Long live Grower.cz , and long live G_MAN!

G_MAN's 150w vertical scrog blew me away, man, changed my entire way of thinking about successful growing. Bigger isn't necessarily better, as far as lights go, provided you have a large enough surface area for the screens. Because of G_man, I'm almost finished building this cabinet (122 cm x 50.8 cm x 183 cm ; total volume:1.13 M^3 ) that uses chickenwire tubes, 150w hps (4), one 70w hps, and has a total flowering screen area of 6 SQUARE METERS!!!



EDIT: A final working design is in place for the first run! It has been fun "playing with my crayons," but it's past time to get this show on the road! 740 watts, 4 Plants, 7.5 SQUARE METRES FLOWERING SCREEN!!!

Naposledy upravil U.S. Blues 31-03-2006 v 08:12 AM

citace:

Původní příspěvek od HavanaJoe Looks very nice, so how high are the tubes and what's their diameter ? And how many plants and what kind do u plan ? I guess that u gonna need a lot of them to fill 6 square (not cube ) metres of screen otherwise it gonna take ages in vegetation stage...

NOTE: Picture is a grow by G_Man or prenda (they have both greatly inspired this design). Thanks so very much, guys!

Thanks HavanaJoe for stopping by. Tubes 1 and 2 are 168 cm high and 46 cm in diameter. (Next run, I'll have octagons replacing the tubes, and should gain 5-6% more area). Tube 3 is 91 cm high, and 30 cm in diameter, and uses the 70w hps.

I'll be using 2 bio-tubs (variation on bio-buckets), which have almost zero maintenance, simple setup, and very explosive growth. I'm using Cinderella 99 from Female Seed's X-Line (C99's great for scrog, very trippy, very low odor, and finishes in 7-8 weeks), and will have 2 plants per tub.Yes, four plants TOTAL! You should put your most vigorous plants (best rooted, fastest/stretchiest strain, etc.) in Tube 2, as Tube 3 has no "dedicated" plants for it; 3 will be totally supplied by vegetation left under the screen of Tube 2 (the stuff that won't get any light from the lights inside screen two). Also, you can "leapfrog" branches from Tube 2 onto Tube 1 to help it fill out as well. Cabinet will be on wheels, and the rear wall will be hinged, so that the rear of the screens are accessible for easy maintenance. The screens will be added on (built upwards) as needed, so during most of the grow the tubes will be accessable through the top. For the first couple weeks of vege, only the lower two 150w lights will be used, until plants reach @ 45% height. You have to perfectly time turning on the 70w light, as it's a smaller screen to fill and you don't want to run out of room during the stretch. I figure I'll do it when Tube 2 is @ 40% full.

Keep in mind, the stretch in this system is kinda 3-dimensional, not just vertical. I'm going to start flowering when Tube 2 is @55% full, and then "dial-in" on subsequent runs. With some judicious FIMing, I'm hoping to need to vege only 4-5 weeks. Then 8 weeks later...NICE! Next run, with clones, everything will be much more vigorous, and I expect to shave 7 days off the vege period at that time.

If everything fills out, and if I only achieve 100g per square metre...It would be a great summer!

EDIT: Top drawing is a basic layout for a room grow: 3900 watts, 337 Square Metres of flowering space, in a room smaller than 3 square metres area! It will work; someone just has to have the balls to do it! (Too big for my medical use! The way things are with this cabinet, I believe I'll only need to grow once per year!)

Naposledy upravil U.S. Blues 18-03-2006 v 17:04 PM

I'm not positive how far the word's spread on Bio-Buckets, but HurtBack (OG) was a pioneer in the field. Basically, he looked at reservoirs as if they were aquariums, and when he adapted his system to act like an aquarium, Bio was born

Has anyone here tried the NIMBY variation of Bio-Buckets for cab/micro grows, the Bio-Tub? Same benefits of the buckets (explosive growth, no reservoir changes, no maintenance), but no worry about leaks or requiring an engineering degree to construct the system and set all the valves properly. Simple set-it-and-forget-it maintenance, no need to check PH (if you use reverse osmosis water), and NIMBY used 1/3 concentration of Lucas Formula, with no PPM meter of any kind. (Your plants will tell you how they're feeling; listen to them.)

NIMBY ran the bio tubs in a very stealthy dresser/cabinet conversion. He used clear tubs (the roots are the show, man!), 2-6 gal RO water, Lucas (but never full strength), netpots with good-sized lava rocks, and instead of a pump, he utilized aquarium powerheads submerged in the tubs and aimed at the roots across the tub. To oxygenate the water, simple connect @ a six foot piece of hose to the powerhead, and it'll draw fresh air into the tub. (You can place the hose so that it draws cool air from outside the cab/closet. That way, you'll get cool, fresh air into the tub.)

I did this for my first grow last year, and man, what explosive growth! I had to take down the grow for security reasons, but within 28 days I had main stems bigger in diameter than my thumbs, and bushy healthy plants going great and effortless. Also, with no pumps clacking, the system is almost completely silent!

I think people are psyched-out by the name, thinking that they need a degree in botany to understand it, when all you need to understand is that it does as advertised with little or no help from you. All you need is a 6 inch high tub, a couple of netpots filled with red lava rock, an $18 powerhead (wallyWorld), Lucas Formula at @ 1/3 strength (1 x/week) with a pinch of epsom salt, daily top-offs with R.O. water (can even use tap, but use R.O. water and never even check PH). Near-silent system, no maintenance, explosive growth. It really is this easy!

Simple Setup

There's really nothing to it. My tub is @ 6 inches tall, @ 24 X 17 in, with 5.5 in netpots. Fill the netpots with the red lava rocks (available at Home Depot and WalMart for @ $3/bag). Cut two 3 inch holes in the tub top (at one end: like looking down on a six-pack of cans), and affix the netpots from the bottom(of top!) by looping three cable ties thru the corresponding holes (I forgot to tell you to drill) through both the rim of the netpots and the tub top. I use three ties/holes in a triangle to support the heavy netpot. but you could use four to be extra secure.

Now, take the powerhead out of the box, and attach the 6 foot piece of black drip/irrigation tubing (1/4 maybe; get it at WW when you have the powerhead in-hand). Now, totally submerge (not the plug!) the powerhead at the opposite end to the netpots, and aim the fin at the bottoms of the netpots. The DO (air requirement) is handled by the 6 foot irrigation tube. The reason for the length of the air tube is that if it's much shorter, it can make an audible sucking sound. Another benefit of a longer tube is that you can remote it from the tub/lights, to get cooler air blown into the water (every little bit helps). In my size tubs (8 gal/33 qts), I use six gallons of RO water. Do yourself a favor and mark the water levels at 4,5,and 6 gallon levels, to help you keep an eye on water usage. Top off each day with RO water, or build an autofeed reservoir.

That's it. No reservoir changes, ever! There's a good thread on Lucas Formula, which is what you should use with the Bio-tub system (not a requirement for Bio, but works very well with Bio-Buckets/Tubs), but at 1/3 strength each week, with a pinch of epsom salt. If you use RO water, don't worry about PH. NIMBY didn't own a TDS meter either, nor do I!

Thanks everyone for the kind words and Karma; it's nice to know people recognize this for it's potential. The system is for real, and final preparations on the cabinet are scheduled for this evening. Please keep the questions coming!

Cibin, the C99 plants are very healthy, bushy, and have tons of lateral growth. I'm FIMing every second node of the lateral growth; I'm gonna need every branch I can get!

-Charlie

Naposledy upravil U.S. Blues 18-03-2006 v 15:50 PM

OK, everybody, the moment of truth is upon me, as my ladies are ready to go in the system (beyond ready, actually). All this design stuff's easy to change on paper, but much more difficult to implement during production (the cabinet's "first run").

This is definitely what my first run will look like. I'm finishing the cab today/tomorrow, and the plants are going right in. The biggest recent modifications involve moving the entire exhaust/carbon scrubber system external to the cabinet, which allows for the extra square metre of screen (7.5 METRES TOTAL!!!)and simplifies the exhaust setup.

My camera sucks, but I'll have some pictures to post of the grow/cabinet very soon. Thanks everyone, for stopping by!

Naposledy upravil U.S. Blues 18-03-2006 v 06:49 AM

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been busy lately. Here are some pics, but I'm sorry the quality sucks.

The cabinet is loaded, but not completely finished. I need to set up the lights better, and get a more permanent solution to hanging the chickenwire. I have scaled my tubes back to two oblong octagons and four 200 watt hps lights (on order). THe 150's I bought were very inefficient (350 watts to light 150!), so I'm just going with the four 200's instead. The exhaust system works great, and is pretty quiet. It already passed the "landlord" test, as I had a 10 minute conversation with him when we were within three meters of the cabinet!

Sorry for the quick post, but I wanted to let you guys know I'm still around.

Thanks U4eea for the compliment about the weels! They're very functional, however, as I'll need to access the rear door to perform screen maintenance on the back of the tubes! Also, I'm looking to add CO2 to the grow, as I think it could help me to shorten vege time by 1-2 weeks. Does anyone here use CO2 in their cabinet grows?

Naposledy upravil U.S. Blues 12-04-2006 v 17:43 PM

Hi all.

Sorry for not updating, but you know how it goes...

Here are some more shitty pics. The plants didn't stretch as much as I had hoped they would, but things are looking awesome for @ a June 17th harvest!