McTokers' 3rd Grow ~ Hempy Buckets

Hi all. The Mrs. and I have been absent for a while due to poor health. But, we're back at it again. We finally got the new grow room done. It's roughly 12 x 6 feet. It's all 2x6 walls, heavily insulated and sheetrocked. We even installed an insulated steel door. The interior walls are flat white. Heck, we even painted the concrete floor white. We haven't installed the wall A/C unit yet because we won't be needing it for a while.

We put in a 4 foot long workbench with an overhead framework to support the CFL lights (Frankenlight). We'll use one end of the workbench for a vegging area, at least for the time being. We'll also continue to use the Homebox tent as a flowering area.

3 days ago we started 4 Wrecked Homicide beans, 2 Blue Apollos and 1 AK-47. So far, 3 WH's have popped along with 2 BA's.

We're gonna go with hempy buckets again but we went up to a 5 quart bucket. We went looking for 1 gallon buckets but they were out of them. These should work out well as they won't need painting or to be wrapped in duct tape. They're not translucent.

Our main goal is to get a good WH mom and a BA mom that we can clone from. Cloning is new to us but sure seems like the way to go. Yup, lots more homework to do.:D

We're also going to experiment with keeping all the odor control inside the room. Right now we're hoping that our existing vortex fan and filter running on the tent, inside the room, will take care of the whole room. If it doesn't, we'll add a second tent for vegging and let the fan pull air from both tents through a "Y" fitting.

In case Horsemanrocks tunes in, here are the pics that I couldn't post in the other thread. Still trying to convert this 220 outlet to 2 110 outlets.

Glad to have you back around Mctoker....Hope you are doing well health wise....anything i can do to lend a hand....feel free to ask bro! Good lUck and congrats on the new room! cant wait to see it go to work for ya! :thumbsup:

Thanks killa. It's nice not having the tent in the middle of our bathroom or bedroom. Drops the worry meter down several notches too.

Health is much better. No more surgeries until this summer.:thumbsup: We should have a crop in by then.

Of the 7 beans we started, all but 1 popped.

Went to Wally World today and picked the goodies to build a cloner. We're using the design from MVP's sticky on cloninging the Basic section. Got most of it built today and will finish it off tomorrow. A BIG THANKS to MVP for his thread and great pics. It made the project real easy.:thumbsup: We can't wait to try it out. First use will be to clone to determine sex.

Still waiting on UPS to bring more goodies to finish off the grow room. We ordered some panda to isolate the veg and cloning areas, the electrical adapters we were after and a portable A/C unit. We'll get some pics up when it's a bit more complete.

It's starting to feel a bit like it's my secret laboratory.:D

Oh yea, Headshake, 2 of the WH's are looking like they may be getting the rounded leaves like you got on some of yours.

The first pic is the start of our new set up. We'll use panda over the bench area to contain the light.

In the second pic the top row are all Wrecked Homicide. On the bottom row, from left to right, are 2 Blue Apollo and 1 AK-47.

man mctoker....

You said you were busy! THe room looks great.....everything is nice and clean.....Well Organized.....It should be a pleasure to work in that new space! Well i cant wait till the show begins....pulling up a chair!:thumbsup:

Nice to see you're back, McToker :hippy:

Thanks y'all.

Finished up the cloner today and the first seedling went into its bucket (one of the BA's).

Looks great! How many liters is that container?

Thanks. Not sure on the liters. It's two 15 quart containers. One for the tub and one for the dome.

good to see that everything's well ill b popping in from time to time whats the origins of that WH

I believe it is Purple Kush x Purple Rhino. I still get a bit confused by all the cross breeding business but the results sure look impressive. For more details check out Killa's log at http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ah-purple.html .

Ooops!!!

Accidently dropped WH #3 during its move to the bucket. It bent right where the stem meets the soil. Went ahead and put it in the bucket with a stake to prop it up.

Now, the only one awaiting a bucket is the AK.

No nutes yet, just R/O water with CalMag added.

Even though we were only running a few bulbs in Frankenlight, heat was becoming an issue. So, we pulled Frankenlight out and put in some flouros. It's just 2 four-foot shop lights with Cool White 40 watt bulbs.

Yes, we have an A/C unit on the way but we're trying to get heat issues to a minimum before we add the HPS light in the flowering tent.

The experimenting continues.;) Guess I'm going to have to search for a "Mad Scientist" emoticon.:D

P.S. That WH that I dropped seems to be doing real well. In fact, it's the best looking of the WH's. Must be the hardy Kush genes in its background.:thumbsup:

With only the 4 foot flouros running, temps have stabilized staying about 77-78 during the day and dropping to 74 at night. All 6 sprouts are in their buckets now and all the wood spacers are gone.

The WH I dropped is doing well and standing on its own for the second day. The support stick was removed today.

Second pick is the WH I dropped.

Third pic is one of the BA's. Both of them are doing well.

The portable A/C unit showed up today. We were expecting "a little bit" of negative pressure as the unit vents hot air to the outdoors. It's more than "a little bit" of negative pressure. With the unit turned on it is quite difficult to get the door open. But, we had anticipated this and had a plan. The plan is to cut a 6 inch round hole through the far wall and silicone in a piece of PVC pipe. On the outside, we'll cap off the vent with an aftermarket automotive air cleaner/filter. It will be protected from the weather as that wall is inside our shop.

If this portable A/C unit doesn't work out for the "room" we'll move on to Plan B. Plan B is to put in a wall mounted A/C unit and utilize the portable unit in the kitchen during the summer as it is always a hot spot on summer afternoons.

So, the experiment continues.;)

Before you ask, yes, there is a Plan C. Plan C is to air condition the entire shop (600 square feet) then have passive intakes on the "room" and and run an active exhaust. Fortunately, the entire shop is insulated very well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McToker

In case Horsemanrocks tunes in, here are the pics that I couldn't post in the other thread. Still trying to convert this 220 outlet to 2 110 outlets.

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Every things looking good. Didn't know if you got the electric fixed.

You can split the 220 but what you have there is two hot wires and a ground. Your missing a neutral wire. Yes a neutral is the same as ground. That being said, one hot wire to each plug and split the ground to go to each plug. I would hook the ground to the neutral and ground on each plug..

To make it easier wire nut some 12/2 to the 10/2 wire in the box. If you use a double rec. Then you can split it top and bottom by just braking off the tabs on the sides to seperate them.

Hope it helps Been an electrian for over 20 years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LOC NAR on probation

Every things looking good. Didn't know if you got the electric fixed.

You can split the 220 but what you have there is two hot wires and a ground. Your missing a neutral wire. Yes a neutral is the same as ground. That being said, one hot wire to each plug and split the ground to go to each plug. I would hook the ground to the neutral and ground on each plug..

To make it easier wire nut some 12/2 to the 10/2 wire in the box. If you use a double rec. Then you can split it top and bottom by just braking off the tabs on the sides to seperate them.

Hope it helps Been an electrian for over 20 years.

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This kind of responce is what makes this site so cool! Right on LOC-NAR !!!

LOC NAR ~ I really appreciate your advice but I gotta tell you I'm still a bit spooked about doing it myself. At the moment I have enough power in the room as we haven't needed to power up the flowering tent, yet. I've added up the total amps that each device uses and we're within the limit but it will be close. After all I've read I think I'll be more comfortable if I just bring in an electrician, like yourself. Fortunately, the outlet is just outside the "room" so security is not an issue.

Thanks,

McT

Mac, have you done anything about that outlet yet? I could offer a suggestion or two depending on how much lighting you plan to run plus what other devices will be used. Also, how many times and would you like to use relays so that your timers last a long time?

SHov

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shovelhandle

Mac, have you done anything about that outlet yet? I could offer a suggestion or two depending on how much lighting you plan to run plus what other devices will be used. Also, how many times and would you like to use relays so that your timers last a long time?

SHov

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Nope. I haven't called an electrician yet. We're always open to advice and suggestions.

you most definitely know i'm tuned in for the show MC's! i hope all is well around y'alls way (minus the possibly rounding leaves of the WHs, of course!).

i've got to procure some 1 gallon buckets and then hempy's are getting some space in the tent, ya!


-shake

Welcome aboard Shake.

Before going shopping yesterday, I re-read Rhizome's guide to setting up a grow room. I was concerned that my "auto air cleaner" idea might not let enough air in.

Since our "room" is more like a grow room within a grow room I decided it would be best to treat the issue as a passive intake. Although I have no idea how much CFM the 5 inch exhaust from the A/C is flowing I figured that the 5 to 6 inch neck of the auto air cleaner could be too restrictive.

I ended up getting two 12 x 14 ventilation grills. We'll cut out an 11 x 13 hole through the wall and mount a grill on each side. I also picked up a "cut to size" washable air filter. It's enough to make a filter to back each grill. This vent will open into our shop and we're hoping that light leaking out won't be too much of an issue. If it is, we'll come up with something to deal with it.

Kudos to Killa, again. His tip on more frequent calibration of our PH pen was right on. A large bottle of calibration fluid showed up a couple days ago. We hadn't calibrated our pen since we bought it for our last grow. WOW! It was off on the high side by 1.7. We'll be checking it every week from now on. Not being accurate explains some of the issues we had with our last grow.

My searching finally paid off. I found a device that is so simple even I can't mess it up (knock wood).:D

Actually I found them from several vendors but this one had the clearest photo. They are sold by equipment suppliers for folks that do commercial carpet cleaning or fire/flood restoration.

They say it takes a 30 Amp dryer outlet and converts it to two 20 amp 120 volt outlets. This particular kit comes with 2 converters, one for a 3-prong outlet like I have next to my grow room and a second one for 4-prong outlets which I also have in my shop, just not as close to the grow room.

On another note, we got the new intake vent installed. Now, the A/C unit works like a champ and doesn't create negative pressure. We went with a different filter that is a two-layer design with one layer being a carbon filter. Light leakage is very minimal and is not going to be a problem. Canopy temp is now steady at 76 degrees Farenheit, + or - 1/2 a degree.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McToker

My searching finally paid off. I found a device that is so simple even I can't mess it up (knock wood).:D

Actually I found them from several vendors but this one had the clearest photo. They are sold by equipment suppliers for folks that do commercial carpet cleaning or fire/flood restoration.

They say it takes a 30 Amp dryer outlet and converts it to two 20 amp 120 volt outlets. This particular kit comes with 2 converters, one for a 3-prong outlet like I have next to my grow room and a second one for 4-prong outlets which I also have in my shop, just not as close to the grow room.

On another note, we got the new intake vent installed. Now, the A/C unit works like a champ and doesn't create negative pressure. We went with a different filter that is a two-layer design with one layer being a carbon filter. Light leakage is very minimal and is not going to be a problem. Canopy temp is now steady at 76 degrees Farenheit, + or - 1/2 a degree.

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I like the converters. We could use those on the job for air compressors. they take alot to run and beats the temp wiring so OHSA don't fine us. LOL Nice find

Whats your feeding schedule with those there buckets. really want to give it a go, but I don't know If I would be able to follow the schedule, just seems like it has everything I would want. Let me know, nice grow so far. Hope those converters work for ya.

-C

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ForgetClassC

Whats your feeding schedule with those there buckets. really want to give it a go, but I don't know If I would be able to follow the schedule, just seems like it has everything I would want. Let me know, nice grow so far. Hope those converters work for ya.

-C

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So far they are only getting Ph adjusted R/O water + CalMag and are watered daily. We'll start them on 1/4 strength nutes this week and move up to 1/2 strength nutes about a week, or so, later. Once the tap roots reach the reservior we'll only water every 2 to 3 days. To make it easier (for us) to remember, we usually water every other day during vegging and flowering.

We use Botanicare nutes and follow the schedules (amounts) listed on the containers. Others have had success with Fox Farm nutes. FF has a feeding schedule broken down by weeks that is available on-line. Whichever brand(s) you chose, you'll want the nutes designed for hydro grows.

The Mrs. and I have found this system much easier (for us) than a soil grow. It's virtually impossible to under or over water.

Good luck

Works for me, thanks man, good luck growing, I'll be around.

-C

We went ahead and gave them 1/4 strength nutes today.

1st pic = the 2 BA's

2nd pic = 3 WH's (the one in the lower right is the one I dropped)

3rd pic = AK47

Subscribed, McToker and wife!

M.P.

Welcome MP.

The babies quite enjoyed their first dose of nutes. The BA's doubled the span of their leaves since yesterday. The WH's leaf tips no longer point toward the ground. They point straight out from the stem except for one that still has a very slight droop.

I should probably confess. Yesterday I had a brain fart and inadvertantly gave them a 1/2 dose instead of a 1/4 dose. I suppose all is well as the instructions on the nutes actually call for 1/2 dose for seedlings.

We ordered more toys yesterday. I love tax refund time.:D Even though the A/C unit has a digital thermostat, it only controls whether or not the compressor kicks in. So, the fan is always on. This was making it a tad bit chilly at night. The A/C instructions claim that if power is cut off, when the power resumes the unit will automatically return to the last settings. We experimented by puling the plug rather than just turning it off. Sure enough, when we plugged it back in, it went to it's previous settings. So, we ordered a plug-in thermostat to control the A/C unit. We also ordered a couple sets of the Yo-Yo style light hangers. And, of course, we ordered the power converter mentioned in previous posts.

Started adding Sweet to the nute mix today.

Current nutes:

CalMag = Full strength
Grow = Full early vegging dose
Sweet = Full vegging dose

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McToker

Started adding Sweet to the nute mix today.

Current nutes:

CalMag = Full strength
Grow = Full early vegging dose
Sweet = Full vegging dose

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Correction: Grow and Sweet are at full "seedling" dose.

I've been lurking for a bit now and decided to pipe up and congratulate you on a job so far very well done. I can't wait to see how it goes. :hippy:

Thanks and pull up a chair caregiver. We're a bit anxious too.;)

We did some rearranging in the "room" yesterday. It gives us much better access to everything.

Pic 1 = The new arrangement. The flowering tent is off to the left, just out of view. The portable A/C unit is behind and also out of view. The lights are usually much lower but happened to be raised for feeding time. The digital thermometer on the left is the room temp and humidity. The thermometer on the right is the canopy temp. In the flowering tent we just run one unit for humidity and canopy temp.

Pic 2 = The BA's.

Pic 3 = The WH's. The one on the far left is a bit deformed. We'll just let it go and see what happens.

Pic 4 = The AK.

Moved up to vegging doses on nutes and every other day on watering.

The deformed WH is looking worse, poor color and stringy growth. We were going to let it go but are leaning more toward just culling it out. The other two WH's are doing well.

The babies were very thirsty after their first time of waiting 2 days to be fed taking an entire gallon among them.

Got the light yo-yo's installed yesterday. Why did I wait so long to try these?:thumbsup:

Yesterday afternoon it finally got warm enough for the compressor on the A/C unit to fire up. No pun intended.:D It sure sucked the humidity out of the room in a hurry. It dropped from 60% to 27%. We broke down and turned on the humidifier and brought it back up to 40%.

The power converter arrived so I hooked it up and did some testing.

What won't work:

The portable A/C unit when the compressor kicks on.

The Lumatek digital ballast (250 watt).

What does work:

The Vortex 4 inch fan.

The flourescent lights.

Incandescant lights.

Room fans.

Humidifier.

:wtf::wtf::wtf:

I admit that I am somewhat below genius level when it comes to things electrical. But, here's what I think is going on. I'm sure some of the electricians on the forum will correct me if my thinking is in error.

The converter takes a 30 Amp (240 Volt ?) dryer outlet and converts it to two 20 Amp 115 volt outlets. Both the portable A/C unit and the Lumatek ballast need a 120 volt power source according to the specs on each device and the converter is only putting out 115 volts.

Fortunately for our grow, I have other power sources in the room. I plugged the A/C unit back into the outlet I had been using and then fired up the HPS light in the flowering tent, also plugged into an existing outlet. After the light came up to full power, I cranked the thermostat down on the A/C until the compressor kicked on. WooHoo!!! No problems at all. So, we'll just run the A/C and the HPS on the existing 120 volt outlets and run all the other stuff (humidifier, flouros, room fans, etc.) on the new 115 volt outlets.

It's not what we were hoping for but it will work. :)

you need to worry about the amps that those devices pull. current is what carries the power, so all the volts in the world won't help if the current isn't there. this is how tazer guns work, all voltage, minimum current. it's the current that will kill you. it only takes 0.1-0.2 amps to kill you. hence tazers advertising 100,000 volts.

that 240V (or 208) should be on a 20A circuit breaker. so if you split it you know have two circuits on the same 20A cb. hope that helps.

on another note, i got a couple of 1 gallon buckets to try my hand at hempys again.

hope all is well with you are yours!


-shake