buddjitsu

I've drawn up a few concepts for grow boxes. I haven’t built one as of yet but am getting ready to with my most recent design. This box is small, designed for only one plant to grow to about 2 foot. This is for me to have a little stash for myself. I have several questions Id like to ask, but the most basic is if this is going to be a practical and operable box. Here’s what I have going.

The interior grow chamber is going to be 18” wide, 18” deep and 46” tall. 2.25 sq ft floor space. Is a 100 watt HPS sufficient for growing a single 2 foot plant? The problem that I ran into was finding a light (with reflector) that is small enough to fit 18”x18”. I found a mini light system on an online hydroponics store that fits (15” long) but it is only 100 watts, 9500 lumens. Which gives me 44.4 watts psf, and 4222.2 lumens psf which looks good to me *shrugs*. This has the light, reflector and ballast built into one unit. I plan on air-cooling in order to utilize as much space as possible. I was thinking about vertical fluorescents in two or all corners for a little extra if needed. Im trying to maximize yeild considering the lack of space I am trying to work with. What do you think?

The other problem I was curious about was heat. I plan on air cooling the lights, and venting the grow chamber (utilizing thermostat in order to keep temps ideal). Is that going to be sufficient with such a small space? Is this going to cause the fans to run the whole time making any attempts at CO2 integration futile? For CO2 I was just going to make a little sugar/yeast mix since it is a very small space. The second problem with the ventilation fan is security. I want to make this box to be a nice little ornate corner stand for one of my swords in my home office. Having it hum would probably be a bad thing. I was looking at a fantech centrifugal blower (4”, 114 cfm). The walls that I will have ducting and wiring go through will give me 4” of room (horizontally) so that is the largest Fan size I can go. The ad said it was quiet, but is it quiet enough for my application? I plan on insulating the walls where I can and using a variety of techniques (rubber, foam, whatever else I can come up with) to silence the fan. Is this a plausible goal? Is a 114 cfm fan too much for a little less than 9 cubic feet (when I look at those numbers it seems like over kill to me)? When it comes to fans. If I use the 114 cfm should I use the same fan with ducting that splits for the light and grow chamber? Or would it serve me best to have separate fans/ducting for each? Alternatively I was thinking about a couple small computer case fans w/dc adapter. One for light, and one for grow chamber. The more I think about it the more I like using the computer fans (inexpensive). But noise (or lack of) is much more important to me than cost. Friends and such will be in the room, probably poking around where they have no business, and I need it to be undetectable.

I didn’t really touch on many other aspects of my grow box, just the ones that I was having problems with. Please let me know what you think. Good idea, bad idea, alter this concept, scrap the plans completely, any alternate ideas you may have, questions on something I may not have explained thoroughly enough, whatever it is that you think. I don’t want to spend the time and money on something that may not produce quality results and be undetectable at the same time.

I know this is purely speculative but in your experience how much could I yield per harvest from a 2 foot plant? I am going with soil. I want to try to go organic. Not sure about what kind of techniques I will try (training etc). Just so I have a roundabout idea.

Thank you so much for any insight you can give me. This sight has been a huge inspiration for many of my grow box concepts and probably will be for many years to come.

jayda

Your light will work, but i wouldnt expect a huge yeild. since you said its just for you i dont think you'll run out too often.
100Whps security lights seem common in the states. i think you may even be able to find a 150W one, if not id throw in two 100Ws.

Not sure about your ventilation, seems enough, but youll need a fan blowing on the plant constantly to strengthen her up and add some support.

You'll need an air intake ( just a few inch hole or two i nthe bottem) and your exaust , most probably need a carbon scrubber, this devise filters out the stink, they are quite pricy so many people DIY them.

id paint the walls flat white or use mylar, with your size box, i doubt ill bust your budget.

have you considered a Scrog? search befor you ask any more Q's that way yo ualready know whats up.

welcome abord

__________________
Chips-Dips-Chains-N-Whips

buddjitsu

Thanks for the reply Jayda. The problem Im running into with the light is that any increase in wattage requires a larger reflector. I cant find one that will fit the dimensions of my little box (i may be looking in all the wrong places tho). This little 100 watt job fits perfect. So I either have to build a bigger box, or just take the lower watts. At the moment I dont have much choice. Security is the biggest concern so i really have to stick with the light/reflector/ballast combo to keep it small.

To cover any noise from the ventilation Im going to put one of those little zen water fountains ontop next to the vertical sword stand.

I was thinking about having carbon filters on the exhaust for the odor. Has anyone had experience with those? Will it be enough to cover the smell? I'll probably do a search on it any way. I'll definately have to keep the carbon scrubber in mind if the filter isnt enough.

I had planned on flat white paint for the inside. I thought about mylar for awhile but the interior walls are going to be removable (for access to ventilation or wiring if necessary). Mylar is thin and rips easily (so ive read) and paint would remove that hassel.

Nice call on scrog! I hadn't decided what I was going to use along the lines of training but after doing alot research i'd say scrog is my best bet. Ill be able to take advantage of the small floor space. And retain alot of control with the vertical growth. I like the idea of getting to spend alot of time with the herb as well. Give me a chance to understand her better.

I was looking at designing a modular style and design the whole thing on tracks so that I could slide the entire plant/screen out off the grow box so I have complete access all around. Have to work on making sure the mod frame takes up as little room as possible.

Well, I definatly have more things to work into my design. Thanks again for the input jayda!

Buddjitsu

jayda

no problems man, just keep on readin and letting us all know how Your progress goes.! goodluck my friend.

__________________
Chips-Dips-Chains-N-Whips

sparkyrudy

You might think about building your reflector into the ceiling of your little grow box. If you like (for example) the batwing style reflector that is so common with lights, you could attatch it to the top of the box rather than the light itself. Seems like this would be quite feasible with the small area you describe.

Just a thought.

__________________
Best of Luck With ALL Your Growing Projects!

SPARKY

jayda

You can do that, but it may get hot if its built in and may cause a problem, you can always build the cab a little higher and place it where you would normaly, that way u can still have the max distance from them if you need.... humm . Hows it going buddjitsu? got any pics ( i just love pics ya know )

__________________
Chips-Dips-Chains-N-Whips

skizank

If you're only going to grow one plant...you better hope its a female. It would suck if you grow that plant for a couple months only to find out it has balls. I would suggest either buying feminised seeds, getting a friend to hook you up with a clone (if you know anyone else that grows), or start a few seeds somewhere outside until you know their sex then clone the best looking lady.

__________________

There's only three ways to do things...The right way, the wrong way, and the way I do it.

2nd indoor grow...600 watts in the closet

Quest4high

I have 2 150 security ligths and a 70 watt HPS too. I took em apart and it was not hard to do at all. A screwdriver is all ya need. Take the relector and the socket out. All you have to do is lenghten the wire and place the hotter part away and connect the hoods with a bit of solder wire. Works lke a charm.

__________________
"Back in the day it was called sexual harrassment, now I call it an assault with a dead weapon" _Quest4High

The Grow Guide

Agent 86, a great bubbler bucket thread!
Buckethead thread...tooo funny.

jwilco1

I'm building something quite similar to yours. My box is 1.5' x 1.5' x 4' tall. Although I am building multiple ones, each one will hold just one plant (this method of growing plants was decided on for security reasons since several smaller boxes is much more mobile than one large heavy ass one). I am utilizing a 70 watt MH and 70 watt HPS in each box. I disassembled the lights and put just the reflectors and sockets in the top of the box and secured the reflectors at about a 45 degree angle, and they're not going to be movable. Instead, the plant will be movable (height-wise obviously) via a shelf. If you're working with somewhere in the area of 150 watts, then you're talking somewhere in the 9,000-10,000 lumen area. For one plant that is certainly good provided you can get most to the plant. Even in the disaster scenario where for some reason you could only get half those lumens to the plant, you're still doing OK with 5,000 lumens. I personally would recommend training if for no other reason to keep it under control in the smaller area. On top of that, you can maximize your yield. And keep in mind also to only veg long enough until the plant is about 1/3 or 1/2 of what your available growth heigh space is. I've read(this will be my first grow) that flowering doubles and can in some instances even triple the height of the plant. Another thing to remember is the size of your final container/pot/bucket/whatever. Good chance it'll take up as much as a foot of your vertical space. This box idea will indeed work very well for one plant, just gotta think ahead. Keep in mind that while this system is ideal for me because I will have multiple boxes and therefore multiple plants, it's because then if I get males or some struggling/dying plants, I have others going in the meantime. If you're going to do one and only one plant, you may want to force flowering early on a single small branch to find out early on if it's male or female.