Jelly's Laboratory - A collection of my Experiments

[Jellypowered]

The shed is gonna get a remodel this year (2018)

I could go several ways… and right now i’m just in the daydreaming stage.

• Pull down grow room, open the whole area of the shed again, and line a whole wall with perpetual space buckets.
• Extend grow area to a respectful 4x8 and get more LED lighting.
• Break down and buy a grow tent lol.

Only realistically need about 2oz a month for wifey, but growing is my hobby and passion. I always need projects. Plus, The more I have, the more I can partake without feeling like i’m potentially taking meds from wifey.

[Jellypowered]

I pulled apart three sylvania led screw in bulbs, I now have 3 bulbs and ballasts to build my first bucket.

I am pretty damn spoiled with these blumats and I think they are the way to go for automated watering.

My plan is to have about 10-12 buckets and small fabric pots like @Mr.Sparkle to limit the overall size of the plants. I’m probably gonna have all the buckets grow autos, since they finish faster and I don’t have to worry about any light leaks. I think i’ll build a bench along the Wall of my shed, just big enough for a row of buckets.

I will have some kind of bulk reservoir that will top off a smaller 5 gallon reservoir with using float switches. (maybe)

My plan would be to start a new seed every week, and by the 8th week I should be able to harvest the first round. The extra buckets could be for seed runs or other experiments.

I think this is going to be my goal in 2018, to get a perpetual bucket grow up and going. I’ll take my time, and make it look amazing as well, worthy of OG

Edit: Some questions for @Mr.Sparkle and any others that care to chime in?

1. Is 1oz per bucket a reasonable expectation running 3 9w led boards? Should I go with 4 9w per bucket?
2. Do you run a single plant per bucket?
3. Would the smaller pot size limit my plants growth (much like bonsai does?)
4. Any thoughts or opinions/suggestions on the proposed setup?

[Mr.Sparkle]

That’s a lot of buckets, if the watering is all automated then its not that bad its the maintenance that will get you with multiple setups. I’m looking at around 5 plants in my bucket in 500ml pots for this coming round.

If it was me and i was wanting to run that many plants i wouldn’t be making multiple buckets far from it. Instead i would just make a larger or should i say longer dedicated space or spaces out of wood and then use the bulbs with sockets instead of dismantling them fro simplicity. As even though it doesn’t look like it for myself i do highly tote the K.I.S.S rule, and if things can be done easier, simpler, and or cheaper im all for it.

as to the questions

1. 4x9w would be the safer bet, as you would have to be hitting just over 1g/w to pull an oz with 3, my last run with 4x8w yielded 33.5g off only 3 plants in 500ml pots
2. Yes you can and most do, issue though is you will have to train and prune more to keep things in check from the larger pot size.
3. Which leads to this, yes smaller pots limit the size that you plant can grow too just like bonsai. Smaller pots means smaller plants, but finding the balance of pot size and number of pots to fit the space without much intervention is the tricky part.
4. Do as above and make an easier dedicated space or spaces instead of buckets just for your own sake. I build the buckets as a challenge to myself and to force myself to try and do things different, not that i think its the most efficient way to do things, its more of a hey lets see what i can build and grow using only easily found off the shelf or ordered parts.

Also the pot size will probably be less than you think and they shouldn’t be crammed in to maximize floor and or root space. Been there and done that many many times. The highest density i was running was around 16 plants a sqft, which is totally doable, but the issue is the plants don’t have enough space to branch out and end up fighting each other for space and light. Which to counter act that you have to strip off the big fan leaves and defoliate periodically to keep things in check.

Id rather give fewer plant more space to do there thing and as far as yield the difference wasn’t that big at running multiple plants vs fewer, as you only have so much space to fill and so much light those plants can use. Saying that me running 5 plants in a bucket this coming round is gonna take a bit of pruning and training to keep things in check, considering the last round i had 3 plants in the same pots and they pretty much filled the bucket, but i don’t have the 2gal inner bucket this time.

[Jellypowered]

You’ve got multiple good points there…

That being said, 5 plants in a bucket seems crazy to me lol but on the other hand you’ve got mad micro skills.

Perhaps just a couple larger “small” spaces and have one dedicated to veg one to flower.

I’ll have to give it some thought. thanks for the advice though!

[2RedEyes]

I’m running 4 14.5 watters in my bucket so I’m prolly gonna fry my little plant but we’ll see. I have the 2 gallon bucket bottom and I can add spacers under the lid to keep some distance if needed. Currently I’m feeding manually which is kind of a pain since the plant is way down at the bottom of the bucket and it’s only gonna get worse when I start getting some veg growth. So I need to get going on some auto feeding. I’m still awaiting the arrival of my arduino and even then, I have to learn what or how to use it. Think I’ll go watch some blumat vids…
Good luck on whatever you decide there Jelly!

[Jellypowered]

I use Miniarduino Ebay Store almost exclusively for my tinkering needs. He’s always been great and fast.

[horribleherk56]

hey jelly I’m a retired cement mixer driver I’ve driven all kinds of stuff but that was my favorite kind of a blend of equipment operator & truck driver all in one lol…

[Mr.Sparkle]

@2RedEyes

I’m running 4 14.5 watters in my bucket so I’m prolly gonna fry my little plant but we’ll see.

i think you will be fine, your running about the same light as my current bucket and there are a bunch of growers out there that are running a lot more light in their buckets but i believe after a certain point your kinda fighting an uphill battle for yield out of the space.

[2RedEyes]

I just happened to have a bunch of them on hand since I was using them in my grow cabinet before I got my new light.

[Jellypowered]

So, just an update. These “50w” driverless cobs, SUCK.

I grew an auto in my little 1x1x2 cab, with this as the sole light source. I’ve never seen such fluffy buds. I think a flood lamp could grow better buds than this could.

I bet 4 of the 9w screw ins could grow better than one of these.

They run really hot, need active cooling, and make your camera do the “degauss” type effect.
In short, don’t use em. sure, they were only like 10 bucks, but not worth it.

[ReikoX]

Thanks for trying them out though. I think everyone here has been on a Solstrip craze

[Jellypowered]

So I found some pics of my old “high-pod” setup. 440w of fluorescent goodness lol.

Edit: forgot there was 8 55w bulbs in there, correct wattage now listed.

Used two Fulham workhorse 8 ballasts wired in an “unapproved” configuration by the manufacturer lol. They don’t want you maxing the ballasts out like I did.

[Dannabis]

Pretty cool!! Whats your fave experiment/project so far

[Jellypowered]

Tbh I just love building and tinkering so all these have been my favorites… except maybe those POS driverless cobs!

[ReikoX]

Sci-fi growing.

[Jellypowered]

It’s late, I’m tired and suffering from insomnia. I’m planning/have already started my next buildout.

I’ve got this sitting in the “storage” kitchen area, I’ll get actual dimensions posted up tomorrow or saturday, but it’s easily double my cabs height, and a little bigger LxW. I’m thinking about taking my time and making a really nice stealth grow setup.

Goals for the new space:

• Mother area.
• Veg/clone area.
• Flower area with plenty of height.
• Automation craziness!

I haven’t decided on a growing system yet, but i’m leaning strongly towards no-till. No-Till + my blumats would be optimal for my crazy ass work life and give me an idea of how everything works for future setups. Cuz lets face it, I LOVE to build shit and tinker.

I’m thinking the bottom 24" of height will house the mother and clone/veg area. Lighting will be accomplished with SolStrips for these areas, as I won’t need much power to maintain growth in these areas, I’m thinking 3 strips per cube driven at a soft 20-25w per strip should do.

The rest of the space will be the dedicated flower area. No-Till or Ebb and flow (E&F is the one where you don’t drain to waste right?) Either way, I will be building a frame to support one of those fancy black concrete mixing tubs from home depot, that way I have a flexible setup for whatever I end up choosing to do.

I would like to have a nice large AC Infinity Cloudline T6 running in “smart” mode so it’ll be on a lower speed when running while still pulling plenty of volume of air through the cab. I have the T4 on my current cab, and I love it. I bet if I had bigger passive intakes it wouldn’t run at full speed all the time, but these fans are so nice.

And, with @ReikoX @Mr.Sparkle @Robin @anon58740919 all using fancy gadgets, I want in on the fun too. Maybe it’s finally time to get to designing that grow controller.

Sonoffs, ammetes, app control, LCD readouts, Data logging, I want the whole package. Fancy stuff for the nerds like me!

What have I actually gotten done on the “Pantry Cab” so far?

Tonight before dinner I drug it out away from the wall, so I had space to walk around it and appraise it’s condition. It was in this shithole when we moved in, so it’s dirty, probably needs soaked in bleach, and will need a LOT of TLC.

I addressed the “Structural” needs of it tonight, the back board across the top wasn’t secure, So I scrubbed the mating surfaces with a scotch brite pad to clean them up, ran some gorilla glue (for wood) across it and then screwed the board in place with cabinent “Torqx” screws. Gonna be plenty strong once it dries up. This fixed the doors from dragging while opening them, so I think this was a good move.

I stripped the shelving off the inner doors as they wont be needed and will just get in the way. And thats about all I accomplished on the pantry cab tonight. It’s supposed to rain all day saturday so i’ll have lots of free time to work on it. I may throw a tarp over it, run my ozone generator in the tarp to kill any spores/mold/nastie baddies going on in it. I’ll be sealing all the edges with oil based paint or polyurethane (It’s chipboard with laminate over it) and i’m thinking a nice dark stain on the outside. (lots of sanding to be done)

Once I take dimensions i’ll play with some mockups in sketchup.

Thanks for reading! Advice, comments, and general good vibes welcome.

-Jelly-

[anon58740919]

Fuck sake a man has a go at showboating and then jelly one ups him again. Barstard.

Sounds like a good build. You gonna drop that 2nd shelf down out and use the top for veg. Middle for prop and bottom for mother? Only thinking top for veg as that’s where most of your heat is gonna go to and escape from. Gonna have to build myself a little veg room aren’t I too now lol

[Jellypowered]

At this point, everything is in the planning stage. I’ll post quite a few sketchup models of different layouts and kind of go off feedback. I do kind of like flower chamber on bottom as I won’t be needing to mess with things on the floor as often.

Fun idea but probably frivolous: Each of the floors on drawer slides so that I can slide them out to inspect/work on the plants. Might help with maintenance.

Before ANY actual buildout occurs I really need to clean the whole thing up and sterilize it.

[99PerCent]

@Jellypowered

I really need to clean the whole thing up and sterilize it.

Good call. Insect eggs live forever, it seems.

99

[ReikoX]