TexMex McDirt
Active member
My Objective:
Personal stealth micro grow. Nothing fancy, just don’t want to pay for weed any more. Hoping to get just enough decent refer to keep me happy and healthy. No smell, no tell, no sell. Everything for this grow was purchased at Goodwill, HomeDepot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, Newegg.com etc… No grow shops or hydro stores. I have been reading the forums here for months, while planning. Too many people here have inspired me to list them, so if you see anything in my grow and you think I stole the idea from you, I probably did.
Cabinet:
A $15 desk from Goodwill. I cut the desktop part off, so all that is left is the drawer side. It now looks like a tall nightstand or small dresser and it lives in a closet. Dimensions inside are 14” d x 20” w x 26” h. It's about 1.8 sq ft, 4.2 cu ft. The interior is lined with foil tape. Couldn’t easily find mylar and didn’t feel like painting.
From the front
Rear with entry panel off
Lighting: CFL
2 x 42w, 2700k, 2600 lumens
1 x 27w, 5500k, 1700 lumens
111 watts total
6900 lumens.
58 watts/sq ft
3630 lumens/sq ft.
Lights on
Lights off
Ventilation:
Cooler Master R4-L2R 120mm. It is rated at 90 CFM, 19 dBA and static pressure of 3.04 mm/H20. I would say it runs a louder than 19 dBA at 12v, but it is acceptable for my stealth requirements, plus I can lower the v's when the lights are off during the day if needed. It moves a lot of air too. Don’t ever let anyone tell you CFLs don’t put off any heat, they do. So I also cut a piece of plexiglass for under the lights. At first my temps were always in the high 80s - low 90s when the lights were on. Now the temps haven’t gotten higher than 83, perfect. I highly recommend some sort of heat shield like that if you can engineer it into your space. Made all the difference in mine.
Good temps now
Passive intakes at the bottom covered with peices of odor absorbing filter
Odor control:
SugarBear style carbon scrubber made with Wal-Mart mesh pencil holders and aquarium activated carbon. So far no smell, but the girls are not putting off much odor yet. I can supplement with Renuzit air fresheners or such if needed later too. I hope the filter holds up.
Soil:
75% Lowes Sta-Green All Purpose Potting Mix
25% Perlite.
Water:
Tap. My water was really high in ph (7.6+), I think that also had something to do with their slow ealry growth. Got a ph tester kit and some ph down. 15 drops of ph down per 1/2 gallon of water is perfect. Watering 2 times a week.
Nutes:
Schultz 10-15-10
Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1
Superthrive
2 droppers full Shultz, 1 Tsp fish emulsions and a couple of drops superthrive per 1/2 gallon of ph’ed water.
I should have started feeding a lot sooner than I did, I thought my soil had more nutes in it and I didn’t want to burn em. Boy did they grow sloooow in veg. Now I am feeding them every watering, I skip it here or there, but they seem to love it so far.
Strains:
Unknown bagseed. I have a film canister holding hundreds of seeds from the bags of shwag I have paid good money for.
Progress:
I started germ’ing 6 seeds (paper towel method) Saturday 10/24/2009. The first 4 that popped went into soil Monday 10/26/09 (each in a 1 liter soda bottle cut down and wrapped in duct tape). Two days later on Wednesday 10/28/09 I had 4 sprouts. So that is what I am calling day 1 of veg. They started in a pc case with one 42w 2700k CFL while I was finishing the cab. They were moved into the cab Tuesday 11/4/09. I spent a few weeks dialing in the cab and making changes and they grew ok, not like I had hoped. I knew this first grow would be to learn. I made the 12/12 switch Wednesday 11/18/09.
So now I have 2 confirmed girls, confirmed Friday 12/04/09. I have them LST’ed. Blue pot girl was the first seed that popped and the first sprout that broke soil and she is my favorite.
Red pot girl looks very Sativa and looks like she will be a slow one.
So that's my story and I hope in about 2 months I have some sort of harvest. Feel free to check in now and then, I will try to make some updates here and there.
Thanks again to all of you who I learned from and was inspired by in my endless reading of these forums.
Peace and chicken grease ya'll.
Personal stealth micro grow. Nothing fancy, just don’t want to pay for weed any more. Hoping to get just enough decent refer to keep me happy and healthy. No smell, no tell, no sell. Everything for this grow was purchased at Goodwill, HomeDepot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, Newegg.com etc… No grow shops or hydro stores. I have been reading the forums here for months, while planning. Too many people here have inspired me to list them, so if you see anything in my grow and you think I stole the idea from you, I probably did.
Cabinet:
A $15 desk from Goodwill. I cut the desktop part off, so all that is left is the drawer side. It now looks like a tall nightstand or small dresser and it lives in a closet. Dimensions inside are 14” d x 20” w x 26” h. It's about 1.8 sq ft, 4.2 cu ft. The interior is lined with foil tape. Couldn’t easily find mylar and didn’t feel like painting.
From the front
Rear with entry panel off
Lighting: CFL
2 x 42w, 2700k, 2600 lumens
1 x 27w, 5500k, 1700 lumens
111 watts total
6900 lumens.
58 watts/sq ft
3630 lumens/sq ft.
Lights on
Lights off
Ventilation:
Cooler Master R4-L2R 120mm. It is rated at 90 CFM, 19 dBA and static pressure of 3.04 mm/H20. I would say it runs a louder than 19 dBA at 12v, but it is acceptable for my stealth requirements, plus I can lower the v's when the lights are off during the day if needed. It moves a lot of air too. Don’t ever let anyone tell you CFLs don’t put off any heat, they do. So I also cut a piece of plexiglass for under the lights. At first my temps were always in the high 80s - low 90s when the lights were on. Now the temps haven’t gotten higher than 83, perfect. I highly recommend some sort of heat shield like that if you can engineer it into your space. Made all the difference in mine.
Good temps now
Passive intakes at the bottom covered with peices of odor absorbing filter
Odor control:
SugarBear style carbon scrubber made with Wal-Mart mesh pencil holders and aquarium activated carbon. So far no smell, but the girls are not putting off much odor yet. I can supplement with Renuzit air fresheners or such if needed later too. I hope the filter holds up.
Soil:
75% Lowes Sta-Green All Purpose Potting Mix
25% Perlite.
Water:
Tap. My water was really high in ph (7.6+), I think that also had something to do with their slow ealry growth. Got a ph tester kit and some ph down. 15 drops of ph down per 1/2 gallon of water is perfect. Watering 2 times a week.
Nutes:
Schultz 10-15-10
Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1
Superthrive
2 droppers full Shultz, 1 Tsp fish emulsions and a couple of drops superthrive per 1/2 gallon of ph’ed water.
I should have started feeding a lot sooner than I did, I thought my soil had more nutes in it and I didn’t want to burn em. Boy did they grow sloooow in veg. Now I am feeding them every watering, I skip it here or there, but they seem to love it so far.
Strains:
Unknown bagseed. I have a film canister holding hundreds of seeds from the bags of shwag I have paid good money for.
Progress:
I started germ’ing 6 seeds (paper towel method) Saturday 10/24/2009. The first 4 that popped went into soil Monday 10/26/09 (each in a 1 liter soda bottle cut down and wrapped in duct tape). Two days later on Wednesday 10/28/09 I had 4 sprouts. So that is what I am calling day 1 of veg. They started in a pc case with one 42w 2700k CFL while I was finishing the cab. They were moved into the cab Tuesday 11/4/09. I spent a few weeks dialing in the cab and making changes and they grew ok, not like I had hoped. I knew this first grow would be to learn. I made the 12/12 switch Wednesday 11/18/09.
So now I have 2 confirmed girls, confirmed Friday 12/04/09. I have them LST’ed. Blue pot girl was the first seed that popped and the first sprout that broke soil and she is my favorite.
Red pot girl looks very Sativa and looks like she will be a slow one.
So that's my story and I hope in about 2 months I have some sort of harvest. Feel free to check in now and then, I will try to make some updates here and there.
Thanks again to all of you who I learned from and was inspired by in my endless reading of these forums.
Peace and chicken grease ya'll.
