Screw-in LED Stacking Totes

[ScrogMonster]

I taped some 1/4" square wooden dowel down for frame of reference to get a nice even layer of carbon

Here's it full of carbon... these pictures seemed to turn out upside down it's weird. I mean I'm high but...

So... after I put the carbon on the screen, I felt the exhaust and the first fans flow felt surprisingly good, the second one had no airflow at all it seemed like... Actually I thought the wires came loose or the fan gave out already, maybe it was defective. I moved the carbon above it and then saw through the screen that the fan was spinning... Then felt that exhaust again and it had some flow. Long story short I ended up realizing that path of least resistance for the air drawn by the sightly stronger fan due to standard variance was from the weaker fans tunnel... Cancelling it out seemingly. So weird. Is this a known thing that I'm ignorant to? I fixed it by cutting a strip of cardboard and taping it down between the fans under the screen to cut the filter in half so each fan now pulls through its own filter half the size. After putting the carbon back on now both exhuasts have some airflow although it seems pretty weak. I'm running a temp check right now, I'm not sure what to do if it doesn't check out.

In the top of the 2nd picture up, you can sort of see that I covered the top of the cardboard strip with electrical tape by pinching the ends down to create a little bubble in the tape so it seals sort of like weather stripping.

 

[ScrogMonster]

The new filter looks beautiful. Though i have to admit i can't tell where the carbon goes lol,under the fans i assume? I've been doing pretty much the same exact thing redoing stuff to make it better. I was having really low airflow with it all assembled even after adding a second intake pipe,so i replaced the wire screen and pantyhose with the a/c filter sheet material and its much much better.

So far i've had two bagseed seedlings die before even going in the box,probably fate just saying it wasnt ready yet. The first one that had sprouted accidentally in my bathtub ended up falling off my dresser and breaking the head of the stem off,second died from trying to help it too much,didnt bury it very deep and put taproot down,seed case never came off and cotyledons rotted.. sad.

Thanks for the kind words, sorry to hear about your seedlings croaking, I hope the next one's work out.

 

[Aggilator]

The second one is still alive it seems,just growing very very very slowly.. you can just see the tiny new leaves starting to grow. At this point its probably not worth it but i feel honor bound to give it a chance,you know? I think this crappy thermometer is wrong but it tends between 80-85 with the lights on 24/7. But it also tells me my room is 80 degrees when its in the 50's outside.

While sitting here redesigning things in my head i thought of putting two fans in it but as one would be stronger than the other i thought it would cause problems like that.. I think from now on i will make filters with these boxes http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sterilite-2-5-Qt-Flip-Top-Box-18038612/203002006 just room enough for one fan and you can use as many as you want per growbin

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

not sure about the 1 fan working less but do know you cant say anything about the quality/succes of the filter before it "sets" letting all the tiny bits vibrate into place

i try shaking the filter while filling but after a while i stuff some more in it
my filter is doing fine, but im looking for some muffler, to cut the outgoign noise, that big woooooosh sound

 

[Aggilator]

my filter is doing fine, but im looking for some muffler, to cut the outgoign noise, that big woooooosh sound

That's why i think using multiple smaller filters might work better. I was originally using a 0.18 amp value 4-pack fan that was quiet as could be but couldnt manage much airflow by itself. I took a 0.36 amp fan out of my pc and switched it,airflow is wonderful but much louder. If i were to have one 0.18amp fan per exhaust hole it might work better while being just as quiet.

If your growbox is in a closet you could muffle the noise by hanging some sweaters in there lol.

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

haha i had my winter blacket on top of the closet to indeed cancel the noise
i tried multiple smaller ones, but the higher pitched noise annoyed me more in the long run, the low bassy woosh is easier to cancel out with every day noises
i could, i think, put the whole closet in a bigger closet, but that would kill my airflow i think, more like last resort kinda thing

 

[Aggilator]

I dont mean smaller fans,all the ones im using are 120mm just different amps and blade styles resulting in different RPMs. If you're using PC fans wired to 12v adapters you could switch to a 9v or 7v adapter and it would lower RPM and make it quieter instead of buying an expensive fan controller. But what i meant was just using a smaller housing for the filter and fan,and having multiple housings,one for each exhaust vent instead of trying to pull through one big filter with multiple holes.

The incense idea was great btw,i have some sicknasty (i imagine they're meant for a big temple environment or something..) dhoop cones i never thought about trying. I lit one and put it outside the box under my two air intakes and they sucked up every bit of the smoke. Sure beats a smoke machine for testing airflow too.

 

[ScrogMonster]

Well... my airflow seems week but i guess it's good enough to only have a 10 degree raise above ambient in the chamber. It's getting cold outside and it's about 65-67 degrees in the room the tote is in so the grow chamber is sittin pretty at 75-77 degrees. Once summer comes back around I may have to add another couple of fans to keep it under 80 but for now the temperature is perfect. I lit some incense inside the bottom tote and it didn't fully light but produced a bit of smoke. I shut the lid real fast and waited with my face at the exhaust and I could definitely smell the musk scented inscense. Probably not half as strong as it would be if the carbon weren't there though... I came inside with one of my filtered cigars lit and held it next to the intake... the intake pulled the smoke in but only when I held it so close it was almost touching. Face by the exhaust again I could definitely smell both cigar and the unlit incense that was still in the tote... I don't want to put any more carbon on the tray though because I only have just enough airflow as it is. This tote will only be for moms so I'm just going to hope the lesser smell of vegging plants won't make it past the carbon filter. If it does I'll have to deal with it then. Enough is enough already. It's time to pop some seeds. I decided to try popping 6 of the 12-13 strains I have. All of these should be fine with 8 weeks flowering.

I just folded little peices of paper towel to fit inside the labeled bags so I can keep em' seperated easy and they're just sitting on top so I can look at their progress through the bag with out disturbing them. Those little bags are now sitting on a modem. I hope they all pop!!

 

[Aggilator]

I guess i'll just share your thread instead of making a second LED tote thread lol. I wish i had some good seeds like that,but mailing money to the netherlands with my address and a letter is too paranoia inducing for me. I guess the problem with my seedling was the clay pot.. i was scared of overwatering it and the pot dried out the soil really fast and it got crispy..

Anyway,i woke up today to some new friends,the sprout in the second picture must have just popped up before i woke up,it was all white and almost laying on the soil when i first saw it,an hour later i took the picture.

 

[ScrogMonster]

I'm ok with that Aggilator, sharing is caring... After all.


This will be really cool too as we're both been popping at the same time

 

[Aggilator]

My little garden is starting to look a bit more friendly and crowded. Gonna go shopping this weekend and make a few more changed to the box.


Temps stay between 78-85 degrees,have the light timer on 18/6 since i feel even seedlings need a rest. My second seedling is still alive beyond all expectation,i should probably just cull it but it is turning into an interesting looking little mutant runt.

 

[ScrogMonster]

That sure is a wacky lookin ling ling you got there, maybe it'll do something good for ya.

I've been damn busy as usual. This next load of pictures are maybe as much as a week old now. Maybe I'll take some more pictures tonight and get them up soon.

Most of my seeds reached this point.

Unfortunately, none of the three Barney's farm pineapple popped, and the one green house bubba Kush seed i had also did not pop...*wipes tear from cheek*

So out of the 6 strains I attempted to sprout I got 4... 2 Cherry Bomb seedlings are looking awesome. Shorter then the other strains and already showing a red/purple color even though they're tiny seedlings, you won't see it in the following pics, I'll try to capture that tonight and get it up on here. Then I have 3 healthy HBO Green Crack, 3 Barney's Blue Cheese, and 3 Barney's Blue Crimea. That's enough to get me excited! Because i purchased mostly feminized 3 packs.. these cost of these 10 seedlings of 4 different strains was under 100$ for sure, maybe under 80$... and the two that didn't pop cost maybe 20$ combined.

 

[ScrogMonster]

 

[ScrogMonster]

Multiple phenos of four cup winning strains for 120$ if you count the ones that didn't pop is a decent value in my book.

 

[Aggilator]

That is alot of babies you have there,you're gonna be busy pretty soon. How many do you plan on keeping in that box? i think the most i'd want in mine is 3 or 4. I'm jealous of your perlite chunks,the only kind i could find was miracle-gro and its half powder already.

Here are my babies 7 days since surfacing,i guess you could call them toddlers now? The mutant runt is gonna have to go,pots and space are becoming limited and it hasn't grown at all.

 

[ScrogMonster]

That is alot of babies you have there,you're gonna be busy pretty soon. How many do you plan on keeping in that box? i think the most i'd want in mine is 3 or 4. I'm jealous of your perlite chunks,the only kind i could find was miracle-gro and its half powder already.

Here are my babies 7 days since surfacing,i guess you could call them toddlers now? The mutant runt is gonna have to go,pots and space are becoming limited and it hasn't grown at all.
]

Lookin good Aggilator. Yeah why take a chance on a slow poking runt when you got done nice healthy plants.
I plan on keeping them all in there as little bonsai mom's once i flower clones out in seperate totes I'll pick the best phenos of each strain and probably have 2-3 mom's of each strain in there. I think I'm just going to fill it completely with solo cups, however many fit. I plan to have about 3 branches per mom that I'll keep cutting back and when ever necessary I'll make a cut into a new mother. I might dedicate another tote for moms if I need to I plan on doing a super micro SOG.. Cramming in lots of fresh cuts into a soil bed in the bottom of the tote straight into 12/12 while they're routing cause I think it'll be fun. Little micro forest in a box so cute. I can't wait.

 

[ScrogMonster]

Here's a group shot, the bigger ones in yellow cups are the ones that popped first they maybe had 1-2 days head start on the yogurt cups. so about 10 days from germ for the yellow cups and 8 or 9 for the yogurt cups.

Yellow cups

Yogurt cups

Here's some weird shit and hopefully an early Christmas miracle. About 9 days ago I was trying to assist a small fragile pineapple chunk seedling in shedding it's shell and the cotyledon just broke right in half and fell down... I think I pulled the rest of that seedling out and tossed it, I put that cup and another failed seedling's cup off to the side, inside of an empty tote to save recycling their soil for another time. Forgot all about them and opened that tote 2 nights ago to find this! Jagged leaves just growing out of that one half of cotyledon that was laying on the soil surface... whoa! It looks like at the bottom of this little cluster might be a little root bump/stem forming... if this thing sprouts roots and more leaves and grows into a plant I'll be both astonished and extremely grateful because It'd be the only pineapple chunk to survive. How cool would that be?! So I carefully pressed it into the soil a touch and sprayed a little water on it. Fingers crossed.

Here's the group back in the tote with a tray of perlite wicking water for some added humidity.

 

[ScrogMonster]

I feel like my plants could look a little healthier. I just put them on a timer for 6 hrs of rest per day. They'd been drivin on 24/7. The bigger seedlings in particular look like maybe they have a slight pH problem starting... agreeable? I also feel like they might want more humidity so I added that perlite tray. I had been using un altered tap water. Soon I'll flush them a bit with added pH down and a tiny bit of FF Grow big. I just gave them a light foliar feed with grow big...I hope that didn't cause any burn. We'll soon see.

 

[ScrogMonster]

As mentioned previously... The inner most newest growth of the Cherry Bombs look cherry colored!! How exciting! I hope the buds come out with a lot of this color that'd be so cool. Here's pics of green crack and blue cheese for comparison. Its also fun to see the different strains in order of most indica looking to most sativa looking.
Cherry Bomb

Other Cherry Bomb

Green Crack

Blue Cheese

 

[Aggilator]

If you can see green i'd say give it a chance. Nature is surprisingly resilient,just go out and look at any parking lot and you'll inevitably find grass growing through the concrete. My little runt has actually started growing again,i took it out of the box though and just have been keeping it in my window.

I spent like 5 hours making changes to my box which i'll post some pictures of later,i recessed the sockets ghetto style and added 2 more optional bulb spots,also gave it the option to add a middle hollow layer later if i want more height. It took so long because i guess the newer stock of rubbermaids is garbage. I put everything back together and i saw light leaking between the top and bottom box and kept trying to fix it before realizing it was the lid itself letting light glow through.. so covered it all in foil tape. my first lid never did anything like that.

Your plants seem okay to me about the same size as mine on the same number of days,when you say you think theres a pH problem do you mean the leaf i circled in red in attachment? That could be anything. LED lights are pretty intense they might cause some funkiness with chlorophyll.. Or heat if you have them close to the lights,what are temps in the box? Could just be from being in such small containers,are you feeding them anything yet? I started out using the miracle-gro organic soil until i noticed the runoff pH was between 4 and 5 with a dropper test but my plants never showed any issue. Since then i have switched to some pro-mix with limestome and replaced the top 2 inches of the containers soil with it and its better now.