Start again I guess

Seems I lost the last couple of posts that started this new grow...so I will put them back in first. . . .


it has been a couple of months since my last run here.
Problems aquiring equip and building a new permanent cabinet slowed me up conciderably.
Last run I did a T-5 grow.Turned out not bad concidering I used blue spec bulbs start to finish.
This time around I am going to go HID with a couple of different digital ballasts.
First I am running a Quantum 400 digi.(was asked to test this for a friend).Starting at 300w I will dial it up to 400w after a couple weeks.I am then going to switch up to the Quantum 600 digital and run it at 3/4 and then full at mid bud cycle,then back to 3/4 or perhaps 1/2 power to finish.
I will be using an Infinite Breeze fan for interior circulation (love the way these fans bob up and down as well as side to side) and an 8in Typhoon fan for exhaust.
The typhoon fan has it's own set of issues. . . it is freakin LOUD!!
I cant locate a variable rheostat for it here in town so I have built a sound proof (sound damping) box,to cut the noise at least somewhat.
I have popped 14 seeds of mixed Kush ancestry of wich I will keep the best ten,maybe twelve,to be transplanted in 3 gallon pots for veg and flower.Final number of course to be determined after sexing plants.
Enough preamble for this grow. . . here are some pics.

Bit of an update for you.

I finished the insulated box for the 6" Typhoon fan.It works very well,just unfortunately not well enough.
Although the sound has been cut by better than 1/2 it is still just not quite enough to make my room sound proof from my neighbors.

As I have already popped my beans, I need to have lights . . . NOW!
So I have strung my Badboy T-5 under the shade for the HID bulb and am using it on 1/2 power for the new sprouts.

Since the T-5's produce so little heat compared to the HID light, I am using a vent booster fan to suck out the heat.The local Canadian Tire only had one in stock,but when I get another of these fans,the pair of them should provide enough airflow to handle the HID light.They are thermostatically controled and super quiet.

I will post some pics of the cabinet when I get the new fan system built and installed.

Here is a pic of the Vent fan.

had a busy long weekend doing yet another reconfiguration on my cabinet.
As I am starting from seed again,I decided that starting with the 400 or 600 might be a bit harsh.
So to be expedient (read lazy) I hung the Badboy unit under the shade for the HID light.
This worked well,but it meant I had to lay on my belly to water the plants. . . not my thing at all!
You can see from the first pics how tight a space it became.
So I removed the HID shade and the ducting running to it.My new fan box is designed to hook to 8'' ducting for when I use it to cool the shade but for now I just have it drawing air from the entire cabinet with no ducting on the intake to allow the T-5 to be out of the way a bit.
The new CT fan seems to cool the T-5 lights just fine.I am picking up a second fan at the end of the week(I designed the box to hold two) and that should give me enough airflow through duct and shade to run the HID lighting when the plants are a bit bigger.
The seedlings are doing very well with only minute stretching from the T-5's.
The bigger plant in the middle was given to me when it accidently got left behind on a trip to the bush for an outdoor grow.It is some type of Skunk cross varient...see how she does

suh'weet man! looks good..nice, clean setup supporting happy/healthy plants..gotta love it!

back to the grow

Second week under the lights for the new girls.
The new vent fan exhaust seems to be working very well for the T-5's.Temps are staying in mid seventies to low eighties (ambient outdoor temps are 80+).
I will be picking up the second fan today or tomorow and installing it in the fanbox.I probably won't need to run it untill I switch to the HID light.
The girls have been fed twice now with Seaweed extract.I still prefer that as a starter food for young veg plants.Next feeding they will get a taste of some veg tea.
The SkunkX plant (big one in middle) is doing better after it's long stay lost in a cup under an apple tree.She is getting a bit leggy,but a few more top pinches should cure that.
Well this part of the grow is always a bit boring ,so thats it for now.
2 pics of the girls. . 1 pic of exhaust port. . 1 pic of fan and intake port.

looking good m8 gl with ur grow

Summer heat!!

With the ambient temps around here hovering in the low to mid thirties (celcius) I have had to tone the project down for a bit.
I am now running only 4 of the 8 tubes in the Badboy on an 18/6 cycle.
The light is off from noon to 6pm to avoid the peak day temps.
The smaller Kushx's dont seem that bothered by the warm temps but the larger Skunkx in the mix was really starting to suffer.
This whole issue is going to set back the switching to HID lighting by about a week as temps are supposed to start dropping some time later this week.
Other than that, the girls have had two shots of water and one of seaweed extract at 10ml per 2quart water container.
I will post some progress pics later in the week when everything is back up to full scale.

good looking set up. you seem pretty intune with the needs of your girls. i will be excited to see these grow into bushy monsters.

Thanks bud,I can't wait either LOL

less heat more grow. . .

our little heat wave has finally broken here and temps have dropped back into the mid 20's.

So I decided that with the temp drop and the fact that I picked up the second fan for my box,it was a good time to change from the T-5 Badboy to the new Digi ballast.

I pulled the T-5 unit out,put the HID light shade in and popped the duct back onto the shade....voila Flower Cabinet.
As a buddy sent me the Quantum Digital 400watt ballast to test,I am starting with that.
I did the switch on Saturday and set the ballast to 1/2 power or 200watts.I will leave it on 1/2 for 3 or 4 days just to let the girls adjust to the different spectrum and intensity.
I am also still on 18/6 light cycle.
Then I will switch the 400 to full power and a 12/12 cycle..I also have a 600watt digi but I think I will run that next time to give this 400 a fair run.

After observing the new setup for a couple of days,there are some adjustments I might have to work on.
Because my exhaust runs from outside the cab,through the air-cooled shade and straight out,I am not drawing any air from the cabinet itself.
I did this as it is not only a more efficient use of my low powered exhaust fans,but also as it doesnt draw any odor through the exhaust..and so no filter/scrubber required.

The down side to this is I have no humidity control now.
If it becomes a real issue I will try running a small (computer type) intake fan to see if mixing fresh air will lower humidity.If not I will of course have to install an exhaust fan and filter system.

No pics today as the light doesnt go out untill noon and I hate those yellow ass pics that sodium lights give.
So I will take some pics just after lights out and put them up tomorrow.

progress and pics

I have now switched to a 12/12 cycle and set the ballast 400watts.

The girls also got thier first taste of bloom food today with a mild dose of Pure Blend Bloom.
I have also installed the second fan in my fanbox.These two "vent booster" fans are taking care of the heat from the 400HID with no issues.They are whisper quiet too.
The temps in the cabinet are staying in the low 70's now.I will be looking around for a humidity gauge though,as this may become an issue as time goes on.

Here are some plant pics and the completed fan box

real nice m8 yu rolling now ,get in their !!!

Nice grow I will be following this one. Just under 4 weeks veg? was that due to hight constraints. Im asking because Im getting closer to that flip myself and am also at the end of week 4 veg. Thinking about one more week maybe.

That was exactly the reason bud.I know these girls give a damn good stretch when pushed to flower, and given the depth of the shade, I only have about 4ft from floor to light.

Running under the 400w digi.

The girls have finished thier first full week of 12/12 with the digital ballast at %100.
I also have 4 new additions to the cabinet.A friend of mine had 4 girls in pots in his back yard.
He decided to throw a new roof on his house,didn't want the roofers finding his plants, so he gave me the plants to finish indoors.
No idea what strain they are,they appear to be about 4 weeks into bud.They werent transplanted from the original plastic cups untill almost into flower,so they are very small and sparce of leaf.
Of course I went over them with a 30x jewelers loop to check for bugs etc before I agreed to take them in.
The new fan box with the Canadian tire fans,is working great.The temps in the cab are sitting at 72f at end of 12 hour cycle.So far humidity hasn't been an issue but the weather is changing and the ambient air is getting moister.I will have to keep a close eye on things as it moves along.
Second feeding of Pure Blend Bloom Tea yesterday.In 3 gallon pots the girls are eating about two cups of water every two days.
They did a good stretch when they hit flower,but thus has slowed now and they are levelling out.
This is the first time I have not split the tops on this strain as well,so I will see how they do weight wise with just a single main cola opposed to 4 mains.
Thats about it for now,do another update soon, thanks for checking out my thread.

These girls are gaining a couple of inches a day for the last week I swear.I am very thankfull now that I flipped to 12/12 while they were still nice and short.
But they should be done reaching now.They are starting to show girlie hairs.
My unnamed orphan in the back is going to be a very long flowering strain.She is getting bud mass all the way up but very slow to produce,I am figuring she is a 12 weeker.(should be interesting).
The three back-yard orphans are massing nicely.They will never reach thier full potential as they were root bound for too long in veg and then transferred to only slightly bigger pots at flower.They only average about 12" tall so. . .
Everything else is going well.Switching up from water to Tea every second day.
So far no bugs no molds,all is well.
Here are some progress pics.

Looking really good!

My only concern is that girl way in the back with all the curled down and under leaves. Something is going on with her. Is she one of the new ones from your mate? There is a plant abouse chart somewhere in the Stoner's GreenHouse area. Might want to take a look.

Azure. . that curly leafed girl is the first rescued orphan from about a month ago.
When I got her she was suffering from being not only rootbound,but had several nute deficiencys.As well both the roots and leaves had been severley chewed.

I have worked feverishly just to get her to look as poor as she does now. . LOL
Seems to be flowering nicely though so I don't want to screw with her much more.

really nice m8 doing a great job

reaching. . .

Time for a weekly progress report.
The change from T-5 to HID has resulted in the worst case of stretching I have ever had.
Next run I am going to run the T-5's with red spectrum bulbs right through pre-flower and won't
switch to the HID lights untill buds are starting to form.
Hopefully that will get me past the stretch stage without having the girls up to the roof...LOL
Temps in the cabinet when on are peaking at 75f and off dropping to 65f.
As the nights (and days) are getting colder,the girls are getting a 24 hour dark cycle
before I switch the timer to run 6pm to 6am from 12am to 12 pm.
I am doing this so that the lights run during the coldest part of the day/night.
I dont run any other heat in the room the cab is in,so I dont want the temps dropping into the 40's when the lights are off.
The girls are flowering nicely,just hope all the buds can get big enough to join across the big nodal spaces.
Giving them Bloom Tea twice per week and water once.
After week switch I will reverse the food cycle untill reducing it to zero in week 8.
Thats it for now gang,thanks for checking out my thread.