"Cinco De High-O" cabinet grow

From burning to learning, I'm starting my first grow. Just finished up the main grow area of my cabinet. 2'x4'x6', 4 qb 120's 3K spectrum, driven by an HLG 320H-C2800A. Here is a link to the build if anyone is interested Grass Burner's Cabinet



I popped 2 (Katsu) feminized Sour Bubba's on May 5th in Jiffy Pucks. Picked them up through JBC (Great and Fast Service). Woke up this morning to 1 sprout already through the soil, and the second pushing up. I could see the stem of the second seedling through the gap it had created in the soil.



So now I'm the proud caretaker of twin girls. Big shoutout to @ilovereggae for taking a lot of time to share his wealth of knowledge and help a new guy get his bearings. Also want to thank @Renfro, @Mohican @BigCityFarmer, @CptTripps, and @Desmondg for all their advice during my cabinet build.

Now for the real work. I'm excited to get things rolling! Started testing my light timer with some tomato and pepper plants I sprouted from seed a couple weeks ago. Got a frost warning this weekend, so I've been trotting them in and out everyday. Much easier to leave them in the cabinet and get a feel before I put the good seedlings in. I've got the driver turned down to 50%. After an hour of lights on and plants in the cabinet, temp is at 79*F, humidity is at 60%. That is with exhaust fan off. The driver @240v feels just slightly above ambient room temp (76*F)



I guess right now I'm going to do a quick sheeting job on the smaller 2x4 cabinet under my electronics compartment and get some hangers built. It's almost 4' tall in there. I've got a T12 fixture I used a year or two ago to sprout seedlings for my vegetable garden. Has 40w 4100k tubes. Seems like it's easy to burn seedlings with quantum boards, I'll start them under this fluorescent light then move them when they're big enough. I would appreciate any suggestions on this matter, especially concerning time under the 4100k before moving to qbs.

Meet the girls!

Day 4 from seed. They have both shed the seed hull and have their first set of leaves. I read in another thread where someone transplants their seedling jiffy pucks into small pots 2 days after sprouting. They looked great at 4 weeks. Thinking about doing that myself.

Had a tap root about 1/2" long coming out of the bottom of the jiffy puck. Mixed some perlite in ocean forest, and moistened just to the point where it would barely hold its shape. Nothing came out when I grabbed a handful and squeezed. I havent watered the seedling since the initial water the jiffy puck absorbed 4 days ago, it was getting pretty light. I've got the fluorescent about an inch and a half above the top of the plants. I need to get a spray bottle for misting, and some citric acid to drop the ph in my water. I run off a well, and a ph drop test put me at a ph of 7.

Hell yeah! Here's my little 4x2x3.

Looks great! What size pots are you running there?

GrassBurner said:

Looks great! What size pots are you running there?

Click to expand...

3 gallon, but I've rolled the tops over to make them shorter. Probably have about half capacity.

Used the Rapitest kit last night to get a baseline on my soil from the beginning. PH is around 6.5, Phosphorus, Nitrogen, and Potash were all in the "sufficient" range. My well water tested in the 7 range, it didnt appear there was any yellow in the color, so it could be up towards 8. I'm going to get some citric acid and see what it takes to bring the water down where it needs to be.

These little ladies are trucking right along. Looks like they've both done their stretching for now, hopefully focusing their energy on some nice healthy roots. Second set of fan leaves showed up yesterday. Gave them their second watering this evening, pots were getting light and soil was dry past the first knuckle of my finger. Planning on giving them another week before I put them under the qb 120's. I'm thinking about putting them under a window screen the first couple days to help acclimate them to the brightness. Am I just being paranoid? I appreciate all the insight!

8 days from breaking soil, got the set of 3 leaves out, looks like my next set is on it's way.


I've got a 288 b-spec on it's way from HLG, probably be here Monday. Will just be waiting on the driver then. Driver says it will be here Friday, might be when I switch them from fluorescent to led. Hopefully the 3rd set of fan leaves will be open and soaking up rays by then. Any tips for the switch? Increase/decrease water before/after, shade with screen one day, apply spf50 to the leaves

If your driver is adjustable just start the leds out low and work up. Mine have been under led since seed, started at 70watt and worked up to 200. Had some bleaching at 250 so I worked it back down.

Sweet! Driver is adjustable, I'm planning on starting at 60 watts and adjusting from there. Looks like your plants love it!

Day 13 from seed and growing like weeds

Started introducing a little wind from a fan lastnight, would like to beef up these stalks like @instg8ter

if you are planing to use the GHE trio products, they will balance the PH close to 6, basically what you need

I forgot to post, but I filled a couple 2 liters up with water about a week ago and let them sit with the tops off for 24 hours. Tested the ph again, it was right on the money. The well I use is a community well, and I believe the state requires they add something to the water since a lot of people use it for drinking and cooking. Maybe whatever they add raises the ph, and letting it breathe for a day vents it off?
I'm hoping to be able to top dress with fresh FFOF, and feed with ewc tea as needed. I read @Budzbuddha thread "FFOF Made Simple" and I really liked what he did. I've heard some strains like a little extra cal mag under qb's, so I might snag some of that. Got any opinions about brand of CalMag? I've heard Calimagic makes some good stuff, but really that's the only brand I've heard mentioned specifically.

B-spec showed up! Time to go Into overdrive and get the veg cabinet finished before the driver shows up on Friday. First set of 5 finger leaves are starting to fan out. Have been giving them about 30 minutes of fan time 3 times a day, I don't have an extra timer and have been pretty busy working. Probably stop at Lowes and grab a timer on my way through tomorrow evening. Thinking 30 minutes on every 3 hours during the 18 hour light cycle.
Temps and humidity have been staying pretty consistent, but my cabin is basically one big open room that I keep at a pretty steady temperature year round.

Ready for transplant into 2 gallon fabric pots?

looks good mate. i wont be bothered puting the fan on timer, i would keep it on all the time the lights are on.

Would definitely save me some $$ for a timer, my light timer has 2 outlets on it