First grow in new cabinet

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5yk0

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Totally revamped my cabinet so I'm running a single plant to see how she runs. Today marks day three after the first set of three fingered leaves fully emerged.

The setup:
Gutted 4'H x 2'W x 1.5'D dresser w/mylar door, mylar covering side walls and ceiling back wall white.

Ventilation:
Dual 7" window fan mounted low for intake.
7" exhaust fan in the ceiling.
4" fan for circulation.

Lighting:
2x 15w 2700K CFLs as side lights
2x 42w 2700K CFLs on homemade panel
2x 68w 2700K CFLs (also on the homemade panel. For a total of 250w

Container/medium:
14gal Rubbermaid tub full of backyard compost mixed with rabbit poo, bloodmeal, bonemeal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal and bat guano watered with bushdoctor microbe brew and molasses then mixed again and rested for about two months.

The plant: unknown bagseed

The seed sprouted in three days, but immediately began showing deformities, by one week after sprouting the first three finger leaves showed. So far keeping temps down has been my biggest issue with summer coming and no a/c so she's on an 18/6 schedule with as much of the day cycle as possible at night. Lights on temps are 75-79 but lights out temps rise to 80+.

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Hope you are looking for advise, because there is quite a bit that needs to be dealt with here if you want to save your plant. I am going to give you my 2 cents worth--Plain and simple with no sugar coating.

If you are misting your plant, please quit. It is bad for it--ditto the humidity domed. Any kind of humidity dome used should be removed as soon as the seed sprouts. You can have all kinds of problems from things being too humid.

Did I understand you right....it is cooler when the lights are off? There is something wrong if your space is running hooter when the lights are out....this doesn't even make sense? Your fans should run all the time. I would get rid of the intake fan(s) and get a real decent exhaust fan. You should be running your lights 24/7. This prevents stretch, which is not a good thing, especially when you have so little head room.

As a side note, the spectrum of the bulbs you are running is not the correct one for vegging. You want something in the 6500K range, not the 2700K range. That is for flowering.

After going back and rereading your post, I am quite sure you are frying your plant with the mix you have it in. Seedlings do not need or want food for 2-3 weeks and you have a pretty hot soil going there. Read up on good soil mixtures. It is hard to get things right when you just mix this and that together. You can get soil way too rich in some nutrients, which can affect other nutrients. Seeds should be planted in a totally inert mixture, with no nutes--some kind of seed starting mixture. I believe that you had better get this transplanted into something pretty inert, right away or it will be fried beyond repair.

It is always a good idea to plant more seeds than you want plants and then cull out the weak ones and or males. If you get a male, 6-8 weeksd are down the drain and you start over. Next...bagseed. Bagseed has the unfortunate tendency to hermy, as the seeds are generally the result of the plant selfing. Good top quality sensi should not have seeds in it. If this came from as bag of not that good with a lot of seeds, it may be the result of pollination in the old fashioned way, but you have no idea where 1/2 of the genetics came from....could be ditchweed. You can get quality genetics for a decent price. This is a process that takes about 4 months from seed to harvest. Why risk it on an unknown when you can get quality genetics that you at least have a pretty good idea of what to expect?

The more you know about what it takes to grow great cannabis, the better chances you have of having a successful harvest. It can be a challenge, it takes knowledge, work, and care. It is not like growing any other thing, but there is nothing like smoking your own.



Also, the lights you are running
 
3 Things:

Welcome to MP!! And green mojo to you sir or madam!

250W CFL is going to produce twice the heat of an HID (MH/HPS) setup (400W) and produce far less light

It will also cost you more in the long run.

2x4 tent should have 40k lumens.....I like to have more than enough light.

Last but not least....the last pic shows water on the leaves with light. I would advise not to mist platns. If anything needs to be misted it is the medium. (IE starting seeds/clones)
 
Budz--it is 4' tall, 2' long, 1.5' wide, so 3 sq ft. Though you do have a point. A 250W HPS with an aircoolable hood will run about 28,000 lumens compared to about 15,000 with the CFLs and be substantially easier to cool.
 
Lights are off during daylight hours due to high ambient temps, fans are constantly running. Humidity dome is long gone and standing water on leaves is always wiped off immediately. Even with misting humidity levels inside are less than 50% at all times and drop to 30% or below without misting. Vegetative plants need th levels of around 60% so I will definitely not stop misting my soil. I realised when I checked the Kelvin values of my lights they weren't optimal, looking into getting some 3500-5000K bulbs. My soil is indeed too hot, I was in a hurry to mix it, I'm planning on adding a layer of sunshine mix #4 to the topsoil to dilute it. To the best of my knowledge cfls are not going to produce twice the heat of an hps, what hps increases temps in a cabinet less than 16°F? Also on humidity, seedlings/clones need 75-80% rh or they can dry out and shrivel up. Lastly, why waste good genetics on a cabinet that I'm working the kinks out of?
 
Also, yes before adding the exhaust fan my lights out temps were higher because ambient temps due to the summer Sun are higher.
 
Just replaced the 15w 2700Ks with 23w 6500Ks, temps are still high lights off (to help y'all understand the air coming into the cabinet during lights out is 80°F+ so my high lights out temps do actually make sense) gonna look into rigging the cooling element from a water cooler into the intake box to make an "a/c" if this yard sale still has it.
 
Just replaced the 15w 2700Ks with 23w 6500Ks, temps are still high lights off (to help y'all understand the air coming into the cabinet during lights out is 80°F+ so my high lights out temps do actually make sense) gonna look into rigging the cooling element from a water cooler into the intake box to make an "a/c" if this yard sale still has it.
Is this in a house? If so, drop $100 or less on a window unit. You and the plant will be cooler!!
I'm not saying you are, but don't take the advice here lightly. These folks here know how to grow some grass!!
Have fun and get those kinks worked out
 
Definitely not intending to seem like I'm taking any good advice lightly, I appreciate any help I can get. Between books and YouTube (lots of Jorge Cervantes lol) I've researched growing a lot, I just don't have any kind of income so I do what I can with what I can get. I know my temps need to be around 75-76°F day and no more than a ten degree drop over night, soil pH and temp have a huge effect on nute availability, proper light spectrum for veg/flower etc. Having fun with it for sure, and I apologize if it seems I'm simply casting advice to the side, I certainly don't claim to know it all.
 
You are not going to like what I have to say, but if you are really interested in growing great bud, you are going to have to make changes. My only concern is trying to make sure you have a good harvest. There is a reason that cannabis is expensive--it is difficult, expensive, and time consuming to grow. It is very very difficult to grow good bud indoors on a small budget. Rather than adjusting your grow to suit your environment, you are going to have to adjust the conditions in your grow space. Cannabis has very specific wants and needs. One of them is a lot of good light. The next is the correct amount of food for the growing phase you are in. Rather than be adjusting your light schedule to your temps, you are going to have to get better ventilation and run the lights more. Otherwise, you are going to end up with tall stringy plants that yield little, but outgrow your height. You need a real exhaust fan and maybe A/C. The window fan you are using is not the correct type of fan and is not strong enough nor meant to do what you are asking it to do.

It is not only that you did not let the soil cook long enough, that soil is simply too hot for seedlings. It will fry them. Seeds need to be planted in something without any nutrients. You should also always start in small containers, like kegger cups and then transplant as needed to larger containers. Starting in something as large as a 14 gal tote can create a lot of problems. It is virtually impossible to know how much water the seedling is actually getting. In addition, fertilizing correctly can be problematic.

Although it seems hard to believe, I can assure you that not only will a 250W HPS in an air coolable hood will be easier to cool, it will probably produce twice the bud for the same amount of electricity, because it provides so much more light than CFLs. CFLs are really not good for growing--people really started using those when we had no real better alternatives. Now we do. We know that they lack the power and penetration of HID or even T5 fluoro tube lighting. This is a 4 month process--keep this in mind. We want you to actually have something at the end of that 4 months rather than a harvest of light airy buds that is measured in grams rather than ounces.

You are getting too worried about humidity and other things that are not critical at this point. Getting your plant to survive is your goal now. You may have to start over (think about buying some good genetics--look up- hermy plants). While important, those other things are not as critical as getting your ventilation corrected so you can run lights at least 20 hours a day. And your temps do not have to be within that narrow band. Temps up to 85 and down to 60 can usually be tolerated. Both high and low temps cause plants to slow down growing to defend themselves, but unless the temps stay above 80 for long periods of time, 80 is not horrible. Getting them more light is more important than keeping the temps between 75-76.

I have been growing for over 30 years and I only know a tiny fraction of what there is to know. You will always be learning and improving your skills. But you do need to start with good basics--light, ventilation, medium, nutrients--and it is not cheap.

Don't mean to discourage you, but do want you to know what you are up against and what it takes to get a plant from seed to harvest.
 
CFLs didn't even exist before hid bulbs.......I understand that y'all want me to get the best possible out of this, unfortunately it will have to be the best I can get with what I have. Unless y'all happen to know where I can get everything y'all want me to use for a total of $15 or less.

It is not hard nor expensive to grow good bud indoors, it may be expensive to maximize yield, but I have never found it hard. I may have only been growing for four years, but I've grown an ounce plant in very similar conditions and much less light.

I agree, one can only ever learn more. I know a guy that spent less than $400 on his entire setup and he will be growing 2+ oz per plant.

I very seriously doubt I will run out of headroom in the cab, I fimmed this one soon after the first fingered leaves appeared and I always LST.

I've vegged under 24/0 and under 18/6 and never seen a difference at all, from what I've experienced 24/0 just wastes electricity.

I'm definitely not discouraged, if anything I'm more motivated to run what I have so y'all can see that dropping $3-$4K on a setup is not at all necessary.

Also, I know what a hermaphrodite is, I have grown quite a few seeing as at least half my seedstock is hermaphroditic. I've tried clones from clubs but my experience has been horrid with those (they came with spider mites).

I prefer to start my plants in the largest container they will go into to eliminate needless stress from transplanting, I just have to remember to layer my soil properly.

Please do not get me wrong, I understand what y'all are saying, and I appreciate the advice y'all impart. Thank you
 
Amended the top four inches of soil with sunshine mix 4 and re-planted my plant into that. Unfortunately I lost my thermometer in the process...
 
5yko - All I can say is peace bro, you will get out of it what you put into it.
 
So basically y'all are stuck on "spend money or you can't grow" cool.....too bad its not true
 
So basically y'all are stuck on "spend money or you can't grow" cool.....too bad its not true
Its not the "spend money" so much as "providing a plant with as perfect conditions as you can afford".
What's trying to be said here is not that you have to spend money, but to do it well, with good returns it can take some materials and equipment. Which takes money.
 
Why would you want to spend so many months of your time and electricity to get one ounce per plant? Especially if you only have one plant.. At the rate you're going you might not even get that thing to harvest. I used to have your attitude and thought cfl's were wonderful too. I also wasted a bunch of my time growing mediocre at best buds. Swallow your pride and take some advice. You might not have money or the best setup, but if you are not arrogant about things people will give you advice on how to have a halfway decent little setup on a budget and get the most out of it.
 
Why would you want to spend so many months of your time and electricity to get one ounce per plant? Especially if you only have one plant.. At the rate you're going you might not even get that thing to harvest. I used to have your attitude and thought cfl's were wonderful too. I also wasted a bunch of my time growing mediocre at best buds. Swallow your pride and take some advice. You might not have money or the best setup, but if you are not arrogant about things people will give you advice on how to have a halfway decent little setup on a budget and get the most out of it.
So true!
 
Hahahahahaha, yeah I'm being arrogant. I'll do what I can with what I got with or without y'all's help, at least I'm not claiming to be helping while only suggesting solutions that cost money I don't have (no help at all thanks.) Sorry to hear you only grew mediocre buds with your low budget setup. As far as deciding to throw your b.s. out about my plant not reaching harvest or me not taking advice.......way to go, you already look stupid for that because I added what I could so far in the way of bulbs in the proper kelvin AND diluted the section of compost the plant is growing in, as advised. I can't do anything with the rest of the "help" because y'all don't seem to grasp the concept of no money available.....I can be just as arrogant as y'all if I wanted, giving me false information like "humidity is bad stop misting" or "hps runs cooler than CFLs." To answer your first question though, what's better; plant 3-4 in there and lose them all in the event something isn't right, or plant one and only lose one in the event something isn't right?
 
Its not the "spend money" so much as "providing a plant with as perfect conditions as you can afford".
What's trying to be said here is not that you have to spend money, but to do it well, with good returns it can take some materials and equipment. Which takes money.
So basically you just said no one is telling me to spend money, they're just telling me to spend money. No one has taken into consideration that I have exactly $0, if y'all don't know how I can keep things within parameters with things I have around then y'all should swallow your pride and say so, I've bounced ideas off y'all but y'all just ignore it and arrogantly stick to your guns saying I can't unless I spend money I don't have. Yet I'm the arrogant one because I can't afford to do the things y'all suggest.......what a backward place.
 

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