so it begins....new grow cabinet

Hi all, a new friend of mine has inspired me to start growing again. He has 98 ak47 plants under 4000 watts of HPS with great nutes, Co2, mylar everywhere, ventilation, filtration, you name it. He's doing about 4-5 harvests a year cloning mother plants. He'll probably make about $150000 this year. He's pretty crazy. Anyway, I wanted to share some ideas and pictures of my progress. My friend gave me 15 ak47 seeds but I also ordered 15 mango seeds from KC Brains and 15 haze special seeds from KC Brains too.
I might just grow clones of his ak47's when my new grow cabinet is done, i dont know.

The cabinet is 19" / 35" with about 5' of height. I am building cabinet style shutter doors for it with louveres for good circulation. It will be reflectively lined with mylar and emergency blanket material. There is good ventilation here with a nearby exhaust fan sucking air out and drawing new air in. I've chosen a good setup for this little space. I used to grow in a "Megagarden" ebb and flow system which worked great. I scaled down this time to a "Baby Bloomer" by American Hydroponics.

1. Baby Bloomer ebb and flow system
2. Hydrofarm 250W HPS light system

Last time (which also was the first time) I grew hydro, I used "Ionic" nutrients. I seemed to have good success with them so I'm going with them again. I have been doing some research and homework on all the supplements out there these days. My friend is amazed by "Hygrozyme". He added the stuff to his 8 day old plants and in three days his stems tripled in diameter and leaves were bigger and stronger. I have heard great things about the hormonal additives you can buy too. I'm going to try the Floraliscious line along with the Hygrozyme. THe name of the game is not to overdo it so I will act sparingly with supplements.
here's some pics. I will take more as the UPS man drops off my new gear.
Notice the bag of AK47 seeds from Serious seeds. and can somebody tell me what the "cal" and CFM button on this ph meter does? I can't figure out how to work them or what they're for. I'm pretty sure you calibrate the thing with a combination of pressing the buttons but I can't figure it out.
Storm

I like to keep air blowing gently on the plants after they're about an inch tall. The motion in the stalks and leaves from the breeze stimulates them and promotes stronger stems (or so I read). It seemed to work for me the last time. The powerstrip will distribute power to these:

250 watt HPS
2 heating pads (under hydroponic resevoir)
an air pump w/ airstones in the resevoir
the fan I just installed
the hydroponic sytem pump

Some more equipment came today. Special thanks to Jay Lawrence at 4hydroponics.com for hookin' me up with everything I need (except seeds). Let me also recomend that Dr. Cronics seedbank out of England sent me my seeds really quick, in like 5 business days they were here. I got some Mango seeds and Haze Special. I'm just waiting on my glass lens and exhaust fan for the 250W HPS ballast. My space is small but effecient but a little hot which I'm working on. I like the looks of my Baby Bloomer ebb n' flow by American Hydroponics. It fits in my cabinet perfect. The louvered doors went in today (good for ventilation), and I hung the ballast. More soon!!!!!!!!!!

hey there should be like one of those home creation shows for grow gardens. when weed is legalized I can put all my good thoughts into good use and have a monopoly on the market. think about how awesome it would be to buy a cola in a box. Like a box of wine it would be a box of weed. nice eh? :)

looks good : )

how much vertical room do you have? cuz your gonna need it for them hazes

I've got about 5 feet for height. I actually am not going with the Hazes, I began soaking my AK47 seeds today. A friend of mine has almost 100 AK's going right now so I can use his progress as a reference to mine. I like to start seeds in rockwool as I have done before, and the beauty of using ebb and flow is you can put the seeds in your rockwool, and then directly into the ebb and flow system with the correct depth to keep the rockwool properly moist. I use a heating pad at this stage under the resevoir to keep the temp up a bit to enhance germination. Nutes are 1/3 strength, ph is a hair lower than veg/flower cycle. Take a looksee.............

Oh, the man in the mask? Thats my African Mambazo friend who came over with his digereedo to bless the crop-to-be. Here's a close-up of how the rockwool sits in the pots........ Oh, the dog? Thats my home security unit.

all looks pretty damn good, just a question though.....with the smell what are you going to do?

nice pit

Oh yeah, the smell. Well, I may invest in an ozone maker, but I will see how long my bathroom ehhaust fan that vents outdoors does the trick. I'm only going to finish two females, so there won't be big volume smell. I live alone, with not much worry of neighbors . I'll see as I go. Here's some progress......

Those doors will let in light so if the room that closet is in isn't dark, you will get light leaks when you go to flower. Other than that it looks good. You might want to orient the light with the long part of the tube across the short face of the cabinet just try it and see. I'm guessing the cal button is for calibration, you need the solution, usually they have a ph7 solution you use for calibration. Not sure about CFM. Make sure you keep it in storage solution to keep it functioning properly.

looks nice and clean.

the doors to the cabinet won't close if i turn the ballast 90 deg. philly. Remember I can always rearrange the grow pots if some spots get better light than others. As for the PH pen, I'm getting rid of it and using the liquid test kit. The Ph pen gives me a big headache with readings all over the place, up and down, even after I calibrated it with ph 4 and 7. The thing is 5 years old, and was improperly stored for most of those years, I'm afraid the electrode may be shot.

As for light leaks, I'm having that covered. Those louvered cabinet doors are to enhance air circulation, and won't be a lighting concern. The room where the cabinet is is pitch black, (no windows), when it needs to be. How's those babies lookin?

Well, 6 out of 10 seeds germinated. I would have probably had better results if it weren't for my inexperience. In hind sight, I should have used better rockwool cubes and not the ones that came with the hydro kit (too small). I think I over-fertilized them early on at 600 ppm plus 1/3rd to 1/2 strength Hygrozone AND Floraliscious grow. Let me tell you, I don't think it was a wise idea to add all those supoplements right away. The supplements darken the resevoir water which can upset your ph reading since I use the eye-dropper style ph kit. Also, I was using a resevoir heater which along with the supplements, created a bit of algae in the resevoir, and made my ph go up to around 7 in 24 hours. Check out that one plant thats higher then the rest. It really always was the superstar but the stem maybe too thin or long. I finally got my glass bulb cover lens for the light, and the exhaust fan for the top of the ballast. It really does wonders for keepint the temp down, and keeping the light close to the tops of the plants. ANyway, these are AK47 plants, which are supposed to be hard to kill, so I'm hoping this trial grow will be a good learning experience for me, even though they had a rough start.

Well....Here's 15 days from seed. Ph is stable at 6 and my ppm is 1100-1200. They seem to be responding well to a steady rise in nutrient ppm. Last week I think I was at about 350-400 and lots of growth since then. I am using 1/5th strength Hygrozone, 1/5th strength Floraliscious Grow, and half or more strength Ionic Grow at this point. I figure that in two weeks I will have the ppm up to 1400-1600 or so depending on how they respond to the current level. I'm wondering if the steady rise in ppm is better for them then a few bursts in higher nutrient content. I'm wondering if the paleness in some of the leaves is lack of nutrients, or if it is normal. The thermometer reads anywhere from 75 to 90 degr. but does not account for the exact temp to the leaves, or the cooling factor of direct circulaton from the wall-mounted fan. I made a few mylar reflectors that are really making the most of the 250W HPS. See those two 2 liter bottles in the hydroponic tray? They are CO2 makers. There is a great recipe I got somewhere on how to make your own using yeast, sugar, and water. For such a small cabinet, I'm hoping it will do them some good.

How they look???????????

Oh by the way, I have salvia Divinorum leaves too!!!!!!!!

I would lower the ppm, a bit high for seedlings

what's up with this nutrient color?????????????

Ok. I am not too good with this whole nutrient/supplement/ppm thing.

I decided today to change the nutes because it was about 10 days old, and the ph was creeping up on me, and the color was murky and funky looking. I raised the PPM to about 1150 because my last boost to 800 ppm really improved the plants quickly, and I have read that vegetative ppm should/can be around 1200-1400. Now I know I'm only 15 days from seed, but they look pretty substantial up close with tight nodes and thick stems, and I would call this a vegetative stage. SO.....I changed the resevoir with fresh RO water, fresh nutes (ionic), half strength Hygrozone, and half-strength Floraliscious Grow. Now.....this Floraliscious stuff is DARK BLACK and even a capfull darkens the nutrient/water mix DRAMATICALY. It contains all that great supplemental/ hormonal stuff to boost yield/quality etc. The Hygrozone supposedly helps roots develop and all kinds of good stuff. But the combination of the three things, (Ionic nutes, Hygrozone, and Floraliscious Grow) may be a good for growth, but it is hell on your resevoir color, and ph level. I couldn't believe tonight when I checked the nutrient level and quality IT LOOKED WORSE THAN BEFORE I CHANGED IT 12 HOURS AGO (murky, dark, funky)!!! I think those supplements are wreaking havoc, but I have to say the plants look very good and have improved steadily, especially with the recent nutrient boosts over the last few days. I think possibly that the supplements should not have been added as early as they were into the mix. I'm not sure why the resevoir got so dark so quick.

the water does not have to be clear, some nutes are like this: Not extremely water solluble, so it doesnt bind with a water mollecule, rather it stays between the water, creating a collored mixture. When I grow with MG I feed them blue water, color means nothing.... unless you got green algae.

WWOOOOWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOWOWOWOW

3 weeks from seed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You must grow ak-47

this is my 2nd grow in like 6 years and this looks like I've been doing it forever.

more 3 week from seed shots

4 weeks (in 3 days)
These babies got a haircut. I trimmed off all those big fan leaves particularly the one that turn red at the stems. It makes more room for the bud sights, and without the fan leaves, more nutrient gets to the more important parts. This strain loves to be trimmed like this because it is so strong. They LOVE CO2 also.

PPM-1150-1300
ph 6.2-6.5

Ionic grow nutes
Hygrozyme
Floraliscious grow
250W HPS
American Hydroponics "baby bloomer" ebb and flow system
love, kindness, respect, intuition, faith

more 4 week shots

WELL OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS DAY 35 FROM SEED. I'M GOING TO FLOWER TODAY. WASTED.....

wow my man those are pretty beautiful