T8/T12 Flouro/CFL Micro SOG Cab (First grow, Advice is welcome!)

[its just sky fi]

Hi guys, hopefully this will be enough info for all of you knowledgeable people to help me out. I have been living on the search this forums button here in micro grows, trying to find out as much about my design as I could up to this point....

The inside dimensions of my cabinet are 15" x 15" x 35" per chamber, the Veg chamber will house my mothers and clones until they are about 8-10" tall (estimate), then they will be put in the flowering chamber.

I would like to perpetually harvest over 2oz a week, and I think that Dr. Green's micro CFL sog has inspired most of us to make this technology work even further.

Im growing from bagseed atm, I have 3 germ'd seeds in 20 oz pop bottles w/ the tops cut off... along with a bunch more bagseed still germinating.


Vegging chamber:


Flowering Chamber: 2700k-3300k? Wattage for 4.5cu ft chamber?

Lighting: Could I use the U-shaped flourescent bulbs standing verticall (connection being on the bottom) having them spaced out evenly in the interior of the cab, with 2-4 24" long T8 tubes on 4 faces of the cab (i think, i need help on what spectrums/types of light would work together well for maximum yield... more research to do)... Now What kind of wattage could I pump into these chambers and still keep temps down? Thats the reason Im using flouro, the choppers fly over everynight and I don't want a hotspot. I will draw a small diagram and post it later... Instead of U lights for the vertical interior lights, i would like something w/ a screw in edison style end...





Air Flow: squirrel cage fan? size?


From what I understand the key to success using flouro lights/cfl's... and getting good yield is alot of lights, really close to the plants (weaving in and out of them if need be if temps are ok) with a mixed spectrum...

I hear t8's run kinda a little hotter than t12's is that right or backwards? was thinking the warmer ones mounted on the walls of the cab, and cooler lights dropped down in my SOG at 4 or 5 points (either dropped in from a hood w/ CFL's mounted, or some sort of tube going vertical at 4 or 5 interior points)....

Are screens around the lights necessary when using flouro's?

SOrry for all the questions, I want to build this cab this weekend... Have been browsing here a year and now just getting started for real.


will post pics of cab, and drawings of my ideas tonight when im off work.

peace

 

[its just sky fi]

So the T5's were a budget breaker so I redesigned, going to use 42W CFL's (4 in the flowering chamber) made into a vert column in the center, and 6 or so 23w cfls spread in between down in the sog

Attaching a pic to explain the setup.... Would love some input on this

The dims show the top of soil height to the bottom of the next shelf... I dont think the buds will be able to grow up through the hole around the lights unless I cut it back so I only have 1 row of plants up top...


Anyways heres the pic, have it drawn 90% in 3d but im gettin lazy and tired its almost 5 am... along with some pics of the cab...


peace imma go passss the fuck out

 

[jrw]

Looks like a cool project.

Good luck

 

[Thundurkel]

I would go for at least 75 watts per sq ft I have 440watts in 3.5 sq ft and my girls love it and I thought my lights were too far but the bagseed I started has nodes really close and is nice and bushy... As long as you have 3500-5000 Lumens per sq ft you should be fine Im pumping 8000 Lumens per sq ft... Good luck bro I'm pullin up a chair..

 

[InPotiTrust]

Nice little set up so far its just sky fi.Only thing i would say do different is hard mount the light to the top sideways as your gona have more space plus that would make it so u can add one or 2 more bulbs.On venting i would say go with a 120mm case fan with speed controller with like 110cfm or more as they have ones with more cfms and if u don't need all of it u can just turn it down.Good luck

 

[its just sky fi]

I ran the math this morning, Im at 8k lumens in flowering and veg chamber. Warm white in the flowering, cool white in the veg, now 75w per sq ft? I figured i had 2 sq ft of growing area but Im going to have like 6 plants per sq ft, so I figured I needed extra wattage/lumens so I pushed for 8k, with 4 42W (168W total), 4 26W warm white, 2 23W (150W for the 6) cool white that will give me... 318 watts or 127.2W per sq... but yea if 75w per foot is the norm, what would a sog need? I'll have 43 plants over 2.5 sq ft footprint so mathematically thats 17.2 per plants per sq foot, or am I all fucked up here?

I think that hanging my power bar like I have in my diagram is not the best way to do it. I purchased 9 Y 2 socket connectors, and 5 cleat sockets... Now I just need to figure out how to wire them. I bought 2 6' cheap extension cords to rip to use for the wiring.


Would adding the 2 cool blue spectrum to the flowering room, and the 2 warm to the veg room be worth it? My logic behind this is that the little blue spectrum would help the plants with closter internodal growth, and that in the veg room the red spectrum would help stem growth in the young plants...



Im growing mexi-bagseed, wasn't going to flip 12/12 from seed... Was going to veg until about the tallest I can manage in the flowering room... What would that be? 6-8"? They will only be in 20oz bottles so I can't imagine them getting a TON of height. Right now I got 1 sprouted seedling, and 4 germed seeds 2 of which should break ground tomorrow i think... have the 42w cool plugged into the wall outlet above them for now while im working on the cab... more germing... getting really crappy rates, moved the seeds to a warmer area of the house (typically between 76-82)

Anyways, I gots work to do! Will post pics when somethin's up.

 

[its just sky fi]

Nice little set up so far its just sky fi.Only thing i would say do different is hard mount the light to the top sideways as your gona have more space plus that would make it so u can add one or 2 more bulbs.On venting i would say go with a 120mm case fan with speed controller with like 110cfm or more as they have ones with more cfms and if u don't need all of it u can just turn it down.Good luck

Yea I decided not to do it that way, im going to side mount using the cleat and use Y's on both sides of both levels of each chamber

 

[its just sky fi]

my dream for this cab is something like the growall (www.growall.ca) on 4 walls, and seperate DWC tubs in the middle... Anyone know of anything similiar? was thinking i could DIY with some pvc and net pots

 

[Connoisseur300]

sweet setup

 

[its just sky fi]

I got it painted white last night, cut the shelves... Cut 1 shelf in half so I can mount 2 shelves on th left side of the veg cab, at different heights... One for just popped seedlings with 2 23w lights under the shelf w/ the bottom of the bulb 1-2" off the top of the bottles (2-3" from soil line)... Going to hang the clone shelves now, hang my cleat sockets sporadically throughout the chamber... Im still fighting with myself about bulb placement for each cab... With all the cleat and Y sockets, I can have 3 40w (cool white), 8 23w (cool white), and 4 23 6500k spectrum for vegging, and 4 42W (warm white), 6 26W (warm white), and 4 23W (cool white) in the flowering chamber...


Should be suffecient I think... Going to get back putting the shelves together So I can get this out of my living room before friends come over.

Peace all and thanks to icmag for all this info.






Anyone have tips for growing mexi? How tall should I expect them to get from flowering at 6"? I only have a growing height of 15" from soil to shelf. in the flowering chamber so unless they grow horizontally torward the 42Watters that are hung in the center of the room... then they could grow around the bulb and poke their heads through the hole in the shelf with the lights... only thing is, I might need to cut my hole bigger, and onlyh allow for one row of plants on it instead of 2 all the way around, so that there is suffecient room for the lights and plants to grow through

 

[exploziv]

nice set-up, I'll watch this thread.

Good luck!

 

[its just sky fi]

Well i got the 2 shelves in the veg chamber, ung some C hooks for holding wires, made a DWC hydro unit out of a 12x6x5 ziploc tub, with a 10 x 5 tub converted into a home made net pot (i.e. lots and lots of varied size holes drilled in it) inside it holding plain distilled water soaked perlite and about 25 germinated seeds. Put 1/2 gallon of water in resevoir w/ full str nutes, water is pumping through 2 6" air stones... temps in the cab with the door cracked (need to get some locking hasps so this thing will close tightly so the weather stripping is effective.) are at 87, w/ 1 42w. and 6 23w on the plants.... (11 in soil, and the 25 in the dwc tub)... will get pics tomorrow camera is dead and im up way too late again and i got work in a couple of hours so imma get a power nap... PEACE

 

[its just sky fi]

PICS


Here's the temporary setup of my veg chamber until I get around to hanging some sockets and wiring it up... Still haven't added any ventilation...

This is the DWC tub, its pretty self explanatory and basic. I put 25 germ'd seeds in last night, checked a couple and the growth has increased by about 1/4"-3/8" since last night, so approx 16 hours. I have another with the air stones glued down, painting it black then will switch the lid over to the real resevoir... the current is just a temp.

the plants

Gotta get back to work!

 

[its just sky fi]

Ok so not all of the seeds in the perlite DWC tub seem to be doing great, the top 1" of the perlite doesn't seem to be getting enough of the water through to it... handwatered un-nuted water on top to moisten top layer this morning, hopefully they will make progress

edit: went home for lunch, and after 4 or 5 hours they are doing much better. the growth is quite noticible, nearly tripling their length...

 

[its just sky fi]

here are some updated pics of the cab. i havent wired the cleat sockets, and i need to buy 3 more to hang in the flowering chamber (hun like the top right one in this pic)

I saw yellowing on the tips of my babies in the dwc tub, so I changed the water so they weren't getting any nutes... Im getting some red discoloration on 2 of the stems of my plants, which I have heard is possibly from heat stress? I have not had the temps that high in there, it peaked at 92 or so... staying at a steady 81-85 w/ the door cracked...


Damn i need to get some 120mm pc fans and ventilate this thing! What all would I need to vent this?

 

[hellotheresir]

So the T5's were a budget breaker so I redesigned, going to use 42W CFL's (4 in the flowering chamber) made into a vert column in the center, and 6 or so 23w cfls spread in between down in the sog

Attaching a pic to explain the setup.... Would love some input on this

The dims show the top of soil height to the bottom of the next shelf... I dont think the buds will be able to grow up through the hole around the lights unless I cut it back so I only have 1 row of plants up top...


Anyways heres the pic, have it drawn 90% in 3d but im gettin lazy and tired its almost 5 am... along with some pics of the cab...


peace imma go passss the fuck out

Where did you get those straight to light plugs? How fire safe is that? Definitely would like to find those.

 

[its just sky fi]

wal mart, a buck a piece. i have never bought them anywhere else so i dont know if they all are like this but they are sometimes a pain in the ass to get the connection right for the bulb to turn on... and sometimes it just never happens... have 1 I am gonna take back and exchange

as far as fire safety, i have no idea. i don't think its necessarily unsafe. That wattage would be pulled through a power bar elsewhere easily.

 

[its just sky fi]

I put the larger seedlings under 12/12, and the dwc tub and a couple of soil pots that are just now popping under lights in another room since my box is far from completion. I'm starting to rethink my design, 15" max height just isn't a lot of room, I coul make my flowering cab 1 level and double the height...

edit:

was also going to pickup a pack of seeds yesterday, money is tight so I have to find a pack for under $50, and with my heigth restrictions Im thinking of what strain to pick... and for a reputable dealer for that matter....

Have been looking at nirvana shop, and they seem to have quite the rep around here... been looking at NL, or a cross of it...

Right now our smoking habits are about 1oz of schwag a week between the two of us... and with prices around here lately and not getting any deals on bulk... So I figure based on that I need to produce 3/4 a lb every harvest to keep up with our smoking habits and have a lil extra for smoking friends out... so if it takes 11 weeks from seed to harvest, going 12/12 from seed (or including 1 weeks veg time), than Im not really sure what to expect yield wise.... Im not sure that im maximinzing the space I have... (i know im not yet, cab isnt done and i dont want a forest of bagseed outgrow my box and kill my first experience with this)...

 

[hellotheresir]

wal mart, a buck a piece. i have never bought them anywhere else so i dont know if they all are like this but they are sometimes a pain in the ass to get the connection right for the bulb to turn on... and sometimes it just never happens... have 1 I am gonna take back and exchange

as far as fire safety, i have no idea. i don't think its necessarily unsafe. That wattage would be pulled through a power bar elsewhere easily.

what are they called, i assume in the lighting section i'll find 'em? I'll have a look next time i go.

 

[its just sky fi]

I found them close to the lighting section, on the end of a random aisle. I don't know what their called, although I would imagine its just a standard socket that plugs into an electrical outlet... telling whomever works there should find it for ya. I checked at lowes and never found them, the prices for sockets comprable to walmart was 40% higher