Started Conversion of Dresser to Grow Box

Today I spent a few hours building my first simple grow box. I will be converting the drawers to open all at once, somewhat like a cabinet door.

I first started designing a rectangular "door" piece to hold all of the drawer-fronts. All of my drawers fit so I started attaching the drawers to the door piece.

I still need to add a floor, a hinge, a lock, proper lighting and intake/out take not to mention getting the proper temperatures in a basement. I definitely have work ahead.

Length: 2.98 feet
Width: 1.27 feet
Height: 2.67 feet

Feet Square: 2.52
Feet Cubed : 6.71

I know the space gives a very limited area, especially in height.

What methods can I use to grow your average Indica in here?

Hey man your dresser is looking good so far. Some advice from a guy who has already made one of these one of the main issues you are going to have is air circulation and temps. The fans i would look into are made by ecoplus and are very well built metal fans with high CFM rating. make sure your exhaust is at the top and intake at the bottom. For the lighting i would say you almost are forced to use CFL lights for the space and temp constraints you will face. As far as your question about what method you could use to grow in a space like this is LST with out a question you are going to have to use low stress training on your plant so that it is bushy has more than one cola and you can maximize you grow space, try and get it to be shorter and bushier so that you have a mini sea of green in that box. great work so far keep it up. Remember you are always better off taking your time and doing it right the first time than running into issues mid grow.
feel free to check out my grow box for ideas and inspiration thats what i did on this site and it really helped

Thanks for the reply, yes you are right this is all in the planning stage, mainly because I go to university and need a better source of income first. Yes, I was getting at the whole LST thing. Would a ScroG be acceptable in these conditions for a first time grow. Also, if I were to be able to get a 100W HPS light, would that possibly be acceptable in combo with some 23 watt cfls?

nedyah said:

Thanks for the reply, yes you are right this is all in the planning stage, mainly because I go to university and need a better source of income first. Yes, I was getting at the whole LST thing. Would a ScroG be acceptable in these conditions for a first time grow. Also, if I were to be able to get a 100W HPS light, would that possibly be acceptable in combo with some 23 watt cfls?

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First off i feel you on the going to university and need a better source of income my box took me a solid 2 months to build and half that time was just waiting for more paychecks because it seems like 110% of them go to bills. As far as the scrog goes you can do that too, anything to help bush out your plant and maximize your grow space. in my box i am doing LST until it gets near the top and them im putting in my scrog screen to prevent them from getting to close to the lights. The 100w HPS would work great with some CFL bulbs too especially if you put the hps at the top and used the cfl for side lighting or under the plants even to get light to all parts of the plant my only concern would be heat. I had serious heat issues in my box with just 12 23w cfl lights and that was with no HPS. Basically the issue with heat is the more you generate the more fan power you need to get rid of it and fans are really loud and not very stealth defeating the whole purpose of a stealth dresser like you are building. There is no way to make it silent and high powered lights but you have to find the middle ground suites you best.

incase you wanted to check out my box here is the link https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/473953-stealth-grow-dresser-12-23w.html i am no pro by any means just trying to help because i love these stealth grow dressers. for me building them is half of the fun

Well you will love to hear that while I was lurking a couple weeks ago, your box gave me the inspiration for mine, haha.

I was kind of thinking a hanging cfl fixture made with pvc, it would be fully adjustable vertically. If I do end up getting an HPS i will consider putting a piece of glass between the bulb housing and the rest of my chamber. Did it seem to help you at all?

I am glad my box gave you some inspiration for your just like many others on this site gave me my inspiration and the push to get started. i do think that making a vertically adjustable light is the way to go over making shelves to move the plant itself like i did, and pvc for the fixture is a good medium to work with due to price weight and ease of use. The glass seperateing the lights and the grow compartment really does help with heat issues in the grow space but it does tend to trap a lot of heat in the light area so you will need an exhaust fan for that area alone along with one for you grow space. in my opinion i would not do the hps and just go with your pvc cfl fixture with no glass and have an over kill exhaust fan too keep it cool. shoot for around 100w per plant of actual watts and not the incandescent equivalent watt rating. also on my box i did the lights pointing strait down and next time i would do them sideways so the side faces down its more effective.

Pretty much the deciding factor for me getting an HPS light is how well it is connected to the wall I have quite a few fans around, enough to make an electric blowy, lol. Yes I have read about keeping the bulbs horizontal, definitely will try for that. Probably will use the power bar method like u though except mount them sideways and not so bunched together, as I have a bigger space.

I love your design though, mine will be more obvious than yours.

IMHO ventilation is the key when designing a micro grow.
figure your cabinet foot print, figure out your optimized plant count, by using that you can determine what wattage you will need.
then from that there are formulas for determining the amount of CFM you will need to cool down the box from what you determine to be an acceptable temp variation above ambient.
then place your exhaust vents and fans (on paper), this placement will let you design the inlets, inlet sizing, and inlet placement.

btw, the correct footage of your cab should read:
3.7846 sq/ft
10.1048 cu.ft.

A very general rule of thumb is that your garden needs 50 watts of HID lighting per square foot of illuminated area.

4 x 50watts sq/ft = 200 watts due to your oddly shaped chamber and diminished height: 3.78' x 1.27'. two 100 watt bulbs would probably be near perfect to cover the light spread requirements of your thin x long foot print.

going off Ed Rosethals book "Closet Cultivator" which states that lumens per sq ft can be from 1500 lumens and plants will still grow well, 3000 is excellent, and that 5000 is optimal

HPS lights usually range between 100 and 125 lumens per watt,
100w HPS x 100~125lu/w = 10,000~ 12,500lumens
1 100w HPS per 3.75sq/ft = 2,645 ~ 3306 lu/sq/ft
2 100w HPS per 3.75sq/ft = 5,290 ~ 6613 lu/sq/ft



..good luck.. i hope that helps...

sicks stuff said:

btw, the correct footage of your cab should read:
3.7846 sq/ft
10.1048 cu.ft.

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Thats embarrassing on my part ; thanks though. and Thanks for the lighting advice. I have glanced at that book before, i have a ton of e-books.
Well im gonna see if I can go get a couple lights later tonight, wish me luck!

In the last eight days I have completed a lot. I put a floor in the base, a way to stop it from tipping over, I did up the intake venting successfully and for free and started working on a light fixture too. Today I was home depot and have located everything I need for a simple ventilation setup.

Have any of you guys heard of these dryer rechargeable carbon filter things? The guy at my local shop says they are good for 1.5 years and need to be recharged every 2 months. Seems highly suitable for my needs and at 40$ you cant go wrong in my eyes. Opinions?

i like the way you set up the intake but what are you going to be doing for exhaust? the exhaust is the more important and harder to get right of the fans. have you decided on what lights you are using yet? keep up the good work its coming along nicely

thank you, Well since its 10.75 feet cubed its very small and any fan will almost do. I found a booster fan at home depot for 16.00 dollars and plan on using that. It says 220 cfm, but its of low quality so maybe 100 but none the less suitable for me. I plan on venting out 3 inch plastic duct tubing glued into the box with a 3.25 dollar elbow. So really it will be about 90 dollars for out take ventilation with my carbon filter. Not Bad