What do you think my chances are?

[East Coast]

Have already posted this thread - but feel this is the place for it.........bloody newbie again!

So - over a period of couple of months, I have been accumulating some equipment.

Firstly, the clone and mother tent to the left, the Flower tent to the right.



The top light is a 4ft twin electronic fluro fitting. One bulb is a Grow Lux and the other a standard bulb. I am thinking I only require one Grow Lux - will blank the other tube out........(you need two bulbs in an electronic fitting to make it work). Any trick to by-pass this stupid quirk?

Bottom light is a Son-t 150w HPS. Wholesalers wanted $300.00nzd for the ballast. Made my own up for $90.00nzd. I think 2 mother plants will yield me 8-10 cuttings every 2 weeks from this light.

I am very surprised by the temperature in the clone void - 27 degrees C with no fan and a mild summer day. The mother tent is actually cooler by 1 degree with no fan also. Will install a 100m axial fan to service both spaces, with speed & digital control, lower speed less noise I say.



Below is the inside of the flowering room. 1m2 foot print, 150mm dia hood - 400w HPS (what are your thoughts for a 600?).

4 reservoirs - cycle every 2 weeks for a 8 week harvest - maybe 2.2 week cycles ??

Ebb and flow using the below:
1.8ltr square/round pots @ 165mm tall, rockwool packed into the bottom and perlite to fill. Rockwool cube with clone buried into this. Fill tray 75mm flood? Probably use 6 per tray - 8 seems a bit much. 6 x 4 = 24 or 8 x4 =32 ??


Below is the 150mm fan for the hood, speed controlled and paralleled feed from the light circuit.
What is the blue drum and pink stuff? 44 gallon drum filled with Pink batts (insulation R3.2) 3 layers.

I think this will act as a silencer both for the fan and air exhaust....?

The temperature is controlled by a digital controller - 240v - STC1000 with 2 relays to control both heater and fan.




I will be running Canna products. Have a pH pen and CF truncheon. H202 on the way.


I find it hard to find verified strands - have a couple of indica strands, so that will have to do for now.

So - what do you think my chances are of 1/4oz per rod, and work upwards.

 

[East Coast]

All these replies give me great hope......be another month be for I start the flowering room up. By that time I am on the other side of mid summer also, this suits me perfect.

 

[chunkylonin]

I definitly like the idea of the 44 gallon drum and insulation,let us know how that works out and if you have any problem with the insulation breaking down and affecting anything.

 

[East Coast]

Have given it a 'test run' I have the intake end at the short end of the 44 drum (see pic above). Without ducting on yet - the air coming out is quiet, however the noise going in is still a little noisy. Might try turning the fan 180, so the intake is on the long side, and short side for out........but cannot hear the mechanical noise from fan - only air moving into on the short side.

 

[HumbleNMotivated]

What I personally think, and this is coming from someone who is also brand new at growing, you should not measure your success on your first grow by overall weight. I mean yes hope for some weight, period. But don't use it as a measure of success for yourself especially since there is so much information available to you and so many variables to control. Get this first grow under your belt then start basing future yields upon comparisons from your first. Hopefully all your grows will just get better after the first, well in reality they should as long as your learning as you go.

Also don't take the plethora or lack of replies as any indicator of well ANYTHING. It just means that what your asking is hard for people to answer. Usually whenever I do a TON of research and then post up a topic with tons of links and information referenced I get no replies, not saying this forum specifically but generally on forums. This is because once you start saying well as long as this does this and this does this with this lumen and this distance with this temp and I do this for this etc etc your already too many variables past what most people are comfortable answering when they don't have those specifics in their own garden.

In all reality you could have the environment down and the water your using doesn't match your fertilizer so you get pH swings or deficiencies. You could have EVERY variable down then have genetics that just are low yielding.

How I weigh my variables currently, and being a newb I'm sure they will change: first comes environment, then comes a fertilizer and soil that you can control and regime, then comes genetics, then comes water quality. Knowing that your water is void of certain things, like in my case Calcium and Magnesium has a great affect on my grow. The water then has no buffering capacity when it is void of calcium and magnesium so an acidic fertilizer combined potentially with an acidic water pH will result acidic pH in your soil very rapidly.

Just be diligent with your acquisition of knowledge and note taking and you will prosper. Whether it be first grow or fifth.

 

[East Coast]

Cheers Humble.

I use to grow outdoors, but as I get older, lets say the hills in NZ are wearing me out.

I worded the end of my thread wrongly - might go back and change it. What I was trying to mean is -what are my chances for pulling off a grow with this set up, have I the right ingredients'

We have the best water in NZ, have a stream running down the back yard, rain water and then the tape water - which can taste like dirt when the water table gets a little low. Should be covered to try a few water supplies out - heck ill even put a pump in the stream if need be. Gets very cold where I am, (for NZ avg), that will be my test, have a few ideas up my sleeve.

Yeah the variables, keep it simple and stick to basics.....what can go wrong....

My genetics will be hit and miss - I can not find reliable known sources here in NZ, mostly all is grown out door, we are outdoor mad. I will get it sorted, the luxury about this grow, I have all the time in the world, not rushed by landlord inspections, meter readers or sales people etc.

 

[HumbleNMotivated]

Just let me start off by saying your neck of the woods, New Zealand, is GORGEOUS country. My sister has been there several times and I have a friend currently living there. It has the holy grail of combinations of nature. Beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes.

I wasn't trying to come up with specifics that would hinder or benefit you specifically just some things that I myself have taken into consideration in the short time that I've been doing research for my grow that has just started as well.

If your just asking for overall success then shit as long as your motivated then your set! That's for certain, especially if you are already savy on a lot of the other techniques I'm sure you are from your outdoor knowledge! Some of the people I know aren't very motivated but the for whatever reason the herb motivates them to put in hard work and long days, crazy thought huh.

Had to convert your temps to F, damn American school system metric DOES make more sense. Your sitting at like 80F which is on the high end but that's with no ventilation and winter coming. As long as you can control the ambient temps in whatever room your grow is in you should be set. You don't wanna pull super cold winter air into your grow rooms as it'll shock your plants so if you can standardize the temp of your room that encloses your grow then your set. I'm currently in this same boat. I'm setting up two rooms in my basement and am gonna pull cold air from outside into the basement itself to control the ambient temp there so that as I pull air into the two rooms it is an ideal temp to offset the heat created by the lamps. Not exact science and has to deal with current outdoor temps vs current indoor temps in combination with heat produced by the lamps and the speed at which the intake and exhaust fans are running. Shit like five variables even there lol.

I'm not recommending this for any commercial reason: have you seen the strain hunter videos on their website or youtube? I believe it is green house seed company founders go on various expeditions through outdoor fields and just pick the seeds from the best plants they find or plants they were in search for like authentic land race material for breeding. If you have access to do similar to what they do then your genetics will be pretty on par if you ask me. Actually watching all their videos just changed my idea about cannabis genetics in the sense that why go top price "high grade" IF I could scope my material for myself. Nature is a cruel mistress and any prospering outdoor ganja should produce for you indoors as long as your environment is there.

K.I.S.S. keep it simple stupid. Best method for MANY things implement it whenever and where ever you can! lol

 

[WarrenHite]

balancing the right temp while growing inside the room is the main key .. this is where i am legging and has to sort it out .. thanx for the suggestions

 

[Shaded420]

I'm growing in a cardboard box in my closet, and you wanna know what your chances are with all this equipment and tents?....lol

 

[East Coast]

I'm growing in a cardboard box in my closet, and you wanna know what your chances are with all this equipment and tents?....lol

Now that is keeping it simple. Cardboard has good qualities - insulation - cut it easily - mend it easily - recyclable and many more. There could be something there for stealth growers, pre-made cardboard cabinets?

 

[East Coast]

Hi Humble,

I have a page open all the time https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=calculator+conversion+&rlz=1C1GGGE_enNZ456NZ498&oq=calculator+conversion+&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.35567j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=inch+to+mm&safe=off I just change the bar at the top to what ever - length - mass - volume etc...very handy when reading sites like this.

NZders are up in arms over our beautiful country at the moment, every 15 odd years the beach trees drop their seeds, which brings in stoats and rats which invade our 14 native birds including the iconic Kiwi and eat them. The government has decided to drop 1080 poison to get on top of the pests. Greenies and the public are divided on this method. I have come across animal in the bush suffering from this poison - takes 6-18 hours to dies from and the bigger animals if they eat it - longer. Here in NZ we don't like cruelty to animals - this is verging on it. BUT - what do we use instead of 1080, nothing, and let our native birds die out? Hard one.

I will hunt down the youtube vid later today - have to go pick SWMBO from her operation - oh joy - a sick woman in the house.....bugger.

 

[Shaded420]

I think you will be more than fine with your current equipment and setup

Make sure you got the basics covered and it should be good to go - you are going to have complete and utter control over all factors of your entire grow. Start from the soil and work your way up from water, nutes, lighting, ventilation, temperatures, humidity, genetics. I'm a newb and decided to keep it simple for my first time, so I just went soil-less with organic nutes.

I think a lot of people have this misconception that growing indoors is a lot more complicated than it really is or has to be.

P.S: As for selling pre-made cardboard cabinets - I think a lot of people are turned off at the idea of spending money on something made of cardboard. But for myself and the size of space that I had to work with, I had to create something custom fit. It definitely would have been easier to mount things to wooden panels, but I like the fact that cardboard is lightweight and easily fixed/replaced/modified - being free is a bonus.

 

[East Coast]

You might of heard about the earthquake that flattened the city of Christchurch in the South Island of NZ?

They are building a cardboard cathedral - take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard_Cathedral

Bring on the cardboard grow rooms.

 

[East Coast]

Changing the fan speed control method.

Tried the PDL fan controller - motor hums at low rpm



Gave the Kiwi Eletronics motor controller: http://www.kiwielectronics.co.nz/ still motor hum at low rpm. Two adjustable screw settings - low minimum and high max settings - handy. These two controllers will now go inline with the axial fans used to extract air from the clone and mother tent.


Time to invest in a variac transformer like: http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=MP3080

 

[Shaded420]

Looking good!

Quick question for ya East as you seem to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to electronics and motors and I am not trying to derail this thread.

I have a muffin fan similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/115V-AC-Cooling-Fan-120mm/dp/B004YTSB7C/ref=pd_sim_hi_3

Bought this fan speed controller: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00809BQZG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Whenever I have the fan speed really low(<50%) the motor becomes incredibly hot. Any thoughts as to why?

 

[East Coast]

Less air movement over the motor from reduce speed (air movement cools the motor)- could be one idea.

Reduced voltage to a motor will increase amps? more heat?

P.S I have a personal worry about electrical appliances getting too hot, the thought of a fire worries me.

 

[Shaded420]

Me too, my biggest concern right now is fire hazards. It sucks when you're trying to be stealthy and can't turn your fan down as low as it should be because the motor produces insane amounts of heat - I cover my box with a blanket that goes right over top of everything so it's not very ideal.

That's what I kinda figured too, less air flow = more heat. But I'm talking LOTS more heat. Is it possible for the fan speed controller to not actually be lowering the voltage and instead dissipating the excess energy as heat? I've heard that some cheaper fan speed controllers don't regulate voltage but actually turn the fan off/on at such a rapid rate that it produces the slowing/speeding up of the fan.

 

[HumbleNMotivated]

I was thinking about investing in a Flame Defender myself for the worry of fires as well. The room or floor that your grow is located should for sure have a fire alarm and some handy fire extinguishers if needed. Personally I just wish all places were legal and one of the requirements would be that a licensed electrician was required to setup the electrical for your operation. It would eliminate some of those horror stories you hear about apartments and condos burning down and taking their neighbors homes with them in lots of instances.

I would feel like shutting the fan on and of rapidly would affect the lifespan of the fan? I'm not certain though just what first comes to mind when picturing a fan constantly being shut off and on to maintain a lower cfm.

 

[East Coast]

.I would feel like shutting the fan on and of rapidly would affect the lifespan of the fan? I'm not certain though just what first comes to mind when picturing a fan constantly being shut off and on to maintain a lower cfm.

The kiwi controller has a ramping system built in - so on turn on - it always ramps to full then ramps down to the selected speed. But as these controllers adjust the sine wave and not voltage - they hum, very annoying.

As for fire - yes, always a fire extinguisher handy. In NZ we can buy smoke detectors that can be wired in series from the 240v supply - one goes off, they all go off. In NZ we are blessed with house on 1/4 acre sections or bigger - and not condo or apartment style of living.





I just found out my 150mm axial fan View attachment 2983108 has so much clearance from the blades to the housing, that it fits perfectly over the hood shroud


View attachment 2983109, this photo shows the clearance from blades to the aluminium shroud.




View attachment 2983110 This one shows the fan pushed over the aluminium shroud.

Saves about 5cm (2 inches) of space for the ducting to be more straighter in the tent - closed ducting circuit for the light. The big centrifugal fan will pull the grow room atmosphere through the filter to outdoors.

Always room for improvement if you have an idea....!

 

[HumbleNMotivated]

As for fire - yes, always a fire extinguisher handy. In NZ we can buy smoke detectors that can be wired in series from the 240v supply - one goes off, they all go off. In NZ we are blessed with house on 1/4 acre sections or bigger - and not condo or apartment style of living.

That is the reason I wish growers were just required to have electricians come certify their rooms!

As far as the fan I might have an idea for you. If heat becomes an issue for you then pushing or pulling air from outside the tent through the light then outside the tent again will help combat that for you. That really will be controlled by what wattage bulb you use and how much heat it is generating.