Anti's MicroStealth Cab Design (Dr. Bud Method)

[Peanut Butter]

I hate to say this, but I'd bite the bullet and build a temporary rubbermaid grow container with a single pc fan and a couple CFL's. The problem is, if you go the route you mentioned, your going to have ~2month wait after harvest till you can start flowering again....or about 4 months between harvests. reveg/veg for cuts/rooting cuts/vegging cuts takes awhile.

The rubbermaid grow container could served 2 possible purposes.
Take the route you suggested, but a few weeks before harvest pop some more beans and use the container to veg them out till harvest opens space up in the cab for the new beans to be thrown in flower.

or

Take clones immediately after sex shows. Root/veg them in the rubbermaid. Clones will probably need to reveg, but thats no biggie since all you cab space will be taken up flowering anyhow. By the time harvest rolls around, the clones taken at after sexing will have already donated new cuts for you next flowering session. BTW reveged clones make sick moms, the branching is nuts and they can be burried deep to keep them short.

I hate to suggest breaking the single box idea behind the thread, but it seems justified here by saving 2 months of waiting. The rubbermaid would be in use for around a month, then no longer needed after your veg/flower sides of the cab were established.

Cab is looking great by the way, cant wait to see it fill up with buds.

 

[cellardweller]

very nice indeed..

 

[Gr8fulDen]

Hey Anti... Go Red Sox!!!

 

[Anti]

Oh yeah. Skellington asked the other day about my lighting and I said my lights were each putting out 1600 lumens.

I must've been high, because I happened to be at the store today and took a look at the bulbs (same ones I'm using) and they're rated at 2700 lumens.

So 2700 x 6 = 16,200. 16200/2.01 sq ft = 8059 lumen per sq ft.

My oops.


Agent & Peanut Butter :

I appreciate your quick and insightful responses. Thank you.

I was looking at plastic tubs today and I think I found one that'll do the job for about $10. So $10 for the container, still have some white paint left, $4 for 2 more sockets, $16 for two more 42w bulbs and another $2 for an extension cord. I've got an old fan I can use.

So I'll water tomorrow and switch things over to 12/12, wait for sex and eliminate the guys. And then I'll do as PB suggested and clone the femmes and stick them in the tub.
I've also recently discovered a different cache of random bagseeds so I may go ahead and sprout a few of those if there's any room for 'em once the cloning is done.

 

[Anti]

*UPDATE w/PICS* Day 29 since planting. (Just watered.)

*UPDATE w/PICS* Day 29 since planting. (Just watered.)

I had the plants out of the cab to water them so I figured I'd arrange them on a towel from largest to smallest and then take some pics. Enjoy!



The last two pictures give you a pretty good idea of what my smallest most deformed looking plants are like.

 

[blynx]

Very cool!

 

[DemonsGate]

I hate to say this, but I'd bite the bullet and build a temporary rubbermaid grow container with a single pc fan and a couple CFL's. The problem is, if you go the route you mentioned, your going to have ~2month wait after harvest till you can start flowering again....or about 4 months between harvests. reveg/veg for cuts/rooting cuts/vegging cuts takes awhile.

There are 30 plants left and only a few of them are runty mongoloids.

I guess I'm a bit confused here. I don't see why Anti needs to go the rubbermaid route. He has 30 plants that he hasn't sexed yet and if we assume he gets 50% females that will leave him with 15 plants. Isn't the goal of the Dr. Bud method to go 16 plants per square foot? If so then he should have 15 plants to go into the flowering side of the cab and the veg side should be free for revegging clones or starting more seeds, right?

 

[Peanut Butter]

I guess I'm a bit confused here. I don't see why Anti needs to go the rubbermaid route. He has 30 plants that he hasn't sexed yet and if we assume he gets 50% females that will leave him with 15 plants. Isn't the goal of the Dr. Bud method to go 16 plants per square foot? If so then he should have 15 plants to go into the flowering side of the cab and the veg side should be free for revegging clones or starting more seeds, right?

Dr. Buds method uses clones that are matured and starts flowering at a couple inches tall. Even with numbers cut to 50%, 15 plants at the size they are now, its going to overgrow the space if confined to one side of the cab. Using both sides will take care of that, but then there is no space for veg lighting.....hence the recommendation for a rubbermaid for veg lighting.

You are right though, if these plants were clones, and used Dr. Buds method of flowering while tiny, it would be possible to squeeze large numbers in one side of the cab while the other is used for mums/veg lighting.

 

[Anti]

Using both sides will take care of that, but then there is no space for veg lighting.....hence the recommendation for a rubbermaid for veg lighting.

You guys are having -- in conversation form -- the discussion I had in my own head when I posted the question.

You are right though, if these plants were clones, and used Dr. Buds method of flowering while tiny, it would be possible to squeeze large numbers in one side of the cab while the other is used for mums/veg lighting.

Which is exactly what I will do once I get to the clone stage.

 

[DracoRincewind]

There has always been one thing that confused me with CFL grows threads. Is the 27Ws the Incandescent Equal or the actual Watts used? Very few seem to illustrate this distinction in their threads.

Or put more simply.

5 Watt CFL - 27 W Incandescent Equal
or
27 Watt CFL - 100 W Incandescent Equal

 

[Anti]

Officially switched into 12/12 at day 31 from seed!

Officially switched into 12/12 at day 31 from seed!

There has always been one thing that confused me with CFL grows threads. Is the 27Ws the Incandescent Equal or the actual Watts used? Very few seem to illustrate this distinction in their threads.

5 Watt CFL - 27 W Incandescent Equal
or
27 Watt CFL - 100 W Incandescent Equal

It's the latter. Like, for instance, in my grow, I'm using 42w CFLs which are rated to be comperable to 150w incandescent bulbs.

They are 2600k and produce 2700 lumens apiece.

So my actual wattage usage from lights per side is 42w*6= 252w

252w * 2 chambers = 504w total wattage from lights/ballasts.

my 3 pc fans plus power supply are running somewhere below 30w, so total wattage on entire grow is under 534w.

Thank you for shopping.

Just a note to make it official for anyone paying attention:

Tonight the cab was officially switched over to 12/12 at the end of day 31 from seed.

 

[Joey56789]

To add to that, I have seen bulbs of the same actual wattage and lumens listed with different equivalent wattages (different brands). So equivalency should never be used. Everyone here lists their watts as actual wattage, never equivalency.

Anti, lookin good! I can't wait to see the buds.

 

[igrowwitmatches]

very nice

 

[ChronJohn]

hey man I've read this whole thing and I gotta say bro.. bravo! Looks really fresh and clean, once you have your moms/clones then this thing is gonna keep you black-market free furr shurrr the cab design is really awesome man. I'm having trouble understanding some of the electrical things since I have 0 experience with wiring or fan speed regulators and what have you but I get the gist of things and will probably understand better when I go back and read through another 3 or 4 times. can't wait to see this thing at its optimal potential. good luck man!

 

[grow1620]

Super clean build ! I love your attention to detail and how carefully you planned everything out before you started. It's inspirational to say the least.

Thank You for taking the time to document the design, build, and grow.

You've dropped my jaw several time in this thread, fyi.
Keep it up, it's been a great read.

 

[Anti]

Thank you for the kind words.

I've been trying to keep a meticulous record of this process for the benefit of the community at large. I am thrilled with the responses so far, and look forward to seeing others duplicate and improve upon this design.

It's hard to get scientifically relevant data when most of us are working with such small numbers and working in secret.

The more of us who start and post records of our results, the closer we can come to valid hypotheses about the art and science of growing killer herb.

Grow on, ya'll!

ChronJohn asked:

design is really awesome man. I'm having trouble understanding some of the electrical things since I have 0 experience with wiring or fan speed regulators and what have you but I get the gist of things and will probably understand better when I go back and read through another 3 or 4 times. can't wait to see this thing at its optimal potential. good luck man!

I know next to nothing about electricity or electronics. I had to dig through several websites looking for information on how to do it.

A few pages back, I posted an updated explanation of how the lights were wired together.

The way the fans and fan controllers are hooked up is much simpler:

There's a PSU (otherwise known as a computer's power supply unit) that I bought from newegg.com for $15. The three fans plug into it the same way an internal hard drive or DVD drive would plug into the powersupply in your pc. No wiring necessary. The fan controllers came with the fan for $10 each. (3 fans with 3 controllers for $30) The fan controllers connect directly to the fan with a little connecter piece (no wiring). The PSU plugs into a regular wall socket. That's it on the fans. That's all there is to it. Hope this helped.

 

[DemonsGate]

I've been trying to keep a meticulous record of this process for the benefit of the community at large. I am thrilled with the responses so far, and look forward to seeing others duplicate and improve upon this design.

Anti, tonight should be the night I finish the clone of your cabinet, last night I painted the flower and veg rooms flat white, painted the CD shelves black (I took a slightly different route then you, I started painting after everything was assembled since I knew I would screw up and drill holes in wrong places and mess up the paint job) and wired the fans. Today I'll be hooking up the lights and finishing painting the rest of the cab black. Hopefully I can get some seeds started tomorrow .

While I was painting yesterday, I think I may have found a potential problem. What is to stop a light leak from the veg room into the flower room from the intake vents in the carbon scrubber section? (Picture below for clarity) It seems to me light could get into the flower room and possibly stress the plants. Hopefully I'm worrying over nothing, although it doesn't seem like it will be too tough to fix.

I can't wait to see some pics of your girls with buds.

 

[Anti]

Anti, tonight should be the night I finish the clone of your cabinet, last night I painted the flower and veg rooms flat white, painted the CD shelves black (I took a slightly different route then you, I started painting after everything was assembled since I knew I would screw up and drill holes in wrong places and mess up the paint job) and wired the fans. Today I'll be hooking up the lights and finishing painting the rest of the cab black. Hopefully I can get some seeds started tomorrow .

While I was painting yesterday, I think I may have found a potential problem. What is to stop a light leak from the veg room into the flower room from the intake vents in the carbon scrubber section? (Picture below for clarity) It seems to me light could get into the flower room and possibly stress the plants. Hopefully I'm worrying over nothing, although it doesn't seem like it will be too tough to fix.

I can't wait to see some pics of your girls with buds.

As you can see in this pic below, light leakage into the carbon scrubber area is pretty negligible even when the carbon section is empty.

​

Since that was taken, I've finished constructing my carbon scrubber box that takes up pretty much the entire carbon scrubber section, so very little light could get through. (Pics soon.) Building the carbon scrubber box out of something that wasn't transparent (or painting the box) may be something to consider. I made mine out of clear plastic storage containers, but now that you've pointed out this flaw to me, I think I will do as I just suggested and spray the outer box black to help keep as much light as possible from making it across the 13" space.

[EDIT: I think I'll also take some of the left-over black fabric I used to reduce light leakage on the light-room vents and put some across the vents to the carbon room. That should reduce light exchange between rooms to nearly nothing.]

It's not an issue at this point because both sides are on the same time cycle... but I'm glad you noticed it (+rep) before it could've caused a disaster!

(Here's the benefit of posting your designs for others to see, folks... they can help save your ass from dumb ass mistakes.)

 

[Elite]

Bad Ass!!

K+

I'm an Electrician, you ever need ANY advice, fire away, If I don't know off hand I'll find out for you.

Load calculations and wiring are basic to me, and much simpler then you would imagine...

Elite

 

[HawaiianPunch]

Forget about growing, you should be manufacturing cabs man.