Low Budget Mini Fridge LED Grow

MrFlatbush · Feb 1, 2022

I love small grows. You are off to a great start. We have similarly sized grow spaces. Please let me know if I can be of any help.

Best of luck to you!

My Magical Mobile Micro Medical Marijuana Machine

Hi RIU, Been lurking for years and this is my first post. Hopefully I didn't already phuck it up somehow.... After numerous fuckups and failures I'm quite happy with the progress I have been making with my little hydro grow box.......so I thought I would share. It sits quietly in my home...

www.rollitup.org

Smscreations · Feb 1, 2022

Shaded420 said:
You are a brave man! I grew in a carboard box around the same size years ago - you are going to be VERY height restricted. Keep in mind that yes you have 12"...but only about 6-8" of that will be usable unless you want to burn your plants.

Maybe I missed it but what light are you using? Is a 5 gallon pot even going to fit inside there? lol

Lol, brave I am!! I'm well aware that I'm going to be severely height restricted in this box and have already planned for lots of training to try my best to keep everything really low.

The light is an Amazon special (had a gift card from Christmas that I used on it)

LED Grow Light EnFun XL500

claims that its full spectrum and 50w. Even if those claims are off, i wont be bothered. This is just a fun experiement for mw after all.

The 5 gallon smart pot fits right in the lower portion of the box, but realistically I'll only be using about 3-4 gallons of soil due to not being able to fit the entire pot filled in there.

Smscreations · Feb 1, 2022

MrFlatbush said:
I love small grows. You are off to a great start. We have similarly sized grow spaces. Please let me know if I can be of any help.

Best of luck to you!

My Magical Mobile Micro Medical Marijuana Machine

Hi RIU, Been lurking for years and this is my first post. Hopefully I didn't already phuck it up somehow.... After numerous fuckups and failures I'm quite happy with the progress I have been making with my little hydro grow box.......so I thought I would share. It sits quietly in my home...

www.rollitup.org

Thank you!! And I actually spent quite a time looking at your build when I was planning mine out haha. Kinda inspired me to go for it!!

Shaded420 · Feb 1, 2022

I still can't figure out what was going through my head back then! lmao

Really good job so far. I think I used a 65w panel in my little box and got around 60g from two plants. Will definitely be following along and sending good karma your way :blsmoke:

Smscreations · Feb 1, 2022

Shaded420 said:
I still can't figure out what was going through my head back then! lmao

Really good job so far. I think I used a 65w panel in my little box and got around 60g from two plants. Will definitely be following along and sending good karma your way

Thanks!! Really appreciate it and got my fingers crossed that things go well!!

Smscreations · Feb 5, 2022

Week 3/ Day 16

Ended Day 16 with some light LST. Anchored down close to the base of the stem and then slowly pulled her over from just below the 4th node.

A few hours she was already turned back up towards the light.

The next morning i decided to tighten up the tie downs a little bit more. Almost got her to a 90 degree bend with no breakage on the stem haha.

Same thing as the day bfore, a few hours later and shes turned up.

Week 3/ Day 18

I received my 1 Lb bag of Natures Living Soil Concentrate earlier in the week. Came home from work on Day 18 and it was transplant time!! Emptied the contents of the Natures mix along with some happy frog into the bottom third of the pot and mixed it well. Placed the pot into the box and placed a board on the open side to kind of hold the structure of the rectangular style pot that will take shape due to my size constraints. Hopefully ill be able to remove the board and the soil will hold its shape once her roots start to stretch out.

i severely underestimated the smell of Natures Living Soil hahaha.

Filled the rest of the pot with Happy Frog around the smaller container and was ready to transplant.

Initially thought the root system was further along due to how many i saw starting to peek out the bottom. At least she wasnt rootbound haha. The soil held together great through transplanting.

And here we are in her final resting place!! After transplanting im figuring shes sitting in about 3.5- 4 gallons total.

A few hours later and she was happy and perked up.

Smscreations · Feb 5, 2022

Week 3/ Day 19

Getting a gameplan for which direction i want to train her. Transplanted with the horizontal stem pointing towards left rear corner and with contiue to veg out to try and get her wrapped around the pot and try to fill the screen from front to back.

Had to fabricate a DIY tomoato ring (or rectangle in this case haha) to give my self something to anchor down to in the smart pot.

Trying to open up the tops to let this under growth catch up to top. Will give her a few more days to adjust to her new home before topping.

Got her anchored down and laid out!!

Temps have stayed around right around 80 degrees with lights on and humidty, with the larger pot now in the box, has fluctuated between 50 and 75%. Hoping with more surface are to retain moisture and keeping fan speed dialed in ill be able to avoid putting any type of humidifier in here. Minimal objects not crowding the valuable real estate in this box is ideal!! Still watering with 6.5 pH but due to low humidity levels have had to water quite often with that smaller container drying out quickly.

Cheers!!

Smscreations · Feb 10, 2022

Week 4/ Day 24

Decent amount of growth over past couple days with a lot of new undergrowth popping up that wasn't receiving a whole lot of light so end up topping her to let some light get down further.

I've noticed I'm getting very short internode spacing so I'm not sure if light is too intense and causing her not to stretch as much

Picture of where I topped her with a lot of the side branching catching up to the new tops

Tried tucking one of the larger fan leaves and it broke so I just took it clean off and letting her do her thing now.

Still battling with humidity being too low so I went ahead and ordered a small travel humidifier that I'll put in the box for the time being. Main stem is pencil thick now and holding its own without and support. I know I wanted to keep her low and small but it almost seems like she's staying to small and internodes are crowding each other. If anybody has any recommendations or insight feel free to comment!!

Also went and helped a buddy top and train one of his ladies last night of some random bagseed. His first time growing and my first time experience with hydro so we're all learning something new over here haha.

Cheers!

Smscreations · Feb 14, 2022

Week 4/ Day 28

Rolling into the last day of Week 4! Got my little amazon travel humidifier in over the weekend and am now able to keep the humidity up in the box throughout the day with the lights on. Accidently let it run over night once and humidity hit 99% with lights out .

Unfortunately, my idea of putting it on a timer to let it run a little bit every hour is out the window. When it loses power, you have to manually click the power button to turn it back on. So I just turn it on in the morning let it run til it runs out of water and it turns itself off. Humidity stays at a pretty steady 60-70% now and she's loving it.

My goal of keeping her short is still right on track. About 1/2 an inch taller than a Bic lighter. I've stopped training her for the time being to let some of the side branching stretch to open up the bottom canopy. As you can see in the next pics, it's getting a little crowded underneath.

Lower branching is catching up to the two main tops now. Set the screen over top of her and still got a few more inches in vertical height to go until she reaches the screen. Will start to tuck and weave once she gets tall enough. As soon as i get the screen filled about 80% I'll flip her to flower.

Still have yet to feed her anything but pH'd water from seed. Roots should be reaching and feeding on the supersoil that's filling the bottom of the pot now. Starting to get that little bit of stink to her whenever I open the box now too!!

Feel free to ask any questions or comment!! Always up for discussion in this journal!

Cheers!

Smscreations · Feb 15, 2022

Got bored last night and decided to tie her down a little bit more haha.

Woke up this morning to everything turned eight back up towards the light.

Cheers!

Smscreations · Feb 15, 2022

Week 5/ Day 29

Looks like training will be pretty consistent from this point. Shes bushing up quite nicely. Will keep opening up the canopy to allow all the new growth up top and below equal light so I can get this screen filled. Here's some pictures of tonight's training session.

She's real short now haha!!

Cheers!

PadawanWarrior · Feb 15, 2022

Smscreations said:
The seedling stage always makes me anxious just waiting around haha

So in the meantime, I started figuring out stuff to keep me occupied. Took all of 30 minutes to do, so wasn't occupied for too long lol.

Decided to build my Scrog system and figure out a plan for when it comes time for training. 8x7 grid with 1 3/4" squares.
View attachment 5071104

With the net above the passive intake, I'm hoping to draw my fresh air in underneath the canopy. From the top of the screen to the lights is sitting right at 12 inches. Got a feeling things are going to get really tight if I don't stay on top of the LST from the beginning.
View attachment 5071108

Planning on transplanting into a 5 gallon fabric pot with the edges rolled down to the height of the little ledge in the back. With it crammed in the rectangular area in the front it may come out to being about 4 gallons since i wont be able to fill it to capacity. Fabric pot sits about 5 1/2 inches to the bottom of the net from the top of the pot. Will also be planning on building a tray for it to all sit in that I'll be able to move whole plant, pot and net system out as one incase the need arises.
View attachment 5071113

Gonna be awhile to put it all to good use though (temp/hum meter was left outside the box for a little while before putting back in) Will definitely be interesting how low I can keep this sativa and hope she don't stretch into the lights.
View attachment 5071122

View attachment 5071132
Can really only get the humidity up close to 60% with swings down to about 50% depending on if the outside house door has been left open with only the storm door separating the cold outside from the inside room. Anybody got any tips on getting the humidity up some more? Didn't really want to use wet towel for fearing they would dry out too fast. Was thinking one of those cool mist humidifiers that attach to a water bottle put on a timer so mist about every 30 minutes to an hour. Any input would be greatly appreciated!!
Cheers!

Very nicely done. I'm impressed. And be careful about overwatering those seedlings. But looking sweet.

Smscreations · Feb 17, 2022

Week 5/ Day 31

We've reached 1 month from seed today!!

Keeping with the training routine, last night was no different. Pulled her down some more and she was just a little too bushy for my liking. Underneath the canopy was filled with little branches that had been fighting for awhile to push thru the canopy. Every night I opened up the canopy, it would fill in by morning and block all light from getting to lower sites. So to put the focus up top and improve air circulation underneath, i took it all off!!

After some lollipopping and more tying down I went ahead and topped most of the tops to help eventually fill the screen at a decent rate.

With everything cleared out underneath, nothing is laying right on top of the soil anymore. She's still sitting right about 4 inches tall. Got another 3 inches of vertical height to go before she hits the screen.

Really short internode stacking from early on in veg.

So far she's loving everything I've thrown at her and has responded very well to all the training this past week. Really starting to fill out the foot print of the box now. Once new tops start giving me some more branching to work with I'll start bending everything a lot more.

Thanks to all who have been along for the journey for this little grow. Looking forward to the continued learning and experience of growing in such a confined space.

Cheers!

Smscreations · Feb 19, 2022

Week 5/ Day 33

Quick little saturday morning update!!

Cheers!

thefullspectrum · Feb 19, 2022

Nice little setup. No doubt you'll be cursing the higher humidity during flower. Thats the biggest issue with micro grows having enough ventilation and airflow to prevent the dreaded botrytis.

Smscreations · Feb 19, 2022

thefullspectrum said:
Nice little setup. No doubt you'll be cursing the higher humidity during flower. Thats the biggest issue with micro grows having enough ventilation and airflow to prevent the dreaded botrytis.

Yea, I'm already trying to plan for that. Planning on upgrading the extraction fan to something with a lot higher static pressure to keep the air continously moving through my filter. It helps the room that the box is in is fairly dry so with exchanging the humidty with the dry air, hopefully I can keep the humidity down.

Smscreations · Feb 19, 2022

More and more tying down. This makes for 7 straight days of training and she bounces back within hours of each session. Still sitting about 4 inches tall and just started feeding some blackstrap molasses with every watering. Watering to just a dribble of runoff so equates to watering every couple days with however much she needs. Hoping to flip to flower by 1st of March but we'll see. She's right at the screen, so will be weaving her soon.

Cheers!!

Smscreations · Feb 22, 2022

Week 6/ Day 36

Little bit more progress of her training. Got all the tops just about even and where i want them now. Should be the last of tying her down until she hits the screen.

Cheers!

Smscreations · Feb 25, 2022

Week 6/ Day 39

After moving the pot in and out of the grow box for training and watering, I began to have some problems with having to do so. I'm not using a full 5 gallons of soil and the dirt is in the form of a rectangle in a circle pot, anytime I moved the pot the soil would shift around. This began to make it difficult to not keeps its form as the dirt would settle lower and wider. Didn't harm the plant at all with the rootball shifting around.

I needed a system to make this thing stable and mobile. Keeping I'm the DIY fashion, I grabbed some wire coat hangers and a baking pan and got to work. Fashioned a rectangular basket to hold the form of the fabric pot. After that was complete, I attached some carry handles to make it easier to lift out of the box.

Next, I wanted to make it a all in one system and mount my scrog screen to it so that once it filled the screen I could remove everything all in one shot.

She's right at the screen now and all her tie downs have been removed. I've got her flat enough to make quick work of filling up the screen from this point on.

My attempt at keeping her as short as possible in this micro cab.

Doing all this gained me about another inch in vertical height from the screen to the light. 14 inches into total now. So the question is....how much should I let her fill the screen up before I flip to flower? Trying to take into account of the stretch and use the stretch to fill the rest of the screen.

Let me hear some opinions!!

All nice and cozy in the mini fridge

Cheers!!

Smscreations · Mar 3, 2022

Week 7/ Day 45

Still rolling on through the veg state. More and more tops are growing up through the screen now. Hoping to flip to flower here in another week or two.

Thanks for looking!!

Cheers!!

Low Budget Mini Fridge LED Grow

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