First Grow in 25 Years!!!!

[Rellikbuzz]

Good point about the sensimillia, freak!! hehe There was just the renegade seeds or two that you could find in an entire ounce of the stuff. As I recall my buddy who was selling it had to cull through a couple of pounds of buds (by smoking, of course ) to find enough seeds for my grow. But, I tell ya, it was some truly outstanding smoke. Very up sativa high of the highest order!

That is why I am so curious about all these new strains (well, new to me anyway) and how they stack up against the old school strains of the 70's and 80's. I haven't really had a lot of the new stuff to try out. I did get some of what was supposedly Kali Mist at the Deep Purple concert here last summer and, man, it was such a great high. That's why I am trying the Apollo Mist in hopes that it will be similar to that. And, more recently, I was given a couple of beautiful buds of what was supposed to be Heavy Duty Fruity and there again it was top notch. Although, the Kali Mist from the concert was far superior, IMHO. Maybe it was just the good vibes at the concert that made it so good but I was nearly tripping from the stuff.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on the sexing. I hope you're right! All I need is a few good females and I'm on my way!!!

 

[joeseeds]

great job Rellik ..I am still keeping up with your grow ....looking real good man...congrats thanks for the link on the nuts..man ...........ill stay tuned to this grow !!!

 

[giantmanbags]

Hell, there was many times I would call home and say, "Mom, I can't get home right now. Would you please water my plants for me?" and she would do it. God rest her soul, she was a good woman.

ROTFLMAO at rellik!!! I'll never forget in 82 after my first indoor grow my mom comes into my room and and sees my harvest hanging upside down from the ceiling--the look of shock and horror on her face because she thought I was into some kind of bizarre, ritualistic, satanic worship of the plant!!! "No mom, your supposed to hang them upside down!!" My dad passed away in 77, if he would have walked in I wouldn't be laughing.

 

[Rellikbuzz]

UPDATE TIME!!

UPDATE TIME!!

Joes Seeds - Thanks for the props, bro. We'll keep this thing going through to a (hopefully) successful harvest.

Giantmanbags - What would we have done without our Mothers? I guess it's true what the say about Moms and their kids. Good or bad, right or wrong, they're always there for us, no matter how f'ing stupid we've been. God Bless them all.

Update Time:

Well, the seedlings are now between 5 and 11 days old and are showing some good growth or at least I think so. My memory of my old grow (25 yrs ago) is quite hazy so I don't have a lot of recollection about how slow or fast they went. All in all I think I'm about where I should be. I would be interested to hear from the more experienced growers if you think this is decent growth or slow growth compared to your grows.

First of all, I had to get stealth with my Mother Cabinet REAL QUICK as my 14 yr old daughter was with me this weekend. I had ordered two axial fans for intake and exhaust of the cab so that I could close and lock the doors without frying my babies. My daughter does do into my closet from time to time and there was NO WAY that I could leave things as they were. Up until this weekend, I have been forced to keep the doors open just to keep the temps in the low 80's. With the doors closed the temps would have gone into the mid to upper 90's.

Well, as of Friday afternoon the axial fans had still not gotten here so I had to do some quick thinking. The last thing I need is for my daughter to think of her Dad as "Farmer Juan the Pot Grower"! So, with that in mind, I cut a 3 1/2" intake hole on the inside wall of the cab and a 5 1/2" hole in the ceiling for exhaust. Then on the other side of the wall from the 3 1/2" intake hole, I cut a 6" x12" opening and put a return air grill over it. This opening is about 2 1/2 feet above the smaller hole inside the cab to cut down on fan noise and potential light leakage (mainly so you can't see the light from the bedroom side). It took some "finaggling" (spelling?) to get it right but this is what I came up with.

Intake Hole inside cabinet



I placed the small box fan over the opening to suck fresh air into the cabinet.

Intake vent outside of cabinet in bedroom



Behind the grill I tacked sheets of electrostatic air filter that I bought at Walmart for about $3.00 and this well help keep airborne pollutants and bugs from being sucked into the cabinet.



Exhaust Box Fan strapped with metal plumbing strap over 5 1/2" hole in ceiling of cabinet



I didn't have time for a trial run before I had to pickup my Daughter so I just had to hope that it would keep the temps in a managable range. I am very happy to report that it worked beautifully as I was able to close and lock the doors and the temps never got above 84 degrees.



Here are the axial fans that I ordered from Canada. The 6" was $29.99 and then 4" was $19.99. Not a bad price considering that they come already wired for an outlet and have a switch installed as well. I will be putting them in the cabinet this week and taking down the box fan from the exhaust vent. I am going to try and rig the box fans on the side walls for continued air circulation but these axial fans should be much more efficient and a whole lot quieter. If any of you are doing cabinet grow and are having heat/venting problems, these things are great! If you want to know how I got them, PM me and I'll be happy to give you their toll free number and how to order them.



Now for the plants!! The Blue Thunders continue to show the most vigor and are the largest of the seedlings. The light appears to be doing it's job as stretching is minimal and internode distance is tight (if this really means much at this stage). Here's the Blue Thunder babies.







I am thinking that this Blue Thunder is the true Blueberry pheno. As you can see, the leaves a whorled and a bit deformed looking and quite fat as compared to the others. After all the reading I've done on Blueberry's, it seems to be a characteristic of true Blueberry phenos to have deformed looking leaves early in veg. So, I think this may just be the real deal! I am going to have to get rid of a few of my seedlings because of size problems in the Mother Cab but I am sure going to keep this baby and see how she turns out!



The Apollo Mist's have really caught up though and are doing great! Props to the Resdog!! All these plants appear very similar in stature and quite uniform at this point. Maybe this shows that he has stabilized this strain pretty well, huh?






The POK Kush x Critical Mass have really been coming on as well. Four of the five beans popped but a couple look really good. May have to cull one or two though to get down to twelve plants total.





Here's a couple late bloomers. One of these won't make the cut.





And last but not least, my one lone AK47 x C99. That's right, the runt may make it after all. If you look back at the earlier pics, this little one had damaged cotyldons and for all the world didn't look like it would make it. The only other AK to pop died after two days. I've been really pulling for this little girl. I hope she makes it. After all she's been through already, if she does end up being a female, she should prove to be one tough little lady!



So far, I've watered the one gallon pots twice. Once with the Superthrive/Voodoo Juice solution and then tonight with just PH'd water. I have been aerating the solution/water overnight to get as much oxygen to those roots as possible. The ones still in seedling cups or jiffy pellets I have to water everyday at least once. With all the air circulating in there combined with the intensity of the light, it drys them out very fast.



Well, that's all for this update. Looking forward to hearing your feedback on how you think they look so far. Is this good growth for a week or so? Let me know! :wink:

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Well, if you haven't figured it out. The pics of my water bucket with air pump and the axial fans got swapped somehow. Just imagine, in your mind , that they have reversed position with each other and things will make a helluvalot more sense. Sorry for the screw up!

 

[Maddlights]

You are doing a great job documenting your grow keep it up! What are you planning for odor control? I ask because I've tried everything and nothing seems perfect (even a scrubber has issues). My own daughter just asked about the "skunky smell" last week when I missed a scheduled carbon change.

 

[rule35sub1]

Hey Rellik. I think you are right about #4 she looks like it. I hope so too. :wink:

 

[b_is_me]

Awesome grow buzz, looking great, being completely stealth is a bitch but I would feel more comfortable in the long run if i knew my grow was stealth, anyway keep up the good work and good luck, -peace and POT

 

[kingslayer]

hey Rellik still watching, man...looking good
Don't worry about culling any of yer babies yet, some are bound to be boys
Have to give props for the thought you put into your cab...it showed from the beginning that you did your research, but the intake/exhaust solution was some nice engineering...
And don't worry about sexing the babies, I had the same reservations, but after you see'em up close and personal, it's not too hard usually--and a couple of pics usually gets lots of opinions from those more knowledgable than you or I... :friends:
peace
kingslayer

 

[Rellikbuzz]

Rule, B is Me, Kingslayer - Thanks for keeping up with my progress to this point. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. King, I would like to keep all the plants I have going but it's just not possible based on my size constrictions of my cabinet. There are a few that are just not keeping up with the others so it won't be quite a difficult. However, my cab size dictates that I only have room for 12 plants. If I end up with a 50/50 ratio, that will leave me with 6 females. If my experiment with the 12/12 light regime works, and I end up with more than 50% females, then I am still limited to 8 plants in five gallon buckets in my flower closet anyway. So, if I end up with between 6-8 females, I should be right on target.

Maddlights - Glad you joined us here on my first grow. As far as odor control goes, I will be using a CANN carbon filter connected, of course, to the exhaust fan which pulls the double duty of cooling both 400 watt lights. In addition to this, just outside of the flower closet, I have installed a Vaportek #90-2600 which uses scented wool-like discs and a squirrel cage fan inside to disperse the aroma. Right now, I have two discs in it and it spreads a light pleasant odor into the condo. However, if odor gets strong during flower, I will have to put four discs in to make sure and cover any odor that escapes the closet.

I am hoping between the two methods (the CANN filter and the Vaportek) that I can control the biggest part of the odor. I don't have any skunk related strains and am hoping that the odors will err more towards a fruity or pine like scent. If so, I should be okay. Here's a few pics of the Vaportek unit.

 

[Bystander]

Nice thread...

Vry nice & clean setup you have there me likey :smile:
think i'll pop in from time to time to see whats shakin..

I wish ya the best
-Bystander

 

[Maddlights]

oooh! I like that vaportek. Much more appealing than ozone. I'm going to get one of those real soon.

 

[Freakazoid44]

That's pretty damn solid for impromptu "finaggling"!

I like!

 

[Rellikbuzz]

ByStander - Thanks man, you're welcome here anytime!!

Maddlights - The vaportek units (and there are several different types) are quickly becoming a popular alternative for odor control. You can find out more on these at their website.

www.vaportek.com

I just called and ordered it over the phone. My unit was like 35.00 and another 25.00 or so for the aroma discs. There's quite a few scents to choose from and, if you ask nicely, they will send you samples of scents to choose from. For a small grow like mine, the unit I have should do fine but they do have larger, more powerful units as well. I highly recommend.

Freakazoid - Thanks for the props, bro! It took some time to figure out how to get this cabinet stealth quickly. But I was happy that it worked. A little "African Ingenuity" goes a long way (no racial slur intended)!

 

[rowjimmyrow]

whats your humidity like?..just my opinion but if i can crank up the humidity early on i get more girls...when its dry i get more boys, this is not a scientific fact, just seems to hold true for me. if ya can get your humidity to 60 mpercent during the early growth stage, and get the lights as close as possible i think you will be pleased with the results.

 

[sunnyside]

ah look at the little babies...good show relik!

 

[Milonix420]

Rellikbuzz, sweet ass setup you got there ,and your plants are look so good i cant wait to see some bud shot of them females good luck bro

Keep it green

Milonix420

 

[Rellikbuzz]

I made the changes that I was planning to the Mother Cabinet. In a previous post I showed the axial fans that I finally received that were going to take over the intake/exhaust responsibilities from the box fans that I rigged in place temporarily. For those who might be interested how I accomplished this, here is a "how to" on the installation.

The first dilemma I faced was with the axial fans themselves. As you can see in the photo below. The mounts on both sides of the fans are identical in size. Unless you want to surface mount them to a wall or ceiling, this requires a little hand fabrication to recess them into the wall/ceiling. As I prefer a cleaner installation, I decided to recess the axial fans in the wall and ceiling.

To solve the mounting problem so that I could recess the fans, I bought a roll of sheet metal to fabricate a mounting shroud that the fan would be screwed to. In turn, the shroud would be screwed into the ceiling and wall.



I purchases two sheet metal cutters at Home Depot. One cuts straight while the other cuts curves.



I won't bother showing each step of the cutting but suffice it to say that I had to cut a square few inches bigger than either of the two fans to start with. Then I had to cut an opening in each square large enough for the fan housing to fit inside of yet small enough so the I could still screw the housings to the sheet metal itself. Here are the pics of the fans screwed onto the sheet metal shrouds. Notice that I mounted them with rubber washers to help cut down on any vibration.







Once they were mounted on the shrouds, I got some foam rubber shelving covers. Normally used as shelf liners inside of kitchen cabinets. I cut pieces the same size as the shrouds I had made. Once I did this, I then cut an opening for the fan housings to fit through. The idea here is, again, to cut down on any vibration and to help seal the openings to prevent air leaks and to reduce the possibility of bugs and such getting in.





And now mounted to the shrouds and fans






Once that job was done, it was time to cut the intake and exhaust holes to fit the new fans. This was done with a power jigsaw.




I drilled holes at the four corners of both shrouds for screws. Correspondingly, I maked the place for the holes one the wall and ceiling, drilled the holes and fitted them with ribbed plastic anchors to secure the shrouds properly. The only thing left to do was to screw them in place.

Here's a pic of the finished installation. Intake fan first.


And now the exhaust fan.



Before this installation, the temps would get up to 85 degrees or so with the box fans rigged in place. Now with the axial fans (the intake is 104 cfm and the exhaust is 192 cfm) temps are ranging between 78-80 degrees. Shaved over 5 degrees off my temps!! This will surely help when it gets hot here and, believe me, Texas is brutal in the summer.

Well, I hope I haven't bored to many of you but I thought this might be of interest to those cabinet growers out there as this is a very viable option to handle high temps and make sure you have a good fresh air exchange for your babies!

Tomorrow I'll be posting an update on my babies and I'll show you another little trick I've developed for watering. Til then, have a great night everyone!!!

RB

 

[Milonix420]

WOW thats is good imma have to do that i dont have that lol

 

[Guest]

Nice one bro!