Coolest Winter Outdoor Grow

eliasson420

Member
alrite this has been a 3 year long project. i have successfully built a 2 x 2 greenhouse with an aquarium water heater in a bucket of water thats powered by a solar panel and controlled by a thermostat. the 13w led light and digital timer i installed keeps her thinking shes on a 12/12 schedule. it runs only two hours, takes very little electricity and creates no heat. the green "dollhouse", as my girl has affectionately named this treasure, is made of pvc and 6 mil plastic sheet. i went out to check on them (2.5mile hike, no trail) and dug the thing out of almost a foot of snow. it had melted the snow around itself into an ice cave lol. the temps were 64 degrees. :-) humidity is controlled by a custom ducted 120mm pc fan. humidty when i dug her out was 80% once i uncorked her blowhole, it dropped back to 50% rh. this is an awesome idea if you have an old solar panel laying around. the cool part is, being in the dark, she started to flower much more than the previous week. i have to wade a small creek to get to the site, so cold nuts and no pics. plus i dont want my design stolen ;-). i brought home some leaves to try and play "name that genotype" because this is a bag seed out of the best bud ive ever smoked. found 3 seeds in a qp. all 3 were female. two were sold to buddies for 10 bucks once they were 10'' and showing preflowers. this entire kit fit into a regular backpack. except the bucket, which i acted like was full of minnows. heres the leaf pics. if any rich asses wanna buy the design, :-))
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Greggos88

Active Member
Awesome! Kudos! More pics of the plants upright and living would really help identify what you have if you are truly interested in finding out. Would love to see your setup if you ever decide to post. :)
 

eliasson420

Member
this is 3 years trial and error, i finally figured out a few key elements. the aquarium heater is turned to full blast 96f i believe. when coupled with the thermostat, it comes on when temps hit 75 and stays on til they reach 83. the lowest recorded temp on the digital thermometer was 64 degrees, even through a white out blizzard. the 13w led grow light is on a photo sensor that turns it on about 30 minutes before sunset, but is sensitive enough to stay off during cloudy days. its downright genius if you live in a prohibitionist state and have nowhere to grow in the winter....100 bucks well spent. the solar panel was placed in a tree and aligned for maximum exposure. due to the angle of the winter sun she was at a perfect angle to not build up snow accumulation. i have wired the panel to a capacitor that at full charge will run the system including the 13w led for 24-72 hours depending on outside temps. during the blizzard i had my only problem, the led was only set up to come on near dusk to keep the 12/12 cycle, but not to be on all day sapping power. while under the snow she was only getting 2.5 to 3 hours of artificial light. between 5ishpm and 8pm.
 
Holy crap just a $100? I love the idea I have been trying to figure out a way to grow outdoors in the winter. BTW how much would one of those solar panels cost? I cant really look right now.
 

topfuel29

Well-Known Member
It got down to 18-F in my flower room a couple of weeks ago. Good thing it was for only a couple hours before the lights came on.
 

eliasson420

Member
daaaaamn man ive heard 24 degrees f is death to cannabis....got lucky there. its just like having a few black 55 gallon drums in your full sized greenhouse. i did it last year and after a heavy rain there was 8 inches standing water than shorted everything out the panel was originally for powering laptop my on camping trips (i work/go to school online). i picked it up off craigslist for $100, im unsure of the brand (i assume its chinese) but this one is very similar and same wattage. mine isnt cloth its plastic but folds the same way and can mount to a tree. i redid all connections, its now properly butt connected and heatshrank. im pretty proud and next year im going to double the scale by simply adding another solar panel and extending from 2 x 2 to 4 x 2. with a whisper quiet genny, or a super nice solar panel/ capacitor combo, i could run an hps and really grow some shit.
oh yea and cost other than the solar panel was 100 bones.
 
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