I have been lurking for some time, learning a lot. RIU has definitely been a great resource in my first attempt. I became legal today and would now like to share my project, as so many others have done.

Background: About 6 months ago, I was planning to build a cabinet to store our camping equipment. My girlfriend suggested we save one section to grow in. I urged against it for her sake, knowing the investment/risk involved, but she persisted. Now, we have a cabinet that is fully dedicated to a perpetual harvest: One layer for veg/clones, one layer for flower, and one layer for storage/carbon filter. If we are going to do it, we are going to do it right. After starting to grow, I became very paranoid and so pursued medical, and now have it.

Setup: Our cabinet is 41'' wide by 30'' deep by 84'' tall. Veg layer is 27'' tall, flower layer is 41'' tall, storage/filtration layer is 14'' tall (see picture). I used PVC pipe and computer fans for intake/exhaust. I need to use more next time to keep the flower layer cooler due to the quantity of lights. Right now, during summer, we keep the lights on at night and import cool air from outside to keep the flower layer cool enough, but it is still too hot (75 degrees at pot height, 100+ degrees at top of box). Carbon scrubber is a design you will see all over this forum and it works magnificently, especially for only $50 or so in materials. Eff paying $300 for the same thing from a store! DIY all the way. Lights are CFLs (x16 14w, x1 26w, x2 14w tubes) and they are way too hot. They were originally hung horizontally at the top of the box, but had to be moved because I vegged too long and plants outgrew the box (newbie mistake, more on that later). Soil is Fox Farm Ocean Forest with Perilite mixed in, fertilizers are FF Big Bloom (I have bought Tiger Bloom but have yet to use it, and likely won't this time around).

Progress: I germinated 5 random bagseeds from a batch our dealer called either 'Thunder', 'Godzilla', or 'Trainwreck'. In any case, 5 sprouted and 4 lived (the quickest to sprout never grew much more than 1''). I vegged them to 12'' or so (dumb) before moving them to flower. Once in flower, they almost tripled. I tried to tie them LST style to no avail, they just kept going up. Eventually, we had to clip the top colas on 3 of the 4 way before they were ready. Nonetheless, I have dried them for 5 days or so and they produce a decent, short lasting head high. About 6g total dry weight. I look forward to the rest of the buds maturing (I'm thinking another 2 - 3 weeks should do it) and drying/curing them to perfection. Oh yeah, one of our plants went all hermie on us (could be for a number of rookie sins I committed) and infected the rest, but not too badly. The main hermie has 50% seeds but the best looking bud. The rest of the plants have only 5-10% seeds, luckily. All in all, I suspect we will get an ounce or two dry from our first harvest, although it may be not as potent as we're used to. We smoke about an ounce a month between the two of us, so I would call this somewhat of a success for a poorly done first time grow.

Yet to come: I included some pictures of the cabinet ('weedoire', as we call it), the clipped bud (weak!), and the soon to be clipped bud. Like I said, I am going to improve intake/exhaust for cooler temperatures next time, add a temp/RH gauge at plant height, test soil PH regularly, and improve the lighting setup. That I know. There are some things I don't know that I would like to ask about:

We want to harvest 3-4 oz per 3 months in our cabinet, which I know is very possible. What is a good strain that will stay short, yield a lot, and be very potent? Flowering time is unimportant, as we would be just as satisfied to produce 5 ounces every 4 months, and so on.

Also, is it possible to wire a 2g11 base bulb into a regular wall plug of some sort? Or is this a fire hazard? I would like to use these bulbs (Pl-l 2g11 type) to surround the plants better, but am not sure how to connect them to a power source, and do not want to spend the money on a ballast. I have seen the tutorial on how to connect these to a socket already, so no need to post that. I just want to know if I can hard wire it to a plug and plug it into my wall without shocking myself.

Here are some pictures. Enjoy, and stay subscribed for my next grow, which will be starting shortly. I will be happy to answer any questions as well.

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My flowering layer is 41'' tall, and leaving out 10'' for pots/soil and 8'' for lights gives me a bit less than 24'' total height for the plant.

I have thought about some shorter strains that are forgiving to a newer grower, stay short, but still have great yield and potency. Here are my thoughts...

§ God Bud...if only I could afford it. Any fellow OMMPers have a clone?

§ Aurora Indica - looks like an interesting strain. Anybody have experience with it?

§ Some sort of Northern Lights, White Widow, or Diesel strain. There are a ton of strains out there, so does anyone have success with one or the other that seemed to meet my criteria?

Thanks in advance for any insight provided.