Hundreds of watts of CFL SOG in cardboard boxes in an attic (Alaskan Ice).

[stink.whistler]

A six inch hole saw is pretty expensive, and not really of much use (other than to drill six inch holes).

Start your tool collection. Buy a hand drill and a keyhole saw, you will get a great deal of use out of both.

Does the owner of the attic you are putting this box in know that you and your buddy are doing this?

 

[jtk707]

Cant waity for some updates ,

 

[Δ-9]

A six inch hole saw is pretty expensive, and not really of much use (other than to drill six inch holes).

Start your tool collection. Buy a hand drill and a keyhole saw, you will get a great deal of use out of both.

Does the owner of the attic you are putting this box in know that you and your buddy are doing this?

My buddy is the owner of the attic.

According to him, they haven't sprouted yet.

 

[Mr. Tony]

your not going to yield much if you can't adjust the height of the cfls/ for them to be effective they have to be a few inches or less from the top of the plants.

 

[Δ-9]

your not going to yield much if you can't adjust the height of the cfls/ for them to be effective they have to be a few inches or less from the top of the plants.

That's only necessary with smaller grows, my lights are stronger than a 400 watt HPS and are closer than an HPS would be. Plus, by the end of flowering, the plants will reach right under the top.

 

[L-Thirt33n]

That's only necessary with smaller grows, my lights are stronger than a 400 watt HPS and are closer than an HPS would be. Plus, by the end of flowering, the plants will reach right under the top.

Which bulbs are you using?

 

[theratings]

LOL...

I once did a very similar grow to this one. It was in a wooden box about 2.3 ft x 1.5 ft x 3.2 ft, only problem was it was missing part of one side and most of the other side.We used cardboard with tons of duct tape to act as barriers to light proof it and make it semi sealed, and even rigged a flimsy cardboard and duct tape door. But we had a wood base to keep ours stable. We also used much less watts than you at around 160w and had a decent ventilation system. I'm interested to see how the cardboard holds up over time. Good luck to you, this is a very possible grow to accomplish, and can work out for you.

My personal opinion though:

Over time, growing in cardboard will become messy and hard to clean.

The weight of all those lights and appliances will weigh down the cardboard top and probably cause it to warp along with the heat.

It will be hard to seal off, so after a few weeks of 12/12 you may experience smell problems unless it's a nonfactor in your space.

In our case, the lack of real sealing made a hassle once we noticed small webs appearing on the plants, and then once that ball started rolling, we had our own miniature infestation of spider mites. Though they were easy to kill off once we first spotted them, they were a huge pain.

Unless you have good enough ventilation or humidity solutions, humidity will build and further cause the deterioration of the cardboard.

The fire hazard is legitimate. Though you could get away with it easily and have no fire, this is one risky situation to put your luck to the test, mixing electricity, moisture and cardboard. You'd need to have constant eyes on your box and good enough ventilation. Bulbs and heat from CFLs directly to the cardboard won't ignite anything, but there are tons of possibilities for some type of hazard to happen.

That's only necessary with smaller grows, my lights are stronger than a 400 watt HPS and are closer than an HPS would be. Plus, by the end of flowering, the plants will reach right under the top.

You would need to keep the plants close to the lights that are mounted to the top, meaning you'd need to likely prop up the plants to keep them within around 3 inches from the lights, and subsequently move them as they get bigger. When you're growing with CFLs, this is one of the most important things to factor in so that your lights get a good amount of usable energy. You have over 400 watts of CFLs, but they're still CFLs.

 

[dontstepongrass]

... I've used 5 and 6" bits on a press before. If it wasn't possible, the bit wouldn't exist.

i never said it didn't exist. i was merely pointing out that 99/100 times that's not how it's done. a 6" hole saw is a pretty specialized piece of tooling...

just don't kill yourself, using tools or running a cardboard grow cab...

 

[stink.whistler]

You only need one of those lights burning until you plants get bigger. You can leave them away from the light until they sprout, then lower the single light to a few inches above the sprouts (or raise the sprouts to a few inches under the single light). As they get bigger and you spread them apart, and you can start adding some more of the lights.

There are several different sizes of that IKEA box you were looking at. Which one are you planning to get? At least for the smallest, 420 Watts would be way, way, way overkill.

Very glad to hear this is in your buddy's house, just wanted to make sure. (I wouldn't be interested in providing a kid advise on a grow in his buddy's parent's house)

 

[jtk707]

Any updates on the fire box from hell lol

 

[L-Thirt33n]

lol I think I'll keep my eyes on this. It'll be interesting to see how this developes...

 

[midwestganja]

 

[L-Thirt33n]

LOL

 

[Mr. Tony]

That's only necessary with smaller grows, my lights are stronger than a 400 watt HPS and are closer than an HPS would be. Plus, by the end of flowering, the plants will reach right under the top.

sorry but just because your stuffing a box full of cfls doesn't mean they will penetrate even close to as well as an hps would.

 

[Δ-9]

sorry but just because your stuffing a box full of cfls doesn't mean they will penetrate even close to as well as an hps would.

Which is why I'm SOGing; there's no canopy to penetrate, no branches or anything like that.

Also, everything I've ever read on the topic suggests that CFL's light spectrum is more fit for growing than is HPS's.

 

[Mr. Tony]

Which is why I'm SOGing; there's no canopy to penetrate, no branches or anything like that.

Also, everything I've ever read on the topic suggests that CFL's light spectrum is more fit for growing than is HPS's.

it doesn't matter what style you do, hps will always grow more.

Unless your someone who really knows what their doing like dr bud, judging by how you set up your box you far from him.


no branches? ever heard of a fan leaf?

 

[Mr. Tony]

That's only necessary with smaller grows,

Believe me your grow is small

my lights are stronger than a 400 watt HPS and are closer than an HPS would be.



Plus, by the end of flowering, the plants will reach right under the top.

Yes but for the majority of the time they won't be anywhere close thus not coming even close tot he potential of cfls.

honestly you need to do some more reading.

 

[theratings]

CFLs are good, but my biggest complaint is how close you need to keep them. If you were doing a small CFL grow in your bedroom and you were home a lot, it'd be simple as pie. But it really depends on how much time you can put into keeping an eye on your plants.

 

[Δ-9]

honestly you need to do some more reading.

By "small" I mean grows of 1 CFL in a PC case.
Also, I seem to recall Dr.Bud and several other members of this forum using CFL boxes with stationary lights; however I don't recall anyone telling them they need to bring the plants closer to the light.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

By "small" I mean grows of 1 CFL in a PC case.
Also, I seem to recall Dr.Bud and several other members of this forum using CFL boxes with stationary lights; however I don't recall anyone telling them they need to bring the plants closer to the light.

i did but i wont go any further into this subject except to say i did say they need to bring the plants closer to the light. along with cfls dont have no where the penertration power of HID lighting weather it be HPS or MH. i veg with cfls love em for that but i'll ony flower under HID i have 400w hps and 400w mh both air cooled. growing in card board is just askn for a fire i built a heavy duty PC case card board box for cloning only 70 watts in it tems stayed fine but the box itself got hot so end of that idea. honestly ya should really consider a cab like this http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=83870-444-WS48MP&lpage=none well worth the investment or just invest into some 2x4 boards and plywood, if you messure right most places like home depot or lowes will make two cuts for free on plywood. you may not even have any cutting except for intake and exhaust and they give ya the scrap wood left over your investment into a cab ya build maybe 70$ that includes hinges. i inclosed a corner of my closet

30 inch deep 52 inch wide 73 inch tall outside dems 20$ in 2x4's and i had some scrap plywood for the top i used blk n wht poly wite inside for door and to temp walls. i used some weather striping for around where my poly door is and velcro to secure it into place. i had slight light leak but took care of it with more velcro. in the pic ya see the corner of my air cooled hood and my cooltube. this setup of hooky but works and is much safer then card board