GrOw Small or Go Home.

So this is my Small Time grow.
I don't have much space, and while not going for full stealth, I also don't want to advertise it to the world.

A couple plants to get the wife her meds.

To help extend the harvest,
I built a little 24" x 15" x 22" tall grow cubby in my closet shelf unit.

Light is 3 F-series 3500k strips @ 56 watts and 2 strips from a Feit 30 watt (28 at the strip) grow light. So 84w total at the strips, 90 at the wall.



Plan is to veg a couple plants and then set them outside to bud in fall and again in late early spring. Just trying to add a little extra to the fall outdoor harvest.

I'm a little late for that now so I'm just going to try a couple autos.
If they get to big I'll through one or both outside to finish.

Soil is coco, pearlite, worm castings gypsum, and a potpourri organic amendments. I'm trying to stay away from my usual SeaGrow because I don't want to flush so much water through these indoors.

So now for the first victims:


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1st youngling reaching up.
She's a bold one.

Temps holding at 78f. I turned the Samsung strips down to 30w, so I'm at 60w total, and turned down the intake fan to keep temps up because it's been a chilly 68-70 in the room.

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Carbon Filters are in the ducts that the two radial fans are attached to.
It blows through the filter then out a 1/2" x 16" gap between the shelf unit and wall

I'm in coastal southern California, so I can really set them outside at any time.

Couple ounces would be fine. Not everyone can go big all the time. If anything I am sharing this to show you can still grow without the space to grow trees.

I've grown autos in the off season here before with 10 hour days and 45F night temps and get an ounce off a plant.
Last year I dropped a couple photos in late August to see how big they would get before flowering.
A got some little purple bushes that I harvested for Thanksgiving.

Main purpose of this setup is to veg a couple photos to about 14" or so then but then outside to flower in the shorter days of late fall, then again in early spring.

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It's not so much about hiding it, although yeah inside I don't want it right out in the open, but more about being able to increase yield in the extremely limited area I have to grow both indoors and out.


The off-season stuff is good, but whether it's an auto or a photo in short days you still only get about a month of growth under extremely demanding conditions for the plant with short days and cold temperatures. With that I can still average about an ounce on a plant that's only about 10 to 12 in tall at harvest.

With this I can start a couple photos in January or February, do some LST or mainline, get them about 12 or 14-in tall under much better conditions in 24 hours of light, and set it out in March and be done with flower before the days get too long.

Do the same at the beginning of September for a winter harvest.

I really don't think my carbon filter will keep up with fully budding plants, this first grow is going to be a test of that and the conditions in the box.


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#2 popped up and is reaching for the higher ground this morning.

I have always find direct sowing to be the fastest way of getting leaves above the ground.

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Is been a week since they saw the light.
This week will be a test to see how hot it gets with no cooling other than fans
Supposed to be in the upper 70s to low 80s. Box has been about 8 deg over the room temp.

Sitting at 82f and 30% humidity, but I still can turn up my intake and the light heatsink fan.

I intend not to use this during the summer, maybe towards the end to start some plants to finish in the early winter.


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Yea, I know, not very exciting.
2 weeks.

Started seeing a few fungus gnats. Caught 4 on the traps over the past 4 days, and I still saw one flying this morning. Not sure if it's much of a problem s I've never grown in such a small space before.
I'm sure there was some in the soil because it has organic matter in it and sat outside over our mild SoCal winter.
There was worms and sow bugs in it also.




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Started the training today.
They already have good side branches. Looks like it would be a bushy plant even without training.

I brought them outside for a good watering and to have a better view for the LST.

It's a beautiful mild spring day, so I decided to leave them out for the day and let them drain.

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Added a little top dressing of worm castings, and bat guano, and a straw mulch.
Did a little work on the LST.
17 days and already showing some stigmas (pistils)

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21 days.
Brought them out to do some more LST.
That's the biggest problem with such a small space on the ground, if it's a pain to tend to the plants.
The straw mulch really helped to keep the soil more evenly moist with the fans blowing straight on them, and I haven't seen a fungus gnat since I added it. Maybe they're just hiding in the straw now?

I've grown a few different Mephisto autos outdoors in the off-season, and this is the quickest one to flower. It's already showing quite a few pistils. Normally at this point there's just one or two on them, but this has about a half dozen at every tip.

I moved them about 6 in closer to the light yesterday, I need to find something so I can move them a little closer still.
Next time I'll start out with them about a foot from the light if I can.

 

4 weeks. In full flower.
Out get thier Saturday morning inspection, watering, and training.

Next time:
I think I'm going to put a wire ring around the edge of the pot were it's folded over. I can't pull the ties any tighter because the pot just flops over.
Don't fold over pot so much. I still have enough vertical space and I can get the strips closer to the plants without burning.
Plant in center of pot. I thought the main sterm would get longer, but the first couple branch are really the ones that need more space to tie down, hence the lopsided plant.

Going to start getting my soil and pots ready for my outdoor photo bag seed plants.

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I swear these things grew 2" in the last 3 days.


It's amazing how they create their own little climate.
73F, 62RH in the box, 77,41 out
Last week it would have been the exact opposite, but all that foliage and transpiration is cooling it down in there.


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35 days
5 weeks

Getting a little crowded inside the box, especially where the two plants come together.
Also getting a little hard to control the humidity, since our humidity outside has been up 50 to 60% lately.




Enjoying a little afternoon sunshine while I had had a little more carbon filter material.


Just starting to get some splotches on the leaves. Doesn't look like the usual calcium deficiency. Have to look a little closer at some of the diagnosis pictures online.





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6 weeks.
They have been outside since Wednesday. They got to wide and smelly. I have to work on a better carbon filter over the summer when nothing is in there.
It's been in the 80s during the day and 58-60 at night.

Since they dry out faster outside I peeled the pot off and added more soil at the bottom. Only roots disturbed where the roots going into the bottom of the pot.

I also took off all the training wires, then redid it all from a fresh perspective to get them spread out more.