New stealth cab, scrog cfl soma style.. and questions

[moss187]

before I begin construction. I am building this cabinet from an old dresser, it must be as stealth as possible....completley airtight and i plan on using reflective paint i heard you can obtain at the hobby store. The demensions are 38"high 17" wide by 31"length.

I plan to grow indica from clones, in a soma style bed.. The only variation of soma's method would be I plan on using an aquarium dual air pump into the hydroton rocks, instead of PVC pipe.

I pre-made the intake and exhaust by making the intake 2x the size of the exhaust. I made a carbon filter out of margarine containers and a coffee cup. I have two fans in the exhaust, one sucking air from the cabinet, and a bigger fan pushing air from inside the exhaust, through the carbon filter. The suction is impressive. I also fit one fan with hose clamps so i can attach a broom stick or wooden dowel, and change the height of the fan as needed.

I plan on using CFL's. I've read that 2,500 lumens per square foot is enough.. so how many CLF's for three plants would suffice? (i figured about 7 fixtures, with "Y"connectors would equal 14 lights... more then enough?) also.. Would three plants LST'd, SCROG'D be ok for this size of cabinet? (any guess on yieldage?) HPS or HID is not an option. Three fixtures will be made out of muffin tins painted with reflective paint: Two will be fixed to robotic arms for 360 degrees of movement (maybe not 360 lol) and one will be made with a chainlink pulley system for movable access. The robotic arms will both have 2 fixtures each (4 lights together with Y connectors) and the adjustable light will have three (6 lights including Y connectors) for a total of 4+4+6=14 lights. Now is that enough lumens per square foot for my demensions? (38"high 17" wide by 31"length) and how many nuggets could i coax out of three plants in there with this many lumens and oxygen? LST'd and scroged?

I plan on making the bed for the cabinet roughly 15 gallons. I've heard that two plants never really have tangling problems..i plan on three (or is this too many?) Also, would individual pots be better?

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For summer i plan on constructing 5 gallon pails that are all soma style bedded. PVC pipe with roughly 20 drilled holes for air flow will be fitted to the bottom of the pot, hydroton rocks ect. And i plan on using a compost arrangement that needs about 20 days of watering in the sun before plants can be planted. This is why i chose to make individual pots for the outdoor idea.

i also plan on experimenting this summer with fitting 4 legs, via dowels, or a broom handle.. 24"to be exact. Making a tripod of sorts, so i can fit SCROG screens to each soma planting pot, with 2'2' demensions.. Is 5 gallon pots enough for each plant? and is 24"enough space for them to be trained for the screen proccess? answer as many as you can

[SmknVTEC]

Yeah man not much room in that cab. And 14 lights at say 27 watts each would be 378 watts for three plants which will be enough to grow nice bud. Cant know yeild estimates because I don't know size of pots. And yes I would go one plant per pot. You plan to go soil right? Sorry if you answered that already I read a lot of threads per day and can't always keep them straight.

[moss187]

I plan on using soil.. any suggestion as to what kind of soil mixture starts out with the proper PH and retains oxygen? My dual air pump is going to be keeping the soil VERY airated... and im currently researching flood and drain methods.. but i think i might keep it simple stupid.....


yeah i figure the only hard part will be micro organizing the cab to make sure i get the most bang for my buck per square inch... the hardest task may be wiring.... Really just the robotic arms.

Assuming I keep the scrog a bit lower then 24"s, isnt indica recommended scrog at 18 inches? that would free up a half a foot.. vital.


my question now is.. how big of pots can i get away with ? 5 gallons may be to big... but if i go 4, with the soma bed.. its really even less then 4 gallons.

what would the yeild difference per plant be assuming i used 5 gallons instead of 4?

AND finally, if i only had 2 plants instead of three would i be able to coax more bud growth from the scrog?

[GigZ-16]

Are you sure you will have enough room for the pots, the plants and the lights? It seems kinda small to me. I would go with LST since it is such a small area. Either way though you should start reading alot if it's your first grow. Check out the guides in my sig.

Good luck!

[moss187]

i grew once outdoor and didnt know what i was doing.. to my suprise ,i had great results, and did NOTHING nutrient wize for the plant... just the fact that my area ihas VERY good growing conditions.. being:

"Niagara is nestled between the shores of Lake Ontario and the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment, and these two significant geographic features create a unique microclimate. This results in an early spring, a hot, sunny summer, a warm lingering fall and a mild winter"

i grew the third year and nutured them, i went away unexpectadly and left the plants to die ... i came back and the ones that were left were AMAZING... last year i said enough of trying something i knew nothing about.. and got a dog, tought him howto sniff out plants. soo all summer i just crop hunted instead of growing myself.. i had good results but i had felt as if bad karma was upon me. I have done a lot of research, and know what im doing this time around. If i had such great success by leaving a plant for 2 months and comming back to something wonderful, im sure i will grow some monstterrrs outdoor, and something nice inside that nobody knows about.

feel free to help with any of my questions... im growing the outdoor crop by the moon cycle, i'll update both grows with pics, but im not even starting either one untill i figured out a few more things.. my budget is low at the moment but things change.

[moss187]

guess my idea is pretty decent if nobody is correcting anything else....????

expected more feedback llol

[SmknVTEC]

Not much difference between 4-5 gallon pots. SCROG will work. Personally I don't think the method is as important as size of pot and lights. Of course that is not including different mediums but the point still stands.