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Vlad goes Pl-l, 4x55w, Satori

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VladTheInhaler

Member
High all.
After about 2 years of growing AK 48 micro SOG, dr Bud style, I decided to abandon the old box because it was on the balcony and regulating temperature in winter used more electricity than the light itself. Plus I had a massive spider mite infestation.
So I made a simple box that actually looks like it's in set with the rest of my furniture, for stealth purposes, and in order to save some head space I decided to use pl-l lights. Here are the specs:
H x W xD: 70x 50 x 60 cm (19x27x22 '')
lights- 4x55w osram dullux (3000K)
ventilation - one 33 Cfm fan (220v AC type, manufactured by Sunon), one 80mm PC fan for circulation, no scrubber, no light traps, passive intake
I use 1L milk and juice cartons compo sana soil mix.

This is what it looks like

Right now I keep 33 clones of Mandala seeds Satori, putting in 3 clones in every week. I'm still dialing it in so my results are inconsistent, last harvest was 4 grams per plant, but I'm sure I can do better.
Also I have temperature issues, as temps at canopy level are about 30C:confused:, I'm not sure if I need to put in another exhaust fan or drill more intake holes. Thanks to my redneck design, neither is really a problem.
Also, there is light bleach on one clone, about 6 inches from the light, I guess i've let let that one grow too tall or my homemade reflectors create hot spots, I can't be sure.

Anyway, all comments and suggestions are welcome.
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
@ASMA:
Yeah, I have a small veg box with two 24 watt cool white pll's. It's not much, but it keeps a steady supply of clones.
@kjz: I got my sockets at the same store that sold me the bulbs and ballast.
 
Big Eggy

Big Eggy

Active member
Veteran
Nice box you got there..

ever thought about using 2litre fizzy drinks bottles? you could double your root space in the same area.


Eggy
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
It has crossed my mind to do so, but right now it would be an overkill as there seems to be quite a bit of dirt unused by the roots once I harvest.
I Harvested one plant today, here she is after 67 days of flowering:
Note the size compared to an average domestic cat.
And here she is after trimming:
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
Braddah Smokes said:
You should scrog in that box! Good luck to you! :wave:
Click to expand...
Yeah, but that would require more vegging space and I just don't have the facilities.
jay-toker said:
Nice plants man are you using any special nute's?
Click to expand...
I use Compo flowering fertilizer which is supposed to be organic with guano, N:p:K 4-5-6 at 50% strength for first 4 or 5 weeks, after that i use just plain tap water. Satori is not really a hungry plant, I think she could go whole 10 weeks without extra feeding. The leaves don't get yellow even after 9 weeks.
 
ASMA

ASMA

Member
whats your cloning posses? just wondering since you have a veg cab if you could post that too.
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
These 3 are have flowered for 9 weeks now
the third plant died on me this week after I failed to mend the broken stem when my cat jumped on the plant. I'm still so pissed at him!!!
I think I flowered these 3 clones too early, the later batches I let grow 12-15 cm tall before flowering.

I also drilled more passive intakes in the box today which resolved the temperature issues, the temps read 27C at canopy level, which is 5C above the ambient level.
 
monoclepop

monoclepop

Member
Some ideas from another micro grower with Mandala genetics in a similar cab - but with 240W of CFL. I grow perpetual harvest and have been using the same Mandala cut for the last couple of years.

Firstly - I'd halve the distance to the lights. Get those buds right up into those lovely cold PLLs. Haver you ever burned a plant - just to see how close you can push them? It'll help get light all the way down to the soil.

If your plant isn't using all the soil in those tiny 1l containers then something is wrong! Definitely try some larger and more mature clones - I think you're flowering them a fortnight early. They might need to be bent or tied down as they could be too tall for your cab - so you'll need to find out if the extra production you'll get per plant is worth the extra time and space in your grow cycle.

I think you should also experiment with a larger pot size. My Mandala strain (Ganesh) really didn't work for me until I had her in 4l food-grade PCV containers - this is in a space about the same size as yours remember, and my lights are much less effective than your PLL. I started out more like you in smaller pots with more plants - but now I have fewer plants in bigger pots. I don't feed at all, but I've found through experimentation that my cabinet performs better with bigger plants in bigger pots.

Here's a picture of the style of grow I do.

picture.php


This poor plant was really hungry and you can see 4l of soil definitely wasn't enough for this girl (I changed my soil mix after this grow). But you can see that I don't let the plant spread out much: tied down tight (I have less vertical place than you), but not spreading wide. That's because I can pack 4-6 plants like this in my cab at a time - in various states of flowering so the cab isn't quite overwhelmed.

Working out how long to veg a plant for to get it be best size for the pot and cabinet takes a bit of guess work and a fair bit of trial and error. I've harvested more than a dozen times now and I finally feel I'm beginnning to understand how to get bigger fatter buds out of a tiny growspace.

Not saying you should change, but I'm saying you should try bigger pot or two for a couple of plants. Experimentation is fun!

Pay attention to Mandala Mike's writeups too - he breeds his plants to grow big root-balls in big gardens of compost. To get the best out of his genetics you might need to follow suit.

But it's all about the cab and what works for you my friend. I encourage you to experiment and see what you can achieve.

Good luck Vlad, keep growing :) Here's the last two buds of my last harvest - I love my Ganesh.
picture.php
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
Hi, monoclepop. Yeah, the short veg time is definitely the problem here, I have changed the process a bit, I flower the clones after at least 14 days of veg.
Here's a girl vegged like that after 4 weeks of flower:
I think it shows much better development.
I can't really move the lights closer as they're fixed, plus I had some light bleaching so ihad to bend the taller girls. This is amazing because when i ran a 150 hps with cool tube, the tube was almost touching some of the plants and there was no bleaching.
Ideally, I want to hit the sweet spot at which I need to flower my clones in order to achieve budsicles. When I started this method I was growing ak 48 in 1/2 l containers and pulled 5-7 g per plant, with the record of 10g. The watering method for this is a pain thoug, so i started using bigger containers.
The last Satori I harvested weighed 5g, so I'm confident that I can achieve 7 g per plant, meaning 21 grams a week, which is far more than I need.
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
A little update:
I've been experimenting with various type of containers and changed my soil mix to coco/worm castings + perlite. One of the reasons for smaller yields was too much N in my soil.

I also switched to 2 liter containers with 2 clones per container, thus increasing plant count to 40. This however didn't work out as expected because one clone seems to develop less than the other one. The change of medium did benefit the flowering, giving somewhat denser and frostier buds.
Then I had a brain fart and switched to coco completely about 3 weeks ago and plants love it!!

As you can see I raised the pots as close to the light as I could.
A shot of the canopy


This is a satori clone in coco, 3 week of 12/12.
 
V

Voidling

Member
How much hotter is the room with the cab than the rest of the place? I was running 3 and getting temps 15 degrees f hotter than the rest of the house
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
Hmm, at canopy level temps range 25-28 C depending on room temperature. I had a set of ghetto aluminum reflectors on pll-s before, but I realized that those suckers actually contributed to heat problems. From my personal experience I can tell you that it is much easier to control the temps with a cool tubed 150 w hps than it is with 4x55 W of hps.
Anyway, I exhaust with 2 80 mm Sunon fans that run on 220V AC, no carbon filters, but I plan on getting some kind of ozone generator or ionizer for the room. I'm not in a big hurry to do that, though, it's not a huge problem.
 
V

VladTheInhaler

Member
Another update to honor the return of Dr Bud to these forums. A while ago I started bottom feeding my coco so I had to do some minor adjustments to the setup. I now keep the plants in a large tray:

You can see the white plastic thing that the plants are sitting in - that's my tray. It's a damn jungle in there because I veg them for too long and they stretch too much, I have to bend them so that they don't get burned. I will also start pruning because these plants like to branch out a lot.
Feeding is easy though - I just dump 5 liters of nutes every 3-4 days and let the capillary action do its thing.
The results are mixed right now:
These are the three plants I harvested today, the first one is what I'm going for in this grow, third one so-so, and the middle one stretched and branched out too much.
 
N

nugdood

New member
VladTheInhaler said:
Another update to honor the return of Dr Bud to these forums. A while ago I started bottom feeding my coco so I had to do some minor adjustments to the setup. I now keep the plants in a large tray:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=29559&pictureid=880460View Image
You can see the white plastic thing that the plants are sitting in - that's my tray. It's a damn jungle in there because I veg them for too long and they stretch too much, I have to bend them so that they don't get burned. I will also start pruning because these plants like to branch out a lot.
Feeding is easy though - I just dump 5 liters of nutes every 3-4 days and let the capillary action do its thing.
The results are mixed right now:https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=29559&pictureid=880457View Image https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=29559&pictureid=880459View Image https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=29559&pictureid=880458View Image
These are the three plants I harvested today, the first one is what I'm going for in this grow, third one so-so, and the middle one stretched and branched out too much.
Click to expand...
Nice Vlad - that first one is saweeeet! How tall was that first clone when you switched?
 
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