150w HPS / DWC - Small-Cabinet Grow

Cool man - my girlfriend is helping with this grow. Nice to have someone that can help if you have to be gone for a day or something.

Hello SableZen! I have that same exact HPS light. Thing worked great for my first grow. Had some seed from a killer bag and it grew to 7.5ft tall!!! Only the top 2ft of the plant actually got enough light to bud but got about an O and a half. I'm curious to see how your grow turns out. Will be checking back with the thread. Best of luck!

Right on and thanks, I only have about 2 feet of grow space so hopefully no 7.5' monsters for me. Did you post pictures of your grow? Would like to check it out.

Pictures from this morning. They are on node 6 and 7 (except for the runt). Seven-bladed leaves started at node 5. Will likely throw them into 12/12 sooner rather than later as some of the plants are already touching each others leaves (naughty plants).

Notes: Added another intake at plant level (seen in last pic) which brings the temperatures just a few degrees above ambient - slightly opening a window in the room brought humidity up to 50%. Lowered reservoir water level to 1/4" below net pots. Still holding off on nutrients (but will change out the reservoir this weekend and re-add Liquid Karma at full strength for another week or so). The reservoir pH has been holding without needing adjustment for ~4 days now.



Edit to add: Made two mistakes today. First is I lowered the water too much too fast last night. I also lowered the HPS this morning... and burned the tops on a couple of the plants. Hopefully caught it in time to avoid serious damage - added a liter of plain, pH adjusted water and raised the HPS a bit.

Just decided to flip to 12/12 tonight and get things moving for the experience/learning. Hopefully I can get them into flowering before killing them. =P

Also taking the opportunity to adjust the timer to be off during the day and on at night. Hopefully that will improve temperatures inside the cabinet, especially with hot (90+ F) days on the horizon.

Ha thats great, I have the same fan too; a little blue one. 5 bucks at target, can't beat it! I just started on this site not too long ago and didn't post any pics. I figure this site is a good place to mingel with others and so far its been good. Got somewhat of a big mouth and feel the need to tell others, yeah I know- not smart! I am interested in checking out some hydroponic or bubbleponics, going with dirt now. Heres a few pics of my current. Will get some of the last 1. It was cool but totally unmanageable. The pics are a little over a week old. That was taken right in the middle of when they start doubling in size. About 4-5weeks out from harvest. Will get more pics soon. Probably tommorow. Later man.

Yeah I have the wally-world version of the fans but noticed Target has the exact same ones, just branded with a different name. Super cheap and the right size... I use three; 2 in the cab and one taped to 4" ducting and used as a booster fan to keep a little airflow when the lights/main fans are out.

Man I'm jealous of all the room you have to grow! Nice looking grow you have going - will definitely check out any current pictures you post. Later and stay safe man!

Just for comparison, here's day one of the journal compared to day 5... 4 1/2 days of growth:

Looking good? Bad? Ok? Feedback/comments wanted.

Hellz yeah man! I use a closet setup. I rent a room in a home and had a roommate move out, so I took his room which is twice the size of my last room. Twice the closet space too! Problem is The Smell! Stinks pretty bad. The weirdest thing is, the smell got better as soon as I started flowering?????? They stink like at least 50% less now that they're budding. I keep my window open during the day so it doesn't stink up the house. 1 roommate knows and doesn't care. Haven't told the new guy and probably won't. Hes a trucker and is gone 3-6weeks at a time so he never needs to know. 60year old guy too, So definetly ain't tellin him! I got a 3x3ft cabinet from a friend and that was the original plan, but got my hps and knew heat would probably be an issue so that never took off. Would still like to do a cabinet grow with some auto-flowering strains. Maybe auto AK-47 or 48. That shit is supposed to stink to high heaven tho. maybe maybe not, who knows. Been on this site slightly longer than expected and glad I checked back with the thread. Take it easy man! Peace!

Good or bad??? To me that shits amazing! Has always been known that hydro is better for growth than dirt. I am so tempted to just go out and get a hydro system man! Its kind scary tho, in a sense cuz then I'm basically starting over. I started with dirt and am taking what I learned on my last grow and applying it to this grow. With hydro, it would be like starting over as a newbie. Don't know why i feel this way. I should, just shut up and do it, right? My curiousity will eventually get the best of me and I'll do it anyway! lol. Looks good man. Talk to ya tommorow.

I'm blown away by how fast growth is. Just not sure what is good or bad for DWC though.

Oh I don't think it would be like starting over for you at all. You already have successful indoor growing experience - I didn't prior to starting this grow and mine aren't dead yet. I'm sure you would do better than I have at this point. But so far, dealing with the little reservoir I have has been easier than working with soil. It's fairly forgiving - screw up something and you dump the reservoir and start fresh. That's something you can't really do in soil. But the biggest drawback I can think of though is that you more reliant on electricity keeping the pumps going and the reservoir cool. Power or equipment malfunction could really suck. I think soil would be more forgiving in that regard...

But I'm starting to ramble so I'll shut up. But definitely give it a go with a plant in a bubble bucket instead of a pot with dirt and see what happens.

Yeah I'll definetly do that. I have a friend who tried growing with dirt and he fucked his up. only got 5grams off of a 2ft plant. He thinks its his bulb. Got a phillips or a sylvania bulb and thinks its not a grow bulb. I think all hps bulbs can be use for growing. I'm pretty sure it was the fact that he used compost and only compost for the soil and I think all the natural nutes in the compost burnt his shit. His plant was Glowing! Super ultra lime green! I'm using Just Right Xtra soil, its mostly cocotek Coconut husk. Very loose and airy. Added like 2 cups of perlite too. Its great to grow in. I will probably invest in a bubbleponic system soon. Cheap, only like a hundo for 6pot system. I'll have more pics in a few hrs, gotta upload from my phone. Peace til Later man!

Or build your own DWC - it's just a rubbermaid/sterilite container (lightproof it with your choice of material, and an aquarium bubbler or two with stones - $20-$40 dollars. Cut the hole(s) for the net pot(s) in the lid, fill net cups with hydroton (or your choice of inert medium), add your choice of nutrient mix to the reservoir (although I would recommend bio/organic nutrients for simplicity), add seedling(s) and have at it. You might spend another $10 or so on pH drops or strips. Otherwise you'll already have most of what you need (lights, knowledge, grow space, etc.).

For the journal record, I put out 15 liters of tap water aside last night to dechlorinate. Will do a reservoir change this evening with it and add their first nutrients (PBP Grow) at 1/4 strength. Will also add Liquid Karma at 1/4 strength to start and see how it goes. [PBP-G = 7mL/4L with 15L reservoir = ~25mL; LK = 5mL/4L with 15L reservoir = ~ 18mL]

Yeah thats a great idea! I got a local shop that sells all that stuff so definetly a future possibility! Just uploaded some fresh pics taken this morning. I'm not a photographer like a lot of people on here. Just have cheap camera, but it does the job for what I need it for. I think the pics are labeled but can explain if labels don't come up. enjoy!

The pics and plants look great. Thanks for sharing the pics man! I'm guessing the fourth pic is of the 7 1/2 footer? I'm going to drop the money on good seeds if I make it through this bagseed grow. By the way, how did your was the smoke compared to street-bought?

Included a picture of the roots during the reservoir change. The discoloration is from the Liquid Karma, otherwise they are a vibrant white color and look healthy.

lookin dude good keep it up. i was bout to say dude those roots aren't lookin to good lol but good to ehar thats fromt eh karma and not root rot.

peace

Good work mate
those ph droppers work perfect

You wont need a very big fan at all a 10cm computer fan is more than enough
the problem is you have zero flow at the moment anything over zero will solve your problem

wow way better growth than mine do you run your water pumps 24/7? I think i did that for my first grow, now I have them on timers and I think its not helping at all

getting your gf involed might have been your only poo move

Yeah crazytrain it's definitely a combination of the Liquid Karma (it's a dark brownish black color) and also shadow from the bright lights behind the root mass. I had a moment of panic when I first took the lid off and thought the same thing you did at first. lol

Hey Bic - thanks for the feedback. I have a rated total of 100 cfm in exhaust currently from two exhaust fans. As well as a small booster on one of the intake vents for use when the 2 exhaust fans are off during the night cycle. There are also 2 desktop fans located within the case to move air around internally (one directed on the bulb/ballast and one that provides airflow over the plants when the lights are on). Oh and I also added another passive intake at plant level using a 3" to 4" pvc adapter flange through the back of the cabinet. The two fans are loud though and located right next to our bed, so I'll be replacing them with something quite when/if I add on a carbon filter or sooner.

Oh and I'm not using a recirculating system, so no water pumps - just have two dual-line aquarium airpumps feeding 4 airstones to the reservoir (but they do run 24/7).

Haha I hear you about the gf thing, but she actually knows how to keep her mouth shut. Which is one of the reasons we've been together so long I'd bet. =P

This is cool. I have a very similar cabinet situation that we will be going forth with very soon.However we are using soil. Have a few more things to do but hopefully by this weekend I'll have temp and hygrometer readings while the cabinet is running full. And than with one less fan during dark cycle. Plan on getting a journal going. This is definately the closest thing Iv'e seen to my situation. Good luck homeboy.

Hey SableZen! Nice pics man! Those things are growing fast! The 4th pic is the lsd. Some of the branches are like 4ft long! Shits crazy. Its like 5ft tall from the top of the pot, just a bad camera angle; makes it look taller. My last(1st) grow was with a bagseed. This guy has an enormous grow house and had pretty good shit but it would always have beaners in the bud. Out of 1 eighth, I'd get like 3 buds- 2 without seeds and 1 with like 16 seeds! And, then he upgraded to growing better and I saved a couple seeds. It was awesome! First 20min you get that giggley laughing, first timer high; then after that 20min it just LEVELS you! No joke, shit was like smokeable Vicodin! And, thats what I grew and it had similar if not the exact same effects as I so vividly remember from that first bag. It was awesome, so I'm sooo excited to try these strains because its a first for all of them. Keep going strong man! Til later... Peace!

Hi Godfrey - do me a favor and and send me a message or post in this thread when you have a journal going. I'd definitely like to compare notes and see how it goes for you. Thanks for letting me know and good luck with the project!

I'm trying not to obsess over the plants today but I find myself looking at the leaves every 10 min for signs of nutrient toxicity since I added their first real food last night. lol

For the journal record - I held off on starting 12/12. Will let them get a bit taller/mature more. Upper (newer) growth is more of a lime green today vs. yesterday. Will picture update tomorrow.