SdY183"s Secret Squirrel Mission

It was a long series of decisions that led me down this path, but here is my entry into the foray with my super ninja stealth cab. growing dinafem critican jack auto. (at least i think i am...seed was cracked open and looked good when i put it in the rooting plug thing) this is my first grow ever, of any kind, any plant...should be interesting. it'll at least be educational. i STILL can't get the pictures to show up in the right order. smoke a bowl and use your imagination.

Well I can say that beats my first couple of setups. I love the hiding place. Whats the temps like in their?
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i don't know yet i bought a temp/humidity guage and damn if can find that thing. updates in the next day or two.

Looks like you can fit one good sized plant in there. I started with a stealth~ Rubbermaid but needed better yields. Went to the tent. Rep+.

i wanted to do a tent but i turned out not to be moving so this works better for where i'm at now.
temps are high! my little monitor says a high of 99 but i think it's just a 2 digit display. it was 99 when i took it out, too. low was 82. this is only like half the wattage of bulbs i wanted to use too. i'm gonna have to figure out something.
humidity ranged from 20-52%.

i have a sprout! i thought for sure i had killed this poor little seed, first by drowning the whole setup, then drying it out and baking it for one light session...looks like i just put it in upside down and it was trying to get turned around. (i planted it in the little hole) Gonna call this day 1.

Work on those temps.. 85 is about as high as you want to go. Good luck

Day 3. not much to report, had a little success with the temps. experimenting with putting ice packs near the intake/exhaust fans to cool the air outside the cab that it is venting in.
the sprout is looking a little sproutlier.

well, i think i killed it. the rooting plug kept pushing its way up and the sprout wasn't getting any water. when i repacked it in the peat balls i think i damaged the stem or else just adjusted it wrong and it's getting too MUCH water now. it was all wilted over and shitty looking this morning. i turned off the pump for the day to see if that helps and i'm cracking another seed now. might just ditch the whole hydro setup and go back to dirt. i was going to do dirt in the first place but the cab i went with had a little hydro kit built in, so i figured hey, why not? gonna try to refuckulate the carbonator and land on Juniper, see if that don't clear things up.

IMO, its always good to go with soil for your first grow, especially in a new cabinet. You're introducing too many variables with hydro, particularly if you don't have a lot of experience with it.

Edit: Soil is just a lot more forgiving medium to grow in.

Also, even aside from the temperature issue, I'm concerned about ventilation.

Yes, you have two fans going, which ought to be enough to ventilate the small box, but the problem is that you're ventilating the smaller box into the larger cabinet. In other words, you're basically just pushing hot, stale, humid air around the inside of the kitchen cabinet. How are your plants going to get CO2 and O2 if they're effectively growing in a closed box?

You need to make sure cool fresh air can get inside the kitchen cab, so it can get into your small growing box.

Incidentally, if you're already growing stealthily inside the cabinet, why not convert THAT into your grow space? Why a box-within-a-box? You'll have a lot more room to work with, and it will also probably be more forgiving if you go with the bigger cab as your grow space.

i appreciate the advice, jogro. i hadn't thought abotu the c02 and 02 levels...i had only been worried about maintaining temps inside the larger box.
there were a lot of reasons i went with the box-within-a-box setup and i can't go into all of them here...basically it was a combination of added stealth and the specific design of the cabinets makes it difficult to convert without creating noticeable changes. it was much easier to just throw another box in there. was only worried about the temps though, i somehow totally overlooked the necessity to circulate fresh o2 and co2. i think i have an idea how that might be implemented in the future though.

i dunno if this whole setup is going to be worth all the work though. i did it more to see if i could and what i could learn before i commit to a larger grow than to achieve any tangible results. before too long it will be time to start thinking about outdoors again (although that brings with it a whole new set of problems).

i think i'm going to plant the new seed as soon as it germs and keep trying for now as i continue to make improvements to the ventilation.

I say just keep tinkering with what you have whether soil or hydro. You'll figure things out quickly. Just keep changing the small variables a couple days at a time and see what happens. I went from a entertainment center cabinet hidden behind a box and a old computer to a rubbermaid container then onto a small white cabinet. Once I was able to see if I could do it, things got serious and I invested in a tent. Fresh air isnt always going to be so convenient in micro stealth grows. Just make sure you open it up for a while each day and let some fresh air in. No its not ideal but neither is a stealth micro setup. Its about managing the more general guidelines for growth and a healthy plant. Your first setup is fantastic compared to my first and a lot of others around here. Keep up the good work!