Hello Roll It Up,

This my little project that I've been working on. It is a trash can that is lined with a linear fluorescent every sixty degrees. I cannot take credit for the original idea, the link is at http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=92259 I chose this design because it is fairly compact, easy to manage, and efficient.

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The can sits on a resevoir with a pump inside that drips the solution onto the hydroton above. I mounted the air pump onto the exterior of the resevoir.

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I have 3 inches of hydroton in the bottom of the can which has a diameter of 20 inches. The bottom of the can has two holes. One acts as a drain and the other currently has a hose through it for my drip system.

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These two drains can easily be converted to a flood and drain system which is what i plan on doing once the plant ages a little bit.

The lights are 2 foot, 4100 K, 55 watt linear fluoros that put out 4800 lumens each. All six lights are the same and I think I'll stay with them even for flowering.

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Each light is inside of a clear plastic tube that is fitted to a 90 degree PVC elbow. The PVC elbows are fitted into holes drilled in the can. This way, each individual light is cooled by fresh air being pulled over it.

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As you can see there is adequate space between the bulb and the tube that it is in.

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The bulbs are wired with these fixtures. These little things were cheap and made my wiring job an absolute breeze.

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The cooling of this operation is done by a 50 CFM bathroom fan with a fan controller wired in. The fan has been mounted onto a hole cut into the lid of the trash can.

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Attached to the lid of the can is a "false top". Basically it is a circular piece of foamboard that is mounted about an inch away from the lid. The diameter of this "false lid" is about two inches smaller than the top of the can.

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The purpose of this "false top" is re-direct the path of air into the fan up top. The air only gets pulled along the walls of the can which means that more air gets pulled through the cool-tubes for the lights.

I've been building this thing slowly since around August. Last month I got the resevoir, hydroton, and temp and humidity sensor. So for the last month I've been running the hydro system to stop the pH fluctuations and doing temp runs in different locations to find the ideal place to put this thing. pH is steady at 5.5 - 6 and temps from 68 - 75, depending on ambient room temperature. The humidity seems to stay anywhere from 35 - 50 percent.



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Earlier today I put a plant into its new home. It seemed a little shocked by the omni-directional lighting and proceeded to droop a little. I'm sure it'll pop back in a couple days.
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I'll have more updates as things move along. I'm so glad to have this thing functioning and have a plant in it. I'm also eager to get some input from you guys. So let me know what you think. New ideas and criticism are welcome!

wow dude thats kinda cool I subscribed I want to see it in action.

me too that looks real sweet. how are you getting freash air in?

Subscribing, very novel idea and will be interesting to see how the plants respond.

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the whole can is airtight except for the eight air intakes. There are six for the lights and two passive air intakes for the plant. You can see them in some of the pics. The fan pulls enough air in so that the lights are absolutely cool to the touch. I'm actually planning on the plant growing on top of the lights.

duuurrrr! now that i put the toothpicks in my eyes i see! this is really cool can't wait to see the results! good luck!

very cool set up!!!!

Cool indeed. +

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Freedom Against Tyranny

The lil girl looks good today. The light schedule has been to turn them on at 6a for eighteen hours. i'm going to decrease that period by an hour each day or else i don't think that i'll have enough room. so yesterday, the plant's first day in the can, i turned the lights off at the regular time. tonight they will be off at eleven. i've been feeding for six minutes every two hours. I know it doesn't seem like that long to feed for but i think that its frequent enough to keep roots moist and humidity up while still allowing roots some time in between feedings. i'm not completely set on this feed schedule so if anybody has any suggestions that'd be great. I'm about to go to walmart to find a surge protecter. i'm going to shorten all the power cords today and plug them into the surge protecter. this way i'll only have one main plug into the outlet and everything will look a lot neater. i don't think this should be a problem because i'm only pulling a bit over 400 watts total. I'll be posting pics later of the changes i'll be making and the girl. So what do you guys think?

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"That is not a drug. It’s a leaf," - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Check out my high pod>> www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/256101-single-plant-trash-can-grow.html

alright i went to walmart and got my surge protector and another digital timer. I took the wiring from my fan and the surge protector and switched them. This way, i've got a surge protector with a pretty long cord on it.
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I velcroed it onto the exterior of the can and then cut all my other cords so that they fit nicely.
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I really like this over what i had previously. Before i had my lights and air pump plugged into an extension cord which took up one electrical plug. The other wall plug was alternated between exhaust and water pump manually by me. so now i've got it all nice and neat and on timers! These digital timers are sweet, i can program for as little as one minute, and on any day of the week.

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this plant is around four and a half inches tall.
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the seed that i used to start this was taken from a BIG sativa tree. the tree had an indica growing next to it. the plant's leaves appear to be an indica, but the seeds taken from a sativa, so obviously there was a lil action going on behing the scenes. we think that the indica went hermie first and pollinated the sativa. then the sativa went hermie because we found a banana on it. so basically i'm growing this thing knowing that i have less than three feet to work with but i'm hoping for the best cause i know she's got good parents. Hopefully, it'll stay short and bushy and not too tall for my can.

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i was wondering if you guys could look at this pic and tell me what you think. do you notice the lighter tissue in between the veins. is this the beginning of interveinal necrosis? obvioulsy all i can do is wait.

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__________________
"That is not a drug. It’s a leaf," - Arnold Schwarzenegger
Check out my high pod>> www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/256101-single-plant-trash-can-grow.html