Sealed Closet CFL

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
My last journal was interrupted due to a death in the family and some other crazy happenings..

I've since moved and been growing a little bit again as well - so I've decided to start up a journal. This journal won't really have much aim to it, since I'm still finishing up my closet.

It's just a regular closet with 2 folding doors which made a lot of light leaks. I went to the hardware store and bought two 4'x8' sheets of 1/8" Hardboard. The hardboard is light and thin enough that cutting it, making the box, and mounting the fans is easy, but strong enough that it's not like working with cardboard. haha..... I cut out (scored and snapped) the dimensions I needed to use the existing closet shelf to seal off the bottom part of my closet. I just pressed the hardboard down into the carpet and screwed it on to the inside of the closet door frame. When the doors are closed the Hardboard wall and door is about 2 inches from the folding doors.

right now I have two 80mm fans, one 28 and the other 31 CFM, exhausting. and I have a 25 CFM for the intake. I plan on adding more to both, just haven't gotten there yet. :D

Other than that nothing too special. Five 42w 2700k CFLs and Three 26w 5500K Bulbs chilling in a ghetto ballast I made. An oscillating fan. Six bagseed plants that have been vegging for a while under crappy conditions while I finished my enclosure. The two in bigger pots are from the same bag, and the other four are from another bag. They are about 45 days old. I've been experimenting with them a bit... did some supercropping and heavy trimming on some. One of the bastards is growing super lanky.. I definitely suspect it of being male. :P

Nothing else to mention. crappy cloner in the top part of the closet, which I plan to seal off as well... and some seedlings, plus a plant that nearly died. It was in some horrible soil and had to be transplanted... which took a huge toll... it's recovering now, but the stress did make it preflower... Female!

I was drunk the night before I took these pics and passed out with watering my thirsty plants.... awoke the nest day to some very yellow and crispy leaves! they are fine now, but yeah..... hahaha.... and SORRY the time stamp is totally wrong... I need to remove that. :P


Any comments welcome.


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Here's my lank little pitchfork suspected of being male .. :P


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I've taken clones of all of my my older plants (more just trimming than cloning) and if I can get my cloning down then I'm going to keep the cloned plants as mothers If they are female up in the top part of the closet, and put clones directly into the bottom part of the closet on 12/12.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
Did some more research on cloning and changed my mind. I took 5 clones from the healthy plants and sealed up the flowering chamber for 36 hours of darkness. I've labeled my clones so I know which came from where. As the plants show sex I will trash the male plants along with the clones from the male plants. I will remove the females from 12/12 and put them in the top of the closet to revert back to Veg as mothers. I will then take clones from the females when they have strong roots and put them straight into flowering. I may even take the weakest looking female mother-to-be and go ahead and flower her to, depending on how many plants turn out male.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
21 hours to go.. lol.

Got an old 3ft t5 and 2 ft t5 out of the closet to mount up above the mothers/clones in the upper closet chamber. Going to go do that after I watch some Metalocalypse. LOL
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
So I just checked my cloner, and FOUR or FIVE of my 5 day old clones are showing 1/4 - 1/2" roots and bumps!!

Hooray! :P

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thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
Holy hell 3 of the clones I took less than 24 hours ago have bumps and small 1/8" roots as well! Awesome!
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
Just cracked open the closet after about 40 hrs of darkness and set the mothers up on some 12/12 to see how many males I'll get.

The plants have exploded with growth from the darkness and have totally recovered from the previous under-watering mistake. :D Post pics soon. I'll try to check my clones as well and take some pics.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
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So here's the babes (hopefully) starting their first day of 12/12 right as lights came on.

My clones have taken off! I'm thinking about transplanting the gnarly one, but I just need to work up the motivation!:eyesmoke:

Oh, and CRAP! Sorry about the totally False TimeStamp... keep forgetting to remove that.. :P
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
No comments or anything huh? LOL


Plan on cleaning up the veg chamber soon, I need to get the wires up off the ground, and make a door that blocks the light from coming into my room. Once that is done, I can transplant all of my clones and seedlings into bigger pots - which will also require me to strengthen up the hardboard that makes the top of my flowering chamber.... hmmm... all in due time!

Still can't believe not a single person has commented on my ghetto grow... :P
 

ThinkSayMakeDo

Well-Known Member
I like the ghetto grow, I'm doin' it pretty ghetto myself, and guerilla. Things are lookin' pretty good there, you may wanna try to get them CFLs closer, maybe on the sides, as well. That'll prob. make 'em bush out.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
I like the ghetto grow, I'm doin' it pretty ghetto myself, and guerilla. Things are lookin' pretty good there, you may wanna try to get them CFLs closer, maybe on the sides, as well. That'll prob. make 'em bush out.
I hear ya, ghetto is the way to go - if u mess up then theres not much to lose haha.

I did have the lights closer, but I had let them stretch a bit on purpose since I have a good 6ft to flower in. I'm used to only having 4 feet! haha
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
SOooo... Once again I FORGOT to turn off the damn TimeStamp... :P I will do it right now!!!

Finally got off my ass and tended to the children. First, the dark period transitioning to 12/12 made all of my Super Cropped plants almost totally upright again! So I lightly tied them down so the middles of the plants can keep getting direct light. That lanky bastard that I suspect of being a male makes a pretty nice "S"! Hahahaha

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So then I took a few clones out of the bubble cloner and set them up in their own little pots straight into 12/12.... leaving me with quite a few open spots on the cloner.... My paint job on the cloner didn't do a very good job of keeping the light out and it got slimey - I decided to empty the reservoir and give it a cleaning.

Here are some pics so you can see how simple it is to make a great bubble cloner for about $20... there are DIY threads on them all over RIU!

Mini Sterilite Tote - $3
Air pump - $6
Sir Stone - $3
Air Hose -$2
Duct Tape - $3
Styrofoam Cooler - $3

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After I got it all cleaned up and light proofed - I took some more clones from my one known Female that has been up in the Veg chamber. She has fully recovered from losing half of her taproot and is being very generous to me! :P

I'm hoping to see a lot of new growth tomorrow, I guess we'll see.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
So my plants all stayed tied down nicely. All of the tops have curved back toward the lights, and all of the exposed inner nodes are exploding with growth! I guess it's a Super Crop with a bit of minor LST.... lol

The three healthy clones I put straight into 12/12 are doing great, lots of healthy new growth. One of the weaker clones from my ill female in the veg chamber did not do quite as well... but she is alive, and looks as if she will recover. :P I have faith in her.

No signs of sex yet.

No new clones have rooted.

Lowered light 3 inches, making total distance about 5 inches. I'll be amazed if any of my tied down branches can reach the lights by tomorrow, but happy as well. :P
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
My 2nd largest plant had 3 nodes show female today when light came on - I took 5 clones from her and put her back into veg.
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
No other plants have shown sex yet aside from the first one. There are some small dots of new green growth forming at the nodes that should show sex soon on three of the mothers-to-be.

I took 8 clones from my bubble cloner today that had sufficient roots and planted them in my 2 Liter bottle SIPs - Damn those things are so much easier to make with a soldering iron instead of a knife to make holes! :P

So I've got 5 older plants still waiting to be sexed, and 14 clones in flowering (would be 15 but I gave one to a fellow grower.)

And, I've got the one Mother and 7 clones bubbling in my Veg area.

Sure wish my five older plants would show sex already! they are taking up too much room! :P
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
Yep, I've had a look there before and it's all good and sound information! gotta love RIU... I sure do... :P
 

thatdjsnow

Well-Known Member
Happy Fourth of July!! If only it really represented anything any more... ehh..

Flowering DAY 12

So I've had another one of the beauties (healthy purple stems) decided to show female... :) I think another one is about to as well.

I did have one little guy turn out to have some claws... so I uprooted him from his 2 liter bottle to check out his roots. I took some pics, Pretty Nice. :P This was one of my old 2 liter bottles that didn't have enough holes made in the lid... the newer ones dont restrict roots as much.

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