"Cinco De High-O" cabinet grow

GrassBurner said:

Finally got the veg cabinet into a useable state, and got the b-spec mounted to its heatsink and wired up. Still need to seal the cabinet up with my tape, but this will work for now. I got an 8" fan mounted to the wall blowing over heatsink and onto plants, should keep things nice and cool.

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The assassin is still hanging around, hopefully I can find a few more to help with the cause.

This light is crazy bright even with Io @ 25%, hopefully the plants love it!

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good job bro

Thanks!! Went ahead and sealed it all up with tape, no light leaks Granted I've only been around a few grow lights before, but this thing is incredible!

GrassBurner said:

Thanks!! Went ahead and sealed it all up with tape, no light leaks Granted I've only been around a few grow lights before, but this thing is incredible!

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yeah, i remember the first time i fired an hps

After about 14 hours under the qb, the girls were looking a little droopy. Light was about 18" above plants, I raised it up to about 24". I gave them each 4oz of water with 1 drop of Superthrive, I was thinking the Vitamin B might help if the lights were stressing them? From what I've read it's a pretty safe product. Hopefully that combined with 6 hours of lights off will help them adjust.

So superthrive and some dark time did not do as I had hoped What have I done to my babies I've been crazy busy and out of the house most of the day. Came home around noon and checked on them, they looked nice and perky, didnt notice anything off. 10 hours later and they look like this. I'm guessing I burned them with their new light, i turned the Io all the way down, it was only around 25%. I figured that would put me around 70 watts, somewhere in the ballpark of 17 watts per sq ft. Anything I should do, or just let them recover? I raised the light as high as it would go, which it about 26" above the tops of the plants. The lower leaves seem to be most affected, which seems a little counterintuitive for light burn, but maybe the new growth is able to better adjust to the brightness than the leaves grown under fluorescent?

Possibly wind burn, I've been running the fans on the same timer as the lights. The fan is mounted on the ceiling of the cabinet, about 36" above the top of the plants. It is at about a 45 degree angle aimed directly at the qb. That would explain the signs around the edges of the plants. I unplugged the fan, I need to adjust it, maybe blow it across the top of the qb instead of at it. I'm sure there will be sufficient air movement in such a small cabinet. @Mr. Cheetah, didnt you share a link with me about wind burn, I cant seem to find it.

that doesnt looks like a wind burn to me mate

Thanks!! I reckon I fried some leaves with the light. It's all the way down power wise and up as high height wise as it can go. We'll see if that helps.

@Budzbuddha I just need to ride it out? First day under the new light they did okay, by the end of the day they were looking like this. I shouldnt need any nutrients until around week 6 or so should I? I guess that is strain and environment dependent, but I wouldn't think these girls would eat through 2 gallons minus 1 quart of FFOF nutrients in a week. Gonna test the soil when I get back home and see what I come up with.

I ph tested the soil with a rapitest kit. Got a reading of 5.5 I havent watered these plants with more than 24 oz at a time, and that was only a couple times I believe. My well water ph'd between 7-8, so I gave them both about a half gallon of water each of that. I'll test the soil again in a couple days when they are ready for another drink.

Here are the girls this morning. Tips of the latest set of leaves that have fanned out are brown, but I dont see any brown on the new growth coming out.





I ran all the soil tests today. Soil ph looks better. Nitrogen is pretty high, potash and phosphorus seem to be in the good range.

Picked up a drinking water test kit today. Tested for Iron, Copper, Hardness, Chlorine, Alkalinity, ph, nitrates, and nitrites. I dont expect this to be spot on, but at least get me in the ballpark. This was straight out of the tap.

Total Hardness - 450 ppm
Total Chlorine - .5 ppm
Alkalinity - 120
Ph - 8
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Copper - 0 ppm
Iron - 0 ppm.

you're gonna run a lab at the end of this grow

The girls seem to be recovering nicely with the higher ph water. Hopefully things are beginning to balance back out. They are starting to smell delicious!
Gonna test the soil in the next day or two, closer to when they are ready for watering, and adjust my water accordingly.

Trimmed off the leaves that were over 50% damaged. Plants seem to have resumed their vigorous growth. Color is all over the place, I'm hoping it's getting back to normal.

Got a few spots where it looks like bugs have been munching, gonna hit em with some of Jack's Dead Bug tonight. Coming up on week 6 of veg. I'm gonna test the soil and see if it needs anything.

Finally found a live carnivorous plant at the local hardware store. Tropical pitcher plant (nepenthes ventricosa). I need to pick up some peat moss so I can fill the pot a little better. Will be nice to have a security guard on duty Also went and picked up some new soil that's made somewhat locally. Spent a couple hours driving, but I enjoy road trips. Got 2 different kinds, Garden Soil and Survive and Thrive, planning on using a mixture of both.

"Survive and Thrive" is a blend of pine fine soil conditioner, mushroom compost, leaf compost and a little sand with mycorrhizal fungi. This soil is alive and loaded with beneficial microbes and fungi that stimulates root development and increases micronutrient availability. Totally organic! No biosolids (sewer sludge)!

Garden Mix is alive with beneficial bacteria, fungi and other microbes that stimulate root growth and assist in uptake of essential nutrients. Our Garden Mix is an organic blend of nutrient rich, high grade loamy topsoil, worm castings, high concentration of mushroom compost, leaf compost, pine fines/soil conditioner and a touch of sand for drainage. The mix then goes through a thermal composting process for heat stabilization, material maturation, and microbial inoculation. Expect a high yield!

Sounds like pretty good soil, and it was priced right. $8 for a cubic foot bag of either kind.

Couldnt wait any longer, popped a few more seeds. 100% germination rate from @JBCSeeds so far, I'm at 7/7. 3 Dracarys, and 2 more Sour Bubba. I like the number 7, so I figured that's how many plants I would have. I'm going to experiment with some training on a couple of these. I'd like to try to mainline 2 of the Dracarys.

Starting to get quite a bit of smell from the plants. They've got a strong coffee scent to them, its wonderful.

Tested the soil this evening. Ph was back in the ideal range, potash and phosphorus were good, but the nitrogen was still off the charts. Mixed my 2 soils 50/50, added some vermiculite, and pulled the girls out of the FFOF. Gently knocked off as much soil as I could. The mychorrizae fungus is doing work!! Thousands of little hairs coming from the roots. The big plant had a root ball bigger than a softball, smaller plant was about the size of a tennis ball. I'll update in a couple days once the girls have recovered.

Getting a nice chocolate smell along with the coffee now. I can see pistols on both plants, got a few bud sites popping up on both plants. I think I'm gonna put them in the big cabinet tomorrow, the big plant is getting close to the light. I'm gonna veg them for a couple more weeks, let them get recovered and put some size on, then flip them to flower. Plants are a little droopy, possibly from the soil swap the other night. If anyone has any insight as to the droopiness I would appreciate it. Hopefully this soil works out, that's what I've got the seedlings in right now. They stretched about an inch just today, so I'd like to get the bigger plants out, turn the light down, and lower it down some.

Got both plants into the big cabinet. After swapping soils they have been slow to recover. They havent gotten worse, but they havent gotten much better. The new growth and upper leaves were a very light lime green, and the newest growth was more yellow than green. From what I have read and the pictures I've referenced, it looks and sounds like a magnesium deficiency. I mixed up some Calimagic at 1tsp per gallon, and gave them a light foliar spray this morning, and within a couple hours they were perking up for the first time in days. I took some of my gallon with calmag and watered them both with it, as it was time for a watering.

Finally found a fan for the big cabinet, picked up a small Vornado tower fan today. It's about 16" tall, and can be mounted horizontally or vertically. I'm gonna mount it horizontally to blow on the qb's and plants. Super quiet fan, and has 4 settings, the lowest being perfect for seedlings, might pick up another for the veg cabinet. $40 with a 5yr warranty.

Picked up a wall mount planter set for some insect repelling plants. Got some marigolds and rosemary at the hardware store and got them planted and mounted to the walls of the grow cabinet.

Hopefully I've figured the issue out, and not made it worse, but it's all part of the learning process. Any advice is appreciated.

Here is what the plants looked like this morning.


A couple hours after the foliar spray.


Here are the hanging pots in the grow rooms. The pitcher plant only has 1 pitcher right now, but its catching the hell out of bugs. Looked like 20 or more little bugs in there.

Here is a better pic of the coloring, was awake during lights out for the first time in a while