Custom growbox and progression using CFL's

[mary.chiva]

I just wanted to show you all what I've been working on the past month or so. Let me know what you think.

I built a 4x4x4 (roughly) box out of 3/4 inch plywood and separated it down the middle (see pics). One side can be used for veg and the other used for flowering. Right now, I just have one plant in flowering cause the 2nd plant turned out to be male :: shrug ::

Right now, I'm using 1 60w 6500k, 4 40w 2700k, and 1 17w grow bulb (mounted to side, see pics). I have more I will add, but not much since it's a small space and it seems to be growing VERY well.

I used all organic soil and fertilizers, using a mix of moisture control potting mix mixed with mushroom compost and earthworm castings.

The pics I uploaded show the grow box construction and progress since 9/4 when I transplanted the plant to the inside. First pic was taken 9/4, the 2nd sometime last month, and the last 3 pics were taken today, 10/12. She has been into flowering for 17 days and is just now starting to show female preflowers. Hopefully she'll start taking off real soon.

BTW, this is also my first grow, so let me know what you think. The biggest two things I think I'd do different is use a slightly larger pot with a bigger base for support, the other, not prune and just let it be.

Suggestions are welcome.

 

[mary.chiva]

The burnt leaves you see are in fact burnt because I neglected the plant a little to long...and it got to close to the light. That's also why I installed the screen to manage the plant height.

On the last pic, do you all think this is a pistil forming? There are more, but this pic shows it the best, I guess.

 

[Twistyman]

Good start... now just a learning curve..... Good luck..

+rep for growing..

 

[mary.chiva]

Anyone have any ideas as to why it's taking so long for the plant to start flowering?

This is day 17 for flowering and I am JUST NOW seeing small female pre-flowers. The temps are usually 75-85 and decent ventilation.

Will the plant start shooting off all of a sudden with flowering/pistils everywhere? Is it slow because it's a sativa?? Is it a sativa? LOL...help.

 

[mary.chiva]

I've uploaded a couple more pics. I'm certain she is a female now (see pic of preflower). Please tell me if I'm wrong.

Does anyone know why it could be taking so long to flower???????? Could it be stress because I installed the screen and she now has to figure out how to grow along the screen????? Could this slow it down????

I just gave her a bunch more earthworm castings this morning so if it's a nute problem...that should take care of it. I also water when the top of the soil gets dry.

This is day 19 and as you can see I'm only getting pre-flowers and it's taking a LONG time to get those...

Please please help.

 

[mary.chiva]

Here is a pic of the pot I'm using.

Do you think it's slow because it's rootbound?

I bet you the pot is to small...can I re-pot it without worry?

 

[mary.chiva]

Well...the plant was NOT root bound. I just re-potted it to a pot a hair taller and straight all the way to the ground (not cone shaped). Even when I took it out of the original pot, the roots were just able to be seen on the outside of the dirt (not tons of roots outside the dirt).

So...back to my original question...why is this taking so long to flower?

 

[bigd921]

if anything your pots are too big, paint the inside of that box flat white, and make sure your timer is set correctly and you have no light leaks during datk time, does your pwerstrip have a light on it? since you keep it in there with the plant make sure it doesnt,

 

[bnoc450]

if anything your pots are too big, paint the inside of that box flat white, and make sure your timer is set correctly and you have no light leaks during datk time, does your pwerstrip have a light on it? since you keep it in there with the plant make sure it doesnt,

all that and if you have your 6500k light in your flowering chamber get rid of it and use more 2700k's, the more you have the bigger the buds will be

 

[mary.chiva]

if anything your pots are too big, paint the inside of that box flat white, and make sure your timer is set correctly and you have no light leaks during datk time, does your pwerstrip have a light on it? since you keep it in there with the plant make sure it doesnt,

Well, I'll leave it in the 2 gallon pot it's in now since it isn't much bigger than the original (don't wanna cause to much stress). I do realize the big white pot was to big (that plant was a male and I'll never use that white pot again). Thanks for the tip.

As far as the timer, I am doing 12/12 between 10PM-10AM (because of lack of heat at night). It's not in my house.

As far as the light on the powerstrip, I'm not sure, it may have a light, I'll check it during "morning time" tonight @ 10PM. If it has a light, I'll put some electric tape over it. There shouldn't be any other light leakage going on. I'll inspect some more shortly to be sure.

Thanks a lot man.

 

[mary.chiva]

all that and if you have your 6500k light in your flowering chamber get rid of it and use more 2700k's, the more you have the bigger the buds will be

I only have 1 60w 6500k light in there, the rest are all 40w 2700k's. I've read elsewhere that it's good to have a mix of spectrum during flowering as long as the majority is 2700k.

Is this not true?

Thanks a lot though, really.

 

[bigd921]

depends on who you ask, I personally like a mix of spectrums, you should be ok with what you have

 

[mary.chiva]

depends on who you ask, I personally like a mix of spectrums, you should be ok with what you have

Well, one benefit to getting rid of the 60w 6500k..is the heat. That son of a gun puts off a lot more heat than the 40w bulbs. The 60w was the only 6500k in the flowering chamber, so, I got rid of it today and added 2 40w 2700k's in its place.

I may add a 40w 6500k later to mix spectrums, but for now, I have 6 40w 2700k bulbs and 1 17w grow fluro tube (for looks more than anything...).

BTW, I also took your recommendations and made sure there is no light leakage and made sure there is no light on the power strip. Hopefully my re-potting the plant didn't cause stress and slow it down again...::sigh::.

Hopefully this girl takes off like a rocket...I'm hoping it's just a sativa dominant plant that is slower to flower. The veg stage was insanely fast.

More pics to follow (when they show some progress).

 

[bigd921]

well as long as you arent seeing balls you should be ok, and some plants just take longer than others...........

 

[mary.chiva]

I just found the below post in another thread and may explain the seemingly slow flowering I'm having. If what this person says is true, my plant started showing sex about 5-6 days ago, possibly 1 week. That means I probably started flowering to early (it was around 20 inches probably more). Hopefully this also means that in the next couple weeks (apparently 3 weeks since sex was seen) I 'should' hopefully have LOTS of pistils/buds forming.

Here's hoping...enjoy the post. Let me know if you agree or not with this person. I'm very interested in everyones opinion.

08-19-2007, 03:08 AM
nongreenthumb

Mr.Ganja
Mr. Ganja

Join Date: Nov 2006​

Location: vijzelstraat​

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When did you switch to 12/12 how old and tall was the plants, how many set of leaves did it have.

Northern lights is usually a quick flowering strain but if you switch to 12/12 too early then you are going to have to wait a couple of weeks still for it to show sex.

These days I wouldn't count the start of flowering from when you switch to 12/12, it would be from when they were showing sex in 12/12.

 

[mary.chiva]

Also...I plan to pick up some Mylar in the near future and install in my box. Pics of that and hopefully some budding soon.

 

[FLOWER PIMP]

HAS THE FLY TRAPS HELPED WITH ANY BUGS??

My flower setup is outside in a building. Being that it is getting cold outside, alot of bugs have seen my grow enviroment 80 degrees, 70 humidity a great place to hang out. i had to move all my littler plants inside for the time.

thanks for the idea, i'm going to implement it when the lights come on.

 

[mary.chiva]

HAS THE FLY TRAPS HELPED WITH ANY BUGS??

My flower setup is outside in a building. Being that it is getting cold outside, alot of bugs have seen my grow enviroment 80 degrees, 70 humidity a great place to hang out. i had to move all my littler plants inside for the time.

thanks for the idea, i'm going to implement it when the lights come on.

Actually, yes, they have helped out quite a bit. There are lots of dead bugs stuck to the traps. I had a few days when it first started getting cold and I had to kill some wasps (they saw it as a nice warm place to live...bastards). That was the only REAL bug problem I've had.

There is also supposedly anti-pest protection when you feed plants earthworm castings, something to do with [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]microbes..[/FONT]. (http://www.backyardgardener.com/organic/april01.htm) Here's an excerpt, [SIZE=-1]"Worm casts are digested organic matter that has been run through the gut of the earthworm. They are one of the most stable sources of organic matter for the garden and the biology they support is unlike that of any regular commercial or home made compost. Earthworms impart into their casts an incredible diversity of hygienic microorganisms that work to competitively exclude disease-causing organisms as well as a number of destructive pests such as root knot and root lesion nematodes. Worm castings have recently been discovered to fight other pests on plant surfaces also through an ingenious little enzyme known as chitinase.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Chitinase is a degrading enzyme that eats the material chitin. Here is the fun part.pest insects are made of chitin. Chitinase is formed by several types of microorganisms that are found in the gut of the humble earthworm. Chitinase producing organisms are theorized to be taken up by plant roots in the water they utilize and are then moved throughout the plant via vascular tissue. This translocation results in chitinase being distributed into the leaves and other parts of the plant. When a pest insect such as an aphid, mealybug, whitefly, or any other plant-feeding insect begins taking juices from a plant with chitinase in it they find out the hard way what chitin degrading means. The chitinase works to dissolve the insect's stomach lining thus disabling the pest. It dies from the fact that its insides are being slowly dissolved. There can be no more effective way to control pest insects on plant that this method because insect pests cannot change what material makes up their bodies. And it is very difficult in nature to develop resistance to things that eat you." [/SIZE]

Or you can get yourself some safers soap or something...I'm sure someone more experienced than I can tell you the best anti-pest product that is safe for your babies.

Happy growing.

 

[mary.chiva]

Update...

Well, I've been having heat problems and minor air exchange issues. Ever since I added more lights to the flowering side, the temps have gotten in the 90's some nights (if it's not cold enough outside at night to bring the growbox temp down to something reasonable). I checked about an hour ago and the temp was 82 (it was about 38 outside when I checked), 82 I can deal with, but not in the 90's.

The problem is, the temps vary to much. Once the lights go off at 10AM things start to cool off, with the outside day temps averaging 65 I should be ok for now, but once the days start getting colder...the growbox temps will drop even more during the day (plants nighttime). The plant thinks it's night and without sun....but still. I'd like to keep temps 'somewhat' stable...not dropping down in the 60's and then when the lights come on...up in the 80's or even 90's (maybe it will be 70's once it gets REALLY cold at night). This is just to variable...any one have opinions on this?

My proposed solution? Get a 400w HPS and air cool it. I'll only have to worry about keeping one light cool, and then I can use a small thermostat controlled space heater to maintain the temps inside the box because of the wide range in temps outside (making them far more stable inside the box). I'd also like to add an air intake and exhaust fan to improve air exchange, rather than me opening the door once a day.

I plan to order my new gear eventually anyhow, but right now I want to monitor temps a few more days before biting the bullet (this new setup will cost me...). Maybe it won't get in the 90's anymore...but rather will get cold enough outside that I can get away with a cheap space heater to bring temps UP to where I want them... I doubt it...I bet I still need to bite the bullet.

Besides hopefully fixing my variable temps, this new air cooled HPS/heater setup should greatly increase flowering times and yields. BTW, I have a free standing air conditioner that I'm going to use to keep temps DOWN when summer time hits...rather than the space heater to bring temps up during winter.

Anyone have any thoughts on all this? How about the temps varying 20, sometimes 30, degrees between my babies 'daytime' and 'nighttime'? Will this slow things down or decrease yields???

Thanks again all.

 

[GrowTech]

things are looking interesting in here