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OG Kush CFL LST cab

T

totaln00b

The supplies:
Closetmaid 2 door stackable organizer cabinet white
Two desk fans
Thermometer outside cab with remote sensor near canopy
Thermometer/hygrometer inside cab at base
Black square pot (not sure of size I think <1gal)
1 OG Kush clone (EDIT: Now thought to be Bubba Kush... mislabeled clone)
Fox Farm Light Warrior potting mix
Fox Farm Grow Big
Reverse osmosis bottled water
Cord lamps and CFL bulbs (3x26w cool now and 2x45w warm for flower)
Black poly sheeting
Vinyl coated paperclip

I rigged up one of the fans as an exhaust at the top of the cab. Another is near one of the two passive intakes at the bottom. Temperatures vary but max in the mid 80s. On average it is about 78-81'F inside near the canopy and 2'F cooler near the base of the cab. Humidity is quite low around 25-30% on average. The cab is in my closet and poly sheeting is used as a tent around the cab and as ghetto ducting until I buy some dryer ducting.

I used a vinyl coated paperclip to tie the plant down so that it was completely horizontal. It is relatively easy to adjust. I have not removed it yet. The growth never seemed to slow down as a result of the LST. The plant is very bushy and has clearly defined multiple tops now.

Been about 3 weeks vegging now, the plant is about 4" tall and 7" wide. I have just been watering by hand when it appeared necessary and mixing the Grow Big at the suggested level. No signs of deficiency, over watering, stress, no pests, and constant growth. Lots of big happy leaves (biggest are around 3" long) My maximum height in the grow cab is 18" so I feel like I should begin flowering soon. Especially because OGK is known to stretch and also has a long flowering time. I was planning to switch around 6" height.

Unfortunately I have no pics at this time but I will get them up soon. In the meantime if anybody has questions or comments or suggestions I would like to read them.
 
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Quazi

Quazi

Member
Hey man. Checked out your first grow. Nice work the CFLs! Would have loved to see some photos of the finished product.

I'm pulling up a chair for this one for sure!

:lurk:

-Q :rasta:
 
T

totaln00b

Silas said:
Nice plant! Healty green. When do U start flowering stage ?
Click to expand...
Very soon... haven't decided the exact date yet.

Is 90w CFL sufficient for flowering a plant this size? I want to keep the temperature down. Would it be better to have 135w CFL and significantly higher temperature?
 
Quazi

Quazi

Member
Greenage looks great man!

Hard to say man when it comes to temperatures.

Without an input and an exhaust for your cabinet, you've basically got yourself a nice little E-Z-Bake oven from what I can see. You're just pushing the warm air around the inside of the grow space.

A PC fan or two or some 120VAC fans from the Shack would work wonders for removing the heat from your setup.

To answer your question though: yes, you can flower a plant with 90W. I've seen micro setups with less. You will get more lumens and penetration out of the 135W -- but as you correctly assessed, more heat.

If you can figure out how to remove the heat, then I would go for something bigger. If you can't though: no reason to spend your entire grow trying to cool your cabinet.

-Q :rasta:
 
T

totaln00b

I have two passive intakes that are the same size as the exhaust. One fan is near one of the intakes and blows the incoming air up toward the light and past the leaves. The exhaust has a Massey high velocity desk fan pressed up to it and exhausting air into an improvised poly duct. There is another fan outside of the cab blowing the exhaust air away. This system has been keeping the temperature in the cab only a few degrees higher than outside the cab.

I don't know if I would want to spend $25-50 on computer fans when I could spend about $100 and get a totally legit blower. Would investing in a heavy duty fan such as a Vortex improve my grow dramatically? Is it even relevant since my cabinet is not airtight?

Should I scrap the whole project and move my baby to a new yet unbuilt environment? DR80 with a Vortex and an HPS?

:chin:
 
T

totaln00b

I'm going to switch to flower very soon so I decided to put in the two 45W warm spectrum bulbs to see what kind of temperature I will be dealing with. So the setup is like this diagram:

X WDDW


O O

X= 5" exhaust, W= 45W warm, D= 26W daylight, O=5" intake hole

The temperature is 86.5'F near the top and slightly cooler near the bottom. This sounds really bad at first, but the temperature in my home is 83.3'F. That means the lights are only increasing the temperature by about 3 degrees. With the lights off for 12 hours and fans on 24 hours, the dark time temperature will be very close to the temperature outside the cab.

This leads me to believe that my ventilation system is working properly but that with high temperatures in my home there is nothing I can do about the temperature in the cab. Would getting a $100+ blower fan bring my temperature down? Would a 3 degree temperature drop be worth that kind of money?

The plant isn't showing any signs of heat stress. It appears as though it could flower successfully. Anybody want to share the temperatures of their hottest successful grow?

Edit: Wanted to add a description of the ventilation. Massey desk fan against exhaust hole, a stronger fan blowing up and away the hot exhaust air outside of the cab, and the smallest fan in the cab drawing from an intake at the bottom and circulating through the cab.
 
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Deft

Deft

Get two birds stoned at once
Veteran
There are two kinds of heat that hurt plants, since you use CFL you don't have to worry about radiant heat (think sun or fire warming your face from far away) unless your getting plant tops within 4" of a 42w "fixture" you'll be good. A flat wide canopy is what you want with CFL especially think those flat canopy trees in Africa like this
images


The other kid of heat you need to worry about is warmed air from your CFL ballst/lamps to do that you want a fan blowing on the plants so they can transpire a lot of water to cool themselves (I think it also helps suck nutrients up from the roots) and you may want an exhaust fan cheep computer fans work fine for small boxes under 2x2x2 IMO but it depends on outside box temps and how much heat is being dumped into the box by lights.

Right now my closet is 82 (no conventional ventilation just a fan pulling fresh air in) and plants are fine. Plants seem to be fine up to 90 if there is air circulation and adequate water. 76 is probably optimum though.
 
Deft

Deft

Get two birds stoned at once
Veteran
Post a pic of your fixture/reflector, CFLs need all the reflection and proximity to plants they can get!
 
T

totaln00b

No reflector. Horizontally mounted. The bulbs go through holes in the back of the cab into corded lamp sockets. There is no fixture they just stay horizontal like that. 2" from the tops. Can't post a pic right now I will try to get one up. I was thinking of having them much further from the lights after the initial stretch is over. They will most likely end up growing close to the lights in the end.
 
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Deft

Deft

Get two birds stoned at once
Veteran
Keep as many leaves/buds as close as you can IMO, and a quickie reflector made of aluminum foil might just get more out of your lights. Horizontal is best position IMO too.
 
T

totaln00b

I've decided to put off flowering until I can get the heat issues worked out.

Since I will be vegging for a while longer I tied down the 4 main stalks today to reduce height and encourage more tops.

Wanted to add that since I have removed the 45W warm spectrum CFLs, the temperature in the cab is now equal to the temperature outside the cab. This is with 78W of 5100K lighting.

Is it possible to flower under 5100K? I know the red/warm spectrum is better for flower but the heat issues are making me wonder if this is possible.
 
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T

totaln00b

47 days of 24 hour light now ends. Day 1 of 12/12 lights on right now. Lights will go off for 12 hours several hours from now. Running two 45W 2700k's and a 26W 5100k for a combined 116W. Temps are at 76'F right now with doors closed and a few degrees less with the doors open. Using plain water right now because I noticed some nute burn and possible PH trouble. I will be getting some Fox Farm Tiger Bloom to feed when she seems ready. Pics soon hopefully.

Edit: I found out that my bulbs that said 45W on the package are actually 42W. So i have 110W. Each 42W bulb puts out 2,700 lumens. I can't find the lumen rating for the 26W I am running, but regardless, I have well over 6000 lumens in a square foot area with one plant. I am excited to see how this will turn out.
 
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T

totaln00b

Saw some hairs a poppin' last night. :jump: Have just been watering with plain water cuz of PH problems and too much nitrogen. Will start with the FF Tiger Bloom soon. Lots of new healthy leaves coming out. Temperatures have been cool in the 70s with 110W running. New pics soon hopefully.
 
T

totaln00b

Day 8 of 12/12. She is sleeping right now. Started feeding Tiger Bloom last night. Took off the paper clips I was using for LST. Everything's growing fast :jump: I'll get some new pics up soon.
 
T

totaln00b

Day 13 of 12/12. She's getting thirstier these days. Pistils bursting big time. Stretching like crazy but still only 6" tall. :biglaugh: Thanks LST.
 
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