The Toking Tent

[ScrubNinja]

Hey what's up IC. Haven't been around for a while. I was having a nice break but somehow ended up with 2 x Shiva Skunk and 1 x The Pure cuttings which had already rooted and started growing! The pure is in the front. (about 2 days after I got 'em and before they got any real TLC)



I picked up a cheapo 2nd hand growlush propagation tent, popped some CFLs in, and I was off to the races!





I have no idea how old they were before I got them. The Pure is the best smoke I've ever had so I'm quite excited!

As of today, there is 147w of CFLs in there. 2 x 48w (5000k), 1 x 28w (5000k), and 1 x 23w (6400k). Temps are on the high side after I put in the extra lights but I have a heavy duty fan coming in a few days so I'm not sweating it.

The following pics are from today, about 12 days after I recieved them.

^ The pure. I tipped it as soon as I got it before I had decided on scrog. Silly mistake but not the end of the world or anything.

First try on the new ic-system, I hope I did that right.

They are growing in straight coco, hand watered with DM nutes. I'll be adding a PK boost later on, and Seasol from time to time, and that's about it.

This will be my first time flowering indoors. This is the third time I've said that though, so hopefully I make it across the finish line this time, haha. I've vegged a lot with CFLs in the past but previously flowered outdoors.

Right now I'm using a quite powerful 120mm PC fan to blow across the canopy / bulbs, and a Cooler Master Aero upside down at the top of the tent as the actual exhaust. It looks like this:

The fan I have coming is a Fantech 150mm centrifugal and seems like a really decent fan from reading on forums (anyone disagree?). I'm constructing a huge external carbon filter and will fit that before flowering.

I just threw 4 old Aussie Blue cross seeds in water tonight so I'll probably have a few extra on the side somewhere. I mean, look at all the room I got in there! I will have to flower pretty soon because I don't want it to interfere with moving out of here.

I'll switch bulbs to mostly 2700k when I flower and add more bulbs if temps allow. It's getting cooler by the day here, thankfully.

Does anyone know the difference between a "propagation" tent like mine, and um, a regular tent? I know tents get a bad rap btw, but I read online this propagation model wasn't affected. So far so good.

Well I think that about covers it. Any comments or questions, go ahead.

 

[Spicoli]

Looks good, where did you get that fan?? that thing is cool.

 

[#1cheesebuds]

looken real nice.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Thanks folks. Spicoli, I sourced it from ebay, there's always a few for sale. I'm surprised I don't see them in micro grows - they're small, quiet, have a speed control, and can push more back pressure than an equivalent axial design.

Peace.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Well I picked up my fan today. It's actually an eziair not a fantech. It's a lot, LOT louder than I was expecting but it's powerful! I hooked it up today to test it out without a carbon filter yet and cha-ching, there went any heat problems. Should have my carbon filter finished by tomorrow. Got a strange feeling this is all going to work!

I covered the fan as much as I could with old jackets and crap and it's just quiet enough to not hear outside. No question-askers ever come inside, but I'm going to get some insulation batten stuff, and place the fan in a box and pack it up. I even have a fan speed controller but it barely made a difference! The carbon filter should help silence it a bit right?

Here are some pics from this morning after a flush. I had overfed a little before that. Poking the growth down has become a once or twice daily affair. I'm very happy with progress.



^ Pure is still on the left. It's bushy as hell since the tipping but slowly the branches are reaching the screen.



^ The 2 Shivas on the right.





^ last 2 pics are under the shivas.

I should add that most pics will have a light or two removed so you can see what's happening better. There's still a total of 4 bulbs atm.

Judging by how fast they vegged, do you think I should be flipping to 12/12 in say, 5 or 6 days-ish? That's what I'm thinking anyway. The Shivas don't stretch much in flower at all but I think the Pure does. Hopefully it'll allow it to catch up in the long run.

Happy grows

 

[ScrubNinja]

I finished my carbon filter today and got it installed. It seems to work 100%. I lit some incense in the tent and couldn't smell a thing outside. Can't wait to flip this shit! Temps are awesome @ 1 degree celcius above ambient. Was running around 27.5C (82F) at the hottest part of a hot day. It's quieter now too. The fan is still on lowest speed.



^pure

 

[ScrubNinja]

This is how I made the carbon filter (sorry I didn't get any pics of it in place before I covered it with noise-deadening stuff.)



^ This stuff is for the pre-filter which I haven't made yet



^ close up. It's going to go in the top of the tent.



^ this is the same screen I used for the scrog. It's really handy stuff for sure. I think the grid is 1.25 inches or so.



^ Gutter guard, plastic mesh.



^ The carbon. It should be noted that I used two types. The Aquarium Science packs, and a large pack of finer carbon granules my buddy gave me. The AS packs actually don't say "activated" anywhere on them, but what can I say? It worked in my small PC filter for veg and it certainly works for incense. (Please see edit)

The finer stuff I have no idea if that's activated. The finer stuff has more surface area so it's theoretically gonna do a better job than the coarser AS stuff. My fan is pretty epic so it can handle the fine stuff just, er, fine. Here is a crappy closeup with the finer stuff on the right:





^ Okay so this is where I started taking pics of the build. I just glued some quarter dowels to hold up the white screens, and obviously added the holes and duct adapter. The air in this one flows down through the carbon.



^ I put the white screen in, put the gutter guard over the top



^ Then I put a layer of flyscreen over all that. The gutter guard was to support in between the 1.25inch grid of the white screen, so the carbon and flyscreen doesn't sag.



^ I filled it around the edges to butt it all up neatly. It didn't work that great. If you're going to try this, I would glue it in, or cut the flyscreen or something, so there aren't big folds. By the way, I used coarse carbon on the bottom, fine on top. If I was selling this idea, I'd call it my new DUAL LAYER (TM) Technology! Hah. I don't think it would matter which way you do it. Then I put a layer of flyscreen over the top and taped it in.



^ A very important step was to get stoned at this point, freak out that the fan is going to suck up the flyscreen AND the carbon, and put some metal angle things to hold it down. Then I remembered that the air is flowing the opposite way. I hope I don't need those angles, because I put the lid on and sealed it airtight with tape. Added the ducting and sealed that very well.

Then I forgot to get a good pic of the entire thing but I'm sure it's not neccesary.



The fan and filter are hanging by heavy duty tie-downs from the clothes rail in the wardrobe, behind that blue sheet. Gonna pick up a nice curtain next week.

Edit: I lit another incense stick after 3.5 weeks of usage and there was a slight incense smell coming through. I suspect it blocks smell well enough for this grow anyway (I still haven't smelt any plant smell through the filter) but I will be replacing the carbon with activated carbon to be sure.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Day 1 flower 27th April

Lighting at this moment is 2 x 45w (2700k), 1 x 28w (3000k), and 1 x 28w (5000k)

Total = 146w. I have some bigger lights to go in, I have to modify a holder and stuff, but should take it to 211w if I can fit them in suitably. I made some reflectors and lowered the lights as well.

I saw both these phenos in full-size flower today. The Pure is such a majestic monolith - it's funny to see it all cramped up under a scrog.

Well, any opinions, thoughts, questions? Annnnyyyy? lol

Peace!

 

[WAMEN]

Hope you get what you workin for. Good luck with the lights and the buds..
the plants look healthy.. small is better than nothing!!

 

[D.I.trY]

This looks great, and your writeup was hilarious- thanks for sending me into a stoned laughter.
Nice carbon filter man. thats a very interesting looking fan, the fantech centrifugal. Is that a pc 4 pin connector coming out of it? I typing this and thinking google it you plonker.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hey thanks a lot for the good vibes, people.

DI, the fan pictured is a Cooler Master Aero, which was used before I made the carbon filter. In my panic to get a carbon-filter suited fan, I ordered the wrong one, haha. So the fan I'm using now is some huge Ezi-air thing that looks like it's out of a plane. It's very loud. Very VERY loud I thought, but my buddy came round today and said he couldn't hear anything suspicious. I love it because even with a scrubber, it keeps temps about a degree above ambient. I'm in the tropics so heat is always an issue here. Now it's always great. No idea how many CFMs etc... but it's 110 watt, 6 inch, centrifugal. From now on I'm always going to go overkill on fans. It's just so nice to not worry about heat!

Anyways, yeah the Cooler Master in the pic is just like any other 12v computer fan, in terms of hooking it up. I keep posting around about it so hopefully some other people will give this design of fan a try. I researched fans a lot in the early days and they just seem to be a logical choice for smaller grows using a scrubber. According to what I read, they're not as good with back pressure as a centrifugal, but they are better than an axial (the regular 12v pc fan style). I bet none of that made sense! Haha.

Things are looking great in the grow. I'm waiting for lights on in 4 hours and I'll up some pics. I make it day 9, and they're just starting to show some budness. Cheers

 

[ScrubNinja]

Day 9 of 12/12

I've added another light and made another reflector. The total now is 169 watts of pure cfl power via 3 or 4 different kelvins.

The Shivas are just starting to throw hairs. The Pure has a bit more sativa in it so I haven't noticed any real hairs on it yet. Luckily I was reading IC and it reminded me to tape over the led's in the timer and 12v power supply.

There's very little smell from the plants... only veg smell when I twist them round the scrog while the door is unzipped. Still zero smell from the carbon filter.

I've eased right off on the scrog training and will probably focus more on lifting the lights as the girls grow up into them. It doesn't really look it so much in the pics, but I think I've got a pretty decent coverage of budsites, all at the same level. Any gaps should be taken care of by the time stretch stops. There's a noticeable blank patch at front left but not much light hits there so I haven't really been aiming for it.

Note that the grid is a lot finer than most other scrog screens, so I don't want every square filled.

Here's a few of the tips:



Btw I use Dutch Master Gold for veg and flower. The coco I'm using is a Cocotek brick, made by GH if I remember right. It's just straight coco, no added nothin'. The pots are 4.5 liters each.

I mix up 3 litres of nutes and handwater a litre to each girl, this gives a nice bit of runoff - enough, but not so much to make life too hard when I have to turkey-baste and sponge it all out. This is the last time I do a handwatered scrog, that's for sure. I water every 2 or 3 days at this stage.

Again if you see any errors of judgement or just plain old mistakes, please let me know. This is about the furthest I've ever got indoors.

Thanks, and peace out

 

[K.J]

Wow, great work you're doing there. I'm always excited to see another Pure grow!

 

[D.I.trY]

cooler master eh... its a very interesting looking pc fan. It makes total sense that they make ones like that but id never seen or heard of one before. I guess that kind of fan is called a duct fan?

I like your reflectors but im worried - how much eggy fry rice did you have to eat! haha. Back in the old days when i grew with some canna coco, you had to buy their special coco nutes or you would suffer a potassium buildup in the coco, so they claimed. Is this not true for the brand of coco you are using?

About the turkey basting haha, I assume you must have a some collecting tray on the bottom. What I do in this situation is have a little hose and a syringe just to create a siphon and then it will all drain away hassle free. You can use some airline but it will be a little slow! The syringe fits just pefect and just a little suck is enough to create a siphon over the lip of the tray.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hey thanks man, good tip. I have some irrigation tubing somewhere. I could even use the turkey baster for the suction, I'm thinking.

Re fan, it's actually called a CPU blower, I believe. It blows on the CPU chip and their selling point for that is that it delivers a very even flow, so the whole chip gets cooled evenly. Probably sales talk. If I remember right, they seem a bit low on CFMs, but CFM's go out the window when a scrubber is used. Overclocking forums are great for fan talk.

re reflectors: Hahaha... I found you could buy the containers new...so I went all out and spent 4 bucks on 'em.

re nutes/coco: Yeah, I'm no expert really. But I do think people make it way too complicated. All I know is the dutch master Advance or Gold is awesome for coco. Seems to me like the canna stuff is more of a base to add extra stuff to. Never tried it but seeing friends use it, I didn't see any reasons to use it...especially since the price jumped ages ago. When I was a n00bcake before I got an ec meter, I was feeding them DOUBLE strength all the way through...god knows how the plants made it so well but coco is just so forgiving. Nearly noob-proof.

I've never noticed any buildups or deficiencies since I got the ec meter and learnt to read the plants, but I do flush a lot, so maybe that's it. I've used 3 different coco brands, same results. Dutch Master even make a nute line for Coco but there's just no reason to change.

In short, coco is the easiest way to get great results. I love it more than it's healthy to love an inert growing medium! Thanks for your posts man!

And thanks KJ! I've been sneaking a look at your thread from time to time - great results!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Greetings, growers.

Day 14 - 12/12

Here are some pics just after lights on



Man, I kinda F'd up here because look at the pure (still no hairs)



Should make for an "interesting" harvest. I'm half thinking about removing the Pure to an outdoor location, and focusing the lights on the Shivas. They're performing quite well, I think.

Another solution for the Pure I just thought of: I could remove that left half of the screen and just grow it as a bush. It should stay fairly low with this early training, and/or I can LST it. That way it won't be stuck in the way of harvesting the Shivas. Plus it'll let me get better access to trim off the waste underbuds and whatnot. Plus I could get better photos. Plus it just isn't really performing in a scrog.

Been shuffling the bulbs around so they all get a taste of different spectrums.

I can raise the lights another 4 or 5 inches (or more if I do some "redesign"). Am I doing the right thing by not tucking shoots under the screen now? The stretch definitely seemed to slow right down a couple days ago. I guess it's hard for anyone to say. Suck it and see?

Any thoughts on what to do with the Pure, or my tucking technique, or anything else?

Peace out!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Okay I got that sorted

Day 18 - 12/12

I pulled out the left screen. The Shiva tips were just extending a bit too far into the Pure's screen, but I had an extra 2 inch wide bit of scrog screen I clipped in to extend it - perfect. Just before these pics the shivas were bone dry but the pure was still rather damp - It got a bit roughed up removing the screen and I guess it's not using much food. I'm not expecting much yield from the pure, after all this. It started visibly flowering at least. Here it is shoved in a corner, with a warm white making it look yellow on top.



But I'm lovin' the shivas!

 

[#1cheesebuds]

looken super good bro.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Thanks cheese! I picked up this tiny amount of bud today. I didn't grow it but it's the same pheno of Shiva I'm growing here (but grown outdoors).

It's quite a nice general skunk effect. Nothing stands out about it really, but it's a great all-round sort of bud. Tastes peppery. Can still function and hold down a conversation but sorta wiped out too, lol. I suck at smoke reports as you can see.

Till next time.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Day 21 - 12/12

Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for trich-off.

Shivas:

Pure:


I snapped the biggest cola off the pure I wouldn't recommend this strain for indoor from my shitty experiences so far. It's only got a 23w above it now, plus a bit from the other bulbs but not much. Meh.

The Shiva on the other hand is extremely easy to grow and almost looks after itself. I'm gonna try to keep updates to weekly from now. Peace.