11"x10" CFL cabinet [nirvana WW][seedsman purple bud][barneys farm blue cheese]

[JustDoIt]

11"x10" CFL cabinet [nirvana WW][seedsman purple bud][barneys farm blue cheese]

Dimensions are (roughly) 11"x10"x25", I've got a DIY carbon filter for odor control (basically several layers of an odor eliminating hvac filter sealing the top few inches of the cab from the bottom 20 or so inches. Two 120mm PC fans blowing exhaust out the top, and two intake holes on the bottom sides of the cabinet, 2x the surface area of the exhaust holes. Temps inside up by the top range from 68*f-82*f

On to the good stuff though, my plan (as of now, always subject to change) is to end up with 4 plants in containers that hold about 1/3 gallon. I'm starting 6 seeds, they're in Fox Farm Light Warrior right now in plastic 16oz solo cups and once I've determined which are females they'll be transplanted to the larger containers with Fox Farm Ocean Forest. Not knowing how many females I'll have, I don't know exactly how it's going to end up working out but I'm probably going to do a SCROG to maximize the yield.

The genetics are (2) Nirvana White Widow (2) Seedsman Purple Bud (1) Fem. Barneys Farm Blue Cheese (1) Bagseed (...from a dank bag!)

I started one W.W. and one P.B. about 2 weeks ago, the rest are about a week old. I put 'em right in to the soil and gave them a good watering, covered them with plastic wrap to keep the humidity in until the plants poked above the surface, then the plastic wrap came off and I basically let them dry out over the course of a week or so before watering again.

The two oldest plants have roots growing out the drainage holes, and I'm worried that it might be affecting the plants?

The tips of the first set of leaves on both plants are yellow and have a few spots... I'm not sure if it's just normal and they'll outgrow it or what?

If anyone has any thoughts about what it could be or what I might try, I'd really appreciate it! Looking forward to a fun grow!

 

[hempfield]

Nice setup , but I recommend you to keep a low number of plants ( 2 max) in that limited space if you go for a SCROG (as I see you already have the screen in place).

 

[Bud-Monster]

Hi Just,

They look overwatered or overferted to me. I would repot them into their final containers now if it were me, with a good light soil mix, water very lightly to settle them in and dont fert them. In a week or so they should come round.

Your grow reminds me of a 111w mini scrog I once ran in a fridge, the seedling i used had a bad start, they were rescued from a friend, after a repot and sensible watering/feeding they came good and yeilded about 1.5oz.

Good luck with your grow, love watching mini scrogs

 

[JustDoIt]

Thanks for the replies, guys. Since I'm not working with feminized seeds (with the exception of blue cheese), my intent was to start off with 6 plants and wind up with somewhere less than 6 when I switch to 12/12. The second purple bud I started was this TINY tiny tiny little thing that barely stuck up above the soil, it didn't make it so I'm down to 5. The first time around I wouldn't mind less yield if it means having several plants to choose from for future grows. I've got a PC case from a previous grow ready for clones/moms, we'll see what happens...

Anyway, here's some pictures from yesterday. What I did to deal with the "leaking roots" is I took two new cups, drilled drainage holes, and put a sheet of newspaper along the bottom/inside and filled with a few inches of Light Warrior and cut the bottoms off the original cups and set them in the new cups on the new soil, this way they have a little more room for roots to grow, and hopefully the roots wont grow OUT of the cups. Now that I'm down to 5 plants instead of 6, I might be able to put 4 of them in the bigger pots and leave the last one crammed in somewhere in a smaller container. I don't know if that's the best way to go or not though....

I'm not planning on using the screen you see in the pictures right now, that's simply to hold the cups closer to the light so the seedlings don't stretch, but I'd like for the screen level to be about there, and I was thinking of attaching a small screen to each pot so they can be removed fairly easily and if one finishes before the rest, there won't be any difficulty removing one at a time. Would I be better off without a screen and just pinch and bend the plants to fill up space?

 

[Mr Jay]

Don't worry about the roots coming out the bottom holes. They shoot for the bottom before they fill out space and the air just keeps the roots from exploring out the bottom too far. That bottom cup might make them a bitch to transplant as the roots are stuck between two cups. I'm running nirvana's widow in a cfl/pll micro scrog right now and it's a beast, two weeks in and the buds are pushing the limits. Have fun with that one! I get such a kick out of these tiny cabs, I'm gonna have to build another.

 

[JustDoIt]

Thanks Mr Jay! My plan for transplanting with the cup inside the cup is, since the bottom of the top cup is removed already, just to cut down the side and remove the top cup that way. We'll see how it goes, but I'm excited to see these plants when they're bigger and starting to flower! Good luck with your grow!

 

[JustDoIt]

I've been keeping a close eye on the little plants, they don't look quite right and I'm not sure why. I have been letting the soil get dry about 1" down between watering (and the cups feel a LOT lighter) so I don't think that's the issue, and what's been puzzling me is that they're all turning light light green/ yellow.

After doing some thinking and searching online, the only thing I can think of is that since they're in 100% Light Warrior (doesn't contain much if any nutrients from what I understand) they need a little nitrogen? I mixed literally 2 drops of FoxFarm Grow Big (6-4-4) in a half gallon of distilled water and gave the bigger ones about 2 fl oz ea and the smaller ones about 1 fl oz ea.

I guess tomorrow I'll be able to tell if it helps or hurts!

The 5th cup has yet to show signs of life, it's been probably a week since I planted the seed so if nothing shows up in the next day or two I think I'm going to transplant the two White Widow's, the Purple Bud, and the Blue Cheese to their full-sized containers which I'll have to finish making.... Gonna fill 'em with a mix of Ocean Forest and Light Warrior, maybe that'll help them out?

 

[JustDoIt]

A couple of days ago I decided that something needed to be done, things didn't look right at all. The plants didn't look happy, they were all very light green and weren't growing much. The 5th cup had an unknown seed and after a week it hadn't sprouted, so I ditched that one and transplanted the remaining 4 in to 5"x5" containers filled with a 60/40 mix of Fox Farm Ocean Forest/Light Warrior. Now things are looking better.

I had to trim the tops of the containers and zip-tie the sides closer to the middle to allow room for air to flow, because with the plants on the shelf they're on right now the intake is below. Poor planning on my part, not planning how the air would flow with the cabinet full of plants. Live and learn though, now I'll remember next time around!

I color coded the plants with the zip ties....

White/White = Nirvana White Widow
Red/Blue = Seedsman Purple Bud
Blue/Blue = Barneys Farm Blue Cheese (f)

 

[JustDoIt]

It's been a few days and the plants have grown considerably since I last took any pictures, they almost look like they're over-watered to me, but it's been over a week since I transplanted them, and I only gave them a TINY bit of water (1.5-2 fl oz ea) then, and it had been been about 5 days before that when I had given them a small amount (around 2 fl oz ea) of water... so I can't believe that they're over-watered, and my temps at plant level have stayed right at around 73*f (ranging from high 60's to mid 80's for a few hours a couple of times) so I don't think it's heat....

I've been leaving the cabinet door open with a desk fan blowing across the plants, it's definitely helped sturdy the bigger plants (Purple Bud and White Widow #1), while White Widow #2 is working on it's 2nd set of true leaves but is barely above the soil level with NO space between the leaves (perhaps a short and stocky pheno?) and Blue Cheese I think was stunted a bit by the Ocean Forest (it was the smallest seedling when I transplanted to the bigger pots with FFOF/Light Warior Mix) but is now making a recovery, with new, green growth quickly appearing.

Yesterday I tucked the two larger plants (PB and WW) under the zip ties I used to allow for airflow to come up between the pots, they were growing pretty close to the lights and the smaller two plants still have some catching up to do.

I do have a larger cabinet that was a project I put on hold, but I think I'm going to resume construction so I can grow these plants out in a larger area because it's very cramped in the current cabinet as is.... and I'm sure it'd work fine, but you know... bigger is a little bit better if it's an option haha

I've got a good feeling about this grow!

 

[JustDoIt]

Okay it's been a while since I updated, the plants are now 5-7 weeks old and have been through a lot (small pots, too little water, whacky PH, no nutes, etc.) but they seem to be doing good now. I've been bending/tying/pinching them too both to keep them low to the ground as well as to get more bud sites starting, I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do as far as flowering.... keep 'em in the small cabinet they're in? finish the larger cabinet I've been putting off? I guess I'll need to decide sometime soon, for now they're doing good though

 

[blynx]

If you are going to keep them in the cab they are in, I'd start flowering them pretty soon.

A second cab is always nice too!

 

[someotherguy]

High, I see you aren't getting much help and also that you haven't let that discourage you so kudos for your determination. ...and your plants DO look better, just keep at it and you'll be growing the dank before you know it!

Anyway, I wanted to mention a couple things, first, don't sweat the roots coming out the bottom, those will become 'air-pruned' and die which stimulates lateral root growth within the cup.

I also wanted to caution you not to pot up into larger containers too soon, wait until the roots have time to
fill the smaller pot first or you run the risk of over-watering problems resulting from too much media and too few roots.

Another small tip I wanted to share is that the easiest way to poke holes in plastic cups is with a cheap soldering iron, a drill bit can be a real pain, lol.

And finally, in case you haven't seen it yet, below is a link to Blynx's thread that might help you find answers to some of your cab-design issues, and don't forget to check out the other growers posting in his thread, some very inspiring work being done in some very small spaces!

Blynx's 1sq ft challenge and other micro-cabs

Peace, SOG

 

[Warped1]

Grrrr Sog you beat me lol. I was reading this thread and it occurred to me to have him look at blynx's small cab. I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

 

[someotherguy]

Grrrr Sog you beat me lol. I was reading this thread and it occurred to me to have him look at blynx's small cab. I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

lol, we were both a day late and a dollar short as blynx joined the party while I was typing!

Peace, SOG

 

[JustDoIt]

Thanks for the replies guys!
I appreciate the input no matter who posted first, haha.

The other cab I've got (see pics) partially completed is two separate sections (one would/will be used as a utility area/maybe a veg area too) each about 26x26x22 so its 4x larger than what I'm growing in now. I've got a 70w HPS which I feel is toooo small for that size cabinet, so I was thinking that I could have the 70w HPS in the middle and have a 8-10 CFL's surrounding it to provide additional lighting. Ideally I'd get a more powerful HID for that box but, and now that I'm thinking about it, it's probably a worthwhile investment in the short term as well as the long run. I'd have to buy the additional CFL's and that'd put me somewhere between $50-100 where as I could buy a 150hps security light for ~50 bucks.... hmm, now it seems like a no brainer.

I think I'll do that, I'll put the 70w and the 150w in the larger cabinet sealed off with a heat shield with exhaust. Nice. This will be fun

As far as the roots go, hopefully I'll be better prepared to handle things next time around. Good to know that the roots hanging out aren't a big deal, I was nervous that it would harm the plant, figuring the root system probably isn't too developed at that age. I've flowered plants from clone in party cups so I know they can fill in a smaller container and do well, it just seemed like they weren't happy in the small cups this time.

Getting the watering routine down I'm sure will prevent a lot of the problems I had... experience is a great teacher!

Thanks again and I've seen the Blynx grows, I'm going to read through them this weekend though. I appreciate the suggestion!

 

[Warped1]

Yeah you're going to need more light, you're at just over 4 sq ft. You'll want somewhere around 200w, so the 70 and 150 is just about perfect.

 

[Diesel_N_Blood]

You could do a 150w+70w stacked vertical grow. That would be sweet. But the 150w security light is the way to go.

 

[JustDoIt]

Agreed, Warped! Here's the new plan.

150w HPS is on it's way, and I went out and found a Stanley blower fan at Sears on clearance. It's a weeeee bit stronger than the 120mm PC fans I've used in the past, so I'm thinking the 70 + 150 in the new cabinet shouldn't cause any heat issues and it should provide enough light to keep my personal supply full at all times.

Diesel, could you tell me a little bit more about doing a stacked vertical grow? I haven't read anything about that technique (though I'm going to start searching right now!), is it a technique better suited for one or two plants, or can you have several different plants flowering together?

Variety is at the top of my list of priorities for growing, I'd like to be able to have 4-6 strains in the flowering box at all times. I was thinking that one way would be to have each plant have it's own screen and have several smaller SCROG's in the cabinet together, or since the laws in my state are based on weight not number of plants (Better to plan for worst case scenario than wind up getting screwed because of a technicality!) I could even try a perpetual SOG instead.

Any thoughts or ideas?

I appreciate the help and input!!!!!!

 

[OrganicOzarks]

I love these small grows. It just shows you that anyone can grow enough to not have to buy herb from some dumb fuck.

 

[Warped1]

I was thinking about the 2 lights and your sq footage, and I'm wondering what the best configuration for your lights will be? Hopefully someone will have an idea. The vert lights would be cool.. you have 22" of height? This is going to be interesting