Stealth SOG Cab Grow. From Start to Finish. Lots of Pics.

Hey there micro growers, this is my first thread here, just thought I would show you what all I've been up to.

First off a little background...after much research on this board, I completed my first grow about 6 months ago. I grew in a single rubbermaid with cfls, and I started with 10 miscellaneous "dank" bagseeds from a friend. In the process I selectively pollenated my bushiest and healthiest female with a similar male. From just a couple of lower buds, I got about 50 seeds, and I decided to build a new cab and do it right...




The box is 26" wide by 20" deep and 24" tall (total growing height) for a total of 3.6ft^2. Inside I have 10 soft white (2700K) cfls for a total of 245 watts = 68 watts / square foot.







The topmost computer fans are for the exhaust, and the bottom two are intakes. I built "cages" that fit snugly over the fans, which I then tape HEPA carbon prefilter material over to keep out nasties and cut down on the smell a bit.



There are only 2 wires that come out the bottom, the one all the lights are wired to and the 12V DC power adapter.



I used these louvered vents from West Marine to cast light downwards.



I have a shelf inside that is easy to raise/lower to keep the lights just a couple inches away from the plants.

I started with 24 seeds, most of them being the f1s of the cross I made, a few "unknown" bag seeds, and some og kush and "purple crip" from a friend. They all got varying amounts of veg time on 18/6, with the longest getting 2 weeks of veg and the shortest going straight 12/12 from seed. The pic below shows all the babies the day flowering commenced.




I think this is around day 50 of flowering, I ended up with 15 females. The tall string bean lanky lookin ones in the front are the "purple crip" which I dislike and will not be running again. The nugs are dank, but they never stop stretching, they don't yield much, and they take 80+ days to flower...




Here's a nice shot of the cross I made, which I call "IVD." It has a skunky "sweet poop" smell and is ridiculously resiny, sticky, and just covered in trichs. I couldn't be more pleased with how "lucky" this cross came out. It yields well, flowers in 60 days, looks delicious, and gets you baked for hours.




Here's an overhead view of the action...



The best of my "IVD". Vegged for 2 weeks, finished just an inch from the light at about 19", and yielded just over 8 grams dried...




OG Kush (s1) that went 12/12 from seed, Trimmed up...



Another shot of the IVD...as you can see, there were 2 phenos. They both looked and smelled the same, but the tall pheno stretched to close to 20" with 2 weeks veg, and the short pheno hardly stretched at all, and finished at only 10" with a full 2 weeks of veg, with nugs all the way down to the ground...



Side by side of the 2 phenos...



Lastly, in the process, I made a few moms of the "taller" pheno, because I think it will make a great strain for this cab. Following Dr. Bud's cloning technique to a T, I produced a bunch of healthy clones. Here they are 5 days into veg on 24 hr light this time. I plan on vegging for 7 more days (12 total) and then I'm flipping. I'm unsure whether they'll wind up being too tall or short for the cab, because I've never grown from clone, but based on my research, they should stretch a bit less compared to the seed plant...open to any info here...I also decided to "double up" clones in a few of the pots, to see how increased density does--for a total of 21 plants in 17 5"x5" square pots.



Hope you enjoy the pics!



peace

ur cab looks good

keep up the good work !

good luck

very nice and very discrete.

looks like its working well for you too.

nice

Nice cab man....keep it up!

Whats your total wattage in that thing, lokks awsome by the way.

Hey roughnice, how were the temps in there?

I'm eyeballing the setup, and I can't figure out how you kept it under control - on paper, it seems like it just doesn't add up. Not that I'm trolling for an argument, because the grow speaks for itself, but I'm wondering what kind of temps you saw vs ambient.

it does seem like it might have been a good idea to mount the intake fans (if fans are necessary) to a lower section of the cab, rather than right under the exhaust fans.

If this thing were pushed up near a wall, or inside a closet, I would feel like the intake would just be pulling in all the hot air that just came out.

Did you do any tests without running the intake fans, using only exhaust and negative pressure?

also, i can't believe how self contained these plants are for being from seed. Its like Dr.Bud's bud-on-a-stick. Is that a strain characteristic? Why didn't these bush out at all?

Nice little bloom box you got there for yourself! Very discreet.

Love the SOG action you got going.

Pullin' up a chair to see more!

-Q

nice cab you got there bro..even nicer budsticks!! did you just let them grow freely? top? pinch?

Very nice cab. I would second the intake be moved to the bottom of the cab.

You did get real lucky with your cross and them being so uniform for being F2s. Usually you'll have a bunch of different phenos from F2s.

clay said:

it does seem like it might have been a good idea to mount the intake fans (if fans are necessary) to a lower section of the cab, rather than right under the exhaust fans.

If this thing were pushed up near a wall, or inside a closet, I would feel like the intake would just be pulling in all the hot air that just came out.

Did you do any tests without running the intake fans, using only exhaust and negative pressure?

Click to expand...

Alright guys, I'm super baked off the IVD right now but I'm gonna try and answer all your questions...

With the intakes, I chose to mount them right under the exhaust because I wanted to get full use out of that shelf. If I had put it closer to the bottom, I would have lost floor space and the ability to use the shelf...in hindsight I could have notched the shelf out, but at the time I didn't like that idea.

You bring up a good point, because my box is inside a closet, and its pushed right up against a wall! At first (before I put plants in) I had problems, temps were out of control--because like you said, the intakes were just recirculating the hot exhaust air. The problem was easy to fix. I made a very thin 3-sided cardboard box that I taped over the exhaust vent on the outside as a sort of duct to direct air horizontally and away from the cab. From then on the intakes sucked cool air from near the ground, the exhaust vented sideways and up, and temps stayed at a constant 74-80 degrees (about 10 deg above ambient).

As for the plants, I know I got real lucky with the cross I made. I just lucked out that the majority just happened to finish at the right height with 2 weeks of veg (I just guessed on the veg time). The plants are definitely "budsicles" and IMO look like they couldn't be more perfect for a micro SOG--that's why I'm running all clones this time around (I just hope they finish where I want them to this time as well).

I also made a few f3 seeds of the IVD for shits and giggles, and I crossed a shorter and stalkier og kush female with an IVD male...I'll have to grow those out sooner or later.

Peace fellas

Also, a little more about why I chose my intake design. I like the idea of a passive intake midway up the box because it blows continuous air right across the middle of the buds, which I feel keeps them nice and "aerated", and I theorize the airflow makes a sort of "loop" through the cab back towards the exhaust--getting into all the corners. Also, if you notice at the bottom of the cab, there is a square cutout about half the size of the uppermost intake that is covered with carbon prefilter--that is an additional passive intake on the bottom.

peace

one thing a can attest for is cfl do not pentrate the canopy, they tend to grow straight up, with no horizontal growth. Unlike hids, witch pentrate the canopy and creates the explosive bushing. Thats why this style of growing tends to favor cfl lighting.

purpbythepound said:

nice cab you got there bro..even nicer budsticks!! did you just let them grow freely? top? pinch?

Click to expand...

I just let them go. I kept the lights real close the whole time so that they didnt stretch much, and I vegged about half of them for 2 weeks, some a little less, and some straight 12/12 from seed. I just got lucky in that the amount of vegging I gave them made them finish right where I wanted them to! Now that I've got clones going, I'm crossing my fingers they finish where I want them to.

Peace

Hey great looking setup. question bout the fans and the carbon infront of them. where did you get the dual fan and how do you find the filter to work. I have a fan pushing the air through my filter but lately I dont htink it is enough.

They are just 120mm pc fans mounted side by side, 2 for intake, 2 for exhaust. The carbon prefilter is nice, it helps cut down on light leakage, and it traps a LOT of dust and stuff. I have another mini mom box that I didn't use the carbon prefilter on, and I got spider mites. If your box is sealed well and you use the prefilter, its practically impossible for pests to get in there. Also, I've noticed it cuts the smell down a bit, but they get saturated fast, so you need to have some other kind of odor control. I just use ONA.

Nice job bro on that cross Im about to get into breeding pretty soon but I'm going to make some feminized seeds using Coloidal Silver method to force my females to make pollen and get true fem seed without hermi traits and hope I get lucky like you did... Cool journal and good luck on the new grow

Day 20 FLowering--UPDATE

Day 20 FLowering--UPDATE

Well, the 21 clones are in day 20 of flowering now. Thought I'd throw up some pics for you guys.

They vary in size from 11" to 17", although most are between 12 and 14". Looks like they are about done with their stretch. I think I could have vegged a bit longer, I'd like to have them all finish at 18">>Next time!

If you guys recall, I'm doing a little experimenting this time, to see what yields best; variables:

1) Some pots have 2 clones per pot--so far I can't tell the difference in growth between 1 plant 1 per pot, or 2 plants per 1 pot. I think I could double the # of clones next time around if I want.

2) I topped a handful of them this time around--so far, they appeared to stretch to be almost as tall as the untopped plants. They definitely look like they are gonna yield more...?

3) I'm also giving half the plants the foxfarm lineup of nutes for the whole grow, and I switched the other half of the plants to strictly organic today (well-composted turkey manure and urine) for the duration of the grow.

Dig the pics...










Peace