Ok I have done a shit ton of research and I have a few questions remaining before I get to work on my growbox. I am about to build 3 cabinets stacked ontop of each other(clone,veg,flower). I am planning to use a 250W MH and 4 cfl's (one for each wall in box) for the veg box (S.o.G style) plants will be in a 4wide x 3deep x 3high area with a cooled hood. 12-16 plants in 5.5in squares that will be transferred to flower when they are around 9-12in tall. questions for veg box 1. If I go crazy with cooling my hood, roughly how close can I put it to my plants? I am trying to push those puppies to 1ft as FAST and efficiently as possible and I have the money to spend on equipment to do that. (cool tubes, fancy hoods, w/e) 2. For ventilation I was wondering if something like this would work. (DETAILED PIC) http://forum.grasscity.com/photopost/uploads/107475/HAH_FLOWER.JPG The flower box will be the same exact thing but with a 400W HPS light. For my clone box its going to be 2x2x1. Going to buy a small floro tube fixture for this, but my questions is, how many watts? And what method of clone watering is more effective, foilar water feed every day and cover for moisture/humidity. Or do I just put them in tray with 1in standing water and saturated soil, changing the water every day, no cover?
What exactly are your dimensions? From what I read, it sounds like you are gonna have a serious heat issue, regardless of your craziness with the vent hood. If you haven't purchased the lights yet, you might think about downsizing, maybe to a 250w or so. As far as the clones go, I have always had the best luck with misting and keeping them covered.
yea I agree with the above poster.. to be honest, I wouldn't waste the money on a 600w MH for Veg. Just use some fluoros, if you're set on a MH, go smaller, like 250w and put some cfls in there for supplemental light. the way you explained it, it seems like these boxes are going to be fairly small.. are you taking into account height issues? -pot/grow bag height - plant height -between 2-20 inches of space between plants and light(depends on what light and what stage your plants are at.. -Space for the light I would say, spend your money on your budding box. buy a nice big HPS for that(idk how big of a light, cuz i dont know your space) and spend money on ventilation. for your veg box, some fluoros and a few fans will be plenty sufficient. also, you're saying 12-16 plants.. uh, that takes like ALOT of room.. I have a flowering cabinet thats about 5' tall, 3' wide, 2' deep, and I can fit about 2 budding plants in there... 3 if i cram a bit. they take up ALOT of room, and you dont want to cram because your yield will be significantly lower because of the amount of leaves that will be blocking lower bud sites.
5in for container 14in for plant (flower) 10in for light space 10in for light + hangers = 39in TALL or 3.3ft so yea my flower box will need to be 3 1/2'' tall and yes, i do want to cram because I am only flowering for 8 weeks. the point of SoG is to get huge tops, I have laid the 5.5in containers out and I can fit 4 in a square foot with some room left over to spread them a tiny bit. 4 x 3 = 12sq ft. 10sq ft.(leave 2ft. for other stuff) x 4 = 40 plants! im only vegging for 2 weeks after clones have developed good roots so when they are transfered to bloom box they will be around 8-9in and max 12-14in at harvest. Another thing with the lighting is that I am doing a quarter harvest in my flower box, 10 plants every 2 weeks, so all the plants will be different heights in different quarters of the flower box so there shouldn't be to much of a light or cramming problem. and as it turns out my whole sketch is whack so I redid it. the light fixture has an airtight glass shield so it can have a completely seperate ventilation system from the room/box it is in. I am getting a 400w HPS cool sun for flower. 250w MH veg, and cfl's for all 4 sides of veg box.