Hey guys, I just started working on a cabinet so I can grow 1 or 2 plants scrog style due to space restrictions. It's 3'x3'x4' I have a 400w HPS with reflector hood, and a couple 100cfm fans powered to a pc power supply. Im going to be using those for exhaust. This is where I don't have the experience. Do you think the 2 100 cfm fans will be alright for exhaust, because I'm planning to make a DIY carbon scrubber. To be honest im not sure if the fans are rated for 100 cfm, just taking a guess (borrowed them from work). To get the picture of the space that the cab is in, is a storage crawl space under the basement stairs. I'm pretty much taking up half the space and the air exhaust will be flowing back into that crawl space. There is a small space between the drywall and the concrete to have slow moving cold air for intake during the winter. As soon as I get my hand on a resiprocating saw, I'll be mounting the fans and getting started on germinating. I have a choice of either Auto #1, Auto Berry Ryder, and Auto Sweet Tooth. All have 60 day flowering time.
I'm dont know tons about fans but I have a small air purifier that probably pushes about the same air as your two fans with a 250w in a similar size area as yours and I still run into heat issues a little.. low 90's.. with a small active intake as well..
Airflow is critical when using an hid lamp in a small space, if you exhaust in the same room chances are it will get way too hot.
A little update on what's going on.. I added another fan for intake. And I got my hps light all put together. I started germinating all 3 seeds. Hopefully I get all female plants out of the few. I got my seeds at Marijuana Seeds - Single Marijuana Seeds, let me know if theyre reputable or not. First time buying seeds. I decided to keep the room open until I smell odor then try to deal with it. Ill probably end up just buying a blower and a scrubber from a hydro store. This is the latest..
Update on the grow and the cab. I went the cheap route and used tin foil to cover the grow space. I managed to get a t5 light and a 150 watt bulb to coincide with my 400w hps. I planted the seedlings into peat pucks and I'm going to use the t5 and 150 watt bulb for the first week or week and a half then I'm going to start using my hps on a 20/4 period then possibly switching the light cycle to 18/6 for the late stages of the autoflower grow. I watched a "godbody", video on youtube where he flushed his plant with purple koolaid before harvest. Anyone know if this would actually do something for flavor or, I wonder if you add sugar or molassas it would make it sweeter? My seedlings are under the t5 and 150 bulb right now as you can see from the pictures. I think they look pretty healthy. I got this stuff called nutri plus start 1-3-1. It says it's good for root development. Is this stuff good for autoflowers from seed? It was given to me from a friend that bought it for growing but hasn't used it. I added 3 ml of the liquid to 1L of water. I did that and I soaked my peat pucks with the water before I put my seeds in the media. I saved the water with the solution and I use that for watering when it needs it. It dries up pretty quickly. 13 hours after my last water the pucks were light and dry, so i watered until it was nice and moist. the t5 is about 3 inches from the top of the canopy. I did the ol' hand above the canopy trick to see if its too hot for your hand. 3 inches felt pretty nice so I went with it. Think the nutri plus is a good idea or should I lay off until 3-4 weeks? Auto#1 is a beast, Berry Ryder had some trouble with the seed shell, I kinda had to help it off, and Sweet tooth is looking pretty strong too. No little starter leaves but give er time.
Looking good, careful with that tin foil, it can give hot spots which will burn plants.. I tried tin foil on a small reflector I built one time.. You could really see the spots where reflection was higher than other spots.. I found taking something and rubbing little circles all over the tin foil helped a little, it minimized the hot spots and evened out the light.. I didn't end up using it but I thought I'd mention rubbing it down a bit seemed to help. Some things aren't nearly as pricey as you might think.. The Local grow shop here sells white/black polly for like $1.27/foot or something. Each foot is 10' long so if you went and grabbed 5 feet of it, you'd have 50 sq ft of plastic.. It'll only cost ya 6 or 7 bucks.
Thanks for the feedback on the tinfoil. I looked into Mylar at Home Depot, and your right it's not too expensive like $8 for duct Mylar. I tried to find wider ones but duct Mylar is the only kind they had. Ill end up getting some when I'm finally ready to scrog the box. Ill definitely keep in mind the hot spots and try to iron out the wrinkles. When I put it up I tried not to crinkle it up so I can have it almost perfect for reflecting the light. Thanks man.
I use emergency blankets from a sporting goods store, they're $2 and 60"x80", I've used them on a couple grows with no problems. If you have to Walmart has em.
It's funny you mention emergency blankets. I saw some at the dollar store too, that's another route I've been thinking of too. How durable are the blankets?
I haven't had any issues using them, they can be a pain to cut sometimes so just use something really sharp and duct tape. Works great too especially for the price
I love cheap! Lol. Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad someone has tried it. This is my first go at growing so I'm still pretty new to the game. Learning as I go along is pretty fun. These Autos really grow fast! I'd check on them every once in a while throughout the day and feels like every time i see them, they have gotten bigger and more developed. Good Idea, Bad Idea - So I lowered my light just now because i touched the light and it was cool to the touch. Is this too low or should the seedlings love this ? I just smoked some Green Crack, a yeild a buddy just pulled in. Gotta love harvest time! So ya, good idea or bad idea?
Hey guys. reply to my last post. Definitely a bad idea. I got some responses from other people including a buddy of mine. Too close! So I left them like that for like 12 hours or more, long enough to transplant my babies. Today I bought promix soil from my hydro store. No nutes yet. Next week maybe. Transplanted the seedlings into the soil and into the pots that i got from a buddy. I raised the lights accordingly and now they sit a couple inches away from the canopy. I watered them thoroughly with the 3ml of nutri plus start 1-3-1 and 1L of water, and fed them that. They didnt drink it all up. I have some of that litre left and I just left it in there to help with humidty. I also added a black drip tray. Also help with humidty. Got the fans set upto make the lights cooler. Picture time!
update. just being patient. doing an early lst with a paper clip. looks pretty stellar. I must say, The Berry Ryder Is a beast! By far is out growing sweet tooth and auto #1. seems like it's more thirsty. Prolly wont be a problem with nutes either? Anywho, just wanted to give a quick update. night folks.
Accord: how do they look man? My #1 is really taking off it's starting to produce more leaves now, 4th leaf is getting pretty big. Just over the weekend too. I'm soo surprised. But man If your going auto, try out the Berry Ryder, my BR is a beast!! Can't wait to hit it with the HPS. How are you growing? I went away for the weekend and left my brother to water them on saturday, soil is all dried out, and lights are touching the leaves pretty much and they're just soaking up the t5 lighting. I stopped off at Green and Clean in Sudbury and purchased some organic iguana juice grow, bud ignitor, a PH tester and a thermometer and hydrometer. I'm thinking about using the iguana juice for half a week or maybe a week then turning on the HPS and start feeding it the bud ignitor. I just got home from a long drive so I'll post some pics in a bit. Peace~
I went out to the local dollar store to pick up a spray bottle. I wanted to treat the girls to something sweet today for being soo good lol. In the last picture on my last reply, i was holding some liquid molasses. I was watching youtube video of this guy called godbody feeding his plants some molasses watered down in a spray bottle. I did more research and found that molasses is a super fertilizer with many benefits for the plant. One of them being good for foliage and another for bugs. Wide spectrum of benefits. Read here: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/202743-molasses-our-plants.html So I sprayed the plans and put them in the corners of the grow box to dry off with the fans going, so they don't burn, and I'll put them back under direct light after. updated pictures to what i woke up to.