BeaverHuntr
Well-Known Member
Thats cool how you trained them.. awesome
Variety Grow - Perpetual, "Mini" ScrOG's, DWC in a Cabinet (First Timer)
- Thread starter jsgamber
- Start date
Yeah, It's much easier to train them when they are all wilted!
j/k Hopefully I'll keep all main growth under the screen and let the bud sites climb out of the holes. It's hard to tell from the pics, but not only am I training them to bend over, but also to turn. Hopefully I'll get one complete circle as the main stem grows.I think by getting more branching stems to train down low, the faster I can get to flower stage. I'm also waiting for my good buddy Daniel to keep a good eye out for any opportunities to top. He said to wait and until they are a bit stronger and so that is what I'm doing.
BeaverHuntr
Well-Known Member
Yeah, It's much easier to train them when they are all wilted!
I think by getting more branching stems to train down low, the faster I can get to flower stage. I'm also waiting for my good buddy Daniel to keep a good eye out for any opportunities to top. He said to wait and until they are a bit stronger and so that is what I'm doing.
Yeah after you top or if you pull clones let your plant heal give her a week or two before you throw her in to get the HPS rays...You want her healthy before she goes out to tan...
Cool beans!!
I've been running my 250w MH bulb for over a week now. I felt I needed to back down on everything to get the girls to stabilize. Basically I turned the cabinet from a full blown vegging cabinet to a nursery/infirmary. Once they all hit the water, I'll put the CMH bulb back in, pump up the nutes and get them going again.
Danielsgb
Well-Known Member
I was thinking of this when I was up-canning my SS. I thought I saw you mention misting them. When I clone I mist the dome but not them, or seedlings much. They need to learn to use roots to absorb their moisture not leaves. It can help keep them alive when wounded. Just wanted to mention that. I've made a clone live for way too long was it rots in the soil or the bubble cloner. Maybe back off now that roots are reaching the water.
Daniels
Daniels
Thanks Daniels! I have the humidity up pretty good between 55% and 60% so I think I'll back off on the spray now that roots are coming down to water unless they start to look worse.
Today I'm going to do some work on the cab and put the 400w CMH bulb back in. I have a cool idea for making it easy to switch out ballasts and bulbs as well as to finally button up my ballasts into a safe wiring setup!
TheJointProject
Well-Known Member
Bouncing back like a champ! Looking good bro. Roots should start doubling in size or so every day now.
can't rep you again just yet. But i got ya
can't rep you again just yet. But i got ya
Yes I'm so happy!
Today was a busy day there was a bit of an OMG moment! BUGS! I think we'll be okay because they were only crawling on top. Never the less, my goals and accomplishments for the day were to re-wire up the 400w mag ballast into a ballast box, do a water change today, fix some ventilation issues to get ready to up grade back to the 400w CMH. And on top of all that I had to take action on the bugs. Pics in a bit.Boy it was late last night. I fell asleep before I could post pics!!
So I decided to switch back to the 400w CMH but I wanted to get the electrical done right include grounding everything!! I wasn't able to find a case the right size for the magnetic ballast so I made my own. I used plywood as the mounting base, I used rubber grommets between the plywood and the mounting bracket for the core and cable ties to mount the capacitor and igniter. Then I fashioned the exterior case out of sheet metal, mounted a fan, tied up all the wires. Notice the black power cord to plug into the wall and the orange cord with the female plug which connects to a male plug that I spliced onto the wires of the lamp socket.
Now this could be a disaster if I plugged the orange power cord directly into the wall so that's why it's orange to remind me. But now it's very simple to switch bulbs by plugging the orange wire into the correct ballast.
Notice the electrical wire grommet/clamp where the cords leave the case.
This is the shot from the rear. I simply used aluminum tape to close this up a bit. Also look at all of the green wires for ground. Yes I was bad not grounding my fist setup with all the water lying around!
The fan side. If you look closely you can see the black rubber grommets under the mounting bracket of the core (which is right behind the fan). This should keep the vibration from transferring to the plywood.
Here's where its installed. I set it on top of the passive air intake and used a strap to secure it to the back of the cab. Also you can see where I spliced the other orange cord to the lamp socket (the part covered in duct tape). The black thing with all the wires is the fan controller.
Here's a shot taken a little bit higher. I've also started making improvement to my vent tubes. If you look closely you'll notice I use small sheet metal screws at the PVC junctions which act like set screws. This is what keeps everything together since I don't want to use cement.
Here's a shot of what I'll keep working on today. I need to get this all back up on the back.
So I decided to switch back to the 400w CMH but I wanted to get the electrical done right include grounding everything!! I wasn't able to find a case the right size for the magnetic ballast so I made my own. I used plywood as the mounting base, I used rubber grommets between the plywood and the mounting bracket for the core and cable ties to mount the capacitor and igniter. Then I fashioned the exterior case out of sheet metal, mounted a fan, tied up all the wires. Notice the black power cord to plug into the wall and the orange cord with the female plug which connects to a male plug that I spliced onto the wires of the lamp socket.
Now this could be a disaster if I plugged the orange power cord directly into the wall so that's why it's orange to remind me.
But now it's very simple to switch bulbs by plugging the orange wire into the correct ballast.
Notice the electrical wire grommet/clamp where the cords leave the case.
This is the shot from the rear. I simply used aluminum tape to close this up a bit. Also look at all of the green wires for ground. Yes I was bad not grounding my fist setup with all the water lying around!
The fan side. If you look closely you can see the black rubber grommets under the mounting bracket of the core (which is right behind the fan). This should keep the vibration from transferring to the plywood.
Here's where its installed. I set it on top of the passive air intake and used a strap to secure it to the back of the cab. Also you can see where I spliced the other orange cord to the lamp socket (the part covered in duct tape). The black thing with all the wires is the fan controller.
Here's a shot taken a little bit higher. I've also started making improvement to my vent tubes. If you look closely you'll notice I use small sheet metal screws at the PVC junctions which act like set screws. This is what keeps everything together since I don't want to use cement.
Here's a shot of what I'll keep working on today. I need to get this all back up on the back.
Patience!
I'm still catching up on yesterday!So I mentioned bugs. Short story - none on the plants. The white panda film I used to cover the tops of the tank not only make it easy to wipe things up, but it's a great background to see small black crawly things! So not only am I going to do a water change but I have to take care of bugs!
I took all the tanks out of the cab, wiped down the inside of the cab and then sprayed the inside with Home Defense bug spray, the 12 month kind. I then sprayed the exterior of the entire cab as well as the floor space all around the cab. Then I sprayed the two vents on the side of the garage as well as the entire outside edge of the garage door and lastly around the door into the kitchen.
For the girls, I carefully pulled each one out and set the pot into a glass measuring cup and then sprayed (soaked) them down with a Neem Oil solution. After the spray down I took the plant to the sink and flushed the pot 5 or 6 times with 5.5 pH water to rinse away any Neem oil and then gently set the pots onto a couple of layers of paper towel to let the Neem Oil air dry while the roots hung out on the damp paper towels.
Time for the water change.
Throughout the past week I've been adding back in all the other TechnaFlora recipe nutes each one at least a day apart so that I could watch for anything bad to happen (Hey GB sound like a troubleshooting guideline?). If you look back through the daily pics you'll notice the day they really turned green was when I added half stregnth MagiCal. The day after that I added in quarter strength ThriveAlive B1 Red and watched another day with no negative signs. The following day I added in quarter strength SugarDaddy (High in sulphur and magnesium) and again the next day they still look good. All nutes are in!
The last time I mixed up the nutes with the 600 PPM formula I ended up at 930 (could be differences due to my meter or other conditions) and ended up backing down a couple times because of nute burn. So this time I'm shooting for the 900 PPM so I'm going to mix up the 600 PPM recipe again (did you get that?). Since this blog is also my journal here is my own 900 PPM recipe using adjustments to the the directions from the bottle. If the bottle says "1 to 2ml" I take that to mean 2ml is full strength, 1ml is half strength, etc. For all supplementals I used quarter strength as my target:
- 7 L Tap Water
- .2 ml Dechlorinator
- 3 ml 29% H2O2
- 3 ml pH Down - this gets me to 430 PPM and 6.0 pH
- 21 ml BC Boost @ 3ml/Liter
- 10.5 ml BC Grow - this gets me to 1250 PPM - 430 PPM = 820 PPM adjusted
- 3 ml ThriveAlive B1 Red
- 4 ml MagiCal
- 10 ml SugarDaddy - this gets me to 1475 PPM - 430 PPM = 1045 PPM adjusted
So based on the bottle, the 600PPM recipe gets me to 820 PPM which is just under my 900 PPM target.
I'll take that.By the time I completed the water change, the bug spray was all dry which meant I could put the ladies back in the cab to get their 400w CMH bulb. Now we'll see how well my ventilation works with the fan controllers in place. All fans running on high, cool tube is being vented up to the ceiling which can easily be directed outside (remember the ducting I installed over to the garage side vent back in July?
), and the passive intake is pulling air from the 4ft level of the garage at 62* ambient temps. NOTE: I will be doing more work on the ducting today to bring it back to light proof standards. 
So I get all the ladies back in the cab and button it up to see what the temps look like after a bit. After 45 minutes it was at 84* and 35% RH!!
Ugh! WAIT! I forgot to put back the towels and bowls of water. So opened it back up. I rinsed out all of the towels in 6% H2O2, washed the bowls and replaced the paper towel wicks, put it back together again and temps drop by 14* and humidity up by 20%. 
: Who said you can't use a 400w CMH bulb in 8 cubic feet of cabinet space?!? I say you can (at least until summer). 
Oh yeah! The 430w ballast box. Fan is blowing out cool air. I reached in and I can touch the core for a good 10 seconds before it gets too uncomfortable. Before that I needed to use Pot Holders! I can't believe how well this shit is finally coming together!
Oh and hears a cool pic I took last night. This is after putting up the last Panda Film curtain before closing the door up. See how it's bowed inward? That's how much negative pressure I have in my cab using two 120mm 100cfm PC fans for my exhaust! Don't you just love Newegg!!
Oh and hears a cool pic I took last night. This is after putting up the last Panda Film curtain before closing the door up. See how it's bowed inward? That's how much negative pressure I have in my cab using two 120mm 100cfm PC fans for my exhaust! Don't you just love Newegg!!
Here's a couple of quick shots from last night before closing it all up. I'll go take more pics right now when I go check the water and stuff. This was a tough day for the girls being pulled out, doused with Neem Oil, flushed to death and then slammed into brand new higher strength nutes and a 430w CMH Bulb. What the fuck am I thinking??? 
I rearranged them again left to right SOG #3, SOG #1
Left to right BD and SOG #2
I rearranged them again left to right SOG #3, SOG #1
Left to right BD and SOG #2
Man I love these fill tubes. Empty a bit of water into a measuring cup, test it with the pH meter and throw it back in. Pics are done and cropped so here they are along with some root porn.
Oh and measurements:
I'm starting to get pretty good at this shit!
Skywalker OG #3
Skywalker OG #1
Blue Dream
Skywalker OG #2
Oh and measurements:
- Air Temp: Below near the water tanks 63*. Above with the plants 71*
- RH: Below 70% Above 51%, not sure why this is. Maybe water vapor is heavy and sinks.
- Water Temp: 63* (duh! Look at the air temp, water came out of the tap at 64* last night)
- PPMs: 1430
- pH: 5.9 to 6.0 across all tanks.
I'm starting to get pretty good at this shit!
Skywalker OG #3
Skywalker OG #1
Blue Dream
Skywalker OG #2
Danielsgb
Well-Known Member
I knew that Ballast box would be fitting in your Cabinet design. I still think a fan cooling it extends it's life by a shit ton for a $5 Uncle Newegg delivery. Proper Clamp connector's keep it all safe.
BTW a $5 to $10 smoke detector or even 2 is worth having around. I know you know this but others following this someday should be reminded. I have 1 near both Fridge/Freezer's Ballast Box. It will beep a long time before something starts a fire.
I'll have a pic later of how I mark the cords as I had the same thought. Someone trying to run a normal light or a vacuum off my 250W CMH Ballast.
Color looks better. A light misting of Neem water other than on the plants helps kill anything moving around. I try to mist all around weekly. Maybe stick a Hotshot No Pest in too.
Daniels
BTW a $5 to $10 smoke detector or even 2 is worth having around. I know you know this but others following this someday should be reminded. I have 1 near both Fridge/Freezer's Ballast Box. It will beep a long time before something starts a fire.
I'll have a pic later of how I mark the cords as I had the same thought. Someone trying to run a normal light or a vacuum off my 250W CMH Ballast.
Color looks better. A light misting of Neem water other than on the plants helps kill anything moving around. I try to mist all around weekly. Maybe stick a Hotshot No Pest in too.
Daniels
gumball
Well-Known Member
They are gonna be packing on the growth in no time!! That is some real tough negative pressure. glad to see you just about dialed in perfectly
and this is what will make your grow cab your garage's ventilation system.
All fans running on high, cool tube is being vented up to the ceiling which can easily be directed outside (remember the ducting I installed over to the garage side vent back in July?
and this is what will make your grow cab your garage's ventilation system.
I knew that Ballast box would be fitting in your Cabinet design. I still think a fan cooling it extends it's life by a shit ton for a $5 Uncle Newegg delivery. Proper Clamp connector's keep it all safe.
BTW a $5 to $10 smoke detector or even 2 is worth having around. I know you know this but others following this someday should be reminded. I have 1 near both Fridge/Freezer's Ballast Box. It will beep a long time before something starts a fire.
I'll have a pic later of how I mark the cords as I had the same thought. Someone trying to run a normal light or a vacuum off my 250W CMH Ballast.
Color looks better. A light misting of Neem water other than on the plants helps kill anything moving around. I try to mist all around weekly. Maybe stick a Hotshot No Pest in too.
Daniels
Where the ballast box ended up was serendipity. I was looking all over for the best place to mount it, and when I carried it out to ponder it, I set it there while I started to think and then the light bulb went off. I was thinking of how to hang it on the wall or the cab and, well, you get the picture.
Not only does it extend life it uses less electricity. Building up heat creates electrical resistance in conductive materials. Less heat means less resistance meaning less power for the same amount of energy output!
A hot shot sounds like a good plan. A couple of the bugs were the little gnats and who knows what kind of eggs and shit they carry in. All of those towels in there concern me too so I rinse those out with peroxide every day. My hands are going to be bleached pretty soon!
But the nice thing about the towels it lets me wipe up the cab before I rinse them out so things stay clean all around!
