My Super CFL Lowryder 2 AeroGrow

My Super CFL Lowryder 2 AeroGrow

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my grow journal.

First timer here. I've read alot of material on homegrowing (mostly here on RIU) and I've put forth the time, effort, and money to hopefully have a successful first attempt. I welcome any and all comments, advice, tips, comparisons and criticism, so please, input!

The name of the game here is stealth, which is why I'm growing in a metal cabinet/locker thingy thats tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of my storage area. The cabinet's dimensions are 21"W x 17"D x 42"H. As you can see I dont have a hell of a lot of room to work with but I think it should be ok for what I've got planned.

As far as lighting goes I've got the 3 CFL's in the Aerogarden Deluxe hood (26 watts providing 1560 lumens a piece) and an additional 4 CFL's (23 watts, 1640 lumens each) mounted behind the AG. The 7 CFL bulbs should provide a total of 11,240 lumens. Hopefully this is adequate.

My first question is in regards to the light spectrum of the CFLs. The lights in the AG hood appear to be in the higher light spectrum range (6500k or so) and give off a nice blueish-white for good vegetative growth. The additional 4 CFLs are all 2700k, giving off a soft white perfect for flowering. Since I'm growing autoflowering plants is it ok to have this mix of veg and flowering lights throughout the whole grow?

I am a little concerned that if the plants become too bushy they will get burned by my additional CFL bulbs. If it looks like this may be a problem I will either raise them until they're approximately level with the AG hood or figure out how to remount them in a way that wont harm the plants.

All of the lights (including the AG hood) are hooked up to a timer that will be running 20/4 throughout the whole grow while the AG pump and airstone both run 24hrs a day. If anybody has a good reason that I should use a lighting schedule other than 20/4 I welcome your input.

Hmmm... what else. There is a 10in airstone in the reservoir that is hooked up to small aquarium pump to provide extra bubbly. The entire interior of the cabinet is covered in mylar for max reflectivity. I just eyeballed the measurements when cutting up the mylar and I used duct tape to adhere it to the walls, so it looks kinda ghetto but should do its job nonetheless. Theres a small fan behind the AG that will be help to circulate the air. Up at the top of the cabinet are two vents, and near these I will be mounting two Febreze True Air carbon filters to expel the odorless, filtered air out of the cabinet. If anyone has used these Febreze filters please let me know how they worked. A carbon filter with a built in fan for under $15? I couldnt say no. The one I currently have appears very solid and seems to work perfectly.

I will be using the Foxfarm hydroponic nutrient trio, which I have pictured. I will be following the Foxfarm feeding schedule as closely as I can, making minor adjustments to accomodate the short lifespan of the lowryders. The feeding schedule can be found on their website, by the way, if anyone would like to have one for themselves.

I plan on starting the seedlings on 1/4 strength nutes the first week in the AG. If anyone thinks that this is a bad idea and that I should just use fresh PH'd water for week 1 please let me know (and why).

I'm planning on growing three lowryder 2's in this setup. I put the three seeds in a paper towel/plastic baggie early yesterday morning (5/15) and they've all already sprouted little roots. Time for my next question... How long do the seeds need to germinate before I put them in the AG sponges? I plan on leaving them in there at least until tomorrow. Hopefully some people check out this thread and let me know when to throw 'em in the AG.

The pictures just show what my grow box looks like pre-plants, plus a shot of the nutes and of the seeds germinating. The pic of the seeds sucks and is blurry but you can see the little sprouts. I guess I'm just wondering, based on the pic, if they're ready to transplant.

Oh, by the way, my seeds are feminized.

Another question: When I'm topping off my reservoir between weekly feedings, do I just top off with fresh PH'd water or with nutrient enriched water (at the same PPM as the water in the res at the time of the initial feeding)?

Well I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention a lot of stuff but this is already getting kind of long so I'll just update as things progress.

One last thing. I just want to say thanks to Lurkmaster for putting together that Aerogarden FAQ sticky. If anyone is thinking about using an AG I definitely recommend using it as a basic guide. Also thanks to all the other noobs like myself here on RIU whose grows I have been following and learning from, and especially to the experienced growers who take the time to help people like myself out.

Thanks again, and subscribe to my thread to follow my progress! Till then,

hey man, im doing something very similar with the same materials by next week as well and i have the exact same questions as you. goodluck man!

whered you get the mylar?

Hey wrecka, good luck with your grow. I got the mylar from my local hydroponic store. Couldn't find any in the garden departments of places like Home Depot or Wal-Mart. If you don't have a hydro shop where you live you'll probably have to order it online.

UPDATE

Got the sprouts into the pods late last night. Just checked em' and they look about the same. One of my additional CFLs quit working already, so thats great. I'll try to get a replacement bulb today. Heres a picture of one of the three sprouts in the AG. Two of them look about like this one, the other is still in its seed casing but it definitely growing upward.

So everythings looking fine, seedlings are straightening out and I can see their first tiny sets of leaves. Replaced the bunk CFL bulb. I dipped a finger the reservoir to feel the temperature and it feels pretty damn warm. I'm pretty sure thats not a good thing, unless you're in the root fungus business, which I am definitely not. Anyone have any suggestions on how to bring it down??? I'll pick up an aquarium temp strip as soon as I can so I can get an exact reading. The high temp inside the cabinet today was 79F, low of 74F.

DAY 4

Here they are, 4 days old and looking like healthy little seedlings.

nikkelz said:

ayo my niggz....lumens dont add .....so you really got a grand total of .......1640 lumens

Click to expand...

Ah, I have researched and see that you are correct. Lumens, being a measure of brightness, will not increase with the addition of other light sources of the same brightness. Makes sense, good call. The additional bulbs are merely providing more overall coverage and penetration to the plants.

DAY 8

Well, they all seem pretty healthy, although one is quite a bit smaller than the other two. The two bigger ones have nice healthy root systems that are growing down into the reservoir. The small one doesn't appear to have any visible roots when I peek in the rez. I'm not sure why the one plant is a runt... maybe because its further from the additional CFLS? I dunno. The only issue I'm having that worries me any so far is keeping the reservoir temperature low. Its still heating up quite a bit, but the plants seem ok to me. I'm working on some things to help keep it cool. I'm hoping for some rapid growth in the coming week as I add a little more nutrients. Till next update,

Well I've planted three identical seeds which have begun to grow into three very different looking plants.

The one planted farthest to the left in the AG appears to be the healthiest and most robust. I can see that it has increased in size every day that I check it (which is every day). It appears to have a tiny bit of what I think is nute-burn on one leaf, but it seems isolated and has not spread, so I'm not too worried. Like I said, its growing pretty rapidly and looks very healthy otherwise, so hopefully its no biggy.

The plant on the far right is also growing pretty fast. Its root system is easily the biggest, much bigger than I would have expected for being less than two weeks old. The strange thing about this plant is its leaves. They seem droopy compared to the other plant and they kind of curl under as opposed to fanning out nicely like the other one. I looked through one of the plant problem stickys and the only thing I can find that looks close is overwatering, although that doesnt make much sense since they are all in the same reservoir and only this one looks like this. There are no signs of nute-burn on this one, only nice bright green.

Last and least is the plant in the middle, which looks on day 11 like the other two did on day 3. For whatever reason its very. very small. Strangly, its small size appears to be the only thing wrong with it. No nute burn like plant 1, no weird leaves like plant 2, just little and apparently healthy. Its finally got roots that are touching the surface of the water in the reservoir, so hopefully its just a late bloomer and catches up later (I've never actually used the term 'late bloomer' in regards to horticulture ).

If I didn't know better I would think that each seed was a different strain, put under the exact same water/nutrient/lighting conditions, and growing three very different types of plants. Go figure. I'll post more pics this weekend when I officially hit week 2, if anybody cares. Hell, I'll post them even if no one cares. PEACE

Hey, what's up man? Looks like you've done some reading. I've don't know a whole lot about lowryders and autoflowers, but I have a little bit of experience, so if you ever have any questions, I'm here to help. Check out my couple of grows if you need any referencing. Links in the sig.

How about that... somebody checking out my grow! Thanks for stopping by FoxCo. Its because of the helpful growers out there like you that I decided to keep a journal in the first place. I'll be posting pics tomorrow or the next day. Maybe with your help I can figure out why they all look so different from eachother. I'm gonna go scope your journal...

subscribed

i like your setup. tell me more about this lumens not adding up business... you telling me that spreading 8 matching CFLs doesnt give me more lumens, just more distribution? oh and subscribed!

Hey man nice setup...a few q's tho...

are you keeping your lights as close as possible to the plants at all times? Oh and the high temperature in your rez, don't worry about, it'll be fine and once they get more leaves they will shade the grow surface keeping the water cool....

Oh ya what do you use to test the PH?

Peace
-Tek

[quote="SICC";2551198]subscribed[/quote]

SICC, dude, glad to see you've subscribed. You're all over these aero boards! I've taken a lot of your advice when getting this grow together, actually.

Shackleford.R said:

i like your setup. tell me more about this lumens not adding up business... you telling me that spreading 8 matching CFLs doesnt give me more lumens, just more distribution? oh and subscribed!

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Whats up man, thanks for subscribing. Yeah, if you've got 8 CFLs rated at, say, 1600 lumens each, then you've only actually got 1600 lumens TOTAL! When that guy posted on my thread about it I googled it and found this on another marijuana growing forum (not RIU). I'm quoting the guy who wrote this exactly:

Sorry to burst everyone bubble, but lumens DO NOT add together, at least not in the sense that 2 cfl's that output 2000 lumens will be as bright as a 4000 lumen cfl's. Contrary to popular belief, it's just not the way it works, you can have 50 2000 lumens cfls side by side and if you use a luxometer to measure the light output it will only measure 2000 lumens. I've actually witnessed a demonstration of this. On the other had you still will double the amount of photons and usable light the plant recieves, so all is no lost, i suggest going with the highest wattage bulbs you can afford and as many as you can afford within reason.

On a side note, he goes on and provides this link to what he thinks are the best flouro's available for growing, and I must admit that they're the best I've seen. Two 55W T5's providing 5,000 lumens each? And only a 2ft long fixture? Thats pretty dank

Teknique70 said:

Hey man nice setup...a few q's tho...

are you keeping your lights as close as possible to the plants at all times? Oh and the high temperature in your rez, don't worry about, it'll be fine and once they get more leaves they will shade the grow surface keeping the water cool....

Oh ya what do you use to test the PH?

Peace
-Tek

Click to expand...

Yo Tek, thanks for checking out my thread. Yes I am keeping the lights as close as I possibly can to the plants without harming them. The AG hood is lowered as far as it can be and the supplemental CFLs are even closer. In fact my healthiest plant is getting really close to touching one of the bulbs, but no damage to the leaves that I can see so far. I'm on top of it, though, just in case. The 2 plants that are actually maturing at a reasonable rate are compact as fuck!

Yeah I guess the rez temperature hasn't really been affecting the plants at all. The roots are growing like crazy in there so I guess its ok. Thats a good point about the leaves providing shade over the rez, I hadnt really thought about that.

I'm testing and adjusting the PH with the General Hydroponics PH adjustment kit. I'd really like to get a digi pen or one of those continous PH monitors but I can't really spare the cash for awhile. According to the scale thats part of the kit, orange is a PH of 5 and yellow is 6, so I shoot for orangish-yellow It makes me kinda nervous not having a definitive reading, but I don't think the PH has been a problem thus far.

I'll post pictures for sure tomorrow of all three plants, their roots, and of the whole setup. And as a random bonus I'll post a pic of my new baby Salvia Divinorum plant that I plan on cloning in my other AeroGarden once its recovered from being stuffed in a box and mailed to me from Hawaii! lol PEACE fellas

p.s. I tried to do a multi-quote and address everyone in the same post but it kept doing weird shit. Don't know what I was doing wrong

OK, so I did a little more research on the lumens topic and I've found that, in fact, they do add. The way they add up, though, is not as simple as saying one 1600 lumen bulb plus another 1600 lumen bulb equals 3200 lumens. Theres a lot more math that depends on a lot of other variables and conditions. The best explaination that I've found on the subject (by far the best, actually) was, surprise surprise, right here on RIU. Click here to check it out.

Awesome read!!! Thanks for that link, very informative, I do wonder a bit though if he made up some of the math...

When I've got one bulb on at what is about 7", I get the reading of 65000 lumens / m^2 .

At 7", the area the light is being distributed to is:

4 * pi * r^2 = 4 * pi * (7")^2 = 615 in^2 ~ 3971 cm^2 = 0.397 m^2

So for 65000 lux = 65000 lumens / m^2 , we have:

65000 lumens / m^2 * 0.397 m^2 = 25805 lumens

Click to expand...

Most stoners won't second guess that, because we're stoners and don't like to perplex our brains with difficult numbers, haha. Real talk, he knows his shit, that little meeter does at least...

and