2x3x4 320w CFL scrog

[rave420]

WOW what a lucky find! is there not enough space to just leave them in ur cab? thats just crazy though... wish i could run outside and grab a couple seedlings outta the ground. haha that'd be awesome!

oh and sick setup you got there, cant wait to see those plants start filling in that screen

mhhh... i COULD leave them in the cab, but they'd need bigger pots and they would not get an ideal amount of light. Plus it would get too crowded in there.

About the scrog thing.... Well, i am not sure how i am going about this yet. I know it's kinda late to start reading on the topic, but for now i just want to use the screen to tie down the plants to even out the canopy.
I think 12/12 scrogs are kind of hard, since there is little stretch. Plus, i am growing bagseed from seed, i don't even know if they are female yet. I will have a look when the lights turn on, but i doubt they are showing sex yet

 

[Debrickashaw]

it'd be surprising if they did show so early. how long did you veg these babies for?

 

[rave420]

yeah, i'd be supprised if they showed sex too!
They saw the light at Feb28th and switched to 12/12 obout 4 - 5 days ago?
Yeah, i am not too disappointed when i look and i don't see sex yet. I know they will show their sex sooner or later, no matter what

I attempted to clone a plant today.
here is what i did.
I took the top shoot, counted down a node, snipped it off and removed 2 LARGE fan leaves. I dipped it in rooting solution, and then inserted it into a mini-greenhouse filled with moist perlite. I pushed the soil around the stem so the stem sits in there firm. I misted the cutting with water, and sprayed the insisde of the plastic dome with water too.
I re-moistened the soil with a mixture of "Power Grow", a blend of Vitamins and Yucca extract, and liquid seaweed extract. extremly diluted of course. I read that that stuff contains growth hormones and stuff, and i thought what the hell, R/O water is a bit TOO plain, and i don't want to kill them with the thrive alive yet

has that method a remote chance of working?

Thanks a lot!

 

[dkmonk]

Everything looks top notch, except the bulbs look to be horizontal, and cfl's emit the most light at the ends, 45 degree angle is what you want your cfl's at, I am sure your plants will grow fine like this but it defeats the purpose of having so many cfl's if the light is getting wasted.

Good luck, nice set up.

 

[rave420]

Everything looks top notch, except the bulbs look to be horizontal, and cfl's emit the most light at the ends, 45 degree angle is what you want your cfl's at, I am sure your plants will grow fine like this but it defeats the purpose of having so many cfl's if the light is getting wasted.

Good luck, nice set up.

let me get that straight...

my lights are mounted horizontal (base pointing to the side, for those that get confused by words like that, like me ).

Are you saying it's better to mont the lights at a 45 degree angle, so that the base is between sideways and pointing up?

Why would that maximize the lumen output? And how much are we talking about here?

Sorry, i'm not saying it's wrong, i just got many questions, i want to learn something

 

[rave420]

here is day 6 of 12/12, as expected, no sex as of yet

and here are the "tools of the trade".

The seaweed is seriously awesome stuff, the plants can't get enough of it.
To the left is my cheapo germ station, a plate with a CD-R Dome on top of it Hey, it worked fine so far.

This is my mother/clone station, i topped the two plants to the right, and their clones are in the little humidity trays with dome you can see. All in all, cheap but efficient!
(don't worry about the fern to the left. It's a supreme specimen that i plan to clone in order to .... uhm... i am sure it served some deeper purpose. Oh well... )

 

[rave420]

mhhh i topped 6 plants today. I simply snipped off the main growing tip. I feel like they will outgrow their space massivley. Now i am already a week into 12/12, but no plants have shown their sex yet. Does anybody think that was a mistake?

Oh well, all plants that i have topped so far have recovered nicely. I hope this goes well.

 

[Debrickashaw]

as long as your dark is completely dark, switching to 12/12 can't go wrong. they will show their sex in time, some strains just take longer than others

 

[free radical]

Yep now that you have switched 12/12 be checking them everyday for signs of sex, it will sneak up on you pretty quick. Got to catch those males.

 

[rave420]

naw, i know that switching to 12/12 is the right thing, thanks though
What i was wondering is if it is okay that i topped the plants 6 days into 12/12 while they are showing no signs of sex.

That's all. Thanks

 

[rave420]

here is an update from this morning, what the plants look like topped.
This is just after the lights turned on

And here is the result of the topping. The two shoots at the verry top weren`t there before the lights turned off. So i guess the plant is taking the damage very well and is in a rather healthy condition.

i can`t wait for them to show sex

 

[Tranc3R]

I would be pushing the protruding tops back under the screen and continue this till the end of stretching.

No reason to top at all with scrog.

 

[Agent-Smith]

they're getting there! Lookin' good!

 

[FirstTimer76]

Nice thread rave. I'm tagged.

 

[rave420]

I would be pushing the protruding tops back under the screen and continue this till the end of stretching.

No reason to top at all with scrog.

mhh the problem is that the growth was too short / thick to bend it over without damaging it. I could have bent over the stem, but to get it past 90 degrees i'd had to break it and shred the new growth on it completley. So i simply snipped the tip. They are doing just fine now. i won't let any of the side branches escape though, they are a lot easier to maintain than the main stem.



also, next time i will take a mesh twice as tight as this one. maybe that might help a bit!

here is a pic of the seedlings i found outside, i hope they won't hermie up and ruin my grow

 

[Hydro-Soil]

mhh the problem is that the growth was too short / thick to bend it over without damaging it.

Back when I used to use GH 3-part (I use the FloraNova series now) I would use the hardwater micro formula in this situation.

The lack of calcium made for really soft bendy plants at that stage. Once I switched back to the regular micro for flower, they were already filling half the screen and toughening up wasn't an issue any longer.

Now I put the screen a bit further away and just bend the longer stem over. The FNG makes for some very fast vegging plants so the higher screen is still reached at pretty much the same rate.

 

[guest 77721]

The temps are around 75-80 right now, but only because the box stands in a 50F warm room. I can "dial" two stable temps, one of them being 85F, and the other option is 65-70F.

Hey Rave,

I gotta say, your plants look fabulous. Looks like you have the nutes dialed right in.

Your temp problems are just lack of airflow. This chart is really useful for sizing airflow and also for checking what the effective air flow rate really is. I'd say your around 30-35 CFM with at temp rise of 25 F.



With your 4" duct your intakes should be 5"x5" minimum to reduce some losses.

By the chart you need around 100 CFM so a second fan in parallel or a larger fan is needed.

The other option is to use lower wattage lights with the ventilation as is. You're setup for about 175W.

 

[banjobrain]

...About the scrog thing.... Well, i am not sure how i am going about this yet. I know it's kinda late to start reading on the topic, but for now i just want to use the screen to tie down the plants to even out the canopy.

Check it out...These links to other links should give you everything you need...

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=97792

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=24013

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=40637



I'm workin' on researching all this myself for my first grow. Everything looks good! Keep it up!

 

[rave420]

soooo many comments, i feel like i owe an update

first of all, bad news. One plant is starting to "show something" and i tend to say it's a male. now, i know how to take nice photos, so i will post lots of them throughout this thread, but if you guys prefer less pics then that's fine with me too. Whatever is better for all of you.

So, here is what looks like a little ball to me

then again, it might just be a female preflower, i think it's too early to tell. I will wait a bit more and see what happens. It's the only sign of sex so far.

healthy shoots are popping out everywhere and the plants appear to activate their "turbo". it might just have something to do with the fact that i spray them with a very dilute soln. of seaweed every morning half an hour before the lights come on (no worries, i am working in a darkroom). here is one, you can see the little stomata and how they are open right now (the whitish dots on the leaf)

and of course, a group shot

Hey Rave,

I gotta say, your plants look fabulous. Looks like you have the nutes dialed right in.

Your temp problems are just lack of airflow. This chart is really useful for sizing airflow and also for checking what the effective air flow rate really is. I'd say your around 30-35 CFM with at temp rise of 25 F.



With your 4" duct your intakes should be 5"x5" minimum to reduce some losses.

By the chart you need around 100 CFM so a second fan in parallel or a larger fan is needed.

The other option is to use lower wattage lights with the ventilation as is. You're setup for about 175W.

right now my room temp is 70F and my cab temp is 75F. It turned out my old thermometer was a piece of crap and displayed readings with a 5-10F fluctuation.

So judging by that... i got 320W of CFL in there, according to the chart my airflow has to be above 50+, and my fan is rated for 50CFM lol.

Oh well, i am not to fuzzy about it anymore, the temps in there are okay now, and it's all good. Thanks though, the next time i build a cab i have a good reference. Thanks a lot. Rep+ for you my friend!

 

[dkmonk]

let me get that straight...

my lights are mounted horizontal (base pointing to the side, for those that get confused by words like that, like me ).

Are you saying it's better to mont the lights at a 45 degree angle, so that the base is between sideways and pointing up?

Why would that maximize the lumen output? And how much are we talking about here?

Sorry, i'm not saying it's wrong, i just got many questions, i want to learn something

What I was saying you don't want the end of your lights facing your walls neither do you want them facing the floor you want them halfway in between like an upside down peace sign. CFL's are designed to put out light that way.