4 sq ft mini SOG cabinet

I going to be building a grow cabinet. I have no experience growing anything and minimal experience using marijuana. I have done a great deal of internet research to come up with the start of a cabinet design below and am requesting feedback from experience growers.

Budget:
$2,000 US.

Purpose:
My wife has been declared disabled, suffers from pain, finds the side effects of traditional pain medication undesirable, and views the marijuana as a superior alternative. She’s been using marijuana for four months; this is the extent of our experience.

Yield:
The yield needs to support one person for medicinal use. After 4 months of use, this is about 40g / month of mid-grade ($400/oz - fair market value) product. I’d like to be able to yield two to three times this quantity to allow for increased tolerance.

Method:
I intend to use Sea of Green. There are a couple of reasons for this. I have limited space, and I will be using LED lighting, which has less than ideal penetration.

Thoughts on Prebuilt Cabinets:
My initial plan was to buy a prebuilt turnkey cabinet. These seem to universally be of questionable quality. I am open to suggestions to purchase a widely used, generally accepted prebuilt solution, if such a solution exists, even if it isn’t the least expensive solution.

Cabinet:
Metal, 24 inches wide, 24 inches deep, 60 inches high, Anti-Microbial White finish

http://www.sanduskycabinets.com/products.php?action=viewprod&prodid=283

How reflective is the anti-microbial white?

These are the same cabinets SuperCloset uses; why didn’t they use anti-microbial white?

As an aside, 3 quotes I received for this cabinet including tax and freight ranged from $428 - $470.

I plan to divide the cabinet into two sections. A grow section and a mother section.

Grow Section 2ft x 2ft x 3ft
Mother Section 2ft x 2ft x2ft

Lights:
I want to use LED lights for less power and heat.

Some places report LED lights cause plants to absorb less nutrients, which improves taste. True?

I like Plant Photonics because information about LEDs is technically correct and doesn’t appear to be overflowing with marketing hype. Reviews of Plant Photonics are limited. This makes me skeptical. At the moment, Plant Photonics are my planned lights, but I don’t feel strongly.

Note that Plant Photonics measures LED wattage differently (lower) than other companies.

If a small amount of light leeks from the mother section into the grow section during flowering, how big of a deal is this?

Lights - Grow Section:
Plant Photonics 140-Watt LED

I will add T5 or CFL if needed.

http://www.plantphotonics.com/catalog/product_info.php?currency=USD&products_id=31

Lights – Mother Section:
2 mothers
2x Plant Photonics 32-Watt LED.

http://www.plantphotonics.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=41

Maybe use T5 instead? If I used 2ft T5’s, how many would I need for two mothers?

Maybe use this section for clones instead of mothers? Is it viable to take cuttings from the SOG to start the next round of clones without having a mother? This would give me faster turnarounds.

Hydroponics - Grow Section: Hydrofarm MGSYS Hydroponic Megagarden System

I’ll add an aquarium air pump and stone(s) to this. How much air is needed?

Maybe I should DIY this instead of buying one off the shelf?

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MGS...qid=1387254089&sr=1-3&keywords=emily's+garden

Hydroponics – Mother Section: ?????

I’d like to have something measuring roughly 1ft x 2ft x short.

I will only use this for at most two mothers.

If I use this sections for clones from the SOG instead of mothers, what Hydroponic system?


Odor Control: HTG Supply’s 4-inch Inline Fan & Carbon Filter Combo

I plan to use a fan speed controller to run the fan at 50-75% to reduce noise.

Do I need a bigger carbon filter and fan?

Do I need anything else for odor control?

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-A-GrowBright-4in-Inline-Fan-&-Carbon-Filter-Combo


Drying:

I’m thinking of having a separate sealed cabinet. I would have an inline fan / carbon filter sitting in the cabinet circulating air. Maybe a dehumidifier?

Hey man, welcome to the world of growing cannabis. the first thing I want to suggest for you is to skip the LED and SOG ideas, go with HPS SCROG for simplified perpetual grows. the key here is to have PERPETUAL grows for maximum yield over time and not necessarily SOG which is only significantly more efficient in bigger scale grows. if you dig deeper, you will be working so much harder to save for lighting up a few more vegging watts of fluro or LED which is not a main cost in a small operation. LED can be great for vegging but seriously if you intend to harvest the best out of a small area, you will require HPS. in SCROG you allow the plant to veg a little bit without keeping any mother, you just clone out of the clone and flower the big clones, by the time you harvest say in 10 weeks, the clones that you took should be grown enough to give you clones and go into the flowering chamber, so you divide your chamber into vegging/cloning and flowering.
As for the cabinet, I suggest that either you line the cabinet with insulation like styrofoam or you go with a wooden cabinet or tent. no need for anti microbal paint, just matt white washable high quality paint. with proper ventilation and tidiness you will not need antimicrobial paint. I mean, if you have mold growing on the walls, then you can use this sign to fix a more severe plant problem caused by poor venting. The size of the cabinet is probably not enough to yield 2-3x40g for a beginner, it will yield this for an advanced grower. My best advice to you is to get a 250watt HPS or better, try expand it to 3'x2.5' cabinet get a 400w, aim at no less than 50w hps light per foot for best yield

OP, not sure what things cost in th US but I think you over thinking this initially, I would start smaller and go from there, things sound good on RIU and make sense but you may come to find that it doesn't work in your environment. Lighting is the key, that's my experience. Also the best piece of advice I have read this week was simply this, for your first grow don't get fancy, just get the plant to flower and by that stage I promise you will have a better understanding of everything. I am also thinking of going from cfl to LED at some stage but not for awhile, too much to learn. Cfl's are cheap and they work if you follow basic guidelines, gives you time to understand the plant. I found a tent to be an excellent option to grow in, they grow fast in a tent, lots of light. Hope this helps mate, good luck.

Yeah man let me tell you. When I first started I was looking at supercloset.com, there mad expensive/professional. I slowly started to realize, "catching my self acting stupid, spending extra cash that's not needed to be spent". I'm now using cfls and there awesome!! I love messing with them every chance I get, the plants that is . Most of the time I'm home, I'm in there doing something for them. The cfls keep you on your toes, when used right cfls are meant to be literally 2-3 inches away. So you constantly have to adjust them, for many people this is different. I was just throwing my 2 cents!
Ps: just have fun doing it! Happy growing

hate to break it to ya but you wont be able to do much with a 3' grow area. Butttt if thats really all you have, I would main line them and do SCROG. Could prob fit 2 in there in 2 gal pots.

Would never try to grow in that small of an area though, too much of a headache. If you can try to get a bigger space(although I'm sure you would if you could)

Hey also, I have a 2'x2'x5' tent that may fit your needs. It was only $100. Its a secret jardin darkstreet I believe. Has a good quality zipper compared to my lighthouse(the part you should be most concerned about. Also has built in openings with draw strings for vents and smaller ones for cords. Pop a little fan in there with your LED and your good to go really...


still would only use that type of setup for veg. Search for micro grows, CFL grows, cabinet grows. you should be able to find a way to make this work

Good luck man

Hi all, thanks for the feedback.

I get that i'd make less mistakes, spend less money, and have a better setup if I started small then expanded, but, in my situation, its a real chore to get a box where it needs to be or too discard an old one. If possible, I'd like to get it as close to the final build the first time and save myself some trouble. Your help planning all this out instead of me experimenting is a huge help. It is appreciated.

SCROG it is then. I have concern than SCROG is less newbie friendly than SOG; is that concern warranted? Either way, SCROG is worth it since it gets me out of having a dedicated mother.

Why wood over metal? It seems to me that wood would retain heat more than metal, which would be undesired. What am I missing?

Are tents better or just cheaper? I like the idea of having a more rigid box.

I live in a high rent city, so space is always an issue for me. I can make some sacrifices and go to a 3ft x 2ft base. Any bigger and it'd have to be in my living room.

Going to a 3ft x 2ft base or going to wood will give me more options for height. I can do 6ft height, maybe 78 inches. I'd like to be able to easily get this through doors, in an elevator, and around my apartment since I don't have the means to easily construct it where it will be. I could go as high as 9ft with wood, but it would really have to be worth the extra effort.

LEDs are out. So I'm guessing HPS for SCROG partition and T5 for veg partition.

400W vs 600W HPS for the SCROG? I'd like to keep the heat and power down, but if it will put out 50% more yield or so, 600W would be worth it.

Is there any info available about power/heat efficiencies of various ballasts? If so, I can't find it. Phantom digital with the ballast outside the box?

I'm thinking of going with a 6 inch cool tube configured: Carbon Filter -> Fan -> cool tube -> exhausted out of the box. Thoughts?


How many 2ft T5s for veg? Should these all be grow spectrum, or should I toss in a flower spectrum bulb too?


Assuming 2ft deep x 3ft wide x 6ft tall, how high should the SCROG chamber and veg chambers be? How far should the SCROG screen be from the HPS?