just startin a new thread for my cab...
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HEADY BLUNTS -- 400w vert micro cab - 22.5" tall -- organic soil w/ blumats!
- Thread starter heady blunts
- Start date
hey tilt thanks for stopping in.
yes the blumats run straight water into a (attempting to be) complete soil.
these are #3 smart pots. the plants did most of their vegging in 2gal airpots with a mix i made from:
5 parts gardener and bloome blue ribbon organic potting soil
3 parts home made EWC
1 part calcined diatomaceous earth
1 part organic char
when i transplanted to the #3 smartpots i filled in with FFOF straight from the bag cause i was busy and lazy, plus i was curious to see how the guano fortified soil behaved.
when i do an application of ACT i just water it straight in. the blumats sense the increased moisture and shut off until the soil dries enough to trigger them again. i don't touch them at all.
yes the blumats run straight water into a (attempting to be) complete soil.
these are #3 smart pots. the plants did most of their vegging in 2gal airpots with a mix i made from:
5 parts gardener and bloome blue ribbon organic potting soil
3 parts home made EWC
1 part calcined diatomaceous earth
1 part organic char
when i transplanted to the #3 smartpots i filled in with FFOF straight from the bag cause i was busy and lazy, plus i was curious to see how the guano fortified soil behaved.
when i do an application of ACT i just water it straight in. the blumats sense the increased moisture and shut off until the soil dries enough to trigger them again. i don't touch them at all.
Eol
Member
Dude I want to make sweet tender love to your cab! it looks amazing! Growing vert in micro cabs ftw! I'm also loving the blumat system, this is something I'm looking into as I work away a lot. Can you give us any more info on it - was it expensive to set up? Difficult getting dialled in? Also what 007. said, how do you keep that lamp cool?
Cheers!
Cheers!
welcome friends!
thanks for the kind words.
i run four plants per cycle in #3 smart pots. living organic soil. i am still a noob so i haven't gotten to the point of making my own soil mixes yet, but i am getting good at both amending quality soil mixes as well as making pretty decent thermal compost and EWC (good shit lol). i have also been using FPE's with great success (mostly for foliar during veg).
the blumats are my favorite. they do a better job watering than i do, and the plants love them. i just went away for 3 days and came back to very happy plants, they hardly even missed me. 70$ or whatever for the patio set is probably the best thing i spent money on during the whole build.
the next biggest expense was the lighting system. i got the cooltube on CL for 1/2 price, but had to get the bulb and ballast at the hydro store (read: $$$$$$).
i put together the exhaust for pretty cheap. all the activated carbon was on sale at petco. probably the hardware cloth was the most expensive part of that. in retrospect, if i had had a bigger budget, i would have sprung for an in-line fan (like a vortex) with a speed controller. i may eventually upgrade that.
the light is a 400w hortilux super hps in a cool tube. the tube sits snug in a 6" adjustable elbow which plugs into my 8" can fan. i used silicon putty to create a perfect non-adhesive seal.
here's an old pic of the cool tube and the exhaust before i added the putty, and one with it finished and seated.
i made the filter after reading a couple diff DIYs and then putting it together the way it made sense to me. i did a tutorial. the link is in my sig.
thanks for the kind words.
i run four plants per cycle in #3 smart pots. living organic soil. i am still a noob so i haven't gotten to the point of making my own soil mixes yet, but i am getting good at both amending quality soil mixes as well as making pretty decent thermal compost and EWC (good shit lol). i have also been using FPE's with great success (mostly for foliar during veg).
the blumats are my favorite. they do a better job watering than i do, and the plants love them. i just went away for 3 days and came back to very happy plants, they hardly even missed me. 70$ or whatever for the patio set is probably the best thing i spent money on during the whole build.
the next biggest expense was the lighting system. i got the cooltube on CL for 1/2 price, but had to get the bulb and ballast at the hydro store (read: $$$$$$).
i put together the exhaust for pretty cheap. all the activated carbon was on sale at petco. probably the hardware cloth was the most expensive part of that. in retrospect, if i had had a bigger budget, i would have sprung for an in-line fan (like a vortex) with a speed controller. i may eventually upgrade that.
the light is a 400w hortilux super hps in a cool tube. the tube sits snug in a 6" adjustable elbow which plugs into my 8" can fan. i used silicon putty to create a perfect non-adhesive seal.
here's an old pic of the cool tube and the exhaust before i added the putty, and one with it finished and seated.
i made the filter after reading a couple diff DIYs and then putting it together the way it made sense to me. i did a tutorial. the link is in my sig.
Eol
Member
Thanks for that man - looks sweet! I like how you actually use the cupboard below for hanging up clothes, makes it way more stealthy =)
I'm definitely going to have to invest a blumat set after hearing that!
In the pic it looks like the plants are almost touching the cooltube, how close can they get? Also, how do you plan on preventing them from growing into the light?
Cheers!
I'm definitely going to have to invest a blumat set after hearing that!
In the pic it looks like the plants are almost touching the cooltube, how close can they get? Also, how do you plan on preventing them from growing into the light?
Cheers!
PC - that's twenty TWO and a half inches to work with. man another two inches would open up a lot of possibilities. you'd be surprised how much useful stuff is 24" tall.
GD - thanks for stopping by.
Eol - yea it seems to be pretty stealthy. with the closet closed it's totally invisible. as for the plants, i've gotten a couple of scorched leaves, but no light bleaching or anything. they are happy as long as they don't actually touch the cool tube. i'm also slowly moving the pots away from the light while the plant stretches. (also i let it veg about two weeks longer than i planned to, so it's way more packed in there than i was prepared for). last round i used parabolic screens to SCROG everything, but i'm just letting shit go wild (with minor LST) this time around.
007 - i dont' get any light leaks from the cool tube. the carbon filter acts as a light filter as well. i also run my lights during the day. there are no light leaks in the cab (including the partition between the mom room and the flower room).
this is my second run so i don't have a set expectation for yield. i'm pretty confident if things keep going the way they're going i'll get well over 4oz. mostly i'm working on healthy plants and excellent quality in the final product. this little closet will never grow enough weed for my needs, so i'm just enjoying the hobby of it until i upgrade to a larger situation.
GD - thanks for stopping by.
Eol - yea it seems to be pretty stealthy. with the closet closed it's totally invisible. as for the plants, i've gotten a couple of scorched leaves, but no light bleaching or anything. they are happy as long as they don't actually touch the cool tube. i'm also slowly moving the pots away from the light while the plant stretches. (also i let it veg about two weeks longer than i planned to, so it's way more packed in there than i was prepared for). last round i used parabolic screens to SCROG everything, but i'm just letting shit go wild (with minor LST) this time around.
007 - i dont' get any light leaks from the cool tube. the carbon filter acts as a light filter as well. i also run my lights during the day. there are no light leaks in the cab (including the partition between the mom room and the flower room).
this is my second run so i don't have a set expectation for yield. i'm pretty confident if things keep going the way they're going i'll get well over 4oz. mostly i'm working on healthy plants and excellent quality in the final product. this little closet will never grow enough weed for my needs, so i'm just enjoying the hobby of it until i upgrade to a larger situation.
here's a pic from today. 19 days. i hope the stretch stops this week!
velcro and LST are best friends.
i just laid down a few strips on the floor of my cab. voila, adjustable restraints!
i just laid down a few strips on the floor of my cab. voila, adjustable restraints!
Can't wait. Love challenge!
hmm i dunno. i've never done a horizontal grow.
three of these plants are a cut of widow i got from a dispensary. i grew it out last round, so i have an idea of the stretch (~3 weeks, 2.5-3x stretch). the last one is a cut of blue dream i got from a diff dispensary. i have no idea how that one will behave, although so far it's been acting a lot like the widow which is convenient.
SH- pull up a seat!
three of these plants are a cut of widow i got from a dispensary. i grew it out last round, so i have an idea of the stretch (~3 weeks, 2.5-3x stretch). the last one is a cut of blue dream i got from a diff dispensary. i have no idea how that one will behave, although so far it's been acting a lot like the widow which is convenient.
SH- pull up a seat!
Heady
I'm intrigued by the Blumats, been thinking about getting some. (Ran to 3 different hydro stores, plus 2 plain-Jane garden centers on Sunday.. Nobody had even heard of 'em?!)..Pardon my brief inquisition:
How many do you have in each 3 gal pot? One?
Do you use the Blumats or the Blumat Jr.'s?
What is the height of the reservoir in re: the pots? (Above the pots? Below the pots? Same level?)
I'm intrigued by the Blumats, been thinking about getting some. (Ran to 3 different hydro stores, plus 2 plain-Jane garden centers on Sunday.. Nobody had even heard of 'em?!)..Pardon my brief inquisition:
How many do you have in each 3 gal pot? One?
Do you use the Blumats or the Blumat Jr.'s?
What is the height of the reservoir in re: the pots? (Above the pots? Below the pots? Same level?)
SH thanks for stoppin by!
yea i ended up turning my local hydro shop onto blumats and apparently they just bought out the distributor. hehe my plan worked flawlessly. they got all the accessories and everything too.
i use the jr's for my houseplants only. they might be appropriate for keeping bonsai moms under low power fluorescents too.
the regular tropf blumats are ideal for micro growers. instead of watering directly through the ceramic cone (like the jr's), when the medium dries out and tries to pull water out of the blumat, it triggers a valve and opens a drip line. i use 1 per #3 smart pot.
since the system works using gravity, it's essential to have the reservoir high enough above the blumats to achieve the right about of pressure to function properly. i took tropf's "for every 10m of hose 1m of height" rule and divided it. so for every 1m of hose i need .1m of height. so i have about a meter of hose and my res sits 10cm above my emitters. the res is basically at the ceiling, so i use a little pump to refill it from a bucket.
also from the little pamphlet that comes with the patio kit: tropf recommends 1 blumat up to 25cm (container diameter), 2 up to 40cm, and 3 up to 50cm.
the maxis are for really deep pots (like 18"+). they are the same as the originals, just longer, so the sensor sits much deeper in the medium.
check out the main blumat thread.
and the blumats in living soil thread.
would you go vertical?
