Starting My Box...Input Wanted !!

Alrighty well I didn't get my digital camera but I did take some pictures with my cellphone and I uploaded them here so that I could get some input and opinions from the pro's.

Ok so where to start, this will be my first full grow as I've messed about with seeds I've gotten in bags back in the day. So I'm using my closet space to build an enclosed box for both vegetation and flowering. Currently I only have one of the boxes made which will end up being the flower chamber. I'm going to start building the veg box in the space beside the flower box once I've purchased my seeds.

The space:

I'm working with 39.5" Height X 19" Depth X 24" Width. Now I know its not the biggest area however if I have the correct strain and do a bit of training I should be ok to veg for a shorter period and then flower to max height. The first picture I'm posting is the closet space available as well as what I've done so far of the Flower Box.




Now if you look at the "skinnier" space to the right of the box thats what I'm planning to build my Mother/Clone Veg box in. It's not very wide but then again to house a mother and clones it doesn't have to be huge just enough room for some CFL's and a Fan.

Lighting:
Ok so heres where I'm going to be needing a bit of help, I've seen so many varying things it makes my head spin. Now I'm planning to have at the minimum 3 23W CFL's per plant in the flower chamber and 2 42W CFL's I've got the correct Spectrum's written down here 6500K and 2700K. So to recap in total in this box I'm talking about 6 - 8 23W's and 2 42W's. Then for the flowering room I'm thinking about just 6 - 8 23W's if that much even.
Currently in the box I have 3 bulbs just to see what temps they bring in.



To secure the box I've got a spring latch at Home Depot and it keeps my damn dog and cats out.




The Strain I've chosen to grow with a bit of help in the form of a suggestion will be Hindu Kush. I'm going to go with Toronto420 Seed Bank and get some Ontario's Best Hindu Kush.

The final picture I have to share for now is another of the inside of the box. I guess I should explain whats going on inside a bit more. Presently I have a small rubbermaid container with mylar on the top of it as I have 1 plant in there presently however its just a Sweet Basil plant again to test the temps and light. You can also see a temp probe which leads out to a digital thermometer.




My final thoughts before I let you, the people help me out with suggestions and opinions are as follows. I have to work on getting the box to be more light-proof since it will be my flowering box and I need to make sure that the 12 dark stay completely dark. I've also got to get at least 1 if not 2 pc fan's one for intake the other for exhaust. I'm just still not sure about how to wire them so I can just plug them into my power bar. I will read the threads again to see if I can figure it out. The other question I have is, I have a roll of Mylar, now the wood the box is built out of is white. Would you think I should put up the mylar for reflection and better light coverage OR since its white just leave the box as it and maybe mylar the floor/and top ??

Well people I think thats about it, If I've forgotten anything please feel free to ask as I'm always around RIU reading and trying to learn more for when I get my seeds. By the way, I plan to get my seeds next pay day which is this coming week.

Thanks, for your advice and opinions

-Tdot

That is a tight space you are working with. CFL's are obviously your best (and only) choice. Pay attention to the cooling. I used white peg board for the ends of my box to increase ventilation. CFLs are much cooler but in a space like that heat can still become an issue for you. I am using two 42w, six 23w and a 4' tube fluoro running vertical with two 40w bulbs and temp is always my issue. My girls are about 3.5 weeks into flower...

for lightproofing use the foam tape they sell it at home depot or loews works like a charm

Looks like a good grow. I like the idea of 2 boxes, one for veg and one for bud. I wish I had the space for that but it looks like I am confined to one space. My space is limited like yours. Heat is the real killer. I was lucky to have a central air duct right where my grow box went so I ducted the central air into the box. I would be certain to circulate air in that box to keep it cool. As for lights, from what I have read, more is better. You want to surround your plants with light. They say with CFL grows to surround the plant and keep the plant short. I am interested to see how yours works out. Good luck and happy farming.

PC fans are the perfect thing for a grow operation this size. I use a larger one at the bottom inlet hole pointed right at the girls to keep the stems strong, and a smaller one for the exaust fan right at the top of one of the sides. My plants get good cool fresh air and it keeps the 65 watt cfl i have in my veg box from getting too hot, and also, they are perfect for providing co2. You will not be able to wire them straight to your power strip though, they usually operate on 12v dc and your outlet is 120v ac, big difference. All you have to do is find a 12 volt dc power supply that uses a 120 volt ac input. most electronic devices use these power supply's, they are the chunky things that take up so much room on your outlets. find one that says 120v ac input and 12v dc output and simply wire the fans positive and neutral wires to that and plug them in, voila! careful that the live and neutral wires match up though, don't want to start a fire...

I am using 120V AC PC fans. I bought them at Radio Shack. It saves me from messing with an AC to DC converter.

Hey guys thanks for the replies !

GTG: Yeah Stick around man, I think I might start a new journal when I buy my seeds but for now I'll keep everything in this thread. Radio Shack sells those ?!?! I think I might have to take a look. How much were they ??

TheDankness: Thank you very much for the explanation. It always seemed more complicated than that. If I cant' find the fans GTG is talking about I'll have to do the pc fans... 2 would be perfect for my box with the fan I have inside my temps would be perfect.

-Tdot

The Dankness: Your my saviour hero and all the super nice stuff !!!!! I just wandered around my place looking for useless old power adapters, I found 2 perfect 120V to 12V and wired up a tiny pc fan I happened to have laying around. Well plugged her in and IT WORKED !!!! So now armed with this new knowledge I'm going to have to get 2 decent sized 4" + fans to wire up and put in to the box !!
Thanks again !!!

-Tdot

Just a really quick update before I go to work. I got a digital camera so I have some better quality pics of my box. Including one of my newly wired PC fans acting as an exhaust on the "roof" of the box. I will take a 2nd pc fan from work today to make into the intake and put on the front of the box beside the door.



Just a quick question for anyone who happens to know. Would it be wiser/better to add a FEW more PC fans through out the box and aim them at the plants that way I could take the rather large fan I have inside the box out. Which in turn would let me have more room. However it also means more holes in the box to mess with light/dark. So what do you guys think ??!?!? I might just get a smaller oscillating fan for the inside of the box, which would also potentially solve my problem.
Anyway I gotta get moving. I'll post some more pictures of what I have later on !!
Thanks again TheDankness for the wire lesson !!!!

-Tdot

for some reason your fan looks like its facing the wrong way to eb an exhaust ( iam stoned so maybe its me) the basic rule of thums is the intake should be 2-3X the exhaust... it is also good to have a fan blowing acrous your bulbs/plant tops to keep the bulbs cool and it helps to keep the leaves from burning ....my box is 2sqft I am using 3 pc fans total I have one exhaust 2 intakes at the ottom (1 with a fan) and a pc fan blowing acroos the bulbs seems to work good...I have about 200w in 2sqftt

FarmingToronto said:

The Dankness: Your my saviour hero and all the super nice stuff !!!!! I just wandered around my place looking for useless old power adapters, I found 2 perfect 120V to 12V and wired up a tiny pc fan I happened to have laying around. Well plugged her in and IT WORKED !!!! So now armed with this new knowledge I'm going to have to get 2 decent sized 4" + fans to wire up and put in to the box !!
Thanks again !!!

-Tdot

Click to expand...

You are very welcome, I am somewhat new when it comes to growing as well but I go to school for electronics so the wiring and timer stuff comes easy for me. To answer your follow up question on whether or not to add more fans, I don't think it'll be neccessary. I just have the large one at the bottom of my grow box and a smaller one at the top. The constant flow of cool air from bottom to top seems to keep the plants at a very nice temp. around 70-75 degrees. You dont really need to much wind to strengthen the stems as your plants are going to be small anyway, plus you want big buds not big stems. Adding tons of fans is going to hurt the reflectivity on the inside of the box, and as you said, light will bleed out like a motha.

Right on, thanks for the follow up input its appreciated. I think what I'm going to do now that I've got things wired up and running. I have 2 pc fans.. a 120mm Big Boy I got from work today that will be going on the bottom of the box and then the smaller one remaining on the "roof" should be good air flow and I'll watch the temps. Then I'll take the fan out and just monitor and see what its like with just the pc fans. Now I did see a smaller (approx 6") cheap oscillating fan at WalMart I might just get. As of right now I still don't have the full amount of bulbs or Wattage in there so I'm sure the temperatures will be fluctuating. From everything I'm reading as long as I keep it around 80 or lower I'll be ok !

-Tdot

Oh I had one other question for anyone willing to respond. Would you cover the inside of the box with Mylar ? or leave it as it is because the wood has a white coat on it ??

Thanks in Advance
-Tdot

Yes you do want to use the mylar.... with cfl's, the more reflection you have the better. And as far as how many lights to use... heat and space is your only limit.... So the cooler you can keep the cab, the more lights you will be able to use.... On that note, I found it more productive to use a passive intake vent... and use both of your fans as exhaust... This way you know you are always dumping out the used air, and sucking in nothing but fresh air...instead of mixing and circulating used and fresh air around, and dumping out a bit of both..... By positioning the vents low on one end and the exhaust fans high on the other end, you should be getting a constant flow of fresh air.

I'm breaking in a new micro cab myself, and so far, Heat and low humidity have been my biggest problems, but I'm sure I'll have it tweaked in by this weekend.

Good luck man, and keep us updated

One more thing....

Do a ScrOG (Screen Of Green)grow.... It will give you the most practical use of space by giving you a uniform canopy occupying the most square feet of surface area possible in your confined space... You won't need to worry about wasting grow space with fans because the screen will support the plant.... It's not really worth having a micro grow with out some kind of LST.

I recomend white paint, mylar is only 5% more reflective than whaite paint and it holds and reflects heat as well, my first grow I used mylar everywhere, now I only use paint and my temps are lower and the plants seems just as happy....

Thanks for the replies Wolfman and Bigd.
I kinda expected to get a mixed response on the mylar vs white paint thing. Since I had already spent the coin on the mylar I'm going to use it for this grow. Then I think I'll do white paint for grow #2 as a direct comparison.

WolfmanZen: I appreciate the comments on the Air Flow. Today's my day off work so I'll be around the pc and my box trying to decide the best way to put my fans in.

If you look at the picture of my closet I planed to build the mother/clone/veg chamber directly to the right of the box that I already built. The only problem this brings me is the fact I was going to put an exhaust fan on the side of the box. I think what I'm going to do is put the intake on the front and low near the bottom. Then I'll cut a hole in the "roof" of the box and use that for my exhaust. Using the theory that hot air rises this should help expel most of the hot air !


Time to start working on the mental aspect of the design, being the good stoner I am its Measure 5 times cut once.. and then a second cut to fix the first. LOL

Take it easy guys, thanks again for everyone responses please keep them coming !! I love the input and opinions. +Rep for the help !!

-Tdot

that really is the best way experiment and find what works best for your situation what I have found is there is normally not 1 correct answer its all kind of relative....I am in the desert so I need as much help as I can with temps

Right on, If I may ask.. Whats the lowest and highest our plants can deal with ? Or is that strain specific as well ? from what I've read I'm guess between 60 - 100 as extremes on either end... I believe the goal is between 73 - 82 ? Somewhere in the middle being the sweet spot ?
currently without my 2nd pc fan being installed I'm sitting at temps of MAX 81 with lights on. However I only have 3 13W bulbs in there right now, Later in the week I'll be picking up quite a few more 26W bulbs though so this could all change.

-Tdot

I am trying to understand that as well, my first grow I didnt even keep track of my temps...when I finally got around to it they ranged between 75-105, and my grow did fine.....you get those types of swings during the course of a day in nature, I am starting to think its about substained temps...but I am not sure