Stealth dresser growing questions

[evilunclephil]

I'm planning on doing a ScrOG from seed, my converted dresser measures about 26 inches wide by 16 inches deep by 24 inches high. My seedlings are on their fifth day of life, 16/8 light schedule, and are each about 4 inches high, with 4 of the 5 growing their second set of serrated leaves.

I'm using 4 23 watt cool white CFL's for veg, and hopefully a 150 watt HPS for flower.

I have two 80 mm computer fans, one near the top as an exhaust, and one at plant level as an intake.

I have a bottle each of Fox Farms Grow Big and Tiger Bloom.

When should I start feeding them the Grow Big? How high above the flower pots should I put the screen? At what height should I switch the lights to 12/12? Should I start giving them the tiger bloom right when I switch the lights to 12/12, a little before, a little after? What are the red spectrum CFL's? Soft white?

Oh, and one last thing, my girlfriend's dad told me that I should put gravel in the bottom two or three inches of my big flower pots, with like an inch or two of sand on top of that, and then my growing medium, because that will help drainage. Is there merit to this? Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[tngreen]

you have any pics of the setup? ill be doing something very close to this except i think i have a little more height to work with.

 

[evilunclephil]

I'll try to take some pictures later today or something. This is really just a test run of the cabinet before I start getting clones of Vietnamese Purple from a friend.

 

[duggy]

Yeah, gravel will keep your root tips from sitting in water and rotting. Never heard of sand, but seems like further protection.

You might want to go with a passive intake, maybe even use the other fan as another exhaust--probably need it in that space with a 150.

Good luck! Waiting for pics.

duggy

 

[Trev]

use both pc fans as exhaust. pvc elbos for passive intake.

 

[Makavellian]

warm whites and soft whites are the cfls you want for flowering

 

[evilunclephil]

The front view of the dresser:

And from the side:

With the false doors off:

The happy family:













Favorite and runt:

The favorite and runt together:

The favorite:

 

[evilunclephil]

So what do you all think? Am I on the right track for how long it's been? When should I start fertilizing? I'd really appreciate some guidance from all the micro gurus here...

 

[Trev]

your on track. looks good so far. dont touch them ferts for a while. wait until you start seeing some true leaves.

 

[paulok2000]

you might want to try mylar rather then foil. The gravel thing i heard from "steal this book". you should use it if you have no drainige. put you probably just should use pots so that you can move the plants (like when you find a male)

 

[tngreen]

nice, thats about the same size as my dresser except i think is slightly wider. will be atleast 2 months before i get it setup though. will def keep up with ure grow though.

 

[evilunclephil]

They're growing a lot faster than I thought they would under only four cfl's o.o

The favorite:





The second biggest:





The small two:







Is it just me, or is there a correlation between the fact that the biggest one is in the biggest pot, and the smaller two are in the little cups?

 

[cid420]

i would rip out the rest of draws also and mount a door on front loooks like u have 4ft plus that way .

 

[evilunclephil]

Yeah, I'm gonna have to do that anyways when I get the HPS. I would use mylar, but I ran out of cash when I went on my shopping spree of growing equipment, it's on the list, along witha ph meter and a moisture meter.

The biggest one is now working on it's fourth little node, I'm praying it's a female. I've started foliar feeding with the growbig and put half the reccomended amount in each gallon of water I give them, we'll see how they react.

I'll try to get the digital camera over here before I go on a short vacation.

Oh, by the way, I'm gonna be gone leaving the babies on their own for four days. What can I do to protect them from a possible drought, aside from having someone water them in my absence?

 

[4iiii'z]

" What can I do to protect them from a possible drought "

wick system is simple enough
length of string & a bowl of water

heh, pull this off & your almost a hydro grower
hehehe

good luck

 

[evilunclephil]

Probably the last update before I go on a short vacation, though I still don't know what I'm gonna do to keep them alive while I'm gone. Any suggestions would be duly noted!!



















and a little bit of what I'm smoking:

 

[Laxpunker]

How long are you gonna be gone for? If it's only going to be for four days or so I'd stick the pots on top of a plate of water and hope for the best. If you don't have a timer for your lights now would be the oppurtune time to pick one up for under $10. Other than that there's not much you can do, unfortunately your plants are a little small...however I have faith.

 

[evilunclephil]

The timer was the first thing I got, aside from the lights. Should I just water them a little more than usual?

I love macro shots, even if the bud isn't that excellent:

 

[evilunclephil]

Well, I'm back from vacation, and things are practically all just fine. Really, the stress from transplanting was worse than the four days without constant attention for the big ones, and the little ones seem KINDA like they're on the road to recovery, but ehh, it's all just for fun anyways.

How much longer should I let them veg before I flower them? What kind of yield should I be expecting with the kind of setup I have?
The whole setup:

One of the little ones:

The second biggest one

The biggest one:



Vacation bud:

 

[evilunclephil]

Isn't it funny how you can lose your digital camera's usb cord, and suddenly EVERYTHING changes?

I ended up getting another fan AND the 250w I wanted, but it's a metal halide, not HPS. We'll see how they flower under this light.

I'm on flower day 16 under the 250w MH, feeding 3tsp Fox Farms Tiger Bloom per gallon of water in a coco-gro/potting soil mixture.

Here's the biggest one, which just happens to be the only female that's shown so far.


Since I'm new to this, I can't be sure of anything, but is it already starting to bud?




Here's a node on each of the other two that haven't shown sex yet, even though they've been under 12/12 for 16 days now.





And the top of one of them



They were getting too close to the light, so I had to make some space for them, now they have like 8 to 10 inches of room, think I'll have problems?

This is the top of the one that got burned:




And some bud I'm smoking at this VERY moment.