Space Constraints

So here's the deal-

I have a 28"x54"x30" HxWxD space that I am planning on using. My plan is to have the 2 separate sides and keep this grow continuous. Due to the size restrictions I was thinking about using SCROG to limit my height while maximizing yield in the space.

With these restrictions in mind:

- CFL vs. HPS - My initial thought is CFL as they are easier to keep away from my plants due to the small height. also an HPS would be hard to keep cool with the space provided.

- Soil vs. DWC - I wanted to try out a DIY DWC container to see if I could reduce the height and have the plants at a final 6" height leaving 22" for the plant + lights. This would allow me to place the screen about 1' above the plants and have a good 10" to play with for positioning the lights. My thought is that DWC would beat out soil as the roots would be stuck in such a small container due to the height.

Any insights onto these decisions would be great!

Height and heat is definitely going to be your battle here. With only 28" of height if you are going to go with HPS you are definitely going to have to cool it, also look into getting an external ballast to keep the heat from it out of your box. SCROG is pretty much going to be your only method unless you are using very short autoflower seeds, but from the sounds of it you want to setup veg and flower areas, so they are going to be on two different light schedules and require two separate lighting systems.

CFL's are only as good as the placement of them. You can usually get them pretty close to the plants without having to worry about light burn, but at the same time you cant have them too far away or you wont get penetration. If you are planning on growing a mother in one side and taking cuttings you can do some nifty things with the 24" Florescent tube fixtures placing them on an adjustable ceiling rack along with CFL's mounted on the side areas to get as much penetration as possible. Are you planing on a mother and cuttings in that area or just planting seeds for a small veg area?

You can do LST and SCROG to manipulate your ladies to your liking, but you can only do so much. Trying to do DWC in this situation might not quite work considering the amount of space needed for the root systems, but I don't have any experience with that, I've only seen lots of pictures on it

But with all that being said...HEAT HEAT HEAT...you are going to have to be sucking that heat out of such a small box. I did a grow inside a double wide server case that it was a pain in the ass to keep the temps below 90F, even with the cover off the damn thing and a 120mm exhaust fan cranked right up...If you are going to go with an HPS in such a small box you are probably going to have to go with a 150watt or possibly a 250watt if you can cool it well. Again HEAT HEAT HEAT...gotta get that heat out...Good luck

I have a cab with very very similar measurements, im using 10 23W CFLs, using pc fans my cab gets up to 102 with the door shut :/
Using a ventilation fan (bathroom fan) it stay 85-90 but its loud as fuck.

SO youre going to need a good fan/airflow no matter what you do. I would get the cab/lights/fan set up and do temp checks before you start growing.

Dont know much about DWC only that i heard you need to keep the water at a certain temperature (75?) and if it got past 80s it would end in root rot. I dont have the luxury of being able to maintain constant temps like that so i went with soil.

But i think DWC would net you better yields if you pulled it off.

massah said:

SCROG is pretty much going to be your only method unless you are using very short autoflower seeds ... Are you planing on a mother and cuttings in that area or just planting seeds for a small veg area?

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Yes. My thought was to have a mother plant and continuously pull cuttings to start in the flowering box. This way I could do a shorter veg cycle maybe 4 weeks and then place them in the flowering side of things so that I have a pair of plants finishing every month.

massah said:

Trying to do DWC in this situation might not quite work considering the amount of space needed for the root systems, but I don't have any experience with that, I've only seen lots of pictures on it

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As far as the DWC setup I found some plastic boxes that are used for shoes that are only about 6" tall but could easily be set up to run two plants each. So painting those black and then with mylar for light. this would allow me to put the screen a good 12" above the container and then still have 10" to play with for the lights.

massah said:

But with all that being said...HEAT HEAT HEAT...you are going to have to be sucking that heat out of such a small box. I did a grow inside a double wide server case that it was a pain in the ass to keep the temps below 90F, even with the cover off the damn thing and a 120mm exhaust fan cranked right up...If you are going to go with an HPS in such a small box you are probably going to have to go with a 150watt or possibly a 250watt if you can cool it well. Again HEAT HEAT HEAT...gotta get that heat out...Good luck

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For the heat my plan was to exhaust each side separately out the sides and have a row of intake along the bottom of the front of the cab. This way there is air constantly being pulled away from the plants and it's the hot air at the top being removed and fresh air comes in at the bottom.