400 watt Cermaic Metal Halide Cabinet, Ebb& Flow System Growing DJ Short Grape Krush

400 watt Cermaic Metal Halide Cabinet, Ebb& Flow System Growing DJ Short Grape Krush

HI ALL! (got that from T-Bug, always thought it was funny dude, and I've read your'e threads, Respect Brother!) I'm pretty much done no but still have small things to and I'd like my fellow growers help, advise and suggestions to make it better.

The fast facts for those that don't want the details:

Total Cab size is 30" deep, 36"wide and 46" high
Total GROW space for plant height is about 30 inches
All Dutch Master Neuts and yes, I use and believe in Liquid Light.
Currently at 1950 PPMs/6.08ph


Cab details
It was an entertainment center these are the 2 sides stacked together. I cut the bottom of them out and put 1X4 around the bottom to gain a little height and you can't tell that it didn't come that way. So we have a tub sitting directly on the floor and holds about 18 gallons,.On the back wall is an elf carbon scrubber. It's shielded because I want it to pull all of the air from the top to get heat out of the cab. Duct runs ....semi straight up and a 4 " vortec is mounted on top of the cab and the duct is then run into the celing that goes to an open room (laundry).

The Light
400 watt Cermaic Metal Halide in a 2 foot umbrella reflector. Here is where I went in a different direction than most cab grower, with the CMH bulb, I get UVB that an air cooled reflector would block. I order it all before I knew how I was going to do it. I have the DIY gift, I can build anything but I lack in the planning section. I can't sit down and plan something out and get the parts and slap it together as I planned it.

The summarized build
The basics with lights and cabs is always fighting the heat issue. I found "my" way to combat the heat, I recessed the reflector into a "shelf" so there are 3 levels to the cab.
One the floor sits the res, 1/2 inch above that is the grow tray with 5 inch pots with a PVC "fence" holding them in place and for a later scrog screen to connect to. Above the grow area is the "adjustable celing" so I don't have the light suspended from the top, the frame sits on dowels. I can adjust it from about 10" to 26" high. I and only limited on the low side because of the carbon scubber and 6" from the top of the cab from the reflector depth.

How and why it works
To start, like the title says there's a 400 watt Cermaic Metal Halide bulb for lighting. I put a large inlet vent up high on the back of the cab, the scrubber is in the grow area so the air gets sucked in through the hole where the socket mount is, I bought this other 4" 115v 130cfm fan and hung it so it blows directly on the bulb and the with the air getting sucked through the hole, I have great air flow and there is nowhere for heat to build up.

Temps
I found a thermometer that came with a very small wired probe, I have 2 of them and and other one that is wireless. I know it's overboard, but this is the first run in the cab, and I need the thermometers for 2 other cabs later.
A probe sitting on the top center of the reflector stays at 2 degrees above the outside room temp. Inside the grow area, I have a probe mounted on the socket mount, 88 degrees, on the lip of the reflector, 83 degrees. I set one of the probes on the tallest bud closest to the buld for 2 light on periods, highest temp, 86 degrees. Dropping down to the 1/2 way point in the cab, the temps are in the mid to lower 70's.

I tried to be detailed, but I'm smoked up so I may have missed something needed for the questions I have.

As you can see, I've got 2 plants further along then the others, the reason for this is a novice mistake, I switched the test plants to 14/10 lighting for 10-12 days before the others were added to the system. I then found out, Grape Krush will flower under 14/10 lighting.

This is embarrasing but I just don't get calibrating my PH meter, it's a hanna, ph, ec, ppm, I forget the model number but it's the black one that is waterproof. I mean I feel like a retard with this thing. It says "keep the probe wet" ...... I try but, it does dry out.

I'll get better pics.

The photos were taken just before the lights came on, I will ge t better photos but the cab is in a small room and it's hard to get the entire cab in one shot. Sorry for the poor quality, I just wanted to snap off a few so you get the idea.

Carbon Scrubber





The hood/Celing









Here are the differances in height due to some unforseen problems where a lost a few and replaced them with younger seedlings.




And here is "Mission Control" along with a small shelf to hold a few things. I try to use evey inch I can.





Better Pics coming!!!

maybe im wrong, but arent those all males?

To be honest, I think so.... They started out looking one way, over the past week, they grew to look like this. I'm not an experienced grower. I only have 2/3 of a previous grow under me, that I had to take a complete loss on last year. This is my second grow, I thought in the begining that they were female, pistals, not nanners. ......maybe I should stop wasting time and start hacking these down. Denial and lack of knowledge can be a bitch. I had a few that were definate males and picked them right out.

Wow...it's truly a rare thing to see so many mature males. Grown in hydro, no less.

I can't spot a female in any of those pictures.

What seeds are you using?

looks like a bunch of males to me

at least they're pretty!

Shit, shit and shit........ All are DJ Shorts Grape Krush.

In a few days, you should wake up to find your grow room covered in a yellowish-dust, which is made up of pollen granules.....

Often in a grow the taller plants will turn out to be males.....

You are doing a good job though!!!! They look very healthy.....

Do you have any light-leaks during your dark period? Just curious.....most people stick to 12 hours light on/12 hours light off, but yes, you can induce flowering with a 14/10 schedule.......

kind regards from guineapig

......I guess on the positive side, I'm opening up a shit load of space for the Serious Seeds AK 47 seeds I have waiting.

guineapig said:

In a few days, you should wake up to find your grow room covered in a yellowish-dust, which is made up of pollen granules.....

Often in a grow the taller plants will turn out to be males.....

You are doing a good job though!!!! They look very healthy.....

Do you have any light-leaks during your dark period? Just curious.....most people stick to 12 hours light on/12 hours light off, but yes, you can induce flowering with a 14/10 schedule.......

kind regards from guineapig

Click to expand...

I asked around with a few Grape Krush growers, 14/10 sends them to flower. It's' the strain.Before I knew that, I read a thread that said people were doing the week before flower to "get the plant ready" so I did it. No light leaks, I've been paranoid about it. I tape the doors evey night.

yeah cut down those males......as far as i can see, even the short ones look to be males.....i can't be positive about that, but it looks that way.....the abundance of males makes me wonder about how 100% dark your dark period is......we are obsessed with complete, utter darkness around here.....

you do have quite a green thumb, though.....next time we'll make sure you have beautiful females, and if you have any questions (no matter how basic or advanced), feel free to pm me......

kind regards from guineapig

Looks like Murphy's Law strikes again.......
This is going to be great when I break it to the wife that all the time I spent was a waste along with the $300 for 2 packs of beans. I had trouble with a lot of the seedlings, the "skin" inside the shell was tough as carbon fiber and choked them out. I tried to cut them with razor blades, I just didn't get it in time and lost a lot. I'm guessing it was my fault in not keeping the humidity high enough and the "skins" wouldn't let leaves open or strangled the stems. Just bad luck and lack of knowledge.....I'll keep working and get it right.

What are the odds f'in odds, all males. I'm sure there will be plenty of flaming on my stupidity but I have tough skin and a positive attitude so go ahead but, I also know that there are a majority of people that will help me turn this negitive shit around.

Well.......I cut 2 out so far, mutants, I gotta get something out of this so I'm going to collect some pollen off of the best plant. Obviously, I will need someone's experienced help with selecting the "best" plant.

I'm going to take pics of each plant tomorrow and post them up seperate so for those of you willing to help me out can help me make the best out of my situation. For some of you, you'll be able to follow me "a beginer" going through the good and the bad, I'll keep posting so others can learn from me and my grow......and my obvious mistake.

By the way, I have 14 seedling right now, 10 Mandala Safari Mix and 4 HazeX Skunk freebies from Gypsy that are putting on thier 2nd set of leaves and an 11 pack of Serious Seeds AK-47's. With a little help from some of you and some time to grow out and breed a few, I'll end up with some great smoke!

Be back tomorrow with more pics and looking for advice from those of you that can help me.

One thing is for sure, I got the skills, I just need the experience.

ya no doubt PULL THOSE BASTARDS OUT>> otherwise u gota clean and it sucks..

I saw maybe 10 in the back that popped and dropped the pod to the hydrotron. I'm getting taken care of but I will save some pollen. As for scrubbing it out, thanks to IC'ers help, I don't have much to worry about.

I really want a breeder to chime in to help me identify the best male to keep pollen from. Tomorrow I will pull the smaller plants out and take as good of a pic as I can of each, hopefully I can use something out of this.

While this whole thing sucks, I do at least have something already started that I can pop in and keep everything moving along. Next up, Mandala Safari Mix and some hazeXskunk (freebie) I was planing on taking the thru a week veg and tossing them in the cab in dirt (DrBudGreengenes insparation) and lining a few around the outside. Perpetual harvest kind of. I'll pick up some more cheap seeds and end up doing it anyway until I grow the AK47, then I'll use clones or may stick with picking up mixed packs here and there to keep something different around.

All this and I stilll have one Grape Krush seed left........my past luck has tought me that this means the seed will be a male or it will be the best plant seen from the strain but I woun't find out until I'm shutting down from growing. Growing is a tempory thing for me, I have a year at the most. Makes the wife really nervous and we agreed from the begining I would give it up growing after a while .....kids will be getting courious and I'm just thankfull for her agreeing to allowing me to do this. Part of me knows she'll let me streach it out a little longer She was to impressed with the build..........honestly she has me sitting down with her she said she saw my skills......and there are a couple of things around the house she wants me to do, shot myself in the foot on that one.

and just because the plants are males, I'd still like input on the cabinet. Thoughts, improvments?, new ideas?

I think I ended up with only one female. out of the whole batch. More pollen then I thought was spread around. As I said, I use Liquid Light and I was hitting these plants pretty often over the past few days, may have helped, may have hurt. There's no real info out there one people using the stuff because it's kind of new and there are a ton of sceptics. I woulder if it would have had an effect on mature pollen sacks? It says to only use the stuff up to the 4th week of flower and I've been spraying it pretty much every other day and I sparyed a mixed 8 oz bottle so things got wet in the cab and I made multipale passes from different angles when I spray it to hit everything. Hopefully it helped me, maybe the stuff has an effect on pollen, I don't know but I guess that would be something useful out of this situation. Can Pollen be made sterile if it's contaminated?

I have more pics to post but I'm down with the flu and dealing with getting things in the cab cleaned up right now.....it's a real fun time, let me tell you.

From a pic will someone be able to tell me if I can put the female back to veg? I want to give these Mandala seeds a little veg time now and then start the flower process over again. I hate to sound like a cheap skate but I had just changed the res over 3 days ago, can I store it for a couple of weeks in sealed 5 gallon buckets? I was up to 1700 ppms and I'd like to make use of it. Obviously, I'd rather have that savings to get more seeds.

Hey man, np happy to help. T-Bug got me started off in this hobby, he's good guy. First, you won't find many flames going on here at IC. This is a very chill site and we can all commiserate with getting a bunch of males. Last year I popped 10 Mandala #1 and Hashberry seeds and ended up with 9 males. It was a waste of about 4 months. But it happens. Ill talk a bit about males below.

Honestly, my advice would be to ditch it all and start from scratch. Throw out the males and the one female. Shes probably already been pollinated so no sense in revegging her, wasting the power and messing that plant up too. She would probably herm on you anyway. Same for the reservoir. Just dump it and start over fresh. I know it hurts but youll be much happier in the long run even if it costs you a few bucks more. Nute solution needs to be aerated and the chemical and biological processes (that occur b/c of the plants) need to keep going. Sealing it up for later will just end you up with a bunch of foul smelling water with sludge on the bottom that isnt fit for growing. Since you are new dont spend so much money on seeds. Get a pack of Nirvana seeds for $20. Just look for something indica leaning since you dont have much height to work with. Nirvana seeds will grow nice plants, dont let the price fool you. You can buy the expensive genes later. Im still running a cut of a Nirvana NL#5xBigBud from my first crop! But I can get over 2oz per plant reliably so if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Next time, keep veg time to 18/6 or less and keep room temps down. From reports and experience, high temps (over 80) and high lights-on time during veg tend to yield more males. There's still a lot of luck involved but cooler temps and 18/6 or less (17/7 or 16/8) in veg will likely yield more females for you. Once you have a nice female, take clones and start a mother plant.

Was there anything specific you wanted my input on?

if that female was in there with the males, she got jizzy juice squirted in her face and shes going to have seeds. At this point I would just let the female grow out and get something out of it. I wouldnt reveg it since shes probably pollinated and you will waste alot of time getting her to start growing once you go to 18/6. I hear it takes up to a month for a flowering plant to go back to 18/6 and have new growth

If you have some more seeds, I would start them and by the time they pop and sprout, maybe your female will be done and can be chopped. Then you can put your AK's in.

Wash that cabinet good with some water, maybe bleach before you put new plants in. Think you have male/female problems? Try letting a few boys slip through and ruin 100 plants that were supposed to make your mortgage payment

As far as breeding, you may be jumping the gun. I would grow what you have, learn the plants, then try some breeding. You can collect the pollen, I would just hold off.

Does that cab have a seperate clone/veg area?

I am really not up to speed on caninets as I never grew in a cab so cant help you there.

Have you considered taking clones? I havent heard you mention that? Clone each plant right before you flip to 12/12 and once they flower you will know the males from the females and which clones to keep. keep the cycle going by cloning before you go to 12/12

I was rereading and if you have some seedlings ready to go in there, then you may want to clean and start over