Doc Crow's Medicine Cabinet. 420 W CFL powered Perpetual Micro SOG PPK

[DocCrow]

Ok, Now that my flower box is up and running I need to get my Veg chamber sorted out. I still need to set up a filter for the Flower cab and a pulse system for the PPK, but those can wait a week or so.

The Cabinet



This thing is rock solid. I will be using a portion of it for my moms/clones, and the rest for storage. It has a shelf that runs the length of it. I will set this at 20". That should give me enough headroom for the moms. I want room for 8 and each will be trained to a footprint of 8"x8" bonsai style. Using 38-40 inches of the cabinet will give me plenty of room.

Here is my dilemma. Lighting.


Which setup should I go with. I am using 23W CFLs to light it. Ech light will be in it's own "cooltube" that I will DIY so the plants can grow right up onto the bulbs without any problems. How many lights will I need for decent vegetative growth? I need 4 clones per week. Going into my cabinet, so I don't need too vigorous of growth with 8 moms. If I go with the string of lights down the center like the 2nd pic, can I just use 3 bulbs? I have a simple plan to ventilate this thing with one CPU fan, and want the temps to be a little higher than my flower chamber.

What is the best way to light this? Remember I am using 23w CFL only, as I have everything I need for this setup. They will be in individual cooltubes so the plants can grow right up into the lights. 3 bulbs of 5? Just need enough light for 8 small bonsai moms, and some clones. I will probably use 6500K CFLS. Throw some ideas my way. This cab is gonna be simple, and the build will involve plenty of cardboard and duct tape!

If your not handsome, you might as well be handy.



DC

 

[Penguin59]

Nice clean setup you have there and great innovation DocCrow! I love watching CFL grows, it always surprises me the quality that comes out of them at the end.

Will be lurking intently! lol

 

[DocCrow]

Will be lurking intently! lol

Come on Man. I need some feedback here. What should I do on the lighting?

 

[Mister_D]

If it was me, i'd go with the setup on the left. I don't particularly like the stadium lighting configuration because bulbs end up blasting light into each instead of into the plant canopy. It's really up to you though, as i'm confident either configuration will produce enough clones for your needs.

 

[5th]

...and if it was me...

I'd have a cluster of 23w cfl's on one side of the veg area instead of spread out evenly throughout. You said you needed 4 clones a week. You take the mom you want to cut the 8? or more cuts off of, beef her up under the light cluster, take what you need.

Rest of the veg area gets lit with very little light, maybe even ambient light from the cluster....just want the other 7 moms in stasis right? Not pumping out tons of cuts.

 

[DocCrow]

...and if it was me...

I'd have a cluster of 23w cfl's on one side of the veg area instead of spread out evenly throughout. You said you needed 4 clones a week. You take the mom you want to cut the 8? or more cuts off of, beef her up under the light cluster, take what you need.

Rest of the veg area gets lit with very little light, maybe even ambient light from the cluster....just want the other 7 moms in stasis right? Not pumping out tons of cuts.

Interesting, I hadn't considered that.

Can anyone tell me how many lumens they need to stay healthy?

On another note, I opened up the cab this morning to pulse feed them by hand, and they are growing like crazy! They have popped up at least an inch overnight. I cant wait to compare pictures at the end of the week.

I will be taking pictures every Tuesday of pairs as I did before so I can track their progress. I will pull out the ol ruler next week so I can track growth a little better. I need something to do.

DC

 

[DocCrow]

My lights come on and off at 10am and 10pm. I open up the cab and check my plants once in the morning and once at night. I am also using the pump and connected hose to pulse feed them from the top when I check on them.

All I can say at this point is WOW. I used to grow outdoor. I have NEVER seen explosive growth like this before. I am LOVING this PPK system with the 600PPM Jacks feeding. IT is so simple and effective. I cannot wait to see the day 0 to day 7 comparison. I think they will more that double in size. If I have less then 50% males from the Mandala seeds then I may need to cull a female or 2 to keep enough room in my cabinet. Before putting them in the PPK (they were just hand watered in coco) I was thinking I may need another week of veg before flip to get them tall enough, but now I am worried about overgrowing my cabinet. Some of these plants have grown over an inch in the last 12 hours. The Mandala Safari mix plants still look the best and are the fastest growers. Definitely a lot of variation in these, which for me is good. Hopefully they produce a variety of good smoke.

Oh the problems I have. I guess they are not too bad, considering some of the shit I went through growing in soil and outdoors.

I still have some beans left. Once I cull males and get throught the stretch I think I will pop the rest of the safari mix seeds for the first couple of rounds. I need to get my veg bow up and running quickly. If I can get it set up by the end of next week then they could go into the flower cab as soon as the current ones finish their stretch. I really want to start getting 4 in every week as soon as possible so I can have a regular stash again.

It is way too expensive to buy pot here. The person I buy from gets most from Cali and they are wanting like 60 bucks an eighth right now. CRAZY.

I am hoping for 2 zips from this first run, and an oz per week at the start form the perpetual. I think once dialed in with the right strains/phenos I think I can double that. Do you think a 14 grams per plant is feasible? 20" from top of the pot to the glass, each plant is growing in 1 liter of pure coco. I know my yield wont be as good from seed on this first run, but I will be SERIOUSLY disappointing if I don't get a minimum of 7 grams dry per plant out of this especially one I start growing from clones.

Honestly an oz per week is about 2x more than I regularly smoke with just me and the wife. I want plenty for making extracts with. My wife has MS and gets bad cramps/muscle spasms when it flares up. I want to make some of the holy anointing oil for her, and I absolutely LOVE hash oil.

Back in the day as a teen growing OD the first couple of seasons we just trashed all of our trim, leaf, etc. Then I found out how to make black oil using grain alcohol. The first time we made it we used sugar trim, leaf, and about a QP of zips of popcorn. I once finished, since it was my idea, I was chosen to be the "test dummy" as none of us (me and my 2 buddies I grew with) had any experience and my bro was a little skeptical. I took a heaping tablespoon of the stuff and ate it all at once. I was disappointed an hour later. about a half an hour after that it kicked in. I was higher than a fucking kite for about 12 hours after that! I went to bed and woke up as stoned as I when I went to sleep. Haha that was awesome. It was shit to smoke (tasted like shit with all of the chlorophyll), but great to eat. I ended up getting gel caps and filling them with the oil. We kept em in the freezer so they would stay solid, and 2 would do you right.

Needless to say this got me on the hash oil train. I haven't looked back since.

Now I am rambling. Come on people. I am getting a lot of views on this thread but very little feedback. Ya I know my plants aren't all pretty and flowering yet, but I have asked a few questions through this thread that I would REALLY value y'alls opinion on. My primary reason for this thread is to document my grow, and use this as my grow journal. I also would like to get others opinions/advice on my methods so I can improve and get my yield up to what I think this cabinet can produce. 500 grams every 9 weeks. At a minimum, half of that.

If you have any questions at all fire away.

Well i have company coming tonight, so i better finish cleaning my damn house. Yard needs some serious attention too. Maybe I will just go stare at my plants some more. I think I can actually see them growing.

DC

 

[DocCrow]

nice/ small set up man. tagged

Thanks Skype. Yes it is small, but since this is just to supply myself, my wife, and a few friends I think it will turn out to provide more than I will need. I have put a lot of effort and research into setting this up. I know a lot of ppl around here that need their meds, and the prices here are staggering. I am hoping that in the end I can build a cabinet that someone can take, and easily grow quality meds for them-self with just some coco, easy to use nutes, RO water, and minimum of time and effort. So far everything is looking good. The environment they are is is pumping out about 10000 lumens/sq', temps range from 64-78 degrees with RH levels staying right around 50%. I think growing in a small cabinet that providing the optimal environment is THE KEY. The PPK with Coco and Jack's nutes is well proven, so I think I will hit this one out of the park. Now I just need time to find the best strains/phenos that will grow big dense nugs as a single cola plant.

DC

 

[Mister_D]

Honestly doc I think most people are just watching and learning at this point. You are breaking new ground with the micro ppk concept, and it's clear you did your homework prior to the build out. You have a solid plan that will give you the desired result once genetics and veg times are sorted out. I'm too tired atm to re-read for your questions, but if you ask them again in a single post i'd be glad to answer them.

 

[DocCrow]

Questions I have right now:

how many lumens does a small mother plant need to stay healthy? I am trying to use as few cfls in my mom/clone area as possible so I don't need to worry about ventilation.

What strains should I start to look for to fill this up? I want a total of 8 moms. I want nothing less than outstanding smoke (it is mainly for me after all). Quality trumps all other categories. They also need to finish in 70 days or less so I don't mess up my perpetual cycle. I don't want a closet full of pure Indicas, but a nice variety. Here is what is on my list as of now.

Reservoir Seeds:
Chemdog IBL
Chemdog Sour Diesel
SSSDH

BOG Seeds
Bog Bubble
LSD
Sweet Cindy

Mandala Seeds
Beyond the Brain
Hashberry
Point of no Return

CBG Peyote Purple

Lastly I have never grown 12/12 from seed or clone. The plants in there now are all from seed. They were all planted on the 11th of oct. They went into 12/12 on day 30. How long do I have before they start to stretch, and how long till they stop. I know this will vary by strain, but i am trying to keep them from outgrowing the cabinet vertically. I have popped a few large fans that were crowding other plants or undergrowth, but only on the larger plants and only 1 or 2 per plant. Will this slow them down much?

Thanks in advance for any replies. All input is welcome and encouraged.

DC

 

[Mister_D]

Questions I have right now:

how many lumens does a small mother plant need to stay healthy? I am trying to use as few cfls in my mom/clone area as possible so I don't need to worry about ventilation.


Being you want 8 moms total with a minimum amount of light here's my suggestion. Take two 23w+ CFL's, hang them vertically and place 4 mothers around each bulb vertical donut style . You will need to replace frequently or bonsai your moms, but they should be able to reach about a foot tall with that amount of light.


What strains should I start to look for to fill this up? I want a total of 8 moms. I want nothing less than outstanding smoke (it is mainly for me after all). Quality trumps all other categories. They also need to finish in 70 days or less so I don't mess up my perpetual cycle. I don't want a closet full of pure Indicas, but a nice variety. Here is what is on my list as of now.

Reservoir Seeds:
Chemdog IBL
Chemdog Sour Diesel
SSSDH

BOG Seeds
Bog Bubble
LSD
Sweet Cindy

Mandala Seeds
Beyond the Brain
Hashberry
Point of no Return

CBG Peyote Purple


Chem Dog - i'd go with connoisseur seeds version personally

Bog Bubble - Should be similar to my bogglegum, low yield but quailty is insane. Very little stretch on mine

Peyote Purple -Big fan of CBG (their breeder is a very cool cat, and real knowledgable) Can't remember what the growth is like on this one, but if I remember correctly it's a bubba kush s1 or cross. Excellent quality on this one from the reports i've seen.

Chimera - Grapefruit x blueberry - Chimera's version of sweet tooth. Good yielder of some of the tastest buds around

Deluxe - Sweet tooth f2 - f2 of spice of life sweet tooth done with breeder steves blessing. Simliar to the chimera version, just a different dj short blueberry daddy in the orignal cross.

Paradise seeds - Ice Cream - Super frosty vanilla ice cream flavored herb, need I say more

40ampstofreedom seeds (private breeder on seedbay) - any of his offerings look really dank, and reports are coming in to back it up. I have a couple of his strains i'll be cracking in the near future.

That's all that come to mind atm........


Lastly I have never grown 12/12 from seed or clone. The plants in there now are all from seed. They were all planted on the 11th of oct. They went into 12/12 on day 30. How long do I have before they start to stretch, and how long till they stop. I know this will vary by strain, but i am trying to keep them from outgrowing the cabinet vertically. I have popped a few large fans that were crowding other plants or undergrowth, but only on the larger plants and only 1 or 2 per plant. Will this slow them down much?


Stain dependent, but stretch usually starts after about a week of 12/12 and continues for ~40% of the flowering period (i.e. a 10 week strain will stretch for 4 weeks)


Thanks in advance for any replies. All input is welcome and encouraged.

DC

 

[oldone]

Pics! Doc we need pics!

 

[village green]

Very well thought out and executed concept. Loved the story of your hash oil evolution.

 

[DocCrow]

Pics! Doc we need pics!

Patience. Tuesday will be picture day. It will be dramatic. I could not be happier at this point.

Thanks for stopping in. Hope you enjoy the show. I think it gonna be pretty boring.

DC

 

[DocCrow]

Very well thought out and executed concept. Loved the story of your hash oil evolution.

Welcome. Feel free to join in if you have any questions or critiques.

DC

 

[DocCrow]

Being you want 8 moms total with a minimum amount of light here's my suggestion. Take two 23w+ CFL's, hang them vertically and place 4 mothers around each bulb vertical donut style . You will need to replace frequently or bonsai your moms, but they should be able to reach about a foot tall with that amount of light.

Thanks man! I am 99% positive I am going to do something very similar to this. I am gonna grow 8"x8" bonsai moms. I am gonna DIY some cool tubes and double stack 23W 6500k CFLs in them. Two of these with 4 moms around each. The cool tubes will let them grow into the lights with no worries. If the ambient light and space around the moms isn't sufficient for my clones I will add a single CFL over that area. The cab is 18"deep, so I will only need ~40 linear inches for my mom/clone are so I can use the rest for storage. I am pretty sure with the ambient temps in my basement and the lights in cool tubes I can vent this with a single CPU fan since it wont need a carbon filter (I may put a little ona gel in there).

I am hoping to have this set up by the end of the week for less than $25 since I will be using mostly recycled materials and it will be a simple design. I will throw up pics as I progress. Just keep in mind I am ballin' on a serious budget here. Be prepared for extensive use of cardboard, emergency blankets, spray adhesive, Gorilla tape and Velcro. Seriously, oh and beer bottles. In the end I guarantee it serves it's purpose very well.

Nothing complicated is going to be going on in here. Trying to keep everything as straight forward as possible, and hoping keeping accurate notes on here will help me, and others to progress. All moms and clones will be in small hand watered coco pots. Each mom will get trimmed up once every 8 weeks (unless it needs more) the 4 best clones that are the proper height to finish at the glass will go in every week. I will end up killing a lot of clones this way, but I don't have a problem with that. I may know a person here and there that could use one, and I will probably start just sticking in random spots out in the woods just the encourage it's spread in the wild, haha.

As I progress through this I am testing what I need for an efficient space for every aspect of this, as this is only the first generation "Medicine Cabinet" from DocCrow. I am on the lookout for a larger, more secure, METAL cabinet that will fit everything (Mom/clone, Flower, Drying, Bulk Reservoir and utility areas) into one cabinet. The one I have now was like 15 bucks and not that large. The doors on this are not easy to air/light proof. A nice metal cabinet would be ideal but would be about $500. I got feelers out though, and will come across a deal eventually. No hurry, still learning here. V.2.0 will hopefully be the final version. Once I get a few full perpetual cycles under my belt.

Well I am rambling a bit, as I am sure you can tell by now I tend to do. I am pretty baked and have been working a lot of this veg cabinet out in my head.

Thanks for the visit,

DC

P.S. Picture update will be coming in a couple of days. I think you will be impressed. I sure am so far. Hopefully they show sex by then too.

 

[5th]

Be prepared for extensive use of cardboard, emergency blankets, spray adhesive, Gorilla tape and Velcro. Seriously, oh and beer bottles.

And that...is why building cabs is so much fun.

 

[blynx]

The cab is looking great!

Here's my opinions/thoughts, so take them with a grain of salt

I would not defoliate during this first run from seed. It will slow growth of the plant overall and I don't think it will encourage side growth much.

Part of the problem you are facing is that you pretty much did 12/12 from seed and want take cuts from those plants.

Even tho the plant is only receiving 12hrs of light, it has to grow to a certain maturity before it can start flowering. With a limited amount of light and space the plant is going to direct more of it's energy growing up toward the light, and not branching out as much as it normally might with a longer light on period.

As someone else mentioned, the stretch should occur during the first couple weeks of flower. I think you will see signs of actual flowering (balls/calyx) around day 20 or so of 12/12.

Personally I like to take two cuts from the lower part of the plant so it doesn't affect the shape/growth of the plant. Ie; I like to see how a plant grows naturally from seed.

That said, this is a micro grow and 12/12 has commenced, so I would probably wait til about day 20 of 12/12 to take cuts. If the plants have some nice sized lower branches I would take cuts from there. If not, then I'd top each plant and try to root the tops.

If you wait longer than you will be trying to root/reveg a flowering cut. This can make rooting take longer. Tops also take longer to root than cuts taken lower on a plant.

As for lighting, I would use 4 lights in a veg cab spaced evenly.

I don't understand why you would do cool tubes and stack cfls in a veg cab. The growth on clones isn't very lush/thick and the light will reach the lower part of the plant.

20" from soil surface to glass should be more than enough. Keep in mind that a lot of light is going to be blocked by the upper growth on the plant (whether you defoliate or not). IMO most of the 'good' buds are going to be in the first 8" below the lights.

Lumens aren't cumulative so think more in terms of watts and light footprint than how many lumens a cfl puts out.

 

[delta9nxs]

hi, doc! sorry i haven't been by sooner but i'm working almost around the clock right now. stopping for meals and a nap once in a while.

you are doing great. i really like that set up. i might build one for popping seeds.

i will be checking your thread throughout the day so if you have any unanswered questions put them up again.

but it looks like you are in capable hands already!

 

[DocCrow]

D9 Thanks for stopping by.