My first grow, and grow box build!

[align=left][align=left][align=left]My Green thumb Journal â?? Custom grow box with stealth

First time Iâ??ve actually experienced growing and taking care of indoor grown marijuana plants. I'm having a lot of fun with it. Now they look small, and bushy like indica strains.
Iâ??m not sure what sex they will be at this present. The seeds came from recent buds I smoked last October. The buds were tight and long. Good strain judging from the high of those smokes.

I started the seeds with the shot glass method. They tap rooted easily. After less than three days I transferred the seedlings to wet tissue with the bowl on top.
A week later when the root taps were long enough I transferred the then six seedlings to six inch pots. Seedling stage do better without fertilizer.

I shouldâ??ve started them out with 50% coco coir. The soil Iâ??m using now is only pre fertilized soilless mix. Though yesterday I topped up the pots with some coco coir.
Other things Iâ??ve learnt while growing is right airy soil, pot quality, and adequate lights. My room is full of fresh air, and good temperature range, 25 to 30 degrees centigrade.

To start growing your own requires effort and progress materials. The setup doesnâ??t have to be expensive at the start, a thought out blueprint for the available space. Available materials in your means. So far this whole project has cost me less than $100.

This stealth box is my own creation. Made from 1 inch pvc pipes. They are pretty thick.

Grow Cube Dimension â?? 30 by 25 inches, height 1.8ft to maximum of 4ft.

I drilled four holes only for the lightsâ?? wirings. The rest was combining fixture pieces together, and cutting the pipes; itâ??s like Lego for grown-ups haha.
The internal wiring for the bulb connections was tedious, but fun. Bulbs are linked to one plug only. I just made sure to have no mistakes in the reconnected cuts, electrical tape is the best.

CFLs being used - 26wx4 daylight, 24wx4 daylight, 22wx4 cool daylight. 288 watts total. The bulbs can swivel. Illustration boards for reflectors, and stealth mode.

The plants are small at the moment so the height of the frame will suffice. And to think this is even in the middle of December. January they will be big. I might have to take one out due to limited width space. Or I could transfer them to a bigger rectangular medium if they continue to grow short, and bushy. I would use more coco coir mix next time if I do the final transplant.

Theyâ??re also growing fast now in veg mode. It must be the new grow box, and that organic food of seaweed, guano, and fish. They lit up bright green after spraying them with the stuff in the evening -- 3 drops from the tip of a chopstick to 1 liter of water. Sprayed until foliar and mix was just moist right.

My box holds an artificial sun! For full stealth mode I would just have to cover it with a cloth.

Oh â??whatâ??s that?â?� ask my dad, I reply, â??erm, itâ??s a desk.â?�
@_@ Little green ladies are hiding inside, playing in the sun. Haha![/align][/align][/align]

Looks good so far. I cant give much advice on nutrients, soil and general plant health. but I do like the CFL's. I was in tool and die / industrial maintenance for years. I like how its all neat and tidy and somewhat modeler.
Things to look into from a mechanical standpoint would be:

-Air circulation. The more "stealthy" you go the more important air circulation will be.
-More flexibility in lighting positioning may be desired as the plants grow. You wanna have those lights pretty close and somewhat evenly distributing light to the plant for efficiency. You can rotate the pots and there positions daily or so to help with that also.
-Don't forget to figure something out for smell down the road. That will really put a hole in your stealth.

But from one noob to another that looks like a great start!:thumbsup:

Thanks for the like. Yeah, clean is essential for good plant health as well. I've been rotating them multiple times in the day, they strengthen the stalks too. Right now there's not much smell, but when it comes to that I should deal with it. I could create the sealed enclosure with ventilations. This project can still evolve haha. I'll see what would be a good size for the flowering stage and then have a better idea for the enclosure size. Maybe my next challenge, when I have the available space would be trying hydroponic growths in the future.

I love your little do-it-yourself growbox lol, it seems like a great box for vegging seedlings.

It does look like you will be needing a somewhat bigger box for when you start flowering. because they grow somewhat tall and pretty wide.

but with your craftsmanship, I don't think you will have a hard time building a bigger and better box.

I'll be following along, I definitely want to see how this grow will turn out. I might start a little stealth box myself lol.

Just topdressed with them coco coir, and freshly watered. Will fertilize them with the stinky wonder juice next watering period lol.
They're coming up nice and steady.

I've been using Baygon vapor mosquito repellent when I first see a sign of them aphids.
Doesn't seem to be affecting the plants. Well it took care of them and midget-like flies for a few days now.
Die Plague! Haha.

I made a comparison of the 1 month length it took me to grow these babies.
I actually named my plants back then haha. From one noob to another it can be easily done. Everyone can do it.

Magic trees for everyone!

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Here they are now, I picked their names according to their leave patterns.
The branches are getting denser. I'll probably be able to tell their sex next month.

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I'm just dreaming of the stuff I can make, cookies, thc pills, haha. Speaking of abundance...
I have a lot of indica seeds, anyone want some, or trade for it pm me. ;)

Week eight, two months in. I've widened the area of the grow box by 2/1/2' x 2' with 2.5' height. I did not anticipate them to grow rapidly at this stage.
They grew really fast compared to the seedling stage.

It was only last Thursday I had transplanted them to 10" pots. I did not moisten the soil for the transfer which I should have, tore some roots in the
process. Idiot noob me. Haha.

They were around 4-5" long back then. Now they are almost 10". I could start flowering them at this stage I think.
There are little nodes sprouting here and there. No indication of their sex at this time, but I think they should show it within the next week or two.

Right now I'm thinking of modifying the box again so I could adjust the cfl distance during the flowering stage, can't wait to see the flowering process!
The height will be extended to at least 4'. I would also have to figure out a way for the lights' height to be adjusted within the dimension.

It's all conceptual at this time. I know I will be purchasing 27k cfls and redesigning the new height within the next two weeks.
So I'll be spending another $60, which all adds up to around $150 for this grow.
I could have bought myself a lot of weed with that cash, but this is much more a rewarding, and awesome experience.

Until the next update, have a good new year stoners, may your harvest or score be bountiful. ;)

Quote:

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I could have bought myself a lot of weed with that cash, but this is much more a rewarding, and awesome experience.

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:pimp:Spend a little more & become self-sufficient :thumbsup:..(IF you have security?)

Sometimes it's 13 hours of light, and 12 hours of darkness. Other wise mostly 12/12. No flowers yet, gathered it takes a while. Their size has increased more than I wanted it to. I should have kept them in the smaller pots, and flowered 2 weeks earlier with cfl spectrum ratio mix 3:1. Now I've got to increase the frame size yet again. They're becoming monsters!! Box won't fit now. :wtf:

I've checked about size manipulation like bending, but I want them to grow out naturally. And not really recommended to have them trimmed at this stage. I'm kind of hoping one or two of them will be males lol, so I will have optimum space for the ladies. Really pushing the dimensions here, but hopefully it'll turn out well. Just got to get more creative!

Current box dimension - 3' x 2'2" by 4' height
5 x plants' height - around 2'

CFLs - around 300w
3 x 24w 65k
3 x 26w 27k
4 x 23w 27k
4 x 18w 27k

Today was so unlucky. My mom's purse got pick-pocketed. And I screwed up my grow big time!

I frigging dropped the light installation on them! Well, they did save the light bulbs at the least. What an awful accident, poor babies... Their stems got bent and snapped all over!
So many nodes were torn off. Angel got hit the worst. She's gone through so much and all, like before during her initial vegetative stage with the bad pot, soggy soil, aphid attacks.
And now she got broke at so many place she was beyond repair. Poor Angel...

I managed to salvage Lefty had to take half off her stem. *sob* ...decapitated.

The other three have some torn nodes, but were salvaged. I had to install bamboo sticks to correct their stems. Hopefully they won't turn into male. So screwed up...
I knew I should have cleared the plants from the hazard work zone before I modified the frame, I clearly wasn't thinking ahead then. I was so stupid.

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The good news is I know now how to make canna butter out of the leaves. The broken pieces I've gathered, my hands felt sticky and smelled like cured buds. I would think there would be some THC on them. I boiled the leaves and stems in a regular pot for 2 hours, with butter. I think added too much water.

Anyway I then added 2 cups of the green melt into my home-made chocolate oreo milkshake, and yeah there is a buzz. :D

... 2 hours in and yeah there is a good buzz. It's not like the high from smoking, more of like a light high like from tea buzz, but super-charged calmness.
Like drinking a lot of Thai tea, black chai it has that body calmness, and light high. That kind of moderation.

Also I'd like to point out that the high from eating cannabis has a difference than from of smoking. Smoking it the high is more instantly potent, and drops quickly.
Whereas eating it the high is slow to build up on, but when it does it's steady and doesn't drop quickly. It feels more naturally paced. Digestion works probably.

Also there's more of a body stimulation buzz like from alcohol. Or like black chai. So the most natural high is to eat it than smoke it.

If I were to rate the high from the leaves it would be a 2 to 2.5, from 5 being the high from smoking a full joint. COACH LOCK!!
But yeah this buzz is pretty cool. Thank you Angel for your sacrifice was not in vain.

I can't imagine if I had made the butter from actual buds, the rating would be through the frigging roof. :hippy: DISABLED ZOMBIE!

Even if they were to turn to male, I've read that during vegetative stage males were shown to produce more THC than females.
So I guess I could still use them. Tomorrow morning when the butter solidifies I'll have toast and rate the buzz.

Keep in mind though I used a lot of leaves in the amount of a salad bowl for two. Angel was 2 feet tall with 2 main nodes at the base with many leaves. So a lot of leaves was used.
The other good thing is I've finalized the dimension of the grow box. But man, the frame has now tripled to the size of a frigging full refrigerator. From a cube to a f*ckin fridge. :madnoel:

Sigh, lesson learnt.

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I still plan to keep them on 12/12 since this is their 2nd week of flowering stage.

Forget that buzz, almost another 3 hours in I'm coach locked frigging man. My head and body feels very light like after a good massage lol.
Think I'll make that next choco milkshake lighter too.

Hey fellow growers I'll be updating this by the end of February, apparently flowering takes forever...
and the curing method for premium is a long time lol.

But man the yield will set me good for a year even. All this time, and investment has actually saved me money on procuring my meds. Like that saying to teach a man... genius.
If people all knew how to grow their own consumables there will be abundance.

My quality meds will be premium cured-decarbed natural green goodness. Thank you God for your blessings lol.
Thank you fellow stoners for the information, and this wonderful site to put it in one perspective. Peace and love! Share the freedom!

On a final note, here are pictures of my final process. By the way, again I was very close to the flowering stage, but had to end the grow untimely. My mom killed my plants last week while I was away. I think she put salt in the soil. Wasn't cool at all, but I can imagine how shocked she was by my green monsters lol. ;)

Sigh, very unfortunate, but I will continue another time. The next time I should be able to follow it through to the flowering process.
All in all the yield is still pretty good, I'll be able to make the canna butter better. The last time I made it, it was only 1 plant and it was a good mild buzz. This will be 10 times the effect. :stoned:


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The first grow chapter concluded.

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I will be making the light installation more structurally sound in the future.

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Dried for a week, cool and dark. Finally put the air filter to good use as well lol.

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Trims were separated, the potent buds from the stems and leaves.

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Will cure these for 2-4 weeks, then decarb for the crockpot extraction. Awesome goodness canna butter! :clap:[/align]


Well this has made my holidays, hehe. Feel free to comment or ask questions. Thanks again and peace!

why didnt you flower because then you will have bud and butter

Yeah dude, my mom killed my plants when I was out for the day. I didn't know why they were drooping extremely when I came home late that evening. I had thought I had put too much phosphorous, but I knew I did it right. Internet was down, and I was frantically searching for causes.

I found out 3-4 hours later by the salt granules in the pot. So yeah bro it wasn't cool at all. I forgive her, she's so conservative. Shame I was in the third week of flowering. But the curing of the trims so far is coming along nicely I see a lot of crystals! So no harm really, just have to wait until I have my own secure place hehe. Ok, heading out for some cheese cloth, this butter is going to be insane! :dance:

What did you ever do for smell? I might have missed that somewhere but I like your setup its pretty haha.

Hmm, you've been banned already lol, sorry about that. However thanks for the compliment. The smell was really strong, a lot of chlorophyll with distinct natural ganja, I loved it. The smell was contained within the room. My room is very airy with many windows. And since I live in the remote part of town, the air is very clean!

My room has almost the perfect uncontrolled natural environment. Very well ventilated, and constant temperatures indoors. I only put one mini exhaust due to the heat from the cfls, other wise perfect. Just one more week for curing the trims then I can decarb for the final product. Sigh, I miss growing them, really were like pets, I miss them.


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The frosts are building up, very noticeable from the the stems.

sorry to hear about your mom killing them but how are you going to make the butter because i have made some from trim before and first batch didnt work because i used marjurine second time didnt work either i dont get why i used butter and even put 1tbl of alchohal and crock potted it for a day and reboiled it with more trim for another day it got my dog fu#$%ed up by accident felt bad for him but he was happy so it worked for him but wasnt strong enough for me

use clarified butter - unsalted. hell, I just made some by heating the butter in the microwave til it was boilingover, added about 2oz of fresh leaves (not eeven dry) added some italian seasoning to get rid of the chlorophyll taste and mixed it in with some salsa - then scooped it up with triscuits

its been 10 minutes and its already an intense feeling. but if your using trim from something thats only a few weeks old, dont expect anything. Like the OP has 'curing' (btw op, dont cure trim, just use it) I wouldnt expect much from that - I'm 6 weeks in, and 1-2 weeks from harvest

under my scope the leave trichs are partially cloudy, I wanted to trim some herb, but none is ready yet, so I settled for some salsa for the superbowl

good luck!

To the OP-

Sucks about the salt, but your not going to get much from those leaves by waiting, and light reduces the potency of THC over time (look it up) so I'd strongly suggest you use your trim asap!

Wanted to add that I didnt put the trim in the microwave, just the butter, then mixed the rest in while the butter was still hot

You know I'd love to see some of ur recipes!! You should join the taste buds group I'm in and post them!!! I'd love to have some new things to try with my cuttings and trim etc!!

As much as I want to cook them already, I can't I've got a medical check-up for my new job next week. Gotta be clean for the bullcrap test. There's a scientific report on the web about the THC levels being optimized for properly dried trims instead of fresh. Curing is not necessary, but drying and decarbing is for optimizing levels, and proper THC conversion for cooking. Since I've got to wait until the check-up is over I suppose the curing wait time would be a bonus. Yay, more THC levels in the decimal points. :stoned:

Right, I've kept them in a cool and dark place throughout the drying and curing process. This is the method I'm using --

Hang dried for a week with temperatures 65-75 degrees F, humidity I'm guessing around 50% since it's pretty cool in my room.
Stored in air-tight glass jars and airing them 30-40 mins twice a day for about 10 days. Would be a month of curing by the time I can use it.
I'll then decarb in a 220 degree F oven for 20 mins with foil on top.
After in the crockpot they go, moderate to low simmer with the clarified goodness, Lurpak is my favorite butter.
This is an extra step, after an hour I'll let it cool and freeze the mixture for about an hour for optimizing the THC infusion with the fats.
Thaw time, and I'll simmer again for the last hour. Let it cool, and strain. I'll be using panty-hose, cheese cloth is impossible to find. I hunted it down like a madman for the whole day through out the city, until I found out panty-hose works just as well lol.
Refrigerate overnight, and tada! Secret ingredient for hours and hours of pondering about life, and philosophy. :D

Hey guys, been a while, been busy, yada yada...

Ok, so last March my 2nd attempt in making cannabutter was better than the 1st. Got the technique down, but 2 hours is too short, under saturated. Here's a shot.

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And then I followed the method from the AAMC website (click sig), 4 hours is right on the spot for crockpot cooking. Did an hour on medium, and three hours on low since I was only using trims. I'm not sure of my ratio, but I used everything lol. And man it was a blast, I made it into my ever favorite choco milkshake, with one blaze... and whoa felt like I had lit 5-6 joints. Daum, it was good. And they were just trims, so don't waste trims people! Use everything! Oh, and another tip, this is way more efficient to use than cheesecloth to strain. I forgot the name of it, but here's a picture so you'll know what to get.

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I gave some to my friends, and lol they didn't know what hit them. It was hilarious. They rated it a 9, but I would say it would be 7.5 to 8. 9 to 10 would be the blackout recipe which I will make by November, once my new babies are ready.

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And here's pictures of my new babies, and I've secured the light installation with chains. :D

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The water in the middle is my bug eater, damn bugs. I started these guys last week, it's quite a challenge growing around this time due to the heat, temperatures are averaging 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I tried to get this project off the ground since March, but they kept dying on the first week after germination. Figured I had to counter the heat with excellent growing medium conditions.

So now it's doable with an oscillating fan, proper vents, and regular misting or foliar feeding. I mist them like four or five times a day. I also have to watch out for bug infestation since the hot weather is on their side now. Give me flower power. :hippy:

Anyone remember Dr. Jay Cavanaugh, from Overgrow? I think he's the one that developed that butter recipe. He called it "Blackout Butter." I miss talking to Dr. Jay. Died in 2005 or so.

the thing you used for a strainer looks like a garlic press.

Kudos to the late Dr. Jay. I will dedicate my blackout butter for the people fighting for mj's freedom everywhere.
Oh yeah, I now remember what the press is called it's a potato press, lol. Thanks for that Mal420xl.

2 weeks in and they are doing nicely considering this infernal heat. Another 2 weeks and I'll start the flowering process (finally), hopefully the weather will be kind enough to accommodate fair conditions.
They have some foliage scars due to the bug infestation I had to fend off the first week, damn hell bugs. Cleanliness is the best maintenance. The garlic, onion, pepper concoction is the best defense. Prevailed, so happy now.

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Been a while for this update my baby is finally blooming. Started the 12/12 last May, so about 3 months. Took a while due to the hot temperatures. Hopefully this cold weather will stay for another 2 or 3 months so I can get the buds a good size. I'll be making a new grow box in the future and try cloning Maxine. Treat mothernature with respect, and she will too in kind. Peace.

She's almost 5 feet.
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White hairs all over her.
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