Perpetual Rubbermaid Grow, CFL and HPS style

I am wanting to start a (3rd?) grow for my medical needs and someone else's. This is a 215 compliant grow. My first 2 grows I was satisfied with and with the knowledge I want to create a system that supplies our daily needs for pain relief, depression, etc. So I will use 2 Rubbermaid grow boxes with 4 Rubbermaid containers, one for vegging and cloning and the other for flowering. CFL box will be under 200Ws of CFL or around 15,000 lumen, and the HPS box will use a 150W hps. Not concerned with heat because I don't even have a heater for my home so hopefully these boxes will warm it up a bit! Of course they will have a decent fan pushing air out of them. Right now I have a veg box, 5 different strains and some mixed 5000k and 6500k bulbs, approximately 125 watts. want to get all 6500k though that's for sure... I added chicken wire below the lights, never had a scrog before. Also some platforms for these mature clones to reach closer to the chicken wire. Now as for the perpetual side of things, the idea is just to put different plants in flower at different times, I may just take 2nd generation clones and veg them or replace with new clones if I feel some strains will not thrive from these existing ones. Using fox farm ocean forest soil and sat-out tap water. Stealth isn't really a concern. As of these pics I've had them for about 2 days, they do not look any worse and actually look slightly bigger, despite just coming out of cloning domes, hopefully they love the environment. (attaching pics now). The veg box is semi complete and running 24/0, and the flower box is coming soon (within a week or two) and might just throw one of the babies in there

Well no feedback yet but it's okay, what I would like feedback on is my leaves are starting to do this (for some reason I can't press ENTER in my posts). Current box conditions are 86F and 16% humidity. It is 66F outside. I didn't think they were too close to the lights or anything, because you have to get cfls close. The inside of the box is lined with Reflectix, which is a reflector, but also an insulator, could this possible be the culprit for 'highish' temps? also I have a 6" exhaust fan and 2 1" passive intakes. I should probably make 1 more. If the leaves weren't curling up they would look perfect so far![HR][/HR]

that is taco-ing, and is from the high temps and low rh.

These babies are loving the environment SURPRISINGLY WELL... pic updates will come weekly (so in more 2 days!) I love petting their leaves hahaha

End of Week 1 Progress


They are seemingly growing fast...and not stretching much at all, I wonder what they will look like a week from now. 1 week ago, they looked like some abused ditch hemp lol, now they look so healthy and sexy! Woohoo.

That waxy look on the leafs is a nutrient issue I believe. Nice grow though looking good, I'm preparing to build my next stealth box, will have a flowering chamber with 150watt HPS and a mother chamber I have a grow box right now not sure if I should turn it to a clone station or more flowering

i like, subscribed. I also have used rubbermaids in the past.

Glad to get people on board. I have added 3 more 5000k bulbs, unfortunately I could not find any 6500k at walmart or home depot, so it will have to do for another week or so. It appears they do veg pretty well under that color spectrum anyway.

And a 150W HPS has been ordered, plus another duct fan. I will need a light proof box for flowering, I know how to light proof everything but the crease in the middle, I would really like any tips on how to seal it good. Does weather stripping work, or should I make some kind of 'skirt' that covers up the crease until you lift up the top?

Plants are looking good.

I'm not an expert, but I've been growing with CFLs in rubbermaids for about 4 years. I grow enough to cover fairly heavy daily smoking for one person. Maybe some of this can help you avoid problems: All lights I have are $6 clip-on shop lights from Home depot, with socket splitters for two 100w CFL bulbs each. Very cheap setup. I have one short but wide container for the vegging/cloning area. 4 100w CFLs in it. 3 large tall rubbermaids for flowering areas. All of the containers have two holes in the back with PC fans wired onto 9v adapters I can plug in. One in the bottom drawing air in, one at the top blowing hot air out. I have 8 100w CFLs in each flowering area around the top, affixed inside the tubs so the lids still close. Reflective mylar lining insides of sides and lid. No problems with heat except in summer sometimes.

Problem #1 The Mylar.
It gets dirty. You will mostly likely be watering the plants in the tubs so the sides will undoubtedly get splashed from time to time with drops of water, nutrients, maybe even soil. After a year or so they will be filmy and dirty unless you clean them monthly, which is no easy chore. Some of my plants would hug the sides of the tubs against the mylar. At first it didn't effect them, but I don't know if it was the filmy residue, or the mylar itself, but those plants would get nasty looking dots on their leaves before turning brown and dying a few weeks after being put in the flowering tubs. Once I ripped the mylar out I never had that issue again. I left it on the lids since the plants never touch the top. The mylar stopped being really reflective after a year of getting dirty anyway. I could have put more in, but I'm kinda lazy.

Problem #2 Dust.
If you are growing in a closet or anywhere really there will be dust. Your fans will get mucked up. Any duct tape or any kind of tape used to attach anything will get dusty and eventually fail. I used duct tape to attach my PC fans to the tubs. Bad idea. One came crashing down at some point onto a plant, which from the plant's perspective probably seemed like rotating blades of death coming to eat it. I use zipties and cut holes into the tubs for 100% safety now. If you think plastic PC fan blades can't chew up a solid 7 week bud, you're wrong.

Problem #3 Dirty tubs.
In flowering tubs you'll get dry leaves falling down. Water seeps out the bottom of the pots. Water with bat guano and whatever else in it. You build up an unholy grimy mulch on the bottom that needs to be cleaned out. If you happen to drop something in it, just leave it no matter what it is. Don't cut exit holes for wiring too close to the bottom or stuff will leak onto your floor.

Problem #4 Fire Hazard.
Pouring water down into your tubs on the flowering plants with lights, fans, and power cords around is ripe for accidents. Have a fire extinguisher close by, or at least in the house. Electrical fires can happen. I use a small water bottle with a spout on top I can keep closed until I have it ready to use in the tub. Open water cans are a really bad idea for various reasons.

I can fit 2 large plants per large container, or 3 small to medium which is what I do. I flip one clone per week every week so I'm harvesting one plant every week. 8-9 plants at all times in the flowering areas. Sometimes it's not enough, so you might want to add another flowering container after you figure out how much you are yielding. The plants like to block light and choke off airflow for each other in such tight spaces so the yield goes lower. You're also confined with how big your pots are, and thus how big the roots can get, effecting yield. You might not be able to fit them in the bottom of the rubbermaids without squeezing them in weirdly.

I clone the bottom branches of plants before flipping them. Generally 6-8 clones going at any time. Then when the clones grow up, clone their branches before flipping them. This creates a constant steady stream of plants. I don't always time it right and sometimes end up having to skip a week of flipping a plant because the clones are too small. Or I'll have several clones getting too big and no room in the flowering areas to flip them into. It's hard to keep it perfectly flowing but usually good enough. I've cloned like this for hundreds of generations from the same original strain. They all grow up the same, and are the same potency if I grow them right. I use the same soil as you, it's good stuff. I also use Foxfarm Tiger Bloom and Big Bloom.

I don't worry too much about light leakage from the vegging area. It gets out but the flowering areas have lids. I figure they get moonlight naturally and they don't seem to have problems. It's a lot of work just to grow enough for one person with regularity. Problems arise, but problems are overcome. I don't know if any of that helps.

I messed up, well, just had a hiccup, I was trying to block the light from the veg box and put a shirt over the exhaust, it was a bad idea because the next day the plants were burned on the tops, I lowered them and looks like new growth is coming out but below the new growth I have a layer of dry, crusty leaves.

@JackTheBongRipper:

Sounds like I should be able to get a steady supply. Lol sorry I don't really write alot of text.
That part about fire hazard scares me although I had 2 grows before and no fires. There are certain times when nobody is here but usually I'm here.

So you don't stack the rubbermaids to get more height?

@growman3666:

I've never seen one with 3 bins before. I still may just use the 2.

If anything I'll just use duct tape if I need to patch that leak.


My new concerns are now in temps... always have had bad luck with CFLs and temps...
Not looking forward to the pic update tonight, but well, shit happens...

Nope, no stacking. The CFLs are right up near the plants and I top them early on before flipping them to get less height. The plus side is when the lids are on and the lights are off they look completely normal from all sides except the back. Easier to blend if anyone should need to take a quick peek in the closet. I have older parents that have no idea, when they come over nothing seems unusual.

I tend to write a lot of text while

The HPS has arrived! In a few days, I will begin building the flower box.
I was thinking of mounting it so the ballast part is on the outside of the box because I do not want to trap heat in there, my only concern is will the smell leak through the bulb-to-ballast part of the entire lamp to the outside? Or will my carbon filter setup be able to pull the smell through before it goes up through the ballast wing?

Speaking of that, Sometimes I can smell the vegging plants in a different part of my house. It's like a sweet earthy smell but not like the smell of weed smoke.

End of Week 2 Growth (and burnth!) Pic




Okay so my camera work is not all that good but maybe you can see the burnt leaves I removed most of them because they were completely f'ked as you could gently pull the leaves off the plants. However you can see the new growth, and the growth under the canopy is still looking great.

Update: Test driving the HPS on the veg chamber, monitoring temps and such with the 100CFM 4" fan. Will update later on temps and plant response!

Update - temps got up to 86F before I had to run to town so I turned it off. Continually monitoring temps. Might have to use a 6" duct fan for the HPS, puts out a good amount of heat. Problem is the veg room probably needs that 6" too.

Plants look fine. As long as they're not flowering, they can bounce back pretty fast. With the dead areas off it'll grow other places right away.

Yeah man, I've had the question "why does your house smell like wet dirt, or something", and I knew it was time to do more than carbon filters. Check out my answer on this thread:
https://www.rollitup.org/stealth-micro-cab-growing/589904-smell-proofing-grow-cab.html

I love that sweet smell they give off, it makes me think that they will be pretty potent/potent smelling when done but it's even smellable from outside. Might have to filter out the veg box too? Oh well, heh.

They have been under that HPS and are doing much better! Temps are pretty managable, if I choose to flower at night during the winter then there wont be any heat issues... that ballast gets pretty hot but most of it gets ventilated. The flowering box is half-way built. I used the cardboard from a roll of mylar to create an intake and lined a tub with mylar. I HOPE that 4" 100 CFM fan will be able to keep up once I get a carbon filter on it, else I gotta buy another fan and that would mean wasted $25.. it happens though when your growing, you put so much money in at first but it will surely come back in a couple months! Pic update in 3 days.

New problem guys... ugh this just pisses me off. I have 3 cats and well, 2 of them are kittens from hell, I woke up to find the HPS hood tub laying upside down, 1 of my babies completely uprooted, because these little demons seem to have a vendetta against cannabis, or they just want to eat the soil. I am going to have to find some way to secure my grow from cats. I did not envision this shit happening.

Bummer! Shit does happen to a grow.

They are getting so big! The one that was dug up is looking to be in stable condition, she needs to rebuild some roots and shoots but otherwise looking stable. I invested in some clamps so the cats cannot knock over the top tub.

End of Week 3 Vegging Pics



On the left we can see the canopy and now I am really starting to like HPS as opposed to CFLs,because they can reach the light from so many different areas of the plants, its just awesome. In the middle we have the plant that suffered uprooting shock, but she is looking stable. And on the right we have a shot through the fan hole, with the light on. I need to stop being lazy today and finish building the flower box, since its pretty much time to start that now!