My first indoor CFL grow in a Phototron 3000SX[Modified]

Hey guys and girls,

Hey guys, I had a crack at growing some green outdoors and did okay, so now moving onto trying to grow it inside.

A mate has lent me his Phototron 3000SX grow box. It has 3* 32W bent fluoros in it. Appears to be ~6000K.



I germinated a 8 seeds on the wet paper towel, and transplanted them to jiffy peat pellets. They all died so I just stuck new seeds in them jiffy peat pellets and put them in the phototron whilst I brainstormed how I was going to go about modifying this box to produce a successful yield.

22nd December(day 1): 8 seeds planted into jiffy pellets.


24th December(day 3): 1 popped out first, then another 2 popped out several hours later. By the end of the day, 6 out of the 8 made it!

26th December(day 5): fitted reflective insulation material of the insides of the phototron, leaving front window.

29th December(day : here they are, the root structure is starting to grow out of the mesh that holds the peat. I really must get a moving on the DWC set up I have planned.





The Plan:
---------
Fit 4 more cfl bulbs. Using 3 typical splitters on a fitting.
3*6500k 26W and 1*2700k for veg
4*2700k 26W for flowering
*I'm not sure if it's more cost effective to stick with a single 130W 2700k/6500k cfl grow light in combination with the 3 other 32W bent fluoros.



I have the following parts laying around which will be put to good use shortly.

100W SFF PSU
120mm fan(top exhaust fan)
4* 80mm fans on sides blowing in(might use more)
Automotive HID ballast and bulb. 4300k or 6000k have a 1 or 2 bulbs/ballasts laying around.

Plan was to connect all the fans up to the PSU, wire up the automotive HID to the PSU. And make a housing/reflector for HID bulb if it works.

Also have a 12V submersible pump rated @ 3L/min sitting around which I might use to make the system a combination of DWC and Aeroponic setup?

I'll be making just a simple bubbler system with about 5 netpots. I'll just use the jiffy pellets along with some hydrotron in the pots. I'll make sure the peat doesn't touch the reservoir nutrient water.

Will be purchasing a small weather station and a digital pH meter shortly.

That's it for now, I'll try post on a daily basis on my progress.

Any tips/constructive criticism/opinions would be appreciated!

Thanks all =]

get them in the dwc asap as many cfl as possible temp a 76* nothing above 90* or below ,60* humidity between 50%-60% fans for circulation, read up on ppm and ph buy meters. good luck.

30th DEC 2010(day 9): finally got to make this bubbler unit. Used a 8L black storage container with some Styrofoam and a air pump. Currently using DutchTreat as nutes.

Have ordered pH meter, PPM meter, Weather Station, 4 to 1 fitting for 4 CFL's.

So current total CFL wattage is 3*34W + 25W = 127W of ~6000K light.

When the fitting arrives, that should be up to 3*34W + 4*25W = 202W? Will that suffice?

2nd JAN 2011(day 12): have grown quite an amount, roots have started to show coming out through my home made net pots. keeping them on 24/0 for the last week or so. should i keep it down to 18/6 or something?

5th JAN 2001 (day 15th): Flushed the nutes water once already and been keeping pH around 5-6. Pretty good growth right now, since most roots are in contact with the nutes. Have changed to 20/4 due to leaves starting to curl.

Still waiting on more light fittings etc Reckon 8 26w bulbs are enough with the bent fluoros?.

I plan to have them flower in the phototron. Since there is limited space, should I force them to show their sex soon or should I leave them till about 70% of the height of the box and proceed with a full 24hrs of darkness, and switch to 12/12?

I'll try LST and document as i go.

Hey, nice set up you have going there. Maybe you could try a 18/6 light cycle next time around. It will help with root development. Also, try and get your lights closer to your plants if possible. It seems like there's quite a bit of stretching going on. But all in all you have a great set up going. Good luck!

-P10p

P10p: Cheers for kind words! I''ll try the 18/6 cycle tonight. How long should I keep that schedule for?

Yeh I raised it a bit for the pics, but usually its around 1-2" above the plants. The lone cfl is probably not doing much, but once my fittings arrive, it should be a massive difference.

6th JAN 2011 (day 16): Did some LST on all plants





7th JAN 2011 (day 17): Fimmed 3 plants. Checked the root growth.... unbelievable speed!

8th JAN 2011(Day 1: 1 day after FIMMING, root growth has been pretty awesome! still on the 18/6 cycle. Got my TDS Meter. initial reading was 168*10 PPM? is that right?








9th JAN 2011(Day 19): 2 days after FIMMING, Have flushed reservoir again increasing nutes dosage. Keeping pH below 6. Further LST'd the 3 plants that I have FIMMED.





10th JAN 2011(Day 20): 3 days after FIMMING, Some fittings have arrived for more CFL's. PPM is at 160*10.









I've been tempted to get a blackstar 240w LED grow light for the flowering stage and move them to my closet when they get to that stage whilst building another bubbleponic system in a larger reservoir. How do you go about moving the plants from a smaller pot to a larger one without damaging the roots?

Update:

12th JAN 2011(day 22): some more LST.





16th JAN 2011(day 26): some more LST and some root shots.









17th JAN 2011(day 27): took them out for a nutes flush and some more LST. roots are fused with each other! oops. they're getting cramped. will force them to flower soonish. I will be ordering a blackstar 240w LED grow light and move the set up into my wardrobe. Will clone a few before i switch to 12/12 and use the phototron for clone/vegging.








19th JAN 2011(day 29): picked up 4*80mm and one 120mm cpu fans and retro fitted the 80mm's to the side with the larger 120mm fan mounted on top as and exhaust fan. This was hooked up to a 100w sff psu.





My light fittings still haven't arrived yet so its been vegging in the phototron with only 127W.

Also fimmed 1 plant and topped 2 plants. but forgot to take pictures.