Indoor Vapor's Ridiculous 15+ Auto Strains 5th Grow

[Son of Hobbes]

Grow Space Update

Worked on the grow space today. The frame is nearly complete; could use an extra length of 3/4" PVC or two to complete a few extra reinforcements on the sides but it'll work for now; will make a trip to town in the next few days.



Cleaned out the paint cans and varnishes. Lots of bad stuff to have next to heat producing lights. Nice and neat shelf now!

I wrapped the exterior with 8 mil plastic; using as much continuing plastic as I could to minimize seams. Having seams was unavoidable; so I used a heavier strength duct tape to seal them up. There's a good deal of plastic overlapping on them; and I ran vertical and horizontal strips to help reinforce the seams.






On the interior walls and ceiling I'll be putting up mylar. I'm using an industrial strength double sided adhesive tape to stick the mylar to the plastic. I thought about using a spray adhesive; but was worried about VOC's and how it would handle heat in the grow room.






The double stick adhesive tape is HEAVY DUTY, incredibly sticky stuff with a rosin core.



The mylar has proven to be a little tricky; I'm not very happy with how my first sheet went on. I'm going to be extra careful with the next pieces; I know I can get this on nice and neat.

Once the mylar is on; I'll start putting up my scrubbers; punching intake and exhaust holes; and setting up the lights. Still working out some configurations in my head for how to set everything up; exhausting three lights is going to be interesting.

Stay tuned!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Lights In, Lights almost on!

Finally got the lights in. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to run them; either series or parallel; what fans to use; how to vent them, blah blah blah. I originally was going to run them connected in a straight line with a single 720 CFM fan sucking out the air. The problem with this is the amount of heat that's being pulled from one light to the next light, then two lights worth of heat being pulled over the last light. I'm not sure if the heat would have been a serious issue with the cool winter temps coming; but it didn't seem worth it.




I ended up venting one of the 400W HPS/MH with a 400 CFM 6" centrifuge fan attached to a 6" carbon scrubber. The 1000W HPS/MH is connected to the 400W HPS/MH and vented with another 400 CFM 6" centrifuge fan attached to a carbon scrubber.

So effectively I've got two 6" carbon scrubbers pulling air from the grow space and exhausting into empty crawl space, which is under my cold-as-hell bedroom. So not only do I have a great place to exhaust; it should effectively help heat my room as it rises from the floor boards!



I'm a little leery about the position of the carbon scrubber near the entrance; typically you'd want it the furthest away from the weakest/most vulnerable point in the tent where air can escape (the tent entrance.) I didn't want it taking up a lot of space in the middle of the tent though and thought that it might compete for air if it was sitting right next to the other fan. We'll see how it works; I have a feeling I'll be switching some things around in here.




I cut some small openings in the ceiling of the tent for the exhausts; I ended up feeding the 6" duct through the ceiling (from the 1000W and the end 400W) and stretching them over to the crawl space. The exhaust doesn't end up on any wires or pipes or anything; so I'm not worried about the heat causing any issues.

In the picture below you can see how the duct is vented out.



Here's how the seedlings are doing. Everything germinated; 22 out of 22. I'm trying to rotate the tray around a bit so give equal light; but I know I'm going to start getting some stretch soon. They will be put into their final pots either late tonight or tomorrow for sure and put under the big lights.



I'm tidying up cords; getting some of the draw strings up and out of the lights way; getting the reflectors ready for the 400W lights; and figuring out how I want to split the power draw. I originally had two 15 amp breakers to work off of; but I'm pretty sure I just found a third outlet on it's own breaker; so good to go!

Stay tuned; will have pics of the growing medium and pots and final transplants; and those lights will be getting kicked on very soon! Curious to see what kind of temps I'll have right out the gate; will do some tweaking as needed.

Thanks for the read :stylez rasta smoke:

 

[DABaracuss]

I think the promix should be fine then and if its used even better..that should be a light mix and only have mostly whatever nutes you put in it.Your Setup looks good have you checked the temps yet?and do you have fan controllers?I think the promix has the mycos in it but I always add some more ..I use extreme gardening myco .:Cushtylus im testing some mycos tea I made myself:

 

[Son of Hobbes]

I think the promix should be fine then and if its used even better..that should be a light mix and only have mostly whatever nutes you put in it.

How used is used? I have nearly all of my soil from my last two grows; which started out maybe 9 to 10 months ago? I thought it was crap after it's been used in a grow? This is what it was; Pro-Mix BX, perlite, few spoonfuls of bone and blood meal, and earthworm castings. The nutrients used was primarily General Hydroponics General Organics (the GO Box lineup) and SuperThrive. On my last grow; a photo run that was about 5 months from start to finish; I went from using the General Organics to Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Grow-Bloom-Micro series. I just want to give you and idea of what's been run through it. But it's at least 9 months old worth of being grown in. It's really rich looking though; on all the pots that I still have filled (and two like 14 or 17 gallon tubs worth,) if you dig into it, it actually feels kind of wet. I thought maybe my damn cat was pissing and crapping in there; but I had them all covered so nothing could get into 'em. I just recently started chucking this stuff out into my garden to fill some low spots in the ground hahaha!

If it's worth saving, let me know. And if so, should it be mixed into the new Pro-Mix? What about the other amendments I have? the Extreme Gardening Azos (6 oz) and Mycos (2 pounds) and 15 pounds of earthworm castings. I was going to mix the Pro-Mix bale with the earthworm castings; that'd be about 75% straight Pro-Mix and 25% earth worm castings. Then amend in the myco and azos and thinking hard about that Azomite, which is supposed to add a ton of trace minerals.

Your Setup looks good have you checked the temps yet?and do you have fan controllers?

I haven't tested the temps yet; my ventilation is not quite complete yet. The two 400 CFM fans will be exhasting from inside the tent for a total of 800 CFM, but factor in the reduction for the carbon scrubbers. I have the 8" 720 CFM centrifuge fan that I was going to use for an intake fan; but I'm just a liiiiiiittle worried that the exhaust might not be as strong as the intake with those scrubbers. Negative air pressure is the key to this working as far as odor is concerned. I don't have a fan controller; I've looked at them only about 10 billion times but I keep passing; I've never been concerned with noise where I have my stuff, but now it might not be a bad investment just for the air flow control.

The outside air temperatures have been around 50 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 20's and 30's at night. The average day time temp will drop by 20-30 degrees within the next month, and it will get below 0 at night. The basement is not insulated; I normally run a gigantic oil heater down there to keep it warm. So I have some degree of control over the ambient room temperature for the intake. I also have that coal chute passive intake; which I could easily stick a 6" 240 CFM inline can with some duct and have a super fresh source of cold winter air; but we're talking some COLD air; so I'm thinking passive intake will there. If the two 400 CFM fans can provide enough negative air pressure; I'm also hoping that will effectively help draw cool air in from the coal chute. We'll see what happens!

I'll post pics of the temps in there once I've got them up and running. Thanks for the help bro! :smokebuds:

 

[dirty budster]

You have definitely piqued my interest, I'll be following this one. Good luck with the grow vaporhaizer!

 

[breederj]

That's a lot in a little space. Better get a spare bedroom.. Wall to wall bud. Cool

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Seedling Transplant (update + pictures)

Decided to transplant the seedlings to their final pots and put them under the big lights last night. The 125W CFL worked well enough, but I was started to get a little stretch with the Think Different's and didn't see any reason to not get them under some artificial sun.

My Mrs has been asking me if I would let her help out with some of the grow stuff, so she got hands on with helping me mix up the growing medium! I, of course, volunteered to be the camera man *ahem* :




We mixed up our Pro-Mix BX with perlite and earthworm castings at about a 3:1:1 ratio. Worm castings never looked so good :stylez rasta smoke:




We put the mix into a hodgepodge of 2 gallon, 4 gallon, and 5 gallon pots. All of the pots had a plethora of holes drilled into the bottom to help with drainage; and we drilled holes all over the sides in a ghetto fabulous attempt at DIY air pots. Emphasis on the ghetto fabulous.

We mixed in about a tablespoon of Azomite (trace minerals) per gallon to each pot. We scooped out a small hole in the middle of the pots for the seedlings to fit in, but before placing them in, we spread a thin lay of about a straight two tablespoons of the Mycos around where the seedlings would rest (as per the instructions on the bag for transplants.) Then a spoonful of Azos nitrogen fixing microbes was spread on top of that, with a light buffer of straight Pro-Mix. Watered the pots lightly around the coir seedling pots and letting them grow!



And here they are in their final pots and final home!




The darn 400W in the back wasn't firing up. Pretty sure that MH bulb is burned out; I had one of those "I'm sure I have a spare some where" moments where I had to tear everything apart, not find it, then check out all my online orders to see if I indeed did order it, and I did not. Durrrr. :No: Oh well. I'm going to throw an HPS bulb in there and I guess the plants will just have to like a mix of both HPS and MH on that side of the grow space.

Speaking of Durrr; the 1000W cord plug is the same plug as the 400W lights. Yeahhhhh... found that out the hard way. Found out a 400W digital ballast can fire up a 1000W light. Oops. :No: Doesn't seem to have done any damage; quickly realized what I had done (like under 30 seconds) and flipped off the power; the unit still turns on and appears to be fine. Wouldn't recommend doing that again though. Ha.



I let the lamps run for about an hour before checking the temps before bed; running a cool 77 degrees Fahrenheit right now with the 1000W and 400W MH lights. I checked the space again today when I got home from work, in the middle of the day, it was up to 82 degrees Fahrenheit. I haven't installed the intake fan yet, plus I have the cool air intake from the coal chute in the grow space, so I have plenty of cool air options. I know the extra 400W light will produce more heat, but I think this is going to be totally manageable.



Next up on the list of things to do is install the intake fan system, get the bulb changed out in the last cool tube, and get the watering tub ready.

I'm going to take a 14 or 17 gallon plastic tub and fill it with water from the tap; then I've got an aquarium pump and a series of air stones that I will let bubble 24/7. This way I'll have a nice bubbled reservoir that I can dip my watering cans into; hopefully with far less chlorine and other harmful contaminants.

You have definitely piqued my interest, I'll be following this one. Good luck with the grow vaporhaizer!

That's a lot in a little space. Better get a spare bedroom.. Wall to wall bud. Cool

Thanks bros, I know it's a TON of plants in a small space, but I actually did something similar to this on my last auto grow and it turned out pretty well (at least in my opinion haha,) so I do have realistic expectations on how much work this is going to be and what kind of growth I'm going to have. I expect a TON of training and bending and I know all too well the pain the butt cheeks watering 20+ plants is on a regular basis. Still, it's a labor of love and I have faith it's going to go well enough for what I expect :Cool: Hope you'll ride it out with me, good or bad iggy Hug:



More pictures on the way, thanks for the look!

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Day 8 from germination

So 1800W puts out a lot of heat. :roflcry: I've got the temperatures staying a near rock solid 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't too shabby for a 400W MH, 400W HPS, and a 1000W MH, but it needs to be cooler. In my defense, I have been banking on cold weather and it decided to be abnormally warmer than usual for this time of year; but I'm going to probably tweak a few things in the grow space. Right now I have two 400 CFM fans sucking out the heat between all three fans with the 720 CFM fan as my intake. That 720 CFM fan is ungodly loud holy moses haha!

I have an outside dryer vent that's plugged off about 10 feet from where my intake fan is sitting; I could move the fan up near the vent or directly into it and have another direct cool air intake. I would definitely need a fan speed controller for that though; that'd be a lot of jet cold air blasting the plants

I also have that coal chute vent directly in the grow room; I'm thinking of sticking a 240 CFM inline on it; I know that would drop the temps a few degrees for sure.



Anyone ever have any problems with Boxelder bugs? I noticed a couple flying around down in my grow space; the little shits some how avoided the first couple frosts we had outside. Do they chew on leaves? I killed all of them that I found but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't breed a few eggs in there; I'm not too worried but if anyone has experience with them and it needs to be addressed; let's do it sooner than later!



Here are the girls. All feminized. They seem to be doing pretty well so far! Everyone one of these was planting in their seedling coir pots on the 13th, so just about 8 days from successful germination.

Some of the Sweet Seed Red Poison beans germinated but never broke their seed husk. I let them go as long as I could before making the decision to give them a helping hand; normally it's better to let the plant shed it out on it's own as it strengthens them, but one of them was seriously NOT going to open. They are doing well enough now though!

I have a little bit of weird leaf growth on some of the seedlings, it looks like wrinkling. A quick look up would indicate it's a possible pH issue, which is totally plausible as I've switched to tap water since they've been in their final pots (they've gotten a total of two waterings so far.)

Speaking of final pots; on the last water I gave them all a slight dose of Advanced Nutrients Grow-Bloom-Micro pH Perfect and some SuperThrive. I gave 1 mL SuperThrive per gallon, and about a quarter strength of the AN nutes. It's been two days since and I've noticed no real ill effects, so I'll keep on that regiment probably for another week or so; depending on how the growth comes.

I checked the soil today; I'll definitely be watering today at some point. This one will just be straight water with SuperThrive. I haven't set up my bubbling water reservoir yet; today's the first day I've had off in awhile so hopefully I can get that baby running and get some highly oxygenated water to my girls!



The Dutch Passion Think Different's are doing something kind of funny; they haven't quite shed the seed husk from the cotyledon, but the opposite new leaf growth is massive haha! Think I should just leave that seed husk on or pull it off? I know it provides nutrients to the seedling as it's starting to grow.




Here's a few pics of the rest of them. I'll try to get the labels all spun around so you can see all the different strains; I'm not even sure what I all have in there any more :Cool:














Thanks for the look!

 

[blue]

Thats a lotta light vape!

The babies are looking nice! I'd only try to remove that husk if it were nearly off, it's far too easy to snap the stem at this age.
It seems like it "should" be getting cooler soon, but at 90f have you considered using Co2? A bit setup like yours could probably benefit from it.

Never had the will to try it myself but there are a couple of members here who grow monsters with LOTs of light and Co2 ^_^

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Thanks for the advice Blue! I'll leave the husks on; judging by the growth on them I don't think it's going to have too much of an ill effect. I've honestly never looked into CO2 systems much; is it just a tank with a regulator that disperses it into the growing space? Would there be any benefit to a closed system like this as opposed to drawing in fresh outside air? I've toyed around with the idea of using the 720 CFM to draw in outside air in a closed loop system with the lights, I could draw in from the dryer vent and exhaust through the coal chute vent; it would be easier to run the lights in a series as far as the vent goes but then I run into heat from one light going into the next and into the next; it might not be a problem with the super cold air but it's still a factor. Or, I could run the lights in parallel with a couple of 6" tees, which would only be pulling hot air from one light onto just one other light (more peace of mind.) I know air exchange is very important with a setup like this.

Are there other CO2 generation methods? Are there safety concerns with using CO2?

I know the temps will drop on their own without any intervention; I just think 90 is too hot. It hasn't gone over 90 once yet (and pretty sure it won't, been snow mixed with rain very frequently the last week and it's dropping into the low 20's at night now.) I'll get those temps down; not even sweating it! Yet. Haha!

Appreciate the help :smokebuds: