FieldEffect's Attempt to Grow Indoors

I like your rack setup, Field. I have my mothers and my clone trays on one. It made things a lot easier.

1 Like

Thanks @Fuel for this massive message to @FieldEffect. I’ve got to say Thanks for your comment on @defharo ’s mantra, which I love.

Your comment just helped shape it a little more. Gave me a better target in using it :dart:

Cheers

3 Likes

It’s mostly that I just have them already sitting around, I use a window AC unit in my room now instead and we just do passive windows opening and closing in the summer mostly, other than one of those pulling hot air out the back of the second floor. I’m just looking around for alternatives to these corner clippy 6” fans, they’re ok but overpriced for what they are IMO. Maybe I should just go get Hurricanes or something

@FieldEffect this was something I was eyeing to try out on a recycled or DIY pole mount, the large server fans seem like really high quality ones and I might try to salvage some if I can find any old desktops around, I used to have a massive tower that I built out when I was 17, from scratch, and I remember how incredible those good muffin fans can be, this 200mm one moves 360 cfm on high at 46w. I know there are better fans out there but this one with the prewired AC cord and speed adjuster is pretty nice, I have some of the AC Infinity ones like this that are very useful:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P2GQNH5/

The 80 and 120mm pairs are nice for seedlings and clones, I use them to circulate air gently when drying, lots of stuff they can find uses for.

5 Likes

Thanks @Fuel!

That’s a high compliment coming from you :rofl:

Interesting. Thanks for pointing me in this direction.

I understand. My thoughts were not directed towards hastening growth, but rather ensuring there was some turbulence to strengthen the stems. Again, my only prior experience is outdoors - where microclimate such as the tent is a near impossibility and robust seedlings are the only things that will survive. It certainly tinges my concerns, sometimes without merit. I’ll remove the fan from the space and rely on the passive convection, that, like you point out, was very deliberate from the start.

I’ll move to better facilitate this luxury.

Making sure I understand this - you are saying that if I’m producing genetics, the illumination intensity provides a selection tool. You can seperate strong, vigorous genetics from frail ones. If I’m just growing weed for the sake of some blunts I just mind the plants and their messages to me.

And broader picture, light is the gas pedal of this automobile, but the gas supply needs to be able to keep up (the EC). Can’t press the pedal to the floor with only a trickle of fuel available, likewise you can’t sustainably pump fuel in at a high rate without starting to consume it faster. The fuel supply needs to match the demand.

I’m sure this skill will develop with time.

Helpful trick, one I will try.

Some of this experimentation is actually in preparation for a DWC project this summer. You’ll see when that starts :cowboy_hat_face:

I can try this. If it melts instantly what would it be? Fungi I’d imagine.

It’s been a fun little side project. I figured I had to try it with that plant last season, and an easy way to process the smaller buds.

You and me both. I’m very much enjoying the challenges and new understandings that are littering the path along the way to those flowers. Don’t resist posting here, positive, negative, whatever. I feel like I may miss some of the gold hidden in posts, but they always get reread and eventually the sparks will take flame. I appreciate the time taken to post this sort of comment and respect immensely the experience and knowledge behind them.

Thanks, I’m liking it too. I wish I had more :sweat_smile:

@Dirt_Wizard I was thinking about designing a bracket for those (really any sort of square fan, maybe 100mm and 120mm sizes to clip onto a tent pole and print them.

8 Likes

Now you’ve got me looking on Thingiverse thinking again about how I need a 3D printer so bad:

3 Likes

This is the one i have in my fridge. Its nice i can have it :arrow_up_down: or ↔, but i do have two complaints:
A) the bright lights on it need to be blacked out.
B) if power goes out and comes back, the fan stays off (all digital buttons). Just gotta remember to go in and turn it back on.

Otherwise a nice little fan that can really move some air

5 Likes

I have those little ac infinity usb pairs in all my boxes :+1: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

3 Likes

Lots of fans to think about. Thanks @Not-Notjosh

I was thinking about designing an articulatable clamp-mount version @Dirt_Wizard. If I do it I’ll definately send you a few.

I see further positive signs of life on the 907xNL cuts of the top row. I bottom fed some veg nutes, and lifted them out of the tray to avoid wicking any incidental water from basin.

The 907xShiskaberry initial cut (S2 - bottom left) is the worst of the lot. She may not take. I think the top row is probably going to make it, hopefully not jinxing it by this estimate.

Back at home.

Following the advice of @Fuel I removed the small fan yesterday. This morning I made a brief video so I could see the behavior of the leaves when the zipper is closed. There’s indeed quite a bit of circulation at the front, where my air intake is placed (on the left side of the picture). I’ll force this across the bottom of the tent (so across the tray) by extending the mylar-bubble wrap that sits under the upper shelf’s seed mat across the shelf except for a narrow slot on the far back wall of the tent. I again slightly raised the light.

Cheers.

12 Likes

@LonelyOC build very interesting things with his 3D printer (thin/tight airflow management with light obstruction), he grow dense too. If ever you have to mod the tent a bit more, he’s a good lead with already a factual backward on this kind of modding.

5 Likes

Yes, I can share the cad design of it if you are interested @FieldEffect

You can check out my setup in the grow diary in my description.

Pz :v:t2:

4 Likes

Hey there @LonelyOC it’ll probably take me until this weekend to check it out but I definately will. I work really long days during the week I spend less time on my PC. Thanks for the pointer @Fuel

Well, an update to this saga of a naive idiot taking microscopic cuts and expecting them to root. They seem to be continuing to perk up, bottom watered with a ~1EC veg solution, I’ll get that back up to nominal as soon as I’m convinced there are roots. Temperatures are ~80F “day” and 70F “night”

That pic was before the bottom-feeding.

Rest of the plants are coming along. Going to wait on more cuts until things are big enough to have an appreciable cut rather than just some spindly leaves for hormonal support.

Fed at 1.8EC and flipped the tray to expose different plants to the dominant airflow. I haven’t yet installed the circulation redirector, I had forgotten to get the roll of mylar bubble wrap out of the shed last night and I’m not walking out there to get it at 3am.

Here it is flipped around for the day

It’ll be crazy if the cuts finish rooting but I’m “rooting for them” so to speak. The rest of the plants seem in good health and there’s some paths to further optimizing the setup. More experience with the plants in confined spaces is educating new ideas.

14 Likes

Come on now, did you see how fast they grow? :slight_smile:

I wonder if you’re not feeding a bit too much (EC) the clones. Have no rockwool knowledge though, so it might be perfectly good. Others would know better. I also wonder if giving them veg nutes only won’t encourage them too much to grow rather than build roots. But once again that’s only speculation they seem perfectly fine. So maybe LIFTA!

keep up the good grow!

5 Likes

Well, I read several places that you want to feed cuttings just like the mother plants were being fed. In reality it’s lower than that because there’s not much moisture loss. So the, say 1mL of solution that gets wicked up joins the several mL of water still held by the plug. Again, we’ll see what happens. I can always swap to straight water tomorrow.

I love the idea of hydro where if I fuck up too bad I can flush it all out and start over. The organic soil thing is a different animal but a fun game as well.

It’s pretty crazy. You know how life goes though, I don’t realize how little I know until I try :rofl: The blanks are quick to fill in, which I’m thankful for, mostly because of the advice I get here

4 Likes

Right, makes sense!

1 Like

I have done this and it’s manageable but a bit of a pain.

2 Likes

dang. look at the stem on the one on the lower left…doubt i’ve seen a bigger one on a smaller plant. can we get a pic of those thicc trunks? plants are looking strong and your lights don’t suck :slightly_smiling_face:

p.s. clones are under 24/0, right?

6 Likes

Trunk pics tomorrow :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Not so sure about the lights, thinking I should have added a few 3000Ks and maybe some far-red. We’ll see. They are stocky as all get out.

They’re all under 16/8. Should I change that? Clones 24/0?

3 Likes

Do you mean that your clone area (if tray and dome, then inside the dome) is 80F day and 70F night? And do you actually have a day/night light schedule for the clones? Or are they 24/7 light?

I would change that to 24/0, yea.

3 Likes

Temp inside sits at 80 with lights on and gets down to 70 when they are off.

I’ll put them on 24

3 Likes

Yea. You want to keep temp. and RH as constant/steady as possible during cloning. And you want to taper the humidity off at the right time. For dome cloning at least, I think.

I’ve just had some pretty uncommon of late, and welcome results with my cloning attempt or “test”.

Edit: Is there a particular way you’d like to clone? A method you wanna use, for whatever reason, like the next stage you’re wanting to move on to in veg and then flower?

1 Like