ChemDawg easy 400w SCROG

[Vegan]

you got a killer grow going on here.. I have been subscribed for since almost the beggining..


you say you live in a desert area yea..so whats the ambient hum in the cab??




ahh it think i missed the specs on the water..
what is the res temp??

everything looks awesome thanks for the build of the tub and what kind of glue did ya use on the air stone..

hot glue gun with 400deg stick works great for me .(i also rough up the plastic with some heavy grit )



great thread
Vegan

 

[CarnivalofZerg]

Just stumbled across this thread today, but it looks pretty good. Funny you just mentioned a hole in the lid, that was a genius revelation when we came to it. Sometimes the light led to a little algae but we able to live with it.

 

[Elcap]

Hey Vegan and Carnival, thanks for dropping by!

The girl seems to like the higher pH and is clearly taking up some N and Mg.

Yeah, I don't know why the turkey baster/sample hole thing didn't strike me when setting up the whole rig, especially since I complained about it the last time I did a run like this. AND, I saw a pic of someone else using one right before I set this up and still spaced out on it when building.

@ Vegan, on the res temps...stays about 68-72. I run my lights-on cycle at night now, and even though it gets hot during the day the garage that the cab is sitting in never gets above 85, and being in a desert means relatively cool nights. I also have some towels around/over the res to block light and insulate, which I believe helps quite a bit.

On humidity in the cab, I don't know. My old thermometer had a relative humidity gauge in it and I've lost it in a move. I just dropped a $1 thermo in there in the meantime. Since it would only concern me if I was in a high humidty area, I don't worry about it except recognizing that my plants will probably want a weaker than normal nute mix since they'll be using more water.

Airstone glue: I used some random contact adhesive/sealant I had around. Hot glue gun works well, and like you said, make sure to rough-up the plastic a bit. I've also used 2-part epoxy to good effect.

Will try to get some pics up tonight or tomorrow. My screen is going to be a little less than totally full (80% at a guess) Next run I'll go with two plants and should be able to fill it with a 30 day veg. I think I'd need to go 40 days from clone with one plant (went 35 on this one) to achieve optimum screen-fill with this particular cut.

 

[eglider]

Hi Elcap. Very nice job. Rootballs like that should make some healthy results. I'm watching with interest as I'm going to do a closet grow in just a bit bigger area (2x4'). Very good idea using prefab melamine cabinets as i havent seen them much discussed in my reading. Most are line-bored for scrog screens, shelves or whatever . Vent screens in the toekick for intake keep it semi-stealthy Move it back a few more inches and paint it black. Nice clean white inside.
Weatherstripping around the edges with a strip of wood or aluminum tween the doors, elbow catches on one door with a 7/8" bore keyed cabinet lock keeps the light in and the kids out of the "nasty bugkiller poison" in there. It will fool all but those who see you in your garage-sitting lawnchair drooling staring at your feet after trying out your "sucess". I'll assume since youre in the desert you are familiar with the Cal- Az. lawnchair in the garage thing. ..lol.
Anyway , watching with interest as I may upsize my planned rez's cuz thats alot of roots!

 

[Elcap]

Eglider:

I'd suggest you go with a bigger res not due to excessive root mass, but because it makes controlling your pH swings easier, and gives you more leeway if you need to take a long weekend out of town or something. One thing to consider with bigger res is the structural integrity of the actual tub. They start to sag or buckle on the sides as they get bigger if you don't get an extra rigid one. Rubbermaid makes some called the "brute" line or something that are pretty rigid. Otherwise, you'll have to use some kind of strapping to keep them from bowing out and buckling.

Also, Home De Pot has changed from their old supplier of melamine pre-fab cabinets (Mill's Pride) to a different supplier. The layouts are almost identical, however the gap that the kick plate would cover (i.e. distance between bottom shelf of cab and the ground) is smaller than on the Mills Pride versions and the result is: You can't get a ABS elbow in there because there isn't enough clearance between floor and cab bottom. So I elevated my cab a bit on sort of "rails" made of stacked 3/4" ply scrap.

Yes, I use cheap adhesive backed weather stripping all around and between both doors. Always have to re-do it about halfway through the first run in a new cabinet, but it's cheap stuff and only takes a few minutes. No kids to worry about, and I'm a legal mmj patient in my state, so no use for locks for me.

I took a couple pics this morning before work, will get them up later today/tonight.

They're using almost 2L of water per day now. This a.m. PPM was at 795, pH at 5.4, and I added back 5L of plain tapwater and 1L of 800ppm lucas mix after taking those readings. I'm trying to maintain about pH 6 and 700 PPM for a bit. Very, very slight nute burn showing...maybe 1/16" on the tips. Lots of pistils showing and I've stopped training under the screen now. At 9pm lights-on with the garage still warm from daytime sun, top of plant temps are mid 80s, by the end of lights-on cycle temps are down to mid/low 70s.

 

[Elcap]

Day 12 of flowering

a month ago we were here:

 

[ResinKing]

Thats looking nice and healthy there now , nice green leaves. This hasnt been fimmed either you say. LOOKING VERY BUSHY PLENTY OF HEADS..Im here to stay for the process

 

[Elcap]

Hey ResinKing. Yup, no FIM on this one, no topping either. Just bent it over and tied it down once so the top was below the middle of the plant, and kept it that way until I started training under the screen. A week or so later I did the same thing to the "new" top, tying it down in the other direction. She seems to be a naturally bushy cut anyway.

Thinking about popping some SAGE x Blue Rhino beans I've had laying around for several years and letting them go outdoors on the patio. Figure the beans might not be viable anymore because they're old, but I might as well try..they ain't getting any younger.

 

[Brazilianfire]

I wonder how cool it would be to run like 6 cabinets just like this one. I bet it would yield quite a bit.

 

[Elcap]

Just a few new pics from this morning, don't have a good macro on this camera.

 

[lorddankinstien]

looks like things are coming along well!!!! Ive been out of town for 5 days and I cant wait to see what mine looks like.

 

[bkob89]

Just a few new pics from this morning, don't have a good macro on this camera.

The pump ^^^ right there, where did you find pumps with 2 outputs...I cant seem to find one. Anyways, amazing grow, beautiful plant...very impressive. Due to the fact that I am about to start another grow, seeing your s.o.g has persuaded me to do another one

 

[Elcap]

Wal Mart on the pump..for about $10.00, they sell a single and a dual output, price isn't much different between them.

 

[Elcap]

Day 21 Flower

pH 5.8 @ 750 PPM, temps at plant tops 74-80, res temps 60-70. Will do a res swap and cleanout within the next week, made the fresh mix last night and letting it sit and mix and buffer, then I'll pH it gradually. Trichs starting to get noticeable, smell isn't too bad yet...but I am replacing the air in the cabinet over 8x/min.

Which means I've got probably 4-6 times the fan I need as far as air replacement and odor scrubbing, but that much air also lets me keep a 400w hps as close as 6" off the top of my plants and it doesn't heat up in that tiny cab.

I'm seriously considering running a chain of 3 of these cabinets in a bigger size...say 3x3 inside dimension, with a 600 in each one w/ 8" flanges and a vortex pulling through all of them. Still working on the environment control aspects.

The tradeoff between running a recirc DWC with big scrog like 3x9, vs 3 separate 3x3s is interesting. With 3 cabs, there's more work maintaining the nutes, but if one gets out of whack it doesn't take down your whole crop. And you don't have to build all the plumbing for the recirc. But, you may need multiple chillers (may be possible to segregate rez inside cabinet to keep heat out and skip chillers). And you can't exactly stick a dehuey in a cabinet to prevent mold...although if you're replacing the air 8x/min and your ambient is dry, probably not an issue.

Another upside of multiple cabs is that you can build it modularly instead of having one giant build-out project. Probably start with one 600 cab, take it through a cycle and see if it's feasible then just expand if that's the route. Otherwise I'm only out what, $150 for a cabinet.

 

[lorddankinstien]

nice man!!!! your buds look a bit fatter than mine for the same day and I have more wattage, I was out of town and missed about 3 or 4 days more of training that should have been done, but still I like the way yours look. Also I do kinda like the idea of running seperate cabs, espically if you had a pest or mold/rott issue it would be limited to one room.

 

['anna jones]

wow..ElCap that is one cool 'screened out single plant. At first I was like that plant is stressed in some of those pics and what's he doing growing that sick twisted little thing. ....now though it looks really nice and it has recovered quite well... That screen nearly filled out with the Dog'. Nice job sir!

I've got 12 of those puppies still in veg and it's my first time growing Chemdog. Looks like I'm in for a treat if mine end up looking anything like yours. Note: I just made that one pic my desk top for this week....soo cool

 

[Elcap]

Well she still looks a bit "off", because the very top of the canopy is getting too much light (that's why it's slightly pale and almost yellowing, not a N def...stuff lower in the canopy is extremely dark green). I'll be raising the light when it comes back on. Glad you like the pic though.

The tradeoff is light penetration to fill out the lower stuff vs. too much on the tops...fine line to tread (especially when you've got 96w/sqft)and I'm 3-4" too close right now. I think I'm also going to remove the screen to better be able to prune/trim in the mid/under canopy and only replace it if the colas start falling over and need trellis.

 

[AchromicSkin311]

great grow Elcap...I haven't done the SCROG metod myself, but it is an idea that I have seriously been throwing around.
With the screen...are you removing it and replacing it constantly as just a "trainer" to the branches, or do you leave it on during the whole grow?
I want to do a little more research, cuz I was drawing up plans to do 4 or 6 cabinets similar to yours and run 2 cabs per ballist and have them rotate cabs every 12 hrs since I would only be using the cabs for flowering...any tips or tricks that I should know about the system your running??
Thanks!!

 

[Elcap]

Hey Achromic, SCROG works wonders, especially in a cabinet.

My screen is basically just sitting there, it's not attached to anything. I can pull it out anytime. The "U" shaped yellow hooks I've screwed into the walls hold it up until the plant reaches is and I start training under it.

If I were running 4-6 lights, like you're talking about, I'd skip the cabs and use a re-circ DWC or Bio-buckets setup under a scrog. Split into 2 areas/scrogs that are light-segregated from each other and run a flip-flop. By the time you get the flop, you could have just bought another ballast, but if amp draw, ventilation, or heat is your problem, flops will go a long way to curing it.

If you have some weird space with lots of small spaces, instead of one big one, multi-cabs might be a good solution. BIG DRAWBACKS: Maintaining all those separate reservoirs, not being able to use a single water chiller for everything if temps are an issue, and ventilation.

A friend of mine is setting up a room with 3 3x9 scrog areas, 3 600s over the two flowering scrogs and 3x400 over the veg. He finally settled on sealed room w/c02 and no exhaust or air cooling of lights (except he is running 2 6" recirc scrubbers that are pulling through a CAN filter and pushing though the row of hoods right back into the room to circulate air within the room and to allow the lights to be closer to the canopy). His issue is going to be with controlling water temps (room will run 80-90F since there is CO2)....initial plan was to run recirc DWC or Bio buckets with the controllers outside the sealed space, still may do that, but who wants to drop $500 on a chiller when you could run E&F or something and not have water temp issues.

 

[AchromicSkin311]

my idea with multiple cabs is so i can run multiple strands since Ive noticed that some strands like different nuet levels. and time is on my side when it comes to available time to take care of the plants. haha. i'm not a very "busy" person...spend a lot of time at home.
well it looks like 2-3 of my clones are going to be male, so I might take my other 2 and SCROG them to get a little more out of them, and do you have any experience running SCROG under a full fluorescent setup?
I'm getting the Pioneer T5 Light with 8 4' lights (4 cool bulbs and 4 warm bulbs) and was thinking about running my first grow fully under that ($$ restrictions) then use that just for veg in next grows. Whats your opinion on running plants SCROG under the T5? Or better to just let them grow?
I'm growing Crystal, kinda a taller plant...pics in my signature