Narnia Grow - The Lights, the Weed and the Wardrobe

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Silly name, I know... I think I'm clever!!! :weed:

So this is it, the Narnia grow. A joint effort by me and my husband to grow medicine. It started with a wardrobe and quickly became two. (okay so one isn't really a wardrobe, its a TV cabinet converted into a grow box, but it looks like it could be a wardrobe, and it makes sense being in the bedroom).

Things are going well despite a few nasty set backs. We're about 2 months into veg with the grow. We had a months worth of setbacks due to spidermites, bad dirt (which became a stressful transplant) and high ph. Things are on track and we are rocking now!!! Our simple grow became a little more high tech as we went. We're using low stress training to maximize our space as much as possible and added a yeast co2 factory to increase our growth. (more about that below)

The Lights - CFL's... don't hate!! 4 26watt 6500k "daylight" CFL bulbs per section. These will be switched out for "warm whites" when we go to flower, but that's not for another month or so

We're using power strips with socket converters. This was super easy to do, cheap and not nearly as much of a fire hazard as some of the wonky set ups I've seen. We move our plants to the lights, rather than moving the lights around the plants. It's just easier for us in our short space.

We plan to add a few tubes (t5's I think) that we have to the back of the box to increase light to the mid-section and add another spectrum to the mix before we head into flower.

The Weed - Eight lovely ladies! All from clones. No babies from seed yet, though I have some I'm itching to pop!!

Afgooey - Afghani #1 x Maui Haze - True Afgoo!! We have two of these lovely ladies from the same mother. Both plants are growing oddly different, I'm suspecting different phenotypes from different locations on the mother. For reference purposes I call them A & B. I was told she is a pleasure to have in your garden and it's true! This strain is fantastic to grow!

Afghooey - Picked this lady up from a local dispensary. For sure a different strain than the other afghoo. This one has thinner leaves, maybe a bit more sativa in this cross? We call this Afgoo S for reference

Brain's Escape - We almost lost her due to ph issues but now she's back on track and making up for lost time!! This girl roots like nobody's business! Should be an easy one to clone!!

Californian Orange - Another lovely lady! We call her Cali. She's supposed to be a skunk cross with buds more orange than green. She's been fun to LST!

M.K. Ultra - G-13 x O.G. Kush - We also have two of these lovely ladies. Very hardy, short, stocky little girls. A & B for reference

Matanuska Thunder Fuck - Beautiful plant! Trying to be taller than our space can take. Shes growing leggy and filled with branches everywhere you look! She's taking training rather well. She was a bit taller than we'd have liked when we got her but she took training well. Still we might have to top her! She's a crazy one!! We refer to her as MTF for short.

The Wardrobe - the original wardrobe is actually my husbands. We wanted to grow and didn't have much for space at the time but figured we could create a nice controlled environment in there to grow at least a plant or two in. The larger wardrobe was a TV cabinet that we picked up at the goodwill for cheap. We'd been searching for something to fit the alcove in our bedroom specifically to grow in and ran across this. The price was right as was the size, so we set out to turn it into a grow box.

I covered the walls in mylar, so tight you can see yourself in it. No joke! It's like a mirror! I have to be careful not to catch myself when I take photos it's that good! To complete this I used emergency blankets and a hot glue gun. It takes some skill to get it up that tight and I'd be lying if I said I didn't burn myself a few times doing it but the light reflection is fantastic and it makes a huge difference in the brightness overall.

We installed two large CPU fans (120mm I believe) for air, an intake on the bottom and out up top. Since heat rises we figured the top would be the best place to expel the hot air from all those lights! We still overheat if our room gets above 70, so we might be changing this again soon... it's an ongoing battle of temperature it seems. I think the easiest solution would be to turn the bottom fan into an out fan as well (easy enough by just turning the fan around) and install a smaller intake fan towards the bottom in a corner. Any suggestions on heat reduction would be appreciated, we've found this to be one of the hardest parts! We're doing okay right now, but the box is about 10+ degrees higher than our room. One day last week we got up to 75 in our room and the box reached 90... too hot for our babies!! We quickly opened the slider in our room to lower the temp, but once it starts to get warmer this could become a problem! We've also got oscillating fans mounted to the shelves to keep the air rotating and flowing. This also helps stabilize the temps and do away with hot spots.

co2 factory!

This has been a fantastic experiment and so easy to do!! I love science!! Simple yeast (buy the big bag!! it'll save you $) sugar and water and we've got enough co2 to make a big difference in growth. Since we're growing in a small space with little outside air, we figured this might actually benefit our girls. We had no idea it would make such a difference! The increase in growth after we added the co2 factory was stellar! When we needed to switch to a larger bottle and stopped using it for a few days, the growth slowed noticeably after 2 days without it. I'm sold on co2 for my plants. I haven't been able to find a meter below $200 to monitor my levels but I doubt we can get anywhere hazardous with this method.

co2 factory set up
1 gallon water jug with a hole drilled in the lid, insert surgical tubing through the hole. Now ours has a nice lip on it and is tight enough to be air tight around the hole but you can use hot glue to seal it if you need to. Direct hose to bubble through a glass of water to monitor the frequency of production. This helps you know when it needs changing and also prevents foreign objects from entering your factory. Our current recipe is 1/2 gallon of water, 1 table spoon yeast, 1 cup sugar. To refresh it you dump out half the water and replace with fresh luke warm water and add a cup of sugar. Check it in 10 minutes, if it's not reacting add another tablespoon or so of yeast to add new life to the culture. We bubble like mad with this!! The girls just love the added co2 and the growth difference is worth the hassle! It does require "stirring" every 8 hours or so to keep it going and daily refreshing but the benefits could shock you!

Our current plan is to veg for another week or two depending on the plant, then cut clones. We'd like to see the girls branch a little more before we head them into flowering and cutting clones should cause some of our tops to double. We'll allow them another week or two in veg before we put them into flower.

Feel free to comment, we're up to hearing outside input. We're really enjoying this new hobby and look forward to reaping the benefits :)
 

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Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Thought I'd throw in some comparison pictures from when the girls were younger.

The one that looks like it's all beat up is AFG-S. She survived a round of spidermites and is now thriving! We choose to treat with Neem oil... smelly stuff but it's worked for us on two separate infestations and it's all natural!
 

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MomaPug

Active Member
Everyone is looking so healthy and happy...great job!!

If you are supplementing with C02, your girls will/can handle the heat stress much better. And considering the lower rate of air circulation...and the result you have already had, it was a brilliant idea to add your "C02 Factory".

Thanks for sharing your grow :-) +rep
 

Hillcrest

Active Member
NICE.
Try double sided carpet tape for your mylar etc next time. Sticks like shit and you don't burn your fingers ...plus faster.
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
MomaPug said:
Everyone is looking so healthy and happy...great job!!

If you are supplementing with C02, your girls will/can handle the heat stress much better. And considering the lower rate of air circulation...and the result you have already had, it was a brilliant idea to add your "C02 Factory".

Thanks for sharing your grow +rep
Thank you! The co2 is a fantastic addition. I highly recommend it for any grow boxes with a lack of "fresh" air. It really has added a nice boost to our growth. It also means the girls use more water and absorb more nutes. That with the added LST has really boosted our growth and made the girls bush out.

I'm actually working on training this morning and will have new pictures to post when I'm all done. The pictures above are actually a couple days old, from the 8th. I didn't get to posting the journal right away...


NICE.
Try double sided carpet tape for your mylar etc next time. Sticks like shit and you don't burn your fingers ...plus faster.
Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that in mind for next time. I didn't get burned too bad, more overly hot than anything else. I'm just worried that with tape you run the risk of fumes when the glue heats up. We have a couple bearded dragons and I've looked into doing custom cages for them. I try to think of the girls in the same way I would my dragons on the scale of care and health. And if it's bad for dragons it's probably bad for humans too and since the girls are intended for human use... I over think things though so I could be totally off here lol
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Totally overdue for an update right?


Life's been busy and the girls have been eating more and more of my time lol
Also, it's difficult to get the computer to myself without the threat of prying eyes around the corner sometimes. I tried this earlier but got an error and lost the whole post. Talk about suck!! Now I'm all tired so I'll try to keep this brief and hopefully it makes sense lol. Maybe I'll get time to add more detail this week. Here's hoping!


We've revamped the box to allow for our upward flowering growth. So now instead of two short spaces we have a long one and a very short one. Plus we have it set up to be able to move the lights upward as their buds shoot up. Currently we're using the top to start our tomatos. Yay for dual purpose! Since all the lights are below, it's nice and warm like a seedling mat.

I apologize in advance for the inconsistencies of the photo sizes. I'm not sure what the deal is and I don't want to fight with it anymore lol


Here's before the change




and after


another view with the brightness of lights



We also found these flexi hose light socket extensions.


They work great for directing the lights where we need them. We have to be careful not too get too close though. A few of the leaves have some light scars from me not catching them stretching fast enough lol We couldn't find anything like these in the US so we had to order these from Hong Kong. It took almost 3 weeks, but I think they were worth the wait!


Without further blah blah from me - the girls!!

Afgoo A





Afgoo B





Afgooie S




MTF




Cali Orange





Brain's Escape




MK Ultra B



MK Ultra A





and check this out!! We found out a secret about the MK Ultra... When FIM'd she has a tendency to push out 3 or 4, sometimes even 5, 6 or even 7 tops!!!


Currently we also have some young clones in our smaller box to try to keep a perpetual grow going, but I also wanted to share our new seedlings. We managed to pop these two with success. They are fully rooted and probably ready for transplant any time.



On the left you have Dutch Passion's, Purple #1 and on the right Dutch Passion's, Orange Bud. My hubby is relentless and has already started circling them around their cups as you can see from their odd shape lol

So there they are in all of their glory!!! It's taken a while to get them to grow how we want them. It almost killed me! But with the number of tops we have now I think the payoff will be well worth the wait! 12/12 starts officially on Wednesday. We've been dropping the time down by an hour a night to ease them in, since one of the girls was a little short on the pre-flowers. Plus I'm waiting for some nutes to arrive on my doorstep :dunce: Ran out of Sugar Daddy on Saturday and are almost out of BC Grow. Once those arrive it's pre-flush and double veg nutes time bongsmilie


I'm excited!!!! Are you??? :eyesmoke:

Again, comments are always welcome in my journal. I appreciate the feedback and tips that come from it =) This is my husband and I's first REAL grow. :lol:
 

Gastanker

Well-Known Member
They are all looking stunning. Very clean CFL setup and it looks like you will have great results.
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Another update so soon? What am I mad!?! lol I'm going to try to update every few days with pics since we're now in flower and things change so fast! I just popped in to change my co2 and snapped a few pictures.

Left Side

Right Side


They seem to be stretching a bit. Though it could be the change in space size throwing me off. I'm not sure lol I should measure them later...

And I noticed that the girls are really starting to show off their girl parts. Hello there pistils!! ;-)



 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Update time!!

Girls are budding up like crazy! Did some serious leaf trimming late last week, took FOREVER! lol I think I was at it for a good 6 hours or so.

Pictures speak words so I'll shut it now! On with the good stuff!


This is from left to right in the grow box






And check out these lady parts!











This shits about to get crazy!! Stay tuned for more bud porn updates :mrgreen:

SOOOOO happy to be in flower!
:peace:
 

lordjin

Well-Known Member
You have a pretty green thumb and are very resourceful. If and when you try water-growing, I'm a font of information.

edit:
Also, I envy cfl growers sometimes because you don't have to deal with massive heat exchange from the hid lamp. I've seen lots of cfl grows with less than impressive results, but yours stands out as unusually good... But then again, few cfl people pay as close attention to the detailed application of those lights.
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
You have a pretty green thumb and are very resourceful. If and when you try water-growing, I'm a font of information.

edit:
Also, I envy cfl growers sometimes because you don't have to deal with massive heat exchange from the hid lamp. I've seen lots of cfl grows with less than impressive results, but yours stands out as unusually good... But then again, few cfl people pay as close attention to the detailed application of those lights.
To be honest, this is a grow that has constantly been evolving. We've read lots of information, and seen lots of journals. And have taken the what we consider to be the best of the best to get the most out of our plants in the little space we have available. The initial plan wasn't to have 8 on a shelf, but as we continued to train them, we stopped paying attention to the headspace available (Well, he stopped paying attention, I was the voice of reason/nag).

We'd like to think we've made the best out of a sticky situation ;)

We just ordered an inline fan and plan to make a carbon filter once it comes. That should help with heat issues (It's starting to get warm up here!) and the lovely smell that's starting to creep out... Don't need the landlord wondering what's going on when he's doing yardwork :weed:
 

lordjin

Well-Known Member
A carbon scrubber is a def a good idea. Mine is old and I need to replace, but it's huge, and them things ain't cheap. It still contains the smell reasonably well, but after a certain point (even when the filter was newer) the odor will not be denied and it will creep out. I don't really care because our building manager knows I'm a licensed patient, and he's a big ol' pot-head himself anyway. Ah, California.

Some of the other posters with their 8000w of light and massive recirculating systems are awesome to be sure, but I've taken an interest in your grow because it's cooler to get by on ingenuity rather than thousands of dollars on expensive equipment.

edit:
the inline fan will also create the constant 'suction effect' on your grow area, so if you're using co2 enhancements, I'm sure you know you need to balance those periods. Which I'm sure will be fine because when your inline is on, the suction effect will draw co2 from the air in the room.
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Happy Mothers Day Everyone =)

Quick update to show everyones progress over the weekend. We're really starting to see bud production EVERYWHERE! It's so pretty!! YAY! :clap: Sugar leaves are starting to load up with trich's and the smell is heavenly! Light but still a little skunky like someone just toked up, lol Good thing our inline is on it's way! The plan is to build a pencil cup carbon filter.

Anyways, tomorrow is feeding day and a full picture update will be in order. I'll try to get them uploaded after "someones" bedtime ;-)

On with the good stuff.... That's what you're here for, right?

Box from left to right :

Left

Middle

Right


Check out this V of MK Ultra.... 11 buds so far on this monster!


This is Afghooey A (back) & B (front) They are both getting serious hair cuts tomorrow. We've got some of the younger branches on the bottom struggling so it's time to thin out the bottom layer. They aren't really budding up down there anyways



BUDPORN!




This is one I posted before. This is Cali's most impressive bud so far


Double delish! We'll be tracking this one for sure :weed:


There's actually 4 buds there, one is hiding. It'll be more prominent as it gets bigger. Another one we'll be tracking just for bud porn :leaf:


That's all folks. Tune back in tomorrow night for more pics.... sorry if you have dialup, :-P
 

Snickerdoodle

Active Member
Thanks! We've got some new shots coming soon. Did a bunch of trimming and sacrificed some of the smaller branches for the cause. It was so depressing to cut off so many small branches, but, by now, if they aren't showing pistils, Then they go. Did a bunch of trimming to the canopy to let more light in. It seems that we're trimming about the same mass of plant material every big trim, so it's a little hard to keep up with...


LARGE pic update later tonight. Stay tuned! Some of these buds are looking mighty tasty. The doub/trip/quad tops that we have are incredible! :weed:
 
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