indoor grow cabinet design, CFL grow, critique on the design needed.

For my next grow i redesigned my grow cabinet that i am building. Its a 4'x2'x5' (LxBxH). I am attaching the pictures of my design. What do you guys think??

cfls a poor for tall plants so you may want to consider side lighting

Agito said:

cfls a poor for tall plants so you may want to consider side lighting

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i think i would line the corners with CFLs from base to mid way. What say?

Looks good, however, in my old box of a similar style, I used CFL's overhead and two single T8 bulbs vertically in my far corners. This supplemented the lower branches with plenty of light. You can get away with T5's and a shorter length above your grow medium's highest point and mount them where the average height of the plant canopy is to avoid heating the grow medium area.

anonimouse said:

Looks good, however, in my old box of a similar style, I used CFL's overhead and two single T8 bulbs vertically in my far corners. This supplemented the lower branches with plenty of light. You can get away with T5's and a shorter length above your grow medium's highest point and mount them where the average height of the plant canopy is to avoid heating the grow medium area.

Click to expand...

you got a thread with ur setup n grow?

I do not. My old box build was back in the days when there was another major forum. When that site went under so did my pics and my goodies. Starting fresh as of a few days ago. LEDs were not feasible back when I had my other box. This time around I am still debating between CFLs or going LED. My box now is 4' H x 2' W x 1' D. My last box was 4'x4'x2'. Of that I had two chambers, the flowering chamber was 2.5 W and the mother/VEG chamber was 1.5'

Above the light in the flowering chamber is where I had my mechanicals and active venting leading out of the box. Below I had light trapped passive vents from outside the box. Above was passive venting to the veg chambers and an exhaust midway down leaving the box. It had a good flow of air almost vacuum like suction. Temps were not TOO bad, they went mid 80's on a hot/humid day. The strains I had were good and healthy and could withstand those temps.

I may start a thread shortly when I decide cFL or LED with my new box.

EDIT: Try to avoid heating the grow medium (roots) at all costs. The canopies can withstand more extreme temps, but roots must be as cool as possible.

How about using a 250 watt hps/mh setup in main chamber?