Climate controlled grow fridge

[Merlowe111]

Humidity controller wired to a power cord, which can control either a humidifier or a dehumidifier as needed. Co2 controller in place and ready for my regulator to be hooked up to it. Just need the oscillating fan and wifi camera. Once it's all put together I'll let it run for a bit to stabilize and moniter how the system works together with all the components. We are about 80% finished with this project and so far everything is a success.

 

[Merlowe111]

Top cover is roughed in with intake and exhaust fans installed to keep the lights cool.
Installed an oscillating fan to move air around. Once the co2 solenoid comes in we are ready to grow. Every aspect of the grow environment can be controlled. The fridge will hold any temp I set it at, and humidity can be dialed in to whatever range I need it to be. Co2 is held at exact ppm. Zero light leaks. 100% sealed interior. There is no noise besides the hum of a fridge running.This is exactly what I needed in a stealth grow, and being able to dial in any specified environmental conditions I can grow strains that are more finicky or need certain temps.
This will make my grows much easier since I can rule out many what-if type scenarios as well as allow me to focus my attention on the plants without also constantly combating temp or humidity issues.
Once I install a locking mechanism and wifi camera,I can view the interior remotely and it can be safe from kids or guests accidentally opening it because this thing seriously looks and behaves exactly like a normal fridge from the outside. Theres been alot of challenges but overall this hasn't been that bad of a build. But the real test is growing a plant inside. Lol I've never done hydroponics as well as this is my first grow with LEDs so theres going to be alot of learning as I go along.

 

[Axion42]

Nice dude I can't wait to see it in action. What seeds you have on tap?

 

[Merlowe111]

Nice dude I can't wait to see it in action. What seeds you have on tap?

Thanks! I ordered some seeds online called "granddaddy Black" as well as "Gelato" I also have about 50 of a cbd strain called cherry pie that i was going to use as my Guinea pig to test the fridge as well as experiment with pruning techniques and such before I moved to the real deal since I want to have it all figured out before I risk using seeds that cost me so dang much.

 

[Mitchician]

Very nice. You're quite the craftsman.. Need me one of those co2 monitor thingymabobs.

 

[ilovereggae]

Really awesome build! I noticed you said this was your first LED grow, and that you were trying to keep your temps around 69F.

Not sure about the Mars Hydro diodes (but it looks like that light has the newer PCB style ones), but typically you need to run your temps in the 80-85F range for LEDs since they don't have infrared. Higher temps are needed to allow proper transpiration. I am using HLG boards and once I realized this my plants exploded with growth.

Hopefully that helps you dial in your environment! Cant wait to see what you pull out of here.

 

[Merlowe111]

Really awesome build! I noticed you said this was your first LED grow, and that you were trying to keep your temps around 69F.

Not sure about the Mars Hydro diodes (but it looks like that light has the newer PCB style ones), but typically you need to run your temps in the 80-85F range for LEDs since they don't have infrared. Higher temps are needed to allow proper transpiration. I am using HLG boards and once I realized this my plants exploded with growth.

Hopefully that helps you dial in your environment! Cant wait to see what you pull out of here.

Thanks! This is very useful information, and I will definitely use this to help maintain the environment. I never took that into consideration and it's good to know because I was just planning on dialing the reeferator to whatever the seed breeders climate suggestions were.LEDs are new to me entirely and everything from recommended temps to height ranges seem to vary wildly between manufacturers and even personal preferences so I'm grateful for any input on them. I'd love to keep everyone along for a grow to see how this project turns out but I wasnt sure if i should start a grow thread or just keep a continuation of this thread so it's all kept together.

 

[Merlowe111]

Not sure about the Mars Hydro diodes

Looks like you helped me dodge a potential future problem right off the bat. Going to have to dial up the temps

 

[Mitchician]

I can confirm what ilovereggae is saying about temps for led's, you just check the leaf surface temp with an IR gun and get that somewhere in the mid to high 70's, basically as high as possible without seeing heat stress, and bring it down to about 75 air temp for late bloom to protect voc's..

 

[Merlowe111]

I can confirm what ilovereggae is saying about temps for led's, you just check the leaf surface temp with an IR gun and get that somewhere in the mid to high 70's, basically as high as possible without seeing heat stress, and bring it down to about 75 air temp for late bloom to protect voc's..

Do the higher temps affect the root zone in a DWC setup? The main reason I originally had the cooler temps was of concern for the water being too warm.

 

[Mitchician]

I'd imagine the water would get pretty warm. Not sure about dwc sorry I'm in coco..

 

[Nizza]

Genius build man! you trying to do a DWC setup? Let me know how you do it, I plan on setting up a small micro grow chamber and am thinking of dwc too. A dwc type setup I think will be best because it will allow your root zone to have its own oxygen zone seperate from the rest of the fridge

I think if you insulated your DWC bucket, that you may be able to put a circulation pump to a loop with some sort of exchanger that goes in front of the evaporator coil so more of the cooling goes into the DWC water than the grow chamber

 

[Merlowe111]

Genius build man! you trying to do a DWC setup? Let me know how you do it, I plan on setting up a small micro grow chamber and am thinking of dwc too. A dwc type setup I think will be best because it will allow your root zone to have its own oxygen zone seperate from the rest of the fridge

I think if you insulated your DWC bucket, that you may be able to put a circulation pump to a loop with some sort of exchanger that goes in front of the evaporator coil so more of the cooling goes into the DWC water than the grow chamber

That's a really good idea, I could certainly run lines through the evaporator so it doubles as a reservoir chiller!
This is my first attempt at led and hydroponic so it's all new to me, dwc seemed the most appropriate way for me since I'm in a small space and will likely only grow one plant at a time. Hopefully with pruning techniques maybe scrog I can get one plant to fill out the whole fridge

 

[weed-whacker]

Keep this going!

EDIT: I 2nd drain to waste like the guy below however am unsure why @DaFreak thinks it’s ok to use people as a medium...grave robber?....does he work at the morgue?

 

[DaFreak]

Forget dwc and go for drain to waste with people-mix as your medium. Will save you lots of headaches

 

[DaFreak]

People-mix lol, autocorrect pro-mix

 

[Merlowe111]

Started growing. Growth seems a bit slow, maybe I'm just impatient. One seems to be yellowing, however it was struggling since germination so it may just be a weakling. Disregard EC measurements I had no way to read EC and it was asking for an input in order to continue. I'm hoping the root zone explodes with growth like I see in some grow journals. Right now it doesnt seem to be doing much. Temps are held at 75-78f. Light is 28" away. Using general hydroponics flora nutes along with cal-mag.

The runt vvv

 

[Merlowe111]

Realized my ph was too high for hydro and pulled it down to 5.5-6.5 range. Looked like I had some type of lockout due to cal-mag deficiency. Mixed up some fresh nutrients and things seem to be recovering. As roots develop more, the growth is starting to pick up. Still concerned about slow root development. I'm guessing I put them from the germination tray into hydro too soon and should have let more roots grow out first.

 

[Mitchician]

Maybe you could lower the water level now so the bubbles don't wet the cubes anymore, then as they dry out, the plants might start pumping out more roots to look for the water.. I'm sure the humidity inside the res. or the moisture from the roots will stop the cubes from completely drying out. They just look a little saturated, so the only roots able to get oxygen will be the ones hanging between the net pot and the water. Just my guess.

Also, not sure if you're aware, but ppm, cf, and tds are all calculated off EC..

So if your pen uses the 500 scale, your 215 ppm would have been 0.43 EC, 225ppm = 0.45 EC and so on..

Sorry I didn't notice your pH was off or I would have said something, that would have surely been holding them back too.

Looks like 2 of them are starting to green up now, I'm sure the last one will too soon enough.. maybe you could flush some of the newly pH'd water through the cubes to change the pH of them quicker perhaps?

 

[Merlowe111]

Maybe you could lower the water level now so the bubbles don't wet the cubes anymore, then as they dry out, the plants might start pumping out more roots to look for the water.. I'm sure the humidity inside the res. or the moisture from the roots will stop the cubes from completely drying out. They just look a little saturated, so the only roots able to get oxygen will be the ones hanging between the net pot and the water. Just my guess.

Also, not sure if you're aware, but ppm, cf, and tds are all calculated off EC..

So if your pen uses the 500 scale, your 215 ppm would have been 0.43 EC, 225ppm = 0.45 EC and so on..

Sorry I didn't notice your pH was off or I would have said something, that would have surely been holding them back too.

Looks like 2 of them are starting to green up now, I'm sure the last one will too soon enough.. maybe you could flush some of the newly pH'd water through the cubes to change the pH of them quicker perhaps?

That sounds like a good idea, hopefully lowering the water will cause the roots to grow out and search for it. They are doing much better after I corrected the problems I was having and I made sure to flush the cubes out with the new nutrient mixture to try and help "reset" things. However growth in the root zone as well as up top just seem a bit slow from what I'm familiar with. But I'm sure the conditions of my water played a big part in the slow progress. Theres a ton I have to learn about this method of growing but I really like being able to make real time "instant" changes to my nutrient levels and ph, ect.. before, in soil it was a bit more difficult to test and the results weren't as immediate so that's great. The only downside is without that buffer of soil I can really easily mess something up with a simple oversight. Looking forward to some real progress in the next week. Thanks for your advice!