250 watt Vertical Cabinet

[touchofgrey]

Hi all. It's been a while since I've posted here so I thought I'd show a bit of what I've been up to.

I've been growing the last 4 years in a 2 compartment 250 watt cabinet with an air cooled hood and tray carbon filter. I scrog 2 plants in 2 gal airpots using coco and blumats. It has been OK but there is only 9" between the screen and the glass of the hood and I was getting tired of all the work to scrog in that tiny space.

I was real interested in the results I've seen with vertical setups so I decided to remodel my cabinet and give it a try. The cabinet size is not ideal for a vertical setup - 14"x 28"x 30"H but a new cabinet was not an option at this time.

I came up with a design for a 2 piece modular curved screen that would hold 4 plants in 1 gallon containers.

First I gutted the hood and used the parts to make a vertical bulb socket. Set it up for a test run. I knew heat was going to be an issue without the air cooled hood and the temp hit 95 degrees which confirmed that it needs to be addressed. I pulled out the filter and caulked all the places where air could leak to tighten the airflow. That got me down to 80 degrees with 60 ambient. That will do for the time being but I will need to get more exhaust to get it down more.

I built the screen frames out of 1/2" PVC. I made the bends by carefully holding/constantly moving the pipe above the flame on a gas range to get it hot. Use gloves. I attached the frame to a platform so I can easily remove the plants if necessary.

I attached some 2x3 fencing to the frame with zip ties. I had to rearrange some electrical and then set everything in place for a test fit.

 

[touchofgrey]

I potted the clones up into 1 gallon grow bags, hooked up the blumats and we're ready to go.

Next I'll have to figure out the heat problem. By the numbers I need 100 CFM, I've got 50. Other option is to drop the wattage. I'm thinking vertical is more effficient and it's always about grams per watt. I've always got 120g or so out of this in a horizontal scrog. My screen area is doubled and lighting efficiency is improved so could I get that out of a 150 watt HPS? I'm thinking about it....

 

[touchofgrey]

Well I decided to upsize the fan and get a smaller light. Leave all my options open, lol. When I built this cabinet I was back and forth on a 150 vs 250. The space calculates to 2.72 SF so a 150 would be 55 watts/SF but I went with the 250 since more is better, right? In the vert setup it doesn't seem too intense so I'm thinking I'll leave it, just put in a bigger fan and see how it does this run thru the cold months. If I have heat problems during the summer I can put in the 150.

I was trying to get a dimmable ballast but seems like galaxy has discontinued the 150-250 model. I did find a brand new galaxy 150 for special price of $25 from http://brewngrow.com/ so if anyone needs one of these give them a call. It was like they were trying to get rid of discontinued stock. Would have been nice to have the dimmable ballast but won't be too much hassle to switch out the bulb and ballast if I need to dim down.

 

[b0nZai.b0b]

high, nice to read that u decided to lower the wattage of that bulb =) microgrow with 250w, i was curious about what i ll c in here =) now, i think u r on the right way with that vert grow - looks good and clean in here.

don´t retain the news =)

wishes

 

[tebos]

Very interesting grow as I'm a big vert+micro fan. Subbed.

 

[MrCopyZ]

Diggin it...

I want something like your cab one day...

 

[touchofgrey]

Thanks for the comments. Won't have the new fan and 150 until next week but that's OK since my part of the world is in the middle of a cold snap right now that has caused my ambient temp to drop so the 250 and as-is exhaust is needed to keep the temps up.

I wish there was some way to adjust my fan speed to compensate for ambient temp variation. I use a Panasonic Whisperfan because they they perform very well against static pressure and are very quiet. They have a DC motor and a bunch of electronic controls that are not compatible with standard speed controls. I thought typically DC motor speed control was easier than AC so it seems like there should be a circuit you can build and add on. Anyone heard of doing this with Panasonics?

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Hell yeah, pulling up a couch !
like the style of this, exactly my cup of tea.
regarding the heat: If you want, you can always put in a cooltube vertically, the duct only attached to the top end and just leave the bottom end open. If you can still acces the intake/ exhaust through the grid that is.

Good luck on this one, looking forward to this !
cc

 

[budelight]

Good Luck Bud!

 

[touchofgrey]

Thanks for stopping by guys. @Chevy, I can't get to the vent openings any more so that's not an option. I would need to route through the filter anyway unless I connect an intake to the tube. I think I'll be good I think when I double the exhaust fan CFM.

Meanwhile I received some blumat parts I needed to clean up the installation. I couldn't find any fittings for the 1/4" ID tube locally so I patched it together out of garden hose parts to get running and ordered up the correct fittings.

If anyone needs blumat set ups or parts I highly recommend http://www.sustainablevillage.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=59 They have the most complete selection I've seen.

 

[touchofgrey]

Time for a little update. The cold snap is over and the garage warmed up enough to require the exhaust fan upsize. The new one is noisier but it's holding OK for now with an 8 degree rise in the lower chamber and a 15 degree rise in the upper chamber. I've got the new 150 watt setup but plan on keeping the 250 watt running until temps warm up some more.


Meanwhile the girls are loving the vertical and starting to explode with new growth. The tops are going nuts and I am seeing strong sidebranching even down at the bottom that I think will make some nice colas there too. This is a pretty stretchy strain (and my stash box is getting low) so I flipped to 12/12 today just to be sure I don't outgrow the box in flower. 60 days and counting...

 

[ProvisionSeeds]

How much do you yeild in that?

 

[touchofgrey]

How much do you yield in that?

Hi PS, this is the first run with the revised setup. I always got about 120 grams when it was a horizontal scrog. I was never too impressed with that number and it confirmed for me it is not beneficial to go over 60 watts/SF. For that setup I used a screen that was 12"x24". Now I have 2 vertical screens that are 24"x20" so there is 3-1/2 times the area to cover with buds. I have high hopes that I can improve the yield with this setup.

 

[Garuda]

Very nice design . I'm in

Greetz,
Garuda.

 

[Mtnstream]

Groovy.

 

[touchofgrey]

It's been a stretchy couple weeks. They've grown about 12" since the flip. They should start slowing down a bit, they only have another 6" or so before they hit the ceiling. Hopefully I timed the flip just right, lol


I really like the vertical setup. The screens are filling out nicely, only needed to do a bit of training to get everyone positioned.


The new growth is starting to change from branches to buds, I love it when they do that

I also had to redo the fan. Last post I had installed a replacement but I wasn't happy with it so I bought another one. This one however solves my age old problem of the cabinet being located in a cold space in the winter and warm space in the summer. It is a 2 speed model that runs normally on a low speed you select and then kicks into maximum cfm when the thermostat hits 80. I put up a post about it here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=277044

 

[touchofgrey]

23 days

23 days

3 week update. Hopefully the stretch is over since I'm almost hitting the ceiling. The buds are developing nicely and starting to frost up.


The cabinet is getting pretty thick, I shoulda done some defoliation, is 3 weeks too late for that? This is a 60 day strain. I'm using H&G Cocos with CalMag and now I'm starting to pour on the Bloombastic.

 

[Womyn]

Look's very nice buddy!
I would make some defoliation if I were you right now.

 

[touchofgrey]

Look's very nice buddy!
I would make some defoliation if I were you right now.

Thanks Womyn. I came to the same conclusion about defoliation shortly after that last post. I pulled them out and cleared it out pretty well by removing just about all the fan leaves and lower growth.


The screens before defoliation are packed, several branches are sticking out into the "hot" zone. A couple got a bit scorched already.


After defoliation there is room to pull branches back and space out on the screen nicely.


Back in the cabinet I noticed the light penetration is much improved. It's now 2 days later and the buds are starting to swell noticeably. Could be the bloombastic or the defoliation, who knows. But everyone looks happy.

 

[touchofgrey]

5 weeks

5 weeks

Time for a little update here at 5 weeks.


The stretch seemed to work out perfectly, most the branches top out a couple inches below the ceiling. I had to LST a 4 or 5 of them but they stopped pretty close to the limit. I sorta wondered if the stretch slowed down/stopped because they had grown taller than the light bulb. In any case, I'm glad I flipped as early as I did.


The buds are filling out nicely and getting frosty too! I have been out of this strain for a while and it will be nice to have her back. Still got 3 weeks until harvest plus drying/curing so I need to be patient.