Indoor 1st Stealth Cab Grow: Flash Santa

[TheCannabist]

Hi Everyone,

So I have set up my first stealth grow cabinet and am very pleased so far, though it is of course early days. About 48 hours ago I put one flash seeds santa in aerated water. About 18-24 hours later it had cracked so I planted it and it is already showing its cotyledons. Amazingly quick germination so kudos to Stitch.

Regarding hardware, I am using a 19.2W Sunon computer fan for ventilation and just a very small computer fan for circulation. I will be using a 75m3 carbon filter in flowering. For lighting I have ~5500K cfl for seedling stage (not sure of wattage because packaging is confusing) and a 150W HPS for the rest. Using a sort of mini adjust-a-wing for reflection and it is squeezed in so tight that it's completely surrounded my little seedling.

The cab: 85cm growing height, about the same width and ~50cm depth.

Organics: Plagron Royalty mix for main body of soil and Grow mix in the top middle section for the plants early life, all going in 7.5L/2 gallon smart pot. Going to use Plagron alga bloom and green sensation + Canna rhizotonic for nutes.

Any comments, questions or suggestion are most welcome.

Peace and Happy Growing

TC

 

[Coldharbour]

Stealthy!! i Like the cabinet!

Are you exhausting the hot air out of there somehow? (didnt see any holes at the top)
With 150w HPS in there, you'll want to look into LST (low stress training) to stop your plant growing too tall and too close to the hot light

Really nice looking cab though - who'd know!?!

 

[TheCannabist]

Yes the 19.2W fan is for extraction (sorry I wasn't very clear about that) and runs through 1m of sound insulated ducting and out of a hole in the back. The computer fan for circulation isn't actually in there yet because seedlings like quite still, humid air. I'm not even running the extractor yet at all and the cab remains at a pleasant 21C . I had already planned on lst'ing the plant, but thanks for the advice anyway. I would probably lst even if I had a 2m tall tent because it increases your yield... and it looks cool hehe.

Thanks for the compliments, I really like the cab too. It was only ~25 euros from second hand shop.

Cheers

TC

 

[TheCannabist]

I forgot to mention that I will also be using a super spreader with the HPS to give me a little more usable height.

 

[TheCannabist]

Update: Hybrid Light and LST'd Mohan Ram

Hello hello,

So the Santa sprouted six days ago and is suffering a little bit due to the soil being a bit hot, even though it says it's not nutrified and fine for seedlings. Anyone considering using Plagron Pro Mix for seedlings please learn from my mistake. It is not suitable. That said, it is looking ok but I think it should be bigger at this stage, what do you guys think!?

Initially I started out with a 15W daylight cfl on the santa and one day I had it a little too far away and it stretched a lot. I eventually staked it up as you can see in the pic.

I decided to bring in the Mohan Ram Auto that I had outside which has also had a bit of a shit time. It's one month old and is really small thanks to the crappy weather (don't need to worry about that now). Seeing as I was bringing the MR inside I needed to put in the 150W hps, but as I had the spare E27 socket, i fixed it to the reflector and kept the cfl, making a kind of hybrid light. You can see in the pics below.

It seems to be doing a good job and the MR is 5-10cm from the HPS bulb and is coping nicely.

I LST'd the MR and today I pinned down all the fan leaves with some wire I had knocking about. It was extra necessary since the new growth is extremely dense. What concerns me is that it's a month old and is not starting to flower, but it is starting to smell more and I can see would-be bud sites. No hairs though. Is onset of flowering delayed by adverse conditions? I know flowering itself is slowed by bad conditions but I don't know if the start of flowering is. There's no sign of pollen sacks at least.

If fed the MR today for the first time and gave it 1/4 dose of alga bloom and a full dose of Rhizotonic. It seems happy enough.

Temps have been between 24.5-25.5C except for the first 24 hours or so when it was about 35C. I got another computer fan and fitted it to the back and it dropped almost exactly 10 deg.

Sorry that was a bit of a long one, but any comments/advice would, as always, be very much appreciated.

PEACE

TC

 

[GoTgReEn]

Looking good bro! Green karma to you buddie :dance:

 

[Mr Piggy]

The computer fan for circulation isn't actually in there yet because seedlings like quite still, humid air. I'm not even running the extractor yet at all and the cab remains at a pleasant 21C

From one cab grower to another it looks good, I just had to bring these points up. You should always have you extraction fan on, even for seedlings. All plants need fresh air circulating through, not just adults. Besides controlling temps and allowing the plant to breathe it helps keep mold and fungus spores from getting a foothold. I'm afraid I think you're quite wrong about the seedlings liking still, humid air. Seedlings like a breeze of fresh air on them. The constant breeze from the fan helps strengthen them as they grow and helps keep them from dampening off. I'm also worried about that comp fan being strong enough to ventilate that 150, but it sounds like you live in a cooler environment and that just might do it.

Good luck, and get those fans on!

 

[TheCannabist]

Looking good bro! Green karma to you buddie :dance:

Thanks man, same to you!

 

[TheCannabist]

From one cab grower to another it looks good, I just had to bring these points up. You should always have you extraction fan on, even for seedlings. All plants need fresh air circulating through, not just adults. Besides controlling temps and allowing the plant to breathe it helps keep mold and fungus spores from getting a foothold. I'm afraid I think you're quite wrong about the seedlings liking still, humid air. Seedlings like a breeze of fresh air on them. The constant breeze from the fan helps strengthen them as they grow and helps keep them from dampening off. I'm also worried about that comp fan being strong enough to ventilate that 150, but it sounds like you live in a cooler environment and that just might do it.

Good luck, and get those fans on!

Hi Mr Piggy, thanks a lot for your advice and I hasten to add that I did spot the error in my ways early on (luckily) and the fan was only off for a couple of days, during which I was frequently opening the doors like most overly keen new parents. There are now three fans on 24 hours a day. But yes I agree I was quite wrong about the still humid air statement, but now I know .

I also agree with you about the computer fan being a bit under powered for those lights, but I've been on a pretty tight budget and if later it needs to be changed then I shall do so. It's working for now though and the temps are staying at ~28.5C with the plants ~15cm from the bulbs. They were a bit too close before. I'll probably need to get a bigger fan as the Dutch summer kicks into gear.

There're still no signs of preflowers on the Mohan Ram and it's nearly 5 weeks old. It is smelling more and more and I just don't know if it's actually going to auto. I asked before if crappy conditions can delay the onset of flowering and I still don't know. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Thanks a bunch for stopping buy guys and I will update soon, maybe today.

Peace

TC

 

[Mr Piggy]

Sometimes crappy conditions can delay the onset.