Noob, stealth cabinet w/ pics.

[Fyremann619]

Hi All,

This is my first grow, I'm very happy to be reading all through this forum for a couple months and just now got the motivation to register because my little cherry pie kush seeds finally sprouted, so I'm actually growning


Even though I have a recommendation, I still had a few stealth criteria. Little to no sound, no light, no smell, minimal interaction.


I had this old cabinet staring at me for the last 10 years. So I gutted it, and did extensive light proofing. Yes I closed myself in this cabinet more than I care to admit, making sure every intruding bright light was taped over or sealed off. I wanted to keep the inside as large as possible obviously, and wanted sound deadening. So I made my own kind of dynamat with 1/16" thick rubber sheeting and 3m super 77 spray adhesive. Then I put diamond pattern dispersion sheeting throughout, over the dynamat.


Eventually there will be 2 levels, grow on the bottom. So I have a bit more work to do. It's a bit unfinished and with my OCD probably never will be.


Anyways I want to try t5's for bloom, and wanted 8 bulbs minimal. SO I had to buy the SunBlaster strips and make my own fixture. All the pre-made ones were way too deep, my cabinet is only 17" deep. So there it is. I can run 4 or 8 bulbs. 6500k. Need a few more reflectors as I bought out the store.


I'm using a couple temp. variable case fans to act as an air curtain between the lights and the plants. That feeds to the exhaust. Vortex was the quietest at lower than full speed, so I went with that one and a can900 does the dirty work. This all runs through a 4" hole at the top, and I further deadened the WOOSH sound with a hollowed out box with acoustic foam inside, and a laborynth of heavy text books. With the fan on pretty low it exhausts the cabinet every 5 minutes. 2 passive intake holes at the bottom, I may add more once the lower level goes in.



It's near silent, nearly lightproof, and I hope to make something good in there. I'm reading a lot and look forward to any advice you guys might offer. Thanks.

 

[grorite]

looks alright dont got much room in there do you plan on running the t5 for flower

 

[bigbudahluva]

Thats quite sick (good). Saw the title had stealth in it which i have come to think of as cheap diy because ive seen such poor examples of stealth cabinates. But fuck i want one like youve made, the sound proofing is genius and the extraction and ventilation is really good. Like the idea of different levels, you could go with 1 plant scrogs, even make it as perpetual and have the top flowering and bottom vegging if your sure there will be no light leask between the levels. Anyway im impressed goodluck +rep

 

[grorite]

just saw you were using it in flower how many plants you planing i would only do one in that space i also do a stelth grow

 

[bigbudahluva]

grorites the dude to talk to,he has got some good lst cfl grown plants. Still tho perpetual 1 plant scrog stealth grow, gotta be done in that cabinate

 

[grorite]

grorites the dude to talk to,he has got some good lst cfl grown plants. Still tho perpetual 1 plant scrog stealth grow, gotta be done in that cabinate

once i switch to my 600 i was planning to do a 1 to 2 plant scrog

 

[bigbudahluva]

u got a 600hid in plans? go on grorite, U will really like the hid once u get the hang of distance and heat. Cfl for propergation and early veg because hid will melth young plants. Using both will be the best of both.

 

[grorite]

u got a 600hid in plans? go on grorite, U will really like the hid once u get the hang of distance and heat. Cfl for propergation and early veg because hid will melth young plants. Using both will be the best of both.

yup thats my plan already got the light on order will be starting it up when i harvest my girls should be by the end of dec still gotta order my tent prob go with a 4x4 also i have an inline but gonna get a new one also a filter

 

[bigbudahluva]

now youve started growing skip the bullshit money wasting stage, like hal way threw every grow i wished i had gone with bigger, everyones different and has different needs. 4 x 4 should keep u more than happy for a few grows. Till u get veg room and flower room ideas lol 1 plant scrog in 4 x 4 thats going to be a hell of a veg, hydro could speed it up alot. Im thinking of getting wilma system for next grow as low cost is attractive. Guess we jacked this thread, the op got feedback tho. peace

 

[Fyremann619]

Hi Guys, thanks for the replies. Yes grorite I would like to try the t5's for flowering. I'm aware there's not much room my plan is to grow the plants to about a foot or a little more then switch them over. I planned to have 2 plants. My emergency plan if I "outgrow" the cabinet (lol), is that I have an exact another cabinet to this one, except only 3.5' tall. So I could use this entire cabinet for flowering and grow in a seperate cabinet. I'm thinking of doing that anyways. So if I see the plants getting to tall in flowering I pull the shelf and move my growing plants to the other cabinet.

Bigbuda, thanks for the compliments. It seems that you're talking about hydro. I plan to run soil. I'll have to read up on scrog, etc. It's greek to me. There will be no light leaks between levels. I know this because I'm ashamed to admit I do fit in the bottom and will go in there to ensure no light leaks. I'll use baffles to keep light from penetrating additional holes that I'll need to transfer air from the bottom level to the top. And I have a plan to seal the door and surrounding areas.

I'm nervous to put a HPS in here because of the heat and fire hazard I guess. But if I don't get good results with t5 I may go with a 400W HPS with separate cool tubing.

Also this is done in my office in the basement. I plan to scrub the entire room with a huge can filter system so when I'm working in the cabinet I don't have to worry about smell leaking out of the office. I don't actually HAVE to keep it that stealthy, but I want to.

Any other comments are greatly appreciated. Happy growing guys.

 

[grorite]

Hi Guys, thanks for the replies. Yes grorite I would like to try the t5's for flowering. I'm aware there's not much room my plan is to grow the plants to about a foot or a little more then switch them over. I planned to have 2 plants. My emergency plan if I "outgrow" the cabinet (lol), is that I have an exact another cabinet to this one, except only 3.5' tall. So I could use this entire cabinet for flowering and grow in a seperate cabinet. I'm thinking of doing that anyways. So if I see the plants getting to tall in flowering I pull the shelf and move my growing plants to the other cabinet.

Bigbuda, thanks for the compliments. It seems that you're talking about hydro. I plan to run soil. I'll have to read up on scrog, etc. It's greek to me. There will be no light leaks between levels. I know this because I'm ashamed to admit I do fit in the bottom and will go in there to ensure no light leaks. I'll use baffles to keep light from penetrating additional holes that I'll need to transfer air from the bottom level to the top. And I have a plan to seal the door and surrounding areas.

I'm nervous to put a HPS in here because of the heat and fire hazard I guess. But if I don;t get good results with t5 I may go with a 400W HPS with separate cool tubing.

Also this is done in my office in the basement. I plan to scrub the entire room with a huge can filter system so when I'm working in the cabinet I don't have to worry about smell leaking out of the office. I don't actually HAVE to keep it that stealthy, but I want to.

Any other comments are greatly appreciated. Happy growing guys.

if you plan on growing them that tall you will no doubt about it need some side light in there maybe a few cfls here is mine your cab looks better than mine but this was a dry run for me after switching from outdoor didnt wanna jump right in if i couldnt grow indoors good but i am happy with the results so far

 

[bigbudahluva]

400hps would be over kill in small cabinet lije that i think. Perpetual means continuous so one plant vegging while one is in flower so when u harvest u can put a vegged plant straight into flower mean no veg time and quicker cycle. For your grow i suggest cfl all the way, if you have another cabinet then u can cut the cycle again. Scrog in laimans terms is a plant with a screen of holes a short distance above, the plant is weaved and bent threw the holes so a bed of bed of buds is the finished product, research it abit as it might work good for u. good luck bro,

 

[grorite]

wish i had some room for side light but i dont been loseing some lower leaves due to not enough light down there

 

[bigbudahluva]

theres no height to grow 2 plants without lst or scrog and get good yeild. 1plant scrog for that size and perpetual gta be about 1.5 oz every 5 weeks, if he used other cabinet to. Thats efficiency in that setup.

 

[grorite]

theres no height to grow 2 plants without lst or scrog and get good yeild. 1plant scrog for that size and perpetual gta be about 1.5 oz every 5 weeks, if he used other cabinet to. Thats efficiency in that setup.

yeah i would go with 1 and a scrog or with some clean lst one plant would do best imo if you try 2 and lst there gonna end up to crowded in there

 

[bigbudahluva]

oh the op thought i was on about hydro, im not saying grow hydro i was tlking to grorite and info ive given u is if ur using soil.

 

[Fyremann619]

I read up on scrog a little bit guys that seems like the thing to do. This is a learning experience for me, though. So I'm not planning to do that this first time around but I'll keep it in mind.

Thanks again. Your comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[Fyremann619]

They've been doing well as far as I know.

I noticed they stopped stretching and I've been playing with dropping the lights. I have them at 6" above the soil now. The webcam does motion capture so I've noticed the closer I put the lights, the leaves droop. Hope this is okay. Still running 100w of t5.

I also noticed a little bit of raising on the leaf edges I hope this doesn't mean they are too hot. My temps go from about 77 to 68 right now, day to night. I hope that's accurate.

Also, I put them in cups that lets light through initially, oops. So I've put a black cup over the orange one to block off the light.

One is kind of crooked so this morning I faced it into the breeze. I've been looking for a nice small oscillating fan, but it's damn hard to find a fan in the off-season. Who knew.

I watered them about 60 hours ago and they don't need any more water at all yet. I've read to wait till the pot is 1/3 the weight it was after watering, so I'm keeping track of that too.

Any comments are appreciated, thanks guys.

 

[bigbudahluva]

they are coming on, when they hit 4 inches or so get that t5 about 2inches from the tops.

 

[Fyremann619]

Well now 8 days above ground, steady progress, but one of the seedlings have started to droop it's leaves. I don't think it's over watering because I've only watered it twice, last time 3 days ago. I read it may be dropping it's leaves because of too much light, so I raised the t5's to about 20 inches above. We'll see how #2 does...

If anyone has any ideas. Like I said these 2 plants have been through just about the exact same conditions. I hope I'm not losing the one.

The guy at the store gave me some free samples of a cal/mag suppliment for use with RO water, which I am using, but I'm not sure about trying it.