1st Grow, Alpha Server Case CFL Lowryder

Setup:

Synopsis:
So after several failed attempts at growing outdoors due to animals raping my plants within a couple weeks of transplanting, I decided to try out the microgrow method utilizing a PC Case. I got a hold of an old Digital Alpha Server case which is about the height of a mid tower but double the width. After drilling out about 50 rivets and removing the guts you can see the results in pic 1-2.

Mounted 2 27 soft white and 2 23watt daylight bulbs on the front and backsides of the case on 1x3 strips with screws to move the lights up and down(yes its probably not the best idea because it jumps like 2" on each increment, I'll figure out a different way next time). Pic 3-4

Mounted exaust fan in the back along with a larger fan up top of the case to circulate the air around inside the case.

Since I want to make the majority of the space in the bottom of the case soil to grow eventually a SOG setup, I took 4 cat litter pans, cut off one side of each of them and hotglue'd 2 of them together to make two sets(1 to hold soil with holes drilled in it, 1 to hold water runoff). It gives me an area of about 16"x22"x5" to grow in. I call this my "Flower Bed".

Mixed up the MG organic + perlite +

I have 3 lowryder seeds left that a buddy gave me(Germinated them 2 days ago and planted in the "flower bed" last night). Hoping to just turn these into seed producing buds to harvest a bunch of lowrider seeds for future growing.

Please post questions/comments/suggestions as this is a learning experience for me!

Nice case.
Good luck with the grow.

May want to invest in some of those wire ends that screw in rather than just the electrical tape, but great set up, good luck!

Cannoned said:

May want to invest in some of those wire ends that screw in rather than just the electrical tape, but great set up, good luck!

Click to expand...

I have some wirenuts, but I figured I would have to modify the case a bit and I might use them on the final product. Right now I am having a heat issue. It's running about 93-94F in there which is a tad too warm. The exhaust fan just isn't pulling out enough air. I think I'm going to have to do a little more modification to provide better air flow and add an additional fan to bring air in instead of relying on only the exaust fan to suck in through misc holes in the case.

Little Update:
I have one sprout so far out of the 3. I will snap a pic tonight. Will too much heat damage the sprouts?

Here are the updated pics...now have two confirmed seedlings, and the 3rd is just barely under the soil...should see that one pop up tomorrow. How does the stem look on the first one? Should it be purple like that?

A couple more questions:

Right now I have two of the warm whites on one side and the two daylights on the other side, should I have one of each on either side?

How often should I rotate the flower bed?

Drilled some holes in the wood that was blocking part of the exaust fan. Should allow for much better airflow out the case...will be monitoring the temp tomorrow to see how it does

That double wide server case is the tits. Keep it real and good luck with the grow. +rep for the interesting case

Update on temps:

So the temperature in the case has now dropped to acceptable levels. The max/min on the thermometer is 89.4/86.9 which is MUCH better than the 96.5/91.3 I was getting before

Oh and confirmed 3 seedlings Cmon babies grow!

The humidity in the case was around 45%...added a cup of water to evaporate into the area to get the humidity up. Also purchased the following:

1 Bottle of Wine(Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon) <-- Will be drank tonight
1 big jar of yeast
1 bag o sugar

And I have a stretch of tubing already from other misc things. If you haven't guessed it yet...I'm going to pipe CO2 into the case here in a week or so. I figure the lowryder has a 2 week pseudo veg period and CO2 is best during flowering, so another week or so and it should be time to introduce the CO2

UPDATE:

So come to find out..I dont have lowryder #1 seeds...I have Lowrider #2! I found out from the guy who gave the seeds to the guy who gave me the seeds(if that makes any sense). So hopefully we will see some great stuff out of these beauties

Looks like I might have a bit of white mold/mildew problem on my hands as well...noticed some of the soil getting white fluffy patches on it. I mixed up some baking soda in a spray bottle and spritzed it around a bit...also since the temp was around 90F near the plants I moved the lights up a notch to try and cool it down a bit...hopefully with those two things done I can rid myself of the mold and go from there. I'm letting the soil dry out for 3 days before watering again. I have a feeling I might have been overwatering a tad. I might have to make some modifications to the flower bed to allow more drainage. I dont think i drilled enough holes in it. If I can at least get past the seedling stage and get full growing plants thats all i'm hoping for at this point...

Will update pics tonight...I might have a problem. I didn't water for about 3 days..the soil was dried out mostly...still having a heat issue. I might start putting the plants outdoors during the day to get some sun...instead of being cooped up inside in a lil box. Yeah...more later on tonight.

So I laid out my problem in the problems conference...here is a link to that post:

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/219689-brown-tip-seedlings-big-macro.html

Here is a pic of the major problem I'm seeing. Feel free to answer here or in the problems thread. Danke

Also here is another pic of the healthy looking seedling:

So unless a miracle happens...I will definately be losing one plant...if not two, but one is looking very nice. I think it enjoyed being outside yesterday. I'll take some pics tonight and post the three...

UPDATED PICS:

From Healthy Plant to Not so healthy plant:




So the last one here I dont think is going to make it...the strong one loved being outside yesterday. It grew about 25% in size. I'm resisting my urge to water so hopefully the tiny ones here will come back to life

That is heat burn. The plant is withdrawing inwards to conserve moisture. Put a plastic bag over the last one to raise humidity and it may pull through if you get the temps under control.

v12xjs said:

That is heat burn. The plant is withdrawing inwards to conserve moisture. Put a plastic bag over the last one to raise humidity and it may pull through if you get the temps under control.

Click to expand...

Ah very good idea. The temp issue I hope to get under control this weekend without having to keep the lid off the case. With the lid on it easily runs 95F in there...I've been throwing frozen water bottles in there every now and again to help out, but definately leaving the lid cracked about an inch lowers it down to 85ish, but I'd like to get it even lower than that.

Baggies in place over the two little seedlings...also watered a little bit this morning. I stuck my finger down into the soil and could barely feel any moisture till I hit about 3.5" down into the soil.