Iluvsnow's 1st Grow - DIY Double-Decker Cab - Multi-Strain - DWC - CFL

[iluvsnow]

Hello all! Thanks for stopping by to check out the experiment in progress that is my first grow. I've spent a lot of time reading the forums here (just ask the wife) and have learned a ton. You guys are awesome and hopefully I can help someone else out by documenting what I've done so far. This has been a rewarding learning experience that was GREATLY aided by this site. I would like to start this journal to hopefully help out the other n00bs out there, as well as to get all this information down in one place for [what's left of] my own sanity.

The cabinet is built into an otherwise wasted area in our master closet:

Here's the quick and dirty:
What strain is it? Blueberry (80/20 Indica dominant), Khalifa Kush (Hybrid) and Afghani (Indica), Speed Bud (?)
If in Veg... For how long? Khalifa Kush was a clone rooted 10/12, Speed Bud popped 11/24, Afghani popped 11/28
If in Flower stage... For how long? Three Blueberries in flower since 11/29, one popped 9/25, other two 10/27
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Hydro, 5-gallon DWC
Size of light? Veg: 250 watt (actual) CFL, two 23 watt CFLs. Flower: Eight 23 watt CFLs and two 68 watt CFLs
Is it aircooled? 6" inline fan and carbon filter
Temp of Room/cab? from low 70s to mid 80s
RH of Room/cab? with recent humidifier addition, about 40%
PH of media or res? pH to 5.8 at weekly res change, only corrected if pH climbs above 6.4
Any Pests ? an occasional gnat
Type and strength of ferts used? JR Peter's Jack's Hydroponic 5-12-26 @ 3g/gal, calcium nitrate @ 2g/gal, epsom salt @ 1g/gal, Dutch Master Gold Zone and Silica

It all started with five regular DJ Short Blueberry seeds.

I learned all about sexing plants, root rot, the importance of good air pumps and stones, which left me with this lone girl shown here, getting fried under the 900 watt Mars II I have, which is way too big for my space:

I cobbled together this awful looking light and she perked right up. CFL it is, I guess. During my plant frustrations with the first five BB seedlings, I popped two more, which I have put into flower with the big girl.

Up top I have the Khalifa Kush, which was grown from a clone taken from a late flowering mother. I tied down three branches TOTAL and the thing monstered out into the beast you see before you. I plan on using it for a clone machine for a while if I can keep it contained in my limited area. The three seedlings are next to it (two Afghanies and the Speed Bud in the middle) and I have a bubble cloner tucked into the corner that is working well, but the Khalifas are taking a LONG time to root. These were put into the cloner 11/21 and only two of the Khalifas are showing any roots while the only two BB clones in there are busting out. Oh well, I have time.

Thanks for looking! Comments, questions, suggestions welcome. Have a great evening 420ers.

 

[Seraphim]

Oh looki here!! I am on the front row!!! Subbed sir!

 

[akisunni]

packing a bowl, and getting comfortable for the show...

 

[iluvsnow]

Welcome! It's good to have some experienced folks in here. I'll try to keep it interesting!

 

[Seraphim]

Hey so.. I am concerned about your space. You have any idea how big a plant in a 5gal DWC gets when flowered? (Hint: Very large) Are you going to have enough when they double or triple in size during flower? This is compounded by the number of plants.

I know you said you have an inline fan and a carbon filter but where is your fresh air coming from? I also didn't see any fans for moving air around inside the grow area; did I miss them?

Cheers!

 

[iluvsnow]

Thanks for the comments. I share your concern.

I have a 6" clip fan up top and an 8" fan mounted to the wall in the bottom cab. The air is pulled in from my closet, which is about 10'x6', and is vented through the top and into the attic. So far that end seems to be working decent, I have a fan controller which I can usually dial in so that temps don't get too crazy. I recently added a humidifier, which is on the closet floor and seems to help with both upper and lower cabinets as long as the fan isn't on too high and pulling out all the humid air.

I knew things were gonna be tight. Each cabinet is about five feet tall total, 41" wide and 22" deep. I messed up with that big Blueberry and let it veg for way too long. Luckily it's supposed to be a shorter strain, but I don't know if it's gonna be short enough to make up for my space limitations. I have a 900 watt Mars II that I'm going to use in another cabinet I'm building in a guest room that will give me almost eight feet of height. I'm also scared of what that monstrosity of a Khalifa Kush is going to look like when it gets going.

I also have too many plants. My initial thoughts were to start a small SOG grow beside the big BB down below, but my timing was off. Now I'll probably end up tossing the clones that haven't rooted yet. I'll still have two KK and two BB clones, so I'll probably just do something with those. The Afghani seeds were free from Herbie's (they're awesome!) and the Speed Bud is some auto that I picked up for fun. I'm not too concerned with those three, so if they go I won't be heartbroken. That still leaves me with too many plants. I guess that's a good problem to have, to a degree.

I've been putting out fires as they've come up during this entire grow, so I guess this is just one more. Flying by the seat of the pants is how I roll, I guess.

Enjoy your evening!

 

[akisunni]

Save the clones, build another small space and put them under lower levels of CFL lighting. The idea is to "Not" grow them, as much as keep in a viable state for later. My own Veg space is inside my Desk. I expect to grow clones in it "slowly" as needed. It will give me a chance to try out some different approaches, while I wait for space to free up in my grow space. You can do the same.

This is inside my desk.

 

[CoNerd]

Thanks for the comments. I share your concern.

I have a 6" clip fan up top and an 8" fan mounted to the wall in the bottom cab. The air is pulled in from my closet, which is about 10'x6', and is vented through the top and into the attic. So far that end seems to be working decent, I have a fan controller which I can usually dial in so that temps don't get too crazy. I recently added a humidifier, which is on the closet floor and seems to help with both upper and lower cabinets as long as the fan isn't on too high and pulling out all the humid air.

Super huge warning here. You are likely creating a mold bomb in your attic. Pumping warm, humid air directly into the typical attic is likely to cause a huge outbreak of mold within a few months. A year later, everything in the attic will be covered in black mold. Never vent your grow into your house's structure. You'll end up with a sick building, then a sick family. You won't be able to sell the house if spore counts are high.
Put ducts in the attic and vent to the outside of the structure if you haven't already done so. Good luck and take care.

 

[iluvsnow]

Super huge warning here. You are likely creating a mold bomb in your attic. Pumping warm, humid air directly into the typical attic is likely to cause a huge outbreak of mold within a few months. A year later, everything in the attic will be covered in black mold. Never vent your grow into your house's structure. You'll end up with a sick building, then a sick family. You won't be able to sell the house if spore counts are high.
Put ducts in the attic and vent to the outside of the structure if you haven't already done so. Good luck and take care.

Thanks. I'll snag some ducting from the Home Despot and correct that ASAP. I live in a very dry climate and have been spoiled by not having to worry much about mold. I'll turn off the humidifier until then. Sketchy stuff.

Akisunny, thanks for the idea. We have stuff growing everywhere indoors, so I can probably find a spot without too much trouble. I'd be trespassing on the wife's turf then, though

 

[Sir Budlovski]

Just checked your grow out, looks like your growing your ladies very nicely good work on that
Extra advice you can get here speeds and helps things out greatly
Hope things go great for you bud

 

[iluvsnow]

Just checked your grow out, looks like your growing your ladies very nicely good work on that
Extra advice you can get here speeds and helps things out greatly
Hope things go great for you bud

Thanks man! It's a learning process, that's for sure.

 

[iluvsnow]

I had a Fox News level of fear instilled in me when CoNerd mentioned the mold thing, so I went up into the attic. Zero signs of mold, thankfully. Not even moisture over the cabinet's outlet. Thank you, desert climate. I will still figure something else out for the exhaust to get it done properly.

In the meantime, a couple of questions:
For all you SCROG guys, when do you stop manipulating the tops in your net? My girls have been in flower for eleven days now and I'm still bending the big one. Is it time to stop?

Why the hell do the leaves on the two BB seedlings look like this?

From what I've read DJ Short's BB is not the easiest to grow, and has a tendency to hermie and generally get all weird while growing. These two haven't really been stressed like the ones from the big BB's group, so I think it might just be genetics. The leaves on the two seedlings also look fatter than the big BB's leaves, which look more sativa-like. They both seem to be doing fine so I'm not really sweating it. But as of today I can confirm that both the seedlings are female!

Have a great day and thanks for all your help, 420 community!

 

[CoNerd]

Sorry about the alarm level. I live in CO and it's also very dry, but a week of humid weather is all it takes. Having it dry out every night is likely to have saved you.

We had FEMA inspect our flooded basement last year and it put a permanent fear of mold into me. That and several Holmes on Homes episodes where people vented bathrooms into their attic. Result was - Remove the building roof, and all insulation, and mechanical removal of all the mold from all wood surfaces in the attic. Unpainted wood, insulation and moisture make the perfect habitat for mold. It's pretty easy to prevent and very expensive to fix.

Cheers!

 

[iluvsnow]

No sweat. I should have done that to begin with and I'm thankful you called attention to it. It was certainly an "oh fu*k" moment. I'm debating swapping out the 6" setup for an equivalent 4" setup and using my current stuff in another cabinet I'm building, which will also use my 900 watt Mars II. I would then just vent into another room and seal up that hole in my ceiling nice and tight.

Do you guys think a 4" would serve me well to vent both upper and lower spaces if I were to put the fan/filter at the very top of the top cabinet? This would also free up a lot of room taken up by the duct that goes to the lower cabinet. I would seal the vent in the upper cabinet and turn the hole currently used by the duct to create a vent going to the lower cabinet, which has a vent at floor level.

 

[iluvsnow]

Hi! I figured an update was in order as there have been some changes around here.

Firstly, CoNerd inspired me to fix my ventilation issue sooner rather than later, which I did. The vent now goes through the roof and safely out of my mold-free attic. I should have known better on that one.

I'm pretty sold on the efficacy of DWC, but I'm not so sure it's the best method for me and my setup. I may also ditch the SCRoG, we'll see. I really don't like being forced to work with plants that cannot be moved. I've decided to give hempy a try on the next go. Seraphim, you're at least a little bit to blame on that one. I'm tempted to try your smart hempy, but I think I should really fight the urge to modify things I've never even tried. I have a tinkering problem.

Pictures!

Not much has changed in the flower room, I did some more pruning and supercropped the smaller BBs to hopefully keep them from turning into monsters. I cracked the stem on the bigger BB while manipulating the branches in the SCRoG, so I used some electrical tape to fix it. Doh.

Here are a couple of pictures of the smaller BBs. It looks like the smaller ones are a different pheno than the bigger one. The bigger one hasn't had any leaf mutations and has thinner leaves. The two smaller ones both have freak leaves and fatter, more indica-looking leaves. It'll be interesting to see how the final product differs.

In the veg room I trimmed the hell out of the Khalifa, and I also moved it to a new home downstairs in the veggie grow space. The missus was gracious enough to share her space. She admitted that we can just go to the grocery store for all that stuff, what I'm working on is a little harder to come by. KK now lives next door to peppers and gets 125 watts of CFL instead of 250. I'm fine if it slows down growth at this point. Even after a haircut this thing is still wild.

I shuffled the remainder around to make room, which is still pretty tight. I moved four of the clones (two each of BB and KK) into a rectangular bin with two airstones and 1/4 strength nutes. I'll let them veg here for a couple of weeks, then I'll reevaluate my space and how things are going. I should be able to start the new space soon, so maybe by that time I can have it all ready to go. We shall see.

The three tiny ones may or may not make it. Afghani and Speed Bud are looking pretty rough. I'm going to give hempy a try by transplanting these three. If they make it that's great, but if they don't I won't be upset. I'd like more variety but I only have so much room.

That's it for the grow for now. Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Seraphim]

... Seraphim, you're at least a little bit to blame on that one. I'm tempted to try your smart hempy, but I think I should really fight the urge to modify things I've never even tried. I have a tinkering problem.

I am honored to have caused this.

Have fun man and don't be afraid to try something new. That is how I tried the hempy buckets. And I think those who've done both would agree that hempy is easier than DWC. So if you can get good results from DWC, hempy should not be difficult at all for you. I will say I would expect better yield from the DWC.

Incidentally, I am not doing hempy anymore myself. Went back to good'ol mother earth.

Congrats on getting the ventilation issue resolved.

Looking good in there!

 

[iluvsnow]

Thanks! I forgot that you were planning on going dirty. I'll get there eventually I'm sure. I think being a die hard fanboy of any one growing method or technique is limiting and counter productive. I think hempy might give me the technical side that I like about DWC without all the drama of high reservoir temps and transferring water all the damn time. Yield is secondary, and I'm sure I'll produce plenty for our use either way. I'm at the stage now where everything is new and I'm just trying to keep myself reigned in from going wild. Just look at how many plants I have.

Thanks again for all your help and for checking out my grow! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody.

 

[iluvsnow]

New Room! New stuff!

A long overdue update. I hope everyone had a good holiday, whatever that may have meant. It's been a busy couple of weeks to be sure. First off, big addition to the grow space:

Just go right ahead and ignore that big mess in the corner. It's a work in progress. I used 2x4s to frame and cedar fence slats on the outside. The inside is panda film with a tarp bottom. I'll have a fan in few days. It's housing my Mars II 900 watt, which is currently being somewhat wasted on these girls:

These are the two freebie Afghanis, the Speedbud and the lone Blueberry clone that was worth saving, all in their new hempy homes. I was really close to tossing the Afghanis out because I really wasn't kind to them in the beginning and it showed, but they have both taken off since transplant into the hempies. One of them didn't even have roots coming out of the rockwool after about three weeks in DWC. These are some tough seedlings. Hopefully at least one will be a female.

The flower room is looking good. Here is a progression:

They're really starting to get frosty. The smell is amazing, it reminds me of Trix or Fruity Pebbles cereal.

The two smaller flowering BBs decided to go he-she one me. Here's a ball shot:

I pinched them off and have been keeping a close eye on them. I knew going in that this strain was finicky, so It's no surprise. I'm not taking any clones from this pheno just because I don't want to have to mess with sexing a female plant more than I have to.

The Khalifa is hanging in there. She's looking a little dejected after the massive defoliation I gave her this morning. I'll be flowering her under the Mars II starting in a week or so. I have to shuffle some stuff around.

The upper veg cabinet is doing well. BB clones taken 11/21 on the left, Khalifa Kush on the right. I broke a bud off during the last bending under the SCROG, so I stuck it in the bubble cloner for the hell of it. It seems to be doing fine, hopefully this will get me another monster cropping plant like my Khalifa.

On a side note, the CFLs are killing me. They certainly have their place and are great to use in certain situations, but in quantity they suck power (even the most efficient ones, which are the 23 watt versions) and create more heat than I care for. Not to mention every time I'm working around them I hear them bump into each other, and I'm totally paranoid that I'll break one in the cabinet. That would blow. Since we have a money tree in the backyard, and because I'd rather get something to save energy rather than wasting money on avoidably spent energy, I convinced the better half that we need one of these:

P150 :: Platinum Grow Lights

420Mag discount! Oh hell yeah! It's not the biggest light, but I'm ditching those stupid CFLs in the veg tent the nanosecond that light gets to me. Hopefully the yield will benefit and not suffer, but at this point I'm just gonna let it ride. The big BB is gonna be way too hard to move to the new flower room intertwined in the SCROG the way it is and I can tell that the CFLs are not diffuse enough. I can definitely tell the flowers closest to the lights are getting frostier than those farther away. With both switches on the Platinum P150 will draw about the same as six CFLs. I have sixteen just in the flower cabinet. You know that cutscene in Christmas Vacation, the one where Clark's lights come on for that brief moment, and they have to activate the auxiliary supply for the nuclear reactor? Do you remember that split-second shot in that scene where Clark's power meter just spun and spun while the lights were running? You get the picture.

After this cycle I will have the mother/clone cabinet in the top, veg in the bottom and the new flower room. Good times! I will also be picking up some clones this weekend! GSC Thin Mint, Banana Kush, Death Star and Strawberry Cough. These girls will be going straight into hempies and vegged for 3-4 weeks, I'd guess. I still have some shuffling around to do. This has turned into quite the project.

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[J189RFC]

I'm waiting on a bigger LED right now too! Makes so much more sense for small spaces IMO. Looks like you have a lot going on, should be fun!

 

[PakaCordova]

I hear ya on the CFLs. I just placed my order for two mars hydro 100x3w for my 4'x2'x5' tent. I will pick up another set for the flowering when the time comes. I started off with just wanting to build a space bucket and ended up with an entire room dedicated to growing.

That was a smart move to build a larger flower room. I was worried when I saw the limited space in your closet cabinet thing.