Stealth cabinet grow

[Hushpuppy]

So I have the Blueberry punch journal for the grow-lab with my partner, and I have posted some of my stuff there that I have been growing in my own stealth cabinets, but now I am starting a whole new batch of seedlings to grow out here in the twin-cabs. I popped my beans a while back that I got from the single seed center. I just put them in some coco in cups on Jan 5th. I got 2 Burmese Kush, 2 Blue Mystic, and 2 Bluehell, all fem beans.

Yeah I know the dangers of growing fems but I figured what-the-hell, they all come from top breeders and my cabs are isolated so that I can do some experimentation anyway without poisoning any other reg grows.

I am going to run them in coco/hydro under dual 250w HID. The cabs are each 10sqft so 500w of HID will do nicely. here's some pics of the babies under 4 4'T5HO single bulb fixtures. And I have a new bubble cloner that is working on some BBP cuttings that I took from the last grow.

 

[bubba902]

How are they doing? Look good

 

[Grower13]

:48:

 

[4u2sm0ke]

:48:

 

[ozzydiodude]

:48:better start another :48:

Looking good

 

[powerplanter]

:48:

 

[Hushpuppy]

So the girls are 2 weeks old now. I just spent the day setting up the hydro center in one cabinet. Man it takes soo long to get everything set up and done. I had to make some changes as I am going to run 4 plants per cabinet this time, and I am running a 30liter resevoir beneath the 2 upper rezes. My reason for this is that I had some trouble on my last grow with the smaller totes and 2 plants in each tote. I had to constantly chase the PH and ppm. I will be running 2 totes with 2 plants each into the one bigger tote with 40liters of nute solution.

I also started with a new nutrient brand; I am running Advanced Nutrients' Jungle juice 3part. I am still using the coco coir in my 2liter containers. Here's a few pics of the girls in their new home :icon_smile:

 

[powerplanter]

Nice set-up Hushpuppy.

 

[bubba902]

Very nice, subbed in with this one

 

[Hushpuppy]

I just had to pop another pic of the girls as they are growin so nice, even though I have had a fit with the PH on this grow. I have made a profound discovery. If you fill your rez with 50ish degree water, mix in the nutes and then adjust the PH before the water warms up, then the PH will change as the water continues to warm and it will drive you crazy trying to figure out why you can't get the PH to level out. There is no need ot touch the PH until the water temp stabilizes at operational level.

So here is the latest pic of the girls at 3 weeks old

 

[Hushpuppy]

Here's my girls at 4 weeks old. One isn't doing so well. That one is a blueberry punch clone that just didn't want to root and I put it in soil right when it was starting to get root bumps. It isn't dying as it has new growth on it, but it is moving very slow. I think I will probably pull it out of the group when I flip them in a couple weeks.

I am using Advanced Nutrients' Jungle juice 3part with Technaflora's Magical and Thrive alive. So far I am happy with the results.

The left pick, left front girl is a BBP that I cloned and is doing far better than the one in the right pic.

 

[Hushpuppy]

The girls are going on 5 weeks old now. I can't believe how fast they are growing. I am wanting to take some cuttings this coming week as they are just starting to reach maturity and I am seeing preflowers starting to pop out on some of them. :icon_smile: The BlueHell, which is a medicinal strain, has such tight internodes and large leafy growth that I can't get into it to see any preflowers.

I am interested to note that the same strains of plants are growing in 2 separate cabinets, under 2 different types of light, and their growth patterns are very similar. All of them are getting the same nutrients and watering schedules. The only difference is the one cab has 2 250w MH lights(roughly 56k lumens not counting the T5s as they were just added) and the recent addition of 2 T5HO lights, while the other cab has 8 T5HO lights that put out 40k lumens.

It is hard to tell much difference of growth in the pictures, but I am seeing more root development and taller plants under the MH, while the plants under the T5s have less root development(but not by much) and are "stockier" looking.

I have to wonder about the efficiency of the MH even though it seems like there is more growth under the MH(which has 16k more lumens than the T5). The reason is that the plants under the T5s look healthier and have the same number of nodes as the others.

 

[Grower13]

nice plants HP

:48:

 

[Rosebud]

Those look very happy HP. Nice comparison of the two light sources.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

The girls are going on 5 weeks old now. I can't believe how fast they are growing. I am wanting to take some cuttings this coming week as they are just starting to reach maturity and I am seeing preflowers starting to pop out on some of them. :icon_smile: The BlueHell, which is a medicinal strain, has such tight internodes and large leafy growth that I can't get into it to see any preflowers.

I am interested to note that the same strains of plants are growing in 2 separate cabinets, under 2 different types of light, and their growth patterns are very similar. All of them are getting the same nutrients and watering schedules. The only difference is the one cab has 2 250w MH lights(roughly 56k lumens not counting the T5s as they were just added) and the recent addition of 2 T5HO lights, while the other cab has 8 T5HO lights that put out 40k lumens.

It is hard to tell much difference of growth in the pictures, but I am seeing more root development and taller plants under the MH, while the plants under the T5s have less root development(but not by much) and are "stockier" looking.

I have to wonder about the efficiency of the MH even though it seems like there is more growth under the MH(which has 16k more lumens than the T5). The reason is that the plants under the T5s look healthier and have the same number of nodes as the others.

They are looking great Hushpuppy--nice and bushy.

I went to all T5s for vegging when I discovered that lesser lumens of T5 seemed to produce the same growth as more lumens of MH and with far less heat. I never compared the root development, but I always had healthy roots with T5s.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Alright, it seems like the faster I work to get ready to take my cutting so that I can flip my girls, the faster they want to grow. They are 5 weeks old today and If I don't flip them now, they may take over and eat ME

Everyone is showing alternating nodes and I've seen preflowers on most, so I took my cuttings today and switched my bulbs so that I can flip them Saturday, just to give them a few days to recover and make sure my cuttings will be ok.

I am trying 2 different types of cloning mdeium, I have the bubble cloner set up and I had bought a root plug setup by advanced nutrients so I thought I would try out both and see which does better for me. A few pics..

 

[Hushpuppy]

Thanks for the nice words guys. I am real happy with the advanced nutrients Jungle Juice so far. If you notice, there are shorter plants in both pics. That is because I have 2 of everything and split them up in the cabinets in case of a cat failure in one. The shorter plant is looking more like some collard greens than MJ but it is a very Indica dom Blue Mystic. The taller one is Bluehell.

 

[ozzydiodude]

Lookin good Hush I liuke the comparing cloning too:aok: Did you put equal amounts of clones in each cloning method from the didderent moms?

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yeah I tried to take 2 cuttings from each plant so that I would have 2 plants of each strain in each cloner.

 

[Hushpuppy]

So here are some more pics of the 2 cabinets. Since I am doing this grow as much for experimentation as for growing me-own smoke, I should have called it "A Tale of Two Cabinets". One of the experiments that I am doing this go around is the use of "actinic"T5 bulbs to see if I can reduce the stretch that occurs after the flip to 12/12. My hypothesis is that the light spectrum of the "actinic" bulbs is at a range that it shouldn't affect the flowering hormones but will provide some light energy to the plants during the dark cycle. If this proves true then the use of the "actinic" light on a 24hr schedule will prevent some or all of the stretch that occurs after the flip.

However, my results are going to be skewed this time around due to the fact that I have been vegging one set under T5 6500k and the other under MH500w(2 250w) and have seen significant difference in the growth stature of the plants. As of yesterday(Sat 2-12) I have flipped the lights to HPS on 12/12 in both cabinets and have the actinic lights on in one 24/7. I measured the plants in both cabs and the average height in cab A(veg under MH) is 20", with a max height of 24". Cab B(veg under T5) has an average height of 14" with a max height of 20". In both cabs the taller plant is the "BlueHell" strain which shows more Sat pheno than I'd expected. The "Blue Mystic" is the shortest, looking more like salad greens that you would eat rather than smoke. I guess that would be the Indica showing itself in full fashion.

Anyway, I intend to continue with the actinics for 4weeks into the flowering period to see if it shows positive results or prevents them from flowering, or hermies the hell out of them. Here's a couple latest pics: Pic 1 is cab B and the screen is for plant stabilizing when they grow them giant colas. pic2,3,n 4 are all of cab B.