The IKEA Cabinet

[electronug]

After much debate, I have decided to grow a few plants to help subsidize my wife's medicinal use as it's becoming rather costly.

I've only grown a few times and it was some Purple Heart with fairly weak genes on my balcony and in dirt under ~100 watts of CFL... nothing fancy, but I learned how to clone, LST, super crop, etc.

This time I have decided to buy some beans and start from scratch in a freshly made cabinet I have put together from an old IKEA media cabinet that we haven't been using.

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(yeah, I only bought one of each because this is being done on the cheap lol)

The dimensions are 18"x18"x42" and it has one fixed shelf that I have moved to the top of the cabinet to house all the electrical as well as mount the lights to and another floating shelf to adjust the distance from the light. I toyed with a hanging fixture, but that limited my supplementary lighting and I lost 6" from the overall height I had to play with.

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I manufactured a reflector out of some unused duct that I had laying around. All the flat cross members were made by hand by flattening and folding the sheet -- very time-consuming, but I had a vision and made it happen with my limited experience in the field of metalwork -- It's held together with rivets and seems like it's up to the task of holding 2x125W CFL's and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

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Electrical from the front. Yes, there is a massive light leak, but stealth isn't really a concern for me at the moment.

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Top view with the lid off. AC adapter for the 3 x 80mm fans running off a 3-speed controller.

Mains -> Always-on receptacle (fans) -> Lighting Disconnect (Switch) -> Receptacle for timer -> Power strip (allows for multiple lighting configurations)

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Rear view...

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And this is what's going on in there right now....

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The Chemdog has been really aggressive. This is only 3-4 days since it popped and showed it's tail. The Violator Kush had but a 4mm root as of today, but it was starting to look a little slimey in the paper towel so I potted it and will hope for the best lol..

Chemdog...

View attachment 139090

I also have a random bagseed potted in the little planter at the back and found a good looking seed in my current bag of Kush that I'm poppin' just for shits.

The 3 pots on the left are basil, coriander and oregano, lol.

I'm pretty excited and have spent the better part of the month building this cabinet while lurking the forums to learn a little bit about DWC as this is the ultimate goal for this cabinet once the moms make their way to their PC hotels.

Still not sure if I'm going to run a miniSOG or SCRoG, though.

That's all for now!

Feel free to give me some advice one what you see thus far.

EN.

 

[dansbuds]

Wow nice clean efficiant cabinet you have there man . A+
one suggestion though .... get the plants up in the lights ... like 3 or 4 " below the lights .

good luck dude , i'll be watchin

 

[electronug]

Thanks

And don't worry, the plants will be moved up ASAP, I just have to source something to stack them on, or drill fresh holes to hang the shelf higher.

 

[5jperday]

looking great man,
loving the neatness of the setup.

Can i ask about that Vent thing under the screen, is it a passive intake? does it block light getting out, if so how does it work.

Also really pro looking DIY on the reflector mate kudos.

 

[electronug]

looking great man,
loving the neatness of the setup.

Can i ask about that Vent thing under the screen, is it a passive intake? does it block light getting out, if so how does it work.

Also really pro looking DIY on the reflector mate kudos.

Thanks

Yeah, it's a passive intake but does not block much light -- but like I said, full stealth isn't a concern for me

I have a strip of pegboard over the back to choke it off a little because the intake was actually too big.

 

[electronug]

Just took a trip to the workshop to check on things and my original seed (bagseed1) still wasn't showing any signs of breaking soil.

I knew it was still growing because I had already dusted the top layer off to find it arching laterally like it went in upside down or something, so I carefully extracted it today to see what was up.

I initially found what looked like top but with the leaves rotted off, but further investigation revealed it to be the bottom, with the top still intact with the skin of the seed still stuck to the leaves and looking a very sickly and yellow.

I'm skeptical about it's health and ability to recover.

After a careful shakedown and repot:

View attachment 139249

In other news, the Chemdog is still powering along. Now over 2" tall and less than 3" from the light with a gentle breeze.

Temps holding at 75-80 with only the glass door closed and running 24hr at the moment.

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[Cork144]

lovely looking cab, make sure you get your scrog screen set right, I messed my first scrog up and was alittle too far from my bulb!

 

[electronug]

Thanks Cork. I think if I do go SCRoG, i'll make a new screen that is mounted to the reservoir at a set height and move the shelf to adjust distance.

Also, I came home to find that bagseed1 had keeled over and passed on.

Bagseed2 (kush) has decided to show it's tail, however

 

[GP73LPC]

that is a nice cab... one question however,

have you decided how to handle the smell once they get into flowering?

 

[electronug]

I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there

Smell and light aren't a giant concern for me given my location, thankfully.

 

[GP73LPC]

i'd plan for it now if I was you, but you know your situation best....


some strains get REAL STINKY !!!

best of luck

 

[electronug]

Lookin' healthy.

Still no signs of life from the other two.

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i'd plan for it now if I was you, but you know your situation best....


some strains get REAL STINKY !!!

best of luck

I certainly hope these ladies have a good stank

The cab is stuffed in the corner of my workshop, but if things get noticeable I'll upgrade the exhaust and have a go at making a carbon filter.

 

[electronug]

The Kush bagseed has broke through, but it doesn't look like the Violator Kush is going to be making an appearance.

Kush bagseed:

View attachment 139895

Chemdog:

View attachment 139894

 

[electronug]

Update...

View attachment 140873

 

[GP73LPC]

looking nice

 

[GOT DANK]

nice setup tagged.

 

[Maddhatter]

wow growing nicely, short and compact!

 

[electronug]

FIM question...

FIM question...

She's 4" tall and working on the 6th node... Safe to FIM?

It's the one thing I've never tried and I need to take some cuts from this to get the DWC setup started. Hoping to FIM and get 4 tops, take clones and double the tops... I'm trying to keep her short and bushy while I get clones sorted out and will eventually SCRoG her and try for a reveg afterwards.

I think I'm going to need to build another cabinet sooner than later.

 

[JustDoIt]

Looks like a nice setup!
6th node? I would say it's safe to FIM (I did I think at 3 or 4 and all plants came out fine)

I think I'm going to need to build another cabinet sooner than later.

Look at it as an evolution... you learn from one, make the next one, learn from that, make the next one.... or at least that's how it's turned out here.... it's a fun hobby

 

[GP73LPC]

I think I'm going to need to build another cabinet sooner than later.

that's what happened to me. built a flowering cab, realized i needed a veg cab so i built that.

then wanted to breed so i built a third cabinet...