Stealth Freezer Grow- Male or Female???

n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
Here is an updated array of photos... I took 2 basic shots and edited them down to show close ups of each area of interest. There are 2 shots of each numbered area.

I went away for 4 days and wasn't able to open the door at all for ventilation or watering. I got a pair of Aquaglobes and they kept the plant watered while I was away... Unfortunately, now I have some serious yellowing going on with the leaves. I'm thinking it could be either nute deficiency, poor air flow/ air exchange, or over watering.

Since I have such a strict light restriction, I'm training the branches to be leggy. That way I can pull all of the bud sites onto a common horizontal plane, lining up the bud sites and utilizing the 3 bulbs I have to work with the best I can...

Anyway, here are the photos...

First, we have a top shot... Refer to the numbers associated with the areas on this first pic for the close up shots



Then the side view...



#1 Top



#1 Side



#2 Top



#2 Side



#3 Top



#3 Side



#4 Top



#4 Side



#5 Top



#5 Side



And a shot of the problem area...



I have 2 other bud sites off to the right of this plant, but until they get a little leggier (yes, I'm trying to promote stretching) I won't be able to pull them into the "field" I'm trying for.

Again, this is my first real grow and I'm open to comments!!
 
M

macro

Active Member
Lookin good! You got the general idea down and she's making it through flowering.


Only problem I can see with CFLs though is their lack of intensity at distances of less than 3 inches. I've actually had a short plant flower prematurely because the intensity was so low. But I think you can make a sweet little flowering room inside that freezer. Think about taking young plants and flowering them so you only get one main bud, you could focus 4 or 5 CFLs on 4 small clones and probably get a better yield.

Like you said in your post you would need to upgrade your PC Fan exhaust to accomidate more CFLs...
 
n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
More pics after pruning and some re-tying

My limit of 3 CFL's forces me to get creative



I sure can bend 'em



Bonsai!!

 
n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
I started doing this about 3 or 4 weeks into veg. It gets pretty hot in freezer and the humidity never gets much higher than 30%... Before I started "mulching" with the clippings, the soil was dry and super dusty everyday at watering time. I know we want the plant to dry out, but it wasn't retaining nearly as much moisture as it needed. After I starting leaving clippings on top, the soil and plant became much happier. Now when I go to water, the soil doesn't look like a big pot of dry peat moss.
 
JohnnyDaManiac

JohnnyDaManiac

Well-Known Member
n00bGrower said:
I started doing this about 3 or 4 weeks into veg. It gets pretty hot in freezer and the humidity never gets much higher than 30%... Before I started "mulching" with the clippings, the soil was dry and super dusty everyday at watering time. I know we want the plant to dry out, but it wasn't retaining nearly as much moisture as it needed. After I starting leaving clippings on top, the soil and plant became much happier. Now when I go to water, the soil doesn't look like a big pot of dry peat moss.
Click to expand...
Oh. Aren't they going to get moldy? I mean you will notice before it spreads to the plant just watch out.
And is the soil just peat moss? Sorry if I missed the answer to the question earlier.
 
n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
@ JohnnyDaManiac ----> No mold at all.... The freezer conversion I made is fully insulated and air tight, which means it gets pretty warm (max 89 degrees) and the humidity rarely changes from around 30% during lights on to about 42% lights off. The leaves usually wilt after the first 12 hour period being so close to the CFL's and the space having close to zero draft. After a day or two, they're almost crumbly.

Also, the grow medium is an all organic 1:1:1 topsoil/manure/peat moss mixture. When it gets dried out, it gets a bit dusty.
 
TwoupTwodwnGrower

TwoupTwodwnGrower

Well-Known Member
Congrats on your grow man i have a few ?'s tho....when u did your conversion for the freezer did it work?....bc im trying to do the same thing and i wanted to actually use the freezer to keep the temps down since i have a 400w Mh light im going to use....DO you have any tips or suggestions for me when i go to construct my grow room
 
n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
Sorry it's been so long since I updated this... I ended up having to harvest around the end of July. Got almost a half from that one plant dried, and the smoke wasn't half bad. I'm gonna be doing a few upgrades to the unit before the next grow and I'll keep a better journal next time.

@ 2up2down----> Hit me with any questions you got, I'll b happy to answer them. One thing to consider about doing a freezer conversion is that the insulation in the freezer is going to keep the environment inside pretty warm, not cold. Unless you have a really good ventilation system, any HID is going to kick out far too much heat for your plants to survive. By way of comparison, my setup (which you can see from this thread) uses 3 (4 max earlier in the grow) 100w equivalent CFL's that don't produce too much heat. The setup works for me because the location of the grow actually requires me to protect the plants from cold conditions.
 
TheWheelman

TheWheelman

Member
This is actually exactly what i've been looking for. I too have a large freezer that im in the process of converting into a stealth grow unit. =] This should be interesting.
 
n00bGrower

n00bGrower

Well-Known Member
So, I've been running the unit through normal cycles (22/2 and 12/12) as a test so I can collect some temp and noise "data"... Before I put any plants in there, I wanna make sure I know EXACTLY how the thing is going to work.

With the addition of another CFL and the 4 T5 tubes (each fixture is a double), I'm getting a shit ton more light. The ambient "day time" temp is perfect and the exhaust up into my home-made stealthy carbon filter (the rubbermaid tub on top of the fridge) is keeping things very consistent temp-wise. The fan I'm using moves plenty of air now and you can actually feel the passive intake sucking when you put your hand up to it... As for the sound, you can't even hear it running. The fan I used is totally dust-proof, mounted on rubber gaskets and whisper quiet.

The only issue I'm running into so far is low temps at "night". The freezer is in a pretty cold basement, but that didn't matter in my last grow because there was minimal exhaust and the freezer was still "intact". Since I upgraded, the inside door shelves of the freezer were sawed off and a piece of plywood was attached (I gained about 4 inches of grow space from front to back and the inside door is now totally reflective). Essentially, this cut down on the insulation the freezer had. Also, with the addition of the exhaust in the top, I removed at least 85% of the insulation on the top... I'm thinking of putting a few mason jars filled with water and submersible aquarium heaters to compensate for the heat loss. Also, the mason jars should retain enough heat from the "daytime" to keep the ambient temp more consistent throughout the "night".... Or at least that's what I'm gonna be collecting "data" on. As of now, the fan only runs when the lights are on...

I'll try to get some pics of the carbon filter up sometime... I think it's a pretty neat design that will (hopefully) eliminate odors as well as dampening any noise from the freezer (it's totally quiet... It doesn't even sound like a fridge running even if you're standing right next to it!). As I said in the earlier posts in this thread, my main concern is STEALTH ABOVE ALL ELSE!!!

And for anyone that's followed this thread and is wondering... No, my wife and kids still have no clue whats happening in our basement! The wife the knows I smoke, encourages it, but is totally against me growing... Until the kids move out :)
 
Danielsgb

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
You could do what I did for my freezer. Small thermostat heater from Wall Mart. It goes down to 55 so set it there and on the floor of the freezer. Heat rises so that worked for me. Night drops to 65'ish. Maybe have the exhaust fan come on once or twice over the night. They aren't power efficient, but spring is coming. Hope that helps. Mine is FrigiDare 2 Indica's Infrared Spectrum Trial
Daniels:eyesmoke:
 
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