Shack's 125W CFL DIY Tent Grow

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
The girls are nice and healthy. Thirsty as can be, i watered each with about 1 qt of filtered/bubbled/pH'd water (more on that in a minute) I barely had a few tablespoons in the catch tray afterwards! They must have a killer root system starting up!

Gwen is still the larger of the two, with her second leaf set already fanned out and her third in the works. Liza is just behind her with her second leaf set starting to extend, but nothing like Gwen.

I also treated each of the girls to 2 drops of SuperThrive today. We'll see if that makes a big difference or not over the next couple days. In my experience with it, you can tell by the next day whether it is having an effects. It brought my tomato vine from the verge of death back to good health in just two days. Keep in mind, they recommend a 1/4 mL to a gallon, or 1 DROP to a cupful, I went with a very diluted strength roughly 1-1/2 - 2 drops per quart. The young ladies should be able to handle this just fine.

OH! About my filtered/bubbled/pH'd water. I'm using water from the tap for this grow, that has been filtered through a Brita countertop model. After filtering I tested the pH and it was a SPOT-ON 6.5 pH which I thought was pretty lucky! On a fewllow RIU users advice ( SomeGuy ) I bubble the water with an airstone for about 20 minutes to encourage the chlorine to evaporate. When it was all said and done, the ppm of the water was about 137-140 (meter danced a lot) the pH jumped to roughly 8.0! After balancing her with a little pH Down, I had filtered 6.5 pH 140 ppm water ready to go!

I might get some pics up later, they are at that stage where you just know, tomorrow they are going to grow by INCHES instead of 1/4's of inches.

:peace:
Shack

EDIT: Also I turned the hood fan off and it dropped the temps back below 80... VERY interesting. Don't know what fan I'm talking about??? Check my post on the previous page, you'll see it.
I guess I'll have to find another way to work a circulation fan into the tent. DAMMIT! ONE little detail I forgot lol
 

rentjr

Member
awesome man, glad to hear things are going well! My little babies are off to their start. Out of 5 seeds 3 of them are growing, one germinated but didnt take off, it had a tap root but the coconut coir dries REALLY fast so one of them wilted and the other never came up. I gave them all 3 a good watering and put a plastic baggie over them to keep in the moisture. Seems to be working. I really need to get a journal started but I want to make sure they all dont die right away first.

Keep up the good work.
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
[QUOTE="SICC";3519629]any pics????[/QUOTE]

yeah i'll get some up soon. i need to find my camera! lol we had a holiday party last night. you know that goes, shit ends up in the most unexpected places.

ALSO!!! We had a smoke out in the room housing my tent (in the closet) NO ONE noticed a thing!! People even crashed in there and the closet went completely undisturbed. No one said "What's that hum?" the damn thing is silent with all fans running, at 78 degrees. NOT BAD! If you're looking for stealth for cheap.. copy me!! LMAO!

anyhow... pics up today sometime, just need to find the camera.

:peace:
Shack
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
The ladies are looking nice!! Oh how I love those fat indica leaves :weed: After seeing the development on Liza, just 3 (was it 2?) days after using the SuperThrive, I'm further convinced this product is the shit! Haha! Gwen is just kicking ass. I couldn't be happier.

I'm thinking now that I will top, not LST. Wait for more nodes to develop. Top once, then once the new tops develop start 12/12 and again top each of the new tops. That's my gameplan. Gwen looks like she would enjoy the topping more than the LST. Liza on the other hand, looks like she is begging to be bent over.. :lol:
I may do a good bit of training on her. But more than likely, I will top. Put off LST for the next grow.

Enjoy!! (look for the LS and GWS tags to identify each girl) I need a nap party wore my ass out last night :sleep:

:peace:
Shack

PS I fed each girl with 2mL of molasses to kick start the microbes and get them ready to transition out of seedling to vegetative phase. Might start 18/6 this week and ditch 24/0
 

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dopewear

Well-Known Member
oh boy those girls are coming along quickly shack. i like your topping idea it worked well for me as well as a little LST just to becareful about height
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
that's a good question SICC!
Gwen is about start her third node i believe, I'm thinking once she hits the 5th, to give the undergrowth a chance to put on some size, less recovery time waiting for new tops to emerge. Possibly take the 4th and 5th node away in trimming, not 100%.

Once the new tops do emerge and are established, give them a 24-hour dark period before starting 12/12. Once 12/12 has begun give them a few days to do a little stretching and add some nodes under the new (2) tops and top each again. For a minimum of 4 tops. If I accidentally FIM along the way... HELL YES!! If not . . . no big loss.

That's plan anyway, I'll adjust and roll with it as need be.

:peace:
Shack
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
thanks social! they look real happy. i'm definitely a soil grower from now on. i may use hydro of some kind to clone. but i like soil growing for sure!

:peace:
Shack
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
first concern. two or three small white fuzzy spots on the soil surface.. could this be from overwatering/low temps? my meter was showing 43% humidity (when i checked tonight) and roughly 76-82 degrees throughout the day. i'm not sure what my humidity fluctuation is, lesson learned, going to keep an eye on that from now.

:peace:
Shack
 

jdizzle22

Well-Known Member
Hey man great threads and tent, I have a closet space that is only a couple inches off your dimensions.

I have a couple questions about all this, what is that shelf/rack thing you used? and how much room is between the back of it and the wall?

PS: also your pic reminds me of that guy from King of the Hill :P

PSS: how exactly did you wrap your panda around that? I know you mentioned zip ties but I can't see any, plus - wouldn't that get in the way of adjusting the rack up and down?
Like I said I have a very similar space I am building with and I am trying to do something very similar
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
Hey man great threads and tent, I have a closet space that is only a couple inches off your dimensions.

I have a couple questions about all this, what is that shelf/rack thing you used? and how much room is between the back of it and the wall?

PS: also your pic reminds me of that guy from King of the Hill :P

PSS: how exactly did you wrap your panda around that? I know you mentioned zip ties but I can't see any, plus - wouldn't that get in the way of adjusting the rack up and down?
Like I said I have a very similar space I am building with and I am trying to do something very similar
Check the tent construction thread, it answers most of your questions. Ask your questions again in my DIY thread. I'll answer them there, this journal is about the grow, not the tent.

Yeah it should look like the guy from King of the Hill it's me, Rusty Shackleford.

:peace:
Shack
 

"SICC"

Well-Known Member
Got any pics of the fuzz? not really sure what it could mean, if anything, your topping plan sounds good, im topin my next round, i have dont it before but just once, trying to get a good idea when to go mine
 

Shackleford.R

Well-Known Member
not the kind thats gonna bust my ass... just the kind growing on my soil.
you can see it pretty clearly on the soil surface, also around the drainage holes. disregard the green coloration in the drainage hole, that is from the print on the bag, its brown paper with white fuzz. as it stands i'm not too concerned. anybody got a reason for me to be?

oh and here is one of the girls, planning to top by this weekend! flowering by next week (hopefully!) i need to figure out a watering apparatus for the holiday! probably cooking that up and doing a DIY thread this week, be looking for that, plan to be more informative than the tent DIY. all for now!

Gwen on the left (Great White Shark) and Liza on the right (Lemon Skunk)
It's awesome burying my nose in the foliage, two very distinct aromas coming from them... so cool!!


:peace:
Shack
 

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tom__420

Well-Known Member
Looks like the paper at the bottom is molding
I would try and pick as much of that shit off and let it dry out completely
 
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