Noob Grower's 2nd Freezer Conversion Crop

First off, I need to apologize for not getting this journal going sooner... If you click the link in my sig, you can see the first incarnation of my freezer and the eventual version #2. I'll save everyone the redundancy and not repeat too much of what I've said there.

Essentially, my "cab" is a converted upright freezer, with 4 (2 pair) T5's and 4 CFL's... The details on the lights can be found in my original posting (https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/203346-stealth-freezer-grow-male-female.html) on the last page.

It uses a passive intake and vents using a killer PC fan in the top that empties into my odor control box. Aside from the temp and humidity not always being ideal, it's been a pretty good rig so far.

I have 9 plants in there now, all bag seed in soil... So, no clue what strains or whether I'll get girls or not. If you read my first thread, you'll understand my limitations.

Anyway, here they are at about 5 weeks or so (from seed).

Any comments are greatly appreciated. I'm trying to strike a good balance for "making it rain" and I'm getting some yellowing on almost all my lower leaves now.

Take a peek!

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What are feeding them for a fertilizer? What is you regime for watering? Looks to me like they need more N.
Daniels

I posted this over at Riddleme's https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/316301-calling-all-noob-growers-118.html thread. Hope you don't mind the cut and paste.

About 10 days ago ago, I noticed about half of my crop was looking droopy and all were dry to about 4 inches. My grow conditions are pretty unique (I'm gonna try to get a journal going once I get a stealth opportunity), but suffice to say I'm growing in a converted freezer where the temps go from 68-80/Night-Day and the humidity goes 60%-10% /Night-Day. The exhaust system I have in place does total odor control but the combination of the negative pressure inside the freezer and the awesome exhaust I built makes for pretty dry days. When I first noticed the dry surface soil and the droopy leaves, I immediately watered until I had a ton of runoff. The next day, I checked on them and the surface was dry again. It had been almost 2 weeks since I fed, and I saw some yellowing on the initial lower leaves, so I dosed them good with my own nute mix (a blend of 1/4 strength FloraNova Grow, 1/2 strength Neptune's Harvest Fish Seaweed Blend, and 1 teaspoon/gal Grandma's unsulfured molasses) until they just barely drained... It's only been about a week and while there hasn't been any "ridiculous" vertical growth, I'm seeing an increase in nodes and a much smaller internode space than I'm used to. Also, the stems themselves are getting really thick... One question though. Will my plants always look droopy when I'm making it rain? Will I begin to see rigidity again in the petiole?

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They took water every 3-4 days before that...

They look overwatered but you describe a proper regimine?
looks like the lights could be closer and that you need to get a better handle on the humidity

I think I'm gonna dry them way out and do a flush... The lights are much closer (almost right on top) than they are in the pics, I moved them so I could take the pictures. I'm thinking of putting a wet towel in there during the light period, as that's when the humidity drops the most, and hope the heat + moisture = evaporation (humidity)... We'll see.

I put a clean wet dishrag on the edge of the plastic grate my plants are on, right beneath the intake duct, and my humidity is up to 25% after 3 hours of daylight. The rag is still good and wet, so I think it should help the humidity stay favorable for the rest of the cycle... We'll see how effective it is, as I plan on checking every 3 hours or so.

Humidity is stabilized during the day using the wet rag method... Still not ideal (goes between 25% and 60%) but within a better range... Gave them a dose of fresh nutes (increased the amount of N) after being thoroughly dried out. We'll see if they respond when I get home.

Huge response from the "make it rain" flush/nute/flush method... Also, my yellowing lower leaves seem to have halted their yellowing and I'm getting a good bit of growth and additional nodes popping up all along the stem. I increased my last nute to full strength (N deficiency seems corrected) and will be doing another flush today when I get home (which is exactly 1 hour after lights on) and switching to 12/12 so I can sex. After I get them sexed (which should take a bout a week, right?), we'll have a little beauty pageant and the top 2 hotties get transplanted! I'll try to post some pics if I get the chance...

Also, can anyone tell me how to fix the second link in my sig so it shows the title of the thread rather than the URL? I've tried all the tech tricks I know (and I'm an IT pro for christsake!) and it still doesn't display correctly.

Still haven't had a chance to get any recent pics up, but I think I've nailed down the humidity issue (sort of...). I went to my local electronics place and bought a variable volt DC adapter (makes the current adjustable 3v, 6v, 9v, 12v and is 2.5a), spliced the existing exhaust into it and added an additional pc fan to the inside of the cab.
With my exhaust fan and new circulation fan spliced into the new DC adapter, I'm able to regulate the speed of both and control the amount of moisture sucked out of the air. I kicked the fans down to 9v and have completely eliminated all fan noise. While ambient temps have gone up a bit (the cab stays steady at 83 degrees daytime instead of fluctuating), humidity levels are much nicer (still can't seem to get daytime humidity much higher than 30%, but it never goes below 28% anymore). Night time humidity and temps are somewhat unchanged, with a gradual increase in overnight humidity from 30% - 80% and temps go from mid to low 80's to a bottom of 68 degrees... My temps no longer get any lower than that!.
I've been keeping up with the daily hot rag under the intake to boost the humidity, as well as keeping an big (open) mason jar full of water inside. The evaporating water combined with the decrease in exhaust power seems to be helping with the low daytime humidity. I'm just hoping the minor temp increase caused by the reduction in exhaust doesn't negate the benefits to humidity (warmer air usually equals lower humidity).
I've added 3 more temp/humidity gauges at different levels and sides of the cab to get an idea of where my "hot spots", "wet spots", "cold spots" and "dry spots" are. After 3 days of the new setup, temps and humidity are uniform across the board!
I've switched to a flowering cycle (12/12) and have converted half of my lights to 2700k (The CFL's are all 2700k now, while the T5's are still 6500k). The 9 plants will be getting 400w of 2700k (4 x 23w CFL, each equivalent to 100w incandescent) and at least another 400w of 6500 ( 4 x 24w T5 HO lamp, not sure what the incandescent equivalent would be) from the current setup for another week, or until my 2700k T5 bulbs come. Once I get the bulbs in, I'll be switching over to a full 2700k environment!
I made it rain yesterday (nute phase) and I'm seeing some really nice growth results following the last flush.

Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll be able to get my plants sexed and then I can transplant the 2 best candidates into their final containers and start focusing on power flowering!

It's not available in the US... Yeah, I know the humidity isn't ideal, but they seem to be doing ok so far

I stole a chance to take a few photos...

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The yellowing was a result of N deficiency (not enough nitrogen)... Thanks to the combined advice of Danielsgb and Riddleme, I gave a dose of full strength nutes and then did a flush in the "Make it Rain" tradition. Although it was scary when I first did it (plants looked all droopy and drowned), all 9 plants came back hardcore!

Right now, I'm flowering all 9 so they can be sexed... Once they show their sex, I'll be taking the best 2 females and transplanting them into larger (final) containers. Then, I'll have enough room in the cab for my humidifier (the old rag and jar trick is working marginally, but not nearly as effective as I'd like) and for the 2 girls to stretch out a bit.

I'm hoping that today I'll be able to get them sexed out, weed out the weaklings, and get my best 2 girls into their new containers... As always, comments aren't just welcomed, they're encouraged!

As of yesterday, they're not presenting sex as nice as I'd like them to... So far, they all look female. I've got little tendrils/ hairs right now on all 9... But I'm sure they're just not mature enough to show nutz if they got 'em. I mean, what are the odds of me germing 10 seeds, having one die off in seedling stage, and then end up with 9 girls? Not bloody likely!

Today, I'll be making it rain again (flush phase) and maybe I'll get another nute phase in before they show sex and I transplant... Granted, if I get home today and they're all showing labes or balls, I'll sex them then!

I've planted 10 seeds and got 9 females, so not unheard of, but hope you get a couple so you can thin for space.
Daniels

Danielsgb said:

I've planted 10 seeds and got 9 females, so not unheard of, but hope you get a couple so you can thin for space.
Daniels

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Yeah, I'm really hoping I get 7 males and 2 females, only because I'll feel terrible killing off any extra ladies! My cab will only accommodate 2 plants comfortably... Maybe if I get more than the 2 girls I'm looking for, I'll just take the weaker chicks and plant them outside somewhere hidden.

maariic said:

Isn't it cheaper to buy feminized seeds and germ only two of them rather than kill 7 plants?

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It doesn't cost me anything to kill the plants (I'm not a "grower") and bag seeds are free.... I can't purchase seeds at this point, due to stealth limitations.

Made it rain Jack's 10-30-20 one hour after lights on and checked sex, nothing showing. Checked 7 hours later and found 2 boys....


And then there were seven...