Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - 800W CAB SCROG

I flipped the switch to 12/12!

This is how full the canopy is.


I also started trimming the lower leaves and cutting branches that aren't going to make it to the canopy in time.

So after much research and discussion with the BCNL guys, my local hydro store....it looks like automated PH is not going to happen on this box. You can get everything automated on this box when you order it for an extra $2,700 but after-market isn't really an option. I'm looking at a continuous ph/ppm/res temp monitor.

Bluelab Guardian.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003VN931K

$2700 ouch. Is your ph not steady for a couple of days?

After a res change I need to adjust it 3 times a day to keep it in a range of 5.6-6.0. After it settles (3-4 days) I adjust it twice a day to keep it in a 5.6-5.8 range.

I think the problem is that the res is too small for the canopy size. 9 gallons for 10 sf of buds. I'd love to automate the ph for this reason. Each adjustment takes 5 minutes. At least with a continuous monitor I can cut that time way down.

Somebody placed two large boxes of paperwork on top of my box today. The trapped heat shot the temps up to 86. Crazy!

Bumbaclat said:

Somebody placed two large boxes of paperwork on top of my box today. The trapped heat shot the temps up to 86. Crazy!

Click to expand...

How do the plants look?

I've always wanted to see how one of these grow boxes worked out, but not many guys run them or at least not many journal it.

i found handwatering 6'' rockwool blocks to be a great alternative inside the producer. it is literally less than 10 min/day of work. each day i mix 4L water with advanced nutrients sensi bloom a&b. i also use voodoo juice, b-52, big bud, overdrive, sensizyme, tarantula, nirvana and bud candy during the appropriate weeks. i dont mess with ph or r/o water. i removed the hydro tub and put 10' saucers at the bottom and put rockwool on top. i hand water every or every 2nd day, just pouring on top of block until some starts to bleed out of the bottom. with grapefruit strain i have been averaging 3oz/plant.

you have great results with scrog but i noticed the 5 weeks veg time. thats alot of downtime. if you want to push your grow licence to max production time i woud suggest:

1 mother plant and harvesting 3 plants every month? the same time u harvest 3 take 4-6 clones off mums, in 2 weeks they should have roots, veg for another 6 weeks in your tent, the day of the second harvest put the best 3 in the producer, kill the others and cut 4-6 new clones again. this would keep you going perpetual and in the 10 plant limit (somewhat, i know there is 1-3 clones extra but this way u could take the best 3).

if the buds get too heavy i just put upside-down tomato cages around them for support

the advantages are:
no downtime
less nutrients used per cycle
less water
no ph ing 3 times a day (advanced nutrients are ph perfect, i havent seen deficiencies so far w/ tap water)
enough room in dryer
smaller harvests/ less trimming
no mites

I run a single cola perpetual harvest in an ebb and flow tray. From the looks of it you could set up a good perpetual single cola SOG in the producer well enough though. I'm not in a medical state yet, so I don't worry much about numbers. Less trimming is my favorite thing about the single cola plants, I've grown bushes and scrog before, and the extra triming does suck.

I only PH once a day, sometimes once every other day, takes like 10 minutes. Some people make such a big deal out of having to do it, but its very little involved. Obviously the PH perfect nutes your using are working well.

sky rocket said:

How do the plants look?

Click to expand...

They didn't show any signs of stress. I think the temps were only that high for a few hours.

Thundercat said:

I've always wanted to see how one of these grow boxes worked out, but not many guys run them or at least not many journal it.

Click to expand...

If you want to fast forward to the fun part of the grow, check out my last journal. First one in my signature.

Newgrowboxgrower, wouldn't adding another res to monitor make my life more complicated? My moms are in soil in my tent.

Um you don't seem to have a sigline

Thundercat said:

Um you don't seem to have a sigline

Click to expand...

it's weird, isnt it. wonder what's up with that. probably an option in general settings

No resivior, just a watering can friend. instead of monitoring ph i measure out nutrients daily. it takes 5min a day. I should have been more clear in my last post. grow mums in what ever growing media u prefer, but start clones in 1" rockwool. After they have roots coming out (10-15days) I transplant them to 3" cubes. They stay in 3" in your tent until they go in the producer. Then with dry 6" blocks I cut a 3x3 square 1" deep out of the top. Soak it in ph water for a few hours and stick the clone in the 6" block. If the roots are coming out of the 3" they will start to come out of the 6" in a couple days. When I said earlier to take 4-6 clones I ment cuttings in 1" because sometimes they all don't root and you throw those away but at least enough will root to get 3 strong clones/month. It seems tedious but hand watering with advanced nutrients is very easy. If you keep the rock wool covered up good and the inside temp under control there is nothing to it.

Btw I love the scrog and its cool u trying to prefect it, I say go for it.
I'm totally just suggesting an easier way to grow in the producer, a way with no down time that uses your maximum plant count. spending 5 min each day or 2 with your girls, instead of frequent visits to your producer everyday. You proved u can get a couple pounds every 3-4 months with a hydro scrog. With my way u would probably only get 7-10oz each month.
I would love to run hydro the way it's supposed to but the space I designated for this is a closet i built twice the size of the unit and it does not allow me to run a/c so I can't keep a resivior cool. Even now I have my ballasts turned down to 75% so I purchased an additional 200w 2700k cfl to put in between and it seems to help. Block covers keep the top from getting crusty white and helps keep the nutrient water from evaporating as fast

Thundercat said:

Um you don't seem to have a sigline

Click to expand...

I tried to get my sig back and I can't figure it out. what the heck?

Here is my first journal.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/558029-bcnl-producer-meets-scrog-meets.html

newgrowboxgrower said:

Btw I love the scrog and its cool u trying to prefect it, I say go for it.
I'm totally just suggesting an easier way to grow in the producer, a way with no down time that uses your maximum plant count. spending 5 min each day or 2 with your girls, instead of frequent visits to your producer everyday. You proved u can get a couple pounds every 3-4 months with a hydro scrog. With my way u would probably only get 7-10oz each month.

Click to expand...

I know that my current set-up isn't optimized from a production stand point but I'm ok with that. I don't even max out my plants. I'm allowed 10 and I currently have 4 flowering and 2 mothers.

I owe some photos. I'll post them up tomorrow. They've been on 12/12 for 12 days now.

So. 12 days ago I took the lid off and popped in my HPS.



Then I fired it up.



Then I fired up the CFL to add to the light spectrum.



The plants finished stretching at around day 10-11. I waited until they were done stretching before turning on the under lighting. I'm not really sure why I waited but the logic at the time was I wanted them to have a single light direction to grow towards to fill up the screen (I've got a few small sections that aren't totally full).





I have a few branches that are touching the under lighting. Last time I turned them on they burnt the branches. My solution is the grow room go-to: duct tape. I just wrapped a few layers of loose tape around the portion that touches the T5.

Buds are forming!