Anti's MicroStealth Cab Design (Dr. Bud Method)
Lately I've been toying around with a new cabinet idea:
Step 1: Buy one (or a few) of these for $175:
Step 2: Buy 270 1.5" grodan rockwool cubes (or something similar. Could use hydroton. Even soil.)
Step 3: Root 270 clones (or root 27 clones per week for 10 weeks).
Step 4: The moment they're all rooted, throw the whole thing into 12/12.
Step 5: this is where it gets interesting. The whole plant gets maybe 6-7 inches tall at most. Each plant is nothing but a 6" top.
Step 6: Harvest.
1 gram per plant = 270 grams (9.5 oz.)
2 grams? 540 grams (19 oz.)
3 grams? 810 grams (28.6 oz.)
4 grams? 1080 grams (38.1 oz.)
With one of these, you could either harvest 270 every 10 weeks or so (strain dependent) or harvest 27 a week for 10 weeks. You could probably fit two of these in a cab with similar dimensions to mine. (the fixture above is 47"w, my cab is 48"w.)
The thing i like about the idea:
#1 All of the 270 plants would be within 6-7 inches of the light source, so penetration even at the soil level would be BETTER than the rated output of the lamp.
#2 All of the 270 plants would be tops. No flimsy popcorn.
#3 Would require significantly less height and depth and therefore could be easier camouflaged. Dimensions of the lamp are: 47" x 15" x 2.25". Pretty sure the whole setup including fans, carbon, potential drying chamber could fit in a 4 ft wide, 1.5 ft deep, 2 to 3 ft. tall cabinet.
I've started messing about with it in Sketchup. let'cha see something when there's something to see.
Thoughts?
sounds like a blast, but you gotta have some huge stones to be thinking about 270 plants...if you were going commercial, I don't think that would honestly be the best way to do it...keep it up dude, great thread
Where I'm at, it's total weight, not # of plants.
So one plant that yields 32 oz would be more jail time than 270 plants that yield 30 oz.
Plus, at the trial, I could bring in pics of the light and the plants themselves. Prosecution says "He had a sophisticated operation going with more than 200 plants" I say "Entire grow was in a 4ft by 1.5 ft by 2 ft box. Barely enough to supply ONE person, not to start slanging.
I'm not going commercial. Just looking to maximize micro-production.
TeaHateSea
Member
I've seen other T5 fixtures that house 6-8 tubes and that's what I would go with personally. I've used 4 tube (30w each I think) T5 for veg and growth was much slower than my 150CMH.
No matter the direction you choose I'm sure it will be a successful grow and a fun one to watch.
No matter the direction you choose I'm sure it will be a successful grow and a fun one to watch.
I think this one is 4x55w. But if you have any links to any 6-8 fixture T5 setups I'd be interested. Might have to look myself, now that you mention it.
edit: Ok. I looked. Same company has a 6 and an 8. the 8 is $299. They are 55w bulbs. Definitely something to consider.
Might not build it. Kicking the tires at the moment. I like to think out loud. That's how I built the current cab. Many ICMaggers contributed ideas that got implemented into the final design.
Now that I have a little experience under my belt, I'm looking to improve functionality and output while reducing the footprint as much as is reasonable.
Thanks for your input.
oldone
Member
Hi Anti,
How is it that these cabs are never done? LOL, I'm just as guilty as the next guy I guess. My cab design was based largely off of yours and this excellent thread. Many thanks.
I had a successful first run and the original plan was to go the "mother plant in soil -> cuttings -> flower in E&F" route. The soil part failed but the E&F worked and I got some reasonable smoke. No mom yet though.
Like you I got the itch to make it better. My first concern is stealth, then quality, then simplicity.
I am now changing my system over to passive hydro in coco for all stages. The passive (wick) system uses no pumps only lights and fans. No rez changes either. It was DeltaX9's PPK thread that changed my mind. Since you seem to be in the pondering stage I thought you might like to check it out. I'm in process of modifying his system for cab use, basically just making everything smaller.
BTW, I understand that PLLs are just bent T5 HO's. My 4 x 55W lights from AHSupply were flawless and that was using the cheapy PlusRite bulbs as well.
Good Luck,
OO
How is it that these cabs are never done? LOL, I'm just as guilty as the next guy I guess. My cab design was based largely off of yours and this excellent thread. Many thanks.
I had a successful first run and the original plan was to go the "mother plant in soil -> cuttings -> flower in E&F" route. The soil part failed but the E&F worked and I got some reasonable smoke. No mom yet though.
Like you I got the itch to make it better. My first concern is stealth, then quality, then simplicity.
I am now changing my system over to passive hydro in coco for all stages. The passive (wick) system uses no pumps only lights and fans. No rez changes either. It was DeltaX9's PPK thread that changed my mind. Since you seem to be in the pondering stage I thought you might like to check it out. I'm in process of modifying his system for cab use, basically just making everything smaller.
BTW, I understand that PLLs are just bent T5 HO's. My 4 x 55W lights from AHSupply were flawless and that was using the cheapy PlusRite bulbs as well.
Good Luck,
OO
TeaHateSea
Member
Anti-I would love to see you use the same growing style under an HID light. Dr Bud said a few times in his epic thread that he wished he could still play with HID's and I have always been curious how the final weight would compare to CFL's.
I tried it in one of my cabs but unlike you, I lack attention to the minute details that really matter. My containers were too big, my lumens per sq. ft. was too low and I just couldn't manage watering 30+ plants every few days and maintaining their various nute schedules.
Anyways...Thanks again and I look forward to watching your next run.
THC
I tried it in one of my cabs but unlike you, I lack attention to the minute details that really matter. My containers were too big, my lumens per sq. ft. was too low and I just couldn't manage watering 30+ plants every few days and maintaining their various nute schedules.
Anyways...Thanks again and I look forward to watching your next run.
THC
Twrex and I have discussed on my thread how to combine my style with your cd rack
yah this looks like a really badass grow dude. wow wow wow wow.
holy fucken moly I see a forest there. great job there.
so how do u vent that cab.
twrex
Member
Air is drawn up through the t12 guard tube surrounding each pl-l light. This simultaneously cools the lights and exchanges the cab's air.
I'm interested in playing with HID, but I don't own my house so I have to be very careful about what I do. I know that there are many on these forums who have done things like convert a 2 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom apartment with a 2-4k light show in the spare room, but this seems insanely risky to me.
If my landlord came over today, I'd be a little nervous, but I could stand within inches of my plants and have a conversation with her at a moment's notice.
If she hired people to repair the furnace and they needed access to my grow room for some reason, I wouldn't have to come up with excuses to keep them out.
I know thundurkel has gotten himself a 400w or 600w tent setup in addition to his CFL cab. So far, his results seem to be that he gets a LOT more bud from his HID setup, but that it's not nearly as frosty or tasty as his CFL grown herb.
I can speak from recent experience with commercial herb to highlight my viewpoint:
A close friend (no one knows I grow) came into some really great looking herb recently and I bought an 1/8th from him. (It maintains the illusion that the weed I sometimes share with him was also purchased somewhere.)
I smoked his stuff for 2 days straight and it was super-dense. It was kinda hard to break up it was so dense, you know what I mean? My CFL bud is not nearly THAT dense. But one bowl of my CFL bud on day 3 and I was like "oh yeah.. THIS is getting high."
I generally smoked 2-3 bowls of the commercial HID stuff and didn't get as high as I did smoking one bowl of my own CFL stuff.
This is not hard science, but it IS my experience.
That's why I'm very interested in PLLs.
PS - if you think it takes a long time to water 30+ plants, it really doesn't.
I start with a five gallon bucket of water. I pour a couple gallons of plain water into a second five gallon bucket. Then any plants that are near harvest get watered first.
I take the first plant and I submerge it in the bucket and hold it there while bubbles escape until it sinks to the bottom on it's own.
(I fill the water just high enough to submerge the soil level about an 1" below the surface.)
Once the first plant is sitting on the bottom, I place the second plant in next to it.
Because my containers are so small (about 8" tall x 2.5" x 2.5") I can fit as many as 10-12 in one 5 gallon bucket. Generally, I don't do this many at once, because I am watching for the bubbling to stop. When a given plant has stopped releasing air bubbles from the soil, it comes out of the bucket and goes into an empty rubbermaid container that is big enough to hold all of my plants while they drain.
When I've finished with the plants near to harvest, I top off the bucket and add nutes and then water the rest of the flowering plants. Then I switch to fresh water, add my veg nutes to it and repeat the process with my veg cab and my massive (still living) AK reveg-mom from round 1.
After sitting in the rubbermaid container for 5-10 minutes, each plant is sufficiently drained that I can put it back into the cabinet without worrying about drips.
I then close the cabinet up and don't open it again for 3 days.
Takes about an hour every three days. And then Every other watering spend maybe 20-30 extra minutes taking and prepping clones.
So...2-3 hours a week.
I spend 10x that much time POSTING and READING here on this board in a week.
I'm getting some larger containers and i'm going to see what happens with my yields if I switch from 17 oz to 32 oz to 64 oz containers.
There is still much experimentation to be done before I have anywhere near enough data to say what the 'optimal' setup might be.
Do you thing bro!! I'm going to do a SOG of 18 party cups and hopefully pull 4+ zips under 276w !
No worries on the comment hahah I've noticed similar results BUT I think it was due to my hood not being sealed cuz I can honestly say my Magic Merlin is MUCH frostier right now in week 6 that it was in my CFL cab. I can say my Mom always gets higher on my CFL buds that all my friends bomb ass 1k HID grown buds LOL So maybe there is some science here we all don't know much about yet. I also have a Purple Urkle x Crystal Trident plant in week 5 that is as developed as my Gorilla Grape and Magic Merlins but they are in week 6 under a 400w HPS and the other is under 276w of CFL lighting! I'm REALLY interested in doing a big SOG like you are talking about under T5's and that's what I plan to do with my DR80 when I upgrade. I'm gonna lay it on it's side which is said I can do with the DR80! So that gives me 2.7' x 5.5' x 2.7' tent that will be PERFECT to do a T5 SOG. I was even thinking of doing 1gal Smart Pots but do 3-4 plants a pot! I haven't done all the math yet but it would give me well over a pound and I think I want to get the Quantum Badboy to do this since the tent will be wider on it's side I'd need a 6-8 bulb system...
Tilt
Member
I dont want to thread jack here is a link for answers. I apologize anti
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=174331
TeaHateSea
Member
I spend 10x that much time POSTING and READING here on this board in a week.
The clarity and detail oriented posts by you reflect this fact. You've helped a lot of people by doing so also.
My problem was that by being perpetual I had 5 different stages of growth in my cab and 5 different nute schedules not including veg cab and the constant need for cuttings every two weeks. Now I just run between 4-9 girls of the same strain under a convertible 400 in a tent with Pico's auto watering manifold. I travel a lot for work so this suits me better for the time being.
This fall I may take another stab at Dr. Bud's method with either my 400 HPS or a 150 CMH just for shits and giggles and if I do I'll let you know.
It's not me. But if you look carefully, you can see my foot in a few of the pictures. (Not any of the ones that feature boobs.)
TLoft13
Member
Thanks mate but I'm not into this foot fetish stuff.
My compliments to the beautiful red hairs.
M
m00nchild
Lately I've been toying around with a new cabinet idea:
Step 1: Buy one (or a few) of these for $175:
I've done 12/12 from seed "SOG-like" grows under a 8x54w T5HO setup, and they were extremely successful. Light penetration was good down to about 12" or more, and I yielded single-cola buds that averaged about a half ounce each. Had I chosen a mother plant and rooted cuts from her, then placed those under this light, I would have easily gotten an ounce per plant, at 1 plant per sq ft, with a little training.
I still have the fixture, too, but no space for a 2' x 4' footprint.
