First Grow Box - Need Advice!

[TiCkEr]

Hi guys.

Well I've been jumping from forum to forum looking for one with members who are mature, active and enjoy helping out.. from the looks of it I think I've found my home !

Well here is where I'm at currently with my grow box:

The dimensions are 3 1/2ft tall, 2 1/2ft wide, 2ft deep. I will be putting aluminum insulation over the styrofoam eventually, for now it doesn't look overly neat.

I plan on using 4 13W CFL's for seedling stage, is this enough Wattage?

I also plan on purchasing a MH and HPS bulb as well. What wattage would I be looking at for the size of my grow box and two plants - 250 or 400?

Also, does anyone have any good links to give me an idea on how to setup the airflow/ventilation/fans etc. ?

Anyways, thats all for now.

I'll post pics in a bit!

TiCkEr

[Anony]

Welcome to GC, hope you stick around.

Onto your setup;
I believe aluminum insulation is lower on the reflection chart, however its proly better than styrophome.
How many plants are you planning on starting? Feminized or bagseed?
I personally recommend to people the more watts the better, however with such a low height, youll need to have some major cooling with either a 250 and especially a 400. Your pots will be about a foot tall, your light will need to be about a foot from the top of your plants, so this doesnt leave you much room for your plants.
Ventilation depends on your setup, but basically you want to bring cool air in from down below, and exhaust air up high. (Since hot air rises)
Pics will help, but ultimately I would try to go with a larger space.

[Don Piano]

Hey there TiCkEr,
Glad you could make it here.
Thats size really can be done, but must be done caefully. This is a box for ScrOG.
250 would suffice in that box, 400 would be better. You need a straight through design for cooling that light on its own, besides the box exhaust. This box would be perfect for a DIY CoolTube, paired up with an inline fan. With that, you could have more room to grow vertically (they are only 4" in diameter) and I have heard of people from here, whose buds actually were touching the glass a some points and not drying out our burning.

Venting the room should not be an issue if you cool the light seperately.
A pair of 120mm PC fans up high, and a couple of 180mm intakes down low, coupled with a PC fan or 2 inside to circulate air in the box would work nice.
I'd maybe go with flat white paint inside though, and save your styro for the floor insulation.

As for the little bulbs for the seedling stage, Id use them only until the first pointed leaves appear, and would go straight to MH, or more wattage with the CFLs. You could do all CFLs for the entire grow if you get some bigger ones and more of them.

[TiCkEr]

Here are the pics!

Old setup


New setup (still lots of work to do)
\

Front view (1 plant and a bunch of seedlings that don't seem to want to sprout)


Wires nice and organized. Power bar & timer for lights (18-6)


Thermometer (I know it's not warm enough - took pic right after I brought it inside)


My baby (dominator strain, 70% indica - 30% sativa)


Alright, well as you can see the styrofoam is already installed so I think I'm going to keep it in for extra insulation and coat it with something. Any ideas what to coat it with? I've seen people use some type of aluminum sheeting it seemed but I'm not sure on the exact name.

Things to do:

Stain the exterior of the box
build a top/lid
build a door for the front
coat the styrofoam with __________

Before I tackle the air system, I'm going to have to do some more reading because a lot of what you (don piano) said regarding the air system went right over my head lol. The DIY CoolTube seems really interesting, anyone got any links for it?

Thank you both for your informative and helpful replies.

TiCkEr

[TiCkEr]

Alright well I managed to get some learning time in and theres been a change in plans for my lighting. For now I will keep things simple and go with a pure CFL grow using both soft white and daylight lights. Also, the aluminum sheeting I was talking about = mylar which I will be using to coat the inside.

I plan on using 150W per plant so 300W in total. How does that sound?

Also, with the CFL's I won't have a heat issue so I think 2 small fans would suffice. Do I still need an air exhaust or will I be fine with a complete closed box?

As for my 4 13W babies, I'll keep them for seedling stages or give them to my parents lol, they were only $13for the 4 of em.

I'm also really interested in the LST method but wondering if I should just stick to the basics for my first grow. Opinions?

Off to do more reading!

TiCkEr