Anti's MicroStealth Cab 4000 (The PL-L adventure!)

[twrex]

Take a look at this thread for the "shallow water culture" hydro bucket
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29593

An interesting thought, but I don't know how well it would work with a vertical pl-l arrangement.

 

[Anti]

a few questions on your dyna grow nutes.
1. are they mineral or organic

Mineral

2. what is the npk on the grow

NPK 7-9-5

Breakdown:

Nitrogen (N) 7%
Phosphate (P) 9%
Solulable Potash (K) 5%
Cal - 2%
Mag 0.5%
Boron 0.02%
Chlorine - 0.1%
Cobalt - 0.0015%
Copper - 0.05%
Iron - 0.1%
Manganese - .05%
Molybdenum 0.0009%
Sodium 0.1%
Zinc 0.05%

3. what is the npk on the bloom

NPK 3-12-6

Nitrogen (N) 3%
Phosphate (P) 12%
Solulable Potash (K) 6%
Cal - 2%
Mag 0.5%
Boron 0.02%
Chlorine - 0.1%
Cobalt - 0.0015%
Copper - 0.05%
Iron - 0.1%
Manganese - .05%
Molybdenum 0.0009%
Sodium 0.1%
Zinc 0.05%

4. do you flush or feed to the end

I've been experimenting with both. If I give them nothing but water for the last 2 weeks it is slightly less harsh to smoke right after drying. If I cure for a couple of weeks, it makes no difference.

I bought these initially because I really had no idea what to buy. The guy at the store suggested them to me and he had a whole wall of nutes that were $50 a bottle that would've required me to buy 2-3 bottles. This stuff was $10 a bottle and has the cal-mag added in.

From their website:

(www.dyna-gro.com)

• [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Contains All 16 Essential Minerals - Required for optimum plant growth and health. [/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Reduce the Need to Transplant - Quick absorption by plant roots. No searching for nutrients.[/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Urea Free Formulas - No harmful urea that can burn roots.[/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Low in Soluble Salts - Plants take up the complete nutrient formula requiring little or no flushing.[/FONT]
• [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Safe and Easy to Use - Will not harm fish in ponds or fish tanks. Excellent for use with injectors and hand held sprayers.[/FONT]
  

 

[Anti]

FYI - i have not done much experimentation with nutes.

Maybe if I had the ultimate nute regimen and followed it to a 'T' I'd have the most amazing buds you ever saw - I really don't know!

10 years ago I tried to grow some bag seed in miracle gro soil with miracle gro nutes under some t-8 shoplights. (HORROR!)

Since I got 'serious' and built this cabinet, I've only used the DYNA-GRO and Alaska Fish Fert (5-1-1) and SuperThrive. Also have a bottle of Grotek InstaGreen (3-0-0) that I've added to my feeding whenever I think they could use a N boost. At this point, I feel more comfortable with the InstaGreen than the Alaska, simply because the alaska smells friggin' horrible and looks like diarrhea. (for good reason!)

I was meticulous about PH upping and downing on my first grow, but since then I've been relying on my perlite/dolomite in my soil and the fact that I feed lightly (1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp of BLOOM per gallon, 1/2-1 tsp of GROW per gallon).

I only have three schedules of feeding:

FEED #1 (WATER+SUPERTHRIVE): Plants that are within 2-4 waterings of leaving the cabinet or plants that recently rooted get plain water with superthrive.

FEED #2 (GROW+SUPERTHRIVE): Plants that are in veg and starting to show signs of needing food get dunked in water with 1/2 tsp of GROW per gallon and 3-4 drops of superthrive. (For first few waterings under 12/12, plants will continue to be watered with GROW.)

FEED #3 (BLOOM+SUPERTHRIVE): Plants that are 2+ weeks into 12/12 get 1/4 tsp of BLOOM (with the occasional bumping up to 1/2 tsp per gallon when needed) plus superthrive.


That's it.

 

[Tilt]

sounds simple I like it. Have you decided on a cab design yet? Are you gonna keep your old cab or scrap it for parts?

 

[Anti]

Ok. Need some opinions.

Looks like my choices are: 3000k, 3500k, 4000k, 5000k, 5300k, 5400k, 5600k

Here's the question: If there are going to be 6 lights in the flowering room, should I run all of them 3000k or should I attempt to mix spectrum, and if so, which of the above kelvin would you all recommend and why?

 

[twrex]

I have an interesting idea which will work If you're starting 'new' stuff at one side and progressively moving them to the other as your perpetual rotation method. If you do it this way then you could feasibly do progressing pairs of lights from 5000 to 4000 to 3000. This would seem to emulate the natural red shift as seasons progress, although whether this is optimal for our purposes or not is obviously debatable.

Another possible option, if you prefer to keep the plants in place, is to go with 6x3000's vertically and then put some supplemental 5600's up top in a 'traditional' arrangement. Managing the heat could become an issue there, but I think the additional light and added spectrum could be quite useful.

 

[Anti]

sounds simple I like it. Have you decided on a cab design yet? Are you gonna keep your old cab or scrap it for parts?

I'm pretty much 90% fixed on my current idea, unless I hear something better or find a flaw.

My old cab is going to stick around until the new cab gets built. After that it'll probably get scrapped. No room for both cabs and the new cab is going to have a slightly larger flowering room and should allow for denser buds so I should have no trouble pulling the numbers I need to stay medicated with the new cab.

Almost nothing in the current cab that I can use in the new design. Gonna replace my PC fans with a broan or panasonic bathroom exhaust fan. (80+ CFM at 0.3 sones! Should handle entire cab + carbon all by itself. Goal is uber-silent operation without dangerous temps.)

whole cab is ~12 Cubic Feet, so an 80 CFM fan should completely refresh the air in the cab 6.66 times a minute! Temps should not be an issue, even with the added 78 watts of lights. (6x55w instead of 6x42w).

 

[twrex]

Any thoughts on my lighting ideas?

 

[Anti]

Any thoughts on my lighting ideas?

It's not a bad idea. I'm still mulling.

Here's my dilemma:

On my first run through my cab I used 2600k for veg AND flower (couldn't find 6500k in 42w CFL until I got it online.) Since that first run I've been using a mix of 6500k and 2600k. (four 2600k and two 6500k in flower, reversed in veg.)

I can't say I notice a whole helluva lot of difference, honestly.

I guess I'm hoping someone will chime in and say they've done one or the other and had definite gains from it.

Anyone? Beuhler?

 

[twrex]

If you really wanna try different (and play guinea pig for us onlookers) try grabbing some of those 10k aquarium lights. You could do a side by side of those and some 2600's for vegging. That's about the most extreme comparison I can think of if you wanna go far blue vs far red. I wish I had the means and the legal status to play with these things... I've got so many experiments I'd love to try.

 

[Anti]

If you really wanna try different (and play guinea pig for us onlookers) try grabbing some of those 10k aquarium lights. You could do a side by side of those and some 2600's for vegging. That's about the most extreme comparison I can think of if you wanna go far blue vs far red. I wish I had the means and the legal status to play with these things... I've got so many experiments I'd love to try.

I can't find anything beyond 3000k-5600k. I haven't scoured the net, but maybe you could point me in that direction?

 

[Tilt]

In hydro-soil's thread on Pll lamps someone found 2700k lamps. Pll lamps and flouro have a high CRI so any color lamp covers a large portion of the spectrum. I think you would have to have all other factors dialed in to start to notice what spectrum provides the best results. I have simplified my cool tube design some I will try to get up some pics for you.

 

[twrex]

I can't find anything beyond 3000k-5600k. I haven't scoured the net, but maybe you could point me in that direction?

Like I said in the pl-l thread these don't come in a 55w flavor, but I'm sure with a little searching you could find something comparable in that size.

http://www.current-usa.com/sunpaq.html

 

[Tilt]

I was looking at your plant densities in the last lighting plan. The horizontal light penetration in my experience so far does not get much further than the first plant it hits. The plants you have in the diagram that are not next to a light will be heavily shaded. Rotating or trying the defoliation technique will help this problem. Another possibility is to add overhead lighting. I know you have dealt with overcrowding before so this is just food for thought.

 

[Anti]

The horizontal light penetration in my experience so far does not get much further than the first plant it hits. The plants you have in the diagram that are not next to a light will be heavily shaded.

I just finished doing a defoliation on my current run in my CFL cab. (Literally, tonight.) We'll see how it shapes up, but I can already see that this harvest will be better than the last few because of the change in my cloning technique.

After defoliating what was a dense and near impenatrable canopy, light penetrates all the way down.

I'd be fine with fewer plants especially if the density of the entire plant is improved. I'm barely self-sufficient now, and so pretty much anything I do should be enough. Defoliating while enlarging the flowering chamber while adding copious side lighting and drastically improving penetration all the way down the plant ought to be enough to put me into a very comfortable position, while keeping the current footprint.

I am building the whole cab virtually in sketchup to catch as many stoney moments BEFORE I'm working with real lumber & real costs when I mess up. That being said, I may start buying supplies in the next few days.

 

[TLoft13]

I was gifted a commercially bought hydro setup and I remember being very frustrated that within less than a week of setting the drip system up that several of the hoses failed resulting in the death of the seedling that was being watered by it.

It has scared me away from this style of watering until I can be sure that someone has come up with something better and can show it to me.

From what i've read an Blumat with drip&clean is foolproof and no maintenance, you might wanna give it a look.

 

[Tilt]

I got my mt38 tree pots in. They work perfect for my footprint. Thanks for the heads up. I used a square of air filter on the bottom to cover the large hole for drainage.

 

[familystone]

Any updates on the design/construction?

 

[wrxtuner2]

looks good, any updates?

 

[AreaMan]

I think we need an update, the anticipation is too much to handle.