Behind the Green Door - GDP, Grape Ape, 400w HID, Stealth Cab

[giantsfan24]

First, I hope that I'm posting this in the correct place. I saw a "grow diaries" link but thought this would be more appropriate as, well, I guess I'm a micro grower!

This is my second grow and honestly, I've started this journal on another site. I have friends there but it just seems as if there isn't anyone there and I like the interaction. So I'll maintain two journals and hopefully make some new friends.

This is my second grow and I grow only once a year in the winter. Where I live is not extreme climate wise and my grow box is in my garage. The winter time temps are manageable and I got a really nice harvest from my first grow.

Below are pics of my setup..last year after prop 19 got shot down, I got pissed and got a prescription for my meds rather than risking persecution for bullshit reasons.

I bought an under sink cabinet, added a little height to it, refurbed the door and interior and viola! a stealth grow cabinet.

Last year I fucked around too much and didn't get the harvest I thought I should. I made my own carbon filters...FAIL!...and used computer fans...FAIL!...

It looked sweet but it didn't work. I had odor issues almost all the way through flower and Mrs. GF24 was breathing down my neck to cease and desist. I don't intimidate easy but the Mrs. she don't back down.

This year I listened to my hydro guys..I upgraded from a 250w HID to a 400w HID, got a good fan and a Phresh carbon filter with a speed controller and quality nutes instead of the starter version shit I had deficiency problems with all last grow..that said..I got 4 or 5 ounces of really nice GDP that I have friends clamoring for.

With my new box stuff, I'm at least 20 days ahead of my last grow and not a single odor problem and while I did have a minor deficiency early, as gdp and grape ape are nute whores, I got it sorted out and they are just beautiful plants.

Ok..sorry, long winded but that's the setup. I've got a petite dehumidifier that works just as it should.

Next post, plant pics...stay tuned!

 

[OctoberDee]

:clapping
Looking pretty good, can't wait to see it working:bong2:

 

[giantsfan24]

Veg

Thanks OctDee!

I was in veg about 34 days which I have found was too long. I was thinking that the longer I veg'ed the better off I'd be and while that's usually true in my case due to limited height and width.

Because I only have one grow a year and it's a small one at that, I get clones. The dispensary's in the area have come under attack recently by the fed's and it's tough to find quality clones.

Thankfully, after visiting two local dispensary's, I was able to find some healthy clones and off I went.

I grew Grand Daddy Purple in my first grow and they only had one of these. I went with two more Grape Ape because the two are similar. Indica's are shorter in height which suits me so..again..off I went.

Pics!!
I'm going to just include 4 to 6 pics in veg to catch this up then launch into flower phase, it's day 5 or so now, in another post..

These are pics from day 1 to day 33 or so. I'm running Fox Farm Ocean Forest 3 parts and FF Light Warrior 1 part. They are in 2 gallon Plant Warriors.

Nutes are FloraNova Gro and Bloom with Floraliscious and Flora Bloom for feeding. In between feeds it's Cal/mag and Hygrozyme. I don't include Hygro and Cal/mag in the feeds cause it pushes the ph too low. Compensating with too much ph up could lockout the cal/mag so I make it simple.

I ran into a minor league cal/mag deficiency at about day 12 as these girls just blew right through the nutes present in the soil. That has been resolved.

My water is straight out of the tap and is RO quality. Maximum of 35ppm straight out of the tap. I've read it as low as 20ppm which is crazy for tap water.

I LST'd at 10 days.

So that catches me up to today. I'll post all flower pics next..your thoughts?

 

[BrianDirt]

Nice set up and girls you got there, sure got full quick, you ma be up to the top when done flowering.

 

[lazarus718]

How high do your temps get in there with that 400W?

 

[giantsfan24]

Nice set up and girls you got there, sure got full quick, you ma be up to the top when done flowering.

There is definitely some room to go. These strains don't usually get too tall especially since I've tied them down so much.

How high do your temps get in there with that 400W?

I was under the impression, when I was running computer fans and homemade carbon filters, that I couldn't control the heat with a 400w but changing the fan out to a true 170cfm ecoplus has made it possible.

The ambient temps are low to begin with so that helps. With the box in the garage, the ambient temps have been in the 50's at night and low 60's during the day.

I run about 60 to 65 lights off and 75 to 80 lights on without the fan going full blast.

Thanks!

 

[giantsfan24]

Day 40, Flower Day 6

Things are growing very well behind the green door..I have signs of pistils but nothing measurable just yet as one would expect.

I watered last night with 5ml of floranova grow, 5ml of bloom and 2.5ml of floralicious plus.

Each got a gallon of water that provided 33% runoff. That's been consistent the entire grow.

Next watering will be 10ml of bloom and 2.5ml of floralicious and 2.5ml of koolbloom..

I've never used these additives before and I hope they do what they say they will do. My hydro guy sure is high on them.

Anyone use this formula before??

I took out one fan, put in another last night and adjusted both fans to blow air uniformly across the tops of all plants..going to order a better fan that oscillates..

Thanks!!

Pics!

 

[OctoberDee]

Fuckin' awesome! I was thinking of growing some GDP cause I love it so, I'm loving how yours is coming along. It's gonna be quite a harvest!:bong-hits:

 

[giantsfan24]

Fuckin' awesome! I was thinking of growing some GDP cause I love it so, I'm loving how yours is coming along. It's gonna be quite a harvest!:bong-hits:

Thanks Dee! Last year I grew just two and both were GDP. This year is two grape ape and on GDP..it's going to be quite a large harvest for me. I'm predicting about 8oz.

I got 5 last year with two plants and I harvested just a little early but about 2 weeks.

peace

:smiley_joint:

 

[giantsfan24]

Day 43, Flower Day 9

Things couldn't be better growth wise. I pulled the girls out last night and gave them a watering with hygrozyme and cal/mag. Checked on them this morning and they are happy as can be..

I trimmed some lower leaves off over the last couple of days to create a little airflow. While the rh I've had has been awesome, it's likely that won't last too long so its better to have some air circulation in the box.

I'm going to change up my nute routine a little. I'm going to go to water, feed, water with a lower dose of nutes. It seems like to me that this will be a more consistent way to water and feed.

Water formula is:
10ml Hygrozyme
10ml Cal/Mag

Feed Formula is:
1 tsp FloraNova Bloom (5ml)
1/4 tsp GH Floraliscious
1/2 tsp of koolbloom

Then see how it goes. With this frequency, I'll be able to make adjustments more quickly it seems.

I added some fans to the mix. Well, I've always had fans I just tweaked them nicely and ordered a new fan. I've got 2 - 6" fans, each on opposing sides blowing air around. I had a 4" in there but it wasn't doing much so I ordered an air king 6" to replace it.

I've noticed, like I did in my last grow, that the vertical growth has slowed after week 1 of flower. I untied some of the tie downs to let the girls go a little more vertical. Before the Day 21 defoliating, I'd like to see many 5" to 6" shoots going up above the canopy getting lots of light.

Bud sites have started forming nicely and it won't be long before the big stink starts in. This will be the test for my filter. I ordered a fan exhaust noise suppressor to quiet down the noise of the fan for the wife, which isn't even noticeable from inside the house or outside the garage. :yawn

Gotta do what you've gotta do right? :giggle

 

[Dodge]

Hey giantsfan24,

Impressive. Plants are blowin' up! The 400w is kickin ass. All that light trapped in that small space makes happy plants. Looking forward to seeing buds. Props man, nice grow.

 

[giantsfan24]

Day 49, Flower 15

Hey giantsfan24,

Impressive. Plants are blowin' up! The 400w is kickin ass. All that light trapped in that small space makes happy plants. Looking forward to seeing buds. Props man, nice grow.

Hey Dodge...thanks much for stopping by! Yeah they are just going nutz...



I was a little concerned all of the pruning I did was going to seriously stress the girls but it doesn't seem to have had much of an affect. Growth slowed a little and the leaves of the plants were a little droopy but after a watering with nutes last night, I opened up the box this morning to find them turned back up toward the light.

I need some advice on further defoliating. At this point, the girls could go up a little more without hurting anything so I want to leave them alone to do their thing now that I've slowed the stretch some. I'm thinking of waiting until day 25 or 30 with another lite trim at about day 45. I kinda feel like I could even skip the day 45 trim but I'm not sure yet.

I guess I'll have to wait to see where they are in 7 days or so before I go forward. I've got the branch shape I was shooting for, no pun intended, and should have nice long stacked cola's that hopefully weigh 1 pound per shoot. Or more realistically, 5 grams per would be nice.

When I trimmed, I left the developing fan leaves on the tops of the plants cause I felt it would do more harm to take those rather than fully developed fan leaves. I know I've got to trim those and also the underbrush sometime so that light penetration is at a maximum.

Going to do my first flush next watering just for good measure.

Pics!!

 

[BrianDirt]

Strong plants, nice. When you cut a shoot think of it like a loss of pressure and the plants can droop some, and the more you cut well it takes time to close and heal the open ends.

Its hard to count all your tops but looks like 15-20 ish. and that is what I would look to develope. One method is to trim all under growth so the plants will just grow colas and not little on the bottoms. Looks like a palm tree kinda, with a long trunk. If they have stopped the strech then I think it would be time to trim the bottoms, cause now its all about flower developement.

 

[giantsfan24]

Strong plants, nice. When you cut a shoot think of it like a loss of pressure and the plants can droop some, and the more you cut well it takes time to close and heal the open ends.

Its hard to count all your tops but looks like 15-20 ish. and that is what I would look to develope. One method is to trim all under growth so the plants will just grow colas and not little on the bottoms. Looks like a palm tree kinda, with a long trunk. If they have stopped the strech then I think it would be time to trim the bottoms, cause now its all about flower developement.

I have 20 sites just on one of the plants...incredible grow this round..

I agree with you..I want all of those shoots to turn into colas. I think the stretch is slowing down thanks in part to the trimming..I'm on Day 16 of flower and will defoliate them next week then again on Day 45 or so depending on how things look.

Thanks for stopping by Brian!

 

[bgsixxxniner]

Yo giants fan, i hope u mean sf giants. And not those bums the ny football giants. Sayin this as a 49er fan. But i digress.

Nice grow setup & plants. Im amazed at how good of a job ur doin w/temps, in a space that small. U should ask the mrs. If u could put a ac out in garage. That way u could get 2-3 more harvest in. I just hate too see all that talent & equip. Sit around for 9 months w/ no use. Im subbd. Good luck

 

[giantsfan24]

Yo giants fan, i hope u mean sf giants. And not those bums the ny football giants. Sayin this as a 49er fan. But i digress.

Nice grow setup & plants. Im amazed at how good of a job ur doin w/temps, in a space that small. U should ask the mrs. If u could put a ac out in garage. That way u could get 2-3 more harvest in. I just hate too see all that talent & equip. Sit around for 9 months w/ no use. Im subbd. Good luck

Nope that's the SF Giants for sure...we got Timmy for another two years at least...wish I had half that paycheck..

Because the smell is firmly under control, the Mrs. isn't having any issues which may in fact be an issue for her...lol. I think I'm good to go for next year too. I don't use that many meds so my one grow a year keeps me going and then some.

Thanks for stopping by and your nice comments...

Thank you all for stopping by my grow. It's going embarrassingly well thanks to great advice from all of you and also from my hydro guy. I've been very, very fortunate with all things..

I purchased a bucket with measures on it so I can mix my water and nutes en masse which has been amazingly easy. I purchased a new watering can which I had to modify a bit to make work but it was easy and works great. What used to take me over an hour took me just under 30 minutes tonight.

Defoliating...it's pretty darn dense in there again and the girls are going vertical again. I wanted to wait until I had about 10 days behind me on the last defoliating which would put me about day 25 ish of flower to defoliate.

That should easily put stretch behind me and bud development hopefully will take off.

Houston, we have frost!!

Enough of me...let's let the girls do the talking!!

 

[Genesofgreen]

Bro, although small, that setup is fresh! I love it. Craftsmanship is incredible and your babies look luv. Very impressive!! Peace n luv

 

[giantsfan24]

Day 30 Flower

Bro, although small, that setup is fresh! I love it. Craftsmanship is incredible and your babies look luv. Very impressive!! Peace n luv

Thanks for the kind words...the environment is really dialed in and the girls are loving it.

I'm at day 30 of flower and things are looking very nice. I've had no issues or problems. I'm looking now at building a veg cabinet so that I can get in more than one grow per season.

My box is in the garage and in the summer here the temps are virtually impossible to control. A veg cabinet would allow me to turn the HPS cab into a flower cabinet and I could start my grows much earlier than Dec. 1.

The flowers are developing nicely and despite a moderate defoliation, they are still stretching. I expect that to stop anytime here and the buds to start to fatten and ripen.

Here are some updated pics..

 

[Genesofgreen]

Lookin' beautiful! What kind of soil mix did you go with and of course, what nutes you feeding the ladies? Are they all GDP?

 

[BrianDirt]

They look great for 30 days thats what you get from big plants and roots!@