How to Grow Moonijuana: A PC LED Stealth Grow

Good evening, good people! I'll be starting a few seeds from Mephisto Genetics in a DIY stealth PC case.

Here's the case, about 75% finished:



Mylar sheeting on the sides, three simple LED lights, two intake fans, one outward fan (where a carbon filter is being set up). The empty space in the top-right will be where a can of ona gel, a ceramic heat emitter, and the light timer will be set up. The fans need to be wired up, and the last few things put in, strapped down, and neatly arranged, but it's mostly light proof and very secret in its current setup. It'll be a nice, smell-free, light-proof setup once it's completely finished, with temperature control running 24/7 while the lights run on a timer. The LEDs will maximize potential vertical growth, so here's hoping for a decent harvest! I may not bother with the timer just yet as I'll be running autos for this first run.

I really can't recommened enough Mephisto Genetics seeds to people curious about trying autos or that have had a bad experience with them. Hopefully this will help. On to the ladies!

I'm running a Sour Crack and Fantasmo Express for this grow (Fantasmo on the left, Sour Crack on the right). First they germinated in some root riot cubes....


And now they're potted in some pint cups, ready for tiered transplant once they get a bit bigger. They were germed and sprouted several days ago, but there's no real difference now that their in proper soil. In a couple days, when they look a bit more interesting (at this point the seedlings just have slightly bigger true leaves) I'll show the update.

Quick update:

The plants are doing well; second set of true leaves sprouting and gradually spreading their green wings. Here's a pic (sour crack on the right, fantasmo express on the left):

looks mean so far, mind sharing more info regarding your lighting setup?

happy growing!

looking real good so far. if not to much of a hassle keep the updates coming!

Another peek at the plants; the fantasmo express is sprouting beautifully! The sour crack is right behind it, and I'm very pleased to see these hearty little girls grow so well.

Fantasmo on the left, Sour Crack on the right:


As for lighting, I'm currently using some cheap 10W LEDs from china (actual draw probably closer to 7W). They're fine for sprouting and early veg, but I was too tight on cash when I started to get anything better and others that have grown with them report that after a couple weeks growth slows to a crawl as they just can't put out enough light for a proper harvest.

I have a 100W BlackStar UFO LED coming that will replace them (and be easier to fit into my box) that will ensure a good, strong harvest. Pics of the revised box and light coming when it's all finished in the next few days.

Here's an update from today's installation of the new BlackStar LED:



I'd HIGHLY recommend it to anyone wanting LEDs. It was a pretty steep upgrade from a few budget grow LED lights, but the explosive difference between this picture and the previous one was only 9 hours of exposure.

I can tell you, yesterday's pic was barely different than today's, so consider this a direct before and after BlackStar.

Quick update pic; the new lights are really making a difference. Fantasmo Express on the left, Sour Crack on the left.

Are you running positive air pressure with the two intake fans? How will you keep it from leaking smell? You may be better off with passive intakes and a carbon filter exhaust.

I've got an intake fan, two exhaust fans. I'm using ona gel inside the case to eliminate odors, and I can post another canister outside the case if need be; it should be plenty to handle two plants.

whats that ona gel smell like, never tried it

I got the fresh linen one; it smells alright; the plants are starting to get some odor, and it's handling it.

Today's update: The Fantasmo is looking strong and healthy, only some minor nute burn from being tier planted into the main soil:


The Sour Crack is looking a little worse for the wear. I'm hoping it's just nute burn, as it was younger than the other going into this hotter soil:

you should be good, if anything you can flush the soil and that should help.

The babies are growing!

The Fantasmo Express is apparently known for explosive early growth, and on that this one definitely delivers:

She's growing fast, almost TOO fast for me to LST properly! It's insane how much progress she's made since I installed the BlackStar LED, and it's not even three weeks since sprout. Five weeks to go, and I'm excited.

The Sour Crack sprouted about two days later, and had some minor root trauma during transplant. It sort of shows:

She's at about exactly two weeks from sprout, but aside from the more severe nute burn on the left, she's growing nicely. Good, green leaves, lots of new growth, and she's responding well to the soil and LED light now that she's had time to grow into the organic mix.

It's already clear this box is too crowded for tiered planting, which makes me sad. I'll have to do some kind of plug in regular soil (probably jiffy seedling mix or something like that). I'm considering some coco coir cut with the regular soil, to allow for good water retention and some nutes.

I'd germ the seeds in root riot cubes, then prep the trough by filling with my organic soil and then digging out two nice, 16 oz or so holes. Those would be filled with a mixture of coir and soil, hopefully gentle and water-absorbent enough to let the seedlings grow and thrive without nute burns that would surely result from direct planting. At any rate, I have about two more months or so to figure it out before these two get the chop.

I'm considering a similar set up. The LED though - isn't a predominantly blue light considered optimal for veg ?

Maybe; I'm not expert on lighting.

I can say that there's a large gulf between "optimal" and "will work". Optimal setups will maximize your yield and plant health, but that doesn't mean failing to optimize every aspect will result in failure, either.

In this case, the LED I bought is designed for a 2'x2' space, and the area in this box is about 1.5 square feet, so there's more light than needed for its size; maybe that's delivering enough blue light to help during veg, or maybe it could use more but it's thriving anyway.

The plants are healthy, and the Fantasmo Express is giving off a nice, strong weed smell now. The ONA gel is doing a fine job of covering the odor for now, but only time will tell if it keeps working once this thing is REALLY blooming and the buds are swelling.

Two things.... my advice

First: There are many led spotlights, I am getting some, that are the same wattage but produce much more white light by comparison, combining this at least is best I reckon.

Second: Matte white reflects better than Mylar or foil, and Plants like it better.

These two things could make your grow much more effective (I feel)

not quite 100% on the mylar, its not as reflective as it gets crinkled most often by people who have never used it b4 (it can be a bitch at first).
but a mix of cool white and warm white tubes/leds and mat white paint is 90? % reflective and mylar is 60% ? reflective IIRC getting old.
BUT THEY DON'T ALLOW TINS OF PAINT ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION , As they cant put a claim for $100 a tin, yet $5,000 for reels of MYLAR works better for the false economy of the space program to date

did you know You have a weed problem , very nice too

Properly applied mylar is well over 90% (not even close to 60%), and it was easy for me to use horticultural mylar; I applied it smoothly to panels which had been cut to fit precisely inside the box. It's easy to clean that way as well: they just pop out and get wiped off, or if the mylar needs to be replaced I just remove it and put a fresh piece on the panel.

The plants are looking strong and healthy! Here's the latest pics:

First, the Fantasmo Express:

As you can see, the numerous wires to LST her are barely enough to stop her rampant vertical growth. This thing is a beast. See that proud, "tallest of the bunch" branch on the top left that stretches towards the heavens? Two, TWO days ago, she was completely horizantal and a solid couple inches lower from training. She simply gave that wire the finger, shot forward and up, and hasn't looked back. This is getting nerve-wracking; as much as I love that she's thriving, the box is only so tall, so I don't know what to do if she won't stop!

She's officially a she, too. Behold the first pistils of the grow:


Looking sexy, right? Now for the Sour Crack:


She's bushy and strong, and growing well. This girl is a beast, all right. It's nice to see that despite the rocky start she had she's thriving now.

I'm quite happy with my soil setup as well: all organic, using FoxFarm basic soil (not Ocean Harvest or anything fancy), amended with some perlite and vermiculite to fluff it up, and some biological inoculate for soil life. I've only fed them about 100 ml liquid seaweed one time, and rainwater or Reverse Osmosis water the whole time. I've got some all purpose organic nutes I'll feed if need be, but my next grow will be a rich, organic super soil/TLO setup. It's cooking right now, and it's the bomb.