my fist indoor grow: organic stealth box

[blutinoweed]

Started growing with a stealth box. it’s my first grow evrr. only two of the original 5 seeds of dark angel made it. afterwards I germinated two sour diesel and one early girl auto flower for followup.

here’re the dark angels as of today. I just topped both of 'em and am doing some ultra light stress training to let those bud sights have lots of light.

the sour diesel and early girl are behind but they are on the side of the box with the most light.

no outstanding issues. they seem to be growing well with the white clover I’m using for the living mulch. I haven’t used any additives or anything. the organic soil seems good enough as is, and the clover helps with nitrogen fixation.

I feel very connected to them all as living things. it’s this sort of, gratefulness and contentment. tending these plants has also brought a peace and calm over my life and way of being; it’s difficult to describe.

[Old-Ron]

Welcome to OG. They look good. I understand the peace it gives working with them. Especially in these times. Look forward to more posts about them. I am following along.

[Shadey]

Welcome to OG man.

They look nice happy healthy plants, dont get too friendly with them, or you will get upset when you have to cut them down

There is a bacteria in soil that actually relaxes your nervous system, just keep sticking your fingers in the soil and you will stay calm and relaxed.

[blutinoweed]

well I have named them… but it’s alright. it’s their lifecycle.

any tips are appreciated. to prevent overwatering I sometimes water just one side or quarter of the pot. if the plant needs water its there but it also has its drier side.

the training right now is just by feel. trying to bring as many bud sites into the light as I can, pushing a few fan leaves out of the way. I’m using plain old garden wire.

they’ve

[Shadey]

The dark angels have some pretty big leaves, you might want to take the bottom ones off when it gets a bit taller, get some airflow under them. If that’s your whole grow space, the sour diesel may be 2 to many plants, depending on when you flip them to flower. In fact I think I would just grow one in there, once they get going 1 plant would be more than enough. How much height have you got?

[Pawsfodocaws]

Welcome to the great og. Nice looking plants you got there! Do you top them, or train or both? Jw because of limited space im assuming you have being this is a stealth grow… could be really high and just making too many assumptions ha,…

Stay kind,

Pawsfodocaws

[blutinoweed]

I’ve topped 'em and done some light training, but they seem to be bushin up pretty nicely on their own. The total vertical clearance is like 1m but 30cm of that is clearance from the light. going to be doing the, what is it, sea of green, technique once the time comes.

[blutinoweed]

I may not get the biggest yield I could but this is my first grow. I have enough vertical clearance and am anticipating the stretch the flowering stage will bring.

[Shadey]

Once you have it dialed in I think you will be surprised how much bud it will produce.

Yeah I was thinking a scrog would be good with just the one plant next time in there, save yourself some money on seeds.

I think you may have a situation on your hands shortly, those small plants are going to be engulfed by the bigger ones. They will not catch up in size as the bigger ones have a superior root structure now, and will be growing at a much faster rate.

You can expect them to get 50-100% bigger during the stretch phase when you flip them.

Not sure if you’re in a legal grow area, probably not with a stealth cabinet, but I would pull the small ones out and put them outside, while you flower out the larger ones if possible. You really need a level canopy for a SOG or SCROG.

[blutinoweed]

hmm good points! the smaller plants do indeed need to catch up, but they are in separate pots (except the two smaller ones u see). my understanding is that a cannabis plant’s ultimate size is determined by the size of the pot it sits in. would the growth of the smaller ones be impacted by the others for other reasons?

the smaller ones are less than 2 weeks behind the others; I feel that gives me enough flexibility to switch 'em all to flower at the same time. Sativa plants, like the diesels, tend to stretch quite a bit compared to the more bushy indica strains. I’m hoping the difference in growth will even out over time.

I am indeed in a legal grow area, the stealth box is just a wonderfully compact, inexpensive all-in-one system. (Legally speaking we are limited to 4 plants for medical purposes.) I do like to keep my business private, however, and the neighbours aren’t all understanding.

[Ginger_Rick]

@blutinoweed

tending these plants has also brought a peace and calm over my life and way of being; it’s difficult to describe.

Heh… yeah maybe elsewhere in the world that’s a hard feeling to describe. Around Overgrow I think you’ll find pretty quickly that for a lot of us that feeling is our standard day to day. That’s the feeling of being on the path.

I owe my life and my loved ones to the plant, I do my best to pay it back to to her.

Welcome to OG man, enjoy the ride.

[Shadey]

@blutinoweed

I’m hoping the difference in growth will even out over time.

They could well do that, how long do the sativa ones flower for🤔 As your legal you have options if it does get cramped up in there so that’s handy.

@blutinoweed

my understanding is that a cannabis plant’s ultimate size is determined by the size of the pot it sits in.

I think a cannabis plants ultimate size is determined by it’s genetics and also how well the grower understands growing cannabis, in their personal set up and how big they want their plant to be

It also depends on the type of grow, if you check out Baltimore’s thread, you will see 2-3 ft plants growing in 16 oz party cups

I grow organic no till in 10 gal pots for photoperiod plants, and 5 gal pots for autos. Photo plants will vary in size depending on how long I veg them for and their genetic predisposition to speed of growth. In the same size pots I can veg a blueberry cough for 8-10 weeks and it will get no bigger than 24-30 inches.

In the same pot a Big Nosed Kate, I have to veg for only 4 weeks to keep it under 5ft. So just because you have small pots does not mean you will have small plants .

@blutinoweed

would the growth of the smaller ones be impacted by the others for other reasons?

As those bigger plants grow up and out they will have the same affect on the plants next to them, as they will on your clover cover crop underneath them. They will steal all of the light and eventually like your clover, will die off from lack of it so let’s hope they catch up quick

[blutinoweed]

setup the screen and topped the smaller plants.

I’m seeing just a lil bit of, I guess nutrient burn/deficiency. some yellowing. I tested the pH of the soils and they’re all at 7.0 which is just slightly above the ideal range. I’ve been using spring water to water these plants so I guess it makes sense it’s tending to a neutral pH.

I feel I may need to do a bit of pH tinkering. any suggestions for (preferably) organic methods? I’ve heard cold coffee (but not coffee grounds) mixed with water can be alright.

[Joker]

I think vinegar is acceptable as a ph down in organics. I am sure someone that is more knowledgeable will chime in and correct me if wrong.

[anon81143130]

Welcome to overgrow… plants look healthy & happy. Don’t bother with vinegar, just order a bottle of ph down of Amazon for $15 and it will last over a year

[Old-Ron]

I use vinegar to lower my ph @Joker. It works great and you need very little to bring down a gallon of water into the right zone. I use organics in my grow and it works for me.

You can also buy something to lower it, but I figure there are other things to spend that money on.

[Shadey]

I use LABs or organic apple cider vinegar for ph down, and potassium silica, for ph up if I go to far down eyeballing the amounts.

Coffee sounds interesting it’s definitely acidic, I wonder if decaffinated or fully leaded is better. Definitely won’t be Timms or MacDonald’s coffee they will get an addiction to it after a couple of weeks

Might improve the productivity of the bacteria getting them all hopped up on caffeine

[blutinoweed]

oh I’m already addicted. I’m using an organic coffee made using the same water. the problems have vanished after just a few hundred mL.

the other issue I was having with was rh, roughly 65% by the plants. I did some serious defoliation on all the plants to reduce the transpiration. I’ve been reading up on bonsai and have applied quasi-bonsai techniques. I also got a table fan to give them some more air movement during the day. the smaller dark angel, Malthael, needed a lot of pruning and is now a windswept style.

they’re on 12-12 as of last night. I may switch to 10-14 or even 9-15 so they don’t get too big with the stretch. here they are with the screen. I may regret switching so late, but I wanted to give the smaller plants a chance too. we’ll see what happens.

thanks for all the advice and interest. very nice to be a part of this community!

[Shadey]

It will be close, you can bend the tops over.
The net should stop the large one spreading width wise and give the smaller ones more oppurtunity and light to develop.

You could strip any leaves and bud sites on the big plant that are under the net. It won’t get much light down there, and will help reduce the transpiration and humidity and lower the chances of PM with better airflow lower down.

[blutinoweed]

good idea! I’ve been defoliating quite a bit. today I trained.

using garden wire to pull the tallest branches down. others I’ve gently bent over beneath the net. it’s gonna be a mess either way. I have a lot of good ideas for how I’m going to train next time, but right now I gotta worry about this grow.