First grow - PC Case / Blue Mystic

After a lot of planning and research and worry, I finally said 'fuk it' and went ahead and ordered seeds. Nothing like the ticking clock of a plant's growth to spur industrious work. So, I'm going to document my first ever grow here. Here's hoping things turn out well!

--== Highlights ==--
Strain: Nirvana's Blue Mystic, feminized seeds
Medium: Soil
Grow space: PC case mod
Method: ScroG planned w/ a single plant


Before I post pictures, here's where I currently stand:

Good experience with Nirvana. Seeds arrived within two weeks, securely hidden with a kind extra gift. I chose their Blue Mystic due to their claims of it being neutral-smelling. We'll see. Right away I took a single seed and started the germination process. It took a little longer than I expected, 3 1/2 days, but just this morning I checked and finally it had a little tail.

Seed has been planted in a plastic cup with some Scott's soil, and in the meantime I have been working on the PC case. The case is an Antec Two-hundred, which provided a decent amount of space inside at a not-unreasonable price. Selecting a case took the longest time of any part of the process.

I am now mostly done with the overall layout of the case, though I still am thinking on how best to configure the ventilation and what my options really are in terms of light-trapping. My basic goal is complete stealth, but since my room-mate is kind of clueless and does not enter my rooms at any time, I can be a little lax on it especially early on.

Pics of my setup in following posts.

OK, here's some pics.

Here are the seeds as I received them from Nirvana. It's a little bag of magic!




And now the seed goes into the glass and into a dark closet to germinate.




In the meanwhile, I started work on the case. Stealth is key, so I've done work modifying parts so I can present the case as an otherwise-normal computer. I started with a bad ATX power supply.




I removed all the innards, and chopped off the vestigial housing parts leaving behind only the 3-pin socket and the power switch.




I cut open the cable off a power strip and connected it up to the three wires of the socket/switch. Now the power strip can be powered externally via a normal computer power cable, and controlled by the outside switch.





Then, I gutted all the inside stuff of the Antec case, and started mounting my power distribution electronics, including my hand-made 12v fan power distribution box.





And, finally, today I got the whole thing wired and connected. The lights are on a power strip connected to the timer in the main power strip. This allows me to turn on and off the lights but not affect any fans, which I plan to leave running 24/7 due to the very small available space.



And here is my first-pass light-wall design. It is just some foam board; it doesn't stop the light as well as I would like, and I still need to cut out some holes and such for ventilation, but that will come when I have need of a carbon filter.




This will be a work-in-progress probably until the end of the grow and beyond, but I'm already encouraged by what I've put together. Now I just need to source some mylar and figure out what to do about light-leaks.

I will post pics as new developments happen, either with the case or with the plant herself. G'day!

This morning the first little sprout really starting poking up, and is now reaching for the lights! Good times.



Today I picked up some mylar from a local grow shop, and started getting it installed. This required a few additional modifications to the case, and I doubt it will be the last time.



In the second picture there you can see I've added the vent hole in the dividing wall. I am testing now to make sure the fan is able to pull enough to keep the chamber cool. Not looking good: 86 degrees.

I've pulled the whole front cover off to give max intake, and it's back down to 81ish. It's pretty clear I am going to need to upgrade my fan before long. Still, it's coming together nicely! I gots no worries.

Looking good Alistair I'd rise that cup as high as you can to the CFL's, at least 2 inch below the light

Now on ~day 9/10 or so. I had her right up next to the CFLs, but I moved the plant down a bit after a few days as I was having some heat issues and it was getting toasty towards the top of the case.

I have now moved the case to a much cooler space, and temps are more pleasant, so the plant has again been raised close to the lights.

She seems healthy, but also showing some traits I'm not sure are normal or not. The edges of the smooth leaves are showing a bit purple.



Plant height has stabilized for the last week, which has me mildly concerned, but I'm not in any panic mode just yet. Just trying to keep her soil moist and temps regulated.

Ramius said:

Looking good Alistair I'd rise that cup as high as you can to the CFL's, at least 2 inch below the light

Click to expand...

Thanks Ramius! Yes, I am trying to keep it close to the lights, but I am in a hot location and managing temps is becoming tricky. She's been moved up close again today.

Very nice setup, subscribed.

You have inspired me to do something similiar with my old computer case.

Alistair_N said:

After a lot of planning and research and worry, I finally said 'fuk it' and went ahead and ordered seeds. Nothing like the ticking clock of a plant's growth to spur industrious work. So, I'm going to document my first ever grow here. Here's hoping things turn out well!

--== Highlights ==--
Strain: Nirvana's Blue Mystic, feminized seeds
Medium: Soil
Grow space: PC case mod
Method: ScroG planned w/ a single plant


Before I post pictures, here's where I currently stand:

Good experience with Nirvana. Seeds arrived within two weeks, securely hidden with a kind extra gift. I chose their Blue Mystic due to their claims of it being neutral-smelling. We'll see. Right away I took a single seed and started the germination process. It took a little longer than I expected, 3 1/2 days, but just this morning I checked and finally it had a little tail.

Seed has been planted in a plastic cup with some Scott's soil, and in the meantime I have been working on the PC case. The case is an Antec Two-hundred, which provided a decent amount of space inside at a not-unreasonable price. Selecting a case took the longest time of any part of the process.

I am now mostly done with the overall layout of the case, though I still am thinking on how best to configure the ventilation and what my options really are in terms of light-trapping. My basic goal is complete stealth, but since my room-mate is kind of clueless and does not enter my rooms at any time, I can be a little lax on it especially early on.

Pics of my setup in following posts.

Click to expand...

awful expensive case to be growing in dont u think? anyways u picked u a good one nice and roomie in those antec cases ,not countin they are easy to take part im running the 2nd version of this case on the pc im typing this from

Dreamz_Of_Green said:

awful expensive case to be growing in dont u think? anyways u picked u a good one nice and roomie in those antec cases ,not countin they are easy to take part im running the 2nd version of this case on the pc im typing this from

Click to expand...

Not cheap, but within my pain threshold.
I'd have loved to score a full tower...

I run a first model Nine hundred for my tower; I was hoping to find a v2 of the two hundred, but the local shop did not have the one i wanted in stock. Not a big deal.

Alistair_N said:

Not cheap, but within my pain threshold.
I'd have loved to score a full tower...

I run a first model Nine hundred for my tower; I was hoping to find a v2 of the two hundred, but the local shop did not have the one i wanted in stock. Not a big deal.

Click to expand...

im running same strain in DWC been running her for yrs and decided to make this my last run of BM 2 moms/10 clones a sat pheno and a indica pheno both reek of blueberry muffins in flower and when smoked ...and shes big yeilder u should do ok with what your working from

Dreamz_Of_Green said:

im running same strain in DWC been running her for yrs and decided to make this my last run of BM 2 moms/10 clones a sat pheno and a indica pheno both reek of blueberry muffins in flower and when smoked ...and shes big yeilder u should do ok with what your working from

Click to expand...

Thanks D.O.G. I am looking forward to finding out what it smells like in person. I'm just hoping I don't completely screw the pooch and kill her haha. I'm not going for yield on this first grow, just any level of success. If I manage to grow enough to last until the next grow, I'll be more than happy. Very possible, as I don't smoke much...

Two weeks as of today since she broke soil. Still fighting temps. Her serrated leaves are looking droopy but green; the smooth leaves look like they're burning up. Two new tiny leaves have formed and look alright.



You can see in those two pictures a little thin mushroom has appeared. I dug it out, along with another smaller one. Concerning; damn parasite fungi.

Here is an image of the mushroom in focus:



Also a few little gnatty looking bugs crawling around in the soil. Need to look them up, make sure they aren't hostile.

Growth still seems slow to me, but maybe I'm just expecting too much.

I have a few questions for you. First off, I'm also doing a computer grow box, but it looks to me that you know quite a bit more than I do here. I like your idea of running everything out of the normal power cord for the computer, but the wires are blue and brown as in your picture, instead of being red and black. So my first question is which color is positive, and which color is negative. I'm also struggling in the are of lighting. Right now I have a trouble light for under the hood of a car, as that's the only light socket I had in my possession not in use. So my next question is, how did you wire the light bulbs directly into the power strip? My final question is just out of curiosity, but how are you watering your plants? Do you have an automatic watering system or are you just going to water them by hand?
Thanks in advance Norecess1220

norecess1220 said:

I have a few questions for you. First off, I'm also doing a computer grow box, but it looks to me that you know quite a bit more than I do here. I like your idea of running everything out of the normal power cord for the computer, but the wires are blue and brown as in your picture, instead of being red and black. So my first question is which color is positive, and which color is negative.

Click to expand...

Honestly, I just guessed. There's only two ways it can go, and it's not a big deal swapping them if you get it wrong. But, notice the blue is in line with the on/off switch. Good bet that'll be your positive. The fun thing about AC is that sometimes it actually doesn't matter so much what your polarity is. Depends on the device, though.

I'm also struggling in the are of lighting. Right now I have a trouble light for under the hood of a car, as that's the only light socket I had in my possession not in use. So my next question is, how did you wire the light bulbs directly into the power strip?

Click to expand...

Most home hardware shops have handy little light socket <-> electrical outlet connectors. Just screw the bulb into the socket, and plug it in.

My final question is just out of curiosity, but how are you watering your plants? Do you have an automatic watering system or are you just going to water them by hand?
Thanks in advance Norecess1220

Click to expand...

Watering by hand. No room for anything automatic, and I'm a fan of KISS.

Alistair_N said:

Honestly, I just guessed. There's only two ways it can go, and it's not a big deal swapping them if you get it wrong. But, notice the blue is in line with the on/off switch. Good bet that'll be your positive. The fun thing about AC is that sometimes it actually doesn't matter so much what your polarity is. Depends on the device, though.

Most home hardware shops have handy little light socket <-> electrical outlet connectors. Just screw the bulb into the socket, and plug it in.

Watering by hand. No room for anything automatic, and I'm a fan of KISS.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much, I'm gonna run to the hardware shop right now.

It's now been a full month since she sprouted. I've continued watering her roughly every other day, when the soil starts getting dry. As you can see in the two new pics below, she is starting to get leafier but is still pretty small. Should there have been more growth by this point? I dunno.

The newer tiny leaves are looking ok; the older larger ones are fading and curling. Normal?





Case work has slowed due to other life responsibilities. I have to have her stealthed-up by next week, though, so this weekend will see a lot of work, mostly involving carbon filter design and some form of light-trap for the front of the case. Not quite sure how to handle that without severely compromising airflow; temps are already a problem. I definitely need to source a better fan. Sadly, the case only has mounts for 120mm, so if I try to do an 80mm solution for better pressure handling it will have to involve something creative...

More info later if there are any changes.