Noopin’s fridge conversion

[stu914]

7 minutes ago, OldFord said:

Off to find a fridge

 

This is my one bud...tag me if I can help with the conversion...

 

[OldFord]

Cheers . thank you @stu914       Will have a look to see if i can find the ideal air conditions for a nice slow dry.     

Hoping i can use an adjustable valved / vented air inlet / outlet  and let me bleed air from the main chambers fan ?   

Will do a bit of digging tomoz on conversions and see what works  for others and poss pitfalls.    

   

[OldFord]

10 minutes ago, stu914 said:

 

This is my one bud...tag me if I can help with the conversion...

 

 

Yours is cool   love it ,    i had a quick look on google and theres some amount of variations around !   Will def look and see what i can find ,   ideally self contained and include the  drying room .   Do a bit of planning over next few days.   

[OldFord]

Thank you for putting the Thread up @Noopin  and sorry for side tracking your thread     

Will have a full read shortly ,  the idea of the fridge room got me before i read it & i was off searching for others fridge conversions  

 

[Noopin]

Miss the opportunity to share my musings with an adoring audience...me?  The fridge seemed aesthetically pleasing, with the standard silhouette, and was a satisfying design and build.

 

In my case, I didn’t really consider which might be the most practical layout, in terms of cabinets but that’s something to consider.  My filter is bottom rear, in the compressor space, so intake is passive at the top, past the lights.

 

@stu914’s is another option that’s a nice discreet build.  As for getting hold of one, I scan the backstreets of the area, there’ll soon be  a suitable one (active and handy scrap collectors around here).

 

It’s taken some severe early manicuring to keep the plant as squat as necessary, and the top cabinet alone was never going to accommodate the pot, flowering plant, lights, fan and cabling.

 

With internal wires, timers, plugs & sockets, it can get messy.  I always meant to hardwire everything to a tidy, customised panel...yeah.  Had to keep moving things around, anyway, and didn’t want anything external, so persevere with a total of nine plugs connected inside the fridge, with consequent spaghetti.

 

Stu’s is probably the better proportions to give a plant space to grow, although dropping my pot through fixed the problem for me and I was able to get away with the consequent improved airflow and heat dissipation in the space.

The only thing I monitor is temperature and, because it’s a very restricted space, incoming temps make a big difference and lights-out heating needs careful balancing with extraction - depending on how sophisticated your controls are.

 

All that said, I’m looking forward to a decent harvest shortly but the fridge will be kept for re/vegging and cuttings as well as drying/curing, and I can still separate the compartments, if need be.  Remains to be seen.

 

Good luck @OldFord, if you’re another fettler and fixer, it can be a very satisfying project.

 

[Noopin]

As far as the grow is concerned, long before this point last time, we had all sorts of gorgeous colours going on.  This one’s about as drab as can be and that’s why I’m getting a little impatient.  The trichs are, frankly, still clear and colourless - I wanted to see a hint of cloudiness last time I looked.

 

It’s been seventy days from flipping and no colour change to foliage or trichomes so, naturally enough, I’m beginning to wonder what I’m not/doing to influence this.

 

 

It’s been trimmed today, all larger leaves removed and space opened up; I’ll reposition a few stems to make it even again and take off a few more leaves to let the light and air through, but I can’t guess when it (alright, she) will be ready and it’s a little frustrating.

 

I’m no expert (duh!) but shouldn’t I expect some sort of changes by now?

 

Last time out, I harvested a little early due to stuff & things.  But there were pale amber trichs and the reds and purples in the leaves.  And it wasn’t a whole lot longer than 70 days, can’t remember precisely but if I close this page and revisit my last grow notes, I’ll lose this text.

 

Can’t help thinking they were getting “better” light a few inches under the T5s.  96W of fluorescent tubes versus 65W of LED bulbs (in an area half the footprint), but a deeper reach of T5 light over the slightly larger area.  Uh-oh, I’m about to add a couple of bulbs or lower the existing ones, unless I remain patient and allow the buds to keep going.  I’d just like some indication that there’s more to come.

 

When I removed the limb that I’d carelessly scorched, about three weeks ago, I put the sorry-looking early flowers into an open dish and,  a week after, they smelt, as you’d expect, like old hay.  A week later, fetched it upstairs to dry in a jar with a 62% Boveda and a week after that ie. yesterday, it smelt a bit more heady, terpene-ish.  Now, it was several weeks into flower when amputated and despite everything, it got me high.

 

So there’s always the urge to chop but I’ll commit to another ten days and I’d better see something going on to suggest that her labours will soon be over.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Noopin
Mmm...

[Wacky Wardrobe]

5 hours ago, Noopin said:

shouldn’t I expect some sort of changes by now?

Hi @Noopin. Have all the pistils changed colour? I can't see any fresh white ones.

Are you flushing with plain water now?

I can't remember which strain it was but I had one a while back that never really produced any amount of amber trichomes.

All the other signs were saying it was ready and I read at the time how some just don't seem to go amber.

If trichomes are all milky you may well have arrived at your destination.

One observation: the foliage on your plant looks like there is / has been a bit too much nitrogen. I wonder if this could have a bearing?

ATB

[Noopin]

Pistils are browned off at the tips but plenty more fresh ones below that.  I’ll give the stems as much separation as possible and tidy up  the foliage a bit.  In section, my plant is bowl-shaped and I’ve put a lamp dangling down again to help the secondary buds that are filling in the middle.

 

As for N, @Wacky Wardrobe, it might be the lighting and image tweaking that distort the appearance, I’ve not been concerned with nutes - I tend to bang on about low-stress, low-tech, low-input growing, disguising some of my basic blindspots.  All I add is Bio-bloom with some very dilute wormery juice.

 

Last time, I didn’t have the opportunity to revert to plain water before harvest but, presumably, it’s done when the grower has decided that it’s nearly chop time - colour, shape, leaves etc.

 

Don’t the majority of plants/strains have some colour change at this stage?

 

Anyway, I’ve invested enough effort in this grow to this point that I’ll not let impatience take hold.  She’ll get the best conditions the fridge can produce (hmm..) and a final manicure and I’ll keep the extra lamp in place.  I shall expect some secondary indications but be guided by the trichomes.  It’s a trained and trimmed plant in a very artificial environment, that’s had one or two temp issues (but no light leakage) and she’ll tell me.

[Wacky Wardrobe]

Just now, Noopin said:

As for N

It was really the slight "clawing" appearance that led me there.

I think you're right to stick with her. It would be a terrible shame not to see her fully ripen.

[Noopin]

Arguing with myself on the forum, basically.  Yeah, of course I’ll stick with her - to which end, there’s been another light trim and spacing of the stems.  Because I can’t remove her intact (without major disturbance) I’ve finally had a good inspection of the business ends and I’m feeling somewhat reassured.  I noticed that one other stem had been carrying the results of my fan-oven experiment but had clearly pulled through, albeit a little less rigid.

 

Looking back on my pictures, the leaves have always been on the droopy side, the extended tips tending to bend down.  Anymore than that and it’s drink time.

 

Shit, now I’m wondering if she’s had enough water all the time.  The general tendency for people to overwater, leaves some of us too cautious.  However, it’s yet another reason for me to invest in some basic monitoring equipment.  In fact, the only time she did reach stiffly upwards (oo-er, missus) was following a fan breakdown and 34C.  Looked magnificent at the time, mind.

[Noopin]

I was going to say that we’re approaching that time, trichs are just beginning to cloud and the recent trim has, I’m sure, helped the light and air get right in there (still turning a couple of times a day, for max exposure).

 

Since the trim, I’ve noticed the very tips start to really go for it.  Just flower, as though some environmental change has prompted it to have a sudden growth spurt.  To this point, the last couple of weeks have seen very little growth change, just a bit of filling in, while waiting for harvest signals.

 

Maybe the buds below the tip are doing the same, they’re just better hidden at present.  That’d be good.  Or maybe there’s just more to come of the same.  Either way, it’s nice to see some changes and I’m interested to see if this is a final burst of fattening-up or just some more growth; I’m just watching the trichs now and still hoping for a little bit of colour somewhere.

 

The only significant difference is that temps have been 30/31 rather than 26/27 before the weather warmed.

 

[Noopin]

This time, I can confidently report some clouding.  Not wishful thinking, but clouding.  Just a slight milkiness starting and that’s good enough for me.

 

Never mind all the stuff about days’-worth of darkness in preparation, I had a chat with her this morning and she’s up for it, so I’ll leave the lights off tomorrow morning and harvest tomorrow evening.  That’ll make about 85 days from flipping and nearly 6 months from hatching.

 

I was expecting to dry in the fridge but the ambient cellar conditions will need some tweaking (about 17C, which is fine, but 69%RH).  I could raise the inlet air temp slightly, to lower the RH, but that’s marginal and too fiddly.

 

I hope that keeping a good airflow will negate the humidity issue and, being a well-insulated but tiny space, there won’t be any surface condensation or stagnant corners.  Normally, growers will be measuring humidity inside the space because it’s usually large enough to alter conditions internally but I’m at the mercy of conditions outside the fridge, when the lights are off.

 

If I can have 17C air being pulled through the box, I reckon that a good flow rate will allow the plant to dry, even at 69%.  I’d be happy with 60-ish but I don’t think I’ve enough Boveda 62’s to achieve that in real time!

 

Failing that, or if the opinion is otherwise, I’ll have to rig up an intake feed from the ground floor above.