ReikoX's First Grow

Hello ICMag,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
About This Grow:
As you can tell by the title this is my first grow. I have been a long time medical patient, but just recently got my grow card. I am growing for a personal head stash, so my requirements are only a couple of OZ from each cycle. I think I should be able to reach that goal once everything is dialed in.

I decided that I needed this to be somewhat stealthy, I have children and a nosy ex-wife. One day I was at the salvage yard and I found a 3'W x 2'D x 6'H Metal Storage Cabinet. Like most of you here would, I thought it would be a great place to grow some medicine and bought it. After some design using SketchUp, this is what I ended up with:



Top Veg Area
Size:
33"W x 19"D X 48"H
Lighting:
180W Blackstar Chrome L.E.D (actual usage ~110W)
Ventilation:
ActiveAir 4" 165CFM
ActiveAir Fan Speed Controller
PhatPhilter 4"x12" Carbon Filter
6" Circulation Fan
Thermostat probe (Still in progress)

Bottom Mom/Clone Area
Size:
24"W x 19"D x 20"H
Lighting:
4x 2' T5 HO 4x24W
Ventilation:
Passive through to flower area
120mm DC Circulation Fan
Thermostat probe (Still in progress)

Bottom Utility Area
Size:
8"W x 19"D x 20"H
Lighting:
Ballast for the T5 mounted in here
Ventilation:
120mm PC Exhaust Fan
Misc:
Timers, Thermostats, and main power panel.

I have been in the research and design phase for a long time. A few months ago (2015.05.10) I decided I needed some motivation so I germinated some seeds and got this show on the road.

Seeds - Basically some quality bag seed
Super Lemon Haze :
These seeds I got from my dispensary when their timers broke. Some may be Skunk #1, as I got a few of them too, but neglected to mark which where which. My buddy grew some out and said they were 50/50 hermaphrodite.
THC Bomb:
These seeds I got from a buddy who had a rogue male in his outdoor garden that pollinated some lower popcorn bud.
J-11:
These seeds were from a good bag from a buddy in 2011. I don't know the name so I just call it J-11.

Medium/Nutrients:
Fox Farms Coco Loco
Biocanna Organics

Well that about sums up this grow. I have been logging it on my PC so the next few posts should fast forward to where we are now. Here is a sneak peak:



But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

2015.05.10
Germination begins.
11 Super Lemon Haze
8 THC Bomb
3 Mystery Seeds (J-11)
Scared seeds with sandpaper and placed in cup of water.
Placed cups in cool dry place.

2015.05.11
Checked seeds, no tap roots.
Started my temporary veg tote.

2015.05.12
Prototyped thermostat relay circuit.
Seeds showing tap roots.
3 of 11 Super Lemon Haze
7 of 8 THC Bomb (planted 6)
1 of 3 Mystery Seeds
Planted seeds in jiffy starters

2015.05.13
Finished temporary veg tote.
Worked on thermostat relay circuit.
Put remaining seeds in paper towel, put on a plate and covered with bowl, then placed on top of cable box.

2015.05.14
Mixed nutrients solution.
1 ml Bio Vega
2 ml Rhizotonic
24 Oz H2O
Sprayed inside humidity dome

The seeds in the paper towel popped, so I put them in some jiffy pots.

Finished temporary veg tote.

outside

inside

The first seed to break soil. THC Bomb.

Relay circuit not quite working as planned. Damn EE crap.

2015.05.15

Most of the seeds sprouted.

I put on the big light.

2015.05.16

Made a hole in the lid to seal in light better.

Happy little seedlings have happy little roots.

Cabinet was disassembled, sanded, primed, painted, then reassembled in workshop.

2015.05.17(Week 1 from seed)
Dry fit the cabinet tonight.
fertilized with 2 ml each seedling


2015.05.19

Priming the sound board .

Added water containers to help bring up humidity.

These need to be put in 3 inch square pots.

2015.05.20

Looking a little yellow. Feeding 4 ml each seedling.
Inside
Temperature 66-79
Humidity 27-49
Outside
Temperature 66-72
Humidity 37-41
Need to calibrate pH meter

Tap is usually 6.8 to 7.0.
Fertilizer seems 6.0 to 6.2 hard to tell with color chart.

2015.05.21

LED light got here today. Trippy colors!

Transplanted into 3" pots with Fox Farms Coco Loco.

2015.05.25 (Two weeks from seed)

The little ones are getting their first set of true leaves.

This is the biggest one working on its next node.

Construction persists. Interior is framed with 1x2, between the frame is 3/4" foam insulation. The sound board was primed and screwed to the frame. The sound board was then sprayed with glue and white polystyrene put up and then stapled.

2015.05.28

Finally got the themostat circuit working. Turns out I didn't need the resistors

Comming along on the cabinet.

Plants looking good going to water tomorrow.
T#1 working on its third node.

Thermostat installed and working.

2015.05.29

Got first full feeding of 8 ml/gal Rhizotonic and 8 ml/gal Bio Vega. Also Sprayed with Garden Safe (neem oil)

Just over two inches tall.

2015.05.31

Inside of the light trap.

Fay's Folgers Can Cloner

Group shot,recovered from feeding, may have been too strong. They were drooping yesterday morning.

2015.05.31

Inside of the light trap.

Fay's Folgers Can Cloner

Group shot,recovered from feeding, may have been too strong. They were drooping yesterday morning.

2015.06.04

Doors hung, now working on weatherstripping.

Started lining the veg cab with reflextix.

Watered last night. Thinking the two runts are going to go to make more space.

2015.06.06

Watered all but one (it didn't need It). Rearranged plants by height an node count. Have six with four nodes, nine have three nodes.

The two runts got culled to make some room.

Veg chamber is having heat issues.

These 120mm fans suck, and not I'n a good way.

Take three 80mm fans. Two must match, the third is going to get destroyed so it doesn't matter. Cut out the shroud from one and stack the matching fans on both sides of the shroud.
Hold the stack together with some brass wire and foil tape and attached it to some 4" ducting. Will be testing this tomorrow.

2015.06.09

Bottom intake. 2x 4" holes for veg and 4x12 for utility.

False bottom to cut down light leaks.

Back of cabinet. Power cord, 4.5" exhaust for utility and 4" exhaust from flower.

Fed plants
10 ml/gal Bio Vega
8 ml/gal Rhizotonic
pH in 6.5 pH out 6.5

2015.06.10

These six have five nodes, going to top to the second node. This should give me four main colas. Refer to Uncle Ben's Topping for more detail.

Here they are after their haircut. Hope they do Ok.

Placed in cloner in veg chamber under a small T8 fluorescent bulb. I hope to clone these then switch to 12/12 in flower chamber to determine sex.

Order going counter clockwise:
T#1, T#2,T#4,S#1,S#2,U#2 in center.

2015.06.12

Added second cloner. Order going counter clockwise :
U#3,U#5,U#6,U#7,T#5,T#6,S#3 in center.

Group shot, left plants were topped a couple days ago. Right plants were topped tonight. Center two not topped yet.
Watered plants.

2015.06.14

Electronics ran.On the left wall is the ballast for the T5 in veg chamber. Center back is main breaker panel. Attached to it is the 12v power supply. On the right is the timers and stub for exhaust thermostats.
For ventilation a 120mm DC fan.

Finally got them into the veg chamber. For now there are three rows of three while I wait to find out the sex. They look a little yellow, but I just watered.

Tore apart the alien ware computer. Still no roots.

2015.06.15
Watered plants. Saw two gnats. Sprayed bug spray.
Moved cloner to flower cabinet. Added heat blanket under reflectix to warm resivoir a little.
Super cropped U#4 at second node.

2015.06.18

cloner working, got roots at day seven.

Veg area. Some lower leafs are yellowing. Getting a feeding tonight

2015.06.19

New addition, S2C1. Filled with soil. Watered with 4ml to 32oz (16ml/gal) Rhizotonic.

On the right S#2, middle S2C1, and on the left J11 after haircut. Cutting replaced S2C1.

2015.06.20
Outside high was 100 degrees. Cab hit 86, house temperature in the 80s.

Watered plants, top dressed with fresh soil as needed, and trimmed some dying fan leaves.

Added T2C1 and T1C1 to soil as previously described.

2015.06.22

New clones, T4C1 and S1C1 taken yesterday.

Also transplanted T#1, T#2, and S#2 to 4" square containers last night.

Watered tonight except clones taken yesterday. Group photo!

2015.06.24
Clones still stalled, maybe change in temperature. Added 10oz of Rhizotonic (16ml/gal) to each resivoir.

Roots look good, Transplanted T#4, T#5, T#6, S#1, S#3 to 4" square pots.

Group shot, I like how the 4" pots get closer to the light. Will have to transplant more.

015.06.25
Watered plants yesterday, except T#1,T#2,and S#2. The larger pots hold more.water.

Transplanted remaining plants to 4" square pots.

Moved under LED 18/6 to veg a bit. Need to finish up electronics in there.

Working on modular ScrOG screens.

2015.06.27

Watered all plants today. Starting to switch to 12/12 in the flower cab. Today was 17/7 tomorrow will be 16/8.

New additions U6C1, S3C1, T5C1. Moved all clones to a single cloner.

Got new themostats, worked on thermostat new circuit, prototype working as expected. Worked on modular ScrOG screens.

2015.06.29

Top group still converting to 12/12, today was 15/9. LED off to show color. Trimmed a lot of yellowing fan leaves. Mostly older stuff so I may feed tomorrow.

The first five out of the cloner are doing great. Watered them. New growth starting. Gave up on U#2 clone, topped it on both nodes and threw them in the cloner. The rest look a little sad, but giving them a shot.

2015.07.01

Group shot. Fed veg mix last night. Need to get some Bio Boost as today is officially the first day of 12/12.

Clones got up to 91 today. That's the hottest high recorded. Watered clones.

2015.07.02
Ooops, when I took the picture last night I forgot to put the light back on. They got about 20 hours of darkness.

Watered the clones.

Watered everything. Going out of town for a few days, hope they do Ok without me. Here is a close up of each plant.

T#1

T#2

T#4

T#6

S#1

S#2

S#3

U#2

U#3