LED/Fluoresent Cabinet Grow Snow White/Dutch Dragon

[cruzer101]

Great thread. Good luck!

Cruzer, do you mind if I pm you and ask how you built those LED lights? I'm kinda a slow learner.

Tell me about it, It took me five hours to solder the first panel.

No I dont mind.
Here is a link to the site I got the panels Homegrownlights.com


Thanks for the comments guys,

 

[cruzer101]

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Day 32
Added my gallon of distilled water and lowered ph to 5.9
We are running at 700ppms. I know it is lower than before.
I am kinda weening them off the grow nutes. Bloom nutes next week.
Humidity levels are dropping, I thought I had a handle on that.​

These pics are with the all lights on​

Its getting crowded in there. I am re-thinking flowering here.
We still have about a foot of vertical space available​

Actually this was designed to be a Veg Monster.
Simply a way I could create a great root system in a short amount of time.
So far that has worked pretty well but I need to do something here pretty soon.​

I think I will take a ride to my buds house this weekend and get that dam light mover up
So then we have a flower room back up and running​

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[cruzer101]

Day 33​

OK
Off we go!
As I mentioned earlier I put grow bags inside the containers for easy transplant.
I removed the bags from the containers and put the girls in a box and put them in my trunk.​

Its about an hours drive.​

He lives on the other side of that lake you see in the distance.​

OK we start with ventilation, cut a hole in ceiling and blow the insulation up into the attic.​

Mount the blower and a 2x4 to mount the light rail to.​

We got an intellidrive 3.5 mover and a 1000w halide at 3100k temp.
we will add the two HPS later, those will be stationary.​

Cleaned out the waterfarms and set them in place.​

We modified the waterfarms to a drip system.
All I did was plug up the bottom of the watering columns
and add a water line to where the air used to go.​

Now its time to transplant.​

Took a plant and held the top of the bag together and turned it upside down.
Cut the bottom of the bag and set it into the waterfarm.​

Filled the rest of the container with hydroton and pulled the bag up over the plant.​

Works great. This way I didn't disturb the roots much.​

If you remember earlier I started with 2 Dragon clones and got one mother.
Here is a shot of her now. 5 weeks from clone​

Its time to take some cuttings and add her to the flowering plants.
I didn't have her in a bag, Here is a shot of the root ball.​

Adding the water feed to the bottom of the rock wool cube works great.​

OK this is what we have so far.​

Upper left is the Apollo, lower right is the Dragon, the rest are the Snow White.
We have the 13 gallon res under the table with a 550 gph water pump.
I made a 5 foot long manifold and attached the lines.
We started them on week four of floras nuts with Diamond nectar
PPMS at 1160 and PH at 5.5 to start,.


We figure by taking the cuttings from the upper stems we will slow her growth down a bit
and let the others catch up some. Last time I used Olivia's gel but it was no good because
I didn't put it in the refrigerator. This time I got some Clonex gel and solution.​

I soaked the cuttings​

I use rapid rooter plugs because you don't need to soak them in Ph 5.5 water overnight
and the don't retain as much water as rock wool. (I always over water rock wool)
The trick to it is you split them down the center so the cutting touches the medium.​

Time to prepare the cuttings I will show you how I do one.​

Trim the leaves that will stay​

Remove the last one​

cut on a 45 degree angle right below the the node.
I usually use a razor blade but I couldn't do that and take a pic at the same time.​

Then I slice the stem up the center and scrape the sides.
(This is best done under water)​

Dip it into the cloning gel, up to where its going into the medium.​

Place it into the rapid rooter plug and give it 24 hours of darkness.​

Here is a shot of the next batch. There is eight Snow White and six Dragons.​

The small containers are actually jiffy containers but they hold the rapid rooter plugs together nicely.
I got them sitting in a tray on a heat mat so the dome will seal and hold in the humidity.​

I will water these by hand every other day until I see roots coming out the bottom.
Then into the 3 inch rock wool cubes and Start all over again.
But that will have to be another story or this will go on forever.​

This journal will cover the Snow White, Apollo and the first four Dragons that I did with my DIY bubbler
They are now 3 weeks old.
I will veg them for another couple weeks then they will join the Snow White.​

 

[cruzer101]

Day 40
Flushed out the res and added flora nutes; Week 4 again.
Let them get used to there new room before cutting the nitrogen
About 1100 PPMs also Diamond Nectar and ph at 6.0​

We put up some walls this weekend our flower room is almost finished.​

Made the frame out of 2x2 and used styrofoam insulation for the walls.​

I will bring some Mylar next week to do the inside walls.​

We just tacked the walls on with long finishing nails, That way we have easy access if we need.
This is a much better idea than plastic. Cost about $10 a panel but I think its worth it.
Now we will be able to control the climate better and add co2​

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[cruzer101]

I got another light for my veg monster, Sun Systems Sun Blaze 24
It's T5 high output, 24" X 4 tubes in the fixture.The reflector is awesome looks like three times the light.
I got two 6500k and two 3000k in there. Now I am trying to figure out what works best.​

I may end up re-working the led array to fit better. For now its side lighting.​

These are the four Dragon clones. They are about four weeks here.
They were transplanted to the grow bags/containers today.
flora nova grow nutes with Diamond necter
900PPMs and 5.9ph​

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[Pseudo.Botany]

I have to say Cruzer, that is a wicked cool grow room! I want one! hahaha

 

[Pseudo.Botany]

Out of curiosity how do you determine the ration of Blue/Red LED lights?

 

[specialkayme]

Hey Cruzer,
I have been reading up on cloneing. I havn't done it myself, but plan on doing it in about three weeks. I've never heard of anyone cutting up the stem, or scraping the sides. Can you explain why you do this, if there is an article that explains it, or the benefits of it?

Thanks man

 

[cruzer101]

Out of curiosity how do you determine the ration of Blue/Red LED lights?

Hey thanks for stoppin by,

I just used what I saw that worked. From what I understand 25/75 blue to red is best for all around growing. More blue for veg and more red for flower. The thing is that there are four wavelengths you want to hit. two red and two blue. I still havent found any one light sold that hits them.
The procyon 100 is the closest thing to a perfect led lamp out there.... in my opinion. But at $600 its a little steep for me.
Im just experimenting with different light sources until I get it right or the procyon come down in price.

Here is a link to some test grows that got me started. Click here

 

[cruzer101]

Hey Cruzer,
I have been reading up on cloneing. I havn't done it myself, but plan on doing it in about three weeks. I've never heard of anyone cutting up the stem, or scraping the sides. Can you explain why you do this, if there is an article that explains it, or the benefits of it?

Thanks man

Hi kayme,

Let's see if this works...

Yep.

 

[cali-high]

hey cruzer love your journal your grow is amazing.

i also have a couple Q's about cloning...

ive done it everyway possible...rapid rooters ect. i got that part down. but when it comes to plant growth,they dont grow..

like i put a clone that was in a rapid rooter into a 2 gal soil container and it filled the container with roots but no new grow...

i think its stress but i dont know what im doing wrong..

can you help me??

thats always been my problem i cant grow clones

peace

 

[cruzer101]

Hi Cali,
Thanks for the compliment.

I just do a little research, buy a couple books and do what they say.
Thats very sad you cant grow clones.

Every time I see roots I see new growth as well.
" filled the container with roots but no new growth"
I have never heard of that one.

After a clone has rooted I treat it same as a seedling.
I grow Hydro, Maybe its something in the soil?

 

[cruzer101]

Time to check up on the kids
Looks like clonex is the way to go. 100% success rate.
I used both the gel and there solution for the last ten days.
Kept the temps between 70 and 85 degrees​

Here is a shot of the one we did..​

these are all dragons​

These cuttings are from the Snow White.​

The Snow White has 2 days head start. I can see the stocks growing faster.
Maybe because the mother was from seed​

see the new growth, the lighter green, that tells me they rooted.​

The four larger Dragons are starting to take off now.​

closer shot

PPMs jumped to 1300 today, I added a gallon of water and they are at 1100
Ph jumped to 6.5 got it back to 5.9
There leaves are starting to fill out. These Dragons have huge leaves.​

The Veg Monster in action​

I run the lights and water 24 hours a day.​

Thing is I dont know how long I will be able to keep this up with the summer coming.
It gets pretty hot here. Figure temps at 90 to 100
So how would I cool the air before it gets to the cabinet?​

Part of this whole thing was to keep the wattage down so an air conditioner isnt really going to work.
I dont really like the idea of freezing a bottle of water every five hours for a fan.​

I am open to suggestions as to how I can cool a cabinet like this.​

I will have an update on the flower room this weekend.​

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[cruzer101]

Before I go its time to move the kids up and make room for more.​

The four dragons in veg have a lot of lower growth that needs to come off.
I should be able to get at least six cuttings.​

I want the growth up here.​

This has got to be the smallest cutting I ever seen anyone try and root, Lets see what happens.​

Ok, here is a shot of the new batch, I got ten out of the deal.
Lets see how many will root.​

I used Clonex gel and solution.
Now its time for 24 hours of darkness​

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[FilthyFletch]

I find that clonex gel doesnt work as well as powders. I have a bout a 75% succes with the gels and it takes 10-12 days to fill a cube with roots and with powders I get a full cube in 3-5 days with 100% success rates.I was curious is the cabinet just for vegging and cloning using the leds and the led lighting as it looks like thats waht you have going then move the plants to a flowering light?

 

[Damion5050]

Did you make the led panels your self ? I would try those but I am not that mechanically inclined lol and I would like to try some but they are to expensive to buy online, like the procryon 100 its 600 bucks.. Also do the led's work for veg and flowering ??

 

[cruzer101]

I find that clonex gel doesnt work as well as powders. I have a bout a 75% succes with the gels and it takes 10-12 days to fill a cube with roots and with powders I get a full cube in 3-5 days with 100% success rates.I was curious is the cabinet just for vegging and cloning using the leds and the led lighting as it looks like thats waht you have going then move the plants to a flowering light?

Hi Fletch, Thanks for stoppin by.

Yes, that is exactly what I am doing. My bud has the space to flower but he cant get it right. So I try and build a root system strong enough to keep them alive for a week no mater what he does. I go there once a week and adjust things.

Thanks for the tip on the powder, So far My success rate is 100% but your right about the 10 days to root.
Maybe I will try a powder. What kind to you suggest?

 

[cruzer101]

Did you make the led panels your self ? I would try those but I am not that mechanically inclined lol and I would like to try some but they are to expensive to buy online, like the procryon 100 its 600 bucks.. Also do the led's work for veg and flowering ??

Hi Damion,

I looked at the procryon also. I feel the same way. I bought three panels from them instead. Yea, it took a while to assemble but I rather do the work and spend $120 instead of $600. I realize they are not as powerful but they are really just for veg right now and combined with the floros they are working great. I have seen several LED grows (online) and IMO the flowering results do not compare with MH or HPS. I am watching a dual procryon grow now. If he gets decent results and the price drops to around $250 I will get one and use these for side lighting.

 

[cruzer101]

Ok, brought the four Dragons to there new home.
We decided to veg them for another week or two before flowering.​

After placing them in there new home (the closet in the flowering room)
I went to adjust the lights and the dam chain broke.
The light (two 4 ft shop lights attached together) fell on the plants and flattened them.
It doesn’t look like we broke the stock but the tops were bent pretty badly.
I reinforced the hanging assembly, got stronger chain and tied them up.​

Good News, The Apollo is a female. I took a clone from her that I will use as a mother.
I am a little disapointed with the Snow White. They lost there large fan leaves.
We should have vegged them for a week or so after transplanting. instead we went straight to flower.​

We know better now.​

A couple shots of the Snow White.​

See how we lost growth in the center of the plants.
Hopfully that will give more light to the lower buds and they will be larger.

The flower room now has the four Snow white, one Apollo and one Dragon.
We have eight sites and plan on adding the two best dragon clones.​

(Dam, I forgot the mylar again)​

Using a combo of Floras 3 part grow/micro/bloom with Diamond necter.
We are changing it to Flora Nova and Budswel Bat Guano. That will be easier to mix.
We were watering 1 hour 3 times a day. We changed that to 12 hours straight.​

We put the Snow White on one side and raised it up to the height of the dragon.
That’s why I converted the waterfarms to a drip system. Normally it’s a gravity feed.​

During the week my bud called me and said we got bugs. He got some pest strips.
That is the yellow stuff. I looked at them and we caught a few gnats is all. (I hope)​

Here we have a 1000k MH at 3100k color temp. Lamp is on an intelledrive mover.
It takes about ten minutes to go from one side to the other. We have more lights.
We have two 250w hps and a second MH. That’s a 400w with a 6500 color temp.​

We want to use them also and are thinking how to go about it.
What I am thinking is we attach the 400w to the 1000w and have both move.
Another option is a dual lamp reflector.
Sun Systems has one called Growzilla, the bulbs are side by side.
Sunlight Supply has one where both bulbs are centered and fixed on opposite ends.​

Then build a stand on each side and hang the two 250w HPS
Our flowering room will then have 1900 watts!​

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[cali-high]

i dont know i think i stress em out. i dont really have a stable place for mothers and clones so i think its stress. but that will change soon...

nice plants lets see some bud