The Skunklab - DWC Stealth Cabinet and 4X4 Tent

I don't know why I haven't scoped my bugs yet.... I know I am supposed too, but I never get the idea to do it when I'm trying to figure it out..... durrr..... pretty sure I have root aphids though, I'm about to go all crazy on these mother fuckers.


I didn't find a single bug on any of you clones, above or below the grow medium. I shook out the hydroton pretty well during the transplant and inspected. All your clones look amazing. And, like we already know, the healthiest and strongest of the whole bunch. The Blackwater OG and the Hazy OG are also looking really good, taking off like crazy.

I have heard lots and lots and lots of good things about the Woody OG, I really wanted it when we were there but was trying to keep a variety between us. That Skunk OG should be awesome too, skunk is mold resistant as hell, which is I was looking at her a lot, but Skunk is one of the absolute worst strains for memory! But I really like the buzz from Skunk.

If these are thrips, which now seems pretty reasonable (the leaf damage is right in line with pics, but also thought this was honeydew too so wtf do i know .. not much.), then they are the tiniest fucking thrips i've ever heard of. Ladybugs are supposed to go after thrips too but so far nada. I will pick up another CO2 tank this afternoon and the tent is getting gassed. I don't want to blow a doctor doom or anything like that in there unless I absolutely have to. I don't think a bomb would penetrate to these fuckers anyway. They are simply too tiny, and would crawl right into a hidey hole while the poison raged outside. No contact = no kill. With these tiny fuckers it's going to have to be a systemic solution as a preventative from now on, and I'll look into any natural predators that might work out better than these ladybugs, because having little assassin robots in the tent is pretty fucking cool. Sorry I have to gas em all now. What a dick.

Preparing to gas the tent with CO2 tonight. Calculations say about 30 minutes at 2cfm = 12k ppm of CO2 in a 4x4x7 tent. Nowhere near a 20# tank needed, plenty will be left over. I'll put it on a timer, 30 minutes on then 15 minutes again per hour for 8 hours, something like that. I do not have a CO2 meter so will just aim carefully.

Also picked up a product I hadn't seen before called Rid Bugs. Guess it's new in the hydro scene but been around quite a while for commercial growers. OMRI listed, also listed as killing thrips, aphids, spider mites, all the usual suspects. Bottle says can be used up until harvest day, which I'm told is what they do when this stuff is frequently used on grape and strawberry fields.
Same company also produces a codfish protein supplement powder that has gotten outstanding reviews. Not sure if it's even for sale yet, just picked up a free demo at the shop. Supposed to be a great foliar feed, but I'll have to see how bad it smells. Definitely very fishy. Will try it outside first, then maybe we'll do some side by side comparison in the colosseum.

The drip system in there has been really flaky the last few days. Do not rig it the way my pics show, don't hang it vertically. The manifold must be kept horizontal or air bubbles will eventually shut the circuit down. Also need to use a smaller run from res to drippers, as this volume of tubing is sitting stagnant and growing nasties, which not only do their nasty thing in the rootzone but also clog the damn drippers. Redoing all of this tonight for hopefully better results. If I'm going to pump nasty water onto my clones, I at least want to do so reliably.

would be great if this Rid Bugs stuff works. one $30 bottle makes 8 gallons, beats the hell out of azamax.
lists as controls every single one of our usual suspects, fungus gnats, whiteflies, aphids, thrips, spider mites, two spotted mites, leaf miners .. and plenty more.

the bottle also notes you can mix this with protein fertilizers, so why not? i'll put in some of this codfish hydrolysate.

the blend will be 4 tablespoons of codfish + 2 ounces of rid bugs into 1 gallon of tap.

sprayed down with the above solution. it mixes up just like azamax, looks and smells about the same cept a little fishy. add the codfish powder and now you've got something you'll think twice about spraying on your buds. no worries though, the smell does not seem to stick around.

thrips still cruising with no problems, ladybugs too.

we'll fix that soon enough.

Gas chamber procedure complete. Ran as above, 30 minutes on @ 2cfm, 45 minutes off, 15 minutes on .. etc for 8 hours total. Gassed just the tent. Air wasn't particularly unbreathable in the room so either much less can out than planned or it all stayed right in the tent. We'll see when the lights come on how effective this was.

and don't get rid-bugs in your eyes.

sprayed rid-bugs on all the youngsters in the colosseum. it's left a very visible layer on the leaves, which is what it's supposed to do but it's a little uglier than i'd hoped for. No plant damage, they seem to take it fine, just looks like residue everywhere. Looks like safer soap residue.

I don't know what it is, but something is killing the fuck out of my OGiesel, and my Blackwater is systemic as fuck I think. God damn those guys, they had some of the sickly clones I had seen in a while. If they want to keep my business like that, that chick better not be wearing clothes the next time I come in.

completely agreed. I've got PM in places I hadn't before. they had whole racks of stuff that I wouldn't touch at all regardless of the genetics.
that being said, all my clones from there are doing pretty well, especially that woody. thing is going crazy.

CO2 gassing did nothing. Something must have gone wrong. All ladybugs still alive, no change after last night's spray and gas. The spray left residue which doesn't seem harmful but definitely shows up more than azamax the next day. Still the same story inside with the thrips, they are moving about with impunity. I will try another gas attack within the next 72 hours.

been smoking that last crappy HS harvest. It smokes alright, vapes okay, expected much worse. It is decent Stopgap. I may not even bother weighing it. There is about 2oz of B - C+ smoke, the rest is crap, maybe 3oz at the most.

Dump the whole bottle at once in the tent. I think I'm going to chop this blackwater and bite the bullet and buy a 100 dollar pack of seeds. I might go back and try the Blackwater again if it's a new set of clones and I can't find any PM. I think I want to go back and get that Woody OG too, did you get the Skunk OG? I wanted that too, skunk strains are supposed to be PM resistant.

The whole bottle into that tent would easily raise CO2 over 100k ppm in there. That's not good, that would be too much. Research that I found says over around 70k can and will produce ill effects on plants even in the short term. I don't know how this jives with grower's experiences, but if I did the whole bottle I'd nuke the room with it rather than just the tent.

I'll have woody og clones within 3 weeks. I am leaning toward putting all the new strains into the cabinet to veg in dwc, forgoing another cycle in the cabinet right now to get the next tent run (3 weeks-ish) off and running with the new stuff. I've got HS in there now that I put in and immediately flipped, trying to stem the stretch. This worked too well. The plants aren't stretching at all, just dropping mad roots (sweet! success!) and beginning to pop flowers. They are probably going to get thrown outside or maybe back into the colosseum.

The cabinet simply isn't going to be a reliable option until room temps are averaging under 75f. I may even begin moving stuff like the tri-meter, mini fans, and the EVC-1 into the tent. I am all but certainly going to replace the cabinet with another 4 x 4 for flowering. Long term, the cabient will become a veg center. Clones in the colosseum, brought into the cabinet to veg in dwc for 2 - 4 weeks before going into a tent.

Also so far the new drip modifications have solved problems. No air bubbles locking the system up (yet), and no nasty smell anymore from that sauce sitting in excessive tubing at chamber temps. Yet anyway.

Also found cure for the cups that were mysteriously flooding instead of getting proper drip dosage. Don't put drippers on backwards.

Thrips in the tent look a little better today. Can't find more than one at the moment but I'm sure they are around where I can't see. Have to say though, rid-bugs seems to be helping.

I'm wondering how long I can keep a batch of blended rid-bugs before it goes bad. Probably the same as an azamax type product, how long ya think? Would like to make a gallon and have that be good for two blasts in a week.

Hindu Skunk out back smelled up the ENTIRE PLACE this afternoon right about sundown. I hate to do it, but it's going to have to go. Can't stink the place up that much, dammit. Don't sleep on that HS genetics. That bad batch was definitely my fault, 'cause the plant out back looks sick good and smells all the way out to the street.

What is Rid-Bugs made out of, anything oil based should last up to a month, if not longer, as long as you don't let the water go stale.

I harvested 305 f1 SFVxOSK hybrid seeds today, so those are around now. I'm fucking stoked about them. I also have some amazing nugs drying now.

EDIT: I know several guys that work at the hydro shop and let a 20lb tank lose in their 4x4 with no problems besides a massive temp drop, but that didn't cause any damage. Oh god I hope it was a 4x4, I'll call the hydro store and ask tomorrow.

Rid-bugs is a fish oil product. Looks like this company basically makes a bunch of agriculture products out of ground up fish, as that's exactly what that protein supplement is made of as well. The rid-bugs doesn't smell fishy but the protein powder smells just like goldfish food made pungent.

I scrapped the HS in the cabinet today. They aren't stretching, just budding as is. Got to be a heat thing, something, haven't felt like thinking about it.
Cabinet is now under 600w MH light 18 hours per day, and housing the 2 HS that were in there previously (temp, these will keep flowering elsewhere), as well as the new kushy cuts including: larry og, woody og, platinum bubba, and master kush. Woody is easily twice the size of all the others. All new clones had great roots. Drippers in the party cups are really working well for root growth all over the rockwool, not just the bottom as usual. They all were placed into 5" net pots with at least one nice root dangling at least an inch from the bottom. No waiting for roots to hit the drink this time.
Checked them 4 hours later and already substantial root development, in just a couple hours! DWC is so much faster when you've got just one root in the drink from the get go. Pics later, as we're starting week 8 in the tent today and ready for an update.
Those four kushy cuts will be the next round in the tent. I will veg them for the next two or three weeks then take clones and flip.

Very nice grow man.

Can't wait to see that sfvOGf3 (what strain is that crossed with?). I got sfv og in week 4 right now.. links in my sig if u wanna check it out.

By the way spinosad (monterey garden spray) got rid of my thrips right away.

phenob said:

Rid-bugs is a fish oil product. Looks like this company basically makes a bunch of agriculture products out of ground up fish, as that's exactly what that protein supplement is made of as well. The rid-bugs doesn't smell fishy but the protein powder smells just like goldfish food made pungent.

I scrapped the HS in the cabinet today. They aren't stretching, just budding as is. Got to be a heat thing, something, haven't felt like thinking about it.
Cabinet is now under 600w MH light 18 hours per day, and housing the 2 HS that were in there previously (temp, these will keep flowering elsewhere), as well as the new kushy cuts including: larry og, woody og, platinum bubba, and master kush. Woody is easily twice the size of all the others. All new clones had great roots. Drippers in the party cups are really working well for root growth all over the rockwool, not just the bottom as usual. They all were placed into 5" net pots with at least one nice root dangling at least an inch from the bottom. No waiting for roots to hit the drink this time.
Checked them 4 hours later and already substantial root development, in just a couple hours! DWC is so much faster when you've got just one root in the drink from the get go. Pics later, as we're starting week 8 in the tent today and ready for an update.
Those four kushy cuts will be the next round in the tent. I will veg them for the next two or three weeks then take clones and flip.

Click to expand...

I don't know how long I would trust fish oil for. Calling the manufacturer would be best. But I'm stoked to hear you transformed the cab into a veg room, seems more appropriate. I'm excited to see how much your clones have grown, mine have basically just sat there. I'm about to go full hydro.

lostNug said:

Very nice grow man.

Can't wait to see that sfvOGf3 (what strain is that crossed with?). I got sfv og in week 4 right now.. links in my sig if u wanna check it out.

By the way spinosad (monterey garden spray) got rid of my thrips right away.

Click to expand...

The SFV OG f3 is by Swerve of the Cali Connections, it is SFV OG x Afghani #1 male. I'll check out your grow for sure later on, I love the SFV, is yours the original cut? I'm so fucking jealous if it is. But right now I need to book it to the opposite side of SoCal!

thanks lostnug. yeah, what he said.

i've heard several people having success against thrips with spinosad. i just tried this stuff since i'd never seen it, it was available, and can be used up until harvest day. we'll see how it goes. the manufacturer of this stuff, who is unknown to me, is a business that has supplied these products to agriculture interests for some time now. apparently the owner figued out he could bottle a liter and sell it for what they usually sell a few gallons for. until now, rid-bugs was only available by the drum, and has been very popular with organic farmers. or so i'm told anyway. i've got a couple clones in the colosseum that really don't seem to like it much, but nothing is going to die from it. maybe plants harden up against the side effects after a few doses. maybe we'll see.

snow storm ultra foliar in the tent today. added the fish protein powder again. smells like a bait boat in there but it will fade after an hour or so. no ill effect whatsoever on the buds from this fishy stuff. can't say it's done much at this point but it hasn't seemed to hurt in any way.

roots completely exploding from net pots on all those new clones save for the master kush. it's going a little slower but still doing fine.

lousy pics of the tent. low battery in shitty phone. more psychedelic than useful.

dig that cool effect with the led lighting the flower in the foreground and HPS in the back doing the funky banded magnetic ballast or whatever thing. neat.

stack of B grade buds there from last harvest. all now in the studio cookie jar.

couple of pics on the redeux in the colosseum. you can kinda see there how much larger that woody has gotten than any of the others.
the red pot on the right is sfv. again, just net pot sitting on top of single layer of hydroton, fed by dripper. picked up this pot today and found roots completely encircling the hydroton down there, several over 10" long. beautiful! still need to repot these as moms but this simple method works really, really well when prepping a plant for DWC without a proper DWC veg.

Damn, that Woody seems like a real champ. I need me one of those! I think I'm going to copy your grow technique in your nursery. Your clones are just so fantastically healthy for being in little party cups. Not even full sized party cups, which is also ridiculous.

Yor SFV fattened up so damn much in just 2 weeks, damn.

The clones look a little down and I'm pretty sure it's that fish oil spray. One looks like it was caught in a microwave or something, but still no danger to overall health. I probably would not use rid-bugs as a preventative on young plants again though. Mature plants had no trouble with it at all, and I think it's helped stem the tide of thrips in the tent. They are still there but not at infestation levels. Well not that I can see anyway, which means they're probably swarming in the back corner.

found PM on that nice SFV clone, just on one leaf. removed leaf and all has been fine. foliar with tea asap, new batch going in tonight. been lazy and haven't been making but one batch every week or two.

tea the other day made the cabinet res as frothy bubbly gnarly looking as i've ever seen ever, but roots seem to dig it. i am going to have to be careful getting those vegging clones out of the res and into individual containers before too long, as roots are growing faster than anticipated by far.

tent res has been extremely stable at 1150ppm, 6.0ph. Finishing up week 8 now and still utterly green. I will begin the flush to start week 9. Buds are swelling up and putting on what appears to be the majority of weight this week. there's a stalk of blue dream in the back that fell over weeks ago and has been soaking up the 1k in full glory. it was too big to hoist back up. this doesn't help the sfv underneath, but this cola looks like a full on champ. we'll see.

sfv yield in the tent is going to be less than half of what i had predicted. that's alright. these went into this grow more to produce a round of clones than bud anyway, but hey a couple ounces of A++ ain't a bad bonus.

clones in cab are at around 1k ppm 6.0ph. problem is i think they may be in there on flowering nutrients .. heh .. not sure, so need to flush it and be sure. they're doing fine at the moment, will get to this within the next day or two.

now a useful wedge, for once:

plants moved from indoors out all seemed to have about 4 or 5 days of adjustment, bit of a shrivel up, etc before kicking back into growth. the hindu skunks removed from DWC did not have this problem. they have not skipped a beat, and they are 10X healthier and better looking than any of the other little plants out there. all of the others came from the party cups in the colosseum directly into soil. i imagine this can be attributed to the far greater root mass at time of transplant, but i get the impression that these HS are just straight up hardier, higher constitution score, than any of the others, and that this is a direct effect of some time turbo feeding in dwc. conclusion: none yet, but it may be worth looking into further .. putting clones in dwc before placing in soil.

matter of fact, after a very light rain today, those HS outside might be the healthiest, most reachin out to grabba the lighta plants that i've ever seen.
they will produce a nice fat quarter each if we're lucky haha.