Tobh's 2sqft Box

[tobh]

Hello all!

New to the forums, but not so much to growing. After a few year hiatus from farming, I'm back at it in micro form. This will be my grow thread for the next few runs until I get into a better financial spot for larger equipment and larger plants.

What we're working with is a small box measuring in at 18.25" X 18.375" X 22.25" which gives us a total of 4.3179 cubic feet. We have a bottom square footage of 2.3288 sq ft.

Currently I am running six 23W 6000k CFLs for 9600 lumens, 138 watts total @ 59.2579 watts per sq ft and 4122.2947 lumens per sq ft. I will be adding three more CFLs to bump up my total lumens to 14,400, 207 watts total @ 88.8869 watts per sq ft.

For ventilation I have a 6 inch fan that is from an exhaust hood for a kitchen stove that pulls 160 CFM, and 11 ventilation holes punched in the front bottom of the floor of the cabinet. This maintains my temps at the same temp inside the box as is ambient temperature (first time I've had no heat issues yet). No scrubber as I live in a house with my old lady which is owned by a family member, so little concern of someone smelling anything.

I'll be running 4 plants in 1 gallon Root Pots (cheap smart pots, essentially) in coco coir using Canna A&B, Bio Root or Liquid Seaweed (haven't decided yet), unsulphured molasses here and there and maybe a touch of super thrive at transplant and flip. I'll address any issues with Cal/Mag or otherwise if they arise.

My goal is to pull a qp per harvest out of this box, which I don't see being unreasonable once I have everything dialed in. After a few grows and a hopefully successful first quarter of this year, I'll be upgrading to a 400w CMH and a spare bedroom for the main veg and a 1000w HPS for flower areas while keeping this box to maintain a mother or two.

I think that's everything that should be of concern, feel free to ask anything I didn't cover yet.

One Love,
tobh

 

[tobh]

Thank you sir. Figured it was a free cabinet and really f'ing sturdy so it would make a great micro grow. definitely better than a PC case. I've got several projects in the works so this cab should be quite productive, especially with the coco. Just sucks, had an NGB style cabinet that burned up in a house fire six months ago (was NOT the cause of the fire, wasn't growing in it just had it stored at my parents) and have been scrambling since to get something going. I get way more therapeutic effects from growing than I do from smoking, and get to provide for my ole lady's and my own physical pain at the same time. win win as far as i'm concerned, even if i'll never hit GPW levels with this set up.

 

[happy b]

Nice little project.i know what you mean when you say growing is more therapuetic to you than smoking the weed.

 

[tobh]

Thanks for dropping by man. Never mind the plants in the picture, they were a viability test of my seeds. Had them in storage for a few years and somehow they managed to be in my possession when the house burned down with all of my other shit. talk about the weed gods watching out! haha. Will be popping some more of the same beans though if either of those two turn out to be males.

 

[tobh]

So, a little update, sorry for no pictures. Of the two plants in the previous pictures, the one on the right turned out to be female. The smaller one on the left was a dude and was quickly culled. The remaining plant is now in a much larger pot and being put back into veg so I can clone her for the next few grows. Still waiting on the last of the supplies to arrive then I'll be taking clones and getting this joint rolling!

On that note, what are the success rates with using straight coco to clone in? Should I start feeding them at like a 1/4 dose immediately or just straight ph'ed water until they start to show new growth? It's been a few years since I've taken clones and things have changed from the ways I used to do it. I've read of excellent success rates with coco though, so that's why I've chosen not to build an aero cloner (though that might still happen). Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Also, need to choose a rooting hormone, preferably organic. Any suggestions?

 

[north knect]

Thank you sir. Figured it was a free cabinet and really f'ing sturdy so it would make a great micro grow. definitely better than a PC case. I've got several projects in the works so this cab should be quite productive, especially with the coco. Just sucks, had an NGB style cabinet that burned up in a house fire six months ago (was NOT the cause of the fire, wasn't growing in it just had it stored at my parents) and have been scrambling since to get something going. I get way more therapeutic effects from growing than I do from smoking, and get to provide for my ole lady's and my own physical pain at the same time. win win as far as i'm concerned, even if i'll never hit GPW levels with this set up.

I'm with u on enjoying growing more then the smoking aspect..summer just don't come quick enough so I'm doing a micro grow as well to pass the time and scratch the itch lol

 

[tobh]

right. this will be the first year i take a hack at an outdoor grow i think. back in the southwest where it's sunny 345 days a year instead of mouldy and wet like the Pacific Northwest. but shit i miss the smoke up there, and Portland is a badass city.

small update, root pots came in today, waiting on bio root and calimagic to show up by the end of the week, then will be taking clones and getting this show going.

EDIT: also got the three addition lights installed, raised my temps a little but if it becomes an issue I'll just put this box in the garage where it's been maintaining about 58 degrees F and slow the exhaust fan speed to keep the temps up.

 

[north knect]

How's your RH in the box? That seems to be my only issue in my box

 

[tobh]

right now its riding at 33%, but it fluctuates. it's low thats for sure, but not an uncommon issue in my area. always battling the two evils of heat and low RH.

 

[north knect]

Ya mine hovers round 35ish sometimes when I get home from work its at 28!! Give the girls a mist and it raises quick but work full time can't always be there for them lol

 

[tobh]

i was actually debating picking up a humidifier to put in the room the box is in, just to see if it would increase the RH. Never really had issue with low humidity honestly and I've been growing in various environments since I first started smoking as a kid. hell, that's been 15 years now at least lol. not sure what kind of impact a higher RH would have either, aside from increasing my paranoia of mold. can't be having that shit, it would impact my mushroom grows.

 

[north knect]

If your always at 35 I'd say your fine for flower but if ur Gunna have a big lush mother I'd say u want it a little higher around 50-60 I've seen great results with..but don't fix it if it ain't broken lol and ya the mush ya don't wanna get to high RH and mess them up

 

[tobh]

they have their own environment that depending on variety i keep at 90%+ RH constantly. just definitely want to avoid any of the fungus-type infections that plants get from contaminating them.

I'll have to figure out what to do with the female shortly though, she's getting too tall in her new pot to be in that box and need to give her a good haircut. just letting her stretch her roots before I get to hacking. I think the RH should be higher once I get the clones in there and vegging. Right now with a single pot with dirt in it, there's not a whole lot of media in there to give off moisture. figure once the screen is in there and they're filling it out the RH should rise. At least in my closet grows RH increased with plant numbers/size.

 

[tobh]

Alright, so I got a question.

I've got this one girl, who's going to be my mother plant, and am running out of room in the box height wise. She's branching out like crazy as well. There are definitely some issues that I'm still working out (though I don't do so good in soil, never have) and need some advice. Here's a pic of the girl so you can see the issues at hand.

You can see the leaves curling on the bottom there, but these issues were present before I transplanted her to this 3 gallon pot. The new growth isn't in bad shape though and she's really been taking off lately. Here's a shot of the branching

So my question is, what could the leaf curl be caused by? Water with tap water that is between 130 and 200 ppm depending on time of draw that is bubbled for 24 hours then ph'ed to 5.8. Temps remain between 72 and 75 for the lights on (18/6), unsure of dark temps. Humidity is ~30%, no higher than 35% at any given time.

Second question is should I be good to go ahead and take clones off her now? I'm still waiting on Bioroot and CaliMagic to come in so that's mainly what I've been waiting for. I just don't want to stress her out even further considering she looks kind of sad with those lower leaves.

On a final note, just thought I would share a pic of a spider plant I have that's fixing to bloom I think. Kinda looks like the sacks that a male plant has at this stage.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

~tobh

 

[lurrabq]

Tobh....no advice from this indoor rookie, but wanted to ask how your Mazar x White Rhino works on your type of pain?

Sounds like an interesting cross. I've self generated a few beans of White Widow x Blue Dream that I'll drop come spring.

 

[tobh]

That cross was actually wonderful. It helped me get to the laying down position a bit easier than normal and was great for the evening. Give you a nice head buzz with great nerve relief without the narcotic "dizziness" some strains give. Unfortunately I lost those genetics back in may. With how broad the pheno types of this cross are, I'm sure with selective breeding those traits can be found again though. I'm hoping this cross is even better than it's parents were. Will know in a few months though as long as everything goes well.

 

[Azhden]

I have a buddy that has access to some Landrace Mazar-I-Sharif, might have to break out my pack of 'White Rhino aka Medicine Man' to try and make a similar breed myself, both of those strains have great medical properties, my head is spinning with the medical possibilities the crosses could make :)

 

[tobh]

I actually received the Mazar-I-Sharif beans probably four or five years ago from Nirvana. They came as a freebie and I couldn't let the genetics go... Gorgeous structure, fat flowers, impeccable smell.... Mazar, or at least the mother I used, was a truly beautiful strain of cannabis. wish i still had them :( excellent for medicinal use, so stony.

 

[Toaster79]

You say soil and ph 5.8? Raise your ph to 6.5 or so. She's not getting any P and god knows what else is locked out. And raise that humidity.

 

[tobh]

@Toaster79 how do you propose raising the humidity? rather not buy a humidifier for this single plant when I'll be running more shortly and surely the humidity will be higher in there. Don't really want to run a humidifier in the room the box is in either, I paint in there and it will screw with unfinished pieces if too high.

Thanks for the advice on the ph, I'll definitely start watering her with a higher ph. I would move her to coco but don't want the chore of watering her daily on top of everything else I already have in coco. it's just those bottom leaves that were screwed up to begin with, from purposeful neglect mind you, that just don't seem to want to recover. new growth looks good otherwise.

BioRoot and Calimagic came in today, so I'm hoping to be taking clones either tonight or tomorrow, whenever I feel the coco I have is buffered and ready. How long should I let it soak in a mild nutrient solution with BioRoot and Calimagic added? Read somewhere an hour or more is acceptable. should i leave it overnight?

I just threw the veggies I have in it straight without buffering it, thinking now I should have.. PPM was over 1100 on the first rinse 0.o