ACE (and other sats) Indoor Tricks

[Terpene]

Hey all,

I figured I would share more on what I meant by brighter lights / self irrigated pots from the purple haze malawi thread for those who wanted to see what I've been playing with lately.

So the first thing I decided was that I suck at watering as effectively as drip irrigation systems, so I started looking around for set it and forget it systems that don't require drip trays or water run off. The answer I found was self irrigating pots (SIPs) or "Global Buckets." I am hardly brilliant enough to develop a system like this, so here's a link to the original developers of these babies: http://www.globalbuckets.org/ They designed theirs on 5gal / 19L buckets, but I found 3.5gal / 13.25L buckets are way more than enough for my space. Inside, they look like this:

The bottom bucket acts as a reservoir while the top holds soil. The soil cup which nests in the top bucket and sits in the resorvoir wicks up water as the soil is dried out by the plant. I modified this design to include a sight gauge and where they have a hole for excess water to run off, I put a second tube so I know when the plant is topped off. Watering is now as simple as walk in, glance at gauge, fill till its full. (You don't have to cover the soil with white plastic like I did, but it does help to keep moisture in and reflect light back up at the canopy.) My plants haven't ever been this happy and I'm using 1/3rd as much soil as I used to.

The next thing I discovered is that screw in LEDs have come a long way. I stopped by my local home store and found screw-in 16w LEDs which put out an insane amount of light for the $6 I paid for them. They're about twice as bright as the 23w CFLs I was using, with 2-3x the effective penetration. Compared to my 240w Blackstar, they're about half as bright at the same distance, but because you can spread them out for even coverage, the plants can get really close to the lights.

Here's a shot of veg:

Light strength breakdown at distance with my ghetto swing style light meter:

23w CFL
.5" - 1400
1" - 700
3" - 350
6" - 175
12" - 80

16.5w LED
.5" - 2000+
1" - 2000+
3" - 2000
6" - 1000
12" - 500

240w Blackstar LED
.5" - 2000+
1" - 2000+
3" - 2000+
6" - 2000
12" - 1000

STRONG growth from this upgrade, I'm doubling stem size weekly in veg.

 

[Chrondiddle O]

looks like a neat idea,kind of a hempy bucket meets the oldschool wicking system.

 

[MadMac]

Thank you Terpene,
this self irrigating pots is exactly i was looking for for my next grow!
i was thinking to do it like the same with my smart pot's because they working so well for long time grow (sativa)...
no root bound or other root issues and you get more air to the roots too...
many thx for all the infos's...
M.

 

[Baron Greenback]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing this.
I go down the Gardena drip system route, all the valves and connectors are idiot proof and all the pipework is readily available from a normal gardening shop for ease.
Be interested to see the results from this one, looking good already.

 

[Trich_Tyson]

Love the buckets.. little passive hydro.. also, beautifully trained plant..

lastly..

That pic is too cool man.. gives the illusion of a big as room..

 

[Terpene]

Thanks all, I am glad I could help.

MadMac - If you're planning to do this with grow bags inside buckets, there's a guy online whos design you'll probably be interested in: http://www.alaskagrowbuckets.com/alaska-grow-bucket-guide/

The only reason I didn't do them was the pot-to-pot plumbing for the external reservoir. Seemed like too much re-inventing the wheel for a 4 plant flowering area.

Another quick and easy solution for HUGE plants would be to use 30 gallon totes with drain tubing at the bottom for a reservoir:

I've already tried this method with my strawberries outside. Watering went from 10 minutes with the hose every other day when they were in-ground to about once a week for 30-45 seconds.

 

[Terpene]

4 weeks on that Purple Haze Malawi x Napalm in the sub irrigated pot / screw in 16w LEDs is running circles around my previous run under a 240w Blackstar:

Here's the previous plant under the blackstar at 5 weeks for comparison:

 

[highroller614]

Well thats an awesome idea and thanks for sharing Terpene. Im interested to see your results I will be around for this one. Your grow looks awesome very organized. I can see this being a game changer for me perhaps......

 

[Terpene]

The last of my CFLs were replaced today.

My seedling veg area (2x2x2) was four 23w CFLs but I was tired of the heat the CFLs were making. So I replaced them with four 8w LED bulbs that I saw at Home Depot for $4 bucks each. According to my light meter, brightness is actually a little bit up overall at 1/4 the wattage.

Total wattage consumption for veg is 170w over 12sqft. Flowering is 385w over 16sqft (Blackstar 240w and nine 16w LEDs). Toss a couple fans on there and everything rounds out to 575w. I've built desktop computers that suck down more juice.

 

[konopenko]

Lovely setup Terpene, looks like girls love it! Do you have any kind of Orwellian police control there to worry about electricity consumption?

 

[Terpene]

Lovely setup Terpene, looks like girls love it! Do you have any kind of Orwellian police control there to worry about electricity consumption?

Thank you, I am very happy with how its doing!

No, the authorities generally only go after people who steal electricity or run huge grows. My main reason for being so thrifty on the power consumption is my goal of getting the cost of growing down as much as possible.

• Electricity in southern California is hyper expensive - about $0.20 per kilowatt hour, so my current setup is about $60 bucks a month to run.
• Every 3 months, I buy my soil mix for about $45.
• I use tap water (free) for the plants.

Over the course of a year, that all works out to roughly $850. I cut a plant down almost every 3 weeks and each plant produces about 3-4oz. Splitting the middle, thats about 60oz a year, which works out to about $14 per oz of smokeable cannabis.

 

[Baron Greenback]

Tell you what terpene, I'll give you $30 an oz then you're in profit

 

[Thcvhunter]

I like your style, Terpene

 

[Terpene]

LOL thanks guys.

Since I started growing, my goal has been to simplify and cheapen the growing process while improving the quality of the smoke. So many of my fellow medical patient friends have expensive systems with CO2, air conditioning, water timers, nutrient schedules, etc. that turn growing into rocket science and I don't want to spend all my time on my hobby / medicine.

As you might have guessed, I've never grown for profit and never will. To me, cannabis is like any other vegetable. Sure, farmers can make money selling corn - but if one tried to sell you corn for several hundred dollars a pound, you would figure out a way to grow your own corn.

 

[Terpene]

5 weeks into flowering on the Purple Haze Malawi x Napalm and the pistils are just starting to die back.

 

[Trich_Tyson]

Great lookin haze. Shod get pretty chunky in the next couple weeks. Nice bud structure.

I'm with Ya on the cheapening. We are gardening here. There is no reason it can't be done affordably. Especially after legalization hits I think that will be the focus when zips won't be 200 and lbs won't be 1500 on a good day. Then we will really need to find sustainable methods. Keep doin what ur doin terps

 

[Terpene]

6.5 weeks and the purple haze malawi napalm cross is starting to seal off and foxtail under the LEDs:

I've been able to finish a few other non Ace lines under the LEDs which were also in the sub irrigated buckets. Here's Cherry Tart and Pure Platinum at chop.

 

[Terpene]

More LED lit pot shots.

The Purple Haze Malawi x Napalm at 7.5 weeks, looking and smelling very Malawi influenced.

I added two more 8.5w LEDs to my seedling veg area. Its now flowering bright (1000-1200 on my meter). I had to move away from the fixture design to cleat sockets because I needed as much canopy room as possible. The 8.5w LEDs veg at a much faster rate than my old 23w CFLs.

 

[Neighbor1234]

Hi Terpene new here. Nice plants.

Question.

Your single LED light bulbs where purchased at home depot?

What brand are you using?

Would love to use these for small mother/father plants and supplementing the flowering room in the sides.

Thank you.

 

[Neighbor1234]

Will these work you think? Thanks

http://m.homedepot.com/p/GE-60W-Equ...e-LED-Light-Bulb-8-Pack-LED10LS8-32/206150738