Graehstone
Active Member
Hello there kindred spirits, my name is Graehstone on the net and I am a disabled Vet that lives in the SoCal area and I suffer from Degenerative Disc disease, Scheuermanns disease, Scoliosis, Migraines
I have been a MMJ Patient for some time and due to living in a single income household it is difficult to be able to afford the Meds needed to be able to go through the day as a Man and not an Invalid hunchback.
The Narcotics I am on just make certain things worse but I am sure most of you already know the stories that go along with sentences that start like that.
I can very easily imagine many other folks being in the same boat that I found myself in as far as affordability or even availability of Meds goes and that being that there were none or if so waaaay out of my price range.
So a very intelligent dear friend of mine came up with a (at least I think it is) brilliant idea on how I might be able to fix my problem.
Ideally I would love for someone to rent us, for very long term, a little house where the wife and I can live happily ever after and grow my own meds and veggies and you know the little Cottage house from fairy tales sigh, lol, but seeing as how we live in a two bedroom apartment that kind of puts a little damper on things.
This closet growing was something new to me but I was soon to be amazed.
Its not really in a closet but rather a 50 gallon barrel that was painted white on the inside with a few strategically placed holes for hardware and ventilation, a false bottom to hold the water reservoir, and that is a very simplified version of what I got.
The entire thing sits inside the cardboard box that the Fridge came in and is in one corner of my bedroom.
There is also (just in case) a smoke detector and two timers, one for the lights and one for the watering system.
The temperature inside the barrel has never exceeded 26 degrees Celsius even on very hot days.
The electricity that I am using "extra" made almost no noticeable difference on my bill with this system either.
For those of you more technically inclined, here is what it consists of.
Lighting: One 150w HPS (high pressure sodium) lamp in a 4 wide cool tube
Three 40w 20 floro tubes (6500 Kelvin for blue spectrum enhancement)
Air circulation: One 120mm, 55 CFM, extra quiet 12v fan cooling the HPS cool tube
Two 92mm, CFM 12v fans exhausting out of the top of the barrel.
Nutrient delivery: Six distribution line manifold powered by a 2500cc per min Hagen air pump.
Now lots of you are going to go Ahhh, and I see, and stuff like that, then there are those (like I did) that are going Heh? Does it work?
And I have to answer with a resounding Yes it does!
And heres proof.
Here is the basic set-up, just a converted 50 gallon barrel:
Strategically placed holes for ventilation and the other workings:
Two views from the inside:
Note that everything inside is painted white:
My little sign that I made with my Dremel (cool huh?, lol) and a view of the set-up open:
Here is what is inside on the bottom of the Barrel (reservoir for the water with "stilts" (cans filled with "good water" to keep everything elevated a bit)
Here is what we will call week Zero, the first day the clones went in:
After one week:
Two weeks:
Three weeks:
Four weeks old now:
Week Five:
Week Six and thriving:
Week number 7 and approx 28 days into the flowering stage:
I will update once every week till Harvest ...
Flowers day 35
Day 38 just for grins:
Don't know why the pics are so crappy here, but at least you get the idea.
Day 42 ... and in one of them you can see where the tip got a little too close to the tube and burned a bit, but other than that ...
Day 49
Well my first grow and harvest with the Barrel are done and we are pleased with what we have accomplished. The goal was to hit three ounces with the six plants in it and we got pretty darn close.
You have to realize that I made several mistakes along the way ... like a bulb went out and I didn't notice it soon enough and the pump went out once too, and ... and ... just dummy mistakes and the like, which ended up with some of them not growing to their potential.
The end harvest was 2.8 ounces and we are shooting for four with the next one.
The markings on the jars are old ones and not what was grown this time.
Thanks to everyone for their interest in our Barrel project.
I will see about getting a second "journal" for my second grow going sometime too providing anyone is interested.
Peace-Pot-Microdot
The Narcotics I am on just make certain things worse but I am sure most of you already know the stories that go along with sentences that start like that.
I can very easily imagine many other folks being in the same boat that I found myself in as far as affordability or even availability of Meds goes and that being that there were none or if so waaaay out of my price range.
So a very intelligent dear friend of mine came up with a (at least I think it is) brilliant idea on how I might be able to fix my problem.
Ideally I would love for someone to rent us, for very long term, a little house where the wife and I can live happily ever after and grow my own meds and veggies and you know the little Cottage house from fairy tales sigh, lol, but seeing as how we live in a two bedroom apartment that kind of puts a little damper on things.
This closet growing was something new to me but I was soon to be amazed.
Its not really in a closet but rather a 50 gallon barrel that was painted white on the inside with a few strategically placed holes for hardware and ventilation, a false bottom to hold the water reservoir, and that is a very simplified version of what I got.
The entire thing sits inside the cardboard box that the Fridge came in and is in one corner of my bedroom.
There is also (just in case) a smoke detector and two timers, one for the lights and one for the watering system.
The temperature inside the barrel has never exceeded 26 degrees Celsius even on very hot days.
The electricity that I am using "extra" made almost no noticeable difference on my bill with this system either.
For those of you more technically inclined, here is what it consists of.
Lighting: One 150w HPS (high pressure sodium) lamp in a 4 wide cool tube
Three 40w 20 floro tubes (6500 Kelvin for blue spectrum enhancement)
Air circulation: One 120mm, 55 CFM, extra quiet 12v fan cooling the HPS cool tube
Two 92mm, CFM 12v fans exhausting out of the top of the barrel.
Nutrient delivery: Six distribution line manifold powered by a 2500cc per min Hagen air pump.
Now lots of you are going to go Ahhh, and I see, and stuff like that, then there are those (like I did) that are going Heh? Does it work?
And I have to answer with a resounding Yes it does!
And heres proof.
Here is the basic set-up, just a converted 50 gallon barrel:
Strategically placed holes for ventilation and the other workings:
Two views from the inside:
Note that everything inside is painted white:
My little sign that I made with my Dremel (cool huh?, lol) and a view of the set-up open:
Here is what is inside on the bottom of the Barrel (reservoir for the water with "stilts" (cans filled with "good water" to keep everything elevated a bit)
Here is what we will call week Zero, the first day the clones went in:
After one week:
Two weeks:
Three weeks:
Four weeks old now:
Week Five:
Week Six and thriving:
Week number 7 and approx 28 days into the flowering stage:
I will update once every week till Harvest ...
Flowers day 35
Day 38 just for grins:
Don't know why the pics are so crappy here, but at least you get the idea.
Day 42 ... and in one of them you can see where the tip got a little too close to the tube and burned a bit, but other than that ...
Day 49
Well my first grow and harvest with the Barrel are done and we are pleased with what we have accomplished. The goal was to hit three ounces with the six plants in it and we got pretty darn close.
You have to realize that I made several mistakes along the way ... like a bulb went out and I didn't notice it soon enough and the pump went out once too, and ... and ... just dummy mistakes and the like, which ended up with some of them not growing to their potential.
The end harvest was 2.8 ounces and we are shooting for four with the next one.
The markings on the jars are old ones and not what was grown this time.
Thanks to everyone for their interest in our Barrel project.
I will see about getting a second "journal" for my second grow going sometime too providing anyone is interested.
Peace-Pot-Microdot
