Closet Chronicles with Mr.Sparkle: "Test Run"

It's been awhile, but figured i might as well get a new thread going for a few reasons that ill get into in a bit, typically i hid off in the micro section if you don't know me, and or was on other forums but on to the grow.

Currently i run a Dual Chamber closet setup, its around 3 SqFt or 0.28m2 a side, my overall height from floor to roof is 28.75" or 73cm

I like to run in coco, i have some basic DIY auto watering systems, and typically run autoflowers well at least for the last while, and i currently run Megacrop for nutrients.

Lights this round are some of my current lm561c strips "solstrips" running at 70 watts a side on a reduced 3 bar array setup, i was just currently running 5 bar arrays and up in the 100-120w range, but i think i could get by with less.

Saying that the arbitrary 70 watt point was chosen because i was approached by Hydro Grow LEDS to Test out there new XB70 watt units once then become available. So this is a precursor to me doing a grow thread with them, and a good start to show what im doing now.


Currently this is just a half play half trial run, but it will still be a high yield run in the end if things go well, i expect to be somewhere in the 1.5+gpw range when they are done, and i'll be keeping the plants as best i can through out instead of my more normal habit of tossing the weeklings when im breeding or running through a lot of seed, but i will be tossing plants if the others are competing for the same space which they will be, so yeah just gonna try and grow some happy plants and see if i cannot push things a bit to give myself a good baseline to see how these "soon to be released" HGL lights compare. If they work they work if the don't they don't, only one way to find out



Alright picture time

Here's a shot of the outside, all stealth like, its made from Ikea parts, and is built in such a way that it draws air in from the floor to the back and evacuates up into that middle chamber where i have a 6" carbon filter that is exhausted through a AC Infinity t6 to the left, overkill for the size of my space but i wanted to be able to run my extraction fan on low speeds for noise purposes, and it works as such.




Inside Shot from Yesterday showing the layout.




And individual shots of the Left and Right sides.

Currently on the left side im running two Cream Mandarins, and two GT SBR's (Ghost Toof x Sugar Black Rose) which are from a grow bud on here "ReikoX", and on the right a bunch of DarkDevil/DarkSparks from a few different generations of my own crossing/seed making, and a lone TDC which is a cross as follows ((Think Different x Dark Devil) x Cream Mandarine )

Currently Day wise we are sitting at Day 5/9/15 respectively for the different groups.

Day 6/10/16

very nice to see you back. look forward to the show!

I'll be tuned in for this. Can't wait to send you those XB70s!

Awesome, love these stealth grows.

Really cool little set up.

What exactly is that you use for your res?

noknees said:

very nice to see you back. look forward to the show!

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Hey noknees hows it going yeah it's been awhile, bit of changes too , How's things going with you.

HydroGrowLeds said:

I'll be tuned in for this. Can't wait to send you those XB70s!

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Yeah im trying for a good repeatable metric for myself, just so i can somewhat accurately see the difference of your lights.

AgentPothead said:

Awesome, love these stealth grows.

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Hey AP nice to see you again, yeah always enjoyed peoples stealth grows and have grown that way myself for quite some time, well apart from my old bucket grows, but would rather have things unassuming than in your face or obvious to the unknowledgeable .

FlaDankster said:

Really cool little set up.

What exactly is that you use for your res?

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Ikea Kuggis containers the 26x35x15 cm ones, but i have the shorter 8cm tall ones if i "need" the extra height they can provide.

They have a 7.5L fill volume unless you tape up the hole then its 10L, they are enough volume for me to water 4 times a day and last a week+ between fills, i typically fill then every 4-5days though just because.

And hello @I'mback

Now on to the update.

Day 8/12/18

Have all the the auto watering setups hooked up and will be dialing them in over the next bit, Also culled two plants and expect to cull two more on the right side, reason is i expect them to run out of room in a hurry and would rather give them the space now. So two more will go by the end of this coming weekend, and will also be culling two on the left side keeping one of each type, but that's not for another week at least.

Reason being just through past runs the smaller square pots i realistically should only run 4 a side with how they grow, and two of the bigger pots per side, sure i can cram them in a pruning them back and push the yields a bit better but would rather have less maintenance and fighting plants that a few more grams at the end.

There still gonna fight i expect with how this round is going so far.

Day 11/15/21

Well be debating all day what i was gonna do.

First left side, i have moved over @ReikoX GTxSBR's to the right side of that cab, there gonna get the spotlight till later this week when i decide what im doing plant wise, as i plan to reduce down to one per res because i think they are gonna take up some room, now whether 2 GTxSBR's or one of those and a Cream mandarin are left that is yet to be determined, but ill be deciding come friday this coming week, as then im doing some traveling for a week.

Been Measuring and calculating volumes and times spans for what i can get away with watering wise for when im away, but will need to dial in closer come the end of this next week, saying that i was overwatering pretty much all the plants so have dialed back to a 5sec watering time which is 140ml but just need to figure out the amount of watering events i want in a day, or bit bigger durations between longer intervals. Just playing and tuning,,,

As for the right side moved the light up the other day and also moved the fan up today, had to drill some new holes in the process, and cleaned my intake filter as it hasn't been done ever... was pretty dusty. For plants im removing the TDC it's just droopy one cause i over watered, but also genetically i think that the think different that was used was also coming through, as i went back and looked at my photos and yeah i shouldn't have used that specific plant, as it was kidna a scraggly pheno. So in its place goes a DD "short" with how its growing its not gonna live up to the name, and should take off.

As for the other DD "short" i had going it will be culled, sucks as it was gonna be a deep purple one with the lemon/lime leaves it had stock and the purple stems it was showing... but was just the runt of that batch.

So yeah here we go

Left side


Right Side, the Lime green color is normal, its just what they do.

thats entirely too much light for those plants right now. and it looks like overwatering from the speed bumps on the leaves. too much lime color here!

Mr. Sparkle said:

saying that i was overwatering pretty much all the plants so have dialed back to a 5sec watering time which is 140ml but just need to figure out the amount of watering events i want in a day...

As for the right side moved the light up the other day...

Right Side, the Lime green color is normal, its just what they do.

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Kimura said:

thats entirely too much light for those plants right now. and it looks like overwatering from the speed bumps on the leaves. too much lime color here!

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Hmmmm you don't say lol not like it was mentioned or anything hahaha, that one strain it's a characteristic of, it's always lime green unless its the green pheno of it just trust me on that, it only darkens if you push it hard with nutrients in around week 4-7 but then your playing on the outside edge, and if you cut back in its last week or so it will fade to yellow and purple it's just what it does and the color it expresses.

Looking forward to your grows man, thanks for sharing.

Day 13/18/23

They have taken off, well at least the right side, so been adjusting them as we go. Also changed up their watering as they need more than in giving them. So in between time was reduced, will be 4 events during lights on at 5secs currently i don't expect it to stay there though.

Today after some light work yesterday which they recovered from this morning.



After some adjusting




And the left side whas recovered or is on its way from the overwatering that happened, so i turned on the watering system again but its set to dispense less so, ill be watching. Also trimmed off the lower singlet and lowest node, they get removed late anyways, but figured id just do that now to get a bit more air along the top of the coco, gonna top all the pots up a little well the ones i plant to keep...

Kimura said:

it looks like overwatering from the speed bumps on the leaves

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Will say though i never considered the term speed bumps before, but that is an accurate description and i agree, that or waves, but the swelling of the leaves between the veins making them look bumpy or undulating leaf edge, i'll go with speed bumps.

Will say the plants and pretty much all ive run do go lighter green in the new leaves like that when they are experiencing fast bursts of growth, its like they just can't build up the chloroplasts or whatever quick enough.

And back at it a day later

Day 15/20/25

Doing well, raised the light on the right side yesterday, the smaller plant is about to take off and fill out its corner.
Still dialing in the watering but i feel decent with the settings im running.

Left side though watering has been bad, ive been over watering and then just killing all watering to allow the pots to dry out which takes longer than the little ones, so i'm not confident in any setting i may run for it in the next bit, and they are about to take off.

Saying that the left side is getting reduced down to two plants after this post, and i'll be redrilling a couple holes in the lids to allow me to center the plants and offset the pump to accommodate that. Has been my plan for a bit now, just is happening today.

Don't know why it has taken me until now to see this thread. Glad to see you back. Very precise setup as usual. I'm along for the ride.

hope all is well

Now that im back from some holidays, thus why there were no updates.

First back on the 26th the plants on the right side had filled out the space, as shown below, i knew i was gonna be in trouble if i left them as such and then took off for essentially 10 days, so i stripped them back hard "way too hard" imo for what i would like but it was more about survival than max things out.




After the Very harsh defoliation and how they looked 2days later on the 28th when i had a brief stop where i could make any last minute changes, such as flopping over the front left plant "which did nothing"



And the other side on the 28th



Now on to tonight at Day 27/32/37

The watering they were all getting was based on just surviving a 10 day watering durations, but saying that the left side should and could of got more watering, but i was half banking on keeping them under fed to keep them small.


Well the left front plant for the right side, yeah it didn't behave, and im not gonna even attempt to save it.



After a little maintenance, and removal of front left plant.