Thoughts on grow cabinet

I have a cabinet that measures 5.75' tall, 2.2' wide, and 1.6' in depth. So my square feet is 3.5. Plan to divided it by a shelf making top half 3.75' tall and same W and D dimensions and the bottom half 2' tall with same W and D. Using the top half for flowering and bottom for veg.
Questions:
1. Will a 400w hps work for the top half equals out to be 14,285 lumens per sq ft. Is this too much? Going to use t5 ho cfl light system on bottom for veg producing 2,900 lumens per sq ft is this the best choice giving that have only 2' of height to work with?
2. What kind of fan system to use? Was thinking 1 4" exhaust fan with carbon filter at the top half, and one 4" intake fan coming in from bottom with hole cut in the shelf so exhaust can be pulled from both top and bottom levels?
3. Was going to use dwc setup growing in the sog method starting from seed in beginning but using clones from bottoms of plants when I get up and going. Using GH floro performance pack for nutrients.
4. I will be moving plants to flowering once they reach 10"-12" and plan to flower for 8-12 weeks?
Any answers, thoughts, or comments are appreciated.

400w will be pushing the limits without radical air exchange / cooling. Space too will be a problem, but a cool-tube, would solve heat, but I don't know about height.

A four inch fan/blower would be fine with a HPS setup and a cooltube too, you could buy the smallest filter out there [$50 - 4"x6"x8"] which is good for about 200cfm. A fan control can help if it vents the heat, too quickly.

As far as DWC, great idea, but do you want water or the potential of water overhead power? For me that's a huge no-no. A side by side could be possible with the height. Penetration is good for narrow spaces for an HPS.


I run a similar sized cab for flowering with about 100w's of LED light bulbs. My cab is 31" T x 27w x 19" D. I sit right around 78-80F.
I have two interior 120mm pc fans blowing around and a 90mm pc fan exhausting. I got them all to run off a 5v 1a phone charger, lol.

Sometimes you don't have to go all big and crazy to get some results.

hth a little

Thank you very much for the response! You are very right about the water over water I do not want to do this either but cannot find a long enough cabinet so was going to go vertical cabinet rather than horizontal one. Do you think that I would be better off just using entire space for all cycles and not having it divided? This would give me more space vertically but would have no veggie/clone area. So will have to start from seed everytime. How much more time in between harvests willl this method put me back?

If I do not divide the cabnet then this will decrease the amount of lumens per sq ft too around 8000 per sq ft giving the increased distance that the light can be above the plants. Also decreasing heat giving the extra area. Thoughts?

I would be concerned about the heat from both sets of lights ending up in the flowering section - will it get too hot up there?

I am running a CFL veg cab myself, 2' tall. I am only using a 6" inline cheapo fan for exhaust. I have 14 23W CFL in it under a hood. It gets up in the 90s in there but my plants seem fine so all good. But point being, there is heat and I am not getting it out fast enough with the fan.

But imagine this.. that cabinet sits in my rather large office. It is well insulated but it is cold outside. I have not run my heater all day long because the heat that the fan is exhausting out is enough to heat the room. If I had that heat running into my flowering tent, it would be way too hot in there for flower...

Small cabs are great for vegging when you train a lot. If you plan to use clones, challenge becomes one of timing. IF you cut right before going into flower, it ends up being a long veg cycle before the flowering space opens up. (especially when you discover a month into flower that the strain takes a month longer than advertised!!!) So topping and other things that slow down her growth can be a huge plus!

Good luck.

So much depends on your situation.
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I don't do divided cabs. I probably wouldn't unless I absolutely had to.... due to the situation. Not a bad thing to due a combined cab, I just like to tinker and like have separate controls for experimenting.

Otherwise I have 3 separate flower mini cabs and one veg cab [One side of a desk basically 11w x 20" T x 27"D]. The veg cab is narrow but I manage to do alright with clones and seeds and I usually plan my next rotations before I even drop a round into flower. Right now I am rocking clones after starting 3 rounds with seed.
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Although seeds will take longer to veg and my rule of thumb [this can always be strain dependent, of course] is that seedlings take about 3-4 weeks longer of vegging than clones. But clones take 2 weeks to start, so there isn't really any better way, than your own. It takes a rotation or two to juggle what's going to work best. Sometimes you have to play trial by fire for a round or two and then start dialing in everything you have loved from the past grow's........

5.0mustang said:

Thank you very much for the response! You are very right about the water over water I do not want to do this either but cannot find a long enough cabinet so was going to go vertical cabinet rather than horizontal one. Do you think that I would be better off just using entire space for all cycles and not having it divided? This would give me more space vertically but would have no veggie/clone area. So will have to start from seed everytime. How much more time in between harvests willl this method put me back?

Click to expand...

With the given dimensions of my cabinet 5.75' T, 2.2' W, and 1.6' D this make roughly 20 cubic feet. What kind of air system do yall think I would need. I was planning on a active air 6" blower or inline fan too exhaust from the 400w hps and a 6" fan at the bottom to push air in with a mini articulated fan inside. Is this over kill are what? Thoughts? Or would I be better of just having the exhaust fan on top and cutting a hole ir two in bottom for fresh air to be pulled in by the suction of the exhaust fan?

IMO, if you get a 400w, you're just going to have heat issues, even with a cool tube. I had heat issues (68f ambient temps) with a 400w in a cool tube in a 20x30" with a 6" vortex Get a 250.

More thoughts on the idea - I definitely wouldn't be cutting that cab into 2 sections. Get a big rubbermaid storage tote and hang a couple CFLs in there. That's enough light for a mom and clones and a brief veg period. All kinds of ways to find enough space/light to get it done. k

I flower males in the top of a coat closet, clone in my bedroom closet, veg and flower in the garage. Used to have a cardboard box for my males, but the closet is just easier.

Main concern will be heat.... bottom line