360W LED Stealth Cab and My First Grow

What's up guys, I am new to Roll It Up and cannabis cultivating in general however I have done my homework and am hoping this cab will be worth the effort. I have been having digestive issues and mmj helps me with most of my symptoms, and have grown tired of high prices in my area. I also find most of the mids and even high grade doesn't get flushed and depending on the strain it has a bad after taste. I want to grow quality over quantity, and I am all ears since this is my first grow.


The Plan:
My dressers dimensions are roughly 56"x18"x32" which isn't much space to be growing a few plants, so LEDs were pretty much the only way to go in my opinion. I purchased 10 UFO LEDs off alibaba for a pretty decent deal so my plan is to have two cabs eventually, one with my mother and clones and the other for my flowers. Essentially what need to do is: gut all the drawers, pull off the cheap back cover, add a floor for my trays to sit on, insert plywood into drawer spaces so I could screw the drawers into place, attach/ mount LEDs, and then construct a back cover to include two doors and 6 high end PC fans and fan speed controller.



Sounds easy, but it was actually a bit of a challenge even for someone who builds custom homes for a living. My main obstacle was mounting the LED lights, as the mounting system included would have left me with only inches of grow space. After a few vaporizer bowls I came up with the idea of simply cutting holes in plywood, and let gravity hold them in place instead of hanging them.



The plan is attempt a micro SOG, however if it fails it will more then likely become a SCROG. I have started seeds with the good old paper towel method, and placed into rockwool cubes that have been PH'd to 5.5, once the seedlings have some good roots I will then be transplanting into large party cups with a perlite and vermiculite mixture. I have some bagseed and 50 non feminized BC Hash Plant seeds given to me by a reputable grower in my area this spring at our 420 festival after discussing my plans with him. I have also ordered some Red Poison Auto, Super Lemon Haze, and and mix of some auto's and freebies.



As for nutes, I have decided to try out the PH Perfect Sensi Grow and Bloom, along with some CalMag, a whole lot of PH down and some other goodies my local shop packaged up for me. I am hoping it will work out with the perlite and vermiculite and the hempy bucket style grow I will be doing.



Construction:
Materials Used

• Dresser (56"x18"x32")
• 3 sheets of plywood
• 4 90W LED lights. One is a blue spectrum 60 degree lens, one is a red 60 degree lens, and the other 2 are red 60 degree lens. I cannot remember the exact spectrum, but I had them custom made with 1W cree diodes.
• 9 5.5" PC fans, 5 exhaust, 1 bringing in fresh air, and 3 circulating air inside the cab.
• PC fan controller for up to 12 fans
• 4 Door hinges
• 2 Door handles
• 2 bolt guide locks (not too sure what the are actually called)
• 1 Roll of Panda film
• A fuckton of staples
• A fuckton of 1 5/8" screws
• A fuckton of wafer screws

I have included some pictures of part of the building process, and the now 90% complete stealth cab. All that is left is to create 6 custom carbon filters for the fans, and hopefully that will solve the light leaking out, as that is the only spot I have seen light come out of. I did a test run for about 18 hours and temps are very stable at around 75 degrees with all the fans running at about 75%

The Grow:
I have already started the seeds and they all have popped, I am now waiting for them to break surface, once they do I will be filling party cups up with my mixture.
This is my first grow so if you have any advice on how to make life a bit easier I am all ears. I do not have high expectations, but I am hoping I can get at least two ounces, hopefully these LEDs don't let me down, otherwise I'll be using a 250W HPS and cooltube. I also have another dresser I plan to use, any ideas for it?

Looks clean and well prepared. why not with your other dresser make a veg cab for a perpetual grow. cheers. TBS

That is the plan. It would be for the mommas and clones. I'm thinking about adding a drying part to it was well, cause I eventually want to be harvesting every two weeks

Hey DandS, digging your cabinet + LED grow. I'm going to be ditching my tent soon and can use all the input I can get. Do you have a link to the LED seller's light you're using? And do you know what CREE LEDs they're using? Are they XR-Es? I don't trust the Alibaba sellers for the most part.

I am curious as well. I assume you went with the 1w diodes becuase it would be exorbitant to use 5w of actual Cree leds

I bought the lights from a company on alibaba that claimed to be the manufacturing facility for black star a few years ago, and after discussing on the phone with one of their sales reps they seemed quite confident in their product. I shopped around for a few weeks, but these guys were above and beyond most of the companies I talked to. Shipping was not that bad, roughly $250 and they took about 2 weeks to arrive with no hidden fees. After arrival I checked the diodes and they in fact were what I had ordered... IW Cree diodes. After firing them up I noticed the fans were very noisy so on two of them I have replaced all three fans with much quieter and higher performance fans, it required a bit of splicing but luckily the amps were the same. The two I have done this to are extremely quiet so I plan to do this to all of them eventually, but 30 PC fans at $20 each is not really on my high priority list.

Can't remember the name of the company I got them from but I get emails from them every once in a while to see how they are performing ect, but I haven't even used them until now. Pretty sure its something like Shenzhen Bai Lighting Co, who own Bysen lighting. I was skeptical at first, but they actually had great customer service, and if I ever need more, I will be considering them again. I had these lights custom made to the spectrum I asked, if I remember correctly it is a 6 band. Haven't used a killowatt yet to see their actual power draw, but they are rated for 90W so I expected them to be pulling around 65 or 70W.

EDIT: After looking on their website it appears they have ditched the 1W diodes for 3W now, but still looks a quality product. I honestly have no complaints so far, I just hope they have the penetration power to flower plants decently.
http://www.bsled.com/

It does seem that there is a huge controversy about Bysen and competing LED companies in China, regardless of some of the stuff I have read on Roll It Up and other grow forums, I still stand behind my word that I had great customer service from them when I purchased these lights about a year and a half ago and have been in contact with the sales rep that sold me these. I am approaching midpoint of my warranty and haven't needed to send any in yet, so I can't confirm if they do or do not have any sort of action backing their word on that, and I'm sure the ones I have added new fans to are void anyways. I have spent the last hour reading some nightmare people have been having with LED companies, the only thing I can think of that is negative from my experience was I ordered during Chinese New Year and my order was delayed 3 days. My only main concern is again the penetration power of 1W diodes compared to the 3W or 5W ones. But that would be my mistake and not theirs, because it was my choice to go with the 1W diodes... It really is too bad their is so much negativity surrounding LEDs I really think it will be the future of growing. I have plans to create stacks of grow beds around 4' tall with LED lighting for my greenhouse and mmj grows. I am about to begin my second year of civil engineering, and will be going back for electrical engineering and plan to revolutionize the way we grow food, and providing the energy required to do so. I have a few ideas I'm looking to turn into a reality but it requires a bit of capital beyond just my capabilities at the moment.

What's up RIU been a few days. We have signs of life! Two have sprouted, so I will refer to this as day 1 of their life, officially. I have and will continue to number the plants based upon their speed of sprouting. Here is a few pics of the little girls (hopefully). I plan to add my perlite and vermiculite mixture into to party cups probably tomorrow or Monday, I'm sure they'll be fine till then, no roots are out of the bottom of the rockwool. I also plan to sprout more beans later on this week, probably gonna be my 8 random bagseeds.




It's quite early this morning as I prepare for an extreme sporting tournament later on this morning, but had some time to kill and smoked some great inspiring sativa so I began construction of my second cab. After a few hours of messing around, I ran out of stuff to do at the moment, since my neighbors would probably kill me if I began cutting plywood at this hour. So far I have stripped the dresser down, inserted plywood into drawer spaces, screwed the drawers into place, and covered the inside of the cab with panda film. Tomorrow if I have time in the late evening I plan to finish up, but realistically it'll probably be completed on Monday or Tuesday since I still need two locking bolt lock thingys, and two handles, and a fan speed controller, and maybe some more 140mm fans if I have used up all of my stock. The plan is to have the lights mounted around the same height as my original cab, and use the remaining 14 inches for a drying cab for when that time comes.



(sorry for some upside down pictures, must have been pretty stoned.... )

Time to dissemble....


Here is a million dollar trade secret... if you run out of wafer screws, or any sized screw, simply cut down longer ones with a pair of pliers, saves a trip to HD.



Overview after I inserted plywood into the empty spaces.


Had to trim down some more 2" screws to an 1 1/4" to screw the drawer faces on securely.


Here are the cut ends (make sure to pick them up especially if you have pets! When you cut em with pliers they tend to shoot across the room) and some of the great chronic that inspired me while I should be taking a nap before a 2 hour drive. Fuck it.


This is how I secured the inserts, total of 10 4" 90 degree brackets


Too lazy to describe the rest, ya'll are smart you get the point...







Pretty stoked since now the journey really begins. Thinking I will give them their first feeding once they have their third set of leaves, advice? Will be back to post more progress pics earlier on in the week, peace :smokin:

wow I am intrigued, are the UFO's just sitting on wood? I am wondering how hot it is having multiples of those as I found my ufos to be pretty hot.

Super freakin cool man

They are just sitting on wood, they do get quite hot however I have pretty decent cooling and will be adding more fans soon, I just finished both up this week and will post an update later today!

Alright here is the update. I was pretty busy this week, I upgraded my flower dresser to 540W, temps have been fairly stable around 8 degrees over ambient. It did reach 95 at some point because of the furnace being on, and this was after about 24 hours of constant use, this was a stress test of sorts, and it seemed to hold up. I will add some more fans at some point. I also finished my veg cab minus installing fans, even without them temps are stable at 80. I received my order of seeds I ordered, so once this trial run is over the real fun can begin. I currently have germed 7 bagseed that are around 8-9 years old, and 12 hashplant, two of which have a headstart.

Hashplant #1 8 days old



Hashplant #2 8 days old



Vegging them each under different spectrum lights, to see if there is any notable growth difference. not very scientific since the light spreads but i may see a difference.