Need input on grow box build

Sounds like a plan!

I might make mods to the box dimension so it can fit thru a door way lol that's all I need is a box that doesnt fit thru a damn doorway. :S

A standard door frame, at least in my house, is 30 inches. Just out of curiosity why only 5 feet tall? 6 foot or more and you wouldn't be handicapped at all by low clearance. Here is an old thread that I used as a foundation for my build (ignore the fact that he starts off with computer fans as vent fans, he later realized his error and went with proper fans) https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/315948-homemade-stealth-cabinet-lots-pics.html Here's mine at 6 feet tall, somehow I managed to get all the fans, filter and lights to fit, but like I said earlier I have run out of room before and it sucks.

5 feet to fit in a sliding door closet, may consider 6 feet. So might make it longer possibly 5 feet and a little narrower possibly 24" or 26". Want to be able to fit my autos comfortably and when I start a scrog beagle to fit 2 photoperiod plants comfortably

1 plant with 3-4 weeks of veg fills up my scrog screen, that plant is only 11 days into flower and I've almost filled a 3 foot wide screen. I leave the 6 inches on either side free for circulation. When I started building my box, I too thought I could grow 2 plants at once in that space, you can, but I'd rather have 1 big plant than two small ones, you net more bud that way. Now I use my other waterfarm bucket as my add back res. Good luck with your build

I am considering just soil for growing media. Of course I'll mix in worm castings and bone meal and such I am just wondering if this is going to affect the humidity. As I said before I'm going to use rubbermaid containers to hold it with 4" holes cut in the lids.

I've never grown in soil so I can't help with that, but I'm sure you can find all the info you need here

I just think right now going all hydro may be costly.

GoLdD said:

1 plant with 3-4 weeks of veg fills up my scrog screen, that plant is only 11 days into flower and I've almost filled a 3 foot wide screen. I leave the 6 inches on either side free for circulation. When I started building my box, I too thought I could grow 2 plants at once in that space, you can, but I'd rather have 1 big plant than two small ones, you net more bud that way. Now I use my other waterfarm bucket as my add back res. Good luck with your build

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I have had the conversation a few times on what yields more two plants or one big one. Thanks for clearing that up .

GoLdD said:

I have a separate fan for air exchange/Filter and one for my light (the light fan is on a motor speed controller, so I only run it at about 1/2 speed). My cab temps never get more than 5 degrees above room temp this way and if I wanted to I could sit my light 2-3 inches off the tops of my plants with out worrying about heat from the light. I highly recommend going this route green.

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I will definitely be going this way. It's much easier to control my room temps than the cab temps.

greenforlife said:

I have had the conversation a few times on what yields more two plants or one big one. Thanks for clearing that up .

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Well it depends entirely on the size space you have, my understanding is that 3 square feet is what you would need to allow a plant to grow to it's full natural potential, under perfect indoor conditions. Take a look at all the seed bank seed descriptions, yield is always quoted by the sq meter. I myself have to make due with less than 3 sq feet, so I scrog, the problem with two plants in a small space under a scrog screen is that you can't allow them to get very large. As a matter of fact you have to keep them relatively small, and small plants produce smaller buds, it's a simple matter of limb ratio's. Now with one plant I stretch the plant under the screen so I'm growing a 4 or 5 foot tall plant, just spreading most of that growth under the screen, but bigger plants with bigger limbs net you bigger buds, generally speaking.

I will definitely be going this way. It's much easier to control my room temps than the cab temps.

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Ya, air cooled hoods are definitely the way to go to control heat, I had my hand on the glass today to clean it and it was barely hot, could have kept it there all day.

Cannbizzle said:

I just think right now going all hydro may be costly.

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Here's what you need to grow in a waterfarm

Waterfarms are $60 each, I use a Powergrower Eco they are the same thing just bigger for $70 on amazon.

Better air pump - GH dual diaphragm air pump $63

2 airstones $10

a good pH meter $90

a bluelabs truncheon $90 for measuring EC and PPM

Nutes - as much or as little as you want

Hydroton $10

So that right there, with out nutes, is $333, I don't know what an ounce of weed is where you live but here good weed is $500 plus. I average probably 13 ounces per grow, 3 grows a year, so to me it's a worthwhile investment.

Another question, the filter goes on the intake side inside your grow room? Or out side on the exhaust? May seem like a dumb question but I'm green to this lol want to make sure so I can plan the layout.

Cannbizzle said:

Another question, the filter goes on the intake side inside your grow room? Or out side on the exhaust? May seem like a dumb question but I'm green to this lol want to make sure so I can plan the layout.

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With a 170 cfm fan you will have to suck the air through the filter and then out of your box. diagram: AIR ---> Filter ----> Fan ----> Out ---->

If you had a bigger fan, say a 440 cfm, you could suck the air out of you box and blow it through the filter, but filters kill the fans power, and since they are made to suck air, not blow it, you would need a much bigger fan to blow through a filter and still get decent air exchange.

I can't see you spending much more than another 30 to 40 on basic nutes. I'm a soil guy tho you may use more in a hydro set up. Top grade street stuff here is about 250 an o. Still a big savings.

greenforlife said:

I can't see you spending much more than another 30 to 40 on basic nutes. I'm a soil guy tho you may use more in a hydro set up. Top grade street stuff here is about 250 an o. Still a big savings.

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You also have to look at how many ounces your getting from hydro vs soil, what's your soil average green? I use a pretty expensive nute schedule, atleast the initial cost. I spent about $500 on nutes to start my first grow, but it lasts forever and I figure my cost per grow for just nutes is probably like $40-$50. I'm 8 or 9 grows in and so far I've only had to replace my base nutes, twice, all of my supplemental nutes have lasted, except for Bloombastic.

You do get a much better yield from hpdro, can't argue thpt its been proven. 40 or 50 would only get you a couple half litre or quarter gallon worth of nutes. If you spent 500 it would last what seems like forever. Probably save buying bulk for sure. If on a budget small containers get you going and easy tostore. From an inexperienced grower I only get an ounce to once and a half in soil. 13 oz is impressive well done Gold could probably get more if that was soyg and one plant as you advised .

I didn't buy bulk, everything I buy is by the liter, it's just a lot of different stuff for different peroids in the plants growth. And there are a lot of expensive supplements, roots excelerator is $90, Bloombastic is $90 it adds up and that's only two. One plant doesn't take that much nutes, my base runs like 1 liter for every two grows. But most of my supplements like Big Bud, Diamond Nectar, roots excelerator, sensizyme and Dark Energy have lasted me all of my grows, so far.

GoLdD said:

With a 170 cfm fan you will have to suck the air through the filter and then out of your box. diagram: AIR ---> Filter ----> Fan ----> Out ---->

If you had a bigger fan, say a 440 cfm, you could suck the air out of you box and blow it through the filter, but filters kill the fans power, and since they are made to suck air, not blow it, you would need a much bigger fan to blow through a filter and still get decent air exchange.

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Ok thank you again will need to throw that in my planning too thanks again

So I've been doing some number crunching and found out you get more lumens/watt if you use smaller cfls (23w) compared to going with larger ones so my plan if I go with cfls will be 20 23w 2700k bulbs putting out 1600 lumens giving me 32,000 lumens at 460watts. and 6500k giving me slightly less lumens per watt at about 30,000 lumens with 20 bulbs.