First grow: WaterFarm 600W MH/HPS, HomeBox XL, CoolShade, 25 gallon res. [PICS]

[fred_light]

Hi,

I have been a bit impatient and have already shared some of the pics and ideas of this first grow.

Been a lurker for some time (since OG actually). Could not grow where I lived. Relocated and now CAN

Better half seems to believe that one plant is enuff. Can't really argue. So I am growing 1 plant at a time.

Gonna go "pro" with it though, since this has been a long time dream.

This is the room I have to play with:





Been here:




Have this:



Finally got around to get some work down last couple of days. Been waiting for some help really. I have sealed the windows. And put isolation in between.










Covered the room in plastic and paper-sheets:





And slammed up the HomeBox and done some installing:





Still have a bit left with the WaterFarm to sort out, but I am waiting for some equipment (waterpump for circulating system), and I am getting clone(s) soon. The clear box you see on the right side of the controller is gonna be a system that pumps water into top controller. I figures out I might as well modify my WaterFarm from start since it makes sens to have a circulating system, and not much more equipment was needed and the whole thing is not to complex. Added benefit is larger water res. (100 liters/25 gallons) so the flux in pH/EC is easier to control and I can measure the pH/EC in the top controller (not in the bucket).

So as I said, I am getting close to receive a clone. She's a no-name Sativa sweetheart. Right now she is in a soil cup. Roots are out and new growth starting to come out. Don't really know much about heritage other than she is a strong plant that will survive

Hopefully this grow also


Gonna need some help with what to do with the clone when I get it. How to get that girl over into the Waterfarm with as little abuse as possible... Have a nice 125W CLF waiting for her. Gonna stick that into the CoolShade, and get her in a dome underneath it.

 

[nlvigour]

Great Great Great

Great Great Great

All that work for one plant....

I love it. I'm basically in the situation you were in. However, by the sounds and pics of your post it seems as if you'll have everything under control.

I know its supposed to be only one plant. But it may not hurt to have a little bubble cloner tucked away in the corner under a costco chrome wire rack with a 4' T8. Maybe you could explain to your beloved wife that its just research.

In any event.... I wish you the best of luck. Everything looks clean and you've obviously got it under control.

Kind Regards, NLvigour

 

[manwithnoname]

looks like it's gonna be a nice setup

I wanted to just have a couple plants, but then again anything i do i have to go all out... have you taste tested anything from the clone you are getting? what type of smoke do you like best, couch lock or energetic? ya i'm just full of ?s. What if something were to happen to that lone ranger sativa? better tell the other half that you need one more for backup

 

[delane1]

pretty nice for a first timmer. No really nice, but if you been around since OG. Is this going to be 1, 16+oz. plant for that great room? Can't wait to see more!

 

[fred_light]

looks like it's gonna be a nice setup

I wanted to just have a couple plants, but then again anything i do i have to go all out... have you taste tested anything from the clone you are getting? what type of smoke do you like best, couch lock or energetic? ya i'm just full of ?s. What if something were to happen to that lone ranger sativa? better tell the other half that you need one more for backup

Thanks.

Been really busy in the room the last couple of days. I discovered that I had a heat/cold problem because the thermostat on the heater was so bad the temp went from 18 to 28 degrees C (64-78 F). I had to sort that out before I would put in the plant, so I started the first part of my computercontrolled system. I have a powerstrip (8 outlets) with a temp/humidity measure and use a computer to read the temp and turn the outlet the heater is on on/off.
Worked until 5AM But had good music and nice smoke

Wrote the damn script in perl (for the computergeeks out there), and now the room is between 24.1- 25.2 C (74-77) F. In the reservoir part it's 16.8-18.2 C (62-64 F).

And the plant has arrived







More info later. Have visitors

 

[fred_light]

pretty nice for a first timmer. No really nice, but if you been around since OG. Is this going to be 1, 16+oz. plant for that great room? Can't wait to see more!

Hi Delane. Thanks

No, I am not going treestyle yet...
Since the agreement with my better half was to have 1 plant I feel that making 1 HUGE tree is gonna sorta break the intention of the deal. But I am gonna try SCROG and training on it, and make a pretty big canopy if I can. Hehe.

But growing is a learning process, and people growing 20+ years still learn stuff, so I am gonna start "slow" and hopefully make progress. To have to high ambitions right now is only gonna screw things up. Gonna go easy (as easy as I can anyway ). Really, really, looking forward to this myself

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

I've seen one pound plants in Water farms planty of times so don't have your heart set on not growing a tree LOL>

 

[fred_light]

looks like it's gonna be a nice setup

I wanted to just have a couple plants, but then again anything i do i have to go all out... have you taste tested anything from the clone you are getting? what type of smoke do you like best, couch lock or energetic? ya i'm just full of ?s. What if something were to happen to that lone ranger sativa? better tell the other half that you need one more for backup

Yes, I have tasted the clone. Felt it gave me a good sativa high. Energetic, but not to energetic. Good taste. Would compare it with a decent haze from greenhouse. The plant I smoked had been in veg/flower for almost 9 months though. Been given little light and small space. She is defiantly a survivor But I guess there is something about it that keeps that plant around. We will see how she reacts to what I am gonna do to her

Feel like I am giving her some nice conditions now under a 125W CLF, about 10-15 cm (5-7 inches) under the glass. Still in the small pot, but getting some soil tomorrow and putting her in a bigger pot with some hydroton. Guess I have to make her big enuff for me to clone. Been in that small pot so many weeks that the roots are filling the pot by now. Can't see how I could put her in the farm like this. Then go rapid rooters or neopren in a DIY Ez clone thinghy.

Anybody got any ideas?

Any way it will give me time to get the work done on the waterfarm system. Still working on paper on some recirculating stuff. Bought a lot of pipings etc. to add to the system (have some pics I am gonna post).

 

[manwithnoname]

some people just gently wash the soil from the roots and go straight to hydroton/hydro. so is your plan to just grow her in soil and take a clone to put in the waterfarm?

 

[fred_light]

some people just gently wash the soil from the roots and go straight to hydroton/hydro. so is your plan to just grow her in soil and take a clone to put in the waterfarm?

Yes, I think that's the best way to do it from here. That way I can take 2-3 clones also, so I have a backup. That's okay with the boss. So I might as well go for it...

 

[libby]

hi fred, if your gonna run lights for one plant, then stick some tomatoes in as well, maybe other veg, get a little extra for your money, plus you could hide an extra plant amongst your veg.

Looks better, should than knock on the door ever come. You always grow veg, but was convinced to grow the odd weed. This is my line of thinking at the moment.

 

[floppyfundanglr]

HOLY SHIT! ALL THAT FOR ONE PLANT, DAMN!

 

[fred_light]

Damn, this is fun!

Been busy lately with new years and stuff going on.

It is now 5 days since I got the clone. And I can report a difference

5 days ago:



Today:


She has been drinking a bit lately, and I feel she has adjusted to the environment, so I thought it was time to re-pot her:




















She is still under the 125 W CLF, and when she settles in her new pot I will give her a nice 600W MH SunMaster Cool delux. Not sure when yet. I want to be able to control/tune the room environment a bit more.



Here is the powerunit that I control from a computer:



it has a Temp/RH sensor I can read the values inside the tent with. A computerprogram reads the Temp/RH and I can turn on/off the outlet of choice. So right now I control the heater and fan inside the tent. When temp drops below a certain value, I turn on heater and make a circulating fan blow on the ribs to spread heat. The fan on the shade is on constantly, sucking air out of the tent.

Right now I have a stable temp outside the tent thats perfect for the resovior and at the same time have a slightly higher temp inside.
Been reprogramming the control software to compensate for the a passive heater instead of a air-blow heater unit that seemed to dry the air a bit to much.

Apart from that I am chilling and watching this "mother" grow up I really enjoy that part...

 

[NBG]

Sweet! this should be good. WAterfarms are great. I used to have a 100+ page thread on OG called 'the waterfarm experience'. Those were the days!
Its kind of hard NOT to grow trees with these things, and combining them with the scrog method should get you a humongous yield.

One thing though, watch out using soil from outside when transferring into a hydro medium. I did it once and had a really nasty fungus gnat explosion.

 

[fred_light]

Thanks NBG, I am thrilled you stopped by. I have been "studying" some of your grows, and if I one day get a grow like yours I will be happy and proud

I will not be planting that clone in a waterfarm. I am gonna take clones from her again and keep as a "motherplant". The cuttings will either go in rapidrooters or a "Ez clone"/Bubbler style container. Have bought some noepren blocks used in the Ez clone. Have airpumps and stones and the right equipment to make em...

The 125W CLF will provide light for the motherplant in some sort of box. Have a shade for it and a E40 socket.

 

[Hovz]

looking good, i've always wanted to try a waterfarm system. I'll be following your grow.

 

[manwithnoname]

that's freakin sweet that you have it computer controlled. i would love to do that! could a person that is only mildly good with computers do such a thing, or do you need to be able to write your own programs?

 

[fred_light]

Hovz: Thanks for stopping by, and keep coming back Hope to entertain. Hehe.

manwithnoname: I have been meaning to be a bit more specific with my setup, and you gave me an excuse to Sorry to say that it's impossible to me to answer your question. I don't know what mildly good means. Hehe. I have been fiddling with computers a long time, and know that stuff that's easy for me might be impossible for others. Not meaning to be patronizing in any sense. So I will explain what I do, and you can judge yourself if you are comfortable with it.

I have a:

http://products.servertech.com/products/switchedcducw-8h/



On that I have a temp/RH sensor:

http://products.servertech.com/products/accessories/

This is in other words a 8 outlet powerswitch (1 in). You switch every outlet on/off with a webbrowser if you want (called HTTP traffic). But basically you have to connect this guy to a computernetwork, like the one you probably have at home with wireless router or modem. They have usually more that 1 outlet to a plug called a RJ-45. Connect the powerswitch to the router or modem with a network (RJ-45) cable. It will get an IP address if the router/modem has a DHCP server installed. You then figure out what IP the Pswitch has, and you can write for example http://192.168.1.3 in a webbrowser to control it. You can also change the IP address to a static address you choose if you'd like.

Connecting to it with a webbrowser would mean you have to be there to switch on/off when you want. BUT you can also connect to the sucker with a different protocol than HTTP. It supports SSH and Telnet traffic. That's protocols made to connect to computers to "talk" to them. Computerlingo that's called CLI, Command line interface. You log on with a ssh or telnet client and you can send controls/commands to the powerswitch.

Doc here:

http://www.servertech.com/Portals/0/downloads/Manuals/manual_CDU_Switched_v60.pdf] http://www.servertech.com/Portals/0/downloads/Manuals/manual_CDU_Switched_v60.pdf[/URL]

writing "on .a2" and pressing return on the keyboard will switch the outlet port number 2 on. "off .a2" will turn off.

Okay, here comes the tricky part

You want a computer to get the input from the temp/RH sensor and do something based on that value. So you are gonna need a computer and a program running on that computer to "talk" to the powerswitch. Computers running windows are NOT the best to do stuff like that. And this is where it's impossible for me to answer need of skill. I run a computer with an different operating system than windows to do this (Unix/Linux/Solaris). If you are not familiar with that you are gonna have to read/learn alot. Note, this can be done in windows as well, but who runs a windows machine at home they can't/won't turn off? Some do Not me.

Okay on my computer I run a different operating system. On that computer I have written a program in a language called perl. You can program any language you want, but the language has to be able to speak the telnet protocol. I choose perl because I "speak" it, and it's good for these things. The program run's in a loop with it every 5 seconds waking up and logging into the powerswitch to ask it whats up with temp/RH ("envmon" command). I parse that answer so I have the figure and then my program decides what to do.

Right now I have a program that asks and if temp > 28 degrees C (82 F) then turn of outlet 2 (heat oven) and outlet 3 (oscillating fan), then the program sleeps 5 sec and checks. If the temp < 21 degress C (70 F) then I turn the stuff on.
If the temp is between 26 (70) and 21 (82) then it only goes back to sleep for 5 secs.

Note here (This is tricky): The temp/RH sensor is a sensor This is the reason why the temp range is so "big". It measures the temp at the exact moment you ask. A regular temp reader does not do that! They calculate some sort of average from some samples. So they don't change much/quick. A sensor does, I have now learned. Hehe. 1 sec it's 28 Degrees (82 F), and 5 secs later it's 27.5 (80), 15 secs later 27.0 (79). So these numbers I have found (21 and 28) work for me right now in my environment. From the "dumb" temp reader I have in the Box i read 23.2-25.7 min/max (73.7-78.2 F) last 24h. I can live with that

Outside the Box the temp is 16ish (62.6ish F). Hehe. I am _looking forward_ to spin the waterfarm up... *Drule

I am going circualting waterfarm with a waterpump. Guess a good system to turn a outlet (lets say 4) on/off for 5 min every hour?

Ohh, have I mentioned I am pretty psyched I finally get to grow after so many years lurking with some ideas to put to life?

 

[manwithnoname]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to put down all that info! It is kinda what i figured. I could set up the hardware but writing for the software i couldnt do. and yes i've always run windows. i'm guessing there is no pre-made software written to do these commands, and if there is i'm sure it would be pricey. Thanks again for the info!

 

[fred_light]

manwithnoname: Sure, information want's to be free.

Nope, there is no premade software written for these kinds of setup yet. I am more that willing to share my code (written in perl). And you can run it on a windows computer if you download:

http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/

Getting into perl is really easy, and there are tons of free online guides. It's getting into programming in general and the logic around that that's a steep curve for some.

I will post my code as soon as I have cleaned it up a bit, so you can take a look and decide for yourself...