#1 Stealth Dresser Growbox - Afghan Kush Ryder Auto By WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Madmunchies

Well-Known Member
Hello fellow stoners, growers and the rest of the 420 community,


this would be my first actual indoor grow and journal, ever. As well as my first post on this wonderful forum, although I have been lurking around for a while before actually deciding to create an account and join everybody else on here so bear with me. :D

I'll try to update you guys as often as I can on this grow, sometimes I may not post for a couple of days or so due to all the shit that's waiting to be done every day (mainly school and a part-time job), but Ill try my best to do a daily update on the grow.

Anyway, lets cut to the chase here.
Starting of with some general information about the strain/seeds:


Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflower, feminized seeds by World of Seeds. (3 seed-pack for 24€, aprox. 32$)

40301001_6.jpg


(Visit the link from above for more detailed info.)

Sex: Feminised
THC: 22%
Lineage: Afghan Kush x Ruderalis
Genotype: Pure autoflowering indica
Resistance to Mould: High
Resistance to Pests: High
Medicinal Value: High
Effect: Very narcotic, almost "devastating".
Yield: apparently, 350-450g/m² indoor / 25-45g/plant outdoor
Height: 40-80cm



Detailed info on the setup & grow:
(It's a pretty small, but stealth box. Hey, will do the job for one plant of AKR.)

Grow space: ~48x48x42cm (inner dimensions) with reflective car windshield sunshade to reflect the light (wanted to go with mylar but I couldn't find any around where I live).

Ventilation: One PC intake fan which blows fresh air onto the plant (I think it was around 3K rpm), one 3K rpm PC fan that cools the CFL bulbs and one, a bit more powerful, PC exhaust fan. Total of three which offer fairly good air flow.

Temperatures: Lights on: min. 24°c - max. 30-31°c (both depend on outside temp.) / Lights off: min. 19-20°c - max. 25°c (also depends on outside temp.).

Humidity: Stays at about 40-50% when lights are on and 50-60% when they are off (rises to and stays at ~70% for a couple of hours after watering)

Lights & cycle: 3x 30W CFL, 2700K / 1945 Lumen on a ~2mm thick glass sheet with a homemade reflector on top of all, keeping it automated with a digital timer (currently on 20/4, I think I'll keep it that way until the end).

Soil mix: COMPO SANA® Universal (comes with perlite in it, I'd say ~30%) + added some tiny styrofoam balls for better water drainage (soil itself has a pH range of 5.5-6.5).

Potting: 4L pot (~1.06 gal, went for a smaller one due to limited space, but I think it will do just fine since there isn't really that much space for the plant to grow, right?)

Food: Only tap water or bottled water from the store (I won't use nutes since this is my first grow, I don't want to fuck things up). Although I think I'll go with bottled water since I don't have the time to boil the water, filter it, let it cool and then drop the pH levels to 6.5 every time I plan on watering my gals since water sucks around here. Don't get me wrong, I'd do way more for this plant but I just can't find that extra time. Any suggestions/experiences about this?

Training method/s: Scrogging but I'll start with it really soon so the plant can grow horizontally, under the scrog screen and then continue its way vertically to the top, so I guess that kinda counts as LST too, the only thing is that I'm not using strings to tie down branches, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. :D

Some other info:
* The box has window stripping around the back door to keep the light from escaping outside, neodymium magnets all around (both around the door and on the growbox) which keep the doors closed, has two light traps (both for intake and exhaust fans) making it impossible for light to come in or out. There is though ~50x0.1cm of space from the front side of the box, between every drawer. Light can escape a bit there because I didn't use back duck tape (but it's only noticeable if there is no other light source in the room).
* Homemade scrog net/screen (drilled holes in a custom picture frame and put up strings in a net pattern).
* Homemade gravity watering system (due to limited space, it will be hard to water the plant normally later on in its life).
* Homemade humidity increaser (just getting ready for the colder times, RH will probably be lowered by the heater in my room).
* Pencil cup sized active carbon filter (still to be made) which will be replaced with the exhaust light trap when the smell starts to kick in.
* Drawers are screwed in and the box itself as a dresser won't open from the front side, only from the back which is under my work desk.

Feel free to ask me for more info on the stuff above (how I made it, etc.), also tell me if I forgot something really obvious, my high is doing all the typing, not me. :D

*I won't post any pictures of the dresser from outside since there is quite a few people on here which would recognize it and its owner only by the looks of it. Then I'd have to deal with all their bullshit like: "uuhh, ouh, your growing drugs in your apartment?!"


Some pictures of the growbox/dresser (from the back):







(I forgot to adjust the white balance on my phone camera, that explains the yellowish effect.)

Alright, I think that's about it for the growbox itself, lets start the journal, shall we? Cheers!
By the time this thread was created, the plant was in its 4th day from being planted into soil.


Seed germination > growth (veg. and bloom) > harvest > trimming, drying, curing:

(17/10/13 00:00): I put two seeds in wet paper towels (AKR Auto and Acapulco Gold), placed it into a plastic container with a lid (thick enough not to let light through), on top of my internet router which is under my desk. So you can guess it was also pretty warm down there. Oh, and the Acapulco Gold never germinated, its been in the container for more then a week, nothing.

(18/10/13 12:00): AKR cracked open and a tiny root came out of it, aprox. 2-3mm (germinated after only 26 hours) but I had to let it sit for a while more because I still didn't have the soil I wanted to use at that time.



(20/10/13 00:00): Counting as DAY 1: Still don't have the right soil, although I had some Terra magma leftovers but it was bone dry (water would sit on top of it, it wouldn't even absorb water at all), so after a couple hours of trying to figure out how to get it wet, I finally made it absorb water by letting a potfull of it sit in a bucket of good water (after some hours it was wet enough). Then I planted the seed, root first, into a ~0.5l plastic cup.

* That was full 3 days after I let it germinate. I didn't know how much more could it stay in that germination container so I kinda panicked and planted it into the most shitty soil you could imagine (you can clearly see it from the pictures) so I don't loose my seed for nothing. (Turns out it could have easily survived for at least another day or two in there... /sigh)




(21/10/13 17:00) DAY 2: Seedling came out of the "shitty soil" and I bought the soil I have been looking for so I transplanted the seedling with only one, long root, into a brand new soil mix (name stated on top of the post)and a brand new 4L pot. I watered the plant afterwards.

* Now, I know autofowers don't like to be transplanted but this one didn't even yet get to spread the roots in any other direction but straight down. Since it was in that 0.5L plastic cup for less then a day.




(22/10/13 18:30) DAY 3: Built a Scrog screen/net for later use. Seedling seems to be doing good, hope it turns out good and that it doesn't get mad because I transplanted her. :L



(23/10/13 14:15) DAY 4: Watered the plant with some boiled, filtered and let it cool down water haha. I don't have a digital pH meter so I have to use those paper pH testing stripes, but I get it to about ~6.5 every time I water them, I hope. The seedling shows a bit of brownish color tone on one of the little leafs, don't know if its anything serious or just nothing. Hope it's nothing cause' I only noticed it when I sent the pictures to my PC for the journal.




Ugh, finally. That was a lot of typing, but hey, I like it.
Hope you guys like it too, cheers until next time!
:ganjamon:

I'll also try to get a better solution for taking pictures, this 5MP phone camera (HTC Chacha/Status) isn't something special.
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

I definitely need a new camera.

Anyway, we're on DAY 5 right now. Still can't figure out the kinda dark purplish spots on the leafs though. Good news is that two new little leafs that were born started to grow bigger and sure do look happy, oh and also I forgot to mention that I am keeping the plant about 10cm below the lights, should I place it a bit closer? I don't think they can get burned though, since the lights are on a glass sheet and the heat doesn't go through that much cause' of the fan which cools the CFL's.

Thermometer/hydrometer stays mounted to the top of the pot, temps get to about 30°c somewhere in the morning and stay like that all the way until later afternoon (unless I open the growbox door for a few cm's when nobody else is home, they it says at about 27°c). But again, it's because outside temperatures are kinda warm too (~26°c) and since the box is right below my bigass window, it sucks in fresh air from outside. As soon as outside temps drop (like they do over the night), the day temperatures in the box will drop too.

Hope that isn't too much for her to handle, is it? Cause' I've heard that this autoflower in particular is resistant to "a bit higher" temperatures, don't know if that's a myth or a fact. :icon_roll

DSC_003118.JPG


DSC_002920.JPG


DSC_002724.JPG




PS: Here's the scrog net/screen I made on the 3rd day, looks like I forgot to add it in the first post.

Scrog40.jpg
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

So, we're on 6TH day at the moment and one of my three CFL's died.
I noticed that the box temp. was staying at about 28°c throughout most of the day and usually it's a bit more than that, at about 29 or 30. So it turns out it somehow died over the nigh from 5th to the 6th day.

Now, I don't see any reason for it to die just like that. It was brand new, all three of them were when I started the grow. It was "used" and handled with extreme care. I Googled around a bit on some of the reasons CFL's die and it turns out that nothing "burned" or died from the electrical components inside it (I opened it up and everything seemed fine, but just by the looks and the smell of it. It could really be anything).

Could it die from the heat it's working in? Since there is two burn marks from the inside (outside too, on the connections) of the bulb but I think that those burn marks are there just because the bulb heats up just as any other one would, so I'm guessing it left those burn marks there just for that reason, but then again, I can't really tell.




So, my question to you guys is how long could a plant currently in its 6th day stay under just those two CFL's (when would be the best time to replace it and what would be the maximum time it could stay like that until the plant would start to show it needs more light)?
And secondly, what should I replace the third one with? Maybe with one that has a colder color specter or should I just go with the same one as before?

I'll just paste the light info here so you guys don't have to search for the ones I had written about in the first post;
Any help/advice is more than welcome.

30W CFL, 2700K / 1945 Lumen


And now for the update on the plants; leaves seem to be a bit curly on the edges but other than that it seems to just fine, or is it missing somethin? I also added some rocks I had laying around and put them on the surface of the soil so it keeps the soil top moist at least for a bit longer than usual (I did boiled the rocks firs tho in a pot so it kills anything bad on them if there is anything).

I took the first three pictures somewhere around noon today and the other three are after I watered them in the afternoon.

Before_water_-_noon_1_.JPG


Before_water_-_noon_2_.JPG


Before_water_-_noon_3_.JPG






After_water_-_afternoon_1_.JPG


After_water_-_afternoon_2_.JPG


After_water_-_afternoon_3_.JPG


Again, any feedback/advice is more than welcome, cheers! :D
 
Need advice about the curly leaves and the lights.

Pictures from yesterday (DAY 7), I'll upload today's photos later today.











Since it was so hard to help a first timer grower out on here, I had to ask some of my buddys about the curly leaves. I didn't get any specific answer but to try and water them with some mineral water because they might be missing something. So I did that, I mixed some tap and mineral water (6.5 pH), lowered the pH to 6.5 again and watered the plant, maybe it will help her.

I still don't know what to do with the lights though.
Cheers. :icon_roll
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Hey madmunchies i am subd!!!
It looks like your doing things about right. nothing really looks to wrong with her. you dont really want to fret with seedlings. they can be a little funny sometimes. your soil should have enough nutrients for the first 2-4 weeks. depends on how much whole un-composted organic matter(small pieices of wood, sphagnum moss, etc.) when watering be sure not to over water. with that sized pot you should only really need to water every 3 or 4 days. you want the soil to go through short dry periods to allow the roots to stretch and grow. over watering is the biggest and most common problem with new growers. i killed 2 plants my self when i was first starting to grow. as for how close you can have your plants to your lights. you should have it so that the plant is almost touching the glass. with cfls you can practically have them toughing you plants. my first grow was done with a cfl system. you can check it out in my signature its the second grow. also changing your lights to a bluer spectrum for vegetation it will help keep her shorter and bushier.

keep up the good work and dont give up on posting. it takes a while before they catch on to new growers. keep us updated and it will pay off. i have met some great people on here!!!

Keep it green Madmunchies!!!!:Namaste::bravo:
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Also when you keep posting updates and questions it will keep your thread at the top of the list of journals in progress. its a good place to be ;)
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Firstly, the photos from today (8TH DAY). I managed to get my friends phone to take these photos.
His camera > mine. :laughtwo:







Not sure on this one but it looks like a small nute burn?
(It looks like a little hole but it's actually a brownish mark.)





And some beauty shots. :icon_cool








Outragedpluto said:
Hey madmunchies i am subd!!!
It looks like your doing things about right. nothing really looks to wrong with her. you dont really want to fret with seedlings. they can be a little funny sometimes. your soil should have enough nutrients for the first 2-4 weeks. depends on how much whole un-composted organic matter(small pieices of wood, sphagnum moss, etc.) when watering be sure not to over water. with that sized pot you should only really need to water every 3 or 4 days. you want the soil to go through short dry periods to allow the roots to stretch and grow. over watering is the biggest and most common problem with new growers. i killed 2 plants my self when i was first starting to grow. as for how close you can have your plants to your lights. you should have it so that the plant is almost touching the glass. with cfls you can practically have them toughing you plants. my first grow was done with a cfl system. you can check it out in my signature its the second grow. also changing your lights to a bluer spectrum for vegetation it will help keep her shorter and bushier.

keep up the good work and dont give up on posting. it takes a while before they catch on to new growers. keep us updated and it will pay off. i have met some great people on here!!!

Also when you keep posting updates and questions it will keep your thread at the top of the list of journals in progress. its a good place to be


First of all, thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, which also made my day. :laughtwo:
I didn't even plant to fert her at all since this is my first grow and also this is what it says on the soil;

The added slow release fertilizer - with all main and micro nutrients -
provides balanced plant nutrition for approximately 4 - 6 weeks.
But I think that there may be too much for her to handle at this stage of life, since you can see some kind of a "burn" mark on one of the leaves, it's the second picture. Not sure if that is a nute burn or if shes missing something..

I haven't really let the soil dry out yet, I did water her aprox. every 2 days with a little bit of water but since I put stones on top it takes a bit longer for her to dry out. I won't water her so much anymore (I even had a feeling that it may be too much for her). I'll water her every time the soil under the rocks gets dry.

About the lights, yeah, I thought of going with a bluer spectrum one but just wasn't sure. I'll take one of those since I need her to get a bit more bushy. :D

And again, thank you so much for all the info! I know how it goes on the forums and I'm trying to keep updating this journal on daily bases.

Cheers man! I sure will keep it green. :blunt:
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

My semi profesional opinion would be nute burn. you should be ok as long as you dont use any more nutes for a while. you dont really want to flush it at this early of a stage. just use plain water from her on out until they show signs of slight deficiency. my plan is to do nute spikes and layering so that i wont ever have to use anything but water. the roots will have zone high in what they need so that they can get it when they want it. this will be a first for me doing this but i have done a bunch of reading and i think it should turn out great!!!

Keep it green!!!
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Yeah, probably too much for her to take at this stage. I'm gon' feed it just water till the end and I was planning on going hydro after this grow.

I'm not really familiar with your method (haven't really been looking into it too much), but good luck man! ;)
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

The seedling looks very happy. There is nothing seriously wrong. The just water advice is spot on. So is the advice to let the soil dry out between watering. The plants like dry well-drained soil. They don't grow well in a bog or marsh.

Like the clean setup. You should do quite well with it. +reps for a thoughtful and well executed early grow.
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

I will definitely take that advice. For the next grow (if soil), I'll try to buy those air pots so the roots could expand as much as they can and also so they could get daily air doses once they get to the edges of the pot.

Thanks man, I put a lot into making of it so I don't get heat or any other kind of box climate related problems later on. :Rasta:

On topic: I'll capture and upload todays photos (DAY 9) when the lights turn on in a few hours.
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Back with the shitty camera. :laughtwo:

Here they are, leaf edges still seem to be curling up a bit but I hope it's only the few first sets of leaves which will actually be curling since she's receiving slightly more nutes than she needs from the soil.
Lets stay positive here. :rollit:







 
This should be fun watching our grows together. They are just about the same age. You are one day older than mine. Keep up the good work man!!!
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

This should be fun watching our grows together. They are just about the same age. You are one day older than mine. Keep up the good work man!!!
Yeah, hope both turn out real good. :Rasta:


Anyhow, we're on DAY 10 today, I removed the rocks from the pot since the soil just wasn't gonna get dry any time soon if I left them on. Seems like they really do a well job on keeping that soil wet.






 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Pictures from yesterday (DAY 11):
(Shitty camera, sorry about that. :D)










And these are from 30 minutes ago, DAY 12:













They are starting to explode with new growth right about now, I'll go get one colder specter CFL this weekend. Also, its been 4 days now since she was watered for the last time, the soil is still mostly moist, hope it drys up soon so the roots don't rot..

The leaves still seem to be curling, but it's still the only "unhealthy" thing that I can find on her. Everything else seems just fine. Also, I gotta say since this is my first grow, watching such a magical plant grow and taking care of her is one of the most awesome things I got to do in a while.
:popcorn:

Cheers until next time. :ganjamon:
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

I don't think you need to worry about rot. Could be several more days before they need water. You can see how people who are constantly dumping water on the babies get into trouble!

I've got two seedlings going that were germinated in soil in pots that hold three cups. The soil was wet when I planted the seeds a week ago, they sprouted on Friday and Saturday. I still have not watered them and they look great.
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Well I'm out of worries about watering then. I was concerned because after all the watering from the start, it never came out the bottom of the pot. Probably because it wasn't enough water to make it all the way to the bottom.

I also plan to get this thingy so I can always check on the soil pH, moisture, temperature and light levels. Seems useful, I could also finally see what my exact pH is after watering.
1663828489720.png
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Those probes are notoriously inaccurate. I'm more of the "listen to the plant" school. I also think many people in soil get to fixated on pH. If you have a healthy soil environment and water that is between 7.0 and 6.2 or so the bacteria herd keeps things in order just fine. Aside from initially checking water pH, I never worry about it.
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

Those probes are notoriously inaccurate. I'm more of the "listen to the plant" school. I also think many people in soil get to fixated on pH. If you have a healthy soil environment and water that is between 7.0 and 6.2 or so the bacteria herd keeps things in order just fine. Aside from initially checking water pH, I never worry about it.
Well, that's a good method too, I do it the same way, but I just wanted to know some more info on the soil, water and a few other things this meter can tell you. Since it does not work accurately, I'll just stick with the current options. The AKR seems to be doing fine and isn't showing any signs of bad water so it's not a biggie.

Anyway, here are some shots from a few minutes ago. I just had to take these few extra ones cause' I got my hands on a better camera for a few minutes and the pictures just look.. uhh, I don't even know how to describe this level of beauty.













:yahoo:
 
Re: #1 Stealth dresser growbox, Afghan Kush Ryder auto. by WoS - CFL/LST/Scrog

hello mate, great work! your setup seems clean and great, and your plant seems great and fast growing!

I made tons of research before buying my equipment and seeds, and it seems that autoflowering strains don't like training, so I would not SCROG autoflowering plants. they do not have a long enough vegetative period. with auto's i suggest that you just let them do their thing bro.

remember, auto's don't depend on light cycles to trigger flowering stage, so the bigger they are when they flower, is the yield you are going to harvest.

i'm subbed to your journal and will keep an eye on your posts so keep that excellent work
cheers!
 
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