Outback - Australia, Stealth grow: first crack at the whip in grow closet.

Outback - Australia, Stealth grow: first crack at the whip in grow closet.
My first attempt at growing, this is purely for personal medicinal use.
Water is problematic!
Would love to do an outdoor grow with a few Sativas but am sticking to three plants (one outdoor auto, and two in the grow box):
The seeds:

1. Sweet Dwarf

2. Auto White Moscow
3. auto Hindu Kush

4. White Widow
These are subject to change depending on germination rates.

The Box - old cupboard that was laying around.

* 51cm x 52cm x130cm, (I figure that's about 3sq.feet)
* picked up most of my gear from the local tip and shit laying around all over the place,
* old computer fans ($2 each otherwise they're $20+, laptop cooler pad (2BUX FROM VINNIES), old mobile phone chargers to power the PC fans, old motors and lamps, chain etc
* Used aluminum bowls for reflectors and got a couple of windscreen sun reflector things for $2 each,
* also got one "emergency blanket" for 2 bucks as well from the dollar shop in town.

The Lights:

* CFLs so far 2 x 48w (5000k each) 4 x 26w (2700k each), will be getting more to bring the 10,000 lumens minimum.
* Purchased a couple of cheapish 'work lights' from a hardware store which I then modified to make overhead lights for the 48watters.
* two more 48watters should make it 30000k which should be enough for my grow box.
* The 26 watters will be midway and lower down the box to try and feed into the plant down low.

The Water and the nutes:

* Problem with water where we are, it's alright for cattle but dunno about plants. I will be using distilled water for the new seeds for two weeks (same stuff we put into our irons or car battery) then mixing a generic fertiliser 15-15-10 at quarter strength. I'll pull some water out of the dam and test it's Ph, I'll let you know what happens.

Miscellaneous:

* glue, potting mix with peat and perlite,
* Digital thermometer with RH reading very important, have had a few days dry run and discovered that it was way too hot in the shed during the day, then effing cold at night so I've moved the box indoors.
* Being an old box/cupboard there was a bit of mucking around with leaks and doors not shutting properly at first.

Constructive criticism is welcomed, please refrain from being arogant.
I have never grown anything outside of sprouts at school many years ago but I've gotten some inspiration from this site to provide some natural goodness for an unwell relative.

The old cupbard

The set up so far


The PC fans I hooked up with the mobile phone charger





48 watt CFL globes


Thermometer with Rh readings


Lower lights for feeding the branches etc, , I will add more.


Some reflective material


I built this little fan from parts at the tip but it was too strong.


The Laptop cooling pad for air intake

Transplanted the easy ryders today into their final resting places.
The other seeds still haven't cracked the shell nor popped through the soil (72 hours later), I'll wait for them but I'm thinking they are another lost opportunity. I believe that even if they come good over the next few days then they're way behind on the two first comers so the timing for light schedule is too far out of whack.
we'll see.

Day 13
Advice will be welcomed, please.

A spot of bother, two plants are nearly at completion of week two but they seem to be struggling.

Temps are averaging about 28 Degrees, lights are still at 20/4. I have started feeding them 1/2 strength nutes.

Been checking the Ph and according to my observation (charts) the Ph is at around 6.0.

I've named them Lwfty lucy and Ruby Right:

This is Lefty Lucy, she seems to be doing OK, however judging against other pics of plants similar age on here she looks stunted.


This is Ruby Right, She definitely looks stunted and upset, yellow droopy leaves. She is getting the same TLC as Lucy but she seems upset.

YarndiYarns said:

Update:
Two of the little suckers have managed to fight their way through the soil. I'm pretty sure that I've buried the others too deep but we'll let 'em have a crack for themselves, anyway you think it will be alright to just dig them out and cover 'em up a bit closer to the top?
The tempreture in the grow box is generally around 30 degrees, the laptop cooling pad wasn't doing a good enuff job so I got myself a larger PC fan.
Still waiting on the other order bits (CFL Light and adapters).
Wish me luck (please).
​

Click to expand...

If youre going to try and pull the seeds which havent sprouted yet and pull them closer to the surface id recomment that instead you should just brush away a few cm's of soil instead of totally digging them up. Did you germinate them first or just throw them in wet soil? Germination will greatly improve your chances and is much easier than it seems.

I believe your lighting system is what's stunting your plants. I may be wrong since i'm not intimate with your grow box myself but it seems so to me. Anytime i or a friend has tried to grow with substandard lighting the results are similar.. stunted growth. The temps seem good (after a little conversion to F. for me) but another major question is what is your soil mixture? If you can tell me to the T that'd be wonderful.. if it's store bought let me know the brand and general composition. Normally, depending on the soil, i'd start feedings at 1/4 strangth and wouldnt transplant til i feel the seedlings would soon become rootbound. I'll check back soon for more details, good luck!

RDGgreenthumb said:

I believe your lighting system is what's stunting your plants. I may be wrong since i'm not intimate with your grow box myself but it seems so to me. Anytime i or a friend has tried to grow with substandard lighting the results are similar.. stunted growth. The temps seem good (after a little conversion to F. for me) but another major question is what is your soil mixture? If you can tell me to the T that'd be wonderful.. if it's store bought let me know the brand and general composition. Normally, depending on the soil, i'd start feedings at 1/4 strangth and wouldnt transplant til i feel the seedlings would soon become rootbound. I'll check back soon for more details, good luck!

Click to expand...

Mr. Greenthumb, thank you for your assistance.
Lighting: 2 x 48 watt 5000k CFLs ; 4 x 24 Watt 2700k bulbs ; 2 x 30 watt 3000k ; and 1 x 130 watt 25000k
Soil: 70% regular potting mix from super market (don't know composition as I threw the bag out), 20% Peat Moss and 10% perlite.
Fertiliser/Nutrients: I've used a supermarket product called "Plant Start" which describes it's usefullness in transplanting seedlings, it did not stipulate it's chemical composition. I doused the soil before transplanting the seedlings.
Then I have used a weak solution of a "Miracle Grow" fertiliser which is: N- 15%, P-6.8%; and K- 12.4% amongst others.

Having read threw both replies I figure my mistakes have been as follows:
a) I have germinated the seeds ok, using different methods(the ones that actually germinated were in water then paper towel method, once the seed popped a bit I planted into soil but only in a little paper cup) however i have replanted them from that cup and into the pot far too soon (Cotyledon having been open for 7 days only). Thereby not allowing the plants to become well enoguh established. and
b) I may have over-watered the plants in an over -exubriant manner.

having said this - the question remains , what to do now?
The little Hindu Kush has wiggled it's way out of a peat pellet which it has been sitting in for four days, the cotyledons aren't fully developed but the seed casing has already fallen off (see pic).

As for the other seeds - I actually dug them out and re-sowed them again inot the peat pellets, it's been a week now so I figure they are no longer viable.

Thanks for your help.

here's the Hindu cush on day one of popping threw the peat pellet.

That hindu kush should be ripening up soon. the peat looks very moist so id give it a few days before you water again. I big mistake would be to give these little seedling too much love.. i mean water. it's important for them to harden themselves up in the first week or so. that isnt to say neglect them either. yes those seeds you have re-sown are probably goners. my favorite way to germinate is to keep the seeds in water then in a day or two when they begin to swell up or when they first start to split i put them into wet paper towels. ive actually have 100% success with this in germination.
your store bought soil prob has some type of a nutrient makeup and therefor i wouldnt start feeding any MG til the 2nd or 3rd week. I the soil you bought was called 'Hyponex' or if it was sterilized that means it doesnt contain any microorganisms which really help a plant take off. Just be patient and ill try nd help you as much as i can along the way. good luck!

do you know how many lumens your combined lights are putting out?

That Jiffy pellet is saturated ... I would sit it on some newspaper or thick cardboard for a short while - the paper/cardboard will suck loads of water out of the Jiffy Pellet and you will be in a far better situation.
Hows your dam water, is the dam fed by bore water or rainwater - if borewater, them mineral salts may become an issue.
Being a bushie you should know how to get pure water easily.

Subbed to see how your grow goes.

RDGgreenthumb said:

do you know how many lumens your combined lights are putting out?

Click to expand...

mr. Greenthumb,
Thanks for your advice. regarding the lumens - BUGERRRR! The 48 watt lights do not stipulate Lumens (there are 3 of these), however I have 4 x 1550 lumens; 1 x 2050 Lumens and 1 x 8000 lumens Total known is 16250 lumens (this does not include the 48 watt CFLs of which the manufactureres documentation didn't specify.
My grow space is 3 cubic feet or One sq.foot (as it is taller than it is wider - see pic)


Thanks again.

Grumpy Old Dreamer said:

That Jiffy pellet is saturated ... I would sit it on some newspaper or thick cardboard for a short while - the paper/cardboard will suck loads of water out of the Jiffy Pellet and you will be in a far better situation.
Hows your dam water, is the dam fed by bore water or rainwater - if borewater, them mineral salts may become an issue.
Being a bushie you should know how to get pure water easily.

Subbed to see how your grow goes.

Click to expand...

G'day, thanks for your contribution.
We use all means available to harness water from the environment - rain water, bore water , town water trucked in, natural creeks and so on. But it's all dependent on the geography that one operates in. The rain water is tested frequently because of the acid rain and other nasties which one finds in the tanks/guttering and so on.
We run this through filtration and UV light system for drinking and cooking with. We carry alot of water when we travel around the place but it's been a long time in between droves for me.
The bore water is a little tricky, it's dependent on the flooding that may or may not happen further "up stream" (like hundreds of K's away), most of the towns deem it undrinkable unless it's treated and most of that is de-salinated water as you have alluded to (it's alright for tea/coffee but we just add a bit of cordial to help it go down when we need to). Actually I don't think I'll be using too much water anyway, for some reason I though it would need a couple of litres a day...WRONG!.
Anyway, so as not to draw too much attention to my going's on (Ganja isn't well looked upon round here) I have I've just filled a couple of ten litre containers and left them out in the sun for a week, I just top it up a bit to replace the evaporated amount. Can't remember what this does but we've been doing this for ages..so yeh that's what I do. After being out in the sun the PH is well above 7. Just remember to put back in the shade to cool down before using/drinking.
Pure water? I've heard about that haha, even the spring waters need to be filtered and shit.
But I've backed off on the TLC for now and will let the plant harden up as suggested by Mr.Greenthumb.

Cheers.

Here in Brizzy we have too much of the damn stuff, won't stop raining long enough for the mud to dry.

TLC seems to be the natural enemy of THC, so many early grows get too much TLC (mine included) - need to let them toughen up

But the bit of TLC you do need to do is get the pH down to around 6.5 for soil grows, my tap water comes out at over 8 and really screwed my plants until I corrected it.

Day 14
Well today I left them alone.
I had a couple of peeks inside the box and decided to stick some mirrors on the roof and doors/wall. Doing this raised the temp a bit so I rigged up an irrigation pipe to catch some of the breeze from the A/c, didn't work..I'll see about getting something else done about it.
Picture of Lefty Lucy:
She's looking ok to me, I mean compared to Ruby Right anyway.


Here's Ruby Right:
A definite improvement from her since yesterday, she's got a bit more colour in her now although she's nothing on her sister.


here's the Hindu Kush, I'll call her Henrietta.
She has a mongoloid left cotyledon, I hope the other one has the strength in it to support it's early life. I appreciate your guidance on the moisture of the peat pellet but I left it for today because it's bloody hot here and I figured it would dry out before too long anyway. Henrietta seems to be doing ok so far (I think).


Tomorrow I will tidy up the air intake from the A/c to bring the temps down again.

Jah Love to you all.

Grumpy Old Dreamer said:

Here in Brizzy we have too much of the damn stuff, won't stop raining long enough for the mud to dry.

TLC seems to be the natural enemy of THC, so many early grows get too much TLC (mine included) - need to let them toughen up

But the bit of TLC you do need to do is get the pH down to around 6.5 for soil grows, my tap water comes out at over 8 and really screwed my plants until I corrected it.

Click to expand...

I just heard recently that the state Gov has started tampering with your water too, after so many years leaving it alone. True?
I'm glad we have our filtration system I can tell you. In my experience - Southern W.A and Adelaide are the worst, for drinking anyway, but I reckon the sand gropers would fight me on that.
Thanks for coming back.

RDGgreenthumb said:

do you know how many lumens your combined lights are putting out?

Click to expand...

Mr. G,
This morning while fiddling around the grden I found this:
SURPRISE!! It's one of those seeds that I had written off as a "learning experience" when buried too deeply. As we can see the cotyledons have opened up a little, but it was opening up UNDER the peat!
And this is about 18 days planted too!! Surprised the heck out of me. Sadly now I don't know what strain it is, never mind we'll see when it gets bigger, I'm naming this one "Battling Betty"


This is the specs on the 130 watt CFL:

It can take up to 2 weeks with some seeds to pop out of the soil, but usually it's alot sooner then that
When i bury a seed to deep i don't pull it out i usually just brush of the top soil until i see a tiny spec of the seed shell and leave it alone from there, by the next morning it should have came out of the soil, you got some interesting strains there, your in for an early outdoor harvest with those autos
subbed

subbed man nice to see another aussie growin

Day 16
Trouble today with the temperature.
When I went to check on the plants, the thermometer was reading 40 degrees (104 F), don't know how long it was at that tempreture but it must have been a while as I didn't check it until 11:00 am.
Problem was that it's (obviously) been hotter than a penthouse pet's nickers in the Gobi desert, and the A/C shit itself as if it had run into mike Tyson on rape charge.
I paniced a bit but decided to just open the box up, leave the lights and fans running and hope for the best.

I thought the girls were gone because they were all wilting and sad looking and shit, the soil was drier than a nun's vagina but it had been a few days since watering.
I carefully measured the water Ph to 6.0 after bringing the strength down from 50% to 25% recommended dose, of course this is all just ball park figure because I don't have a digital PH reader nor a EC reader etc etc.
A few things are n the mail so hopefully next week we can get a little more serious.

Anyhow...Battling Betty was a very sorry looking sister, she looked like a piece of pistacio nut that had fallen foul of the crispy frier. It's ok, I gave her some water as well and just left her to recover (i doubt that she will but she's proven me wrong before).

Oh, I fixed the A/c and got a hose linked up to the input fan.

Tonight ....well fuck me with a donkey's dick...Lefty Lucy and Ruby Right have bounced back like an Aussie dollar. Seriously you wouldn't have though anything was ever wrong with them.
Sadly though Betty is still battling, but what the hey, there's still some room in the box so we'll give her a fighting chance at life. The ends of her cotyledons are crispy brown but the rest of her is still green/greenish.

Pics tomorrow.

Peace and Jah Love to you.