Fools Rush In: Newbie's Adventures In Suboptimal Conditions

syenite said:
Thanks so much DD! That means a lot. Yes, I have plenty of energy - I just hope it goes in the right places :rofl:

I also made the leap and ordered my first seeds. I'm a little nervous about it - hope I took the right measures! :lot-o-toke:
Click to expand...

That is exciting stuff!!!! I plan to do the same. Now that right there is a legit reason to run to that depot and bang on the windows for your package!!! I know I would.
 
There’s something wrong with my plants. They just keep getting bigger! ;)

A few morning shots before I start work-

BB0F28A9-7CF3-4B04-85A8-996CB4BAE018.jpeg


Since decreasing the lighting they have definitely slowed down a bit. Here are some side/silhouette shots.

2A0B83E0-303F-4CB3-B41B-660D1EC2062C.jpeg


22AAE3AF-C8D7-4305-8995-763F15640598.jpeg


Not sure how much you can tell from the photos, but the internode spacing has increased a bit. The topmost growth shoots are the 5th. Between the 3rd and 4th the gap seems larger than the previous ones.

I have to think about topping/pruning and also transplanting soon. They are starting to finish their water/feed more and more rapidly. And if I have to transplant I have to think about the first plant to be eliminated from the competition...
 
FelipeBlu said:
Go for it! Although, I have found that a shorter cutting works better for me.
The only thing you lose is time. Since it isn’t an Auto, time isn’t an issue.
Click to expand...

That's good to know! What kind of length are we talking here, like a few inches?
 
Just 2 nodes - cut above the third node down, cut off the fan leaves closest to the cut, trim off about a third of the fingers‘ length on the upper pair, leaving the apical growth. That’s enough for the cutting to try to support, and gives good potential for future growth - starting with 5 tips (4 secondary stems and the main)!
 
FelipeBlu said:
Just 2 nodes - cut above the third node down, cut off the fan leaves closest to the cut, trim off about a third of the fingers‘ length on the upper pair, leaving the apical growth. That’s enough for the cutting to try to support, and gives good potential for future growth - starting with 5 tips (4 secondary stems and the main)!
Click to expand...

Thank you very much!

So just to clarify - make the cut between 3 and 4, remove the fan leaves from 4, leaving growth tips at 4 and 5?

I didn't fully understand the part about "trim off about a third of the fingers' length". What is being trimmed here?
 
FelipeBlu said:
On each fan leaf there’s a number of fingers. Cut off the end third of each finger.

Oh, and your understanding is correct.
Click to expand...

Ahh yes of course. To reduce the amount of surface area that needs to be maintained by the cutting?
 
Major update part 1: The new lightbox(es)

(WARNING: LONG POST! SKIM HEADERS FOR SHORT VERSION)

Hey y'all, been a few days since I updated the journal. And a hectic, manic, compulsive few days it was. My cabinet finally arrived. Who has ever been this excited about a cabinet? What have I become? My GF was also going away for a week, abandoning me to my cabinet fever. I had no one to keep me sane/human. LOL

:lot-o-toke:

The drama begins

Anyway. The first twist in this story happened when I was unpacking the parts. I thought the parts awfully.. slim? I look on the sticker on the side, and it read: 35cm x 25cm x 70cm. WTF. That's 1ft x 0.7ft x 2ft, not the bloody 1x1x2 I had spent so much time stewing over, and having determined as the minimum possible space I would want! Turns out there are multiple versions of the damn thing and I ordered the wrong one.

:snowboating:

FML I ordered the wrong cabinet

And I'd just been thinking with the cabinet arriving that the "suboptimal conditions" part of my story was over. But now it seemed like things had gone from suboptimal to maybe impossible. So I was actually a bit heartbroken, having waited like 2 months for the bloody thing, and having done so many preparations in anticipation of the 2 cubic feet. But I determined a couple of things quickly: a) I wasn't going to wait any longer; and b) I wasn't going to buy another cabinet just yet. This meant that I simply had to adapt to the new conditions.

:confused:

We carry on

So I put it together, gave it three coats of flat white on the inside, and while I spent the first day painting and waiting I kept thinking about what I should do with this skinny space. Obviously the way I would set it up would determine the way I would train the plants. It would also determine how many plants I could have in there, and for how long.

IMG_8773.jpeg


There's no way we carry on :rip:

The entire day I kept concluding that I would stick to the original plan. But I felt restless. And then at night it dawned on me that it was going to be both wasteful and impossible. Wasteful because I didn't need all those LED panels in that skinny box, and also because I would have to get rid of the other 2 plants. Impossible because it was going to be impossible to train the plants the way I wanted with this cabinet and my original idea for the arrangement of the lights. A quadline, for example, is now absolutely out of the question! And it seemed ridiculous to try my "powerline" idea with 25 fcking cm (9 inches) of depth!

I start thinking about becoming Houdini

So.. I start thinking about splitting the lights between the cabinet and a small cardboard box, 4 panels in the cabinet and 2 in the box. Yes I still have a cardboard fetish. I wanted a little veg box for housing the other 2 plants. A holding pen, of sorts. This meant I had to come up with a new arrangement for the cabinet with 4 LED panels instead of 6, and completely optimise the space as best as I could, while also keeping in mind what would be physically possible for the plant, and the different ways I could manipulate the plant in the space. A late night. Spent looking at different setups all over the internet, at different training methods people use... Oh yeah. I'd already designed and installed my outtake system by this point, with the original lights arrangement in mind. That wasn't going anywhere either. That had been its own travesty and I refused to revise it. And slowly I began to resolve the possibilities into a concrete idea.

:dude-knocking:

WTF is wrong with this guy?

Some of you might be thinking that this is becoming a joke. But actually I take all this this very seriously. You see, I like constraints and being faced with limits. That is often when I'm most energised and creative. I'm not here to waste anyone's time, let alone my own. I knew deep down that this was not impossible, but improbable. Sure you could grow a plant in there. But I want to grow as good a plant as I can. I don't want to aim for simply dragging some poor soul over the line to harvest. Admittedly, I also have certain aesthetic leanings towards minimalism, small things and secrets.

:nomo:

Things start to come together

Something that became obvious to me quite quickly is that having lights on both sides was not going to achieve much. That would severely constrain the width of my plants, in an already narrow space. Since I also was constrained to 4 panels, it didn't make sense to split them up on either side. It would be too sparse and diffuse.

So the idea of lighting the plants predominantly from the front appeared.

IMG_8776.jpeg


The final piece of the light puzzle

But it also seemed strange to line 4 panels up right in front of the plant. Actually, 4 panels wouldn't even fit there. And then I remembered the change I'd made to the cardboard box - top lighting! Of course. I wanted to be able to take advantage of both top and side lighting. And then suddenly I knew how I wanted to do it.

:reading420magazine:

Building, execution and the present

Once I had the design fixed in my head, and on paper, there were no more major dramas. Simply the fuss of actually getting shit done. After three full days of having bits and bobs strewn all over the house, stressing our cat out and not remembering how to eat food properly, it was done. And that time is now time. Here we are now.

IMG_8781.jpeg


And a close-up with more of the plant's perspective, after I installed the fourth and final panel directly above.

IMG_8795.jpeg


You'll notice that I pruned and defoliated this one, and it may look a little strange to you. More on my family of plants and my ideas for training them for this space in the next update.

Because I'm absolutely shattered, and I need a nap.

Thanks so much for checking in and/or following along!

:green_heart::Namaste:
 
Well done Syenite! Glad you worked out a solution. :thumb:
 
syenite said:
Major update part 1: The new lightbox(es)

(WARNING: LONG POST! SKIM HEADERS FOR SHORT VERSION)

Hey y'all, been a few days since I updated the journal. And a hectic, manic, compulsive few days it was. My cabinet finally arrived. Who has ever been this excited about a cabinet? What have I become? My GF was also going away for a week, abandoning me to my cabinet fever. I had no one to keep me sane/human. LOL

:lot-o-toke:

The drama begins

Anyway. The first twist in this story happened when I was unpacking the parts. I thought the parts awfully.. slim? I look on the sticker on the side, and it read: 35cm x 25cm x 70cm. WTF. That's 1ft x 0.7ft x 2ft, not the bloody 1x1x2 I had spent so much time stewing over, and having determined as the minimum possible space I would want! Turns out there are multiple versions of the damn thing and I ordered the wrong one.

:snowboating:

FML I ordered the wrong cabinet

And I'd just been thinking with the cabinet arriving that the "suboptimal conditions" part of my story was over. But now it seemed like things had gone from suboptimal to maybe impossible. So I was actually a bit heartbroken, having waited like 2 months for the bloody thing, and having done so many preparations in anticipation of the 2 cubic feet. But I determined a couple of things quickly: a) I wasn't going to wait any longer; and b) I wasn't going to buy another cabinet just yet. This meant that I simply had to adapt to the new conditions.

:confused:

We carry on

So I put it together, gave it three coats of flat white on the inside, and while I spent the first day painting and waiting I kept thinking about what I should do with this skinny space. Obviously the way I would set it up would determine the way I would train the plants. It would also determine how many plants I could have in there, and for how long.

IMG_8773.jpeg


There's no way we carry on :rip:

The entire day I kept concluding that I would stick to the original plan. But I felt restless. And then at night it dawned on me that it was going to be both wasteful and impossible. Wasteful because I didn't need all those LED panels in that skinny box, and also because I would have to get rid of the other 2 plants. Impossible because it was going to be impossible to train the plants the way I wanted with this cabinet and my original idea for the arrangement of the lights. A quadline, for example, is now absolutely out of the question! And it seemed ridiculous to try my "powerline" idea with 25 fcking cm (9 inches) of depth!

I start thinking about becoming Houdini

So.. I start thinking about splitting the lights between the cabinet and a small cardboard box, 4 panels in the cabinet and 2 in the box. Yes I still have a cardboard fetish. I wanted a little veg box for housing the other 2 plants. A holding pen, of sorts. This meant I had to come up with a new arrangement for the cabinet with 4 LED panels instead of 6, and completely optimise the space as best as I could, while also keeping in mind what would be physically possible for the plant, and the different ways I could manipulate the plant in the space. A late night. Spent looking at different setups all over the internet, at different training methods people use... Oh yeah. I'd already designed and installed my outtake system by this point, with the original lights arrangement in mind. That wasn't going anywhere either. That had been its own travesty and I refused to revise it. And slowly I began to resolve the possibilities into a concrete idea.

:dude-knocking:

WTF is wrong with this guy?

Some of you might be thinking that this is becoming a joke. But actually I take all this this very seriously. You see, I like constraints and being faced with limits. That is often when I'm most energised and creative. I'm not here to waste anyone's time, let alone my own. I knew deep down that this was not impossible, but improbable. Sure you could grow a plant in there. But I want to grow as good a plant as I can. I don't want to aim for simply dragging some poor soul over the line to harvest. Admittedly, I also have certain aesthetic leanings towards minimalism, small things and secrets.

:nomo:

Things start to come together

Something that became obvious to me quite quickly is that having lights on both sides was not going to achieve much. That would severely constrain the width of my plants, in an already narrow space. Since I also was constrained to 4 panels, it didn't make sense to split them up on either side. It would be too sparse and diffuse.

So the idea of lighting the plants predominantly from the front appeared.

IMG_8776.jpeg


The final piece of the light puzzle

But it also seemed strange to line 4 panels up right in front of the plant. Actually, 4 panels wouldn't even fit there. And then I remembered the change I'd made to the cardboard box - top lighting! Of course. I wanted to be able to take advantage of both top and side lighting. And then suddenly I knew how I wanted to do it.

:reading420magazine:

Building, execution and the present

Once I had the design fixed in my head, and on paper, there were no more major dramas. Simply the fuss of actually getting shit done. After three full days of having bits and bobs strewn all over the house, stressing our cat out and not remembering how to eat food properly, it was done. And that time is now time. Here we are now.

IMG_8781.jpeg


And a close-up with more of the plant's perspective, after I installed the fourth and final panel directly above.

IMG_8795.jpeg


You'll notice that I pruned and defoliated this one, and it may look a little strange to you. More on my family of plants and my ideas for training them for this space in the next update.

Because I'm absolutely shattered, and I need a nap.

Thanks so much for checking in and/or following along!

:green_heart::Namaste:
Click to expand...
Love the night time shot with the doors open on your spaces! That’s grow creep. You thought you were planning one, but ended up with two gardens. Serendipity, as I have said before, is, according to Richard Dawkins, when you are looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead you find the farmer’s daughter!
I’ll be interested to see how you train that one for your flower cabinet. I’d quad it, but that’s me. Another thing I do which you may want to - especially since you have lighting down one side - is I turn each pot in the flower room 90* every day. It feels a little OCD, but the plants seem to ‘like’ it.
Nice work, Sy. You rock :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
Back
Top Bottom