With a little help from our friends

Welcome all, I invite you all to my journey through the growth in my new BC Boombox. I am posting in this section so that I can receive feedback and help. I am new to hydroponic growing so your guidance would be much obliged! Lets start off with the current setup!
Setup:
BC Northern Lights Bloombox hydroponic setup with CO2
For those who have not seen this system here is a quick note about it
* 54"W x 51"H x 28"D
* Duel Chamber Veg.Flow Turn Key system with computer control
* 55,000 lumen
* check out BC Northern Lights for more info
NutraDrip PH & TDS Meter
Advanced Nutrients
Base:
Sensi Grow Part A & B
Sensi Bloom Part A & B
Others:
Final Phase
Jump Start
Liquid Carbo Load
PH Up & Down
B52
Dr Hornby Big Bud
VoDoo Juice
Bud Blood
We will be following the nutrient schedule posted below:
http://www.bcnorthernlights.com/manuals/Nutrient instructions Advanced.pdf

Strains: We will be growing 3 different strains: Medi Bud Feminized, Washington, and a seed we call T1 (g13 cross with god knows what but we like it we understand it isn't the greatest seed to grow in this type of system but what the hay!)

Grow Style: In a closed system like this we will be in veg until our kids are 5in high then we will be moving to the flowering cycle for about 7 weeks depending on how things are going

I will try to keep this grow updated as much as possible. I have included some pictures below to show the start process. We will begin as soon as our grow medium arrives!

A few questions I have for fellow growers:
1. We have placed a 32 gallon trashcan in the basement so that we can allow our water to sit and dechlorinate, should we ph balance this water or should we mix our nutrient solution and just balance that?

On to pictures! sorry for the long first post!
Cheers Valais

Today the seeds are currently going into ph 5.6 water for an overnight soak (12) hrs.
Tomorrow they will be placed into pre-soaked (20min) rock-wool 1in cubes and then placed into the clone dome. Our dark area clone dome setup consists of a clone done inside of 2 Rubbermaid clear tubes. One sits inside of one another with a fish tank heater placed in the bottom to control temperature and create a warm dark environment.



Cheers
Valais

Ahh weed for astronauts

Seriously though thats some space age growing cupboard man.
Very cool

Also is that the kind of box that uses those new digital fluro tubes that dont flicker in a certain way thats irritating to the plants with less heat or does it have some different kind of lighting?
You stated 55,000 lumens but not what kind of lamp produces it.

Fly me to the moon!
The light set up is divided into two cambers. On the right in the smaller chamber you have the 125w compact fluorescent light. It warms up a little faster and such but I am not sure it makes that big of a difference over other bulbs. In the flower i have a 430w HPS. Its a pretty good setup for the area and the amount being grown!
Cheers
Valais

What so those little computer fans are enough to cool a 430watt hps

Four Fans: 1 in the Vegetation Chamber draws fresh air into the
box. There’s 1 in the flowering chamber to push air out
through the coco-carbon filter and 2 within the glass-enclosed HPS lighting system. These fans work symbiotically to extract the heated air and maintain
the optimum growing temperature.
check out this link here it shows you everything that is has! There are some pretty neat features.
http://www.bcnorthernlights.com/manuals/Bloombox.pdf

God, that looks cool. If only I had a few grand to spend on a mom box and the producer.

What is the size of the flowering camber?Usally large plants take up 2sqft of space per plant for flowering,even at 1sqft pre plant you would need 9sqft:a3'x3' space;i dont see how you can FLOWER 9 plants in there.Are you planing on doing 9 plants.IMO I think clones would work way better in there.Good Luck&Stay Safe!!Ps they said you have 3' of vertical space,those are large plants imo.

Jan 24th-
The seeds have been soaking overnight and have now been placed into pre-soaked rock-wool cubes and placed in my clone done setup. I am using 2lt of ph 5.6 water mixed with 1tsp of advanced nutrients jump start. I will report back later when growth occurs.

Responses:
ronbud1963- I am not sure of the actual size of the flowering chamber, I will take my tape measure down there later. Maybe if bcnl would like to chime in he would know the exact dimensions. This is my first time growing in the box so I have quite a bit of a learning curb to overcome. As for how many I am going for 12 in veg and then putting my best 9 into flower. I will move then between 5 and 8 in from the veg to the flower. As far as the height and area needed per plant I am sure the more space the better but I believe BCNL did there research so I will trust them for this first grow. I am not here to transfer anyone to this system or to prove that it works I loved my hydrohut but I got an offer I could not refuse to give this a shot so here I am! I hope you stay around for the venture it should be a good one

Speedhabit- craigslist is your friend~!
Cheers
Valais

Hey Valais,

Thanks for doing this! What an exciting time for you. Unfortunately I can't really get involved in the growing discussion - don't ask, don't tell ya know? When you call support, just be sure to talk tomatoes and the guys will be able to answer any questions you might have about maximizing your success.

In terms of the lighting/cooling system, the 400W HPS/MH light is separated from the flowering chamber by tempered glass. The lighting set-up is independently cooled by two fans. Please note: You probably have a 400W bulb, which we standardized on but missed on some of the product spec sheets. The updated product spec sheets are here:

http://bcnorthernlights.com/manuals/bloombox.pdf

Good luck!

ronbud1963 said:

What is the size of the flowering camber?Usally large plants take up 2sqft of space per plant for flowering,even at 1sqft pre plant you would need 9sqft:a3'x3' space;i dont see how you can FLOWER 9 plants in there.Are you planing on doing 9 plants.IMO I think clones would work way better in there.Good Luck&Stay Safe!!Ps they said you have 3' of vertical space,those are large plants imo.

Click to expand...

Interior dimensions of the flowering chamber are 36-27-34. We recommend that properly vegetated plants be kicked over to the flowering side when they hit about 10-12 inches.

natmoon said:

What so those little computer fans are enough to cool a 430watt hps

Click to expand...

Not computer fans. Same design only bigger and more powerful.

Bc-
I am growing tomatos I thought we were suppose to transfer to flower when they were 8in. I am having a bit of trouble establishing 5.6ph with the meter. I add not even a full drop using a dropper and the ph just goes wild either up or down. How accurate do I need to be It took me about an hour last night to get even close to 5.6 after trying on about 10 different water samples
Cheers
Valais

Congrats on the the Bloombox!!! I got one and I love it!!! If you are going from seed I would kick those plants over to the flower chamber at about 5" to 6" inches, and give them 36 hours of darkness (recommended to me by bcnl) before firing up the flowering chamber. I switched my 5 AK-47 tomatoe plants over when they were about 8" to 10" inches tall and they outgrew the box!!! The light couldn't penitrate the thick canopy which was growing against the top glass and all of the tomatoes in the middle got burned because of the heat. This time around I'm flowering 9 clones as soon as they root Sea Of Green style. I don't post a lot but I'm always watching. Good Luck!!

Hound
Thanks for the post man its good to here from fellow owners. By 36 hours what do you mean? I will transfer them at about 6in just keep following along and point out anything you think i should do differently hopefully we can both get our tomatos to be nice and juicy
cheers
valais

One of the BCNL guys told me that the 36 hours of darkness is supposed to help the plants kick into flowering sooner so they won't stretch as much. My girls were bending on the glass 30 days into flowering. I have also heard that the Bud Blood from Advanced Nutrients will help minimize stretch.

Hound Dog have you tried this 36 hour darkness,if so did it seem to minimize the strech?valais you got this from craigs list?Anyway the best of luck to you,valais i hope enerything goes as planed.Good Luck&Stay Safe!!

No, I have not tried this yet, but I am planning on doing it for my second grow.

Hound
When do you put them into 36 hours of darkness and for how long haha sorry I am still not understanding when in the process you do this and why.
Cheers
valais

valais said:

Hound
When do you put them into 36 hours of darkness and for how long haha sorry I am still not understanding when in the process you do this and why.
Cheers
valais

Click to expand...

36 hours of darkness between the switch from the 18/6 to the 12/12 light cycle. Basically just shut the lights off the last day the plants are in the veg chamber. Supposedly the extended period of darkness before the switch to the 12/12 light cycle will jump start the plants into the flowering phase. I plan on doing this for my next grow along with flushing my plants with plain ph'd water for the 36 hours of darkness. This way when I switch them into the flowering chamber they will be depleted of their veg nutrients and hungry for the bloom nutes. Hopefully this will cut down on the plant stretching to the glass the first couple weeks of the flowering cycle.

The Bud Blood (on your nutes list) from Advanced Nutrients is also supposed to help jump start the plants into the flowering phase.