250W micro scrog

[Jerry Maine]

First, some kudos to Duggy and Red Greenery for inspiring me to get my 250W back in action. Those guys both have excellent cabs, and got me started on designing my own. Originally I wanted to go for something like Duggy's to slide alongside my desk, but I came across a perfect sized old wardrobe for $10 at a 2nd hand store, convinced the good lady of the house, and went with something closer to Red's 150W HPS cab. Here it is.





I figure this qualifies as a micro, as it is under 3 square feet. Had I started from scratch I would have just used a 150 or even a 70 with lots of flouros, but I had a nice 250W HPS sitting in my suitcase for over 2 years and decided if I could cool it quietly then I'd rather go with it. Also, if/when I move to a bigger place, I can easily double the cab size by expanding into the right hand side of the wardrobe. Right now, with kids roaming around, living in such a little place here in Japan, and having the cab in our bedroom, the right hand side is a good decoy, holds the vacuum cleaner, the football, ski-boots, and some other junk, while the left stays locked closed.

It had to be super quiet too, and have an effective carbon scrubber. The scrubber has been designed, but not yet built, it will be a flat, 1.5 square foot unit that sits above of the two rear PC fans, above the hood. Hopefully that'll be enough for a small grow like this. The PC fans are from Scythe, notorious amongst PC nerds for being quiet. They are usually expensive, but which I miraculously picked up for $5 each in the electronics district in Osaka. I can vouch for them, they are whisper quiet, all of them are the 12cm 33cfm units rated under 20dBa from memory. The are on a 15V adapter though, so probably punch 41cfm at just over 20dBa, and they are virtually inaudible. Hopefully they'll have enough oomph for the carbon filter, but I will install another two, or upgrade them for higher rev units (noisier though) if it becomes neccessary.



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Today is day 1.



I used the paper towel method to get all four beans to pop, then about a day later I carefully moved them into their pot cups with a mix of 70% potting soil and 30% perlite. One has just popped today, with two more in the foetal position about to spring up.

As I'm in Japan, and can't read well, I'll be keeping the soil and nutrient side of things pretty simple.

One thing that won't be simple is managing these two strains. I have two feminised grapefruit, which was listed as a 65% indica in the seedshop, but turns out to be a stretchy sativa, hardly ideal for a scrog. I plan on moving that one into flower a little earlier than the hindu kush x skunk #1 seeds, hopefully in about two weeks.

The HKxS1's aren't feminized, so these may be a tough one to scrog too. I'm going to try to sex them as soon as possible on a branch, and I may even go guerilla with them, or some of them, or even grab the best female grapefruit and HKxS1 for mothers. But I'll probably do that next time, still have half my beans left.

I'll try to update this every few days, and garner all the advice I can from some of the experienced growers here. This is my fifth grow, and second scrog, so I'm not a total noob, but there is still much I dont know, so I'll probably post a lot of questions, lol

Take it easy

Jerry Maine

 

[pontiac]

Looking good man! Goodluck with everything!

 

[Jerry Maine]

All four seeds I placed in tissue have popped, but one of the Hindu Kush Skunks may be a mutant. It's standing but hasn't opened up yet, so I flicked the shell cover off her, see how she goes. The two Hindu Kush Skunks I planted direct in soil haven't popped just yet.

I think my 250W light bulb needs replacing, and replacements seem outrageously expensive in Japan, over $100 for the same bulb, and $50 minimum, for a 250W. However, they are under flouros for now so I have a few days to work things out still. Might be better to get a few sent over than buy locally.

I am also still waiting on the glass shield, might just go out and get a piece of acrylic instead as it's cheaper and I can cut it if/when necessary. Also, with the CFLs sitting in the bottom of the cab my light trap for the light shield inlets has been rendered near useless, lol, but Ive almost finished building the main cab light trap. But with 4 kids roaming the house I'm not getting much done right now, lol.

Jerry

 

[Black Ra1n]

Nice cab! Good luck with your grow!

B/R

 

[Jerry Maine]

The 2nd Hindu-Kush Skunk has opened up and appears fine, along with the other HKS1 and the 2 grapefruit, but as of yet no sign of the 2 seeds planted straight into soil. Currently the four are under CFLs, they appear healthy, and probably appreciate the flouros more than they would the 250W HPS.

However, I think I need another 250W bulb, the one I have has suddenly dimmed, it's only done about 3 months growing so I think it's just from being moved around a lot, and the testing I've been giving it lately as I set up my cab. Bulbs here are filthy expensive, looking at $120 minimum, yet I can get a complete 250W MH unit for $200 (50% discount) !!! So I'm thinking of either importing some or just buying one of those 250 MH units.

Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

Have decided to get a few new bulbs sent across. The pic below helps show why I'm concerned about that HPS bulb, look how the 4 x 13w (60w) CFL's put it to shame in the sunlight department. Should get here in about a week.



Ordered the glass shield today, but I'm still using the flouros for vegging so there is no rush, except to run some temp tests. That should also take a week or so. Once that's installed I can finish the ducting/reflector panels, then get onto the carbon filter. The light traps need some adjustments too, the growbox inlet should be easy enough but the elbow inlets cooling the light are leaking badly. Need to set up a trap for the exhaust too.

As for the ladies, they are doing fine, although I've given up on the two planted direct into soil, been almost a week now. Once of them definitely cracked but seems to have perished, can't even find it now. The four I popped in tissue are all looking strong though. Here's a couple of pics:





Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

Its funny growing in Japan, going to the shops and finding what you're after can be a challenge, even though there seems to be everything there. I stumbled across the Ph test kit myself, about an hour after I had asked the staff and drawn blank responses. I know now they call them "earth check", except you have to pronounce it like "arse check", lol.

Thankfully the water I've been using isn't as acidic as my ass, is somewhere between 6.5 and 7. The tap water came in at about the same, which is great, I'm going to switch to that.

Seedlings are all going well, but their colour has faded a tad, may have some kind of deficiency, or perhaps a tad of overwatering. Also I think they are a bit slow, not getting much bigger. But they are all looking healthy for the most part. I stuck one of the HK skunks under the HPS to see if the bulb is still good. After a day the seedling is looking a tad better than the others, so I may stick them all under it. Those CFL's I have aren't that great. The 250W bulb I have is remarkably cool though, I don't think I'm going to have any throuble with temps. I can hold my hand just a few cm from it indefinitely, and its gently warm, not scorching by any means. Time to get them under and go with it.

Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

These seedlings are taking forever, I've got some kind of problem. Checked the pH, but that's fine, about 6.5 going in and out. Temps are fine, low 20's C. Soil is just a standard potting soil with some perlite, shouldnt be a problem. Have only been watering mildly every two days. Gave them a good watering and a very weak nutrient mixture today as some of the feedback has been that they need some nutes. Here are a couple of pics.





You can also see the little ladies have been bleached from when I stuck them out in the sun for a few hours to work on my growbox. I've since moved them back in and under the 250W HPS and slowly they began to fade. After ten days the second set of leaves have barely started, and are going at a snails pace. I have posted some pics and details in the infirmary to get some ideas, but they are still upright and their stems have strengthened, just hope they can turn the corner.

Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

The ladies are responding well to the 250W, and the weak dose of nutrients I gave them a few days back. I was worried about the yellowing of the leaves, and their rate of growth, but they seem to be turning the corner, and the second set of leaves are getting bigger. Here's a pic of one of the grapefruit seedlings, now at day 16 of veg.



Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

Finally got the glass shield for my cab by the way, so I should be able to keep them nice and cool over the coming months.



I ran some tests today and the lightbox ran at around 25C, which is the same as room temps. It ran at 30C with the fans switched off. Surprisingly the lightbox was also at 30C when I tested it with the fans off, with the inlets set lower the heat rises through the fan vents, even with the fans off. The growbox inlets are low too, but it has to contend with the carbon scrubber restriction, so this makes sense. The lightbox was around 27C with the fans on from memory. I think the difference will be more marked in the summer months, and I'm not sure how effective the scrubber will be yet, but I think I can run with the current unit, or even remove one of the fans from the lightbox and beef up the scrubber if necessary. I also think the plants will be able to touch the glass shield without any kind of burning, which is cool.

Jerry

 

[Guest]

im blessed to move from 2x3 to a 4x8 chamber! good luck to you and your small space!

 

[Jerry Maine]

Yeah, I'd like to have a larger space, but if I can get two or three plants to grow in there I'll be self sufficient, which is all I want to do. If/when I move to a larger house I will expand into the right side of the cupboard, which will give me 3x2, plenty for a 250W, but I'll use 1x2 to keep some mothers and clones, and expand the grow box by an extra 6" width to 2x2.

Jerry

 

[Jerry Maine]

Well, today is three weeks since the seeds first popped, I definitely lost some time, probably the entire second week, with either a nutrient deficiency or the CFLs, or a combination of both, but they are all picking up and this one in particular is racing ahead. I'll call him Skush #1.


Skush #2 is doing reasonably well, the third set of leaves are starting tob form now.


The grapefruit are a bit smaller, here's GF #1, the larger of the 2


And lastly GF #2. Hopefully she won't be left behind.


Last, here's another pic of the lightbox and vents, this time from underneath. You can see the gaps I left on the sides for the growbox ventilation, and how Ive cut the panels to slot alongside the glass shield, working as both a reflector and ducting to the carbon filter and exhaust. I've covered the panels with aluminium tape, which not only serves as a reflector, but also keeps them much cooler.


I'm going to have to transplant pretty soon, am trying to find some decent sized pots that will squeeze into the box.

Jerry

 

[Guest]

Any updates on your 250 HPS Grow?

 

[untamed]

jerry: how did you go dude?

 

[Jerry Maine]

Sorry guys, I disappeared for nearly a year. The poor lil ladies above all died, probably never had a chance. I think it was a combination of overwatering them, and also using "Distilled" water, which I just read is very alkaline.

Anyhow I decided to take the summer off growing, given how hot it is here, then for a variety of reasons didn't get started until about a month back. I gave the growbox a quick clean, bought some potting soil, and planted four seeds. The front two are the skush, and the back two the feminized grapefruit, and they are either 3 or 4 weeks old, lol.

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These guys are doing far better than my last miserable attempt. I think one problem I had was I read so much here about growing techniques I confused myself. The 9 months away from growing (and reading about it) has cleared my mind, and I'm just gonna keep it simple. Potting soil, tap water, and a plan to finish before the summer heat kicks in.

They share a 250w HPS and each have a 20w white CFL to their own. I had to turn off the CFL's to take the pics.

I want to sex the skush early as I will need to do a scrog to keep them from totally overgrowing my little cabinet. If they are both female I might throw the grapefruit outside, and transplant the skush into bigger planters. If both are male then the grapefruit get the planters. If one is male and one is female I'll probably throw the skush outside.

I'm planning on topping them all this weekend, and switch to 12:12 by next weekend. But I should sex them first. Gonna start doing that now.

Here are some closeups of the four plants. These 2 are the grapefruit, which is supposedly very stretchy, hence me leaning toward booting them outside if the skush are ladies

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And the 2 Hindu Kush Skunk cross, or Skush

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Lastly, this is the Humanoid Worm Drake, has an attack rating of 2200, and defence of 2000. He's in there to keep my soil healthy and free from pests, and for shits and giggles.

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Grow Safe

Jerry

 

[untamed]

welcome back dude... looking like a good start!

 

[Jerry Maine]

haha, cheers man, it's been a while huh?

Those plants are about 3 or 4 weeks in, I should have paid a bit more attention to detail but I guess it doesn't matter much, I'll be forced to flip them to flower a bit early because of the size of my cab. It's only about 3 square feet.

J

 

[Headless Hornet]

Sorry about the bad luck on you last grow...this one should be better.

Your cab looks clean and well designed. Welcome back to the growing club, I hope it pays off this time.

 

[Barf]

Considered doing LST instead of topping? In my experience topping slows down plant growth where as LST actually promotes plant growth and side branching. Making a lot more budsites and I think would better utilize ur space.