Round 2 Vertical: 2400 watts, Hydro AND Soil: Agent Orange, Trainwreck, Sour Diesel

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
well tomorrow is the 1st day of 12/12... my babies are monsters now, all bout 12-15 inches.. which is about 4 or 5 inches from the bottoms of the other plants, so it should be a nice little wall going on.. ill take pics tomorrow of day 1 if anyone is interested.
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
heres pics of day 1... lookin big n sexy in there! these little fly fuckers are getting outta control again, i have some mosquito dunks in socks in my res and pull out about 100 of the crawly tick looking ones every day just about, and theres a bunch flying around on the walls n shit so i think ima go ahead and bomb em since they are early in flower.

anyways here they are, gonna start lookin good soon!
 

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FLoJo

Well-Known Member
thought i would put in a side by side so you can see the growth since the last update... as you can see its filling in quite nicely! :hump:
 

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MassGrowth

Well-Known Member
Sweet man. Keep posting pics as the buds start to swell. Who needs the fragrance of nasty Christmas smells when you could have your house smell like that for Christmas! :bigjoint:
 

Greg777

Active Member
What distance are you using between levels and where did you buy those neat looking white buckets? Do have one end open or does it have henges so you can swing it open when you to want to get inside. Can you give us an estimate on the total cost of your set up not counting labor?
 

Greg777

Active Member
I as recall, you stated you are in an apartment. Are you using a carbon filter? I would be very concerned about neighbors. Also, you mentioned that your electrical bill had increased about $400 a month. I guess those PG&E rates in the Santa Monica area are much higher than Burbank. Here in Burbank we have our own Water & Power Company. I understand that the rates are are much cheaper then PG&E.
Teir 1 = 0-250 KwH @ 0.10304
Teir 2 = 251-750 KwH @ 0.13712
Teir 3 = 751 and over. @ 0.15640

Thus, to run 2400 watts for 12 hours x 30 days = 864 KwH figuring 16 cents per KwH is $138 per month. What are they charging you for your KwH?
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
The lights hang 2 feet from the bottom, with 2 feet between the top and bottom lights

they are 2 feet from each side, with 4 feet in the middle

the buckets are 8x8 white pots which i got at a local hydro place for about 2 dollars a pop.

it is completely enclosed on all 4 sides, there is a 4ft by 18 inch doorway which you can see in the first couple of pics, otherwise it is completely surrounded.

the inner dimensions are 4ft by 8ft, and the outer dimensions are about 7 1/2 ft by 9 1/2 ft.

and i would say the frame itself probably cost about 650-700 bucks for all the supplies. the hoses and pumps and stuff was probably another couple hundred. the gutters, fittings and sealants was another 250. the filter and ducting was about 400.. the most expensive thing was the lights which was about 1900 for all 4 with the cords.

all in all i think it came out to a tad over 4000, then you gotta factor in nutes and electricity/water on top.

but hell 4000 aint bad when considering the possibilities... it def. pays off itself the first time you use it.. my first go round i got a little over 2lbs with it about half full, and chopping 2 weeks early due to spider mites, plus i had to go out of town a few times and lost about 4 plants due to the res running down...

this go round i am expecting about 5, and am not even going home for christmas, just spending the holidays with my girlfriend and my ladies haha!

FLo
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
im not exactly sure what it is electric wise, i dont feel like digging up the bill but we have 4 tiers and on a coastal city, and in the summer it is much more expensive. now in winter it costs about half as much.

and yes i do have a carbon filter, you cant smell a thing.. the only bad thing is it is a bit noisy but what the hell, the walls are pretty thick and its a legal garden so its not too big of a deal.. i am just from out of state, and so the whole growing legally idea still has not hit me so i stay paranoid
 

just L

Active Member
beautiful set-up man :blsmoke::mrgreen: any advise on building a smaller version for like a 1000w maybe 3x3?
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
if i was doing a smaller setup with 1 1000, what i would do is get about 10 plants, in soil with 4 or 5 gallon pots, and veg em out to about 18inches and just drop the bare bulb in the middle with a fan under the light pushing the air straight up.

then i would flower em about 18 inches, with the bulb in the middle about 28 inches on each side and have a carbon filter above the lights, sucking the hot air up and out of your grow space.

when you have the bulbs vertical they tend not to stretch as much since they are not having to reach for any light, so flowering at 18 inches, they will probably finish at 27-30 which will give you just enough light to have it sit in the middle, and penetrate every bud from the bottom to the top, leaving you with no popcorn nugs.

i would also get some tomato cage from home depot, and weave the branches into the cage throughout the cycle, so in effect you are getting a vertical SCROG, and giving the plants plenty of support.

doing something like this i would suspect easily 2 to 2 1/2 lbs off of 10-12 plants
 

Greg777

Active Member
im not exactly sure what it is electric wise, i dont feel like digging up the bill but we have 4 tiers and on a coastal city, and in the summer it is much more expensive. now in winter it costs about half as much.

and yes i do have a carbon filter, you cant smell a thing.. the only bad thing is it is a bit noisy but what the hell, the walls are pretty thick and its a legal garden so its not too big of a deal.. i am just from out of state, and so the whole growing legally idea still has not hit me so i stay paranoid
The electric is probably more during the summer using air conditioning. It really sucks it up. Have you considered setting up a collective or joining a collective so that your grow is legal? Do you have a doctor's recommendation yet?
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
yes me and my girlfriend both have recs and are completely legal.. i would not be doing it otherwise
 

Greg777

Active Member
I noticed that you are using both soil and hydro. I can understand using hydro in an apartment, but if you had a house with nice yard where you could use the sun to heat it for re-use, would you prefer to use soil so that you only have to water every 3rd day or so, are do you prefer the hydro?

Lugging in all that soil and equipment without any one knowing what you were doing must have been fun.

I am considering building a octogon setup like one I saw on the CC forum, but yours is interesting also. What brand of soil are you using? I bought some soil from OSH and Home Depot, the Home Deposit was lousy for drainage (I guess it's good for houseplants), but the OSH brand had great drainage and worked really good for my vegetable garden this year.
 

Greg777

Active Member
i would also get some tomato cage from home depot, and weave the branches into the cage throughout the cycle, so in effect you are getting a vertical SCROG, and giving the plants plenty of support.

doing something like this i would suspect easily 2 to 2 1/2 lbs off of 10-12 plants
I don't know about those filmsey tomato cages. For my tomatoes I purchased 5 foot by 100 foot 9 gage wire (called construction wire) which has 6' x 6' openings, and they work great for my tomatoes. Of course, you need a wire cutter and have to wear gloves when making the cages. I decided to use electrical tape to cover-up up the turned over ends so that none of my family would get cut picking those tomatoes.
 

FLoJo

Well-Known Member
im using fox farms with a little added pearlite.. and as much as i love soil, it is a lot of lugging and changing and bugs to deal with, like the battle with gnats i am having now lol

i do like using soil and if i had a yard would love to do so, because bugs wouldnt be as much of an issue but for indoor i think hydro is easier to maintain and keep clean. all you ever gotta change is water and clean some pebbles ya know?

and ya i donno how i got all this in here with nobody noticing LOL.. luckily i had no neigbors when i first started, but now i have a few and bringing the soil in at 4 am was not too much fun walking up 4 sets of stairs with 8 bags of soil LOL. i will say if i could do it again, i would either make it smaller so the plants could be closer to the lights or use 1000s with these dimensions, cuz as you can see i have plants about a foot away with no heat issues, so i know i am losing a lot of efficiency
 
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