My (Soon to Be) 252w Cabinet

[Zombo]

Hello all, I know that many are wanting to see a true seed-to-harvest grow done under one of LEDGirl's units. Well, I wanted to get the ball rolling by showing you a few pictures of the grow cabinet I have put together - I'll only post a couple, and you can see the rest in the album. For some reason, the gallery puts the pictures in a SNAFU'd order, sorry

Fueling up first!

Almost there!

Yes! Doors!

And today, with two DWC's and a 126w HGL:

Here's the link to the rest of the pics.

As soon as either I kill all these plants (I'm KIDDING!), or get them through harvest, I will be installing another 126w unit (ordered tonight), and doing some modifications to the cabinet; the end result being 252 total watts over an area of just over 3.8 square feet (29" x 19"), or about 66.3 watts/sq. ft. This will be used to grow two plants from seed, and since my goal is to not have to mess with sexing, I will use feminized (and possibly auto flowering) stock.

My intention will be to fim the two plants then fill the screen as much as possible, exposing maximum budsites and showing everyone that using LEDs to their potential, (not treating them like spherical or cylindrical point sources) in a scrog will produce a fine yield, even for a very new grower like me.

The ultimate goal will be 1 gm./W, or 252 grams (8.8 oz) of dried/cured meds, from two plants from this existing set up. One grow alone at this rate would provide me more than 4 months worth of medicine. Also, this is to demonstrate that even a novice grower like myself can use LEDs efficiently and not have to mess with the "complexities" of hvac/HID/ballasts and get great results.

Seed-to-Harvest. 252 Watts. Two DWC Buckets and an airpump. Stay tuned.

 

[yesum]

Cool brah, getting my own 63 watt 2x2' going here now. Will supplement with cfls and likely get another 63 watt to go with it later.

 

[HHHG]

Nice cab

Nice cab

You can fit a lot in a small place with scrog and leds

 

[MeanBean]

Hey, you were Hiding this thread from me! I don't miss LED cabinet grows!! Looks great man, looks like it did not take too much work to build but very functional, all ya need nothing ya don't


ABOUT FIM: Hey Z, I have been recently playing around with this myself. I am noticing "i think" that when I fim a plant about 2/3 down the cola it lets that cola come back but the trim makes it spawn a bunch of nodes in that spot! when it does that it makes a bunch of the upcoming colas but not 4 from a 2 cola spot ya know.

Buut it makes them all a bit smaller compared to the colas untouched on similar branches. The only draw back is that it creates longer thicker stems to deal with then topping, buuuut those stems are more developed and longer because the fimmed colas need more time to regrow the new heads, ends up leaving time for a great stem structure. That would get a lil outta control with a normal grow but with a scrog I would fimm my new fimmed colas to get double the effect.


Gonna try scrog someday, learning about LST now.


Looks like when you get your second 126 Penetrator We got enough space in there to even do a double decker grow!!

 

[Zombo]

Okay folks, I've almost decided to chop down what I have growing now and build a second "kitty litter bucket" DWC unit and then start the grow with seeds germinating and starting out under the 63w in the AeroGarden. When the other 126w gets here, I will get the pair situated in the cab, and start documenting.

Any opinion on me doing this?

 

[Zombo]

Finishing out the PakiRyder

Finishing out the PakiRyder

I chopped the three clones. I decided that I want to get on with this grow, finish it out and set up for my 252w experiment. I haven't found a suitable name for this plant, but wanted to show you how she's done from baby to today, all under LED.




I put this seed in the AG pod on 2/20/10, and today is 4/1/10, so these last shots (taken today), put her at 40 days old. After this grow is done, I'll prep for the next one, and start a new journal. Thanks for sticking along for the ride!

 

[eviltech]

wow thats f'kn clever bro. I was going to make a grow room out of my closet but i think ill go to HD and grab me one of these cabinets. Are you going to add some vents/air intake? tiny carbon scrubber?

 

[Zombo]

wow thats f'kn clever bro. I was going to make a grow room out of my closet but i think ill go to HD and grab me one of these cabinets. Are you going to add some vents/air intake? tiny carbon scrubber?

Nope. The 126w keeps the cab at 80-85F, and I have a small fan in there for circulation. I'm a legal patient, also, my landlord thinks I'm the shit, and is a totally mind his own business kinda guy

After I get the second 126w, and do a little re-engineering, I will make provisions for cross ventilation, since summers her can be pretty warm sometimes.

Good luck to you!

 

[eviltech]

Nope. The 126w keeps the cab at 80-85F, and I have a small fan in there for circulation. I'm a legal patient, also, my landlord thinks I'm the shit, and is a totally mind his own business kinda guy

After I get the second 126w, and do a little re-engineering, I will make provisions for cross ventilation, since summers her can be pretty warm sometimes.

Good luck to you!

Nice, Thanks bro~ ... thinking about getting the 205 or the 345. I'm just waiting to see some results before I drop a crapload of cash. For the the light leak, I was thinking of just adding mylar to cover the leaks. Also, thought of adding a small hole on the left side of the top shelf and run a pvc pipe down for passive air. Then a computer fan and a miniscrubber on the right side.. mmm

 

[Zombo]

Good ideas, since I'm probably going to end up growing mostly AF's, the light leak stuff doesn't bother me so much I will, though, when I finish the current crow and mount the 126'ers side-by-side, do some ventilation mods, just nothing batshit crazy like a commercial grower would need

 

[FreezerBoy]

Hey, you were Hiding this thread from me!

O noes. We've been discovered. Run away.

Lookin' good, Zombo. Glad to see you stepping up from the Aerogarden. Woo hoo!

 

[Zombo]

O noes. We've been discovered. Run away.

Lookin' good, Zombo. Glad to see you stepping up from the Aerogarden. Woo hoo!

Thanks FB! I'm building the second bucket tonight Want you guys to see her progress on 51 days from seed:


Thanks for stopping by everyone!

 

[guest456mpy]

Zombo (and LedGirl),
I hope you don't mind me posting here. If you do, then just bin it and I won't mind one bit. I have been growing with my own DIY 350 watt LED setup for 4 cycles and my techniques have evolved to something quite similar. Treating the focal of the light as a plane and not a single point allowed me to maximize yield without any loss of quality. It was a "mental hurdle" thing for me. I'm using the "candelabra" style of grow because the combination of screen and DWC buckets didn't seem practical in terms of maintenance in a 3x3 tent.

I like the way you approached the problems and will be watching to see how this technique works out. Thanks for saving me at least one iteration of cycles to check out!

+K to Zombo

 

[Zombo]

Zombo (and LedGirl),
I hope you don't mind me posting here. If you do, then just bin it and I won't mind one bit. I have been growing with my own DIY 350 watt LED setup for 4 cycles and my techniques have evolved to something quite similar. Treating the focal of the light as a plane and not a single point allowed me to maximize yield without any loss of quality. It was a "mental hurdle" thing for me. I'm using the "candelabra" style of grow because the combination of screen and DWC buckets didn't seem practical in terms of maintenance in a 3x3 tent.

I like the way you approached the problems and will be watching to see how this technique works out. Thanks for saving me at least one iteration of cycles to check out!

+K to Zombo

EXACTLY. LED light engines are *not* point sources like the sun or HID lamps. Thanks for you comments!

 

[one Q]

Zombo and Hempyguy... can you elaborate a bit more for me. I thought one advantage to LEDs was multi light scorce so the coverage similar to Drbud CFL SOG grows.

 

[Zombo]

Zombo and Hempyguy... can you elaborate a bit more for me. I thought one advantage to LEDs was multi light scorce so the coverage similar to Drbud CFL SOG grows.

This is simple. A bulb emits radiation in the form of heat and visible light (and some UV, unless it's shielded) in a 360 degree cylindrical pattern around it's long axis, right? The only way to direct more of that radiant light energy (and also heat) towards your plants is by use of a reflector. Even with that, you have a widerspread and semi-cylindrical source of light, hence uneven lighting for a scrogged grow.

With LEDs, the visible (and IR or UV if utilized) radiaion is emitted in a single planar direction, with heat being dealt with on the backside of the diode with heat sinks and fans. The advantage in a scrog is that you can maximize the exposure over a planar footprint with LEDs more efficiently than with a semi-cylindrical source of light.

I have looked for a diagram to show you this but failed, and my drawing skills are sub-standard, unfortunately. I hope my description helped.

 

[simplematter]

Very impressive. I believe I am going to make a switch to LED.

Can you combine LED with normal HID lighting, or would it be
pointless? it's atleast more Lumens.

 

[Zombo]

Very impressive. I believe I am going to make a switch to LED.

Can you combine LED with normal HID lighting, or would it be
pointless? it's atleast more Lumens.

Sure, you could combine it, if you so desire. I use LEDs because I like quiet, warm but not hot, and no extravagant measures needed to be stealthy.


I will remind you that cannabis cares not about lumens, since that unit is based on wavelengths of visible light to which the human eye is most sensitive, not on the absorption spectra of chlorophyll a and b.

 

[one Q]

thanks zombo! that makes perfect sense. Like each led is a single source light aiming straight down. So not like a multi source CFL but more like a bunch of 'beam light'

yes yes

 

[Zombo]

Updated photos...

Updated photos...

Day 74:

She's developing dense hard and icy buds, and has a heavenly scent. Light penetration has NOT been an issue -- I've been pruning little buds off her base for weeks now, and on the main colas, there is growth a ways down the main branches. I cannot wait to start the 2 x 126w grow! Enjoy the photos.