Pineapple Jack in the cylinder with LED tower.

[realhigh]

Okay the system is a DWC hydro set up with a pump that delivers a stream of water to the bottom of each net pot. This is on a timer that has 6on/off settings.

The cylinder's screen is a vertical Scrog, and so that is why I am posting here.
The area is a small 36" x 40"wide x 63" tall room in a cabinet area.

Right now the plants are pruned and manipulated to start their manifold growth, two lateral branch at the end of the stalk which will run along the base frame of the cylinder. I figure each one needs 12 inchs of growth. The lateral growth from this horizontal branch will grow up the screen filling it in.

First time doing this method, kinda jump the gun and did a lot early to the plant, but they wanted transplanted, so I did, the roots grew out of net pot, so time to get in hydro system.

I need good growth rate for this to work, like at least 1 inch a day, my original grow was planned with 2" growth a day, but if I can get an inch a day steady under the Tower, well I will be very pleased.

I do expect near 30 day vegy stage to get the plants to size for flowering, but that is just a estimate going of current growth.


Just got them in yesterday and realized I over estimated the length of plant I needed, kinda got long base stems.


This is a temp controller I made from a died window AC unit. I can set the desired temp, when it gets above that, all exhaust fans turn on and run until it is 2 degrees below the desired setting






The idea is to find the distance needed for your primary horizontal branch need to be, top the plant at that point, let establish from it, strip off the lower growth that is no longer needed.

This last one is to show the two lower lateral branch's that will be clones soon, or my attempt at it.

As they grow and I can/do achieve my goal I will keep pics posted of it, or of my failure, either way it is a show.

 

[Kegs]

Cool. I like the innovative stuff u post.


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[mre]

Subbed. Kill it realhigh! :)

 

[webfish]

Interesting!!! How much wattage will you have when all the lights are on?

 

[realhigh]

When the tower is fully ON, I do not remember the number nor can I find the info at the moment.
I figured three different wattage's, one was the total driver rated wattage output, the other was the actual used by the LEDs rated wattage, and the third one was, okay I need to find the info, as I do not remember.

Here it is:

The tower, 132 led's of 3w and 1w size covering from 380nm to 750nm
The total watts the driver's are rated for is 623 watts
The total draw of the 132 LED's, at my est. Is 449.48 watts
The total that all the LED's are rated for is 516.6 watts

I need to read up on my notes and crap, I know I will turn down some LED's, like blues, whites, and turn up others like reds and far red (IR) during the flowering period. To much time and to many projects in between it all, so glad I wrote it all down when I figured it out. I just lack some UVA and UVB spectrum, if I can get rich I will use a reptile T5 set up for that. No CO2 added, just passive fresh air intake design.

To save money, our window AC unit died last year, so I took out the controller box and power cord, a little redesigning and a wall outlet and it now controls the exhaust fans, one blowing up the tower and the 2nd inline fan is mounted about 5 feet above the grow box, all is exhausted into my attic area were the charcoal filter can is attached. I push the air thru it rather than pulling it, so far all is good and I already have new growth going on, my pictures sucked this AM, maybe I will try taking them again.

 

[Budluver]

I love innovation too. Looking forward to the thread RH

 

[Freakshow]

hey that's pretty kewl, realhigh. I was working on developing a larger format 8 site grow platform with the 4 foot cooltube in the center where the plants slowly rotated.

grow on!

 

[Freakshow]

this is what gave me the idea. I wanted to build one on a larger scale

 

[realhigh]

So I took 4 cuttings of 2 of the JP's last night. Have them all done up and in the cloning chamber.
Now to see if I have that rooting magic left in me, I know it is all about humidity etc.....

The three girls are all pruned and topped, oh I missed topping one, and so one of it's horizontal manifold branch's is the main stem and the other is just the lateral branch below it. I will see what grows the best I guess, get pics added later.

Okay I tried last night to get some pic's, guess I am not good with the tablet and probably should break out the camera if I want good ones.
Here they are, turned the white light off and others down, thought it might make good pic's, not.

 

[MariGold]

Cool

 

[gone grape]

hand

 

[mre]

White-Balance nightmare for a photographer!!!

 

[realhigh]

The root's are growing good, around 8" long out of the pot and almost to the water surface. The above side is doing well with recovery and soon I should see more explosive growth and foliage on them.
I am just excited everyone, as it has been years since I could grow, and have I realized how much I love doing it.

Plus my cuttings are doing so good, it has been along time since I had a setup just for clones so I could control heat and humidity so nice.

I thought weights on tie wire would be a way to keep the main branch level at the base of the screen, not working as well as in my mind, so wrapped a wire down at the base of the cylinder legs below the plant line. I will use the tie wire to anchor to the base wire and than to the branch. This way I can keep the branch level and manipulate it so that the new node growth is going up vertical. Again this manifold idea is new to me and I wanted to see if it had application to the cylinder unit. Next time I will start of with larger plants, position, top, strip excess foliage off, and train longer fuller branch's horizontally exposing all the node growth which is what fills in the screen.

 

[realhigh]

Well I finally found that power charger for the camera and I was able to take better pictures to share with everyone.

As best that I can figure I have averaged about 1/4 inch of horizontal stem growth a day since 3.24.2016 I have pruned out node growth for proper vertical branch spacing, at least it is a start and I can always take out more later if it is required.

Took these this afternoon right before light ON.

Above pic is just a over all look at the chamber.


I took one of each plant trying to get a good look at it.


Each square is 2" wide, so it helps in keeping track of growth rate.


Due to being clones and alternating node growth happening I did top the plant, but I bent that upper most stem after the lower node, and on one of these plants I did not top it.

Almost getting time for a res change, if they get growing faster I will up the strength and feed the growth.

 

[realhigh]

Okay, I am not throwing in the towel yet, but not sure if this manipulation method is the best for the cylinder. Sure is taking along time for vegy growth, but they have picked up a bit. I marked grow tips this AM again, this time I will wait a good number of days before looking, plus need a res change and see how they do.

I know they are growing as I trim node growth every few days, right now I allow one to be vertical and the next I remove. Just a quick update to let anyone who is reading that all is growing slowly, but doing well.:woohoo:

 

[Kegs]

So led growth is slow?


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[realhigh]

It has been over 3 years since I got to grow again, and I jumped back into Hydro and growing again all at the same time..

It is positive healthy slow growth, at best I say I am getting 1/4 every 24 hours, but I am checking how much over a longer period, say like 3 or 4 days, than due the math to get an average growth rate. From here I can see how much longer until I flip to flowering.

This manifold manipulation method I am trying is part of the issue I am sure. This easy going growth rate is not bad, cost on the electric bill has been un noticed, but I fear summer time heat and want to get these girls flowered and done before it gets to bad.
I am not going to run AC unit for growing, if to hot in summer time, no grow at that time with the indoor set up. I just had to get my hands wet and try to get back into the grove of it all. I have this nice HashBerry female I hope I can get outside, maybe a patio style grow, large pot that I can just move around and bring inside for the night. I just can not handle the stress of worrying all the time about it.

 

[realhigh]

Okay things have been growing a bit better since I increased the strength of food. Not anything crazy, but at least some healthy growth that is noticeable.
I took two pictures of each plant before I went to the next one.




That was the same plant just one pic closer than the other.




The two pics above are of the same plant.




And those are the two pic's of the last plant.


above is a pic to show how far the horizontal manifolds have to go. I say one more square, 2 inch's, than I top them and let all grow vertical.


This last pic is to show that they tallest vertical tips are about 2 inchs from half point. I was thinking to even out the vertical growth some I should top the tallest upright branch's and allow the other to grow and catch up more before I flip it, or just flip after topping horizontal manifold and see how it all fills in ??? for me it is a matter of time in a way as I do not want to try growing in the extreme heat of summer, so I only have a week or so before I have to flip, hope all grows as needed.

 

[realhigh]

It seems I am always learning something new, kinda like this manifold style is not totally for everyone. For me the time that is needed to manipulate and create the structure is not so much this issue, for some it is everything.
But, all this did help me see another possible way to manipulate the plant to fill in the screen in a more even faster manner. I will just have to try it, LOL

Instead of two large manifolds at the bottom of the screen, do not top the plant and let it grow straight up the screen. Best if from seed so that the plant's lateral growth is side by side. Just take one branch to the left and one to the right. As it grows vertical you remove growth to give proper spacing for bud growth. Once the plant is 2/3rds to the top of cylinder top them. This will drive lateral growth crazy and top those horizontal branch's and all the node growth on them will grow vertical creating a wall of buds wrapped around the tower. Any thought's my friends. ?

 

[180]

realhigh, that strategy you describe for saving time COULD work... but I think it really depends on the growth characteristics of the strain you select. Some strains will do what you want, some will do their own thing. Seems like the classic "christmas tree" shape, like you get from a Skunk #1, could be worked around the screen...