[K.J]

We're at it again! And not a moment too soon (actually, quite a few moments too late as we're out of our last harvest already!).

It's been some time but we're back in action with our 250w NGB style MediCab. This time we managed to finish the light traps/ventilation between the veg and flower rooms, so hopefully if all works correctly, we'll have our cab up an running in a perpetual system. We also did a redesign of the doors/front facing, and added an additional 4" hole in the wall separating the flower chamber from the utility chamber, both of which should increase and improve airflow throughout the cab.

Those who have followed our last 2 journals (linked in my sig below), know about our method and our hand built NGB inspired cabinet. Those who don't can check out all the details of our grows and the cabinet in those other journals, but to give a brief synopsis of our method:

The soil recipe we used is as follows. It was combined and mixed well in a large Rubbermaid tub for a total of about 25 gallons of medium:

6 parts Sunshine Mix #4
2 parts chunky perlite
2 parts earthworm castings
Powdered dolomite lime @ 1 cups per cubic foot of the soil mix

Dry Ferts (per cubic foot of soil mix):
1/2 cup blood meal
1 cup bone meal
1/2 cup kelp meal
1/2 cup Jersey Greensand

All dry ferts were added to the soil mix and then the entire mix was stirred thoroughly. After stirring, the mix was whetted with a solution consisting of 1 tablespoon of Liquid Karma, 1/4 teaspoon Mycogrow Mycorrhizal fungi in one gallon of water.

Here are the dimensions of our design-

Overall cab dimensions:
4.5' tall x 5' wide x 2.5' deep

Individual room dimensions:

Veg/mother/clone room-
2' tall x 2' wide x 2.5' deep (5 sq. feet) [25 watts per sq. foot]

Flower room-
4.5' tall x 3' wide x 2.5' deep (7.5 sq. feet) [33.3 watts per sq. foot]

Utility room-
2.5' tall x 2' wide x 2.5' deep

The cab will consists of three rooms; veg/mother/clone, flower and utility. The veg room will be lit by a 125w cool CFL under a batwing reflector and the flower room by a 250w HPS in an air cooled Super Sun II. Ventilation consists of a 256cfm Canfan pulling through a CAN33 carbon filter. The veg and flower rooms both have a total of 3 1" PVC pipes bent to 90 degrees (at 2 points so as to block light from entering) for fresh air intake. The wall between the veg and flower rooms has the same type of PVC pipes (2 @ 1" ea.) connecting the two for airflow from veg to flower. From there the air flows into the Super Sun through one end and out the other via ducting, going from there into the utility room where it gets pulled through the carbon filter and out the 6" muffler connected directly to the hole in the back wall.

So far we have 7 little seedlings going in our veg room in rockwool cubes placed under a cloner dome. They are all TFD's Pure beans. It was one of the strains we did in our first grow and I really liked the results we got, so I decided to go for a full blown grow with these since we had the beans on hand. If all of these don't turn out to be female, we'll add either a few clones of another strain, or pop a few more beans from our small seed bank (we can only fit 6 pots in the flowering room at one time). The seedlings have only just barely (as in, most of them this morning) broken the surface of the cubes, so they still have a good 4-5 days before they'll be going into small 4" AirPots with non-ferted LC's mix.

Speaking of our soil, we currently have about 10 gallons of non-ferted LC's mix waiting to be used with the seedlings. The other 25 gallons of ferted LC's mix is in another container, cooking away in preparation for the transplant into the flower room. Unfortunately we couldn't find any powdered dolomite lime locally, so we had to order it online and are still awaiting its arrival. So for now, the soil cooks without much lime (I had maybe 2 tablespoons on hand, that I added to it already). I should get it in the next few days so we'll add it just as soon as we can.

We're using the 3 gallon Smart Pots again, as we rather liked the results we got from them last go-round. I wish they were a tad more sturdy, but if you pot them right, they're sufficient (just not good if you plan to do lots of LST, because the pots themselves are useless as tie-downs). We aren't doing any LST with these ones (we hope we aren't forced to, anyway), so that shouldn't be a problem. We're going to let them grow mostly naturally, with some trimming thrown in for good measure (I like to take off the bottom 6" before putting them into flower, to create a kind of grow line and to prevent the plant from using its energy on what will be mostly useless miniature flowers down that low where the sun don't shine).

I'll put up some pics soon. I hope to keep this updated as much as I did the last grow, but we'll see...sometimes life gets in the way. Either way, there will be regular updates. And of course as we add more strains and get into a perpetual groove, that will all be noted here. I figure one thread for a perpetual system is better than a bunch of threads for different strains.

I hope you'll all enjoy! Thanks for stopping in.

[StealthDragon]

sweet a new K.J. thread! best of luck, I'm subbed and lurking!

[K.J]

Originally Posted by StealthDragon

sweet a new K.J. thread! best of luck, I'm subbed and lurking!

Thanks for dropping in StealthDragon!

[K.J]

So I finally got a few pictures taken for you all to see. Not much to look at right now, but nonetheless. I took one shot upclose so you could see all 7 of the girls; they've all sprouted! There is one in the front though that is a bit weird. It came up later than the rest and always looked a bit different. As you can see in the pic, it has coty's, but no secondary set of leaves yet, like all of the others do. You can see little white bits deep inside the folds of the cotty's, but I'm not sure what they are. I'm thinking this little runt might be off to the slaughter...we'll see.

The rest are looking rather good and healthy. Very vigorous! They're getting tall and a few even have a tap root coming out the bottom of the cube already. It looks like they'll be ready to go into non-ferted LC's mix next week (or this weekend?).

Speaking of LC's, I hope to get the remaining ingredient today: dolomite lime. I'll add it to the already cooking soils as soon as possible. The ferted stuff will cook for a while longer still, but since the non-ferted stuff is needed shortly, I'm hoping the addition of fresh dolomite lime just a few days prior isn't a problem for the little ladies. If anyone can enlighten me, or ease my concern, please do!


All 7 sprouts (Pure); (1/8/10)

[K.J]

We have yet to receive our lime! Ugh! I'm praying it will be here tomorrow, then we can finally get this soil on the right track. I just got done stirring both soil containers, and they're both looking and smelling great. Hopefully it won't be an issue that we added the lime so late. VerdantGreen told me in another thread that adding the lime late shouldn't be a problem, especially in the non-ferted seedling soil.

And all of this concern is because the girls (we hope!) are getting very close to being ready to go into their small 4" Air Pots for some first round vegging. About half of them already have multiple roots coming out of the bottom of the cubes; I expect the others will be showing more than one soon too. They're doing really, really well so far (except for the runt, who still hasn't grown a first set of true leaves).

The temps are staying in the 70-72 degree range with the lights on, and down about 10 degrees with them off (there's also a seedling heater mat underneath the cloner tray, but it only marginally raises the temps...it's mostly good for evaporating the water in the tray to create humidity in the dome). This is great! I had worried a bit that we might have temp problems in the veg/clone/mom room...hopefully this temperature luck holds out once we turn the big fan on and start sucking tons of air through the cab.

Stay tuned!

[VerdantGreen]

yeah KJ i once added a teaspoon of fresh dolomnite lime powder to a cup of acidic water. it had neutralised it within 2 hours so im confident that it works straight out of the bag

good luck with the new grow - ill be checking in from time to time

when you get used to the organics you should try germing the seeds in the light mix instead of rockwool as soil is much more pleasant

cheers

V.

[K.J]

Originally Posted by VerdantGreen

yeah KJ i once added a teaspoon of fresh dolomnite lime powder to a cup of acidic water. it had neutralised it within 2 hours so im confident that it works straight out of the bag

good luck with the new grow - ill be checking in from time to time

when you get used to the organics you should try germing the seeds in the light mix instead of rockwool as soil is much more pleasant

Thanks for dropping by and imparting yet more good advice. I just might try germing them in the LC's mix next time (I won't have the lime problem next time...I made sure to order way more than I need right now).

[HerbGlaze]

You know I am always along for the ride K.G!

[K.J]

Originally Posted by HerbGlaze

You know I am always along for the ride K.G!

Thanks for stopping by Herb! Glad to have you onboard.

[K.J]

So the good news is that the lime finally came and was added to the soils last night. Mixed in REEEEAAAL good, too. Then we spent some time preparing our 4" AirPots, filling them with soil, and transplanting the little ladies over (6 of them anyway, the runt that wouldn't grow its first set of true leaves was culled). So they finally were in soil and looking all good and happy. That's the good news.

The bad news is this morning when I peeked in on them, nearly every one was leaning over a bit or had wilted leaves to some degree. Some looked like they just needed some water, but others looked much worse off. I can only hope that it's simply a combination of not enough water, transplant shock, and a bit of shock from being under the CFL unprotected for the first time and that it'll all go away soon. I watered them a bit and shut the light off to give them a few hours of rest (they've been on pretty much 24/7 since they sprouted, because I've not yet set up the timer).

I'm about to go and check on them shortly, so hopefully they're doing better and looking happy again. I'll snap a picture either way.