Zig's Grow Box

[zigly]

Hey Guys. Thanks to lots of the stuff I read on here and to my good friend, thecrazzyman, I've managed to come up with a pretty nice setup.

The box was made from plywood and measures width 27" x depth 25" x 44" tall.

The lights are 2x 60w and 2x 23w (300w and 120w equivalent) with a 5th socket to mess around with colors at different phases.

The box has 2 fans, one at the bottom with a hole cut for intake, and one at the top with an outflow.

Using happy frog soil.

For nutrients im starting them out on botanicare CNS17, the guy at the hyrdo shop recommended it and it seems to be working really well, I'm very pleased. Going to be switching to stage 2 of the same brand shortly.

Some pictures of building it. Cut the vent holes later.



It's all put together! Notice the hinged door for a tight squeeze.



a closeup of the lights, see the orange light for the early stages, gonna switch to a blue soon



heres my first 3 girls



added 5 more clones from a grower friend, the first 3 girls were hurting while i figured out watering, rookie mistake



starting to look nicer and greener






More to come soon! I'm very excited for this grow and will be updating with lots of pics. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zigly]

Hey guys, got some more pics.

First off some root porn!


Was worried at first when I saw this and then talked to a more experienced friend who told me this was great cause that means the plants are really happy and are actively looking for more nutrients.


They're growing nicely!


a side shot

 

[zigly]

So it's time to start them flowering! I have switched them to bloom nutrients and have changed them to a 12/12 light schedule.

I was planning to use the 2nd stage of the CNS17 that I had been using because I got a free bottle, but it turns out it was for hydro only.

I'm using General Organic BioThrive Vegan Plant food, Bloom 2-4-4
For PK booster Botanicare Hydroplex, Bloom Maximizer 0-10-6
I figured I'd try a sweetener, so I chose General Hyrdo. FloraNectar sweetener, PineappleRush flavor, 0-0-1

Will be adding a bud booster soon, I'm thinking either Big Bud or Gravity. Anyone have a preference?

 

[zigly]

Had a couple of the girls out of the box while I was doing some last minute training and decided to take a couple pictures.


Purple Kush



Sour Diesel



Took this a couple hours later right before they went lights out until tomorrow evening. They are going to be dark for 18 hours at first and then going to their 12/12 schedule. It was sad to say goodbye for such a long time!

 

[Dr Dog]

Hi There Zigly

Looks like you have everything well in hand, I do have one small piece of advice for you.. Keep it simple...As a new grower,it is best to just stay with the basics, until you get a good knowledge of how the plants are going to grow

I do pretty much like everything Botanicare has put out there

Good luck with the rest of your grow

 

[zigly]

Hey Dr Dog, thanks for the advice. It really has taken a lot of self control to not dive in and attempt all the crazy techniques I have read on here. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, while still learning a lot.

 

[zigly]

So the girls are now on a 12/12 schedule and have been taking bloom nutes. They're looking really nice with lots of new growth.

Here's the first time seeing them after their 18 hour sleep right when i put them into bloom.



Took the girls out to give them some more soil and a good watering so I decided to take some pictures. Here's all eight of them a day later.



They're getting big and bushy now.

 

[ithinkiam]

Wow, nice!! I'm excited for you.

 

[zapzor]

uhh

uhh

Looking good ziggles. I hope to see some pictures of the flowers. May your bush continue to grow.

 

[zigly]

Hey, thanks for the kind words ithinkiam and zapzor, appreciate it.

So I figure that with the girls going into flowering, that I needed to upgrade the lights a bit. I went to home depot and found a cheap 50W high pressure sodium bulb in an outdoor light fixture mount.


Took the ballast and bulb out of the housing it came in, and mounted them in the top of the box, wired them up with the other bulbs.


I'm really happy with the HPS, it adds a lot of light and its a different color, looks really nice. The girls really seem to be liking the HPS as well and have been getting pretty big.


Should have some buds real soon!

The box is really crowded, the plants are wild and I definitely did not do enough training/pruning and have had trouble fitting them all into the box comfortably. Planing ahead for the next grow, I'm trying to decide whether to do less plants or to just prune/train really well.

I'm going to be borrowing my friend's camera soon so I can get some actual good pictures posted.

 

[zigly]

Hey. Talked to a friend and he told me to get some CO2 in my box. So I went to the supermarket and grabbed some dry ice on the way home from work; grabbed a bottle sitting around and made this quick and easy CO2 dispenser.



Seems to do the trick, will grab some more dry ice tomorrow.

 

[zigly]

Was a productive weekend. The girls are starting to smell amazing, so it was time to put in a filter.

Our materials
1 piece of foam board
2 packages of activated carbon
1 stocking
1 roll painter's blue tape
2 computer fans

Starting to make the filter. Cut holes for the fans and cut out the shape of the box, making sure to only cut half way through so it folds up nicely. Unfortunately, I managed to pull the cord out of the back of the second fan while putting it in, so its gonna be a solo fan until I can get a soldering iron to fix the other one.



Took a 1 1/2 strip of foam board and placed it just behind the fans; then cut matching 1" strips out of it and the end piece. Next, took the nylon and cut it into strips, which were wrapped around the holes that were just cut, making a screen of sorts.


Then filled it up with activated carbon.


Closed it all up, and there's my filter!


The way my box is set up is with an intake fan in the bottom right. It's aimed up around the back and up to the front where there's another fan pulling air out the top. Removed the top fan and placed this filter in its place, should do the trick.

 

[zigly]

Now the fun part; some pictures of the girls. Did some long overdue pruning this weekend. Had an experienced friend come over and show me how; I had been too scared to cut anything substantial up this point cause all the information I had read was so conflicting as to what to cut. They are looking much happier and there's a lot more room in the box.

 

[zigly]

The girls were still pretty wild so I gave them a few days break and then pruned them some more. I'm still not quite sure how much I'm supposed to be taking off; there's so much conflicting info out there. I've been using a lot of restraint to not just go crazy chopping everywhere, I don't want to stress them too much but it's so tempting to just really get in there and clear them out.

Here's what they looked like when I started.


My Weapon.


The Result






These two have really shot up above the rest. The one in the middle is sour diesel and behind it is headband.


The HPS messes with my shitty camera, can barely get a picture. The camera I borrowed from a friend had two dead batteries of course, so still working on that, will have some good pics soon.

 

[Dr Dog]

Yeah I suffered that problem of over pruning while starting. I go by teh rule, that if the part of the plant is getting no light, it goes.

Everything is looking god man, keep doin what you are doin

 

[zigly]

Hey. So I finally got my hands on a quality camera and got some good pictures.

The girls are coming along nicely. Last week I gave them some bud booster, and can already see them packing on some weight. I used Humboldt County Gravity Flower Hardener, came highly recommended from the dude at hydro store. Been pruning periodically, trying now to overdo it but they really need to be thinned out. Going to go do some more right after I post this.










There's a bunch of high quality pictures here if you want to see some more.

Will be posting more often now that I have a camera that can actually take pictures.

 

[zigly]

Took out a ton of leaves last night, there's so much room now its amazing.



Some bud shots. They smell so amazing I'm super jacked. Less than two weeks until harvest.

 

[Mad_Micz]

Da_Goods

Da_Goods

Sup Zigz? I once thought of the name Zigly awhile back. Weird how you did too. haha. Anyways, lets us know how much dry weight you get outta this. Are those six-inch pots? How many are in there?


Take the time to: CURE CURE CURE CURE. The extra 2 wks. r worth the wait my friend.

 

[zigly]

Hey mad micz, thanks for stopping by and that's funny about the name, great minds.

I'll be sure to let you know the dry weight once I get it. Yes, those are 6" pots and there are eight of them. Pots are too small and there are too many plants, will be going with larger pots and less plants next time. Have learned a lot.

Everyone I talk to keeps reminding me the same thing with curing. I'm going to make sure I cure for plenty of time.

Anyways, here's some more pictures. I'm going to harvest tonight!

 

[zigly]

After roughly a month and half of curing I've started smoking my buds and they are amazing. Tastes phenomenal, very full flavor and fresh and clean tasting, and the effects are some of the best I've had in awhile, maybe I'm biased.

Looking at 2.5 oz dry weight for the whole grow, all for personal and friends.




grabbed a random bud from each strain jar for a quick group photo



Starting the box back up this week or next.