CFL Cardboard Box Grow

[Jimdog]

Thanks dean, as I'm from a place where growing herb is VERY VEEEERY frowned upon all i can use is bagseed (Unless i clone) so I'm aware of males ect. One question I do have is whats the chance of our horrible friend hermie showing up to the cardboard disco ? My friend said it happens when you cant keep your temps or light cycle on track? Outside this obviously has only happened when a male has popped onto a female (In the bush you miss some plants hence males grow and wipe out female plants for miles)

Any tips on keeping humidity down? I will most likely make another box for flowering so i can implement your tips here.
Thanks for following guys, will update next feeding

 

[DeanB]

Yeah, same here, that's why I can only grow bag seed too. As for hermies, Idk, I have been fortunate enough to not have any, lol

I take my plants from under cfl's to outside almost everyday, then back under cfl's for the night. I've done it all through veg and flower without a hermie, so idk what causes it. Probably a combination of things.

Humidity looks good in veg. Wouldn't worry about it until flower.

 

[Pat999]

Subbed up man. Have you taken a look at those big plastic containers? It is a bit more sturdy than the cardboard with less fire hazard. It would also not be too much.

 

[Jimdog]

Hey pat thanks for the sub!!!

This is more to prove the fact someone can grow a plant start to finish in a box with very little cash. I'm aware of fire hazards, precautions have been taken for if things go sideways. I'm building a closet grow slowly while the box does its thing, thinking of making a post about this sometime soon for input and advice so stay tuned! The box is fairly easy to enter, i just lift the entire lid off lights and all!

 

[Jimdog]

Hey guys!
Everyone was transplanted into new homes today, no one looks overly stressed about it so all is well as of now. I'm most likely going to start flowering soon as i'd like to move on to the next project. I'm putting together a more permanent grow area and I'm wondering if i should put a post up showing progress once I start? If so where would i post this? (Its a portable CFL closet)
Anyway here's the baby's going strong. We are in a 22/2 light schedule at the moment feeding them water every three days and ferts once a week. When i flip to flower should i chuck them straight into 12/12 or slowly edge them in?

 

[Lilred]

I would post the info right here in this thread. All in one spot and easier for me to follow. I grow outdoors but am looking to coming inside for the winter.

 

[Kriaze]

Thanks dean, as I'm from a place where growing herb is VERY VEEEERY frowned upon all i can use is bagseed (Unless i clone) so I'm aware of males ect. One question I do have is whats the chance of our horrible friend hermie showing up to the cardboard disco ? My friend said it happens when you cant keep your temps or light cycle on track? Outside this obviously has only happened when a male has popped onto a female (In the bush you miss some plants hence males grow and wipe out female plants for miles)

Any tips on keeping humidity down? I will most likely make another box for flowering so i can implement your tips here.
Thanks for following guys, will update next feeding

Plants hermie as a means of self preservation, they will self pollinate in the hope of carrying on their species (isn't nature wonderful?).

The things that can cause this are numerous, too much plant stress such as overdoing the training, pests, branches snapping, leaving a plant for too long without water, over watering, too hot, too cold etc etc), light schedule is a big killer when it comes to this, if you have light leaks then you can expect your plants to hermie, full stop. They will hermie if that light leak is irregular, and by this I mean turning a light on and off at different times of the day in the grow room/area.

For safety I would say no light leaks whatsoever but I'm also a believer that if a light leak is not strong enough to keep the plants awake and is regular (a pinprick hole in a tent maybe) like moonlight/starlight then this lessens the chances of plants going hermie, if it's too strong a light leak then the plant affected simply will not go into flower. Not everyone is of that opinion though so in the interests of safety I would recommend to anyone else that they make sure they have no light leaks whatsoever.

Another way for plants to hermie is leaving them to go past their harvest window, in this case again in the interests of self preservation the plant will try and pollinate itself, it has after all been producing those flowers and oils to catch that pollen all the while.

I've had many plants hermie on me and probably by the majority of these factors, I find it no big deal unless it happens too early and will affect the bud growth of other females nearby (by pollination), I've found it a good indication of when my plants are past ready to give me that knockout narcotic effect and saved my harvest. Got to love nature

 

[Jimdog]

Hey all, quick little update. (first time posting off the app on my phone)
Everyone got a good tie down last night, space is slowly becoming and issue.
I do have one question tho why are my leaves doing this? the box was a little hotter today then usual could this cause it?
I

 

[Jimdog]

<CUPBOARD GROW RELATED>
So ive been told to post my next project in this thread mods please move if need be. I'm making a utility cupboard grow area. It's around about 1800mm high, 600mm wide and 400mm deep. I have a bunch of questions before diving into this so let's get the most part out now. First off lights, I plan on using the good old CFLs just because they are cheap easy to work around and cost **** all to run. I've heard about heat lights that are meant to be better for budding? Advice? (this will be my second grow indoors so bare with me)
I'll have a couple of usb fans in the cupboard and probably one in the top and back extracting air and Intake. Will I need anything in the way of a carbon scrubber? It will be in a massive shed obviously smell will only be a problem if it is smelly enough to stink out the cupboard And the shed.
Next up Mylar or white paint? Mylar I have to buy online, is there any advantage to Mylar over paint?
Any other advice would be wonderful as well guys!

 

[Pat999]

Sup my man, not sure which deficiency that is best would be to google it up. Are you giving nutrients to the plant as of yet? CFLs could work and if you are talking about the different spectrum lights then the usual white light 6500k and 2700k day light mix spectrum would work fine. I had couple of both and helps to keep the plant low. If you gonna do a bigger box then you must also make sure the fans are strong enough to supply air to the whole box. My CFL box is 1m by 60x60cm and I have a fan that moves about 90-100cfm for that space. If you need a scrubber then you could always go DIY and make your own small one, smell only would be an issue approaching flower bru, how many lights do you want to run? I could suggest 3x 40w 6500k and about 3x 40w 2700k. 240w combined could give you a nice yield though, they say bigger CFL's suck though...too much heat and smaller bulbs are easier to move, would use less electricity also. Mylar is good but it is up to you if you want to use paint or not, I would have gone with Mylar since it isn't too much on cost. Hope this kinda helps my man

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[Kriaze]

When you say that you are feeding ferts once a week, are those ferts at half strength still? I was at first thinking a plain and simple nutrient deficiency but I always like to keep my options open and if you are using full strength ferts then there would be a chance of over feeding but I see no sign of nute burn, only a deficiency so we can probably rule that out. But looking at your soil I see that you went for a strawberry mix (I remember thinking I should mention something at the time you posted it but I was busy), this in itself could cause issues if the PH is too low for certain nutrient's uptake as Strawberries prefer a more acidic soil in comparison to Cannabis.

I'm inclined to lead towards a Potassium deficiency at the moment but the newer twisted growth could also be down to PH issues, are you PH'ing your feeds? To be honest this is getting a little out of my comfort zone of knowledge (or lack thereof) so I'd suggest posting some pictures of the plants in the questions area of the forum, in the meantime I'm going to ask someone who will be able to help much more than I can if they will take the time to step in. All the best.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Jimdog! Congrats on the DIY box project and so far working out all the issues of heat and light and airflow. I agree with your wife that you need to go to flower sooner than later, your problem will be the plants getting too big and too tall to live in that box... especially with that many of them... but I assume that half of them will be culled soon as males.

The one with the funny leaves at the top, it looks like what happens after a FIM... did you try Fimming that one?

The deficiencies that are showing up in the most robust plants might very well be indicating that they are becoming rootbound and the root are having troubles uptaking nutrients. Have you tried popping them out of the present containers just to look at the roots adn see if they are wrapping around the outside?

The one picture with the hole in the leaf concerns me too... unfortunately being sort of outside, you are also susceptible to bugs... and it looks like you have one in there that likes munching on leaves.

Lastly, part of your deficiency problem does seem to be possibly pH related... I am seeing the start of a specific deficiency, but hard to tell at this point just what it is. As Kraize asked, do you check the pH of your water and water/nute mixes? Now that you are growing in a container and not outside in the ground, pH is an issue that you need to keep within a specific range.

In summary, I think I see a nitrogen deficiency that more than likely is due to root wrapping... it is very easy to get nitrogen to plants across a wide pH range... so usually this problem has to do with root problems or watering too often. You say that you water every 3 days... so that sounds like you are drying them out properly between waterings... when you do water, do you soak them completely and produce run off?
The other problem looks to be pH related and possibly the start of a calcium or magnesium deficiency on one of the most robust plants... and I assume the others will soon join it, since they are in similar situations. Our plants need a lot of magnesium, and to get it up into the plants the pH of the liquids needs to be at 6.5 or higher. We know nothing about your water though, and it could be the source of this problem. Well water is oftentimes very brackish and very high pH... and while it will work well in the ground, trapping it in a container can cause a problem.

There are still some unknowns here that make a proper diagnosis of this problem a little difficult, but let's attack the symptoms one by one and try to get this sorted. Tell me more about your water please, and how you determine that it is time to water, and how much water you add at each watering. Armed with those answers, we can get closer.

 

[Jimdog]

Sup my man, not sure which deficiency that is best would be to google it up. Are you giving nutrients to the plant as of yet? CFLs could work and if you are talking about the different spectrum lights then the usual white light 6500k and 2700k day light mix spectrum would work fine. I had couple of both and helps to keep the plant low. If you gonna do a bigger box then you must also make sure the fans are strong enough to supply air to the whole box. My CFL box is 1m by 60x60cm and I have a fan that moves about 90-100cfm for that space. If you need a scrubber then you could always go DIY and make your own small one, smell only would be an issue approaching flower bru, how many lights do you want to run? I could suggest 3x 40w 6500k and about 3x 40w 2700k. 240w combined could give you a nice yield though, they say bigger CFL's suck though...too much heat and smaller bulbs are easier to move, would use less electricity also. Mylar is good but it is up to you if you want to use paint or not, I would have gone with Mylar since it isn't too much on cost. Hope this kinda helps my man

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Hey pat! Thanks for the input, I think I'll stick to using my little CFLs. That way I can add more and like you said keep temps lower and move them easier. I also understand the whole fan thing obviously this will be a priority of mine, do you have a link to a cheap diy scrubber?
Cheers for subbing!

 

[Jimdog]

Hi Jimdog! Congrats on the DIY box project and so far working out all the issues of heat and light and airflow. I agree with your wife that you need to go to flower sooner than later, your problem will be the plants getting too big and too tall to live in that box... especially with that many of them... but I assume that half of them will be culled soon as males.

The one with the funny leaves at the top, it looks like what happens after a FIM... did you try Fimming that one?

The deficiencies that are showing up in the most robust plants might very well be indicating that they are becoming rootbound and the root are having troubles uptaking nutrients. Have you tried popping them out of the present containers just to look at the roots adn see if they are wrapping around the outside?

The one picture with the hole in the leaf concerns me too... unfortunately being sort of outside, you are also susceptible to bugs... and it looks like you have one in there that likes munching on leaves.

Lastly, part of your deficiency problem does seem to be possibly pH related... I am seeing the start of a specific deficiency, but hard to tell at this point just what it is. As Kraize asked, do you check the pH of your water and water/nute mixes? Now that you are growing in a container and not outside in the ground, pH is an issue that you need to keep within a specific range.

In summary, I think I see a nitrogen deficiency that more than likely is due to root wrapping... it is very easy to get nitrogen to plants across a wide pH range... so usually this problem has to do with root problems or watering too often. You say that you water every 3 days... so that sounds like you are drying them out properly between waterings... when you do water, do you soak them completely and produce run off?
The other problem looks to be pH related and possibly the start of a calcium or magnesium deficiency on one of the most robust plants... and I assume the others will soon join it, since they are in similar situations. Our plants need a lot of magnesium, and to get it up into the plants the pH of the liquids needs to be at 6.5 or higher. We know nothing about your water though, and it could be the source of this problem. Well water is oftentimes very brackish and very high pH... and while it will work well in the ground, trapping it in a container can cause a problem.

There are still some unknowns here that make a proper diagnosis of this problem a little difficult, but let's attack the symptoms one by one and try to get this sorted. Tell me more about your water please, and how you determine that it is time to water, and how much water you add at each watering. Armed with those answers, we can get closer.

Nothing in the way of PHing no, i started with half size nutes for the first two feeds now they are on to full amount. When i water they get taken out of box, i water fully and let whatever run off there is do its thing. They then get put back in box once they are dried up enough (no more then ten minutes) i have only just transplanted them so can't be roots, unless it's stress? I did tie them down only a day after being transplanted could this be it? Yes I did fim one of the babies I've just never had leaves grow back so yellow (i fim every single plant I do outdoors)
I checked the babies this morning and no change everyone Is looking the exact same.

 

[Emilya Green]

it has to be pH... you still didnt mention your water source, but if you are adding nutes it has to be pulling your pH way to the low side. Are you giving nutes every time? It definitely looks like a nitrogen deficiency to me, and that would account for the overall yellow look. Since you are feeding them, the deficiency isnt due to lack of access... it must be pH. The sooner you can start adjusting every incoming fluid to 6.5, the better off you will be.

 

[Jimdog]

it has to be pH... you still didnt mention your water source, but if you are adding nutes it has to be pulling your pH way to the low side. Are you giving nutes every time? It definitely looks like a nitrogen deficiency to me, and that would account for the overall yellow look. Since you are feeding them, the deficiency isnt due to lack of access... it must be pH. The sooner you can start adjusting every incoming fluid to 6.5, the better off you will be.

Thanks so much for this advice I'll head down and get a pH meter tomorrow. Water is from the kitchen tap, runs through a little water filter then straight into a plastic bottle for watering.

 

[Jimdog]

Hey all got a PH metre today all pH is very much the same throughout plants. I trimmed all the dying leaves off to save space and effort for the plants so everyone looks a bit better. I can monitor any yellowing leaves coming through better now as well.

This little guy is coming back strong after the light accident.

 

[Jimdog]

Here's a photo of a yellowing leaf I cut off if anyone needs another look to diagnose.

 

[Emilya Green]

measuring the soil pH is useless... sorry. Get a way to measure liquid pH, and make sure that every liquid that hits your soil is adjusted to 6.5 pH. The soil pH reading will just confuse you as it changes depending on the moisture of the soil and it will drift over time as it is designed to do in soil. If that reading is accurate, your soil pH, and therefore the pH of the last fluid you applied to this plant, was way too low to be in the 6.3-6.8 range for soil, and it is no wonder you have a deficiency. It looks like you are having problems getting a major mobile nutrient into the plant, and I am suspecting Phosphorus by the look of it. Get that pH in check, and this problem will go away.

Go by the right side of this chart to see why at a 5.8 soil pH, major nutrients are being locked out. Along with phosphorus I also suspect you are having problems with calcium and magnesium.

Also, by trimming off the damaged leaves, you just shot yourself, and your plant in the foot. The leaves are being cannibalized for the nutrients that are needed by the top growth. They are not done being cannibalized until they fall off, dry and brittle. If you remove them before that happens, you didn't stop the need for those nutrients, and all you did was force the plant to now cannibalize the next leaf up the stalk for the needed nutrients. If however you had left those leaves, first the problem stays there, and second, that leaf becomes your canary in the gold mine, and your window into seeing if you solve the problem, as that damaged leaf either gets better or continues to degrade. Don't trim leaves just to make the plant look better... the only one it is helping is you.

 

[Jimdog]

I swear you are teaching me a whole other side to growing thank you so much for all this great advice. What do you use to read pH in water? I had a friend look last night and he said definitely low magnesium. I understand what you're saying about trimming and honestly I never knew that! For years I've trimmed plants down in the bush without seeing a drawback, imagine what could have been if I hadn't been slowing them down like that! Is there anything else you can think of that I'd need? I'm heading to a hardware store today.



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