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250 watt Refrigerator Grow Diary

F

FishHead

DETAILS:

Cab: Refrigerator
Strains: White Satin and unknown purple variety
Light: 250WATT switchable HPS/MH (HPS start to finish)
Cycle: Flip to 12/12 @ around three weeks from germ
Nutes: General Hydroponics Flora (classic 3 part nutrients)
Media: Rapid Rooter starter plugs and Sunleaves silica stone
Containers: "Hempy Style" buckets (I wanted an infinitely reusable media)
Exhaust: 4" 80 cfm inline fan
Intake: 4" floor opening (90 degree turn in duct to prevent light issues)

I saw an add in the newspaper for a free refrigerator. I had to have it and called the man. It is from the 70's and pretty simple of design. I traced the size of my 4" duct with a pen and used a drill to go around the line, I then used a pair of cutters to muscle my way through the metal. After that, I used a hammer to beat all the sharp edges down inside the double wall and covered the edges with duct tape. I ran my 4" flexible dryer duct through and sealed it off with duct tape as well. I turned the duct a couple of 90 degree turns to prevent any problems with light leaks. I have my fan pulling air out while my opening in the bottom allows fresh air to pulled in. The fridge is sealed so there is a noticable amount of air flowing through the system.
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A look inside.
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80cfm inline fan.
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My tools of the trade. Those are rapid rooters in the bag and I recently added epsom salts to my arsenal.
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I used pins with colored heads to ID my seeds. Purple is my unknown purple variety, White is White Satin, Green is a Hashberry I threw in just for fun, Red is an unknown variety I got in a bag of some very potent smoke, and yellow is some bagseed that was from some compressed weed that more than likely came from Mexico.
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Silica was a new one for me and I made some noob mistakes. ALWAYS wet silica stone before working with it. It is easier to work with, cuts down on dust and easier on your plants. Combined with my lamp being too close and low humidity, I killed off all but 8 purples and 3 White Satins.

2.5 weeks from germination.
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3 weeks and 2 days from germination. Had to move my holes in the cups up due to thirsty plants. I fllipped to the 12/12 light cyle about this time.
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I started seeing sex shortly after flipping to 12/12. Here are some male preflowers.
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I posed these two males and cleaned them up so you all could see the root mass. I had minor algae issues, as you can see on the male on the right. Since the transplant it has not been an issue. I sexed what I thought were 6 girls and transplanted them to larger containers after taking these pics.
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I had to leave for 5 days and needed to come up with a way to keep the plants fed and watered. I came up with the idea of an adjustable, gravity fed drip line. I used a 10 gallon tote as the res. and ran a 1/4" aquarium air line inside the cab. I used a line connector with a shut off valve a few inches down the line from the tote. Using this valve I could disconnect the res. and take it in the house to fill it and mix nutes. Inside the cab I used an adjustable flow valve to get the drip time I wanted. I T'ed everything off from there and installed drippers at each plant. For the last two drippers on the line I siliconed the ends closed where they would have attached to another line. At the rate of flow the heat from the inside of the cab warmed the nutes before delivery. This kept my plants alive for five days but I would not recommend this for long term use.
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The adjustable valve
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The drip line
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Plants did ok while I was gone but they got a little cold, as seen in the pic. Once I was back I disconnected the res. and pulled the line. The plants rebounded quickly.
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Back middle plant hermed on me. Had to chop before it was too late. Picture @ 6 weeks and 2 days from germination.
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I placed my intake over an electric radiator to battle below freezing temps. This has turned out to be very effective.
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White Satin just prior to bending.
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Some people will argue that the crushing/bending technique can reduce your yield and stress your plants. However, I have had better than good results when doing it. Growth slows for a couple of days while the plant mends and then they go boom. It really helps when height is an issue. Some plants will shrug it off like it was nothing. When that happens it is best to tie them down. White Satin is center stage. I wanted her to have the most room.
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Here we are at 4 weeks of the 12/12 light cycle. Plants look good. Did a fair amount of trimming to open the canopy for other bud sites. Plant in front left corner is more touchy than the others. It looks more sativa. Snapped the main stalk when I bent it over but it rebounded. Looks like it's going to reduce my yield a little, oh well.
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In this pic the plants look a little tossled due to me tucking fan leaves. I bent the big one over to slow it down. If it responds like last time, it wont help much. From here own out I'm going to leave it alone and let it do it's thing. I dont want to screw up a good thing.
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Here is the cola of my White Satin. I cant wait to taste Madala's wares again. In my last grow they were frosty with trichs. Check out my gallery to see my previous White Satin grow.
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Whew! OK, I got this thread started and where I want it. Come one, come all. Enjoy and feel free to comment.

Fish :wave:
 
Last edited:

etncrew

Member
great thread, just started one myself...well just started flowering. i wish i lived in a larger city/the united states so i could have a wide array of nutrients to choose from
 

FreezerBoy

Was blind but now IC Puckbunny in Training
Veteran
Good move. Much better suited to the Diary section.

More info on the fan, please? I botched my fan choice when moving from 150 HPS to 250 CMH. Went from uber stealth to heart attack city if anyone comes within 30 feet. My 76 CFM axial fan just wouldn't work with the bigger lamp but then, I wasn't in conditions so cold I had to heat the intake.

Does the fridges room ever warm up and what are cab temps then?
 
Wow the fridges are taking over!

Looks great. I have some Mandala genetics too, hope they turn out as well as yours.
 
F

FishHead

Thanks

Thanks

FreezerBoy and OldPathBluSky

My temps were getting up near 100F, it's warmed up here some. I turned my heater off tonight and from now on I think I wont need it when the lights are on. Temps should drop back down to around 80F. With the lights off I can run from 50F-70F depending on ambient temps. Have seen em drop down in the 40's once early in the grow. Hopefully I can coax some color out of them with cool temps. No, the room the fridge is in is not heated and rarely sees temps above 50F. The 80cfm fan seems to work great. It's sounds like a fridge should. No probs yet. I live above 7000ft so my summer highs should stay in the 80's with lows still in the 40's. Dont think I will have any probs.

Fish :joint:
 

FreezerBoy

Was blind but now IC Puckbunny in Training
Veteran
FishHead said:
It's sounds like a fridge should.

Aye, that's the rub.

My garage runs 50-60 these days. the cab is mid 70s. Once my current grow is harvested, I'm going to try the axial fan again. I made some boneheaded decisions in a panic move and, under the influence of the flu, got a 4' Elicent inline that blew my stealth to hell. Between the axial's tiny whrrr and the ballasts barely audible humm, it sounded just like an old freezer should. I want my stealth back.

Where'd you get the fan? Maker? etc?
 
F

FishHead

Fan

Fan

I did a search for inline fans on Amazon and found that one for 25-30 bucks
 
F

FishHead

Bonus pic

Bonus pic

Here is a bonus pic of my first indoor grow. White Satin dominated 2/3 of this grow (left side). The other is Hashberry. Pics are from a crappy cell phone cam, sorry for the quality.

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Fish
 

TheBEAK

Member
How are you liking those Hempy buckets?

I was considering going down that road, but soil is just so easy. Except for the repotting of course.
 

TML16

Snow Grower ~OGA~
Veteran
That fridge is great man! :yes:
I'm in the same situation as you...a family man forced to grow in a cab in the garage with a 250W just to get enough buds to smoke :confused:

Very organized and clean...I mean...colour coded seedlings :biglaugh:

Definately a thread I'll be keeping my eye on :lurk:
 
F

FishHead

TheBEAK-
How are you liking those Hempy buckets?

Honestly, I love them. They are very easy to maintain. Once you get dialed in with getting your nutes and water pHed (which you should already be) it's a breeze . I used silica stone as my media for this grow, so I'm not sure if you could technically call them "Hempy Buckets". I did use the perlite and vermiculite as Hempy recommends in the first grow and had excellent results. Perlite and vermiculite could be re-used but I found it messy and difficult to clean. Although, I kinda liked the consistency of perlite/vermiculite better. I feel they had more room for roots and more access to air. As I have not completed this grow I cant really recommend one or the other but it appears I will have similar results.

Fish :bongsmi:

Here is a pic of that grow.
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Last edited:

twistedtree

Member
Hello, friend!:wave: Nice lil show you've got going on here. I, too, am a family man. In fact, I was gonna go around to all my buddie's threads and post a bit, but now my wife is complaining about laundry. Why is it always laundry? It seems like my supply of laundry never runs out. If it was pot, I could probably supply my entire state for a lifetime! Anyway, now that I've made my only post for now, I'm going to go fold some clothes. I'll be back.
 
F

FishHead

Update!

Update!

Welcome to my diary TwistedTree. I checked your thread too, bravo friend and fellow family man. It is important for people like us to show that you can be a good father, husband and lover of cannabis. It is a shame that so many people out there dont have the facts straight.

AND NOW THE UPDATED PICS.......

Here is a view from above the canopy.
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Here is pic without the HPS in your face. Ignore the curled leaf in front left corner, got caught in the door.
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Down under
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Things are looking good still but I am wondering what causes the yellowing around the bud area? Is that normal? Lights just came on in these pics.
 
F

FishHead

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks BEAK, I thought so but I was not sure. Going to keep a close eye on them just in case.
 

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