Horizontal Grow idea

[Toast]

Hello all i am very new to the idea of growing my own product but i was looking at a few growing techniques, thinking up a few ideas and i thought seing my room is rather small it was either try and grow in a computer case which has a multitude of problems and often dissapointing yeilds or grow them horizontally under my bed. Length and width is no problem (1m x 3m) but the main doozie is height (30cm). Is this enough space to fit a light and a plant if it were growing sideways with the scrog or some other method? Im hopefull as this seems to be my only option and im sick of having to deal with twats in order to source, plus it would be a hell of alot of fun. I also have the materials to build a casing myself. So, do-able?

 

 

Cheers

Chris

[Crunchy]

i think u'll need a lot more than 30cm, .

ur best way to go if u want stealth would prob be a cupboard/cabinet/wardrobe.

[Toast]

None of those things are available, nor would they be stealthy enough for my grow. My roommate doesnt respect private space and often wanders in uninvited to borrow my webcam and stuff but a locked chest under my bed hidden behind crap would be fine, smell can be handled with carbon filters and i guess lights can be placed either side of the plant. Ive seen scrog methods where the plant is forced to grow out sideways and the thickness of that seems within the realm of 30cm. If you can grow a plant in a narrow cabinet thats 30cm x 1m x 3m vertically than why not horizontally? Im not arguing that such a horizontal grow is possible i just want to know why it isn't

[BaronS]

doable, probably, but it's not something I've seen an attempt at.

Something for the 1st time grower to attempt? Probably not.

 

Though plants (in general, not just MJ) 'grow toward light' NASA have shown that they are also sensitive to gravity, tending to grow 'up'.

 

OK, so you want this box under your bed, some ideas.

 

Media ('soil') - I'd probably look at NFT, gutters with nutes flowing through them. Sometimes described as 'medialess' because your root ball actually grows in the gutter space (air). You need some form of reservior for the nutes but this could be outside the box. Nutes get pumped to the plants but unless the res could be recessed into the floor you'd need to do something unusual in that you'd need a 2nd pump to bring solution which had flowed through the roots back to the res. The res solution level would be higher than your box and if the pumps go awol you just may find the res empty and your box full of solution. Sounds doable, if a little hairy. The channels do not need a lot of 'drop' to allow nute flow and because the rootball is not growing through media this style suits the confined space.

 

 

Screen. Yep, the plants will need to come out of the top of the gutters and the be LST'd to grow along the box.

 

Lighting. I propose a radical solution, light from underneath. Half a dozen 4' fluoro grow tubes could be placed along the bottom of the grow area to encourage growth height to be reduced. The idea of the res emptying into the box due to pump failure may result in your electrics getting wet but if the lights were a few cm off the floor and 'emergengy drains' allowed any flood to exit below this height we've sort of covered that. The lights would sit just a couple of cm below the screen.

 

Ventilation - a small space needs active ventillation (as I'm finding with my 1st venture into small cupboard space) both in order to give the plants air and to exhaust heat (even the lesser heat from fluoros). Ideally the fan for this would also be outside the actual grow box.

 

Tending the plants - You're gonna have to adjust screening due to growth every day. The only way I see this being feasible is dragging the box out from under the bed, removing the top, adjusting, returning everything.

 

I just don't think it's practical. Take up bushwalking (there's times I think all bushwalkers must be growing) and find a spot Mother Nature can do most of the work.

 

and if you do attempt this under your bed and accept my ideas only to find that one day the pumps croaked, flooding your box, wetting your electrics, setting fire to the bed and eventually the whole house, IT AIN'T MY FAULT.

[Wrangler556]

30cm....

 

Ok, so you need to have roots right? No matter how you grow them, 10-20cm is lost for containers/pots....

 

10cm is lost due to the light fitting.....

 

You need distance between the light and plant, even if its a fluro... another couple of cm atleast..

 

 

Well... Thats your 30cm, where's your plant going?

[nouseforaname]

hey,

Raise the bed a foot and it'd be workable...

[coughmaster]

Toast do yourself a favour ask your flatmate to move out and put a couple of 600watters where he used to sleep

[Conasiour]

Or a small cuboard with high security 2 or 3 internal locks from the hardware and sum enginuity

[Toast]

Thankyou all for the great ideas. Yeah i think i may have to raise the bed. It is a four post and i do have the materials necesarry to raise it. A small increase in height will also result in a big increase in yeild and an extra 30cms can be explained by me simply needing more "storage space" because my room is really small. Safety is an issue as my place doesn't even have earth leakage circuit breakers. So i thought i would run the lights through a computer power supply, the outlet that usually goes to a monitor will go to the lights, the 12v rail can power the pumps and fans+thermostats. A computer power supply can also be switched on without any other computer components, you just short circuit the green wire on the motherboard power cable to any -ve wire. The powersupply will ensure any amperage spike in the lights, the pumps or the supply itself(which would be outside the box) would result in the entire power supply shutting down. I could also put a float switch in the gutter so if the pumps die without killing the power supply, an overflow will still cause the power supply to shut down.

 

I was thinking however to maybe use two 250w high pressure sodium lamps instead as i ill get better buds in the end, wiring the sockets to a male powersupply cable wont be too hard, i have tinkered with 240v before but i dont expect anyone to encourage me to do that.

I did some calculating and it should cost me an extra 32 bucks a month to have the lights running 16 hours a day (13.32cents per KW*.5KW*30days) and seing that its soon becoming summer, this should even out with lowered cost of summer (no heaters and stuff plus we have no aircon). Plus when i back it off to 12 hrs for flowering it will be even less noticeable. So would that be the better way to go?

 

Ill have to do some serious reading on the internet on the Nutrient Film Technique so i know exactly what to expect but while this is a rather complex system it is possible. Plus i dont expect much for the first try but thats half the fun of it, solving problems. Oh yeah and one other question, if i raise the bed and have roughly 60cm to work with in height, roughly how wide and long should I make the box to accomidate say, 2 plants?

 

And yeah i tried bushgrowing when i lived down south, i didnt think the risk is worth the lower strength and yeild of the product. So id rather do it in a locked box, its not fort knox but if theres no suspicion then no ones going to smash open a box under someones bed out of curiosity. I just plan on telling no one while the grow takes place unless i have a problem and even then it will be in the safety of the forums. Ill post pictures before and after growing to inspire and help others however. Thats if i go through with my plan.

 

Chris

[Toast]

Sorry about the giant post . I think i might see how it goes with soil and the increased height to 60cms and then work my way up through more advanced techniques of growing in subsequent grows. My yeild wont be as good but hey my product will taste better and it looks like a much easier (not to mention safer with the electronics) grow. Also could i get away with just one 250W Hps lamp in the middle of the box for 2 plants? The kit for one is well within my affordability and plus it wont look suspicous on my powerbill (to my roommate). Edited August 25, 2009 by Toast