Cheapo 9W LED Ikea Trashbin Grow - GHS Super Bud

[tebos]

Question: why don't you place the heatsink outside the plastic bin ? You only need to make some holes for the LEDs and that's all - the heat will be dissipated outside the growing space.

exploziv is right, there isn't much heat to beginn with and on the other hand it would ruin this nice stealthy build - this is just is case my landlord drops by or whatever coincidence that might expose me.
The air goes right through the heatsink and it get's barely lukewarm even after hours of usage.

@joe_gey: It's inside of my garbage closet (so to say), which is pretty much sealed. I open it now and then for fresh air to get it but that's about it. day cycle btw

 

[joe guy]

Ok cool cause I used to have my clones in a Rubbermaid tote
And the damn glowed like a landing strip at nite. Just wanted to
Bring it up so you didn't run into issues later down the road with the dreaded
Reveg... But good luck with it I like the idea

 

[tebos]

Appreciate it!

 

[GP73LPC]

sounds like you have it worked out

good luck

 

[tebos]

Meanwhile the plant got more smelly, filter seems to be working well though.

Watering every 2-3 days, the clay pellets in the bottom layer seem to be holding in the moisture very well. Temperature is always around 20-22 degrees Celsius and humidity 40-60%.
Don't know how long I will let them grow before switching to flowering, but probably another 1-2 weeks at least.

 

[NKOTS]

looking promising! heisse Schokolade!
how long do you plan to keep it in a 1L container?

peace

 

[tebos]

Hey Nkots! To be honest I wanted to leave them in this pot because space is an issue
The bin being just 35cm in height (1ft for the non metrics) just hasn't enough room for a bigger pot. I had to eat a lot of ice cream to get one that fits!

 

[tebos]

A lot of new branches, steady growth. Love it so far, no odor outside the bin (yet).

 

[tebos]

Started wiring the plant to keep its profile low. New sidebranches developing, everyting goes as planned.

 

[tebos]

Both seed leaves and the first first leaf pair after that are beginning to turn yellow, is this a sign of missing nutrients or just normal progress after having built up the first five pronged leaves? Should I remove them?

Albeit growth being steady, it's kinda slow, any tips on how much veg is a good idea? I'm fearing the sativa stretch when flowing, on the other hand there might be no stretch which would hurt the yield.

 

[NKOTS]

i would be afraid the yellowing might be related to lack of nutrients in the soil.
if repotting is not an option then you could start feeding it, with very weak dosage at first.

if you're not concerned about taking it out from the pot for a little while - then you could have a peek at the rootmass. if the roots occupy most of the bottom soil section then it is time to repot / feed.

side branching looks very promising, it seems to me this may be a nice and bushy plant

 

[tebos]

You're right, the roots are visible at the drain holes and lack of nutrients is probably right too, they're in the same soil for more than 3 weeks now.

I gave them a light watering with half the nutrients and tomorrow I'll go shopping for some ice cream!

 

[NKOTS]

i think you should eat like 3 to 4 Ltrs

if this would fit in the growbox?


edit: considering construction/shape of your bin, maybe you can find around some vertical pots? i mean the ones whose height is 2x or 3x bigger than width or length.

 

[exploziv]

just seek someone to take care of the plant after you go to hospital if you decide to eat 3-4 liters of ice-cream..

looking really good. She seems healthy and happy! good luck man!

 

[Neekz]

In my experience id say your fine, nice and deep green. First 2 sets (Cotyledon included) usually always yellow and fall off once there is like 3-4 nodes (strain dependent, alas every seeds different). A little 1/4 to 1/2 strength nutes shouldn't hurt at all! Btw did u get ur replacement drivers yet?

 

[tebos]

Thanks guys!

In my experience id say your fine, nice and deep green. First 2 sets (Cotyledon included) usually always yellow and fall off once there is like 3-4 nodes (strain dependent, alas every seeds different). A little 1/4 to 1/2 strength nutes shouldn't hurt at all! Btw did u get ur replacement drivers yet?

I have seen this with other plants before, the Cotyledon and first leaf pair getting yellow and eventually dying after the having developed a proper canopy.
The parts didn't arrive yet, I'll keep you posted on all the changes of the system.

This is what the root system looks like at the moment:

I did a repot into a 2l pot, which as big as they can get, it takes the space of the whole floor inside the bin (blocking the air intakes too).

With the pot being twice as big now, I hope she's happy, I'm not - still feel sick after eating 2,5l of ice cream (had to be done!).

 

[Mikenite69]

Lol at the ice cream eating for the containers lmao can't wait to see end results I eat a big bowl of ice cream and feel sick to my stomach congrats on your task of all the ice cream eating but hope you recover.

 

[Twist1]

I really wanna see what you can do here with such low wattage - good luck man

 

[tebos]

Thanks you two.

Major update incoming \o/ all the missing parts arrived today! First thing I did was to replace the filter because I fear that the current one isn't going to suffice in late flowering stages.

From this:

To this:

You can see that the new filter is much more dense and contains carbon granulate, also much less light transmission.

As you can see, I added the new driver and *probably* found the reason for the death of its predecessor: the fan and driver are wired in parallel and motors of all kind are known to have voltage spikes (in the start and when slowing down), this might have caused the sudden death of the last one. I soldered in a diode to block the spike.

LEDs are now wired in series and running at 0,95A each.

As for the plant itself leafs got bigger, the trifoliated leafs are beginning to yellow and will probably die soon. Lengthwise there wasn't that much developement, another node grew.

But as you can see, there are more and more side branches and leaves around the stem. Looks like a perfect christmastree shape and the wiring is really paying off (full use of canopy).

The emergency replacement CFL is out of the game and from now on I'll be running at least another week 18/6 with LEDs to get some more solid sidebranching. This is the 4th week in vegetative state btw.

 

[GP73LPC]