The AltarNational Garden

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
I'm seriously brain storming now... still looking for possible places to move but also prepping for the possibility of being stuck here and trying to figure out how i could get away with some HID lighting.

There are a couple places where I can access other circuits if I move my setup. Basement is a lot more secure but a lot dirtier and has the possibility for humidity concerns... then there's a porch area that is on the outer perimeter but it would be an unheated location and the winters go below zero so I'd have to do some serious finagling there. I'm considering setting that up to maintain it's own heat out there but I don't know how feasible it is.

I was thinking 600-1000w HID lights, maybe exhaust them to the inside of the house to provide extra heat... hoping the radiant heat left over is enough to keep the tent warm... but then I thought it will only be on 12 hours a day during flower and I'd have to run a heater during the dark cycle anyway. Wondering if there's a workaround for that. Once winter hits I may just go buy one and start experimenting.

So on that note the basement seemed like a better idea, more or less. But to avoid the dirty/dank aspects I'd need to use my tent... which is about a foot taller than the ceiling. SOOOO... then I was thinking I could set it up sideways. It's only 4.5 ft tall that way but the structural support system is all turned on it's side and I do'nt know how stable that would be. I guess if I made care to hang the filter and fan from the corners and not from the top bars of the "top" (which is actually the side) of the tent.

So then i'm like AGH. hahaha.

I could just set it up point blank in the fucking living room! I considered it!
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Oh, yo, what's up. It's about time for a visual update.

Here's the main chamber, which is in veg mode on a slow transition to flower until friday when it should be 12/12 and I will flip 4 of the T5 bulbs to red bulbs. (2x660nm UVLs and 2xCoral Waves will replace the 4x5000k bulbs in there now.)


Cheeseberry Haze, check out the node tightness and stem thickness... they loooove that LED:


The C99's and NLxNL's are a lot lankier looking as they've got almost vertical T5's for primary lighting and have also been growing a couple weeks longer and from clones rather than seed:

C99, fimmed once, 10 days ago:


NLxNL also fimmed once 10 days ago:


Didn't bother getting each plant individually, they are clones and look pretty similar.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
I have this other chamber going with just a couple T5's going... and I'm going to be doing some tricky maneuvering at some point as I popped three of the CaseyJonesXGreenManalishi and also have a diesel reveg in there I want to flower after i get some clones off. They both are going to be staggered against the current batch which is starting flowering now. The CJxGM needs more time to veg for sure, and the diesel could use more time to recover as well. So for now they are in veg while the rest go into flower.

Not sure what's going where yet but I'm going to try to add the last 8-bulb T5 in a separate or adjacent position so as to cover everything I'm gonna juggle. I'm considering a vertical C99 T5-only grow... VSCROG against the vertical fluoro, which would be against a wall due to space and heat limitations.

That might not come out GREAT, but it might work good... and I think it would be a lot of fun to weave the C99's into a net hung vertically instead of a surface scrog. I did fim them so they won't get TOO tall... the 8-bulb T5 gives about 30 inches of light height.

So that would shift 4 plants out of the main chamber and free up space to drop in the CJxGM's and the Diesel.

On the OTHER hand, I have been considering going out and getting a HPS lately instead... if the heat breaks soon enough I might ebay one and get it set up downstairs and see what I can fit under that as a primary and use the closet as veg with just T5's.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Will get pics of the CJxGM's pretty soon... not much to show yet...

Meant to drop this one too, this is the CBH from below so you can see the nodage and the stem... kinda hard to see but she's stalky:


Hope they're girls... heh.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
I did not think CBH would be so indica. I expected the haze to be more dominant. Maybe some phenos are. Those leaves are fat as hell! It will be interesting to see how my CJxGM's are balanced... I gave 1 CJxGM and 2 CBH seeds to a friend to try on his own before I started mine... I went by his place, and all three look pretty indica dominant. I coulda sworn I read up people were saying it had a long flowering time due to Casey Jones... but we'll see, I hope it's not too bad.
 

Mohican

Well-Known Member
Isn't it amazing how some mixes are 50/50 and others it seems like you don't even change the original parent. One of my favorite crosses is a Pakistani monster producer crossed with TGA Jilly Bean. It still has the Paki production but now it smells like orange incense!
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Aye... they never cease to amaze me! I gotta get into doing some breeding when I have some more space.

The hunt continues for a new place to live... got in there and took a bunch of clones off the bottoms, and flipped to full 12/12 today.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Alright I had a bit of a design breakthrough and I'm going to do two vscrogs with the "backs" being residually splash-lit by the LED, which will be focused primarily on what I grow between the two vscrogs. So it's sort of like a makeshift stadium, except the backsides will be hit by 8 t5 bulbs on each side while the inside is soaking up the residual splash light from the LED, which will be primarily focused on what I grow straight up in the center below... It's gonna be intense... it's gonna be like tanning bed 2.0...
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
That bad boy will support the C99's on the right... the left might prove trickier because of the eve ceiling. I am going to get in there either this afternoon or tonight (depending on whether or not I feel like doing the darkness-period shuffle) and size it up... plan is to just drop the 8-bulb T5 in there as tightly to the wall as I can and hopefully that will get it high enough and leave some clearance and a decent angle. The angle will be the challenge... I will probably mount the vscrog on the second rolled starting on the left side and leaning out to the right so that the screen leans in a little.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Construction aspects are one of my favorite parts of indoor growing... it's so much fun to get high and think of a sick new way to make your space work and then implement.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
T5 vscrogging seems like the most pointless endeavor when presented out of context, but I think it will really benefit me in this setup. It will allow me to slim the C99's width into a narrow sheet in the screen, opening up more canopy space below for the younger plants that are coming in shortly, I just hope I still get enough stretch out of the C99's to take advantage of the full screen.

And since the LEDs will be hitting the vscrogs from behind, they are effectively catching more light than a regular scrog would anyway. That is if I had just done a regular scrog under the 8-bulb in a separate space like I initially planned.
 

AltarNation

Well-Known Member
Second unit went off without a hitch.. here they are in place before the plants come in... gotta wait another hour and a half before light cycle starts, then I'll get them arranged.

LED in lower position, barely between tops of vscrogs:


LED brought up to max height, shows potential of space.


Honestly I probably didn't veg long enough to take advantage of such badassery, but hey, maybe I'll luck out and get a lot of stretch, lol.

vscrog closeups on the T5's:


 
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