Not my first grow but first grow log!

• Indoor grow cab (converted Home depot wardrobe)
• 4 pots, two left over KC-36 and two Dutch Passion Oasis
• Makeshift growlight - featuring a 125 watt CFL (rated 5000k) with an aluminum turkey pan reflector
• one bottom fan (and digital thermometer) blowing cool bottom air at the pots
• One top fan 'sucking' the warm air up
• average cab temperature 27 Celsius
• After 3 days of sprouting only one seedling (one of the KC 36's) popped out of the soil (I did presoak the seeds for 12 hours) on Aug 5th
• Still no action with the other seedlings, so I'm soaking 3 more Oasis seeds. This time I'll monitor every 12 hours and only plant them once the seeds have split open.
• I'll add a 45 watt soft white CFL to the current one when flowering for extra red spectrum.

Here's what it looks like so far:

I like the light setup haha pretty ghetto :D
good luck to you mate! keep us updated!

u get much bud with that amount of CFL light?

Good luck man! I sprouted under a 12" fluorescent above my sink when i was just messing around, can't wait to see how it goes!

Yeah what kind of yield was your last grow?!?! Don't let them give you shit about it either keep trucking rubber ducky!

CONVOY!

err...... sorry flashbacks of old movies.

"featuring a 125 watt CFL (rated 5000k) with an aluminum turkey pan reflector"

I love this m8.
This one I'm gonna follow. I love when people just look on ther situation and see what they can do and jump right into it.
I am sure you will get bud, hang in there and don't expect loads of it. Do keep us posted though man there are far to few grows like this here even though I am sure they represent a very large portion of the growrooms around the world.

Best of luck.

Puffzter

Yield...I really have nothing to compare it to, I guess it's passable for a small grow of a few plants at a time? I've been changing things at every grow too, keeping what works and improving on what needs to be improved.

The big 125 watt CFL and the Home Depot wardrobe I got last year. I've been adding various CFL's and light fixtures over the past two years. Heck my first Mango grow was in a much smaller cabinet, using a pair of 45 watt soft white CFL's.

As long as the cabinet temps stay within a safe range I could use the 125 watter with both 45 watters for a good light spectrum with enough reds...that would give me 215 watts for a surface a bit smaller that 2 feet square.

The current setup is discreet enough not to raise attention and the wardrobe doubles as an actual storage compartment when I ain't growin'! ;)

Based on Roughrider's info:

Quote:

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2000 lumens sq. ft./21500 lumens sq. m. = Absolute minimum for growth. You won't get much from this, especially after the plant has grown a bit. Not really enough to flower well.

3000 lumens sq. ft./32250 lumens sq. m. = Pretty Good growth. Enough light for the entire light cycle, although your yields may be lower.
4000 lumens sq. ft./43000 lumens sq. m. = Very good growth. Once you pass around 3500, growth rate and ability goes up fast.

Over 5000 lumens sq. ft./53750 lumens sq. m. = Optimal growth. Dense growth in all stages.

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I measured my wardrobe's floor and it's well under 2 square feet. The 125 watt CFL generates approximately 13895 lumens, which would fall into the "pretty good growth but limited yield" area.

I went through my CFL box and came across a 45 watt rated at 3000 lumens, 4100K. So I figured that by supplementing the 125 watter with the 45 watter I'll be in the very good to Optimal growth area...

The three Oasis seeds I was soaking have begun to sprout, so I planted them. Here's the setup as of this morning. It was a bit of a challenge to get everythig to fit, but I've come up with a good compromise I think...the 45 watter is focused on the KC Brains that already sprouted out, and the three Oasis are crammed under the 125 watter...current cabinet temerature with both lights on: 29.3 Celsius, within safe parameters...keeping my fingers crossed! :D

That's one powerful CFL. I noticed most 125 watt's are rated for between 12,000 - 12,800 Lumens after googling it. But still that's alot.

I just might have to go get myself one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dyranty

That's one powerful CFL. I noticed most 125 watt's are rated for between 12,000 - 12,800 Lumens after googling it. But still that's alot.

I just might have to go get myself one.

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It was an approximation based on a chart I found (should have saved it) stating that a CFL with a 5000K temperature can generate 111 pupil lumens per watt, so I multiplied it by 125 which gave 13875 lumens (someone 'splain to me the difference between lumens & pupil lumens?).

I calculated that for optimal growth my cab requires 15500 lumens. As you state, 12000 sounds more like it, so if I add up both CFL's, 12000 + 3000 I get 15000, so I'm still pretty close to optimal, if it's more like 12,800 then I'm actually exceeding optimal!

Temps settling near 31 Celsius...still acceptable but I'll really have to keep an eye on it an make sure it doesn't exceed 35C...

Found the link! There's a chart towards the end of the document. While not fool proof it can serve as a guideline to determine lumens/pupil lumens per watt when it's not specified by the manufacturer!

Energy Services, Energy Solutions Database - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Information

the chart is pretty usefull!thanks alot!

Wasn't busting on you at all by the way. And thanks for the chart!

I was actually just curious because I've found contradicting things on my cfl's. So i figured it was the same for you.

I don't go by the book anyways. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dyranty

Wasn't busting on you at all by the way. And thanks for the chart!

I was actually just curious because I've found contradicting things on my cfl's. So i figured it was the same for you.

I don't go by the book anyways. :D

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It's all good :thumbsup: your input is actually quite helpful in fact! Having a more conservative figure allowed me to recalculate my lumens requirement and figure out that my setup is still within optimal or close to optimal conditions!

Okay! One of the Dutch Passion Oasis seeds is showing sign of life...but I'm a bit concerned: what I'm seeing is a very pale split pod and hints of root with shades of green.

I'm concerned it might burn under the CFL, so I added a very thin layer of moist potting soil to protect the root (about 1 mm thick, I don't want to impair growth either).

So...I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hopefully by the end of the day I have 3 healthy babies to grow along with the KC-36 that sprouted last week! Wish me luck! :)

awesome if the sprout make sure to post some pics

Awrite! A few hours later I take a look and guess what I see?

Hopefully my zoom will show that two of the Oasis seeds are sprouting out! One's still camera shy...the last one is the KC-36 which is now a week and a few days old!

Pedro,

Looks like you have got your math down and figured out the lumens needed (good and helpful research for us all )

There is one thing I noticed in the pics that you have not done and will help get more lumens to the plants:)

In your grow box it looks like the walls are still bare wood. Wood is a poor reflector of light and is absorbing precious lumens that would be more beneficial to the plants than the walls. I suggest going to Home Depot and buy some Ultra Pure White Flat Wall Paint. This works as an excellent reflector of light and will make a lot more lumens available to the plants by not being absorbed by the walls.

In CFL grows this is very important because you are already down in intensity compared to HID lighting. So any light available needs to be absorbed by the plants and not the walls, You may want to go as far as painting the inside of your reflector, Aluminum is a very poor reflector of light in fact it is close to gray in the reflectivity scale

The best reflectors of light are Mylar, and Flat White Paint, both are in the 90% range, Aluminum and Gray are around 50%, and Flat Black is close to 0%

Best of Luck with your grow JG

It just seems growing at home ought to be cheap! If you have a brain and no money, Or, if you have the money and are too attached to it: you have shown us what you can do. This can be an expensive hobby for medicine. Nice to see you do it on the cheaper side. In no way will the electricity be cheap.

Tons of info, straight up. Nice start for your log!!! pr

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jerry Garcia 2007

Pedro,

Looks like you have got your math down and figured out the lumens needed (good and helpful research for us all )

There is one thing I noticed in the pics that you have not done and will help get more lumens to the plants:)

In your grow box it looks like the walls are still bare wood. Wood is a poor reflector of light and is absorbing precious lumens that would be more beneficial to the plants than the walls. I suggest going to Home Depot and buy some Ultra Pure White Flat Wall Paint. This works as an excellent reflector of light and will make a lot more lumens available to the plants by not being absorbed by the walls.

In CFL grows this is very important because you are already down in intensity compared to HID lighting. So any light available needs to be absorbed by the plants and not the walls, You may want to go as far as painting the inside of your reflector, Aluminum is a very poor reflector of light in fact it is close to gray in the reflectivity scale

The best reflectors of light are Mylar, and Flat White Paint, both are in the 90% range, Aluminum and Gray are around 50%, and Flat Black is close to 0%

Best of Luck with your grow JG

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Thx! The wood surface has a bit of a sheen to it, agreed not the best reflection capacity but it's not bare wood either, it's veneered pressboard and the venner has some sort of lacker to protect it.

Awrite! 4 for 4 in the sprouts, however...given the spot where the seed's sprouted from, I think it's one of the seeds I believed dead that decided to come up...I might have 2 sprouts in one pot! Things are becoming verry interresting!

Here's a little reflective "fence" I've come up with those reflective windshield reflectors, all held together with paper clips for easy access (watering purposes and raising the lights & stuff). I just hope it doesn't effect the cab temperatures...

also enclosed is a few pics of the new babies! :cool:

Removed the reflective fence...it just trapped too much heat, I'll have to figure out something else for extra reflection...I need more potting soil, two of the babies are too leggy for my own taste!

That fencing looks pretty cool otherwise man.
Cant u lift it a bit over the floor so cool air can be sucked in under it?
That would certainly lower the temperature in the "bowl" it creates.

Puffzter

Why didn't I think of that? ;)

Would you be able to staple the windshield sunshade up against the wood veneer? I agree with Puffz that lifting it would allow a wind tunnel effect, thereby serving to reduce the heat. I really like your setup though - it's something I could do; and, I am trying to come up with some cheap, effective, and easy ideas for an indoor grow to begin later this year.

I can't wait for your lil' ladies to get bigger. I need to do some research on these strains, as I don't know a thing about them, but they sound good. Keep up the good work - I'm already looking forward to an update.

Be good out there!

Bought some organic potting soil, used it to add support to the two leggy babies and prepared the bigger pots once they're ready to repot (all I'll say is that they're square, 8" X8" X7" and that you guys'll get a good laugh when you see them... ah those Dollar store prizes! :D ).

I didn't follow a set mix, I'd guess-timate it at 3 parts organic potting soil, 1 part vermiculite and 1 part perlite. :wtf4:

I reinstalled the reflective fence to create that wind tunnel effect...I'll gauge the success of it when I monitor the temps tomoprrow morning! Again I used 'dollar store prizes': glue-on coat hooks and paper clips to hook the 'fence' up.

I'm still seriously considering the 150 watt HPS kit I found on Ebay (very reasonably priced too) for flowering this grow...matbe suppement my big CFL with a red PAR LED bulb or two to keep the temps down?

Okay, raising the reflector fence seems to have brought the cabinet temperatures down to a safer level. I took the babies out for a watering and took a group picture:

Random thoughts about this grow:

• While the current light array is far from perfect it's serving the purpose: the KC36 is growing short and bushy. If it's any indication of what the Oasis plants will look like (it is 9 days older than the Oasis plants) I'm laughing!
• The LED grow discussion has gotten my attention. Less power consumption, energy savings, less of a chance of the Landlord becoming suspicious, cooler cabinet temperatures, savings on AC, etc. The Cree Xlamp kit has my attention, it (or perhaps two of them) might be the perfect solution for my 'stealth cabinet grow' setup...I'm waiting for them to reply to my shipping quote request.

CFL's have served me well so far (okay, well enough ;) ), but the heat buildup from the multiple ballasts can't be good for the plants, and quite frankly the heat buildup makes me nervous...I might be a bit paranoid but I don't want to start a fire!

Okay, I did a lot of number crunching and at this stage, getting a 150 Watt HPS kit would be cheaper than the suitable LED alternatives. I'd still prefer an LED grow light, but..

• I'm currently using a total of 170 watts in CFL's for vegging (that's the actual wattage, the incandescent equivalent would be about 600 watts)
• 150 watts of HPS would use 20 watts less of energy while providing better light penetration (according to what I've read so far)
• Ok, so I did get a Chinese-made LED panel...as long as it works I'll use it for supplemental light, I didn't pay much for it and extra red spectrum won't hurt.

So this is turning into a true 'mixed light' grow: CFL for vegging and HPS/LED for flowering...
:hippy:

Okay, changes! The reflector fence was too bulky and in the way, so I lined the wardrobe walls wil aluminium foil (yea, I know, mylar's better but foil's cheaper and easier to find! ;) ).

I figured that more space would improve air circulation too. Next, I replaced the aluminium turkey pan reflector - it trapped too much heat underneath. Which brings me to the next point: wood for a light fixture, poor choice, wood warps!

The new reflector is a "cookie sheet" (also aluminium) which should trap less heat. Also, I made sure the ballast wasn't covered to make sure its heat rises to the top of the wardrobe.

I'll try to take tempreature samples to see how well this works out, the temps were up to 35,9 Celsius when I decided to make the change. Photos...KC's still bigger than the rest (since it's 9 days older); leggy 1 & 2 seem to be catching up, stubby is showing some developement...and looky here: one of the seeds I thought was dead has decided to pop out...I got 5 plants out of the bunch! Only 3 non-viable/dead seeds...to be expected I guess!

This is turning into one long, slow vegging period, but flowering will happen under 150 watts of HPS, I can't wait to compare the results to my prior all CFL grows!

:hippy:

Foil is junk, flat white paint, you can do the whole cab for under $10. You need to exhaust that heat out of the cabinet, blowing it to the top won't cut it, get exhaust and passive intake, or leave the door open a little at least. You will need to change that when you go to flower though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McDanger

Foil is junk, flat white paint, you can do the whole cab for under $10. You need to exhaust that heat out of the cabinet, blowing it to the top won't cut it, get exhaust and passive intake, or leave the door open a little at least. You will need to change that when you go to flower though.

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I might have found another alternative. Working on the temps too, this is a good starting point:

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...g-hot-air.html

Its easy to think foil is a good thing but it eats light to a degree that even your unpainted wall will probably be as good if it is not dark.

Love to read about your op m8. A work in constant progress. :)

Pedro's back folks! Wanting the grow wardrobe to pass off as a regular storage space when I'm not growing presents a few challenges...but I think I found the appropriate solutions.

Frirst, the reflective surfaces: I did a bit more digging, and came across the "Ask Ed" column in the Cannabis Culture site. Turns out some Hydroponics farms use flat white cardboard for reflectors, which has the drawback of getting dirty quickly and needing frequent replacements due to moisture damage.

I don't use sprinklers and I grow from potting soil, and I found flat white cardboard at the nearest discount store. VoilÃ*: removable reflectors.

Second, the heat and air circulation or lack thereof: I drilled a hole at the bottom to let the power cord out (rather than through an un-nailed flap of the rear veneer panel), a second hole (3" in diameter) as a passive air intake and another 3" hole in the top, dead center to allow exhaust.

Using a bathroom fan (a simple 50 CFM) and a 5' long 3" diameter flexible exhaust hose the air is sucked out of the wardrobe through the top hole. When not growing, the bottom holes will be covered with boxes and the top hole with one of those push on/off cabinet lights.

Major improvement with the cabinet temps! :thumbsup:

Ugh...my DIY fixture fell apart, so I had to do some quick thinking...not the best solution but here goes:

-I've reworked the 125 watter in its old cone (Ikea) reflector, it's my main "central" fixture.

-for when the babies start taking some height, I've improvised a "Gradual fixture" for the supplemtal light (still need to figure our a reflector for that) using a 4 bulb vanity fixture.

-the cheap MIC LED panel came in a couple of days ago, I figured might as well put it to use while it lasts. Oh yeah, the seller shipped the wrong panel too, I was bidding (and won) on a mixed red & blue panel, when I got was an all blue panel...

So be it, I'm adding it to my vegging cycle. Extra blue spectrum for under $25.00, and for a cheap made in China panel it's still pretty freaking bright!

Here are a few pics of the setup as it currently is, right now I'm testing for temperatures; I have a grand total of 204 watts of mixed CFL and LED going on, if the temps stay in the 25 - 26 degrees Celsius, I'm laughing!

:hippy:

With all of the on the spot modifications I've made to my cab it'll be no small miracle if my plants don't all turn out hermies from the stress! Anyway, after the temperature test I returned the plants to the cab, readjusted the lights to one 125 watter + one 45 watter and the blue LED panel.

I also decided to switch back to a 24/0 light schedule: with all of the moving the plants around to modify the wardrobe I wanted them to 'bathe in light' as it were.

Just came back from shopping and the cabinet temps are stable at 80 F...the air intake and exhaust fan are doing their job! :thumbsup:

Repotted the plants today ... told ya you'd get a good laugh out of the new pots! ;) they're 8" X 8" and I kept the soil about 6" deep in them. At $1 a container it was hard to go wrong.

I doubled them: the bottom container is the drip tray and I poked holes at the bottom of the top container to allow drainage. This is what the inside of the cab looks like now, still on 24/0 lighting and trying to get the most out of the space available!

I debating whether to try a scrog or not...I mean I grow from seed, what if one of the babies turns out male?

:hippy:

Oh, and here's a pic of the exhaust fan:

pedro i love your grow log. I've been following it and the new popcorn containers rock!

Dollar Tree? At least that's where I saw them.
Keep updating, I've been lurking around checking it out.

With all of the stress the babies had to put up with I figured it was time for a feeding...and this time I made sure I used the proper proportions to avoid a repeat of the nute burns I got 2 years ago...

My watering can holds 4 litres, the plant food needs to be diluted 4ml/litre = 16 ml of plant food for the full watering can. On a 24/0 lighting schedule and a re-pot, nutrients won't go amiss. I use a 20-20-20 plant food for vegging & diluted molasses for blooming.

:hippy:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dyranty

pedro i love your grow log. I've been following it and the new popcorn containers rock!

Dollar Tree? At least that's where I saw them.
Keep updating, I've been lurking around checking it out.

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Definitely a Dollar Store find! ;) The cool thing is that once the 150 watt HPS system I got is delivered, I can pretty much use it for both vegging & blooming!

The CFL's and current fixtures aren't lost, y'see, in the event that one of the babies turns male, it allows me to seclude it, collect its pollen and selectively fertilize one bud so I can collect my own seeds for the next grow! Agreed I'll have to figure something out for the "seclusion chamber" ...