Psilo's First PC attempt...

Psilobloom

Well-Known Member
This is my first attemot at a grow, saw some threads from people who made Pc boxes and I thought it was very cool. Bought a case, gutted it...I have approx 4500 lumens of sylvania CFL's, am using miracle grow potting soil, 2 PC fans re-wired for outlet use. Currently have them on 24/0. It seems like its going to be pretty straight forward, but I need some professional opinions on some things.....

1. LST.....where do I begin? I've seen some pretty rad pictures of what I thought to be 3 or 4 plants that turned out to be 1 that was bent and trimmed. I know I have 5 but im not anticipating them all to be fem.

2. When to switch to 12/12 to flower

3. what to get for odor

4. What is that little guy still doing with the shell on his head? and why does one have an extra cotyledon and leaf

any other tips/ tricks/ knowledge would be GREATLY appreciated....but mostly just questions about lst.....THABNKS!!!






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MorroN

Well-Known Member
Hey man, looks like youve made a decent start.

First of all, mount the bulbs horizontally off the wall of the case rather than vertically, it gives you a little more height to grow and better light dispertion. Miracle grow soil isnt ideal because it contains time release nutrients which can mess up your feeding schedule, make sure you take a 'less is more' approach when feeding as over feeding/nute burn will reduce your yield.


1. LST is very simple, you just have to bend the plant and tie it down. Easiest way is to get a length of string, place it above a node(point on stem where a pair of branches/leaves come out) pull the plant gently down and secure the string to the pot by tieing it or just tape it. You should use this technique first on the base of the stem to kind of anchor it, this helps the base of the plant in the soil. There is a good guide on RIU but im on my phone and cant find it easily, just search for lst guide. Also dont start untill you get at least 3 sets of adult leaves.


2. Id switch after a week or so to start flowering asap, otherwise your going to run out of space. Also you will be able to sex them sooner.


3. Get a block of ona gel and put it near the exhast fan.


4. Birth defects are pretty common, dont worry about it snd just let it grow. You can very carefully remove the seed casing if you wish but it will come off by itself eventually.




Hope this helps and good luck!
 

matt4200

Well-Known Member
yeah your on your way bro. ive built 3 pcs now and now i have a server tower. 24"X22"X8".
I grew a full harvest and got more then 3/4th an O cause of lst!
But The main setback for compoopers are they have crazy amounts of light leaks and light leaks will turn your chick into a dude.
so try to seal as much as you possibly can
 

Psilobloom

Well-Known Member
Hey man, looks like youve made a decent start.

First of all, mount the bulbs horizontally off the wall of the case rather than vertically, it gives you a little more height to grow and better light dispertion. Miracle grow soil isnt ideal because it contains time release nutrients which can mess up your feeding schedule, make sure you take a 'less is more' approach when feeding as over feeding/nute burn will reduce your yield.


1. LST is very simple, you just have to bend the plant and tie it down. Easiest way is to get a length of string, place it above a node(point on stem where a pair of branches/leaves come out) pull the plant gently down and secure the string to the pot by tieing it or just tape it. You should use this technique first on the base of the stem to kind of anchor it, this helps the base of the plant in the soil. There is a good guide on RIU but im on my phone and cant find it easily, just search for lst guide. Also dont start untill you get at least 3 sets of adult leaves.


2. Id switch after a week or so to start flowering asap, otherwise your going to run out of space. Also you will be able to sex them sooner.


3. Get a block of ona gel and put it near the exhast fan.


4. Birth defects are pretty common, dont worry about it snd just let it grow. You can very carefully remove the seed casing if you wish but it will come off by itself eventually.




Hope this helps and good luck!
THANK YOU! yes after I made the box I realized I should have put the bar on the side...Also, what is usually used (easily) to anchor the power strip to the side of the case? and I had NO idea about that light leakage issue I just assumed they were getting the right amount of lumens from being in contact with the light...When im home sometimes I let the side of the case off to promote more air flow, should I not be doing this? or only during the dark?

And when you said switch to 12/12 in a week or so did that mean a week from tying down the third node for LST or a week from right now?
 

Psilobloom

Well-Known Member
Also, I looked in on them and it seems as though they are encountering stress, leaves arent as rigid and seems to be wilty....I was afraid I may have overwatered, or that my drainage holes arent sufficient...I also thought it may have been because the light was on 24/0, I changed it to 18/6 and hopefully that will work but heres a pic: (closeup of the retard to show the stress I was talking about) I put the three strongest ones in these containers to prep for LST...Have I made any crucial mistakes yet?
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indoormania

Active Member
Yo man! Good start to the pc grow! What matt 4200 is saying about light leak is that it allows light in in your dark period, light in in you dark period will cause your plant to go hermie on you so its important to cover up any areas where you see light getting in from the outside. Just close the case completely and put it in a very dark area and cover up the areas where you can see the light coming out from. Note that this may play a roll in your temp but not to massive. So no, unless you have heat issues do not remove the side cover at night if you have lights on around the case, if you have to, during lights on period.

It is still pretty early for lst though..wait atleast till 3, 4, 5 nodes before you lst, do it prefferably before flowering though, that's kinda the point of it but it won't kill them if you do it a little early. Looks like you transplanted, that can cause stress so maybe that was the problem

24/0 light cycle is perfect, no different from 18/6 really, 18/6 is fine, but do you have a thermometer in there? Make sure your guys are living in temps between like 20'C-30'C, below 30 around 25 if possible and also when they get a little older you can move those cfl's closer, like 5cm away, even closer, not saying that's your prob coz that's not burning that turning them yellow..you will need some other advice for that but its still early man, give them time to surprize you. I was going to pull my girl in my signature when she was just a little seedling coz she was smaller than the rest and yellow and looked like she will die soon, but now she is my main girl, only 1 I have left actually. Hope that helps a little, these guys pretty much answered most of the questions
 

Psilobloom

Well-Known Member
Yo man! Good start to the pc grow! What matt 4200 is saying about light leak is that it allows light in in your dark period, light in in you dark period will cause your plant to go hermie on you so its important to cover up any areas where you see light getting in from the outside. Just close the case completely and put it in a very dark area and cover up the areas where you can see the light coming out from. Note that this may play a roll in your temp but not to massive. So no, unless you have heat issues do not remove the side cover at night if you have lights on around the case, if you have to, during lights on period.

It is still pretty early for lst though..wait atleast till 3, 4, 5 nodes before you lst, do it prefferably before flowering though, that's kinda the point of it but it won't kill them if you do it a little early. Looks like you transplanted, that can cause stress so maybe that was the problem

24/0 light cycle is perfect, no different from 18/6 really, 18/6 is fine, but do you have a thermometer in there? Make sure your guys are living in temps between like 20'C-30'C, below 30 around 25 if possible and also when they get a little older you can move those cfl's closer, like 5cm away, even closer, not saying that's your prob coz that's not burning that turning them yellow..you will need some other advice for that but its still early man, give them time to surprize you. I was going to pull my girl in my signature when she was just a little seedling coz she was smaller than the rest and yellow and looked like she will die soon, but now she is my main girl, only 1 I have left actually. Hope that helps a little, these guys pretty much answered most of the questions

RIGHT ON! I appreciate the help guys I'll be updating this soon and with every change. I haven't even begun to think about nutes yet just distiller water for now. What should I use?
 

indoormania

Active Member
Cool hope hope this info we gave helps haha A lot of people will tell you to stay away from MG as its not easy for the new growers because of time release ferts and so on but I use nitrosol which is not the best but I live in SA so that's what I cvan find here..if you can get fox farm or something similar you can use that. Sorry not an expert on nutes haha check the nutes forums, they have some nice info there. But you still have a while, they say around 3 weeks+ but if your plant is 5cm tall at 3 weeks then you can't follow that, so around 3 weeks if your little guy is doing good, then start feeding at 1/4 strength the recomended doasge and move your way up to full strength
 

MorroN

Well-Known Member
THANK YOU! yes after I made the box I realized I should have put the bar on the side...Also, what is usually used (easily) to anchor the power strip to the side of the case? and I had NO idea about that light leakage issue I just assumed they were getting the right amount of lumens from being in contact with the light...When im home sometimes I let the side of the case off to promote more air flow, should I not be doing this? or only during the dark?

And when you said switch to 12/12 in a week or so did that mean a week from tying down the third node for LST or a week from right now?
As said before, you can keep it open with lights on if theres no risk of anybody seeing it but it needs to be dark after lights off, during flower it needs at least 12 hours of complete darkness or it will hermie.

I'd say switch them a week from now, I grow 12/12 from seed in my pc case and they usually grow to fill it up without a veg period. However they dont flower until around 2/3 weeks so you can run 24/0 up till then if you like, but I wouldnt leave it much longer than that before flowering.
 

indoormania

Active Member
As said before, you can keep it open with lights on if theres no risk of anybody seeing it but it needs to be dark after lights off, during flower it needs at least 12 hours of complete darkness or it will hermie.

I'd say switch them a week from now, I grow 12/12 from seed in my pc case and they usually grow to fill it up without a veg period. However they dont flower until around 2/3 weeks so you can run 24/0 up till then if you like, but I wouldnt leave it much longer than that before flowering.
You say you grow with a pc case aswell? I'm starting one out now and I have done some research but some people say they add up to 4 plants in the cab but I don't see that happening..how many plants can your grow in a standard case? And from start to finish 12/12, how long do they go before harvest?
 

MorroN

Well-Known Member
You say you grow with a pc case aswell? I'm starting one out now and I have done some research but some people say they add up to 4 plants in the cab but I don't see that happening..how many plants can your grow in a standard case? And from start to finish 12/12, how long do they go before harvest?
#

I do 2 because I can only fit 2 pots in (3l square with the top few cm cut off) but you could get 3 in 1.5l square pots if you wanted. They take 9-11 weeks depending on the strain, I trim to get one main cola and 2/3 other smaller ones.
 

indoormania

Active Member
#

I do 2 because I can only fit 2 pots in (3l square with the top few cm cut off) but you could get 3 in 1.5l square pots if you wanted. They take 9-11 weeks depending on the strain, I trim to get one main cola and 2/3 other smaller ones.
I think I will go with 2, with 2 seperate screens as I'm doing a scrog and the seeds are not fem seeds! 11 weeks is cool, my girl is propably going to flower 10weeks alone and that's not even counting the 6week veg so that will be cool. Thanks for the info
 

indoormania

Active Member
Nah my first pot this plant in my signature started in was see through aswell, and she shared it with 2 other, only 5l for full 30 days, you are fine haha
 

Psilobloom

Well-Known Member
Went to the Chi town for 2 days, came back and was APPAULED at the progress they made....did not think they could grow that much in 2 days!!
New questions...
1. should I think about transplanting into a bigger container?
2. they have been on 12/12 for about 4 days now, when will I start seeing sex so I can rip them males out?
3. Can I LST yet?
4. I need to mount the power strip on the side....any easy ways of doing this??????? <this is priority as the duct tape its being held up with now surely wont last
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