growth, and with the LST will be kept small...
I guess I will force flowering earlier than later.
Being my first grow, it's more about getting my bearings right.

I'ma start playing them some music for a couple hours a day. Just coz I can

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you can start training your plant at pretty much any time. thats what my current plant was for. just a learning process. i learned i don't want to grow a sativa again. hahaha i also learned that you gotta constantly be on top of the Ph, Ufo's suck for vegging, it doesn't take much nutes to burn them in the beginning, and Hydro is alot faster than dirt. now that i have this plant almost done i have also learned to read pretty much all this signs of screwups that a plant can take. nute burn, ph lockout, heat stress, and shock from splitting the stalk like a wishbone. all that and she still puts out for me.

Wow. So far, my babies are doing ok. The nute burn is being combated!

I am no longer fertilising the soil. I will now be using a balanced foliar fertiliser, NPK at a flat 19, containing all trace micro and macro minerals needed by the plants.

It will be sprayed onto the plant topically every thursday until veg period is over.

LST is going great. Plants are responding well, and are not snapping like the proverbial wishbone!

I can count 3 spots already that look like they're gonna grow out as main stems on one plant. The second... Not really any different, other than it having this prominent BEND in it!

I promise pictures soon! I won't say when, but SOON!

Hey. I've been watching your grow and it looks great! Are you planning on finishing flowering outsidestill? I am moving this month to an apartmnt and plan on having a closet grow. At first I thought about doin your style getto grow box, but now I am thinking about it I want to made a wall dividing the middle made of blackplastic, have Mylar covering the whole inside, and sticking 2 buckets in a raised rubber made container and hang some cfls down. I think I'm pretty set on cfls cause electricy. When I'm at home at night I will put an oacalating fan infrint of my closet and leave the doors open(will be at night while day it will sleep)

@dyzel: does that sound reasonable to you? At
first I thought I'll toss them in a box like you have it and when it comes to flowering I'll get a bigger box. But I started to think of this other way.

Hey Chowdan! Thanks for dropping in.
I would say your plan sounds Ok.
You should invest in a timer (I wish I had one sooner) coz controlling an 18/6 cycle gets tedious when you gotta do it manually!
See if you can't get an exhaust fan. It will help keep humidity and temperature down. It will also be necessary to exhaust odors once they start happening!

Let me know if you start a journal.

Cheers!

Oh, And yes, I will still be moving the plants outdoors but will still keep them potted, as they will be on my rooftop!

brandon873 said:

this would definately take care of some heat issues if you get a 250. puts out a ton of air. the only draw back is that they are loud.

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do you know how to wire those up to a wall socket(american) im seting up my first micro grow and thats been the only issue.

ilovefatbud69 said:

do you know how to wire those up to a wall socket(american) im seting up my first micro grow and thats been the only issue.

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I know that most Inline fan units will come wired with a plug ready for 110 V AC. If this is not the case, you could easily find a variable voltage adapter which allows you to switch from 2V through to 30V, But I can bet you will get one that works off of a standard socket. Cheers

So just to recap and add some stuff:
In-Line Duct Fans can be wired directly to a wall switch for manual control.
They can also be wired to an HVAC system (an optional 110V relay may be required). (heating ventilation and air con systems)
Or you could add them on a thermostat, which will only put the fan on if and when the temperature rises to a certain level...

Hope you figure this all out!

Here we go! I finally have the camera at my disposal, so I can start taking LOADS of pictures!

I replaced the 2x 20w Daylight bulbs with warm tone 6500 K 23W CFLs. Hoping that the wider spectrum will help the plants grow.
They have hit the 4 inch mark, and have been topped at the 3rd node, as well as kept short using LST.

The branches and stems are all pretty thick. Nute burn still visible, but I have flushed the soil out.
I am waiting fort the topping to take effect, after which I will start to flower.

Assuming the plant is a Sativa, I would like for it to stay tiny, and to get done FASTER!
That is why I will be flowering in one more week

The leaves that are not nute burned are bright green. looking super healthy at the moment!

Tell me what you guys think!

I also found a 400 Watt HPS ballast in storage. I will see if it works, and may consider using it to flower under.
I am still leaning towards outdoor, though!

So, here the pictures are:



Comments, queries and suggestions all welcome!
Sincere apologies for having not updated this journal pictorially as frequently as I should.

More this evening

Well, it is this evening!

What on earth is new with the plants?!

Well, for starters, they seem to be enjoying the new warm tone lamps I added, and the plants seem to be growing towards these, as opposed to the daylights!
IF this keeps up, I may just change the remaining bulbs too.

I saw a beautiful 120W (actual wattage[600W eqv]) CFL bulb. It was going for around $40. Would this truly be worth my while?
I only plan to veg another week or two MAX, so maybe the xtra light would do the plant good in the short time!

For my next grow, I say an awesome reflector that can hold 3 CFLs super well. May just get some of these big boys for then! It is shielded, so I can air cool it, meaning I can bring the lamp even closer than where they are now (The lower end of an inch)

Here is what the unit looks similar to.



The main difference is that it holds 3 bulbs, all on the same end, and is cooled by a larger fan.

So... Let me know what you think

Plants at the moment are taking well to the topping. I see new growth!

Pics in the AM, when the light gets better!

Cheers.

ilovefatbud69 said:

do you know how to wire those up to a wall socket(american) im seting up my first micro grow and thats been the only issue.

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it just plugs right into the outlet. no fancy wiring required. they move massive amounts of air. but i must warn that they are loud and have no speed adjustments. i bolted this one down tight to the box and with the door closed, it muffles the noise quite a bit. also it has no protective guards on it so i had to put one on it so nobody gets a finger snipped

dyzel said:

Well, it is this evening!

What on earth is new with the plants?!

Well, for starters, they seem to be enjoying the new warm tone lamps I added, and the plants seem to be growing towards these, as opposed to the daylights!
IF this keeps up, I may just change the remaining bulbs too.

I saw a beautiful 120W (actual wattage[600W eqv]) CFL bulb. It was going for around $40. Would this truly be worth my while?
I only plan to veg another week or two MAX, so maybe the xtra light would do the plant good in the short time!

For my next grow, I say an awesome reflector that can hold 3 CFLs super well. May just get some of these big boys for then! It is shielded, so I can air cool it, meaning I can bring the lamp even closer than where they are now (The lower end of an inch)

Here is what the unit looks similar to.

The main difference is that it holds 3 bulbs, all on the same end, and is cooled by a larger fan.

So... Let me know what you think

Plants at the moment are taking well to the topping. I see new growth!

Pics in the AM, when the light gets better!

Cheers.

Click to expand...

i have never grown with one exactly like this. mine is a 96 watt aqualight from coralife. it has two built in fans up top and works wonders for vegitation cuz its a 6700k. i have seen these bulbs on display at the hydro store. those bulbs are bright. also if your interested there are bulbs very similar in size to those at either homedepot or lowes (can't remember which) and they are only 60 watt and 2700k but cost like 15 bucks if my memory serves me. wouldn't help for vegging but if you wanted to flower indoors they would help that

Dang! No Lowes or Home Depot in Africa!

Finding stuff here is generally pretty damn tough, and ordering online never really works...

I have decided, in the spirit of keeping this grow "ghetto" I will make my own unit (reflector)
And will use just one 6500K daylight (120W) bulb, plus;
2 x 23W CFL 6500K daylight bulbs
2 x 23W CFL 2700 soft white bulbs
2 x 20W CFL 6500 daylight bulbs

I would love to have all those lights in the box, but... WOW the 120W is HUGE measuring in at 14 inches... It takes up almost all the space in my (biggest size) 18 inch reflector!


I am working on the reflector now. This is just a break

Will have pictures up in no more than an hour... Promise!!

t least to show where I have reached!

Well, here we go! s promised...

This is what I have been up to for the past 36 minutes.

My reflector.

It is all carboard... HURRAH for being cheap.

I just cut and taped it to form the desired shape.

One pic shows the reflector sitting inside my future grow... closet, 2x3x4 feet LxWxH

It fills up almost all the space, leaving about an inch of space on each end.
Hopefully, all will go well, and I can install the reflector tomorrow night, so my babies can reap the rewards.



Suggestions on improvement on design, welcome!

Thank you.

that actually looks pretty cool. you took your time with it. the only suggestion i have is maybe somethin a little less flamable. maybe a tupperware container.

Yea. I really need to find something more4 sturdy all in all. Maybe a wooden structure.
Tupperware could work... How to slant the sides?
Maybe it would be worth just getting some sheet aluminium, and shaping a hood out of that.