Sticky's Stealth Stash

Looking back through my pics it appears I started this grow, my first grow, on the 30th of December. It all started with a single seed I found in some legit Blue Cookie buds I purchased. Shortly after, I found a few seeds in a batch of Gelato. 6 of those sprouted. I decided to build a small box to grow stealthily in my place. I don't have roommates, only furmates, but I do have frequent family visitors and they would likely frown upon it so that's that.

My interior space is about 21x21x28", I have a 4" exhaust fan pulling through an iPower Carbon Filter, and 12 2" passive vents for intake covered with a carbon filter sheet. Inside I have a Vornado circulation fan, a modified evaporative cooler, and an 80mm fan blowing hot air off of my light into the exhaust filter. I have a Horticulture Lighting Group 100W Quantum Board running at about 70W suspended roughly 12" above my plants. Since I installed the evap cooler temps in my box top out at 77F and my humidity is staying in mid 50% even with lights off. Temp drops about 8F during lights off. Everything is controlled through a wireless outlet with an app on my phone, set on a schedule. Currently running 12/12 since Monday 3/5.

My medium is 1/3 FF Ocean Forest, 1/3 FF Happy Frog, and 1/3 Perlite. I am feeding Greenleaf Nutrients Mega Crop and a bit of Molasses. I have my plants in 5.25x5.25x5.25" square pots to keep things tight and small. I began mainlining probably a bit early and got some preflowers showing just recently after the second topping so I decided to stop stressing them out and just let them do their thing. I ended up with 8 tops on my Gelatos anyway and I the Blue Cookie is splitting on its own like mad now but very symmetrically. I will most likely build a scrog net once they start getting a bit taller. All of them are growing very evenly and I think it will be a sweet canopy.

I know they are tiny for being over 2 months old but I have been going nuts trying to keep them small and I may have succeeded with midget buds. I do not have high expectations for yield, I'm just trying to see how all of this works, how well this space will work and if I can really keep it under cover for an entire grow cycle. If everything checks out I will get some good genetics and do it right from the get go.

I originally started with 7 plants, I never really wanted that many nor thought I could possibly fit them in my space. I gave 3 away to good trustworthy homes and I am left with 3 Gelatos and 1 Blue Cookie. The 4 that I kept have white pistils and I hope they don't turn out to be hermies since they came from buds...but who knows.

Anyway, that's it for now, some pics below. I will likely update this every Thursday or Friday as things progress. All comments, suggestions, tips, and constructive criticism welcome.

Great cab... It's not easy to build a good cab like that...Nice work.

Is the exhaust fan able to pull enough air through the filter to create negative pressure in the cabinet?

sunny747 said:

Great cab... It's not easy to build a good cab like that...Nice work.

Is the exhaust fan able to pull enough air through the filter to create negative pressure in the cabinet?

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Thank you! Yes, the fan is definitely pulling some negative pressure. Every nook and cranny of this entire box is sealed up air/light tight with specific types of weather stripping besides the passive intake vents. The reason I have 12 2" intakes is because 10 was not enough! I originally started with only 3 vents but the fan was wining pretty bad when I closed the doors. I kept cutting vents until it was happy yet still pulling negative.

Where did you get the fan? Can you give me more info on that?
I struggled for long time to find the right combo of small filter and the right fan for a cab... Right now I run a 180 w vortex fan, but it's wayyy overkill. I have it turned all the way down, but I imagine it still uses a lot of power,,

Sweet lil cab u got there

It honestly looks like a full size tent inside. Great job with scaling!

Thanks everyone! I like building and modifying things so this was right up my alley!

sunny747 said:

Where did you get the fan? Can you give me more info on that?
I struggled for long time to find the right combo of small filter and the right fan for a cab... Right now I run a 180 w vortex fan, but it's wayyy overkill. I have it turned all the way down, but I imagine it still uses a lot of power,,

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My fans are actually probably a bit weak for the box but they are very quiet and I can keep the box in a common area without it bothering me. That being said, I still feel pretty confident I am exchanging all of my air every few mins since it is such a small space. I have AC Infinity USB fans all powered off of their boost AC adapter. 3 fans are daisy chained off of that adapter, 2 80mm and the 120mm exhaust. They can run up to 6 in a chain at the highest speed without issue on that adapter. I have them all running at their highest setting. This is part of the reason I have my light dialed down to 70W. I am still on the hunt for the perfect fan but these may be hard to beat for the noise to air movement ratio. I may bump the light to 80W half way through flower and let the plants have 2 degrees of hotter air for the added light and penetration.

Patience is a virtue some say...Im still looking for it haha! 8pm couldn't come soon enough so I could check on my ladies. My shortest is almost less than a foot from the light so I will have to go up a link or 2 on my chains soon. 2 pots seem really dry so they will get a small watering tonight. I am rotating them a quarter turn each day.

Hope yall have a good weekend!

Well, not quite Thursday but I have an update and a question.

Update: Plants are doing great and some flowers are beginning to form, especially on the Blue Cookie. I took some of the lower fan leaves off and I have left all of the bud sites alone for now, as things develop and I notice the lower ones stalling I may choose to trim those too. For now I am letting things grow a bit. You may notice some Nitrogen overdose on one or 2 of my plants, that's because I was adding molasses and probably a bit too much too early so I have cut it out for now, will start again once they fully recover.

Question: Should I try to tie some of the taller shoots down at this point or let them grow and add a SCRoG net?

From my experience, with small plants, tying them down to expose more shoots is the better route with small plants. I tried to use a screen on fairly short plants (18“ish) in my first grow and it was hard to get in to tend/water the plants.

Edit: meant to say great work on building your cabinet. I can appreciate good craftsmanship.

Friday Update: I think I am now rounding out week 2 of flower. Things are looking kinda awesome, I cant even count the number of bud sites and they appear to be all at the same height. I tied things down as best I could last night and Im pretty much out of horizontal space for the 4 plants inside my cab. I need to let them grow up now. How tall do you guys think they will get? I decided to drop the light to about 8-10 inches above the plants.

Andrewk420 said:

From my experience, with small plants, tying them down to expose more shoots is the better route with small plants. I tried to use a screen on fairly short plants (18“ish) in my first grow and it was hard to get in to tend/water the plants.

Edit: meant to say great work on building your cabinet. I can appreciate good craftsmanship.

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Im taking your advice and skipping the net because I rotate my plants every night and it would definitely prohibit that. I may use some skewers to support some of the buds if they ever grow taller.
Giggity!!

Looking good man. We are roughly in the same time period so hopefully we both have a decent harvest.

I wish I'd have put the time and effort into my tent. I did it on the cheap and in a hurry.

Damn the Blue Cookie is looking fabulous!!!

I cant fucking wait till Friday to update!! Blue Cookie...I am kinda impressed with her. All 19 flower site, not sure if they are all colas, are roughly the same height! And no small bud sites hidden below leaves. The Gelato is a bit out of control on bud sites, I'm going to let it do its thing. I have been tucking leaves and not trimming anything just trying to keep bud sites in direct light.

How tall do you think these girls will get through the end of flower? They are barely 6" above the soil, some of the Gelato shoots are stretching but generally its staying short. Have I grown midget plants?

Blue Cookie is bottom left.
Blue cookie
Blue Cookie
And one of the Gelato flowers

I am digging your cabinet and grow...nice workmanship, plants and training, here's to a great yield.

Thanks man! I attribute the craftsmanship to my OCD and the training was part of a mainlining attempt that seems to have somehow worked out even though I didnt get to top a 3rd time before they started flowering on me. Im excited to get this grow under my belt, I have learned a lot and can't wait to buy some awesome genetics. They thing that blows my mind is that all of the seeds that sprouted, all 7...are girls...cant camplain and I will raise them as if they are top shizzle.

Good job

stickyfly said:

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Quick question, what did you use for the backing on those intake filters? Also, like everyone else here, I can truly appreciate what you've done. Keep us posted

0321Marine said:

Quick question, what did you use for the backing on those intake filters? Also, like everyone else here, I can truly appreciate what you've done. Keep us posted

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Its actually a replacement carbon filter for a large air purifier. It came in a big 20" x 30" sheet at Menards for about $15.

Official Friday Update: Girls are doing great and drinking a lot! I watered them last night after letting them dry up pretty good, one began to droop a bit. Today they felt like they could almost use another drink but I will do that tomorrow night. I have a feeling that is helping keep my roots healthy.

2 questions...1, should I defoliate a bit or leave them for now till they get taller? 2, how far from the plants should my QB light be?

Tight forest canopy!

Blue Cookie

Gelato