The catch-all cabinet

q3corn · Dec 20, 2015

Let's get this thing going!

I've finally decided to start growing again, after a 7+ year hiatus. This time around I decided to build out a cheapo store bought cabinet with an affordable light source, so CFL's were the plan.

The cabinet with all it's regular stuff on it:

The lamp structure. just a few bux at home desperate

Aaand here it is with 3x 68w CFL, a 4" exhausf fan, and carbon scrubber:

After building this out, I got some seeds going. All bagseeds from outdoor crops this year. We had record highs in my area all summer, so i'm not sure if these seeds were from rogue males or if the plants went hermie due to stress, but either way: seeds!

One was an unknown outdoor plant from a friend, where I found just one seed. We'll call that B-1, cuz grower's name starts with a 'B'. Next was a batch of Jilly Bean, where I found 6 seeds. These will be referred to as JB-(1-6). Next was a batch of Bubblegum. One ounce resulted in over 30 seeds! I took 3, saving the rest. These I'll be referring to as BBG-(1-3).

q3corn · Dec 20, 2015

After a few days they all sprouted (100% success so far!) And they went into the cab. I realized then that I had temperature problems. After adjusting for more intake and taking the carbon scrubber out, I realized I'd be fighting these hot bulbs all year, so something had to be done. Suggestions on here led me to swap out for LEDs. So I modified the case to house 5 of them:

That photo is about 3 weeks from seed, first day with new lights. 5 days after switching to LED:

Great growth! These bulbs run cooler, have a brighter output per watts used, and penetrate the canopy way better than I would have thought! Still thinking it would be tough to flower all of these girls with just 5 x 14w LEDs, I modified the light board on top to hold 6 bulbs, then 2 hanging in back to handle the shorter plants. Right now there are 4/6 bulbs on top. The other two will be added this week.

Photo from the day the lights got swapped:

At that point I figured I'd better flip to 12/12 to filter out any dudes. I'll be keeping 1 guy from the JB's, and hopefully one good looking dude from the BBG's. B-1 will probably be saved as well. It's short, but it has very dense undergrowth, making me think it would be a good trait for the dad of a custom SCROG strain that I plan to make.

And now you guys are all caught up on the last month+ of work! Today is day 4 of flower, and day 35 from seed. Here's a bonus canopy shot of JB-2:

And for note: Soil is Black Gold + Perlite. Nutrients are Fish Fert & Roots HPK,about 1 tbsp/gal of each. They're all in 12-oz juice bottles until gender shows. Then I'll transplant the girls to larger pots so they can flower out! Smoking them will determine who gets seeded next grow cycle.

exploziv · Dec 20, 2015

Good luck with your grow! :lurk:

Goats · Dec 21, 2015

subbed!

great little cab.

Buddah Watcha · Dec 21, 2015

Nice broda, best vibes with the cabinet!

q3corn · Dec 22, 2015

Thanks for checkin it out guys! Before I left for the day I checked 'em out. No sign of gender yet, but I hope to know soon, these plants have drastically overgrown their containers!

ReikoX · Dec 22, 2015

Pulling up a seat. Live me some JillyBean.

chronosync · Dec 22, 2015

looks great. cant wait to see what you do!

Goats · Dec 23, 2015

how are temps now that you've switched to the LEDs? i am thinking about building an LED cab after watching blynx's micro scrog and 11"x11" kill it.

q3corn · Dec 23, 2015

Welcome, everyone! Here's today's photo, day 6 of 12/12:

Goats: highest temp I've read in there is 88, but keep in mind that my building runs quite warm. Some days the room the cab is in reaches 78F, so an average of 10 degrees above ambient temperature. I could probably cool it down more with more intakes, now that I think about it...

q3corn · Dec 23, 2015

oops! image didnt post propper. here it is:

Goats · Jan 1, 2016

is there no intake currently? how does fresh air get in, just through cracks?

q3corn · Jan 2, 2016

Ah, intake is through 3 x 3" holes in thr bsck. They are about half-way up the back of the cabinet to handle the floor rising and falling

q3corn · Jan 4, 2016

Update!

Holiday time was super busy, but I've had some major development. I'm on day 19 of 12/12, and on christmas day all the plants showed their gender. B-1 was the only male! all 6 JB's and the three BBG's were female, which leads me to believe that they were pollinated by a stressed and hermied female.

I decided to keep B-1 in the cab to polinate them all, as I would have probably tried to do that eventually. By day 14 he had enough balls to look ready, and yesterday I saw several sacks wide open. I ended up taking the top cola of B-1 and brushing it against all the bottom branches of the girls, hoping to isolate seeds to the lower buds. Then I pulled him out of the cab and have him re-vegging with my other plants in my makeshift veg room (I'll start a thread on that eventually).

Meanwhile, i've dropped all of the shelving out of the cab completely, and these girls are almost 2' from the top of their containers! They grew upwards of 16" in 2 weeks, almost tripling their height since 12/12 started. If they grow even more I may just need to supercrop them.

Ok, group shot!

blynx · Jan 4, 2016

Plants are looking great!

Why aren't you removing the lens from the LED bulbs you have in there?

By keeping them on, you're losing a lot of light that would otherwise be available to your plants.

sourpuss · Jan 4, 2016

Interesting. Nice growth looks good :good:

Removing lens sounds like a good idea, what about hot spots?

q3corn · Jan 4, 2016

blynx said:
Plants are looking great!

Why aren't you removing the lens from the LED bulbs you have in there?

By keeping them on, you're losing a lot of light that would otherwise be available to your plants.

I ended up injuring my hand in an accident during the build (unrelated, but it was the same weekend), and being one-handed has prevented me from doing any more modifications until my hand heals from surgery.

q3corn · Jan 4, 2016

sourpuss said:
Removing lens sounds like a good idea, what about hot spots?

Yep, they're way better with the covers removed. I only ever noticed burning if the leaves were less than an inch from the LEDs. I will be removing the covers on the rest of the bulbs once I get my mobility back. It's a bit hard to saw those things one-handed...

Green81 · Jan 4, 2016

Girls are Looking really happy there!

q3corn · Jan 9, 2016

So they stretched like crazy, and continue to, so I super cropped all 9 a few days ago.

BBG-1 starting to frost up a bit, day 21F. You can see all the orange hairs where the pollen got to her. All I can think is SEEEEEEDS!!!

Hand injury is healing nicely as well. Doc says I can get the brace off monday! That means I'll be able to modify my bulbs finally. and really get to see what this cab can do

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