SHH! Don't tell my landlord I'm growing in my closet! (400 watt Apollo HPS in closet)

yeah.... DEFINATELY..... Mist with soapy water maybe.... right now im looking for a soil that has these other bugs that are carnivorous and primarily soil dwelling. They're called "Hypoaspis Miles":

Hypoaspis miles is a small (0.5 mm) light brown mite that lives in the top ½ in layer of soil. As a natural predator of fungus gnat pupae and snail parasite Riccardoella aspersa it is used by gardeners for biological pest control.
Hypoaspis miles and the similar species, H. aculiefer are soil-dwelling, predatory mites. Hypoaspis mites feed on fungus gnats, springtails, thrips pupae, and other small insects in the soil. The mite is 0.5 mm (1/50 inch) long and light-brown in color. It inhabits the top 1/2 inch layer of soil. Females lay eggs in the soil which hatch into nymphs in 1 to 2 days. Nymphs develop into adults in 5 to 6 days. The lifecycle takes approximately 7 to 11 days. Both nymphs and adults feed on soil-inhabiting pests, consuming up to 5 prey per day. They may survive by feeding on algae and/or plant debris when insects aren't available. Both males and females are present, but males are smaller and rarely seen.

so I've been told that miracle grow organic potting soil in the brown bag most likely has some of these critters... my last grow had tons of these guys crawling all over the soil.... I don't remember what brand of dirt I used or I'd jump on some TONIGHT! I had no issues with bugs last time other than these guys (hypoaspis)... so its off to find some; I heard stores that sell exotic snails have em... anyone know an online snail store that ships to Alaska?

Nice growth bro. Bummer about that kola burn.

jcommerce said:

Nice growth bro. Bummer about that kola burn.

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it sucks but new growth has almost swallowed what's left of where I cut the burn out! These 2 strains I have are so strong I can't slow down vertical growth at all... Not that its a bad thing, but I'm running out of space!
And now some 3 week pics!



KEEP IN MIND MY CLOSET IS ONLY 2' X 3'! THAT'S ONLY 1 SQUARE FOOT PER PLANT

Sweet. Since you're at week 3, the vertical growth should be very near or at its end.

Great looking grow, and great journal.

One way to help with the bugs is to be proactive and spray the top of your soil every couple weeks with neem oil.

jcommerce said:

Sweet. Since you're at week 3, the vertical growth should be very near or at its end.

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yeah you'd think... they just keep going though! I think I'm going to add in some 6500k cfls to try and help stop it

so instead of more cfls, I cut out some cfls that were already in there and added in a 400 watt MH... Temps are down to 76!!!!!!!

quick update... temps holding strong at 75... I wish I would've done this earlier! I picked this MH ballast up off craigslist for $20... it was a shop light so I had to do a little handiwork to jam it in my cool tube. I used some scrap metal from an xbox 360, go figure!

Love the jungle, keep up the good work

Thats a lot of light for a 2x3, they should love that for sure. I wonder if you get the same canopy penetration of a 800w or if it somewhere between that and the 400w from each bulb. You should get some nice dense buds for sure though, you canopy is looking great.

How is the pest problem going? And I admire your setup I myself am trying to set up a 3'x4'x7' closet but going to be running 24 cfls in both spectrums (cause im broke lol) have you ever thought of a scrog setup in the closet?

hbbum said:

Thats a lot of light for a 2x3, they should love that for sure. I wonder if you get the same canopy penetration of a 800w or if it somewhere between that and the 400w from each bulb. You should get some nice dense buds for sure though, you canopy is looking great.

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I doubt I'm getting that kind of penetration, but according to the bulb boxes I'm dumping over 90,000 lumens in there, and at 6 inches from the canopy they get it all!

klozetgrow said:

How is the pest problem going? And I admire your setup I myself am trying to set up a 3'x4'x7' closet but going to be running 24 cfls in both spectrums (cause im broke lol) have you ever thought of a scrog setup in the closet?

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Thrips subsided a little, they hate the intense light! I'm still trying to find some hypoaspis miles though. I did contemplate SCROG but I went from seed, so no guarantee that they'd all be female, probably next time though, I took plenty of clones! As for your set up, I would definitely run an HID in there instead of cfls (check amazon for used Apollo ballasts, I saw a 600MH/HPS for $50! and Apollo 600 watt bulbs are only about $20!)... heat will be an issue and so will light penetration with cfls, if you're gonna do it though you should only veg for a few weeks to keep the stretch minimal, and make sure to keep them suckers within 5-6 inches or you'll lose most of the PAR light that plants use and you'll be wasting energy... So that you know, I have pulled a couple crops off CFLs and I am NEVER going back to them, not even as supplemental lighting! and as soon as I have the cash I am going to change my veg/clone mini fridge cfls to a 150 MH. I figure I already have 4 58 watt bulbs in there and am burning almost 250 watts with fans and what not, temps are in the low 80's. maybe I can fix it all in one whack with a nice upgrade


BTW temps held solid all night at 75 with lights on and 73 with lights off!!!
HELL Yeah!! I wish I would have done this earlier! Tonight its off to find a better light socket bracket that doesn't sag in my tube

CFL can be way more expensive than HID once you compare all of the bulbs you need. HID can be tricky for heat control but once you factor swapping out all of the CFL bulbs you need, your cost goes up dramatically if you get the same actual wattage and once you get through a couple grows, and try to cover an entire plant in CFL it starts getting a little out of control price wise.

hbbum said:

CFL can be way more expensive than HID once you compare all of the bulbs you need. HID can be tricky for heat control but once you factor swapping out all of the CFL bulbs you need, your cost goes up dramatically if you get the same actual wattage and once you get through a couple grows, and try to cover an entire plant in CFL it starts getting a little out of control price wise.

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Yeah that's what I learned the hard way, I was afraid of lighting my house on fire with an HID in my NON VENTED closet, but now after making the switch, I feel like running a CFL for 18+ hours is more of a fire hazard. I've already had 3 larger ones (75 watt cfl/ 300 watt equiv.) melt apart and "pop", that's what you get for expecting plastic to withstand that much heat for that long!

Most of the times the reasons people have for using CFL are exactly the reasons you should NOT use them.

1.) Cost.. CFL is just plain not cheaper than HID
2.) Temps.. Once you actually get all the CFLs you need, CFLs can be harder to cool since they are all over the place, also making controlling smell more difficult.

IMO, there are use cases for CFL, like:
1.) rooting clones where you want some light to keep them from flowing, but not a lot so it focuses on the roots.
2.) Mother storage, here you are also not so concerned about growth, you want to keep her healthy and you do not need a high volume of cuttings.
3.) Very small grow areas, this is a challenge, CFL may help but yield is not usually a big goal here.

Yeah man lookin good, keep it up! I'm working with an Apollo 400 as well, haven't had time to make a detailed journal like this though, I'm excited to see how it comes out =)

FrI$©0 ChArM said:

Yeah man lookin good, keep it up! I'm working with an Apollo 400 as well, haven't had time to make a detailed journal like this though, I'm excited to see how it comes out =)

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Well now it should be "2 Apollo 400's in a closet"! Apollo makes some pretty decent stuff, and I'm sure this is going to be a NICE harvest!

4/20 UPDATE!!!

Things are going great!
This marks my halfway point as its now day 28, and the last 2 harvests have come down right at or a couple of days before day 56...
Now its time to meet the ladies!

Some 4/20 Bud Porn!









and a group shot...






Questions, comments, advice, praise, criticism, and even words of worship are accepted here!
Thanks for looking! Happy 4/20!

Also, might want to do a more thorough job lollipoping those fine ladies next go round. Less energy wasted on small underdeveloped popcorn nugs, and more engery thrown straight to those big fat delicious tops =) cheers my brotha