littlebittaweed

So I decided to start growing after a few years "off, " and I'm very excited to be back! I've posted a few questions here and there over the last month and realized it would be much less board-polluting to just have a JOURNAL!

Anyways, I've been vegging in various temporary containers and have recently started flowering one plant. After coming home to a nearly destroyed grow due to poor design and penny pinching, I decided to go check out my local home supply store for RTA cabinets. I came across this and am strongly considering it:



The dimensions are 71" tall, 24" wide, 16" deep. Removable shelf, and the door overlaps on the outside. Seems like it would be a good start, eh? I plan on doing a soil grow, 2 plants, 12 CFL's for the time being at 23w draw (100w output) each: 2700k. Im wondering... is 48" enough to have a separate vegging area? or should i utilize all 48" and have a separate veg/clone chamber?

The seeds are quality bagseed collected over time. I am starting this journal before I have even purchased the cabinet in hopes of getting some guidance, so future onlookers can either learn from my mistakes or reference the design! (if it's successful)

I intend to hang a 250w hps for my next flowering cycle, but will be completing this grow with the CFLs. My plant is already 9 days into flowering, but I may take clones or start over fresh (long story). Basically i don't want to have to upgrade fans or other parts and waste money, so id prefer to buy all the equipment that can handle this light and the heat from it the first time

Anywhoot, if anyone can see any major limitations of this cabinet, I would be grateful for your input. My ultimate goals are to make it flower two plants, be odorless via DIY carbon scrubber, be as fire-safe as possible, be quiet as I have guests over from time-to-time, and be light-proof. The cabinet will be located in a closet with heavy sliding doors that do a pretty good job at dulling out sound.



Above is a very quick sketch of what i intend to do with the cab. Basically, the carbon scrubber will be wall mounted and will be powered by an inline 4" duct fan (unless someone can offer a very quiet alternative fan?), powerful enough for the 250w hps in the future to run as a cool tube. I want this to run through the cfls which will be encased in a clear acrylic box and vented through the back near the top of the cab.

I want the passive intake to be 2 four inch holes in the bottom of the cabinet as the cabinet floor is elevated off the ground by a couple inches and can draw fresh air through the opening in the back (this is hard for me to explain, i'm very tired, sorry!). I will then cover the holes with a screen, if necessary, and elevate the planters an inch or so off the bottom of the cabinet to prevent airflow restriction.

I want to angle a small fan from the floor upward so it blows on the underside of the leaves. That's about all I can come up with right now! Does this sound like a good start? Can anyone foresee any problems with this design? I'm more than happy to clarify if i was totally incoherent!

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Tent Meds - An Indica SCROG - In Progress!!!
God's Gift of Cheese Completed
The Two Square Foot Garden - Completed
The Mysterious White Cabinet--Trial Run! Completed

waveguide

i started losing comprehension after "CFLs" and "clear acrylic" -

CFL bulbs don't get that hot - i live in the sonoran desert - my guess is that as long as there's gentle air movement, at least a vent at the top of the cab for heat, putting anything between the CFLs and the plants is going to severely affect the light output for a temp situation that probably won't be an issue

i think my fan is ~9cm diameter. CFL bulbs and the ballasts are hot to the touch and will scorch a leaf in contact with no air movement, but even with my tiny fan the leaftips can brush against the bulbs for a day without burning.

i've got ~9 CFLs on my garden atm.. at week 9 my sativa has been 3' for a week or so (topped twice) and she's ready for flowering. plus the height of the container it's about 48" between floor and bulbs. i haven't trained her for height and all the other strains are shorter if that helps any.

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smokiethedawg

I have something very similar to your cabinet design. Mine is a 2 door cabinet that's roughly 6',4'x 2'. I cab. was divided in half, so one side for veg, other for flower. I've got 17 cfl's in the veg., 10 13w, 6 26w and a 42w hanging in the center. the flower side has a 250w HPS with a DIY cooltube and a 300cfm blower fan, it's finally starting to get the temp. down tothe lower 80's.
I'm using a 70cfm for each side, The sq.ft of the flower side is 6.35sqft. I'm not sure about the veg side but i have the shelf about half way up so about half of the flower side.
The top section of the cab. has about a 11" area. So i just used the hole saw for the vent tubes to the top. Drilled several holes through the shelf that is above the HPS and let some of the heat up and out. It's a good place to put water bottle, ferts. etc. I've checked the temps in both sides and used my temp gun on the outside and see that the top section may or may not help.
The only thing I do know is that it gives you somewhere to put your water and insure that it will be very close to the plants temps. I can also suggest one other thing concerning watering. If your only going to grow a plant or two at a time, There's some as seen on t.v. products called aqua globes. Simpliest thing I've ever seen, wish i made them i would be rich. Fill them with water, let the water warm for the plant, let the water get air above it and stick it in the soil. No guessing how much to water, plant gets what it wants.
These things are a pain to refill but, with a drain spout on a drinking cooler it's quickly done. Add ferts., check PH ,what ever. I've got one in the veg side that is happy and smiles at me every morning and has had a globe everyday.

Just rambling but your cab. will work. Mines in an uninsulated outbuilding so the temps are hard to control at times. Fans, heater, vent fans, blower fans, etc. but if i could have it in the house things would definitely be better. But considering it's outside I really surprised at how well things are growing.

Rolled up a few dried leaves with a few roaches, Damn.

Smokie

littlebittaweed

Thanks for the responses fellas.

Did a lot of work today! I assembled the new cabinet which measures 24" wide by 16" deep and 34" tall. Laid down the bubble wrap reflect material (called reflectix, available at home depot), adhered it with spray adhesive (generic brand), weather stripped it, affixed a good strong lock, drilled all necessary holes, used the "Best DIY EZ Walmart Carbon Scrubber idea. Works amazingly BTW, even with a 35 cfm computer fan!

I think I am going to run into heat issues, unfortunately, with only 4x100w CFL bulbs.

Overall I am very happy with the build of this cabinet! It was a lot of fun, is almost entirely light-tight, and took a little over $140 and a solid 8 hours to build.



They are all in flowering mode, though 2 of the 3 plants are tiny because I never transplanted them. Now that I finally have a good cabinet worthy of finishing the grow, I will be able to focus my energy on maintaining the health of the plants.





What do you guys think of me actually being proactive in my plant's health (the big one) and doing some LST? I know it will reach at it's current distance from the lights, and I barely LST'd it, but I don't know how a flowering plant will take to it. Whatcha think?

__________________
Tent Meds - An Indica SCROG - In Progress!!!
God's Gift of Cheese Completed
The Two Square Foot Garden - Completed
The Mysterious White Cabinet--Trial Run! Completed

littlebittaweed

Well, my temps are around 85, and I've heard somewhere that with hot temps it is good to induce C02 in some way. If I remember correctly, sugar and yeast and water do the trick? I have lots of air line tubing and liter bottles that i could mix the solution in as well as airline regulators...

Would it be wise to have an airline tube at the base of each plant at these temps and with my current, underpowered ventilation system? Or would it be more effective to buy another fan, vent through another scrubber out the back and just address the temperature issue instead of C02?

__________________
Tent Meds - An Indica SCROG - In Progress!!!
God's Gift of Cheese Completed
The Two Square Foot Garden - Completed
The Mysterious White Cabinet--Trial Run! Completed

bluecheese

Spend the money & time on ventilation.

I've never heard of using CO2 with CFLs - you need more light than that!

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littlebittaweed

Thanks Bluecheese; you're right.

This is a closet grow in a small, very quiet apartment. Is there a fan powerful enough to vent the heat off a 250w HPS rigged cool-tube style without putting out an obscene amount of sound? Right now, my cabinet produces nothing louder than a whisper and I have a feeling that going too much louder would attract some unwanted attention. Is there one that anyone could suggest that is both compact enough and quiet?

I've looked into stanley blowers a little bit, but something tells me they are A. noisy, and B. difficult to plumb for a pull-type carbon scrubber. I'd run a search but the search feature never seem to work on this computer! Responses welcome and desired

__________________
Tent Meds - An Indica SCROG - In Progress!!!
God's Gift of Cheese Completed
The Two Square Foot Garden - Completed
The Mysterious White Cabinet--Trial Run! Completed

imkindahigh

Damn, that is a really nice set-up.

imkindahigh

How much did it set you back? Just wondering..

littlebittaweed

Thanks! It cost me 59 for the cabinet and probably another 50 for supplies, 10 for here-and-theres, so probably around $140.

__________________
Tent Meds - An Indica SCROG - In Progress!!!
God's Gift of Cheese Completed
The Two Square Foot Garden - Completed
The Mysterious White Cabinet--Trial Run! Completed