PC Case - LED - DWC

[NickyChicks]

I had already been researching/buying parts for my LED strip fixtures that will be lighting my 4x4 when I saw a post on the forum that piqued my interest. It was a PC case micro grow. CFLs, soil in a planter that fit inside the case. Due to my current LED project it sparked an idea, why not build an LED strip fixture that fits inside a PC case?

The case.
RAIDMAX Gama PC Case 19.65" tall, 8.7" wide, 20" long. I stripped the inside of the case of all the brackets and lined it with reflective tape. I used a hole saw and cut a hole right in the bottom so I could keep the base of the plant flush with the base of the case. I'm trying to utilize every inch of space possible. The case sits right on top of a 5gal DWC bucket. I have (3) 120mm PC fans, 1 is used as an intake and blows downward over the light and onto the plant, the other 2 are exhaust, I have 1 mounted on the rear and 1 in the front. They're all wired together to an old AC adapter plug I had laying around.

The light.
(5) Bridgelux EB Series Slim Gen 3 LED strips. They're about 13.3" long and about .5" wide. 3000k, (2) 3500k, 4000k, 5000k. I used thermal tape to mount them to heatsinks and mounted the heatsinks to (2) .5" 10 series 80/20 extrusion. The light fixtures height can be adjusted and the light is dimmable. It has an HLG-60H-C700B driver powering it, the driver and the dimmer knob and mounted to the back of the case.

The plant.
Today is Day 15 for this Bloody Skunk Auto from Sweet Seeds. GH Trio, Calimagic, Armor Si, Hydroguard. The plan will be to train her to stay low and to fit the to limited space. I will probably top her in once she grows out a little but more.

Honestly I don't know what to expect. This is basically part of my second grow so I'm still very new to growing but I think I will be able to learn something from this regardless of end result. Don't get me wrong though, I'm aiming for success, specifically I would like to yield 1oz of dry bud. I'm not sure if that's achievable/realistic but that's my goal.

Feel free to ask questions or give me any advice if you have every taken on a micro grow!

[vostok]

How many pc grows have you going at one time?

[NickyChicks]

Just 1 plant in the PC. I have 7 plants in my 4x4 tent.

[SoOrbudgal]

It looks stealth for sure this is going to be fun you can do it !

[dphipps1020]

Looks good, pretty stealthy. Are you going to have your plant in soil or is it going to be on that bucket for a DWC grow? One suggestion I have would be a trellis. I know they probably don't make them that small but I think some wire shelving for the kitchen could work. Not sure if you know what I'm talking about. They're not very big usually but you can always cut and bend to your liking if they end up being too big. Just a thought

[NickyChicks]

It's going to remain in the DWC bucket for the entire grow. A trellis sounds like a pretty good idea, that may make training her a little easier. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to give that some thought.

[dphipps1020]

Any time. I have never personally used a trellis (yet) but if I was doing a PC grow I probably would. Actually been thinking about it for my big tent and just grow 4 huge plants and call it a day. That way I'm still within the legalities of it (kind of). We're allowed 6 plants per person, per household, up to 12 total. Since I don't have a medical card yet and I live alone, I am only supposed to have 6 (3 in veg, 3 in flower). I figure if I really want to keep it (mostly) legal I can do 4 in the big tent and 1 in each 4x4 and that would be my 6. Problem with that for me is the time it will take to grow them that big, so I'll probably stay away from a trellis for a little while still.

[NickyChicks]

Day 27. Since my last post I topped her at the 3rd and had left the 2nd and 3rd nodes. 2-3 days later I decided to top her to the 2nd because I thought it would be easier to train her this way rather than keeping both sets of nodes. The next day she started showing some white hairs. I probably stressed her a bit but I'm not too worried. 3 days ago I was going to start tying her down and I snapped one of the branches. Scotch tape and a few days to heal did the trick and now I have her tied down to grow low and wide... hopefully!

[NickyChicks]

Day 34 she definitely grew a bit over the last week. I don't think she's going to grow into what I had in mind but she will have some bud eventually. I've just been tying her down and I just pulled off a few leaves. Lights had been at approx 60-70% , I moved them up a couple inches and turned them up to full power. All in all she looks good, just small.

[SoOrbudgal]

That is one tight little auto flower like she may not get 12" in flower awesome training.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks SoOrbudgal, Yeah she's gonna be tiny but hopefully she's quality!! Who knows maybe the buds will be nice and fat

[NickyChicks]

Day 41, well I think it's safe to say she did some stretching. She's a whopping 11.5" right now. I just moved the light almost all the way up, I have maybe .75" left to go up. She's doing great considering the abuse I put her through. Buds are starting to form pretty quickly. The broken branch that broke twice healed up so nice. Excited for the weeks to come, the show goes on.

[SoOrbudgal]

Oh she is looking so happy just beautiful training you have done.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks budgal, I've been having fun while doing so. I can't believe how much grow happened over just 2 weeks

[CaptainWiese91]

This grow is awesome!
never did this kind of grow before. But I will definitely be waiting for the end results 😁.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks Capt! She should be a pretty girl too, hoping for some nice red buds

[CaptainWiese91]

We love pretty girls in here 😁👍🏻🤣

[NickyChicks]

Day 48, she has stretched all the way to the lights (no surprise there). In comparison to the plants in my 4x4, she is in the fast lane. Small buds are forming, trics are popping up, and shes starting to smell pretty good, like citrus. I did some bending and tying of most of the tops to give some space between the lights and hopefully I don't ruin my buds. They don't seem to be hurting right now, a little burn on the leaves from being on the LED but other than that it's ok.

[NickyChicks]

Day 62, I was away for the last week and things got a bit wild while I was gone. I just spent some time tying and supercropping every top because a bunch were growing into the lights and then past them. The pics do no justice but the buds are beautiful and she smells so nice. I really wish I had these seeds when I started the plants in my tent, I'd love to grow a full size plant of bloody skunk, maybe next time.

[NickyChicks]

Day 76 and we are getting close! Few more weeks and I'll be chopping her down. She smells great, the purple colors are amazing, and the buds are pretty decent size. I'm excited to see what the final yield is going to be, just a waiting game now.

[Gjourney101]

You've done an amazing job

[NickyChicks]

Thanks so much Gjourney101 it's been a lot of fun thus far. Next time around I want to grow a strain that has some Low Ryder genetics. I think that would be appropriate for the PC case

[NickyChicks]

Day 90, another weekly water change. I did a little cleanup of some leaves, a lot of them are dying because they're getting cooked from being so damn close to the light. The majority of the trics are still clear but there are a bunch of cloudy ones, I'll be keeping an eye on them but I'm thinking maybe another 2 weeks and she will be ready.

[NickyChicks]

Yesterday was Day 100 and chop day for the beautiful Bloody Skunk. I'll say it right now, the pictures do no justice for these stunning purple colored buds. I can't believe how much I actually harvested, for sure over an oz. There was quite a bit of popcorn and larfy buds but what the hell it grew inside of a freaking PC case!! This was exciting and challenging, I will definitely do this again probably after the new year. I'll update with final dry weight later this week.

[NickyChicks]

55.7g !!! I'm calling it 2oz. I'll update with a smoke report in a few weeks. I have another Bloody Skunk plant going for the autoflower gallon challenge