Cobra420's Dual 150w HPS Cabinet

Hello and welcome to the show. This cabinet of mine has been in the works for quite a while. Slowly but surely, it is almost complete. Just little things I'd like to do to clean it up a little more.

The cabinet is a “Closet Maid” bought from a local chain hardware store. Its dimensions are 48”L x 20”W x 72”H

The top part of the cabinet is used as a Mother/Clone Chamber. Its dimensions are 48”L x 20”W x 20”H. It has a 2’ 2 bulb PLL and it had a 2’ 2 bulb T5 (The T5 has been removed to be used on a different project of mine)




The bottom two sections are being used as Flowering Chambers. Their dimensions are 23”L x 20”W x 48”H each
There is a 150w HPS in each side






For ventilation, the cabinet has a 6” Vortex sitting on the top right of the cab with a carbon filter directly under it. The box of the Vortex has been rotated so no decals from the box show and it is sitting over the fan to hide it from view. The Vortex is being slowed down to about 70% with an Autotransformer. There are 2 - 8”x8” Darkroom Louvers as intakes in the back of each chamber about 15” above the floor. There are also 2 – 8”x8” Darkroom Louvers in the top left of the left chamber and top right of the right chamber to vent into the mother chamber and then out the cab by the scrubber/fan.

So far, this setup has been working GREAT! Temps range from 73-78 depending on ambient temps of the room. The setup isn’t silent by any means, but it was easily covered up by moving our small box fan from one part of our room to the top of the cabinet running constantly. The wifey and I like the white noise for when we sleep.

The back has been reinforced with ¾” plywood and all wiring I attached to it. I decided to keep it clean by installing outlets into each chamber and wiring everything up. At first, they glowed like crazy, so since I have a ton of panda film, I took pieces of it and stapled them over each outlet on the back. I caulked everything up and then for extra measures, put a strip of panda film over all the caulked areas. I used fairly large weather stripping for the doors. If I ever have to change it, I’ll go with the next size down.

To keep the doors closed tight, I have a magnet latch at the top and bottom of both doors. I also installed cabinet locks right under the door handles for security purposes. Overall, it works very well.

I have had the wifey lock me in each side of the cabinet with lights on in the top and other side as well as lights on in our bedroom and each flower cab is 100% light proof.

The 2 ballast, timer and autotransformer are sitting next to the box with the fan in it on top of the cab. I placed a box around it all as well to hide them from view. It definitely does its job nicely.

As for plants, since I’m just getting back into growing again, I’ve decided to go with some bag seed. I’ve been using this time to practice cloning, test my mix and seeing what methods work for me.



My cloning method, since very few clones are needed, has been using a shot glass of water. Simple, low maintenance and super effective. I've been taking tons of cuts and experimenting with them in every way possible.

At the moment, I have 2 plants, 67 days into flowering in my tent. All of the plants in this cabinet are cuts from those two plants. I started off with 8 – 3 gallon grow bags, 4 on each side. Having to hand water all of these from day one was a hassle. So after a couple days of that, I had a brilliant idea to make self-irrigated planters out of the stock of 1 gallon water jugs I have. So I made a bunch and planted all the clones that I had gotten to root. I also made 2 – 5 gallon self-irrigated containers as well to see how they do. So far, I love them. I have so much more free time now. All I do is top off the reservoirs of each container and that’s it. Perfectly watered at all times.

I have 12 clones in 1 gallon self-irrigated containers on the left side. The other side I have 4 clones in 1 gallon self-irrigated containers and 2 clones in 5 gallon self-irrigated containers. All of them are at 30 days 12/12. A few of the 1 gals and both of the 5 gals had some veg time while all the rest are 12/12 from rooting.

This is a practice run so I wasn’t too strict about canopy management as you can tell by the jungle I have going on. I mainly wanted to make sure I could keep a mother plant, take clones and get them from start to harvest before getting too serious with everything.

On the next go around, I plan on running a 5 gal in each side and scrogging them. So far, I feel they have been the least maintenance. Some of the 1 gals need to be refilled every day where the 5 gals give me time for other things.

For media, I decided to go the organic route and I have to say, I love it! Got it from a member from the Organic Soil section.

This mix consists of:

1 part Home Made Leaf Mold
1 part Peat
1 part Perlite
1 part Vermiculite
1 part Home Made Worm Castings
1 part Home Made Compost

For each 7.5 Gallons (1 cuft) of mix
I mixed all ingredients for each mix together in equal volume and used

2 Cups of Food Mix:
Blood Meal (wanted to finish the bag but discontinuing its use)
Bone Meal (wanted to finish the bag but discontinuing its use)
Alfalfa Meal
Cotton Seed Meal

1.5 Cups of Fix It Mix:
Crab Meal
Kelp Meal

1 Cup of Mineral Mix:
Green Sand
Azomite
Oyster Shell
Gypsum
Dolomite (wanted to finish the bag but discontinuing its use)

That's all I have for now. I've been watching the 2 plants in my tent closely since they are getting close to harvest time. So far mostly milky with 0 amber. When I get a chance, I'll snap a few pics of them as well.

Let me know what you think. If you have any questions, ask away. Thank you for checking it out.

That's a really cool setup!

Are you going to run any other genetics besides the bagseed?

Damn, that's suck a clean setup you got goin on there Cobra. I can't wait to see what these two 150w bulbs will pull!

Blynx, Thank you for stopping in. All of the other setups I've done, I feel like I rushed into. This one, I took my time and tried to plan for everything I could. So far, I have to admit, it has turned out to be the best setup I've made and I've been doing this off and on for 4+ years now. It's funny, whenever I see a cabinet or furniture now, all I can think about is what type of grow box I can make out of it.

As for genetics, I have Nirvana's Papaya, Aurora Indica and Bubblicious. I also have Spice of Lifes Blubonic and Blue Satellite 2.2. The thing is, the seeds are well over 3 years old. I've had them stored in their original packages, in an envelope in our cellar/basement since I got them back in 2009/2010. I am having the most difficult time getting ANY of them to germinate. I'm unsure if they are just dormant or if they just aren't viable anymore.

I've tried multiple ways to germinate these seeds and have failed for all. I tried planting directly in soil, in soil with a heat mat under it, in a paper towel in a Tupperware container over a cable box, in a paper towel in between 2 plates over a heat mat and in a glass of water. I've tried putting them into a sand paper tube and shaking them. I've even sanded them by hand with no luck. I've tried some of each pack with different methods and haven't gotten any of them to sprout.

Haha, that's another reason why I'm still growing the bagseed. I've read putting them in a fridge or freezer for a couple months may help so I've been thinking about trying that. Kind of running out of options other than just buying new seeds and seeing what happens.

KultureRunner, Thanks for stopping by. It has a little tidying up to do, but it's getting there. I'm excited to see what these 150's can do as well. First time using smaller bulbs like this but from what I'm seeing, people are growing nice buds with them. Definitely going to keep this post updated with my results.

This run will be interesting. The right side is REALLY packed in there. At the moment, unless I can figure out a way to raise the light more, its going to have to stay where it is. I feel a scrog will give me a better canopy, yield and buds in the future. I like the sog on the left side, but with life at the moment, I'd rather have more time to do other things as well.

Here are some pics of my makeshift cloner. Cheap, low maintenance and works GREAT.

From the top, it's just a shotgun terrarium I had made for some other hobbies of mine. Sitting on top of it are 2 x 15w Fluoros.


Inside I have between 2-5 cuts per shot glass and a seed in the soil.


A picture from the side



Some roots.



Usually have roots between 10-14 days. Some have been sooner and some have been later. Its the craziest thing when they root at different times since they are clones of the same plant.



Once the roots have grown a little more, I plant them into the soil mix above in plug trays and set them back in the container. After about 3 days, I move them into the Mother cabinet and once the plug is rooted fully (another couple days), I transplant it into whatever I want to experiment with at that moment. I have been playing around with a bunch of different DIY self watering containers that use some sort of wick, perlite for instance. They have worked better than any other container I have grown in with soil with practically 0 maintenance. Going to stick with them for awhile.

These are the two plants that all of the clones in my cabinet came from. They are getting close to done. Just watching the trichs.

A couple more.










These plants have had an interesting ride. Tons of things I learned playing and experimenting with these two. They are in 5 gallon buckets that were vegged for WAY too long. A few weeks ago, I decided to set them on trays of perlite to try and get some wicking action to keep them hydrated. If I keep this tent going, I think I'm going to go with 4 x 5 gallon self-irrigated containers and do a modular scrog. I think the results will be fantastic.

Hey Cobra nice grow how many weeks are those two in flower? Those two are beautiful without the scrog

Cobra, how many cfm on the exhaust fan? What diameter exhaust?

Also, did you weatherstrip the frame or the door for light proofing?

Thanks for stopping in Chiefbig. Those two are in my 600w tent and they are at day 75 of 12/12 today. I've been watching the trichs and they look as if they will be ready any day now. Mostly milky, a couple ambers and a few clears. I'm guessing within the next week I'll pull them down. They do seem to have turned out pretty good without the scrog, but I feel I could get more of an even canopy, with one. The maintenance alone is enough for me to try it out. These were mostly lst'd and with the amount of branching and all, I had a LOT to tie down fairly often. They also started out in the mother section of my cabinet above so height really came in to play there.

Thank you for passing through Dilbert Do. The exhaust is made up of a 6" Carbon Scrubber with a 6" Vortex connected directly to it. The fan has no ducting on it and is being exhausted into my room. According to websites, the cfm is rated for 452CFM. As for weather stripping, I weather stripped the frame.

Now I'm worried about my fan...
Independent of this thread I had already picked out nearly identical lights and cab. My exhaust is entirely contained in the cab, is 4" rather than 6", and much lower cfm.
My door isn't perfectly flat, so I'm probably going to have weather stripping light leaks too.
Good choice on replacing the stock cardboard back.

Nice set up

Dilbert Do, the only reason I went with a 6" instead of the 4" was because I wanted to go large and then slow down the speed of the fan to help with the fan noise. The cab is next to my bed so I wanted it to be sort of quite. I know for a fact that my fan isn't running the full 452cfm. I have my 6" on an autotransformer and have it dialed down to around 70% maybe slightly lower. I had it even lower, but I had read people advising to keep it over 50% so the fans motor gets adequate air. I've actually contemplated switching out the 6" for one of my 4" fans just to see what would happen. If I did that, the 4" fan and the scrubber would fit inside the cab. With the proper amount of intake area, I think a 4" would work fine as long as you can keep your ambient temps in check.

For the weather stripping, I went a little large on that. I had to adjust my doors to stick out as far as possible and the weather stripping still gets smashed to about half it's size when the doors are shut. The size difference between the size I have now and the next size down is quite a bit. I just wanted to make sure that the cab would be sealed. In order to get a nice tight seal though, I had to put magnet latches at the tops and bottoms of each door. I also installed a cabinet lock into each door to help pull the door tight to the weather stripping.

Thanks, I used the cardboard as well and just put a piece of plywood over it that way I still had a white back in the cab. The stability of the cab improved ten fold after doing so. With the way I wanted to go about things, the plywood was a must. Installing 4 dark room louvers, 1 single gang outlet box and 2 double gang outlet boxes into a piece of cardboard wasn't going to cut it.

Bonsai.Sensei, thanks for stopping in. I'll make sure to keep up on updates. Having two flowering chambers like this will allow me to do some interesting side by sides. The possibilities are endless! Vertical, horizontal, sogs, scrogs and what ever else I'd like to try.

Kush4me, thanks for stopping in as well. This cab had been in the making for months on paper before I actually started to buy everything for it. I was constantly tweeking it but trying to keep it as simple as possible. So needless to say, to finally have this thing up and running and running well, makes me pretty happy.

Yesterday, I had some clones I rooted in water that were ready to be planted. Here are a few pics from that.

Rooted clones in water





Out of the water





All planted up



Can't really tell by the picture but I have planted 6 rooted clones into a plug tray. I put them back in my makeshift cloner for a few days and then plant them into their next container.

I also decided to take a few pictures of the clones flowering in my cabinet with the lights off. First up, the left cabinet.











In the first pic, the plant in the front right of the group with the orange knife in it, if I don't water it everyday, you can see how the moist soil line moves down compared to the rest. This plant guzzles some water! I watered it today so it should go back to normal. Also, it doesn't look like 12 plants are in there, but there are.

Now the right cabinet.











Chugging along.

Nice cab, and nice work! The plants look very healthy.

Tonight I had to fill the reservoirs so while I had one of the 5 gallon containers out, I decided to snap a few pics.











I'm really liking the way this one is turning out. The other one in the cab looks just as good. I'm really leaning towards one of these in each side with a 20" x 20" scrog screen instead of 12 x 1 gals. It's funny because that is how it started out, then I had a bunch of clones that rooted so I started adding them in, in order to get them all to fit, I had to rearrange the cabs to how they are now lol. My other idea, once I get some good genetics going, is to do 4 x 3gals with 10" x 10" mod scrogs in each side so I can start pulling a variety of strains. Either way, some sort of canopy management is in the works for next round.

Thank you for stopping in Hush. I have to admit, I'm loving this cab more and more everyday. I've thought about taking down my lonely 600w tent and just running this cab but I can't seem to shake the itch lol. Then again, I have the equipment to set up 2 more 600w tents so I may wind up doing that once I get a nice stable of genetics going.

This mix I'm running combined with these self watering containers, make for a fairly simple, low maintenance grow with great results so far. Since I've switched over to this method of growing, I've had so much more time to do other things lol Having the 16 x 1 gals, gives me a little work come filling their reservoir, but with a funnel and about 4-5 gallons of water, I can get them all filled in about 10-15 minutes tops. I'm loving how easy this way of growing is. Those other tents of mine may be getting set up sooner than I thought so I have something to do with all this free time lol.