The Shrub CFL Grow Box Journal

Hello! and welcome to Manik's ultimate Shrug growing journal, if you got any questions...any input or info to share then feel free to converse!

My Grow box is 47cm wide, 52 deep and 4feet high, well the section i use for growing atleast. iv got another section next to that the exact same size and then i have 2 lower sections also not in growing use yet wich are also the same size but only 2feet high. Im hoping to convert the whole cupboard into an entire grow set up with mother room, clone room and a veg/flower room but for now i just have one room and it does everything i need. A while ago i flowered my first plant indoors under CFL's purly as an experiment to see how short and shrubish i could keep the plant in my small grow area and to determine how many shrubs i could then grow in my tiny space and it ended up being bigger than i wanted so iv started agen now, still working on one plant trying to get it right and its coming along good so far.
My plant is currenly about 30cm tall and is in week 2 of flowering, my end goal is to have my plants at 40cm at the end of flowering so ill be flowering sooner next time round and to fix the extra growth i have now ill be doing some LSTing to my plant to keep her shorter. My light set up is a box i built wich can be raised or lowered like a shelf depending on plant size and it can hold 16bulbs total on either side but for just 1plant im only using the one row of sockets and the total wattage i hav on her rite now is 146W (46bright white, 100warm white).
inlet and outlet fans run 24hours and lights are now on 11hours and off for 13. So thats pretty much the entire low down, ill be doing what ever it takes to keep my plant a shrub and get the best buds i can outta CFL's and to show that it is possible to have a few plants in a small cab set up.
Heres some pics of my grow box, the shrub and my light box setup. Enjoy!

hey man cool looking grow room
6 plants may be to omuch but grow four a little larger!
hope all turns out well

E. I have no idea.

But I'm watching now.

Fuck guys! i just wrote like a whole 1000 word basic shrubbing guid and my internet cut so i lost it all lol. and i aint high enuf anymore to write all that over agen so ill get right on it if i hav a later or maybe tomorow.

Buds - Yeah thats an alternative wich would probably work out just as well, iv thought about it, all depends if the shrubbing goes well, if they get too big then only having four would be best.

Vh13 - hahaha, awesome. good to hav you onboard.

Ok so i just toked a doobie and im ready to go, wrote this whole thing out earlier but lost it due to internet failure to here it goes agen!
lol, mite have to hav another half way thru ^_^

UTIMATE SHRUB!
to be a master in shrubbing there are many elements wich must be mastered in order to have a large yeild with a simple stealth setup and small plants, many growers are only limited to this and there for need to get the best out of what is available as possible. the five KEY ELEMENTS to Shrub growing are - Strain, Cab Setup/Lighting, Other methods such as SCROG, LST, Controling Veg Growth and Controling Flowering. with these five things in mind and some good tips it'll be easy to grow a good yield in the smallest of cabs and all info is what iv read and researched right here on RIU just collected together into a certain line of growing.

Strain*
There are many...many many many...many! strains out there and u can pick any cuz they all suited for shrub growing BUT some are better suited than other. seeds arnt hard to come by and most often than not if a dealer is selling a good strain that is what he says it is then chances are the growers of that plant used fem'd seeds cuz no one these days who grows commercialy will grow a decent strain unless the seeds are fem'd so u could try your luck maybe that dank outdoor you'v been smoking has a few seeds? If a choice of strains available then best to go for would either be Lowryders, they basicaly genetic shrubs, or a pure INDICA since its in the Indicas genes to grow short and stocky. SATIVA's and HAZE's are taller growing plants but can be shrubbed if grown properly. and SKUNK's are another of my favourite...good old skunk, a good all rounder for shrub growing. So depending on your grow space and how many plants you want to grow thats how many seeds your gonna need, its best to have as many as possible to start with incase of germination rate and then female rate. as example we'll start with 20 seeds, to over estimate, lets say 15 seeds germ properly. they are then put into the smallest pots you can find, for my grow setup of 47cm x 52cm id use 15 small 8 to 9cm pots cuz theyd fit perfectly in my cab and hav sum space for the fan.

Cab Setup/Lighting*
The setup of the grow area is very key in growing shrubs and should be built and opperational long before seeds have germed, iv had many faulty crap happening from not enough preperation and iv suffered for it so a good prep and complete working grow box is essential. The basics like inlet/outlet fans - cellphone chargers wire up to pc fans real easy and work like a fucking bomb, nice and silent too. oscilating fan for air movement, having a few shrubbs all huddled together is bound to create some hot pockets also humidity, keep a bowl of water around the plants to when the cab is closed it can help build up humidity when it gets hot instead of possible drying your plant out. And then theres lighting, for my grow setup i built a light box out of wood about 30cm by 47cm covered with mylar and it fits perfecting into my cab and acts as a shelf for all my wiring and plugs. Lighting is very important in shrubbing, probably one of the biggest key factors cuz if the wrong lighting is used then it could all fail. HPS's could only shrub a Lowryder and that aint saying much. MV's, MH's, HID's and all of those are pretty much useless when it comes to growing Shrub style, its why the CFL was created! the perfect weapon in a stealth growers arsinal, LED lights are also quite efficiant but less cost effective. CFL's can be used in high wattage at a cheap price and because of there low heat they can be placed up to 2inches from the plants foliage. A common mistake that iv found here on riu with CFL newbie growers is that they point their lights towards the plant exspecting to get good results but the truth said so many times by many exsperienced growers is that a cfl bulb releases more light out the sides of the bulb and therefore it is more efficiant to have the surface area of the bulb paralel with more surface area of foliage, for example - instead of having 4 23w bulbs all pointing downward over a plant, have the 1 running horizontal over the plant to light up top foliage and the other 3 hang vertical along side the sides of the plant to promote short bushy growing. a Dense plant equals Dense nuggets! enclose your shrubs in light so that no stretching is needed and the plant grows how it should, its safe to get the bulbs up to 2 inches from the foliage but the hand test is always best, hold the open side of your hand to the bulb and depending on the heat you'll know whats a safe distance. So once there is a good cab setup and all the seeds are growing it then comes down to keeping the lights at a safe close distance on a weekly and possible daily basis depending on speed of growth. with a light shelf moverability is easy and doesnt take much re-aranging.

Thats about all i got for now, i hope this info helps any new growers wishing to go Shrub. ill have updated info often of how my current shrub grow is going and new tips plus more about the other key elements and some good methods of LST and SCROG just for Shrub growing.

Jah Bless!

seems like you have the basics! keep pics coming !!

Thanks Budz! yeah il be going more and more indepth with the whole Shrubbing thing and hopefully we'll get more guys up on this thread who hav grown shrubs before to give us some input and knowledge an i will definitly keep the pics coming!

So the shrub was getting a bit tall, the main branch was growing a bit close to the lights too so iv LST'd it down now and its just about the same height as the rest of the branches and the other branches have been getting so much more light now and really taking off. Heres some pics of the procces

So just a quick update, after about 3weeks of 12/12 light my shrub has finally shown some hairs on the main branch and more look like they coming on the other branches. Now flowering begins! The way in wich iv LST'd her has set up a perfect chance to do the SCROG i was talking about for shrubs so im gonna be planning and drawing up some ideas on how to make the perfect screen for my setup and ill be relaying all the info on this thread once iv got it all worked out. for now, here are some pictures of the pistils and an overall shot of the whole plant, shes wilting a bit cuz i think i overwattered her yesterday but its kwl cuz humidity is up and the fans are on to dry the soil, she could also be root locked so im gonna be transplanting her into a 20cm pot either today or tomorow. And thats all folks! Hav fun fellas

plant showed sex but was taking alot of straighn, also think she was overwatered so i transplanted into a new pot but the new soil wasnt dry enough so she kept on withering away and now she is no-more. Will be starting a prope ass shrub hydro grow journal in a few weks so anyone interested then look out for the link in my sig. Peace Out all and keep Tokin'

Sorry for your loss!

hahaha, thanx man. i appreciate it. check out my new Master Kush CFL grow. its going way better than this grow did and i got 3 females 4weeks in flowering, pics to come in the folowing weeks. Peace!

lookin good, how stressful on the plant is it to tie it back?