Zombie Ninja
Well-Known Member
Ok guys, I'm pretty new here, posting a journal for what will be my first PC grow. I am not a professional by any means, and my funds and space are incredibly limited right now as I am currently collecting unemployment.
This is actually not my first grow, but it IS my first attempt in over 10 years, and while I was successful in seeing a plant to maturity the last go round, it turned out to be a male. (Bummer). But it was a pretty lame attempt. No setup or thought process at all. Now, armed with a little more knowledge, and being in my 30's and having a little patience, I am going to try again.
The setup:
As I alluded, I have very limited money and space, and the available personal space of mine that wouldn't be 'questioned' is very very small. I've always figured that I would have to wait until I got moved into a spot with a lot more freedom. Then I stumbled upon micro/stealth growing, and saw a video of a guy who used a PC and LST'd a plant to maturity with success. Then the light bulb(s) came on. (You see what I did there???)
I have a very basic computer desk in my bedroom. Under the desk, I have two almost identical towers sitting.. the processor fried on my Compaq Presario, and me being a hip hop emcee and guitar player, all of my music was stored on the hard drive to that comp. I had a very dear friend donate a computer to me that was almost identical so that I could continue to make music. In really good shape. I swapped hard drives and used the new comp! I love having awesome friends who are willing to help when they can. I try to do the same. Well, as I said, both towers have been sitting under my desk for quite sometime, side by side. I gutted the useless comp, then went searching around for parts.
I had two fans from the comp and a power strip. I took a visit to wally-world and bought three of those light adapters that plug directly in, three 28watt (I think) 2700k CFL's, and an auto windshield shade. Total cost: less than $20.
I came home and lined the inside of the box with the auto shade, mounted the power strip to the top of the box, installed the lights and awayyyy we went!
...and if you're wondering why the hell I don't just do a closet grow, the room I'm in honestly has no closet. Yeah, no shit.
The grow:
I started by attempting to germinate 9 random bag seeds (if it is fairly potent smoke and has nice tiger-striped seeds I've always had a habit of keeping a few), but they definitely came from maybe 2 or 3 different bags. I germinated them in a paper towel, and in 3 days, 8 of the 9 had popped and were ready for some dirt!! ...I must admit though, I did commit the cardinal sin of starting the plants before my box was built and plan had been fully thought out.
I did know for sure what I wanted to do though, and the hamster was already on the wheel. I let my babies sit under a single CFL on 24/0 for three days until I got the box built.
You may be wondering why the hell I germinated so many when I have such limited space... I expect I'll lose maybe half of those to being male or poor performance. I want to give myself at least the opportunity to see a female flower come to fruition. I have a good friend who is currently working on building a closet setup who lives fairly close to me, and has offered to help me get a hydroponics system together for a future grow, as he has enough extra stuff laying around to help me get started, and he is willing to trade me for roughly half of the plants. So I do have a home for any extra females I may have.
This being an experiment, and me having limited room, I decided to put the plants straight to 12/12 from the moment they went in the box. Three days old. My hope is that the plants will show sex fairly early and I'll have a decent shot at getting buds on a female plant out of this little project.
The soil I'm using is a home-made mix soil, I know for sure that MG tends to burn budding plants with the high nitrogen contents. As it stood, it was all I had laying around. ( I make $183 a wk unemployment after taxes, so high quality soil is very much a luxury at the present time.) So I decided to water-down the MG, so to speak. I mixed approximately: 30% MG, 35% home soil (the soil here contains a good bit of red clay, I figured it may help keep moisture in the roots), and 35% sawdust, to hopefully help the soil aerate and offset the moisture-retaining properties of the mud-like clay. As it stands, I think the soil looks and feels magnificent, and I think I'd be happy if I was a lil mini-mee reefer tree basking in this man-made sun, building a life in this pillow-like soil I've mixed up. But we'll see. For now I have no way to test my ph, so I'm hoping the soil mix and my well water will suffice. If I begin to have problems, well, that's what I've got you fine genius green thumb bitches for!!!
Like I said, 8 of my 9 seeds sprouted. When it came time to put the lil ladies (hopefully) into the box, I found I only really had room for 7 of them. And that was pushing it. I made the decision to go ahead and get rid of the smallest of the seedlings. I planted them all into mini flower trays and I know they'll need something bigger very soon.
- I begin germination on 11/20/12.
- Seedlings went into dirt and under 24 hrs of light on 11/24.
- Plants went into the box and directly to 12/12 light cycle on 11/27.
I'm not an expert, or anywhere close. I don't expect much in the way of a yield this time. It is simply a run to find out what, if anything, this box is capable of. And to answer the questions I have about my soil and water. I have my mind working on a way to grow bigger and remain unnoticeable, but for now, let's see where this goes!
These computers have been sitting under my desk for months now. I turned one into a grow box while I was at home by myself one day, slid it back into place, and no one has noticed a thing.
Here is my box as she sits on 12/9. I forgot to change the date on my camera lol so ignore the wrong date lol.. they were all started at the same time in the same flower trays.. I have since transplanted most of them into something at least slightly larger.The one now in the solo cup grew leaps and bounds above the rest even in the flower trays and has continued fast growth. I almost think this fast growing boooger may be my first male. But no way to be sure yet. My buddy will be here in the next day or so to take a few off of my hands.
This is actually not my first grow, but it IS my first attempt in over 10 years, and while I was successful in seeing a plant to maturity the last go round, it turned out to be a male. (Bummer). But it was a pretty lame attempt. No setup or thought process at all. Now, armed with a little more knowledge, and being in my 30's and having a little patience, I am going to try again.
The setup:
As I alluded, I have very limited money and space, and the available personal space of mine that wouldn't be 'questioned' is very very small. I've always figured that I would have to wait until I got moved into a spot with a lot more freedom. Then I stumbled upon micro/stealth growing, and saw a video of a guy who used a PC and LST'd a plant to maturity with success. Then the light bulb(s) came on. (You see what I did there???)
I have a very basic computer desk in my bedroom. Under the desk, I have two almost identical towers sitting.. the processor fried on my Compaq Presario, and me being a hip hop emcee and guitar player, all of my music was stored on the hard drive to that comp. I had a very dear friend donate a computer to me that was almost identical so that I could continue to make music. In really good shape. I swapped hard drives and used the new comp! I love having awesome friends who are willing to help when they can. I try to do the same. Well, as I said, both towers have been sitting under my desk for quite sometime, side by side. I gutted the useless comp, then went searching around for parts.
I had two fans from the comp and a power strip. I took a visit to wally-world and bought three of those light adapters that plug directly in, three 28watt (I think) 2700k CFL's, and an auto windshield shade. Total cost: less than $20.
I came home and lined the inside of the box with the auto shade, mounted the power strip to the top of the box, installed the lights and awayyyy we went!
...and if you're wondering why the hell I don't just do a closet grow, the room I'm in honestly has no closet. Yeah, no shit.
The grow:
I started by attempting to germinate 9 random bag seeds (if it is fairly potent smoke and has nice tiger-striped seeds I've always had a habit of keeping a few), but they definitely came from maybe 2 or 3 different bags. I germinated them in a paper towel, and in 3 days, 8 of the 9 had popped and were ready for some dirt!! ...I must admit though, I did commit the cardinal sin of starting the plants before my box was built and plan had been fully thought out.
I did know for sure what I wanted to do though, and the hamster was already on the wheel. I let my babies sit under a single CFL on 24/0 for three days until I got the box built.You may be wondering why the hell I germinated so many when I have such limited space... I expect I'll lose maybe half of those to being male or poor performance. I want to give myself at least the opportunity to see a female flower come to fruition. I have a good friend who is currently working on building a closet setup who lives fairly close to me, and has offered to help me get a hydroponics system together for a future grow, as he has enough extra stuff laying around to help me get started, and he is willing to trade me for roughly half of the plants. So I do have a home for any extra females I may have.
This being an experiment, and me having limited room, I decided to put the plants straight to 12/12 from the moment they went in the box. Three days old. My hope is that the plants will show sex fairly early and I'll have a decent shot at getting buds on a female plant out of this little project.
The soil I'm using is a home-made mix soil, I know for sure that MG tends to burn budding plants with the high nitrogen contents. As it stood, it was all I had laying around. ( I make $183 a wk unemployment after taxes, so high quality soil is very much a luxury at the present time.) So I decided to water-down the MG, so to speak. I mixed approximately: 30% MG, 35% home soil (the soil here contains a good bit of red clay, I figured it may help keep moisture in the roots), and 35% sawdust, to hopefully help the soil aerate and offset the moisture-retaining properties of the mud-like clay. As it stands, I think the soil looks and feels magnificent, and I think I'd be happy if I was a lil mini-mee reefer tree basking in this man-made sun, building a life in this pillow-like soil I've mixed up. But we'll see. For now I have no way to test my ph, so I'm hoping the soil mix and my well water will suffice. If I begin to have problems, well, that's what I've got you fine genius green thumb bitches for!!!
Like I said, 8 of my 9 seeds sprouted. When it came time to put the lil ladies (hopefully) into the box, I found I only really had room for 7 of them. And that was pushing it. I made the decision to go ahead and get rid of the smallest of the seedlings. I planted them all into mini flower trays and I know they'll need something bigger very soon.
- I begin germination on 11/20/12.
- Seedlings went into dirt and under 24 hrs of light on 11/24.
- Plants went into the box and directly to 12/12 light cycle on 11/27.
I'm not an expert, or anywhere close. I don't expect much in the way of a yield this time. It is simply a run to find out what, if anything, this box is capable of. And to answer the questions I have about my soil and water. I have my mind working on a way to grow bigger and remain unnoticeable, but for now, let's see where this goes!
These computers have been sitting under my desk for months now. I turned one into a grow box while I was at home by myself one day, slid it back into place, and no one has noticed a thing.
Here is my box as she sits on 12/9. I forgot to change the date on my camera lol so ignore the wrong date lol.. they were all started at the same time in the same flower trays.. I have since transplanted most of them into something at least slightly larger.The one now in the solo cup grew leaps and bounds above the rest even in the flower trays and has continued fast growth. I almost think this fast growing boooger may be my first male. But no way to be sure yet. My buddy will be here in the next day or so to take a few off of my hands.
