Diary Complete First grow. Budget DIY cupboard

[Green]

Hi

First post. First grow. Apologies for the long post

I decided to plant some bag seed on the 1st Jan. The plan was for the bag seeds to be a pilot grow, to practice all the research I've been doing online (420sa was/is a big part of my research, you are all amazing!). I wanted to convert my cupboard into a grow room slowly, just a fan and lights to veg for February, then complete the setup with an exhaust system for flower in March. It's a small space, 96x50x155cm (0.48sqm), but I want a carbon filter and noise as low as possible, so balancing size, cost and noise is where my planning is currently.

I planted more seeds than I needed because I expected less of these old bag seeds to be honest, some over 2 years old, but they all sprouted. They're growing well now, almost 5 weeks in. I'm enjoying training them and seeing the different ways they recover. The hardest thing has been getting watering right, probably due to my OCD 'helicopter parenting' special growing technique, which I have now mastered.

I borrowed 2x30W flood lights from a friend for the start of the grow, then bought a 120W quantum board from @Light It Up this week, which came with 3 Tortoni feminised seeds from @Totemic. I put 2 of them in a glass of water till they sank, then into small plastic pots with half FF premium classic, half worm castings and a few teaspoons of kelp meal and mycoroot. Been 2 days so far, waiting (im)patiently...

Here are a lot of pics lol. If anyone has comments, especially if you have experience with a similar setup, I'd love to get some ideas and suggestions from locals on a budget. I think I've read enough articles online for a while...

Started taking pics at 14 days. Wet cotton pads into FF soil was super easy and went from dry seed to breaking soil in 48 hours, should've maybe stuck with this method for Totemic seeds, any thoughts?

Just grew out like this, like it topped itself, with some other weird growth too

First day under lights. 21 days old.

Growing the weirdest and fastest of them all. I haven't trained or topped this plant.

I kept looking for roots through the side slits, then saw this.

New 5 litre fabric homes. Gave 2 away, not enough space. Started topping 3 of them.

The Runt @ 4 weeks, a few days after some LST and before some pruning.

Adding the new light.

First 3 days under 120W. Noticed better growth on topped plants compared to LST, so topped the rest of them.

Praying to JAH these Tortonis pop!

[Bakstein420]

Nicely done bro, but honestly don't think you gonna be able to flower more than 2 maybe 3 plants in there. I have a very similar setup and space becomes an issue quickly.

Humidity is also a PITA so make sure you get a good extraction fan and check for any light leaks around the doors.

Apart from that you look pretty sorted. What nutes do you plan on using?

[Stinger96]

On 2/6/2021 at 5:16 PM, Green said:

Hi

First post. First grow. Apologies for the long post

I decided to plant some bag seed on the 1st Jan. The plan was for the bag seeds to be a pilot grow, to practice all the research I've been doing online (420sa was/is a big part of my research, you are all amazing!). I wanted to convert my cupboard into a grow room slowly, just a fan and lights to veg for February, then complete the setup with an exhaust system for flower in March. It's a small space, 96x50x155cm (0.48sqm), but I want a carbon filter and noise as low as possible, so balancing size, cost and noise is where my planning is currently.

I planted more seeds than I needed because I expected less of these old bag seeds to be honest, some over 2 years old, but they all sprouted. They're growing well now, almost 5 weeks in. I'm enjoying training them and seeing the different ways they recover. The hardest thing has been getting watering right, probably due to my OCD 'helicopter parenting' special growing technique, which I have now mastered.

I borrowed 2x30W flood lights from a friend for the start of the grow, then bought a 120W quantum board from @Light It Up this week, which came with 3 Tortoni feminised seeds from @Totemic. I put 2 of them in a glass of water till they sank, then into small plastic pots with half FF premium classic, half worm castings and a few teaspoons of kelp meal and mycoroot. Been 2 days so far, waiting (im)patiently...

Here are a lot of pics lol. If anyone has comments, especially if you have experience with a similar setup, I'd love to get some ideas and suggestions from locals on a budget. I think I've read enough articles online for a while...

Started taking pics at 14 days. Wet cotton pads into FF soil was super easy and went from dry seed to breaking soil in 48 hours, should've maybe stuck with this method for Totemic seeds, any thoughts?

Just grew out like this, like it topped itself, with some other weird growth too

First day under lights. 21 days old.

Growing the weirdest and fastest of them all. I haven't trained or topped this plant.

I kept looking for roots through the side slits, then saw this.

New 5 litre fabric homes. Gave 2 away, not enough space. Started topping 3 of them.

The Runt @ 4 weeks, a few days after some LST and before some pruning.

Adding the new light.

First 3 days under 120W. Noticed better growth on topped plants compared to LST, so topped the rest of them.

Praying to JAH these Tortonis pop!

Awesome DIY build there.. Good luck I am sure you will do just fine.. Keep them small and follow advice given and you off to a great start..

[PsyCLown]

Looks good, with the 5L pots they're going to be small plants. I'd have tried maybe 10L pots and fewer plants

20L may be a bit too tall in terms of pot size as you only have 1.5m of height. 

 

Perhaps around 2 to 4 plants inside the cupboard, flip them relatively early as you do not want them to get too tall and LST will certainly help in terms of height and size. 

[Green]

@PsyCLown Yeah the plan is to have 2 x 10L pots. I measured 30cm from the highest the light can go and I get about 80-90cm max plant height, from soil. That's why I'm practicing training on the bag seed gals, trying for an even canopy. But if the Totemic seeds don't pop for whatever reason then I will just hope at least 3 of these are female and flower them in the cupboard.

 

@Bakstein420 I hear you about humidity. It gets to 60-65% when the lights are off, highest was 74% on the first night but the fan was off, lesson quickly learned. What extractor do you use and do you use a carbon filter with it? I'm thinking of getting this fan, https://growguru.co.za/products/in-line-duct-fan-td-silent With acoustic ducting it should be on the quiet side.

Is running the exhaust back out into the same room advisable? I would prefer not to have a suspicious duct hanging out of my window permanently.

As far as nutes,  I plan on using dirty hands inc. elemental blend as a top dressing in FF living soil, with tea every few weeks. For the current plants though I'm just using Nitrosol and Seagro.

 

[PsyCLown]

@PsyCLown Yeah the plan is to have 2 x 10L pots. I measured 30cm from the highest the light can go and I get about 80-90cm max plant height, from soil. That's why I'm practicing training on the bag seed gals, trying for an even canopy. But if the Totemic seeds don't pop for whatever reason then I will just hope at least 3 of these are female and flower them in the cupboard.
 
@Bakstein420 I hear you about humidity. It gets to 60-65% when the lights are off, highest was 74% on the first night but the fan was off, lesson quickly learned. What extractor do you use and do you use a carbon filter with it? I'm thinking of getting this fan, https://growguru.co.za/products/in-line-duct-fan-td-silent With acoustic ducting it should be on the quiet side.
Is running the exhaust back out into the same room advisable? I would prefer not to have a suspicious duct hanging out of my window permanently.
As far as nutes,  I plan on using dirty hands inc. elemental blend as a top dressing in FF living soil, with tea every few weeks. For the current plants though I'm just using Nitrosol and Seagro.
 

Have you seen how Totemic has hung his light? Get a bit of extra height that way.

That fan should be good, acoustic ducting is fine too. I'm not actually sure how much if a difference the ducting makes after I switched over from acoustic to normal but might as well go acoustic I guess.

Sounds good keen to see how the grow turns out.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[Green]

Quick update. 6 days under 120W, noticeable growth every day. Temps getting a bit high now without extraction, still under 30 degrees but only just.

Continuing the LST, topping, defoliation and now supercropping on the biggest one. I'm considering restricting them to a certain number of colas each and training for a scrog netting. Is this advisable or can I let them bush out a bit more?  I don't know how the 5L pot size will restrict the size in combination with the training. I want to try to maximise my horizontal space, obviously not with my first grow but ultimately that is my goal.

I've read you can use lemon juice at 0.2ml per litre to drop the pH by 1-1.5. I checked the local water chart and our tap water is around 8-8.5. I leave my tap water out in the sun for at least a day before leaving to cool and storing. I started trying the lemon trick yesterday as a workaround experiment for not having a pH meter. Apparently pH is important for nutrient uptake but I've seen a lot of grows with just straight tap water. Is it worth even trying this without a pH meter? 

@PsyCLown Thanks, I'll check. I think I've looked at all his grows but never noticed the lights lol. I think I'll try the acoustic ducting, hopefully it's worth it. I found a similar fan https://www.uncanni.co.za/product/primaklima-silent-fan/ besides the price I'm not sure if its better though.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Green

[PsyCLown]

Best is to get a proper PH pen, HM Digital have a decent well at a reasonable price (just under R1k).

I find the cheaper PH pens are not as accurate and lose calibration after each use.

 

Also get some PH down while you're getting a PH pen. It's not expensive.

 

I myself want to get a Prima Klima fan to try out, I got some RAM 6" inline fans and it's reasonably quiet for the amount of air it moves, but you'd want to get a 4" fan and not 6" as your grow area is quite small.

[Bakstein420]

@PsyCLownis spot on with the cheap pens. Mine bombed on the second grow of use. Calibration went out and no matter how much i turned the adjustment screw i couldn't get it right. I just use the drops now.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Bakstein420
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[Green]

"I will cut you"

This is a female, right? If the other plant has similar tiny bulb shaped new growths but no long white hair, would it be a male?

I train less now, just check the ties and stakes every day and take a few leaves in crowded spots every 2 days. If I keep going at this rate, I'm thinking I could flower 3 of them in here? Aiming for 6-8 colas each.

Changed nutrients, topdressed with Dirty hands inc elemental blend, 4 tbsp each. I'll do that every 2-3 weeks with worm tea in between. Otherwise just water every few days. 

What should I start with for bugs? I'm starting to see tiny little nibbles on the leaves, really small though and affecting only a few in the whole cupboard. Is pyrol and neem too strong?

Tortoni seeds on the right. 9 days now Dunno what I did wrong  ...bag seeds are so easy to germ, a friend said something about them being F2 makes bag seed easier?

 

 

[Green]

Picture update, end of week 7.

I moved them around a bit, four are female and in 5L pots . Some nice smells coming through, I think one is the Tangie seed I remember keeping. They seem to be responding well to the new dry nutrients and plain water.

Growth is still insane on The Mutant (bottom right), twisted stems and leaves growing into each other everywhere. I only have 1m max height to work with and I'm trying for an even canopy, so I don't know if I want to keep fighting with this one. I might try moving it further from the light to slow it down. 

[Green]

Week 8. Looking happy under temporary 60W flood light. Next step for the cupboard is to cut intake and exhaust holes, and lightproof the doors. I ordered an inline fan, ducting, and a new light this week. Carbon filters are out of stock everywhere

[Green]

Week 9.

A few additions to the cupboard, 240W light, exhaust fan and scrog net.

Did the last top dress and switched to 12/12 today. Feed alternates between plain water and molasses/seagro mix. I'm thinking of getting a bloom booster for weeks 3-7 of flower, will probably go with this https://zootly.co.za/product/freedom-farms-fire-juice-500ml/

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Green

[Stinger96]

Looking good there bud.. well done so far..

[The_StonedTrooper]

Nice setup and grow, well done!

Very neat and you have happy plants and your training is decent

[PsyCLown]

Looking good!  

[Green]

Thanks everyone!

My main concern now is humidity. It's been overcast in Cape Town the past few days and I live 2km away from the ocean. Today it's raining and humidity is at 70% in the room. Is this a big problem? I really don't want to spend more on dehumidifiers etc. 

What can I use to cover my passive intake, that will not obstruct airflow too much but catch dust and also be lightproof? 

[PsyCLown]

11 minutes ago, Green said:

Thanks everyone!

My main concern now is humidity. It's been overcast in Cape Town the past few days and I live 2km away from the ocean. Today it's raining and humidity is at 70% in the room. Is this a big problem? I really don't want to spend more on dehumidifiers etc. 

What can I use to cover my passive intake, that will not obstruct airflow too much but catch dust and also be lightproof? 

Light proof is a bit difficult, but panty hose could work (a few layers).

Would probably be one of the easier options.

[The_StonedTrooper]

6 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

Light proof is a bit difficult, but panty hose could work (a few layers).

Would probably be one of the easier options.

Great thinking brother

[Green]

Week 10, flower week 1. Not much to add, defoliated to clean the bottom up and removed a few leaves from the canopy too.

[MrE]

I love your setup!

[Pants]

That’s awesome. Great way to build up the grow space as needed


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[PsyCLown]

Looking good!  

 

You will likely need to defol again in 2 or 3 weeks.

[Green]

Thanks guys :)

On 3/15/2021 at 9:35 AM, PsyCLown said:

You will likely need to defol again in 2 or 3 weeks.

Yeah, the plan was to defol in week 1 and week 3 of flower only, but they're in week 2 now and could maybe use another?

The cupboard is now 99.9% lightproof, does it have to be 100%? I've read a few articles that stress the importance of having NO leaks, while it doesn't really come up in most sources.

Humidity steadily at 55-65%. This has brought some tiny bugs out of the pots. I think they are springtails, apparently they're completely harmless and live in humid conditions feeding off mold and fungi. Hundreds of tiny jumping dots:

 

 

[CreX]

99% is pretty good. Most tents leak light somewhere... either pin prick holes or through the zip or through a ducting sock . 

as long as you do not disturb them during lights off you will have a good happy harvest.

 

As for defoliating, i can easily see the floor through your canopy, so if anything, your canopy is a bit bare and doesnt need any defol now... maybe in a few weeks as suggested