Fixing to Grow 60 Day Wonder White Dwarf Auto and Auto Fuel

[zvuv]

Well seeds arrived. I have 3 auto oil going. I planted 2 auto White Dwarf and 2 auto greenomatic. One WD died during germination. One of the oils has a floppy stem problem. I cant tell if its just a fold or if it's a deterioration due to some fungus. Right now I have it supported with a stake. I will look at it more closely when I've had a chance to catch my breath. They've been under cfls and sitting on the porch.

My plan for passive temp control didn't work. The ambient temp in the house rose to 80F and 86 in the grow closet without the lamp on. I just finished installing a small AC unit which cramps things a bit but keeps the temps under control.

In a few I will put the girls under the big lamp 600w mh conversion lamp and post some pix of the current setup.

 

[zvuv]

First pic shows the AC. Air intake is on the rt side and fed with exhaust air from the lamp. I found this unit for $99 at Lowes

http://www.frigidaire.com/products/air-conditioners-dehumidifiers/window-air-conditioners/fra052xt7

5000 BTU 12x13x16 inches.

Simplest would have been to set it in a opening through the outside wall on the rt. But that faces onto the street and I just couldnt get comfortable with the idea of having any part of the grow setup visible to the street. AC units are installed this way all the time and there should be no reason anyone would pay attention to tha back side of an AC sticking through the wall, but I just couldnt relax about it.

Putting it entirely inside the closet means a. Things are tight and cramped. b. I have to evacuate the waste heat from the back. I sealed off all the air vents and fed a 4" duct in from the side for cooling air intake. For the exhaust, I am using the cavity in the wall as a plenum. This saves several inches of precious space. The back of the AC is against a hole in the sheet rock. The hot air is exhausted from the wall cavity by the vent above the AC unit and out to a roof vent.

It all seems to work very well. Holds a steady 75F with the lamp on. The unit is set on low cool medium cooling whch means it has plenty of reserve capacity. The exhaust vent does get a bit hot at times. I might insulate that to stop the heat from getting back into the room.

Things are very tight between the AC unit and the lamp ductwork. I will have to fiddle with things a bit to gain a couple of inches of space on the left of the lamp. Also, I mean to put a deflector infront of the AC to guide the air below the lamp. Ideally the AC would have been installed about 2' high but this robs a lot of grow space. Setting it 4' high allows a short plant to grow under it and still get plenty of light.

There remains to finish off the light proofing and install the UV lights with interlocks so they go off when a door is opened.

Currently six 3L pots(Last picture - I cant control the order of the pix ). I just put them under the big lamp about 18 hrs ago. The back row are the auto oil which started a week earlier. The one in the middle has fold and a thin spot in the stem. I have it supported on a small stake (piece of red electrical wire). It's still growing so I have hope for it.

Front row: On the left are 2 auto greenomatics. The right pot is the surviving auto White Dwarf. The first set of leaves are mishapen. I dont have a good enough close up to get this in focus (2nd to last pic). But it's growing - the leaves doubled in size overnight!

Humidity is very low. 20% or less. Should I do something about this and if so what?

The soil if FF Ocean Forest with about 50% Perlite & Vermiculite added. I read somewhere that autos prefer a light soil. However, it doesnt hold a lot of water. I need to water it almost every day.

 

[zvuv]

Airflow diagram for the grow closet

Cooling air for lamp & ac unit is completely isolated from the room air. This means the duct fan driving this air flow does not have to work against the resistance of the filter.

Room air exhaust is to a separate partition in the crawl space so that it doesnt get a chance to return through the cooling air intake

Both duct fans are rated about 200cfm.

The AC unit has an internal fan to move air through the hot coil.

AC cooling air intake is actually on the side of the AC unit but I couldnt easily show that in the diagram

 

[zvuv]

Well I'm pretty sure the oil plant with the stem problem has 'damping off'. The stem is necked down in the region of the fold, not just pinched and it shows no sign of repairing itself. She is still growing but that's probably on the reserves from the cotyledons.

She started out with a very stretchy spindly stalk and got a fold or pinch in the stem. Probably from the wind out on the deck. My guess is the fungus attacked that weak point. I dont know why she stretched so much. Same light and conditions as the others. Might just be a pheno thing.

Does it make any sense to cut above the bad part of the stem and try to root the remaining stem like a clone?

So it's going to be down to 5 plants. 2 oil. 2 greenomatic & 1 white dwarf. At this point, I am not going to start another one. The next crop will be photoperiod strains.

This grow is not going to be a heavy yielder. Yield is not my first priority. 4oz will be plenty to see us through to the next harvest. But I had hoped to do better. I once pulled a pound out of this closet.

Temps are nice and stable at 75F. The AC exhaust is warm not hot.

When she gets big enough to photograph, I'll post a pic of that misshapen white dwarf. She seems to be doing fine. 2nd set of true leaves are just starting.

Later note: One of the other oil plants has a long stretchy stem. Didn't realize it because it was lying on the ground. The stem is very thin but it doesn't appear to be rotting. In fact it has a sharp bend with a little bulge where it looks like it repaired itself. Had I realized this could be a problem with this strain, I would have taken some precautions and given the seedlings some support until they got established.

 

[rosecitypapa]

Pretty creative with framing the ac unit. You might want to consider going vertical with your light, ditching the hood and vscrog. One of my rooms is roughly your size and I increased the overall air quality in my room when I did. Essentially having the exhaust fan at the top of the closet creates it as a giant hood.

 

[zvuv]

Update:

The two oil plants with the very stretchy stems have died. I don't know what happened there. I am hoping it's a phenotype issue and not something I did. They were out in the sunlight when this happened. So I am down to 4 plants. This is not turning out to be a great success but we are still in business. My previous grows did much better. Maybe this has something to do with autoflowers or autofems. Dunno. I think I will shortly start some photoperiod strains.

Other issues: Plants seem rather small for their age or at least low. The internode spacing is very very tight. The first set of true leaves are curling up some. I read somewhere that this can be the result of low RH which has been at 20% (bone dry desert here). I just added a humidifier and a bucket of water with airstone bubblers. We shall see if that helps.

http://https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/442753-leaves-curling-up-help-please.html#post5893368

On a more somber note: There is a huge wildfire on the edge of town and we may have to evacuate any minute. If that happens, I think I will take the plants with me since they are so short.

 

[zvuv]

Well we did have to evacuate. I took the girls with me. Not hard since they are small. They are now in my mother in law's greenhouse. She thinks they are 'Thai Basil'.

Interesting that with the humidity of the greenhouse, the leaf curling vanished and the plants shot up, mostly due to stretching between nodes. So that clinches it, I had a low humidity problem in the grow closet.

@Rosecity. tx. I will check out your grow thread. I am reluctant to go hydro since it seems a lot more complicated and yield is not a big issue for me. I doubt I could have moved these girls in a hydro setup

 

[zvuv]

The girls are back home now. The closet RH is 38%. They seem healthy and producing new growth but they are way too small for one month old. Three of the four are under 4" tall and have started to show sex. The White Dwarf is about 1.5" tall and doesnt show sex yet. At this rate, I might get 1 or 2 ozs out of the closet.

This grow has not been a great success so far. Only 4 of the 7 original plants survive (I like to think that part was not my fault) and their development has been disappointing. In previous grows, after germination, every thing grew vigorously and I got between 12 - 16ozs each time.

Could be the extremely low RH at the start, problems with ph or perhaps, the Ganja Gods decided it was my turn to have trouble

Well it could be worse. I have growing plants and I will get some dope.

Anyway. To put this behind me, I am starting some photoperiod strains from Dr Greenthumb. At least genetic wont be an issue.

So it will C99 (my first sativa grow), Big Laughing & Endless Sky. The BL & ES seeds are over 5 yrs old so I am not expecting a high germination rate but I only need a couple three of each.

I also have some csc (Capricorn Seed Co, I think) AK47 f2 of the same vintage. I will try to grow one of those as well. I will report on those in a different thread

Follow up on AC Unit:
This has worked very well. Temps have been up in the 90s but the closet stays at 75F regardless. It's a 5000BTU unit, running on 'LO' so it's not straining to do the job. However, the AC unit's internal fan is not strong enough to push the air through all that 4' ducting, so the inline duct fan must be running.
​

 

[zvuv]

I have started my photoperiod plants, they can veg along side the autos while those flower.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/446549-600w-mh-hps-closet-grow.html#post5950199

 

[zvuv]

At 1 month

First two are Greenomatics
The runt is the White Dwarf
Last is the Oil

Last week they did show what looked like N deficiency. Lower leaves yellowish and curling down. Adding veg nutes made that go away.

Hope to install UV lamps today

 

[zvuv]

Today I modified the lamp hood and added two sockets to hold UVB cfls. These are Reptiglo 10.0 26W. Power to the UVB lamps runs through a door interlock. The lamps switch off automaticaly whenever a closet door opens

View attachment 1689639View attachment 1689640


Also, I spent some time tidying up all the power cords. I pinned them all against the walls with the extra length rolled up in a loop. I put in enough power outlets so that all power cords (there are at least six) reach easily w/o extension cords. This is important. Loose electric cables are an accident waiting to happen. Especialy in a cramped closet with occaisional puddles of water on the floor.

There remains to make the doors seal so that they are light and odor tight.

 

[zvuv]

RH Problems:

Well I've been struggling with the low RH. Having tried, a vicks vaporizer, two airstones bubbling in a bucket of water, a wet towel in front of the fan, none of which did much, I had a bit of luck yesterday. My neighbor put a mini evaporative cooler out on the kerb for trash pickup. I took it homw thinking it would be easy to fix, and whoa! it works just fine! Cleaned it out, replaced the pads and put it the closet. RH is now 57% against an ambient value of 35%.

A nice thing about evap coolers is they will humidify the air until it no longer picks up water from the pad. Which means it will automaticaly limit itself regardless of the ambient humidity.

 

[zvuv]

Plants are doing great.





The auto white dwarf has started to move along in the last few days. It's two inches taller than it was in the last update. Last feeding I gave it a tsp of azomite. Could be that. Could just be the plant's own growth schedule.

The Greenomatics are just starting to really flower. It's early days yet and I expect to see a lot more growth and buds form. I will start giving flower nutes every other feeding until the stretch is done.

 

[zvuv]

Why keep a grow log?

Truth is, I'm disappointed that so few people have posted in this thread.I've kept the log updated with pix & comments. I take some trouble to make sure the posts are clear and informative. It includes a fairly complete description of how to set up a closet grow, with, IMO some interesting ideas. Other grow logs that have a lot less than this seem to get a lot more participation. So I find it puzzling. In fact this log includes an emergency evacuation in which the plants and their owner were relocated to another city for a week to escape a huge forest fire that threatened the town. Not a single comment about that either? Not even, "Gosh I hope you are ok!"

There are several reasons to run a log in this forum:

1. To make a contribution. I find the grow logs of others very useful at times.

2. To get advice from other growers.

3. (The main reason) Company! Growing is a lonely business. A lot of work, thought, expense and stress (it's illegal remember?) goes into setting up and running a grow but for stealth reasons, I can't talk to anyone localy. I don't know about others, but when I am this involved in something, I need to talk to someone and share what I have been doing. Unfortunately, I haven't been getting that from this thread. I feel lonely (sniff)

I intend to continue this log through harvest and keep it well updated with grow room improvements so that it stands as a complete record, but I don't think I will do it again. As I mentioned, I did start germinating my next grow of photoperiod plants and opened a thread for it, but I think I will abandon that one since I am not getting what I want from this exercise.

Let me be clear. I am whining, yes, but I am not leveling blame at anyone. Nobody is obliged to read my stuff or talk to me. There is no rule that says people have to be interested in what I do and say. It's just disappointing for me. That's all.

Finally, to those who have posted comments, and those who subscribed to this thread, thank you. Your presence and comment mean a lot to me for the reasons I have mentioned.

 

[tip top toker]

My advice just from the title is ignore the 60 day advertising, thye're done when they're done and i often see peoples opinions being swayed because supposedly it should take XYZ days

Looking very healthy and green to me though fella nice work! It'll often require a plethora of budshots before you acquire much attention alas.

 

[zvuv]

My advice just from the title is ignore the 60 day advertising, thye're done when they're done and i often see peoples opinions being swayed because supposedly it should take XYZ days

Looking very healthy and green to me though fella nice work! It'll often require a plethora of budshots before you acquire much attention alas.

Thanks for your advice and kind words. Yes, perhaps as the grow progresses there will be more interest. The Greenomatics are getting serious about flowering so there should be some nice pix coming up.

Yeah, the harvest times they state in the blurbs with the seeds are always optimistic. Perhaps with hydro and expert cultivation they can finish in that short a time, but the Greenomatics might come in close.

The White Dwarf is showing sex (fem). The Oil still not. It has long narrow leaves like a sativa.

If any of these strains turns out to be really nice, I will grow out the rest of the seeds but mostly I will stick with photoperiod plants. I guess one of the nice things about autos is that you can run them in parallel with photos in any stage without having to coordinate flowering & veg schedules. So I can always throw in a couple of auto plants.

I am undecided whether to switch to HPS soon or just run the whole grow on MH - never done that but I heard MH gives more potency at the cost of yield.

Any comments on that?

 

[Jesushasdreads]

my advice on your why keep a grow log reply is i feel the same way sometimes, but i got an undying love for the plant. people just gotta get to know you a little bit around here. continue to grow, contribute, and help on RIU and you'll get some people to bounce ideas off of. remember patience is a vitue, don't give up on your first grow log. thanks for commenting on my new grow room build thread [+ Rep], im getting that grow journal up and running right now and 'll have it in my signature when all the kinks are worked out. i have always used fluoro for veg and HPS for flower. I did use T5 to flower once....too bulky and troublesome for the results. imo the expanded spectrum HPS bulbs are great for flowering. as far as potency vs. yeild for flowering with a MH i have no experience flowering with MH and that is the first i have heard of that.

 

[zvuv]

@jesus

Hmm I wrote a reply but the post seems to have vanished.

You give sensible advice. Thank you. Patience is not one of my strong points. Perhaps it's just a matter of time.


The "Don't tell anyone" rule is tough for some people. About two weeks ago I found myself telling a couple of online friends about my grow op. I know them both well, they are cool. In fact one of them does a bit of growing himself. Most importantly, they are on another continent. But I shouldn't have said anything, really. That's when I realized I needed to talk to somebody.

I will probably switch to hps when the stretch is over. All plants are showing sex. The oil plant is the laggard with only a couple of flowers. The runt white dwarf has overtaken the oil plant. The greenomatics are going full bore and are at least twice the size of the other two. I just did a bunch of LST on the greenomatics to spread them out. When they straighten out, I will post pix.

 

[ilikemybike]

@zvuv I feel your pain haha, I've told a couple people of me growing, but they're my extremely good friends, and if they weren't, I already told them all I 'quit' growing.

I've never posted pics online of my grow ops, just because of uncertainty, my own paranoia. Actually seeing these awesome plants grow from a little tiny seed, is waaaay too much to keep to yourself, they're just too great haha.

 

[Jesushasdreads]

sure fire way to keep from getting busted, live by this motto: no sell and no tell, no show and happily they grow