This is my first ever grow ever, I decided to go for coco and conditioned an Ikea cab. I probably will buy a Growtent for flowering, though, and keep this for seedlings, clones & vegging.
Closed cab (no longer being sold, Magiker)
Cab opened:
I intend to keep the upper area for vegging and the lower (unused yet) for clones.
My conditioning has been the opening for passive intraction (see left lower corner, covered with an white alu mesh), cover the inside of the cab with reflective mylar sheet, and a 90mm CPU FAN for extraction (top right).
The light fixture (PLL 55W 5000K) is DIY also. The (electronic) ballast is in the top at left. I may put it outside the cab but so far temps haven't been a problem and it barely gets warm whatsoever.
I had some issues with RH, I think the CPU fan was extracting too much (49CFM) dropping RH to about 35%, so I built a (dirt cheap and easy) DIY fan control module to 1- set the temp when the FAN start to kicks in (below that it throttles at minimum speed), 2- sensing (the clothes peg in the solo cup holds the temp probe at leaf level) temps and revving up if temp rises:
I can say it works wonders... just holding the probe with the fingers the CPU starts to rev up slowly, once you release it it starts to gradually slow down...
I also (per herbalizor and Bonecarver_OG suggestions, thanks!) hung a wet towel, seen at left cab wall. I added the CPU controller yesterday, and in addition to the wet towel it seems to work well: Temps maxed at 25C/77F, minimum 20C/67F, and RH min has been raised to 42%, max 82%, whereas the Max RH before was hardly 55% . I was using a wettex towel and today I added a regular towel to see if that minimum RH could be raised.
My plants:
From top to bottom, left to right:
Kali Mist #2, Sadhu #1, Kalichakra #1, Kalichakra #3
Kali Mist #1, Kalichakra #1
Kalichakra #5, Skunk Express #2, Skubk Express #1, Sadhu #5
Sadhu #3, Sadhu #4, Kalichakra #4, Sadhu #2
All Mandala's (Sadhu & Kalichakra) have exactly 19 days, the Kali Mist have 1 week, and the Skunk Express have almost 6 weeks, they suffered most of my newbie mistakes, with 2 transplants prior to going to Coco, but seem to be finally starting off. Kali Mist's have exactly 1 week.
I use canna coco in solo cups, for nutes Atami's B'cuzz A+B, ATA XL, and Rhizotonic. I PH my tap water (0.3EC) to 5.8 using PH-
I think my mistakes are clearly visible in the photos, specially in the bigger plants, Sadhu #5, and both Skunk's older leafs show nute burn but finally leaves seem to be "happy" with no droopiness, etc. I used ATA XL too early (won't happen again), put the light too close to the plants, let the coco to dry too much, had the PH meter badly calibrated, etc.
A little history: bought the feminized Skunks (they're from a new Seed Bank from Spain, Cosmos Seeds) mistakenly as autoflowering seeds, used the wet paper towel, then seed to soil in a big pot outdoors. the sprouted and started off very vigorously but then started to strech endlessly, and white flies met them, I figured outdoors conditions will be a waste for them, so I conditioned the cab transplanted them to small pots (in soil) and there they went.
I used a CFL too close to the seedlings, and they yellowed. I raised it but yellowing kept. Almost a month passed and the first real leaves shotouts were still stunt , so I slightly nute them, they became greener, thanks to that I noticed yellow tiny spots, inspected them below and noticed tons of white fly eggs... so I went ahead and trim the leaves.
In the meanwhile I had bought the Mandala seeds thinking my Skunks were almost dead, and decided to go with coco. I thought what the heck and transplanted the Skunks to coco too, and from that they started to grow.
All Mandala's were sprouted in peat tabs, then as soon as a root pierced the tab I transplanted to a solo cup with coco, but I'm no longer doing that as had two Mandala's sprouts (Kalichakra #1 and Sadhu #3) trapped inside the peat tab: a big root (2in) was visible underneath the tab but the seedling didn't pop. I broke off the tabs carefully and they finally pop; the Sadhu took off fast, but the Kalichakra looks a little stunt. So new seedings will be done directly in coco.
I'm thinking on modifying the light fixture to hold 2 55W PLL, as 55W may fall short for vegging? (surface: 40cm x 60cm, about 15x23in). Each 55W gives about 4000 lumens.
I see the Skunk's leaf veins greener than the leaf tissue, but wonder if they're like that or is a sign of nute carency, however as I've screwed thing a couple times with nutes I will go slowly.
Please feel fre to point out any mistakes or suggestions. I caught the grower itch
Closed cab (no longer being sold, Magiker)
Cab opened:
I intend to keep the upper area for vegging and the lower (unused yet) for clones.
My conditioning has been the opening for passive intraction (see left lower corner, covered with an white alu mesh), cover the inside of the cab with reflective mylar sheet, and a 90mm CPU FAN for extraction (top right).
The light fixture (PLL 55W 5000K) is DIY also. The (electronic) ballast is in the top at left. I may put it outside the cab but so far temps haven't been a problem and it barely gets warm whatsoever.
I had some issues with RH, I think the CPU fan was extracting too much (49CFM) dropping RH to about 35%, so I built a (dirt cheap and easy) DIY fan control module to 1- set the temp when the FAN start to kicks in (below that it throttles at minimum speed), 2- sensing (the clothes peg in the solo cup holds the temp probe at leaf level) temps and revving up if temp rises:
I can say it works wonders... just holding the probe with the fingers the CPU starts to rev up slowly, once you release it it starts to gradually slow down...
I also (per herbalizor and Bonecarver_OG suggestions, thanks!) hung a wet towel, seen at left cab wall. I added the CPU controller yesterday, and in addition to the wet towel it seems to work well: Temps maxed at 25C/77F, minimum 20C/67F, and RH min has been raised to 42%, max 82%, whereas the Max RH before was hardly 55% . I was using a wettex towel and today I added a regular towel to see if that minimum RH could be raised.
My plants:
From top to bottom, left to right:
Kali Mist #2, Sadhu #1, Kalichakra #1, Kalichakra #3
Kali Mist #1, Kalichakra #1
Kalichakra #5, Skunk Express #2, Skubk Express #1, Sadhu #5
Sadhu #3, Sadhu #4, Kalichakra #4, Sadhu #2
All Mandala's (Sadhu & Kalichakra) have exactly 19 days, the Kali Mist have 1 week, and the Skunk Express have almost 6 weeks, they suffered most of my newbie mistakes, with 2 transplants prior to going to Coco, but seem to be finally starting off. Kali Mist's have exactly 1 week.
I use canna coco in solo cups, for nutes Atami's B'cuzz A+B, ATA XL, and Rhizotonic. I PH my tap water (0.3EC) to 5.8 using PH-
I think my mistakes are clearly visible in the photos, specially in the bigger plants, Sadhu #5, and both Skunk's older leafs show nute burn but finally leaves seem to be "happy" with no droopiness, etc. I used ATA XL too early (won't happen again), put the light too close to the plants, let the coco to dry too much, had the PH meter badly calibrated, etc.
A little history: bought the feminized Skunks (they're from a new Seed Bank from Spain, Cosmos Seeds) mistakenly as autoflowering seeds, used the wet paper towel, then seed to soil in a big pot outdoors. the sprouted and started off very vigorously but then started to strech endlessly, and white flies met them, I figured outdoors conditions will be a waste for them, so I conditioned the cab transplanted them to small pots (in soil) and there they went.
I used a CFL too close to the seedlings, and they yellowed. I raised it but yellowing kept. Almost a month passed and the first real leaves shotouts were still stunt , so I slightly nute them, they became greener, thanks to that I noticed yellow tiny spots, inspected them below and noticed tons of white fly eggs... so I went ahead and trim the leaves.
In the meanwhile I had bought the Mandala seeds thinking my Skunks were almost dead, and decided to go with coco. I thought what the heck and transplanted the Skunks to coco too, and from that they started to grow.
All Mandala's were sprouted in peat tabs, then as soon as a root pierced the tab I transplanted to a solo cup with coco, but I'm no longer doing that as had two Mandala's sprouts (Kalichakra #1 and Sadhu #3) trapped inside the peat tab: a big root (2in) was visible underneath the tab but the seedling didn't pop. I broke off the tabs carefully and they finally pop; the Sadhu took off fast, but the Kalichakra looks a little stunt. So new seedings will be done directly in coco.
I'm thinking on modifying the light fixture to hold 2 55W PLL, as 55W may fall short for vegging? (surface: 40cm x 60cm, about 15x23in). Each 55W gives about 4000 lumens.
I see the Skunk's leaf veins greener than the leaf tissue, but wonder if they're like that or is a sign of nute carency, however as I've screwed thing a couple times with nutes I will go slowly.
Please feel fre to point out any mistakes or suggestions. I caught the grower itch
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