PC Case grow - Stealth + Perpetual + LST

Cheers guys and belated 420 wishes for everyone.

Got some pics again last night and just wanted to show why I think roots don't really give a hoot about light. Here's 2 shots of Amber, first shows just how healthy and vigorous she is and the 2nd shows some of the root system.
I may be miles off here, but it strikes me that if the long root with all the little side shoots had any problem with light exposure it would either have shrivelled up or it would have got itself out of the light. It's the same story all around the pot.
I'm not trying to suggest they do better with light exposure but the pics strongly suggest to me that they don't do any worse either.

Thanks for showing this. Everyone kept telling me to cover my pots. I didn't think it would be a problem cause you have clear pots too. I have the sides covered with duct tape now though. I did it mostly cause I was tired of so many telling me to cover the roots up.

Hey V12,

I read through your thread and I like it so far!
I am starting my 3rd grow and I am getting things set up right now (grow journal coming soon)
Its a small scale, not a PC, but def not a closet either.
Anyway, I just started a thread in the CFL forum about PC fans, and I would appreciate your input as well as the other people in the "PC gang" let me know if its a good idea.

Cheers.

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/186450-comparing-pc-fans-exhaust.html

Hey Neph
I'm with you buddy. Everyone on here is very helpful but sometimes I wish they would check their facts first.

Hey Fuckat7t
Thanks for visiting and for the invite to chime in on your thread. I noticed it earlier and think it's a valuable discussion so I'll post up there in a bit.

Do you have any good guides on how to build these boxes? Also any information on where i can get some seeds like th at :] Thanx and nice grow!

Hey climax. Thanks for dropping by and for the props.
I never did a build guide but check out ElephantRider's journal. He dealt with it in plenty of detail and he did do a set of general notes to help, although thinking about it he may have posted that in this journal somewhere.
I'll post a link if I see it. Just get a dremmel and 2 pints of your bloodtype and you will be fine
As for seeds. Any of the 7 - 8 week flowering strains should be ok and any of the auto flowering plants will be easy to grow, although taste and potency may not be quite up there with the best. Just have a flick through the choices at a decent seedbank and something will catch your eye.
Good luck with it.

Got a couple of quick updates today. First up is the plexiglass. It's actually polycarbonate and I went with 3mm thickness just to make sure it didn't bend in the middle due to heat. I already had a fan blowing up the centre of the bulb and while I was investigating putting a spider in there I opened up the rear too, so the idea was to have a straight through flow of air to act as a cool tube.
I'm only on the prototype so it's only sealed on one side but initial impressions are above expectation. I ran it last night with a room temp of 75F and the fans on 6v and it never climbed above 79F right under the glass!
Here's a couple of snaps just to show what I'm on about:

Figured it was time for another update on Pandora too. Don't know about anybody else but I'm rapidly concluding that she's not a 7 week strain. I have her down to vacate the building on Sunday but you can see there's tons of new white growth and she's just starting to put on the pounds.... Well grammes anyway
Looks like I'll need another pot in there as Veronica is in need of a new home this weekend and I may even need to give Pandora a mild dose of nutes with her next watering. She will have long since exhausted any goodies from the soil after 2 weeks of flushing and I'm pretty sure there's another week or more to go.
Look for yourself:

v. like always they look great! i strive for such great plants like yours!
did you happen to get that plexi glass?
keep it up! DW

Hey DW
There's an update on it just above the last pics of Pandora. It looks like a winner so far

wow shows how close i look... it looks great! makes a big diffrence?

There's lots more sealing to do around the edges but it's knocked about 8F off the temps and I had to turn down the fans from 9v to 6v. If I ran it at 9v I reckon it would maintain the same temps as the outside air.
Bring on the summer

summer is a beautiful thing... so is outdoor season!

My thinking exactly

OK. Just made some small adjustments to the box and took a few snaps but this will be my final update for this journal. Pandora will be coming down in the next day or 2 and I've already covered a harvest, so that's all folks.
I've put a pic of the new cooltube in and one of each of the flowering girls, plus a profile of Pandora and family shot with them all waving goodbye.

Current plans for the future are to reveg my harvested girls and pop them outdoors for some extra blooms at the end of the summer.
I'm also thinking about removing the fans from the plant area in the case and just fitting a blower in there to provide some air circulation. The benefit of that would be that no smell could escape so I could dump the carbon filters and still be stink free
A water cure is on the cards at some point, and I also now have an A4 laptop that will fit neatly behind the baby light. Once that's fitted I should have a light-proof, smell-proof and fully functioning PC that just churns out weed for fun

Many thanks to everyone who has posted here, sent me rep or pm's. Amazingly, every single one has been positive and I appreciate them all very much.
Good luck to everyone in your grows. I'll be watching.

looks great v. your journal keeping will be missed and i will dedicate my next grow to you! take care man. DW

Awesome! Any possible way I could get a view of how you mounted the light up there? I've been thinking of upgrading the flower tower to a 200W CFL, but the logistics of that hook-up are escaping me. I'd thought about possibly getting a single-wing and cutting it or something like that. PM me, if you like.. or pop it on my grow, if you have time.

Thanks for the knowledge, man. You're the fuckin' master, no question about it. I've researched a million micro-grows over the past year to figure out how to run my own and yours has been, by far, the best I've seen documented. I know you were itching to get this grow over after just the one harvest, but I'm so happy you did 2, as it gave me a realistic view of how a perpetual works out. Generally, if you look at a single grow, it's a grow. It doesn't help you feel the process at all.. how often you get to fill your tin, etc. This shows me how this process is completely liveable and easily sustainable. Also, thanks for staying tuned in on my grow. You seem to be the only person that can cut through my mindless banter and other ramblings. I'll definitely ping you if I'm headed to the Kring, by the way. Possibly next year.

ALL HAIL THE MASTER V12XJS!!!

Hey ER. You do seem to know how to embarass me. A simple 'thanks' would have been fine
A couple of fair points there though fella.
I wanted to get a working rig out there but without seeing how often I top up my tin and how the little ones come through it could easily have been a one hit wonder full of bs. I think the 2nd grow showed this is for real and anyone can do it, which was the whole point for me.
Thanks to you and DW for talking me round.

To make it complete though I should cover how I fitted that light huh?
Nothing scientific to that. Just a cheapo reflector with e40 bulb holder. The reflector is a metal 'L' shape with the electrics and the bulb holder on the foot and a reflective metal sheet stapled to the main length.
Here's a pic of a very similar example. Please note I have no affiliation with the vendor, it's just the best pic I can find:
http://www.1-hydroponics.co.uk/grow-lights/envirolite-cfl-reflector.htm
It just fitted in my case, but I could have hung the power box outside through the psu hole if needed. Those reflective wings are pretty easy to bend to the correct width. To fit it I sanded the roof of the case and the metal bar the reflector is screwed to, then I tipped the case upside down and put epoxy resin (araldite) on both the sanded areas and stuck them together. I put some ballast on top to hold it firm and left it for 24 hours. Easy peasy really. A couple of hours with the fans on moved any residual odours.

V12 thanks for all the info. I am glad you decided to keep the journal after Granita. It helped me understand more of the whole process of getting a nice perpetual pc grow. I'm going to change almost my whole set up next time around. It's been nice having this journal around, I know it's helped a lot of people. Like how I LST Esme around the rim and it isn't quite working out to well. So I planted Daphnie near the edge and just pulled her straight back acrost the pot. I got that from your journal. You also popped in many of the pc journals around here giving sound advice when ever any of us messed up. So once again thanks V12, the PC Grow Guru.

Subscribed! I love Micro grows.