Smallest grow possible ?

Discussion in 'Micro Grows' started by CptPaleFace88, Jan 11, 2018.

  1. First off what's up peeps ?

    I'm super new to the forum as I'm sure you can see with my whopping 1-2 post count hahaha.

    So I've been kicking around the idea of a SUPER small micro grow,1 plant and small as possible and just to throw this out there,not looking for monsterous yeilds,just enough for myself.

    So what would the smallest phyaical area you could get away with ?!

    I have 2 small led lights I used for my saltwater tanks. 1 uses a clg-36-150,makersled 6" slim heatsink,makersled basic 2up with 2 dimmers utilizing 2 meanwell ldd drivers,2 channel's 1 channel being whites which is 2x 3up's from Stevesleds consisting of 1 luxeon warm whites and 1 luxeon neutral white I plan on adding about 4-6 luxeon red-far red's. String 2 is the blues consisting NanoBox reef strips which have royal blue 445nm,violets 420-430,and regular blue of 480nm I believe.

    The other light would have a planted beam strip from NanoBox Reef neutral white,warm white,lime,royal blue and violet on one channel and royal blue and violets on another using a meanwell 24v psu,2 ldd's 600mah I believe and a storm controller for sunset,sunrise and and all that fancy stuff with a monsterous fan.

    Do you vets think the lighting will grow 1 plant ? I plan on a auto plan to keep things short,I like the idea of 6-9 start to finish is very appealing for trying to be stealthy,I know some fem auto plants get up to upwards of 24",I also know you can tie thw branches down that I had seen on youtube by a micro grower.
     
  2. When you say “small” grow are you mainly just trying to keep the plant short? You’re best bet to keep the plant small is use smaller containers to grow it in. I can’t remember the thread, but I saw somewhere around here where a Blade grew a plant in a solo cup and got around a half ounce or so. Maybe a little less.

    How many watts do your lights put out? That’s the most important factor with lighting.

    I’ve never grown autos but I’ve read around that you’re not supposed to top them, which I feel like would be a very important factor with keeping it short.
     
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  3. #3 CptPaleFace88, Jan 12, 2018
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2018
    Yeah,short as possible would be nice. I don't even need that much lol. Maybe like a 3-4" pot ? I'm assuming it has to do with the root system and what it feels it can support ?

    I believe the 1st led fixture pulled close to 50w on ( 600mah ldd's could pump out more if I swapped them for 700ma ) from the wall and pumped out 400+ par at 12" from the sensor thru 12" of turbulant water,and the other should pump out close to that,more if I swapped the ldd's on this one as well. So my limiting factor at the moment is drivers.

    I can also adjust height as the plant grows to keep par consistant with the flowers,without optics I should be more than able to cover 18"-24". I keep sps coral which are the thirstiest coral in the ocean when it comes to light,so I believe I should be able to make 1 single plant thrive.
     
  4. Root system is the most important factor in a plants health, growth, and honestly.... every single thing about the plant. Bigger root system=bigger plant. (Snapple fact, the canopy of many trees won’t spread beyond the root zone) But when one is growing in soil, you can’t look at the plants roots, compared to DWC, so it’s hard to know how the roots are doing.

    Don’t waste your time if you’re about to go buy a 3-4 inch pot, just get a big pack of solo cups and cut some holes in the bottom for drainage.

    If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have to keep the plant so small and hidden? (If it’s your parents and you’re an underage Billy, please just lie)
     
  5. I may just go that route then. Seems easy enough,and simple enough. I just want to keep eveeything as simple possible. Back in the day I had a sea of green a just ran straight simple compost and watered and never added anything and had awesome yeilds for the size.

    Oh no,I'm older just wanting to keep things small,and hidden. I live in a apartment and smells travel horrible,every night I can smell the neighbors cooking lol and people do come over often,so I don't want anything just overwhelming. Its just for me,I don't want anything sophisticated or over the top hahaha.
     
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  7. Idk now that I think about it,I may just get 1 or 2 Luxeon M's,the forward voltage of a Vero that I was thinking of first is just to high for the psu's I am already using. M's are very powerful led's,so I could run 2 on a 36v CLG
     
  8. I smell ya, that perfectly reasonable and makes sense. There’s just a lot of kids online like “Can I plant a nug and get a plant?” And it gets annoying lololololol. But Yeah with smaller containers and good training, you can get a very good yield out of a smaller plant
     
  9. Definitely not one of them,lol. I took AP Horticulture back in high school but shit,that was..well 11 years ago lol so not all the knowledge is there anymore. Just so much has changed since then. I did a few outdoor grows,and the 1 sog but those also were 11+ years ago. But I was also a asshat and ran a 8/8 schedule on my sog,don't ask why...

    I read people now using 100,000 different chemicals,nutrients and supplements,it makes you forget the whole KISS method. I mean my dad never used anything besides HPS bulbs,some shitty miracle grow and water lol. The same thing applies to saltwater tanks,water changes will give you everything you need to have a thriving tank,but insist on using tons of supplements to basically morph the coral.
     
  10. So lets get to the meat and potatoes of this question,what is the smallest yet efficient tent I could use ? 12x12x14,14x14x16 ?
     
  11. Yeah but Calcium doesn't always get replaced by the water change enough to support a SPS or LPS reef. Not to mention the other chems that definitely don't get replaced and also additions like phyto mixes and rotifers for your less photosynthetic corals and gorgonians.

    Also reef lights are mostly blue spectrum which is great for corals as it penetrates farther than red but it's crap for plants. Plants especially in flower need a heavy red spectrum light which is why all these LEDs you see on here are so purple and also why folks use HPS rigs. I tried running my Kessil pendant Blue on my first grow and it sucked ass because that blue isn't neaely enough, there are a lot of cheap lighting options, also with a high RPM fan and carbon air filter you can eliminate grow room stink entirely, I would know I'm also in an apartment.

    "Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
    Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.."
     
  12. I always mixed high (1.026-27) and never had to dose anything at all,which is why I always had very successful reefs.

    This is why I wish Luxeon M's royals were still readily available so I could run all my lighting combo's I would need for different stages. The more and more I look into it,I may just go ahead and get the new cob set-up Rapid sells for $150 (Cree CXB3590,heatsink,driver,hanging kit and 75w) and use the Storm Controller I already have with the 0-10v pwm converter to dim it down some at the start.

    I have NEVER liked Kessil to begin with,for the price they are low powered. Idk how their grow lights are,but the reef lights aren't amazing.

    I have been wating DMD on youtube and his micro grow is phenomenal with I think it was about 20 or so Cree led's. His shit looked so damn good !!

     
  13. The Kessil pendant was pretty good in all honesty, supported my LPS/Gorgonian reef well but the model I was using got discontinued. Haven't been in the game for a while, can't afford it these days but I remember they made a device called the FishBit as a reef controller I know BRS has all kinds of those but that one was particularly impressive maybe something to check out. I was doing a study on caring for "photosynthetic" Goniopora before the crash that ended my finances, I found that feedings of live or freeze dried phyto and rotifers helped big time but now I think they have more info on that.

    Anyway, for weed you definitely need a higher red spectrum, Mars Hydro has a cheap LED board on their site I think for 80 a panel and they also have an older model called the Mars 300 on ebay for like 40 a panel which is what I run and it does the trick. Mars has a rep on here by the name of Smokesara she may give a discount or something if you ask her.


    "Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
    Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.."
     
  14. With the pumps off,their spectrum was nice,but the shimmer killed me. And for $350-$400 I feel like it was a bust for the wattage when you could build a KILLER diy for way cheaper. Well shit,so much for wanting to reuse all my sw leds haha. Definitely need to go back to the papers and get everything redone and figured out.

    Once I get a idea of what the smallest area I can grow in,I will go from there and figure out the lighting. With a 0-10v converter from Coralux,I should be able to control whatever board I get still.

    How would this fair ? @Azzanadra
    CREE Lumia 5.2 65W GROW LED 5 Channel - For plants - LEDGroupBuy.com
     
  15. Not sure, it's not really my area of expertise.

    I do know that with rapidled.com you could build a pretty sweet DIY rig for either corals or plants on the cheap.

    That's the site everyone was using when the LED craze hit the Reef market.

    "Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
    Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.."
     
  16. I would absolutely love to do a horizontal micro grow and bust out my 4 bulb 24" t5 fixture. It was a old t5/led retro for my saltwater tank,and take the 2 center bulbs out and run 4 strips of 14 luxeons on 2 channela to replace those bulbs.
     
  17. It might work light wise but your temps will be pretty off the chart if you don't have a decent fan or a way to cool the tent

    "Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
    Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.."
     
  18. Say on a 24" long tent,would 2 80-90mm computer fans work ? I've got a few of those laying around. 1 shooting air in,one pulling air out,maybe 1 blowing air from the top as well ?
     
  19. Don't know. I'm terrible with maths and dimensions. I'd have to actually see it to tell you.

    What I can tell you is that T5s get extremely hot, I used to run a Viper T5 for a nano reef back before the reef leds came out and that little bulb was hot enough to fry a steak on.

    Even LEDs get hot, and in a tent you're going to need some sort of inline fan to keep it cool and ventilated otherwise your plants will get curling, clawing, leaf spots, burns, foxtailing, etc.

    It's better to just do a normal grow with a tent and a proper fan and lights then try to rig up some micro grow that will take the same amount of time with very poor results. Also in a micro grow there isn't a hell if a lot of space for a carbon filter which you will need unless you want your apartment to smell like strong stinky fresh ganja.

    "Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin'
    Tossed salad and scrambled eggs.."
     
  20. Well at the moment,its either a space bucket or something close that. This is my pretty much mock up of my light,heatsinks will be different when its all said and done and so much cleaner. I can switch over my 36v 4a power supply later on. Or get another heatsink (makersled slim sink like I already have) and run all red leds for flower if need be.

    The center strip at 10" in a 12" square at 300mah produces 80 on back side,140 in the center and 100 between the edges and middle. Plus the 8 other leds. Will be using 700ma drivers for the strip and 1000ma driver for the 4 singles and 2 2up's. Basically boasting 4x the output.
     

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