Grow Cabinet Design Help Needed...

Yes, the cab is going to be 6'H x 4'W x 2'D so the square footage would be 24' and the cubic footage would be 48' So I will have about 4' - 5' of height to work with the light before it reaches the top of the cabinet. I am only growing 1 or 2 plants that I will use topping and LST to keep them as short and bushy as I can. The plants themselves will only be like 3 1/2' - 4'. According to all of my research on 400w lamps, I should keep the light between 12" - 18" So let's do some basic math... If the plant is a maximum of 4' tall and the light is a max of 18" above the plant, then I should be just right. Also, that's the beauty of building my own cabinet and asking questions. If it isn't going to work out, then I can change the dimensions to make it work.

yea all i know is ive tryed growing in a single rubbermaid (not the stack) and i was always worrying about overgrowing WORKING WITH LITTLE CFLS. and with that little height i dont know if youll need hid. if you think about it the reason hids cover so much space is theyre raised far above grows. the farther light gets from the target the more dispersed light gets. it covers more space but is less intense. if a 400w hid is in a 2 ft space your going to get a lot of intesity (possible burn) and very little coverage (bad for wide lst'd plants). not saying it wont work but itll be harder then if you just flipped your box on its side and wen with it being 6ft tall and 4x 2. then you could have two very large plants and grow freely. if thats an option id HIGHLY recommend it. if not try it your way.

I appreciate your input kid. After your previous comment, I started looking into alternative ways that would be more beneficial for me. I have decided that I will build the cab to be 7' tall rather than 6'. I think I would also like to try a SCROG grow rather than a traditional grow. I did a lot of research yesterday and have seen a lot of good results from guys doing SCROG in a Stealth Cab with a 400w lamp. I f you have any more input there, I would appreciate it.

SCROGs are an excellent choice if your not changing out plants like in a perpetual grow. remember to trim the bottoms of the plants under the screen. that helps with circlulation under the canopy and it focuses the plant on nice fat colas. your going to have a nice set up. since your only growing transplant into big 7+ gal buckets before flowering. also veg 4+ plants to sex the plants and make sure you have 2 viable females having to many females is better than too few. ive had grows where 2 out of 13 were females..... it was some baddd luck

I'm actually putting up the money on fem seeds anyway. I will have 35 feminized seeds and 10 different strains. I have (2) 5 gallon bubbleponic setups that will grow at the same time. I have think I will change the dimensions of the cabinet slightly as well. Probably 7' x 4' x 2.5' using SCROG and Benny's Topping Technique. I don't know if you picked up that thread, but it's a good read. You let the plant go to like 5 or 6 nodes then top the plant at the 2nd "true" node. This causes the plant to focus it's energy and nutrients to the new grow spots causing 4 main colas to grow. From those I will do the basic trimming that needs to be done for the SCROG and that should give me plenty of air flow and light at the bottom while giving optimal growth for larger yields. Well that's the plan anyway. What do you think?

I have a 2'x3' area for vegitative growth that also houses some food. I use the CMH lamp in a 400w HPS setup because it gives me a nice even spectrum and lower operating temperature. The difference in the quality of my growth is noticeable. I have no experience with flowering under the CMH yet, but as I'm going for quality over quantity I believe the CMH will exceed my expectations.

My ladies are nice and green with solid growth. They are short and bushy, which is ideal for vertical space constraints. The "stockyness" is from the CMH, because when I grew this straing under HPS for veg they were stretching, even when I had them close to the lamp. Heat was also out of control with the HPS because I have no fans in my space. The CMH has cured this, but my grow area is rather open because it is on 18/6 and I'm not worried about light leaks on veg.

In the new year I will know what the CMH behaves like in a cabnet, as that is how I will setup my flowering area.

The cmh throws off a very crisp, almost natural white light with a barely noticeable bias to the red, I would say but almost non-existant. It is rated at 4000k, 34,800 initial lumens, but don't let that scare you. The way the plants behave under it is amazing with almost no stretch, even with one plant being 3' away from the lamp verses 1.5' away for the others. The only reason i still have my HPS lamp on the shelf is in case of an emergency and I need light for the ladies.

I'm using SOG with Supreme Skunk, promix and hydroton expanded clay thingies. 13cm x 13 cm square planters. I'm hoping to keep my plants under 3' tall when flowering is complete. I would take some pictures, but my iphone doesn't like that bright light.

rreign said:

I'm actually putting up the money on fem seeds anyway. I will have 35 feminized seeds and 10 different strains. I have (2) 5 gallon bubbleponic setups that will grow at the same time. I have think I will change the dimensions of the cabinet slightly as well. Probably 7' x 4' x 2.5' using SCROG and Benny's Topping Technique. I don't know if you picked up that thread, but it's a good read. You let the plant go to like 5 or 6 nodes then top the plant at the 2nd "true" node. This causes the plant to focus it's energy and nutrients to the new grow spots causing 4 main colas to grow. From those I will do the basic trimming that needs to be done for the SCROG and that should give me plenty of air flow and light at the bottom while giving optimal growth for larger yields. Well that's the plan anyway. What do you think?

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its an excellent method id use the top as a clone though... just top it root it and grow it i mean itd be small but youd get extra bud which nevver hurt anyone.

You mean just grow the top (the clone) along with what would already be growing?

yea when you top them theyll be in veg so take the top and use a cloning method to root em right next to your plants in veg. youll have ample time to root while the other plants are filling out. they wont be as big as the originals but itll be some extra bud with not to much work plus youll get some cloning practice. id use rapid rooters and cloning powder. i think itd be the easiest for just 2 clones.... i have a bubble cloner but i dont think you want to go through the trouble of making one for only 2 clones.

you're probably right. I never thought about cloning but it might be something I look into in the future. I want to stay well within my legal limits so I can only have 2 ounces of ready to smoke. That's why I want to grow 2 plants. Any extra and I'll just make cannabutter or firecrackers or whatever.

yea i mean itd be better to have ample bud and get rid of some than to not have enough..... and what is the ruling on ready to smoke (i live in a state where even a stem is illegal) is it completly dryd and cured bud?

Yep, that is correct. Completely dried, cured and ready to roll a fatty. There's loop holes that you can use though. For instance, I can have 6 plants total. 3 "Mature" so flowering and 3 vegging. At once. Then I can have 2 ounces. If I take 3 plants that are ready to harvest and I just cut them down, then they are still just mature plants. So I could have 15 ounces on those plants and being dried but as long as it doesn't come off the plant, it's still just a mature plant. So I could keep the other 3 in veg forever and have the 15 ounces on the other 3 that I just pick from and have 2 ounces bagged and ready to smoke.

sounds like you should have 2 rooms and do a perpetual grow. instead of pulling 1 big harvest youd pull smaller ones more frequently. youd have a veg room, and a flower room youd always have 2 in veg and 2 in flower and 2 oz ready to smoke. when your harvest the 2 in flower, you replace them with the ones in veg. if your worried bout plant numbers you may just want to buy clones if theyre priced reasonably so you dont need a mom or you could work with another medical user so you could combine plant count and have better options in veg

I like your way of thinking except I can't convince my wife to let me do that. She still doesn't understand that it's LEGAL. I've shown her all the proof and anything she could possibly need to know about it and she is still skeptical. I guess she's kind of a conspiracy theorist. Anyway, back to the grow. I actually want to grow a bunch of different strains first. I wanna grow one of each of the strains I have, then when I find the one or 2 that I really want to stay with, then I'll think about having a mother or 2 to be able to cloan from. At that point, my wife should be more on board and I would have a need for 2 seperate rooms.

would she go for this


(with strain with 8wk flower period)
or to really get the ball rolling you stagger flower times #1 goes in month later #2 goes in, so you have one vegging for a month. then then it goes in and you start vegging another. after #3 is done vegging #1 is ready for harvest. #1 comes out number #3 goes into the flower room and then the cycle keeps continueing. youd have a plant vegging ready to go in. and a mother plant to take clones from so thats your 2 in veg. then you have 2 plants each a month apart. that way you harvest every month and only have one plant vegging to go in so you dont have to many veg plants.

thatd be pretty efficiant. and if not go your way. and your right 1 good havest puts everyone at ease

I personally would go with L.e.d.s UFO works perfect for my needs witch seem to be yours i use an 8 light t-45 blue spectrum for 4 mother plants on a hydro system then transfer to 4x7x4 ft. grow tent in the same room as my mothers were the 2 UFO's do the rest w/t-45 4 light changing them to red spectrum when veg. is done and began to flower i do 4 types of plants ranging from hybrids to pure sativas and indicas in soil yes the indica probably veggies for about three weeks longer then need bee but well worth it hope this helps if not i can go screw myself....lol good luck oh yea i use 1 cooling fan for the tent with 1 isolating fan and 1 for fan for mothers been doing it this way for atleast 2 yrs. and have plenty per plant and yeild upward of lbs. per plant

Gizmo420247 said:

I personally would go with L.e.d.s UFO works perfect for my needs witch seem to be yours i use an 8 light t-45 blue spectrum for 4 mother plants on a hydro system then transfer to 4x7x4 ft. grow tent in the same room as my mothers were the 2 UFO's do the rest w/t-45 4 light changing them to red spectrum when veg. is done and began to flower i do 4 types of plants ranging from hybrids to pure sativas and indicas in soil yes the indica probably veggies for about three weeks longer then need bee but well worth it hope this helps if not i can go screw myself....lol good luck oh yea i use 1 cooling fan for the tent with 1 isolating fan and 1 for fan for mothers been doing it this way for atleast 2 yrs. and have plenty per plant and yeild upward of lbs. per plant

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I appreciate the input, but I have already bought the 400w MH/HPS and that's the direction I want to take. Thanks again though

kid cannabis said:

would she go for this


(with strain with 8wk flower period)
or to really get the ball rolling you stagger flower times #1 goes in month later #2 goes in, so you have one vegging for a month. then then it goes in and you start vegging another. after #3 is done vegging #1 is ready for harvest. #1 comes out number #3 goes into the flower room and then the cycle keeps continueing. youd have a plant vegging ready to go in. and a mother plant to take clones from so thats your 2 in veg. then you have 2 plants each a month apart. that way you harvest every month and only have one plant vegging to go in so you dont have to many veg plants.

thatd be pretty efficiant. and if not go your way. and your right 1 good havest puts everyone at ease

Click to expand...

That's not a bad idea at all actually. It would shorten both my flowering and vegging times. It would be fully perpetual. I wouldn't have large yields but I would always have a constant yield. I'm going to save this thread and follow that plan. I just have to get through a harvest or 2 before the wife gets comfortable.

yea that way you wont pull to much at one time youll have plenty of time to smoke the stash or get rid of it before the next harvest. your veg room wouldnt have to be much....

I think it's an awesome idea personally.