Planning Dr.Bud Grow Closet, seeking some input.

[Squeeky]

Well I have been reading for the past 3 months and I think it is time to start my Dr.Bud clone. My grow area seems to be perfect size. I have a corner that is three sided dry-wall, in which I 'll have to vent everything from the front or top quick could be a temp issue. However I'm ready to take it on.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone on here for letting me be a fly on the wall learn so much so far. enough ass kissing

Grow Room Area (27x16x64)

-In many setups I see the mom/clone cab above the flowering. I'm curious the benefit the way I would see it you would want the most heat at the top to vent.

-I will be using 20oz bottles and soil mix of 1/3 miracle, 1/3 verm, 1/3 per.

-Watering with the dunking method DrBud uses with same nutes

-I'm going to start with bagseed because I want to get a tester going before I think about getting seeds or clones.

-I am going to use 6x2700k for flowering, and I believe 3 3x6500k in mom room, two over the mom's and 1 over Thundurkel micro cloner. (Is that too much light?

I originally was going to use totes but I feel the shelf system will work best, since neither room requires a lot of height. If there are recommendations of ventilation or any other suggestions or comments please let me know.

I'm excited for my first grow getting started.

 

[bigd21]

front row seat good luck...............

 

[Squeeky]

Since this is my first attempt at everything does the above information sound good?

 

[Quazi]

Hey Squeeky!

I would suggest ensuring you have ventilation and smell control figured out before you go putting stinky stuff and heat in the area. You never mentioned what wattage you were using, only the light temp and number of bulbs so it's hard to know how we could best assist you with advice.

As far as your mix: if you can stay away from Miracle Grow then you should try to. It's much nicer having control over what goes in. I understand the limitations that some people have, but it sounds like you want to continue after this grow. If you just trust the soil to do the feeding, how are you going to learn from it?

Anyway, gotcha tagged and hope everything works out for you!

Good luck in your travels!

-Q

 

[Squeeky]

Quazi, thanks for the advice. I've read the Organic Soil Basics, I guess I just need to pick a mix and go with it. I like the idea of the dunking as I would assume it takes less attention.

Currently I have 8 clones right now a mix between California Orange Bud, and Sweet Lav. I have 4 26watt daytime bulbs for my mom/clone room. I have to go out today and buy a giant roll of duct tape to cover the bottom of the cloner so the root do not get light. They have for the last 12hrs so I hope thats not a bid issue.

I plan on using 5-6 CFL in my flowering room, but waiting to get it put together I have a couple weeks for my roots to grow and getting a good mom in 4" pots the others in to pop bottles.

I am planning on a 2 shelf bookcase, being about 60" tall, the bottom chamber 24x16x24 for veg, keeping 2 moms and clones going. Would this be too big assuming I'm bonsai cloning. The other chamber 24x16x34 for flowering, I know Dr.Buds was only 28" tall but I figure the more room the better.

I was thinking of making just the case frame and mounting all the hardware on the sides, then using blackout cloth on front and back to trap light, but then velcoed so I can easily work in the cab.

I intend on building a carbon filter attached to 80mm PC fan that will exhaust out the top, I will also be getting 2-3 additional fans but curious as far as placement.

Thanks for all the advice in advance.

Squeeky

 

[Squeeky]

Update 11-4

Update 11-4

Update

Well instead of building cabinets, I was able to buy some scratch and dent cabinets for 20 a piece, they measure inside 22.5x13x30.5. This should be ideal flower cab size for dr.bud method. It will comfortably hold 21 popp bottles.

My issue is exhaust, I plan to stack the cabs on top of each other so I can exhause from the top on one, the lower cab will have to go from the side. I am planning 80mm exhaust fan with diy scrubber attached, then a second fan at bottom for intake.

Anyone else have ideas for air setup.

Question, since the cabs have the little peg shelf holders I plan on getting a wire shelf to hold the clones closer to light, but could I use them to hold a piece of lexan, to greatly reduce heat?

I figured if I use lexan I can just have an intake at one side and exhause at other. Therefore just having air travel past the lights.

The cabs will fit 5 cfls so I plan to grow just like drBs original thread. Nice thing the cabs were already flat white.

Clones in bubble cloner on day 5 still healthy though no roots. Gotta get a ph tester and check if that might be my problem.

 

[obZen]

You probably need more fan. You can never have too much fan.

 

[dontstepongrass]

don't put fans at intake. place them at final exhaust point. if 1 fan doesn't exhaust air fast enough, don't stack another fan on top of it, make a whole new exhaust hole so that u now have truly twice the exhaust.


here it goes (just trying to help)...

intake (covered with filter, to prevent pests, particles and smell from seeping out if negative pressure fails. also, remember the rule of thumb is that the area of the passive intake should be twice the area of the active exhaust. so, TWO 4" active exhausts would need FOUR 4" passive intake OR TWO 6" passive intake since the area of 6" ducting is twice that of 4" ducting) ,

circulation fans inside cab - reciprocating are nice if u can fit em, usually can't in a dr bud box since footprint is left for just the plants!

exhaust fans - remember, if its not exhausting fast enough check to make sure u have enough passive intake and that your intake air is COLDER than cab temps. if still having problems then add additional exhaust remembering to now add extra passive intake

carbon filters - MAKE SURE YOUR CARBON FILTER(S) MATCH THE CFM RATINGS OF YOUR EXHAUST FANS PER THE APPLICATION! can't stress that enough. now, you can pull air through carbon filter (best) or push air through the carbon filter (still ok)
it comes down to what u have room for. just a guess here but if this is a dr bud box u may end up needing to push through the filter.

P.S. spray entire cabinet down with 10% bleach solution before starting, and then once after and allow to air dry. this will get u off to a proper start!

P.P.S. the lexan idea would work, but make sure it is removable! something that i do to help control temps in a cfl setup is if the temps start creeping up above 81-82ish i will unscrew a couple bulbs halfway so they power off and this helps cool off the cab a tad by not making as much heat while your other bulbs are still on making sure plants get (most of) the light they need. and also, you should already be designing your cab so that cold air comes in the opposite side of the area as the hot air going out at the top, lexan or not (exhaust out top right, then intake in on the left side so cold air goes through canopy past lights and out the exhaust taking heat with it)

 

[dontstepongrass]

obzen - are those exhaust fans stacked? or is that just 1 weird looking fan...

not to be picky, but for example:

(1) 100 cfm fan = 100 cfm

(2) 100 cfm fans (stacked on top of each other) = 100 cfm

(2) 100 cfm fans (each with separate exhaust) = 200 cfm


props to hoosierdaddy for getting me in the know

 

[Squeeky]

dontstepongrass, THANK YOU soo much as I am currently looking to purchase vans for my cabinets. Granted I will be using different wattages in each cab I plan to construct them the same except for exhaust placement.

I need some additional advice please, my cabinets measure 24in wide and they will be placed in the corner of the closet that is only 28in wide, therefore I have two options for cabinet placement.

Option 1 : Place the cabinet against the one side (baseboard takes up 1/2in), leaving roughly 3.5 inch on one side for airflow.

Option 2 : Place the cabinet in the middle of the cove, leaving roughly 2in on each side for airflow.

My lower cabinet, which I will be using for cloning, bonsai moms, and storage (That cabinet is 30in high, and I feel that for cloning and moms I only need like 12" from the lights, so that leaves me with 10in of extra room. I figured I will leave the extra space on the bottom on this cab and keep all my electrical wiring and powerstrip down there. This cab will need to exhaust from the side, since cab 2 is on top.

The top cabinet, I plan on exhausting through the top in order to place the scrubber on top of the cabinet as I can go higher, just not wider. This will also be smellier as it will be my flowering cab.

 

[dontstepongrass]

ok... well, first thing i need to know is where your "intake" is coming from. cold air from outside? cold air in an room w/ central air? this is important to know...

 

[Squeeky]

It is coming from in the closet which is located in a room with central air. It will stay cool for the next few months, after that I'm gonna have to find another solution. So ambient temp probably 68F

 

[dontstepongrass]

from what it sounds like you will need alot of air movement and exhaust to keep the cab cool with intake at 68 degrees.

make sure that the exhaust is exhausting hot air to another room other than the one that the closet is in. thats the most important part...

 

[obZen]

obzen - are those exhaust fans stacked? or is that just 1 weird looking fan...

Those are 3 x 80mm Fans @ 33 CFM Each. They seem to create more pressure when stacked, in conjunction with my DIY Carbon Scrubber, they keep the temps in my cab ~80 F. The plastic fan-to-tube adapter was taken from a PC CPU and works nicely to hook up my filter inside the cabinet with no hassle. I'm going to be posting a thread with my grow once I get everything cleaned up.


You should take a look at Tick's SOGG'n Box for another SOG Box Design with detailed building instructions.
He uses an HID, but you can basically just ignore that part, replace with CFL and leave out the mylar.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=27982

 

[Thundurkel]

Hey Squeeky glad to see someone using my cloner! I can say I have had no difference having it clear or covered and I also had better results when I took it out of my veg cab on top of my flower cab and put it on the floor in my closet next to my DWC project and my other clones in oasis cubes where the temps are cooler and have a 95% success rate ... For fans I would skip PC fans and look for AC Axial fans they look like PC fans but are twice as powerful I got one thats 4" and moves 110CFM for $16!!! if you had 2 or 3 of them you would be fine this thing is so powerful and mine is made by Orion and I got it at some Electrical shop in my city and it just kills my 2 PC fans and it runs on a lamp cord straight from the wall, so power pack needed! I would also skip the Miracle Grow soil and go to HomeDepot and get a bag of Kellogg Patio Plus,and get some Vitamin B1 for when you transplant and you will have your clones ready to flower a lot quicker it cut my time in half!! I also hate the smell of the Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1 so I only use it for the first 3 weeks of flower and I then stop using it and add Alaska Morbloom 0-10-10 and it's not smelly and had given me nicer buds... DrBuds style works really great but we all have to remember the soil he had created is like Fox Farm and I have been experimenting with nutes and soils and I see the difference big time!! So I have a Emigh/Ace Hardware in my town and hope you do too cuz I am a firm believer in staying away from grow shops and Emigh/Ace (not just Ace gotta be a Emigh) has everything!!! They have Fox Farm nutes and Soils and all the Black Gold brand soils and fertalizers and I highly recommend them !!!! So now I am using Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil and the Fox Farm Grow Big and Tiger Bloom and so far just using the FFOF soil with just water with 2tbs of Vitamin B1 I had a transplanted clone have roots to the bottom of the 20oz bottle in 2 days!!! which before took 5 - 7 days and my plants just look happier but if you can't get that stuff be sure to get the Alaska Morbloom 0-10-10 and use it just like the Fish Emulsion with 1tbs per gallon with the 4 droppers fulls of Shultz 10-15-10 and 4 drops of Superthrive and you will be a happier smoker!

Good luck on your grow,you'll be a master in no time just use DrBud as the groundwork and if you can get better nutes without going to a grow shop do it cuz in the long run it cost just as much going with Shultz's little bottles for $5 when you get a 32oz bottle of Fox Farm Grow Big for $15 just something to think about cuz your plants will thank you for it

 

[dontstepongrass]

obzen - stacking them only makes up for small amount of restriction of your airflow. if your fans are rated 33 cfm's a piece, by stacking 3 theoretically you can't have over 33 cfm's. you should look at hoosierdaddys air flow thread...

 

[obZen]

obzen - stacking them only makes up for small amount of restriction of your airflow. if your fans are rated 33 cfm's a piece, by stacking 3 theoretically you can't have over 33 cfm's. you should look at hoosierdaddys air flow thread...

You should read this article.
http://greenheck.com/technical/files/engineering/04fall_eng.pdf

The goal was not to increase volume of air flow, but increase the pressure.

Honestly, how much air can you push through an 80mm hole? Lol.

Although, I'm glad we're starting to investigate alternative growing technology.

Take it easy.

 

[RJE231]

or just use one of these fans instead of the PC fans http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103787, works out to be cheaper and much easier than mounting multiple fans to get enough air exhausting.

As far as stacking them goes its really only useful when you have a restriction on the fans and need a few to get up to the CFM rating, and as far as that goes PC fans really aren't good when you restrict them. That small 3" AC fan does a great job of moving air under restriction.

 

[dontstepongrass]

so it sounds like you wont be pulling in super cold air to cool your grow, so u will probably have to make up for it with higher cfm's... keep that in mind. another thing to keep in mind is that you could try to "remote ballast" your cfl's so that the ballast (hot part) is outside the growing area.

 

[obZen]

or just use one of these fans instead of the PC fans...works out to be cheaper and much easier than mounting multiple

$20 for 1 Fan vs. $10 for 10 Fans?

How is that cheaper?

Anyway, this works great for my setup, I thought I would share.

But, I guess I must be wrong. =]