Gonemad's 400w Grow Box Grow Log

The Grow Box

The Box
I built this grow box with wood. The inside is painted flat white. The door is sealed so no air or light escapes. The dimensions are 3ft wide, 1ft 8/12in deep, 6ft tall made to fit into closet. I would have made it bigger but it had to fit through the door frame. It is just big enough for three 5 gallon buckets.

Intake
There is currently two 115v 67 CFM fans drawing air from outside the box and blowing the fresh air in.

Exhaust
There is a retangular shaped active carbon filter mounted onto the roof and air is pulled through using two 115v 67 CFM fans.

Lighting
Six 65w 6500k CFL's provide the light.

Medium
Fox Farm Ocean Soil of course, with 25% - 50% Perlite.

Nutrients
Fox Farm Grow Big
Fox Farm Tiber Bloom
Fox Farm Liquid Plant Food BIG BLOOM
Superthrive

Water
pH adjusted tap water.

Germed 6 bag seeds by soaking them in a cup of room temp water for 24 hours and then moving them into a moist paper towel in a large zip lock bag. 4 sprouted, 1 has took off (featured photo.)

Another seed has grown into being planting worthy. There are two seedlings now.

Plant #1


Plant #2

I'm not confident in these bag seeds. I don't even know how old they are and the chances I will get a female is slim. So, I ordered 30 White Widow seeds and I can't wait for them to get here.

I'll probably grow 6 at a time to make sure I get a female. I'd hate to wait 3 months and find out there isn't even one and I smoke about half an ounce a week so I need to harvest all I can.

Take it from me kids: If I could build my box over again, I would go with HPS lighting over CFL. Call it gut feelings, but I can tell the CFL light doesn't penetrate like an HPS does.

I flushed both plants with new water. I had been watering them with bottled water with PH around 8+; so fixed that by watering them with 6.0-6.5 PH water.

They are really starting to take off and develop leaves. They are super dark green and I couldn't be happier with them.

Plant #2 was under a 2700k bulb at birth and caused it to stretch. I fixed that by replacing the bulb with a 6500k. The 2700k was just left over from when I was testing the box anyway. (lazy ass) It will be okay once it grows out a little.

Plant #1


Plant #2


Plants

Both plants have really took off. There is new growth at the base of each large leaf, starting to develop the infamous 5 fingered cannabis leaf.

I'm keeping the CFL's 3inches above the plants it has fixed the stretching in plant 2. Both plants are growing bushy and low to the ground and I am pleased with them so far.

It is seriously hard to believe they grow as fast as they do.

Plant #1


Plant #2


Plants

My White Widow seeds are in! I had them shipped directly to my house. Impressively stealthy shipping methods.

Both plants have crystal like hair covering the leaves and they are starting to smell pretty skunk if you sniff them up close. They were bag seed and I'm pretty sure it's AK-47.

Plant #1


Plant #2


Plants


White Widow
5 seeds finished soaking in water this afternoon. All 5 within hours fell to the bottom of the glass. I put them in a moist paper towel, in a plastic bag to grow roots then I plant them in soil; root down. It worked perfectly the first time. Using this method, I can be sure the seeds I am planting are actually going to grow.


Note: The burn on the lower two leaves is because I sprayed them with a water bottle mixed with Superthrive during the first week. It wasn't until after I pulled the trigger that I realized I probably shouldn't spray chemicals on the leaves. They will be ok though, those leaves usually fall off eventually.

The soil was completely dry. I think it's been a week since I watered them and they are looking great. Today was the first time I noticed a little bit of droopiness. I took this opportunity to start feeding nutrients. They were fed Fox Farm Grow Big, Liquid Plant Food (Big Bloom) and a drop or two or three of Superthrieve. We'll see how the plants can handle nutrients.

Plant #1


Plant #2


Plants


White Widow
Well since it has been only 12 hours since I last posted an update, not much has changed. They are still germing in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag on top of the grow box where it's 80F-85F. One of the seeds has sprouted a root and is taking off much faster than the others. This happened last time too. In the end the plants seem to catch up even if they are slow to sprout.

Here's an update for you... one word: skunky.

And it's a little outrageous how quickly they are growing. Like an inch a day in every direction... I'm afraid the plants will run out of room and starting to think I should have used to the whole closet instead of a grow box. It's beyond me how anyone would be able to grow and harvest in something as small as a large PC tower.


White Widow Day 1
Another note. Planted the 5 White Widow. Only three of the 5 seeds grew sprouts like I wanted them too. We'll see how they grow over the next couple days.

The new lights are in. I took down my 390w CFL setup and replaced it with a MH+HPS 400w light in a cooling tube. Looks great, installed easier than I thought it would - the whole ballast thing made me nervous because I had no idea what a ballast was.

Whatever the commonly suggested benefits of an MH+HPS light might be: what stands out to me is it really is a much cleaner setup than wiring CFL lights on a DIY hanging light.

And honestly it was cheaper.

My cost break down

CFL
8 x 65w 6500k CFL: $27x8 = $216
8 x 65w 5500k CFL: $27x8 = $216
8 x Sockets + wire = $50
Wiring Supplies (cabs, electrical tape, zip ties, etc) = ??
TOTAL = $472 + Tax + Shipping

MH+HPS
400w MH light bulb
400w HPS light bulb
400w Ballast
Light shield
Inline cooling tube
TOTAL = $274.90 + Tax + Shipping

That's my experience. However, this doesn't take into consideration venting for the new light. But I do have those parts on had and it only cost me $40 for a 6" 165 CFM inline fan and 6" tubing.

Heat
The Strangest thing and I was totally not expecting it. But, when I would use an oscillating fan in the cab with CFL's the cab temp would rise 10+ degrees Fahrenheit (95+). So, after two short tries with having a fan I simply went without it. Three hours after installing the MH light the cab is steadily 4 degrees cooler.

Weight
Personally my CFL setup was 15-20lbs or more. Mostly the weight was from the materials I used to build it. The 400w MH/HPS setup weights about 5lbs or less.

IMHO
In my situation if I had to start over all over again I would use an MH+HPS and gone without CFL's.

Cost wasn't an issue - the reason I went with CFL's in the first place was because I thought it would be less heat and more power efficient. Wrong.

White Widow Day 4


Plant #1


Plant #2


Plants


Old CFL Setup


New Lighting Installed

How to Determine Your Power Cost
Your electricity bill should show you how much you are paying per 1kWh.

1kWh = 1000 watts of electricity for 1 hour.



Right now I am paying $0.078 per 1000 watts an hour and my lighting is 18 hours a day 31 days a month.

Step 1
Add up your total wattage

Light = 444w
120mm PC fans = 1.3w + 1.3w
120mm 110v fans = 16w + 16w
TOTAL = 434.60 watts

Step 2
Convert watts to kilo watts. To convert total watts to kilo watts divide your total watts by 1000.

434.60/1000=0.4346kWh

Step 3
Determine how many kilos of power you use each month.

0.4346 kilo watts an hour (half of 1 kilo watts an hour), 18 hours a day (18/6 cycle), 31 days a month.

0.4346 x 18 x 31 = 242.5068 kilo watts each month

Step 4
Multiply how many kilo watts you are using a month by how many dollars you are paying per 1000 watts per hour (1kWh). Right now I am paying $0.078 (7.80 cents) a kWh.

0.078 cents * 242.5068 = $18.9155304

It will cost me $18.91 a month to run my new lights. As before with 390w of CFL was costing me $18.49.

How to Convert Amps to Watts

The method for calculating watts from amps is to multiply amps by the volts.

Example:
My ballast consumes 3.7 amps at 120 volts.

3.7 amps x 120 volts = 444 watts

Transplanted them into 1.5 gallon pots, up from 2 quart pots. I decided to transplant because the plants managed to use all the water in the pot in 1 day. There was no way the water evaporated, so the plant must have consumed it. Boy, am I glad I did. Because when I pulled the potted plants out of the pot, roots had already reached the edge and worked their way around. It is hard for me to believe the scale of the root system considering the size of the plant.



Soil growing is starting to show it's ugly head. I have a mess to clean up. From mixing soil, moving soil, gathering water, adjusting pH levels, adding nutrients AND watering. I followed up by spraying down the plants with plain water to clean the leaves of any nutes or ferts sitting on the leaves from watering.

I hope I didn't shock the plants too bad. Transplanting is not a very gentile process.

Plants
A little droopy from transplanting and probably because water is weighing down the leaves and stems. Maybe it's because I am the care taker of these magnificant plants - but these photos make the plant look a little brown and I don't think these photos give justice to the plants they are very dark green and smell great.



In fact, it's funny, they smelled up my garage just in the 10 minutes of transplanting. Which makes me think maybe my carbon filter really is working.

White Widow Day 5
Eh, why not take an opportunity for a photo shoot. They doubled in size over night. Could be because of the new HM light or they have just finished establishing a good roots.



Note: In hindsight I wish I had transplanted them into 3 gallon buckets so I can go from there into 5. Now I have to transplant 3 times (.5gallon -> 1.5gallon -> 3gallon -> 5gallon).

The plants show no sign of stress from transplanting. There is no notable difference other than the response to the new lighting is really good. Greener, faster growth and the droopy stems are going away. I thought maybe I was over watering or under watering. But for some reason it appears the CFL's were causing the plant to weep (no pun intended.) I think it was heat related from trying to get the CFL's close enough to penetrate the plant.

Temperature is staying down in the mid 70's with the MH and that's a dream come true. Those CFL's were not heat efficient at all.

Anyway the real reason for this post is because I took out my good camera for some vegg porn.

Plant #2


Plant #2 Growth


Plants


I don't know what's up with the brownish look of the plants from my other camera.

White Widow
Here is one of the babies.

Very cool man this is great stuff def subscribing! Keep the updates comin!

Day 24
Man I'm not feelin' so good. I was busy landscaping my yard and wasn't tending to my plants like I wanted to. I watered them with ferts and I think I got a little carried away because the lower leaves have been yellowing.

Literally 2 nights after transplanting and feeding. They have gone sick.

• Temp is 73F-76F
• pH of water going in and coming out is 6.0-6.5

The only thing I can think of it over fertilizing. I didn't use that much. Probably 2/3 strength.

I'm told that yellowing of bottom leaves is natural for soil grows but I'm not sure I buy that explanation.

The strange thing is that Plant #1 is now shorter than Plant #2. Plant #2 was 2 or 3 days late at sprouting and looked the sickliest of the two until now - it's almost 12" tall. Plant #1 was first to sprout and it's only 9-10" tall.

Nearly the whole life of Plant #1 it has been droopy too. Both have very strong stocks and I don't think they are root bound at all.

Anyways, I watered the seedlings because they were dry and flushed both plants. It was about watering time for them anyway.

I still don't know why they are so bushy. Maybe that's a good thing. I don't know.

Plant #1


Plant #1 Yellow Leaves


Plant #2


White Widow Day 10


White Widow Retard

Day 25
Both plants have recovered over night since flushing. Plant #1 is still being her moody self though.



Plant #1


Plant #2


Plant #2 LST
I've been playing around with LST here are some pics after 5 days of it.

Day 26
It's almost time to switch lights over to 12/12 for my bag seed plants. They seem to be happy right now. My plan is to transplant them into 5 gallon smart pots and then wait another week for them to get over any stress. Then switch 12/12.

Plant #1


Plant #2


I finished the 150w HPS veg cab for my White Widow. It was just finished today and I am testing it right now. It seems to be staying at a steady 76F with two 120mm PC fans on the top and passive intakes on both sides of the cab.

I bought the HPS light at a local hydroponics supply store along with some smart pots and Fox Farm soil.

As you can see I have a little bit of sealing to do around the doors.

Ya, so all this learning about CFL's, volts, electricity and shit motivated me to replace all the light bulbs in my house.

I had 30+ incandescent ranging from 60-150 watts each. from my calculations I'll be saving $20-$40 a month switching to these 15w (60w inequivalent) CFL bulbs. It cost me about $1 per bulb. Hell ya...

Also wondering around Home Depot I found a kilo watt meter for $23. I discovered my computer consumes 150watts for general use and surfing the web and 350-500 during gaming. My printer alone uses 65w to just sit idle and 140w while printing. WTF.

Anyway... here is the power usage reports for my 400w HPS flowering cab and 150w HPS veg cab.



By the way... one thing I learned tonight is DO NOT turn off a MH light and then turn it back on right away, it needs to cool down first!.... damn burned out my 6500k bulb. Oh well, I was switching to 12/12 in a day or two anyway.

What I don't understand is why running only the 150w HPS cab is consuming 467watts.