Hello, 2nd attempt here! My first was outdoor and they failed sadly, i had no clue what i was doing. A combination of bad soil, aphids and thrips resulted in dead plants sadly.
Attempting a stealth grow indoor now. Got a little box that measures about 24x13x9, got full reflective material and a full spectrum LED unit which i dont know much about as i purchased this set up. Pics are at the bottom as well fyi. More details below:
2 white widow autos
super soil bottom half and organic potting soil with perlite up top and hemp mulch.
pH of about 6.9… tips on lowering this would be good if i need to.
lights are on 24/7.
1 gallon fabric pots. Not ideal but space is limited.
trying not to over water. Tips here are good.
i transplanted these babies are couple weeks in, they have recovered since. I think theyre close to a month old now, they definitely stunted a little but going strong now.
intake fan at bottom exhaust at top.
If you need more info at all let me know! Questions below.
The right plant is getting very tall, almost too tall for the box. They are autos so not sure if training them is a good idea esp since i transplanted. Never done this, any tips?
Is the box itself too small? I suspect it is, but small yield is ok for now. I just want success this time if possible.
The full spectrum led has no switch for veg or bloom, will this cause me issues? If so how can i manage?
Your box will probably be too small for both those plants at the same time - you MIGHT be able to get away with one plant in there, but 2’x1’ is a little small.
As for training, yes - you can train them. With autos, ideally the earlier the better and as minimally as possible to achieve your ends. In your case, I would probably get rid of the taller plant, and top and LST the shorter plant.
The box was advertised to handle two plants i figured one will do. Not sure what to do with the taller one, its winter over here now itll die outdoors?
Lst the smaller one, ill look into that.
Its just a full spectrum led unit but i dont know the details, trying to find out from the seller but not sure. Id have to dismantle and find out maybe…
Hopefully someone else will chime in who has done small stealth grows… you could certainly use training to slow them down… top them both… you could keep both of them until it’s just not possible to keep both, then pick the one you think looks best. You could do weird things like semi-super crop branches to stunt them, etc… I haven’t ever intentionally tried to keep a plant small, though. However, it might be worth looking into.
You said the measurements were 21x13x9? So it’s 21" tall?
Appreciate this! I will have a read now thanks bud
Edit: awesome read man. Didnt realise i was micro growing. Ill research more on micro growing specifically. Thank you
LST = low stress training: this is bending the branches to go where you want to gently.
Super cropping = this is intentionally “breaking” the branch to bend it
Topping
For the LST you can do things like tie your branches down with twist ties, or weighing them down with some kind of weight (I’ve seen people hang pens on the branches to weigh them down).
So if I’m reading this right it’s not a 2x1 box? It’s 13" x 9" and 21" tall?
Hey mate, sorry for my ignorance i dont quite know how to state sizes in inches. It is 24inches tall, 13 wide and 9 deep.
I assume its safe to top autos? Based on what you can see is now an appropriate time?
Lst makes sense, i will bend the main stem and get light to the bottom nodes. Not sure if i shpuld super crop, bit scared ill kill em haha.
I do have a separste indoor set up im building but its not stealthy so wanted to avoid for now, growing lots of other veges there. Not lots but a bit. Still building thst space tho.
If you look at where the branches come off the main stem, do you see any little white pistls or sacs? How many days since they sprouted? I think you are safe to top them still. Normally with autos you want to top them earlier than normal - usually after the third set of saw-toothed leaves come out. On photoperiod plants most people do it after the 5th node.
It’s totally safe to top autos - the issue with training autos is some training techniques stall growth (i.e. super cropping), and since autos are on a fixed clock (i.e. you can’t just let them grow longer), most people try to avoid stalling growth. Topping the plants will cause some shock and will slow them down for a little bit.
No pistols, no flowering yet. Theyre feminized seeds so i assume theyll produce pistols for sure.
Do i just break off the new growth coming out the top of the stem basically to top? Based on size limitatons sounds like a little more stalling is fine. The third set is where im at on the bigger one so i will probs go there.
Also they say the plants size is limited by the root ball, being 1 gal pots i expect aroujd 50cm in height for the plant, in theory thatd fit barely. Not sure if that matters much though at this point the tall bastard is growing fast lol
I will post back on what ive done. Will likely do some work on them tomorrow night. Im in aus so bedtime for now. Appreciate the advice. Last q, At 24 inch tall, you think itll be sufficient to handle two? Sounds like i should be doing 1 at a time in a 2 gal though hey?
If I’m being honest I think you are going to have your hands full trying to keep a plant small enough in that box, considering how big your plants already are. I would probably do one plant in the one gallon pot.
Here is a White Widow Autoflower in a one gallon pot that was grown in a 2’x4’ tent next to two other plants (not my plant, this is from a grower in Bergman’s Lab):
You can tie her down as a LST method and just keep tiring her till she is done but the issues you are going to have is higher with a led light u need atleast 18 to 24” open space above tops put the led to close and you will kill them
Exactly what both of them said above me is what I was thinking all day I just didn’t want to bust their bubble. I suggest ditching the box ASAP unless you use it just to veg/ germ/ clone. Other than that it’s going to be more hassle/ money waste/ time waste. Best of luck! Happy growing!
Ill convert it to a veg grow box at some point and use a vegged mum for clones maybe… then have another room. For now sadly ive got the box. Unfortunate news. I will just have to see how i go with some training. I had a feelig once i got it, it was bloody too small for a set n grow lol.
What happens when the leaves reach the top and hit the led light?
