Entertainment Center Stealth SCROG Journal - Fabrication to Harvest.

TinyGrow

Active Member
* I dont have a patent, im not going to pretend to, but I came up with this design and have extensive notes taken in multiple 5 subject notebooks spanning an entire year of fabrication. I dont care if you guys build this and use it for personal growing but if I find this exact product being sold for a profit, I will sue the fuck outta you and take every dime you made off of my idea. With that being said: *

Hey guys,

I am sorry to say that right now I dont have much information on what this journal will be about other than the title. I am going to be transforming a 4'W x 3'D x 5'H entertainment center into a four door cabinet SCROG system.

First I will begin with the diagram I have made recently to best describe my goals. Please keep in mind that this entertainment center was another project of mine that I abandoned after transforming a room in my house into a grow room. This design HAS BEEN on the forums before, but in a completely different context so please - do NOT delete my post, it is NOT a double.

Below is a pic is a rough draft of what I am trying to accomplish.

Untitled.jpg

My main goal for this is to have an all in 1 box that you can basically set and forget, we will get into that later on in the journal when the time comes.

Obvious this is a SCROG system. For those of you who do not know what SCROG is, SCROG is a system of growing that uses a screen to bend the heads of each plant under the screen which causes lower heads to begin rapid growth. Scrog growing was devloped to allow one to obtain maximize growth within a small room and with a smaller light. It can be done with any size screen or light but it as developed by those with small areas and lights.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
My first step was to build the cabinet itself. I had this shitty entertainment center that looked like garbage sitting in the garage. I decided to sand it down and hollow it out. Originally it looked like this:

step1.jpg
 

massah

Well-Known Member
be sure to wrap the 1gallon milk jugs in something light cant penetrate or you will hurt the roots as they reach the edge :)
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
I then hollowed out the box and refortified it with finishing nails and a couple heavy duty screws to ensure it doesn't fall apart.

step2.jpg

I then put a fitted wooden "rod" across the front of the vertically and horizontally to form a cross, screwed it in for more fortification and also to later have something to fit the doors on.

step3.jpg
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
My next project is to figure out the ventilation system. Since everything is structurally alright, now I have to plan the air flow because I will need to drill holes - this has to be done before paint or mylar on the walls. I fabricated a design that I believe would work. It goes as follows:

step4.jpg
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now that the vent system holes are drilled and everything good to go - I need to now coat the inside of the box with one of a bunch of things I will list.

1. Flat White Paint - Cheapest, Good Reflectivity and wont blind you every time you look inside the room/box lol...
2. Mylar sheets - expensive to get GOOD reflectivity but in my opinion works the BEST if you set it up right.
3. Some people say Aluminum foil - I would shy away from this guys - I have seen MANY of people and shit in books saying foil can cause heat spots like little laser beams to heat up tiny spots on your plant.

I chose flat white paint. I had a can laying around from another project a month or so ago and I figured I could use the rest. I then coated the entire inside with flat white paint 3x coats. 3x may be going over board with it but id rather know its 100% then to find out later its all fucked up and blotchy.

After the paint dries, my next step will be fitting in the vent system and running the wires so they are not only out of the way but also elevated above the floor.

The fans I chose are very simple and easy to use. I had a spare parts computer laying around that had a rectangular "case" that held 2 fans in 2 socket. I just used that "case" to outline the cut and then caulked the shit in to give it the best "air tight" lining that i could. The parts PC also had a PC blower which sounds like a god damn lawn mower and shoots so much air I was about to use it as my main grow room exhaust fan at one point lol This is a rotating fan, not a usual one, it has what looks like a windmill inside and rapidly throws air out idk what its technically called i think a ball bearing fan? idk. I gorilla glued the back of it in a few spots, and then screwed it into the hole i drilled. works perfectly.

I then ran the wires along the top of the box through a tiny drill hole for all electronic wires. The less holes the better as this box cannot have ANY light leaks when im finished.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now that the vent system is in place and running great - I should probably water proof the bottom of the box for OBVIOUS reasons. To do this, many people think garbage bags and tape will do the trick - theyre wrong. the garbage bag can leak water into the MIDDLE of the bag lining and MOLD inside and you cant do ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

So here is what we are going to do.

Take bathroom caulk, line every single seam of the box, EVERY SEAM including the TOP of the box. This is NOT ONLY FOR WATER PROOFING, but to also AIR SEAL the leaks in the entertainment center - wooden structures are NOT air tight unless theyve been GLUED together.

Let the caulk dry for 24 hours with the fans in the box running to speed up the process. After this is done, take a sander and rough up the wood showing on the BOTTOM but make sure you DONT hit the caulk. Keep in mind everybody this is a LIGHT sanding that just roughs up the wood a bit. Go to home depot or the garage and get a small can of "deck water sealer" shit. Im sure u kno what im talking about. Read the instructions, apply the material to the bottom of the box and then after its all dry and finished, do this AGAIN.

***NOTE - when water sealing the box, make sure you go up about 5-6 inches along the SIDE WALLS of the box to ensure that water doesnt hit the lower side of the box and end up rotting or warping the wood.***

At this time, your box should not only be flat white, or mylar'd but also should be fully caulked and the bottom half water sealed twice. At this point you could drop a cup of water in the box and not have a drop leak outside of the box.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now that everything is finished structurally, the air flow is good to go and everything is air/water sealed - we need to put DOORS on this box.

This is a tricky process because even as a skilled wood worker, its very hard to craft doors that not only are air tight but also light sealed.

I decided to break up the doors into 2 doors per box and use a design that a friend of mine showed me and helped me craft to accomplish this.

I would go through the steps of crafting the doors but honestly i probably wouldnt be able to fully explain how I did it but this is how it looks:
step5.jpg
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now that the entire box is turned into its own little enviorment with proper air flow and light sealing we have to think about fabricating a light trap for both the intake and exhast fans.

There are two ways to do this, one is more stealth than the other, and is the method I will be using.

Create light traps consisting of poster board cut to fit and sealed with tape, with little trap walls on the inside. To best understand this process please google "How to make a light trap with post board"

After created you can now choose to put these on the outside or the inside. Since I am going for a "stealthy" look mine will be going on the INSIDE. Securely glue then into place and caulk around the seams to ensure it is air tight. If its not air tight not only will it not work properly but odds are it will also let the light in. Do this for BOTH intake and exhaust.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
After the light is completely sealed out of the box, you need to TEST IT to MAKE SURE. the BEST way to do this, is to wait until night time when it is pitch black outside. If your area never gets pitch black, just close the blinds and curtains, turn off the light and anything producing light and THEN try what im about to say:

Take a bright bulb, preferably 1 or 2 100w daylight bulbs that shine BRIGHT WHITE light that is very noticeable. Walk around the box inspecting every inch of every seam for any light leaks. If youve done all these steps correctly then you should be good to go and have no light leaks at all!

Remove the test bulbs and clean up the area.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now you're pretty much good to go. Now you need to think about your lighting situation.

There are MANY ways to grow bud, and when I say many I mean MANY - but there are a lot of factors you have to think about when you choose the lighting for the box.

1. The lumens of the light in question. You need a certain lumen count per sq ft in the box to successfully grow and flower bud (if u want a good harvest at all.)
2. Bulb heat as compared to the amount of air being exhausted.
3. The size and bulk of the lights you are using.
4. The cost.

Now, I will explain everything that went through my mind when chosing my lights.

HPS. How can i throw it in there? Fact is, you cant. They produce so much heat and are so bulky that it would be an epic waste of money and time. MH. Same deal, a lot of heat, not enough exhaust and theyre pretty expensive like HPS lamps and bulbs. Then I thought what about CFL bulbs? Yeah, they would work and Im sure I could craft something that would allow this to work but they are kindof bulky and if you get HIGH WATTAGE cfls they are VERY bulky - I have one in my regular grow room that is 12 inches long and about 5inches wide. I said to myself, whats my next options. Well my next options are FL Tube lights or LEDs. I decided to use a mixture of both.

Since my box is exactly 4ft. 2" wide, a 4" FL 4xbulb lamp would work PERFECTLY. I got one and fit it into place and chained it up on a little pully system to raise and lower the light as needed. I somehow wanted to put LED red/orange spectrum lights in my grow because I have heard a lot of positive effects of them- but i didnt have any more space. What did I do? I fabricated a design using LED strip lights (the led lights that are in a "rope" of plastic? used mainly for decoration?) and made sure to get the high intensity kind. I then gorilla glued the strip BEHIND the fl bulbs on the reflector itself. WHen I turn the light on, it now appears to be a redish purple lighting - but when I turn the LED's off it goes back to regular multi spectrum FL light.

Now that I got both the veg spectrum and the flower spectrum lighting lined up and good to go, i have to move on to the next step of figuring out how many plants I can fit in this system.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Now I get back to the GROWING plan, rather than the equipment i am using in the box.

Since I am SCROGing I am going to need chicken wire.

I cut the chicken wire in a rectangle the exact ( or as close as u can be with chicken wire) dimensions of the box. Now that this is done, roll this chicken wire up and put it in a closet - you wont need this for about a month from now.

I need to figure out how many plants I can fit in here. Since I want to max the amount I can harvest with scrog, i need to plant them in 1-2 gallon planters each or the plant probably wont grow large enough to even fill half the box. I decided to use old milk/water jugs. They are all the same size, kindof square shaped with rounded edges and are easy to pull up and out in the early stages of the grow - aka pull out a male or to inspect a plant - AND i can fit about 12-15 of them in the box depending on how much youd like to cram them in.

I went to home depot and got myself 2 big bags of organic soil and some high nitrogen dried blood and a bag of perilite. I took a huge tub I had outside and dumped ALL of everything i got into the container and mixxed it for a long while - took me two full days to do it - its hard work turning over soil in a bucket thats wet as shit lolol

Fill up all of the jugs and then water them - keep in mind there is NOTHING PLANTED YET - after you water them and let them sit, they will "compact" sortof - but not in a bad way because of all the perilite in the soil it will still have A LOT of drainage. Then you want to top off the jugs and water them again. This will FILL the jugs with soil and you wont have an inch between the soil and the exterior of the pots lol.

After all of this is done and finished - take the jugs and line them into the box accordingly making sure each one fits properly - take out or add jugs as you see fit at this point.

Once everything is laid out, this is when the project will begin.

Take as many seeds as you have jugs and start to germinate, if youre using failed bagseed then you will want to germinate probably 1 and 1/2x the amount your trying to plant cuz some bag seeds wont germinate.

After they germinate plant them 1 seed per 1 milk jug - do NOT put 2 in each - the plants will fight for root space and 1 will kill the other if not both will die. Put the light 1-2" away from the tops and let them grow.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Let the lil fuckers grow about 4-5 inches and then top them. this will cause 2 heads to grow from each plant. After the heads grow out a bit, you want to LST the two heads down to the side, this will cause the two heads underneath the plant to grow up to the light faster than before. Keep repeating this process the entire time until the plant, even lsted and topped are about 9 inches high.

This is when you need to install the chicken wire. Put the chicken wire up right above the plants and start to supercrop and scrog them as they grow past the chicken wire.

Eventually over a couple months youll have an entire carpet of heads in each little hole of the chicken wire, these heads will grow to be full kolas as if they were the top of the plant. This will create a carpet of kolas.


The journal is over as if now- I am up to the planting stages and will begin doing this shortly after my plant reach a 5-9 inches and are topped. I will throw up some pics and stuff of the progress over time!

Hope this has helped anybody trying to create the same type of thing! have a good day guys
 
Top