Planning my first grow!

[SmokeToLive]

I'm very excited about this as any future parent would be, but being a first timer I wanted to get plenty of input from other moms and dads.

As I am a medical user, my needs are more focused on chronic pain/nausea as well as lack of appetite. Inflammation reduction in the intestines is a nice side bonus. (Strain suggestions are welcome as well!) So obviously strength is important.

At the same time, as I have a chronic illness, I am assuming that I will need a perpetual harvest. I currently smoke ~1oz to 1.5oz per week of not very good funny tasting Mexican stuff. (I had some white widow and ate half a pizza. I'm looking forward to growing and weight gain.)

Also, if you haven't noticed from my sig or location, stealth is rather important.

Anyway, the important details:

I have a space 2.75' wide x 3.5' tall x 1.25' deep which is currently a dresser. I have a plan to convert this space, and the dimensions supplied would be the remaining space post conversion. The question is, how should I set this space up?

Optional Additional Space:

1 x PC case.

Cabinet Setup
-----------------------
Option A: Use the full cabinet for flowering and the PC case for moms / veg. I assume I could also use that space for cloning.

Option B: Partition the cabinet to have 20" of flowering space and 12" of veg/mom/clone space. (This would leave to tall vertical spaces, one much larger than the other.)

Option C: ???? All suggestions welcome.


Lighting
-----------------------
Honestly, this confuses me. I thought about doing cfls, but that increases the amount of wiring I need to do as well as the addition equipment. Plus, the amount of lumens / watt does not look as good.

On the other hand, HID type lighting seems the generate much more heat, and I am concerned about vertical space. Also, I'm just not sure which size to get.


Growing Setup
-----------------------
Option A: Soil. Using a mix of coco coir and other recommended ingredients.

Option B: The DWC bubblers look pretty simple. Also, I saw a video on youtube showing a method using a fish tank.

Either way I could try a SOG or SCROG. I'm not sure which is best for a first timer. But I do learn quickly...


Supplies Needed
-----------------------------
Blower Fan / Air Ducting / Air filter
Lights
Timer / Relays / Etc
Electrical conduit / boxes / junctions / etc
Seeds (Strain not yet determined)
Anything required and not listed.

Supplies Already Purchased
-----------------------------
1 x GFCI Outlet
2 x Silicon Waterproof Sealant
1 x Caulk Gun

 

[cork144]

id go with a 24" flower and a 8" mom and clone chamber, splitting the 8" area into 3 shelfs will mean you can have an area for your moms, an area for a bubble cloner, and an area to put a ballast and a fan with a hole leading through into the flower chamber to attach a carbon filter.

use 4" pots and run 24 plants SOG style in the flower chamber, 3 clones in and then 3 plants out each week, using a hydro method should ensure that those 3 plants grow you that 1.5oz that you need, maybe coco?

youd need to pull 14 grams per plant, so a 250watt HPS will cover 2sqft and will be more than enough light, id suggest a cooltube attached to your fan with a carbon filter attached to the other side, use a bigger fan with a fan controller will mean you still get a large ammount of CFM with less noise.

I build growrooms for friends and friends of friends but im relitivly new to growing, so if you have any questions, just ask.

 

[SmokeToLive]

Thanks for the information. It's good to hear from a builder, especially since my building skills are going to be tested a little with this project. (The Dremel is betting I can do it...)

I had originally thought of doing a hydro dwc system, but I don't know too much about it. My big concern with that was the amount of height I would have left, especially after adding a light. Then my second concern was maintenance of the reservoir. Is that very difficult?

I had thought that if I did that, I was going to as about a hybrid recirculating system using 6" pvc for the to hold the water / plants. Each 6" pvc pipe would fit over the reservoir, and a pump would put water into the system with a large overflow drain leading back down into the tanks, preventing overflows. And, because it's a dwc system, I would use air bubblers in both the reservoir and the pvc piping.

The big advantage to that being that I could take the reservoir out and the plants would still be going. But, of course, all of that takes even MORE height from my cab space.


Also, in the flower chamber, do you have any light recommendations?

P.S. It's wake n bake time! ... For US timezone people.

 

[SmokeToLive]

Oh! I meant light recommendations for the veg chamber. I assumed I was filling that side with cfls somehow, but I know what assumption's family tree looks like...

 

[cork144]

Oh! I meant light recommendations for the veg chamber. I assumed I was filling that side with cfls somehow, but I know what assumption's family tree looks like...

a mother plant can be kept alive with a single 20watt cfl forever.

clones will need just a 11watt cfl or so.

make a shelf in the flower cab, put a ledge around it, then put pond liner on it, fit ebbnflow fittings underneath it, make a resivour the same dimensions but taller and fill with water, also you could make a lidfor it,

you have ALOT of headheight if you plant to do 0 veg SOG, good indy strains will end up under 15"

 

[SmokeToLive]

Snip! Snip!

 

[SmokeToLive]

Well, I calculated that a 12" x 15" x 24" reservoir would give me a little over 18 gallons. I assume that is enough to keep from having to adjust it all the time. If I gave the light / ducting 10" of clearance, I would be left with 20" for the plants. If I tried to get fancy with some pvc piping, I would need to use 4" pipe to fit 3 rows, but I'm not sure if that much pipe would be big enough for the roots. Any ideas?

Also, any recommendations on how to build that reservoir to be water tight? I have silicone sealant, but I'm still nervous about a leak onto the wood. I doubt there is anything premade that will fit into that space. I guess drainage becomes an issue if the reservoir is built into the space as well.

Do I build out a hydro system for the mothers too? Hrmm... So many questions Thanks for the help.

-------

Edit: Actually, after pricing all of that, I think I'll start in soil/coco first. Once I get a little more money I can invest in all of the equipment needed to do a hydro grow.

 

[White]

Edit: Actually, after pricing all of that, I think I'll start in soil/coco first. Once I get a little more money I can invest in all of the equipment needed to do a hydro grow.

Sounds like you're on the right track there. The best advice I can give you is: find a good grow that works for you and emulate it. And READ, READ, READ. And when you're done, READ some more.

Keep it as simple as possible the first go around. You need experience growing the plant and getting your cab dialed in before making a bigger investment in hydro. With coco, you're still gonna get a good yield and it will most likely taste better when finished.

Stay with cfls in mother/clone cab. And a 150-250W HPS in your flower cab, but you'll have to do a cooltube or temps will get too high. Wiring the cfls is a piece of cake man. You just need romex, a wire stripper and the light cleats. Strip the white and black wires, connect 'em to the cleats and screw the cleats down.

And remember the DIY thread and Home Depot are your friends. Not sure if you've got it, but consider getting at least a drill, and if you can afford it, a saw (PM me for brands etc.)

And don't fuckin quit. It's not always easy, but if you want it bad enough, you can do this. Read my thread (Cab of Dreams) and you can see me build my cab from day 1 until now (1 Week away from completion) it might help answer a question or two. Good luck man. Stay up and stay safe.

Peace,
White

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Sounds like you're on the right track there. The best advice I can give you is: find a good grow that works for you and emulate it. And READ, READ, READ. And when you're done, READ some more.

Otherwise you'll spend a lot of hours doing This....

While the gods of beautiful buds do this....

So....... Read up. Read some more and when you have everything planned out to the last detail, come post it here and we'll help you out with anything you might have overlooked.

That way, in about 6 months or so you'll be doing THIS...


Be safe, be persistent, READ and you'll succeed.

P.S. Please try to discretely find a different connect. That schwag you're smoking is hurting as well as helping.

 

[B. Self Reliant]

I started a few years back and was in a similar situation, at least in terms of the space restrictions and the need for extreme stealth.

First off, read as much as you can. There's plenty of folks making simple mistakes out there, and it's better to learn from those than from your own. Second, be realistic about your goals, especially at first. Many people give up this kind of hobby due to initial disappointment. There IS a system of growing that will supply you with what you need, but it might take a little while to figure out just what that is.

That having been said, and not knowing what your experience is with gardening, I'd suggest taking it slow and not investing all of your resources (time, money, effort) in your first set-up, because it will probably change quite quickly throughout the first couple cycles.

Having grown in a fridge for quite some time, I have some experience with cabinet-type grows. A HPS in a cooltube would be great, but it has the potential to be quite frustrating at first. I would think that at first, it would be best to maybe think about a fluoro grow. You need to concentrate on learning about the plants right now, not about how to be a HVAC expert. Using CFL's or a T5 fixture would make temp. control much, much easier, and there are quite a few folks who get great results with them.

If you need a perpetual harvest, there are many options. To help speed up the learning curve a bit, I would suggest an 8 week strain. You could think about a SCROG setup with 2 plants that were offset by one month. That would allow you to harvest half of your canopy space every month, and your mom could be very tiny, since you'd only need one clone per month. Or you could have a SOG that is staggered with one or two plants started/harvested every week. 3"x3"x4" cubes work great because they don't take up much floor space, but they allow the plant to grow an extra inch deeper. The rockwool can be discreetly stored until you use them, and when a plant is harvested, just let them dry out and then toss them out.

Think about the variables that you can't change and have no control over such as security or space, and work around those. The rest will fall into place based on your needs.

 

[SmokeToLive]

@B. Self Reliant: I think considering the initial investment required to "do it right" with the wiring, going for the 250w hps + cool tube right off the bat is probably the best option. It may be frustrating, but that is what duct tape is for! I hope. (Write this down as you'll probably be making fun of me once it all comes together and I start having problems.)

Anyway, stealth being very important, I would rather take a little extra time / money in the beginning rather than rush into the project. I was hoping to do a picture worthy job on the wiring as well.

But I hadn't thought about 3" x 3" x 4" cubes! That makes other things possible... A
lso, I have been thinking about variables I can't change, such as the noise of the cabinet!

---

Here is a quick update based on all that you have provided and all the reading I've been doing:

Planning to do:

- A DIY Cool Tube with a 250HPS in the flower cab, 24"w x 15"d. I will also attach a diy activated carbon filter to the input end of the cool tube.
- 2 x 27w CFLS in the clone/veg/mom cabs, 8"w x 15"d x 2 shelves.
- Extra shelf for blower fan / timer boxes / wiring.

Flowering box setup: 4"^3 area for each plant with 18 plants in a perpetual SOG grow. I could optionally do a 3" x 3" x 4" setup and do a 40 plant SOG grow. (Wow) But that might test my cloning space / skills.

I am considering:

- Weatherstripping for the door, which will be a back of dresser door like pontiac's.

Purchased:

- Fish tank + accessories. (Though no fish yet, but they will come eventually.) I've read the noise can be a good distraction when set on top of slightly noisy cabinet. (Or in this case dresser.) +Stealth!

- Dremel with cutting wheels! The 35k rpm model. (Beware!) This will go nicely with my drill and wire cutters in the project bin.

You guys are awesome btw. Sigh... but lunch is over. Have a good day!

 

[SmokeToLive]

And don't fuckin quit. It's not always easy, but if you want it bad enough, you can do this. Read my thread (Cab of Dreams) and you can see me build my cab from day 1 until now (1 Week away from completion) it might help answer a question or two. Good luck man. Stay up and stay safe.

Peace,
White

I'm with ya there dude: No quitting! If I don't want to smoke schwag anymore, if I want to avoid going to dealers, if I want to have my paycheck back... I have to do this. I have too many reasons. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[SmokeToLive]

P.S. Please try to discretely find a different connect. That schwag you're smoking is hurting as well as helping.

Yeah... Fortunately I really have the best connection in town, even if it is mexican. If I want something better, the named stuff is $70 for an 1/8th. (The lowest I've found it is $60, going 1.5 hours away.) And, at the rate I tend to smoke, it's hard to afford that and have money to eat on, pay rent, utilities, etc. Though I love smoking the better stuff because it helps so much more, but I'm going to have to deal with the schwag until I can get the garden moving.

 

[White]

Damn, that's too bad man. Well, just get focused and get 'er done. I looked over your first post and had a few thoughts.

First, I'd use your dresser just for a flower cab, nothing else. You only need something about half the size for a mother/clone cab. Shit, you can have a mother cab in a bathroom vanity cab if you really want, just find something that works.

Also, either buy a HPS and set it up with a cooltube or buy the $2 cleats and wire it up, I already mentioned how easy it is.

Once this is all settled, you can worry about ventilation. That's not too hard.

And, for the space you have, I'd recommend a Sea of Green grow. Use gatorade/aquafina/vitamin water bottles and shove 16 in every sq. ft. you need a lot of plants in that space to get the weight you want and need. Just check your backwards state rules and see what your min/max plants are if you're worried (personally I don't give a flying fuck - stay under the radar, no worries)

Just figure out your space and lighting, the rest will follow. And pick a medical strain for yourself, check out Dr Jays threads.

Figure out the basics and get going man, you can do it. And keep up that reading

Peace,
White

 

[SmokeToLive]

Yeah, I'm fucked if I get caught. 16 plants or 50 plants won't make a difference. I just don't want to hit any federal limits I guess.

I'm going to try to do a diy cooltube; paying $100 for one is just too much. Plus I can probably make the cleats out of a pop can / pipe clamp if all else fails. Plus ducting / etc is pretty easy. I'll just be sure to buy some extra duct tape. Besides, after doing some shopping, I've determined that I will probably spend the most money on the light / ballast / blower fan combination. (Plus extra light bulb.) I just couldn't justify a premade cooltube on top of that.

Also, I have 4 unused computer fans I can use to help push air into/around the cabinet. If I kept the 8" side cabinet, I could use those fans to push air into that side / into the cab. And if I can find pots that are square, 3"x3"x4"(deep) I can put 40 plants in the 15" x 24" space that remains (2.5 sq feet, gives me 16 plants per sq ft.)

OR

I could try to do a rubbermaid veg/mom cab or something I guess. I dunno, I kinda liked the idea of a self contained system. But getting my yield / quality is important too. But I do have that extra PC case!

As far as the strain goes, I was reading some of the GrowDoc grows, and that stuff seems tailor made for a SOG. But I'm not sure about its medicinal quality. (I'll have to ask.) Either way, he is growing a SOG from seed to harvest in < 70 days. So that should give me something nice in a very good time frame.

Plus, I've been reading about coco/hand watering, and I think that is going to be the system for me. It seems to give good yields / growth rate, and isn't too difficult for newbies. (And it's not too much more expensive than soil.)

Either way, the dresser is coming apart really easy. The front faces to the drawers come apart with 3 screws and some light hammering to break the glue. I plan on nailing/gluing/silicone sealing the faces down. Anything that doesn't feel like complying faces the dremel.

... I'll post pictures whenever I get off my lazy butt and charge the camera batteries.

I've also seen some good deals locally on a 400hps system ... but I am thinking that would be too much for my space.

 

[justanotherbozo]

censorship sucks

 

[SmokeToLive]

hey bozo, thanks for all of those links. You'll be glad to know I had read all of them except for the video thread and that I really do appreciate having them all in one place. It means less time hunting while planning / drooling. Also I've been lurking in your alliteration thread.

Anyway, I do like the CFL grows, and I am really considering it. But I figured by the time I got enough light in there to justify what I wanted to do (and wired it properly), it would cost me about the same as a decent hps, or it would at least be pretty close. But I haven't bought any lights yet so nothing is set in stone, and I have about week to decide.

 

[Guest]

Lots of great info here, thanks to everyone contributing.

Smoke, I am in a similar boat; planning my first micro cab with a 250W HPS in a cooltube. My dimensions are a bit different, but the idea is similar, you should check out my schematic and maybe it will give you some inspiration. I spent a lot of time tweaking the HVAC setup and I don't even have all the parts yet; like B. Self Reliant said, it requires a bit of work and planning, but I am of the same mind as you, if you're making the initial investment, let's do the best job possible so we don't have to redo it later.

Of course, this gung-ho attitude is best tempered with an absurd amount of time spending icmag

Good luck to ya, ill be watching.
~A

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Lots of great info here, thanks to everyone contributing.

Smoke, I am in a similar boat; planning my first micro cab with a 250W HPS in a cooltube.

Microcab? Why, in my day we would bounce sunlight off a shaving mirror into the top of a soup can under the kitchen sink. Now THAT's a microcab!
Damn punks and their 250w HID bulb thingies!

 

[SmokeToLive]

Microcab? Why, in my day we would bounce sunlight off a shaving mirror into the top of a soup can under the kitchen sink. Now THAT's a microcab!
Damn punks and their 250w HID bulb thingies!

Lol. Compared to many grows on this forum, it's micro.

------------------------

Updated Shopping List

Most of this has to be purchased, but it's a diy project as much as I can manage.

Medium / Nutrients / Etc
Cloning Gel
Pots (Homemade somehow most likely.)
Nutrients for Coco
Bucket or two for nutrient solution / storage
Aerated bucket for water storage
Coco Coir

Lighting Equipment
250w HPS Light + Ballast
Cool Tube - DIY - Tube
Reflective Mylar
CFLs + Sockets

Ventilation / Air Mgmt
Air Ducting
Pipe to match ducting
Ring clamps
DIY Carbon Filter+A23
Weather stripping (Seal Door)
Air pump for water bucket

Power / Wiring
Flexible Conduit
2 Timers + Relays
Boxes for Timers / relays
Boxes for lights / junctions
DC Converter for PC fans
Extra wire for both DC and AC systems

Misc
Screws / Nails
Dark room vents
day/night thermometer / etc
ph tester

Seeds - Strain still undecided.

And anything else I forgot ...