So I started off with quite a goal. To be able to grow under a bed without it being noticeable. Sure you can laugh. More of an just experiment to see if it could be done. Figured if I could pull a few zips out of a thing like this I might be on to something. Surprisingly I feel Ive made a good start towards that goal. temp image upload What we have here is a roughly 32x42x7in custom grow box. The flower area has a custom made magnetic seal and there is a mini CO2 cartridge and regulator so the air does not get stale. The light is made up of mainly cree LEDs running mainly at 1.4a. adult picture hosting picture share Light is custom made and water cooled. Cooling is also water cooled via the radiator in pics above. Cold water comes from a cooler (4 frozen gallon jugs can last 12 hours but this is by far the biggest downfall to the entire system. And the factor that keeps it from being able to easily be hidden under a bed. The current plants are roughly 3 weeks old. Will be very very interesting to see how this light will preform for flowering time. Please hit me with comments and questions!
Wow well done you deserve a pat on the back. Though still might attract attention with noise from the fans? Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
Might try and build something like that inside the case of an PC thanks for the inspiration Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
I am so curious about how your experiment is going to turn out. Are you scrogging them to control height? How much light total do you estimate you're putting out? What's your temperature fluctuation like?
Yes they will be scrogged. The net in the back of the box is set up to adjust the height so Im hoping once in flower and the screen has filled in more I can lower the screen to allow the buds some room to grow. Or that's the plan at least. As you can see in the pic, the plant stem grows horizontally out of the hydro setup and right now the weight of the plant itself seems to be keeping it growing horizontally without the need for the net currently. It seems likely the net will eventually be holding the plant up as much as it is holding it down, well see. Exact light output is tough to say because I have had the LEDs for a while and dont recall the exact model LEDs in this. But there is just about 300w total in about a 22"x22" actual grow space. 60 total LEDs though at a conservative estimate of ~350lm per LED comes out to roughly 21k lumens. Again this is only an estimate and I would say a fairly conservative one at that. Real lumens I would guess should be a little higher. I put my temperature probe right on the main stem of the plant and cooling kicks on when that probe reaches 30c and shuts off at 29.7c. When the water in the cooling res is at its coldest ~40F, it cools it down to just below 27c. Its been a lot of trial and error problem solving, but the current iteration seems to be pretty stable so Im hoping for the best. Ive probably dropped around ~$800 or so on this little experiment lol but Ive learned so much and plan on incorporating it on even cooler projects I have in mind. As for the other question about sound, unless one of the water pumps is vibrating on a res wall, my computer is louder than this thing is. The 3 120mm fans on the outside of the box to cool the water for the lights are whisper quiet. Also, I got a aquarium CO2 kit and with the small space I am working with, I can fill the space up to ~1500ppm something like 80 times with just one 12g cartridge. The only problem is I have no way of monitoring the levels.
Looking at it now I would say my biggest design flaw would be the fact that right now Id say over 50% of the LEDs are probably next to useless to the plant right now. Being able to move the lights around would have been an easy solution to this but its just not possible with design of the light. More drivers would have helped too as I could have turned them on more incrementally as the plant filled the space. Also it appears my math was off on the light. The lumen output estimate should be okay but its actually drawing closer to 240~250w, not the 300w originally stated.
Out of morbid curiosity, what is everyones opinion on what would be an ideal pull out of this box? What would make it "worth it" in your opinion?
Thanks for sharing. I am sure all of your hard is going to pay off. We are rooting for you. It looks like you have a nice healthy kush plant there, that dark thick green sea of fat leaves. May I ask what variety you've got there in the photo? Sounds like she has everything she needs. I haven't used LED and am looking forward to your future updates with this setup. Could you offer some insight into how you designed your lighting? In terms of what to expect in terms of yield, seed banks often provide gram-to-watt ratios for each flowering variety. Some provide expectancy based on how many meters of space a plant has. There are also other various things that can happen over the course of a grow that can impact final weight, such as pests, nutrient/ph issues, and even temperatures. I hope this helps. Have a good one.
Thanks for the encouragement! I should also state I am an experienced grower, this is just more of an experiment. Its Auto-NorthernLights from Nirvana. And in terms of yield I was just wondering ideal conditions in that space 22"x22"x6". My initial goal when I started was to be able to pull ~3oz out of it per full screen( I understand this grow wont be an ideal grow, just a proof of concept) so now im very curious to see how it handles flowering. As for the light design? I dont know what you want to know. The LEDs I chose were all in the ~5w range because COBs just werent going to be able to give me anywhere near the coverage. I actually designed it in 3d on a computer before setting out to build everything. Set it up so the lights overlap each other at a distance of 1 1/2 inches. Seemed a good compromise for number of LEDs to area. Then I built the heatsink out of rectangular aluminum tubing with waterweld and 3/8in tubing connecting them all (this was a bitch to build and keep from leaking). Everything runs through a 160gph pump(flow rate isnt anywhere near that) and runs through a radiator made from some 1/4in copper tubing and 3x120mm fans. Water manages to stay in the high 90s to low 100s which id like to get lower but cant afford to spend any more money on it at the moment. The heatsinks themselves are just warm and there's barely any heat coming off the diodes.
Wow, man! It sounds like you really went the extra mile on this. Truly impressive. Thanks for the details of your lighting. The great details are so helpful for folks like myself still researching LED technologies. I think you are going to get a really nice end result. Herbie's says that Nirvana's autoflowering Northern Lights are expected to finish with 200 to 300 grams per two meters. You most likely won't hit that but should still get a really nice harvest. There are some super talented microgrowers in this forum that have threads to give you a clearer idea. I am willing to bet one of these guys or gals have worked with the exact variety you are.
Cool build, i am worried about the limited height though. Again, Props on the build My first grow ever was with nirvanas northern lights autos. She will definitely be starting to get tall over the next 2 weeks.
really cool stuff man, respect. Is this made out of wood or metal..or..? I was thinking if it's metal maybe you could utilize magnets to help hold the scrog screen down.
That's a good idea, but for sourcing and cost reasons I chose to mainly use wood to build it. I feel I need to use clones in this setup that are ideally 8 or so inches tall so it could effectively use more of the light in there. As it stands I feel the plant is only utilizing light from probably half of the leds effectively which seems to be resulting in slow growth.
have you considered pre-vegging the plants, then laying them on their side in there to flower? I bet you could seal the top of the container and start watering it from a hole in the side if ya know what I mean.
Yeah, thats probably the best method to use. Veg them to 12-15inches. Then I could just Trim/clone so they fit in the cab. Unfortunately, Im not sure I understand the last part. Are you referring to the container I would be Vegging in?
yeh I meant the veg container..once it goes into flower and has to lay on it's side, you could put a sort of lid on it and then cut a hole in the side (top) and water from there.
Not gonna lie, I dont follow. The veg container wouldnt have to be modified at all, just transfer the plant into the flower box when its ready. The screen will then hold the plant down. As for an update, Ive been having some issues with slightly high PH (~6.2) and some high TDS(~1600). Finally managed to get some PH down so its now at 5.8 and 1200 respectively. And I also made a slight change that will result in way more circulation in the reservoir and "pot area" and thus much more dissolved oxygen to the plant. So with that hopefully I see some improved growth, otherwise Im going to conclude I need to start with taller plants for it to have a legitimate chance at producing. Ill try to get some pics up tonight.