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McSamuelsMachine 1sqft 56W LED Stealth Grow

mcsamuels

Member
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Welcome my son….toooooo the machine! The McSamuelsMachine that is. My first attempt to build a cab failed miserably on all fronts. But McSamuels is back in business now and better than ever. :D

Ok enough theatrics, lets get down to business.

I've put together this little stealth cab, which for the most part is pretty stealth. Its a little custom built cabinet that matches the color of the rest of my furniture and style and is relatively quiet :( Its actually fine. Unfortunately the fans on the lights are a bit louder than anticipated, but still not too bad. At night if everything is off and quiet you can hear it but its around my computer and a bunch of other stuff so its easily forgotten and if anything else is on you don't hear it.

Interior dimensions are 33.5 cm (13") W x 27.5 (10.8") D and 42cm H (16.5"). So…not a lot of room but thats what I'm working with.

Inside I have two 28W Bysen LED grow lights, inset into the ceiling shelf. I had a hell of a time lightproofing it with black caulking….three times and still not 100%!
There are a couple of leaks now but I've been draping a heavy tapestry over it which should take care of that.

Intake is a passive hole in the bottom and then a pvc angle light trap with the main shelf/floor. I lost a lot of vertical space doing this but I wanted to make sure there were no light leaks coming from the bottom and its done the trick.

Exhaust is a 120mm silent pc fan also in the "ceiling". The carbon filter is not yet up and when it does go up I'll have another pc fan on top helping to pull air through…hopefully it works well. I also have a another light trap in the bag for the exhaust, as the lights give off some spill from inside the "factory"

Soil is a basic store bought organic mix for the moment (involving organic compost, coir, loam, horticultural sand, organic fertilizer) and perlite. If I get around to organizing it before I transplant I'm gonna add some coco meat and ground up fish bone. Also got some other goodies lined up for later: Seaweed Concentrate, Humic Acid, and some soluble Kelp mix.
I'd like to keep the grow organic but I'm not attached to it.

Pics of the cab are not great quality but I'll try and get some better quality ones up soon.[/FONT]
 
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mcsamuels

Member
Cab Pics

Cab Pics

Terrible picture of front view and light set up :p
 

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mcsamuels

Member
more cab pics

more cab pics

"Factory" Deck and back view with the second light trap
 

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mcsamuels

Member
The actual growing

The actual growing

Ahhh yes and now for the actual growing! I'm growing bag seed which I highly suspect to be landrance sativa Zamal. Should be an interesting one!

I've started on 12/12 from seed (though I've just been reading about 12/1 which sounds interesting…anyone have experience with it?). The plan now is to veg for another week or so and then probably switch down to 11/13 and then 10/14 and maybe even 9/15 depending on how things go (unless I move to 12/1). But of course I'm open to suggestions from all you fine people!

A main concern of mine is sexing and possibly running out of room to train the plants before I know sex. But I guess my strategy will be totally dependent on the numbers later on.

Also I should note as a first time grow this is a bit of an experiment. Obviously I would love to get the dankest sattie bud possible but I also don't know my timeframe right now and may have to chop these early. Especially this probably being a long flowering saliva I may experiment with different light schedules and try to get the shortest flowering time possible.

A pic from Day 2 after the seeds popped from the soil. I've got five seedlings right now, in two rows of clear plastic party cups.
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Day 6 from seed

Day 6 from seed

Pics from today...Day 6 from when they broke soil

As you can see the two in the back row are really stretching for the light. A bit of an unforeseen problem when placing the plants as close to the light as possible the back doesn't get even light distribution at the exhaust fan blocks it a bit and anyway the lights are directed down.

I lowered the plants a bit today so they'll get more even coverage. Also yesterday I gave them their first watering since they popped...before was just doing some light misting every time I checked in on them.
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Day 6 from seed

Day 6 from seed

Temps have been consistently between 76-78F/24-25C
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Day 8 from seed

Day 8 from seed

Seedlings are progressing nicely. The most advanced one just started developing its first set of 5 pronged leaves. Its crazy how fast the roots grow! Most of them have already reached the bottom of the cups running down the sides.

Gave them a watering yesterday and today I lowered them a bit more so the back two get more even lighting. They're sitting @ about 20cm (~8in) from the lights now.

Also just made the switch to the 12/1 lighting schedule (12 on, 5.5 off, 1 on, 5.5 off). Interested to see what happens! Also this will give me a chance to check up on them during the day in case I'm out and about at night.

Will try and get more pics up tomorrow.:)
 

mcsamuels

Member
Thanks for stopping by guys! I think I'll definitely need all the luck I can get :)

Had a little hiccup today...I noticed when I got up that the power strip somehow became unplugged from the wall and thus the plants only got around 10 hours of light last night. Anyone know if this will be a problem at this stage? They also got their one hour light break a few hours later...Just wondering if this will stress the plants out at this stage...I'm assuming its early on enough that they'll be fine. :clock watch:
 

mcsamuels

Member
Thanks Secrecy. It is fun, too much fun! I can't wait to check in on my babies at the end of the day when the lights finally turn on:woohoo:

So I didn't do so well on getting the pictures up a couple days ago...no more campaign promises! Having said that I will try to get some more pics up tomorrow night.

Theres been explosive growth over the last two days. Not in height (at all, actually, they've remained the same height for the past few days) but in leaf structure and size. I don't know if it has to do with switching to 12/1 or not, but its been fun every time I check in on them to see how much they've changed! :)

Its the light "break" now, gonna give em a little water. I've been watering with bottled water at a PH of 6.9 to begin with and just found some thats at 6 so I'm thinking of alternating between the two, but have yet to measure the runoff.
 

Neekz

Member
Good stuff, surprised they haven't bleached from the focusing of the lens that close. Should be a good show bredren!
 

mcsamuels

Member
Day 13 from seed

Day 13 from seed

Thanks for checkin in guys! :tiphat:

Alright time for a little picture update!

We're on Day 13 from seed now. The babies seem to be taking well to the 12/1 so far since I switched a couple days back.


Pics of the first row of three, the most developed, and a side view
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Day 13 from seed

Day 13 from seed

Pics of the last two to pop from soil, and shot of the undergrowth and a close up of the most advanced
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Good stuff, surprised they haven't bleached from the focusing of the lens that close. Should be a good show bredren!


Neekz have you had problems from bleaching from LEDs in the past? I did move the plants further down from where they were originally, moreso to have them get more even lighting than worrying about bleaching.
 

mcsamuels

Member
Also, I gave em a little water yesterday and am planning on starting to give 'em some humic acid, seaweed concentrate, and neem oil (in separate waterings), maybe starting with the next round
 

mcsamuels

Member
Day 14 from seed : Root Growth

Day 14 from seed : Root Growth

Its really blown my mind how quickly the roots get around:noway:

Here are a couple pics of the roots of the most developed baby. Not the best pics and the party cups are a bit opaque. Been a bit lazy to get the real camera out :)

This roots are starting to fill up quickly! I guess I'll probably transplant in the next few days...thinking of going to a 1.5L water bottle, cut in half. Who knows, maybe those will end up being the final containers:dunno:
 

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mcsamuels

Member
Day 15 from seed : Macro and preflowers?

Day 15 from seed : Macro and preflowers?

So yesterday I watered with a 10mlSeasol/1L water mix. Was a bit worried at first that I may have given them to much but they have responded well this "morning" and are looking sharp right now.

Also I stopped being a bum and pulled out my real camera and the macro and took a couple photos. Crazy stuff! Quite amazed by the detail after I cropped in.

Are those preflowers already in the last pictures?! It almost looks like trichomes forming on the longer stalks there! Or maybe I'm just getting too excited and its new growth :)

Here are a few pics...the last three are the same one just cropped in each time.
 

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