250w HPS wardrobe grow

[Guest]

I'm down to just this wardrobe and my seedling box at the moment. Before I used this wardrobe for vegging and my mother collection with a 250w lowbay MH fixture modded into an aircooled hood as it had a glass front. I had two plastic portable wardrobes modified into grow tents for flowering:

You can build a grow tent really, really cheaply, I used to have two of them I made myself. I bought a pair of cheap (7 ukp) plastic wardrobes and lined them with white/black meterial that is 1.49 ukp a metre, hung a 250 in a cooltube in each and used 3 12v 6 inch fans for ventilation and 3 half metre lengths of 6 inch ductign as light traps and they worked brilliantly, not the most stealth but you could break them down and hide them in minutes if necessary. I only spent 150 ukp including a pair of cooltubes and HPSes to build the pair.

 

[Guest]

You don't have to buy cooltubes and seperate ballasts if you want to save even more money. You can buy lowbay luminaires very cheap. I bought my 250w ones for 35ukp. All you need to do is wire a length of cable and a mains plug to them, plug them in and go. They come in HPS and MH and I had one of each. The MH came with a tempered glass front, which gave me the idea to convert it into an aircooled hood. You can buy the glass fronts for 8ukp and the HPS fittings are identical so they just slide in and secure with a simple metal clip. I simply cut a hole in the metal at the bulb end of the lowbay housing and connected the plastic 4-inch duct and flange that came with the cheap 85 cubic metre per hour bathroom inline fan I bought (12ukp). So for a grand total of 47 ukp I had a complete, working aircooled 250w MH setup. I hung it using four half metre lengths of chain (1.29 ukp per metre) and some brass hooks (29p each). So the whole setup was about 50ukp.

It was dead easy to take the luminaire apart, just a couple of screws holding it together. There are lots of holes and openings on the back of the housing, easily sufficient to allow air to enter.

The fan kit came with all the necessary fittings and flanges and several metres of white plastic ducting:

I drew round the platic flange and then used an electric drill to drill loads of holes around the circle, then a pair of tin snips to cut between the drill holes (it's really soft mild steel) and a file to smooth out the owrst of the sharp jaggy bits. Took half an hour at most.

Then all I did was place the platic flange inside the housing and connect the ducting to the outside, secured in place with a plastic cable tie, no glue involved.

Here it is installed in my wardrobe, worked brilliantly, the plants could almost touch the glass without burning. For vegging this kicked the ass of any envirolite and you could get it just as close to the tops of the plants if you wished.

One other good thing about this setup is the fan is very quiet, with the wardrobe closed you can barely hear it. I am still using that fan, but now I have my cooltube connected to it instead of the lowbay hood.

 

[Guest]

As I lost the lowbay fittings (long story) when I bought my new cooltube, I couldn't use the ballast gear tray and bulb from a lowbay and 250w ballast units are expensive. So I did what I always do when I need something and it's expensive - I built my own!

I bought four 250w ballasts on eBay for 20ukp and bought some ignitors and capacitors from the same eBay seller, total cost inc. postage of only 40ukp.

I also bought a pair of Osram 250w HPS bulbs on eBay, cost a tenner inc. postage for the pair.

I then needed a box to put all the blaasts and gear in, so I found an old computer case and stripped it clean of components. I decided to re-use the carcass of the power supply as it had standard IEC 3-pin connectors that were compatiable with the conenctor on a cooltube or any other reflector and this also meant I could use a standard computer power cable to plug the thing into the mains.

I mounted two of the ballasts and the accompanying capacitors and ignitors inside the case with short nuts and bolts and a couple of pop rivets, everything fit no problem. I left the two 8cm fans in place and ran some 2-core bellwire from them outside the case and connected them to the same 12c mains adaptor that powers the 12v fans in my wardrobe. These fans ensire plenty of airflow and the case doesn't even get warm to the touch if you touch it where the ballasts and mounted. I removed the male IEC 3-pin connector from another old power supply and mounted that to the back panel through one of the openings for a PCI expansion card and this was connected to the second ballast, so there is one female connector that I plug the mains cable into and two male conenctors that the two cooltubes plug into although at the moment I'm only running one of them. I used this computer case ballast box to run the two cooltubes when I had the two plastic growtents and it worked great and very stealthy as it looked exactly like a computer, even down to having the low noise of the fans running.

 

[petal]

another fine set of pictures

 

[Guest]

Well, obviously I stepped up the feeding a little too early for some of the plants. The SSSDH, CG x GFB f2s and Egyptians all have burnt tips, so I'll skip feeding them tomorrow then go back to feeding 2ml per litre Plagron Alga grow the day after. The Afghans however are just lapping up the feeding, I fed them twice today and they are growing really fast, much faster than any soil plants I've grown. I like this Afghan strain a lot so far. I might use the best male to pollinate my DC cut, see if I can add some vigour while keeping the line 100% Afghan genes.

The Afghan runt is starting to look like it will grow into a full sized plant now, still smaller than the rest but doing okay.

The Cheese and OG Kush cuts are growing quite fast now, lots of new growth. They are growing out of the overfert, the Cheese is doing much better than the OG, I'd say the Cheese is a far more forgiving plant.

I repotted the three Pacific Aire seedlings into bottle of coco and placed them under the MH to fill up the space. This is a hybrid bred by a friend in California and has a complex backbround but is mostly made up of the Pacific G13 and Airborne G13 cuts with a bit of Black Widow thrown in for fun, it's supposed to be a killer in potency and apparently the red leaved pheno is the one to look out for so fingers crossed I get at least one female.

The garden is starting to fill up nicely now, I'm gonna veg these plants till they show sex then take cuts of the females and discard the males, although I'm thinking I'll keep the best Afghan male to make seeds. I'm looking for the most Colombian leaning CG x GFB f2 male and female to make the F3s too.

 

[Core]

yea cab is filling out nicely BH....pitty you had some probs in the beginning...Nway i love the DIY tent you made man...nice setup you fixed there...does't look pricey at all...R+ mate !!

 

[Guest]

Thanks core, every time I look at the plants they are bigger, the growth rate is far faster than my previous soil grows so apart from the dodgy start, I'm liking coco a lot. My PH and EC meters arrived today so I'm gonna test the coir I have left and see what it's values are.

 

[Guest]

My EC truncheon and PH meter finally arrived today so I got busy testing things with my new toys! lol

I've been growing in the same town for 5 years now and have never had a single PH problem (soil and a couple of DWC runs). I think I now know why!

I am very lucky to have almost perfect tap water, the ph is 6.2 and the EC is too low to measure, so it's pretty damn pure. It comes straight off the fells here so a big advantage to living in the middle of nowhere. Whenever I visit the city I think the water is foul tasting and not pleasant, and what's up with it being cloudy at first when fresh out of the tap and slowly clearing?

I am always on the lookout for cheap organic stuff to use on my grow and I swear by this vitax organic seaweed, it's dead cheap from Wilkinsons and if I dilute 4 ml per litre the ph always comes out at 5.3-5.6 and the ec at 1.6 so it's brilliant for root drenching and foliar feeding. I am convinced it's a big part of why my plants in soil have been healthy and pretty resilient to any stress I've given them through mistakes.

I'm using this Plagron Alga Grow (and Bloom) at the moment cos I got it for 2.49 for a 250ml bottle. 4 ml per litre gives a ph of about 7 and an ec of 1.8. I tend to use 2ml per litre of the vitax seaweed and 2ml per litre of the Plagron and mix them, this way I get a ph of about 6 and an ec of about 1.7, I then dilute to adject the ec up or down as needed.

Here I have added some Vitax to the dilute Plagron Alga Grow and the PH has dropped, but need to add more to lower it to about 6:

I haven't found any organic bloom ferts cheap yet, so I'm using Plagron Alga Bloom and some Atami PK13-14 and Atazyme. The PK and Atazyme aren't organic, but you can't have everything! I've got a couple of small smaple bottles of BioBizz Biobloom I picked up at the UK Hemp Expo so once the Plagron Alga Bloom has run out, I've got another grow's worth of flower ferts. (Yes, I am very tight with my money, but I have to be till I find a new job!)

I also bought a digital thermometer/hygrometer cheap for 4.99 and to my delight, the temp and humdity inside my wardrobe are exactly the same as in the room outside so I guess my ventilation system is doing it's job. I always read 26 degrees and 60% humidity is about ideal, so my environment is much more ideal than I had realised!

So all in all, after taking some measurements, it turns out I'm doing things properly despite not knowing it! I've been doign things by carefully watching the plants and trying to follow their needs through the signs they are giving me, now I've got the proper measuring tools it's gonna be a lot easier to maintain things at their correct levels.

The EC truncheon was only 14.99 and the ph meter 10.99, so I'm happy. With the money I saved, I might even be able to afford to buy some Canna nutes! lol

 

[namo420]

BH- im not sure if youve specified,but how many are you going to keep in there?
it seems a bit too many for a 250?no?

 

[Guest]

I am going to run about 15 plants in a SOG. There are too many, but the four revegging plants are only being kept long enough to grow new branches long enough to clone then being discarded. The SSDH is feminised so I'm going to clone her then flower, the Cheese and OG Kush I'm gonna clone then flower too. That leaves 2 Egyptians, 8 Afghanis, 2 Pacific Aire and 5 CG x GFB f2s, so out of 17 plants, I would hope for 8-10 females. Add to that Cheese, OG Kush and SSSDH and that is about the magic number I need. The plants are gonna be small and I reckon I'll manage, it might get a bit crowded tho.

 

[namo420]

wow,good stuff,ide say it might get a bit growded,but hey,you cant just be killin em off right lol.....i cant wait to see the egyptian and the PA!

 

[Guest]

If I really run out of space I can ask a friend to pop a couple of them in his grow room, he'll charge me some of the harvest though, he's tight!

The Egyptian are looking intriguing, they are short and compact but have much thinner leaves than the Afghanis. The PA are extremely popular in the states and are gathering a big rep so I'm hoping to find a really nice female, although I only have 3 PA plants.

 

[Guest]

Cool Grow BH nice variety

That DIY tent is Phatt

Guess u Love to Tinker with bits n pieces You do it well

Peace

 

[Guest]

Cheers Squigy, best hopbby in the world by far and a lot of fun and very rewarding!

 

[Guest]

Update time! The Afghans are now 21 days old from seed and looking great, they have grown much longer internodes, but I figure this is because of the move from fluoros to HID.

However, some rust spotting has begun to appear, sod's law the biggest and best of the bunch has the most spotting. I think this might be magnesium deficiency. Anyone able to diagnose this ailment? I've been feeding a mixture of Formulex, Vitax seaweed and Plagron Alga-grow and the formulex contains calcium and magnesium, which I thought would be important to add if my coco was less than brilliant.

 

[Guest]

im not a coco whiz or anything but at first glance they look really good, i hope you are able to get it sorted bro

 

[Guest]

On a plus point, however, the Cheese and OG Kush cuts are rocking along now and all signs of overfert have gone, the new growth is all fine.

The two Egyptians are doing fine now, this one has the thinnest leaves in the garden:

This one is a bit broader:

I planted 6 more Egyptians but only 3 have sprouted about the soil so far, strange considering all 10 of the first batch got off to a great start before the damping off got em.

The CG x GFB f2s are also doing fine, they are quite varied it seems, I'm looking for the most CG leaning ones. There are 3 more of these in soil in my seedling box that I planted to replace the ones that died. One of the Cg x GFBs has some yellowing on the edge of it;s leaves though:

I think it is just signs of underfert so I will give it slightly more nutes and see if it clears up:

 

[Guest]

Hiya rkone, never noticed your post, thanks man, all in all I'm pretty happy with the way things are going, I'm expecting to have probles as it's my first go with coco, but I'm also fairly happy to have problems now as I can learn better how to deal with these issues this time round so that down the road when these issues crop up again I have the experience to deal with them before they become serious. I am just treating this first coco run as an experimental learning process.

 

[Guest]

The three Pacific Aire are taking off too now, gave em a dose of ec 1.1 ph 6.5 nutes yesterday and ec 1.2 ph 6.5 nutes today and they just lapped it up.

The sad looking yellowed plant next to them is my sole fem SSSDH. I discovered yesterday that I had neglected to cut any drain holes in the bottom of her bottle so she was sitting in water logged coco, I cut holes in the bottom and about a litre of water drained out. She looks rather hungry so I'm foliar feeding and stepping up her nutes, just giving her a couple of days to dry out a bit before increasing the amount of nute solution she gets.

The revegging plants are putting out plenty of new growth now so I will be able to cut clones shortly and dispose of these plants, making more space in the wardrobe so I can spread the plants out a bit and give them more room as it's getting a bit crowded now.

 

[Guest]

I though it was worth showing you a side-by-side of my garden a week ago and today, amazing what coco can do in 7 days.