mogie
Well-Known Member
Let There Be Light
You already know this, but the main engine here is the 250 watt HPS. I experimented with MH and enhanced spectrum HPS bulbs, but found the basic HPS can't be beat.
The standard hood for sale at the local growstore is just about 2' long, a perfect tight fit, covering the area completely with reflected light. There is no need to mount the hood on chains or anything like that. The vertical distance in scrog growing is fixed, so the hood can be screwed right into the top of the apartment (I mounted the hoods using wingnuts in case of maintenance, etc.).
The 200 Dayton pancake is thin enough to fit along the top wall of the cabinet in the dead airspace on top and along the side the light hood, allowing it to grab the hottest air to move out of the space. I ventilated the hood (drilled holes in it) to encourage the fan to draw hot air out of the hood, and you can probably do better if you like. A vented hood will probably not work in this space; not enough room on the end.
I suppose the light could be mounted to run into the cabinet rather than side to side, but it's easier to maintain the plants if the container is in front of the cabinet, with the air and water supplies running up the back wall.
To allow the hoods to be removed for maintenance (like oiling the Dayton fans), I connected the light socket to the ballast outlet cable with three-prong plugs and sockets. Unplug the light from the ballast cable, spin off the wingnuts holding the hoods to studs mounted in the ceiling of the compartment, and the whole light assembly comes out in one piece.
While the 250 HPS does a great job in this space, they tend to sit offset on one side of the hood, favoring the scrog canopy nearest the socket. I recently supplemented my hoods with a 70 HPS light mounted on the other end. It probably wasn't necessary, but I was frustrated by not having any more projects to do, and it was fun to engineer.
Plant Containers and Medium
You don't have to grow this way, but I'll advocate this method for one simple reason; it works, and it works as well as it needs to work. I couldn't grow thicker scrog canopies that I am producing now, so why fight it?
I use 11 gallon Rubbermaid containers to grow in. As you know, I grow scrog style, and I can't imagine using any other method in a cabinet. You can't possibly beat scrog for production, since the scrog canopy totally fills the space with buds. There just isn't room for more plant weight, so there's no need to look beyond scrog for the answer.
The Rubbermaid containers solve many problems. The drip system doesn't have to be water tight, because leaks are confined in the container. The scrog net can be attached to four poles attached to the corners of the container. The Rubbermaid container has a lip around the edge. I drilled a hole in each corner, inserted one of those plastic plant stakes in each corner, and just ran duct tape around the outside of the container to hold it all together. Simple, although I grant it's not very elegant. But if the compartment needs maintenance, the drip system inlet can be disconnected (quick connectors again), and the whole plant mass, scrog net and all, can be lifted out of the cabinet in one move. If you connect the scrog netting (chicken wire) to the walls of the cabinet, well, you can't do that obviously. Boy, has that come in handy on occasion!
The medium is, and isn't, rockwool. Yes, I use rockwool, but it doesn't act as the primary nutrient carrier. Four plants adequately support the scrog canopy, each started in 4" cubes. The cubes sit on a slab, but the slab is first sliced in half, just a thin layer. The purpose of the slab is only to spread the roots out horizontally, as the grain of the slab runs 90 degrees to the cube.
The thinned slab sits on top of an open plastic grate, an eggcrate grill for a fluorescent light fixture is perfect. The plastic grate is set up off the floor of the container on blocks, allowing a 1-2" air chamber for the roots to grow into. The roots quickly grow through the cube into the slab, spread out and then grow through into the bottom of the container, pooling up into the indentations molded into the Rubbermaid bottom. It is the flow of water over the roots in the container bottom that primarily supply the root mat.
Accordingly, I don't recommend a drip system, but an open flow, using spaghetti tube connectors as emitters. I recommend five half hour cycles per day, three during the light period and two during the dark period. The rockwool gets saturated with water, but the solution drains through the wool very quickly, flowing down the drains back to the reservoirs. There is never any build up of salts in the wool to worry about, and the roots will be very happy. Every time I clean out the system for another run, I pull a complete negative mold of the bottom of the Rubbermaid container made up of a creamy white plush root mat.
Is this the perfect method for all time? No, of course not. But it supports the scrog canopy to the maximum thickness that is possible in this space, and that's all you can ask. This system is simple to run and basically foolproof. An ebb and flow system could easily be run in the same containers, but the plumbing gets more complex, doesn't it? So why bother?
Note that since there isn't much mass of rockwool involved (less expensive too), I think the ESU and other solutions designed for rockwool are too acidic for this system. I've switched to GH dry [ABC series - ed], and I'm very happy with it. My plants show no nutrient disorders with the GH bloom and micro nutrients right at the recommended level on the packages (it works out to about 1000 PPM). Like I said, I couldn't grow more or thicker buds without growing into hyperspace, so why get creative? [Because there may be a better way; v-scrog - ed].
Mothers are also grown in the same fashion, but I skip the half slab. I can cram many mothers into the Rubbermaid tub, as they are never allowed to get very tall or big. In order to keep a mother small over an extended period of time, it is necessary to avoid giving it a ``haircut'', as that would encourage it to become bushy and top-heavy. Instead, remove whole branches from near the bottom of the plant, oldest branches first. Eventually a mother will get tired and will start to fail due to the many prunings, but she can always be replaced with a clone. I savage the mother compartment weekly, paying special attention to removing large fan leaves to deny the mother the growing energy they produce.
The mothers get the same solution that the flowering cabinets use, most often a bloom formula. They don't seem to mind. If there was a society for the prevention of cruelty to plants, I would be on the most wanted list. The mothers get little space or light. But I am cautious to avoid bringing contaminants into the mother compartment, since it contains a lot of precious DNA that needs to be preserved over years of time in a tight, enclosed space. No tobacco smokers (mosaic virus)! And I'm careful to do mother maintenance first, before yard work and other activities where mites and other nasties can be picked up.
If a disaster does occur, and the ``borg'' start to assimilate the cabinets, they get a taste of the famous PCO fogger, which is absolutely a miracle in enclosed spaces like this; resistance is futile. I have only occasional, and short-lived, problems with mites.
Conclusion
I could discuss many other bits and pieces of the system, but hopefully this has been sufficient for you to get the basic idea. I don't think you can design any other system that will produce more weight of buds from 250 lights in this space. I know that for a fact, because I've seen the scrog canopy that results, and it cannot be increased [I spoke too soon - ed]. If you are new to this hobby and you want to go first class in a minimum of space, you can feel confident that your efforts will succeed in a big way if you duplicate this system. If you choose to do something different, at least I hope my experience will provide some ideas for your dream cabinet. Thanks for listening.
You already know this, but the main engine here is the 250 watt HPS. I experimented with MH and enhanced spectrum HPS bulbs, but found the basic HPS can't be beat.
The standard hood for sale at the local growstore is just about 2' long, a perfect tight fit, covering the area completely with reflected light. There is no need to mount the hood on chains or anything like that. The vertical distance in scrog growing is fixed, so the hood can be screwed right into the top of the apartment (I mounted the hoods using wingnuts in case of maintenance, etc.).
The 200 Dayton pancake is thin enough to fit along the top wall of the cabinet in the dead airspace on top and along the side the light hood, allowing it to grab the hottest air to move out of the space. I ventilated the hood (drilled holes in it) to encourage the fan to draw hot air out of the hood, and you can probably do better if you like. A vented hood will probably not work in this space; not enough room on the end.
I suppose the light could be mounted to run into the cabinet rather than side to side, but it's easier to maintain the plants if the container is in front of the cabinet, with the air and water supplies running up the back wall.
To allow the hoods to be removed for maintenance (like oiling the Dayton fans), I connected the light socket to the ballast outlet cable with three-prong plugs and sockets. Unplug the light from the ballast cable, spin off the wingnuts holding the hoods to studs mounted in the ceiling of the compartment, and the whole light assembly comes out in one piece.
While the 250 HPS does a great job in this space, they tend to sit offset on one side of the hood, favoring the scrog canopy nearest the socket. I recently supplemented my hoods with a 70 HPS light mounted on the other end. It probably wasn't necessary, but I was frustrated by not having any more projects to do, and it was fun to engineer.
Plant Containers and Medium
You don't have to grow this way, but I'll advocate this method for one simple reason; it works, and it works as well as it needs to work. I couldn't grow thicker scrog canopies that I am producing now, so why fight it?
I use 11 gallon Rubbermaid containers to grow in. As you know, I grow scrog style, and I can't imagine using any other method in a cabinet. You can't possibly beat scrog for production, since the scrog canopy totally fills the space with buds. There just isn't room for more plant weight, so there's no need to look beyond scrog for the answer.
The Rubbermaid containers solve many problems. The drip system doesn't have to be water tight, because leaks are confined in the container. The scrog net can be attached to four poles attached to the corners of the container. The Rubbermaid container has a lip around the edge. I drilled a hole in each corner, inserted one of those plastic plant stakes in each corner, and just ran duct tape around the outside of the container to hold it all together. Simple, although I grant it's not very elegant. But if the compartment needs maintenance, the drip system inlet can be disconnected (quick connectors again), and the whole plant mass, scrog net and all, can be lifted out of the cabinet in one move. If you connect the scrog netting (chicken wire) to the walls of the cabinet, well, you can't do that obviously. Boy, has that come in handy on occasion!
The medium is, and isn't, rockwool. Yes, I use rockwool, but it doesn't act as the primary nutrient carrier. Four plants adequately support the scrog canopy, each started in 4" cubes. The cubes sit on a slab, but the slab is first sliced in half, just a thin layer. The purpose of the slab is only to spread the roots out horizontally, as the grain of the slab runs 90 degrees to the cube.
The thinned slab sits on top of an open plastic grate, an eggcrate grill for a fluorescent light fixture is perfect. The plastic grate is set up off the floor of the container on blocks, allowing a 1-2" air chamber for the roots to grow into. The roots quickly grow through the cube into the slab, spread out and then grow through into the bottom of the container, pooling up into the indentations molded into the Rubbermaid bottom. It is the flow of water over the roots in the container bottom that primarily supply the root mat.
Accordingly, I don't recommend a drip system, but an open flow, using spaghetti tube connectors as emitters. I recommend five half hour cycles per day, three during the light period and two during the dark period. The rockwool gets saturated with water, but the solution drains through the wool very quickly, flowing down the drains back to the reservoirs. There is never any build up of salts in the wool to worry about, and the roots will be very happy. Every time I clean out the system for another run, I pull a complete negative mold of the bottom of the Rubbermaid container made up of a creamy white plush root mat.
Is this the perfect method for all time? No, of course not. But it supports the scrog canopy to the maximum thickness that is possible in this space, and that's all you can ask. This system is simple to run and basically foolproof. An ebb and flow system could easily be run in the same containers, but the plumbing gets more complex, doesn't it? So why bother?
Note that since there isn't much mass of rockwool involved (less expensive too), I think the ESU and other solutions designed for rockwool are too acidic for this system. I've switched to GH dry [ABC series - ed], and I'm very happy with it. My plants show no nutrient disorders with the GH bloom and micro nutrients right at the recommended level on the packages (it works out to about 1000 PPM). Like I said, I couldn't grow more or thicker buds without growing into hyperspace, so why get creative? [Because there may be a better way; v-scrog - ed].
Mothers are also grown in the same fashion, but I skip the half slab. I can cram many mothers into the Rubbermaid tub, as they are never allowed to get very tall or big. In order to keep a mother small over an extended period of time, it is necessary to avoid giving it a ``haircut'', as that would encourage it to become bushy and top-heavy. Instead, remove whole branches from near the bottom of the plant, oldest branches first. Eventually a mother will get tired and will start to fail due to the many prunings, but she can always be replaced with a clone. I savage the mother compartment weekly, paying special attention to removing large fan leaves to deny the mother the growing energy they produce.
The mothers get the same solution that the flowering cabinets use, most often a bloom formula. They don't seem to mind. If there was a society for the prevention of cruelty to plants, I would be on the most wanted list. The mothers get little space or light. But I am cautious to avoid bringing contaminants into the mother compartment, since it contains a lot of precious DNA that needs to be preserved over years of time in a tight, enclosed space. No tobacco smokers (mosaic virus)! And I'm careful to do mother maintenance first, before yard work and other activities where mites and other nasties can be picked up.
If a disaster does occur, and the ``borg'' start to assimilate the cabinets, they get a taste of the famous PCO fogger, which is absolutely a miracle in enclosed spaces like this; resistance is futile. I have only occasional, and short-lived, problems with mites.
Conclusion
I could discuss many other bits and pieces of the system, but hopefully this has been sufficient for you to get the basic idea. I don't think you can design any other system that will produce more weight of buds from 250 lights in this space. I know that for a fact, because I've seen the scrog canopy that results, and it cannot be increased [I spoke too soon - ed]. If you are new to this hobby and you want to go first class in a minimum of space, you can feel confident that your efforts will succeed in a big way if you duplicate this system. If you choose to do something different, at least I hope my experience will provide some ideas for your dream cabinet. Thanks for listening.
