LED/T5 Veg, 400W HPS Flower SCOG Cabinet

cruzer101 · #1 10-24-2008, 09:51 PM

Grow Journal
Cabinet grow SCROG
Three months time, Clone to Harvest.

LED/T5 veg. 400w HPS Flower.
Hydroton medium, drip system120 cfm intake fan and vent,
2x120 cfm exhaust fans.

Flora and Foxfarm Nutrents.
Cabinet size 36X18 inches

Overview
Lots of Pictures!

I had a female Apollo that was getting ready to flower and I noticed all the lower
growth on her and decided I would try a screen of green with it. I pruned the lower branches
and took12 clones. Those I vegged for 26 days under LED and T5 Lighting.

Out of the twelve I took the best 6 plants and made a scrog (screen of green)
and then switched to the 400 watt sodium.

I am no pro at this but I do have a couple grows unde my belt and have read a lot.
My thinking is to use LED lighting to help the plant mature faster and complete the
first grow in three months. I will take cuttings just before flowering and veg them while
the first grow is flowering. Then I will have a harvest every two months. I am hoping for
2 oz of dried bud per harvest. That way I have an oz a month for smoke.

Let’s start at the beginning.

cruzer101 · #2 10-24-2008, 09:59 PM

Day 1
Taking clones.
I got some Clonex gel and solution. A clean razor blade and rapid rooter plugs.

I added the solution per directions and one drop of super thrive to distilled water in
a one gallon container and poured some in a plastic tub. As I took the cuttings I put
them in the tub making sure the cut end was under water.

I use rapid rooter plugs because you don’t need to soak them in ph 5.5 water overnight and they don’t retain
as much water as rock wool. (I always over water rock wool) The
trick to it is you split them down the center so the cutting touches the medium.

Time to prepare the cuttings I will show you how I do it.

Trim the leaves that will stay

Remove the last one

Cut on a 45 degree angle right below the node. (where the leaf was attached)
I usually use a razor blade but I couldn't do that and take a pic at the same time.

Then I slice the stem up the center and scrape the sides.
(This is best done under water)

Dip it into the cloning gel, up to where it’s going into the medium.

Place it into the rapid rooter plug and put it in a tray that holds the cube together.
Or you could just use a twist tie. Then place them in the larger tray and cover them.

You can get a growing tray and a dome but I found that was a little too big for my needs.
I went to a local Wall Mart and got a couple baking pans with covers for a couple bucks. They work great.
Now I spray the pan and the dome with water add the trays and put them in a dark place for 24 hours.

After 24 hours you want to add a little light. You don’t need much to start the process.
I used one t5 24 inch fluorescent but anything will do. If you want to use a high powered light like a 1000 watt HPS
just make sure they are several feet away from it.

I water every other day with the Clonex/super thrive solution,

Water just enough to keep them damp for one week. Keep the dome damp by
spraying it with water once a day.
Keep your temps between 78 to 85 degrees. At first they look like they are dyeing but after a couple days
you will notice the new growth, it will be a lighter shade of green.

Day 6
Then remove a plug and look for roots popping out of the bottom. Once you see a few
of them its time to put them into rock wool cubes. I use the 3x4 cubes with the hole cut
in it. First get a container and add water, (I use distilled) add a drop of super thrive
(1 drop per gallon) balance the ph to 5.0 Soak the cubes overnight.

Next day Remove the cubes and give them a little shake so they don’t drip and set them
on a towel. Note * don’t squeeze them as you will close up the airways.

Now the rooter cubes are smaller then the hole in the rock wool cubes so you want
to cut up a rooter cube and use that to fill the hole. No need to water at this point.

Now its time to mix there nutes. I use Flora Nova Grow for the veg cycle and Fox
Farm's Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom for Flowering. Tiger Bloom helps promote bud sites.

For now I mix Flora Nova in distilled water at 600 ppm
Then PH balance the water to 5.7
Next week I will use 1200 ppm

I Keep them damp not soaked by watering every other day. You want to water right where the cubes meet each other the first couple times. After that don’t get any water on the rooter cube, just water the rock wool cube in one place until it drips out the bottom.
You can hand water, I built a drip system for them.

cruzer101 · #3 10-26-2008, 02:43 PM

Got all the tubes and fittings at OSH for under $20 then I got a 5 gallon tub for a reservoir and a sweater box for the tray. That was about $15 and a sink drain $8 so the grow tray will drain back into the reservoir.

The pump I got at an aquarium store. 200gph power head. Used in underground filters.
I think that was around $30

Kept the temps between 75 and 90 degrees.

Now its time for proper lighting at 18 to 24 hours a day.
I use a combo of LED and T5 fluorescents. For Led’s I have three 14 watt panels (homegrownlights.com) and four luxum star royal blue.
For Fluorescents I have a sunlight supply hood (sun blaze 24) that has 4 24" high output bulbs. I use 3 5000k bulbs and one 3000k to veg.
Oh, I also have one 24 watt high output strip lamp under the led array for side lighting. Each bulb draws 24 watts and puts out 40 watts. So the plants receive 200 watts of fluorescents plus the benefit of the perfect wavelength the led will provide.

Based on the fact plants only use 10% of the wavelength of a standard light I am
drawing 46 watts of electricity but it is the equivalent of 420 watts of standard lighting.
This means a total of 620 watts of power while drawing 213 watts and no heat issues.
(Not until I run the 400w)
See how fast they grow in the following pictures. I took one picture a day.

cruzer101 · #4 10-26-2008, 02:45 PM

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Now the roots are comming out the bottom of these cubes so it is time for the pots.
I use square 5 inch pots and fill with Hydroton medium. (I was short 2 pots)

Day 14

I had to re-arange them. I put the larger ones on one side and tilted the light.

cruzer101 · #5 10-26-2008, 02:47 PM

Day 16
Woops, one is not getting enough water.

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Time to prune the lower branches, I take of the bottom set.

Day 21

cruzer101 · #6 10-26-2008, 02:53 PM

Day 23

Day 24

Now its time to Pick the best six plants for the flowering stage. They are now about
8 to 10 inches tall. Here is what we got.

Day 25

If you look closely you can see I added a piece of poultry fence as a screen to train
them with. I don’t have a lot of vertical space so we need to use all the space we can.
This is called screen of green. SCROG

I see a lot of people refer to this type of grow as sea of green but that isn’t correct.
Sea of green grows are several plants like 15 in the same space.
Here I use fewer plants and train them to grow into the screen horizontally. Then just the buds grow vertically.

Here are some examples of training the plants.

The idea is to let the plant grow past the screen a couple inches and gently bend the stem under the wire. You can use twist ties if you like,
or just bend them under. Within a day or so they will continue to grow towards the light and you do it again.

cruzer101 · #7 11-05-2008, 10:26 PM

After a week of this its time to fire up the flowering lamp. I use a 400 watt HPS.
Because my cabinet is only 18 inches deep I needed to make a custom cool tube.

I went on eBay and got a Pyrex tube. They used to sell them to bake with.
They are called bake a round. I guess you made bread out of them. There are several
DIY cool tube instructions on the internet. I will spare you the details. I use a 120 cfm
duct booster fan attached to the back of it behind the cabinet. Works for me.

So on a typical day first the led’s come on for an hour and they get watered for 30 min.

Then the HPS warms up....

Then flower time.
Day 26

The cabinet is vented outside through the light fixture. There is an intake of fresh air at the base of the plants, also additional exhaust next to the lamp and circulating fan hanging on the right. A couple trays of water on the bottom to maintain the correct humidity

cruzer101 · #8 11-05-2008, 11:39 PM

Now I add my custom reflector.
Here is a shot from the plants point of view

cruzer101 · #9 11-05-2008, 11:40 PM

Day 29

The left side seems to be doing better than the right...

cruzer101 · #10 11-05-2008, 11:43 PM

Ok One month old and starting to pre-flower. Here is a close up.

Shot of the top of the canopy...

__________________________________________________ _____________
2nd week flowering /26 day veg

PPMs at 850. PH 5.7 watering twice a day for 30 min. Temps 71/95
I change the res once a week. (3 gal.) add a gallon of distilled every other day.

I think we got one more week of stretching, seems to be filling out well enough.

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