Tex’s Farm: Perpetual CFL Micro SOG

[TexMex McDirt]

So I thought I’d get off my ass and post up my new digs… I grew a few micro LST’s and some 12-12 from seed in my old original Cab, now retired. I have built a perpetual micro SOG inspired by the method from Dr Bud’s thread. Moved into a new house about a year ago and I found a place to set up, in the attic space above the garage. After reading VG’s thread I knew I could pull it off in the attic so long as I pulled air intake from inside the house. There are 2 cabs, 1 for Moms, Clones & Veg and 1 for Flower. There is also a drying box that sits over the air intake vent. I am not trying to win first prize at any competition, but I sure am working on growing some nice dank to keep a constant supply.

Big thanks to all of you ICMag’ers who taught me, inspired me and gave me great ideas to steal. Too many to name all, you know who you are.

Let's go take a look...



The Cabs:
2 very plain Cabs framed with 2x2’s, skinned with ½ inch plywood & painted flat white inside. Both are 22” w x 13” d x 30” h. That is about 2 square feet & 5 cubic feet inside each. Both have fixed lighting and adjustable shelving. There is an air intake on the backside of each. Air is drawn from inside the house (the intake vent is in the ceiling of a closet in the house), through the drying box and through 6 inch insulated ducts into each cab. I want to keep 4 moms in the Mom/Clone/Veg cab. When full, there will be 15 girls in the Flower cab, 5 rows of 3, on a 2 week staggered cycle.

The Cabs...


Doors off...

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Lighting:
Mom/Clone/ Veg Cab: 3 x 27 watt CFLs (5500 K, 1700 Lumens each). That gives it 81 watts total, 5100 Lumens total. About 40 watts per square foot & about 2550 Lumens per square foot.

Flower Cab: 4 x 42 watt CFLs (2700 K, 2600 Lumens each). That gives it 168 watts total, 10400 Lumens total. About 84 watts per square foot & about 5200 Lumens per square foot.

Flower Cab...




Mom/Clone/Veg Cab...

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Ventilation:
One S&P TD-100X (135 CFM) inline fan that pulls air from the intake in the interior closet, into the drying box, to a 6 inch T then thru 6 inch insulated ducts, thru each cab & thru the odor filter box. Each Cab also has a couple of CPU fans to blow a little air around. So far the setup works well. This is in an attic space after all. Mostly temps stay somewhere between 70-80 degrees.

Ventilation starts with air pulled thru the vent in a bedroom closet ceiling...


Into the drying box...




Then T'ed out...


Then into the back of each cab...

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Odor Control:
Since this is a micro grow with low odor strains (on purpose) it’s been ok so far. After the air is pulled thru the drying box & the cabs it gets pulled thru the ONA odor filter box, made from a 3 gallon tote. Inside that box is a Tupperware tray of ONA pro-gel, Soil-Moist crystals and water. I check it every day or so, stir it up, add water or a bit more ONA, whatever is needed. Makes the attic smell fresh like ONA, no other scent is detectable except for when the Cabs are open.

Air is pulled out the top of each cab into the ONA box...




The S&P fan...


The odor control supplies...

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Water:
Tap, PH’ed.

Nutes:
Keepin’ it simple, Lucas style. Moms & during veg they get GH MaxiGrow 10-5-14 or Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1, I rotate between those 2 and plain ol’ water. In Flower they get GH MaxiBloom 5-15-14 and a 2 week flush at the end. I jacked around with all sorts of different nutes before settling on this. It is so easy and it works great.



Soil:
50% Scotts Potting Soil
30% Perlite
10% Vermiculite
10% EWC



Cloning:
Cloning took the longest of anything to get right. Months of failures. I would take 10 cuts and one might root, the rest would rot and die. I tried so many different methods. Then I read the World class cloner new at walmart thread. I bought the Ice Tube Tray and the fine grade vermiculite and now have 100% success every time. No joke. If you have issues with cloning I highly recommend trying this method. I still always take one cut more than I need. I keep em in the cloner for 10-12 days.

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Curing:
Simon's Perfect Cure method. Couldn’t be easier. Bought a Caliber III hygrometer on Amazon. At harvest I chop, trim, hang in the drying box for about 5-6 days, jar it up, make sure the RH is dialed in (60-65%) and then let it cure for 4 weeks.

Here is some schwag cured up...

 

[Art Vandelay]

Hey tex love the set up. Being in an attic I live in the desert and was wondering how hot does it get where you live? And these are current summer temps for your cab?

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Strains:
I ordered some Nirvana Northern Lights and Mandala #1 beans from the Boo before anything was set up in the new house. The seeds got to the mailbox in like 5 days. I was really surprised at how fast they came. I started off with schwag bagseed for long while so I could learn, make mistakes and dial in the cabs. I just recently really got things dialed in, so I popped some of those good beans and here we go. I have 2 NL Moms now and am looking for 2 M1 Moms from the 4 I am trying out.

The beans...


The 2 NL Moms...


The 4 Mandala #1 potential moms...


NL girl, she is right at 8 weeks...


The scale, waiting patiently...



General Method:
Perpetual micro SOG. 3 out and 3 in every 2 weeks. I have the timing worked out sorta like this…

• Fresh cut clones go into the tubes for 10-12 days to build roots.
• Then veg for 2-3 days just to get established in the dirt.
• Then flower for 10 weeks (I think, both the M1 and NL say 56-60 days, so 70 days ought to work fine, give em some extra time to get really nice).
• Then chop and hang to dry for about 5-6 days.
• Then jar it up and cure for 4 weeks.
• Repeat…

Overall it should take about 17 weeks to get from a fresh cut clone to my pipe. But since I’ll harvest every 2 weeks, once things really get rolling it should be golden.

Happy farming, stay safe, peace.

Tex

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Art - Yea, it gets fucking hot here in good ol' Tejas. It got up to the mid 90's today. Both my cabs got up to 79-80. So far I have not seen anything hotter than that. We'll see what happens when we bust thru 100. My attitude is, if I can keep 'em under the mid 80's I'm happy. Thru the winter they never got lower than high 60's. The key, as good ol' VG schooled me on, is pulling your air from inside the house. It's about 74 inside right now. Yea, the heat in the attic effects things (especially me when I am up there sweating my ass off watering and shit), but so far it's workin'.

Happy Farming!

Tex

 

[Tatz]

Tex, looks like you are on a roll ! Having dialed everything in, you even got buds down to the soil like DrBudGreengenes. When you've found the SweetSpot of the 2 mamas you've got, you can get them to finish right underneeth the lamps...
Nice work ! You'll never run out of nugs again !

 

[soursmoker]

you really got things dialed in man! I got a cfl cab to but mine is not as dialed in as yours. great job man!

 

[#1cheesebuds]

Tex, looks like you are on a roll ! Having dialed everything in, you even got buds down to the soil like DrBudGreengenes. When you've found the SweetSpot of the 2 mamas you've got, you can get them to finish right underneeth the lamps...
Nice work ! You'll never run out of nugs again !

Im just gunna agree with this guy all the way.

 

[TexMex McDirt]

Tatz - Thanks. Been following your works too (I tend to read a lot more than I post). I am still working on the sweet spots for the NL. A few of them are bit more lanky than I want. The last 3 clones went in short, at about 1-2 inches, we'll see where they end up in a few weeks. Cheers mate!

soursmoker - Been tweaking this set up for about a year now. I grew a lot of schwag in in there getting the cabs dialed in. Now I am getting these 2 strains dialed in. Not in a hurry, rather get it right. Thanks for the kind words, that is why this is such a great community.

#1cheesebuds - It's always good to you have you around! Thanks for the support.

 

[TexMex McDirt]

OK, here's a random question...

Does anyone know how to change where it says "Member" underneath my name to something else, something a bit more clever? I have looked all over my profile settings and just can't figure it out.

Thanks!

Tex

 

[audioguy]

sub'd. Your old cfl cab is really similar to what I have going right now.. I really need to try out that plexi heat shield. This setup you have now though is killer! I'm thinking about getting one of those S&P inline fans.. how much louder is it than your old grow with nothing but pc fans? Does it have enough static pressure to push through a carbon filter? Seems like it would considering that you have it going through 3 cabs and a tupperware with splits and all.

also: you an adam corolla fan or just hawaiian? (I noticed the mahalos)

 

[TexMex McDirt]

audioguy - The plexi really made a huge difference in that old cab. The S&P fan is great. It is quiet enough that it can't be heard unless you're in the attic. But, when you're up there you can definitely hear it. It would never have worked in my old setup, too big, too loud. But since my new digs are in a spot where noone ever goes, it is fine. It could pull thru a carbon filter for sure. I am not using a carbon filter since the ONA works so well in my set up.

I picked up Mahalo from Hunter S Thompson, mostly from his "Hey Rube" articles on ESPN.com page 2 back in the day.

Tex

 

[Tatz]

OK, here's a random question...

Does anyone know how to change where it says "Member" underneath my name to something else, something a bit more clever? I have looked all over my profile settings and just can't figure it out.

Thanks!

Tex

Yeah..
In the top-right corner, it says "Welcome Tex...."
Click on your underlined name, it'll take you to the profile page. There, you can change it. Like I have.. ;-)


Edit: .....so, I'm checking, seems like I forgot how the f** I did it exactly... :-s
Thanks for lurking Tex, I'll try and put a pic up of the ladies, w8ting for their home to be build...

 

[TexMex McDirt]

It got well over 100 today and the highest cab temp I saw was 84. If that is as hot as they ever get in that kind of outdoor heat, I think that the attic Space is goin to work out fine. Phew!

Happy farming!

Tex

 

[MrCopyZ]

Hopefully. But today is supposed to be another 100+ day for alot of Texans.



Also if you are in your attic. Why don't you just splice into your house air conditioning and run it into your pc.

 

[NE1]

supercool thread everything described in detail, nice solutions... thats the way i like it (though i write confused at times ).
I,m currently thinking about changing my method, eventually trying Dr Bud micro SOG style. Only thing that bothers me is frequent watering.
How often do you have to water the kinda small containers?
keep up the good work ...i'm definitly watching with joy... NE1