Grow Room JD's Coco Micro SoG.

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey guys, welcome to my micro grow.

Being new to the autflower side of growing, I decided I should start a grow journal to get and give advice. After much procrastination I opted for a synthetic fertilizer coco grow because of the size of my box and the fact that I have quite some experience with this format which, by the way, is my favorite.
I've done several micro grows in the past, but this is the tightest to date. As you will see, I am a DIY kind of guy and I have managed quite an interesting set up based on a pc power supply, so everything in my box runs on 12vdc.

Grow parameters:

• Ultra discreet box 52cm L / 23cm D / 44cm H
• Every bit of electricity in the box is controlled by a powerful PC power supply, 12v rail
• Lights : 20 X 3w white cobs, neutral and warm white. They are eagle eye leds, 12v, used in car lights

• vent:

a big 200mm cooling fan for cooling the lamp, pulling air from outside the box and move the plants
a 90mm fan for pushing the hot air towards the power supply
the power supply fan act as a extra to push the used hot air outside of the box
Odor control will most certainly be just a micro ona bucket, but I may build a micro activated carbon filter if needed

• Medium:

100% coco (Ugro), washed thoroughly.
0.5l PE grow bags

• Food:

House&Garden coco A+B
Maxicrop seaweed extract
Mycomadness mycorizhae
Humates (humic and fulvic acid)
PK
Bio essential micro
Ataclean
Enzymes

• Plants:

3X Short Stuff [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] REG (short stuff seeds)
2X Kush van stitch REG (flash seeds)
2X Sin Tra Bajo FEM (barneys farm seeds)
1X Guillotine FEM (french touch seeds)

The seeds have been put in jiffy plugs on october 02. All seeds have sprouted and 7 of them have started growing over ground. One SS#1 is a bit late, it has sprouted but is still under ground. Conditions in the box are good, temp is near optimum at 27/28C, humidity is overall a bit low at 25/30% but must be just right at seedling level because of the evaporation from the coco. Lights are on 24/7 to limit stretching. It will probably stay on the entire grow. First feeding today, 50ml per plant with mycomadness, maxicrop, humates and a smidgen of A+B, 0.6EC.

Expectations for this grow: First, make seeds. Ideally, I'll have at least a male KVS and SS#1 to make some crosses and make a stock of seeds for as perpetual grow. I also have some Dr.Feelgood, blue himalayan, snowryder and pink salad waiting their turn to make more seeds and more interesting crosses in the future. Second, have some weed to vape. Most of the plants I have in there have medium to high CBD content which I need to keep the cramping of my very nasty form of IBS-C under control. Medical use is the primary motivation for this grow.
Given the conditions and my experience with coco, but given that it is my first multi plant grow in such a small space, I'd be satisfied with 15 to 25g of dry bud at the end of this run. This session will help me evaluate the potential of this box. I have enough space to fit 14 0.5l grow bags so future grow may become pure SoGs as they may become 2 to 4 plant grows.

Let's see some pictures:
plants in their grow bags in mushroom crates, by the end of the grow it may turn into a hybrid hempy grow.

Cobs mounted on an aluminum oven rack cooled by the main cooler.

Smaller cooler pushing hot air towards the power supply exhaust.

SS#1 and Guillotine.

KVS and STB.

Dropper bottles for the nutes.

That's about it for now.
See ya guys.
JD

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Wow. That's a lot of plants for a teensy space! I'm dying to see how this goes. Subbed for sure, and good luck!

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey Antifa, thanks for the support. Clearly, it's going to get crammed real quick in there but I think I can manage it, especially since I should have a few males (hopefully) that will give up their space once I'm done with them. My goal is to only keep the main bud on each plant so I may have to pinch or even cut suckers to stop lateral grow. If I manage to do so, I could fit even more plants in the box in the future.

One week after having planted the seeds, the plants grow nicely, good colors, nice vigor, except for the tiny little SS#1 that seems to have some trouble breaking out of her jiffy plug (I recon). Temps are perfect at 25/26C, humidity is still quite low at 30% but the plants don't seem to worry about it.
I water everyday with very small amounts of nutes (0.6EC total with 0.2EC filtered (brita) tap water, pH around 6) with little to no runoff. I will try to keep it this way as long as possible. Since I use ataclean to dissolve salts and I maintain my medium moist, ph and salt content should remain under control. Depending on how everything goes, I might start bottom feeding once plants are clearly established in their tiny pots. Or, punch a little hole in the mushroom crate to make some sort of hempy hybrid to maintain the coco moist at all times. I expect a growth spurt in a very near future.

Couple of pictures for reference.
The little guys are working on their second pair of true leaves after 4 and 1/2 days above ground, I'd say that's a good sign.

JD, out.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

@JDoe Sure thing man. Looks like you have a good handle on things. I'm especially interested to see how you set up the scrog - I'm considering doing the same thing once my beans arrive and I get 'em germed. I have a similarly shaped pot (rectangular sterilite tub) so we might end up having similar frames for the netting.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

No Scrog, mate, SoG (sea of green), many little one cola plants side by side. I did some scrogging in the past, but I don't enjoy it, to much work for my liking. Plus, in such a small space, with that many plants (most of them being regulars) it would be an uber pita.
If ya gonna go with a scrog in your setup, you'll have to plan it carefully, especially with autos (I assume your gonna grow autos?) as you don't have the luxury of switching to flowering when your plant is ready to fill that net. Furthermore, topping is highly advised for a scrog as you want at least 4 main branches to work with while filling your net and topping is not advised with most autoflowers (afaik).
Depending on your level of experience you might be able to pull it of, I'm sure some really do good with super autos in scrog setups, but if you are just starting, I would recommend you start with an easier project to get your feet wet.

cheers, mate.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

Ah, gotcha. I've seen the terms used interchangeably, but I get what you mean now.

My setup is quite a bit larger (35gal tote stood on end) and I'm only growing one plant to start, so I should have room to fool around. And yeah, growing autos. Perhaps though I should hold off on the scrog and just work on getting the LST I plan on doing to do what I want it to do for my first grow.

Anyway, still subbed for your super interesting grow!

 

[Jimmy McGill]

I'd say that for a first grow lst is preferred over scrog, close enough without most of the hassle. This way you'll get to know the plant you start with and see how it reacts to heavy lst-ing, topping, supercropping (etc) so you'll know if it'll do good in a scrog.

cheers.

 

[Jimmy McGill]

Hey guys. I know that, at this stage, it is not really interesting but I will keep updating regularly for future reference as I need to keep track of what I do well or wrong.
Plants keep growing nicely, they are about a week above ground and seem quite healthy. Even the "late bloomer" SS#1 is doing well. I keep feeding them daily with 50ml of food at 0.6EC with no run off. 0.2EC filtered water plus 3 drops of A, 3 drops of B, 4 drops of Ataclean and 4 drops of Humates. I am waiting for my pH meter so, for the moment, I rely on the fact that my filtered water comes out at about 6pH.
I found a freakin' fruit fly in my box today and managed to kill it. Took me a while, these buggers are stealthy!
Most plants have roots that come out of the draining holes in the bags. I'm very happy with it as the roots look very healthy and it is a sign that the plants are getting established in their tiny containers.

A few pics.

Nice root showing.

Healthy all around.

The midget is getting stronger.

JD, out.

 

[nhdtjq]

Bodacious grow man, I'm in for the duration.

I have a 40x40 tent myself and have wondered if I might not try a sog in it at some point with four 20x20 smartpots.

I'm just not sure I u understand how they would grow... Do the plants naturally develop a central cola only when surrounded?

How does light reach beyond the super dense canopy, especilly when they've grown into the light?

 

[Harry_Kovert]

Hope you don't mind me taking a seat - SOG / SCROG are skills I'd very much like to acquire swiftly!