First Grow, already expanding....

Hi Guys, wanted to post here in Stealth / Cab, this is my first grow and I'm hoping to be successful. I initially posted in Newbie Central and probably should have started here because my goal is an extremely stealth cabinet grow, couple plants at a time, nothing big at all.

I initially was going to do a perpetual grow in one 3'w x 1.5' dp x 6'h office cabinet, but sealing off the 2 areas and limiting my space wasn't to appealing, so this weekend I chose to gut a second cabinet instead, same footprint but about 3.5' high, and use the initial larger one for flowering, and the new smaller one for veg.

This is an in process build that I'll update throughout.

Specs for the Veg Cab:
3'w x 1.5'dp x 3.5'h steel office cabinet
8 2' T5 6500K Sunblaster lights with reflectors
Digital Humidity and heat control
4" inductor exhausting through a can9000, straight run.
passive intake
Diamond Dispersion film
Motion capture, temps and RH monitoring.

The cabinet is 99.9% light sealed. I actually did go in there and look for leaks but I didn't go crazy (yet) and stay in there for 10+ minutes.

Venting seems adequate. We will se how I can hold the humidity (hopefully) without a humidifier. Actually the exhaust hole is a 2.5", seems more than adequate but I can open that up if needed to 4". If I find the induct fan doesn't have the strength I'm thinking of making a cross flow style fan out of a couple 4" pc fans.

I bought a reptile habitat controller which will turn on heat or a humidifier to digital accuracy, mounted the controller for that on the can9000, and I'll permanently mount the sensor on the rear wall. For the cold temps a crane 400watt convection heater will heat the area. I haven't decided on what to do for humidity yet. Maybe a reptile fogger so I can run the tube from externally.

So I'm contemplating a move from the large cab. into the small one, once I get ready to clone/flower. Perhaps a bit before that so I can prepare the large cab. At that time I'll move my diy 8 banger T5 sunblaster into the small cabinet. Along with all the oscillating reindeer head fan, ect.

I really want to maximize the space so I'm thinking about how to stack a few of the essential but space consuming items. Aso I need to make triple sure the heater is safe to run inside the cab. Probable make a steel plate for some of the can filter, or remove it's pre-filter. It's making me nervous right above the heater.

Flower Cab Specs: (some is planned, not current)
3'w x 1.5'dp x 6'h steel office cabinet
Planned 600 or 400w HPS
4" vortex 177cfm through a can9000, 90 degree bend
passive intake
Diamond Dispersion film
Motion capture, temps and RH monitoring
Lower level for accessories, supplies, heater. 4.5' usable


For flowering. I'll get a 600 or 400w HPS for the larger cabinet, and run a seperate cooltube for just the light.

So kind of a work in progress but I wanted to get this down and I'll update this thread as time goes by. Any advice or comments I'd love to hear it if you have any questions please feel free to ask I'm a nob but I've been reading a lot and learning tons from this site. Thanks all.

Happy growing...Last 2 pics are of the large cabinet.

Nice little set up! Good job looks like your research is doing you well.

Nice set up

Every time I see someone throwing one of these types of cabs away I think about doing this to it.

Good work my friend.

Thanks Guys.

UPDATE:

Starting to look at equipment for the LARGER CABINET which I plan to get together by the new year.

I'm thinking a 400w hps in a cool-tubable hood, use my vortex 4" to cooltube just the light, speed adjusted for noise I shouldn't need to to work very hard. I want to also be able to raise and lower the light at least a foot or more.

I will drop the shelf pretty low but allow a bottom section for the electronics, etc.

Then get a S&P mixed flow fan for exhausting the larger cabinet. But I have to see how those fans respond to speed control. Maybe a 4" or 6" "Induct" fan like I have in the veg cabinet would be enough to refresh the air. Space is going to become an issue with all the 4" tubing runngin in/out. I'll need 3 holes on top of the cabinet, 2 for the cool tube and 1 for the exhaust and I'd prefer mount any fans on top of the unit. SO that may require creative fan placement which means more tubing.

For the SMALLER CABINET, I want to move into that in a week or so. I need to finalize a few things like the heater placement, humidity/exhaust timing. It's going to have to be a weekend because I want to move the girls right in; I don't have 2 sets of light to do dry testing but if I'm home I can monitor them all day.

The plants are growing nicely, though. I have a trip this weekend but next I want to top them and maybe try some clones. I read into FIM briefly, and want(ed) to try that but might be too late. This is all just experimentation for me, I love it though I'm just happy to have growing plants. If I want killer weed I'll go buy it, and I do. Growing is all so new to me honestly I don't care about the timeline I'd rather stretch out the duration truthfully.

UPDATE:

Figured I'd move right into Stealth/Cab, so it continues:

Here they are now. 9 days after my last update. I can't believe how much they grow.

I had some problems because I couldn't check them for a few days. When I came home I saw the one plant was touching the lights and got damaged

What should I do about the burned areas?????

Also, I do wish I had topped the plants early, but I had so much troubles then I was just happy to see them striving and didn't want to risk hurting them, which I now know I wouldn't, but still i did not and they are taller than I wanted them to be and I still have a lot of work to do. I was reading if I FIM the plant at the third? node? from the top, I can replant that top, as well as the mother will now be topped? Can anyone show me on this first pic where I would cut? or where you recommend?

And in the second and third picture I isolated what I will take for clones? There are quite a few 3+ node branches I believe are fine for cloning... If anyone can help me out with soem wisdom I'd appreciate it. Be well...

UPDATE:

So I finally finished up (well enough) the smaller VEG cabinet and moved everything in there. I'm liking it much better with the smaller induct fan. I'm holding about 80f and 50%RH steady with the exhaust on 100% of the time. Also, I have gone 24/0 because of a number of factors, heat / humidity flutcuations, etc. It's much better with 24 hour light IMO, and the plants seem to love it. I'll need less stuff in there also, no heater or temperature control unit. he humidity/temp controller is still mounted but I don't think I need it for the VEG. I'm holding very steady conditions and humidity is good with only a few water bowls. If I want more humidity I'm going to make a grated floor with a large pan underneath.

Also see female hairs on both, so I'm very happy. I have to take some cuttings and then as fast as possible get these big guys into flower.

I bought a 400w HPS dimmable and a nice compact vented hood for the flower cabinet. Just some planning then fabrication to do, and buy one more fan and I'll be good to go there. I'm going to cut up one of the sheetmetal shelves to act as a bulk-head between the 4" vortex and the 6" tubing for the hood. Also the can9000 will be mounted up on the shelf, with a 6" induct pulling the air our. Hopefully that will be enough, if not I'll go with a s&P mixed flow fan for exhaust.

I've gotta get some clones going too but that jiffy tray is just temporary I have a little humidome tray setup coming.

Long overdue Update.

Lots has happened, sorry I haven't updated in a while but with the holidays it's been hectic. I literally RAN OUT of space in my veg. cabinet. So I had only a short time to cut clones, finish the flowering cabinet, test it a bit, and get the big girls in there.

Here is the flowering cabinet as it is now mostly, this was during testing with the lights off. I had to make some consessions to the ventilation. More tubing than I wanted due to the very long can9000. I will probably change this in the future to a smaller filter and a s&P mixed flow fan for the cabinet exhaust, then use the vortex for just the light. The way it is now works alright but I'd like to have seperate light and cabinet venting systems. I'm probably exchanging 2-3x per minute (24/7). With seperate systems I could exchange the cabinet less and the light more if I wanted to...

That wood shelf is really just support I have about 5 big 4" holes through it where the filter is so air can flow more directly.

Maintaining around 75-80, 1' below the light. The ballast is on 400w. I'm really happy with the way this is working out. Humidity is around 35-40 with the HPS on, but to get that I had to buy a really big humidifier and stick it in the room. Attempts to humidify just the cabinet didn't work out to well because of the high exchange. The light eats humidity greatly...

Running lights on at night, and ligts off during the day helps solve a lot of problems. But I have a small heater hooked to a reptile habitat controller, set at 70f to maintain that as a low temperature. Works great. I solved about 99.9999% of the light leaking, just have to get a lightproof louver for the inlet. I louvered it up pretty well but it's just sloppy wood planks all over outside the cabinet.

Here is a few pictures with them in there: They got transplanted into 3 gallon root pouch bag pots, happy frog 100%. They were quite root bound from the 1L pots.

This is about an hour after lights on.So right after their first 12h dark period.

Here is the VEG. cabinet a couple days ago. Now it's kind of empty because the bigger 2 are out. I'm running 5 t5's.

You can see the little humidome. I hope they root.

Last picture is how I raise the humidity in there. Lights are on 24/7 and so is the exhaust. Humidity doesn't build up to well. The grated floor with large tray underneath negates the need for a bunch of water bowls all over and I can still only get to around 45%RH but right now is very dry; worst case.. It's so dry in here this winter....I'd love to be up over 50%, But the plants seems to be doing well.

In the humidome of course it's very high. I really hope these clones root. I previously tried a bubble kind of method from the guys that I got this little dome from. It didn't work out to well. Now I'm trying it with the rooters just moist, with 5.8ph'ed water and rapid start I think it's called. I used clonex gel for the cuttings. Heat mat on about 80f.

UPDATE:

What a difference 10 days makes. Flowering girls growing like crazy. I'm not sure if it's stretch because the light is far up or what. I'm looking back here at the pictures and it looks like they've put on almost 1" per day. The freaking bottom branches are almost 20" long. Also put in the plant I was babysitting for my friend in the flower cab. Shelf kind of arrangement. I'm worried about the lack of height I have. Temps get up to about 84f a few inches under the glass.

Installed my new arrival a lightproof vent. Works 100%. Now I don't have to have a crazy laborynth of cardboard all around the outside of my cabinet, and the little light leak I still had is GONE. For $30, yes please.

Everything is going well. I've got temps and humidity kind of dailed in but I get thrown a curve ball still sometimes. Already sourcing a stand up AC for the summer.
Temps FLOWER (12/12): lights on 81f/35-40RH OFF 73f/40-45RH , VEG (24/0)79-80f/50-60RH

Forgot to take pics of my veg cab. 90% clone success rate. I've already cloned the OG kush. What a weird plant that is I'm trying to LST it upward it's about 15" around and 6" high lol. Node spacing on the main stem is like 1/4" not exaggerating. I'll snap some pics of that soon I already took 2 clones of that, the tops of the topped pair. Now there are 4 main branches. Not sure about sex on that yet.

Cheers Guys.

Flowering cab got up to 84f last night with the outside temp up to 60f (highest outside temp I've had). I still think this is okay I have ample exhaust/intake and there is a fan blowing right at the canopy which I can raise as the plants grow. Any comments on the heat? Summertime is going to be interesting.

EDIT:

Checked the motion capture and it only hit 84f right at the end of the light cycle. It was 82f most of the time.

The plants still grew probably an inch just last night.

UPDATE:

Changing outside conditions.

Humidity was approaching 60% lights off this afternoon in the flowering cabinet. The room RH is probably the same. It's getting damp down here (melting snow and rain), together with the lower lights off temp of 75f (controlled) = up goes RH. I put a dehumidifier next to the cabinet, set at 50%, and it's working well cabinet is now about 40%, because the humidifier is raising cabinet temps to about 80f. It doesn't run that much but it's pretty annoyingly loud. I think I may just turn off the dehum and let the RH approach 60%. Or possibly turn up the internal heater to 78 or so but I don't like to go that high because it has to run almost constantly with the exhaust I'm flowing. I'm not sure how much I can let the RH go up to in flowering but my plants are barely showing buds so I think they'll be fine with max. 60RH for now. Any thoughts with 60% RH lights off with constant oscillating air and exhaust? Lights on I'm comfortably at about 35-40RH.

In the veg. Cab, lights/exhaust on (24/0) I'm hitting about 55%RH Which I'm fine with.

any way you can redirect the dry air into your cab? and do you prefer fimming or topping? this is my first grow and i can tell i prefer topping because when you fim those top 4 colas kinda overshadow the rest of the plant just wondering which you prefer really

The dry air from the dehumidifier IS going just about straight into the cab, that's what's giving me 82f and 40%RH.

I have turned that off, though. In favor of 50%RH @ 75f. I like to at least give them a break from the heat.

I'm not sure about FIM vs TOP. On my OG kush I tried FIM, but I fucked the FIM and it only got topped....Next time. These plants got topped but way to late, and only by necessity. This is the first time I've grown (anything), and I wrongfully had it in my head that topping was going to hurt them somehow. I should have topped them much earlier and I wouldn't have the height problems I (am going to) have.

Thanks for the reply. GL.

yea ive been diggin this thread ha wish i had the space to do a grow like that. if your having height problems why dont you just pull that top down a little thats what i did with mine and actually almost doubled the bud sites gave me my height back only downfall i kinda bent my plant a wierd way 3 days later that stem hardened like a rock and now its bent all goofy instead of the way i wanted it ha if humididty is kinda hurting you i had a guy tell me if your cabs small enough you can get like 2-3 bags of rice make a bag out of cheese cloth and just throw it near your intake fan and when it doesnt seem to be working anymore take the second bag and put it there and throw the wet one on top of your dehumidifier and cycle them.. i personally have never really had the problem but a guy i know using a pc box said it worked..(kinda two different scales though) or i hear put some saran(?) wrap the clear wrap for cooking stuff; and throw that over your pots just poke a few small holes so you release some moisture. my pots are what keeps moisture in my box thats how much water they put off it can go from 45 just after watering down to 25 ish when dry which is ok because i just started flowering

and cant you ge that light any closer those top few shoots really look like there reaching for that light

The light is not adjustable but I can raise the plants to the light if you think that will help control stretching.

And yes I plan on doing just that when they get too close to the light, bend them down. Maybe I should do that now. I'll wait till tomorrow anyways but tomorrow I'll probably tie the top shoots down to the level of all the lower shoots, which are pretty even.

Thanks for the advice.