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Previous Run Defficiencies
Funny but just as was on the final rips of a Krystalica vaping session it struck me I've made several mistakes:

1.- Too small pots.
2.- Extractor may have been too much for the tent. I'm using a speed regulator now to lower it.
3.- Not frequently enough daily feeds when hand fed, and while using blumats, set them on a lowish side to make matters even worse...

I think all this allied to produce a Vapor Pressure Deficit issue that will explain why plants had such difficulties to "eat".

Keepers
I've made finally my mind.

I'm only going to keep BB #1 and Kalichakra, which so far are the only plants worth for a mom IMO (fast rooting and (re)vegging, high vigor) with unique traits. Love Krystalica high and aroma, but so far all looked pretty homogeneous and I'm short on space.

BB #2 clone is still half revegging, and stalks are rather woody, clones are slow... not suitable for a mom. It will be flowered, then I will run the rest of my seed stock to locate unique moms.

Seed stock:

Just received the Satori and Mandala*#1 seeds from Mandala Seeds, plus some freebies!


Mandala Seeds (all reg)

• 6 Beyond the Brain
• 8 Krystalica
• 20+ Kalichakra
• 10 Satori
• 14 Mandala #1

ACE

• 6 Honduras
• 6 Lebanese
• 6 Ethiopian
• 6 Tropical Mix
• 4 Zamaldelica
• 4 Nepal Jam
• 3 Violeta
• 4 ErdPurt fem
• 1 Panama fem
• 1 Malawi fem
• 1 Zamaldelica x Kali China fem
• 1 Orient Express x Nepal Jam fem

New grow
Getting a DR120 to run perpetual flowering, where will run four kind of different lightning at the same time: HPS400, my HML, 4 Cree CXA3070 COBs, and around 200W in SILs, each to cover 60x60cm (about 24"x24"). Thinking on putting 1 clone of a given mom under each of the four for a "live comparison".

[repuk]

Both Violetas sprouted and doing fine, I think I finally dialed in the seedlings/clones tent... also slowly re-getting the "hang of it" after years without growing.

Repotted BB #1, #2 and Kalichakra to 11L pots this time (about 3gal) instead of the 3.2L pots (3x the volume).

I re-tied them to keep on with the LST... (my first time)

BB #1, BB #2, Kalichakra (rest are clones I'll give away)


As always BB #1 has shown incredible vigor outgrowing the rest, much more advanced in LST.

The flip window for the ACE strains is closing, or I'll have problems overgrowing my tent. Will repot the fem ACEs on Monday and will move them to the medium flowering tent.

Didn't pay attention while ordering, the E27 multipliers and 10x Philips 13W SILs will arrive by April...

Having a situation... by monday I'll repot ACE's to 3.2L containers, will need to start 11/13 ASAP; options:

- throw the three ACE fems on the medium tent, and switch to the HPS / flip to 11/13 until SILs and rest of gear arrives.

- If DR120 is already here, set it up with either my HML, move HPS there, or use my COBs, and move all ACEs there switching to 11/13.

[repuk]

Repotted Guawi, Thai-Chi and Kali-China, intend to flip to 11/13 tomorrow.

I'm being on the too diligent side at repotting, went to the opposite side of the spectrum from previous run; as soon as I see enough tap roots popping from pot bottom, I repot.

They went straight from 1L pots to 7L ones and to the SILs vegging tent, but Kali-China still needs some vegging, so got repotted to 3.2L and kept at the CFL vegging tent, she will get the flip later.

I'm being mercy, allowing for them to adapt to their new shoes prior to flipping the switch. Shouldn`t I to fight stretch? My reasoning was stressing the plant may even be worse?

Here they are, three lovely ACE ladies:

Ms. Guawi, topped previously, prior to her new shoes.



Ms. Thai-Chi, prior to re-pot:



The joyful Kali-China, gorgeously fatty and curvy already on her new 3.2L pot:



Waiting for the other tent to reach me, next will LST'ing the regular zamaldelicas and nepal jams to take clones prior to flowering them.

One Nepal Jam is a monster in veg, almost twice the size of the rest: huge Nepal Jam on the left, biggest Zamaldelica on the right (both have been topped):



The other Zamadelica is almost the same size, whereas the Nepal Jam #1 is well proportioned, healthy green, but I'd say 60% the size of the Zamaldelicas, and 25% of Nepal Jam #2.

[repuk]

BonaFortuna, I recall discussing cheap insulation materials, I recently noticed, while drying the very fine sand I got from a water well (I use it for my hens bath "tub", they love it!) that it's a great insulator: bare sand, the finest the grain, the better.

Guess micro air spaces between crystals make for a great insulator, the thickest the layer, the better.

So a cheap (but heavy) way of adding insulation would be building the shed walls leaving air chambers sandwiched between walls, to be filled with sand afterwards.

[repuk]

The salts I ordered came with a small pallet, had to recycle it...

My take at recycling pallets: 4 scrap wood blocks and a hammer, same technique as this guy.

Only power tool I use is for cutting the protuding nails and smoothing out the remnants (I don't remove them) after all timber is dismantled.

I specifically used an angle grinder which means:

- Use googles
- Use your brain (Sober!!)
- Be cautious!

A dremel, or any other tool is equally useful for this.



I torched the timber to sanitize it, also provides a nice finish when properly done (not my case).




First Build Stage

I like to work "in series", as it's more efficient and less error-prone:

1.- I drilled all the wire passages on the timber.
To mark the drill points, take a cleat, undo the wire retaining screws so that you can see through, position the cleat, then use a nail or similar to pass it through the wire-retainer and mark the timber (watch out for nail remnants and reposition socket to avoid them if required).

2.- Cut all wire strips to lenght, stripped both ends

3.- Fixed wiring strips to all sockets (dissasembled)

4.- To mount each cleat, I passed its cables through the timber: this way wires will act as a self-positioning guide for the cleats; I used a pair or wood screws to fix the cleat to the timber from the inside.

Forgot to take a picture with the two wires attached, this one was taken for detail.



E27 Cleat Sockets went for 80cents each.

All sockets assembled:

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Second Build Stage: Wiring
Once all cleats are fixed, I flipped the hood over, and wired everything. Used 12 Wago 5-terminal and 2 3-terminal units to connect everything. Absolutely in love with them!!

Wiring Diagram:


Tip:
1.- Grab a pair of 5 terminal wagos, and wire each hood corner (four SILs) first. (blue lines, only one cleat wiring shown for clarity)
2.- Once all corners are wired, grab another pair of 5-wagos, and complete the wiring for upper and lower hood halves (orange lines) and the "lone" pair of SILs on each halve (blue lines).
3.- When both halves are wired, grab a pair of 3-wagos, and wire the hood halves (green lines) and power cord (black lines)

SILs Populated:


10x Philips 11W 2700K
6x German brand 15W 5000K
4x Philips 13W 6500K




Total power draw:



Around 34W per sq feet.

Complete Hood:

[Gantz]

Love the build mate!
Cheers

[repuk]

Gracias Gantz!

Truth is I'm veeeeery happy with the outcome.

The more I think about SILs, the more I'm in love with them for its ubiquity and flexibility.

Something I didn't add: even as it's "reconfigurable" in a matter of seconds by e.g. partially unscrewing some SILs when not needed, it would be easy peasy adding switches to this design, eg on green lines to instantly switch a halve off.

Shed Flowering Tent

Blumats setup and dialed-in.

Forgot to add a picture just as I installed it:



Preparing the big tent, once it's ready at least 4 plants will go there (currently rather jammed!). Aiming at having 5 plants here.

The switch to Canna A+B + Yara SOP as per Absolem advice made an incredible change. The SILs produce really thick stems and leaves, Guawi got FIMmed rather than topped, and its sprouts (huge) look as yummy as lettuces!

I'm going full salts on the big tent (Hakaphos Basis 4/Calcinit/MKP). Will run Canna A+B + SOP + PK 13/14 until I run out of Canna's, I'm guessing by the end of the garden shed tent crop, which I intend to flip on Monday.

[Gantz]

Everything looks awesome amigo. Keep up the good work!

[bsgospel]

Ditto- that SIL build and wiring diagram should be a sticky thread in itself. For bums like me who don't know about wiring, you make the DIY seem super easy.