YATGB (yet another tub grow box) 1st FAIL...!!!

Ok lets start this out in the style of FDD by saying:

Please DO NOT POST REPLYS until you see my little friend the Ewok turn his thinking cap back around... =]

You will know its turned when you can see the Kangol logo...

Please do not post until then...

Thanks...

Ewok @ work please do not post yet... =P

Man this is allot more work than i though it would be... =O

Whew almost there... !! then i need to link all the pics to larger images... =O

Ok here we go lets get some info down first...

This is my first grow... I am growing two White Skunk seeds in soil... This post SHOULD go from start to finish as long as no one interrupts while im getting this all together...

This grow was a TOTAL failure and anything in here is for helping others learn from my mistakes... There is NO yeild or happy ending of this post so be warned... =]

Ok well that said lets get on to the actual grow... =]

Enjoy... =P

Day 0 - Seeds
Seeds planted/started... One WS in soil one WS in paper towels... WS White Skunk from White Label seeds bank...


Day 1 - Sprouts
Sprouted... Both the paper towel and direct soil seeds have sprouted....
Thr PT seed did not completely shake its seed shell and is still on the top...
The direct seed looks good two healthy sprout leaves unopened...



Day 2 - Good Growth
Veronica the direct panted seed (++ marked side of pot and right on pictures) is doing well 1”/2.5cm above soil...
Sam the PT planted seed (-- marked on pot and left in photos) is doing well but shows stunted growth behind Veronica and has not opened the sprouting leaves 3/4”/2cm...
Added soil to keep up with stretching and fill pot a little...


Day 3 - Opened
Both sprout leaves are opened and showing 1st pair of normal leaves...
Sam is stretching much more than Ver. due to not enough surface area most likely...
More soil... Close to 3/4 full pot...



Day 4 - Healthy Babies
Not much to say... Veronica is nice and fattened out, healthy stem not stretching...
Sam is fully opened now and the 2 normal growth leaves are a lil bigger... Sam is still a little tall and wobbly but healthy...
Oh... Placed a thin plastic shield between the two to allow for easier separation on transplant to larger and separate pots...



Day 5 - Slow Growth
Veronica not much change... Slightly bigger leave groth... She (hopefully she) is 3cm (Aprox. 1 1/4&#8221 tall from last soil addition...
Sam not much change either but more movement then Veronica... Leave growth seems to be straightening and stronger stem... She (again hopeful) is 4cm (Aprox. 1 1/2&#8221 tall from last soil addition... Keep in mind that Sam's soil is slightly higher around the stem maybe around 50mm to 1cm...



Day 6 - Showing Promise
Moved the light up a little after reading that it might be the cause of stalled growth...
Leaves grew exponentially... The little tiny spears in the center are showing signs of the second set of leaves...
Both children are still the same height... Veronica is showing a little twist in her right most leave...



Day 7 - Another Slow Day
Little growth... You can see Sam's 1st leaves are touching the plastic separator...
Both little ones show the second set of leaves reaching out a little more...
Since neither are stretching upward at all any more I will probably cut down the plastic to ground level...


Day 8 - One Week
One week has past... Nothing really to report...


Day 9 - New Light
Got another light... Split the main socket to house both the lights...
Made a makeshift reflector out of cardboard... After snapping a few shots with the lights on realized it was too deep...
Added a separator between the sockets and the ballasts to give better reflection...

Veronica is doing good... There are signs of Three Leaves on each new set although they are very tiny...
Sam looks good to but her Three Leaves are hard to see although they are there it still looks more like a pair of single blades instead of a pair of three...



Day 10 - Heat
Getting a little warm in there next week need to get a fan and a thermometer...
Babies are looking good more growth in the second set of leaves...



Day 12 - Air
Got the fan its a 37.27 cfm pc case fan at full speed 27 db... Kinda loud for my taste...
Moved everything to the floor inside a box... Got tired of reaching all the way up to the top to move stuff around...
It's too small of a space but ill figure out something else this weekend...

Scratch that it was way to hot in that little box... Back to stretching my neck to see what's going on up top...

About the children...
Veronica's 2nd set of leaves are fanning out nicely... You can see the 3rd set poking through...
Sam is still slower to grow but is healthy and her leaves did not curl much at all...
Both are looking a little yellow on the tips of the leaves but hopefully adding the second light and fan will help that...

I was going to call the opening of the 2nd set the start of vegetative stage...
I think that I will make that official when they completely lose the seedling leaves...
That should not be long as Sam's seedling leaves look very pale and should be gone soon...



Day 14 - Lifting Tips

Well just yesterday I noticed that the leaves were starting to kind of close up by lifting all of its tips and pointing upward instead of lying flat...
Did some research and asked around on the forum and it might be to hot in there...
I am planing on buying a thermometer/hygrometer this weekend but right now I just know it felt warm in there even with the fan...
I moved the lights up and removed the box/reflector for now...

Other then that they look good...


Day - 15 Two Weeks

Today is week two since they popped out of the ground... Man im getting anxious...
Not much change from yesterday... Although Veronica looks kinda weird probably from the fan blowing on her...



Day 16 - Still Hot

Got a Thermo today and it was freakin HOT in there... High 80s on average with a high of 90...
OUCH it must have been scorching in there before...
Im going to take the Thermo back because there is not Hygro on it... I was in a hurry...

As for the growth there is not much... The 3rd set of leaves are coming in nicely...
Got to do something about that heat turned one of the lights off for now...
Also going to try putting a bottle of frozen water in there to help cool everything off...
Thanks for this idea goes out to a grower form the forum... =]



Day 17 - CO2

Tried a yeast/shugar/water co2 generator... We will see if we get any results...
Third set of leaves looking nice... =]


Day 22 - Third Week
Three weeks and 3 sets of leaves... I hate to call them nodes cuz they look so SMALL but that's what they are...
As you can see I cut off part of Veronicas second leaf... It was getting nut burn (i think) probably due to one of those awful MG auto release pellets...
I thought I got them all but apparently not... I gave them both a mini flush and cut off the leaf that was starting to curl and dry up at the very end...

The seedling leaves have dried up and all but fallen off...
The fourth set of leaves are coming up... I will mark this as my official start of vegetation and ends seedling stage...

I will wait and see if I get any sideways (horizontal) growth before I think about transplant...
Although it may be the way this strain grows so if no horiz. shoots grow by the 6th to 7th node ill start thinking about transplanting and starting LST...



Day 23 - New Box

Trying to get over the extream heat they were dealing with wher they were before I will be building a new grow box...
Untill then this will be the temporary home... All be it ghetto the temps are much more reasonable...
I want the box to be perfect and I don't want them to suffer any more heat while I plan for and make the box...

Info on the ghetto box...
Its a ghetto box... =]

The thing you see begind the plants is the housing and light trap for the new Thermaltake fan (soooo quiet @54cfm)...
It is ghetto as well but very effective... I tried making 90 degree traps with cradboard and failed so this one just has pieces of cardboard half the heigth that form a W by placing them every other on top and bottom...

At any rate the temp is now reasonable with highs under 85F... Much better then 90+





Day 27 - Happy Children

Almost at the 4th week and the lil ones are looking good...
Veronica is showing very fast and large growth... She's on the 4th node working on the 5th...
While Sams growth is slower and leaves are not as full she shows potential as a mother with slow but controlled growth...
Sam looks more organized with her leaf spread and her stem is much stronger...

But all in all I am quite happy with my lil babies... =]



Day 29 - One More

One more set of leaves for Sam... Veronica is pushing up her 5th set still... Probably tomorrow... =]
Veronica is starting to smell “Skunky”... =] you have to really put your nose to her but its apparent... Yum... =]


Day 30 - One Month

For my babies one month birthday I spent WAY too much money... Bought some Botanicare (I will be using mostly BT products) Pure Blend Grow and BT Liquid Karma along with ph water test kit and ph up and down solutions... Also bought some supplies so I can get started on my new grow box for the Thanksgiving weekend... One of witch was some Panda Film... Panda Film rocks I was afraid it would not block light effectively but it blocks 100% of light... =]

Put the children back in the gheto box to test some more ideas... Ill get into that tomorrow... =]

Day 31 - Ghetto Box #2

This thing does not last very long... Checked this morning and all the duct tape had opened up...
Well I did away with the zig zag light traps because while they are more effective they also block airflow by cutting the opening in half...
I guess they could work if I doubled the opening but I want to keep it small...

Just using a square box housing for the fan with 3-4in opening with a U bend...
Because the inside opening of the U is in a shaded area it blocks almost all light... Probably something I would not have thought about without help from Ghetto Box tests...

Temps are considerably lower on the MAX records from the 1st test with 84-81 compared to todays 79-76...

I do not like the fan mounted on the outside like this it is a lot noisier... Having the fan closer to the inside in the 1st test considerably muffled the noise...

Things learned:
Ill have to come up with another design where the fan is mounted closer to the inside...
Best to come up with a way to put the inside opening for both intake and exhaust in a shaded area or create one for them...

Till next week... Ill do some more ghetto tests using actual parts and hopefully get the new box completely set up...









Day 34 - Moving On

This the last few days of this setup... built a quick and dirty 2 cfl hosing... I will rebuild it and the fan housing out of perforated board...
I will probably use this setup again but just to do a few clones when it comes time to sex my children... Going to need another dc converter...

As usual Sam is slow and short but in perfect order except for a little twisting in her 1st set of leaves...
Veronica lost her 1st set... When I introduced nutes (1/3 recommended botanicare) they all but burnt to a crisp... I removed them so that she would not waste energy on what was left... Same with one side of 2nd set... The one that was getting burnt from the superthrive... With veronicas problems and her abnormal and funky looking growth she will probably end up being flowered and smoked while I might keep sam around awhile in veg state to be a mother until I decide to move on to another strain...

That would be another reason to use the old setup... Probably with low light and 24/7 of hour on hour off to slow growth but keep Sam in veg while Veronica gets flowered and puffed... =]

We shall see what happens...




Thought these were preflowers... No... They were new leaf sites...

Day 40 - Bigger

First about the babies... =]

Time to repot... Veronica is looking pretty big... Working on her 7th node...
Sam is... Well sam is Sam bigger and working on her 6th node... Still the slowpoke but always the persistent one... Perfect growth patterns and she still has all of her original leaves... =]

And now they have new homes... =]

I will be starting Veronica on training this weekend as long as she does not show any signs of stress from the move...

Now I need, more then ever, to get my new box finished... Well technically it is finished now but like I said I want it to be perfect... It still leaks way to much light and with all my efforts to block light from the intake and exhaust it is not as cool as I would like it to be... I might add a few more intake pipes because that's what it really needs... Exhaust seems to do just fine even with the carbon filter...

Any way more on that and pics later...







Day 44 - The Box

Ok its finally done... My new home for the children is finished and im pretty happy so far... =]

Shot taken from the top you can see the inside of the tubs are lined with panda film... Panda film is awesome, it TOTALY blocks any light from getting in or out and does the part of light reflection inside as well... Definitely recommend panda film... Although it was a little hard to work with in these particular tubs because of all the inconsistent surfaces... I used contact cement to stick it to the inside but there were places I could not seal from the light ill get to that later...

The lights are hung from a pvc tube with hemp cord... That is more of a temporary solution but it works... The tube is secured with two bolts on each side of the tub and the tube has a notch in one side so it can be easily removed...

On the back side of the top tub is the exhaust fan incased in perforated board on all sides except the back witch has a piece of carbon filter attached to it... The back of the exhaust housing is a hole cut to fit the fan and the fan itself is attached to this face... You can see in the close-up of the fan casing that I used caulking to seal the sides of the filter to the box... I think I could have come up with a better solution but it works so its ok for now... The fan housing has weather tape on the back to help with light sealing...

On the back outside you can see there is another hole in the tub to match the fan and you can see the 4 holes that have rubber grommets to help with vibration noise... Below the fan in the lower tub are a series of holes for intake witch are covered with carbon filter more for light filtration but also to keep contaminants from coming in the intake... There is a grounded cord passed through another grommet to provide power to the inside of the box... The tubs are screwed together inside and have weather tape between them again for light sealing...

You can see on the inside the 90 degree pipes that are connected to the intake holes to help with light filtration... I started with one and kept adding them to get the temps down and help the fan pull more air in... The big one was last... You can see the plug that comes into the box from the outside...

I tried to keep all holes on one side for stealth... The one cord brings power in to keep it looking as normal as possible from the outside but it does take away from the total interior space...

More later... =]







Day 45 - The Box Cont.

Ok more on light sealing... I could not get the panda film to wrap the lip of the tubs nor did I think that I needed to but surprisingly a lot of light escaped through the lip and pointed down at the ground... Guess I should have take pics of that stage but oh well...

What we did to fix that was take some lead from another post on here and picked up some “PlastiDip” rubber coating spray paint... I taped off and masked the inside of the tub just below the lip and just a bit over the film... It takes a few coats to get it so that it blocks light effectively but it works wonders... I just used a flash light to check after every spray until I could not see the light at all or just barely... You need to unmask quickly because once it is dry it is hard to separate the painted part of the tub from the over spray on the tape it becomes one continuous piece of rubber film... Not at all like paint witch breaks apart more easily once dried over tape...

As for the rest of the tub there were some small pin holes where I used my old friend the tube of caulking to seal those up...

For the lids I covered as much area as possible with the film and again used the rubber coating together with caulking to seal from light then I painted over it with flat white spray paint... This worked out good because its hard to tell where the sprayed areas end and bare film starts... I had to take special care at the little annoying tabs that stick out around the lid... They let out and transfer a lot more light then I thought they would... So I rubber sprayed, and sprayed again, caulked, rubber sprayed again these annoying buggers before they finally stopped letting out light... I also taped off half of the lip that hangs over the tub but I found that I really only needed to do this for the white paint as it tends to over spray more... I suppose I could have skipped that but it saved on clean up...

Finally I used some mineral spirits that I bough originally to clean up after the contact cementing of the panda film to clean any over spray on the outside of the tubs...

Ant the final test shows temps well in the safe zone... In the day or so it has been 70-75F average as opposed to 85-90F average in the old closet setup with poor ventilation...

Thats it for the box... Ill make a new entry today about the children to break it up... =]

Day 45 - Schooling

Time to take the kids off to school for proper training so they do not get out of control... =]

They both showed no signs of shock from the move to separate pots... So first we tied down Veronica... I am using a standard knot tied at the stem/node tightened snugly just enough not to slip but not too tight... Attached some self tapping tek scwes to the lip of the pot at opposite ends and tied a slip knot to the end that goes to the screw... The slip knot was tied so that the adjusting string is the end attached to the plant not the screw... This takes a bit of trial and error because I had it tied to her already but it allows for easy tightening...

Same for sam... Now we just wait for the next few nodes to tie down... =]

Both of them are doing wonderfully... I can not wait till I have a good point to snip off a cutting off each to do some sexing...

Thats all for now... =]




Day 47 - Stinky

Sam is smellin up the place... Definitely a DANK smell coming from her... Veronica has a smell similar to the smell that has been growing with the both of them but Sam smells like heaven... =]

I tried to put another layer of carbon over the inside of the fan cuz I could smell it when I came home today... I rose the temps a few degrees im trying to put it on the outside and see if that helps with both smell and temps... Maybe tomorrow or sometime later this week ill add another intake tube...

If she smells like that now WTH is she gonna smell like in flower... I might have to put the other fan on the outside and double up on the carbon both inside and out... Thats what I get for picking a skunk... =]

Later... =P





Day 53 - Congrats Its...

Well good news and well not bad news but not good news times 2...

First the not so good news... As you can see Sams growth is doing just fine... Still slow but good... Training is doing well and I was just about to start rounding it around the pot when I found... Nut Sacs... =O

Thats right its a boy... It is still really early but im pretty sure these are male pre-flowers... I put Samuel back in the closet with the other plants to start flowering... I will collect some pollen from HIM and get a fer seeds out of Vee (Veronica)...

Thats right its a girl... The good news... Vee is really filing out and I have started to turn her around the pot... But best of all... A little female pre-flower was found today... =] So yay my fastest grower is a female... Its kind-of a relief that Sam is a Samuel and not a Samantha because I just do not have enough room for the both of them with the bigger pot I put Vee in... I will veg her till I can get her close to the other side of the pot or X-Mas/New Years... We will see how close I can get her by then and decide weather to veg more or not then... I would like to wait till she gets all the way around but I do not think I can wait that long...

I cut a lil one off Vee... I know its early and its really to small to expect anything good out off... I really just wanted to try to flower it a little bit to sex Vee since I was spending all that energy on her but apparently I do not need to... So if I get anything off of the lil one it will be a surprise... We shall see... It has not died or wilted yet so who knows...

Thats all for now... Next week will be the Two Month birthday... =]

Maybe I will buy Vee some cal-mag-plus... =]








Day 56 - Disaster

=[

Came home to find Vee in horrible condition... Well it was not so bad at first... Just some stripes on her leaves and the striped leaves looked a little frail... I tried to flush out her soil... By the end of the night she was looking worse... =[

Sorry forgot to upload this one and i dont feel like doing it now... =[

The next day after the flushing attempt... =[... =[



Day 57 - Its Worse

Hoping that the flushing would have done some good I came home to see that it probably pushed her over the edge and drowned her... She is al but totally falling over... The stem leading to the top 3-4 nodes is completely limp and if she were not already bent over it would be pinching the stem...

I tried poking some holes in the soil to promote aeration and clipping off any real bad looking laves... She may still make it yet... We shall see but she will not be the full girl she was...

If she survives I will probably put her in flower when she is back to full strength... =[

Poor thing I feel so bad... I thought it was because of the pellets but apparently I just over fed her over time and it just caught up all at once... =[

Of course Samuel is a little burnt he was no where near as bad as Vee and will do just fine... He always was my favorite... Too bad he has balls... =]








Day Who Cares - Gone

This is the end of this log... No they did not die... Had to throw out both of them due to some problems at home... =[
And i was so close... =[
Oh well it was a good learning experience both good and bad but i learnt lessons from them both... =\

Ok thats it... Wicket (Ewoks name) can take a break for awhile... =]



I will make all the pics linked to the larger images but in the mean time this will do... If you really want close-ups right now you can look in my gallery... =]

Did i spell Wicket and Ewok wrong... ??

Probably... =P

Enjoy and feel free to post replies now... Thanks for being patient... =]

No one cares about my 1st failed experiment... =[

aww, don't be sad, mate there will always be a next time

Im more sad that no one replied... =]

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?u=23830

Link to my gallery... More so for me because its so hard to find it when i want to... =P

Old Avatar... White Skunk... =]
https://www.rollitup.org/avatars/moon47usaco.gif?dateline=1193096574

Got a question for ya. How light tight was your fan housing? Can you post a little more detailed how to build one? I'm having hella problems with light leaks.

Ill post a pic of how much light comes out of the fan hole... I have changed it a little and took the carbon filter off the inside and made a box that goes on the outside for more carbon filter area...

Light still comes out but it is very little and it faces my wall so it is really not noticeable at all...

I made the housing out of perforated board (easy to use and cheap) but you could use anything...

The only reason i need the housing was because of how the fan is built... If you have a standard box type or muffin fan you should not need a housing... The fan i bought is kind of a weird design though so it needed it...

Thanks! Are you going to flower in there? If so are you worried about interrupting their total darkness cycle?

moon47usaco said:

Ok thats it... Wicket (Ewoks name) can take a break for awhile... =]

I will make all the pics linked to the larger images but in the mean time this will do... If you really want close-ups right now you can look in my gallery... =]

Did i spell Wicket and Ewok wrong... ??

Probably... =P

Enjoy and feel free to post replies now... Thanks for being patient... =]

Click to expand...

Haha. Man you're crazy... or high, i cant work out which

Haha. Man you're crazy... or high, i cant work out which

Click to expand...

A little from column A... =]

A little from column B... =]

Ya i will flower in there the light penetration inside the box is so minimal i do not think it will bother the children at all... Plus if i keep my flowering night cycle at NIGHT the penetration of my house lights will be next to nothing...

Sorry no pics i tried but my camera is not sensitive enough to get a long exposure shot that would be of any use...

I thought i had a longer exposure maybe i am doing it wrong... I will try again this weekend...

cool shit man hope it goes good for ya.

Thanks man...

I am building another one cuz i need a veg box as my org. box is filled with flowering plants... Unfortunately they are boys but i need some pollen... =]

So i need a veg space asap... I will post a new journal soon... =]

hey man good work, i dig these storage bin grow boxes. i have been checkin em out on various sites and they seem to do a helluva job. i wouldnt mind makin one myself.

My new DWC project has started it is in the same tubs with slight modifications... =]

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/54516-mini-bb-dwc-1st-live.html#post597286

im no expert in any feild. but seems to me maybe u trying 2 hard let the little uns do ther own thing