Space Bucket - DIY 85W LED strips grow in a 6 gallon trash bin

Hello dear friends,

I'm growing in a 23L / 6g plastic bucket, as I like to keep the system light, portable and stealth.

For lightning I'm using 10 meters of LED strips SMD5730, which are pulling 85W from the wall. This time, I also added two CFLs 23W + 15W to increase temperature since it's cold here and boost the growth a bit. Last time I didn't use them, so will be cool to compare the results.

I shared more information about the bucket on my last grow with this system, also I added some pictures of the plant development: https://www.rollitup.org/t/bucket-grow-led-strips-diy-85w-smd5730.888772/#post-12076051

Last time I got 52grams wet and trimmed. This time I hope to get better results as I'm using more light and soil more rich nutrient with perlite, also added some wormcasting from my bin.

Day 6 (day 1 - soaking in a cup of water)

They had just sprouted, the 4 seeds sprouted all at the same time. For germination I use only on CFL 23W 24/24.
Note: This time I'm growing in a colder region, in turn this girls needed 6 days to show up, temperature was 20C. I was used to have them showing up on the third day with germination temperatures at 24C/25C. Curious how 5 degrees speed up things this much.



Day 13

Not the fastest development I have seen, but still on the average.



You can notice the pot is not touching the bottom, it's lifted so the plants are closer to the top lights. When the plants start gaining height I will have to adjust it. In the picture check the pot I'm using to lift the plants



Day 14

This day I added the 2 CFLs I mentioned before, 23W + 15W. The pot I'm using is not the optimal for root development but it's optimal to fit in the bucket.



Looks like this:




So far this is the stage I am. This strain is a cross done by me, very stable and fast growing, I don't use any other. These are unsexed autoflowering plants, once they show their sex I will let the females, would be fun to see 2 or 3 plants growing till maturity in that set up.

The growing conditions:
- Temp 25C, RH 40%-65%
- Light 24/24
- Substrate - Rich soil with perlite and 10% vermicompost
- Fertilizer - Biobizz Bio Bloom (didn't use yet)
- Pot size - 3L


Last time this was the harvest:



Will keep you posted.

Cheers!

Very innovative..

Day 16



Day 18

So, 12 days since these beauties sprouted. It seems they are developing slower than last time, even using two extra CFLs adding 38W to the grow.



The two main differences in this grow:
1 - I'm growing 100% organic this time, last time I used inorganic fertilizer.
2 - Temperatures have reached 28-29C a few times in this grow. Last time temperatures rarely reached 26C. It seems this babies thrive in the colder spectrum.

Still, I won't change anything in this set up till the end of this grow. I'm curious to see how plants will develop and how much they will yield with this growing set.

In the last grow the plant looked like this on the 21th day of growth.



This time, the plants look like this on the 19th day:



They are smaller, less bushy and leaves are tinnier. Do you think that in 2 days (when they will reach the 21th mark) the growth will be similar to the previous picture? Apart from the 2 days difference, in this grow the seeds germinated 3 days later than normal, maybe their internal clock is triggered when soaked on water (I thought it would start counting when sprouted) and that would put them behind 5 days.
It seems in both pictures they are in the same stage of development but smaller. In theory conditions are better this time, don't get it... This is an autoflowering strain so every veg day counts, by the end of the 3rd week when they start flowering if their struture sucks, everything is compromised.

I'm pissed off.