The Happy Cola Company's Official Ground Up Medical Cannabis Grow Op

[The Happy One]

Next week I'm starting on our 3rd and final flower room. I've yet to finish the electrical, and need to get it done.
I also have another 4x8 flood table to finish the 96 site lightproof top on. We have ladies in the cloner that are going to need a place to go in another week or so.

The 5 inch baskets will support a good 12 inch plant...plus. Also, since putting the white expanded PVC over the top of the 4x8 flood table, the algae problem is GONE! I don't mean less than before, I mean gone. I keep scratching my head as to why a simple lightweight vacuum blown top (like a cloner) isn't made for flood tables of ALL sizes. I should build them and sell them.

Anyway, we have the flower room up to about 50% capacity, just waiting for the girls in the veg room to get big enough to flower.

Our last grow taught us a lot. We also learned a lot about the genetics we grew, what worked....and what did not. Some that didn't make the cut kinda set us back in the veg room.
We also learned our mother/veg room can support two 22x40 flower rooms IF timed correctly, but it won't support three of them, and that's the magic number.
This means going upstairs, and that presents a whole host of new thinking involved. My far greatest concern is water weight upstairs. At 8 lbs a gallon, that adds up. So much so, I'm looking at a design change that will still allow us use the 5 gallon buckets in hydro, yet contain the primary reservoir downstairs. I'm thinking about several ways to do this, just haven't decided on a design.
We also need to add another 330 gallon RO reservoir in the mech room, so plenty to do.

 

[Southerncough]

Are you doing any topping or training or just letting them grow naturally?
Just curious

 

[Sätkis]

That design is awesome! U should sell them if u have time. Im waiting to see the flowerroom full of fat colas

 

[The Happy One]

Are you doing any topping or training or just letting them grow naturally?
Just curious

Quite a bit took place in veg, but it doesn't end there. Right now, with a new crop in flower, we really thin out the water leaves. This can take 2 to 3 hours per plant, however, in early flower this tedious task has netted a substantial increase in bud sites. Matter of fact, proven by the last grow, whether it was raping the plants or those LM301's, we ended up getting some really worthy buds well below the canopy where they seldom produce anything worthwhile.
One of our new strains, 9 Pound hammer is really an outdoor strain. They really take up two plants sites. These we've had to run a lot of branching horizontal under the trellis, and we have 10 foot ceilings. Keeping the canopy clear of light blocking leaves is probably one of the most tedious tasks, and depending upon strain it can range from not too bad to an ever living loving nightmare.

 

[The Happy One]

That design is awesome! U should sell them if u have time. Im waiting to see the flowerroom full of fat colas

Not fat yet, only about three weeks into flower, but the ladies are beginning to swell.... One of our newest strains is 9 Pound Hammer. She's an indica created by JinxProof Genetics that crosses Gooberry, Hells OG, and Jack the Ripper. Should be an interesting strain!

 

[Southerncough]

Quite a bit took place in veg, but it doesn't end there. Right now, with a new crop in flower, we really thin out the water leaves. This can take 2 to 3 hours per plant, however, in early flower this tedious task has netted a substantial increase in bud sites. Matter of fact, proven by the last grow, whether it was raping the plants or those LM301's, we ended up getting some really worthy buds well below the canopy where they seldom produce anything worthwhile.
One of our new strains, 9 Pound hammer is really an outdoor strain. They really take up two plants sites. These we've had to run a lot of branching horizontal under the trellis, and we have 10 foot ceilings. Keeping the canopy clear of light blocking leaves is probably one of the most tedious tasks, and depending upon strain it can range from not too bad to an ever living loving nightmare.

Thanks! I too have been topping, training, and trying to keep big water leaves from blocking out the lower bud sites.
Funny you mention putting in the time to do it...just last night I was prepping to flip a plant that's been sitting in veg waay to long waiting for a spot to open up in the bloom tent and spent so long defoliating her that Mrs Cough came out to the garage to check on me! "You okay? You've been out here a really long time!" LOL

Due to prohibition I have a small stealth grow with two 100W quantum boards in my 2x4 bloom tent so every tiny bit of light on the bud sites counts! BUT on the plus side I can have my garage door wide open with neighbors walking their dogs down the sidewalk completely unaware!

 

[Sätkis]

Not fat yet, only about three weeks into flower, but the ladies are beginning to swell.... One of our newest strains is 9 Pound Hammer. She's an indica created by JinxProof Genetics that crosses Gooberry, Hells OG, and Jack the Ripper. Should be an interesting strain!

Havent tasted any of those except gooberry, and it was great,smooth with a punch to it! So sounds very interesting. Cant believe my eyes, the leds seem to penetrate nicely through the big canopy, though you have been defoling and pruning superhard! Cant wait to see how the room looks in few weeks!!! Good to see you getting past them pests, im going for a battle with gnats and high humidity issues myself.. got this

to mix with nutes and a fat pack of stickytraps.
Also going shopping for dehumidifiers and maybe a portable ac unit.
Heres the vegtent with a little stripdown.

 

[The Happy One]

One of our dehumidifiers took a crap during the last grow. Actually, I bought it crapped out, did a little diagnostics on it and determined it had a defective logic module or control board, whichever term you like.
Anyway, we needed a dehumidifier, so I bypassed the board. This worked fine, and got us through the grow, but if it's plugged in, it's running. I need to be able to set the humidity level and walk away.
So a little research to replace the control board raised my financial eyebrow. $342 bucks for a 75 dollar control control board? You gotta love proprietary parts.
Anyway, I'm not going to spend three times what I paid for a broke machine to fix it, so what's a fella supposed to do?
Improvise. That's what. But if I have to improvise, I want to improve it. Mainly, where it takes the reading, and that needs to be at canopy height.

First up, I need a control to monitor the temp and humidity. So I bought one one if these.

I used a similar one when I built the 4 ton "Happy Chiller". It was based on temperature where this one measures humidity. It has time delay to prevent short cycling and I can even calibrate the offset if it's off a shade. 20 bucks, nicely equipped. Isn't all we need, but we'll keep a running talley. I also need a relay to carry the load, as the controller cant carry the load of a fan and a compressor.
So the cheapest way out was to get the controller in a 125 volt flavor, doing away with a transformer. Our controller will carry the load on the coil of the relay, and switched contacts on the relay will carry the load.
The relay with a 115 volt coil cost me 13 bucks.

This will carry a solid 15 amps, more than we need.
We're up to 33 bucks now. Since we are going to remote mount our dehumidifier controller, I also need a single 115 volt outlet. 4 bucks. Were up to 37 dollars now, and have almost everything we need.
Now we need a box to put it all in, and it has to be deep enough to house the Inkbird controller.

With the lid, this waterproof box ran me right at 9 bucks. Where we at now? 46 bucks or so?
And a power cord. I need a heavy duty long one, and found one in the shop.
Project cost? 46 bucks out of pocket...if it works...hehe...
Ok. I need to predrill the box for the outlet, sensor wires and power feed. So a little measuring and I went to town.

Doing it this way will allow me mount the controller on the wall, and place the sensors at canopy height, while the main unit is located elsewhere.

I drilled and tapped the entry for the power cord

I mounted the Inkbird controller into the box cover. A simple jig saw is all needed here.

Time to wire it all together. It's kinda tight, but with careful measuring it should all fit nice and tidy.

Coming out of the top of the box is both the temp and humidity probe. Thise will be mounted to the wall at canopy height.

 

[The Happy One]

Done! For under 50 bucks, it's not only fixed, but allow me to monitor where I need to monitor, at the canopy! This should pay me back in energy saving in less than a year. Probably closer to 6 months.
Another win for the Happy One!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'd have probably kludged it with one of those el cheapo humidity display gizmos that let the user set an alarm at/beyond a certain RH, cut the wires going to the alarm part, then used a relay with a low voltage trigger. Your way looks about a million times more professional - and I like the time delay aspect.

Relays are awesome. Pick normally open or normally closed, whatever voltage (and AC or DC) you need to run, and whatever trigger you need. And Bob's your uncle, lol.

 

[The Happy One]

I'm pleased to report the new dehumidifier control works, and after timing the on/off cycles, I'm off on a 2 to 1 ratio. This will save better than 50% in electrical usage on a bad day while still maintaining 60% rh. That alone would probably cover the cost of a 6 pack a day...

 

[cr8grow]

I'm pleased to report the new dehumidifier control works, and after timing the on/off cycles, I'm off on a 2 to 1 ratio. This will save better than 50% in electrical usage on a bad day while still maintaining 60% rh. That alone would probably cover the cost of a 6 pack a day...

The usual Problem solved and very clean build THO. Wishing you guys the best. Interesting build and light updates.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

 

[cr8grow]

I have great news to report!
Unfortunately, I cant share it!

How is that Columbian Gold...is it going into the grow rotation?

 

[The Happy One]

I guess it's time to go over our strains this go-round. First up, and one we're pretty excited about is 9 Pound Hammer. There is no doubting the high Indica percentage of this plant. We knew early on this plant would be a great outdoor plant. This is the kind of plant that could grow a tree in the right climate. Now that we are several weeks into flower, we can see where these ladies are going. Large. Dense. Buds. And the aroma. Pine bigtime. I'm betting this strain will be popular for use in controlling pain. Definitely a "couchlock" strain.

Next up is our Gorilla Cookies. This made the cut from the last grow. Great producer with large, dense buds. We tested this strain, and keep in mind what these plants went through. Even after washing the terps (oils) from the buds, melting the visual trichomes from all the buds, she still tested almost 27% THC. I bet she hits over a 30 on this go-round.

Another strain that made the cut is a strain I had been growing in my personal garden. This is Velvet Bud, one that has seen many of my grows. Great indoor hydroponic plant with very close node spacing, making for a compact and consistent producer.

We also have a repeat of Jack Herer

Finally, a favorite view, just for fun...

We just completed a complete garden defoliation and now comes the task of evening out the canopy in the trellis and final training to get the maximum filled canopy. I was shocked how many decent buds we got below the canopy on the last grow. If light can reach it buds will grow. By keeping the canopy clear of water leaves, the lower buds are still receiving well over a 600 PAR. Canopy PAR is nearly three times that. Even with Co2, that's probably overkill.

 

[multiVortex]

Damn, I can definitely see why that’s your favorite view!

 

[Southerncough]

VERY COOL! I always wondered what commercial growers do with their biomass/leaves after removal?
I was feeding mine to my worm bin for a while until the geckos found out and ate all my worms! all...of...them...
(We get lots of indoor geckos here)

 

[The Happy One]

VERY COOL! I always wondered what commercial growers do with their biomass/leaves after removal?
I was feeding mine to my worm bin for a while until the geckos found out and ate all my worms! all...of...them...
(We get lots of indoor geckos here)

Burn or mulch. Shame we cant sell it. There are SO many leaves to deal with

 

[multiVortex]

Burn or mulch. Shame we cant sell it. There are SO many leaves to deal with

Not outright, but you could setup a worm farm and compost them. Then sell the compost. I bet some “garden” stores and even local home supply stores would buy it. They seem to love a good compost.

If you had that much. If not, compost it and use it yourselves?


You can sell any of your water leaf trim on the market there for salves and creams or something?

 

[Southerncough]

Not outright, but you could setup a worm farm and compost them. Then sell the compost. I bet some “garden” stores and even local home supply stores would buy it. They seem to love a good compost.

If you had that much. If not, compost it and use it yourselves?


You can sell any of your water leaf trim on the market there for salves and creams or something?

That was my plan! I was feeding my leaves and produce scraps to my worm bin, harvesting castings and amending my coco with them...but then THEY became gecko dinner

Also, got lots of volunteer tomatoes in my grow! LOL