First Grow - 260W CFL & 600W HPS - Advice Welcome!

[DrGonz0]

Hi,

This is my first real grow and first time posting, would like some feedback and pointers!

I have made a stealth(y) box measuring L 90cm x D 42cm x H 89cm it started with X2 130W CFL's but have since upgraded to a 600w Dual Spectrum HPS with a cooltube.

It's has a 125mm Inline Fan, Connected to a 100mm Inline fan, Connected to a 150mm Inline fan cooling the cooltube, this is connected to a passive intake at the top. Separate to this the box has a 100mm Exhaust fan also connected via a Y connector to the 150mm incline fan.

What strain is it? Bag Seed
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? All but one appear to be Indica
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Veg
If in Veg... For how long? 1 Month, 3 Days
If in Flower stage... For how long? N/A
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Soil
If soil... what is in your mix? Potting Mix /w Dynamic Lifter and Perlite
If soil... What size pot? 12L?
Size of light? 260w CFL to begin, now 600W HPS
Is it aircooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? 28 degrees (Celius)
RH of Room/cab? N/A
PH of media or res? 6.5
Any Pests ? No
How often are you watering? Every Second Day
Type and strength of ferts used? Grow Tec Monster Grow As directed (17g per 19L)

Constructing the Box

Just a quick rundown:

Started with this equipment for building the stealth box

- X2 100mm Exhaust Fans
- X2 100mm Duct Vents
- 5m 100mm Ducting
- Cord Desk Blocker Things (lol)
- Random Box of electrics from previous attempt years ago

- 1X Light Shade (Later to be 2)
- 2X 130W CFL's (6400k)
- Mylar or similar style reflective material
- Part of box disassembled

Before putting the box together I decided to cut all the holes a and wrap it in its reflective material first.

After cutting holes in the box for the ventilation (using 100mm holesaw) I then wired up the exhaust fans secured the ventilation over the holes.

I then cut 80mm holes on either side of the top to run the cords for the lights out and filled them with the circle desk things.

I then put the box all back together and it looked something like this closed.

And something like this open (Before I Installed the second 130W CFL)

Which brings me to the start of my journal and box transformation as I planted the 7 germinated Bagseed in Jiffy Peat Pellet pots on the 7th of January.

Start Journal

7th of January - Planted Seedlings on 24/0 Light Schedule

9th of January - Transfered Seedlings from Jiffy pots to Pots with Mixture

Mixture Used

Drilled Holes in bottom of pots for drainage

Planted Seedlings in pots and placed in box

13th of January - Installed Second 130W Light

17th of January - 2-3 Sets of Leafs have grown

I decide to top most of the plants, as I thought I was going to only have the one box for Veg/Flower and needed to keep them low.

24th of January - Growth after being topped (Or whatever I did to them )

25th of January - LST's 2 plants down using cut coat hanger to test it out and see how they responded

When reading other peoples journals on this forum I have always been interested by LST'ing in particular SCROG'ing. Since this was only bag seed and I wasn't at risk of ruining anything expensive, I decided to give it a go

While LST'ing down the plants using cut up and bent coat hangers I accidently snapped one of the branches and ended up repairing it - Looks like it's been super-cropped

28th January - Plants I LST's were responding well so did the rest using a combination of hemp wick and coat hanger (Sorry no Photos)

3rd of February - Plants responding well to training switch over to 16/8 Light Schedule

7th February - Caved in and upgraded whole setup realizing I want two cabs to have a Veg/Flower Cycle and wanting to switch over to an embedded DWC system to save space and time.

Purchased the following;
-GH Grow
-GH Bloom
-GH Micro
-GH ClMg
-Growtek Grow
-Growtek Bloom
-PH up
-PH down
-PH Buffer
-PH Storage soloution
-PH Cleaner
-BlueLab PH Pen
-Bluelab Truncheon EC Pen
-600W HPS Dual Spectrum
-600W Digital Ballast
-125mm Cooltube
-100mm, 150mm ducting
-Ezi 125mm Inline Fan
-Y Connector (x2 100mm Inlets, 150mm Outlet)
-Ezi 150mm Inline Fan
-800l Dual Outlet Air Pump
-X2 55L Storage Containers
-X6 140mm Mesh Pots
-X2 45cm Flexible Airstone
-Clear Hose
-Grodan Rockwool

All Hydro Gear in prep for once I switch current plants over to flower tent

Cleaned up the rest of my area

Hooked up all my new gear

All setup running at a perfect 27 providing 90,000 Lumens in a tiny space

Ventilation Seup

Later that night I ended up feeding them Monster Grow (The plants first feed)

9th February - Plants responding very well to light and nutrients

And one last shot of it from the outside

I am in the process of ordering and building a 1.6m x .8m x .8m growtent for a flowering box.

Hoping someone help me out here;

Since the current box I have is so small would I be better switching to a 400w to keep temps down once I attach an odor sock to the veg box? This would then allow me to move the 600w to the flower box which would be easier to ventilate.

Is there much benefit in contrast to power used to vegging with a 600w or would a 400w do the trick in that space?

How much faster can I expect my plants to outgrow there already small box once I switch over to DWC, keeping in mind the the reservoir holding 4-6 plants will be recessed and sitting flush.

Thanks in advance for any help and hope you can enjoy checking out my first grow!

 

[Dan Ultra]

re: First Grow 260W CFL & 600W HPS - Advice Welcome!

Subbed!

So a few things that I see off the bat.

1. You will quickly outgrow that box with 7 ladies in there, so an additional flowering box/ room is a good idea. I would use the 600w for flower and keep the 400w with CFL's supplemented if needed. General rule of thumb is 100-150w per plant. With bag seed some of those might be male and sent to the fire, so with 600w you should be good.

2. You have light leaks, so don't flower in that box or you might make hermies.

Your setup looks really good though. You might look into fluxing if you haven't already and you plan on keeping in a small space. I am on my first solo grow and working on fluxing technique, so take a look if ya want. Light Addict is the king of fluxing, and he chimes in every once and a while.

Can't really say anything on DWC as I have zero experience.

Good luck man!!

 

[DrGonz0]

re: First Grow 260W CFL & 600W HPS - Advice Welcome!

Yeah I had a feeling from the start it was going to be a little to short, the tent seems like it will be alot easier then this to setup. Plus I guess I get the added benefit of being able to cycle more frequently.

Fingers crossed at least half are female

Thanks dude, I was actually wondering about those leaks. I'll be sure to cover them up this weekend.

I'll be sure to check it out - I

 

[Dutty Panty]

re: First Grow 260W CFL & 600W HPS - Advice Welcome!

Every single thing dan said I agree with. Nice box for vegging though. You could build same thing and line with panda film to help stop light leaks.
I'm along for the ride so I'll be following right along.

 

[DrGonz0]

10th of Feb - Topped anything I could see last night, plants seems to loving the extra lumens

 

[Dan Ultra]

Looks like you are running HPS right now. Do you have a digital ballast that can support Metal Halide bulbs as well? MH buldbs are in the 6500k light range, which is better for the vegetation growth stage, while HPS are in the 2400k which is ideal for flowering. MH is a whiter light where as HPS is a warm/orange light

 

[DrGonz0]

Yeah it is a HPS globe the store I got all my gear from said it was a dual spectrum and was good for veg and flower. I'm going back to get my tent today and am considering getting a 400w MH with a digital ballast. What do you think? I've heard MH's run s bit hotter

 

[Dan Ultra]

It does, but you have your cool tube hooked up to an exhaust fan, which will take care of most of the heat. I have heat issues, but the light is not a contributing factor really. Mine is 400w MH and I can pretty much keep my hand at the glass with no problem.

 

[paul keating]

Good looking setup.

You've got most bases covered.
It's great if you can keep the temps down in that tight space with a HID light. I was suprised.
Looks like you have some Ametalin sheeting on the walls. It's good stuff, that's what i just started using.

You will need that tent to flower them.

One thing i did notice, unless i missed it, is the lack of a carbon filter. You did mention something about an odor sock. You can get away without one for now, you don't really need one in your vegging cupboard, but once you put that many
girls into flowering in your tent, they'll most likely get real stinky.
And on the subject, when you get a flowering tent going, and the carbon filter going, you're gonna need a better fan than those ones you have.
I've tried those fans, they are only good for moving large amounts of air, but no good for ducting and a carbon filter.
I found a great site for cheap fans.
fansonline.com.au

If that link doesn't work, just search for 'fansonline'
They have decent fans, very cheap, and delivery is quick.
Either get a Mixflow or centrifigal fan. Don't get axial, they are no good with a carbon filter, no good with pressure, The motor melted through the plastic casing on my one.

If you are planning on switching to DWC, I'd do it very soon, like now.
I think they might be a bit big already. Not 100% sure.
I have switched from soil to Hydro before, but they were only small.
Problem is, when you switch to DWC, you need to remove pretty much all the soil from the roots, and wash the roots, get them pretty clean.
And if you have a big rootball like you probably do now, it will be a lot harder, and if you damage too many roots, it might cause problems. At the very least, it will slow growth for a while.

Me personally, i wouldn't dare attempt to switch them to DWC when they are that big, but that's your choice.
Maybe just do them one at a time and see how you go.

Other than that, your all good for now.
I have no experience with HID lights, so i can't really advise on them
My main light is a 700w led light.
And in my vegging cupboard, i just use Fluorescents for now.
Only been setup like this for a little while.

But keep us updated.

 

[DrGonz0]

Feb 11th - Installed grow tent, moved plants over and decomissoned vegging box until next cycle

Setting up the tent with 600w light, bigger cooltube, exhaust fan & Phresh carbon filter

Exhaust sucking air through carbon filter through cooltube out exhaust using 150mm inline fan

Intake hooked up to 150mm fan sucking air in

All hooked up and running

LST's all plants down to get as wide spread veg as possible

Plants in just after tying down, and operating at a perfect temperature

One question I have - can anyone tell me what this is? Some sort of nutrient problem or just plants doing there thing?

Thanks Paul - I ended up getting the online because I couldn't R fit the centrifugal I wanted. Seems to be doing okay for the temps now, maybe it's because I have an active intake?

Carbon filter sorted as you can see

Planning to finish these in soil man, when I get some seeds planing I start DWC as I have everything waiting to go.

 

[Beateo]

DrGonz0,
Looks like one heck of a setup to me man! You're obviously a handyman and that will serve you well for our purposes here.
Your setup is much more involved than mine and I'm thinking you're well on your way brother!


Greenest Regards,

Beateo

 

[Dan Ultra]

Looking good brother!! Those marks look like they got scorched a little bit. Is it possible that you splashed them with some nutes or water?

 

[DrGonz0]

Thankyou man! Yes that's definetly what happened. I'll try to pull the leaves back when I feed now. Cheers

 

[paul keating]

Good stuff!
You're all set. I'm in the market for a new filter, and i hear phresh are pretty good. Made with aussie carbon i believe, from WA.

Active intakes can take a load off your exhaust, but it's *critical* that they aren't more powerful than your exhaust.
If an active intake blows more air than your exhaust can suck, you'll end up with a positive pressure environment, which basically
means too much air going in, not enough going out, and that extra air will find somewhere to escape, like a hole in your tent, which means smells getting out. Something to keep in mind. Most people avoid an active intake.

 

[DrGonz0]

Thanks dude, I knew I read somewhere that a passive intake was better. I guess that's why my tents all puffed up.

I'll have to monitor the smellz over the next couple of weeks to see how it goes.

Forgot to take a picture today but they're all looking good responded well to the LSTing and have all started growing up again

 

[DrGonz0]

14th of Feb - Plants had feed (yesterday) all looking good

 

[DrGonz0]

Duplicate post

 

[DrGonz0]

Feb 15th - Repotted plants into 20L pots, removed extremely damaged plant, LST'd plants down

Putting the plants in their new pots

The mix I used

Roots

The plant I removed

Bending went well on this one - sting knuckles

Some plants before being tied down again

Plants after being tied down

The (Hopefully) girls sitting happy with more space

Highest point of the heighest plant is around 9 inches

Does everyone reckon I should SCROG in combination with LST or just leave them tied down as is?

Also with the plants being around 9 inches should I be getting ready to switch them at 12 inches? Keeping in mind it's all bag seed and I don't know how tall they'll stretch.

 

[Dutty Panty]

Looking good man. You a Dj?

 

[Dan Ultra]

Looks good man! What are you feeding or nutes? A couple of those plants look a little N deficient.

Also, upload your pics to the gallery here on the site. External links are not allowed and can store exif data.