Hi, and welcome to Forbidden's Forbidden Fruit Glog, v2.1
This will be my third grow, the second got cut off, so we're at v2.1.0 I'd say. V3.0 will likely be my experiments with aeroponics or similar. This is my first attempt since 2009.
I will be doing an indoor grow using the deep water culture (DWC) hydroponic method, eventually adding closed loop feedback control on different environmental variables.
I am currently framing in a room that's about 11'x8'x8'. I have run lots of power, 2x3 gang 20A GFCI plugs wired into two separate 20A breakers on the east wall, 2x2 gang 20A GFCI plugs in the ceiling into two more 20A breakers, and 2 gang 20A plugs on the two side walls and a 1g 20a on the remaiming wall, all gfci outlets and shpull have about 60A available through the room (7200w@120v) and have considered the idea of switching ballasts over to 240v and running their plugs at 240v to lower the effective amperage. Cat5e is run into several network drops on the wall for computers and controls. There is a cold water tap run inside the room as well. We should have the room sealed & poly'd, insulated and drywalled by tomorrow.
We have a 125 CAN Filter and an 8 inch stealth fan rated at 725cfm, but after reading the recommendations on the side of the can, I may use something more powerful or two, this is actually one aspect I am seeking elder advice for, we will vent the room out into a tee into the existing dryer vent for most exhaust. It was suggested I recirculate the excess as well and even cross ventilate the (eventual) two chambers. Remember, I also have 4x8" Cool Tubes that will also be sucked and vented. I was thinking hooking the 4 tunes in a sort of loop, venting thru the can or something. Or maybe a second in line can for the light vent. Ideally I want to scrub the exhaust, the room, copross ventilate and suck heat out of the cool tube out of the house and not have that stink either.
I have a few goodies planned for this room, hence the computer provisions. Some of this includes proximity sensors mounted on the lights' chassis with closed loop feedback controlling either linear actuators or rotary steppers fixed to raise/lower the vertical axis of the lights rigging. I also have a bunch of solenoid valves I intend on using to control the draw of nutes and other additives into the reservoirs via both open loop (scheduled) and closed loop (feedback from sensors, pH, ppm.). I haven't searched yet but if anyone knows of any sensors capable of measuring the big 3 (N,P,K) and feeding back a voltage or, even better, outputs via TTL or USB/BT, I would be interested.
I had planned on using a reverse osmosis filter on the water to clean it up before putting it in the reservoir, again, haven't searched yet to verify this but the guy from my local hydro shop (who are all experienced growers*) said that the RO filter wold constantly fuck with my pH and that it's not worth it as our city water is pretty good. [ *This guy in particular went to China to have several LED grow lights tested fo full spectrum (not just visible) lumens per watt and quickly changed my mind from LED back to good ol' HPS/MH for now (going for max yield). The data he had showed that none really compared, actually if anyone is interested, I can maybe ask for a copy, scan and post. One LED set he tested (which was strikingly similar to the ones I was considering purchasing) was like 17 lumens per watt or something whereas the HPS control (Hortilux 1000w HPS afaik) did like 106. He said there's new fixtures coming out and he expects to carry one by fall that does 120 per W. It's late so I may be mixing up whether the results were measured lumens or lux. Apparently this lab in China has a huge spherical testing chamber, sounded pretty neat.]
I have 4x1000w eco ballast mh/hps switchable. 2x Hortilux HPS bulbs and 2x Sun master MH bulbs. The MH bulbs are pretty red, 5500k I think, probably going to exchange thr mh for a bluer spec for veg. Only got any MH because they only had 2 Hortilux left. Might keep as spares, who knows. Have 4x8" Cool Tube w reflectors to house the lights.
Before any goodies or "industrial controls", heh, get developed, we must get our basic hydroponic system up and running, especially since I germinated 10 mystery (saved from a bag, wouldn't have saved em if they weren't good) seeds about 10 days ago, put them into small soil pots 8 days ago and had em sprouting 4 days ago!
I could only drill 9 holes for the 6" net pots in my 60L reservoir, the 10th may go into an ice cream bucket or maybe straight to a full size bucket, it's still in soil for now. Prob the latter as the 10th will likely be Mother. After an anxious 30 minutes transplanting the delicate babies from the soil to the hydro box, the reseveroir is now bubbling with 6x4" airstones hooked up to a big air pump (should be able to run everything I'm doing off this one pump) and at half bleed it's bubbly-bubbly-eno. I've always started my seeds off in a wet paper towel, dropped em in soil til they sprout then into a small hydro for a bit then big hydro for end. With clones, I would skip the first two transplants, but I'm also thinking about just going straight to big buckets and no transplanting at all, but they wouldn't be packed in as tight when young, wasted efficiency but I don't like stressing them either.
Eventually they will transplant each into their own 5 gallon square pots with 8" net pot inserts and each get their own airstone or two. I will be tying down branches and doing a sort of SCROG along with some nipping to increase surface area and yield.
They're sitting under one of the 1000w MH lights for now at 18/6 whIle the room gets finished. The can-fan is scrubbing the room and my oscillating fan died last night, time to replace with something better blowing across the trees. Once the room is built we will throw the gear in it and I will set up the second light. I will then split the room in half somehow (suggestions? I also may split it hoizontally too to make it into 4 areas, 1 veg, 1 clone, 2 flower, like a 1 foot pot and 8 inch Cool Tube on top with plant as tall as possible in between, could double my usable area? Or maybe I should go taller and not split?) and start cloning the mother, as well I should probably have some ordered seeds by then, looking at maybe doing some white widow, haven't 100% decided on strains yet, will probably pick 1 CBD strain and the rest high THC. Open to suggestions here too.
I will be posting lots of pictures soon, I just need to scrub any metadata from the pics. I will be recording 1080p time lapsed video of the plants soon and may post some clips. I think everyone should record their environment with time lapse as it really allows you to "watch" what's happening. I will probably do anywhere from 30s/frame to 5min/frame played back at 30fps, 15 minutes per second to 2.5 hours per second, depending on how I set things up and how playback 'feels', I remember taking a bit of time to tweak this before and as I was using a P3 500mhz and SD Webcam last time, storage and quality was also limited.
I started writing computer programs when I was like 6 and I've always learned everything really quick. This is no different and I still consider it a learning experience, this is only my v2.1.0! I'm open to learning more and benefitting but also excited to apply my electronic, mechanical, hardware and software engineering skills to MMJ growth. I will be very happy when I am enjoying my self produced medication. Me and the patients I am growing for have invested nearly $5k on construction, materials, equipment and nutrients so I imagine it being especially satisfying on the first joint.
Looking forward to joining the community.
This will be my third grow, the second got cut off, so we're at v2.1.0 I'd say. V3.0 will likely be my experiments with aeroponics or similar. This is my first attempt since 2009.
I will be doing an indoor grow using the deep water culture (DWC) hydroponic method, eventually adding closed loop feedback control on different environmental variables.
I am currently framing in a room that's about 11'x8'x8'. I have run lots of power, 2x3 gang 20A GFCI plugs wired into two separate 20A breakers on the east wall, 2x2 gang 20A GFCI plugs in the ceiling into two more 20A breakers, and 2 gang 20A plugs on the two side walls and a 1g 20a on the remaiming wall, all gfci outlets and shpull have about 60A available through the room (7200w@120v) and have considered the idea of switching ballasts over to 240v and running their plugs at 240v to lower the effective amperage. Cat5e is run into several network drops on the wall for computers and controls. There is a cold water tap run inside the room as well. We should have the room sealed & poly'd, insulated and drywalled by tomorrow.
We have a 125 CAN Filter and an 8 inch stealth fan rated at 725cfm, but after reading the recommendations on the side of the can, I may use something more powerful or two, this is actually one aspect I am seeking elder advice for, we will vent the room out into a tee into the existing dryer vent for most exhaust. It was suggested I recirculate the excess as well and even cross ventilate the (eventual) two chambers. Remember, I also have 4x8" Cool Tubes that will also be sucked and vented. I was thinking hooking the 4 tunes in a sort of loop, venting thru the can or something. Or maybe a second in line can for the light vent. Ideally I want to scrub the exhaust, the room, copross ventilate and suck heat out of the cool tube out of the house and not have that stink either.
I have a few goodies planned for this room, hence the computer provisions. Some of this includes proximity sensors mounted on the lights' chassis with closed loop feedback controlling either linear actuators or rotary steppers fixed to raise/lower the vertical axis of the lights rigging. I also have a bunch of solenoid valves I intend on using to control the draw of nutes and other additives into the reservoirs via both open loop (scheduled) and closed loop (feedback from sensors, pH, ppm.). I haven't searched yet but if anyone knows of any sensors capable of measuring the big 3 (N,P,K) and feeding back a voltage or, even better, outputs via TTL or USB/BT, I would be interested.
I had planned on using a reverse osmosis filter on the water to clean it up before putting it in the reservoir, again, haven't searched yet to verify this but the guy from my local hydro shop (who are all experienced growers*) said that the RO filter wold constantly fuck with my pH and that it's not worth it as our city water is pretty good. [ *This guy in particular went to China to have several LED grow lights tested fo full spectrum (not just visible) lumens per watt and quickly changed my mind from LED back to good ol' HPS/MH for now (going for max yield). The data he had showed that none really compared, actually if anyone is interested, I can maybe ask for a copy, scan and post. One LED set he tested (which was strikingly similar to the ones I was considering purchasing) was like 17 lumens per watt or something whereas the HPS control (Hortilux 1000w HPS afaik) did like 106. He said there's new fixtures coming out and he expects to carry one by fall that does 120 per W. It's late so I may be mixing up whether the results were measured lumens or lux. Apparently this lab in China has a huge spherical testing chamber, sounded pretty neat.]
I have 4x1000w eco ballast mh/hps switchable. 2x Hortilux HPS bulbs and 2x Sun master MH bulbs. The MH bulbs are pretty red, 5500k I think, probably going to exchange thr mh for a bluer spec for veg. Only got any MH because they only had 2 Hortilux left. Might keep as spares, who knows. Have 4x8" Cool Tube w reflectors to house the lights.
Before any goodies or "industrial controls", heh, get developed, we must get our basic hydroponic system up and running, especially since I germinated 10 mystery (saved from a bag, wouldn't have saved em if they weren't good) seeds about 10 days ago, put them into small soil pots 8 days ago and had em sprouting 4 days ago!
I could only drill 9 holes for the 6" net pots in my 60L reservoir, the 10th may go into an ice cream bucket or maybe straight to a full size bucket, it's still in soil for now. Prob the latter as the 10th will likely be Mother. After an anxious 30 minutes transplanting the delicate babies from the soil to the hydro box, the reseveroir is now bubbling with 6x4" airstones hooked up to a big air pump (should be able to run everything I'm doing off this one pump) and at half bleed it's bubbly-bubbly-eno. I've always started my seeds off in a wet paper towel, dropped em in soil til they sprout then into a small hydro for a bit then big hydro for end. With clones, I would skip the first two transplants, but I'm also thinking about just going straight to big buckets and no transplanting at all, but they wouldn't be packed in as tight when young, wasted efficiency but I don't like stressing them either.
Eventually they will transplant each into their own 5 gallon square pots with 8" net pot inserts and each get their own airstone or two. I will be tying down branches and doing a sort of SCROG along with some nipping to increase surface area and yield.
They're sitting under one of the 1000w MH lights for now at 18/6 whIle the room gets finished. The can-fan is scrubbing the room and my oscillating fan died last night, time to replace with something better blowing across the trees. Once the room is built we will throw the gear in it and I will set up the second light. I will then split the room in half somehow (suggestions? I also may split it hoizontally too to make it into 4 areas, 1 veg, 1 clone, 2 flower, like a 1 foot pot and 8 inch Cool Tube on top with plant as tall as possible in between, could double my usable area? Or maybe I should go taller and not split?) and start cloning the mother, as well I should probably have some ordered seeds by then, looking at maybe doing some white widow, haven't 100% decided on strains yet, will probably pick 1 CBD strain and the rest high THC. Open to suggestions here too.
I will be posting lots of pictures soon, I just need to scrub any metadata from the pics. I will be recording 1080p time lapsed video of the plants soon and may post some clips. I think everyone should record their environment with time lapse as it really allows you to "watch" what's happening. I will probably do anywhere from 30s/frame to 5min/frame played back at 30fps, 15 minutes per second to 2.5 hours per second, depending on how I set things up and how playback 'feels', I remember taking a bit of time to tweak this before and as I was using a P3 500mhz and SD Webcam last time, storage and quality was also limited.
I started writing computer programs when I was like 6 and I've always learned everything really quick. This is no different and I still consider it a learning experience, this is only my v2.1.0! I'm open to learning more and benefitting but also excited to apply my electronic, mechanical, hardware and software engineering skills to MMJ growth. I will be very happy when I am enjoying my self produced medication. Me and the patients I am growing for have invested nearly $5k on construction, materials, equipment and nutrients so I imagine it being especially satisfying on the first joint.
Looking forward to joining the community.
