Hey all! New here and first post, so thanks in advance for the welcomes I can tell I'll get from this friendly crowd! I am currently designing a grow box that is to be very, very discreet, and I was simply hoping to get some feedback. I will be procuring a dresser/armoir/etc with enough room on the bottom to fit a 6-plant bubbleponics system and tall enough to get a nice 2-3' plant all said and done. The inside will be caulked or otherwise sealed to prevent air and odor escape. The interior will be painted with a highly reflective and heat-resistant (even though the lights are low-heat) paint. The drawers/doors will be taken apart and just the face glued or otherwise secured to the front for appearances. The back will come off and I will secure a 1-2" piece of wood to one side on which I will be hinging a door. There will be 2 cutouts (which later will have a thin balck cloth over them, again for appearances, even though no one will see the back) on the back; one for air in and one out. The vents will also be going through a carbon filter for odor control. The lights will be height-controlled via a pulley on the top and achor on the sides. The last hole will be for the electric plug, and this hole will be duct-taped or otherwise sealed for obvious reasons. To seal the back once it is closed (with some kind of lock), I havent got much yet. Perhaps some type of foam? Basically anything that would attatched to the inside so if anything I would push it back inside when closing the door. Hopefully soon I can get a picture or something to give you a better idea, but it's pretty simple overall. Anywho, that is my general first-run idea, and I was hoping that anyone with experience could shoot some comments/ideas/modifications, etc for me. Any ideas by anyone are welcomed of course. Thanks all! Good to be here so far!
I am in the process of a similar setup. What sort of fans are you going to use for in/outake? I haven't been able to find cheap fans powerful enough to do the job right. Have you shopped around? ________________________ TIP>>>> Make your intake low to the floor (Bottom left corner) Make your outake high on the box (Top right corner)...... Heat rises and the distances between the holes allows for complete ventilation of the box. What sort of lights are you planning? If I can't figure out making ventilation cheap, I'll have to go with CFL's. (which Ive used on past grows and only received 20-25 g harvest per plant) I want to use a 250w MH/HPS veg/bud... I can afford the light... but not the ventilation I think I need. What do you think?
This is literally in the concept stage so far, so no, I havent shopped around yet. The lights I will be using are low-heat as I understand, so I shouldnt have too much of a problem. I'll be getting my grow equipment from stealthyhydroponics.com using their Dual Spectrum II lights If you have any suggestions please let me know. I'm on as tight of a budget as possible but obviously air and cooling is a large consideration. D
You really should know a little about grow lights before you purchase. You are planning for 6 plants, right? The light recommended for growing pot is 100 Watts for your 1st plant and 50 watts per additional plant. For 6 plants, this would be 350 watts. Because your area is so small and you have height restrictions, I think 150-250 watts would be plenty for 6 plants this size. (More light = more buds) Chances are, because you said these lights are "low heat," you're speaking of CFL's. Compact Flourescent Lights, possibly Flourescent T-5's, but they would be to large for your dresser. (There are uvb's, but I doubt you are going there on a budget) With this type of CFL light, there is minimal heat issues, BUT because you have such a compact space, you will still need a proper ventilation system. (NOTE: You will need 2 different spectrums of light for a CFL system to work it's best) 6500K Daylight for "VEG CYCLE" and 2700K Soft White for "BUD CYCLE." You don't need special fixtures for the small household bulbs. But, for over 75W a bulb, you will need a special ballast. +-$150 for a 200w ballast and another $50 for the bulb. +- $200 total for lights. Most people would agree that a better form of lighting for the price would be a MH/HPS Combo. IF YOU CAN KEEP HEAT ISSUES DOWN THROUGH PROPER VENTILATION. You would want a 250W ballast that could use BOTH Metal Halide AND High Pressure Sodium bulbs. (IF YOU CAN KEEP HEAT ISSUES AWAY) Metal Halide in the "VEG CYCLE," and High Pressure Sodium in the "BUD CYCLE." The BEST PRICED website I have located is High Tech Garden Supply. I have never ordered from them, but they seem to have Kick ass prices in comparison with everyone else. TIP>>>> If you have a local electrical supply specialty store near by... even if they don't stock the ballasts you need they can order them and they may pay shipping for you. This will also allow you to pay cash so nothing is traced back to you. You will need to give them a Phone #, though. WOW THAT WAS LONG WINDED.... sorry... I babble.
NOTE... if ordering through ANYONE... make sure you aren't just buying the ballast alone. You want a complete setup with a ballast. reflector, socket, and bulb. Bulbs in this 250W size will vary from $30 - $90 depending on the quality, and light spectrums.
ONE MORE THING>>>>..... Unless you get a carbon filter ($pricey$) OR you can rig an AIR NEUTRALIZER BUCKET, You Will have odor issues. Not so bad in "VEG CYCLE" but your entire room will rank of weed when budding.
Yes, the lights from that sight are CFLs, and have both Veg and Flower lights. Doesn't specify wattage though, and that does concern me. Here: High Tech Garden Supply is a cost-effective enough system, and then perhaps have 2 exhaust vents near the light on top and one at the bottom? (all vents will be run through a square carbon filter, btw. Not so expensive at $20-$30 ea.) My being here is me getting the info (as well as elsewhere online) before I purchase. It will be several months before I have the cash to get this long-overdue project going, so I've got plenty of time to prepare everything and anything. If you care to, theres a pic of the lights that I could get VERY cost-effectively with the hydro kit here: SH Hydroponics, Inc. > Dual Spectrum Bubbleponicsâ„¢ Complete Kit (bout halfway down the page, Dual Spectrum II lights) With such a low-height space as I will have, how long would I really need to veg my babies? Would it be possible to use flower-only lights and adjust the hours of light to achieve short-ish, very bushy/buddy plants?
Oh! Also, this kit: SH Hydroponics, Inc. > 400W HPS Ecostar Bubbleponicsâ„¢ Kit may be a good option. Thoughts? Thanks for the insight Greater!
$20 - $30 for the filter alone...Right? The filter isn't the price issue I have. My problem is knowing that to properly use that filter... you need a centrifugal type fan. (they somewhat resemble the looks of a jet engine or a turbo charger in a car) These cost about $150..............NOT SAYING IM RIGHT... this is just through my research... and I may be listening to bullshiters. As far as the hydro system... that seems to be resonably priced for the kits I have been seeing........ especially with it coming with nutes. I am betting the lights that that comes with are only going to fit household size bulbs... which won't be enough for 6 MJ girls, definetely not when budding... maybe if you added some Y splitters and 42 watt CFLs... this would get them through veg. but not budding. Not with great yeild, anyways. Personally, I would not recommend HYDRO on your first grow..... You have to know how to control this and control that, ppm's, ph up, ph down, crazy stuff that in itself isn't that difficult if you can operate a calculater... but if you make 1 mistake, you could do some damage...maybe loose your crop.........Try 1 or 2 soil grows 1st. Get your greenthumb some time to exercise. As far as putting 2 outake ports... you'd have to put filters on the both of them, both powered by hefty fans. = overkill. Again... a simple odor neutrilizer bucket would work for a grow this size. As far as vegging... IF you decide to go with SOIL... I'd try LST. (Low stress training) it is a process of tying down your plant low to the soil in multiple stages. This creates crazy amounts of branches to grow verticle, and put out bud yeilds 2-3 times more then a plant growing straight up with the same hieght restrictions. LST can take an ever increasing amount of time to veg... depending on how bushy you want em', and how long you want to wait................. If you want to grow straight up... in soil... 4-6 weeks VEG time.... but just know... with low hieghth plants, they will double in size by the time harvest comes. Once you switch to 12/12, it'll take another 8-12 weeks to reach bud maturity. Hydro I think grows vegging plants faster, but budding takes the same amount of time depending on the strain.... correct me if I am wrong, though... I know very little about hydro... except that I'm adding a 2 plant bubble bucket type set up only using a recycled 10 gallon fish aquarium... and$6 worth of extra tubing/plastic splitters. ... I am doing this to compare results with my soil plants, planted at the same time, under the same lights seed to harvest. BY THE WAY... what's your plan on seeds? (Or do u have a hookup on some female clones?) Soil will allow you to use bagseed, with a plan to rid yourself of males once they show sex. You could start with 10-12 seeds and expect to rid yourself of 5-6 males. Then you know you'd still probably have 5-6 females.......... IF you go with hydro... you should only use feminized seeds ($pricey$) or clones. If you start with normal seeds you have a 50/50 chance of males/females. If you do this, you would have to kill your males, and by this time your roots may be entagled with the others... creating a stressful situation. The left behind root structure would rot and start to screw up your PH levels.... therefore....... Go with soil on your 1st grow... THEN... could you use a soil mother plant to clone and add to your HYDRO setup. (I wonder if there is a prob with that)
I'd love to grow soil just for the experience, but I don't have the option of soil. I'm very good at detail and picking things up on the fly, so I'm not too worried about growing hydro the first time. I love organic things Yes, I'll either be using feminized seeds or finding a way to keep the roots very seperate so my only problem is that some plants would get bigger than others (re-planting if a plant was found to be male). Inline fans and filters arent terribly expensive. I've priced it out, taking into consideration that I can find a nice sized dresser or amoir/etc for free, and this whole setup will run me about $600-$700. It'll take some time to get that saved for me, but it will be well worth the investment as you'll literally be in the room with the dresser and not have any idea. If it's worth doin', it's worth doin' right