hi all welcome to my first grow!!!!

im growing in a relativly small space W60cmxL60cmxH80cm wooden box i built by hand,covered piece by piece in cardboard giving the effect of a large cardboard box

bits inside

. 300w cfl red spectrum
. 245 m3/hr inline fan(125mm)
. 100mm carbon filter
. 9'' desktop fan

strains
. greenhouseseeds - Cheese
. G13 labs - Northern Lights x Skunk No1

don't know if anyone has had seeds from G13 labs before but the web address on the packet doen't link to their site and after a bit of a traul around google i still couldn't find much info on them, so i'm guessing that they've gone out of buisness!

I'm growing in soil and plan on topping or LST'ing to keep a short even canopy height to make the most of my cfl.
i germed all of the seed's (5xcheese and 5xNLxSkunkNo1) on 18/03 and within 5 days all of the seeds had sprouted roots and were planted up into 3'' square pots, the cheese were the first to break through the soil but i still have 1 cheese and 4 NLxSkunk No1 yet to break through the soil their either late starters or i've killed them off some how ah well we'll see what happen's

some photo's

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Mate - that is a nice box you got there - kudos to ya for set-up.

I had a thought that the light might be too close to the seedlings though. I can see they are reacting and leaning in which isn't problematic - just turn them each day and make em work for the light.

They can heat stress so stick your hand at the top of the seedlings under the light and keep it there for a minute - if your hand is comfy then the plants should be.

Good luck. I am doing my first grow, which is in a cabinet - though it is larger than yours and my light is moveable but that may change as plants grow so I can benefit from the extra height (8-10 inches approx)

Also - can you give me info on your filter set-up I will be putting one in at some stage and yours looks tidy.

Nice one

the filter set-up is pretty basic just a bog standard 4'' filter it's about 30cm long cost £25 from local hydro store,this is then duct taped onto a 4'' to 5'' reducer coupling which in turn is glued on to my 5''(125mm) inline fan which is directly mounted on to the back of my box,

i think i got kinda lucky i just got the parts together and they just about fit inside.between the reflector,desk fan and ventilation system they fill the top of the box!

i also had to create a sound proofing box to keep the noise on the fan down a bit as its in my bedroom, which i made from aluminium sheeting and a car sponge all cut up

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Thanks for reply and photos dude. I need to put a system in so cheers for the info...cheap too!


Keep the diary updated...I will pull up a chair.

just a quick update

only 1 more plant has sprouted, giving me a total of 4 cheese and 2 NL X SkunkNo1

all the other seed's had rotted even though they only had their first initial watering
ah well nothing can be done about that now

''I had a thought that the light might be too close to the seedlings though.'' i think that you were right lorien by the time i had gone to check on them after reading your post the largest cheese had some slight browning on the tips of its 2 leaves, it hasn't got worse and it's only on the 1 cheese, but it's also appered on the smallest NL x Skunk No1 which has never been that close to the light so it might be another problem entirely perhaps the sainsburys peat based multipurpose compost?

anyhow thanks for the imput, your more than welcome to pull up a seat as is anyone else with suggestions or constructive critism

more photo's to follow soon

nice grow mate i'll be interested to see how well those to strain react to lst and topping

NattyFido-thanks there was a few things that i'd change but overall i am pretty happy with the build. Yeah it could well be the compost its not for seedlings or anything so thats probably it.

Jimthebaker-yeah it should be worth a watch.

and as promised more photos
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the roots were poking through the smaller pots,so i've potted up the 4 cheese to what i think are 30 ltr pots (Final pots).

the NL x Skunk No1 don't seem to be doing quite so well it could be the compost that's slowing them down, i hope they pull through , if not i now have a source for nyc diesel clones at a reasonable price so i may well pop some of those in at some point, i'm just going to see how much everything fill's out in the next 2 weeks or so.

i'm most likely going to switch to 12/12 when the NL x Skunk No1 look a bit healthier and need potting up, so maybe another week of 18/6 before that happen's

forgot to mention why i included the first low quality pic in my last post.just put it in so y'all can try to make out the burning of the tips on the leaves.

So how is it going on this grow then?


What progress you had? Mine are doing well - started before you but you will get there too.

update

not much happening, i've potted up all the plants into roughly the same size pot's. The NL x Skunk No1 isn't doing very well the leaves seem droopy on one plant and almost a little deformed, i don't think their under or overwatered but they don't seem to be developing as well as the cheese have been. i have one cheese plant that seem's to have faded patches on it's leaves they've all had the same amount of water and their all in the same soil mix so i don't understand how they don't all suffer in the same way's??? i'm also having trouble telling how much to water them in their big pot's i'm giving them about 200ml at the moment but there's none coming out the bottom like there was with their smaller pot's even though i was giving them a lot less water, light's are off at the moment but i'll update with some picture's when i finish work tonight!!

Hay mate, nince little setup you have, almost exact same specs as my grow, so are you planning on scrogging? With that low head height and a CFL its a pretty good call, although topping them may give similar results.

With regards to pots etc. Did you wait for them to root out your first pots before potting them up? they just look a little small in the last pictures.

And jsut a randum Q I ask all fellow CFL warriors, how close do you have your bulb to the plants? Because you should really try and get them as close as possible without burning them.

Well shit, that'll work, so do you only have the one plant in there atm?

Either way its looking pretty good mate, nice one.

pitures as promised,

the first is just a group shot, just to show all the plant's in their final pot's
the second is of my lst'd plant,i will lst more of the plant's as i go along just waiting for the rest to catch up with this one!!
the third and final picture (posted seperatly)is of a NL x Skunk No1 which was wilting somewhat then recovered only to leave 2 of the leaves skewed and deformed, however all new growth seem's to be fine and there is a slight burn circled where a drip of water was left sitting after watering that'll teach me!!

i'm still a bit iffy on the watering schedule(amount and how often) so anyone who could offer some imput or a point me in the direction of some decent watering info can have a after me on this one if they can be arsed to try and get to me
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chewable_madness- no i'm not planning on scrogging just coz i've read that if your growing with fem seed's(I am) then it can be difficult to inspect for/remove hermied plants, if however you think that this would not be that much of a problem then i may well scrog although i suppose i could just scrog 1 or 2??

yeah all but 2 of the plant's had a pretty solid root system and were coming out of the bottom of the pot, all the root's held the soil togeather well, exept for the 2 which i should have left for longer before potting up.

i keep my plant's about 3-4'' away from the light.i did have them closer but because although i've only got one cfl it is pretty massive and get's too hot to touch,and i think i've already burnt one plant from being too close so i'm a bit anxious about heat stress and burning at the moment.

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cheers NattyFido
as soon as my light's come on i'll fill up a pot of dry soil and weigh all the pot's up against it. i have tried to use the poke a finger into the soil method but i find that while the top few inches are dry the bottom is still pretty moist and i don't want to stick my finger in too far for fear of damaging roots.

it's been pretty dead in this micro/experimental section for the past few day's,so here i am keeping it alive.

this will be my last update for about a week coz im off to the dam tomorrow!!!
the girlfriend will be trying to keep the plant's alive for the next 6 days or so,

but first some pic's and some Q's

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not a very good pic but you can still make out what i think is some sort of deficiancy, a kind of yellow/brown blotchy patch's on the leave's it's only on 1 or 2 of the leave's and none of the new leave's seem to suffer from it. i'm hoping that it has sorted itself out but any imput as to what this could be would be great.

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this is one of two NL x Skunk No1 i have managed to keep alive but they both seem to suffer with this crazy shape leaf thing,especially this one, again all the new growth seem's to be fine but it has been puzzling me as to what caused it?

a group shot

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this next one isn't very good quality but you can get a general idea of how wide the plant is

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well next time i post will be after a week of bliss ,and will be reporting if the plant's are dead or alive

cnt wait to see more wicked box and enjoy your week in the dam


smokes

got back yesterday ,had an awesome time as usual ,the plants have been thrown into 12/12 and are all looking good except for one or 2 withered leaves on one plant, they've grown alot, really starting to fill out the width of the box and are starting to smell, happy times!! in other plant related news i won a pack of 13 DNA super cannalope seed's in a 5 euro lucky dip pack!! so even though they're mainly sativa and are going to be quite big and stretchy thats my next grow's seed's sorted! , i'll do a post with picture update's and other stuff soon.

well i know that its been a while but i never said that i wasn't going to be a lazy stoner

plant's have had their 2nd feed of bio bloom, they're on 3ml /ltr at the moment,i'm watering every other day i think that my soil mix has too much perlite/vermiculite in it as it seem's to dry out super quickly, well either that or the girls are very thirsty.

been doing some pruning, not entirely sure if i'm pruning very well though i've been using a sterile scapel blade and cutting off some side stem's and leaves to let more light at the bud's,i've been cutting as close to the plant's main stem as possible not sure if thats a good thing or not?

i've also been playing with making clone's from the cheese plant's just because i got some rooting hormone powder from asda for a quid!!! so if they take hold in the little pot's i've put them in then i'll pop them straight into flower but if not then no worries

next update will be in about a week but more importantly will be with picture's
untill next time.

oh and would there be any reason that i couldn't put one of those moisture absorbing boxes in with the plant's? coz the humidity is kinda high in there at the moment and the last thing i need is bud rot

Update time surely!

If your humidity is too high the best bet will be to get better ventilation, moisture absorbing materials might help a bit but aren't really a long term solution.

Looking forward to seeing more pics of how your flowering is going, how big/ were your plants/how many internodes had developed when you went 12/12?

ok time for a way over due update!

bumgravy: the humidity is under control now, it seems to have rectified it's self and is not going higher than 46% which isn't as bad as it was but coud be better,

to be honest i can't remember exactly how many internodes they had maybe 3 or 4? not many more than that.

plant growth hasn't been as vigourous as expected, while they have grown since they went 12/12 i,ve got the pot's raised 12" off the floor of the box so i could have done with another 2 weeks or so veg me think's.
all the girl's are exactly 6 week's into flowering as of tomorrow.

my NLxSkunk No1 seed packet tell's me that they could be ready from 6 to 8 weeks but with the training and the pruning they've had i think they should go to the 8 week's easily.

the cheese will take 8-9 weeks according to the greenhouse site, but again they've all been pruned and trained except for 1 plant which is defo the furthest ahead.

so seeing as i'm at week 6 does anyone think that i should start flushing my plants now? given that my NLxSkunk No1 is supposed to finish in 2 week's.

they are drinking about 400ml of water every third day with 3ml of bio bizz bloom per litre temp's never above 31.5 C
does anyone think that the addition of bio bizz grow/veg nute's would help fill my space? or is too late for such an addition?
i know i've kinda asked contradicting questions so if someone could give me a conclusive response that would be great. thanks

right pic's

this is the cheese that is the furthest along it's about 10" tall
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part of the main stem
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top shot
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this cheese is looking like it'll be the heavist yielding of all the plant's
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this is the bushiest of the 2 NLxSkunk No1
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the tall skinny NLxSkunk No1
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another cheese
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being just over the 6 week mark now i've gone and bought a jeweller's loupe off fleabay for a couple of quid to better help determine when to crop.

last night when examining the plant's i noticed that a lower bud site on my biggest cheese was starting to darken on the top when i looked down on it,and so thinking that it was bud rot setting in i chopped off the infected tip of the bud,turned my oscillating fan up to it's maximum setting and removed some of the sound proofing from my extraction system to better increase the airflow in my box.

what are the first sign's of bud rot?
i couldn't smell anything different about this bud it just looked darker on the middle of the bud next to the stem towards the tip of the bud.

after lots of reading and information absorbing i have come to the conclusion that my plant's are so small because of the following reasons

.all the plant's were potted up too early, ie only had a small root system and didn't really need potting up for another week from when they were potted up.

.all the plant's were pruned far too heavily too early on in flowering, this stunted growth quite badly

.there was too much time left between watering. i was so paranoid about over watering and drowning them that the compost had time to dry out to the point where it shrunk in the pot leaving a gap of about 5-10mm all the way round the pot,as ot1 say's in the organic sect

''The best growing results come from a wet dry cycle, by dry I mean down to 5 or 6% of the composts wet capacity, if you go much lower than that the root ball will shrink away from the pot walls killing a large percentage of the fine feeder roots, you don’t want to do this as it sets the plant back and every time you do it, it will reduce the final yield a bit more. Another problem where a rootball is allowed to dry out to the shrinkage stage is that it is very hard to wet it properly again, What happens is the water runs off the surface and down the gap round the pot edges leaving 70% of the rootball dry.''

so as you can see i have learnt alot from my first grow, and i still have a lot left to learn.

Nice going mate, sorry dont have enough experience to help you on your potential bud rot problem.

Shame about your potting/trimming problems, the main thing is you have learned your mistakes and can get it right next time

About the over-drying, I find that even if the pot has dried too much, you can still get all or most of the water back in to it by letting the pot sit in the run-off for about 30 mins after watering. As that post says, water will just bounce off of soil that is too dry and run down the sides, but if you give it a chance then it will eventually soak in to the soil, and drink the water the pot is sitting in.

Looking forward to another update with pics

budrot tends to start of with a bud looking slightly wilty and soft, it will then start to go grey and mouldy looking...
Your buds should be fairly firm, they will have a generally 'sick' look if its biotrytus(sp?)

well nearly killed my plant's yesterday!!!

took a look last night about 3am and it was about 95 oF in there!
all the plant's were super wiltted and the compost was really dry

my own falut i put a load of boxes in there to take up some of the unused volume of the box so that the fan wouldn't have to work so hard.
but what i actually did was block the majority of the air flow and heat the plant's up till they had nothing to drink and were looking very droopy

so took them all out, gave them all a good watering and removed most of the boxes that i put in.

light's have just come on so i'm going to see if they've suvived
wish me luck

ganjamohanja

hey dude, that's a natty little box you built there. nice!http://www.uk420.com/boards/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif
i been thinking about a similar set up in my garage which is full of cardboard boxes so i'll watch this growshow with interest.
good luck bro

hey dude, that's a natty little box you built there. nice!
i been thinking about a similar set up in my garage which is full of cardboard boxes so i'll watch this growshow with interest.
good luck bro

well i hadn't killed all my plant's they had all recovered pretty well except for 1 NLxSkunk No1 whose leaves never made it back so all's well except for that one slightly bare plant.

i'm feeding all of them just plain tapwater now,
temp's are no higher than 88oF and no lower than 69oF
humidity is max 48% and min 30%

having recieved my jewellers loupe 2 day's ago i have been gandering at the plant's for hours on end stinking the house up late at night

the cheese is actually living up to it's name and has a deep skunky,almost cheesy aroma whereas the NLxSkunk No1 have a lighter fruityer smell, can't seem to tell if i have any different pheno's in there but i i am quite new to this growing game

my smallest cheese has about 30-40% of the trichromes turned amber 50-60% milky and about 10% still clear
the rest of the plants are all about 25% amber includeing my leafless NLxSkunk No1 but having looked at the photos i'm about to post i think i'm going to cut her tonight before she shrivel's away in to nothing!!!
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going
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gone (nearly.. i hate to think what she's going to look like when i pull her out in a minute

the flash on my camera seemed to catch the trichromes in this picture quite well so i thought i'd pop it in
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more updates when i harvest