4x4 Tent Grow: Grape Ape, Strawberry Cough and Snow Dog

[Pedestrian]

Rather than attempting to convert my closet into a mediocrely efficient grow area (as I've usually done in the past), I decided to let all my clothes keep their home and went with a 4x4 grow tent from Sunhut for my soil Grape Ape, Strawberry Cough and Snow Dog grow.

Details:

- 4x4 Sunhut Grow Tent
- 125W 4-bulb T5 fixture for seedlings/future cloning
- 400W MH ballast/hood from Sunsystems + T5 fixture for vegging
- 600W HPS ballast/hood from Sunsystems for flowering
- 6" inline fan for exhaust
- Coming soon: 6" inline fan for air cooled HPS hood
- Happy frog organic soil


I'm still up in the air for nutes... I have some Pure Blend vegging nutrient laying around I was thinking of using, but I ideally would like to go for something fully organic. I am open to any suggestions/recommendations anyone has.

I started germinating them on 12/22, and of the 20 seeds, 19 germinated successfully (well, technically all 20 did, but I accidently dropped one down the sink). I potted them into their starter pots on 12/24, and as of yesterday (12/26) all 19 have sprouted and are looking healthy. I'll put up the 400W in about a week or two, and veg them in the small containers until they start pre-sexing. I'm hoping to get at least 7 females, and ideally 9. I'll toss the ladies into the big pots and let them spread out and get bushy for a couple weeks before I put up the 600W HPS.

So, I am hoping to have new pictures up at least 1-2 times per week with updates. Here are some pics of the setup as of now with the new sprouts. Thanks to anyone who wants to follow along!

 

[dogstick]

Nice setup, How tall is your tent and do you like it? My GL120 kinda blows due to pin hole light leaks. I thought they had fixed that and if so not good enough. Looking foward in watching you throw down, gl

 

[Pedestrian]

Thanks dogstick! The tent is 8' tall, and overall I am pretty content with it. The only qualm I have is that I was a little disappointed with the frame- there were several fitment issues, and the entire thing seems slightly unstable and "wobbly." I was paranoid at first worried that the frame wouldn't be able to support the weight of the tent cover and all the equipment, but so far it's been holding everything fine, and with not too too much buckling. Other than that, I am very pleased with the quality of the actual tent cover; it is a very efficient/well thought out design, great build quality, lets pretty much NO light permeate, and when zipped up it seals very well (you can tell this in the first picture by how much the walls are being sucked in from the vacuum created by the exhaust fan). Even though I've never used any other purpose-built grow tents, I would feel comfortable recommending this one to anyone who is in the market.

 

[TwystedPair]

Hi. I'm brand new to the forum, and to growing in general. I've just started to work on the spot that I'll be using to grow, and am still in the early planning phase. Your tent is really cool. I didn't know they existed. I am VERY interested in growing Grape Ape, which is kind of a mythical creature for me and my friends. I live in CO, and have only seen this strain one time, and we have been looking for it ever since. I just got my medicinal license a few weeks ago, and would like to start my growing project by the end of January. I look forward to following your progress. Good luck!!

 

[dogstick]

So they must of changed the inside casue they used to put off odor. I heard the early Growlabs had the issue of pinholes so might have gotten one of those. The frame is sturdy said to hold 100lbs. I got about 6 lbs on it if that. I throw a cover on the front of it during the off time to seal the pinholes but sucks it comes to that and duct tape doesnt seem to hold.

 

[Pedestrian]

Yeah, if it gets to the point where you have to almost make another tent on top of your tent, it somewhat defeats the point of getting the tent in the first place. When did you buy your tent?

 

[onthe420train]

Hey man - nice tent...

I have a homebox and it has some pin holes that light will shine out of the tent through but its not nearly enough to interrupt a flowering cycle... still I keep the overhead lighting off during night and use lamps only... lol talk about random.

anyways your setup is dope sauce amigo

 

[Pedestrian]

I actually noticed just a few pinholes leaking light last night when I decided to turn all the lights off in my apartment (I usually leave a little bit of light on when I sleep, so hadn't noticed until now), but it is very minimal. But I can see how a lot of those pinholes could be cause for concern.

 

[onthe420train]

yeah also if you overlap the interior flaps right they should cover all the pinholes - unless you buy cheap ebay tent I got one of those and it blew.

 

[Pedestrian]

Day 6 Update:

All of the babies are coming up quite nicely, with the exception of one of the sprouts that died because it couldn't shed its seed shell. A couple of them are definitely coming up faster than the rest, so I'm going to keep my eye on them in the future in case they are males rather than just really strong females.

Now one of the seedlings is a little bit of a freak (the one in the last picture). When it sprouted, it had 3 starter leaves instead of two, but then grew 3 fan leaves instead of two, and it looks like it's continuing to grow 3 leaves per node. Does anyone know if this a somewhat common abnormality? It seems to be perfectly healthy so far, so I am excited to see if it will continue to grow like this throughout its life. I hope this means it would have that many more growing shoots!

 

[Screwnuts33]

Nice setup. Are you planning to finish all of them in the tent? I started 20 in my 4x8 tent and all was well until I went 12/12. I ran out of room very fast. Now I am down to 10 and it is packed tight. Best of luck.

 

[Pedestrian]

Well, it depends on how many end up being female. I am planning to flower them in the tent, but I figured the max I'd want to try in the 4x4 area is 9. If your 4x8 tent is packed tight with 10, then I'm sure mine would be overflowing. If it turns out that more than 9 are female, I may reconsider vegging them too tall and just go for a pseudo SOG grow.

 

[NewGrower1]

I like your setup! Leaves are looking good.

 

[sublime42x89]

Looking good man.. I'm interested in seeing how that tri-leafed sprout turns out..

 

[Pedestrian]

Day 9 Update:

I decided to put up the 400W two days ago to let these guys start bulking up. I was quite amazed to see the rate at which they are growing increase so dramatically so quickly with the bigger light; they are loving it!

 

[sublime42x89]

Looking awesome man, quite an explosion of growth. Mine have been amazing me over the past few days with growth as well. I've been checking on them every few of hours or so and they look bigger every time, I'm loving it.

 

[Pedestrian]

Oh I bet, now that yours are finally stabilized and back to health, they can put all that energy into some marvelous growth... especially with your hydro setup.

 

[kailpot]

Nice tidy setup you got there! Like the choice of strains too I'll be watching this one. good luck!

 

[Pedestrian]

Update: Day 11

I decided to replace the 400W MH light I was using with a 600W HPS remote ballast w/ MH conversion bulb and Sunsystems air cooled hood. The 400W had the ballast built into the hood, so was very heavy and a pain in the ass to adjust the height on. Plus, it didn't have the inlet/outlet to attach an inline fan for ventilation. The 600W hood is light enough to adjust the height easily, and now I have my 6" fan venting through the hood. I feel much better/safer about this setup, as now I no longer am worried about the chains or tent not being strong enough to support the weight and letting the light fall onto my crop... on top of the benefits of lower temps and more Watts

I hit the plants with their first dose of nutes today, and they are continuing to come up happily and healthily. I used a medium strength dose of the nutes for the first time, and will do so for the next few waterings.

And another pic of the 3 leaved freak

 

[FrostyBuds]

That's a nice and clean setup. I'll be following.

For the pinhole light leaks common on most tents, get some fabric repair tape and cover up the holes. Works great. Most outdoor stores carry it. Duct tape works if you don't mind the adhesive residue that can happen when the tent gets warm but that's why I don't use the duct tape. Another option use silicon to apply "patch" cut out of black nylon fabric it dries and stays flexible and on the tent.