55 Gallon Barrel Grow (322 total watts T5 & CFL)

Hello everyone. Bamboofarmer here. I have just about run out of smoke from my last grow, and have decided to try another. I'm only planning to grow two plants this time, and I'm attempting it INSIDE of a 55 gallon plastic drum. My goal with this grow is to harvest as soon as possible, and attempt some Low Stress Training, and perhaps some sort of vertical scrog. Any advice or ideas on how best to fill the space would be greatly appreciated.

I started with 7 seeds, 5 of which were found in my best plant from the last grow. The other two were bagseed. All 5 of the seeds from my plant germinated in less than 24 hours! I did not soak them, simply placed them in a damp napkin from taco bell and placed them under a lamp and kept them warm and damp. Only one bagseed germinated, and it took about 3 days.

I now have six plants which are all basically the same age, but vary in size from tiny to about 6 inches in height. I began fertilizing at day 17 and am 20 days into the grow, and just transplanted all but one of my plants into 1 gallon pots.

Here's what I'm using:

Nutrients:
Fox Farm grow big @ 1/4 tsp per gallon starting day 17
Cal/Mag Plus @ 3 ml per gallon starting day 17
distilled water ph'ed to about 6 using the dropper kit to test
Ocean Forest soil and Ferti-lome 50/50
Lights:
(2)Tek-Two T-55 High Output fluorescent lamps total wattage: 220
(4) 23 watt cfl lamps mounted on clamp lights
Currently using a mix of 2300k, 3500k, and 6500k bulbs.

Light Schedule:
Switching from 24 hours to 12/12 tomorrow, which will be day 20. As I said, I'm trying to get to harvest as quick as I can.

Watering Schedule:
When the pots start feeling light, I water from the bottom up and keep the top misted every chance I get.

(This is only my third grow My second grow was two Mazar plants that I kept on 12/12 from seed as per Del666's 12/12 from seed thread. I got about 10 grams total in 2 months. I would appreciate any advice on how to get the most yield in the shortest amount of time. Keep in mind that I'm growing in a 55 gallon drum which dimensions are about 22" wide and 36" tall. I'm going to be uploading some pictures of what I built first and then the plants afterward. Thanks for any advice in advance!)

To make this, I used: (1) 55 gallon plastic barrel
The bottom 1/3 of (1) 30 gallon plastic barrel for the exhaust fan mount
pipe insulation
plastic coffee cans
2" pvc pipe
1/2" foam anti-fatigue mats from harbor freight.
Dap siliconized black caulking
flat black and gloss white spraypaint

I have the exhaust fan mounted on top, as well as two small booster fans from a thrift store on the intake at the bottom. My temps are higher than I'd like, (mid 80's) but I'm working on a solution for that right now.
Note: the spray paint did not make this completely light proof. At night, I can see a slight glow, so I'm going to cover the thing in either mylar or blackout cloth before switching to 12/12 tomorrow.

Coming up: Pictures of the plants

Had 'em outside for the first time for a bit today. They seemed to like it. This was right before the transplant. They are 20 days from seed in all of these pictures.
Here they are in their new pots 5hours later.
I built a sort of a cradle for the plants which allows me to lift the entire thing out for easy access I'm wondering if I should attach a screen to each of the pvc pipes and try my hand at a mini vertical scrog. Any suggestions?
When the cradle is lifted out, the cylinder can be lifted, and flipped around for easy cleaning. If you look closely, I laid a couple pieces of glass across the lights, which dropped my temperature by 9 degrees. I was lucky enough that the glass doesn't completely enclose the bulbs so a portion of the intake air which is directly below each fixture is actually drawn around the edge of the glass and funnels upward and straight out the exhaust.

All in all this is not what I had envisioned. I wanted to cram everything inside of the barrel, the intake, exhaust and entire light fixture. Its funny how when I imagine things, there's always room, and then when I set out to make it, reality sets in, lol! I think I should be able to comfortably grow two plants in there, and because of the cylindrical design, I can easily rotate the plants a bit each day to make sure light hits the plant evenly if need be.

Sorry for the long ramble. I do that from time to time.

Stop it! haha

I thought this was gonna be a monster plant in a 55g drum under some cfls...kind of lot a work for two small plants.
Best of luck to you though,hope you get the most you can out of it

B166ER420 said:

I thought this was gonna be a monster plant in a 55g drum under some cfls...kind of lot a work for two small plants.
Best of luck to you though,hope you get the most you can out of it

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I can see how the title could lead you to expect that. Should have probably called it, "Growing Two Small Plants INSIDE a Barrel" Yeah it was a lot of work, but I like to screw around, so I killed two birds with one barrel.

bamboofarmer said:

I can see how the title could lead you to expect that. Should have probably called it, "Growing Two Small Plants INSIDE a Barrel" Yeah it was a lot of work, but I like to screw around, so I killed two birds with one barrel.

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its a good idea and looks good,, if you want a bigger yield maybe u can hang a vertical 150 watt hps on top or a 150-250 watt vertical compact flourecent,, yields would be double what u will get with just the T5's , pluss plants would grow upwards rather than trying to the sides.. the T5's are great side or suplumental lighting but for yields id really think about adding a light on top, with the exaughst u have a cfl or 150watt hps really wouldnt raise temps too much and yields would be way better...good idea though and it looks great

Took me 24 hours to realize I never clicked the 'post reply' tab.

TheChemist77 said:

its a good idea and looks good,, if you want a bigger yield maybe u can hang a vertical 150 watt hps on top or a 150-250 watt vertical compact flourecent,, yields would be double what u will get with just the T5's , pluss plants would grow upwards rather than trying to the sides.. the T5's are great side or suplumental lighting but for yields id really think about adding a light on top, with the exaughst u have a cfl or 150watt hps really wouldnt raise temps too much and yields would be way better...good idea though and it looks great

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Thanks for the advice. I do have 4 additional 23 watt cfl's at the top and I'm already having a hard time staying under 80 degrees in there. Do you really think I could put HPS in that small of an area? I think I'd have to get a large cabinet or something. I'm planning to have a trellis which should allow me to kind of vertical scrog and keep everything flat and close to the lights, but I have no clue how that's gonno go.

23 days into the grow: Switched to 12/12 today. I know its kinda early, but I figure the Plants will flower when they are ready, and I will weed out the males and hopefully end up with at least two good females.

lookin good.. if u get rid of all the cfl's on top i think u can get away w/ 1 150 watt hps in their place and get more w/out jumping the temps, the fan should pull the heat right out.. keep the t5's on side and throw a small hps up top, u can even steal a 80 watt hps from the side of a apartment building and just rewire it..lol.. to be honest i stole one many years ago to start growing in an emilies garden,,stole it off a parking lot pole,,it was a 80 watt and worked well till i upgraded..lol

not to condone theft!! i was young and stupid but my thoughts are if u spend a 100 dollars a week at a food store, u deserve a light out the parkin lot for being a good customer..lol

nowadays theres cameras everywere so if u take my advice be careful, and im telling you not to do it...maybe, ok,lol.

TheChemist77 said:

lookin good.. if u get rid of all the cfl's on top i think u can get away w/ 1 150 watt hps in their place and get more w/out jumping the temps, the fan should pull the heat right out.. keep the t5's on side and throw a small hps up top, u can even steal a 80 watt hps from the side of a apartment building and just rewire it..lol.. to be honest i stole one many years ago to start growing in an emilies garden,,stole it off a parking lot pole,,it was a 80 watt and worked well till i upgraded..lol

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That's not a bad idea. Any particular place you know of with great prices for the bulb/ballast?

kudos on thinking outside the box. innovative, functional and can be very stealth. nice work. nearly all the great stuff in the world came from people who said "i wanna do something different."

TheChemist77 said:

nowadays theres cameras everywere so if u take my advice be careful, and im telling you not to do it...maybe, ok,lol.

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lmao! I'm not going to steal a light. 15 years ago, I might have, but now I'm wiser (lazier).
We used to take the halogen flood lights from a bank building near my house and slide them around the parking lot like hockey pucks though. That was great fun!

mudballs said:

kudos on thinking outside the box. innovative, functional and can be very stealth. nice work. nearly all the great stuff in the world came from people who said "i wanna do something different."

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Thanks mudballs. Main reason I did it is because my neighbor gives me free barrels. Probably a regular cabinet would be a lot less trouble to lightproof and less conspicuous as well. But who knows, it may spark an idea for someone else?

i like the idea, building ur own units are way better than store bought anyways.. sorry, dont know the best place to buy one, but i buy everything off amazon as i live 30 miles from any stores..

vostok said:

Someone is thinking too hard again
Stop it
put germed seed in soil
move light to 2 inches
keep warm
when big
more light
​

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If you've been here long enough, you know that this isnt gonna fly.

Its ridiculous how complicated something so simple has become. But some make complicating things a hobby, so let them roll.

My dog kept getting in the way while I was putting panda film on my cab today.

Best barrel grow I've seen had 4 or 6 55w pll (I think 4) hung vertically spaced equally around the barrel. Made one hell of a bushy plant.