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Mr Micro Presents : The Nanomachine
- Thread starter Mr_Micro
- Start date
Mr_Micro
Member
Hey again guys!
Thank you once again to everyone who commented on my new growbox and all the positive responses! I'm really glad that I could inspire some people with some new micro growing ideas and bring a little entertainment too!
No pictures yet because... well, I can't get these damn Sensi Seeds Northern Lights to germinate! I've never had trouble germinating seeds before but these things are just refusing to germinate! I use the method of putting the seeds a paper towel soaked in PH balanced water, putting that wet paper towel inside a ziplock bag, and then placing the ziplock bag ontop of my cable box to keep it warm and create humidity inside the ziplock bag. With this method I've always had 100% germination but these new pack of seeds from Sensi is just refusing to germinate.
I'll give it another 24 hours though and if nothing happens by then I'll probably pitch the seeds and germinate some Sensi Seeds Skunk #1 or DJ Shorts True Blueberry instead. Either way expect to see some picture updates within the next few days.
In the meantime, I'll do my best to answer some questions!
Blakhash - Hey man! I tried running two 42 watt bulbs in there with a glass heatshield and the temps were still waaaay too high. Like 110* when the ambient room temp was 75*! Mind you I wasn't able to make a seperate ventilation system for the lights since space was already at a premium in my case and I wasn't sure how to keep it stealthy. But if you can design a seperate ventilation system for your bulbs with a 40-50 CFM exhaust fan you might just be able to pull it off. But honestly, if your case really is going to be the same size and design you really don't need 200 watts per square foot of lighting in it. I'm running 100 watts per square foot with that single 42 watt bulb (since my grow space is 0.4 square feet ) and thats already double the recommended wattage for good growth. Ultimatey the choice is yours, but a single 42 watt bulb should be more than enough for good growth in this kind of a space
BorisTheBlaze - Yup! I'm going 12/12 from seed with two plants in 12 oz cups and hoping I get 1 good female out of the two. As soon as they show sex the female will be transplanted to a larger container and the ScrOG screen will be installed. After that I plan to just weave all the plant's branches into the ScrOG screen during the 2 to 3 week stretch that occurs at the onset of flowering and hopefully by the end of the stretch I'll have a nice, even, and full canopy of budsites.
Bongasaurus - Hey man! I got my 42 watt bulbs from www.1000bulbs.com and I believe the brand of the bulb is TCP. Got a 6500k for veg and a 2700k for flowering. They're a lot more compact than a lot of the 42 watt CFLs I've seen locally too.
And to everyone else who commented, thank you once again! I'll follow up again with an update as soon as I get some seeds germinated and planted in the rooter plugs and soil mix.
Thank you once again to everyone who commented on my new growbox and all the positive responses! I'm really glad that I could inspire some people with some new micro growing ideas and bring a little entertainment too!
No pictures yet because... well, I can't get these damn Sensi Seeds Northern Lights to germinate! I've never had trouble germinating seeds before but these things are just refusing to germinate! I use the method of putting the seeds a paper towel soaked in PH balanced water, putting that wet paper towel inside a ziplock bag, and then placing the ziplock bag ontop of my cable box to keep it warm and create humidity inside the ziplock bag. With this method I've always had 100% germination but these new pack of seeds from Sensi is just refusing to germinate.
I'll give it another 24 hours though and if nothing happens by then I'll probably pitch the seeds and germinate some Sensi Seeds Skunk #1 or DJ Shorts True Blueberry instead. Either way expect to see some picture updates within the next few days.
In the meantime, I'll do my best to answer some questions!
Blakhash - Hey man! I tried running two 42 watt bulbs in there with a glass heatshield and the temps were still waaaay too high. Like 110* when the ambient room temp was 75*! Mind you I wasn't able to make a seperate ventilation system for the lights since space was already at a premium in my case and I wasn't sure how to keep it stealthy. But if you can design a seperate ventilation system for your bulbs with a 40-50 CFM exhaust fan you might just be able to pull it off. But honestly, if your case really is going to be the same size and design you really don't need 200 watts per square foot of lighting in it. I'm running 100 watts per square foot with that single 42 watt bulb (since my grow space is 0.4 square feet ) and thats already double the recommended wattage for good growth. Ultimatey the choice is yours, but a single 42 watt bulb should be more than enough for good growth in this kind of a space
BorisTheBlaze - Yup! I'm going 12/12 from seed with two plants in 12 oz cups and hoping I get 1 good female out of the two. As soon as they show sex the female will be transplanted to a larger container and the ScrOG screen will be installed. After that I plan to just weave all the plant's branches into the ScrOG screen during the 2 to 3 week stretch that occurs at the onset of flowering and hopefully by the end of the stretch I'll have a nice, even, and full canopy of budsites.
Bongasaurus - Hey man! I got my 42 watt bulbs from www.1000bulbs.com and I believe the brand of the bulb is TCP. Got a 6500k for veg and a 2700k for flowering. They're a lot more compact than a lot of the 42 watt CFLs I've seen locally too.
And to everyone else who commented, thank you once again! I'll follow up again with an update as soon as I get some seeds germinated and planted in the rooter plugs and soil mix.
floppyfundanglr
Member
i find a few inches in veg is good fans blowing across the tops will give you the best results and 1 inch or so from buds. I find that new growth is too fast in veg and mine burn if there about an inch away. I still get tight nodes so i dont care. Buds are thick so they can take the increased heat and you dont have to worry about them growing into the lights.
peace
peace
alih92
Member
I have a question how are you turning on those bulbs? All the cfl bulbs in my house are in the wall with these sockets... how did you put that in the computer. I plan to do a scrog mini grow using cfls can someone please tell me what i need to put bulbs in my case oh and how can i wire 90mm case fans to a 12 volt adaptor i really dont wanna pay the bill for a constantly running 400 watt psu.
thats some seriously impressive microponics youve got there bro! keep up the good work
Mr_Micro
Member
Update time!
But before I get to the new growing goodness, I'll take a minute to answer SaintBebo's question... as far as the costs go, I actually did not keep track of them since I had the vast majority of what I needed to build the case on hand from previous grow box builds. However if you did not have all the supplies to build it on hand I would imagine it would cost somewhere between $300 to $400 US to build, not including the cost of your favorite growing medium and seeds. So it wouldn't be cheap by any means but I certainly think it was well worth the money for the ability to have a 100% stealth grow right on my desktop!
And now for the good stuff...
After trying to germinate 4 different Sensi Seeds Northern Lights seeds and not getting a single one to germinate I've pretty much decided that my pack of NL is past it's prime and I may not be able to get a single one to germinate now. The pack of seeds is only a year old and has been stored in a air tight bag with some white rice to absorb moisture and placed in a cool dark closet, but for some reason the seeds just arn't popping.
So I pretty much said "screw it" on the NL and instead I just transplated a 24 day old Serious Seeds Bubblegum plant that I had going 12/12 straight from seed in a different PC case. The downside was that the planter the Bubblegum was growing in inside my bigger PC case was a bit taller than the planter I made for The Nanomachine , so I've got a little extra soil piled up ontop of the new planter and I lost about 2" of precious growing height below the ScrOG screen because of this.
Nevertheless I'm going to press on and see if this will work! I only have about 1.5" of available growing height between the base of the stem and the ScrOG screen now, so I'm pretty nervous about the height issue, but I'm gonna give it a go anyway and hope for the best!
Here's a few quick pics of the new Bubblegum girl in the case. Once again, she's 24 days old and has been grown 12/12 straight from seed, so she's about 14 days into flowering (showed sex 5 days ago)...
Also worth mentioning, I made one last little revision to the case before I transplanted lil' miss Bubblegum into it.
Yesterday I set the PC case up on my desktop and suddenly thought to myself, "Wow... this is gonna look kinda strange if it's not connected or networked to anything!".
So I ran out to a local used compter parts store and picked up a used ethernet card and 2' long ethernet cable for $4. After that I just hacksawed most of the circuit board off of the ethernet card and installed it the back of my case. Then I just ran the ethernet cable from the back of the case to my router and voila! The growbox is now networked to the rest of my computers! :big laugh:
I also decided to plug in a few old USB devices and a mic that I no longer use into the USB ports and mic port on the back for added realism and I plugged in my flash drive and headphones to the port on the front too.
So after all that work, here's the way my stealth grow setup looks now...
First a look at The Nanomachine sitting up on my desktop next to my laptop
Now a look at the back of The Nanomachine with all the cords and newly installed ethernet card
Lastly, a look at the my larger PC case growbox below my desk along with the new nano-growbox ontop of the desk
Before I run off for now I should probably share my recipe for the soil and nutrient mix I'm growing the Bubblegum with!
Since I have never done a real soil grow before I wanted to keep it simple so I spent about 10 or 12 hours reading every bit of info I could find on soil growing and mixes and I came up with what I think will be a really simple and effective soil growing plan.
My mix is composed of 3/4 Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and 1/4 Perlite with 1 tablespoon of Dolmetic Lime per gallon of soil. Also, the seeds were started in a Rapid Rooter plug to avoid the risk of the seedlings being burned by the hot FFOF soil, and the planter has a 1/4" to 1/2" thick layer of small aquarium gravel at the bottom to promote good drainage.
From all the results I've seen from other people this seems to be a very simple and yet extremely effective mix for container growing.
For fertilizing I will be sticking with my tried and true Pureblend Pro. I watered with straight tap water PH balanced to 6.5 (with Earthjuice Natural PH balancers) for the first three weeks, until the bottom set of leaves began to turn a little yellow from a slight nitrogen deffiency. At that point I knew that the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil had expended it's built in nutrient supply and from there on out the only thing I have been (and will be) feeding the plant is PBP Bloom Soil Formula every 2 or 3 waterings at the recommended dosage. I'll also be adding 1 tablespoon of good organic blackstrap molasses per gallon of the fertilized water during the last 4 or 5 weeks of flowering, since molasses seems to be the main ingredient in almost all effective commercial bloom boosters. But that will really be my only nutrient supplements... a little PBP Bloom Soil Formula and a little organic blackstrap molasses every few waterings, and thats it my friends.
Thats all for now guys and gals! I'll keep you updated on the progress of the grow with new pics every 3 or 4 days, and if you have any questions feel free to ask!
But before I get to the new growing goodness, I'll take a minute to answer SaintBebo's question... as far as the costs go, I actually did not keep track of them since I had the vast majority of what I needed to build the case on hand from previous grow box builds. However if you did not have all the supplies to build it on hand I would imagine it would cost somewhere between $300 to $400 US to build, not including the cost of your favorite growing medium and seeds. So it wouldn't be cheap by any means but I certainly think it was well worth the money for the ability to have a 100% stealth grow right on my desktop!
And now for the good stuff...
After trying to germinate 4 different Sensi Seeds Northern Lights seeds and not getting a single one to germinate I've pretty much decided that my pack of NL is past it's prime and I may not be able to get a single one to germinate now. The pack of seeds is only a year old and has been stored in a air tight bag with some white rice to absorb moisture and placed in a cool dark closet, but for some reason the seeds just arn't popping.
So I pretty much said "screw it" on the NL and instead I just transplated a 24 day old Serious Seeds Bubblegum plant that I had going 12/12 straight from seed in a different PC case. The downside was that the planter the Bubblegum was growing in inside my bigger PC case was a bit taller than the planter I made for The Nanomachine , so I've got a little extra soil piled up ontop of the new planter and I lost about 2" of precious growing height below the ScrOG screen because of this.
Nevertheless I'm going to press on and see if this will work! I only have about 1.5" of available growing height between the base of the stem and the ScrOG screen now, so I'm pretty nervous about the height issue, but I'm gonna give it a go anyway and hope for the best!
Here's a few quick pics of the new Bubblegum girl in the case. Once again, she's 24 days old and has been grown 12/12 straight from seed, so she's about 14 days into flowering (showed sex 5 days ago)...
Also worth mentioning, I made one last little revision to the case before I transplanted lil' miss Bubblegum into it.
Yesterday I set the PC case up on my desktop and suddenly thought to myself, "Wow... this is gonna look kinda strange if it's not connected or networked to anything!".
So I ran out to a local used compter parts store and picked up a used ethernet card and 2' long ethernet cable for $4. After that I just hacksawed most of the circuit board off of the ethernet card and installed it the back of my case. Then I just ran the ethernet cable from the back of the case to my router and voila! The growbox is now networked to the rest of my computers! :big laugh:
I also decided to plug in a few old USB devices and a mic that I no longer use into the USB ports and mic port on the back for added realism and I plugged in my flash drive and headphones to the port on the front too.
So after all that work, here's the way my stealth grow setup looks now...
First a look at The Nanomachine sitting up on my desktop next to my laptop
Now a look at the back of The Nanomachine with all the cords and newly installed ethernet card
Lastly, a look at the my larger PC case growbox below my desk along with the new nano-growbox ontop of the desk
Before I run off for now I should probably share my recipe for the soil and nutrient mix I'm growing the Bubblegum with!
Since I have never done a real soil grow before I wanted to keep it simple so I spent about 10 or 12 hours reading every bit of info I could find on soil growing and mixes and I came up with what I think will be a really simple and effective soil growing plan.
My mix is composed of 3/4 Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and 1/4 Perlite with 1 tablespoon of Dolmetic Lime per gallon of soil. Also, the seeds were started in a Rapid Rooter plug to avoid the risk of the seedlings being burned by the hot FFOF soil, and the planter has a 1/4" to 1/2" thick layer of small aquarium gravel at the bottom to promote good drainage.
From all the results I've seen from other people this seems to be a very simple and yet extremely effective mix for container growing.
For fertilizing I will be sticking with my tried and true Pureblend Pro. I watered with straight tap water PH balanced to 6.5 (with Earthjuice Natural PH balancers) for the first three weeks, until the bottom set of leaves began to turn a little yellow from a slight nitrogen deffiency. At that point I knew that the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil had expended it's built in nutrient supply and from there on out the only thing I have been (and will be) feeding the plant is PBP Bloom Soil Formula every 2 or 3 waterings at the recommended dosage. I'll also be adding 1 tablespoon of good organic blackstrap molasses per gallon of the fertilized water during the last 4 or 5 weeks of flowering, since molasses seems to be the main ingredient in almost all effective commercial bloom boosters. But that will really be my only nutrient supplements... a little PBP Bloom Soil Formula and a little organic blackstrap molasses every few waterings, and thats it my friends.
Thats all for now guys and gals! I'll keep you updated on the progress of the grow with new pics every 3 or 4 days, and if you have any questions feel free to ask!
Last edited:
G
Guest
grow networking, i love it 
Mr_Micro
Member
It's high time ( 
) for a little update I think!
But before I get into the current state of affairs of my little Bubblegum girl, I'll take a minute to answer Blakhash's question!
The black stuff you see around all the edges of the PC case is all purpose heavy duty black caulk. I find it is the most effective stuff for light proofing really small and oddly shaped seams like those you'd find on a PC case. The technique for using it is pretty simple...
First, smear a little bit of vaseline or any other petroleum jelly on the inside edges of the doors and any other part of the part of the PC case that you do not want the caulk to stick to when it dries. Then you just squeeze out a little line of caulk on all the edges and seams of the case that you need light proofed and put the doors (with the vaseline smeared on them) back on the case.
Now just wait 24 hours for the caulk to set and you can remove the doors. When you take the doors off you will notice that the caulk has attached itself tightly to the edges of the case and filled in all those little gaps that were not light proof, but the caulk did not stick to anything that you smeared vaseline on!
After that just wipe up the vaseline off the doors and use a pair of scissors and a sharp knife to trim away any of the excess caulk and voila! You now have a light proof PC case without compromising it's stealthiness!
That said, time for the update!
It is now day 33 of the Bubblegum's life. Since she was grown 12/12 straight from seed I'm guessing that means that it's about day 23 of flowering. These pics were taken yesterday, but not much has changed since then...
She seems to be taking to the ScrOGGing very well, despite the fact that many people have told me that you can't effectively ScrOG a plant thats already flowering. My theory was that the big stretch that occurs during flowering would give me enough time to weave all the branches into the screen before the buds start packing on weight, and it appears that this is going to work fairly well. Temps are still between 80*F and 85* all the time when the light is on, so no worries there.
I've been feeding her with 1/2 strength (1/2 ounce per gallon of water) PBP Bloom Soil Formula every other watering and she gets watered every 3 or 4 days. However my bottle of PBP is about a year old and I'm starting to notice odd "fuzzy" looking sediment floating around in the water, so I think it may have gone bad (which might also explain why the lower leaves have a bit of a nitrogen defficiency despite the substantial doses of nutrients). So tomorrow I'm going to go buy a new bottle of PBP Bloom Soil Formula and hopefully that will remedy the nitrogen problem.
Also, I recently got my tap water tested and it turns out it has a relatively high ammount of lead in it, so from here on out all this girl gets is R/O and U/V filtered water instead of tap water. I'm hoping that since I added dolmetic lime to the soil that this switch to filtered water won't result in a Calcium and Magnesium defficiency, but who knows. If it does I can always pick up some Cal-Mag Plus and supplement with that.
Also, the Bubblegum is really starting to develop a decently skunky smell!
I usually wouldn't expect there to much odor this early in the game, but every time I open the door to the PC case I get blasted with a veerrrry nice fragrence. And fortunately it seems that Suga_Bear's carbon filter design is working quite well! No smell escapes the case and the only time I smell the funk is when I actually open up the PC case. Woo-hoo!
Anyway, thats about all for now! I'll be back with more pictures and another update within the next week or so. Until then, stay safe and grow smart my friends!
P.S. ----> There are few things cooler in life than sitting at your computer working and being able to look over just a foot to your right to see your plant chilling out in it's growbox! I spend an hour or so every night just sitting at my computer working with the PC case door open and admiring the plant sitting next to me
) for a little update I think! But before I get into the current state of affairs of my little Bubblegum girl, I'll take a minute to answer Blakhash's question!
The black stuff you see around all the edges of the PC case is all purpose heavy duty black caulk. I find it is the most effective stuff for light proofing really small and oddly shaped seams like those you'd find on a PC case. The technique for using it is pretty simple...
First, smear a little bit of vaseline or any other petroleum jelly on the inside edges of the doors and any other part of the part of the PC case that you do not want the caulk to stick to when it dries. Then you just squeeze out a little line of caulk on all the edges and seams of the case that you need light proofed and put the doors (with the vaseline smeared on them) back on the case.
Now just wait 24 hours for the caulk to set and you can remove the doors. When you take the doors off you will notice that the caulk has attached itself tightly to the edges of the case and filled in all those little gaps that were not light proof, but the caulk did not stick to anything that you smeared vaseline on!
After that just wipe up the vaseline off the doors and use a pair of scissors and a sharp knife to trim away any of the excess caulk and voila! You now have a light proof PC case without compromising it's stealthiness!
That said, time for the update!
It is now day 33 of the Bubblegum's life. Since she was grown 12/12 straight from seed I'm guessing that means that it's about day 23 of flowering. These pics were taken yesterday, but not much has changed since then...
She seems to be taking to the ScrOGGing very well, despite the fact that many people have told me that you can't effectively ScrOG a plant thats already flowering. My theory was that the big stretch that occurs during flowering would give me enough time to weave all the branches into the screen before the buds start packing on weight, and it appears that this is going to work fairly well. Temps are still between 80*F and 85* all the time when the light is on, so no worries there.
I've been feeding her with 1/2 strength (1/2 ounce per gallon of water) PBP Bloom Soil Formula every other watering and she gets watered every 3 or 4 days. However my bottle of PBP is about a year old and I'm starting to notice odd "fuzzy" looking sediment floating around in the water, so I think it may have gone bad (which might also explain why the lower leaves have a bit of a nitrogen defficiency despite the substantial doses of nutrients). So tomorrow I'm going to go buy a new bottle of PBP Bloom Soil Formula and hopefully that will remedy the nitrogen problem.
Also, I recently got my tap water tested and it turns out it has a relatively high ammount of lead in it, so from here on out all this girl gets is R/O and U/V filtered water instead of tap water. I'm hoping that since I added dolmetic lime to the soil that this switch to filtered water won't result in a Calcium and Magnesium defficiency, but who knows. If it does I can always pick up some Cal-Mag Plus and supplement with that.
Also, the Bubblegum is really starting to develop a decently skunky smell!
I usually wouldn't expect there to much odor this early in the game, but every time I open the door to the PC case I get blasted with a veerrrry nice fragrence. And fortunately it seems that Suga_Bear's carbon filter design is working quite well! No smell escapes the case and the only time I smell the funk is when I actually open up the PC case. Woo-hoo!
Anyway, thats about all for now! I'll be back with more pictures and another update within the next week or so. Until then, stay safe and grow smart my friends!
P.S. ----> There are few things cooler in life than sitting at your computer working and being able to look over just a foot to your right to see your plant chilling out in it's growbox! I spend an hour or so every night just sitting at my computer working with the PC case door open and admiring the plant sitting next to me
Last edited:
crazed
New member
Sweet, I've been checking for updates and you've come through in the clutch (just about to leave the house for a while). Looks great so far, I'm still jealous of the great job you've done with your case; hopefully once I'm employed (don't get me started on drug-screening 
) I'll have the cash to start up my own indoor grow.
Peace and best of luck!
) I'll have the cash to start up my own indoor grow.Peace and best of luck!
"P.S. ----> There are few things cooler in life than sitting at your computer working and being able to look over just a foot to your right to see your plant chilling out in it's growbox! I spend an hour or so every night just sitting at my computer working with the PC case door open and admiring the plant sitting next to me "
AMEN Mr. Micro, I really cannot agree more.
AMEN Mr. Micro, I really cannot agree more.
