Stargazer's Organic Stealth Grow

Hey guys, I just wanted to start off by thanking all of you who have added copious amounts of great grow tips! This is my first grow but I have done months of research and planning prior.

This pics below show how I enter my stealthy room. Originally the hole in the closet wall was an entrance to the cubby hole, but I drywalled the back to make an ever-so-nice grow room.

My grow is going to be PURE organic. I will only be watering with straight tap water (that has sat out for at least 24hrs). I am experimenting with different mixtures of compost, peat moss, and perlite in each pot. The pots vary from 50% compost, 25% peat moss, and 25% perlite, to the most potent pot mix of 85% compost and 15% perlite.

Before everyone jumps on my back about using too much compost, I should make it known that I have been growing flowers and vegetables with this identical compost for over 5 years in my outdoor garden. My tomatoes and most other plants can grow in this mix of pure 100% compost.

The compost consists of straw, horse manure, chicken manure, peat moss, soil, canola meal, calcium carbonate, and gypsum. It is well aged, screened, and ABSOLUTELY beautiful. I have given bags of it to friends to use on their on personal grows and they have had exceptionally tasty buds.

All of my plants were donated to me from a close friend. I took 10 clones (4 different strains) from him on new years day and all but one of them rooted! He also gave me 5 plants that he sprouted from bag seeds that have been vegging for about 3 weeks. Since these 5 plants are obviously much more mature than the clones I have decided to experiment once again in my room. I will grow these 5 plants to a height of 24-30" and let them get as bushy as they want to. However with the clones, since they are at least 3 weeks behind, I planted 7 of them (plus one bagseed i germinated) into 2 40 litre pots. So 4 plants in each of the two pots. These plants I plan to grow sea of green style-short with one very nice cola. I'm curious to see which way will yield more, in comparison to how long they have been growing.

Right now I am vegging with a 400 watt MH, and I plan on vegging for probably another 3 weeks before switching over to my 1000 watt HPS. I have ordered a carbon srubber (from the guy who's ads are always on this website) that should be arriving shortly. I will be exhausting this air directly into the sewage system.

Is it generally accepted by all that topping a plant to produce 2 large tops is the best way to go? I am planning on topping all but one of the larger girls I have growing, but I only transplanted them a few days ago so i'm going to wait 5-7 days so i don't stress them too much.

Thanks a million guys! Here are some pics of the beauties below. The pics are a couple days old and now all of the clones have been planted. I have also added a 10" fan that's giving them all a nice breeze; there's nothing wrong with leaving the fan on 24hrs eh? I want some nice short n' thick plants!

The one girl that was drooping has now perked up fully, I think she was just a little warm under the light without a breeze.

Wow Nice Star Gazer. I swear I had that exact same setup when I and my exgirlfriend lived together I did that very same thing very nice journal and great setup the best of luck to ya!

Thanks funny guy, good luck with your grow too. I just snapped a few fresh shots so I figured i'd post em. I used a root stimulator product when I transplanted to reduce stress and I don't think they even slowed down growing at all. Everything seems to be growing quite healthy.

The last time I watered the big pots was 3 days ago and the soil is still quite moist, as you can see on the moisture meter. I know that once the roots begin spreading the water consumption will increase, but until then should i just wait until the meter shows that it's in the green zone? It's pretty much impossible to try to gauge the amount of water by lifting all the pots in my room.

Here are some pics I just took a few minutes ago. All of the larger girls (3-4 weeks old) are showing nice looking pre-flower hairs, but the tallest of the bunch apparently just can't wait to start budding. As you can see in the picture below it has what appears to be buds starting at each of the nodes. Must be in the genetics I suppose because the lights have been at 18/6 for the two weeks that I have had them. I chopped off her head about 3 days ago because she was already 6" taller than the rest of the bunch.

All of the plants are very green, healthy, and have obviously been growing at a steady rate. Again, I am not using any chemical fertilizers at all; I have been watering every 3-4 days with a compost tea.

2 of the clones have REALLY taken off! They grew about 4 inches in 2-3 days and they are branching off like mad women. The clones were taken off flowering ladies so apparently they branch off more then clones taken off plants still in the veg state.

The first pic is of the lady that just cannot wait to start flowering.

So I tried out the new exhaust system and it definitely works to keep the smell out and to get new air in, but it works a little TOO well. It's bringing in more fresh air than my small room needs and within 20 minutes the humidity in the room dropped from 60% to only 25%!! So right now I have the exhaust unplugged because the plants definitely did not appreciate that dry spell. One of them started to wilt a little and the dirt dried out more in an hour than it normally would in a whole day.

I have a dimmer that I planned on installing to adjust the fan speed, but i'm not positive I bought the right kind of dimmer because I can't seem to figure out how to install it. The fan on the exhaust is powered by a normal power cord without a ground, so just the 2 main wires. I'll include a picture of what the dimmer looks like and hopefully someone out there can let me know if it will work of if I need a different one. The dimmer has a green wire for the ground, but that won't be used.

Thanks guys.

Star Gazer said:

2 of the clones have REALLY taken off! They grew about 4 inches in 2-3 days and they are branching off like mad women. The clones were taken off flowering ladies so apparently they branch off more then clones taken off plants still in the veg state.

Click to expand...

clones are of the same age and sexual maturity as the mother plant. the clones will want to be flowering, but if you are reverting them to veg, this could cause potential hermies. you want to clone from a plant that is still in veg but has shown preflowers. just a tip for your next grow! compost tea makes a wonderful fertilizer. organic gardening is definitely the best way to go.

Some new pics. And who says that bottom branches don't get enough light? Ha, the middle pic shows the very bottom branch of one of my girls that is now just as tall as the top of the main colas.

Fresh pics before the HPS warmed up