Started assembling my 48.5" wide x 30.5" deep x 66.5" tall Veg. Room... (Pt. 1)
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Veg. Box Front panel, sliding door with track, all mounted to a 48.5" Wide by 66.5" high aluminum square tube frame. Simulated Cherry Wood panels are used on the front, sides and top of the Veg. Box, while a less expensive Ash Wood panel is used on the back and bottom. Five 4' x 8' panels were used to build this unit.
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Veg. Box Side panels. The right side panel (shown on left) has an opening designed to accommodate a thermostatically controlled window fan.
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Veg. Box Top and Bottom panels. The top panel is shown with venting holes and a silver vinyl covering (Ran out of white vinyl covering), while the bottom panel has a 1/8" white plastic liner laminate adhered to it's cosmetic side, leaving the smooth side to rest on the floor when assembled.
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Veg. Box Back panel is shown mounted to a 48.5" Wide by 66.5" high aluminum square tube frame.
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Four Cross members are mounted with tek screws to the four corners of the front section of the unit. The back section of the unit is then placed on the four cross members and secured with tek screws.
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The Bottom and right side are mounted respectively. Pan head pop rivets are used on the Bottom Panel in order to allow the unit to slide on the carpet without snagging it as tek screws may do.
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The Fan Unit is checked for propper fit.
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The T-8 Shop lights needed to be modified in order to fit between the side walls which are exactly 48.5 inched apart. The Electrical Cord of the shop light originally protrudes from the end of the fixture (shown in back), making its overall length 48.85 inches long. The cord was rerouted and the reflector was modified so that the cord could protrude from the top of the reflector.
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The lights were so tight in fact, that the left side panel couldn't be mounted until the lights were installed.
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Close-up shot of the shop light electrical wiring.
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Interesting design so far, I might modify that to divide up rooms if the material cost makes sense.
Disclaimer: I still use HID and I'm NOT an LED expert. All of my LED knowledge is from other parties or research so I can't say from first hand experience one way or another. I also run a medical grow consulting business in SoCal.
Started assembling my 48.5" wide x 30.5" deep x 66.5" tall Veg. Room... (Pt. 2)
Finished it, for the most part, about Oct. 8th.
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The completed Veg. Room. Air pumps were later located in the closet to the left.
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I used two modified plastic 12 port manifolds. The inlet diameter on these manifolds was not adequate to allow unrestricted air flow, so I melted the inlet port shut and cut one end off, creating a much larger port. Turns out that 3/4" vinyl fits over the cut end of the manifold perfectly, which was zip tied in place. This gave me two airlines for six 5 Gal. DWC buckets, so I ran four additional lines along with the 3/4" main supply line, which accommodated 2 more DWC buckets.
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The Veg. Room was designed to accommodate eight 5 Gal. DWC buckets. Seven net pots are used to see if the finished room is large enough.
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HydroFarm came out with a new very innovative DWC bucket, but they're too wide for eight of them to fit comfortably in the Veg. Room.
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Last edited by CoastalCowboy on Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Not sure what you mean. Were you thinking of different levels, or vertically divided compartments? I'm most likely going to add a shelf on the left side for seedlings and clones, at some point.
I noticed one of Moe's leaf's margines was folded onto itself, creating a small void under teh leaf for a bug to live. Not sure if its from a pest or just a natural deformation.
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My garden has a new resident. He/She is a jumping spider I've aptly named Boris. Hopefully, he'll help keep any pests at bay.
Did you know that Jumping Spiders have 4 pairs of eyes, eight all together? Four for viewing forward, two for viewing its sides and rear, and a fourth pair which appear to be dormant.
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Boris munching on a bug I gave him.
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Not sure what the deal is here folks. These plants have been under a 24/0 lighting cycle from birth. The only three events I can think of is; 1) I shut the SolarStorms off for photos, but I'd first turn on the CFLs, 2) When I was working on the first grow room, I carried the plants to another room through a sometimes non lit hallway for a few feet to another room where a second SolarStorm was set up, and then back again almost on a daily basis for most of this grow, 3) when I transplant them, they are under shop lights on my work bench.
Now as I mentioned before, they could be Autoflowering plants, but all they have done is sprout four Calyxes with Pistils at some nodes of the stem. This started over three weeks ago, and have not grown multitudes of them, AKA buds. So, they don't seem to be Autoflowering, as I initially suspected, either.
They have appeared on Mary, Jane, Eeny, and I think I saw some on another plant as well. Photos were taken long after I noticed the first signs on Jane back in September.
Any thoughts?
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Eeny
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Eeny
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Jane
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I finally got a chance to split up the plants into their own 5 Gal. DWC buckets. I also tried out a new grow medium called Grow Stones which are made from recycled glass and are PH neutral. If you use them, wear gloves! They will quickly wear layers of skin away when digging into them with your hands.
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Front L->R: Eeny, White Widow (CA), White Widow (UK - Looks nothing like any White Widow I've ever seen. The leaves are way too broad.) Back L->R: Moe, Curley, Larry
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