long time coming. . new cab grow

The girls have finished thier first full week of 12/12 with the digital ballast at %100.
I also have 4 new additions to the cabinet.A friend of mine had 4 girls in pots in his back yard.
He decided to throw a new roof on his house,didn't want the roofers finding his plants, so he gave me the plants to finish indoors.
No idea what strain they are,they appear to be about 4 weeks into bud.They werent transplanted from the original plastic cups untill almost into flower,so they are very small and sparce of leaf.
Of course I went over them with a 30x jewelers loop to check for bugs etc before I agreed to take them in.
The new fan box with the Canadian tire fans,is working great.The temps in the cab are sitting at 72f at end of 12 hour cycle.So far humidity hasn't been an issue but the weather is changing and the ambient air is getting moister.I will have to keep a close eye on things as it moves along.
Second feeding of Pure Blend Bloom Tea yesterday.In 3 gallon pots the girls are eating about two cups of water every two days.
They did a good stretch when they hit flower,but thus has slowed now and they are levelling out.
This is the first time I have not split the tops on this strain as well,so I will see how they do weight wise with just a single main cola opposed to 4 mains.
Thats about it for now,do another update soon, thanks for checking out my thread.

These girls are gaining a couple of inches a day for the last week I swear.I am very thankfull now that I flipped to 12/12 while they were still nice and short.
But they should be done reaching now.They are starting to show girlie hairs.
My unnamed orphan in the back is going to be a very long flowering strain.She is getting bud mass all the way up but very slow to produce,I am figuring she is a 12 weeker.(should be interesting).
The three back-yard orphans are massing nicely.They will never reach thier full potential as they were root bound for too long in veg and then transferred to only slightly bigger pots at flower.They only average about 12" tall so. . .
Everything else is going well.Switching up from water to Tea every second day.
So far no bugs no molds,all is well.
Here are some progress pics.

Congrats......Your girls are looking ver nice darkone:thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by truepunk87

Congrats......Your girls are looking ver nice darkone:thumbsup:

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Thanks for the compliment bud.

Truth is the damn things have stretched to almost ridiculous proportions LOL.
I will be posting updated pics tomorrow and you will see they have now hit the lamp shade.
Next run I am going to run the red spectrum t-5 unit right through pre-flower to try and reduce the nodal spacing.

Time for a weekly progress report.

The change from T-5 to HID has resulted in the worst case of stretching I have ever had.
Next run I am going to run the T-5's with red spectrum bulbs right through pre-flower and won't
switch to the HID lights untill buds are starting to form.
Hopefully that will get me past the stretch stage without having the girls up to the roof...LOL

Temps in the cabinet when on are peaking at 75f and off dropping to 65f.
As the nights (and days) are getting colder,the girls are getting a 24 hour dark cycle
before I switch the timer to run 6pm to 6am from 12am to 12 pm.

I am doing this so that the lights run during the coldest part of the day/night.
I dont run any other heat in the room the cab is in,so I dont want the temps dropping into the 40's when the lights are off.

The girls are flowering nicely,just hope all the buds can get big enough to join across the big nodal spaces.
Giving them Bloom Tea twice per week and water once.
After week switch I will reverse the food cycle untill reducing it to zero in week 8.

Thats it for now gang,thanks for checking out my thread.

half way through the 8 week flower cycle now.
I have bent and manipulated some of the taller plants to fit more spaciously under the lamp shade.
Flower developement is right about where it should be for this strain at this stage and they recieved
thier heaviest feeding of the cycle yesterday.

The CT fans are working out great.The temps in the cab are peaking at 72f and bottoming out at 67f.
I am really liking these Quantum digital ballasts.No big clang and buzz when the lights come on
and it seems to light the bulb to full brightness faster than my old coil ballasts.

My buddies little orphan plants from his back-yard only have about two weeks left.
Although they are going to be a solid cola from top to bottom,they arent going to yield much
as they are only about 10 inches high.
They were already well into flower when I got them so they gained no height at all even after being put into larger pots.

My original Skunk orphan is producing lots of flower,but is likely still going to take an extra week or two longer than my
other girls.Looks like it will be a pretty good yielder for its size. . wish I knew a bit more about what it really is LOL.

Okay. . toss up a couple pics here and good to go for this weeks update,

For some reason all the uploads are failing,I will try again later to add pics.....

Time for the weekly update. .

The girls are finally starting to mass up in scale to the stretch.
Just entering fifth week of flower.Getting some yellowing of the lower sucker leaves,but I do expect that at 5 weeks.
Gave them one last big push of Tea on friday,they will run water now untill harvest.

I was worried about humidity as there is no cabinet exhaust,just a light shade exhaust.
So far it hasn't caused me any issues.Entering into the rainy season here though and humidity levels are way up in the ambient air.
I will keep a really close watch now that there is some bud mass that could actually mold given the right(or wrong) conditions.

my original orphan plant is really packing on the buds now,she is going to be a very good yielder, just no idea what the hell she is LOL.

My late added 3 orphans are almost ready.Another week for two of them,and two more weeks for the last one.
As they are only about ten inches tall they arent going to be heavey yielders. .

All the "new" gear is holding up well.
The Infinite Breeze fan has been running continuously since july,still quiet and head bobbin as ever.
The Quantum digital ballast is a real treat.This is my first experience with the newer Digital style ballasts and I am extremely pleased with it.
Cant wait to run the 600 watt.

My little Canadian Tire vent fans are a real treat.I really wish I had discovered them earlier as they are very quiet,and very effective for a smaller grow.

here are some pics to keep it going. . . Again maybe not. . my pics are small enough to fit the posting parameters for jpeg...but all uploads to this site fail.

Anyone have any idea whats going on??

This is the start of sixth week of flower for the girls in green.

With the last feeding done,the rest of the cycle should chew up the residuall nutes still in the soil.
Most of the large fan leaves are starting to show some yellow now,so the ripening stage is definately under way.

Humidity in the cab is still climbing.With the extra mass of the plants and the wetter cooler ambient air,
this could be an issue through the winter months.I will be installing an exhaust fan and filter for next run.
Two of my three little orphans I have chopped.They were no longer taking any water nor were they gaining any more mass.
As sad as they were,my buddy should be getting about 1/2 ounce for his stranded girls LOL.

The third orphan is the largest and will come down end of this week.
I am still not sure that the early skunk plant I rescued is going to be done at the same time as the rest.
If it were an 8 week strain I would say it is two weeks behind. . .but she isnt an 8 weeker so she could be a month behind.
If she is even close to ready i will take her down with the rest.I dont want to delay starting the next round just for one plant.
This is the drawback of having a single cab for veg and flower.

The main crop of KushX's is doing very well.There may be gaps in the main colas on a few but most of them are filling the spaces nicely.
So far so good. . . three weeks to go!

it seems like this run is taking bloody forever! LOL
probably has something to do with the fact that it was in the high 90's when I planted this crop and now it's freakin cold out.Makes a guy feel like he's been at it for 6 freakin months.
had a couple of the main colas just touching the shade for a night.Although the shade stays cool enough to leave your hand against,it did curl the top hairs down on a couple of buds LOL
No serious damage though.
have hacked the last of the three lost orphans,trimmed dried and sent them back to the owner.
The first 2 little ones produced just over a 1/4 the last girl just over a 1/2.
The rest of the girls are filling in nicely. I dont think I will have any issues of reaching over my 1/2 lb from the 400watt.Hoping closer to 3/4...time will tell.
I have learned a fair bit about this new cabinet on this run.Overall I am very happy with it.Swapping between HOCFL and HID is fast and easy.The space is easy to work and is a good size for a 400hid,a 600hid or two 8 racks of HOCFL.
With a dozen plants in 3 gallon buckets I still have space empty by the doors for the fan and other gear to stay out of the plants and lights way.
I am really concidering using two of the Badboy 8 light racks for next run.I think that 16 blue spec would give me massive veg,and I am anxious to see what I can get with two racks of red spec in flower.
I think the height and depth of the cabinet would be able to take full advantage of High output compact floro T-5's.
Besides this is a hobby and the T-5 concept is a newer one for me than HID digital or not.
Girls are getting naught but water of course from here to harvest,Temps are remaining stable in mid seventies at peak light cycle and humidity is a bit high but not problematical.
Thats it for first day of week 7's report.

Last week of existance for the girls in this show.

The big initial stretch is going to cost me some weight in the long run.
The main colas arent bad but they havent all managed to join with lower buds.

As the girls havent had any food of any type for 3 weeks they wont need a flush...love organic growing LOL

Still havent fully decided but I am leaning towards trying a 16 bulb T-5 run next time.Or I may just switch up from the Quantum 400 to the 600 watt digital ballast.

Temps and humidity did not become an issue at all on this run so at least the airflow is working.I am going to change the way the lights are hung though.
I want to be able to get them flush to the roof at peak height,which I cant do with the present configuration.

Anyways...they start coming down this weekend, I will post final results of harvest.