75 watts vs 7 Gallons

Howdy all you led, and low energy enthusiasts. My name is ILovePlants and I've been slowly making my through the growing gauntlet. At first it was difficult adjusting to the subtle differences, but it is on every front. I, for one, also enjoy the challenge.

Water, is generally used less because of the lack of heat. From a stealth and low cost aspect this is a good thing. Though some do argue that the lack of heat is what is missing with leds. The heat forces the plants metabolism to accelerate taking in more water, and inadvertently nutrients, in order to "sweat" so to speak. I bring this up because water is life. It is the thing that I track while I watch my plants through out the day.

In order to get around not being able to use oscillating fans, I've been placing 9" fans under the canopy blowing air up the foliage. For several reasons this has benefited me; 1. Foliage is cooled by having cold air replace the hot air. 2. This simulates the water cycle making watering consistent 3. Air support, small limbs "float on the upstream" 4. I think it emulates high mountain conditions where the wind hits the foothills and blows up to the peaks. 5. It smells amazing

Lately I've been emulating the things done by Nugbuckets in his "mainlining technique". I had been getting lazy, it was good to get those reminders from a full time grower. Top early, train early, control canopy, add support, and boom you have a happy plant!

The Cabinet is 50" tall, 14" deep, with a 7.5 gallon running the Huckleberry Cheddarwurst 2 pheno. Vegging this clone has been a joy, it was a huge limb that got snapped on accident that I turned into a clone, tomorrow will be one week in the cabinet. On the sides of the cabinet, running up the first 24" of the 27" growing space, are two 17watt 3000k T-8's. Topping off this lovely cabinet is the grow panel 45, 28 true watts, about 1.5 years of vigorous use and that puppy is still tearing up the yard. 62 watts of light, with a 13 watt personal fan blowing air up the canopy.

After a few weeks in flower I may replace the Glowpanel 45 with my new 50w dimmable prototype light. That way after 3 weeks into flower I can slowly ramp up the wattage. The prototype is made from highly under driven 10 watt diodes, 28% voltage overdraw. This will keep the temperatures down, and life time extremely high.

This project was cheap, if you don't include the glow panel which could easily be replaced. The cabinet itself was 15$ from Home Depot, 18$ for the T-8 lights, 7$ for the 7.5 gallon container which fits perfectly. I am going to be doing more of this in the future, only scaled up to a 4'x4', without a doubt. Hope all grows well,
ILovePlants

SUBBED!!! Looks good my friend. Instantly intrigued by the talk of a prototype.

I'm very excited my friend. This looks like it's going to be a bang for its buck. That cabinet looks like it's going to be overly easy to train plants in.

Well now, looks like the lady could use some trimming and training!

Airflow is controlled by this little fan, I like his little adjustable angle. It will be great for aiming wind up the understory.

She needed a trim so she wouldn't get so damn spindly. I use bonsai wire and branch twisting to beef up the stems, who are my primary focus in the coming weeks. She may eventually get too big to take out of the cabinet, especially if she is scrogged. I may just go out and get a square tomato cage.

Reflectivity is key. I used to make cardboard understory reflectors for all of my plants. This is the first time in a while that I have done it.

Here she is. My little Huckleberry Creme Pie! Pretty damn good for 7 days, looking forward to the next two weeks.

I will try to post more this time next week!
Keep on growing,
ILovePlants

P.S. Thanks for stopping in Puffenuff and [dark]! Prototype should be complete in the first week or two of September, waiting on the white leds to arrive.

well i'm subbed.......and I wish you a safe and happy grow iloveplants...

Nice on the main line. I've been following it too. I have 1 main liner thats 9 days into flower and 6 going in flower in 6 days then 6 more 2 weeks later.

https://www.rollitup.org/subcools-old-school-organics/542308-main-lining-thread-48.html

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to this, even though I don't expect much for yield, though I'm sure that I can make a fair amount of stinky cannabis.
Maybe not this much though...

Seven gallons of Caramel Ice in a smart pot. If the prototype works out we should see some nice results, but this Caramel Ice is a good one. I'm keeping her! Maybe she will get a prototype cab run eventually.

Here's some pics of the strain that is being grown in the cabinet.

It may be nearly gone, but since I have some left in my head stash, I'm reminded by these pictures to smoke some of my delicious cannabis.
Stay smoky my friends,
ILovePlants

What kind of cabinet is it?

HotShot7414 said:

What kind of cabinet is it?

Click to expand...

I don't know the brand name if that's what you mean, but in the first entry I mention that it can be found at Walmart and Home Depot. It's just a 50"H x 22"L
x 14" W 15$ white cabinet. I wrapped it in Orca film, although poly would work quite well. With the help of my friend I was able to modify the shelves to hollow out the inside.
Keep on growing,
ILovePlants

Nice work yo'sive! And if PSUAGRO is in...then im in...

Thanks for checking out the thread guys! I'm going to try to add some pictures. After finding some chains, on Monday, I decided to lower the light, from 27 inches to 14 inches. I want an even adjustment. Every day I'm more impressed with it.

^ I just like the "walking up to it" shots. For me they are like the setting of a story.

^Here she is under just the Glowpanel45. 18.7 watts Red, 9.3 watts Blue. 28 watts of light directly 14" from the top of the canopy.

^This is with the side lighting turned on. 32 watts of 2700k white. 62 watts of light max. Soon it will be 82 watts of light maximum!
She's three days older now and making pappa proud! She grew 3 inches in the last 3 days

All I'm waiting on is for the warm white leds to arrive, so that I can construct the prototype. At maximum draw the cabinet will run 100 watts, it will only be this high for the last 3 weeks of flower. I'm thinking that I may make another cabinet. That way I can test the prototype directly against this cabinet, but with 23 watt watt cfl spotlight to even out wattage. It will be a close one, but it will give me the chance to observe: a small amount of blue *10 watts V.S. 10 watts 6500k.

Anyway, updates on Saturday. Still stem twisting, I twist until I hear a soft crunch, sometimes I stop when I "hear it" with my fingers. The canopy was brought down an inch today to 12" from the light. I'm going to keep her more than 7" away until I finish the prototype. This lady makes me feel like I caught the fever, mercy me!
ILovePlants

DAMMMN!...that man knows how to train! CHUGA CHUGA!

Subbed

IDEA FOR NEXT TIME

As you seem to have plenty (too much?) main stalk, consider this for next time.

The lip of the tote is perfect upon which to lay a wire mesh. And then start training

Also, you can buy sheets of white plasticized corrugated sign material. Cut a small channel from the outside edge, just big enough to slide past the main stalk + ~ 1.5" hole in the center to accommodate the main stalk as girth expands

The clone was not the first choice, I was originally going to do Cheese Dreams, as it will undoubtedly yield better gram/gallon/watt than anything I have. She actually has about 18" of side lighting left , but this is a single cola plant that I'm forcing into a green carpet so I feel the stretch should fit precisely into the area that I wanted. She doesn't need a huge veg time for decent results, which comes out in flowering.

Next time I will definitely consider the screen at the top of the lip idea. Sounds like a great idea, although I've been leaning towards mainlining. I'm kinda going to be using this cabinet for all my random scientific curiosities, for now, it's not about getting exact results, just proof of concept. A writer at heart, I consider this sort of thing to be a ruff draft, an idea.

One thing that I haven't done in ages, but I loved the look of it: buy fake aluminum plastic X-mass ornaments*diamond foil ones, and set the big ones in the main crotch, with tiny ones in the smaller crotches. It forces light every which way but down!

I used to do crazy things to boost my yields when I was lurking on here as a cfl grower. Like making a giant composter, cutting a hole to the lid, and fitting it to feed my flowering room intake. The more dedicated you are to your set-up, the more fine tuning that should happen. Personally for me, dedication of that magnitude is earned. After many seeds from many companies, I still haven't found anything as high yielding as Audrey 2. If she, Shiva, makes an appearance I will let you know. Goddess plants, are the ones worth her worshipfulness.

Seriously though, a big thanks to everyone who stopped by! I don't know whether it will help you, but I hope this thread raises questions. Having been a ceramic artist for as long as I have been growing. My favorite artist quote "Good art raises more questions than it answers". I think as a Ganja Scientist, it is not only my responsibility to answer questions, but to also gaze into the mystery.
Sincerely,
ILovePlants

P.S. Do not buy Gazing into the Mystery. It's a wierd book, but I love the title.

Main stem is noticeably more woody than ever before. All the leaves seem to be increasing in size. If this trend continues I will veg. for at least 18 more days. The white leds are in, and I will be smelting some heatsinks from old aluminum. Prototype should be complete by the 15th.
This is the Cheddarwurst, after two more weeks of growth they should have the foliage size necessary to support decent flowering.

Best of luck in your growing endeavors,
ILovePlants

Yes, and in a few days I will be switching from 24/0 to 14/10 then .5 hours less each 10 days until 12/12. I should have the prototype done by week 2 of flowering, but depending on how well she does I may not use it. We'll see.

Here she is yesterday about 20 minutes after getting watered.

^Very lush foliage, she's just starting to hit that "rocket ship" type growth, the side branches are competing with the tops. 15 tops total.

And today... REACH FOR THE SKY!!!


Some shots of her royal redness...

^She has very springy tough stalks, all 15 tops are about 14" from the soil line.

I'm looking forward to flowering this little beasty. New project: make a cage for the cabinet.


I wish you all the best in your growing endeavors,
ILovePlants

Looking real nice, Lovely canopy.

I have a question... Excuse me if you explained this earlier in your thread, I looked and couldn't find anything... But why do you have that white paper(?) covering your pot/soil with only the stem protruding?

I feel like there is an obvious answer here and it's early and I'm just not seeing it. hehe.

Hey Amaximus,
It's Orca film. Orca film has a diffuse surface and is great at "blending" light. Ultimately I felt that even the soil is absorbing some photons, but sealing off the soil is a big no-no. So I figured I would do all I could to squeeze more active photons onto the leaves. Even if it only increases the amount of photons hitting the leaves by .0001% it's still an improvement. Preventing air from reaching the roots can cause major problems, but preventing light is a good thing. Mycorrhizal colonies depend on darkness, dankness, and shaded soil in order to propagate. So I have a small "breathing hole" near the stem to allow O2 exchange. No rotted roots, happy chappy microbes, and a cabinet full of light!

Figured out support for the cabinet, a while back I bought tiny white cup hooks, I think I'll bust those out and create a support system just before flowering. Each corner of the cabinet has large plastic tubes, after sticking a hook in each tube at the appropriate height I should be able to string up a simple screen.

Thanks for the interest,
ILovePlants

IlovePlants said:

Hey Amaximus,
It's Orca film. Orca film has a diffuse surface and is great at "blending" light. Ultimately I felt that even the soil is absorbing some photons, but sealing off the soil is a big no-no. So I figured I would do all I could to squeeze more active photons onto the leaves. Even if it only increases the amount of photons hitting the leaves by .0001% it's still an improvement. Preventing air from reaching the roots can cause major problems, but preventing light is a good thing. Mycorrhizal colonies depend on darkness, dankness, and shaded soil in order to propagate. So I have a small "breathing hole" near the stem to allow O2 exchange. No rotted roots, happy chappy microbes, and a cabinet full of light!

Figured out support for the cabinet, a while back I bought tiny white cup hooks, I think I'll bust those out and create a support system just before flowering. Each corner of the cabinet has large plastic tubes, after sticking a hook in each tube at the appropriate height I should be able to string up a simple screen.

Thanks for the interest,
ILovePlants

Click to expand...

Ahh, Cool. Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me. I've been meaning to ask you about that for about a week or two now and kept forgetting until this morning.

I'm out of town for the next 9 days or so. Updates, lots of changes, and ,to be honest, this girl was looking so good that I threw her into the flowering room. It just wasn't fair to the thread for me to do that, because I was so anxious to see how well my vigorous attention to detail would do in a small enclosed environment with a high control standard. By next year I should be able to return to what I do best. Growing some kick ass plants in tiny spaces.

I'm sorry that we wont get to see this cabinet pump out CW, but I had an autoflowering Cheese Dreams that was just dying to have a full time room with surround light. She was busting out some solid early flowers when I left. I'll see if I can convince [dark] to take some photos of her. She is a fairly tall auto, with a dense structure, and great smell. She looks like a 12-12 from seed of a really solid yielding hybrid. So I guess I still have a CW in the prototype, but it's crossed with a strain that has only been shared by a few good people here in Boulder county.

Cheese Dreams reeks of rotten fruity cheese/ summer by the lakes of Minnesota. If you've never been to a lake in Minnesota in the 100'f high heat of late July, make it a point to visit. That wonderful state is like crawling through a Grimm's Fairy Tale, if asshole corporate pigs had taken over the story line, and ruined half the land with asinine dreams of chemically grown genetically modified crops. They've been growing soy, and other plants that collect nutrients, for the last 20 years to make up for all shit washed out of the ground with those chems. Don't even get me started on all the pollution we passed down the Mississippi. Why do you think deep southerners end up so fucked in the head? I have the deepest respect for the southern intellectual, but damn is that culture gross on so many levels. Lower Minnesota isn't any better than the deep south, I might add.

Minnesota Cheese was crossed with our Cheddarwurst male. MNC had this distinct back woods bog/haze smell and a hazy incense taste with a bit of sugar on top, it brought me back to these hikes I used to take alone in the woods. Breathing her in was like breathing in the thick fog of an early forest morning in the woods of my home town. Cheddarwurst Male had solid symmetrical structure, giant 9 fingered leaves, large resin laden balls, and a heavy fruity chemical funk. Cheddarwurst will make your mouth and face a little numb, I think it's from the massive head rush you get from her, one of the strongest strains I've had the pleasure of growing. That male was the key to creating these new lines, and soon enough I will have my own crosses that are only are being bred by me and my clan of cannabis conquistadors!

To anyone out there who has come into contact with my genetics. Enjoy, they were bred with more love than most people would think, and more attention than most can muster.
Sincerely,
ILovePlants