Draxlin's 1st Grow - Nirvana Ice - 2013

Quality follows quality and your set up screams this! well done and have some reps brother!
 
Okay, here are a couple pictures of my little ones tonight. They have been under the LED's the past two days. I've got them on a 18/6 light schedule. So... three days after sprouting

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Nice craftsmanship, what is the space in the top of your cabinet for. I like your idea of having seperate mother/clone sections, but I think your mother section maybe a bit small, clones need barely any room and 8 bulb T5 is way overkill for clones. I would suggest a 2 bulb fixture for clones and a 100W LED for your mothers.

Also I think your fans are a bit underpowered. I would go with a 4" ~450 CFM inline fan and one of the variable speed controllers. Like I have in my indoor grow. Even with low heat LEDs still want the air exchange. And the variable speed controller allows you to go low on the speed, extending life of fan and allowing more tweaking of airflow.

But overall pretty dam good setup. +reps.
 
First off let me say a great big Thank You to everyone for your comments and reps. They are very much appreciated. I'm really trying to create and have the best possible setup I can for my little operation.

Crawdaddy said:
Nice craftsmanship, what is the space in the top of your cabinet for. I like your idea of having seperate mother/clone sections, but I think your mother section maybe a bit small, clones need barely any room and 8 bulb T5 is way overkill for clones. I would suggest a 2 bulb fixture for clones and a 100W LED for your mothers.

Also I think your fans are a bit underpowered. I would go with a 4" ~450 CFM inline fan and one of the variable speed controllers. Like I have in my indoor grow. Even with low heat LEDs still want the air exchange. And the variable speed controller allows you to go low on the speed, extending life of fan and allowing more tweaking of airflow.

But overall pretty dam good setup. +reps.
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There are two spaces built into the top of the cabinet. The space in the upper left is just storage area for nutes, ph meters, etc. The space on the right with the door is the scrubber vacuum chamber. I will get some better pictures of this uploaded tonight or this weekend. I will admit that I had a bit of concern about my air exchange even before I had the cabinet complete. I needed this build to be somewhat stealth and think it's working really well so far. I also am venting it directly out the back of the cabinet and through the garage wall to the outside. There is no scientific data here, but I can hold a lighter near the passive intakes and it sucks the flame into the louvers, so I'm calling that good.

I know the current fixtures for the smaller chambers are way overkill now... lol. Actually, I suspected as much when I installed them. So they will be swapped out as soon as I figure out their replacements. I was just trying to utilize these 2 fixtures as I scrapped the CFL/T5 lighting I had planned for the Flowering Chamber and have a lot of left over lights. I have made several $$$ mistakes and have went way overboard on the cost of what this build should have been. Mostly because I was stupid high ;) and got all excited and started ordering things like lights before I even had the cabinets design completed. Then design changes happen and well... Live and learn...

Seriously I have a shit ton of lights I should have never bought... I think they will be heading to ebay soon.

1 - Hydrofarm hood /w 200w CFL (mogul base)
1 - Floragrow hood /w 125w CFL (mogul base)
2x - 8 bulb - T5 HO Fixtures (24w) (16-3000k & 16-6500k bulbs)
1 - 4 bulb - T5 HO Fixture (24w) (4- 6500k bulbs)
1 - 2 bulb - T5 HO Fixture (24w)

If I could re-build the cabinet there are a few changes I would make. Such as dimensions of the clone and mother chambers. My plan from the beginning was to try and bonsai my mothers. From what I have read it is quite possible to keep them under 12". Crawdaddy what do you think of this light for the mother chamber? I have to think on this more before I spend more money. My wife would hang my upside down by my nugs if she knew what the budget for this build turned into!!

Another thought.... maybe I should consider swapping the clone and mother chambers. With the idea that a 100w LED being in the top most chamber would help with its heat issues.
 
Hi Draxlin.

Discovered your box design thread and followed it here. Congrats on a great box design, execution in building, and thanks for sharing your grow with us! I've failed to welcome you to the 420 Magazine site and fabulous community of members - so :welcome: to :420:!!!!

Also Congrats on the sprouts and the start of your grow. I think Crawdaddy's idea re: the larger fan and speed controller is a good one. It would allow a great deal of latitude in controlling the internal climate.

I look forward to following along in your journal.

Be well and happy growing.
 
That looks like be a good choice for your space for either the mother chamber. Look at it this way be a few months at least before have any mothers so no need to spend money now :)

I should have preceded my advice with the following disclaimer...Take anything I say, or anyone else for that matter, with a grain a salt. We do not know exactly what is going on with your grow or your plans. You are the ultimate decider for what is right in your own grow. One of the best ways to learn is to mess up. Learn more from failures then successes. Experimentation is the key :)
 
Hi Draxlin, great thread just subscribed! Your grow box is awesome, well done! On my first grow also, a week or so away from harvest and have a nirvana ice plant amongst them, looks greay and smells lovely!

Good luck with everything dude!

Goody!
 
Sorry for the lack of updates here, been extremely busy. Here are few pics from today, 16 days since topping both of my girls. I used my bubble clone to try and early sex the plants. The one on the left I'm confident is female and the other one I'm thinking is too. However its pistils weren't as prominent.. So I will assume both are female and watch it close when I switch to flowering. Plants were repotted this past Saturday and are taking off!

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These plants are six weeks old now and are just about 8" tall or so. I didn't start using the Fox Farms nutes until about 2 weeks ago when I topped them. I'm following their feeding schedule as it's printed, since I am a noob afterall. So I'm on week 3 of the feeding schedule now, doing 6 tsp of Big Bloom and 3 tsp of Grow Big.

When should I implement the SCROG screen? Also, since I am doing SCROG, do I wait to switch to flowering until the screen is full underneath or should I follow the FoxFarms schedule and actually start flowering next week? My understanding is that I can plan on the plant to gain about 40% more growth after being switched to flowering. At least that is what I thought I read somewhere... lol
 
draxlin said:
These plants are six weeks old now and are just about 8" tall or so. I didn't start using the Fox Farms nutes until about 2 weeks ago when I topped them. I'm following their feeding schedule as it's printed, since I am a noob afterall. So I'm on week 3 of the feeding schedule now, doing 6 tsp of Big Bloom and 3 tsp of Grow Big.

When should I implement the SCROG screen? Also, since I am doing SCROG, do I wait to switch to flowering until the screen is full underneath or should I follow the FoxFarms schedule and actually start flowering next week? My understanding is that I can plan on the plant to gain about 40% more growth after being switched to flowering. At least that is what I thought I read somewhere... lol
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Careful with the FF Feeding Schedule, using it as published I burned some plants. So I using it as a 'guide' now, but not doing full strength.

With SCROG, most fill the screen then switch to flower, but like with anything many different ways to make it work. I would make a SCROG screen and put it about at height of plants, maybe an inch or two above, and let them grow into it, then start spreading them. But take what I have to say with grain of salt, just started out my first SCROG. Couple of plants a bit bigger then the third so using the screen to train them to spread out while 3rd catches up. But the 3rd is also a stretchy beast in flower, so trying to work it all out.

Your two babies are looking healthy though, I like the supplementary CFLs to supplement the low wavelength count of the COB. You get your free UFO from Sara yet? Mine should be arriving today. If not just email her and she will get it going, got it going fast for me, good Customer Service.
 
Crawdaddy said:
You get your free UFO from Sara yet? Mine should be arriving today.
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I received mine today as well. I agree the customer service from TopLED is superb. They have certainly impressed me and have won me over as a customer.

Thanks for the info. I've read that about the FF nutes and am keeping a close eye on them. I'm going to put the screen in place this weekend and grow these girls out a little more before switching to flower.

Update on the cabinet itself:
I had to make a few changes since the cabinet is in the garage and the temps were all over the place. Even with the cabinet itself being insulated. My garage is connected to the house, so I ended up installing a passive air vent from a crawl space of the house to the garage to keep the temps more regulated. It made a tremendous difference. The temps don't swing as wildly now and only fluctuate about 15°.
 
Nice draxlin, I like this UFO supplemental. It makes the light look much less 'harsh' on the plants. The straight COB looked too red to me.
 
when to place your screen and at what height is going to be determined by your flowering cabinet. how much height do you have still remaining to your light in your flower cabinet? you want your screen at least 60% filled when you switch to flower. it is suggested to have your screen set 12 inches above the pot to allow underbrush to be cleared out and to access the screen.
 
KingJohnC said:
when to place your screen and at what height is going to be determined by your flowering cabinet. how much height do you have still remaining to your light in your flower cabinet? you want your screen at least 60% filled when you switch to flower. it is suggested to have your screen set 12 inches above the pot to allow underbrush to be cleared out and to access the screen.
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Thanks for the reply KingJohnC. I wish I had a little more height in the cabinet, hopefully the space I have will be enough to produce a decent yield. From the top of the pot to the bottom of the light, l have 25". Will placing my screens at 12" give me enough room? How much higher will they typically stretch beyond the screen level? Shouldn't it be mostly buds above the screen?

I placed my screens at 12". Here's a couple pics for reference.

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Crawdaddy said:
Nice draxlin, I like this UFO supplemental. It makes the light look much less 'harsh' on the plants. The straight COB looked too red to me.
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My plants love the UFO. Pretty sure they were not growing as aggressive as they could have, as they are 9" tall or so and almost 7 weeks... I think? However they seem to be healthy and getting bushy. The UFO light has only been in a few days and I can see a noticeable difference in the growth already!
 
I dropped the screens to 9" instead of 12". They'll still have to grow into it. The way they're going now, I imagine I will be switching to 12/12 in a week or so. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that besides topping these girls, I also super cropped them last week too.

It has been four days since last watering, so I watered again today with my FF. This is the second feeding using 6 tps Big Bloom and 3 tps Grow Big.

Should I consider adding super thrive too? Thinking about getting FF Soluble Trio - ive read good things about the Cha Ching, not sure about the other two though - any thoughts?
 
I would not add super thrive it is counter productive to use it past seedling stage, a better product would either be a seaweed extract for flowering. I have not used the FoxFarm nutrients, but if you already have the base nutrients the additives may work the best with them.
 
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