Variety Grow - Perpetual, "Mini" ScrOG's, DWC in a Cabinet (First Timer)

Its all lookin' really good man, I like the SCROG modification - Makes perfect sense I thought about maybe a multi-layer SCROG... like one screen at 6" with mainly vegitation and then feeding the stem up when the the screen is full onto another screen sitting at .. say 14" just for flowering production That way you can grow a huge plant..Use possible CFL lamps to light the lower screen and under-side of the top screen and HID/CMH/HPS to light the top (Big-Buds). Its just an idea at the moment, your modification inspired me and I may implement it on my next grow in a few months! Feel free to do it as well if you want..I am pretty sure the idea will take off

Is the Panda film like Chopper-Stopper - Does it block infra-red FLIR guns and erase heat signals? I like the velcro use, I take it now the Panda screens are installed there are no light leaks? What are you doing as far as carbon filters etc go? ..Also I was wondering : Your blue res tubs.. Is the drainage (white switch at bottom of blue res. tub/s) functional and how do you drain out your old res without wetting the base of your grow cab? do you attach hoses?

Keep up the good work man its a pleasure to read your thread - STELTHY

stelthy said:

Its all lookin' really good man, I like the SCROG modification - Makes perfect sense I thought about maybe a multi-layer SCROG... like one screen at 6" with mainly vegitation and then feeding the stem up when the the screen is full onto another screen sitting at .. say 14" just for flowering production That way you can grow a huge plant..Use possible CFL lamps to light the lower screen and under-side of the top screen and HID/CMH/HPS to light the top (Big-Buds). Its just an idea at the moment, your modification inspired me and I may implement it on my next grow in a few months! Feel free to do it as well if you want..I am pretty sure the idea will take off

Is the Panda film like Chopper-Stopper - Does it block infra-red FLIR guns and erase heat signals? I like the velcro use, I take it now the Panda screens are installed there are no light leaks? What are you doing as far as carbon filters etc go? ..Also I was wondering : Your blue res tubs.. Is the drainage (white switch at bottom of blue res. tub/s) functional and how do you drain out your old res without wetting the base of your grow cab? do you attach hoses?

Keep up the good work man its a pleasure to read your thread - STELTHY

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Hey Stelthy thanks for hanging out!

I can't do the multi-layer thing because I only have 24" until I reach the top of the cab. So what I need to do this round is put the plants into flower ASAP to determine how much main stalk will continue to grow, as it winds up under the screen, and create new bud sites to fill out the screen. If I find during this first grow that I don't fill out the screen completely, then I'll know to leave the plants in vegetative state for a bit longer. I have four plants about to fill out a space that's 24"hx18"dx47"w or roughly 12 cu ft. However your idea sounds pretty cool and I'll be interested in seeing what you come up with!

Panda Film is basically 5 mil thick poly plastic just like green trash bag material. One side is jet black and the other side is ultra white. I'm not sure if it's IR proof but I know since putting it up my cab temps have risen 2*, probably because of the increased reflectivity.

I plan on using the WalMart Zen Carbon filter using the rubber maid pencil holders. I bought everything in the beginning to make it so I might as well proceed on that front.

The original design of the reservoirs are as water jugs. The spigots are not only functional, they are removable and dishwasher safe. I'm not sure how I'll have to use the spigots because the whole unit weighs no more than 15 lbs. All I have to do is lift one up 2", shift it right or left and it just slides out of the cab. Once you have one out then the rest just come out easily. Then I can just carry each unit into the kitchen and do water changes, trimming and whatever maintenance needs to occur.

I think I covered everything.

this is the carbon filter I made, it can be scaled down to fit your needs if you find the zen carbon filter doesn't work for you.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29402

oOBe RyeOo said:

this is the carbon filter I made, it can be scaled down to fit your needs if you find the zen carbon filter doesn't work for you.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29402

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Thanks! I'll check it out!


So here's my update for today. My last water readings were done on 12/14 (see above) before readjusting everything to pH 5.5 and 65*. The following results are the changes since then. Cab air temps have averaged 84* but have been as high as 94* while experimenting with different things:

Blue Dream: pH 6.0, WT 71*, PPM 680 (with nutes)

SkyWalker OG #1: pH 6.1, WT 72*, PPM 460 (no nutes)

SkyWalker OG #2: pH 5.6, WT 71*, PPM 470 (no nutes)

SkyWalker OG #3: pH 5.8, WT 72*, PPM 450 (no nutes)


I discovered that it takes about 5 or 6 ice cubes from the automatic ice maker to bring all temps back down to 65* without any noticeable effect to pH or PPM or water level. I also threw in a 2.0 ml shot of 29% H2O2 just in case any bad stuff happens to be in the ice cubes (not likely since it has a brand new filter and my wife is pretty anal about washing the ice cube tray regularly).

I did a big clean up of the garage yesterday as it was too far out of control and I'm starting to lose things. I'm using my old reservoirs as sorting bins for all my grow shit such as pvc parts, hose/pipe clamps, tubing and air stones, weather-stripping, etc. Now that I think I have my style down, I have a lot of extra shit that I probably will never use so I'm thinking of taking a trip down to the Restore and donating.

I still have to do some more clean up on the work bench and then life should get back to normal. I also (thanks to my new wheels) turned the cabinet back up against the wall which means I can stand back and take better pics! I've taken a bunch so I'll be back in a bit after downloading and editing.

BTW Gumball I'm halfway through your thread on my effort to catch back up! What a great saga and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. Like I said I can't stand reading the last page first!

Here are some over/under pics of the girls. As far as root production BD is in the lead but SOG 1, 2 and 3 all have fresh white thick root stubs coming out everywhere even though it's hard to see in some of the pics


Blue Dream



Skywalker OG #1



Skywalker OG #2



Skywalker OG #3



I don't know if I've ever given a shot of the fan setup for the mini-fridge from the inside. The fan blows into the cab.


Now that the cab is turned I can stand back and get a better pic of the whole thing. Right now the top mother chamber is turned off. You can see how I can lift the lids up to maintain the water.


Here's my old reservoirs being used now as storage/sorting bins for my crap.

Looks great JS, loving the pic's! Glad to have you in my thread! Are you in my CMH powered PC thread, or the one before that?

Do you have any experience with ozone generators or ionizers? Any opinions on them you will share? Thinking of odor elimination, as I have been gifted some stinky seeds, which I am glad to have. But carbon filters are so restrictive I am thinking of other ideas.

gumball said:

Looks great JS, loving the pic's! Glad to have you in my thread! Are you in my CMH powered PC thread, or the one before that?

Do you have any experience with ozone generators or ionizers? Any opinions on them you will share? Thinking of odor elimination, as I have been gifted some stinky seeds, which I am glad to have. But carbon filters are so restrictive I am thinking of other ideas.

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Unfortunately no experience, I've never gotten this far before. I know I've read lots of threads where each of these methods was used successfully. So I would say run a pro/con list on each type including $'s to build/buy and go from there?

ipsum blah lorem bzzz I know ipsum blah lorem bzzz what ipsum blah lorem bzzz you mean ipsum blah lorem bzzz about ipsum blah lorem bzzz the ipsum blah lorem bzzz pics. Sometimes ipsum blah lorem bzzz reading ipsum blah lorem bzzz through ipsum blah lorem bzzz all of ipsum blah lorem bzzz my bulshit ipsum blah lorem bzzz can get ipsum blah lorem bzzz boring.....am I right?

So speaking of blah blah blah I've been thinking. Or more to the point reading back through all of your threads. Daniels reminds me that I'm prone to Spider Mites and have suffered through the minor devastations that come about, in addition to suffering a bit on the powdery mold front. My troubles come out of nowhere even when I keep things clean. In addition all of you guys get good results with foliar feeding in the earlier stages of rooting.

Spider mites right now would be devastating because it would be over quick with such little girls. I've decided to go preventative and I've created a one gallon solution of 1/4 strength Neam Oil and 1/2 strength Thrive Alive B1 Green in one gallon of water. I set the mister to the finest and most even spray setting I can get and doing a light spray of the leafs, underside as well as on top.

Today I'm switching from 24/0 to 18/6 starting with first lights out a 1:00pm and lights back on at 7pm. I need to start getting used to not having full free access to the cabinet during lights out so I need to perform some LST on my brain because going 12/12 will be more of a shock for me than it will for the girls!

My plan is to wait until roots hit water (about 5" below netpots) before going to 12/12. This is where I need some suggestions? I don't want to veg any longer than I have to before I can get these girls into a "stress free" flower. Any suggestions or experience?

And now looking forward a bit. Since I've restarted this project over the past few weeks, I finally have reached a feeling of inevitable success. It's not that I'm putting a jynx on things, but I've had this feeling many times at work when I've developed a great idea and a plan to get it to implementation or fruition. When I get this feeling I have never failed due to anything that was within my control. The setup I have now is consistent. It's what I had when I was running my 250w MH except I had to step up the thinking to get things to work at 400w! In addition there are now ways to increase capacity in case the need arises.

Here are some key points I've learned through my particular setup:

1. Keeping air temps under control makes the need to keep water temps under control much more manageable!!!
2. Using "closed-loop" cooling is much more efficient than "pass-through" cooling

So the future...a possible change in strategy? Looking at the pics above anybody spot on empty chamber anywhere? All of the external duct work and fans are in place. All I have to do is:

1. install the inside duct work and a cool tube (2 hours of work...5 if stoned)
2. mount the doors and weather stripped, they are already cut, and install panda film (4 hours or 4 hours)
3. order a new 400w lighting setup and install (1 - 2 hours)
4. build four more reservoirs (2 hours)
5. buy four more clones get four more ladies running

Does this sound like a reasonable goal to get done in 2 weeks? What are your thoughts?

Now not to get too out of control, but why should I go through the pain an agony of creating my own clones? Even if I paid $20 each for clones, that's only $80 which is a bit more than half the amount I smoke per week! How much yield can I expect from 4 plants under 400w CMH with nothing but buds pointing at the light since the stalk is underneath? Hopefully more than 5 grams!

So with that in mind, why not chuck the 250w MH bulb and replace it with a third 400w CMH and just do nothing but flower perpetually using other peoples clones? I gotta wonder.

My latest torture device. Basically it's a trainer made from a 1" ring 1"ID clear vinyl tubing. I cut the ring so it easily opens up and drilled some holes for a bit a venting.

With the plant growing sideways under the screen a couple things become apparent with the first being plant safety. If something falls and lands on the screen, I don't want to crush the little girl. The screen hits the tube rather than the plant. Next I can just point the end in the direction I want her to grow and the weight keeps the tip of the stem laying down. By always keeping a 1/2" of the stem sticking out I can tell how much she's grown by measuring and subtracting 1/2" before I move the ring back to the top of the stem (less 1/2").

jsgamber said:

My latest torture device. Basically it's a trainer made from a 1" ring 1"ID clear vinyl tubing. I cut the ring so it easily opens up and drilled some holes for a bit a venting.

With the plant growing sideways under the screen a couple things become apparent with the first being plant safety. If something falls and lands on the screen, I don't want to crush the little girl. The screen hits the tube rather than the plant. Next I can just point the end in the direction I want her to grow and the weight keeps the tip of the stem laying down. By always keeping a 1/2" of the stem sticking out I can tell how much she's grown by measuring and subtracting 1/2" before I move the ring back to the top of the stem (less 1/2").

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That's wild, never seen anything like that before.

Hey guys! I'm really enjoying catching up through all of your journals!

What's interesting is that I'm seeing everyones last four months of their lives in a matter of two hours so patterns begin to emerge especially where you guys talk about your health. What concerns me is when I hear about deteriorating lung capacity. I have an arthritis known as Schleraderma. My inflammation does not exist in my joints, but rather it is in my soft tissues such as all layers of my skin including synovial tissues (tissue that forms the protective sheath around muscles, tendons, etc.) as well as tendons and ligaments. Schleraderma translates directly to "Hard Skin". Advanced forms of Scheraderma will begin to attack the pulmonary system and therefore I get regular Pulmonary Stress Tests (PST) to keep check on my lung function. Because of this, I keep finding ways of minimizing the stress I put on my lungs. Where am I going with this?

Almost all of you use Bic lighters to measure your buds. However, I notice that the colors of your lighters change quite often which means you buy them quite often because, like me, they get used a lot! Now this is not a matter of cost but health.

Bic lighter are designed specifically to light a cigarette with a single quick light. They are not designed for the different methods of using marijuana, especially with the long-burning methods such as using a bong or even lighting a joint or a blunt. I used to smoke a pack of cigs a day and could keep the same Bic lighter for more than a month (as long as I didn't lose it). Smoking pot though, you have to have 2 or three laying around and I can go through 4 or 5 in a month. So what's the big deal?

Besides the fact that Bic lighters are no longer adjustable, they use rare-earth metals to create the spark. Next time you flick your Bic, notice the smoke that rises just as you light it? Butane doesn't smoke! But for cig smokers that puff of smoke usually goes away before you light your cigarette so you never ingest this crap.

When you "flick" the wheel, you create a spray of this metal which ignites and then ignites the butane stream leaving the lighter canister. Unfortunately, not all of this rare-earth metal ignites so it begins to form a coating on the inside of the metal screen around the lighter which builds up as you use the lighter more. If your a cig smoker and only use the lighter for a second or two, there is no issue. It's not uncommon for pot smokers to keep the lighter going for 5 seconds or even longer which allows this rare-earth metal build up to slowly ignite as you inhale in your bong.

How do I know this? I use a pocket vaporizer (Vapor Genie) and i was wondering what all the redish build up that was coating the ceramic stone. Guess what it is?

So here's what I want you guys to do. Buy a piezoelectric lighter. Mine cost me $7 from 7-11 (right next to the Bic lighters). You can get either the flame or torch depending on your needs. Then go to your local smoke shop and get a $5 can of Vector 5x filtered Butane. It will last you at least 6 months. Butane burns to pure water and carbon dioxide. Unfortunately anything else that's in the butane will more than likely be toxic, hence the filtering.

Buy a lighter like you would a pair of sunglasses. If you lose your sunglasses a lot then buy cheap piezoelectric lighters. If you can keep a good pair of sunglasses, you can keep a nice "signature" lighter. Lighters can have style too!

Now, do you guys want me to start talking about the virtues of vaporization (too late)? Burning organic materials such as tobacco or hemp flowers, create Carbon-Monoxide, Tar and every other Carcinogen you normally inhale around a campfire due to the normal course of combustion. Have you guys ever really tasted your wonderfully grown weed? This week I'm smoking God's Gift. Sweet tasting vapor with a strong taste of chocolate!

In a vaporizer the plant material never burns, and THC only vaporizes while heat is applied. I pack my Vapor Genie and then take short draws on it over a 4 or 5 hour period so I can be medicated and still functional. And then at the end of the day I pack up a bowl and just keep hitting it until I can't exhale any more vapor, I tap the spent weed into a container to save for making hash oil or butter, and then go into couch-RIU-lock and read through all your threads! My VaporGenie cost $45 from my smoke shop. One of these days I'm gonna get me a Volcano!

Don't get me wrong because I love to smoke and I love the taste of a really huge bong hit and how crazy it can make you. But most of us here are medical patients, which means thinking of our health is Job #1 over the long run. And that's all I'm concerned about.

I just had lights out until about 7pm tonight. Tomorrow I'll start at 1:30 and go ahead and start backing sunrise down by 30 minutes each day. I noticed big huge water drops on the underside of the foam board which means I think my roots don't have much incentive. I dropped the water levels by about 3". All netpots have roots extending underneath but I've seen roots grow a bit faster before so let's see if this is what motivates them. Current lights out Air Temps are 70*.

Gumball I think you are right about the CMH and node separation. The top of the stem has more than two dozen little bright green leafs popping out from all of the girls. The same goes for the little lower branches that are fully exposed to the light. The ends are just popping with new little green leafs. The BD stem has turned a very deep purple and it's just beautiful! I think these plants are happy!

I'll try and get some pics later tonight after lights on.

Waters running low and cool!

jsgamber said:

Gumball I think you are right about the CMH and node separation. The top of the stem has more than two dozen little bright green leafs popping out from all of the girls. The same goes for the little lower branches that are fully exposed to the light. The ends are just popping with new little green leafs. The BD stem has turned a very deep purple and it's just beautiful! I think these plants are happy!

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I believe it. I see why they recommend a silica additive for them.
Daniels

glad to hear you are liking what you have!!!

Here's my close-ups using a 4x looking glass. I might set up the tri-pod to get some steady shots. But I'd say for a bargain basement $5 clone who has yet to dip roots into nute rich waters, there is far too many little leaves to count. As a frame of reference, the screen has 2" squares.

Wifey mixed up a batch of Southern Comfort Egg Nog and a couple jiggers of Southern Comfort with a touch of Pumpkin Pie Spice on top! Hey Daniels getting any ideas for Christmas Gifts for next year? I wonder how much that stuff would go for in a Beverly Hills dispensary during Xmas season? Blue Dream SoCo EggNog Tincture with a bit of vanilla! Two or three drops in your morning coffee?

Any ways back on topic. Lights will be going off around 1:00pm. I'm going to shuffle up the rezervoirs moving the center rez's outward. A bit of water maintenance and a few pics.

Let's start off the morning with SOG #3. Two separate shots, one with flash and one without flash, on macro setting. The close-ups are actually crops of the main cola. Frame of reference, 1 screen square = 2".

Here's SkyOG#2. Again with and without flash with close-ups of different parts.






Here's my Blue Dream. Flash and no flash.




Here's SkyOG#1. Again with and without flash with close-ups.






They're in lights out right now until 7pm and again I'll set sunset for 12:30pm tomorrow. I just noticed those black spots so I'm gonna go check them out. Don't need no SM's dancing around in the dark!

looks real good jsgamber! they do look a touch hungry, may wanna give them something extra to snack on next rez change! hope theres no mites in there yet

Thanks GB. I'll give them another folier just as lights come on. Almost everything is new growth so it's very green. I still need them to put effort into root production though so their water levels will stay down for awhile until they start to drink. The bottom of the pots are starting to look like a short scruffy Santa beard.