Stanley's Medcab Hashberry grow

[StoninStanley]

Hello all, first off let me say that ive been a member of this site for about a year now and love it, though i dont post much. HGB is my homepage. there is good people, lots of info and experience. :)

i hope that my diary can be informative to those out there who really need herb (real herb, not that brick commercial shit) and dont know how to grow it. when i started doing this it was so overwhelming! :( there is so much info out there and so much ego that it gives me a headache. anyway lets get to it shall we..


my cab is a plastic cabinet, its lined with cardboard to make it light proof at the moment but i hope to fix that when i get the time. it took me a couple of weeks of saving the money, cutting down on the herb and such to afford it. ive put a lot into it. i found that i had to actually get down to building it and running it before i could work out all the kinks, so the plants have been stressed with high temps and such their whole lives.


my light is a 400 watt mh that i converted into a grow light from a security light from the local store. the ballast is open and not enclosed. i havent had any problems with it so im not going to try and build a housing for a while. :electric:

air is sucked out with a 110 (or 100 i cant remember) cfm exhaust fan from home depot, it was the quietest one with the highest cfm rating.

i dont know why i got the hashberry, guess cause it was cheap. it's been growing well but ive had problems with them as seedlings. i used scott's osmoscote soil and its shite. the containers were makeshift as seedlings and i really fucked em up when i transplanted them. i will never again use containers unapproved for growing a lifeform... :eek:

also i only recently got the materials to test the ph and it was about 7.1 or so. so i used vinegar and gradually got the ph to 6.7 just a few days ago.

however, they are about 29 days old and still growin. i just put them into flower and tied them down. :gthumb:

any tips, questions, and comments are very welcome. i am very new to this, it's my first time growing with an hid and my 3rd overall.

peace :grow: :D

[StoninStanley]

the cat in the pic is my buddy Ashes. he feels special because he's the only kitty allowed in the growroom :D

[eyeseaire]

cool dude, i love to see info on cheap seeds!

[Fred Lemonjello]

Mucho karma your way Stan!
Hehehe gotchay a Stoner Kitty..... very kool..... Say HIGH to Ashes for me too!


Fred

[Elephunt man]

hehe Fred...beat me too it.:D

here kitty kitty. :) I like that pic

nice plants too....look very healthy.

don't let kitty near the ballast though.

[CB]

plants look real good indeed :)

peep'n in :D

[midwestbluntman]

SS man looks like the plants are doing good,nice color and healthy looking.I know alot of folks that run them plastic boxes and im not knocking your cabby at all.in fact it looks like its doing a fine job,But safety is a must bro.plastic and heat dont like each other,and you got cardboard in it also,thats scary shit.If your fans fail you could have a hell of a fire on your hands.I know you said money is short and far between but id invest in some type of insulation board or some means to keep the heat away from the box and get away from that cardboard.Sheet rock is really cheap [like 8 bucks for a 4X8 sheet]and it will block the light just as well as the cardboard,but not near as flamable.

[gorilla]

Hey stonin, seems like it's been a while since i've said what's up to ya. - What's up? :p

Can't see any signs of that stress by looking at your plants, they look happy and healthy so no worries.

The sheetrock MWBM mentioned is a good idea. :cool:

peace - G

[high2dsky]

the cat in the pic is my buddy Ashes. he feels special because he's the only kitty allowed in the growroom :D

all the pics look good but the one with the cat looks kick ass.

[StoninStanley]

hi gorilla, yeah i had to take a break from this site and growing for a little while to move to a new state and start over.

well the cardboard is just makeshift, if it doesnt have the cardboard it glows really bad. i can see the fire hazard, it's actually one of the things that i dont like about this cab. next grow will get a wooden one for sure. i thought about getting fiberglass insulation and stuffing the sides with it instead, since it has a reflective side, but i dont know if it would work well. where would i get this sheet rock and if i got it how do i make it stay on the flimsy wall without falling on my plants? without a doubt lightproofing has been my biggest problem. just to be sure i have the lights running during the day, no light enters the room from the window at night. it also allows me to run my air conditioner when it is warm enough to (it quits cooling when the temp reaches 65 outside).

the ballast is above the whole system in the "utility room" it doesnt get very hot on that shelf even when lights are on 24/7. i thought about building a housing with a muffin fan in it to cool it off, but it hasnt been a problem so i havent worried about it. it sits atop a piece of wood on top of the exhaust fan. ill get a pic when i can get more batteries for my camera (its a piece of shit camera even though i paid 100 bucks for it)

i will also be working on my carbon filter soon. has anyone heard of that volcanic rock shit? i dont know what it is but i bought some at wally world, it was marketed for cat litter box odor.

thanx for all your replies, this cab is not done by any means so any suggestions really help out

peace out :gthumb:

[gorilla]

You can buy sheet rock at home improvement stores: Homedepot, Lowes... It's drywall dude, the stuff your walls are made of. The insulation stuff would work too.

As far as fastening drywall to the plastic, You could screw it in.. if you don't mind having metal sticking out on either side. Or, if you go over to home depot or lowes, pick up some Liquid Nails while you're there. They should have some by the sheetrock but if not check out the paint department. That stuff works like caulk but holds like cement, instantly. Pretty cool stuff.

Peace dude.

[StoninStanley]

ahh drywall lol ive never heard it called sheet rock before

[midwestbluntman]

dude i use tidy cat crystals in my scrubber,its a cat litter thingy also.On the bottle it says to change it every 30 days or some shit but ive run it for months without changing.Guess it would depend on the strains your growing as to how often to change.

JR has one sweet ass setup in a box just like yours.dont know if youve seen his thread but here is a link (http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=999&highlight=Greenthumb).
what he used inside was reflectix,I think its some sort of pipe insulation but im not real sure what it was intended for,but its nice stuff.alittle pricy tho,about 25 US Dollars a roll.One roll would prolly do your cab.He breaks the whole setup down rite at the beginning with pix and all,pretty cool.

[StoninStanley]

ok, quick update cause i dont have much time right now

came home from work this mornin (i work the 3rd shift) and *sniff* you could smell green herb from the living room. :eek: that freaked me out - i dont want to smell my grow INSIDE the room, let alone outside the room in the whole house. the cab is where the smell should stay...

so i went to the good ol hardware store, got some chicken wire, some ductwork shit (i dont know the exact names of all that shit) like metal bands. then i went to wally world and got me some quilt batting, and here is the results.

i was going to put pics of everything, step by step, but to be honest i got so pissed off and frustrated making it that i forgot about the pictures. getting the carbon in was the hard part. the tubes weren't exactly cylindrical :rolleyes: and it was hard to get it in the cracks, but i did manage to get it filled all around.


2 plants have shown sex, the one on the right is female and the one in the little pot in the middle is male, thats why its gone. the one on the left is the one i fucked up transplanting. it was stunted quite a bit, and hasnt shown sex.

so far the hashberry have been more unpredictable than i would have liked, even though i only planted 3 seeds, i got 3 different plants with 3 different nute requirements. the female was the strechiest, the male was the runt from birth. the one that hasnt shown sex has been my best plant in the bunch, i really hope it's a female. besides growing very compact, it has had virtually no problems the entire grow. they all smell completely different too.

gonna be gettin new genetics...something a little more uniform would be nice.


ive been feeding them alaskan fish, superthrive, mollasses on occasion in the tea, and a couple of weeks ago i sprinkled some bone meal in their soil. my problem is that i cant find guano, that's what i want but i cant find it. ugh if i cant find any than i will be forced to use a chemical bloom fert, and i really would rather keep this organic cause its my meds :( will the bone meal alone suffice or should i just say fuck it and use the chem fert?

another thing, there is a fungus like something that begins to grow in the soil when it stays moist for a day or 2, is this ok?




will keep you all posted peace :)

[StoninStanley]

oh, and midwestbluntman, i am going to try those crystals, i use them for my cat and they're the bomb. i already had some carbon tho

[peakguy]

be real careful about using that cardboard. I would bet that fires are how most small timers like us get busted. Even lining the cab with aluminum foil would be better than the cardboard.
Personally, I would not be comfortable with some type of fungus growing in my pots; how often are you watering? Conventional wisdom says to let your plants dry out a bit between waterings, and once in flower I usually wait until they start to droop a bit. If you don't want to use chemical ferts, don't. I personally think peeps go a bit overboard with all the feeding etc. Your plants look fine.
Don't give up on the Hashberry strain yet, I think you will like the product you harvest. Good luck.

[StoninStanley]

i do wait until the pots dry out, they are dry right now and have been for a couple of days. i usually wait until its really lite when i pick it up. it has only happened a couple of times but it weirded me out.


ill just take the cardboard out for now, leave it as it is. it wont be lightproof, but the window is blocked and it runs during the day, so i doubt anyone will see it.

[midwestbluntman]

srubber looks awesome bro,Mine is very similiar.They say that the carbon is alot better then the crystals,but there isnt any dust to speak of with the crystals.i saved almost half of as much as the carbon would have cost by use'n them.

[Sticky_Budz]

hey SS hows it going bro just wanted to drop in and look at the ladies u have there and man do they look great have u grown that strain before? well if ya dont mind i will dropping in more often to watch ur grow and maybe pick up a few tips thanx .have a great night peace

[StoninStanley]

midwest - i know what you mean, i got black soot all over me from that carbon, i would imagine that it wouldn't be very pleasant to breath a big breath of that soot in. the crystals are a hell of a lot cheaper, i think here they are around 8 bucks for a container (i only saw it in one size.)

sticky budz - thanks! please do watch, id like to think that my growing is helpin someone else grow.

nope, never grown this strain before. actually, this will be my first grow with a breeder's strain. my last grow was a while back, it was my first (just bagseed), since then i had to move, get a new job, etc. and it's taken me a while to get all of the equipment i needed, and to have the right place to do it. i still have to buy some shit. you can see my other grow here: http://www.homegrownbud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1389&highlight=unknown+bagseed+floro



how often do you have to change/wash the carbon? just wonderin, i dont want to be able to smell those girls at all when the cab is shut, it's doing a fine job of killin the stench right now.

ill probably just feed them bone meal for P (even though it's a little high on the N side for flower i think), i realize that superthrive isn't organic, but the rest of my ferts have been and i have discontinued using the superthrive during flowering (i honestly dont see any spectacular results, except that they have taken a lot of stress really well, maybe thats what superthrive does.) i am not very concerned with yield really, so fuck it. whatever happens happens ill just be happy to have some good HGB again to puff on.

after this grow i think im going to build a different cab anyway. this one isnt durable at all, i cant see moving it. i broke some of the plastic just trying to put it together, so i can only imagine what would happen if i tryed to rip it down and build it back again......it probably wont even come back apart

i have dreams of a multi-strain perpetual garden *sigh* but thats a long ways away.

thx for everyones input, its very nice to be able to talk about my grow with someone, i think id go crazy if i couldnt share the beauty of my plants with anyone else lol.


hope everyone's stoned :pass:
peace out,
Stan

[StoninStanley]

hi all, how is everyone?

well i went out and looked for reflectix and couldnt find any. so i tried using insulation and by the time i had it all inside it took up a shitload of space, and it started getting hot as hell in there....like 95 degrees. my plants started showing heat stress and i think that that light was too much for that space. so i just said fuck it and bought a new cab from a yard sale :woohoo: . keep in mind it is not near finished cause i just got it yesterday.

that one that i thought was a male i ended up putting in my room under a cfl and was gonna bonsia it.....turns out that nut that i saw ended up being a nut with a little hair coming out of it :o that's such a newbie mistake lol ahh live and learn i guess. it's back in there now and budding. the other one turned out to be female as well, so that's 3 for 3. :woohoo:


just sittin and watchin right now...they are budding slowly but i think its cause i had light leak issues....i quit counting days a long time ago

happy smokin more pics to come

[StoninStanley]

pics

[gorilla]

Looks good stonin stanley.

Plants still look happy and green. Good luck with your new cab and the rest of your grow; Make sure no light is leaking into your cabinet whilethe lights out.

peace.

[Cranky]

ha,goto dig the teenage tokin turtle:D

lookin good;)

cranky

[StoninStanley]

i'll probably update this about once a week. i like to see how they progress week by week in flower.

all is well in the garden.

a little info on the hashberry pheno's i have run across in this grow.


HB #1 was tied down, but did not respond very well and i just took the one tie it had off and let it go natural. it is getting very tall. there isnt a lot of growth in it's side shoots, not yet anyway. this one smells like...well coffee/skunk is what i describe it as. like a french roast, not the breakfast blend. this one has taken longer to flower, but had a very rough transplant. im actually surprised that it survived given the extent of damage i did to the roots. ive never had one nute problem with this plant. it has just grown and been a pleasure the whole time. it's a little behind so ill probably have more to say about it when it flowers a little more. probably keep this one just because it's been such a joy this whole time.


HB #2 i tied down. this one has flowered faster than the rest. i wish i hadnt tied it down really because the head bud is still a lot bigger than the side shoots. it smells skunkier than the rest, it just smells skunky. stretchier than any others, with narrower leaves. very picky about nutes, easy to overfeed, easy to underfeed. today, it finally started pumping out some nice trichs
HB #3 in the smaller container (i think its about 1/2 liter or something close to that) was my least fav early on, now is my most fav. very compact. it smells like freakin lemon/citrus, not berry, but more lemony. it has had visible trichromes since it started flowering. it is easy to overfeed. it has been giving me yellow leaves the past couple days so ill hit it with a little N. i figure that that is just from the smaller pot, it just ran out of N quicker than the others is all. this one will be one i keep. the smell is very fantastic.

all of them have very thick stems, very big leaves.

very early on in flowering to make any definitive statements, but that's how they have been so far.

pics to come in next post, i have to head to the garden for a photo shoot ;)

[StoninStanley]

HB #1 "coffee"

[StoninStanley]

HB #2 "Mildly Skunky"

[StoninStanley]

HB #3 "lil lemon"

btw, CB i tried breaking the necks on this one and on hb #1 about a week or 2 ago. i gently mashed the stem about 2-3 nodes down. i went back in the garden about an hour later and they had stood directly back up. now my stem look bulbous and gnarly lol but i thought it was funny that they didnt even fuckin budge, they just kept on going like nothing ever happened!

[StoninStanley]

hehe check it out, i still tied down #3 cause i need it to be stout

[gorilla]

Still looking good, Stanley. :D

When you break necks, try not to crack the stem. What CB says to do is rub back and forth on the stem until it becomes weak and it falls over. I find that the plants recover even more quickly from doing it this way, but no harm in doing it again. Peace dude.

[sombro]

Nice pics, Stan. Nice and healthy.

Sooo, what was the reason for pinching the plant?

[StoninStanley]

just trying out different shit, i havent grown much so im experimenting :D


main reason is i hate having to keep tying the plants. id like to learn to train them without all the hassle of tying...countertying.....just dont have the time to do all that when it needs done

[sombro]

so was it just to control the height or is there another benefit?

sorry to be so thick.

[StoninStanley]

yes to control height :)

i want them to gets lots of psuedo-sun! and i want the side shoots to pop out a little

[Sticky_Budz]

Hey SS whats up man whered you go did you fall off the map i see you took out all your pics why? was a nice grow going hope all is well bro
Does anyone know what happen to SS? just wondering it doesn't say he got banned and i know ppl come and go but he left and took his pics:hmmmm::shrug:

[Sticky's_Queen]

Maybe the piccy's got deleted in the upgrade? CB did say that some pics would be lost. Didn't he? I dunno for sure, was just a guess tho so I could be wrong. ~SQ~

[Pothead420]

Maybe the piccy's got deleted in the upgrade? CB did say that some pics would be lost. Didn't he? I dunno for sure, was just a guess tho so I could be wrong. ~SQ~

i think that was the pics in coppermine gallery;)

[Even Crazier Van Guy]

he probably did just like me... I figured I was going to be leaving another forum I'm at, so I deleted all my attatchments there to not leave any evidence from me behind... maybe he did the same sort of thing? ? ?

[Sticky_Budz]

Sux he was good peeps ;) maybe he just had some probs and deleted his shit to be safe hope all is well on his end;)

[CB]

pics where deleted by the user

[Sticky_Budz]

Thats what i thought;) Guess he dont want us to look any more lol

[Sticky's_Queen]

Well that's really crappy! I hate to see anyone go:( I am sorry to say this cuz it s sad and I hope tis not true but....I hope he was just having a panic attack or something spooked him to shut down shop and will be back when things cool down. If not then he will be missed...:( ~SQ~