Gsc Vertical Rdwc 4 Tree Co2 Grow In Sealed 10 X 10 Room

[Grow Journal]

Hello Everyone! I didn't posted in the introduction section but this is my first post, so I'm gonna say hello quick here.

There are several sites on the web where I could post this grow (including a hobby site of my own I hope will be popular someday) but the main reason I'm joining you here at THC Farmer is because Bodhi Seeds is my all time favorite breeder and I noticed he has a couple hundred posts or so on this site. I know one person who I believe either met Bodhi or did test grows for him, and he spoke so highly of Bodhi I started researching.

Ive since ordered 11 of the Sunshine Daydream and they have safely arrived, and I also got 8 of the Prayer Tower. This GSC vertical run is getting classified as my test / debug run for this new (to me) system I normally grow RDWC SCoG trees. Once this run is finished the same system (assuming its not a total fail grow (ha ha) will be used for the Sunshine Daydream. (which I will be planting and sexing and vegging during this journal)

Id also like to share some credit with a user (not sure if Ill remember his screen name exactly) but I think it was 'shaggyofdope' He did a grow like this one I'm about to do, and used an 11 by 11 room and ran 5600 watts and ended up with .82 gpw (almost 11 pounds) He is a very very experience grower and probably knew his genetics. (he didn't touch his plants through flower though, I plan to do limited defoliation, among a few other minor changes)

I haven't run this GSC before, all 4 plants are identical clones, and I haven't done a vertical before, so this should be a great learning experience for me, one that I would like to share with you, hopefully I dont botch it up since I will be posting the progress live and not waiting until Ive succeeded. (riskier but helps me keep that pesky ego in check)

Ok on to the grow, wow Ive read a of of journals but its getting exciting to share all this work (if your new to all this, it can be fun but only if you don't categorize it as work, but rest assured if your not having fun you will call it work :) I have been doing RDWC for several years now (I think 2012) and may give some advice to those who have less experience than me however if you are more experienced or have any pointers Id appreciate it!

I guess the next step is to upload the build pics and bring you guys visually to where we are now (each plant is about 18" tall in veg)

Thanks to all those who have gone before me and shared!

Best,
Josh

 

[Redwood-roots]

Sounds like a cool ass run, I'm in. Also need to get that sunshine daydream in my vault

 

[Grow Journal]

Here is a pic from a couple days ago, just a quick shot to give you a sorta idea of the layout. Of course all the details are coming.

(also learning the system)
This is view at the door looking in, still some aspects Im working on (more AC, co2 controller etc)

 

[Grow Journal]

Sounds like a cool ass run, I'm in. Also need to get that sunshine daydream in my vault

Thanks so much!!

 

[Grow Journal]

So for those that may be doing their own build out I wanted to share the behind the scenes, mostly focused on this particular room

This first pic is the stock room, before my creative fingers started tearing it up

This is SW facing wall in the desert so I am building an insulated faux wall, tearing out the carpet and preparing this room to be 10 by 10 and all white inside

Here some pics (hope this posts correctly, Im still learning this system)

 

[Grow Journal]

I plan to pushing a quite a bit of power into this room, in order to maximize my safety I installed 6 separate 15 Amp circuit breakers in my main panel, and ran those lines up though the atic and down into the room. Here is that build. Because of this panel I can step into my laundry room where my main breaker is and flip the 6 breakers I installed and kill the room quick, without stepping into the room. (at least until I pass up my 90 dedicated amps ha ha)

 

[Grow Journal]

Gonna run a few errands and come back and post more of the build out later, here are a few pics from the last run in this room (prior to switching it to a vertical setup)

Unfortunately toward the end of that grow things went south in the root zone, Im planning to discuss that situation, and the changes I needed to make, for newbies to RDWC later, but these pics were about half way (if I remember right) through flower. The smoke I harvested was pretty nice, super strong smelling but I don't think I will ever use Barneys Farm again.

Peace!

 

[Grow Journal]

Ok one more pic, since I'm your new friend in Vegas you might like this one!!

 

[Grow Journal]

Just stopping in quick to post an update, hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend!

So far I'm loving vertical, I think often times people hear vertical though and what Im doing isn't the first method that comes to mind. Either way, so far Im loving it. I think the plant structure is different as compared to SCoG overhead lighting as well, but just how it seems.

I switched to flower on July 2nd, officially, should be an end of August harvest. Right now I have 3600 watts going but planning to take that to 4600 next week.

Here is an arial shot (holding the camera overhead and clicking around hoping to hit capture) taken yesterday. The plant on the left isn't visible (there are 4 in the room) but it is very similar to the left most plant that you can see in the pic. The plant in the lower right is the biggest (by far), hoping since its vertical I will still have enough room! Its pretty big plant!

 

[Grow Journal]

Had some time so I thought I would post up some pics of the build out of the room...

For the RDWC system, its my own personal twist, I call it the "overflow"

Here are a few highlights of my system. Pics below

Roots sink down but the water exits the side ports. This eliminates the potential for roots clogging the drain, if your new to RDWC keep in mind the roots will get (or should get) very thick and getting water to flow through can be a weak link in your system. In this system, the water exits off the surface and the roots are never involved with the drain.

In my system the warmest water sits on the surface, and anyone who has done RDWC knows the roots fill out the space and even will push p out of the water as the root zone becomes packed with roots, normal systems have no solution for the warm, oxygen deprived surface water, in my overflow system the warmest water is the first to get sent back to the chiller and the coldest water, at the bottom of the bucket, where the most oxygen is is where the most roots are.

In normal RDWC systems if the roots block your drain, depending on your system, your pump can flood your bucket. Ive had it happen. In my system there is piece of mind, dual 2" drains make it nearly impossible to flood. Ive run 2200 gph pump, via 1" pvc into a single overflow bucket and the pump couldn't flood the bucket, the drainage kept up.

The last thing that I like is that the water level in each bucket never moves, this is very "safe" or stable for the plant. The water level that moves is only the control bucket, which is fed from a reservoir.

Its a side business Id like to move forward on but would need an investor (in case anyone is interested), but wanted to share the ideas with you guys anyway.

This is my first run with this new design so its pretty unproven, but I think the concepts are solid. By the way the middle drain at the bottom of each bucket has a ball valve, this is used to do the weekly water change (opened to drain like normal) closed to run in overflow mode.


Each bucket uses
2" uniseal (quantity:3)
1" uniseal (quantity:1)
2" pvc ball-valve (quantity:1)
2" PVC 'T' (Quantity:2)
2" PVC 90/elbow (Quantity 4)
Bucket is from home depot, is about 16 gallons
10" netpot (Quantity:1) (in the pic is a 6" netpot but I switched it to the larger size)
In this first pic you can see the return lines have been run.

In this next pic below you can see the 1" inlet line has been run. The black section in the bottom left is the control bucket. (easier to see in the pic above)
The two 1" pipes that go to the right of the first bucket are to the chiller and back out. (the chiller is located under the AC unit, which I will be post in the next post)

The 1" pipe that is under the center area of the drain line is just there for support (I put the 2" center drain into the bucket as close to the floor as possible) the 1" pipe is enough to be level with the exit of the bucket.... in a different pic you can see this support doubles as the frame for the center light.

 

[Grow Journal]

For the lighting I was excited to try this vertical grow out, Im personally tired of overhead, ducting, banging your head ratcheting up and inline fans, etc. So I wanted to create a simple setup...

Here is what I came up with...

I bought 4 of these (1 for each corner of the room) and they were like 22.00 each on ebay with free shipping from china, the cable quality seems just as good as that of a normal sun system cord.

To mount them I took a 1" 90 by 90 by 90 PVC corner and put to on the floor like a pyramid and drilled through it so that another 1" piece could slide through. Total cost of the tripod was like 2 bucks each. Rough 25.00 per corner for the fixture and tripod.

It looks yellow because the protective film is still on it in the pic. In this pic it was a first draft, and the tripod legs were only 12" but in the ones being used now (I ditched the one in the pic but its the only pic I had) the legs are 16" long (this makes a much more stable tripod)

Just a simple 1" U bolt is all that is used to fasten it, this allows for it to easily be moved up or down the tripod.

 

[Grow Journal]

The AC Unit is always my least favorite part. I really dont like dealing with cooling.... haha (who does) It was a tough decision to do this grow bare bulb. There are alot of arguments to both sides.

Here is a build out of the AC corner...

Started with a standard bedroom, 10 by 10 with a normal closet, took the closet doors and frame out... (see my first posts)

I picked this AC unit up off of craigslist for 200, its 14k btu rated.

just cheap 1 by 4 pine and dry wall screws, nothing fancy.

In this image I have drywalled around the AC unit so that the warm air (that exits directly out the back) can be ported out. (see next pics)

This AC units intake are the whats still visible...

Here you can see twin vortex 6" inline fans, I chose these because they are super quite and I live in a condo, so its both for my peace of mind and for the potential of not disturbing the neighbors.. Roughly 600 to 700 cfm total. All heat in the room will pass through these two fans at some point.

So in this last pic you can see the 4 ducting lines (two obviously go to the fans) the other two are just there to allow air in once I seal up the corner, I want to run the room sealed with co2 .

Under the AC unit I also have a 7k btu mini split and a 1/4 horse chiller. so their heat is getting pulled up with the AC heat.

 

[MonkeyMike]

I'll be watching this one.

 

[Grow Journal]

Well I think Ill end with this pic, its my line up for the water change tomorrow! (tomorrow starts week 2) Currently Ive been using the rhizo, A and B and peaked out at about 450ppm (occasionally I will add some cal mag)

Tomorrow when its finished Im aiming for 500ppm 5.7 ph.

Ill try and post more plant pics this next week as the flowers form, right now its only a week in and I figured a good time to post the build.

Peace

 

[Grow Journal]

I'll be watching this one.

Thanks Mike!

 

[ken dog]

Kudos for an innovative design... been watching from the get-go.:)

 

[Midwestjay]

Had some time so I thought I would post up some pics of the build out of the room
For the RDWC system, its my own personal twist, I call it the "overflow"

Here are a few highlights of my system. Pics below

Roots sink down but the water exits the side ports. This eliminates the potential for roots clogging the drain, if your new to RDWC keep in mind the roots will get (or should get) very thick and getting water to flow through can be a weak link in your system. In this system, the water exits off the surface and the roots are never involved with the drain.

In my system the warmest water sits on the surface, and anyone who has done RDWC knows the roots fill out the space and even will push p out of the water as the root zone becomes packed with roots, normal systems have no solution for the warm, oxygen deprived surface water, in my overflow system the warmest water is the first to get sent back to the chiller and the coldest water, at the bottom of the bucket, where the most oxygen is is where the most roots are.

In normal RDWC systems if the roots block your drain, depending on your system, your pump can flood your bucket. Ive had it happen. In my system there is piece of mind, dual 2" drains make it nearly impossible to flood. Ive run 2200 gph pump, via 1" pvc into a single overflow bucket and the pump couldn't flood the bucket, the drainage kept up.

The last thing that I like is that the water level in each bucket never moves, this is very "safe" or stable for the plant. The water level that moves is only the control bucket, which is fed from a reservoir.

Its a side business Id like to move forward on but would need an investor (in case anyone is interested), but wanted to share the ideas with you guys anyway.

This is my first run with this new design so its pretty unproven, but I think the concepts are solid. By the way the middle drain at the bottom of each bucket has a ball valve, this is used to do the weekly water change (opened to drain like normal) closed to run in overflow mode.


Each bucket uses
2" uniseal (quantity:3)
1" uniseal (quantity:1)
2" pvc ball-valve (quantity:1)
2" PVC 'T' (Quantity:2)
2" PVC 90/elbow (Quantity 4)
Bucket is from home depot, is about 16 gallons
10" netpot (Quantity:1) (in the pic is a 6" netpot but I switched it to the larger size)
In this first pic you can see the return lines have been run.

View attachment 614406


In this next pic below you can see the 1" inlet line has been run. The black section in the bottom left is the control bucket. (easier to see in the pic above)
The two 1" pipes that go to the right of the first bucket are to the chiller and back out. (the chiller is located under the AC unit, which I will be post in the next post)

View attachment 614414

The 1" pipe that is under the center area of the drain line is just there for support (I put the 2" center drain into the bucket as close to the floor as possible) the 1" pipe is enough to be level with the exit of the bucket.... in a different pic you can see this support doubles as the frame for the center light.

Great set up. You never mentioned your root issues. As far as water level staying the same I totally disagree. My plants always respond better to wet/dry cycles. IM not currently recirculating, but always let the plant drink the water level down.

 

[Grow Journal]

Kudos for an innovative design... been watching from the get-go.:)

Thanks Ken!

 

[Grow Journal]

Great set up. You never mentioned your root issues. As far as water level staying the same I totally disagree. My plants always respond better to wet/dry cycles. IM not currently recirculating, but always let the plant drink the water level down.

Hey thanks Jay!

In my last grow (pictured up above) there was a single 2" drain out the back of the bucket. I had a 900 gph pump feeding the two buckets (with 15 feet of pipe) and as the plants got really big the roots slowed the drainage down (until the water level and thus exit pressure) was high enough to keep up (it wasn't enough to overflow the bucket but was enough to get it up into the plant). This new water level height was up into the root zone and that led to mold in the root zone and really limited the plant in the second half of flower.

Im with you in that I like to move the water level, and agree it effects the plant! I guess I didn't want to post so much stuff and come off wrong (like I was selling my idea). From my understanding the lowering of the water level is a signal to the plant that its getting later into the season and tells the plant to "get to producing", my method is to try do that toward the 6 week part (I can raise the plant rather than lower water, this system has like 4" to work with) rather than up and down each week, but I dont have enough experience to compare the two styles side by side, I have tried the way your doing it, back when I first started that was my only method, and for me there wasn't any choice but to deal with the up and down levels, I was using a 5 gallon bucket and I think that only a gallon or two could fit in with the roots :) by mid flower, I remember once that the roots literally pushed the plant up about 1" out of the bucket (the net pot was 1" above the bucket top and you could see the roots ....LOL)

Anyway thanks for checking out the grow and the feedback!

 

[Grow Journal]

I ended up not getting to the water changed today, gonna do it tomorrow for sure. I thought my RO system would have made enough for the change today but I didn't account for all that the plants are drinking along the way. I need to measure it so I know but I can safely say 6 to 8 gallons a day are being used each day by the 4 plants. (bare bulb I think effects this)

So tomorrow Ill change the water, I did get the extra 1k watt bulb in today, so now the room is

a 600W in the corner by the door
1kw MH in the middle
Other 3 corners 1k watt HPS

Total 4600 watts as of today. Its not totally sealed right now though, I have got the 14k btu AC and the 7K btu AC and the room has its central air, which Im currently allowing in (which is obviously pushing out some of my CO2) Since my atlas co2 control got damaged a while back I dont know exactly what my co2 is at, so I have been running a light steady flow during lights on (similar to what I remember back when the atlas controller was working) and with the central air I know that if Im not suplimenting enough tco2 his will bring in more and if I am putting in to much this will take some out. Its probably causing me to waste some of my co2, but until I get a controller Id rather play it safe. Im pretty confident Im not getting up over 1000ppm

With the added central air the room is sitting steady at 78.6

Im not planning to push the temps up into the 80s and the co2 up to 1500 to "maximize yield" this cold be a mistake but Id prefer to run down at 78 and produce less, but possible with a better terpene profile.