The Supercomputer - 165W of PL-L and Micro Engineering Goodness

Womyn · May 20, 2013

Hello everyone,
I want to show you all my little project. It took a whole lot of hard work, but it was definitely worth it. It's quite inconspicuous when you first look at it, just sitting there all snug and comfy in the corner of my partner's room:

Upon closer inspection, still looks quite normal. Must be one of those cool computers that have lights inside them.

But we all know I'm not here to show you ordinary tower cases. Say hello to the supercomputer!

We have two Northern Souls from Seedsman here, 16 days old. Three 55W PL-L's are secured to the ceiling, with ballasts secured to the bottom of the case, neatly out of view. The big bundle of red, yellow and black wires you see is the PL-L wiring from the bottom of the case. When we bought the case it was completely empty so we gutted an old PSU and wired the power strip to it. All power runs into the case from where it usually does for computers that run calculations rather than grow buds. The adapter powers the three fans and the clock controls day/night timing. A completely effective (and rather ghetto) carbon filter is fastened to the case via zip ties and blumats water the ladies over time. After the canopy grows high enough I might be able to place a bigger canister there to replace the two cups. Soil is generic organic soil mixed with perlite, the result is very airy and does not retain much water. The case is 56cm long, 52 cm tall and 22cm wide, meaning it's just over 1sqft.

Womyn · May 20, 2013

The girls are very happy in their warm, triple 4800 lumen home. FIM'd yesterday and the new growth seems promising.

Here is a closeup of all the equipment:

Since 165W can seriously overheat a case, we had to install a cooltube. I measured the exact dimensions of the case and bought a custom made picture frame of the correct size. The guy didn't know what hit him - why would anyone want a picture frame for an aquarium? :biggrin:

Nevertheless, it works wonderfully and temperatures are warm and fuzzy inside the case but not too hot. I put my hand close to the exhaust fans and was exhilarated - the lamp exhaust is hot, the growing area exhaust is cool. The intake is passive and can be seen in the first photos - it's the top rectangular panel that glows. It only glows like that because the lights are right on top of it; with the back to the wall no light can enter from the outside.

The growing chamber's exhaust pulls air from this passive intake. It's a light trap that connects to the bottom 3 panels on the outside of the case.

This is our first grow, and while the case might look like the product of two to-be engineers (if we pass our exams in about a month!), the growing will probably look like the result of two goofs sodomizing a poor pair of plants. Any and all tips and advice are more than welcomed!

rasta · May 20, 2013

nice work, hopefully things continue to grow as well as they are

gl

Merry Gardener · May 20, 2013

Nicely done and very stealthy! Should give you a few nice buds!

2000pm · May 21, 2013

Tight build! That's a lot of light for that little space they should grow nicely.

Womyn · May 21, 2013

I'm a little worried about the left one. The right one simply exploded after FIM, new growth everywhere. Some growth has been noted on the left one but more worryingly, the new pair of leaves just under the cut are yellowish and so are the two oldest pair of leaves. The left one is less developed because as a seedling she didn't get as much light as her sister, so she grew tall and lanky and developed crooked leaves (this happened in the first 30 hours after they broke the surface of the soil).
Right one:

Left one:

Opinions?

killerweed31 · May 21, 2013

LOOKIN VERI NICE GROWER, ill be watch the progress

Womyn · May 22, 2013

The left one is having some difficulty. Yellowing of the two crooked leaves is continuing. New growth has taken a much more light-green to even yellowish appearance. I'm fertilizing with 1ml/l biogrow (biobizz), twice every 3 waterings.
Should I be worried? :frown:

trem0lo · May 22, 2013

Nice case! I think PLLs are far superior to CFL in spaces like this. (Also nice blumats, I use them too)

How much food is in the organic soil? At this age they probably don't need any extra fertilizer. The leaf in question looks a little like nute burn to me. Otherwise they look really good.

Stoned Coder · May 23, 2013

These look like the same cases that have been built by hundreds of stoners before you. No engineering degree required. Only problem is that the risk-vs-reward on a case that is only going to yield around an ounce is just not there. If your going to risk going to jail at least pull some weight. My 2 cents.

Womyn · May 23, 2013

trem0lo said:
Nice case! I think PLLs are far superior to CFL in spaces like this. (Also nice blumats, I use them too)

How much food is in the organic soil? At this age they probably don't need any extra fertilizer. The leaf in question looks a little like nute burn to me. Otherwise they look really good.

trem0lo, your quantum tower has been an inspiration to the building of this PC. We almost went for LEDs because of it! Thank you for your support. :woohoo:

It might be nute burn, but that wouldn't really explain that new leaves are slightly too light green. I'll keep tabs on her and stop using ferts on lefty at least until I have a better grasp of the situation.

Stoned Coder said:
These look like the same cases that have been built by hundreds of stoners before you. No engineering degree required. Only problem is that the risk-vs-reward on a case that is only going to yield around an ounce is just not there. If your going to risk going to jail at least pull some weight. My 2 cents.

Well, this IS the micro grows forum. Not everyone smoke a lot every day and not everyone want to sell kilo's of weed. Also, not everyone can support even their small-scale habit, sometimes because of certain conditions within their country.

Besides, this case can easily pull 50g+ after a run or two. My expectations are much lower obviously since it's my first go, but the potential is there. :biggrin:

Womyn · May 23, 2013

The poor pair of leaves have been getting worse. Other leaves are getting becoming a little pale and curled around the edges, too.

Don't know if it's nute burn (which is odd, considering I'm ferting with 1 ml/l biogrow) or nitrogen deficiency, or even magnesium deficiency. :frown:

Could someone offer an idea as to what the problem might be?

Cabinet Ninja · May 23, 2013

Decent little build you've got there! Is there glass or acrylic separating your lights from the grow chamber?

Are you planning the SCRoG those plants at all to maximise available footprint?

Womyn · May 23, 2013

Cabinet Ninja said:
Decent little build you've got there! Is there glass or acrylic separating your lights from the grow chamber?

Are you planning the SCRoG those plants at all to maximise available footprint?

It's glass separating the lights from the grow chamber. A simple picture frame, nothing fancy.

I already have a screen ready to be added to the case, it's frame is made of wooden spikes (those little things you stick marshmallows on) and the screen itself is made of electrical wire. It's just a tad bigger than the case so I can simply squeeze it a little, push it inside and it will naturally push back against the case and so will remain stuck at the desired height. This will give me the freedom to remove the pot entirely from the case, screen included, without any hassle.
I'll add the screen later when the plants grow tall enough for scrog to be relevant in order to maximize light exposure.

Cabinet Ninja · May 23, 2013

If you plant to be removing the pot and the screen all in one, then make sure to have you're screen just a little bit smaller than the inside of your grow space.

Found this out the hard way haha

breker · May 23, 2013

looks like a bit of heat stress to me. on what temp are You running?

i've got also similar problems with nutrient burn look-a-like leaves unless i am on 100% organic schedule.

Womyn · May 27, 2013

Little update.

Turns out PH was too low, locking out magnesium in the soil. I foliar sprayed epsom salts to help recovery and added a small amount of baking soda to the water. They grew very well despite the hardships :woohoo:

The "magnesium deficiency":

Womyn · Jun 2, 2013

Things have been lookin' up... way up

30 days old:

For some reason the FIM on righty worked out much better than on lefty. It exploded with 4 equal shoots while lefty still has a dominant shoot. It doesn't matter so much, I'll weave them through the screen in about a week or two anyways.

The PH problem has been corrected so I'm ferting with 2ml/L biogrow again.

And just for people having similar problems - low PH can look a lot like magnesium or nitrogen deficiency. My soil becomes slightly more acidic as time goes by so balanced soil might not stay balanced on it's own for long. Cheap PH meters are the devil, either invest in testing kits/strips or buy a decent PH meter for 50$+.

NKOTS · Jun 3, 2013

wow nice bushy plants you got there, when do you flip to flower?

oh and what distance is there between the tops an the PLL?

:lurk:

Womyn · Jun 6, 2013

I flipped to flower two days ago, so at 5 weeks and 2 days veg.

They are about 3-4cm short of the screen and the screen is about 7cm away from the bulbs. I flipped a little earlier than expected because I got nervous about the stretch. I can handle slightly smaller yields but dealing with an overgrown plant in such a small space is much more problematic for me as a first time grower. I've also heard rants about this particular strain's flowering time.

The right one really picked up. The FIM worked wonders on her, she is now almost as big as the left and has 4 equal sized shoots. The left one still has one dominant shoot but the recent (second) FIM should fix that. She was FIM'd two days before I flipped to 12/12.

As you can now see, the screen is easily removable and fairly solid. This is a better solution than attaching the screen to the pot because in my case, the surface of the pot is smaller than the desired surface of the screen. This makes it very awkward and difficult to set up a screen that'd be attached to the pot.

The Supercomputer - 165W of PL-L and Micro Engineering Goodness

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