404's closet grow - Pure Power Plant // Hempy Buckets // CFL

[404closet]

Hi folks, here I will document my first serious indoor grow.

I've been lurking and reading a lot of material from different sources for a lot of time, and I think what I miss is experience, which hopefully will come and teach me a lot more.

Cabinet:
45cmX45cm, maximum height 1.8m (adjustable)

Medium:
Perlite/Coco 60/40

Style:
2x 10lt Hempy Buckets + Mainline/ScrOG

Lights (CFL):
6x23w/1390lm 6500k
1x40w/3000lm 6500k
2x23w/1390lm 2700k

Up to 16 bulbs can be placed in the hood I crafted, will add more when needed.

Light schedule:
24/0 - 12/12

Ventilation:
Passive 2"x2" in
15cm PC-fan out
8cm PC-fan inside

Temps:
22/27 °C

Humidity:
~50%

Watering:
5.7/6 - tap water when needed.

Nutrients:
Lucas formula for coco at full strength whit CalMag+

Feed Schedule:
Feed at every watering, flush once a week (will adjust basing on plants feedback)

A quick look at the cab:


10lt of coco have been expanded with tap water then soaked in 5lt of Lucas Formula for coco at pH 5.8/5.9 (The grow shop guy told me to do so... shame on me) and flushed once or twice so far. Also the RW cubes have been soaked in this mix.

Initially I had the seedlings in small RW already inside the buckets, but it seemed to not be retaining air/water well, so a couple of days ago I just removed it carefully (100% sure no harm done), leaving just a little bit of RW where roots were developing. (Will plants incorporate it in their main stem? If so, it's fine?) They recovered in less than a day and kept growing.

PPP1 (the bigger one) initially showed burnt and droopy cotyledons, while PPP2 wasn't even out. There's when and why i removed RW.

Two days later PPP1 showed a good but small 1st set of leaves and PPP2 droopy cotyledons too.

Now I'm watering with ~200 ml of pH'ed tap water near the root zone every other day, at first i was watering 2/3 times a day with ~50ml on the rockwool cubes.

I'm pretty sure I'm not overwatering, since the medium is almost dry when i water, also those burn spots can't be caused by lights which are CFLs and about 3" away, no nutes yet, also roots seem to be developing too.

Air is circulating well, temps, humidity, pH, everything in range. They aren't stretching that much, so I assume the amount of light is OK... So WTF??? Why they look so unhealthy and thirsty? The only thing that seems to be wrong is the coco soaked in nutes... Time will tell i suppose...

PPP1 is @ 7 days from seed, sprouted 3 days ago.


PPP2 is @ 7 days from seed, sprouted 1 day ago.


Will update ASAP.

 

[Libeccio]

hey 404 sounds good. i have grown ppp from sensi... is yours from sensi or duth passion or? mine came out nice, some phenotype variation (out of 3 plants + clones) but excellent yeld. in the first run i got 260 grams of dried stuff with a 250 W hps. including the biggest plant i have ever done indoor (it was the first and last time i used a 20 lts pot in a 80x80 space- along with other 2 plants in 11 lts... quite crowded!), which yelded 100 grams dried.

best of luck with yours! i'll be following your grow. ciao!

 

[404closet]

Hi Libeccio! Thanks for passing by!
So... 260g dry from just one plant? Quite impressive! And she seems delicious too How much have you left her vegging?
My goal is 100g dry + trim from 2 mainlined plants with max 6 weeks of veg, seems doable to you?
Also no clue on those cotyledons? They look so sad

 

[Libeccio]

hey 404, i think your newborn babies look just fine. if i remember well, mine had small cotyledons as well. give them some time, i'm sure they will get better soon. i am not familiar with coco, i use soil mixes, organic ones (or supposed to be) such as biobizz all mix and biocanna terra. but i think you might be watering too much. even if the surface feels dry (you said "almost" ), let the roots expand in search for water in the medium. my growing style is quite different than yours, aside from the medium i veg at 18-6, don't use hempy buckets and i do several transplants: coffee cups, 0,8-1L, 2,7 L, 6,5 L, 11 L pots... i also don't use rockwoll... i use soil even for clones. that's what works for me, you know... my advice is don't over-reach. we all experienced that. as i said, let these plants do their thing, let them really dry the medium out. at this stage they don't need that much. i normally just do nebulized waterings until the first or second set of real leaves, then i star real watering after the first transplant in 0,8L. but still i germinate using soil in coffee cups... do you have the small pc fan gently blowing onto them? let us know, but i am sure as far as your enviroment is good/acceptable, you'll be fine. ah, no i got 100 grams from that big plant, and 260 from the whole harvest (3 bigger plant - 1x20 L and 2x11- and 3 small clones). i was lucky. the quality of the smoke was nice, but nothing amazing. quite often mega yelders are not the real deal in aromas/effect IMO. but don't think too much about yeld lol you'll have the best smoke of your life soon enough... nothing could beat the ganja you made. peace and good luck!

 

[Libeccio]

but so it's ppp from sensi? ciao bro

 

[Libeccio]

also, i really like your cfl installation. i don't know if you raised lights just for taking the pic, but i think you could keep the lights closer to the plants (as long as you have the fan gently blowing). since you have a modular small wattages installation (which is very smart with cfls, i have something similar in my veg space), for the first 4-5 days you could use only 40-50 w. yeldwise, you are using about 200W as max wattage in flower, am i right? so i think your 100gr of dried product goal is doable. always keep lights as close as possible (without harming plants but with flourescent light you can go very close) not to waste one single lumen and have the best air circulation (so maybe plan to add a better oscillating fan inside the cab - small but osc. and maybe a better extractor... the more air the better). if this is ppp from sensi, it is a great yelder. best of luck and fun with your grow mate!

 

[404closet]

Day 9

Day 9

Yes, indeed I was using more bulbs because I was afraid of going too close to the plants, now I've raised the buckets closest possible.

Also the hood was blocking the airflow because it was lower than the out fan, and that other fan, placed in the corner, does the same of an oscillating one, covering almost the whole area.
Now temperatures are lower even with the fans downvolted

Here it is:


However, my seeds are from Nirvana, heard good things about them

And I can (and probably will) go up to 400W in flowering, with 16x23W = 22400lm for a surface of 45cm x 45cm, or 100'000 lm/m², but I'll need an another extraction fan. Or I could switch to an HPS 70W 2050k at the top and a few CFLs around. The only problem is heat, will it be more from 16x 23W CFLs or a single 70/150W HPS? Meh dunno..

Quick update:
Watering every other day with 200ml of pH <6 water each.
Temperatures: 25°, Humidity: 50%, Lights 24/24.
Bulbs: 2x 23W 2700k - 5x 23W 6400k - 1x 60W 6400k, distance from plants: 5cm PPP1, 10cm PPP2.

PPP1 @ 5 days from sprout


PPP2 @ 3 days from sprout


So far it seems good enough, leaves are a little bit droopy but they're growin' just fine

 

[2 Legal Co]

404;
If you have too much nuts. in the pot, you may not want to let them get quite so dry? Could be burning. (I've started using Black Gold seed starter mix with Nothing added).

While moving air is important in veg/bloom... sprouts need to be able to retain the water..... could be drying the seedlings.

Want more light? If your spending $s,... I'm using HydroFarms 4' 8 tube, T5, flouros. Makes 40K lumens with 432 watts of input, without producing insurmountable heat levels.

Just thoughts in passing.

PS; I start seedlings with 1/2 of the tubes turned on, to save heat and electricity.

With NO nutrients added. Lets the roots stretch for food. Light doesn't seem to matter too much until they peep out. Then the stems will stretch and wilt, if you don't have enough lumens.

I've seen the CFLs used (about 4-5"s on center, but they were the 23watt? 100 watt replacers. They did do well however, the plants seem to use the higher lumens (in veg. and bloom), eagerly. I just try to keep the elec. bills down a bit.

 

[404closet]

Hi 2Legal, thanks for the input!
Honestly i couldn't find a single tube light that could fit my space, so I just gave up and used CFLs.
The medium is dry at the top but wet under a couple of cm thanks to coco coir, which is where roots are developing. Are you suggesting to not point the fan directly on the plants because they'll get too dry? I'll have to find the right spot, will see...
For the lights thing, yes i could take off a couple of bulbs, but for less than 2$/week I'll keep em to stay safe.
Could you elaborate more on the nutrients thing? Thank you and stay high!!

 

[2 Legal Co]

Correct; while the seedlings are young and tender, they don't have enough roots to keep up with the respiration of the leaves. Some even put them under a dome to hold in humidity. Colorado is really dry so we have to pay a bit of attention.... unless in a sealed room.

Baked.... again. or is that still?

for short/odd length bulbs.... 1000bulbs.com

CFLs will certainly work.... just a bit less efficient than T5s....

We won't speak of LEDs ...... yet.

 

[Toxsik 8]

best vibes for cfl show!

 

[2 Legal Co]

On the nutrient thing.
If the nutrient levels are a bit high (as in the dirt is too rich, or you've added too much), The plants will survive better if left a bit moist. If the roots 'dry down' they'll burn, because they are trying to suck up water and end up sucking up too much nutrient.

I've gone to Black Gold 'seedling mix?', when I'm going to grow in dirt. It's simply a fine mix of peat and perlite as I recall. Mostly I clone off my Mothers, I use a $30 pond pump with 8 spray jets, installed in a flex sprinkler pipe. It goes in a Homer bucket. 2" holes in the lid(lids have from 1 to 12 holes in them). to set 2" net pots into, with foam rubber inserts or 1.5" rockwool cubes. The jets spray water on the bottom 1.5"s of stem. Works like a champ unless you lose power for more than an hour or so. I try to move them before the roots hit the jets. lol

The mix Holds moisture, but has virtually zero Nutrients.

The roots go crazy looking for more food, which is a good thing. Much the same as Rock Wool, I guess you'd say.

 

[404closet]

Day 14

Day 14

Hi fellows, here's an another update.
Two weeks from seed, so far that's what I've got:

PPP1 @ 10 days from breaking the surface:


PPP2 @ 8 days:


Some concerns tough, hope someone can clarify this...
PPP1 started showing her second leaf set, but there's only one leaf! The other one started growing like 36 hrs later... Isn't strange? Also she has some little black spots on her first set of leaves (see photo). PPP2's leaves are a little lime/yellow.

Also i noticed they grow faster right after watering, so I'm generously watering each time with 1lt of pH 5.8 water just to keep the coco moist enough for 48 hrs. (They're in 10lt pots)

So far so good... Tried to move the fan from pointing to the plants but air wasn't circulating well so just left that damn alone.
Also my runoff is way too high, today i measured it and was like 7.5, so i added more ph 5.8 water to lower it. Could this be the source of all my problems?

2Legal: Thanks, I'll keep that in mind and try to keep coco moist, hope this can help... also humidity is good, around 50/60%!

Toxisk8: Nice bud! Hope mine will look as good (or even better ) with just CFLs

So guys do you think I better open a thread in the "ills and diseases" section or just wait an another week to see if things get better by themselves?

 

[404closet]

Hi guys, I'm sorry for not being able to update this thread but I've been busy. Now I'm here asking for help in the Infirmary, so I think an update is imperative.

The girls were doing great since a few days ago, then this appened.

However that's the story so far:
Vegged for 5 weeks, 10/03 - 12/04.

At 3/4th week:

I topped the smaller and removed some growth in an attempt to prepare her for a better LST, which stunted her for a couple of days, but has well served the purpose.

The bigger got fimmed and LSTed hardly, this one has branched a lot and right now I can count like 20 tops. She has been defoliated during her 3rd week into flowering, due to canopy becoming unmanageable and poor light penetration. She kept shooting branches up during this phase, what looked like smaller slow growth has showed up as productive branches which filled the holes in the canopy.

 

[404closet]

So, today is day 31 of flowering.

The nute problem has left its scars but buds are growing bigger, also this morning a sprinkle of resin showed up.



Side view:



Top View:


Big Picture:


More photos in the album.

 

[404closet]

Day 51 of 12/12 or 8th week flowering

Day 51 of 12/12 or 8th week flowering

These girls are really strong. They kept going as nothing happened.

I've continued with Lucas Formula till the end of week 7, gradually modifying the ratio to use more Bloom. Now they're on water only for the next 2 weeks. (I plan to cut after week 9).



There has been a huge difference from these two specimens regarding growth and leaf appearance (smell and buds are pretty much identical, can't say nothing about the high) :

The smaller one (PPP#2)

has showed it's Indica predominance early with large and fat fan leaves, she has been late since the first day, but now she's developing buds even faster than the other.
She has 3 Clipper-sized main colas and a bunch of small flowers between them.

The bigger one (PPP#1)

is clearly Sativa dominant with slim leaves and longer stalks. She kept shooting buds from the bottom, now there are 21 tops exposed to light. Some of them (the ones who sprouted earlier) are as big as a couple of clippers (big sized ones). A lot of smaller flowers are shaded, I think I'll harvest this one in two rounds to give 'em the time to grow up. Also she has loads of resin compared to the other.

The pistils are 90% browned-out on both plants, trichomes are almost all clear/milky on both plants.



Also the smell has become really pungent in the last 4/5 days, since now they only gave a strong "body smell" during late veg, no smell at all during flowering, now they have a nice MJ smell, with a juicy fruity scent, like mango or papaya or watermelon, if you know what i mean.

I managed to keep odors from spreading with this ghetto Odor Control System: a small cup filled with ONA gel placed right under the out-fan.



Ah, and there's the final light setup used during flowering:

5x 23w 2700k spiral
5x 23w 6400k spiral
1x 23w 5000k "lotus"
1x 20w 2700k
1x 30w 2700k

for a total of 15500 lumen, 303 watts.

So now that the duty it's done let's play a game: Guess the Yeld!

I think I'll pull something like 60g from PPP#1 and something like 30g from PPP#2. Definetively worth the effort, can't wait to test them.

What do you guys think? How much should i wait in your opinion? A week or two? And don't forget to try to guess the yeld!

 

[omgwt]

Looks great, I can't believe the ONA is enough to keep the smell away

 

[404closet]

Bud shots

Bud shots

Hi folks, there we are, chopped at 9 weeks and 4 days.
I chopped them in a rush because with my cheap 40x jeweler loupe and it's crappy inbuilt-light I couldn't focus enough to see amber trichs, they all seemed milky or clear, but after a couple of shots with a reflex with macro lens I've seen they were about 10% gold, 10% amber, 10% clear, 70% milky and juicy

One thing that bugs me, while a few calyxes were all crispy and looked like they were done a few others still showed white hairs, however I really didn't want to waste all that milky goodness just to let those unripe calyxes finish, am I wrong? Maybe even if the quantity of amber increases other new clear/milky trichomes would show up thus equilibrating the percentage? I don't know, however the girls are stinky, sticky and juicy.

Here are some photos:


These are taken with loupe + phone camera

And yes, never used carbon filters, just ONA, a small cup near the out fan or on my desk and one in the entrance (just in case, a couple of times I've smelled a small breeze of weed), refilling them every couple of days or so. I've had guests who smoke around the house and nobody smelled nothing, just once (I was using less to no ONA) a buddy sneaked in the room to say something then stopped and said: "What's this smeeell?" Luckily I had a joint in my hand so I just said I was smoking, since that day I started using more ONA, and changing it every couple of days and never had similar issues. I have to say that this strain isn't so stinky, not like a skunk at least, it's more fruity and clear weed smell but not so pungent if you keep it far from your nose.

 

[404closet]

Harvest

Harvest

I'm drying them in the same cab. 23°C / 60%RH.



I've harvested like this:
+ Total defoliation 4 days ago
+ Yesterday after further trichomes examination 8 hours of dark
+ Chopped the plant at the bottom then cut off branches
+ Trimmed almost every sugar leaf
+ Ground smaller buds and popcorn along with trim (for cannabutter)
+ Hung buds with stem upside down
+ Put smaller buds with no stem in a open wooden box spread evenly (these are to smoke while others cure)

Not sure but I think I've done pretty good with over 150g of wet (will be like 70g when dry?) buds + 20g of trim (only sugar leaves and popcorn). I'll call it a win, just can't wait to test them properly, smoked a small fresh bud (0.3g) but felt nothing but a small head buzz for 2 minutes, pretty disappointing, will see how it turns out with butter and further curing.

However I'd like to thank some people in there: the ones who run this awesome website and those who helped and gave me advices, also the people on there that inspired me to build my own cab and start growing my weed.
I'll smoke a bowl for each one of you guys

Will come back with some macro shots taken with reflex and maybe a proper smoke report.

 

[404closet]

Moar pics

Moar pics

These are the ones taken with the reflex in macro, I know the images will be cropped so maybe you won't see them, but a bunch of trichs are amber/gold with small to none clear.