Chronikool'z Stripped lite Peep Show™

So as promised i have a PC grow i have been experimenting with. Slow going i must say, but i m in no hurry, and i get to incorporate the 'mainlining technique'. YUSS!

I think i started this on the 1st of August, but i cannot be sure, so 2 months today

This plant has so far endured: Nutrient burn, numerous changes in the lighting schedule and a moving of house.

A few points of for my LED grow:

I posted my PC grow here because im pro LED, and it seems as if CFL rules in the 'Stealth' section.

• CFL's are hot in a such a small space.
• CFL's are bulky and you need all the space you can muster in a PC grow.
• Less needs for fans. (I have a intake and exhaust for air circulation only)
• No power board inside my case.
• Circuitry away from plants.
• Light bombardment all round the case.
• No heat burn or light bleaching.
• With strip lighting, you can customize to your own PC/Cab/Micro grow.
• The PC metal acts as giant heatsink so that the LED strips remain reliable and bright.

I havent seen any strip lighting implemented on any grows. A micro grow allows the light to get close so it doesnt have to have the penetration power of 'regular' LED's.

Materials Used:

• Old PC Case (40cm long x 35cm high x 20cm wide) Standard Case
• Aluminum Foil tape
• Mylar
• Cardboard
• Glue
• Extra wire for lights and fans
• 2 x PC fans (80mm and 120mm)
• 1 x 5m 5050 SMD 3000-3500K LED strip light
• 1 x 5m 5050 SMD 5500-6000K LED strip light
• 2 x 72w power supply's 12/240v
• 2 x wire adapters
• Insulation tape
• Timer

Note: i actually had a 7000-7500k LED strip in there, but decided this wasnt the spectrum i wanted.

Growing Medium and equipment:

• 2 Litre pots with numerous holes in the bottom and sides, (like a smart pot hybrid i guess)
• 
• General potting mix
• 1 Teaspoon of 'Ocean solids'
• 1 Teaspoon of 'Rok Solid'
• 2 Teaspoons of Garden Lime.
• Jiffy7 peat pellets to start seeds. (Unknown seeds, i will call them 'Martian Relic' )

Construction:

So going off pretty much every other grow case i have seen, i went to town taking everything out of it.......and im bored just writing this....well you know the rest...

Here are some photos to illustrate crap:

My old faithful...gutted.


Cardboard to fill grates in case and help isolate fan noise. Covered with Mylar and glued.


Foil tape to plug holes and cover wires


placement of wires, then covered with tape


Light tests with one then both strips on:



Growing:

Ok, on with the more interesting stuff: (cant give you exact dates as i was moving at this time)

Started with 12/12 lighting to get sex quicker.

DAY 6, 7 , 8: (12/12)Started with 3 'Martian Relics' 2 x germinated, 1 died slightly after. So i was left with 1 tall ugly (lack of light after germination)



DAY 22. (12/12) So transplanted into 2 litre pot and noticed nute burn after a few days. Flushed with water. You can just see the endings of it on the far left and bottom leaves. Not a great start!


DAY 24. (12/12) Recovery almost complete



DAY 28: (12/12)



Day 34: (12/12) Topped for the 1st time



DAY 34-45: Somewhere in the middle of this time noticed the female pre flowers, so changed to 20/4 light schedule

Day 45: (20/4) Got rid of bottom leaves, bit of a clean up



Time to MAINLINE!



DAY 58: (20/4) Topped for 4.


DAY 62: (20/4) Growing well. Will have to trim soon.




NUTRIENTS:

Watering with MBL, Mycorrcin Plus, Liquid vermicast and molasses

So that brings you up to date with the grow thus far.

Not sure if im going to top for 8 or keep it at 4, or when im going to go 12/12 again? Thoughts?

Super cool thread, I do love me some pictorials with explanation. Keep it up!
Subbed,
ILovePlants

2 x 72W power supply's 12/240v

Click to expand...

lot of light in that box...

Nice little passtime..

Super cool PC box you've rigged up. Do you have a link to those led strips?

First MJ-powered Pc i see
Must be better than AMD or Intel...

guod said:

lot of light in that box...

Click to expand...

Yeah the 2 x 72w power supply's were a bit overkill. The strip lights arent drawing that much power. I will find tomorrow.

L33tGanjaMan said:

Nice little passtime..

Click to expand...

Yeah, kind of forced into a micro grow. As long as i can still play, im happy.

boedhaspeaks said:

First MJ-powered Pc i see
Must be better than AMD or Intel...

Click to expand...

Much better...it constantly upgrades itself.

puffenuff said:

Super cool PC box you've rigged up. Do you have a link to those led strips?

Click to expand...

Cheerz mate. Hmmmmm...not sure exactly...All chinese crud, so im sure the quality is pretty much the same: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5050-LED-Strip-SMD-Flexible-light-60led-m-300-5M-waterproof-warm-white-red-green-blue/618046606.html


Thankz for all your compliments team. So should i top/trim again to make 8? or even 16?

I say go with 8 perfectly spaced colas, I feel like you have a fair amount of side lighting, and larger buds would be able to use them, plus it's a pc so it's fucking tiny. On the other hand maybe 16 would be fine. If you don't have time constraints I say the more the merrier, but I wouldn't really try to push too many budsites in an area that small. You could end up growing more leaves than there are buds. Whatever you do, make sure that during flowering you will not outgrow your space. Do you know how much stretch you are expecting upon flowering? That would be what most influenced my personal decision. Hopefully it's a zero stretch strain, they usually still grow up a couple inches and just fill in.
Good luck,
ILovePlants

Thanks Iloveplants, yeah im on no time constraint and i think that i will go 16, hell i've tortured her this much, may as well take her to the brink! If i get my ties correct, i might be able to manipulate her around the PC

As for the 'perfected spaced colas' hmmm....yeah dont think it is going to be that even, but i have the manifold correct, so we will see.

Putting the power meter up on it, and i see in it is drawing 80 watts (including power supply's and fans) But i wanted to have 2 separate power supply's as it was easier to wire.

So it is now trimmed for 8. Might wait another week to trim for 16.

DAY 66 (20/4)

Photos before the trim. Kind of taking on a diamond shape.



I am beginning to see why i named this plant 'Martian Relic', it is quite alien in appearance (probably because i funked with it so much) I have little mercy!



Trimmed for 8 and Re-pipe cleanered down



Also, not sure when to switch to flower, i guess once i've trimmed for 16?

Not really sure what i am doing with this. It is pruned for 8 and i might just leave it as is. Can always train it out to the side, so room wont be a problem.

Will see what it is doing in the coming week.

DAY 71: (20/4)




DAY 72: (20/4)

Triimed a few more fan leaves off.



Am thinking i will flip it back to 12/12.

JEEZE IM ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Heres a Photo from a few weeks ago. Flipped back to 12/12 then.



And today.....


They are actually awesome little bud sites. No smell, she has probably half given up...Poor little bitch has to put up with me as a carer...


Not sure what day this is. just letting it do its thing. See if i can get something out of it.

Kind of got my mind on the outdoor season now. (see sig for the start)

Struggling along....She is in no hurry....

Fuck yes man, I've always loved PC grows. Always wanted to make one for any breeding projects down the road.

Thats not a bad idea Alex....I was wondering what i am going to do with this, once my Cabinet is in full swing...(but thats another thread..)

I guess it would become like a shitty dirty motel for 2 potential mates to make babies...

Thanks Jubiare. Appreciate it. You and a couple of other 'old forum identities' got me started on my journey when i arrived here earlier this year.

I have another grow in the pipeline that i will need advice with from you and a few other regulars.

Should be a go-go in about a month. But its all unchartered for me!

^^^^hmmmmm this sounds interesting.......are you still gonna use led's "for the masses"???

Hahaha...yeah, a bit more organised this time though.....my other attempt was madness!

NOTE TO ALL: Do not use nylon line to hang lights from! I got tangled at one point and that was the longest 2 days in a grow closest i have ever spent...hahaha

A couple more pictures for the day. Got about 4 more weeks then im forced to pull...

Your grow is coming along really nicely. What's your light wattage? have you changed it since the start?