[mayorofthdesert]

Cabinet, get it? Cabinet members: 2x65w cfl. 2x150w HPS, autopots, coco/perlite mix, RO water, and a whole bunch of Nirvana seeds.

Stealth is very important - if my constituents (the rocks and cactii mostly) find out I am growing, next election every vote will cost me an 8th oz. I tried to think of what sort of large container wouldn't seem out of place being in a closet and locked permanently. I could only think of two a safe or a gun cabinet. Gun cabinet it is! I just had to find one that worked with my closet dimensions and gave me as much interior space as possible. It's only a minor hassle that I can't have both sides open at once, no biggie.



As you can see, I have a cupboard above and a drawer below, nothing whatsoever looks amiss inside either of those even with the drawer out. For some (WONDERFUL!) reason my house's interior walls are plywood rather than drywall or plaster which made it really nice for running the ventilation. there's a stud in the wall right at the mid-point of the flower side so the cool tubes pull in air from one wall space and exhaust it into the neighboring space. For the cabinet's actual exhaust, a 4" duct goes out the top of the veg side & up into the attic. The fan & carbon can are placed inside a cardboard box that's lined with carpet. Open the attic & it looks just like one of many boxes of junk. I did have a lot of vibration from the fan. I think it may have a tiny imbalance and/or my plywood walls just make the house reverberate. I took two pieces of plywood and sandwiched a bicycle inner tube in between then I set the box containing the fan on that. Worked like a charm. There's an intake in the bottom of the veg side and another larger one at the bottom of the flower side. Inside the wall the fire blocks keep the cabinet's cool air intakle from mixing with the exhaust or cool tube air. The cabinet draws air through a vent in the wall in my bedroom (opposite side of the wall) and/ or through the drawer in this room so long as it's left open a crack. In the summer if necessary I can pre-cool whichever room I want to use for the cab's intake if temps rise. Both rooms have a tiny window a/c.

Veg side:


moms & clones on the bottom, single vegging plant on top. the top section is a little shorter than the flower sides, I figure I can get the screen right up to about an inch below the cfl, then when the many tops start to form buds and grow upward they'll still have some space in the larger flower chambers.
Engine Room:

I painted it all black and the shelves act as light baffles (see the glow behind the resevoir? - air comes up behind there, then goes around to the front of the res before going up to the engine room where it leaves the cabinet. I lined the engine room with some of the sticky foam that came with the gun cabinet, how thoughtful of them to include this for me!


Flower side:




The screens are 14"square. exactly the width of the door opening. I'm thinking that once they're in their flower room I'll let them overgrow around the edges of the screen and form a bit of an inverted dome shape to make use of all available light & increase yield.


So I figured with a gun cabinet some AK-48's would be an appropriate strain to start with. First time around I'll grow 4 individual plants, no scrog. I'll take cuttings from each (that's something I've studied ZERO about yet) & after smoking I'll decide which will be the mom for future generations. Originally I wanted to keep the grow to 4 plants, no more. So i went with femmed seeds. Now I really want to play with genetics a bit so I'm not sure if i'll keep to that plan or not. we'll see. I was just going to pop one seed at a time, scrog it, harvest & let it's genes go. But I thought for the first go-around I'd do 4 plants quick to get a stash, taking cuttings of each until I decide for sure what I'll do next. I also have femmed Bubblicious, blue mystic, super skunk, ice, and non-fem NL & Chrystal. I'm thinking of keeping moms of my faves until I get some males, then making seeds for posterity. I'm thinking of relocating in the next few years, someplace where stuff grows outside besides rocks and poisonous critters.


I'm anxious for any advice. When I get into something new I'm voracious about learning, a LOT of thought has gone into this, but as of yet I have nearly no real experience. I think I've covered most bases, but i'm sure i'll run into stuff I hadn't forseen. If you have any questions, ask away! You think 4 oz off one screen is overly optomistic? I smoke about an ounce a month if I'm trying to conserve, an ounce and a half if I'm not worried about it. I'd like to grow for a couple years, get a stash built up then be able to take a year off growing to sell my place, move and get set up somewhere else. Thanks for taking the time to read and maybe give a pointer or two.

[mayorofthdesert]

I've got a couple questions. The small containers you see are 4"x4" & 5" tall. Are those pots too small to flower plants sog style? If I need more volume for the next group of seeds I'll go search for something taller. The plan is to take a clone of each plant from and decide on one plant from each strain to keep after sampling each. I'll do that with a few varieties before switching to scrog long term to keep the plant count down. I just like the idea of having 4 or 5 plants instead of 28. Is it ok to let the plant continue growing for the first week or two of 12/12 before taking a cutting or is it necessary to keep the seedling in veg until after cutting? If so does the seedling need to stay in veg a few days after I take a cutting from it? digging around in the coco group it seems like it's common to get good results rooting right into coco, so I'll get a dome, some rooting gel & a thermometer & give it a try! simple is good!

[AKDrifter]

I love it!

I would like to take you're idea and make a mom cabinet out of it. Locks secure as hell, and very stealth. I would love to keep six bonsai moms indefinitely, and this may be just the ticket. I could use a couple very small CFLs and computer fans to keep it just nice.

[mayorofthdesert]

^It would make a great mom cabinet, comes with 4 shelves total, there's choices on the left hand side where to hang the shelves but you gotta drill your own holes on the right hand side (intended for rifles standing up) and the shelves aren't as wide as that side. I'd think you could fit 6 moms in individual spots easy. might want to look into circuline floro fixtures to maximize headroom with 6 chambers, I've seen them with two bulbs, an inner circle and an outer. Or shit, what about going led for mums? I'd be interested to see the results...

I guess the three girls are about 2 weeks from their seeds being put in water. I lost the fourth, it sprouted bu never grew at all. whe I examined the seedling I found the tap root had formed a circle near the surface of the soil, never got it's bearings I guess.


SERIOUS QUESTION - if someone knows or can point me to a thread I've not found yet, I'd be super glad. -
I really want to get these 3 into flower. I'm very broke & I'm figuring I'll be out of smoke in a month unless something changes money wise. I'm intent on saving my favorite plants to clone from but I really don't want to delay my first harvest in order to do so. I'd put these 3 into flower today and figure on re-vegging at least one of the three, or taking clones of each as they flower, but I'm worried about it not working & I lose the strain as a result. re-vegging a plant itself sounds the simplest, but are clones from a re-vegged plant ok or can re-vegging permanently imprint the plant with troublesome traits? If I clone from a flowering plant and get them to take will that make a better mum than a fully flowered re-vegged plant? Or should I decide between taking take the time to clone first and extend the harvest a couple weeks or get them flowering now and call the first go a one-time affair and start cloning with my next batch? Being the impatient sort and being extra excited about my new hobby I'll probably choose the latter...

[JACKtheREFFER]

looking good man i love cab setups

i wouldnt count your eggs before they are hatched id wait to see how many fems you get before making plans on weather to clone or grow

[mayorofthdesert]

^ I forgot to mention that the plants are from fem seed. When I first started planning this cabinet my intentions were to plant single fem seeds, grow them out, then start fresh with new seeds. At the time I didn't realize how much genetic variety is in even well developed seed strains. Now I'd prefer to isolate the best individuals and keep them for posterity, the only choice is whether to fit in a quick harvest first but risk losing genetics or to go without smoke for an additional couple weeks but know I've got each plant saved in case one is special.

Aside from these AK-48s I have: 3 fem bubbleicious, 3 fem super skunk, 2 fem ice, 3 fem blue mystic, 5 regular NL & 5 regular Chrystal. (bought 5 each of the fems & 10 each of the non but I sent a bunch to a friend who lost this summer's outdoor crop to the po-po.)

[mayorofthdesert]

Anyone have any input on taking clones from a flowering plant or re-vegging? See "SERIOUS QUESTION" paragraph a few posts up. I think I'm gonna put the girls in the 12/12 side tonight unless I get advice not to...


EDIT: I found some info on revegging. I'm confident enough that I can pull it off, sounds pretty straight-forward and not as risky as I thought.

[mayorofthdesert]

I re-potted & put them into flower yesterday, hopefully it's not bad to do both at the same time? After I got them into the new containers (eventually I'll get some proper pots if I keep doing multiple small plants instead of scrog) I gave them a good top down soaking with half-strength nutes. Transplanting + first night under the HPS doesn't seem to have upset the plants any:

[JACKtheREFFER]

looks like things are coming right along

[Coco Budder]

Looking good bro I like the switch of light it looks a pretty blue to the flower red..