Hi everyone, back again with a whole new grow. For those of you that have followed my previous grows, you know I’ve had some troubles recently that have led to very disappointing ROI. Times are tough and running 1kw for 4 months to get 200g of seeded bud just isn’t going to be sustainable.
So let’s change up the formula.
After a staggering power bill arrived recently it was clear I had to take a break from running my big light, and focus on something that is energy efficient; can grow plants to harvest in as short of turnaround as possible; is easy to manage; and most importantly can be built on an extremely low budget. It doesn’t have all the fancy lights and systems like many here do, but I’m still proud of it whether it grows anything or not.
Luckily I had the help from some OG members who have been amazing at answering questions and pointing me in the right direction. I do however, have to acknowledge one particular OG member who has gone out of their way to answer questions, help me plan, solve issues and just been an all around stand up guy every step of the way. And since this grow is heavily inspired by his adventures, I’d like to dedicate this grow to @Mr.Sparkle.
Now let’s get down to business:
Dimensions: 24"x24"x46"
Lighting: I realllllly wanted to go with SolStrips they look amazing and have proven results and would have been perfect for this build but they just weren’t anywhere close to fitting in the budget, so we went with 142w of screw in LED with a mixed spectrum (6xPhillips 8.5w 2700K, 6xPhillips 8.5w 5000K, 2xLuminus 10.5w 2700K, 2xLuminus 10.5w 5000K) These are screwed into 16 lampholders mounted to 1/8" aluminum sheeting. Wei’ll call em SoulStikz
Irrigation 38L reservoir, 400gph pump, 1" pvc manifold feeding 2 1/4" drip lines attached to 4 mister heads (they don’t mist they dribble) 1 head per plant. Can’t see it in this pic but I also have misters in the cross pipe to aerate (flume) the water during cycle. Runoff is recollected in reservoir and recirculated. Water is not actively aerated and only aerated during cycling via fluming. To keep pathogens and other nasties out of our water we’ll be using pool shock at 0.03g/L with an additive ppm of around 30.
Timer/Automation Lights and pumps are controlled by a Sonoff 4CH. These things are great and for $20-25 they’re the best bang for buck timer out there. They can be app controlled via WiFi, can set separate schedules per channel with intervals as low as 1 minute, and can save their schedules and states during power/internet outage.
Cooling
1x200mm exhaust fan at the top of the cabinet fed into secondary lid (a hood) with an elbow and filter to prevent light leaks, you can see in this pic this is basically where all the wiring is done, lights are lifted/lowered and it makes a great place to store stuff lol
1x80mm exhaust fan set up as a booster to suck air directly from canopy and move it to final exhaust near the lid
And 100mm and 120mm recirculating fans (I know it’s overkill it’s what I had on hand)
Medium Plants will be grown in 2.7L pots in Cyco Premium Coco Coir
Nutrient Regime Plants will be fed MegaCrop as per feeding directions. Other products on hand include ph up/down, calcium hypochlorite, 30% h2o2, GH RapidStart, SuperThrive, Dutch Nutrient Formula A+B, MonsterBloom 0-30-50 but we’re going to try to see how far we can get on just MegaCrop alone for now.
Strain Dark Devil Auto, these are F2s from a very special OG friend (thanks again buddy) I have a couple of them going in my outdoor garden and they have some crazy purple colors, I hope to fill this box with that color soon!
So with all the nitty gritty out of the way, Let’s get this grow on the road!
July 31st Put seeds in straight water before bed
August 1stAll have sunk to bottom of glass, into paper towel they go, put between two saucers and in a nice warm spot
August 2nd Think I’ll give em another day just to get that forth one opened up
August 3rdInto their new homes! Medium is pre charged with 550ppm MegaCrop
August 4thThis one was saying “Peekaboo!” first thing this morning. It wasted no time on popping it’s head up.
And another one before bed tonight:
Good night girls!