Repuk 3d Take on Stealth Grow: Garden Shed

DIY COB: final adjustments and checks

DIY COB: final adjustments and checks

I used a MeanWell HLG185H-C1050A, after turning it to the max:



So each COB is running @ around 47W. I backed up it a little to leave a small headroom/ better regulation ability on the driver, setting it to 170W, 42W per COB.
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I wore sunglasses while checking Vf on each COB (35,7V) and adjusting the driver to no avail. Spent like 10 minutes to recover my sight... gonna order some googles! these things are brutally bright. If my math is right, between 19000-21000 lumens.

I left it running for an hour, heatsinks weren't remotely warm... possibly fans aren't needed, but provides peace of mind...

Wrapping up
Used velcro strips (same used for wiring management at telco racks) to secure the fan psu and wiring to the hood, adding some weight to it and allowing me to "balance" the hood gravity center by moving it along the "H" axis:



I "remoted" the COB Driver, which is outside the tent.

It is a bird? a drone? no! it's my DIY COB!


Family picture:


Dunno if one of my Easy Rollers is shot or the DIY COB weights too little, it was impossible to lower it, need to fix the hanging next.

Grow ops...

Grow ops...

Small shed tent was flipped yesterday into flower; big one will be today.

I'm afraid I went overboard with the pots size... the small tent is crammed, so will move Nepal Jam and Guawi to the big one, gonna leave only the three big ones: BB #1 and #2, and Kalichakra, will possibly add the Krystalica #1 cuts there.

Kalichakra just got suppercropped today: one of the multiple "stems" had grown almost touching the SILs!

Need still to finish the big tent: a scrubber (Went for the CAN-Lite 600), an hydro tray, drippers... will go DTW and full salts once I get the latest I need.

Scrubber set, and extractor running now 24h, it's been raining and RH went all over the place to 99%.

Will see today if I need to put a dehumidifier.



Using pulley hangers I was able to finally lower the COB hood... loving these over the easy rollers, that seems to require a minimum weight to work.



Setting up the dripping system.

Malawi and Panama seedlings are doing ok

BTW, I already noticed I have to tie the stems when training... and as HuffnPufferfish says, possibly hang some bricks!

I trained all but the Kali China and krystalica cuts, crush bend n' tie for all but the Zamaldelicas, that got tied instead, stalks are thin and superflexible. FIM succeeded BTW, having 4 nice points.

Loving Zamaldelica growth structure.

Forgot to add: the tiniest of the regulars, Nepal Jam #1, is a girl!!!

Funky aromas on the Nep Jams, scent of... burnt rubber?!?

Rest haven't show sex yet.

Right now they're sleeping, had a look at the thermohigrometer and RH seems to be in check now... min 60% max 77% RH. The RVK sucks the tent walls heavily, it's a 340m3/h (around 200CFM), the unit Secret Jardin advises for the DR120. Passive intraction for now, will observe the plants and install a 160m3/h Sunon 4656N I have laying around if required for intraction.

ACE tent update: SIL

ACE tent update: SIL

I really liked how the wood frame SIL turned out, but had to properly finish the ACE tent SIL and I wanted to put to use what I already had: six E27 3x socket multipliers, and the octopus cabling.

Design:



Black: 2700K Philips 11W
Blue: 6500K Philips 13W

Total power: 210W.

Intended to cover a 60x120cm area max for around 25W per sq ft.

I recycled a plastic fruit box as frame:



Each multiplier screwed into the octopus sockets leaving the plastic frame sandwiched between socket and multiplier:

Installed


Lit


The wooden frame IMHO is much better and cheaper to build; I built this one to make use of material I already had. Had to manually tweak the sockets contacts as some weren't making proper contact.

May be easier to build for some. Pros: really light.

ACE Tent Update: Temps, Dehumidifier, Dripping

ACE Tent Update: Temps, Dehumidifier, Dripping

Temps plummeted down recently, ACE tent hovers around 9-14C (48-57F), and humidity skyrocketed (raining constantly for several days) to >90%. Plants stalled.

Inm addition to finishing the SIL hood, I added

- Automatic dripping
- Peltier dehumidifier
- HPS set at @275W.

HPS
I figured out instead of adding a heater, I may as well use the HPS for heating with the added benefit of supplemental lightning, so I took off the glass from the vented HPS hood and hung it inside.



Got creative with lots of jerrycans I had from the pool maintenance, cut them with the angle grinder and drilled them in order to use as stands to prop the pots so that they don't sit in runoff.

Total watts: 199W (SIL) + 170W (COBs) + 275W (HPS) = 644W.

Next to be deployed: the HML for an overall total of around 800W on a 120x120 (4x4').

Dripping:

- 100L (26Gal) plastic garbage can as reservoir
- Regular 16mm polyvinyl drip tubing
- 6mm flexible drip tubing for distribution + 3.5L/h regulable drippers secured with holders on each pot
- 1000L/h pump
- Wave maker 3000 for mixing
- 8 irrigations per day, 5 minutes each 3 hours: 293cc irrigation per pot, making around 21L daily; total coco volume is 67 Liters, so this puts about 1/3d of the volume feed daily.

Reservoir w/ pump and Wave Maker


Really liked the wave maker... used small submersible pumps before. Once the cap is on, the garbage can is really "stealthy", has enough slack to secure the cap with the cables exiting beneath the can and cap.

Line:


I may make it smaller... the idea is keeping even pressure on all drippers... tought also on making it square so that it goes on the tent inner perimeter and doesn't get in the way of pot placement, still learning about dripping hydraulics.

The protuding thing on the right is a valve to purge air from the circuit.

The T I used is expensive but quick-release like (commonly used in hydraulics), a blessing for maintenance. Will use an elbow shaped one for the reservoir exit, this way everything can be easily and quickly deattached/re-attached for emptying, cleaning, etc.

Used the same nutes (missing salts should arrive next week) as the small tent: Canna A+B @2ml per L, 1/2gr of Yara SOP per L, and set PH to 5.6 with 60% nitric acid.

Temps were between 14C min, 21C max, and humidity between 50-70% after all these changes; plants looked much better, growth seems back on track.

Shed Tent

Shed Tent

After one week of feeding 60/40 rain/tap (around EC 0.15), plus Canna A+B @ 2ml/L + 1/2gr of Yara SOP per L, lowering PH with Nitric acid, EC 1.5, PH 5.6-8 I see things are sailing smooth: green all over, thick stems, needed to supercrop and train almost daily, canopy has raised like 10cm/4in:



Seeing great sinergy between SILs and canopy shaping, those are three Sativa Hybrids: front: kalichakra (darker green hues) back left: BB #2, back right BB #1.

Will trim lower branches/leafs on next "full training" day (taking them out of the tent), once the blumat reservoir runs out.

Salts arrived! next reservoir at ACE tent will be 100% salts.

Forgot to mention: got a fan speed regulator (TRIAC based, Wingoneer P/N 43203-3379, $10) for the ACE tent:



I started by setting it to 40%, checked next day max/min RH and Temps... then increased speed to 50%... checked again today and set it at 60% as RH max inside the tent were still too high due to rainy days, around 80% max at 50% speed, and condensation spots were visible.

HPS was set to 400W also, as temps were still too low.

First week has been 12/12, I set it to 11/13 yesterday. Plants seem to be better but for the Zamaldelicas which look stunted in terms of new growth (noticed stems got thicker tho)... tons of tiny leaf sprouts but no pre-flowers yet.

Just discovered the fertigation timer (Vivanco DT-1) is acting on me... didn't drip a single drop yesterday

Looks like its internal relay is getting stuck.

Resetted it... thinking seriously on finishing and deploying the raspberry + mycodo, it's the third timer that is failing on me.

Nepal Jam #2 seems to be a girl... so both Nep Jams are girls!

Really difficult to tell on the Zamaldelica, due to the way leaf sites sprouts, and their hair-size. The biggest one seems to be a girl, not sure yet.

Despite the timers and the humidity, all looks good.
How much power do you have going to this shed?

Hello bsgospel! Yes, it's obvious most of them are taking off and eating, I instantly noticed that today: the pots weighted one third...

Regarding power: right now: 199W SILs + 170W COBs + 400W HPS = 796W.

But what supplies the power is my question. Is the whole thing....15amps? 20 amps?

Ah! Do you mean the circuit breaker? The smallest commonly available, 16A. All these lights won't consume more than 5A (EU voltage, 230VAC).

I didn't look at the small tent in 24 hours, (I checked the res level, they were eating like 6L/2gal per day) to find this when I opened it:



Tops had overgrown the hood in 24h! now this finally seems to be dialed in...

After raising it:


I can see all the future budsites, hairs being clearly visible. I understand I have to keep crushing and bending the tallest tops so that the rest "catch up" on an even canopy?

ACE Tent
I changed the dripping cycles on the ACE tent: 6 times per day, 4 of which last 6 minutes and 2 lasting 5 minutes (dark period). 5 minutes: around 300cc per pot. Won't go bigger than 2gal/7L pots on the ACE tent next time.

100% SIL tent update

100% SIL tent update

I took out the girls yesterday for a thorough inspection under natural sun, pruning lower smaller shoots and larf, crush/supercrop/training and fan leaf tucking.

Kalichakra (all prior to training etc):



Check main stem size... (note blumat right next to it, stem has an inch+ girth):



Beyond the Brain #1


Beyond the Brain #2 (run into the hood, hence the burns, sorry for the poor focus)


I noticed they have developed a massive root mass: I moved the tags and it was really hard to stick them back into the coco...

Feed
Filled the reservoir with Canna A+B at 1.7ml per L, 1/4gr Yara SOP52 per L, and 0,6ml/L of Canna PK 13/14, lowering PH with nitric acid at 60%.

Used 70/30 rain/tap, 18L total: needed like 0,6ml of nitric acid to lower PH to 5.8, which raised EC 0.2ms on its own... has to be taken into account as we're actually boosting N with the PH-.

Final EC: 1.4

Loving nitric, not seeing carbonate salts buildup on pot rims anymore. Lush green all over. (BB #2 is of a paler, more lime green, think it's a pheno trait)

Just checked after their day cycle, they've eaten 5L+ and feeding (blumats dripping, no runoff) like crazy!

BB #2 Smoke update

BB #2 Smoke update

Funny is it actually now, with jars at 20% when BB is showing its effects, had a blast yesterday.

Definitely needs minimum a two month+ cure, but sadly I had no other stash... in fact I have already run almost out of it.

Glad to run these a second time, I think these girls have much greater potential which didn't show off in previous run, my fault.

ACE Tent update

ACE Tent update

good and bad news...

The bad first: damned timer acted on me again, pots were bone dry

The good one: plants seem to be eating (temps raised)

I checked and I'm positive the two first drippings took place, judging by the reservoir level (went to check also at on time), but none of the rest.

Took out the pump from the timer, plug a lamp on it and it works fine, could it be some sort of interaction with the pump? It won't power it even setting manual mode on.

Found a Digital DIN-rail timer I recycled from somewhere, will try that next, hopefully it will have a better quality relay. In the meanwhile, I left the pump on for a couple hours for the pots to "refill".

Looked for cycle timers for schuko prongs but haven't find any? Guess this is the achilles heel of DTW... the timer.

Girls progress
Zamaldelica #1 looks like it's a boy, I'm seeing tiny balls w/o hairs... cannot see any hairs nor balls on #2 yet.

Nep Jam #1 and #2 I'd say confirmed, two girls.

The unsexed Violeta in vegging seems to be of the stretchy kind, had to top it, and will probably have to go to the ace tent with no vegging-bulk up period, already touching again the CFLs at 20cm, guess it's a Malawi-leaning pheno.

One thing I have really clear: once the CFLs go out, will be replacing them with 5000K or 6500K SILs, which reduce stretch while in vegging, and noticeably bulks 'em up more than CFLs by a good margin.

Malawi and Panama seedlings keep thriving!

Replaced the timer today with the DIN-rail one, whose specs stated can stand 4A of inductive load. It's apparently working fine...

I've LST'd the violeta, if I go for horizontal canopies, there's still space for (hopefully) her to react and bulk up in the cfl tent prior to sending to the 11/13 ACE tent.

There's not an inch of free space at 100% SILs tent... girls are on high speed mode, reservoir has almost fled!.

SIL tent 3d week flower

SIL tent 3d week flower



Overall stretch about 4-5inches, much less than previous run. Waiting for Beyond the Brain #1, who has been left behind (on the right) to stretch (late stretcher).

If it doesn't reach the rest will prop the pot raising it to level the canopy.

Back left BB #2, front Kalichakra.

Will use some bamboo skewers next week to tidy up and homogeinize canopy distribution. Canopy height from pot lid to tops are about 15in, hope i can keep it between 15 - 20inches max.

These girls are eating about 5L daily overall...

Bro I'm sorry I missed this thread... really awesome stuff! I love your setup.