GroVault Hard Dial in and Grow

[farmer.ed]

I am setting up a grovault with an extra module making it a 4 x 8 x 8. This thing is tall enough to grow serious trees inside.

I will be building out a custom RDWC system to fit inside the unit and add some NFT in a U shape around the inside walls. To start off, I am moving in some moms and dial in the atmospheric conditions and optimize the lighting.

I am going to light the vault with an induction light which uses 400 watts and replaces a 1000w + a 400w HPS and runs very cool around 95f. We have tested it from seed to flower and it works great. So this is test #2 for the light, this time it is inside a room not open space. I will also have a 600w MH on a Nextgen digital ballast in an old hydrofarm reflector for those that need a bit more light.

I will be using a whole line up of Heavy 16 products, 2 part nutes and foliar sprays. I also plan to use biochar as the medium with hygromite as the aggregate.

Other items to be used :
Swimming pool chiller
Icebox 6" heat exchanger
Biowave Greenhouse model subsonic wave generator
Supreme 1200 gph mag drive pump
Alita AL-100 air pump

I am quite sure there will be other additions once the actual system is built into the box.

Here are a few pics of the box being put together, it took 22 minutes to assemble and required no tools at all. The box is very heavy though, it weighs in around 170 lbs per unit so it required the help of a much taller uninjured friend to assist. The roof load is around 150lbs according to the manufacturers.

 

[Hogdady]

imagine that. it does look like a vault.....

 

[farmer.ed]

Here are a few pics of the first girls moving into the vault so we can start seeing how it all works and find the tweaks.

 

[farmer.ed]

Hey Hogdady

It is an interesting piece of work and I can actually say it so over engineered I don't know what to do to it yet. Each lock on the front doors has it's own keys (have to color code those little buggers). It is built with some pretty strong SH*T, I climbed on top and it did not flex, I am 197 lbs.

 

[Hogdady]

Looks like Pelican built it...

 

[farmer.ed]

Much better, I assure you, it has some really top quality aluminum male / female joints which are from Germany, as is the super reflective white interior. The only thing missing is the pelican "O" ring seals (Probably next model will have it if they read this). The plastic used is a ballistics grade, it was originally used for aircraft cockpit doors to keep out unwanted intruders with box cutters. One very important feature of this box is that it is close to R37 insulated, we will check out this claim with a FLIR camera and see if it truly is invisible.

 

[Hogdady]

R37? damn...

 

[farmer.ed]

I don't know the exact number, we will be finding that out real quick though and report back. From what I have been told it does not show up on any screens in the cockpit. I will take some better detailed pics of the joints and stuff. All I can say is I have been working in tents for years and my bad back hated bending over in the tents, this thing is 8' 2 " I think. I will save up for another few modules and build in a set of light movers.

 

[Xlr8]

I don't know the exact number, we will be finding that out real quick though and report back. From what I have been told it does not show up on any screens in the cockpit. I will take some better detailed pics of the joints and stuff. All I can say is I have been working in tents for years and my bad back hated bending over in the tents, this thing is 8' 2 " I think. I will save up for another few modules and build in a set of light movers.

Hey farmer - this thing is really flippin' cool. I wish I had the cheddar for one of these with an expansion, but it's not in my budget at the moment. Something I'll definitely keep in mind for the future, though. Hope you're doing well. Don't be lugging any of this stuff around with your back! You don't want to end up needing additional surgeries (trust me!)

 

[HempRocket]

That thing does look cool. Will follow

 

[MadMardo]

Im in because you make me think of Ice Cream

 

[medicine21]

Wow, okay. Sickest portable grow room I've ever seen. What does the "Biowave Greenhouse model subsonic wave generator do" for the plants?

 

[farmer.ed]

Thanks XLR8, they are not cheap at all, but they are the most comprehensive grow box I have ever tested. I am going to put lots of toys in this box and grow massive trees! I have been installing tents for years and this thing has room all the way up to 8 " and beats ANY tent hands down (sorry guys I used to really like your products).

Welcome Hemprocket, you took the words out of my mouth when I saw it, it could have been a potting shed or a tanning booth, I would have still tried to grow in it)

Mad Mardo welcome, sorry no ice cream here just good old cannabis, we may get around to ice cream later (I will share my Abraxas coffee-shop hash milkshake recipe).

Hey Medicine, it is pretty sick, much more than I was expecting in engineering. On to the biowave, well the only thing i have learned about it is it makes a cool noise and I sleep really well with it on. It also helps to open the stomata with subsonic wave generation, this excites the stoma and helps it to uptake mass amounts of Co2 and to expel a bit of O2. I do not think it would be good for long term use, but in moderation it should be just fine. This is our second test with it, I will run a more controlled grow this time and pay better attention to the actual results. In our last test, we just had it run every 30 minutes for 4 minutes (old NFT timer). This time I am setting it into sequence to my room fogging and the CO2 balancing.

I will get some better pics and start sharing the plans for the built in RDWC system so everyone can see it from concept "cocktail napkin" to prototype to finished process. This is the rough draft of the system which I will custom build into the Grovault. The res will be below deck as well all plumbing and pumps, so when the doors are opened, just a nice white surface with 8 x 10 gal sites exposed.

 

[FuzzyGrnMnstr]

That thing is insane! And I thought my GrowLab was bad ass, it feels like you peed in my cheerio's.. Although I could go for that hash milkshake.

 

[farmer.ed]

Strawberry Fields Hash Milkshake

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1 cup whole milk (not low fat or skimmed. fat is important here)
1/2 gram of kief or blond hash (do not use bubble hash)
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]6 scoops strawberry ice cream
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

Options
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1/8 teaspoon strawberry kush tincture
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1 tablespoon strawberry ice cream topping
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]1 tablespoon whipped cream,
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Fresh strawberries, sliced,
[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Directions
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
[/FONT]​

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Take the hash shave it to powder and mix into the cup of milk and warm on stove to just below boiling. Mix quickly so there are no clumps. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Let mixture cool in fridge for 1 hr. Combine the milk hash mix, sugar and ice cream in blender and blend until smooth.

Add strawberry kush tincture to strawberry topping, warm in microwave for 40 seconds and let cool, that should take away the alcohol taste and leave a sweet syrup that will make you lose track of time and space.

Garnish with whipped topping and sliced strawberries and break any plans you have for the rest of the day.[/FONT]

Enjoy

 

[MadMardo]

Hahaha thats awesome Farmer.ed. made my day

 

[farmer.ed]

Hi everyone, I just finished running through my temp and humidity logs for the week. I made a rigorous inspection of all plants for bugs, dryness, dehydration, over lighting etc. I have 31 plants, flowers, ferns and trees inside to see what likes the vault best. So far everything loves the stable temp and even humidity. I have been between 72-81% humidity and temps 74-81f, I am running one (400 watt) induction light and no ventilation.

So far residual water build up on walls is extremely low, I have not found any wet spots yet. I have not had to water the plants at all this week, so water consumption is super low. I will put a kw timer on the room to see what the overall consumption is on the power meter. I will post some pics, but I will have to move the other plants out first to avoid editing.

For the first week I am very happy so far. I am setting up a hydro hut silver edition tent along side to see what the differences are in overhead cost and time management figures weigh against initial cost of each.

I will be working on the final drawings for the internal system of the grovault and will walk through the entire process of manufacturing the concept from tooling to final product, yes it will all be done in sunny southern California, all 100% made in USA. With any luck the first design will work and it can actually go into production. Murphy's law always seems to prevail here and system tweaking usually takes quite a few months to work out all the bugs.

I am working on a custom climate control system design for the vault, I want to be able to plumb the vault right into my home AC and place a wireless thermostat inside the vault sending to my HVAC unit directly with a small PLC. I will outline this controller with off the shelf plug and play parts readily available online items.

 

[711grower]

what type of light are you using???

 

[HempRocket]

He's got a 400W plasma induction light I believe.

 

[farmer.ed]

Hey 711, Hemp Rocket was close it is an induction light from Full spectrum lighting. My friend Matt the Grow guy came up with the idea a few years after Tesla. The light is on it's third trial right now and so far everyone is happy with the results. The light will be available soon, they are redesigning the reflector hood. I have enclosed a blurb which sort of explains the induction light technology. All I can say is start saving to start really saving with your next crop. This is MY first rodeo with the induction light, so I am just as excited to see the results from my girls. I have been around the light for over a year, and have seen the very first trials, I was impressed. When these lights are available I will certainly let everyone know. If interested please PM me and I will put you in contact with the company, prices will be around $600 for a base 400w unit (100,000 hr bulb). This may be the last bulb I ever buy.

Induction Light

"An induction light is similar to a fluorescent light in that mercury in a gas fill inside the bulb is excited, emitting UV radiation that in turn is converted into visible white light by the phosphor coating on the bulb. Like fluorescent, the phosphor coating determines the color qualities of the light. Fluorescent lamps use electrodes to strike the arc and initiate the flow of current through the lamp, which excites the gas fill. Each time voltage is supplied by the ballast and the arc is struck, the electrodes degrade a little, eventually causing the lamp to fail. Induction lamps do not use electrodes. Instead of a ballast, the system uses a high-frequency generator with a power coupler. The generator produces a radio frequency magnetic field to excite gas fill. With no electrodes, the lamp lasts longer. Induction lamps, in fact, last up to 100,000 hours, with the lamp producing 70% of its light output at 60,000 hours. In other words, their rated life is 5-13 times longer than metal halide (7,500 to 20,000 hours at 10 hours/start) and about seven times longer than T12HO fluorescent (at 10 hours/start)."