Metal grow cabinet build for 1st grow

this is my one seedling to germ so far the Auto White Russian. it really sprung way out of the soil, but it was looking very pale and the head (with seed shell still attached) was almost thouching the soil so i wanted to get it under light ASAP. as i said before my soil is too hot even thou it a 50/50 mix of FFOF and my local shop organic peat and perlite
after a night under the light its perked up a little but shell was still on the lil girl so i'm hoping when i check back that shell is off and the seedling is standing straight up.

The peat and perlite mix with just water should be ok for how long with an Auto Seedling?

looking good

One day under the lights and it has already got it's first leaf set!

Stem is odd purple/red color but i'm not too worried with this kind of growth in 24 hours she's gotta be doing ok

She looks great man! Keep it up and you'll have some Grade-A Sensi in no time!

If you're still having troubles with light issues I'll let you know what I did with my cab (link in sig). I bought a little car sun shield, cut it to size to fit the grow area, nailed it to the top (you'd have to use something else as my cab is wood) and then just kept rolling that shit to get the creases out. Place weather stripping on the inside of the cab and the doors so that you sandwich the sunshield between them. Since you have mylar I'd suggest covering the inside of the sunshield with that as it's not completely lightproof but it provides a nice thick backing that will (eventually) hang straight. You have to weigh it down with something but im sure you can figure it out. Just my two cents. (I did this in a few hours thinking, twiddling with it, smoking, staring at it, etc... its almost there.)

edit: just realized i dont have pics on my journal. here you go: the light coming out of the sides are my vents. I should also mention that during the day, you can not see any bit of light coming out. Run your light cycle similar to normal day time and you'll be fine.

Rookie mistake! I was getting my set up final two 5 gallon smart pots were too wide so I got my soil mix into two 3 gallon smart pots and made a central core of seedling soil surrounded by my ffof. But when I tried to transfer the seedling the peat puck separated from the peat and perlite mix it was in and exposed the root! How bad is this?! Roots looked good main tap was about 4 inches and had fuzzy offshoots. I could also see many small white root tips poking out of the puck. They didn't appear to break but it came totally out of soil. I gently packed peat mix back around puck and it in 3 gallon now, but can I expect transplant shock or total death?!

you should be fine. I messed up on my transplant and the root become completely exposed, a lot of the roots falling off in the process. they recovered just fine.

pics taken only minutes after the transfer to the 3 gallon smart pot in which i exposed the roots

but...good sign, this photo was from last night around 9:30pm and this morning at 8am she still looked good so i'm hoping no real damage from the transfer

So I had a feeling about my easy Ryder seed. It's been 8 days and the peat puck hadn't budged. I know I should have waited another week but I decided to pull the seed and try the paper towel method if it hadn't popped yet. I checked seed and saw a tap root so I very carefully removed the seed from the peat puck because the root was totally smooth. No root expansion at all. Maybe the seeds food source was not enough, or it was just a weak seed but it hadn't pushed toward surface at all. I prepared some black gold seed starter soil with about a 20% ffof. They seed was placed just below surface with only enough soil sprinkled over it to block the light. So fingers crossed it will take root this time.

I don't have much hope for this seed since it wasn't very deep in peat puck or packed in very tightly and it didn't break surface with constant moisture and regular use of heat mat... How long should I wait for progress before dumping the weak seed and trying another? I don't want this plant (or new 2nd plant) too far behind the other one.

I would just keep on waiting, making sure its moist. I germed like 20 seeds at once and within 4 days (using paper towel+bag method) all had sprouted tap roots. I then put about 8 of the healthier ones in party cups. Within a day 1 had popped, within 2 3 had popped, eventually all but like 2 popped. If you REALLY dont wanna wait I'd keep it around and germ another one and hope the new one sprouts soon. You can always just train your bigger plant so its canopy is at the same level of the smaller one, it'll eventually catch up. I had one plant that looked like a complete runt but its now almost equal to size as my others.

the seed split and the taproot is out as you can see but it only about an inch and totally smooth... i suspect this seed has been in this state for almost a week i detected the smallest of small bumps in the peat puck about the same time the white russian seed popped. i just don't think this lil girl had the strength to push upward at all.

the white russian seems to be doing well, the 2nd set of true leaves were forming so i hope the transplant doesn't set it back too much

Eh, on the few cups i had where i didnt see them pop after awhile i brushed a lil of the soil off the top to try and help it break through. It seemed to work on one or two of them. Might just have a runt though =/

gingerbuddha said:

I would just keep on waiting, making sure its moist. I germed like 20 seeds at once and within 4 days (using paper towel+bag method) all had sprouted tap roots. I then put about 8 of the healthier ones in party cups. Within a day 1 had popped, within 2 3 had popped, eventually all but like 2 popped. If you REALLY dont wanna wait I'd keep it around and germ another one and hope the new one sprouts soon. You can always just train your bigger plant so its canopy is at the same level of the smaller one, it'll eventually catch up. I had one plant that looked like a complete runt but its now almost equal to size as my others.

Click to expand...

my concern is since i'm growing auto flowers i'm not sure i can really top to control height and with my limited space training would be intersting too... but if i do have a smaller plant next to a larger one i can always hang my light at an angle to get both plants. thats one of the nice things about the led light

oh those silly auto flowers. Ya you might not want to top them but lst is not hard and wont hurt the plant.

my impatience got the better of me. i just stuck one of my two remaining Easy Ryder seeds in a paper towel and set it on the heating pad... so let's hope this one is stronger than the other which is still in soil, so its getting its chance but its time to start plan B "worse" case i end up with another dud seed and only have the white russian this grow or i could have 3 plants and need to go get another 3 gal pot. the two seeds i had left were drastically different i'm trying the slightly larger lighter colored one the dark almost black seed is still in waiting

these were the last two Easy Ryder seeds i had i took the one on the left and i'm trying the paper towel method with it. distilled water, and using press and seal to cover the plate which is currently under my DVR since the heat mat i've got shuts off after two hours

My original wimpy Easy Ryder may have some life in her after i've been damn near giving her CPR its nice to see some kind of response. and the g13 labs auto white russian is coming along nicely. (Hard to believe these 2 seeds were started at same time)

So if my new seed pops in the paper towel method i might have three plants which i can fit in the cabinet if all are in 3 gal smart pots. 3 might be a good number since my next grow will probably be photo period plants i'd like to keep my girl supplied with meds while that grows out

I have your same cab! It is going to be my next project... I noticed that middle shelf thing before I cut it out. I am still thinking of taking it out but I have need to find something that I can replace it with at home depot first. I am sure metal bar or something will work. I used a rotozip to cut my top shelf out and it was a pain. Then I noticed that the shelf was just tack in in a few spots. It cam out pretty cleanly over all. I also put a 3/4" ply on the top of my cab to have something to screw into. The metal is a little thin and I didn't think it would hold any weight well.
I am starting a smaller cab for now and going to move things over as needed if needed. I also found a thread about CFM you may like... I know yous is done but it is always good to know. best of luck and I am subed for your show!
I posted the article in my grow thread...
https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/480806-led-auto-not.html

lining the inside of the cab with plywood would make mounting things much easier but since i was going to use reflective insulation i don't think i'd want to give up the space inside the cabinet the wood and insulation would take up.
the more builds the better thou! +REP for medicine, for fun, for a hobby, or just as an act of disobedience, the more people growing the sooner our whole country will be free to do so on a federal level