LED/T5 Veg, 400W HPS Flower SCOG Cabinet

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Z

zags

Active Member
cruzer101 said:

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Lower half of cabinet, My next grow. By starting these now I dont need to keep a
mother plant. By taking cutting just before flower I can get a harvest every two months.​


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Click to expand...
Great idea! Where from the plant do you take the cutting, and why?

Plus I see you've got 7 cuttings vegging, but are flowering 6; a backup?

I may have not read carefully enough, but I didn't see you mention anything about utilizing CO2, but see a bottle down there. I definitely like the idea of CO2 and increasing yield, but will try that after a couple of grows under my belt.

thanks again!
 
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cruzer101

Well-Known Member
Hey Zags,

Yea I take the cuttings from the lower part of the plant. The bottom two off each and keep the best. Those have the most root hormones and they won’t make it passed the screen to flower anyway.

The co2 is experimental at this point. My problem is still heat from the light requires air-cooling and I am taking the air from inside. I’m working on a vent.

Once I get that handled then yes, I want to get that regulated. Now it’s just on low and it’s getting sucked out.

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jbrain420

jbrain420

Active Member
Agree, Very very nice.

So what you yield off a cabinet of that size? I'm looking at something similar, But was leaning more towards growing in soil, because I live someplace that could loose power for a day or two. Do you think hydro does better?
 
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cruzer101

Well-Known Member
Hi Brian,

The yield varies; So many things can affect it. I’m figuring I will get a couple ounces of dried smoke out of this one but I have thought of a way to double that.

My next grow I am going to use a different strain. White Widow: Mostly India plant that bushes out more and possibly fim them. The other thing is to use the growing area more efficiently by raising the screen up the walls further.

Only time will tell.

As far as what type of medium to grow in, if you can tend to your plants on a daily bases Hydro is better. You have more control over the growing cycle. Plants grow faster and react to treatment faster.

Soil has its benefits as well. In soil you go a couple days without any attention no problem. Soil acts as a buffer and is easier to keep the PH in line. Soil will retain the moisture longer so if they don’t get watered for 3 or 4 days it’s no problem.

Just be sure you get the right soil. From what I understand you want a good potting soil without nutes added. Add your own. Mixed with perlite and some sand. You can find the mix here on RIU FAQ

Good luck man,
Thanks for stopping by
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Single White Pistol

Single White Pistol

Well-Known Member
So how are those LED's? Cool to the touch? You could probably grow these just using those panels right? So cool! Everything looks really good man. In it for the harvest.
 
dontpanic

dontpanic

Well-Known Member
Bump this grow is the shizniz cant wait to see it finished up and was j/w along with SWP is there any heat off the leds?
 
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cruzer101

Well-Known Member
Single White Pistol said:
So how are those LED's? Cool to the touch? You could probably grow these just using those panels right? So cool! Everything looks really good man. In it for the harvest.
Click to expand...
Hey Pistol,
Yea you can hold leds in your hand they are barely warm. What I read was that plants use only like 15% of regular light. Well I bought three kits from homegrownlights.com. Each one covers one sq foot. I mounted them on some masonite with a couple T-5's and made an array.

Thing is I dont think they help in flower that much. At least right next to that 400W I dont think they make that much difference. So Im moving the leds to a lower shelf and gonna veg some white widow there. I think I will take some WW clones and flower them side by side "LED vs HID same cabinet" that would make a cool journal eh?
See ya at harvest.
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dontpanic

dontpanic

Well-Known Member
that journal would be the shit cant wait till harvest see you there!! tell the girls i said whats good! ;)
 
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cruzer101

Well-Known Member
Everything was going just fine untill today. I must admit I havent looked closely at them
in a few days. Today I see I have an infestation of Spidermites.
This web wasnt there three days ago. Dam they multiply fast.​


It seems to be contained to four of the buds on the left side of the cabinet.
That explains why the right side was doing better than the left.​

I got some bug killer "Safer" brand and just sprayed them​



I figure it will only kill the mites in the web. The damage to the plants is already done.
Oh well, I always wanted to try and make hash. I will make hash out of the plants with
the dam bugs.​

I am going to flush now...​
 
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cruzer101

Well-Known Member
I flushed for a week with distilled water and harvested them. Here is a shot of the root system of one plant as you can see although I wartered the corner of the cube the roots grew out all around the bottom of the rockwool cube and the hydroton.​


I took a cardboard box and ran fishing line across the top, hang them then let them sit uncovered for a week to dry. This is one plant.​

Sorry about the fuzzy pic. I got fuzzy pics of the buds too but I will spare you.​

Here is the first plant, we got 5 more to go.​


Next I put them in jars and sealed them for two weeks to cure.​


I opened the jars once a day to see if there was any moisture but there wasn’t any.​

So here are the results, out of the three with the spider mites
I got 28 grams of dried bud.
Thats the black jar.

Out of the other three plants I got 45 grams of dried bud. Clear jar.​

Total: 73 grams of killer bud in three months.​

Now I start flowering the cuttings I took from this batch and I will have another couple ounces in two months.
Then the cycle will continue four times a year.​

I figure this set-up produces 2.5 to three ounces every two months. (2.5 with mites)
Without insect problems that’s 18 ounces a year.​

My power bill has jumped about $30 a month. I spend about $60 for water and nutrients for the grow times 6 that’s $360 a year.
Plus the power that’s $360 a year.​

So it cost me $40 an ounce.
Works for me!​
 
loh-pan

loh-pan

Active Member
amazing.
I had a fight with mites, but fortunately for me i won the fight.

What is the height of the flower chamber and the height of the plants at the end?

about how far away from the HPS are the plants, do you need to move the light up away from the plants?

DO you have a filter for the smell, if so how is it placed?

and one last one, why did you choose to position the HPS that way and not length-wise?
:clap:kiss-ass
 
C

cruzer101

Well-Known Member
loh-pan said:
amazing.
I had a fight with mites, but fortunately for me i won the fight.

What is the height of the flower chamber and the height of the plants at the end?

about how far away from the HPS are the plants, do you need to move the light up away from the plants?

DO you have a filter for the smell, if so how is it placed?

and one last one, why did you choose to position the HPS that way and not length-wise?
:clap:kiss-ass
Click to expand...
Good to hear you won the fight, I feel I did ok. I will be ready for them when they come back though.

Height of flower chamber is about 36" The light is presently mounted attached to a duct fan keeping it cool, that takes about 4 inches so grow space about 32".

I grow the plants in pots that are about 6 inches tall up to about 10" so at 16 inches they hit the screen and train them in the screen to keep the height down.

The trick is to know when to stop training them and let them start going towards the light. It's usually the second week of flower. That’s when they are done stretching. Then they grow up all together and maintain the right height. Starting at 16 inches away and growing up another 8 inches so when they are done they are about 8 inches from the light. The light is air cooled. You can hold it in your hand.

I love the smell, so I vent inside this room. If I wanted to hide the smell I would go get a hepa filter and cut it to fit my exhaust. It’s a small space.

I put the light sideways because I plan on growing up the side of the cabinet next time. Use more of the available space.


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loh-pan

loh-pan

Active Member
Thanks man.
I like dwc but the reservoir takes a lot of room. i think a drip or ebb n flow is much better suited for a stealth set-up.

Smell is going to be a factor for me, tho i love it too! You think that a hepa filter would do the trick for this size room(maybe with some odour removing gel)? I was thinking that a 4" inline fan and a carbon filter would be required. It would be a little overkill(at about 180cfm), but i need it scent free. I could hook up the fan to some kind of regulator to tune it down a bit.

I see your drip changes position when the roots appear and the clones are placed into pots. It changes from dripping into the rockwool cube to the hydroton.
I'm not at all use to drip systems and would like to ask how long you drip for and how many times a day?

It seems to me, working with DWC, that the plants wouldnt get the water/nutes they need to grow if the roots dont sit in the nutrient mixture.
Does the solution fill the plant pots and slowly drain out or does it just drip through the hydroton?

thanks for this journal and your answers.
 
loh-pan

loh-pan

Active Member
I just read that your hydrofarm drip is: 1 hour on, one hour off while lights are on.
Then on for 1 ½ hour twice during the night to keep them moist. is this the same as this drip system?
 
C

cruzer101

Well-Known Member
loh-pan said:
I just read that your hydrofarm drip is: 1 hour on, one hour off while lights are on.
Then on for 1 ½ hour twice during the night to keep them moist. is this the same as this drip system?
Click to expand...
The hydrofarm journal had bigger pots and was moving a lot of water. I had drilled out holes in those upper containers and added air stones. I was growing 3 foot plants.

These stay much smaller; I water 30 min twice a day. And yes, I try and move the water to the edge of the cube/hydroton. That way one side of the cube stays dry and they get there air. Doesn’t always work. Depends on how large the root system has grown.

The key is not to get the rooting plugs/rockwool area to wet. Let it wick from the hydroton. Plants don’t like water at the top of the root system. That’s way in DWC you have a gap.

Actually, I grew a mother plant and watered the hydroton only for 24 hrs a day and it grew like crazy. If I were to water her at the rockwool cube it would have smothered her.

When you think about it, Hydroponics was developed to grow plants in water starved countries. Places where there was very little water.

But now, when it comes to growin our grass we use all kinds of water. LOL


I use 5 gallons a week. Three gallons in the res, nutes at half strength. Two days later I add a gallon of fresh, then a gallon in another two days. That tops it off twice. Then start again. I figure my plants drink about 1/2 gallon a day.

I use a 250 gallon per hour pump but that’s because I am pumping water up two feet or so. If your on a somewhat level surface 100gph pump or power head will do.
To make sure they all get the same amount water you can get 1gph drippers.

DWC does grow plants 10 to 20% faster but I don’t really have the space nor do I want to have to haul twice the water and use twice the nutes. But it may work for you.

Good luck and glad to be of some help.

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