godisadj's Dual PC Stealth Grow!

Howdy micro-growers! After stumbling across this forum a few weeks ago, the micro grows shown here blew me away. I've never grown (nor even considered it) before discovering icmag, but looking at the projects started by the wonderfully creative people here inspired me to start my very own PC grow!



First off, I'd like to give thanks to all those who've contributed by sharing designs, there really is a wealth of information here - without which I would never have come close to designing, never mind building, my own. So a big thanks to Mr Micro for his Nanomachine; Mr Ed for his Weed Server and SugaBear for his scrubber design - all of which I've shamelessly hoovered ideas from for my design! Also a big thanks to all those who contributed to my initial thread here --> http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=66893

Anyway, enough arse kissing, down to business!

Due to my current living situation I required a completely stealth unit suitable for every stage of the growing process, from germination to drying. Also, looking ahead, I didn't want to grow from seed every grow and wanted some consistency with my phenotypes, so room for a mother plant was a must. But how to fit a mother in constant veg AND a veg/flowering section with enough space into a PC case stealth growing environment? Easy! Use two PC cases!

Here are my original plans..





So I got a hold of two identical cases, dimensions (H)44cm, (W)21cm, (D)45cm, stripped 'em and bolted 'em together. A 120mm exhaust fan is fitted to a Sugabear-esque carbon scrubber, with an additional 120mm fan mounted to the partition wall. A single 30W CFL is fitted in the mother room and two 30W CFLs are fitted in the main grow room. All electrical gear is situated in a single contained unit under the exhaust fan. Locating all the bulky stuff here is great as it allows me to utilise most of the free space in the main grow box! Black sealant and electrical tape was also used for the obligatory lightproofing. The final usable grow space for the mother room is 21x20x33cm; and the main flower room 36x20x33cm. I've plugged a little USB doo-dah into the front to give the case some of that "lived in" quality! Hah!







The two grow areas are completely lightproofed from each other thanks to the light trap mounted on the partition wall. The fans I used each came with their own nifty little speed controller, so I fitted these to the back of the PC case! Here they are if you can make out the small knobs on the left case..



These are really cool since this means I can control the fan speed (noise) externally without having to open up the PC case!

So, now for the grow specifics!

I'm currently germinating 4 Nirvana Northern Light seeds using the wet paper towel method, and I will be attempting a ScrOG grow. Assuming that I get more than one female, I plan to choose the strongest and sit it in the main grow section. I'll take a cutting or two during late veg and this will be the makings of my mother plant.

I'll be growing in soil - 6 parts Miracle Gro Potting Mix to 5 parts perlite. The MG seemed like the best choice when I was in the garden centre however having read a lot of very mixed reviews about it with regard to MJ growing I'm a little weary of it! However, I'll soldier on and give it a try.

Hopefully these seeds will pop within the next day or so and I can get this show on the road! I'll be doing my best to post pictures etc so that everyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong no doubt!

Cheers for reading, if anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer!

Happy growing!

Nicely done! very neat and stealth.

I see you're in the UK - think you could compile a list of materials you used and where you found them? its often a bother trying to track down the equivalent stuff here since most of the guides are quite US-centric when it comes to suppliers etc.

I'd be wary of the MG soil, I've heard good things about John Innes #3 (i think it was #3) with some extra perlite thrown in. You can get that from homebase I think. I use Biobizz all-mix or guanokalong all-mix but its a little pricey since I have to get it from a hydro shop, seems to perform well though.

hay man!
awesome job on the case!
u got the correct spectrum clf?
and how close are the girls gonna be to the light?

nice build! can't wait to see it in action

looks fan****intastic. awesome job on the stealth factor. how much did you spend on the whole setup?

waydee - thanks! Materials were mostly bought from the big DIY chain stores such as Focus and Wickes, including the lighting and fittings. The PC cases and fans were bought from a local PC repair shop. I hear ya with regard to sourcing certain parts - I was originally toying with the idea of using HPS bulbs but I couldn't find 'em anywhere to buy them locally (didn't want to buy online!). Same goes for mylar, so I just went with matt white paint (which I'm actually quite happy with). Is there anything in particular you're struggling to find? I did see some John Inness soil in a garden store but they only had it in HUGE bags, which I have nowhere to store. No point in having a stealth grow box only to have a massive bag of soil sitting beside it!

J-Roc - cheers! The bulb in the mother room is 6500K. Same goes for the bulbs in the main flower room, but the main room bulbs will be swapped out for two 2700K's when flowering. I'll just be using some CD cases to keep my future girls about an inch from the bulbs at all times, going by what I've read this is a nice safe distance!

cjk - me too mate! Kinda anxious!

shatterbabylon - much appriciated. Cases cost me ~£30 total; lighting and fittings ~£30; fans ~£20; and misc items (bolts, spray paint, carbon etc) ~£20. So all in approx £100 ($200), give or take a few £s. The electrical gear such as the sockets, cable etc I already had lying around. I probably could have saved a few quid as I bought certain items that I never ended up needing, but such is the way with these things!

I've just had a look at my seeds and after 30hrs or so 1 outta the 4 has popped...we're making progress!!

Very nicely done. The only thing I'd recommend is your lights need to not be fixed. You need to be able to put the light as close to the plant as possible. This is especially important for seedlings as they will sssstttttrrrreeeetttccchhh to get to that light. And if you flower with the light so far away from the tops you will get airy buds and a much lower harvest.

Good luck

wow mate, thats looking totally sweet... You've certainly got the buzz for it, I have to wait to move before I can get settled onto my grow.

You gotta get some pics posted mate!

godisadj said:

waydee - thanks! Materials were mostly bought from the big DIY chain stores such as Focus and Wickes, including the lighting and fittings. The PC cases and fans were bought from a local PC repair shop. I hear ya with regard to sourcing certain parts - I was originally toying with the idea of using HPS bulbs but I couldn't find 'em anywhere to buy them locally (didn't want to buy online!). Same goes for mylar, so I just went with matt white paint (which I'm actually quite happy with). Is there anything in particular you're struggling to find? I did see some John Inness soil in a garden store but they only had it in HUGE bags, which I have nowhere to store. No point in having a stealth grow box only to have a massive bag of soil sitting beside it!

J-Roc - cheers! The bulb in the mother room is 6500K. Same goes for the bulbs in the main flower room, but the main room bulbs will be swapped out for two 2700K's when flowering. I'll just be using some CD cases to keep my future girls about an inch from the bulbs at all times, going by what I've read this is a nice safe distance!

cjk - me too mate! Kinda anxious!

shatterbabylon - much appriciated. Cases cost me ~£30 total; lighting and fittings ~£30; fans ~£20; and misc items (bolts, spray paint, carbon etc) ~£20. So all in approx £100 ($200), give or take a few £s. The electrical gear such as the sockets, cable etc I already had lying around. I probably could have saved a few quid as I bought certain items that I never ended up needing, but such is the way with these things!

I've just had a look at my seeds and after 30hrs or so 1 outta the 4 has popped...we're making progress!!

Click to expand...

Nice one man, you've really done an excellent job and I hope it works out well for you. Sourcing HPS stuff is tricky without buying online or visiting a hydro shop but even then the smallest lamps they ever stock are 250w. I ordered my HPS floodlights online which I feel is pretty inconspicious - after all they're just floodlights and found a small local lighting shop which source the bulbs for me relatively cheaply (£10 for a 70w) but you're right you certainly wont find them in the more obvious mainstream chain stores. Mylar can always be found in hydro shops but for me it always feels a little shady going into those stores - after all, every customer in there obviously isn't buying supplies for their petunias are they... it just feels so obvious.

I hear you about the huge bags - had to buy 25litres of guanokalong but i've got a shed out back I can throw stuff in thankfully and after a few grows theres not much left

As for stuff i've struggled to find it basically comes down to perlite alone which I cant seem to find in reasonable sized bags - my hydro shop only sell it in huge 25L sacks which is far too much and i've never seen it in any of the mainstream garden stores or anything.

I hope you do well and get some buds from that cabinet but i'd really be wary of the MG soil - i've made the mistake of using preferted soil (albeit homebase home brand equivalent stuff) the first time I used my cabinet and it made quick work of killing off my seedlings. Be real careful with it, I would test the waters by only planting a few seedlings in it and paying close attention to how they respond in the first few weeks - if they get through that fine then its probably not too "rich" for cannabis and should serve you well. If its going to hurt them it'll hurt them early in their lives.

Peace.


edit: big up for BioBizz nutes by the way - thoroughly recommended, even at about £5/litre for the grow and bloom. 100% organic and seem to take care of my plants every needs - but once again only really available online or in hydro shops. When it comes to pot, miracle-gro etc doesnt tend to cut it - get some proper ferts and things will run a lot smoother for you.

Fine work! Bravo!
In the future it would be desirable to see the HPS in the chamber of flowering

mikeraach - cheers! I did have a think about making the light fittings moveable, but for this build (especially as its my first) I came to the conclusion that it would add a level of complexity that I could do without. I just plan to take the less elegant approach of moving the planters close to the light, instead of moving the light closer to the planters, using CD cases to give me height and keep my babies 1" from the bulbs!

INFI Addict - thanks! I'll be posting some pics as soon as theres a bit of action!

waydee - Luckily I found a local small gardening shop which sells perlite by the £. I got a shopping bags worth for £2. If your struggling to find some, perhaps you may get lucky checking out a builders merchant - I think perlite is used in this respect for plasters/insulation etc. As for the MG, I'll be keeping a close eye on my seedlings once I get my seeds to germinate - and as per your advice in the mean time, I'll keep an eye out for a more suitable soil. I may just have to bite the bullet here though! Ahh..'tis a learning experience after all! Cheers for the info!!

microRU - Cheers, fine work on your speaker box grow too! As for the HPS, it is something I may look into in the future, but for now I'm happy to be done building and cut my teeth with some growing action! Also, currently the temps in my main flower section range between 78-80F, around 6F above ambient...if I added an HPS I think I'd have to stick in some extra cooling, which thinking about right now just hurts my head. Maybe one day!!

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll be doing my best to keep y'all updated!

Just a small update! After 3 days all 4 seeds germinated, each showing ~2mm of taproot. I've now planted all 4 in some small pots and am waiting for my first growth!





Im guessing this first grow is going to be a little awkward due to the fact that I'm doing a ScrOG grow from seed and have no clue which will be female. I want to end up with just a single female in the main flower section, so my plan just now is to probably kill off the weakest looking seedling after maybe 2 weeks growth, leaving me with 2 seedlings in the main section and I'll move the 3rd to the mother section (as a temporary home). Then I'll start training the 2 seedlings in the main section into the ScrOG screen. Perhaps I should also make a smaller screen for the seedling in the mother section so that this is trained also incase the 2 plants in the main section turn out to be male. Once the plants are all sexed, the males will be removed and the strongest female will be picked and become the lone plant in the main section...of which a cutting will be taken in late veg to become a mother.

I hope my intentions make some sort of sense! Any input/advice is much appriciated.

Cheers!

top the plants like crazy to get more branches, once sexed by preflowers veg them into your screen, you will get many colas from doing this. you can get a clone each time you top as well

that is a very nicely constructed box, i have been considering a similar setup as my mother box, but i was considering cutting out the wall between the cases to give a larger space while still maintaining the stealth exterior.

BLueAdept

why dont you flower from seed that way you will know which is female before it gets to hecktic...

smokeymacpot - I've read that topping/fim'ing is very strain-dependant. Any info on using these techniques with Northern Lights?

Blue_adept - Nice one man, be sure to keep us posted!

blakhash - I thought about doing 12/12 from seed, but I'm hoping for a better yield from vegging for a bit first. I think it'll also provide a better learning experience!

Cheers lads!

it will work with northern lights. also u can goto 12/12 now untill it shows preflowers then goto 18/6 when you found the females.

Sounds good mate. Will this cause a higher likelihood of getting hermies? If so, is there anything I should be wary of?

Update: 2 sprouts have appeared above soil, this shall be known as day 1!

Cheers!

tag

godisadj said:

Sounds good mate. Will this cause a higher likelihood of getting hermies? If so, is there anything I should be wary of?

Update: 2 sprouts have appeared above soil, this shall be known as day 0!

Cheers!

Click to expand...

no, just make sure as soon as you find the preflowers, to go back to 18/6 or 24/0 so you can veg them how you want.