Unconventional 1000w closet grow, High style!

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
Awww shit!

So this time I'm really going to attempt to keep this journal up and current. The last time I did a start to finish grow log, was back on our beloved overgrow.com. Sadly things have happened so that we never can go back there, but we can just create a new one! Marvelous power of the internet. :clap:
Anyway, I'm a medical patient, and needed a place to set up shop to get a perpetual harvest. I decided that my bedroom closet would do, so I took everything out, and started with a Mills Pride wardrobe closet from Home DePot. In there we got a 400w MH, and 5 budding plants, the closeup shots are of these ladies. Next to the "Veg" cab we got our little trusty carbon scrubber, one 10x20x1 HVAC screen, and a bag of activated carbon for your fishtank, combine the two, and force air through it, and you got your self a handy little carbon scrubber. I use a 6in HO can fan to exhaust both of my cabs, I think it's rated at 440CFM, so it does the job nicely. To the right of the carbon scrubber, we have the new cab! This guy is a monster, 72x48x20, i think, and we got a 600w hps up in that bitch! 6 plants in a SoG in bubble buckets with Botanicare nutes and roots organic supplements. I just built the big cab yesterday, and I still need to do a few finishing touches to her, intake hole, weather striping around the doors, ya know the little shit. I had to use my veg cab as a bud cab, so I got the warm spectrum MH bulb, and they look trich'ed as fuck! I got 6 more little ladies waiting to use that veg room, so those fuckers better hurry up and finish! from the looks of it, I think I have about 1-2 weeks left, They are on week 7 of bud now.

In my new cab, the bigger one, I got 6 ladies, in their 7th week of veg, all SoG'ed out. Today I trimmed all the lower growth that wasn't going to make it to the screen. I'll let them veg for another week, then switch them over to 12/12, unless you guys think I should do It sooner??? Also this is my first attempt at a Sog, so any advise or hints are totally welcome!

Let me know if you have any other questions on what I did or am doing, and I'll do my best to get back to you in a timely manner, but hell, we all are stoners, so don't get impatient.
 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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Btw, the strains that I'm working with are ak-47, and Skunkberry. The skunkberry is the one that's crystally as a motherfucker, the ak is big and dense.
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
Paaat~ Thanks for the kind words buddy! I too am looking forward to watching this, as my current crop has me wanting more, and I haven't even harvested yet :evil:!

P@ssw0rd~ Thanks for the luck, if I could only capture it and put it in my nutrient solution that would be golden! Saw your cab, like the looks of her, very different styles indeed. What kind of nutrients are you using for your grow? :wink:

Bamm Bamm~ If your thinking of growing in a cab I recommend getting a big heavy white one. They can be drilled into to hang your shit, and white is super reflective. I wish we were still in the days of OG.com 400w cab forums, those were worth their weight in gold. The best piece of info I'll give you is make sure you got your ventilation worked out! Intake and exhaust brother! No 93-95 temps, that's not dialed in yet, you want something mid 80's, MAX! Luck to ya brother!:leaf::smile:


Not much to update today, I put a 6in fan in the wall of my big cab, directly under the ducting for the hood. This 6in says it's 160cfm, but I think it's lying. I say 100 tops. This brings my temps in my big cab, with the 600w light on to 82f. That 6in HO can fan does a savage job!:hump: Yea but other than that, not a ton of noticeable growth today. Just getting used to the new cab and light i guess....

Think I'm gonna give my budding AK and Skunkberry another week, then flush her and give her the chop. (and free up my veg room!) I think I'm looking at less than a qp from these five plants... I'm chalking this up to a couple of things.

1. Budding under a 400w MH.
There's a few things wrong with this one move. Metal Halide doesn't work as well as HPS for the budding cycle, this should be a know thing. Second is that 400w of light isn't enough to grow the kind of buds I'm looking for, off of 5 plants.

2. Using inferior Nutrients.
This grow I used an Inferior (my opinion) brand of nutrient. Although they make a great cloning gel, I can't recommend Ionic nutrients to my fellow growers. They are incredibly easy to use, just don't go crazy, but really lack in the yield category. This was my first, and last go with Ionic, Now I've moved on to Pure blend pro from Botanicare.

3. Lack of a ppm meter.
This is a huge problem, that no grower should sidestep by just using light doses of nutrients. Your just hurting your yield if you don't accurately measure how much food your giving your ladies. I invested in the Truncheon PPM tester, not the upgraded ppm/ph tester combo. The PPM tester comes with 5 year warranty, and the combo comes with a 3 year. What I like about this one is that you don't have to keep the tester head in a solution all the time. Having the ability to accurately measure what your plants use is key. I picked up my truncheon about 2 weeks into my 3 week veg cycle. Who knows what I lost in those 2 weeks?

I counteracted these three different problems by; upgrading to a warm spectrum Metal halide bulb, supplementing my Ionic Nutrients with organic ones from Roots Organic (Trinity and HP2), and investing in the Truncheon.

Only one week left for the veg room insurgents, the I'm coming in with my "Slash and Burn" mentality...:blsmoke:
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
3-22-08 ~ UPDATE

So I got a few new snaps of the cabs and the ladies. This last week for the veg-cab insurgents, and it's moving at a snails pace... Oh well, just gotta stay occupied with my new project and just let them finish up. Let's see, I got a photo of the new fan that I installed, some photos of the ladies in the big cab still vegging, and a couple of closeups of the MH budding Skunkberry and AK. Not much of an update, so I'll let the photos do the talking.

Peace and safety all! :joint:
 

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VictorVIcious

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Now you have me concerned. I have 9 plants flowering under a 400 watt hid light, I use the Ionic line of nutes and managed to squeek out a little over 18 oz from 12 plants, wonder what would happen if I used good nutes instead. Ohh yea, I do use a BlueLab Truncheon and ro water, maybe that is the difference. VV
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
VV~ Thanks for stopping by man! Hope you stay tuned to all the goodness that is sure to come from my closet of love. :blsmoke: Like I said, Ionic as an inferior nute is just my opinion, but from what I've seen this cab produce before, let's just say that this grow is leaving something lacking. I've used Pure blend pro before, and the difference in yield is noticeable. I was prob a little light on my estimate for my yield on this grow, it's closer to 5oz, not less than a qp, but still, only an oz a plant from my AK?!?!?!? that's not right:evil: Have you ever SoG'ed before? I'm looking for some input on my methods. Anyway...

So I woke up today and noticed that 90% of the top leaves have curled in kind of an upside down "J", and the leaves have valleyed around the stem :confused: I checked the ppm and we were sitting at 1000, I added some fresh water and now we're back down to 800...

I'll take some photos here later today, but I think it can be from a couple of different things.
1. when I saw them this morning the light had only been on for a couple of hours, maybe some side effect of the first night period since being under the 600w?
2. Some side effect of going from 3in netpots to 6in netpots. When I did the transplant about 5 days ago the roots coming off the 3in pots were like 8-10in long. I just curled them in the bottom of the 6in netpots, and covered them in hydroton, maybe I should have trimmed them back a bit???
3. some sort of a nutrient buildup from going from grow to bloom nutes. I can't remember if I did a clearex flush when I made the switch... another good reason to keep a journal, so you can remember what the hell you did when you were :joint:bongsmilie:bigjoint:


Anyone know about how long after I do a transplant that I should be looking for new growth? I know it depends on how stressful the transplant was, and what light they are going under, but I'm just looking for an average. A week? Two days? It's been 4 days now, and I think they have grown like 1/4in under my 600w.

Anyway, it doesn't look bad, just something to keep on top of, unfortunately it's going to go unmonitored for a few hours, it's my little niece's 1st birthday, so I'm off to the biggest pony princess party I've ever been too:roll:, things you do for cute kids.... I'll get some photos of the curlers this afternoon, till then all

VLO:blsmoke:
 

Florida Girl

Well-Known Member
Question.... how high up is your screen? I'd like to try the ScrOG too but most of the pictures I've seen of others have the screen much lower and they weave the branches up and down through them... allowing light to all lower branches and having less "gap" space.

Are you doing something different? What is your approach to the ScrOG? I'm interested in learning as much about differences from everyone here before I attempt mine. Honestly I'm looking for the most "idiot proof" method because if there's a way to screw it up... I will....
:D
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
Florida Girl~ Ummm its about a foot, maybe 14in, from the bottom of my res. I have seen them closer too, maybe I'll bend them over and put in a lower screen, maybe, I really don't know though... this is my first attempt at a SoG, so I'm just doing it as I do it, ya know :neutral:. I hear ya on that if there is a way to fuck it up, I will mentality, I have the same fears. But ya just gotta keep on keeping on, I'll prob leave the plants at this height for now, but if it becomes a problem towards the end (a good problem) then I'll just keep in in the old noggin until next go a round. I think I fixed my curling problem, I think it was a combination of all three things that I mentioned in my last post, and one other, my PH. I checked my res as soon as I got home from my niece's 1st birthday party/easter sugarfest, and my ph was at 6.6. Not horrible, but now were back down to 5.7. That and before I left I was able to give them about 30min in a Clearex solution that couldn't have hurt. I'm not going to do anything about the roots right now, Just give them more time to grow, It's only been 4 days...

Ya know the more I learn about this plant, the more I gotta remember the Keep it simple stupid (KISS) method of growing. It's super easy to over analyze, and over do almost everything plant related. The skill comes in being able to give it just enough of everything that it needs, and no more. Much easier said than done.

That being said, I'm gonna go give those veg cab insurgents there last meal, and then dunk them in a clearex bath for 2 days, them give them the chop. I think I'll take them down on Tuesday or Wednesday.

:peace: &:leaf: to all!

VLO
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
some photos from this morning. FG, if I had your suggestion about lowering the screen this morning, I would have done it when I took them all out to do the clearex bath. Oh well next time I take them all out I might consider lowering one, if not both, of the screens
 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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**Can I get a mod to move this to Grow Journals?**
*UPDATE* 4-13-2008 :hump:


Ok, Some photos from this morning. The ladies have recovered quite nicely from my use of both Liquid karma and trinity, both of which contain Humic Acid, and the source of my over-nuting problem. I put them in 12/12 on 4-2, so it's been about two weeks now. Recently I upgraded my air pumps, up to dual outlet pumps, the girls seem to like this. Also I added a new product to my reservoir, sm-90, and I took out both the Karma and the Trinity completely, and now just use a very diluted solution of either one as a foliar feed. I guess the sm-90 helps prevent phlyum or some weird shit like that, basically root rot, so it gets my money, and space in my res... anything else new.... yea! thats right, I got a new ph tester, If I remember I'll get a shot of it next time I take photos. It's a sick little pen thingy. When I was at the hydro store though, I saw the coolest combo meter ever, here's a link where you can buy one, but shop around, as this might not be the best price! If I had to re-buy both my ppm meter, and ph meter, I would just buy this one!
Bluelab Instruments Bluelab Combo Conductivity, pH, Temperature Meter: J from EmeraldElectronic.com - Hydroponics & Gardening - Testing, pH, TDS, EC

Other than that, I'm just chillin:blsmoke:

Tell next time I feel like updating:joint::peace:

~VLO

 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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*4-14-2008 Update*
**Can I get a Mod to move this to Grow Journals?**

Sitting looking at my cab today, I realized that I could get more screen space by moving my intake fan so that the majority of it was outside of the cab. :roll:
So I did this and was able to tie down a few more shoots which is a good thing. :hump: Also I took a shot of my new ph tester and my ppm meter, gotta love the gadgets right?

Res temp 68, cab temp 86 (only because I had been standing there with the door open for like 10 min doing shit, normally it's 1-2 degrees cooler):mrgreen:

I'm really impressed with the development for 2 days shy of 2 weeks into 12/12. I've seen what pure blend pro can do by it's self before, but in conjuncture with Hp2, and all the other shit I'm using, this might be a 6 or 7 week flower.:neutral: who knows? Only the Trich's do:cry:
I started filling up the lower screen in my cab with some of the lowest branches that I left. My thought is maybe I'll have a duel harvest, the top screen first, then the lower. Or I might bring them both down together if separating them turns out to be a bitch.

Now I'm just rambling...

:peace:, <3, & :joint: 4 all

~VLO
 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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Well Just a little update today. Things are looking good. 2 weeks and 2 days into 12/12. did a full res change the other day, and my screens were getting to be a bitch so I cut out the old one, and put in this better green one. I ordered some seeds the other day, got em from Amsterdammarijuanaseedbank.com

The strain I ordered was Charas
Parvati Marijuana Seeds Catalogue

Hopefully they show up soon. They threw in 10 free seeds as well. Wonder what they'll be...

:peace:,<3, :joint: 4 all.
~VLO
 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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That one thing? Not quite sure what you're eluding to but if it's the training of the plant through the screen it's quite simple. All that you have to do is get yourself some netting, the tighter the netting the better, and let the plant grow up through the netting. You want to the plant to stretch into the net, and you weave it in and out of the net as it grows. You do this so that instead of growing large colas vertically, your growing smaller nugs off the now horizontal plant branches. This is helpful because it allows you to not only control overall plant height, but also location of the branches for optimization of available light.

Hope this is understandable. Saturday mornings are the best for the wake and bake I believe.


I'm off to go get more clones either today or tomorrow, I'll post photos when I get them!

~VLO
 

VivaLaOvergrow.com

Well-Known Member
sad ass bug infested clones that I picked up today. not too bad for free, so I ain't bitching. the clones are
ak47, lavander diesel, sour diesel, perma frost, shark shock

And the seeds that we picked up were

Master kush x Kabul
Purple kush
Death touch x Jack Herrer
White widow/blue dynamite x Maui waui
white widow/blue dynamite x Diablo
Mango
OG afgan
Diablo


Picked up some bug b gone, and this black label shit from my local shop. Hopefully this will kill the thripes and spider mites that also came with the new ladies.

And we picked up this chunk of Purple kush kief that was rolled with honey oil, looked like cookie dough, but man it's the best tasting shit I've smoked in a long while. I packed a bowl in the vape, oh shit, so good... I'm gonna go do another.....


:peace:, <3,:joint: 4 all
~VLO
 

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VivaLaOvergrow.com

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*4-21-2008 Update*

Well I resurrected my old growcab for these new sick ass bitches.:spew: Cancer spots, Bugs, bad water, I think these are just a few of the things that were going wrong with these new plants. I'm hoping to just get them healthy enough to take clones with, if not, I'm already sprouting some beans, three diablo, so hopefully I'll get a female to make a momma out of. These are the last photos on this update.

Charas hasn't come yet, It's been 6 days now.:evil:

744 views, and 1 response in the past month. I don't think that everyone is in awe of what I'm doing here that they're speechless...I am human, and I do fuck up time to time, but to barely hear a peep makes me not want to have a journal, or If I do, just post it all at the end, so not to expect people to tell me tips and tricks along the way...or to add a random insult or some bullshit...Piss me off all you quiet motherfuckers...:evil:

Anyway, on to the progress...
19 days into 12/12 now. growth is noticeable, and daily. stretch is slowing but still occurring. I removed the "T" Air duct connector between my two cabs, as the 400w one is currently inactive. This dropped my 600w cab temps down to 76-79f. Res is sitting .5 under 60f. Things seem to be working...:blsmoke:


:peace:, <3, :joint: 4 all (and more responses for me:mrgreen:)
~VLO
 

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