Fridge Grow 175w MH with CFLs

DAY 13

Plant Stage: Veg
Light Cycle: 18/6
Lights: 175w 4200K Metal Halide, 70w 2000K HPS, 2x30w 2700K CFLs, 4x26w 6500K CFLs, 2x23w 5500K CFLs
Medium: 3 Parts Sunshine Mix, 1 Part Pearlite
Ferts: 1/2 Tbsp/Gal Alaska Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) mixed with 1/4 Tsp/Gal Superthrive every other watering.
Strain: 8x Unknown Bagseed


Well I can definitely say theres been some growth! Since the last update the plants have doubled, maybe tripled in size! I would say I definitely have 2 different strains in there. Some are growing long slender leaves that shoot up at an angle, and others are growing fat heavy leaves that are outgrowing their pots like crazy, especially plant #2. Well, lets get to the fun part, picture time!!


Heres a view of the open fridge from the front. After taking this pic I added 2 more Y splitters and 2 more bulbs, both 30w 2700K. I mainly added more bulbs for heat, its gotten cold here and the low in the fridge was 61F, and its difficult to keep it over 76F with the lights on.

A couple of group shots here, one in the fridge and one top view of all the ladies.

I was so impressed with the new growth of each plant that I snapped a picture of each. Here they are with breif descriptions:

Plant 1 - This is the one that the jiffy pellet fell apart when I went to transplant. The plant and bare taproot fell on the floor and I had to replant the whole thing in just soil. Considering her traumatic life, I think she's doing great. The leaves look pretty droopy but so did Plant #2 a couple days ago so Im not worried. This is one of the "short & bushy" ones.

Plant 2 - This is my fat little monster. Its amazing how fast she is growing. 10 hours ago the leaves were 1/2" from touching the pot and now they are hanging over the sides! This is my other "short & bushy" one.

Plant 3 - For being the first one out of the ground she's not really much bigger, if any, than the rest. Still looks great though.

Plant 4 - Due to how much the leaves are shooting up more than out, this gal is the tallest, but pound for pound shes a bit on the skinny side.

Plant 6 (R.I.P. Plant 5 ) - This was the largest one as of last update. Its so close anymore it is hard to tell. It is definately one of the healthiest though.

Plant 7 - This one is about 3 days younger than the rest. It was, and still is the smallest plant. 4 Days ago it had 4 little tiny leaves and now it is growing nicely. I think it is behind because it is further from the lights than the rest, maybe I should put some books under it.

Plant 8 - This lil' gal is the one I dropped face down the other day, crushing the plant. You can still see a slight curve in the stem but it is MUCH straighter than before, and has actually grown a lot since the fall.

So thats where Im at for now. I will probably top a few and start some LST on others in the next few days. I need to keep an eye out for some cheap pots or containers for transplanting, at this rate I will be doing so in no time. With the 2 30w 2700K CFLs added the light is so much more intense. When temps go back up Ill probably have to run them off but for now Im sure the ladies aren't arguing. I have had the little 6" fan inside on high every minute that the lights are on. It has served them well, all of the stems are nice & healthy looking.


I have a total of 8 CFLs and 2 HIDs at the moment. Total wattage = 455W, total Lumens = 33,500 with all lights on So hopefully the growth will continue. Until I have them all sexed, the canopy will get a little larger than I have lights for probably. Once I am down to (hopefully) 4 females, it should be plenty till flowering. Ill whip out the big ol 68w CFLs for flowering, need to figure out how to rig them up still though.


As always, thanks for staying tuned. All feedback, questions, info, and help is welcome.
KB

Lookin awesome man. # 2 and 4 are my favorites so far - seem to be opposites of eachother. Those fluctuating temps are pretty crazy but I'm sure your plants are enjoynig the extra light.

Gastanker said:

Lookin awesome man. # 2 and 4 are my favorites so far - seem to be opposites of each other. Those fluctuating temps are pretty crazy but I'm sure your plants are enjoying the extra light.

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Yeah Im a bit concerned about the low temps. See my carbon filter fell off y exhaust fan yesterday and now that it has no resistance it cools that fridge down FAST! Overnight high with all the lights on was 68 I need to get a timer for the fan or something. If I leave it off too long it will get to 90 in there. Oh well hopefully only another week of these lower temps, then Ill be fighting high tems again lol. Oddly enough high temps are easier to deal with.

They are startin to stink just a little though, so I think I will make an inline scrubber to put behind the fridge, instead of inside. Anyone have experience with pullling air through, as well as pushing air through a scrubber? Which way is most efficient?

KB

bro for 13days your plants are looking awsome heres that link i tould you i would get you check them out skip to the last page ha ha i got to stoned here it is https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/160005-big-fridge-400w-hps-4-a.html

Kolorblind... Fans work harder when they suck as opposed to blow. It is always better to put the fan first if you can, whether cooling lights, using a carbon filter, or just ventilating.

I still need to read your whole journal, I'm not caught up, just popping in.

jigfresh said:

josh, there's no link.

And kolorblind... fans work harder when they suck as opposed to blow. It is always better to put the fan first if you can, whether cooling lights, using a carbon filter, or just ventilating.

I still need to read your whole journal, I'm not caught up, just popping in.

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Hey jig thanks for stoppin by. Yeah I finally nailed down the temp probs for now. The reason I was getting such low temps when the temp outside went down is because my carbon scrubber had fallen off. Thats 2" of carbon and about 1/2" of filter that wasnt bogging my exhaust fan down as usual.

I ended up attaching my scrubber to the back of the fridge where the exhaust comes out and now the high temp after 18 hours on was 83F. Still going to be a problem in the summer, but maybe I can make a scrubber that will cause less restriction on the air flow.

When the scrubber was off, the front of the fridge would bow inwards when the door was closed, now with it back on it doesnt. The exhaust is 4" and my intake hole is 3" so I was thinking of putting another 3" passive intake hole in the bottom just havent gotten around to it.

Thanks for the interest guys, all help is appreciated
KB

*Mini Update* (aka: shameless bump)

OK so a friend of mine bought some real great smoke recently. It was so expensive he only got 1 gram, and for some reason we found 2 seeds. To me that means its not worth what he paid, but on the other hand, I get to grow some plants from fresher seeds YAY!

Both of them split open overnight using the papertowel/plates method, so I will be planting them as soon as I get home.

Also, I think I may have a small nute burn problem with a couple plants. I am seeing some of the lower leaves turn yellow and/or curl upwards. On one or 2 of the plants even some top leaves are showing a little yellow. I watered yesterday with plain water, I think I will use only water for at least the next 2 waterings. Plant 8, which I dropped upside down had the most yellow on its leaves, partially due to the stress of being crushed & re potted Im sure.

If they are looking any worse when I get home I may take a couple pics to see what you guys think. I watered them more than usual this last time to try and flush any nutes out that might still be there.

KB

Are your leaves yellowing throughout or are they burning at the tips and getting crunchy? If it's just lower leaves turning yellow and not getting crispy it might not be nute burn. New seeds sounds exciting - was the bud good? Like i know your buddy paid alot for it but was it good smoke? If so thats pretty badass that you got a few seeds

Gastanker said:

Are your leaves yellowing throughout or are they burning at the tips and getting crunchy? If it's just lower leaves turning yellow and not getting crispy it might not be nute burn. New seeds sounds exciting - was the bud good? Like i know your buddy paid alot for it but was it good smoke? If so thats pretty badass that you got a few seeds

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Well yeah it was mainly the lower leaves turning yellow, but a few of the upper ones had some yellow tips. I have cut off the tips of any leaves that turned brown which were only a few. I think overall they are starting to look much better, however plant #7 isnt growing too much. The leaves all look pretty good with slight yellowing on some tips but not much vertical growth or new leaves.

As far as the bud I got the 2 new seeds from...wow! It was some of the best tasting stuff Ive had, and the high was a nice "lets go do something" high instead of a "lets sit on the couch" stone. I have planted them both and when I woke up this morning one of them had popped out of the soil, I will name her Plant 8 (original huh?). Plant 9 is still under her humidity dome and technically isnt even a plant yet. As soon as I see any females I will probably give them real names.

Also, the heat issues are back After my filter fell off I reattached it to the back of the fridge which is AFTER the exhaust instead of before like it should be. My temps were hitting highs of 83 when it was only about 80F outside. I made a simple can filter out of a 46oz juice can, aluminum screen, activated carbon and pantyhose. I attached it to some 4" dryer hose then to the back of the fridge with a 90 degree bend in it. It made it even worse so I ended up screwing my box filter back on for now. I think I really need to get an inline fan instead of this bathroom exhaust fan but I dont know if I can justify spending the $100 or so since I spent $80 on this one. The one I have has a large square intake, about 10" x 8" or so, and its very hard to get a filter to seal air tight onto the intake end. I had my original one rigged up with duct tape but it got too hot and melted then the filter fell. I will for SURE be drilling 1 to 2 more 3" holes for passive intake this weekend, but if anyone has any other suggestions im all ears!!

Thanks guys, Ill have pics very soon.
KB

You could always go with a cheap inline duct fan. I'de go with like an 8" and put a 4" converter on it - http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100396544

$35 from home depot 500cfm

Gastanker said:

You could always go with a cheap inline duct fan. I'de go with like an 8" and put a 4" converter on it - http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100396544

$35 from home depot 500cfm

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Well a while back I bought that 6" 270cfm inlinr fan for about $30 and shortly found out why it was so cheap. Sure it MAY push 270 or 500 cfm, if there is no ductwork connected to it, let alone a scrubber. When i tried just adding a 90 degree bent in some ducting to my 6" inline, it was actually blowing air back at me.



I setup a small cabinet yesterday to use as my indoor grow box for these hot summer months. I plan to use it for veg during the cooler seasons while I flower in the fridge. Once I get the exhaust setup better it should be good to go.

Here are some pics for now:

Before any work (2 inner shelves removed)


Here are some pics after painting, drilling holes, and mounting fixturres:

Sides

Top

Bottom (2" passive intake holes)

The Shelf (2" holes for air flow)


And here are some pics of the whole thing put together.:

Inside just after putting it together. Only a couple bulbs in place just for effect, there are 7 fixtures total. We used white silicon caulking all around inside back wall to prevent light leaks, it works great! The exhaust hole was originally 3", but had to be increased to 4" so I may need to add another intake as well.

Backside with my DIY carbon filer, and yes I know it looks like a penis. My wife had a good laugh over that for about an hour. Also ran all the cords out one hole that I will lightproof later.


And here are some front pics after I get it setup in the bedroom. The fan is relatively quiet, but I put another fan up top do drown out the cab noise, so it just looks & sounds like a fan sitting on a cabinet.

Lights off. Note the 2" PVC elbows I painted black and put over the intake holes. There is virtually NO light coming out or going in, they work GREAT.

Lights On. 3 vertical bulbs are 26w 6500k. the 4 horizontal ones are 26w 2700k since thats all I had.

Closed with lights on. Havent started working on the light proofing for the front yet.....obviously haha. And yes I got paint on the doors, I suck I know, it will get taken care of haha.



After running everything with the doors closed for 2 hours the temps hit 90 Main reason being the fan isnt installed well, it needs to be in a 5" piece of duct work or something, so some more modification will need to be made before it is 100% functional.


As soon as my lights come back on in the fridge today, or after I get back from spending time with my mom I will take some plant pics I promise. Plants #4 and #6 have DOUBLED in size easy, the rest are slowly catching up. my 2 newest additions arent looking great but well see.

Let me know what you guys think
Peace
KB

sweet little veg box im useing a mini fridge for my veg box ill take a pic for you when i have all the bugs worked out

josh4321 said:

sweet little veg box im useing a mini fridge for my veg box ill take a pic for you when i have all the bugs worked out

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Thanks man! Yeah I saw a few WORKING mini fridges on craigslist locally for like 20 to 30 bucks!! I am trying to pinch every penny at this point considering the money Ive already spent. Id like to get a full grow or 2 under my belt first to help compensate some of the money spent lol. But I would love to see some pics, I have read thru a couple different mini frigde grows and they all seem to do pretty well. Plus a mini fridge that makes a little noise is very stealthy. A cabinet that makes noise is not haha, thats why I have to have the fan, or maybe a dehumidifier sitting on it.

KB

DAY 21

Plant Stage: Veg
Light Cycle: 18/6
Lights: 175w 4200K Metal Halide, 70w 2000K HPS, 2x30w 2700K CFLs, 4x26w 6500K CFLs, 2x23w 5500K CFLs
Medium: 3 Parts Sunshine Mix, 1 Part Pearlite
Ferts: None
Strain: 9x Unknown Bagseed

Okay time for another update. It is officially week 3, and I think overall the girls look pretty good. I should have taken the pics yesterday as none of the plants were drooping. Today some of them are sagging pretty bad. It had been about 2 or 3 days so I watered them and took the pictures. First off, a top view of the girls out of the fridge. Top Row: 1,2,3 & 4, Middle Row(Jiffy Pellets): 9 &10, Bottom Row: 6,7 & 8

Here are the droopy old ladies, plants 1,2 & 3. Plant 2 which was so beautiful and healthy at one time looks very yellow and sick these days. most of the plants have yellow lower leaves, but #2 has yellow spots on some middle leaves and some leaves are crispy. Plant #3 is really quite healthy, she was all stretched out yesterday, caught her on a bad hair day

Here is the more stretched out bunch, plants(left to right) 6,8 & 4 . Plant #4 has just taken off like a rocket! #6 and #8 are both also growing very nicely, bit of yellow on the lower branches but Im not worried yet.

My "canopy". A little uneven, Ive raised plant #7 up a bit to get closer, I may head out and raise the back plants after I type this up.

Plant #4 currently holding the "largest lady" title. I set her right in the middle directly under the 175w MH and 70w HPS, so grow baby grow!!

Plant #7 is still my smallest but by George she is still growing. Not much vertical growth which is odd considering she is farther from the lights than any other plant. All old & new growth looks great.

Here are the 2 new additions Plants 9 & 10. They dont get popsicle sticks till they actually start some real growth, slacking is not rewarded ladies!! Although, it is mostly my fault I think for letting their pellets dry out. I wet them again and put them back in the humidity dome for now, well see. #9 (on the right) is like 3 days old and its little leaflets arent as green as they were yesterday. Plant #10 just sprouted yesterday.

Thermometer/Hygrometer readings from Sat 12am through now, about 52 hours or more. Not bad but outside temps have only been like mid to high 70s this week, and nice n low at night.

So thats it for now. I ordered a new fan for my cabinet, which I plan to mount directly to the backside with a carbon filter placed on the inside before the fan. I believe thats the best way to do it instead of having the fan push air through the filter, am I correct?

Thanks guys
KB

Lookin good man. Nice new veg cab - I wish I had a new project to do. Just heard from my 'employer' that he got a call to verify my funding for the house I want to rent. Maybe I'll actually be doing this big grow I've been talking about. But until then I'll be content being jealous of you . I checked up on my female outside and shes re-entering veg - should be a monster by the end of the season. When are you turning to 12/12? I think you're right on about the fan - pull air through the filter versus pushing it.

Gastanker said:

Lookin good man. Nice new veg cab - I wish I had a new project to do. Just heard from my 'employer' that he got a call to verify my funding for the house I want to rent. Maybe I'll actually be doing this big grow I've been talking about. But until then I'll be content being jealous of you . I checked up on my female outside and shes re-entering veg - should be a monster by the end of the season. When are you turning to 12/12? I think you're right on about the fan - pull air through the filter versus pushing it.

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Haha, man once you get your big grow goin you will have no reason to be jealous of me. I forgot to post a link fo rthe fan I bought for my veg cab. Its a 120mm Orion brand axial fan, 127CFM max, 47dB. Here is a link. Anyone have experience using these style fans to pull through a scrubber? i could really use some recommendations on how to use a scrubber with the least amount of air restrictions. I plan to mount the fan directly to the back of the cab, then either put a thin carbon filter on the inside, or make something else. I bought those filters that have carbon plus baking soda, and I have 3 Ive made myself, plus another box of active carbon to mess around with.

As far as going 12/12, I plan on putting 1 to 3 of my current plants into my cabinet as soon as I get the fan in and installed to start 12/12, then maybe waiting another week or 2 for the ladies in the fridge. That way there will be less plants in the fridge resulting in more light per plant. I wouldnt mind it if the girls in the fridge got to be 3ft tall or so, but the ones I put in the cab will probably be the shortest 3, it will even out the canopy a bit too. I will also be recieving some very good seeds this weekend as a gift. Im not sure about strains yet, I just know one is a short auto flowering strain and the other is not. Very excited to get them going though!!

KB

OK I will be watering the plants tonight when I get home. The lights are usually on for about 2-3 hours before I get home to water, which isnt ideal but good enough right? I have a couple posts on here and ICmag to try and determine a good design for a carbon scrubber that will both work, and not cause back pressure resulting in stinky air leaking out since I have to put it after my exhaust.

I am also trying to decide whether or not to top a plant or 2, I am pretty nervous lol. I guess theres only 1 way to get over it. Would about 1 week be enough recovery time after topping before switching to 12/12? I think I will let most of them grow all natural just to observe and learn from them, but I definitely want to top at least 1. The taller ones are at 5 to 7 nodes now, so I may use one of them. Well see how it goes. I wont be doing anything till later tonight so if anyone has any pointers Im all ears. I will probably get a pic update a day after watering so they arent too droopy and they look nice for the pictures

KB

OK, so I decided i would go ahead and top the 2 healthiest looking shorter plants and put them in my new cab. This allowed for much better light distribution the fridge, and the plants in the cab have very sufficient light as well.

I also watered all the plants but they were starting to droop a little so well see if I can snap some pics after they perk back up. Oh and #1 may not make it, well get to her next update, its late now haha.

Here are a couple before & after pics of the topping. The plants I chose were plant 6 & lucky number 7.

Plant 6 before

Plant 6 after


Plant 7 before

Plant 7 after


Both tops that were cut


I chose the plants I did mainly because they were the only ones that werent real tall and were very healthy looking. Plants 1 & 2 are shorter as well but looking very poor, especially plant 1. I think it was my fault so Im not too worried but like I said Ill get into it later.

Let me know if you guys think I did ok for my first time topping. I guess really only time will tell but do the cuts look ok? I used 99% isopropyl alcohol to sterilize some small, sharp hobby scissors.

Pic update tomorrow hopefully
KB

Hey bro... about the fan... if you can somehow get it before the filter so it is blowing through, that is the most effective for airflow. I couldn't tell you what is more effective for odor control... I would imagine sucking through the filter first, then fan, then eshaust out would be best for odor. So fan before or after filter depending on if you want better airflow, or better odor control. (well that is what i think anyways).

About the topping, they won't need a week to recover... In a week you wont know you topped them. You only cut the tippy top, they should be recovered by now. When I took my first tops off I lopped of about 3 inches of stalk and like 2 or 3 nodes. I ended up cutting my plants up to 10 times each. They don't mind too much.

And your technique looked fine. Good cut, good location. However, you could just break the stalk in half anywhere and it would do ok (not a good idea, but you get the point).

Good work... like the cabinet (it's packing some serious manhood, haha).

DAY 26

Plant Stage: Veg
Light Cycle: 18/6
Lights (Fridge): 175w 4200K Metal Halide, 70w 2000K HPS, 2x30w 2700K CFLs, 4x26w 6500K CFLs, 2x23w 5500K CFLs
Lights (Cabinet): 3x26w 6500K CFLs, 2x26w 2700K CFLs.
Medium: 3 Parts Sunshine Mix, 1 Part Pearlite
Ferts: 5-1-1 Fish Emulsion + Superthrive every other watering. Blood meal sprinkled on top layer of soil.
Strain: 7 Unknown Bagseed + 6 New Unknown Bagseed.


Ok time for another picture update. Yesterday I watered with my nutrient water that has some 5-1-1 fish emulsion and Superthrive in it, the plants seemed to love it! I also sprinkled a little bit of blood meal on top of the soil in each pot before watering to boost the nitrogen a little. i was seeing some pretty consistent yellowing on the lower leaves so I decided to take a few fan leaves off, and I also clipped the tips of any leaves that were turning brown.

I am down to 5 plants in the fridge which has really made it so much easier to get better light coverage on each plant. Here is a shot of all 5 of my fridge dwellin' ladies, we have 3, 4 & 8 up front, while 1 & 2 are barely visible hangin out in the back row.

Here are my 3 largest, plants 8, 4 & 3. After watering they all perked up so nicely, and shot up at least another inch. Id say on average these 3 are 2 to 3 inches taller than last update, and they have all gotten a bit bushier as well.

Here are plants 1 & 2. Now there's something that I have been avoiding talking about, and that is my little blunder that is making it very difficult for plants 1 & 2 to hang on. When I was spray painting the cabinet, I did it in my garage. Even with the door half open, apparently a decent amount of paint dust made its way into the fridge exhaust. Luckily plants 1 & 2 were hogging most of the air from the 6" fan at the time so they took the brunt of it. The next day the leaves were nice & white, I just cleaned them and tried to keep the bad leaves out of the pics haha! guess i was embarrassed by my stupidity. Anyhow, after some nute water they are both looking MUUUCH batter than yesterday. Yesterday they were both lifeless and their main stems were even sagging over a bit, today they seem much more rigid. I made several cuts on plant 2, but very few on plant 1.

Now, in recent news I have planted 6 more germinated seeds. Why you ask? "Why not" I say I dont exactly know where I will put my genetic seeds now once I get them but oh well, its all in good fun. I have named the new 6 plants Uno through Seis (original eh?). I am officially through with the Jiffy pellets if this method works out ok. The pellets are just too hard to keep moist without over watering and they seem to cause a little root bind if you dont get them broken up a bit when transplanting, which I would think is pretty stressful to the plants. Instead I opted for the 16ox party cup & soil method with a twist. The twist is that the soil is actually in a 16oz clear party cup thats placed inside a red one. This way I can still keep an eye on the roots without exposing them to light. I Cut 4 holes in the bottom of every clear & red cup for drainage. I would probably cover up my larger plants roots but they just look so sexy don't they? haha!! Lights being used in the cab are 3x26w 6500K CFLs and 2x26w 2700k CFLs for now. The temps are about 78-82 max, I had my hand on the thermometer just before I took this pic so the reading is a bit off. The larger plants are plants 6 & 7 that I topped yesterday. Plant 6 has a very nice root system going!

This weekend will be a very busy one, I have to lightproof the cabinet and get a lot of other things done around the house, plus I will have some long awaited company visiting so I will probably not post another update until well after the weekend. I think I will probably switch to 12/12 within a week or so in the fridge. I got my Orion 120mm 108CFm fan in, and being the idiot that I am i fried it trying to wire it up. I ordered another with 2nd day UPS and accorsing to UPS.com it wont make it here untl Monday So unless it shows up early the loud ghetto rigged one I have in place now will have to do.


Its getting very exciting, I cant wait until they start to show sex, Im sure I will gain some space after I ween out the males, allowing for my new genetic seeds to be planted once I get them. Do you guys think these pots are big enough to keep them in until I know their sex? Or should I transplant them all before switching to 12/12?

Thanks for staying tuned!
KB