First Grow in Cabinets

[stepheneking]

So I decided that I would give this a shot. I have decieded to grow my medicine

I have decieded to do a grow Journal of my . I hope you Enjoy.

So I have been doing a lot of reading online to educate myself on my grow operation. I have decided to keep it small and concelead. I looked at a lot of options. Like turning your closet into a good growspace however, I really do need my closet. Also I didn't want to use HID lamps for my grow. It just didn't fit what I was trying for.

My Adventrue begins

I decided to start with a two door , I have attached picture.
Once I had the together, it was already white, I didn't have to paint anything. I had to create a hole for extention cord(power). Figured I would need to know the temps of the cabinet and so I put those in, picture attached.
I did a lot of reading on the lighting I wanted to use and decided to use a CFL's for my grow. I was able to come across one 45watter and 26 water giving me 2700lumens and 1380lumens each. I also added another 900lumens off of a smaller CFL, I am going to use for the under foilage below the plants, I belive I have around 4500lumens. Now I bought one of those splitters and plugged this bad boy into a old reptile lamp I found out in the shed. So far so good. I am pretty sure I will have to prepare more lighting later in the grow.
I had to add fan for circulation, little 12v pulled from a old PC. Also straightened up some of the wires and hot glued them to the side of the . Now have a pretty read and functional cabinet for .

Now what about vegging and clonning......to come

 

[stepheneking]

Now I already had a couple of plants I started in the windows sill. Those are the ones in the cabinet right now.
I now need my place of vegitative growth, a veg grow cabinet. I had an old book case with a two door cabinet buit in, why not use it. I have it set up to be able to have a very small clone chaimber above the veg. I used a small drill bit and my drill, kinda like a dremil and created holse for the power cords. I had to measure my fan opening, cup and a pen helped with that, just zipped around slowly with the drill bit to make my oppenings. Make sure why you have the fan up to check the openings you drill you mount holse using the fan as your templet.
Got the fan attached now all that it needs is some white paint. So I slapped some paint on there and you can see this will help with the . Did the door too. I didn't paint the shelve above, thinking of attaching some reflective material there.
SO FAR SO GOOD

 

[stepheneking]

Now that I have everything painted on with the lighting I will be using.
I had to make a couple of adjustable hanging lights. I hit up ACE and got some lighiting ends. Simply had some old wire and used it to create my light. I only have two 900lumen bulbs running in her right now. I am planning on going with two 45watters.
Got my hooks, hung the lights and we now have a pretty functional veg cabinet. I now got ready for my new seeds germinating. Decided to use some styropome cups for this. Created a catch area for excess water and filled them with dirt and gave them some water to get all the soil moistened ready for the seedlings when ready.

How long should I let the first root showing from the seed before I plant em. I have been just sewing them into the dirt, did that with my first two.

Now I have to ponder on how to get rid of these light leaks around the doors. Still stumped on that. I used a non slick type of material and velcroed this to the flower cabinet around its doors. This still doesn't get rid of all the light leaks though. This is the reason for thinking of a different way to seal off the light and still allow me to open the doors. Any ideas are welcome!?

Please comment on my cabinets. I would like any ideas you might have to better these things....

 

[stepheneking]

So tell me what you think of my babies. These are around 4-5weeks old.

 

[stepheneking]

Just wondering if anyone has been able to clone in soil?? I am thinking of cloning just wondering the best easiest way for a beginner.:icon_smile:

 

[4u2sm0ke]

mojo for the grow...I have a mthod I like in my signature for cloneing...


take care and be safe

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Do not light your plants from underneath--it is not good for them. You are going to need a whole lot more light. You might want to look into HPS for flowering. CFLs are the most expensive of all the lights we use to grow, emitting only about 62 lumens per watt and lumen for lumen, they will also run a lot hotter. You are going to need a minimum of 5000 lumens per sq ft for flowering--that is a whole lot of CFLs. You are most likely also going to find that a computer fan is not strong enough to cool your space when you get as much lighting in your space as you need.

 

[key2life]

:icon_smile::icon_smile: GREEN MOJO FOR YOUR GROW!! :icon_smile::icon_smile:

I'm right behind you and will be watching with interest!

key

 

[stepheneking]

Thanks for the reply Goddess. I am doing everything to avoid HPS. I just don't feel comfortable using HID in such a small area. Not to mention I think the utility bill will be better?? I am close to what I need with my Lumens for flowering I will just need another set of lights.
You really think it is not good to give them light from underneight? Any particular reason? I will also have plenty of room for a second fan for cooling. Before I had the fan it was getting up to 80 and how with the fan it stays right around 65 to 70. I will check out your link for the cool tubes. I am curious what that is all about. Look forward to your thoughts on the response. Thanks

 

[stepheneking]

Key2hwy, do you have a similar grow going? Are you also trying CFL grow? I have some seeds to plant tonight in the veg cabinet now that it is done. Hurah

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Any particular reason?

plant doesnt take in enough light from undernieth to make it worth the hassle....just paint the cabnet floors white if they arent all ready:aok:...and we have a member "thechef"..that runs cfl ...be sure the spectrum is there along with the lumes.....okay ...ya peaked me intrest...Ill tag along ..if ya dont mind...I like these small grows...mojo at ya
:48:

 

[stepheneking]

I will have to search for thechef and see his operation, thank you. I will have to adjust my spectum a little bit I think. I have a mix right now in the flower. That was the nice thing about the cabinet it was all, already, white. It would be great if you taged along, might need your help down the road, thanks.

plant doesnt take in enough light from undernieth to make it worth the hassle

I was only doing this for the new node growth starting at the bottom. I figured this might help a little bit.
I am actually thinking of building an encased, fan cooled, CFL lighting system. I have it jotted down on a piece of paper. Maybe I need to put more thought into it because I will need more light soon. I want to find the FLOREX shop lighting I used one time way back in the day. thing put off like 5000lumens from one single bulb. I belive it was controlled by minatur balast. This this was awsome found it at Walmart about seven years ago.

 

[stepheneking]

I found it.:hubba: They sell it at Home Depot. Tell me what you think??? I can get two of these and mount 12volt fans on em. Thoughts?

hxxp://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Outdoor-Lighting-Area-Flood-Lighting/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbvmhZ1z1159x/R-100010739/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051:holysheep:

 

[key2life]

No, I have a 600W dimmable ballast with MH and HPS bulbs in my closet. Right now, I have my MH dimmed to 450W and have a cooltube and fan going. There's no heat at all, really stays at 73*.

I'd like to get some T5's one day, but can't at this time.

If you get these, let us know how they work and how much heat they produce.

GREEN MOJO!

 

[stepheneking]

I think I am gong to try to get one of these and give em a try. I love the lumen output from just one CFL bulb, huh? Really think this would be great and save space without having all of those CFL bulbs. Thoughts?>

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Didnt see the lume output????...as for heat I wouldnt think it puts out that much heat...another thing my friend is you need to change the "Live" link....they dont like that here...change the "http" ..to..hXXp...everyone knows to change whenthey copy and paste to browser..:aok:

 

[stepheneking]

I am worried about my babies. The two in the flowering seem to get these spots on some of the lower leaves. The plant seems to be doing good in general. They have been on 12/12 for a little over a week now.
Have some new growth in the veg cab. Still trying to figure out a way to seal up the cabinet nice and tight for the light leaks however, I am still unable to come up with a good solution. Tried some cardboard angle cut to length, didn't work well. I am now thinking of getting some styrofoam insulation and cutting it to fit tightly around the cabinet just in front of the doors. I will have to remove it each time but think it would be a good idea. Thoughts anyone?