SciFi's Bunkrupt Durban X ? Hybrid, First Grow Ever 2010

[SciFi]

Are buckets a pain? I was wondering about that.. I need to pickup some rockwhool to really try that.. Transplanting my soilless to hydroton didn't go so well last time. These two are getting HUGE, heh.. One of thems stalk is almost is big around as my finger. I've got two more sprouts growing about an inch tall now.

Seriously? I shouldn't be giving them GH nuets every time I water them? I have been, and I'm up to 80% strength now for the 3-2-1 formula.

I picked up a 150W HPS.. Wait till you see this ghetto ballast box I made. Heh.

 

[onthe420train]

DWC is a pain haha, buckets are easier than tubs for some of us.

 

[musikgenman]

I'm no expert on soil grows, but from what i've read on other forums and grow logs, if you start in soil...end in soil.
So far I've read that you very easily give the plants nute burn if you feed the plants with everywatering. Supposedly you are supposed to maintain a schedule of watering with plain water, 2-3 days later(depending on how dry soil is) you water with water and food(nutes), then with plain water, then with food, then with plain water then with food, that way you are able to wash away any extra nutes and you reduce the chance of bad things happening in the soil, like nutrient build up.

Yeah keep reading yo, the fun stuff for you will start to begin soon and everything starts moving faster LOL

 

[SciFi]

Hmm.. I've literally used nuets every feeding.. But I'm not using soil.. It's soilless mix and it drains very quickly. I have to water them daily else they dry out very quickly, and I've gotten used to the routine of not soaking them. I'm using General Hydroponics 3-2-1 ratios, and I seem to be doing well with it.

Pictures to come.

 

[SciFi]

HPS does some weird shit to cameras... Crappy camera thou.
I got a 150W HPS, and built a remote ballast for it.

3 days old and this seedling's bottom root already pierced the 5" peat pot!

Here's a low profile portable DC fan for camping.. I wired it to a DC adapter and it works rather nice.

50 CFM bathroom fan from a hardware store for $13!

Dumping into this homemade carbon scrubber... I'm rather disappointed at the performance thou. Still smellin' up the house.. Think I'll try roseman's bucket.

 

[onthe420train]

right on good job with the wiring. first grow i wired up a 1000w hps haha I wouldn't recommend that it can give you a hell of a shock and get really really hot.

 

[musikgenman]

ok, right on, you know i read that it was soilless skimmed over your intro and saw pics and thought soil, my bad. Anyhow sorry about the dwc buckets, as i take a second looks its apparent why that didn't work out now. I have a family member as a reference, he bought me an Ed Rosenthal book, reffered me to a couple forums, then I found 420mag and fell in love. Anyhow He considers the peatmoss and vermeculite and what not an expensive soil. I'm sure there is room for debate there...anyhow if you want DWC to work out in the future you should get a different medium to start the seeds in, I think its pretty much hands down that coco or rockwool is the way to go there. Which you mentioned already that you wanna get some rockwool, so im sure you'll have better results.
As far as the carbon scrubber, i have a charcoal filter and wind tunnel fan for my exhaust, they work great but I gotta admit, it didn't work out as well as I thought until I realized that there were still small air leaks around my closet and it helped alot throughout the house and all, and even the air coming out of the vent on the outside of my house doesn't exhaust any smelling air, but in the basement it does slowly fill up with a lingering smell, i've tried putting stripping around my door to try to seal it into my room but the smell seems to seep through electrical sockets. Now it works well enough that people who come over of course can't tell at all so thats good.

I'll shut up now and take a seat, I do love watching budget grows develop!

Musik

 

[SciFi]

Thanks on the wiring. I've got an electronics background actually.

Weeelp.. I've got a DIY GH bucket now from a GH farm kit + bucket + a huge ass net pot that replaces the lid.... This could get interesting for my next grow. I also picked up some Hormex #8 and some rockwhool alternatives that are ph neutral, so it's time to research cloning. Even if one of these two turn out to be a male, I can practice cloning.

 

[SciFi]

Cloned the plant on the left from a low lying branch into a ph adjusted peat plug.. Put it in the GH Farm clone using Hormex #8 near a dripper spot but not under it... it'll occasionally splash it. I'm wondering if it's not time to transplant again.. 5G buckets this time I think, but I need a shit ton more soilless or I'll have to some up with something.. Perhaps 5G sack pots and coco surrounding the current ball roots?

 

[onthe420train]

I just ordered sack pots. they are kinda pricy eh you know where to get them cheaper than smart pots?

 

[SciFi]

You mean just the plastic planting bags yes? 10G are ~ .95c at the local shop in town...

 

[SciFi]

Picked up a 400W MH ballast and bulb for $40 used. It's in an industrial wireproof box, so I'll have to pickup some 90C wire and rewire the mogul end for a remote ballast.

And jesus.. do all MH ballast hum like that? O_O

The bulb is used but it's still so bright I can't look at it.


It's hottest temp is right around ~430F where as the single 23W CFL is 140F...

So let's do some math to see how much heat would be radiated for an assumed mean of lumens for the 400W MH, and see what the comparisons would be for the same amount of lumens in each bulb type.

1 x 400W MH (4100K) @ 4A == 430F @ 23,500L == 58.75L/W (Remember.. I don't know how old the bulb is so I'm using the average mean for the life of the bulb from the datasheets.. this isn't assuming it's new)


15 x 23W (4100K color)CFL @ 15 x 230mA == 15 x 140F @ 15 x 1600L (24000L) == 69.5L/W (This is assuming the theoretical MAX initial of the CFL according to the datasheet)

Somehow... I'm not sure 15 lights wouldn't be hotter then the single 400W... Quick someone break out their thermal dynamics calculator!

 

[musikgenman]

I say go ahead and start using the 400w MH(looking forward to your reflector) it is going to give you soooo much better results rather than just using cfls. I personally think there is nothing wrong with putting cfls in between plants(especailly when they are ten inches and taller) even under HPS or MH lights. The intensity of the MH bulb cannot be matched by the CFLs therefore its a perfect overhead light. just my .02 cents

im sure you'll take care of the extra heat.

Musik

 

[onthe420train]

15 lights would not put out the same heat as a metal halide because of the temperature a fluorescent operates at versus the temperature a mh operates at.

 

[SciFi]

I was pointing out that you have a much larger surface area for 15 CFLs vs 1 MH/HPS of the same amount of lumen. I theorize 100^2 inches of glass radiating heat at 150 degrees would warm the air the same amount as 50^2 inches of glass radiating heat at 300 degrees.. I'll have to ask my physics friend how thermal dynamics work in that regard.


Umm... Rootbound?

After the transplant to a 5 gallon..

From the side..

The sideways mutant..

I hope they show their pre-flowers soon. I need to know!

Heh.. The wee little one didn't get any pictures this time, but... it's not so wee, anymore!

 

[onthe420train]

ehhh if you are just looking at surface area and a factor of two you would be right but its not that simple. metal halides run a little closer to 1,000F, at least the big ones that I've used. If you touch the bulb, after its been on for a while, with anything that will burn or melt, it will most likely burn or melt. CFLs just aren't like that at all. Also you mean 15 cfl and 1 mh have the same wattage usage, a 400w mh has something around 35,000 lumen measured output while 15 cfl (1200 each) is closer to 18,000.

 

[SciFi]

I pulled out my thermometer and measured mine. My MH runs 400W @ 450F at 20K lumens... My CFLs were about a third of that but only 1600 lumens per....

 

[musikgenman]

Well Sci-Fi im assuming you measured the air around the bulb not the actual bulb. The air around the bulb will be cooler, by alot.

Musik

 

[onthe420train]

Ok the CFLs have more like 2/3 the output of the MH with approximately 15x the spread, but I would say they have 1/20 of the canopy penetration and 10x the workload to keep them close enough to be effetive.

 

[SciFi]

Right.. there's lots of factors that go into calculating the heat from different types of bulbs it turns out. Incandescents are easy since they're so inefficient, but other types have different Watt to heat exchanges. 100W incans, dissipate nearly 99% as heat.

The girls are about 13-15"s tall now and the seedling is growing like mad. Pics to come.