SpaceF Grow 4 - Perpetual Organic - 8 Feminized Strains - 1000W LEDs

[spacef]

Girl Scout Cookies (BlimBurn Seeds)
Jack 47 (Sweet Seeds)
Blue Dream (Humbolt)
Furious Candy (Eva Seeds)
Lemon Kush Headband (Humbolt)
Washing Machine (Ripper Seeds)
Orange Hill Special (Dutch Passion)
Ayahuasca Purple (Barney's Farm)
etc


It is the 1st time I try feminized seeds. I am used to autos now, but according to my calculations, I may save on electricity bill. + it's summer, and haveing the lights on for 12/12 will be much more confortable, noise and heat-wise, than a 20/4 auto session.

My plan is to grow 4 plants at a time in 2 sessions. I should be able to use the 2*2 (60*60cm) box as veg room, and the 4*4 (120*120) box for bloom. I'd like to give a go at a Gaz Lantern Routine, on 1 plant, and may be more if it works as people say (i have no soubt about it but i need to experiment it too).

I hope that I will be able to add more lights too if when I have the budget. There are several panels that I'm interested in and they are all the same price.... Currently, I have 1 Mars Hydro 1200 and 1 Cob 400W (like galaxy hydro). The Cob will be used in the veg room, I found it great for the growth of autos.

A few autos may cohabitate with the feminized, on a 12/12 photoperiod, because I have a few growing already from my previous grow. But the priority will be given to the feminized seeds.


I think I will begin like this:

Session 1:
======
Girl Scout Cookies (BlimBurn Seeds)
Furious Candy (Eva Seeds)
Lemon Kush Headband (Humbolt)
Washing Machine (Ripper Seeds)


Session 2
======
Jack 47 (Sweet Seeds)
Blue Dream (Humbolt)
Orange Hill Special (Dutch Passion)
Ayahuasca Purple (Barney's Farm)


Does it sound good ?
I may change the order according to flowering speeds....

 

[420Amard]

You might want to veg em for at least 2 weeks man if not you're most gonna get much...
And subbed let's see what's growing this time.

 

[spacef]

I was going for 3 weeks + topping. Do you think it is too much ? I have a couple of strains that they say should veg at least 3 or 4 weeks (for example, the "washing machine, they say "between 2 and 4 weeks")...

I don't know if I will know when it is time to flower ...

 

[420Amard]

I've you're gonna top it as well I'd say you need at least 2 week after cutting before switching to flower if not you're gonna hurt your yield in the end. Just basically giving it time to recover and get a bit of new growth and redirect all them beautiful flowering hormones to the end.

 

[spacef]

I've got a box!

I went a bit crazy on the seeds again...

Previously, I couldn't afford the method 7 led glasses, but they are just fantastic.
I advise - urge! - very strongly anyone growing with leds to include those in your budget ASAP.
@spart: method 7 at 69€ (not 129 like in other place, pm for link if you need). Get them when you get a led panel.

Gonna give a go to the BioThrive line. Biobizz is beetroot molasse, and works very well. BioThrive is Cane Sugar molasse.
For the Bloom, i did not use biobizz indoors yet, but I am sure this one will do just fine. I still have top max as a finish, but may be I'll also give a go to this line in a couple of month.

 

[420Amard]

Very nice line up man. I think I'm good on the glasses, I don't really spend much time looking at the plants just quick water checks. I need smoke more then sunglasses I'm running low again.

 

[spacef]

I've seriously upgraded... 2 Mars reflector 48 to replace the 2 CFL, saving approx 200 watt draw when they are on full spectrum.

I will be using the 400W cob in the smaller box, then when the autos have flowered, i'll bring it back into that box for approx 1100 Watts of leds to build the buds (lots of uvs/ir ;-) ).

Here are a few pics that show morning/evening colors... But they will probably be used all at full spectrum until I bring the Cob inside the room. The light will make a movement from right to left, and this will also save a little bit of money, not having all lights on all the time (I haven't set the schedule yet).


1/ Morning, 1 mars 48 (right) on grow only

2. Sunrise : Mars 48 (right) + mars 1200

3. Main day: all on

4. Afternoon: mars 48 (left) + mars 1200 (center)
(no pic because very similar to the ones above)


5. Evening-sunset: mars 48 (left) on bloom only

Method 7 googles in front of camera

 

[420Amard]

Everything looks great man

Did you run a watt meter on it just to check your actual watts??
Hope everything is going good man.
Stay Safe

 

[spacef]

My measures were wrong, here are some pics.
I use an old back ups to know the watt usage.
724 only lights full spectrum, and 782 W with fan and humidifer. Previously was 980/990 with the CFLs.

 

[420Amard]

shit them cfls draw a lot compared to yield...

 

[spacef]

Ok, it's on !

I seeded 6 strains out of 8:
Blue Dream,
Lemon HeadBand,
Girl Scout Cookie,
Washing Machine,
Furious Candy,
Ayahuesca Purple.

I did not seed Jack 47 and Orange hill yet.

been a bit lazy on the sticker labels;

For the moment, the light makes a movement from right to left, but I wonder if it is better to light the mars 48 first, and then the 1200, for more progression in intensity rather than direction.

Those 2 Mars 48 work much better than the 2 CFLs: spectrum, penetration, coverage, intensity, all is good, they shouldbe enough for veg without the 1200 !!! (still, I'd love to simulate moon cycles and moonlight, milky way etc, for natural night light... ;-) )

 

[spacef]

They are good for basil lol ! nah seriously, it's a bit outdated technology, may be still good for T5 seedlings (of basil, lol) .

shit them cfls draw a lot compared to yield...

 

[spacef]

Day 3
====
The room gave me a lot of work this week.

First, it's summer, and I want to take holydays. So I got myself a small automatic watering system that works on batteries, with a small pump and stuff to fix it to any bucket. It allows to pump water during x seconds ( up to 99sec) x times a day (from 10 times per hours to once a day). Too bad it does not allow to water every 2 or 3 days, but the aim here is "confortable survival" during my absence !
The debit is dependant on the number of pipes and their length. So test will have to be made to water the autos at the same time as the 3 weeks younger fems.
The company that makes this device so humble that they don't even care mentioning their name (in case it does not work? but there are dozens of positive reviews for this thing, and i think the company is german, wassertech). It will not accept organic nutrients neither.

NB: all fems have sprouted except the lemon headband which is having a harder time. I had to dig the soil around it to check it sprouted, which it did but it still needs a few days.



Now the big piece :

A few weeks ago I got a portable air conditionner from a friend for the summer. It has a built-in timer.

The additional led panels give around 2°Celcius more than with the mars 1200 alone. It is not a problem except when the fan is on: temp reach 31°/32° celcius in the room: so the choice is either to have no fan when the light is on, or to do something about it. Also, when it is cold outside, it is not a problem, but in case it becomes very hot, it may go higher.

So I've "DIYed" a hose from the air conditionner to the room. But it was still not efficient when the fan was on(no change in temp, 31/32° celcius), and temps could go too low sometimes without the fan. So temps were basically playing yoyo.

I used what I had around to build this 2 outputs system:

- the upper level directs the cold air toward the center of the mars 1200, so all fans can have a bit of fresh air. It's pretty well balanced this way, ie the air that comes out of the mars hydro is more or less the same temp all around (and not cold on one side and hot on the other).

- The lower level: by closing it more or less, I have more air going up to the leds. It's ugly for the moment, but it works. Will be improved when I am sure of what works.

Only half of the air conditionner output, because I need a bit for myself too


A better view of the air flow

A better view of the upper hose, it is important that it sends air toward the center of the panel and not on 1 fan in particular.

Now I've got 28° in the room when the fan is on, and around 25° when it off. It is much more stable!!

Ideally, I should send cold air directly to the fan too (not the ones on the led panels, the big one for wind)...but I do not have enough length for this and I can't really change the place of the big fan... I will invest only if this doesnot work in the long run. I will soon have enough empty plastic bottles anyways... I think I will build it step by step, or rather "bottle by bottle" as I empty them

now, some fine tuning of this system, then I go on holydays in two weeks for 1 week...

I just miss an ip-camera to check the room from wherever I am from my smartphone !!!

 

[420Amard]

32* isn't that hot for these little girls under led. They love that temp hotter not so much but IMO 32 is not so bad. It's warm but mine are sitting at about 31-32c with the lights on and they're loving it. I think just the a/c in the room would of been enough i just got a fan in the room and it keeps the air moving. after all the ambient temp goes down the tent temp goes down.

That's a cool little watering thing. No i wouldn't use any kinda of organic nutes with it unless you get a oxygen stone like the ones for the fish tanks. If you let the Biobizz products sit in water for more then like a day they tend to get a film on them it's really gross looks like scum almost.
Where ya going on vacation?

 

[spacef]

For the temps, I have read somewhere that trichomes form much better at 27 than above 30. It was a heated discussion on another forum. I do not know if it's true, but I go by this rule because "why not". I know that Sativas like the heat much more than indica. I have a hot spot in the grow room, around 30° all the time, I can put a sativa there if needed

Air conditionning is too much if it is all the time, i end up with 22°, then when it's off it goes back to 28.

I try to get a temp room that is stable, and that allows me to use my big fan with lights on. Otherwise, like for the previous grow, it will be fan at night only, it went pretty well after all and it was around 30. But imagine if a strong heat wave happens... just in case i want to be prepared. good thing if nothing happens.

Oh by the way, I do not know if it has any effect on quality, but I don't use the reverse day/night this time; the lights follow the outdoor sun (gravity? birds singing?), and I got a timer with a small back light, so it simulates the full moon and night sky

 

[spacef]

I checked the temperature in jamaica, and it's 26 today in Montego Bay ... I should also find a location in the Blue Mountains.... (and if anyone knows better....)

That's not where go on hollydays, mediteranean sea for me (secret location)

 

[spacef]

The Lemon Headband did not make it.... :-( .
Don't know what happened, stem was super thin, may be too much humidity or not enough... the seeds of that pack are very small, and i've planted the best looking one... i hope it is not a crieria.
Too late to seed a new one for the moment, as the other box is not ready yet for vegging a new plant.
It will have to wait next round... (with the orange hill and jack 47 fem....).

 

[spacef]

Air system update.

That's how it should be done, so I share it with you. Now, with an temp out of the box of 26°C, I have inside the box around 28.4 all the time, and 27.2 with the fan + air conditionning "on". That's not only a variation of 1 or 1.5 degrees only (compared to 5 to 10 before), but the windy times are also fresher, so it is a better simulation than before, which was close to the Sirocco (a hot and dry wind from the sahara desert that is like a fan on a heater at "very hot" position, lol ) . Now the wind also brings fresh air if I put the air conditionning on.

Here is how it is done, and it required an extra 15 bucks to get a proper "intractor". First, cold air does not go up easily, it goes down, so to send it up you need to push it. Before I had pc fans and clip fans and I realize they are not efficient.... Now I have pressure and debit and it is silent. I should have done this before...

1)) The Intractor is just under an Y connector. One side of the Y goes to the led panel and the other side to an output directed toward the big wind fan. On that side, the 125mm pipe is half closed: so there is more pressure on this output, and more air goes to the other output. That's because I need to cool the air that is at the top of the box, because that's what the led panel's fan will suck in to refresh the leds. So, if the air at the top of the box is cooler, the led panel will be cooler, and the air blown out from the led panel will also be cooler.

NB: it is ambient and cold air only, so using plastic bottles and any type of tape is ok (no hot air in this circuit).

EDIT: the numbers on the pic are wrong: as the smaller output is actually on a much shorter pipe (less than 50% of the size of the other), we are closer to 50/50 on both outputs. The pressure (measured with my hand) seems similar on both outputs.

What is "difficult" here is to direct the air in a way that it does not go directly to the extractor. Thanks to the intractor - and to the "hose" that i can rotate (it a plastic bottle slipped into another, with a hole on a side) - it is much more easy to do this and there is enough air for the fans of the panel as well as the top of the box air which is cooler (with the help of the other output).

The problem is the wind fan that sucks air from the led panels and from the top of the box. that's why the temperatures rised. Now, I have much cooler temps and when the fan + air conditionning system work together, I go from 28.x to 27.x . It seems stable to me and only 2 degrees more than the temp outside of the box.

To understand the upgrade, imagine that there was only "red" rays on the pic below (hot air from led panels)... no fresh air to cool the hot air down. Now there is fresh air (blue "rays"). All that for this ! but it works!

It's done, now I'm happy !

 

[420Amard]

I got the same oscillating fan as you I think
It looks like a mad science experiment in there

A secret location eh??

 

[spacef]

lol, here is another experiment that works; I've cut 3 holes in a water pipe of the automatic watering system, and closed the pipe end, to water better around plants. It works fine.

Holes under the orange crosses. Can you see the drops dripping ?