Scroungers Guide To "The Stealth Cabinet" - Lots of Pics

[jsgamber]

Heh thats ok i tried to give you more too but apparently i have to share too lol

Damn, everyone found out we're actually all a bunch of losers! I can't give no more rep either. Better start trolling around, huh?

 

[SensiStan]

Damn, everyone found out we're actually all a bunch of losers! I can't give no more rep either. Better start trolling around, huh?

Haha we should really spread some love around the forum, im sure there are many more cabinet grows with their own spin to the idea

as for me, i painted all surfaces that arent mylar coated with white paint today just to maximise light in my growroom as i will be ordering my 250w HID on friday along with my Canna Vega and Flores organic nutrients , RH/Thermometer and of course the main event : 5 Feminised Barneys Farm Blue Cheese Seeds

I also dropped an old AK48 seed in some soil last night, it might be too early to tell but i do believe i saw a tiny little root thismorning so heres hoping

 

[SensiStan]

OK, i know i said i was going to be buying a HID from the start, i lied, Being broke i am actually thinking of getting a 300w Veg CFL too start my plants with for the first month.

Heres my question to RIU :

If i start my babies with a big 18000 lumen blue spectrum cfl and then move on to a HID for flowering will my yield be any different compared to vegging under a MH and moving on to a HPS for flowering.

Any help will be much appreciated .

 

[jsgamber]

I too am trying to cut costs down but I still wanted to go HID. You don't have to go fancy electronic ballasts to start out with. I bought a standard 250W MH Ballast kit at http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/metal-halide-ballast-kits-c-357_250.html for $49 along with the 250WMH Bulb from Lowes for $26. The ballast kit is just a mounting bracket coil and ignitor and the wiring is a piece of cake. You just buy a short extension cord, cut the female end off and hook it up and you are done.

Just keep the coil outside the grow space for temp control. Now with HID, you also have to factor variable cost too:

(HID Watts - CFL Watts) / 1000W * (<hours per day> * 30 days/month) * ($/KWh in your area)

will give you the difference in monthly electrical costs too.

Remember to use actual CFL Watts. If that 300W CFL actually pulls 300W, it will be cheaper to run the 250W MH on a monthly basis. I run 24hrs and my avg rate is $0.20/kwh. (250 - 300) / 1000 * 24 * 30 * $0.2 = $7.20/month savings running 250W vs. 300W.

Okay I may be rambling. Both my journals are currently all messed up with someone else pictures so I don't want to touch anything until Admin fixes it. So I thought I'd go trolling instead.

peace

 

[EvlMunkee]

OK, i know i said i was going to be buying a HID from the start, i lied, Being broke i am actually thinking of getting a 300w Veg CFL too start my plants with for the first month.

Heres my question to RIU :

If i start my babies with a big 18000 lumen blue spectrum cfl and then move on to a HID for flowering will my yield be any different compared to vegging under a MH and moving on to a HPS for flowering.

Any help will be much appreciated .

Hey SS,
I think the yield may be less but IDK how much. Still, 18,000L is a lot of light and I am sure it would have a respectable yield.
They don't need intense light the first couple of weeks anyway.
If the lower initial cost allows you to get better light sooner, then I would go for it.

 

[SensiStan]

OK, first all thanks to any1 who helped me out in my initial days of fine tuning my growroom much appreciated.

Now the main event, all lights, nutrients seeds and other essentials have been ordered. So early next week this grow oficially starts, germination (with some luck) is tomorrow.

I Will be growing Barneys Farm - Blue Cheese as i need a VERY short high yielder with a connoseur quality smoke. Remeber kids, my game is Quality over Quantity and i only believe in growing for personal use.

My grow will be 100% Organic as organically grown bud is much better tasting with less harsh chemicals and by-products (even after flushing). So i am going to be using Bio Bizz Light Mix Soil. And the Nutrients will be BioCanna Vega, Flores and bloom. All of these are 100% organic and come VERY highly rated.

PH Control = Litmus paper and Garden lime [KEEP IT SIMPLE!!]
1 x Oscillating Fan For Inside.
1 x 20w 30Db 110cfm 100mm Bathroom Fan connected to my filter shown previously.
1 x Thermometer/RH Meter combo thing.

I Will be starting the plants and vegging them with a 300w 18k lumen Blue Spectrum CFL and later moving on to a 250w HPS for flowering.

Any comments are most welcome this is my first grow after all but i like to think iv got everything covered

Pics to come very soon.

-SensiStan

 

[jsgamber]

Oooh...Christmas time is soon approaching. God I love the FedEx guy!! (did I just say that out load???)

 

[SensiStan]

This is christmas for me cant wait man.

 

[SensiStan]

Just started setting all my timers up and regulating temperature by programming a digital timer to turn on my extractor every few minutes , for a few minutes . By far the most tedious part for me so far.

The Seeds Arrived today too so im gna start germinating tonight il post a couple pics of what method im using etc

All i can say for now is the air movement in my cabinet is fantastic way better than i expected , later i will post pics of the work i did today ie mounting the oscillating fan (that i have stripped down to all but the motor and fan blades ) and hanging chains for my lights (which arrive soon )

I also smell of bleach from scrubbing the place where my cabinet will go all morning, i wanna keep things nice and hygenic for the babies

 

[SensiStan]

OooooooK So, i got my seeds and germinated them over the weekend there should be pics in the next couple days as i have now put them in my organic soil mix thismorning ..... now just waiting for leaves i imagine my first set of cotyledon (baby leaves) will appear tomorrow or wednesday which is good beacuse my lights are late (not pleased as my nutes are in that box too)

Until then .....

 

[jsgamber]

Hmmmm....26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 1 or "a", "couple", "several", "more than several", etc.

Dude you're late with your pics!!!

Come check my stuff out. We got to get our journals bumped up to the top and keep 'em there!

peace

 

[SensiStan]

Hmmmm....26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 1 or "a", "couple", "several", "more than several", etc.

Dude you're late with your pics!!!

Come check my stuff out. We got to get our journals bumped up to the top and keep 'em there!

peace

haha been so busy now that im looking after young plants and working (and getting baked inbetween) haha theyre 1 week and 1 day old from seed il put some pics up tonight after i give them ther new pots and their first 1/2 strength nutes

 

[EvlMunkee]

haha been so busy now that im looking after young plants and working (and getting baked inbetween) haha theyre 1 week and 1 day old from seed il put some pics up tonight after i give them ther new pots and their first 1/2 strength nutes

Hey there SS,
Glad you're finally growin for real.
You make the BC sound pretty good....sort of what I am looking for. I have never looked at it before. Ahhhhh.....so many strains, so little time! Can't wait to see some pics of them.
Keep it up bud.......I'm pullin for ya.

 

[SensiStan]

Ok, as promised ... my girls

4 x healthy blue cheese seedlings (1 seed was bad and didnt germinate)

You may also notice the blinding giant cfl i have in there (it hurts the eyes to be in there for too long he he he)

Temperatures are holding constant although i know i could do with more humidity if any1 has suggestions im all ears on that front
Soon to be giving the girls their first batch of 1/4 strength nutes in the next few days and after that there will be a weekly update to show the explosive growth i expect
The camera really doesent do my light any justice iv gotta say im impressed , my eyes burn every time i look in my growroom , also you may notice signs of good root growth. these plants are 1 week from seed and already escaping their peat pots . Go Cheese GO !

 

[EvlMunkee]

Ok, as promised ... my girls

4 x healthy blue cheese seedlings (1 seed was bad and didnt germinate)

You may also notice the blinding giant cfl i have in there (it hurts the eyes to be in there for too long he he he)

Temperatures are holding constant although i know i could do with more humidity if any1 has suggestions im all ears on that front
Soon to be giving the girls their first batch of 1/4 strength nutes in the next few days and after that there will be a weekly update to show the explosive growth i expect
The camera really doesent do my light any justice iv gotta say im impressed , my eyes burn every time i look in my growroom , also you may notice signs of good root growth. these plants are 1 week from seed and already escaping their peat pots . Go Cheese GO !

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Hey there SS,
That's what I wanted to see! 4 beautiful girls! Those BC look really healthy.
Congrats on getting it up and runnin. Looks like you're off to a great start.
For humidity you can use the old wet towel trick. It may be enough to get you through veg and into bloom where it is not as important. Your 40% should be about right for flowering.

 

[SensiStan]

hey thanks for the quick reply, wet cloth sounds like a plan , i need to change the direction of my outbound hot air while i'm in there it seems to be stagnating somewhere along the line causing a heat build up in the cupboard (my growroom is a box in a cupboard)

oh well... we grow and learn

 

[jsgamber]

You and I both have to solve humidity. Here's one DIY solution I found http://www.instructables.com/id/Evaporative-Humidifier/ . I'm also looking into ultrasonic foggers but the cheapest I can find is $24 and I'm not yet sure how much volume it produces for what I need. Meaning, do I need one for the whole cabinet or will one only work in a chamber?

I happen to have the parts for the first (we have cats) so I'll try that first and see what it does (ghetto style, gotta keep it cheap).

Thanks for the pics. Looks great!! Now gotta go post my pics.

peace

 

[EvlMunkee]

hey thanks for the quick reply, wet cloth sounds like a plan , i need to change the direction of my outbound hot air while i'm in there it seems to be stagnating somewhere along the line causing a heat build up in the cupboard (my growroom is a box in a cupboard)

oh well... we grow and learn

You and I both have to solve humidity. Here's one DIY solution I found http://www.instructables.com/id/Evaporative-Humidifier/ . I'm also looking into ultrasonic foggers but the cheapest I can find is $24 and I'm not yet sure how much volume it produces for what I need. Meaning, do I need one for the whole cabinet or will one only work in a chamber?

I happen to have the parts for the first (we have cats) so I'll try that first and see what it does (ghetto style, gotta keep it cheap).

Thanks for the pics. Looks great!! Now gotta go post my pics.

peace

Hey SS & js,
Cool site there js. A lot of good DIYs. I'll have to keep that link.

SS,
If you increase your RH, don't forget about where it goes when it leaves the grow space. If you have a place to dump it that's great. A heads up though...It is not usually a good idea to expose furniture or millwork to high RH. It can cause a lot of problems with the wood and I am assuming your cupboard is wood. I may be speaking out of turn here but it is just something to watch for.

 

[BIG KUSH DADDY]

Thanks SensiStan
there is alot of DIY info in here at a price even i can afford

 

[SensiStan]

The Most money i spent in one go was on my light - £34.95 + £5.99 for a socket

http://www.basementlighting.com/ - My one stop happy place

but like i constantly say improvise , make something outta nothing - and spend as little as possible without sacrificing quality