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First indoor grow space [cheap & improvised]

Sargemilla

Member
Hello,

I decided to create a closet for my plant (volume=0.6-0.7 m3, 1.5m tall) and want to know your opinions on my space and improvements idea. I have an old wooden closet that was completely empty and I figured I can put it to good use.
Where I live there are no weed products, nothing is ready for your grow as I often see on these forums where people just buy a kit or a product specifically designed for this... also there are no soils and fertilizers designed for it. So everything that I have to do is improvised :D

First I coated the closet walls with car windscreen sun shade (or whatever it's called)





The squared hole in the middle is for the ventilator. I bought one for a PC (a very quiet one at 7 dB) because I am also sleeping in this room and noise levels are important. As far as I read I only need to exchange the air every 1-3 minutes (found opinions for both 1 and 3 minutes) and this small and slow ventilator can do this every <1 minute. It has 1 m3 every minute CMM (CFM) and my closet has 0.6-0.7. So I'm covered. I will connect it directly into the wall socket through a 12V charger. The ventilator will only blow air out of the closet. Intake will be passive since it's far, far from completely sealed.
I hope this also solves eventual humidity problems, if not I will buy some silica gel bags and hopefully this will help. If not, the only option left for me would be to just let the closet door open, but that will decrease light levels quite significantly. Any other suggestions?

For lights I will use CFLs as they are the cheapest and keep the lowest temperatures. I will use a holder splitter (from 1 light holder to 5) so I can connect 4 or 5 CFLs





I already bought 5x 23w CFLs @ 6500K and another 4x 23w @ 2700 for flowering period. AFAIK I can get between 0.25 to 1g per watt, which offers me at worst 30grams. I can fit 2 or even 3 plants in my space but one will be enough as the most I can smoke in one month is less than 15g and I will never want to become a dealer. So for now I'll keep only one plant.
CFLs are my best options since you can get a lot of light for low wattage, with 5 of these I will have more than enough light and will only consume a bit over 100w. Temperature is also a big factor since I only have this small air blower and they can keep very low temperature for their high light output.

The holder splitter will be binded with some strong cord so I can freely move it up and down to my needs.

Other support items that I will use are: thermometer with humidity reader and mecahnical programable socket for light schedule. Because I'm paranoid of setting my house on fire I bought an over-voltage protected socket and a live streaming web cam, since there are rare periods of 2-10 days when I'm far away from home.

Everything cost me around $150. I will post some pictures when the space is set and ready to go - probably in less than a week :)


I have minor concerns about the smell. I have never seen a cannabis plant in my life, not a fully grown one or one in flower stage. Is it that bad? The room is far from my apartment door and I live at the last floor. I don't mind the stench inside my home, but I really mind if it's leaking to any of my neighboors :hide:



In conclusion, this post is just to show others my improvised and cheap setup. Maybe it will help to see different solutions for the same goal.
Also there are some questions that maybe you can answer:
Is it safe to keep this setup always ON, even when I'm away? (a friend will have my keys in this case)
Will humidity be a problem?
Are there important things that I completely missed out?
what chemicals should I feed my plants both in veg and in flower? (as I said, there are no cannabis-ready products here)
Is the ventilator enough?
And lastly, do I really need a second ventilator inside, just to mimic a breeze and move the air around?

Thank you!
I'll keep you up to date with my setup and my harvest eventually
 

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Sargemilla

Member
For some reason my image with the coated closet it not in my post even though it was in preview mode.
Here it is:
 

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Sargemilla

Member
Thanks Emperortaima, I appreciate it.
Though, I'm quite disappointed having this thread for like 2 weeks and got only 1 reply..
Anyway, I just got my last piece delivered and pretty much completed my setup. Only the carbon filter is missing which I'm going to do next week or next month.. who knows :D I'm lazy. My plant only has 10 days or so and it doesn't smell for now.

Here's how I plan to do it:


It is as simple as it looks. I hope it works fine

In the end I decided to put a second PC fan inside my closet for the sake of airflow.
Here are some pictures:


Have a good one!
 

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Sargemilla

Member
Is there an edit button?
Some thing that I forgot to mention:
- the white suspended thing is a smoke detector
- my temps and humidity stay in 27-29 C @ 45%-55% range which is pretty good considering the conditions

- the other white thing in the upper left is my wifi camera - which I recommend to all growers. I paid $20 for it and I can view my plant wherever I want, whenever I want. Plus it has motion detection in case of sudden light off or light on, intruders or fire.
The plant is ~10 days and it looks very healthy. It's an auto white widow and I made a terrible mistake planting it in a small pot and transplant it later. As I read afterwards, it puts stress on it and it's a no-no for autos. I hope it will do fine after transplant
 

Iamnumber

Active member
Hi,


hoping to see build pics on DIY carbon filter and hear how well it works.


reflector addon to your lapholder would be cool.. Metal so it dose not get burned -- atleast close to lapms


what are the dimentions of the cabinet? W and D ? you told the area .. just curious.



good luck and be safe.
 

Sargemilla

Member
Eventually I decided against my first filter design and I'll do the classic one with double tubes because I figured a way to put a larger filter inside.

W and D are 65x40cm. I can't find anything that's metal, in the right form and light enough. I looked a lot for something similar in home&garden markets. But I will put aluminum tape to reflect better.


My auto white widow is looking really good and healthy. I transplanted it 2 days ago and it's already recovered. I actually thought it would take more than 4 days. I see her very bushy and short, which is something that I value for the moment.

How does it look to you for a 13-15 days gal?



I am also out of weed. Could be weeks until I find something to buy:1help:


 

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Iamnumber

Active member
. I can't find anything that's metal, in the right form and light enough. I looked a lot for something similar in home&garden markets. But I will put aluminum tape to reflect better.


Well.. with anything with structural strength you would need tools for cutting to make hole and cutaway extras.


How about those auminium trays from ready made lasagne boxes? they would be bit flimsy but correct folding at edges would make them rigid enough (I hope).


Cutting with scissors .. folding with ruler and hand.. joining with stabler..
true getho style :laughing: .. I guess white paint would give better reflection ..:)
 

Sargemilla

Member
How about those auminium trays from ready made lasagne boxes? they would be bit flimsy but correct folding at edges would make them rigid enough (I hope).
Dude!!! That was an amazing idea :tiphat:
I already bought 8 of them and will make it soon. Thanks!


I also started my carbon filter but halfway through I finished all my activated carbon and have to wait until they ship me my order. I will put pictures here once it's done.
Btw, do you think a PC fan would work on it? It has around 2 m3 per minute capacity and my space is 0.7m3. I really don't want a normal fan because of the noise.. please work :D
 

Iamnumber

Active member
Dude!!! That was an amazing idea :tiphat:
I already bought 8 of them and will make it soon. Thanks!


I also started my carbon filter but halfway through I finished all my activated carbon and have to wait until they ship me my order. I will put pictures here once it's done.
Btw, do you think a PC fan would work on it? It has around 2 m3 per minute capacity and my space is 0.7m3. I really don't want a normal fan because of the noise.. please work :D


You are welcome mate!


I really do not know.. I did look into this and considered /still considering for 'light' air filtering.


It (to best of my understaning) boils down to these facts.
1) the carbon must be packed dense. otherwise there is a risk of large air tunnels that will allow odors to pass.
2) pc fans have a limited capacity to produce air pressure. They do move air but I fear they do not have strength to push/pull it through dense filter.



having 2 pc fans ( one right after another) will produce more air pressure (and more noise!). I think corsair sell this type of setup for pc aircooling. They had lab measured stats for their setup.



Cheap way to test is to use cheap old ones to proof of consept ( I really like the ideology of re-purposing used items for a second life ). they are noisier than new ones and likely poorer bearings (= will break down sooner).



backing up a bit..
Putting facts 1 & 2 together mean that this setup is greatly dependent on the filter. How dense, thick and what area. They factor into filtering capacity and lifespan of filter.


I opted to throw money to solve the problem as it was the prudent course of action for me. I now have alternative use where lower level of filtration is acceptable so this option is back on the table.
 

Sargemilla

Member
I opted to throw money to solve the problem as it was the prudent course of action for me. I now have alternative use where lower level of filtration is acceptable so this option is back on the table.


Yeah, I also decided this in the end. I will buy a proper extraction fan with some degree of speed control. Which will rise my entire investment with 50% and will be the most expensive piece in my grow... yeah, a fan :D but hey, it does good job and I wouldn't be able to do it without it I think.


I'm done with the reflector :woohoo:

and I'm happy how it turned out. Looks pretty solid to me.
The right plant that you see is my auto ak47 experiment. I just let in my room (before I had this closet) it's around 40 days maybe and only has 4 nodes, also there are no normal leaves to it just 3 fingers, but still decided to throw it there because there is a small bud in the making on top of it, none should go to waste.
Also I have a third plant, which was my first plant, just an experiment. It's around 4 months and 2-3 weeks into flowering. This plant only had (direct) sun light from the room and nothing more.

There are many popcorn buds there and if those can become smokable I will be more than happy. If it goes well I estimate I'll have 5-10 grams of popcorn buds.
Those 2 early experiments can also help me with becoming more experienced at harvesting, drying and curing. Once these plants are harvested I will only have one plant at a time of course, but for now I'll keep them to gain experience. I also have a basil plant which I heavily train in all possible ways to understand how it works and how it responds to every training method, poor basil.


Still no weed to be found
 

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Sargemilla

Member
Yeah, the concept of PC-grow was not too familiar to me when I started making my closet. If I knew at that time for sure I would've went with a micro grow as that suits me way better. But oh well, it's too late now :D
 

Iamnumber

Active member
Yeah, I also decided this in the end. I will buy a proper extraction fan with some degree of speed control. Which will rise my entire investment with 50% and will be the most expensive piece in my grow... yeah, a fan :D but hey, it does good job and I wouldn't be able to do it without it I think.
my vote goes to S&P TD silent series due to low noise levels.

I'm done with the reflector :woohoo:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=464481View Image
and I'm happy how it turned out. Looks pretty solid to me.


Cool !! :tiphat:

There are some apps for mobile phones to check lux values.. would be nice to see some numbers with and without the reflector.


I realized that I have not seen any info on how much commercial reflectors INCREASE light on given footprint. I mean .. numbers (par values) with given bulb without reflector in standard tent or no/low reflecting room... and then numbers with given reflector.
 

Sargemilla

Member
Fuck...

I finished my filter but I don't think it will work at all. After I was done with pouring the carbon granulethe inner cylinder it kinda collapsed into itself. It doesn't have much structural strength. I used some metallic mosquito net.






Then I filled the space between the cylinders with carbon granules

And I finished with a sheet of active carbon filter used for kitchen hoods



Looks good until now, but unfortunately this is how it looks inside



I have to redo it completely from scratch. I'm not sure what to use instead. Hopefully I'll come up with something stronger.
And maybe use less duct tape.


On other note, I bought my vent. It's a VENTS TT 100 which I bought for around $40. It's a bit noisy but not too much. I think I can handle that.
All plants are doing pretty good, but my closet seems to stay above 28C no matter what. Probably will drop 1-2C after I install this fan because now I have a poor PC fan which I don't think it does any work (though all internet seems to agree that 1 volume per minute is the way to go and mine does 2 m2/min)


Still no sign of weed to buy!
 

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Sargemilla

Member
How's it going peeps?



I was quite productive these last days, I finished and installed my filter. Gotta say I'm very satisfied with how it turned out and I'm proud of it. Glad the previous one was a fail.


With the experience and ideas from my previous fail I started from scratch. I bought a meter of steel fence and 2 different size hard plastic cap for drainage pipes and glued one inside the other, wrapped the fence around each and fixed them with duct-tape. I was also careful so that the inner cylinder was just big enough to fit the fan's pipe-reductor cap.


I filled the space between them with small activated carbon granules and at the top I just stuffed aluminum foil to keep everything in place. At this point it was very sturdy, I felt that could stand on it and be good or play football with it.


Then I wrapped a sheet of activated carbon (used for kitchen hoods) and tied it using the butcher knot





And voila! The filter is ready to use :woohoo:
 

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Sargemilla

Member
New post because of 5 photos limit..


Then I carefully fixed the fan over it so that the end slipped inside the inner cylinder and tied everything with more duct tape :D




Everything was really sturdy and packed together so much that I could keep it straight up from any part to any angle.


The filter is now installed in my closet. I used some wires to hang it from the "ceiling?". After I attached this filter to the fan it kinda slows it a bit and the noise levels got better which I dig



I will soon update my plants situation :tiphat:
 

Sargemilla

Member
Day 25 for my auto WW:


She looks pretty good imo. I see no nutes burn or deficiencies. Though I haven't see my temps go below 29C for most of the time. It stays @ 29-31 and I don't really have a solution for this, just hope they will not struggle too much. The only option that I have is to put bottles of frozen water and switch them constantly. This will work absolutely perfect, but it's too high maintenance for me. I also started training her a bit so that the lower branches get some height.
I really dig my soil mix (pun intended). It contains around 60% of some medicinal soil (PH 5.5) that I bought from garden store. It's basically universal peat I think, 20-25% perlite and the secret ingredient: vermicompost which I got from an old dude. He grows his vermicompost for more than 20 years and he is a really experienced grower (not weed). He grew plants his entire life and he even worked 40 years at our local botanical garden.

I also added 1/3 of recommended dose of guano sticks and just bury them around. After this I won't add anything else until harvest. Maybe some pure phosphorus if I find some once it's 2-3 weeks into flower.

My other plant from the closet is blooming nice. Keep in mind that this plant only received actual light starting from day ~35-40. If you want more details about her early life you can find it here: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=354354
She is now on day 45-47. It's small af but full of trichomes and I really like how she looks

I think she has maybe 2 weeks left until I viciously murder her. I expect 2-3 grams from her.
I switch 1/5 light bulb from 6500K to 2700K, which is the bulb that's right on top of her. This should help a bit. Currently I have 4x23W 6500K CFLs and 1x23W 2700K CFL and keep them 7-10cm above my plants. I feed them with plain tap water but I don't see any negative reaction from them so I'll keep doing this for my comfort.

Still no weed. I drank so much alcool these last 2 weeks. I normally drink this much in 6 months.
 

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This thread brings me back, man. I remember when I was DIYing grow stuff - lots of fun. Unfortunately, many of my builds were really crappy and ended up costing more than the vastly superior store bought equipment lol. That's not to say DIY is bad. My room itself is 100% DIY, and I'd tear it down and rebuild it every other run for improvements. What you get with the ease of store bought, you pay for with lack of customization.

I highly recommend investing in panda film. Its 10 bucks at the grow shop for 100. Square feet, its highly reflective, thick enough to completely seal off light, and thick enough to last years.

You can order it off walmart for slightly more,
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sunfilm-Black-White-Panda-Film-10-x-10

Best of luck with your grow, you look like you'll get a nice little harvest. Nothing is ever as good as your first harvest. After that you get hooked on growing. As they say, the only thing addictive about marijuana is the growing of it.
 
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