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Diesel Ryder SOG in a 150w HPS Mini Fridge

KolorBlind

Member
DAY 1

Plant Stage: Seed
Light Cycle: 24/0
Light: 150w 2000k HPS
Current Medium:
Sunshine Mix w/ 1 Cup of Blood Meal
Current Nutrients: Only the Blood Meal in the Soil for Nitrogen
Strain: Diesel Ryder Autoflower




High ICMag!!

I have decided to switch over to ICMag from another MJ Forum site, and this is my first official thread here. I have posted some pics of my previous grows in the 150w Club Thread, so some of these pictures may be familiar to my fellow 150w growers.

First a little background on my growing experience. I have been actively growing now for about 4 months. I have had 2 harvests in that time, both harvests consisted of 2 Diesel Ryder plants. My first harvest was 2 Diesel Ryders that I had pollinated with a DR male. They were 5.5" and 6.75" tall at harvest and yielded 472 mature seeds total!! The other 2 I just harvested earlier this week, and they were 100% seedless. I ended up getting a total of 25g dry. The plants were small, and they were started under CFLs then moved under the 150w around 2 weeks old. They are now curing in a jar and the smoke is so wonderful. I enjoy these plants so much that I decided to do a SOG this time around. I also have a large fridge in the garage with 4 ladies currently enjoying their plant lives in there. In there I have 1 Diesel Ryder about 3 weeks from harvest, a 60 day old Apollo11/Green Giant cross at roughly 3.5 weeks flowering, and 2 bag seed females about 100 days old & nearing harvest as well. The DR is the only autoflower, and she's on 12/12 because I kicked her out of the mini fridge. I have pictures of all my previous grows if anyone is interested, I figured I would leave them out for now to make room for some other pictures.

Now, for my grow box, I am using a mini fridge that I bought on craigslist in working condition for $35. I gutted all of the insulation out of it, which I would never do again even if I got paid well for it. it was a painful 4+ hour job. Here is the mini fridge just after scraping all the foam out that I could.
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The 150w HPS I installed was bought from 1000bulbs.com. I bought the bulb, ballast/igniter, & socket for less than $60 after shipping. For a reflector I used a small $5 piece of ducting from Home Depot that I cut to make a nice small reflector. Here is a picture before painting the reflector white & mounting it with the bulb.
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Here is a shot the next day, just after mounting all the hardware to the back & painting the inside of it flat white. The paint did not take nearly as well as I had hoped, but it still does a GREAT job! I also mounted the bulb & reflector, as well as painted the reflector flat white. I also drilled one 4" hole up top (upper left corner behind the bulb) and two 4" passive intake holes at the bottom. All other smaller holes will be blocked with foil duct tape.
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Here is a shot of the back side. Originally I thought I wanted to cram everything inside and make it a 100% stealth project, then I got the parts in and realized that was not realistic. Plus having the ballast remotely connected outside the fridge is a must for keeping heat down. The fan is a Soler & Palau TD100x on its 100CFM (low) setting. The carbon filter is a home made one I put together following THIS very handy DIY here on ICMag, it turned out great! I have the ballast in a 4x4 electrical box mounted to a bracket, and the igniter is in a separate electrical box above it. I have heard this helps reduce humming. I have since sealed up the hose connected to the output end of the fan with duct tape, as the filter seemed to stop working once my last batch got to about 5 weeks flowering. Im hoping an air leak was the problem.
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For the intake, I used home made elbows made out of 4" rigid dryer hose. I painted the inside of them black and rubber banded pantyhose over the ends to help keep dirt and bugs out. It also helps dull down the light coming out the back as well. Heres a shot with the light on.
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If you walk in the room I keep the fridge in with the lights in the room off, it will stand out like a sore thumb. Light protrudes out the back a little, and around the seal too. With the lights on in the room, it just looked like a fridge, except for one little thing. The white magnetic door gasket is so thin that it glowed white when the light in the fridge was on. I simply rigged up some foil duct tape (100% light proof) to the insides of the gasket and now it does not glow at all. Kind of a crappy picture, but here's how I did it.
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I bought a 16" x 6' Laundry shelf at Home Depot, and cut a 16" wide section off to give me a 16x16 breathable shelf for my girls. At first I used eye bolts and nylon cord to hang the shelf (as you can see in the picture). This did not work well at all and has since been replaced by small chain coupled with "S" hooks. I figured mounting the light directly to the top & moving the shelf would add space as opposed to having the reflector/light assembly on a chain. Plus there is pretty much ZERO chance of that hot ass bulb falling and burning my house down this way, its bolted to the top. Final touches included a PC fan to blow air across the bulb, and a $7 digital hygrometer form walmart for temp & humidity. For my first grow average temps were: High 81 Low 69. Humidity was between 45-60% the whole grow. Here is an inside shot of the mini fridge right before my first grow. The only difference now is that I have chains instead of nylon cord, and I have the hygrometer now.
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OK so that's my little baby. As the title of the thread states, I will be doing a SOG with the strain Diesel Ryder from the Joint Doctors. Its a cross between Low Ryder 2 and New York City Diesel. My first 2 finished at 65 days and yielded 472 seeds and 11g dry bud total. My 2nd run finished at 55 days and yielded 25g dry total, 100% seedless. The first batch was grown under CFLs from seed to harvest, and the 2nd batch was started on CFLs for 2 weeks, then put under the 150w till harvest. The one in my large fridge was started under the 150w but had to be moved. It's top bud was 2-3 times larger at 30 days than any of my previous grows. So with that said, I am hoping to yield at least 14g dry per plant on this run, any more I would consider a bonus and any less means room for improvement.

I have had horrible luck getting females recently. Out of 12 plants (6 Diesel Ryder and 6 Apollo11/Green Giant) I got 3 females :( So I decided I wanted to start 20 seeds. I still had 6 left over from the original DR seeds I was given by a dear friend, so Im using 4 of those. Just in case a few dont crack I decided to use 20 of my 472 DR seeds I gathered off my pregnant ladies a month or so ago. So I put 24 seeds total in some paper towels in between 2 plates to germinate. I set the plates on my DVD player where it stays warm. 3 days later all but 5 were more than ready to be planted.

Before (The 4 on the left are from my original DR seed stash)
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3 Days Later
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As you can see, a couple of these little gals are trying to be plants already. I shouldn't have waited so long but hopefully it wont matter much. I went ahead and planted all 19 that cracked in 16oz dixie cups. The 4 older seeds are from 2007 and the newer ones are from this year. I wrote 07a through 07d on the 4 cups with the 2007 seeds and 09a through 09o on the 15 cups with the 2009 seeds. Here they are just minutes before writing this post. I rubber banded some plastic wrap over the tops of the cups, as soon as i can see green through them they come off.
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So that's about it for right now. My overall plan is to try and take pictures once a week at least and post an update along with them. Im hoping for at BARE minimum 6 females, and hopefully not more than 12 but Ill take what I get :) As soon as the females show sex, the plan as of now is to transplant them into 2 liter soda bottles, which they will remain in till harvest.


I will have another full picture update in about a week, things should be rockin by then. I have had these show sex as early as 12 days old, so weekly pics will show significant changes thats for sure! I will always be open to any and all help and advice. Feel free to be critical, just dont be an ass :) Also if you have any questions I am more than willing to answer what I can. I am looking very forward to this grow, I just love how fast these AF plants grow. In 8 to 10 weeks I hope to have a bare minimum of 3oz of potent, tasty, STANKY Diesel Ryder Bud!!


Peace
KB
 

KolorBlind

Member
Thanks Jonk!!

OK so I got home yesterday and one of the 5 seeds in the paper towels ended up cracking, so I now have a full 20 in the mini fridge. As of this morning, 4 of them are out of the ground and I have removed the plastic off the tops of them. I saw probably 3 or 4 more that were starting to lift up the soil, but Ill leave them be for now.

I will be going out of town this weekend and a friend should be stopping by to check on things. i will water all my big plants & everything should be good form there, other than taking the plastic off the cups as the plants surface.

I sometimes have problems with the top layer drying out when they are seedlings so I have been spraying the surface of the soil with water. Does anyone else do this, or think that I shouldn't? I never spray so much that it soaks all the soil, just enough to keep the top layer moist till they get some actual leaves.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions. i am still learning and I'm always glad to help others learn too!

Peace
KB
 

KolorBlind

Member
DAY 7

Plant Stage: Seedling
Light Cycle: 24/0
Light: 150w 2000k HPS
Current Medium:
Sunshine Mix w/ 1 Cup of Blood Meal
Current Nutrients: Only the Blood Meal in the Soil for Nitrogen
Strain: Diesel Ryder Autoflower



Ok so day 7 is here already, and unfortunately I have 4 casualties :( It was probably a combination of things that killed them, from germinating a bit too long to drying out when i was out of town. I still have 16 left and out of those only a couple arent looking great, but I think all 16 will make it no problem at this point. Here is my "Day 7" photo of the remaining diesel ryders.
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Also, one of them has a rather neat mutation, not sure what it's called exactly maybe someone can tell me. It sprouted with 3 petals & has grown its first 2 sets of leaves in sets of 3 instead of sets of 2. Hopefully it will be a female so I can watch it grow the whole way, here are some shots.

Took this one at day 5, its when I first noticed the 3 petals beneath.
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This one, as well as the next, were taken today
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From the side
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So far everything has been going great other than my 4 casualties. Temps have been maxing at 81F at the canopy and humidity has been 39% to 55%. The previous run in this mini fridge was infested with gnats. After cleaning the inside with neem oil and covering the intake holes with pantyhose, I'm proud to say I am gnat free so far. I hope to keep it that way, damn things are ANNOYING!!

I am really diggin this 150w HPS, I tried CFLs first and they worked good enough but this light puts out so much more light and is easier to take care of then 6 or 10 CFLs. I would still like to put a couple 42w CFLs in with the 150w HPS sometime to balance out the spectrum a bit, but so far it's fine for me. I have also been rotating the plants to give maximum overall light coverage. Every day when I get home from work, I take the 4 plants on the right side of the shelf out, slide everything over and place the 4 plants back in but on the left side of the shelf.


Thanks for stopping by, Ill have another pic update in a week, they should be very close to showing sex by then. Feel free to comment or ask any questions.

Peace
KB
 

KolorBlind

Member
Thanks a lot for the encouraging words my fellow ICMaggers!!

No pic update yet (although it is tempting) since I am trying to only do 1 update a week, but I do have some news. My trifoliate plant is now growing leaves in sets of 2, which disappointed me but oh well, she still looks very healthy!!

I did, however, have 1 more casualty :( I dont know what it is, canopy temp is MAX 81F but usually 79F, is this hot enough to burn up seedlings at 10 inches from a 150w HPS? All the ones that died are the ones that didnt get a good jump on life anyways, they either didnt open up well, never formed true leaves, or something along those lines. I still have 2 plants that were looking very scraggly and are now starting to look nice & healthy. I would say 4 of the plants are still way smaller than the rest, but growing none the less.

So in total I have 15 plants now, lets PRAY for a 50% (or better) female ratio. Im gonna be so pissed if I end up with like 1 or 2 ladies. All the larger plants look amazing, and are starting their 3rd node of true leaves already. They should show sex any day now hopefully.

The next pic update will be Thursday, and the change from last week will be MORE than evident! I just love how fast these little AF plants grow, it truly is amazing to watch them finish at 8 weeks after growing plants for 3-4 months. I have harvested 2 batches of DR since I planted my bagseed back on 4/20, and the bagseed girls look like they still need 3 weeks MINIMUM!

Thanks again for all the kind words, Im open to any and all advice, comments, questions, etc. so keep em coming!!

Peace
KB
 

KolorBlind

Member
DAY 14

Plant Stage: Preflower
Light Cycle: 20/4
Light: 150w 2000k HPS
Current Medium:
Sunshine Mix w/ 1 Cup of Blood Meal
Current Nutrients: Alaska Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) 1/2Tbls per Gallon & Molasses 1Tbls per Gallon Every Other Watering
Strain: Diesel Ryder Autoflower



Well ladies and gents, day 14 is upon us and things are looking pretty good. A good majority of the plants are taking off with an amazing rate of growth, hitting 4 and 5 nodes, and a few are still lagging behind at their 2nd & 3rd. As of tonight, the official count of males & females that I'm 100% sure of is 5 females, 2 males and 1 that I'm not sure if its a female or a hermie. Ill post a pic shortly. All the rest are too young to tell, but a few will be showing signs within a matter of days. Some of the smaller ones may take a week yet.

Of the original 20 I planted, 4 never formed their first true leaves but instead shriveled up & died after surfacing. I lost another one recently that stopped growing after its first set and turned yellow & died. So I am left with 15 little Diesel Ryders. Here is a shot of the fridge as of yesterday, which was officially day 14.
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2 of the 3 on the left side are definitely male, and the other one I am about 90% sure but not 100%. Out of the rest, the 6 larger ones in the middle are my females, with the exception of the front left one. I think the front left one may be a hermaphrodite. All the ones along the right side and the back side are all too young to tell. Here is a shot of the one I think may be a hermie, sure looks like balls to me with hairs coming out of some. I hope someone can give me clarification, as I have never ran into a hermaphrodite so I am not 100% sure yet.
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If that is not a close enough pic I can probably get a better one, I was pretty tired when i took that one.

Well, so worst case scenario I get 5 females, which will hopefully be from 2.5 - 4 ounces of dry bud depending on how big they get. If I end up with more females, I will surely welcome them, but I just realized that putting these things in soda bottles will eventually require me to set them lower than the shelf can go, restricting how many I can have in there. I guess I could put 3 on the back hump and LST the crap out of them. We'll see, its getting exciting, here in about 2 weeks I will find out how well my carbon scrubber is working this time around! Oh and tonight is their first night on 20/4. They will be on that light regiment form now till harvest.

Peace
KB
 

KolorBlind

Member
Well, the one on the left side that I wasnt positive about it being male is officially a male. So 3 males, 5 Girls, 1 possible hermie. The smaller plants have really started booming after that 4 hour dar period too. I think I may loose 1 more, but it should be the last casualty. Even if I dont lose it, it probably wont grow well. Its the little one in the bottom right corner of the group photo that has some yellow on it. Its just not growing much at all.

KB
 

sackoweed

I took anger management already!!!! FUCK!!!
Veteran
Nice lil setup there.. And outta the beans that popped it looks like you have one that is already tryin to be a big gurl looks like it popped and has the lil green showing.. Great work brother.. peace.

sack
 

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