Humple
Well-Known Member
Picard lives in New York now, so I don't think we need to worry about it.
My budget 5X5 setup
- Thread starter Northwood
- Start date
Couch_Lock
Well-Known Member
The family has friends in Montreal.
CanadianDank
Well-Known Member
All I can say is just wow! Very impressive and I'm just getting into living organics so it's also very inspirational.
I've got my soil mixed up and breaking down, I'm starting a 12/12 from seed run in other bag soil and once that's done I'll be doing the same with my mix.
4 plants in a 5x5 under diy led (eb strips though). I was thinking ten gallon pots, what's your opinion on this? I read this whole thread and don't recall if you brought that up.
I've got my soil mixed up and breaking down, I'm starting a 12/12 from seed run in other bag soil and once that's done I'll be doing the same with my mix.
4 plants in a 5x5 under diy led (eb strips though). I was thinking ten gallon pots, what's your opinion on this? I read this whole thread and don't recall if you brought that up.
Thanks. This last grow was done in 15 gallon pots, well actually they're blue recycling boxes that happened to be on sale for $8 each at Home Depot. How big your pot is depends on how long you want to veg and the ultimate size of your plants... since you're growing 12/12 from seed, I'm guessing that's not very long!
For my next grow I'm changing things up a bit. I'll be recycling my current soil (root balls intact) with added mix into a single 4 foot diameter cloth pot, and I'll grow all 4 plants together in that single pot after getting a cover crop started. I have time this spring because we'll be using the tent for growing out vegetable seedlings, so it will be awhile before the next crop gets in there.
CanadianDank
Well-Known Member
You know what, I actually now remember you saying you picked up recycling bins for pots... Possibly on another thread but damn that's a good idea.
Re reading my above post I realized I worded things a bit poorly. What I meant was I am currently doing 12/12 from seed for one run just to kill time untill my soil is ready, after which I'm going to be doing almost exactly what you're currently doing.
I like the big bed idea for living organics, but it will take me a while to get there. Acquiring the quality humus is a struggle for me, started a worm bin a month ago though so eventually I'll have my own.
I'm subscribed to your thread and will be following along closely
Xul
Active Member
Curious, how high above the plants do you have these? Are these more of a spot light sort of LED you're using? I'm looking for a cheap way to get good lighting and I'm curious about this. It seems like you're getting good penetration, I'm wondering if this would be better than my current T5HO bulb setup.
outliergenetix
Well-Known Member
can i ask what you attached the fixtures to? just wood? if so how are these lights passivley cooled or don't they need to be like the led strips and booards do? also did you wire them to a driver of some sort or did you wire a bunch of plugs to put in a power strip? sorry i am far from handy or an electrician.I'm growing my Canadian legal limit (4 plants), all White Widow X Jacky White from fem seeds. It cost me less than $300 Canadian dollars to adequately light the 25 square feet with over 33 watts per square foot (840 watts total right now). Not my first grow with these, or with this soil. The soil is getting better with each use. I'm using a water only from seed to harvest system. Just tap water, no pH measurements, no EC, no nute mixing, no teas. I'm incredibly lazy, just ask my wife!
Here they are today, exactly 28 days (4 weeks) from the flip to 12/12.
Peeking into one of the tent side doors:
Jesselikes2grow
Well-Known Member
I've been following along here and am building one of those setups for my veg room so my big led bar can go to flowering for a perpetual grow. I'm also curious as to how close you keep the bulbs for veg and flower heights. I have a starter box that uses the same setup and they seemed to like 12 inches or so height. Have you noticed any particular spectrum bulb they were happiest with?
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10 gallon pots will work, as long as you don't let the plants get too large before flipping. With organic, I find the bigger the pot the better. If you want to fill up all 25 square feet with wall-to-wall colas, it might be better to go with 15 gallon or bigger considering our 4 plant limit. Plus a lot of the problems people see in the middle of flowering I believe are caused by too many roots in not enough soil, affecting watering and nutrient uptake. Microorganisms cannot break down organic matter fast enough to supply the plant's needs if the pot is too small for the size of plant. Having all the plants in one "bed" instead of several individual pots is ideal, which is why I'm transitioning to that method on my next grow.
Here's a photo showing my current pot setup, back when my plants were in their last couple days of veg.
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I'm running them typically about 17" above the top of the canopy. I get some weird problems on the leaves closest to the lights if I go much closer with this setup. I think it partly depends on how many bulbs you're using because a single cola will get most of the light directly from the bulb over it, plus more light from all the bulbs visible from it further away as well. There are guys using these bulbs in small cabinet grows that are only a few inches from the plant, but they're only using a few bulbs. You could probably get away with them being much closer if you use 60 watt equivalent bulbs instead of the 100 watt ones.
I haven't done any experiments with different spectrums. But I go the traditional route more or less, and start things off with cool white/daylight (4000 to 5000K) for veg, and gradually turn on more of the warm white as they get closer to flowering time. During flower, it's about half and half in the end.
It's just wood, the cheapest available - 1" X 2" softwood strapping, then the cheapest thin boards I could tack on the top as a cover hide the wire connections. This photo doesn't show much, but it was during construction of my third fixture I did last spring:
Those cheap plastic sockets can be found just about anywhere they sell lighting/electronic stuff. Cheapest is Aliexpress if you don't care if it takes a month to deliver. Each socket has 2 positive and 2 negative screw terminals making it very convenient to wire them in parallel. It's just negative to negative, and positive to positive, all the way from the first socket to the wire that plugs into the wall. I raided an old outdoor extension cord for both the plug and the wire. The whole idea was to make this as cheap as possible.
Renfro
Well-Known Member
There is no Positive and Negative in alternating current.
I don't recommend using open backed sockets with wood as a loose connection could arc and cause a fire.
True, there is no negative and positive terminals with AC. We can call them "gold" and "silver" instead then, because 2 screws are gold and 2 screws are silver. I did place strips of electrical tape across all the terminals in one length from end-to-end before covering the top, so I'm sure that would help if for some reason a connection was loosened. There is also a good 2" gap between the cover and the screws terminals.
Renfro
Well-Known Member
Next time use ceiling junction boxes, screw them to the wood and junction inside the boxes. The metal ones will be easiest to mount as you are doing. The gold screws are hot and the silver ones are neutral.
Being the lazy person I am, next time I'll use something like a bunch of these instead: https://www.amazon.ca/Zehui-Adapter-Holder-Splitter-Building/dp/B07332S1X6