Closet Grower

I'm using a 1000 watt light in hood with filter and blower. The first few pics are from the last grow, which while productive at about .7g per watt can stand some improvement.

The table is a 4x4 top feed. I'm using Flora Duo and running drain to waste at about 50% the recommended dosage on the bottle.

I decided that 11 plants were just too many. I like to veg plants for a couple weeks and the table just got way overgrown.
I also wound up with a bit more stalk that I would like. You may notice that the plants are quite bushy, they were never
topped, branching was forced by pulling the stalks down with baling wire.

I'm hoping to pass my previous ratio of .7 grams per watt and make the big 1.0. This will mean having to increase my output by almost 200 grams. Given that I have about 4 feet of head space that seems like a tall order.

This was a glass bread pan that I extracted BHO into. I used about 1 OZ of slightly mouldy buds.
After extraction I cooked the pan in the oven for 45 minutes. The oil turned from sticky paste to
liquid and would actually roll across the pan. This solved the how do I clean up that sticky mess
problem very well.

After heating at 230 F for 45 minutes, the extract was dissolved into everclear and sucked up
into a syringe and squirted into a dropper bottle. Typical dosage was a half to full dropper.
It takes about 1 -1.5 hours to come on and lasts for up to 6 hours.

The resulting liquid is a light golden color. Not even a hint of green. Since it is in an alcohol
base you could dribble it onto a joint or whatever and let it evaporate. I call it Golden Dragon.

In most cases before making tinctures or extracts I will use the dry ice process to shake off
as much keif as possible. I would have to say that there is nothing better than the kief.

Now on to my next grow. In the previous grow I filled my tray with about 3" of coco coir. This had some rather interesting effects, one of which was to cut my watering schedule down from 3 times a day to 1 minute per day. The roots were able to grow out of the net pots and into the coco filled tray. Unfortunately this made it impossible to rotate the plants. Given that my light could not be moved my yields suffered.

This time I'm using 5 gallon smart pots and only 6 plants. The plants are clones I took of the previous crop and are Black Jack, Aurora and some other stuff which I have forgotten. I'm hoping the 5 gallon pots will allow for adequate root growth while still allowing me to move plants around.

Some people top plants. I'm not one of those people. Rather than top, I use baling wire to tie the plants down and force branching. Since I have limited head space I need to finish off my plants no more than about 3" high. To keep things as low as possible I have transplanted the plants sideways twice now. This gives them a footprint which is more or less rectangular.

I'm really liking how the sideways plants are fitting in my garden. They are easy to lay out and periodically rotate and I'm able to get more of the best budding sites directly under the light.



You will notice some hydroton in the coco. My first grow I mixed 50/50 hydroton and coco since I was worried about the soil staying too wet. As it turned out, that was not a problem with coco. I really love coco. I re-use my coco. The method of cleaning is to throw it in a big tub of water and then with a piece of coat hanger and hook, swish the hook around and pull out roots. When I can no longer pull out any roots I drain the coco and let it dry. On my first grow I did not PH my coco and had problems with the PH going up. Now I add some acid to the tub and PH the coco when I rinse it.

This next picture is a bit more current. The plants are growing well and are now into their second week of budding. I noticed that in my last grow, 4 out of 11 plants were responsible for 3/4 of the weight and the best buds. My new theory is that it is better to have bigger buds in a smaller space than have mediocre buds in a larger space. Now I can carefully position the plants so that the best tops have plenty of light.


Time will tell if my modifications result in a bigger better crop. So far it is looking better. I'm loving the smart pots. For those who are interested I have a 40 gallon rez. for my 4x4 table. Currently I'm draining into a 5 gallon bucket.

I'm about to try a new product. Knowing an organic chemist has it's benefits. I just received some mystery material which I'm told will take care of all my PH issues. The material is white and granular. I've been instructed to add about 1 gram per gallon in my resivoir. In theory the material will prevent PH changes as water evaporates and the plants absorb nutrients. I will be seeing how well this works and monitoring my PH carefully.

I've seem some rather large PH shifts in the past when I was less than attentive. No one likes seeing their PH drop to 4.7 because they weren't paying attention. If this stuff works I should be able to just top off my rez with tap water periodically and have my PH stay rock solid the entire time somewhere around 5.8.



Doesn't look like much, just some white granules. Will see how it works tonight when I do my next rez change. PH adjustment is something I could learn to live without. I'm horribly paranoid and don't trust my meter much. I calibrate it on a regular basis but I always have this fear that it's telling me lies. Before I tried using indicator liquid and boy was I way the fuck off. The plants didn't much like that. If you don't get your PH within range nothing else is going to work right.

I'm hoping some day to automate my grow to the point where I can go away for a few days. I'm not keen on the idea of paying hundreds for some sort of equipment to automatically manage my PH.

Today I re-mixed my rez. I'm running about 660 PPM. There is an extra 5 gallons or so in the tank which will evaporate or dissappear into the bags and no doubt a bit of nutrient that will leech out of the bag so I'm starting a little low. In the past I tended to keep my rez at 1000 but I think this was overkill. I can always add more, easier than taking nutrients out eh? The auto ph material I'm using needs salt of some sort in order to work so I added two tablespoons of epson salt. I add epson salt anyway. The material is a little heavier than water and sinks to the bottom unless agitated by the pump. I covered my pump with some knee high nylons so the material doesn't end up in my plant. I'm told it is harmless even when ingested.

I added about 30ml of auto PH adjustment powder and left the pump on to circulate water around the tank. If necessary I can add a bit more later. The tap water runs about 7.8 and 200ppm. So far the PH has dropped to 6.3, I'm hoping to get it down to 5.8. I'm told it takes awhile to work so I'll check in the morning and add more if necessary.



None of the plants have been topped, they have only been transplanted sideways and on occasion pulled down with baling wire. About a week ago I went through all the plants and cut off lower branches which were not destined for greatness in the hope the plants energy would be channeled into the remaining branches. Since there are some leaves on the bottom dying from lack of light I should probably do another snipping run and chop off some more.

The two gallon pots were much too small, the seven gallon smart pots much too big. The 5 gallon size seems to be just right for the 4x4 table with 6 plants. The amount of training I have had to do is minimal compared to previous scrogs and I still get the benefit of some mondo big top colas.

Current pictures show the plants about 2 weeks into bud. I'll start flushing during the last two weeks. I've decided that there isn't much need to adjust PH when flushing so when the time comes I plan on flushing with massive amounts of tap water until the ppm's coming off drop down to around 200. In the past I would often fill my tank with water and flush every rez change and often the rez would wind up going from 200ppm to 400+ppm. I suspect coco can hold a lot of nutrients.

Amazingly, in about the same time period 6 plants have filled the table almost as well as 11 did previously. To anyone who has ever written that "A 1000 watt light will cover up to 8'x8'... you're fucking dreaming and shouldn't be writing books about growing weed. 3x3 Yeah, great. 4x4 not bad if you don't mind spinning your plants around all the time.

pH didn't seem to shift much so I added more pHtastic, that dropped the pH down to about 6. As per a suggestion from the chemist I added two teaspoons of salt. Yeah, thats right table salt. I'm told not to worry that the pHtastic will react with it to make it immobile while dropping the pH. Sure enough the pH dropped to 5.8 where I like it shortly after adding the salt.

I'm at about 2 weeks of bud now. They are starting to show nicely and hopefully will fill in. Upward growth has mostly stopped and I still have a foot and a half of room to lift my light. The last time scared me and I wound up with the light all the way up.



With summer coming heat is always an issue. Even running at night it is starting to get a little warm.

I have several plans on how to deal with July and August. This crop should finish out July 1st. At
that point I may drop my plant count down to two and spend the hot months vegging and waiting for
cooler weather to bud.

Personally I blame Obama for making me waste electricity growing in a closet when we have a
perfectly good sun outside. He has the power to end this war yet he chooses not to. Come election
time I'll be writing Ron Paul all over my ballot with a magic marker and sending it in. Obama has
dissappointed me and Romney is a fucking toad. I don't care which of the fuckers wins at this point
because neither represents me or has ever grown weed. (I think)

Thoughts on DTW vs Recirculating. I really like DTW but without drainage it is a pain having to drain into a bucket and empty. I only have to empty about twice a week but there is always the spectre of overflowing. One advantage of recirculating is that I can just flood the hell out of my plants. In a perfect world I would have a 250 gallon tank and some place to drain to. In one grow a bath tub was used and that worked pretty well.

PH appears to be steady at 5.8. I've been adding tap water to EC around 700. Last night I added 5 gallons of water and nutrients un ph adjusted at about 6.5. I'll check tonight and see if it has automatically gone back down to 5.8. So far, no complaints with the pHtastic. The material is denser than water and sits on the bottom so I think I will be able to do a rez change and save the material.

Just looked at the electric bill. Looks like the power company jacked my rates up 30%. We could save so much electricity by legalizing it.

Fucking spider mites have shown up. Hosed the plants down in the shower to kill a few of them. Now we see what the local hydro stores have to kill the fuckers. I've been keeping things pretty dry which isn't helping much. Had couple buds with mold last time. The plants seemed to like the shower but that will probably be the last one they get since they are in bud. Humidity here is very low so things dry out easily.

I'm about a month into bud now. Things are thickening up but I'm not yet seeing that wonderful buds on buds growth.

Dumped the rez and refilled. Ph started at around 6.12, will see if the phtastic drops it down a bit more. Ive been giving a little calmag and water also.



Dropping the number of plants from 10 to 6 seems to have resulted in larger buds, we'll see what happens to the overall yeild.

I have 12 clones in another room. I'm debating whether to try a single top run next.

Just over 30 days into bud. The buds are starting to fill out a bit. Still waiting for the buds on buds. Fucking thrips are a pain in the ass but the plants seem to be surviving.

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Just over 30 days into bud. The buds are starting to fill out a bit. Still waiting for the buds on buds. Fucking thrips are a pain in the ass but the plants seem to be surviving.

Between the spraying and thrips the leaves aren't looking too good. I just thank god it's not spider mites. All these bastards and their children are going to die as soon as I harvest. As god is my witness there will be no higher lifeforms in the room than bacteria when I'm done.

Gpw .7 is not that bad, I hope You beat that this time.
Despite mites and thrips, seems like they are still doing well.

Happy growing

New mixture of PH autoadjuster has arrived. Cut the end off of a small plastic bottle, covered with nylon stockings and placed ingredients inside. Stuck a piece of poly pipe in the other end. I can shove this into my pump and let it run overnight. I'm told the new batch will increase PH if it drops too much or decrease it if it goes too high. Will see how it works.

Last night I filled the tub with water, PH'd it with ph down and flushed the hell out of the plants then drained. I see a little salt deposit on the outside of the bags. Other than adjusting the water for flushing I haven't had to make any PH adjustments while using the autoadjuster. At one point the PH did drop pretty low but that was fixed by adding more water.

Buds are now starting to get buds growing on top of them. Soon there will be buds on top of buds on top of buds and it will be time to begin the royal flush.

My contraption for holiding the ph adjustment material seems to have worked too well. Ph dropped down to 5.2 after pumping water all night. Added some tap water to take care of that.
The buds are starting to look a little square and blocky as buds build on top of buds. I have hope that this crops result will exceed the last.

I'm now at 6 weeks. You can see the ravages of insects and spotting of leaves. Nutrient levels are probably a bit hot too. I keep telling myself I'm going to back the off but then I go mixing them at near full strength in a moment of weakness. We all have this deep dark voice that says.. if you give it more food it will get bigger. It is so hard not to listen to it. I think the manufacturers understand this and produce all manner of special products to exploit our weakness. I still want to run out and buy something that will magically make my buds twice as big.

Buds are more consistant this time, I attribute that to more rotation and dropping my plant count from 11 to 6. I have a couple clones waiting in the wings that are quite large now,
I'm considering doing only two plants and vedging for an extra week or so. Anyone out there do only 2 plants in a 4x4 area and get good results?

Been flushing for a few days. Leaves are starting to yellow. Tricombs are cloudy but haven't seen any turn amber yet. The buds are very dense and hard. The bigger ones are starting to fall over from the weight and yet the still keep getting bigger.


Not sure if the yield will be larger than last time but the buds damn sure are. Last grow with 11 plants I had some fat buds from a few plants, this time it looks like every plant will produce some mondo buds.
I'm just amazed at how fat and thick these are. I attribute it to not trying to cover too much area with 1000 watts. Those who say a 1000 watt will cover 8'x8' are idiots.

Got a few in there which look like they will be over a foot long after trimming. I'm guessing maybe the biggest may dry out to two ounces.

Plants are done and whacked. First order of business is to make dry ice hash. I'm using a 110 mesh silk screen previously used for printing t-shirts. I have a big piece of glass I put on top of a rubbermaid tub. Dump the crushed dry ice in the screen, push it around using a lid from a pan and watch the resin collect underneath. I taped a couple caps to the screen so it doesn't make contact with the glass, that would be bad.

Total yeild, 35 grams wet, 20 grams dry. Later the leftover material will be used to make BHO/tincture.

Followup. Only got about a pound. Learned some things... Big sexy buds don't always mean big weight. I had a number of foot long buds but the overall yeild was less than 10 plants crammed into the same space. I thought giving the tops a little more light and spacing would result in bigger yeilds. It didn't. It did result in better looking and bigger buds. It also resulted in a lot less trimming time.

Moral... pretty ain't more. It would appear that thousands of tiny buds outweight dozens of big ones. The horror.. the horror.