Sergeant's got a brand new cab

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Day 12 since I started up the bubbler.
The lights are running 18/6. Temps in the cab are 75-81F lights on, and 65F lights off. Humidity sucks at 30%. Res temp is 66F after a res change 6 days ago. EC has been creeping up from 500uS to 520uS and pH has also creeped up from 5.7 to 5.8 during those 6 days.

The clones on the left dropped roots about 8 days ago and has started vegetative growth (finally).

Roots look good to me.

The one on the right seems to be in stasis. There's only slight root growth in the hydroton.

Without much vegetative growth it's hard to diagnose any problems right now.

Here's Citral #1 after 2 weeks of revegging in a much smaller pot.

Hope all is well and your gardens are green.

 

[hazydreams]

dude the veg growth looks perfect. given enough veg time i dont think you'll miss the other clone not being there.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

The second clone finally dropped a root out of the netpot.
There's hope.

 

[hazydreams]

ITS ALIVE............ well maybe at least.

 

[green.is.good]

Looking good Sgt.!!!

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Thanks green.is.good. Glad to have you here.

Vegetative growth is taking off on clone #1, and clone #2 (the runt) has dropped another root into the res and is starting to show signs of growth.

I topped up the res on the 9th with a 1/2 gallon of distilled and brought the nute strength up to 600uS using a few mils of bloom and micro and a 1/4 tsp of epsom salt. pH has slowly been climbing from 5.65 to 5.82 since the top up, and EC has risen from 600 to 630uS over the last 7 days. I'll probably do one more top off before I change the res next week.

I did some minor modifications to the cab a couple of days ago. I was noticing a small light leak from where the air lines and electric cables penetrate the back of the cab. I replaced the 1/2" emt cable clamp with a 3/4" pvc liquid tight elbow. The grey PVC color and 90 degree turn in the penetration have eliminated the leak.

I also added another 120mm interior fan to the cab. One is now suspended beneath the HPS cool tube and another is suspended beneath the CFL duo. I needed the second fan because when I lowered the CFL's closer to the clones, the HPS was not getting air across the bulb and temps went up. I didn't want to run another fan off the 12v, 1A transformer, for fear of overloading the transformer, so I installed a SilentX 4 channel fan controller which I've used in a previous cab. The unit runs off of AC and allows me to control fan speed on up to 4 fans. I taped over the blue LED indicator lights on the fan controller to keep the lights from fucking with the girls later in veg. They definately put off enough light during lights out to iluminate the cab slightly.

Here's the girls today with the CFLs down low.

Vegetative growth is looking good on clone #1 with just some light leaf curl on some of the 1-3 fingered fan leafs. The newer 5 fingered leaves all look fine.

Runt root porn. lol

Here's a pic showing both interior fans. The CFL fan will rest behind the HPS fan when the CFLs are raised even with the HPS.

This is the 4 channel fan controller stuffed above the scrubber.

Here's the liquid tight fitting which acts as a better light trap for the electrical/air penetrations.

I plan on doing some topping and defoliating on clone #1 later this week. Hopefully, clone #2 will catch up. I'll probably throw on the scrog screen in about a week and begin training. Flip wont be far behind. Then it's cola time!

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Looking good, Sarge. The fan controller is neat, never seen one.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Hey Disco,
Always glad to see you around.
The fan controller is OK. It beats splicing wires and adding additional transformers. I think it was around $35. I hate sloppy looking work, so it fits the bill. One of the 4 channels isn't working atm. Also, I think it only outputs around 9v DC to each channel. It doesn't seem to spin the fan as fast as the 12v transformer. Also, the dials dont do much Maybe 100% to 50%.
I'll have to break out my multimeter and get a better idea of the output.

Edit. The multimeter leads wont fit into the fan connectors so I dont have an idea on voltage yet. Their website says it provides between 4-12v output and a max of 20 watts using the ac adapter. You can also hook it up to a computer psu using a molex connector and get 24 watts of power for the fans.

 

[gdbud]

Nice cabinet! I like how you have been able to keep it nice a clean in such a tight space.

 

[hazydreams]

sarge-

the growth on the #1 clone is phenominal. it looks as healthy as it could be for this stage of the game.


#2 while it is dropping roots doesnt look (to me) like it will come back. but hey you never know....

Otherwise the rise in PH is what your going to want to monitor. drfiting up slowly, say a full point rise in 7-10 days is right around where i keep them. this is usally good enought o prevent any defecencies from popping up and staying on the safe side of the burn line.

Well done homie. Keep'em green and sticky

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Thx gdbud.
Your cab is no slouch.
Hazy,
I was suprised the 1st clone took off. I'm not giving up hope on this one yet, but she better do something quick or the 1st one is going to hog the screen.
It's kinda funny looking with the trichromes on the bottom and fresh growth on top.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Cab Upgrade

Cab Upgrade

All right fellow micro growers. Spring has sprung here and with it, my cab temps were becoming dangerously warm. I was seeing temps float in the middle 80s and approaching 87.
I decided to dedicate my Saturday to some much needed improvements. The DIY scrubber came out, and the PC fan, controller and transformer were yanked from the back. Where the fan used to sit, I bolted another toilet flange back to back with the existing flange so i had a place to connect my new ductwork.

I ran 4" smooth wall duct up from the cab exhaust to the floor joist above and mounted my 4" S&P 100X to the subfloor. The mounting bracket and entire fan were wrapped in Reflectix to isolate sound from the fan.

I also upgraded the electric around the cab with some new 3/4" pvc conduit and gang boxes. I installed a fan speed controller and fan receptacle in one double gang box and two receptacles in the other double gang. The upper outlet on the receptacle is speed controlled while the lower one is fan full force. Unfortunately, the speed controller causes the fan to hum when slowed, so it's actually quieter with the fan running full speed. lol

The cab interior got pimped as well with Reflectix on three walls. The Reflectix is tacked on with double sided tape and helps cut down on sound of the interior fans and bubbler when closed.
It's a whole hell of a lot brighter with it on the walls. I need sunglasses.

I dumped, cleaned and refilled the res and gave clone 1 a haircut of the lower fan leaves. The runt is making plenty of roots but the veg is still delayed. The res was brought up to 700 uS, pH 5.6. Even though clone 1 would gladly take more nutes, I'm keeping them lower so I dont kill the runt, and clone 1 doesn't get away from me. I haven't topped her yet, and have almost 2" until she hits the new screen I installed.

I ditched the hard plastic screen in favor of some nylon twine. The hard plastic was sharp where I cut it and I didn't want it damaging the stalks.

I'm exhausted.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Sounds like you've been busy, Sarge.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

It's well worth the effort. My temps are running in the high 60s low 70s after the remodel.
I still have to install the scrubber up in the floor joists which I'm not looking forward to.
Trying to squeeze through the maze of pipes and electric and contort myself like a pretzel to get above the water heater sucks donkey balls. I'm sure temps will go up a bit after I get the scrubber installed.
I'm contemplating buying a real carbon scrubber. Maybe a Phat or Mountain Aire.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Nice thing about taking clones from a flowering plant, when they finally revert back to veg, the branching is incredible. You get alternating nodes immediately once the growth starts.

Check out the first vegetative leaf. Looks like cabbage or a squash.

 

[hazydreams]

sarge are you gonna top that bad girl? or just let her do her thing with lsting and crushing?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Uh, check the scrog trellis up there. Nice work on that, Sgt. I've got the plastic and you're right, it's rough on plants. I bet chicken wire is too.

 

[hazydreams]

i see where your coming from disco but i was more referring to the topping and lst-ing to maximize the branching for the trellis above. either way its gonna be tits.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Oh, I got ya. Good question.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

I dont know what I'm doing. Maybe a pre-training screen under the main screen. Damn pre-pubescent teen girls.
I want to top it if the runt takes off so I can keep them close, but would prefer to go au-natural if the runt fails. At some point, I have to make a decision because the difference in development is going to hinder things. I may have to make a small bucket bubbler for the speaker box and kick the re-vegging plant in soil to the curb.
Will topping an alternating node plant result in more branching or just control the height?