First "serious" grow - Rubbermaid stealth

[Worped]

On a whim a while back I did a little bit of research (VERY little), bought some seeds (BC early skunk), and decided to try an outdoor grow. The area around my yard is quite secluded, so it would be easy to grow decent-sized plants without any detection. I decided to try 3 plants, hoping that at least one would be female.

I soaked the seeds overnight, stuck them in some dirt, kept the dirt moist, and just watched. Simple, eh? Riiiiiiight.

Right after planting, it rained or we were socked in by thick fog for 2 weeks, getting perhaps 3 hours of direct sun a day. The seeds were determined, though, and eventually the seedlings poked through.

Almost immediately, the cotyledons from one of the plants fell off. A few days later, they fell off a second plant. Grrrrrrr. Still, the third plant looked great, even though growth was painfully slow because of the weather.

Another week passed and the remaining plant grew a second set of leaves and then started a third. That's when the slug got it. Ate the whole thing right down to the dirt. Grrrrrr.

Now, I really wasn't expecting much the first time around - it was more curiosity than anything. However, with the complete failure of my first attempt, I became even more determined to produce some results, even if it meant having to wait until next year to try. I describe my problems to a friend who suggests I come here and start reading up on stealth grows.

While perusing the content here, I came across RaginCajun420's https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/57292-my-first-grow.html. The information contained in his journal and the subsequent results are incredible - enough so that I decided to emulate what he had done.

I basically copied the design of his grow box (still a couple of things left to finish on it) and got the growing process underway.

Because of the size of the grow box, I'm limited to 3 seeds, which I've planted in 10-inch pots so that I don't have to worry about transplanting later on.

I'm very excited about the process this time around, especially with all of the extra knowledge I've gained from here. Let's pray for big buds!

 

[Worped]

Unlike the last time, I decided to germinate for 3 days. Here's a shot of the germinated seeds.

As you can see, two of the seeds did really well, while the third has just barely cracked. I'm hoping that it will germinate fine and catch up.

 

[majikninja]

i just started some seeds yesterday of Ice and Victory II, I'll be keeping an eye on this so i can compare look for my grow journal soon

 

[Worped]

3 days after planting the germinated seeds.

A & C are the two well-germinated seeds and B is the laggard. The seeds are planted in some sort of "Black Earth" soil I found at the local garden shop. It's made from compost and seems to be pretty good. Time will tell.

Here's A:

Here's B:

And finally C:

I didn't have the plants as close to the lights as they should be, which I think is why they've stretched out so much. Space is at a premium for me, so I've moved the plants about 1-2 inches away from the lights, like they're supposed to be. I was also planning on trying some lst, so this shouldn't cause me any problems.

 

[Scroogeness]

this looks like a good grow. i myself started to germinate some skunk seeds two days ago so ill have a journal goin up soon so il def subscribe to this,. good luck!

 

[Worped]

Day 5 after planting. The seedlings grew quite a bit in the last couple of days, with the first sets of leaves getting noticeably bigger.

Of course, here are some pictures. My apologies for some of the blurry shots - my camera, as much as I love it, has trouble with focus in low light conditions and sometimes the flash overpowers stuff.

Here's the whole group:

Although B was a little pokey in getting started, it's trying very hard to catch up.

Here's A:

And here's B:

And finally, here's C:

A & C look like they're starting the second set of leaves. I'm guessing that they'll start making a meaningful appearance by tomorrow.

I'm guessing that the soil I'm using is decent, since there's all kinds of other stuff growing in it at the same time, which you can see in some of the pics. I pull them whenever I see them.

As RaginCajun did with his grow, I added a CO2 source today - just a pop bottle with some sugar water and yeast, with a small hole in the top. Hopefully that will move things along a bit.

In case you're wondering, I'm doing the normal 18/6 light schedule. I was originally thinking of vegging for 4 weeks and then switch to flower. I'd like to try to harvest by early October, but that may not be feasible.

 

[Scroogeness]

did you mix equal parts of sugar, water, and yeast? i think i may try that.

 

[Worped]

did you mix equal parts of sugar, water, and yeast? i think i may try that.

No, I just filled the bottle about a quarter full with warm water, added in a few tsps of sugar and one tsp of yeast. There was lots of bubbling, so I assume that it's working. I'll be checking on it over the next couple of days to make sure that it's still good.

 

[Worped]

Wow! I'm not sure if the CO2 is making a difference or if it's just mere coincidence, but some of the leaves have almost doubled in the last 24 hours, particularly on A. C has a very definite second set of leaves, while A isn't quite so distinct yet. B is still trying to catch up.

I sure am gonna be cranky to find males in this lot, although if I'm forced to have one just spare me A.

 

[Worped]

It's day 8 after planting and there's been a ton of growth over the past couple of days. Basically A & C's second set of leaves have grown to the same size as the first set and additional sets are just forming. B appears to be nice and healthy, but seems to be struggling to keep up. I'm sure it'll do just fine.

Some pics! That's a 25 centavos coin for size comparison (very similar to the size of a quarter).

The group:

Close-up of A:

Close-up of B:

Close-up of C:

I'm wondering what all of that green stuff on top of the soil is. It started appearing in earnest yesterday. I'm guessing it's just some algae and that I'll be able to just scrape it from the top, if it's even a problem. Thoughts?

 

[Worped]

As I said back at the beginning, I've followed RaginCajun's design for the grow box. Still, I figured I'd post some pictures of the construction process. It's not thorough, but you'll get the idea.

I started off with two 30 gallon containers. Here's what they looked like originally:

I painted the inside and outside of the containers. I used just over two cans of Krylon Fusion satin black for the outside and just over 3 cans of Krylon Fusion matte white for the inside. Here's what the containers look like after painting:

You can also see that I put 1/4 inch foam weather stripping around the edge. I've only done this with one of the containers, but I think I may do it for the second as well.

With the containers prepped, it was time to start putting together the innards.

For lighting, I got two white 3-socket fixtures. I went with the cheapest fixtures I could find. I was looking for something a little more "boxy", like RaginCajun found, but this was the best I could come up with.

To power the fixtures, I bought an extension cord with one end pre-stripped. Since I'd never done any real wiring before, I figured I'd better do some tests first.

Wires connected, so let's screw in a bulb and plug it in.

Eureka! The light came on and I didn't die! Time to add in the second fixture.

At first, I didn't quite know how I was going to deal with the second fixture. I originally thought I'd just wire it up independently, but that would have required either a second timer or some sort of octopus plug. Either option would look ugly and take up space. I did some reading and first tried wiring them up serially. That totally didn't work and then I finally found an article that said they should be done in parallel (black to black to black, white to white to white, etc).

Now that I had the fixtures working, it was time to install a power source into the box. Keeping with the stealth theme, I installed a power bar inside the container, with the cord coming out of a small hole.

The power bar is held in place by some velcro strips. I was originally going to use cable ties, since they'd likely be more secure, but I wanted to keep the number of holes in the container to a minimum. Turns out the velcro works just fine and I can easily remove the power bar if necessary.

 

[Worped]

To deal with the heat build up from the lights, I wanted to have a fan blow air out of the box. I had an old 12V power adapter lying around, so I cut the end off it and wired it to a 120mm computer fan.

In this particular case, the wiring is permanent. To futureproof this, when the fans dies and I go to replace it, I will solder on the proper connector to the adapter. This will allow me to simply plug the fan into the adapter.

I need a hole for the fan, so I cut one just slightly smaller than the fan itself into the box. I put the hole on the same side as the small hole for the power cord so that I could hide the openings easier, if necessary.

Time to start installing the hardware! First, the lights:

Then the fan:

The lights were tricky to get installed properly, since they don't bolt directly to anything - they hang on screws. I basically have a screw with a nut on it on the inside (the screw head on the inside) and a nut on the outside to hold it all together. I then hang the light onto the screw. I need two nuts because once the light is in place I can't actually tighten anything.

Notice that once everything is in place, I covered up some of the wires with silver duct tape.

Now that everything is installed, let's test it out!

All of the lighting, power, and fan stuff is located in the box that will sit on top. For the bottom box, I cut a small hole and installed an elbow pipe. This will be used for the passive intake. The basic idea here is that hot air is blown from the top and cool air is sucked in from the bottom.

Ack! Gotta fix that scratch!

Here's the final product:

Well, not quite final. There are a handful of things left to finish.

1. I may put some sort of sealant (or maybe just electrical tape) around the passive intake and the power cord hole to block out the light that leaks out.
2. There are a couple of spots on the box that could use a little extra black paint where some light comes through.
3. I need to install a hood over the fan exhaust to block the light from the fixtures getting out and also to block any incoming light. I need to do this before I switch to 12/12. A hood is easy enough to do, but I want to put together some sort of hingeable hood so that I can easily peak into the box.

 

[Worped]

Here's the list of things I used to build the grow box:

2 - 30-gallon "rubbermaid" containers ($12/each)
1 - 8ft pre-stripped power cord ($9)
4 - 42W (150W equiv) soft white CFLs ($13/each)
1 - silver duct tape ($5)
3 - Krylon Fusion satin black spray paint ($7/each)
4 - Krylon Fusion satin white spray paint ($7/each)
1 - package of 8/32 1.25 inch screws and nuts ($1.50)
1 - package of 8/32 1.5 inch screws and nuts ($1.50)
1 - package of 8/32 washers ($1.50)
3 - 10-inch plastic flower pots ($7/each)
2 - 3-socket white light fixtures ($8/each)
1 - roll electrical tape ($1)
1 - timer plug w/ 3-prong input ($18 - yeah, pricey)
1 - 120mm computer fan ($16)
1 - package of 1/4 inch foam weather stripping ($4)

Grand total for the whole set-up: ~$250 (once you add in sales tax)

In time, it took me about 7 hours over several days to construct.

 

[diggitydank420]

VERY nice rubbermaid build. Very well thought through and a very clean installation. +rep for you!

 

[Worped]

Wow! Lots of growth over the last 3 days. Yesterday I had to lower the plants a bit because they were almost touching the lights. I was quite happy to have to do that.

The plants are also starting to develop a lovely aroma. It was barely noticeable a few days ago, but it's becoming quite pungent. Lovely.

Here's some pictures.

As you can see, there's been a lot of new growth. The stems of all 3 plants are starting to thicken and B is starting to catch up again. There still seems to be lots of that algae (or whatever it is) - I'm going to start scraping it off.

While plants B & C are looking incredible, A is starting to worry me a bit. The plant seems nice and sturdy, but the stem is starting to tip over, as if the plant was blown over by a strong wind. The plant does not appear to be drooping at all. I've rotated it about 180 degrees so that hopefully it will straighten up a bit in a bid to be closer to the lights.

I'll be starting on 1/4 nutes in a few days, once I hit the 2-week mark.

 

[323cheezy]

I think it kind of early for co2 unless your temps are high...im no expert but save that expensive co2 for flowering.....there doubling inside cause that how there supposed to grow... keep it up dude.....nice wiring skills.... i used to work as a frelance electrician, for disney studios( for one day) as an apprentice, and im only 27...but now im in college...screw being an electrican... but it comes in handy for this kinda stuff.....good start though.

 

[Worped]

13 days after planting. As you'll see, there's been a LOT of growth over the past couple of days (as you'd expect). A's stem continues to lean, but it doesn't seem to be detrimental. C is absolutely taking off and B is looking great. C is a little higher than A & B, which are still quite short. They're all nice and bushy, though. I'm hoping that the very loose premise that short and bushy suggests female is true.

I've started adjusting the pH of my water. I've got a RO system for my well water and the water coming from it measures about 5.8. The label on my nutes suggests a pH of 6.2-6.4, so I've been throwing in a sprinkle of baking soda to get the level correct.

A friend suggested that I use a bit of root stimulator during the seedling phase, so I've been using a 1/2 solution for the past couple of waterings. I'm not sure if it's helped, but it certainly hasn't hindered.

I've been waiting until the top of the soil is dry and crusty before watering. In most cases, it takes about 2 days to get to this stage and I add about 1 cup of water to the plants. However, it was only 1 day between the previous 2 waterings and the only reason I watered in that case was because the soil had started pulling away from the sides of the pot. The plants don't seem to be showing any signs of overwatering, so unless something negative happens I'll probably maintain this schedule. Just for information's sake, the humidity in my box fluctuates between 50-60% and the temp waivers between 75 and 76, typically.

And now for the pictures. Here's the group:

A, for size comparison. On the top right, the leaf got pinched off between the two pots when I was moving them around.

B - You've come a long way, baby!

And finally C:

Another picture of C, directly overhead. I liked this one because it shows the plant stretching the whole diameter of the pot and the leaf structure at the top of the image looks cool.

 

[Worped]

Looks like I spoke a little too soon. In the last 4 hours, the tips of one of my plants (B) started to dry up. It's nice and crispy.

I'm thinking nute burn, so I'll be using just water for the next little while. I also noticed that the pots were incredibly dry, so I think I'll give them a nice big drink.

 

[Worped]

It's been a day since I noticed the burn on the tip of B. As I said, I gave all 3 plants a good soaking and everything seems to be fine. The plants feel less dry and they grew a bit overnight.

A couple of new things, I guess.

First, when I did my check this morning to see if any more damage had occurred, I put my thermometer on one of the pots (on the soil), rather than on the box that the pots actually sit on. The top of the soil is maybe 8-10 inches above this box. I put the lid on and made sure it was sealed.

When I checked this evening, I saw that the temp was 87. Normally the thermometer shows around 76. Clearly there's a heat difference between those two positions, and that might explain why my plants dried out so quickly. When I returned the top, I left a bit of a gap. Within about 15 minutes the temp dropped down to 77. So now I have several options. I could enlarge the passive intake that I currently have, create a second intake, perhaps on the top box, or install another fan that blows across the lights. The extra gap makes the difference, so I don't think I'll bother with the fan. But now I need to decide which option to pursue. I'll likely increase the size of the current intake. If that doesn't work, then I'll create a second intake.

Second, I finally decided to do something about the algae. I cut circles out of a sheet of bristol board and placed them on top of the soil underneath the plants. C is high enough that I could use a 12-inch circle and keep it off the soil. A & B aren't high enough yet, so I had to use smaller circles and sort of prop them up off the soil a bit (so they don't get soggy). I'll keep them in place long enough to kill the algae and then remove them. If the algae returns, I'll put them back in place.

Here's a pic:

They're still looking pretty good to me.

 

[Worped]

It's been 17 days since I planted the germinated seeds.

As I mentioned before, I tried fighting the algae by blocking light from getting to the soil. Unfortunately, I think that triggered a bit of mold growth, so I removed the bristol board and scraped the bad soil off the top of the pots.

Today was the first real nutes day. I'm using Advanced Nutrients GMB and I'm basically just following the directions on the bottle. Since this is the first watering with the full complement, I'm starting with 1/4 strength. I plan on alternating between nute watering and just water/H2O2, based on a friend's advice. If there are some alternate opinions I'd like to hear them.

Now for some pictures.

Here's the obligatory group shot:

And here's A:

And B:

And finally C:

C is really starting to get a bit of height to it while A & B are still quite short. They are all getting very bushy and B certainly doesn't seem like it's so far behind anymore. The stems of all 3 plants are really starting to thicken up.

I'm beginning to see why they call it "skunk." The plants are starting to become really stinky (not that that's a bad thing!). However, until I figure out what to do about the odor I think I'll move my box from the basement out into the garage.