Stealth Growing on a College Budget

Hello and Welcome.

I've been growing for just over a year now and I'm slowly piecing together MY perfect stealth cab.
This cab is in my closet and this closet is in my parents house. I also have very little income as I'm still a full-time college student who spends a lot of free time volunteering within the community. With this being said, please realize this isn't a perfect grow op by any means. There are issues that do need to be addressed. However, I currently don't have the resources to address these concerns.

Let's get into the fun stuff now.

The cabinet itself was a gift from a good friend who wasn't using it anymore. He wanted to get some money out of it and I met him in the middle with a smoke session when the first harvest comes out of it. Not a bad deal considering it was in the open beforehand. Being at my parents house, I'm going to respect their wishes. If they were to tell me to pull the plug tonight, I would have to. However, both parents are aware of this magic little box of time and aren't concerned with it. I have no desire to expand and grow anymore than I already am as it's more just a hobby/relaxation thing for me.

The box stands just about 4' tall and 14x14 square. The door opened the wrong way when it first got here, a quick drill job took care of that for me. Next, I used a space blanket and 3M spray adhesive to line the interior of the cab, shelf, and door.



Now, I know that some of you are thinking that the space blanket idea isn't great. I am aware it holds heat and I know that it could be an issue. However, I have not experienced any problems with heat so far and will touch back on this later on.

For ventilation, I'm currently using 2 PC case fans. I'm not sure the ratings on them but one of them is noticeably more powerful than the other. My original plans were to install both of them as exhaust fans, but with the adjustable shelf, I'm not sure how I can get air from a passive intake at the bottom up through the cab and out the top. I might end up using some steel mesh or something one day... but for now, the weaker one moves are in, the stronger pulls air out, leaving me with negative pressure. Yay. I haven't yet purchased any kinds of meters (PH, TDS, Moisture, Temp). I know this is a no-no... but like I've said, I'm not really worried about it right now, I'm good with instinct and a little dumb luck. The temp does seem just ever so slightly above that of my room which is usually hovering around 69-70F. For this reason, I have been looking into purchasing a 4" booster fan to take over as the exhaust... but that's another project for another day.

Here's a look up at the fans from inside of the box. The right one is a bit obscured by a bulb.



As you can see, I use CFLs. (4x) 26w 6500K & (2x) 23w 2700K for veg, and (4x) 23w 2700K & (2x) 26w 6500K for flower.
HID lighting would be nice if it was within my budget. Another problem would be ventilation... CFLs just seem like so much less hassle.

For food, I'm using Technaflora's Recipe For Success kit. I follow their feeding guidelines to the tee up until flower. For their flowering mix, I like to add just a litttleee bit extra than what they recommend. I do this because I figure the plant has grown used to the food through veg and can deal with a little bigger meal that late in it's life.

Here's a shot of my little hutch where I keep all of my play things. All my nutes, spray bottles, cleaning supplies, string for LST, nute jugs, scale, microscope, funnels, measuring spoons.... you see where I'm going.



Below the spray bottles that you can see are where the gallon jugs of mixed food are, under them is everything else. Very compact and all-in-one type stop for me. Just my style.

Now that I think I've covered the basics, I'll introduce you to my newest baby.



This is actually the first plant I've grown with good genetics. The rest have been bag seeds. This girl here is Violator Kush, a cross between Hindu Kush and Malana. A friend offered it to me when I told him about my last girl not being a girl at all. I hopped online, loved what I read, and told him I'd be more than happy to take it off his hands. This, of course, is going to set me back an extra smoke session, but that's what I'm doing it for in the first place.

I woke up bright and early on Valentine's Day to find she had broken soil. How fitting. She got her first taste of food on the 17th and showed no negative response at all. After a couple drinks of water, I fed her again on the 21st, still looking great and eating it up.

Once she gets big enough I'll be topping her, which I've done with all of my plants and LSTing the hell out of it. I love my plants short and as busy as they can be. Here's a couple pictures of the last, dick-having plant just to get an idea of how I do it...



I think that's about all there is to say for now. Please please please if you have any concerns with what I'm doing, let me know. Otherwise, you may post freely and ask any questions you may have.

Thanks for stopping by!