Maybe not the 1ST but the best novice grow DIY Hydro/Grow box ever build Diary

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by trillyen, Feb 23, 2009.

  1. #1 trillyen, Feb 23, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 23, 2009
    OK, well here goes...

    Tonight i got some building materials from lowes for a Grow Box, i pretty much only needed wood since i have left over PVC from my salt water hobby

    I plan on using the pvc for my hydroponic ventures what ever road i decide to go down, as from ebb&flow, or the drip or any of the others.

    I have taken pics of how my set up is gonna sart out and i would like to hear any suggestions on what i might do to better my growing space

    the space is 4 feet wide about 23 in wide, and i think i wanna make it about 5 feet high or maybe shorter it just depends

    ok well im gonna start out with the pics and let u guys throw some suggestions at me so here goes.....

    First and for most this is gonna be my grow area, i was wondering what all i might go about doing from your guys ideas, before i start cutting any wood or anything yet
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    here is a picture of my ballast im gonna be using to run my hps lamp im gonna by a heflix bulb cause its suspose to be the conversion bulb if u have a metal halide ballast, does any one know how much the hortiflux ( ace series ) conversion bulbs are???

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    Here is a pic of my RO/DI system, so im gonna be using the best of the best water, absolutley pure water deionized and everything, another perk that i transfered over from salt water tanks!!! ( sorry the lights out in my kitchen couldnt get a better pic!!)

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    Ill be using 2 PC (power compact) light i used on my salt water tanks to use in my veggie room, they are 2 65 watt lamps and i believe 10,000 lumens or something like that!!!

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    here is just some misc. stuff i had left over from the salt water hobby also that should come in handy in my venture, i also have a ppm meter that i have from the sw hobby ive now abandoned!!

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    needless to say that i have this pump left over from the sw hobby it may be the one i use to do my hydro flower room not sure yet though, im still in the dark kinda about the whole hydro thing i just know i wanna do all hydro, i plan on doing the bubble system in my veggie room!!! Any suggestions for the flowering room???

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    Ok as u can see or saw in the pic above im gonna have to split the 2 rooms, does any one have any idea how i may do that, with just the wood that i have now??? i mean i can buy more but i want to start building right away!!
    pic#1 is a 8 foot long piece of nice thick wood its 23 inches wide the same as the floor plan in my grow room.
    pic#2 is just some boards i got thinking about doing the cornering but i might not need them....Any suggestions on them??? they are 8 feet long 2 or 3 in wide i believe!!!
    pic#3. is a pic of some cabinet board i got for a real good price its white like the floor in my grow box, but its only like 10 or 14 in wide or some thing like that and its 8 feet long, i have two of those
    pic#4 the board behind the grow box floor plan is just ther to measure how many plant im gonna be able to fit in there it is like 4 or 5 feet long, and also 10 to 14 in wide.
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    Looks Like im gonna be able to have 2 mother and 2 father plants, maybe 8 to 10 clones but some may have to grow in potting soil, or some minor form of hydro!!!

    thanks for the help ahead of time, and wish me luck!!!

    im really mostly wondering how im gonna do the sides, and the top of my box, and light proofing

    How tall should my box be guys!!!

    Thanks so much I have a feeling every1 is gonna jump in on this 1....
     
  2. you will want to make it tall as possible
    i have 4'x20"x6.5' and it is cramped

    mothers are best to have in dirt because from my experience they grow to fast in hydro

    dwc is best imo

    i suggest building a frame of 2x2 boards and then putting the wood on the outside. this will make your structure more solid

    if you don't want to go all into hydro you might want to try a wick system like autopots

    what is a father plant? are you going to be pollinating plants?

    thick weather stripping is good for light proofing

    are you planing on having mother/grow/flower sections all in your 4x23"x5 cabinet?
     
  3. a Mother/grow /FLower section im not sure i just have the 2 sections if thats what your asking im not gonna do a sea of green right now. Im gonna have a veggie section and a flower section

    thanks i think i will make the strture out of 2x2s thats a good idea

    yes every once in a while i want to polinate my plants just to make my own seeds so that if i do have to start over i dont have to order no expensive ass seeds on line again lol, but this way ill know what im growing and once i get enough i may take the fater plants down and put mothers in there place, not qwite sure yet tho!!!

    So your grow room is 20 feet tall wow, i dont plan on my plants getting that tall on the veggie side, im gonna keep them cut as much as possible

    if i start the mother plants out in dirt how big should the pots be for a plant to live in for life in soil???

    im sorry im not exactly sure what u mean by do i plan to have a mother/grow/flower all in my 4 foot section

    1 question di think 6 feet will be tall enough wont it???

    thanks for the feed back so far!!!
     
  4. if you LST them you can keep them in 5' of cabinet cuz the plants only get like a foot tall :hello:
     
  5. what is LST them???

    is that like when u prune them before they even get there 1st set of leaves or something???
     
  6. no, dont prune your plants before they grow the 1st set of leaves. U just tie them down, making them grow wherever you want, thus maiximizing the LIGHT cover and yield. And no his grow isnt 20 ft tall.

    the pot of the mother can be from 2 g to 4 gallon. I think if u will be slowing the growth of the mother, so u wont need a huge pot
     
  7. ok noob question here. What do u mean tie them down how do i do that??

    how do i go about tieing them down??

    and when do i do it when they are seedlings or when they start getting to tall????

    thanks for the help

    he said 20' so im thinking 20 feet tall

    so he ment 20 inches wow thats not tall at all

    hell if that the case i might just make my grow box 4 or 5 feet tall then!!!

    thanks again for the help!!!!
     
  8. bro, check his post, its 20 inchecs WIDE...not too bad

    anyhow, wait for a few nodes on the plant to grow, but you can do it anytime techniquely
     
  9. check my grow thread, you'll see some LST at work. You tie the main stem down after 3-4 leaf sets, and continue to tie the stem and branches down. You end up with a short, compact, but incredibly dense and lush bush instead of a tree.
     
  10. thanx 420helperman for clearin things up:rolleyes:

    I have tired tying them down before and it was a pain in my ass. i switch to bending the branches till they were kinked like a hose, it worked well. you can also squeeze the stem till it cracks and then squeeze it the other way till it cracks to slow growth. there is a name for this but can't remember:smoking:

    I am tying screen of green to ease the bending, eliminating the need for stings tape paper clip ect.

    hope it helps
     
  11. that's supercropping. there's nothing to tying down plants really. I did 4 of them simultaneously as a 1st timer :p
     
  12. Hey thanks for the insight i may have to do that if they get to tall but i dont see them getting to tall when they do ill just prune them i guess...

    any more suggestions on what the hell i can do to build my grow box???

    thanks for the help thus far!!!
     
  13. i would suggest building two 4x23x6 frames and screw them together then cover the outsides with wood.

    -2 cents

    there are tons of possibilities. for the mother you could do a 2' long 23" deep 4' tall structure with an area above for clones and veg.

    by the looks of it you will definitely need some more wood

    Deciding which path to take is the hardest part, just go for ease for your first run. Then go from there

    some more pics wouldn't hurt
     
  14. Also note that I built the cabinet myself, using only 2x2s and sheets of OSB from Home Depot. Glued and screwed and it's all sealed up. I made it 5' tall but put the light on the outside, makes for plenty of room inside the cab but then brings up the issue of having to move the plants up and down. With the 3gal pots, right after watering those fuckers are heavy. I want to try a bubble bucket, and raising/lowering those might be a little easy if you drain them, but I still think I'm going to put the light hood inside the cabinet. It will also give me more room up high to put the carbon scrubber. I don't plan on letting any of my plants grow normally, LST is simply too fuckin awesome to give it up for a tall, lanky plant. The multiple fat colas isn't too bad either :D

    Maybe, if you're any good at carpentry, make like a modular design of like 2' tall sections so when the plants get too tall just unscrew the top panel, toss another section on, and you've got another 2' of room. I dunno, I'm just high :smoking:
     
  15. Ok first off lmao at zpryo, your crazy man but really helpful u probably dont even recall your ast post to me huh man??? lol

    secondly, what the hell is OSB, i mean i know what ply wood is ans 2x2 abd 2x4s but never herd of that i have the faintest clue

    thank u alot also W A grower, but there is really nothing to take pictures of what i took pics of is pretty much just what i had but before i go to work to day im going to lowes, and i think i am gonna take your advice and make 2 4 foot long and 23 inch wide and 5 feet tall boxes, that will save me the hassle of light proofing, yes i know i will still have to modify it for the main light that comes on in my bed room but not as much as them being next to each other

    i think im gonna make the bottom of the box out of ply wood, and do the sides in the nice shelfing paneling

    i wont have to worry then on how to devide the two rooms side by side, if i have any left over wood i may make a small extra grow box, just for extra clones i can have if i have to make extra cuts do to excess growing

    ill post pics this weekend, im real excited about having a possible 3 grow rooms

    i may now start out with 8 to 12 mother and father plants, and yes i know this means more light in my box then the little power compacts i have thus far which are roughly 130 watts, i may add 3 more 100 watt CFLs so that should give me enough light to prevent stretching and keep my crop compact and bushy like there mothers


    Thanks alot for your help guys, i seem to be really coming along

    thanks to u guys!!!
     
  16. congrats on getting it started man...but I would think about your lighting if you want 8-12 plants. CFL/PC wont be enough...its the actual wattage not the equivilent wattage that you need.

    Being your from a saltwater hobby(I used to keep a 135g sps dominated tank for yrs) I would suggest a real good cleaning to remove anything that is stuck to the pump you showed(algae not good, neither is salt build up).

    If your looking to start in hydro and want a easy option check out the thread in my sig for hempy buckets(passive hydro set up). But before you get to far ahead of yourself(germing seeds) I would have a plan of action as far as the style of grow your going to do. I dont know how many time I have seen people so eager to start growing they germ thier seeds and then try and finish setting up grow space while waiting...never seems to work out for them.

    As far as making seeds, I would also say think about growing out a male and collecting the pollen and storing in the freezer so you dont have to worry about pollenating all your crops(pollen travels easy). Build a Isolation chamber for the male then you can grow it next to females without any worry(or your going to end up with far too many seeds)...Most people pollenate a lower branch or two for seeds, since we are not breeder selling seeds you wont need that many.

    Good luck,
    _numb_

    PS: OSB is a type of plywood basically
     
  17. OSB is boards like ply wood but it us made out of thin strips of wood glued together at different angles.oriented strand board (OSB)http://osbguide.tecotested.com/
     
  18. Thoughts on fresh air intake?
     

  19. OSB= oriented stranded board. Basically plywood, but its not made out of flat sheets of wood, its made from shredded up pieces of wood laminated together. It's cheap, I think I got it for like $7-8 per 4x8 sheet @ home depot

    Are your CFLs actually 100w, or 100w equivalent?

    I have no idea what ur 1st paragraph means..lol
     
  20. what first paragraph, ZPYRO, u been getting high on your own supply again???

    lol i havent got my CFL yet so neither but im glad u said that i will make sure i get 100 watt not the equiv, thank u

    Hey numb im glad u mentioned the cleaning of my pumps and such i didnt think about that at all man, wow u just saved me alot of trouble, as far as my males im talking about keeping a male plant in with my mothers in the veg room, when they bud ill already know which one is male so im not gonna clone the father that much just when i want seeds or something like that, im not gonna have a male in every crop, no way man thatd be crazy and a waste of space

    i am just talking about using pc/cfl on my veg room im not gonna use it on my precious buds thats nt it at all, i just dont see it necessary to run 2 halides if i can get the same results of a lower wattage ( electric bill saving) CFL, believe me id like to but i wanna try the cfls first then if they dont work ill move up to halides, hell i may do it any way i got like 3 ballasts 1 magnetic and 2 electronic all 250 watters

    i had a 75 gallon reef, sps lps, and a clam and some softies, i still got a 125 gallon with a dory ( blue tang) and some clown fish, and scotter blennyies, conchs etc..

    w.a. grower, i have some smart fans left over from my old hobby it basically has a thermometer on the end of the fan and the hotter it gets the faster the fan blows im probably gonna put them on my buds, and for the veg room i shouldnt have to many heat issues with the cfls, but im just probably gonna use some reg pc fans, and if that dont help ill upgrade accordingly, ill have a intake and out take on both, and i may add an extra intake for both later if i must!!!, but thanks for the idea trust me i need them keep them coming

    i really havent seen any how to build a grow box adds the way im going about it at all on here, im happy i could be 1 of the first to add one, it would just be nice to have some thing to go by!!!

    i know on the sides of my grow box walls im gonna have notches that the lights fixtures can set on as i have to raise them, if i do decide to go with dirt id like to know with what kind of out take water thing im gonna go with, just those plastic containers under the pots or something else, i really dont know

    im really steering towards a bubble bucket, i really wanna go all hydro, but im gonna go hydro on some practice seeds that i dont care about really, and see how that goes

    Okay, went to freaking lowes before work today, and im looking for the cheap ass plywood i bought back when i was building a canopy for my aquarium, and they dont sell the thin ass plywood like i bought not even 1 year and a half ago or either they were out but they did have these 4 x 8 THICK sheets that i wouldnt mind having just for its thickness and they were only like 4 or 5 bucks at lowes but they were huge, and they were painted like a neon yellow on the edges of the wood i mean my grow box aint gonna be beautiful but i dont think id like the look of that yellow.

    I was just planning on buying that thin ass ply wood i got last time to build my canopy but it was like 10 to 22 bucks now and i dont really remember paying that much for it at all, plus id rather have the thicker wood for a cheaper, i just dont like that loud ass color they paint the edges, i dont know, im gonna get the 4 to 5 dollar stuff i guess and go from there

    i also got some what looks to be imitation rock wool things, u pour water on top of them and they swell up and surround it til it sprouts i guess, and u can leave it in this thing for life, it came with a green house little thing also, so i figured what the hel

    The green house thing dont have no holes in it do i need to cut some into it for CO 2 exchange and things???

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    thngs are coming along good im just really not excited about building these boxes, im ready to get it over with trust me

    thanks ALOT!!!!
     

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