Indoor Bichon_Buzz's ongoing wardrobe grows

[bichon+buzz]

Hi Folks,
I'll be using this thread to document the grows I'm doing in my wardrobe.

A little background first:
While I've been a smoker for years, it was the onset of my wife's chronic pain condition and the relief provided by weed that led me to exploring the option of growing our own rather than giving dealers a small fortune. Stealth was a defining requirement so this ruled out tents while dedicating an entire room to growing wasn't an option. A friend who has been growing photos for years gave me amazing direction and came up with the custom setup I have.

The wardrobe:
The wardrobe itself was originally divided into two sections: one with two doors and one with a single door. Because of where the vent for the room was I decided to extend the single section meaning my extraction would be straightforward. Before and after below:

The overall area is a little over .5sqm - just enough to squeeze in 4 11ltr pots.
My Sonlight electronic ballast can run at 150w, 250w or 400w. I use a 150w MH bulb until seedlings are two weeks old, switch to a 250w MH for 2/3 weeks and then onto a 250w HPS for flowering. Still working out the dynamics of this and when is best to switch to which.

The fan is a "Sound Insulated Fan Blauberg Iso-Mix 12,5 cm" which I'm finding generally runs at a low setting with zero audible sound when the door is closed. I set it up to pull air through the carbon filter which is then pushed through the cool tube housing the bulb and out through the vent. I also run an oscillating fan on low blowing hot air away from under the light.

All in all I'm really (as I approach the end of my third grow) I'm really delighted with how this has worked out. Yes, I'm still a noob and find I learn best when I've made a mistake, but at least the basic errors seem to be history!

I'll go into the mistakes I've made in the grows til now (including the outdoor grow I did last summer) in the next update.

 

[Rev. Green Genes]

Very nice. That is a lot like my closet. I have moved to LED since then, but great job.

Does the duct lead outside? or in an attic? Unless you are in a spot where no one ever goes, think about a carbon filter or seal the door. The smell will bleed out of the room some. If height is limited changing bulbs can be necessary, but you can raise or lower the light to change intensity as well.


edit. I just saw the filter, never mind!! As you were.

 

[OLDproLg]

Chronic pain sufferer here also...

Hope the new grow goes well to get them meds needed brother!
Op

 

[bichon+buzz]

Very nice. That is a lot like my closet. I have moved to LED since then, but great job.

Does the duct lead outside? or in an attic? Unless you are in a spot where no one ever goes, think about a carbon filter or seal the door. The smell will bleed out of the room some. If height is limited changing bulbs can be necessary, but you can raise or lower the light to change intensity as well.


edit. I just saw the filter, never mind!! As you were.

Looked hard at LED but it was woulda pushed the cost way above the budget! Duct leads to the outside our apartment which is top floor so nobody snooping around. I'd to turn off the power for an close to an hour yesterday and boy did the room stink! Normally there isn't a hint of odour with the fan/carbon filter running.

The light can be adjusted a little up and down but I also built it so that the shelves can sit at 3 different levels.

 

[bichon+buzz]

The medium I've been using is soil, specifically Bio Bizz Lite Mix for germination in a humidity dome and then transplanting into Bio Bizz All Mix around the 14 day mark.

For nutrients I'm also using the Bio Bizz range (Grow, Bloom, Heaven and Top Max). I've been following the @scally420 thread http://autoflower.net/forums/threads/scallys-one-and-only-thread.53643/ closely (even had my 1st post on it!) as he is using the same nutrients. I need to consider adding a cal/mag supplement as I've seen a few times that the BioBizz range is deficient on this front.

Another thing on my list to try is the paper towel germinate/plant directly in the final pot rather than my transplant/re-potting method. I think what is holding me back on that is the fear that the little seedlings will stretch too much. keeping the seedlings in a humidity dome allows me to have them up close to the light meaning letting them grow broad as opposed to long. Of course when i do get around to trying out direct to final pot I may find that could all be totally irrelevant and maybe the stress from re-potting is significantly affecting the harvest.

So much to try out and learn and so little time. Am so jealous of those of ye who have space to experiment side by side with your normal grows! lol:drool:

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

hi and welcome
also a cupboard dweller.extra space is nice but we work with what we have.
you have a decent enough set up for a few harvests at least.moving to led/cob further down the line could help,heat/height.
looking good so far.
good luck.

 

[trailanimal]

hey b_b, so many of us have ended up at canna's door because of health issues, aside from pure fun. There are a lot of indoor growers here, probably about every issue there is , is under discussion on site. growing learning sharing, the way of AFN

 

[bichon+buzz]

Apologies for the delay in updating this - real life restricting online life *sigh*.

The plan for the next grow is to have 3 girls outside on our roof terrace and 4 in the wardrobe with all to be harvested and dried before the last week in July giving me approx 12/13 weeks before harvesting. All the seeds will be RQS Feminised Autos for this grow. I've had to stagger the planting as two plants ran/ are running over from the last grow and reducing my already limited space. I also want to keep the ones that will be going outside in the wardrobe for as long as I can. It is still way to cold for them but hopefully in 3 or 4 weeks it'll be ok.

As of today I've 3 seeds at 11 days old: White Widow, Cheese and AK47 - these have been re-potted (see below)

And 3 that are 7 days old: Blueberry, Critical and Northern Light.

The 3 11 day olds were put into new pots last night:

AK47 10 days

WW 10 Days

Cheese 10 days

In my head currently the 3 that will go outside will be the AK47, 2 northern lights (meaning I plant another NL tonight). This is just going on the data sheet from the RQS site which indicates that all 3 strains are ok for colder climates. They will each go into 22.5ltr airpots which I used last year. and the idea is to train LST to stop them reaching too much and also give them some added resilience to the weather.

Finally for this post, to the 2 buggers that are/were running over.

One got chopped last night:

93 day old Sensi Skunk1 - 227 grams wet so hoping for 45-55g dry. The trim I use for making cannabutter cookies.

This 2m tall 93 day old Blueberry has been a learning curve. This girl was fimmed, and then stretched (through my fuck ups) to the point where i had to do some pretty stressful training. I've not given up hope on her yet and while the buds are nowhere near ready she seems to be over the stress and starting to develop the buds. I don't need the space for another 10 days so I'll give a stay of execution before she gets chopped one way or another. I've grown this strain 3 times and have noticed the buds develop very quickly at the end so I'm still hopeful that she might come good!

 

[bichon+buzz]

The two batches of plants I have going are 14 days and 10 days respectively.

Unfortunately it looks like the 10 day old critical is a write off:

Nothing is different from the ones either side (a blueberry and a northern light) which are doing fine. The soil is Bio Bizz lightmix in all case and they've received same water. It could be something as simple as it not being planted deep enough or me moving the pot carelessly but would love to hear any thoughts on it. I'm 16-1 so not going to get too hung up over it.

It does mean only the AK47 will be spending the latter half of it's life outside with the other 4 being in the wardrobe.

Two the 14 day old ones are fine:
WW day 14

Cheese Day 14

The AK47 is having some issues:

Soil/feeding for all 3 of the 14 day olds is the same:
biobizz light mix watered until approx 20% run off with a diluted solution of Biobizz grow and heaven and left to sit for 24 hours before seedlings were re-potted.
1st feed since was today (4 days later) of grow and heaven with half a tsp of epson salts per 2 ltr.

Thoughts greatly appreciated on the AK47!! I'll stick a post on it in the infirmary tomorrow as it's getting late now and i need to go roll b4 hitting the hay!

 

[bichon+buzz]

Jarred my Sensi Skunk#1 last night. 56g dried - reckon I'll give it til Sunday morning and me and wife will try it out
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