Converted dresser 250w BlimBurn Freebies (Orka/Kabrales)

Hey guys, this is my first ever grow journal on this website. I've grown several times before but never documented it. Any who, This is a long tale so bear with me.
I started out with an idea to convert my old antique dresser that used to be my grandfathers' into a grow cabinet. Now I know this probably sounds disrespectful to some people, but it has sat in a closet for over two years and barely gets used. My Fiancee didn't want it out in the bedroom because it doesn't match our bedroom set. So I figured I might as well re purpose it into something that I love and make it useful. Here is the dresser originally in the closet.
From outside the closet.



Cleaned up a little.



Another shot close up.



And here's some measurements.





Then I started to break it down, taking out the drawers and such.



The levels inside were a pain in the ass to take out. It was here that I started to feel guilty. Reason being is because I could tell this was great craftsmanship and it probably took a while to put together. This isn't any old dresser you get from "Rooms to Go" or "Ashley Furniture Store". But I kept going, seeing as I'd already taken it somewhat apart.

Here are some internal Measurements.




The internal dimensions are approximately 15" deep, 28" wide, and 37" tall. Not much room to work with but I will LST and use Scrog to make things fit right and achieve the maximum yield possible.

I cut a small hole in the very back to run cords through, will probably just wrap duct tape around the cords on the outside to prevent any light leaks through that hole. It is already against a wall anyway so it's pretty dark back there.
I cut two small 4" holes on the bottom/floor of the dresser on the far left side and installed two black PVC gutter connectors. This is for passive air intake.
Then I cut a 4" hole on the top right side of the dresser to install a 4" exhaust fan. The fan is a 100CFM inline fan. I know it pulls way more than the actual cubic size of the dresser, but it was the smallest/cheapest/best reviewed fan I could find that I thought would cool a 250w HPS in this size cabinet.
The next thing I had to do was reconstruct the front of the dresser to make it look normal. The route I chose was to make it a door with hinges so it could just swing open. I did this by using 1/4" plywood and screwing the dresser drawer face plates onto it and then mounting it with hinges. Let me tell you, this was a PAIN IN THE ASS! Wow I've never been so frustrated in my life trying to get all of these things to line up.



This is afterward. Yes I know there are some light leaks. I used weather stripping and reduced them significantly. There is still some minor light leak, very very minimal. I will try to correct this as much as possible before I start the seedling light cycle.



I'm growing in a 3 gallon smart pot, with the height restrictions that makes sense. The smart pot is just on top of a drain tray.
Inside the smart pot, my medium is 50/50 coco/perlite.
My nutes are General Organics, the full line. I've never used them before but I'm trying to switch over from synthetic nutes to organic and this seemed like a good middle ground to start the transition.

I'm running two freebie seeds I got from Attitude, Blimburn Orka and Blimburn Kabrales.



These pictures were before I cut the second passive air intake and added the second smart pot.

So here is where things get interesting.
I was originally only going to run the Orka. But what I didn't mention before was that these seeds are about 3 years old. Some of you may have guessed that based on the strain and them being freebies from attitude. They were not kept under optimum conditions. They were in a ziplock bag, and in a storage unit for most of the time. This is in the south so it was hot and humid at some points. Anyway, being as this is only my fourth time growing, I was very impatient with the old seeds. I originally put the Orka seed in a shot glass with distilled water for about 10 hours and then in a rapid rooter cube and gave it distilled water. Well when it didn't pop after about 4 days, I opened up the cube and the seed was no different than when I put it in. So I took it out and put it back in a shot glass with distilled water. After no sign of life for about 24 more hours, I said fuck it and put the Kabrales seed in too. This is when I actually went online and looked up info about popping old seeds. I realized a couple of my mistakes. I had put the Orka in the open hole on the top of the rapid rooter cube and they had not been confined enough in that area so it couldn't absorb water well. Etc. etc.. After they both soaked for about 30 hours and there was no action from either of them, I decided to put them back into cubes for fear they'd drown. This time though I made a small hole about 1/2" into the bottom of the cube and stuffed them in there, this way they were completely encased against the walls of the hole they were in.

This is when I fucked up, I forgot which seed went into which cube...
FML.
The problem is that Kabrales is very bushy and I wasn't going to top it. The Orka is less bushy and I was going to top or maybe mainline it. Hopefully I'll be able to tell based on the leaf and over all plant structure.

After that my impatience got the best of me again. I waited for 4 days and nothing happened. The cubes would get watered and kept at a good moist level, not waterlogged. They did dry out a couple times while I was out of the house all day but nothing too brutal. So after 4 days I was fed up and decided to see if there was anything going on. I slightly pried open the cubes, and one actually had a taproot starting. THANK GOD! The other one was ever so slightly starting to crack, not even open but i could tell it was trying to separate. It seemed weak to me for some reason though. So i took a razor blade and gave it a little help by opening the crack in the seed shell very very slightly. Just enough to see the embryo/taproot (whatever you'd call it at that stage) inside. Then I put it back in the cube. Well it's been 3 more days of agony and the one that had broken on it's own has started to spout!
Still waiting on number 2 but I'm going to be as patient as possible.

Environment is as follows.
Lights on: Temps running steady about 77 degrees. Humidity is approx. 45% - 50%
Lights off: Temps approx. 72 degrees. Humidity is approx. 55% - 60%
Not using any CO2.
These numbers will obviously change as I switch to my T5 fixture and then onto the HPS during flowering.
All this is with no dehumidifier, air conditioning, etc.

I just put the cubes into their pots and changed the light over to the T5 fixture. It's a 2ft 4 bulb.
Quick question, does anyone know what it means when the top layer of perlite is browning? Are my lights too close?

50 views and no replies, man I must be boring lol.

Looks legit to me.

IMO while your plants are still tiny you can probably raise your light a little bit. Once they are 5" leaf to leaf (2.5+2.5) Then lower it.

Just imo

GemuGrows said:

Looks legit to me.

IMO while your plants are still tiny you can probably raise your light a little bit. Once they are 5" leaf to leaf (2.5+2.5) Then lower it.

Just imo

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I really don't see any benefit to raising them. I don't need to cover more area with light, they aren't putting off any heat, and I don't want to risk the seedling stem stretching. Care to elaborate on why you think I should raise them?

So it's been a couple days since the seedling sprouted and it hasn't grown at all. The stem is about an inch long, but the cotyledons and first set of true leaves look almost exactly the same as when they first opened up. I took the cube out thinking it might be the problem and there are no roots protruding yet at all. Shouldn't the roots have grown enough to be exposed by now? I put the cube back in the coco. Could this be an over watering problem? I have been watering the cube in the coco about every 12 hours.

Also, the other seed still hasn't sprouted. Same problem?

The only problems I can think of are maybe over watering or lack of nutrients. I have only been giving PH 6.0 distilled water so far.

Skittles McP said:

I really don't see any benefit to raising them. I don't need to cover more area with light, they aren't putting off any heat, and I don't want to risk the seedling stem stretching. Care to elaborate on why you think I should raise them?

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I was mostly concerned with you possibly frying your little ladies. Also sometimes tiny plants can't even use all the light your giving them, so its sometimes better to just keep them a bit higher and lower them down as the plant gets more sturdy. Also every light gives off heat so be careful with em


A seed will sprout with no nutrients; and its better not to give them any. Theres enough nutrients in the seed to get them to a "pretty decent" size.

Sorry if I missed it, what soil are you using?

GemuGrows said:

I was mostly concerned with you possibly frying your little ladies. Also sometimes tiny plants can't even use all the light your giving them, so its sometimes better to just keep them a bit higher and lower them down as the plant gets more sturdy. Also every light gives off heat so be careful with em


A seed will sprout with no nutrients; and its better not to give them any. Theres enough nutrients in the seed to get them to a "pretty decent" size.

Sorry if I missed it, what soil are you using?

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I moved my lights up a bit. Can't hurt that much for now.

I'm using 50/50 coco/perlite. There is a layer of perlite on top to prevent fungus gnats.

Okay I'm actually starting to see a little bit of growth. Not much but it is noticeable when comparing to the old picture. I backed my watering off to about every 24-36 hours. I was watering every 12 hours.

Nice grow box dude I dig it. Any reason why you were watering every 12 hours? Was the soil actually drying out in only 12 hours? My seedlings usually dont have to be watered for about 3-5 days when they're small like that. Also is your soil only coco and perlite? That contains almost no nutrients so maybe a verryyy light dose of nutes will do when she gets true leaves

Nice chest of drawers man! Looks really well done! It's been a bit since your last post, how are the plants, any growth? I over watered my seedling in a primarily coco mix as well and it totally stunted her growth till like day 7. I think the "water coco like it was hydroponics" advice I keep seeing on these forums is kind of misleading.

Sweet dresser!

So it's been a about a week and things are going nicely. The plant that had sprouted is growing fairly well. I'll post a pic tomorrow. The other one still hasn't sprouted. I guess I'll wait till Monday and if nothing comes up I'll just remove the pot. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since day one and nothing yet so I think it's safe to say it just didn't make it.

dubekoms said:

Nice grow box dude I dig it. Any reason why you were watering every 12 hours? Was the soil actually drying out in only 12 hours? My seedlings usually dont have to be watered for about 3-5 days when they're small like that. Also is your soil only coco and perlite? That contains almost no nutrients so maybe a verryyy light dose of nutes will do when she gets true leaves

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I was watering every 12 hours when it was just the cubes and then I put the cubes in the medium and didn't realize they had much less air circulation around them to dry them out. So I kept watering every 12 hours before I figured out they weren't drying out as quickly.

I gave it a 1/5 strength feeding yesterday. Looks to be responding well.

Federson said:

Nice chest of drawers man! Looks really well done! It's been a bit since your last post, how are the plants, any growth? I over watered my seedling in a primarily coco mix as well and it totally stunted her growth till like day 7. I think the "water coco like it was hydroponics" advice I keep seeing on these forums is kind of misleading.

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Yeah I think the same thing happened to me. After I stopped watering so much there was much more development. I think the coco watering recommendation is more once the plant gets bigger and drinks a decent amount.

Skittles McP said:

I was watering every 12 hours when it was just the cubes and then I put the cubes in the medium and didn't realize they had much less air circulation around them to dry them out. So I kept watering every 12 hours before I figured out they weren't drying out as quickly.

I gave it a 1/5 strength feeding yesterday. Looks to be responding well.

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May I ask what your feeding consist of? I am a week behind you. Organic potting soil and CFL.

Haven't decided on nutes or feed to buy..

420Primo said:

May I ask what your feeding consist of? I am a week behind you. Organic potting soil and CFL.

Haven't decided on nutes or feed to buy..

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Sweet set up! I'm working on building one right now.m, if that fails I have a tent on the way in the mail