Good afternoon community! I decided to document turning a 42 sq ft closet into a usable grow room. This closet luckily has an A/C vent in the ceiling as pictured and this room is tucked away in a spare bedroom. The reason I did this custom build instead of the 4x4 tent, is because I was able to hone in this environment within 3 degrees and 15% humidity with the door closed. Because of this, I skipped the tent to give myself more room to grow and manage the plants as I was able to dial in the environment.
I had a company come in and do an exhaust job going through my ceiling as this window faces the front of my home and I am wanting to be discreet about my setup. Also, the HOA are a bunch of A holes :)
I didn't want to rip the carpet out of my closet, and I needed a nice even surface for my plants to sit on. After some research I found that floating floors was the way to go. I got a 1/4'' piece of plywood from Lowes and cut to length and sat this on top of my carpet. I next purchased some cheap laminate waterproof flooring to give it more of a finished look.
The cheap job looks pretty decent. The room isn't square, and these cheap flooring need all the sides to 'lock' into place so don't mind the gap on the right side of the wall. That's where I'll have a tower fan and humidifier and heater anyways. So it won't be noticed. The only real problem is the carpet is really thick and fluffy so I was unable to open/close my door with the plywood and flooring installed. This forced me to leave an open area by the door, which again, isn't a problem as I wasn't planning on growing there.
This is why the whole room is not covered in plywood and laminate flooring. I wouldn't be able to get into my grow space!
The intended grow space was originally just a 4x4. So I only purchased 2 Electric Sky ES 300's to cover this foot print so this is all not a big deal - yet. I did have flat white paint in the closet, but I am in a very humid part of the world and moisture/mold was NOT going to be an issue for me. So, I introduced some Mylar for the walls to help keep the environment clean and easy to clean after grows.
I wrapped the room in Mylar and blacked out the window facing the street. With all my lights on in this space I can stand on the street at 2am and not see a single thing in that window. So awesome!
Next we start tackling the lights and figuring out where to put them. This was a pain in my butt. For real. It was really just alot of trial and error. I would mount a block of 2x4 to my ceiling through the studs and hung 2 fisheye screws into the lumber so as to not damage the house too much. After some wiggling and moving around this is where I'm at.
I have it coming almost 7'' off the wall and spaced 1'18'' apart from each other. This seems to be some slight overlapping and not wasting alot of my grow space. I have zip ties for the extra wires/cabling on top of the lights, and waiting for some cable management nails to come via Amazon to run the power cables for the light along the wall, as well as the dimmer cable for the lights. Right now I simply tucked them behind the Mylar.
This is where I'm at now gentlemen. I need to hang the AC T6 and build a floating shelf for my 6'' vivosun charcoal filter. I'm a new grower, and if it looks like I'm doing something weird or missing something, chime in! I'm here to learn and do this right. I love this community and I'll keep you guys posted as I chug forward in this build. Having a blast hope you guys are as well! Happy growing
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Well that sucks! Last time I had seeds I never saw a nanner or a pollen sack and have no idea how they got pollinated.
I put duct tape over the little red light on the wireless thermometer just to be safe.
Live and learn. Sorry for your loss :o(
...I think not. Hermie seeds are accidents, you want to grow out what a breeder intended, not a hermie.
I feel for you, absolutely-
The controllers have a blackout feature! both the T and the 67....I dont use them but the manual I believe mentions it...
Shake it off, drop some other, (not those) seeds- back in the saddle.
Just the tops of the cola's....weird. That controller screen is THAT brite? 🤔 and just a couple of times?
I'm sorry growmie, really.
Just don't get down, you are a better gardner now, you know more. Stay positive.
O.K. Gents! It's with a heavy heart that I inform you guys they hermie'd out on me. I have the AC Infinity controller IN the room with the plants, and that little box was left on 2-3 times. I'm assuming that's what caused these girls to freak the fuck out. They self pollinated and the top colas of every bud are filled with seeds. Interesting enough, the bottom of the colas have zero seeds... only the top colas.
Initially, I thought I was dealing with some phosphorous defeciencys, so I top dressed 2tbsp of Bat Guano to fix that.. At first it was just the leaves on the buds themselves... but once the actual buds started turning this dead yellow colour, I ripped one open to find a perfect dark brown seed with nice black markings all over it
Pic of the bottom of a cola, no nanners, no ball sacks... just perplexing. I didn't see this coming, and I'm in my garden every dang day.
Another cola pic from the bottom of it
My stressed out canopy :(
Wondering if the seeds are usable? Or if they will just beget more hermie'd plants if planted? The seeds are all really dark brown with nice markings. I know the lighter the seed the less time it had to be formed. These are 9 plants from ILGM MK Ultra Feminized. Would love to be able to use one of the thousand I just created, but I'm in unknown waters.
Not afraid to show my mistakes and hope others learn from them, as I have. The next grow will be bigger, better, and much more dialed in. Learned alot. And loved every second. Just wish I had something to chief on. Always next time
@Mr. Grow It
It's getting out of control boss man. I wish I dabbed or used Rosin this genetics would be awesome for it. Unfortunately she'll have to settle for the bong 😂 Thanks for always being around to help us out man. I'll never be able to repay you for your wisdom and insight. This is all because of you. You are the man!
They look great @Creager ! I bet they look even better now 😀
Yeah I haven't seen any hard documentation about the lights and I'm not sure if they saved those podcasts somewhere on their website or not. The beginner/intermediate/expert suggestions don't make any sense at all to me either. I thought that was poorly done. But the light themselves are amazing.
Here's what I did
Seedlings - 30% intensity @ 24'' away from canopy
Week 3 lights went to 50% intensity @ 36'' above canopy - I needed the plant to stretch it was too bushy for the room I had and this worked perfectly
Week 7 lights went to 75% intensity @ 30'' above canopy - Wanted to test reaction to reducing distance and the increase wattage. They ate that shit up like a champ
1 week before flower 100% intensity @ 25'' above canopy.
Week 3 of flower 110% intensity @ 21'' above canopy.
Yes, I saw the casts a couple of weeks ago- 4 or 5 nights- big reveal was their new light that seems a bit big for me- I plan on staying with the Sky's and not go full Horizon. LOTS of cool info though. I don't doubt that guy is smart....but damn, no one AT ALL was concerned with keeping him on point those nights....😂
Did they post those somewhere to watch again? I would watch the dimmer one again because it wasn't crystal clear when he fully explained it...I was medicated at the time, but still....no aha moment completely cleared anything up for me as I recall...
Man glad you asked never thought to mention it. I actually cranked the lights to 75% two weeks before flower and they didn't falter at all. They've been at 110% power since week 1 flower just to see what would happen and it's been great. They love these lights.
The little dimmer knob isn't all that great for instructions and GSC recently did a podcast marathon for a week during 4/20 and one of the episodes they finally explained the light distance and dim knob a little bit.
But these plants have taken all intensity and no bleaching, damage to the plants or anything. Currently 21'' away from top canopy. You can see my canopy is uneven and having the 2nd light has been CRITICAL in keeping everything stacked as far as buds.
Glad you updated. 9 plants...damn. They look great. Love the mistakes as well.
Following chart on the dimmer? seem accurate? "training" or "experienced" settings?
Nice setup! You might want to think about putting mylar on the floor. Help reflect light back up instead of absorbing in the dark floor.
Frosty! Nicely done!
Evening gents! I'm on the home stretch now just fed the ladies for the last time with a nice top dress 1 cup each of 284 and 2 cups of african worm castings. All I have to do is water every other day, might throw in another tea in a week or two.. but that's it. Definitely some mistakes this grow, but learned a ton. Can't wait for the next one! Will take some final pics when the fade comes in
Nice! I have the Electric Skys as well, Great lights! Plants look amazing. Congrats!
Ok gentlemen here's a quick update as I've not posted at all here. I just haven't had any issues after following all of Chris' recommendations. I do have some wind burn on 2 plants that are sitting in front of an 18'' hurricane but nothing terrible. I am loving that these are MK Ultra 9 plants, all from ILGM and seeing the different bud structures on the different pheno's has been great. I am truly enjoying myself. Here's a snapshot of the plants in this environment currently on week 3 of flower. It's a 8 week flower according to breeder. Looking great, and some early trichome production is happening already.
Over kill fan is bottom right of the pic, next to the damaged plants. I've since removed that since it was quite literally overkill. But I did NOT want bugs upstairs in a closet and have to explain to my wife - "Ok so this is what had happened" speech. LoL. Enjoy your day gents I'll keep ya'll posted on this as we bulk up the buds
Beautiful Setup Creager!
Did a little more work on the grow room today. Today we hung the T6 inline fan, cut the dryer vent to fit and installed the wall fan and built a custom floating shelf for holding the 6'' charcoal filter
Originally I had planned on hanging the charcoal filter off a 2x4 block with some pulleys like I did with my lights, but I knew I wanted to mount the fan to the wall directly, and not hang the inline fan. This gave me no other option other than to create this little shelf. I'll work on staining a nice piece of white pine to match the floors later. Right now, I want to get my environment setup. I do have 3 children all under the age of 6, and noise was a factor in this decision making process. This T6 at full speed (level 10 for this model) and you can't hear a thing. This is wicked quiet!
Below the shelf for my charcoal filter I tossed this standing tower that oscillates. It pushes a decent amount of air on the medium without being overkill. I'm playing with the humidifier trying to key in my environment through all stages. I might need to upgrade the humidifier, tests have just started.
This will be where the magic happens gentlemen. Should be able to comfortably grow 9 girls at a time and watch the magic happen!
As stated above I am keying in my environment and making sure I can hit all the numbers required through all stages of growing. I will spend roughly a day at various stages of growth for fans/exhaust and get that all dialed in. Hopefully a week of testing to make sure I'm not missing anything and we'll be getting this fired up and planted.
First batch of seeds will be MK Ultra from ILGM photoperiods
Excuse the mess of wires, cable management is coming Monday and should be squared away by Wednesday. Will keep you gents updated of course! Happy growing
I'm using dry amendments and I have my eye on that Gaia Green from Canada. Supposed to show up in two weeks time. It's the last thing I have yet to receive. Dang $140 in shipping and it takes over a month. Oof. But I like the idea and concept. Will be in Coco Coir with a custom mix of Perlite. Should be nice and simple. Def going to have a different post when I start actually growing. Have done tons of research and lurking on the forums seeing questions and answers for well over a year. Ready to get crackin
Thanks brother appreciate the good words. I haven't used anything special to seal the window besides an independent piece of Mylar and staples every 5-6''. I didn't even need to tape it at all the staples by itself was enough of a seal that no light leaves or enters.
The door is also just going to be closed with a very slight gap at the bottom obviously. The bedroom this closet is off has 4 big windows so I was just going to Mylar them and the hallways is at such an angle, that no light will be able to enter the "lung" room unless its a hallway light, which would never hit the grow space or strike the Mylar'd windows.
What are you using to seal the space around the door to the rest of the house and around the window? I missed that part if you mentioned it. This looks great man! You can always just upgrade whatever you're not 100% happy with. You now have a great foundation! Stoked to see what grows you have coming up 😀