250 Watt Stealth Closet Grow.. Master Kush & White Widow

usuf

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I just joined the site because I finally started my own little grow closet! I've been meaning to do this for some time now but never had the opportunity. I'm recently out of school (too many people around to grow in res and in student houses) and really looking forward to growing and smoking my own stuff.
I've been smoking for many years now and I'm getting tired of paying money for shitty/dank buds so a friend of mine gave me a head start with a couple of clones that are just under a month old.. a White Widow and a Master Kush. Not bad at all ;D
I purchased a 250 watt ballast that came with a reflector and 2 bulbs, one HPS and one MH conversion bulb. The MH convo bulb is perfect for vegging, plus I figure it'll save the life of the HPS until I start to flower them. The closet I'm using is about 2x4, with ceiling height.
I'm starting to give them nutrients for the first time this week, a 20-20-20 "plant starting" mixture..with the ultimate goal of getting a 3 month cycle going so hopefully these puppies get nice and bushy, quick ;D

Anyways, here's some pics. Happy growing/toking, suggestions welcome btw.



Some residual light from the closet, gotta get some weather stripping or something.... eventually.


The setup--> Visqueen plastic all the way around with adjustable straps suspending the light. Power supply is up on the shelf (possible vegging area once I have to start flowinging in the bottom.)


You can really notice the white/bluish ting of the MH conversion bulb.



These gals shot up and out fast (notice the fan gradually getting smaller and smaller.) The first set were taken exactly 15 days after the first pics in my initial posting. I'd like to take credit for how well they're coming along but I haven't done a whole lot, apart from staring at them incessantly for hours on end ;P

Trouble in paradise! My first problem I noticed when I was in close removing yellow leaves from the bottom of the plants. The fungus gnats that were in my buddies garden (where I got these clones from) had apparently laid eggs in the soil and so I ended up with a few once they hatched. No big deal though, I went out and paid $5 for some sticky pads that are specially designed to kill the little fuckers. I went away for the weekend, having given them a good soaking before I left, I didn't think it would be a big deal... I was wrong, god dammit.

When I got back they were fucked. Bone dry and wilted to shit (pic is day 19.) "In shock" was the term my buddy used after I described what had happened and how they looked. However, it is a resilient plant after all! A couple pitchers of water and 5 days later, (day 24) back in business baby! And looking better than ever.. cept for the Master Kush, shes still a bit tilted over, I'll call her Slanty ;P I have just noticed a slight ting of yellow at the tips of a few leaves. Taking the advice of this convenient table chart, http://www.greenmanspage.com/guides/tables.html, I will not give it any nutrients for at least the next week, then re-evaluate.

Master Kush on the Left, White Widow on the right.





OMFG !!!!!


Disaster averted ;D





[FONT=&quot]I'm just starting to get the hang of doing these so hopefully they'll improve over time, if not then fuck it at least I'm posting as bunch of cool pics.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]It's been too long since my last entry and a lot has happened since then so I'll get started.
Well the ladies had outgrown their first pots so I replanted them in larger ones, the new ones hold about twice as much. The benefits of using a Metal Halide conversion bulb for vegging are evident in the size and health of my plants.

Plants in their old pots (day 27).

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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Plants in their new (day 32), bigger pots, nice and bushy with room to grow ;D

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[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Right after the transplant I realized that the plants were getting a little too bushy on the underside and that translates to a waste of valuable nutrients and growing power! I decided to give them a new look and had my buddy over to give me a lesson on how to prune the girls. It didn't take long and he hack and slashed everything just under the dense canopy.

Post-makover pics. Freshly pruned and looking daaamn good!




[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Welcome to the Jungle baby! (day 37)




[/FONT]Now the past couple weeks haven't been without their trials.. Up until about a week ago I was using regular tap water to water the girls and they started to go a little yellow. I consulted by buddy and he steered me over to this site http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...t=mynamestitch which I found to be very helpful. It said that I had either a nutrient deficiency or a nutrient deficiency due to too much PH (which blocks nutrients.) I went out and got myself a PH testing kit ($10) and some PH Down($9). I tested my tap water and it clocked in at a whopping 8-9... shit. A few(50) drops of the Down in my milk pitcher-turned watering-can and I was back down to between 5-6, phew.

39 Days in and finally the sun is an orange haze ;P The flowering has begun! I changed up the bulbs from my MH convo to a 250 Watt High Pressure Sodium. The glow from the HPS bulb is 'fire' orange and on a couple occasions I caught myself thinking that my closet was on fire until I got used to it. The Noma timer I bought from Canadian Tire was a massive pain in the ass. It fucked up if I had more than 1 program stored in the damn thing, took me a while to figure it out but I got my 12-12 eventually. Shouldn't be long now..

On a side note I still haven't been able to get rid of all of the fungus knats. Their numbers are low and I don't see them that often but I know that they're there because my yellow sticky pads catch the odd one. They don't seem to be doing anything detrimental to the plants so fuck it, sticky pads are working well enough.

2nd day of flowering (day 39)





I realized that they needed to be pruned again once I changed the bulbs so I did. For shits and giggles I took some of the clippings and am going to attempt to get them to take root in a glad bag with a moistened paper towel in it.



I'm not really sure how some of you guys get those crazy ass close-up shots of your stems and buds but my 3.2 MP Canon has a hard time focusing on what I want it to. This may have something to do with the orage glow from the light, I'm not sure, I did what I could though.

Not much of note has happened since I started flowering. I switches nutes to a 10-50-10, which I am told would help my yield. The clones I took in the glad bag ended up dying. Apparently humidity has to be at or close to 100% and despite my use of a rooting hormone and a couple cfl's, I was still without a cover and they passed into martyrdom.

At around Day 45 I thought they were looking a little too bushy, considering some of you out there don't even have leaves on your plants, just giant fucking buds! (wish I knew how).. so out with the scissors again.

Before:


After:


Big difference? Hell yes. The room was instantly brighter as you can see. It almost saddens me how much energy was wasted on the scrap but it is my first time growing, lesson learned.

These next few pics were taken 11 days into flowering, or Day 51..if my math is right, alow for miscalculations on these as I'm high as shit when I write :D The buds (and crystally leaves) are starting to show finally!





White Widow Crown Bud (Flowering Day 20)


Master Kush Crown Bud (Flowering Day 20)
 

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