First DIY stealth aeroponic cabinet grow, SOG

Demosthenese · #1 11-05-2008, 12:55 PM

Hey all.

So this is the beginning of my first grow journal. I've never grown anything before. I did my research and hopefully this will be pretty successful. I tried to build the best stealth cabinet i could for under 1000$, with a light system in the budget.

So, first, i needed some mothers. In early September i planted 20ish bag seeds after germinating them in wet paper towel with a plate upside down on the other. I got a very high germ rate from these seeds, 9 in 10 with only three failing to do anything in the long run. I planted em in jiffy pellets and used the jiffy incubator plastic box thing until they had their first real leaves. Then, i planted them no more then three to a pot and threw them under 24h fluoro's in my closet. after 35 days of growth i put them into 12/12 and sexed them, ending up with 4 thriving females, one per pot (pic 1).

So then i bought a cabinet, it's an ikea one, although i got it second hand (pic 2, 3,4).

Then i built a bubbler cloner and 4 days ago i harvested 15 clones. They were cut at 45, dipped in rooting gel and placed in cloner, water is ph'd to 6, and there is a small ammount of h202 in the water. Three airstones powered by a dual outlet air pump and a small 50w cfl. they had a humidity dome for the first few days (pics 5-14).

pic 15 shows that there is an unused air space under the bottom shelf of about 1.5 inches. My inlet is a slot in the back that opens into this space. each shelf has an inlet as well, and so air comes through this negative preassure space before entering the cabinet proper. I hope this will help with odor control, plus i can always stick a bunch of carbon filter down there if worst comes to worst. the front of this area will be covered by vapor barrier, making it an airtight chamber (apart from inlet of course)

Next i went and got a bunch of vapor barrier and refelctix and silicoln sealent and covered most of the inside of the flowering chamber. This stuff reflects like 99% of energy, so while it is insulating the box, it should mean that it isnt a huge glowing square on a thermal camera through the window. It also deadens the sound substantially, and since im trying to make it smell proof, i needed the plastic sheeting and silicoln to make it as air tight as possible (pic 16).

pics 17-20 show my diy cool tube. I basically took the socket for my 400w HPS and stuck it through the side of the vent tubing, taping it all in place. I used two coleman replacement lattern globes as the glass for the tube. In the pics there is only on lattern globe hooked to the fan; im waiting to see what's wrong with my hps to tape it all together again (more on that later). Suspended on chain, incase i want to lower it ever (unlikely). It's all hooked up to a tiny 70 cfm fan, which surprisingly does the job of cool tube and ventilation just fine. Basically, the addition of the 400w HPS didnt raise the temp more then 2 degrees C. the box on the right of pic 20 is an airtight box opening to a hole in the top of the cabinet. It has 2 of those universal replacement carbon filters in it, and it seems to do a bomb job of killing any smell.

Pic 21 is a 50 pound bag of hydroton

i carried that and my light system
(a further 50 pounds) arround the city for almost 45 minutes. my shoulders are acutally bruised from the weight of the hydroton. I bit off more then i could chew at the hydro store lol.

pic 22 is the aero/hydro device im going to be doing my flowering in. In the cabinet, it will go were the mother plants are chilling right now. 14 3 inch net baskets, and will obviously be filling with hydroton. pic 23 is showing how the irrigation tubes come out of the lid and go back down so as to be watering top down. Pic 24 is of one of the little 360 misters that just screw into the pipe. Pic 25 is of my 400 gph fountain pump with a 9 head manifold mounted on top. Manifold feeds 21 psi to each of the 1/4 tubes, which produces a good moist enviornment in the box. Once i start the thing up there i will be transfering the bubble stones from the cloner as they were intended for the hydro box, and i may get a couple more stones since the pump puts out enough air, but the distribution seems lacking. Cloner will get more stones in a month or so when i need them again.

My plan is to do a perpetual harvest SOG. Im going to clone off 15-20 clones at a time from the best mother i have, veg a further week after roots show in the bubbler cloner (still debating, people say it really help), pick the 14 best and throw then into 12/12 under 400w hps immediately. Ill trim lower branches as they grow and lollipop them so they don't overcrowd too much. Im aiming for huge single cola plants about 22 inches tall. They will begin as aero/hydro plants and end up as dwc since the roots will grow down into the res. My personal goal is over 1/2g per watt, so hopefully ill get arround 250-280 g with this, maybe a lot more depending on how well it works. Im aiming for quick turn arround, so once i have my bag seed grow out of the way im gonna get me some really short flowering time seeds, like 45-60 days and get some mothers from those to do this whole process with. Once i have those mothers and the cycle is up, rather then clone right before i need them, ill clone when i swap the cycle over, so that the clones have the full 45-60 days to veg while the others flower. Ill install much better fluoro's in the veggin chamber once im doing that.

Ill either be using Supernatural liquid nutes, or the GH floragrow stuff, depends on what my hydro store has the day i go :P. Im using 3% h202 on the clones, but ill grab me some 30% at the same time. I have my ph/tds meters, my water measures at over 7.8 ph but only 80 ppm. Once my plants are in flowering ill aim for 800 ppm and increase 200/week, last week with regular wate/h202. Ill ph every day, but ill probaby only adjust the ppm once a week when i change the water. One day of water/h202 in between each 7 days of nute water. I havent worked out all my suplements yet, probably will get bud blaster but apart from that will rely on feedback from my girls as to what they need, unless someone here has a good nute schedual allready worked out for this type of grow. I couldnt find a Supernatural build to model mine off of, but i do want to use it if i can.

What do y'all think? Constant updates to be had once the whole thing gets going within the next 7-14 days (c'mon roots!)

Also, my 400w HPS is busted. Brand new, get it home, set it up, it works for bout... 5-7 hours just fine, and then i wake up and it's now flickering purple and refusing to ignite. Talked to the shop, they will fix/exchange it it if it's busted, but has anyone had this experience? The ends of the bulb are now all silver, and if you tap it while it's trying to ignite it will flash yellow for a second but won't ignite. Any similar experiences? Can't be overheating, cool tube was working excellent, and the whole system is in pristine condition. You can see in pics i took apart the wiring once it was busted to make sure of good ground/ connections, but everything's peachy... except it won't ignite lol.

Titan4jah · #2 11-05-2008, 01:07 PM

yea first post! ive got my own closet grow started to so lets comment each other along! good luck with your grow bro, bless! im going soil but would love ta watch yah do this aero grow so i can start one soon aswel.

parapalegics Medical Rhino Diary

Demosthenese · #3 11-05-2008, 06:17 PM

prime time bump :P

Demosthenese · #4 11-07-2008, 10:00 PM

Well, went to the store, turns out light had blown, got it replaced, now im ready to go as soon as these damn clones root :P

pics of the malevolent beast now

camera gets owned by the hps, but you get the idea.

Demosthenese · #5 11-08-2008, 09:16 AM

Two clones showing clear root bumps

They are from two different mothers, so my process is sound, roots showing in 6 1/2 days should mean there will be enough root development after 10-11 days to put em into the aeroponic system and get this thing started. can't wait.

also the mothers are clearly LOVING the hps they get to chill under for now, they have visually grown overnight. Never get that kind of thing from cfl :P

FluffyToke · #6 11-08-2008, 09:41 AM

nice. that's all I can say. :P

FluffyToke · #7 11-08-2008, 10:16 AM

what strain were you using?

Demosthenese · #8 11-08-2008, 03:34 PM

its just bag seed, some really nice weed i got was full of seeds a few months back. It's probably indica dominant, since thats the kind of general hydro that's usually availiable. It was a nice smoke so im hoping with a lot more tender loving care this crop will turn out pretty good.

Im gonna be getting some short flowering one cola genetics for my next grow, but im still investigating what type of strain to get. Ideally best weed with shortest flowering time (ie 45-55 days), and if it tends to form single colas thats great, otherwise ill just prune em into shape i know that works fine even with typically branchy plants, just the potential is in the genetics.

Any strain suggestions are appreciated!

Demosthenese · #9 11-09-2008, 06:34 AM

Cannabis Seeds Nirvana Seeds Blue Mystic Marijuana Seeds

blue mystic seems to be arround what im looking for, shorter flowering would be nice though, like 45 days min. someone else linked me to Vancouver seed bank and a strain id never come accross before.

Vancouver Seed Bank

Anyone ever heard of Kish, and or the Vancouver seed bank? They seem legit, and this particular strain would be essentially ideal.

Demosthenese · #10 11-09-2008, 06:43 AM

found this

Shishkaberry (aka Kish) - Cannabis.com Forums Message Boards - Medical Marijuana, Cannabis Club, Dispensary, News

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