Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[PCBuds]

So I bought a new heater and it's doing the same thing, even worse.
It's running nonstop at 710 Watts. The temperature hit 31.5° C and stabilized at that temperature and it won't shut off.

If I turn the thermostat down just enough to kick out the heater, the temperature drops to 20°C and it won't turn back on.
What a PITA.


I'm going to put my lamp fixture back in the closet with two 60 Watt incandescent bulbs and just leave it on.

I'm going to turn my exhaust fan back off to help keep the heat in the closet.
I'll be gambling a bit with mold but I have had pretty good luck with mold in the winter with the low humidity.


I've only had mold problems during the summer with my house temperatures around 85°F and RH around 80%.

 

[PCBuds]

There...
I'm happy with that.








It's better for my wine as well because the temperature should stabilize.

It should be about $11 a month to run the two bulbs nonstop.
That's not too bad.

Now to see what temperature the closet gets up to.

 

[PCBuds]

My temperatures are looking better.
(That's 27.2 on the left, my flash took out part of the 7)

It might be a little dry but I'm going to ignore that, and it helps fend off mold.








And the temperature near the top of the closet.

 

[PCBuds]

ReikoX's plants.

They're getting tall. I had to stand on the stove and countertop to take the pictures.
I'd hate to fall and take out the plants.
It would suck to lose a plant to a photography accident. Lol

 

[indagroove]

I'm struggling with cold temps too, as winter sets in. As soon as my current run is done, I think I'm going to bust out my old HPS for a cycle.

 

[indagroove]

ReikoX's plants.

They're getting tall. I had to stand on the stove and countertop to take the pictures.
I'd hate to fall and take out the plants.
It would suck to lose a plant to a photography accident. Lol




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That one's gonna be frosty! What are the genetics again?

 

[PCBuds]

My closet plant is doing OK.























I've increased my nutes to about 1000 PPM for all the plants.
My closet plant was kinda pale. I was thinking it was just light bleaching, but she may have been hungry?

I'll try to pay attention and see if she darkens up now.

Reiko's plants are a nice deep color green.

 

[PCBuds]

That one's gonna be frosty! What are the genetics again?

Dark Devil F2 (Mr.Sparkle) x Sugar Black Rose (Delicious Seeds)

 

[Sampas92]

Keep up

 

[PCBuds]

Keep up

Thanks, Sampas.

Things are coming along nicely.
The closet plant is looking a little rough, but the increase in my nutrients might fix that.

My runoff was about 200 PPM lower than my input.

I'll keep an eye out for greener leaves or nute burn.

 

[indagroove]

Dark Devil F2 (Mr.Sparkle) x Sugar Black Rose (Delicious Seeds)




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Interesting. If I'm not mistaken Dark Devil is an auto, and F2's from that would be 50% auto and 50% photo (with half of the photos having a recessive auto trait). I wonder how this is exhibited in the cross you're growing. I would assume it is a shorter flowering period. Sugar Black I think is Critical Mass, Black Domina Cross. I'm thinking that the offspring is your genetics would be a short flowering, large budded, fruity type of weed. Good to see it should be frosty too!

 

[ReikoX]

Interesting. If I'm not mistaken Dark Devil is an auto, and F2's from that would be 50% auto and 50% photo (with half of the photos having a recessive auto trait). I wonder how this is exhibited in the cross you're growing. I would assume it is a shorter flowering period. Sugar Black I think is Critical Mass, Black Domina Cross. I'm thinking that the offspring is your genetics would be a short flowering, large budded, fruity type of weed. Good to see it should be frosty too!

Dark Devil are an auto, the F2s are 100% autoflowering. The Sugar Black Rose is also an auto that I reversed with colloidal silver, so the siblings are also 100% autoflowering and feminized.

 

[indagroove]

Dark Devil are an auto, the F2s are 100% autoflowering. The Sugar Black Rose is also an auto that I reversed with colloidal silver, so the siblings are also 100% autoflowering and feminized.

Cool, thanks for the clarification.

 

[exploziv]

Regarding your heater trouble, maybe buy an external thermostat with a mains inlet and a controlled mains outlet and use that to control your heater? Even if the thermostat on those kind of device works, it's still bad acuracy. An external thermostat would be about 1-2 degrees off at most, but usually within one degree away from real temps. Some even have wired temperature probes that can be placed remotely into the growing space.
Good luck with your grow!

 

[PCBuds]

Cool, thanks for the clarification.

Yeah, it was ReikoX that sent me the seeds.
I know almost nothing about strains and genetics and didn't research the moms.

All that I knew that I wanted in a plant, was a tall skinny Autoflower to fit in my tall skinny closet (21" X21" X48").
My closet is full of light leaks that I don't want to bother trying to fix.

ReikoX's plants are looking great and should work perfectly in my closet.

I am eager to finish up the CandyCane that's in there now and grow a Reiko.

 

[PCBuds]

Regarding your heater trouble, maybe buy an external thermostat with a mains inlet and a controlled mains outlet and use that to control your heater? Even if the thermostat on those kind of device works, it's still bad acuracy. An external thermostat would be about 1-2 degrees off at most, but usually within one degree away from real temps. Some even have wired temperature probes that can be placed remotely into the growing space.
Good luck with your grow!

I did think about that.
I have a thermostat from a furnace that I could use. It waits for a 2° increase in temperature before it turns back off, (so that your furnace doesn't cycle too often).
I would have to rig up a relay though because the heater draws too much power for the contacts in the thermostat.

My biggest issue was spending money on heat.
I don't mind using 300 Watts for my lights, but using up to 750 Watts just for some warmth plus the cost of equipment kinda bugs me. Lol
(I had no idea how much heat it would take to warm up the closet?)


The two heater bulbs are working great!
The temps are around 27.5°C during lights on and drop to 24.5°C when the lights are off.

It's going to cost me $11 a month in electricity for the 120 Watts of bulbs, and that's fine for me.
It might even help finish up the plant sooner by having a better environment for the plant.

 

[exploziv]

If it costs 11 usd with the bulbs it should cost 11 usd or lower with the heater on a thermostat. Btw, what you need is a contactor, those are designed for huge amps draw and can be feed mains voltage to start the big load. But.. most thermostats are rated for at least 8-10A and should do it (at least in 230V AC case.)
Anyway, if you found a setup that works for you, then you may as well leave it like that.

 

[SuperBadGrower]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY2LxgUOX9w
"Sonoff TH16 Review"
can work too, smart plug with temp/rh sensor

 

[PCBuds]

If it costs 11 usd with the bulbs it should cost 11 usd or lower with the heater on a thermostat. Btw, what you need is a contactor, those are designed for huge amps draw and can be feed mains voltage to start the big load. But.. most thermostats are rated for at least 8-10A and should do it (at least in 230V AC case.)
Anyway, if you found a setup that works for you, then you may as well leave it like that.

f-e filled me in about contactors a while back when I wired up my LED strips.
My timer is rated high enough to turn my power supplies on and off but I am more comfortable using the contactor. (it was only about $10, shipped from China.)













The part that bugs me about using the timer is that the relay inside is a tiny little thing, even though it's rated for at least ten amps.

They arc every time they make contact and the worst-case scenario is if the contacts weld themselves closed at some point.
Then your appliance doesn't shut off and that can be dangerous.

The contactor uses a huge solenoid to both push and pull the contacts open and closed and goes off with a huge bang.
It still scares the hell out of me when it goes off and I'm standing right beside it. Lol



What I like about the two lightbulbs for heating is that I already had everything that I needed and didn't have to go shopping or wait for anything in the mail.

I can adjust the heat by screwing in different bulbs, and I like how they are always on so I don't have any temperature fluctuations except when things cool off during lights off.

I want a more consistent temperature mostly for my wine.
If I had a 750 Watt heater turning on and off all day long and blowing on my bucket, it's not good for the wine and the bucket might heat up, then contract enough to suck air into the bucket, wrecking the wine and stopping the CO2 generation.


I think my setup right now is pretty much fail-safe unless I break a bulb or get water on the fixture.

 

[PCBuds]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY2LxgUOX9w
"Sonoff TH16 Review"
can work too, smart plug with temp/rh sensor

That was pretty cool!!


I'll keep it in mind if I ever want to control my environment better, but I like trying to keep things as simple and fail-safe as possible.

I did go overkill with my lighting and I've got quite the rats nest of wires all around my closet, but I figure it was worth it for lighting and most of it is low voltage in case I stick my fingers in the wrong spot. Lol