Caconym's Multi-Strain Compact Soil Grow 2017

[Caconym]

Right, I thought it was about time I started a journal, so here we go...

I'm growing in a 0.75m w x 1m d x 0.8m h box. I live in a small attic room and to make the most out of the space when I moved in I built a timber framework for fitted cupboards and a bed. There's a nice void at the end of the bed under where the roof comes down that joins into the side of the cupboards so I've used the space to bodge together a grow box.

Hopefully my not-to-scale sketch makes the layout clear.

In the box I've got a 4" fan and filter for exhaust, and a PC fan for intake. I started out with 600W of CFLs but I will soon be moving onto DIY COB LEDs.

What strain is it? Various strains
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Mixed genetics
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? In veg
If in Veg... For how long? Less than two weeks
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Canna seedling soil
If soil... What size pot? Tiny fibre pots to start, transplanting up to 3.8l root nurse fabric pots
Size of light? Currently 300W 6400K CFL with reflector, upgrading to 220W of LED awesomeness ASAP
Temp of Room/cab? 20-27°C
RH of Room/cab? 40-55%
PH of media or res? Haven't checked
Any Pests? Nope
How often are you watering? Once or twice a day depending on need
Type and strength of ferts used? Budweiser King of Crops at 0.5ml/L - this is a micronutrient feed made from organic material I was gifted by my friendly local grow shop. I'm moving onto canna veg nutes one the plants are established.

I currently have 3 seedlings in the box and another three seeds planted in soil which should pop up either today or tomorrow (fingers crossed). The strains growing now are all from Royal Queen Seeds:
Fruit Spirit - Blueberry x White Widow - 60% sativa
White Widow - 50% sativa
Critical Kush - Critical Mass x OG Kush - 80% indica

The three waiting to sprout are Blue Dream and Bubba Kush from HSO and a G13 C99.

 

[Caconym]

Made some upgrades to my ventilation system yesterday, moved my exhaust fan and filter to make more space and upgraded from an 80mm intake to 140mm with a dust screen.

Inside and outside views of the old 80mm fan

The 140mm fan and filter assembly I built to make it easier to mount/unmount the whole thing

Inside and outside views of the 140mm fan in place.

You can see the old hole for the exhaust duct at the bottom, moved it to the top of the space as I hang my filter from the ceiling and I had a load of acoustic ducting flapping about everywhere

Everything back in the box with the fan and filter tucked up in the corner

Three Royal Queens enjoying the breeze

 

[Caconym]

Been out and about buying bits and bobs for my DIY COB build today, came home to find three tiny green sprouts .

From left to right:
Humboldt Seed Organisation - Bubba Kush
Genetics: Afghan x OG Kush 100% Indica
19-24% THC
0.1% CBD
Flowering 58-63 days

Humboldt Seed Organisation - Blue Dream
Genetics: Blueberry x Haze 70% Sativa/30% Indica
19% THC
0.1% CBD
Flowering 65-70 days

G13 Labs - Cinderella 99 (C99)
Genetics: Jack Herer x Haze mostly Sativa
Flowering 50-55 days

I'm going to give them another day in the propagator to come round and then chuck 'em straight in with the other three girls.

Temps are still down a couple of degrees since I improved my ventilation system.

 

[Caconym]

All 6 girls are in the box now. Picked up some rhizotonic yesterday, gave them all a feed at 2ml/l with 0.5ml/l budweiser.

 

[Chipay]

Looks pretty awesome! I want to see how you manage to use the space. Isn't that way too many plants?
What is your plan?

 

[Caconym]

Hi Chipay, I plan to do a very short veg, combined with early topping and LST. I'm sure it will still be a tight squeeze towards the end!

 

[MrMango]

Bloody love the DIY ethic, considering something similar to make a dedicated vegging space.

Saw you're using jiffy cups for the seedlings; I found mine dried out rapidly as they tend to wick moisture away from the soil. Gonna swap up to solo cups for future grows .

 

[Caconym]

Hi MrMango
I like that the fibre pots dry out faster, stops me fretting about overwatering. I'm hoping that the porosity will allow more oxygen to the roots.

 

[Caconym]

Quick update.

Top
Left HSO Bubba Kush, right G13 Labs C99
Middle
Left Royal Queen Fruit Spirit, right HSO Blue Dream
Bottom
Left Royal Queen Critical Kush, right Royal Queen White Widow

The Fruit Spirit is oldest of the six, not sure how old exactly maybe three weeks or so. She got off to a bad start, she's in really poor quality soil and grew upside down when she first sprouted. The tap root came straight up out of the soil so I had to dig her up and replant her. I think she was low on nitrogen to start with as well due to the bad soil. She's been slowly coming round. She could do with potting up but I'm trying to keep her growth slow so the other plants can catch up a bit. I topped her for the second time yesterday.

The Critical Kush and White Widow were planted 17 days ago and broke soil two weeks ago today. They look to be doing well to me, no major issues so far. They looked a touch pale a few days ago but I've started weak veg nutes since and they're improving. The white widow has a couple of leaves that are a bit crinkly, not sure what this means but the other leaves look fine and she's growing at a similar rate to the Critical Kush so I'm assuming they're just stunted somehow and she'll sort herself out as she gets bigger. I topped them for the first time today. They will be ready to pot up in the next few days but again I'm going to hold off to let the younger girls catch up a bit.

The two HSO strains and the C99 are a week old today (planted 10 days ago) and are all going strong. There's not much difference between them at this point.

Nutes wise, all six are getting Canna rhizotonic at 4ml/l, Budweiser King of Crops at 0.5ml/l and Canna terra vega at 2.5ml/l. Lights are on 20 hours a day. Temps are ranging between 26-33°C at canopy level during lights on and 26-30°C during lights off at the moment. I can't really do much about this as outside temps are hitting 28-29° in the afternoons which is unusually hot.

Should get my LEDs finished and installed tomorrow dependent on a delivery arriving. This should speed up growth a bit and help with temperatures.

 

[Caconym]

I've got a tray of iced water sitting in the draught from my intake and it's taken 3-4° off my canopy temps.

 

[Caconym]

Got my LEDs installed today and potted up the three older girls into 3.8l fibre pots. Thought they could use the extra room now that they're getting better light. Fed all six with rhizotonic, Budweiser and varying concentrations of veg nutes. Looking forward to seeing how they respond to the new lights.

 

[Caconym]

I can see new growth after just a day under the LEDs which is fantastic. Temps are still a little high however. I think I'm going to have a battle on my hands all summer by the looks. I keep adjusting the dimming during the hottest periods to keep below 30°C.

Fruit Spirit

Critical Kush

White Widow

C99, Bubba Kush and Blue Dream

 

[MrMango]

Looking real nice Caconym you can really see the difference in growth under the new cob setup .

I too have struggled with the recent heatwave we've been experiencing, but managed to counter it by improving the air flow. Where are you venting your exhaust to? Is the room sealed?

The Fruit Spirit is looking really strong, ideal time to start some LST! What are your plans for training?

 

[Caconym]

Cheers MrMango I'm astonished, I can literally see the growth from day to day at the moment.

I've got a 4 inch fan and filter pulling air from the box and ducting running to the other end of the attic bedroom the box is in. Usually the room is cool enough for the box to sit at a near optimum temperature. There's no way I can get outside air directly into the box, I rely on air exchange through the open window. I've got a 140mm PC fan for my intake rated about half the airflow of my (unloaded) exhaust fan. The box is probably about as airtight as a decent tent.

I have been toying with the idea of a bigger exhaust fan but it would cost me valuable space in the box especially as I'd have to get a bigger filter as well. I'm also considering getting a small cool mist humidifier to go inside the box as my humidity is a little low and the evaporation of the water might help cool the box a little. Fortunately the girls are taking the high temperatures in their stride.

I think the photo of the Fruit Spirit is a little deceiving, she's nice and bushy but only about 3 inches across! I am going to start LST as soon as there's enough new growth to tie down. My plan is to top each plant twice as soon as there's space to get the scissors in, and strap the 4 resulting tops down as low as possible, removing any growth below. I did something similar with my last plant and it worked well for keeping the height down.

 

[Caconym]

I still can't believe the difference in growth under the LEDs

Blue Dream yesterday (top) vs today (bottom).

The White Widow is looking a bit crinkly, do I need to be concerned?

Took the lower growth off the Fruit Spirit to try and give the tops more room as they were a little crowded and blocking each others light.

 

[MrMango]

Wish I'd started my training earlier kinda feel like I missed the boat a bit early on!

How frequently are you watering now? The surface looks pretty moist! Are you using the dry-at-a-knuckle-deep rule? One of my issues early on proved to be going too heavy on my watering schedule. They really need the dry cycle for those roots to search out water and develop a strong ball. Read elsewhere that 'were growing roots not shoots' .

 

[Caconym]

I'm getting the training done as early as possible because I've got next to no headroom. The plants would be happier if I gave them a little more recovery time but stunting them a little while forcing their structure early on works in my favour.

The plants in the small cardboard pots are getting watered daily but they are pretty much bone dry all the way through after a day, they dry really quickly. I watered the older girls into the fabric pots yesterday and they were dry about an inch down today so I gave them a thorough soaking. I won't water them again now until the soil has pretty much completely dried up.

 

[Caconym]

Started LST on the Fruit Spirit today.

Once the growth tips are a bit longer I'll tie them individually.

The Critical Kush and White Widow are now three weeks old from breaking soil. They've had a week since I first topped them. I topped them again today and removed the lower growth.

The Critical Kush (above) is doing really well, couldn't be happier with her growth.

The White Widow (above) is not so great. I'm not sure what's causing the deformation, I've been searching about but haven't found any definitive answer. Any input would be appreciated.

The Blue Dream, Bubba Kush and C99 are 2 weeks old today. They are all coming along nicely and got topped for the first time today.

Blue Dream at the back, Bubba Kush left, C99 right.
I fed these three with 4ml/l rhizotonic, 3ml/l terra vega and 0.5ml/l Budweiser. I'll give them a couple of days to respond to the topping and then pot up to the 3.8l fabric pots.

I am still having problems with temperatures, fortunately I can run the LEDs dimmed most of the time without the plants suffering for lack of light at this stage in their growth. I am having to seriously consider upgrading my exhaust as I believe my only option to improve cooling is moving a ridiculous amount of air through the grow box.

 

[Caconym]

I still can't believe the difference in growth under the LEDs

Blue Dream yesterday (top) vs today (bottom).

Realised this is the Critical Kush, not the Blue Dream. Oops.

 

[Caconym]

Big update.

Blue Dream, Bubba Kush and C99 are 19 days old today. They've been having a very bad time recently. They all went through a couple of days where they were very pale yellow and severely wilted. They've started to perk up again now, but they've lost ground against the other girls and I think there might be some leaves shed in the next few days.

I'm not sure exactly what caused the issue, I suspect it was a combination of small pots, high temperatures, low humidity and high pH. I've transplanted them up into 3.8l fabric pots so there shouldn't be any issues with soil drying out too quickly. I've bought a humidifier as well and my humidity is now around 60% (it got as low as 32%). I also bought a pH meter and an EC meter (well overdue) and it turns out my tap water is about 7.5 and I've been feeding at 7.0-7.1.

Flushed all 6 girls through with plain tap water pHed to 6.5 with distilled vinegar and then re-fed them all with the same nutrients as last time but pHed to 6.5. I checked runoff pH and it was around 6.2. Hopefully I have now eliminated pH as an issue.

Blue Dream

Bubba Kush

C99

The White Widow and Critical Kush are 26 days old today.

The White Widow is still growing weird deformed leaves and is noticeably behind the Critical Kush. She doesn't seem to be getting any worse however.

Weird Widow

The Critical Kush is growing perfectly. I started LST on her today. She's not far off being ready to flip.

Critical Kush pre-LST

Critical Kush post-LST

Fruit Spirit is ready to flip, she's alternating nodes and branching like mad. I staked her down properly and removed a good few fan leaves that were either squashed under the plant or heavily shading growth points.

Fruit Spirit pre-trim

Fruit Spirit post-trim (sorry about the shadow)

Fruit Spirit post-LST

It's been a stressful few days but I think I'm on top of things again! And the temperatures outside are back to normal so I'm running my lights at full power all the time with no issues.

That's all for now.
Peace