1st ScrOG plans, feedback appreciated

[pinkchick]

What started as a swell idea last week is now being put into practice.... Since I moved away from the Netherlands, I've been annoyed that I have difficulty getting any decent quality grass, or anything at all, especially if I want to avoid the criminal crowd. Now a friend of mine wants to try MaryJane for her Morbus Crohn, a chronic bowel disease, and I figured "How difficult can it be to grow stuff myself?"

Okay, after a week on this and other forums, I realized it ain't that easy or cheap. My current $400 plans look as follows:

System:
- Cabinet ~ 3' width, 2' depth, 6' high
- Carbon filter with UFO vent in the ceiling
- 2 holes with thingies to keep light out at bottom
- Doors light-proofed with soft plastic stuff (no clue what that is called in EN)
- 400W Natriumdampflampe (halide), 8 kilo's in weight (professional quality)

Grow:
- ScrOG method on soil, probably for orchids or something
- 2 long plastic containers with frame for netting, each with 2-3 plants
- Female seeds, probably Northersn Lights x Big Buds or similar
- 4-8 weeks on 24/0, then slowly down until 12/12 for flowering, no pruning

My goal is excellent quality, good-okay quantity and possibly not too long until harvest.

The box will be built in the 2nd week of August, the seeds I want to get Monday already, germinate them in water and put them in Jiffies in a small plastic greenhouse on my windowsill.

The growbox will be placed in my bedroom. Do I need additional CO2? Do I need to be able to manipulate the light's height, how far does it need to be from the screen? How often do I need to water, how often to fertilize? What kind of timing can I expect - how long before I need to train them on the screen, how long before they fill the screen, how long for them to flower on 12/12?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

pinkchick Reviewed by pinkchick on 07-30-2006. 1st ScrOG plans, feedback appreciated What started as a swell idea last week is now being put into practice.... Since I moved away from the Netherlands, I've been annoyed that I have difficulty getting any decent quality grass, or anything at all, especially if I want to avoid the criminal crowd. Now a friend of mine wants to try MaryJane for her Morbus Crohn, a chronic bowel disease, and I figured "How difficult can it be to grow stuff myself?" Okay, after a week on this and other forums, I realized it ain't that easy or Rating: 5

[pinkchick]

Okay, I've been told in another forum that there is no way I'll be able to place this thing in my bedroom without something to reduce the noise. I've also been toldf that 24/0 is stupid, although I read this in one of the books... And I've been told not to do ScrOG if I want to harvest within 3 months.

Can I grow regularly in a 6' high cupboard? ScroG to me seemed like a swell idea...

[jamstigator]

Well, starting from seed, a month to veg, two months to flower -- no matter what you do, it's gonna take about three months to get to harvest time.

24/0 works great, forget whatever you heard that it doesn't. Sure, 20/4, or 18/6 works too, but less light/day = slower growth = less bud in the end, sooo...

As for the noise being too loud for a bedroom, that depends more on you than anything else. In my bedroom I have four small fans going, plus a 6" centrifugal fan. The 6" fan is sorta loud, but it's also a drone, and it didn't take my brain long to just filter it out. It's just white noise to me now, hardly notice it at all. If your concern is that OTHER people will notice the noise of a centrifugal fan, yes, they very likely would. I turn mine off when I have to let anyone in.

6' height is great. ScroG is great. 24/0 for veg is great. Forget CO2. You're on the right track.

[pinkchick]

The Germans and Dutch seem to grow in 2 months, I've been expecting 3... we'll see how it goes. I gues it's up to nature - and a little up to my equipment I guess. Why did I ever think this would not be expensive?! I am up to 400 â?¬ by now, realistic estimate. Oh well, everyone needs a hobby...

I think I'll ditch the Scrog for the first time, though, and go for smaller growing plants. A friend of mine will get Dutch seeds for me - I want indicas, female seeds, possibly Lowryders or Top44, flowering time between 40-55 days. We'll see what the growshop suggests... As soon as I know what it's gonna be, I'll ask for advice on how many plants to set up.

I have included a moving fan plus a muffler into my original design, though... And I have upgraded the exhaust to a bigger carbon filter - I would hate having to buy a new one after the first crop because it proved to be too small. The growbox is in my bedroom so some peace and quiet are appreciated... plus there are people visiting. Can't become a hermit just because of my "hobby"!

I should get started 1 1/2 weeks from now, that's gonna be fun... I am girl but pretty handy with tools, yet awful about electrics - which is why both lighting and exhaust are plug-and-play, so to speak.

Of course I'll put my camera to good use and start a construction plus grow log...

[jamstigator]

The only way to grow in 2 months start-to-finish is to clone, flower immediately after rooting, and use a fast-growing strain. You can *harvest* much more often than that though, by cycling your crops. The more crop cycles you keep going, the more often you can harvest, although the amount harvested also shrinks (per area/light).

For those who like to harvest a smaller crop monthly, they do it like this:

Day 1 - Start X clones rooting. This is Crop 1.
Day 30 - Start X clones rooting (Crop 2). Move Crop 1 to flowering room.
Day 60 - Start X clones rooting (Crop 3). Move Crop 2 to flowering room. Let Crop 1 keep cooking.
Day 90 - Harvest Crop 1. Start X clones rooting. (Crop 4.) Move Crop 3 to flowering room. Let Crop 2 keep cooking.
Day 120 - Harvest Crop 2. Start X clones rooting (Crop 5). Move Crop 4 to flowering room. Let Crop 3 keep cooking.

etc.

That still takes 90 days to get to harvest, but once you do you can then harvest monthly for as long as you keep the queue full and cycling properly. This is the basis for a Sea of Green. I'd try that myself, but legal punishment where I am, if caught, is in part based on number of plants, so for me ScroG makes the most sense. Just in case.

[pinkchick]

This is gonna be the setup:

[jamstigator]

Pretty similar to what one I've, er, seen. Heh. Main differences are: no muffler, and the carbon filter is outside the cabinet (on top, hidden behind books and stuff), so that the exhaust can be blown out through it. To put it inside a cabinet, with the sheer size of the filter itself plus the ducting required to connect it up (and still retain the ability to move the light up and down), well, that's a lot of precious space gone. Also seems like keeping it outside should be much less hassle when it's time to refresh the carbon. Inside is stealthier though, of course, if you have the room.

That's a Doran 8"x8" darkroom louvre at the bottom left. Another one is in back. Takes two to give enough airflow for a 445 CFM 6" fan.

Oh, and that's what happens when you veg too long. Lol.

[MegaOctane12]

[QUOTE=pinkchick]
- 2 holes with thingies to keep light out at bottom
[QUOTE]



What exactly are thingies? I'm curious to know. I think by soft plastic you mean the white 'total blackout' plastic sheeting?

You asked about 24/0 instead of 18/6, a full twenty four hours of light would benefit the plants alot, regardless of what people say, the more light the plant has the faster it grows. I had a site with all the old OG archives that explained the scientifc logic behind it, I lost it.


I assume that's an RVK fan, so yeah it will sound like a hurricane, you can forget a night photoperiod. Your setup in the diagram is the most efficient, placing the fan outside is not effective, ideally lying the muffler flat eliminates the bend in the airflow but that won't make much difference. If you hang the fan from chains or rope attached too, say, cuphooks, you will automatically eliminate some of the vibration noise but you won't ever be able too silence that fan so its less than noticable.



I also bought a 400W Hps and I also have very similar dimension to you and so far i've found the heat too outway its benefits. I'm considering getting some Environlites, you can find multi bulb reflectors in vegetative and flowerring so I will probaly move onto them and scrap the HPS completely, but that's not what you wana hear seeing as you already bought the HPS. Just something to think about. When it comes to scrog you really want too start 12/12 very early and train the stretch into the screen, its not any more time consuming than any other training method...., if you know what your doing.

[jamstigator]

MegaOctane12, what I 'saw done' to keep the fan noise down is to use a rheostat to dial down the fan speed. You can, like, tune it that way to produce less noise. With the cab airtight and closed, a 6" fan dialed down isn't really that bad. A 6" centrifugal fan spinning slower than its max can move the same amount of air as a 4" fan, or more, but do so with less noise. Photoperiod here is night, no probs. And it has to be because, yeah, the heat would be an issue with these 100+ degree F days if the lights were on during the day.

Obviously, there's no real heat probs with the cab I posted an image of, as you can see not just an HPS light (400w) but also eight extra 30-watt warm CFL bulbs going. I think a 600w light would work okay, but that'd be less flexible in terms of light placement than a 400w and some moveable CFLs. A 600w light would be more efficient on the electric bill, I'm sure, but you can't have everything.

What seems like it could be a problem is fitting a carbon filter into a 3' wide cab. I've seen some short, stocky barrel-shaped ones, so I guess it's possible, but those are large in diameter (to make up for the loss in length while still providing enough surface area), so that'll chew up a lot of volume. That's the only thing I'd be concerned about from that diagram.

[notanovice]

let me see, hmmm, 18/6 is most effective way, a plant needs time to rest, like people, if a person worked 24/7 he would surely wither and die from over exertion. (DISREGARD THIS IF OVER 30 years of ALL ways of growing has no merit.)
you may also try an autoflower strain such as a lowryder or a cross of lowryder. they are a quick to harvest strain, 8 weeks from seed popping up to harvest time. the amount harvested per plant is minimal, but very good, and many can be grown in a small space.