My first grow box

[jonhova]

Hey athos looks good. Minds if i try some of that hehe. I have house plants and with those when i use my generic soil its full pf fungus gnats everytime i repot up. What i do is put a thin layer on top of the soil with perlite to prevent egg laying bastards. Maybe a dry top layer will help your bug situation like it helped mine

 

[Athos]

Day 63 of flower - Harvest time

Day 63 of flower - Harvest time

Well, it's the end of the 9th week of flowering, I should have updated last night, but anyway, this pictures are just after lights out, so to be able to post pictures under a more natural light.

It's been 11 to 12 days since I gave them only pH'ed water and no new watering ever since, the soil is fairly dry, although it could go a few more days I think. The leaves are showing a lot of yellowing, drying up, etc. I resisted the urge of watering, since I know I had been over watering them a little and it might speed the drying up a bit.

As expected the buds are long and thin, the calyxes although swelled are tiny in comparison with most hybrids and indica strains. The pistils are either yellow or already reddish brown, I would say half and half. Thricomes are about 90% cloudy, 5% clear and 5% amber.

Anyway I could go on a few more days, but I feel it's the right time now and it's almost on schedule, since it's supposed to take 55 to 60 days of flowering.

Without further ado, the pictures.

 

[El Tigre]

Nice harvest man, enjoy it! How do they smell?

 

[Athos]

Nice harvest man, enjoy it! How do they smell?

Fruity. They are drying right now i

 

[Athos]

Harvest weight

Harvest weight

It's been 7 days since I harvested and the buds are really dry and have lost 77% of their initial weight for a final dry weight of 89,5 gr (3.16 oz). Using the flowering power of 78 watts, the gpw comes out at 1,15

Before posting pictures, I'll add that there's still some minor trimming to do so, yes the weight could come down a bit, but I doubt it will seriously hurt the yield.



Here you can see everything in jars. Form left to right: Top buds, medium sized buds, smaller buds from the bottom of the plant.

 

[Athos]

Grow Box Upgrade

Grow Box Upgrade

I got an upgrade for the grow box.

A new fan & filter combo; not that the one I was using did not work, it worked great, but there were 2 areas that I felt could use some improvement:

(1) Since I upgraded from 60 watts to 78 watts, the temperatures rised slightly to 30°C (86F) not to bad, but I would prefer them lower.

(2) Noise. Even if my setup was whisper quiet, that's not silent. So I upgraded with the intention of improving this too.

So I got a Noctua A8-FLX (30 CFM), it is slightly less noisier than the Noctua A6 that I'm using, but the added air flow, will allow me to undervolt it without issue regarding temperature.

Along with it, I got a Can filter 1500

Here you can see them installed. I did not remove the other fan & filter, so I can just plug one or the other depending on my ambient temperatures.

 

[jonhova]

Hell ya buddy! When’s the next round!

 

[Athos]

Hell ya buddy! When’s the next round!

Any day now; I have both Sweet Skunk Auto from Royal Queen Seeds and Pineapple Express Auto from Barney's Farm. I'm undecided which one to grow.

I'll grow autos since it's fall / winter here and a 20 hour light schedule will keep the temperatures warm enough.

Update
I decided to go with the Royal Queen Seeds Sweet Skunk Auto, I have 2 of them in a glass of warm water and will put them in soil later today at the 20 or 24 hour mark.

 

[Athos]

Day 07 of veg.

Day 07 of veg.

Sorry I took so long, it’s finally the end of week 1 of veg.

Both seeds were put in warm water pH’ed to 6.8 for 24 hours and then planted in a 16 oz cup full of soil (Biobizz All-mix). 4 days later both broke soil, but in an act of supreme idiocy I killed one, so I started the other seed of the package and is 5 days behind the other; that’s why I took so long in updating the thread, I was waiting for the second seedling to complete the first week.

Just to be clear, day 1 is the day after breaking soil, when the seedlings open the first pair of true leaves.

The plan for this autos is to FIM them above the 4th node by removing most of the 5th and 6th pair of leaves (this been the first time I attempt to do this, since I usually top the plants). The early fimming should prevent the plants to start flowering too early giving me time fill the canopy as I want. At that point I will transplant to their final container.

Pictures.

 

[jonhova]

 

[Athos]

Day 14 of veg.

Day 14 of veg.

So, it’s the end of the 2nd week.

Plant A was FIM’ed on day 11 and transplanted to a 3 gallon pot the next day. Since it’s the first time I’ve done this instead of TOP’ing, I’m not sure if it worked or not.

Plant B is developing a bit more slowly and was transplanted on day 13, because it was becoming root bound, and by the looks of it should be FIM’ed tomorrow at the latest. I had a minor sign of excess Ca on this plant, due me making a mistake and watered with what was meant for the other plant (remember they are 5 days apart on their age).

The FIM was done (or about to be done) above the 4th node, cutting most of the 5th one.

Here are this week’s pictures.

 

[Athos]

Day 21 of veg.

Day 21 of veg.

It’s the end of the 3d week.

Plant A seems to be in a rush to get to the flowering phase as fast as possible, as you can see on the pictures below flowers are already forming. I’m not sure if the FIM was successful or not; I’m reluctant to try super cropping since I’m not sure how auto strains will react to it, so I’m doing some LST to keep the canopy even.

Plant B is developing nice and good, still behind in its development, but it’s really taking off after the transplant. Still no need for LST, but I expect that to change in the next week.

I’m been very conservative in the watering department, especially since the pot is kind of big for the plants size.

Here are this week’s pictures.

 

[Gantz]

I love your build man! I'm growing outdoors but i've been meaning to build a micro growbox for years - and your box is giving me a lot of ideas.

I'm always skeptical about PC fans working with filters, so i really have to ask: Have you had any smell leaks since you changed to the new NF-A8 FLX & CAN 1500 combo?

Cheers mate

SUBSCRIBED

 

[Athos]

At this point the plants do not give any smell yet, so I can't really say. What I can say is that there is no noise.
The other fan filter combo does not leak any smell and it is very similar: an A6 FLX with Can 705. This combo uses the same brand of fan and filter so I expect it to work just as well.

 

[Gantz]

fair enough. i shall bother you again when they start getting all sexy and smelly when you open the door.

 

[Athos]

Day 28 of veg.

Day 28 of veg.

It’s the end of the 4th week.

A bit of LST for plant A and except for the first node colas, all of them are at the same height. Still undecided if I’ll chop those lower 2 flowers or not; Not the sea of colas that I had on last grow (18+ or so), but nothing to scoff off at; I think there’s 12 of them at canopy level.

Plant B has taken a bit more time to develop, but looking great anyway. The stretch is on the way and I started some LST, well quite a bit of LST, just to see if a more aggressive approach does anything or not.

I’ll switch to the 3000K bulbs in a couple of days, which should be just at the end of plant A’s stretch; I’ll probably leave 2 6500K ones just on top of the of plant B for 1 more week, so it can finish the stretch under cool light.

Watering was again 1 liter, which is not enough to soak all the media, but I’m reluctant to do that, so I’ll be upping the amount as the soil dry faster. I have resumed the feeding of Cal-Max, but at a very reduced rate, previously it was 0.5 cc/lt, now it was 0.3 cc/lt or 0.18 EC (90 PPM). All in all, both plants have regained their bright green color instead of the dark green they had last week.

I almost forget, it seems that both plants have taken to FIM’ing quite well, it barely slowed down the plants development, if at all. In any case, I don’t mention the plants height, because frankly I’m not worried about it, since my previous two runs were sativas and manage to keep them squat. Just in case any of you is interested, both plants are 10 inches and I expect them to reach up to 16 inches in the following 2 weeks.

Here are this week’s pictures.

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

just get rid of the 'zines in flower to prevent molds

 

[Athos]

zines? What's that? I'm not familiar with the term.

 

[Gantz]

Aren't zines those alternative magazines with subculture related content that you download, print and then fold into a small booklet?

 

[vecker]

Isn't the CAN 1500 75cm long? How does it fit?