Hi, I'm new to the forum and growing in general but Ive been researching in my spare time and think I'm almost ready to get down to business. That being said I would appreciate any feedback regarding my box design that the experts and general enthusiasts on this forum have to offer before I go out and buy materials with my hard earned cash :: .
So here's my design so far, and hopefully its legible
The large 36"X36"X72" area will be the flowering chamber
The Lower 18.5"X36"X46.5" area will be the clone\veg\drying chamber
The Upper 18.5"X36"X24" area will be the equipment area
The Back 56"X5.5" Area (Shown only in top Down Drawing) will be the light trap
The cabinet is designed to fit my available area for the project, and could be made taller but there is little room for length or depth adjustments. The cabinet is also designed for stealth, a carbon scrubber will be installed on the exhaust, all seams will be completely sealed and the fan will be hung in the equipment area to avoid vibrations. The cabinet will be supported by a 2"X2" frame and finished with 1/2 inch plywood/project board, the interior of the grow chambers will be painted white for light reflection.
The light trap area on the back will be open at the bottom with some type of filter or screen to keep out the pests and painted matte black on the inside. This should effectively eliminate light leak from the outside area, while light leak between chambers will be reduced with vent covers (the type used on outdoor dryer vents painted black) to keep the light cycles isolated.
The fan I'm looking at is a 6 Inch inline fan in the 300 to 400 cfm range, there are multiple products that seem appealing so any advice would be greatly appreciated. With 6inch ducting this should produce a 28.26 sq. in. output. Which brings us to the passive intakes...
The passive intake venting is either going to be 4" or 6" round vents or long thin rectangular vents. I'm having a hard time deciding which so both are currently on the print but only one or the other will be on the final product (I'm leaning toward the rectangular vents so that's what i will describe here), also the airflow is currently combined through the 2 chambers. A 16"X2" passive intake from the light trap into the veg area, and an equal sized vent from the veg to flower chamber, as well as a 32"X1" vent from the light trap along the back of the flower chamber. By my calculations it should produce an area of sq. in. of passive intake for the 28.26 sq. in. output provided by the fan.
With the combined internal area of the flower and veg cabinets being roughly 73.5 sq. Ft. I'm thinking a a 300cfm fan will do the trick even with the carbon scrubber and filtered intakes.
However I have also read that the venting should be kept separate for the 2 areas due to veg needing a higher humidity than flower in which case i would need to get a T-Fitting for the vent. I was hoping to not have to do this but if it will boost my results i will. Again any input would be greatly appreciated ::
As for lighting I will be going the LED route for flower to save on power and keep the cabinet as stealth as possible. I believe the light I'm looking at is a site sponsor but I'm not clear on the rules for posting about lights so I'll just give specs for now. It is rated at 700W though the actual draw is only 300-380W, 5W chips and a footprint of 3'4" square from 3' above. The light has been showcased on this forum before with solid results. The veg chamber will have either cfls or two 2' t5 fluorescent, I'm not sure which to go with or if its gonna make much of a difference.
The medium will probably be soil to start, maybe go to hydro at some point if the vertical space will allow it. I have been looking into a product called 'sea soil' as I'm from Canada and don't have access to many of the staple soils mentioned by users. This soil can be nutrient 'hot' from what i have read around the web so it will probably need to be cut with organic compost/amendments to keep it reasonable for the plants. If anyone has any experience with this particular soil or recommendations for another type that is available in western Canada I'm all ears.
The soil will be supplemented with nutrients, synthetic or organic doesn't matter too much to me as long as the results are good. I'm still doing my research on this topic though as I don't know what I have access to locally.
Finally the strains Ive been looking at are hardier types that will forgive my inexperienced hands. There is such a wealth of information out there that I'm having a hard time nailing down a choice haha probably a northen lights cross or afgan cross as they seem fairly tough but I'm open to ideas. I would also like to try the SCROG method at some point and will probably try to clone the plant for the first couple of grows to keep seed costs down.
Think that's about it, I'm open to any recommendations or reworking of the design so please don't hesitate to call it if I'm being a rookie with something
So here's my design so far, and hopefully its legible
The large 36"X36"X72" area will be the flowering chamber
The Lower 18.5"X36"X46.5" area will be the clone\veg\drying chamber
The Upper 18.5"X36"X24" area will be the equipment area
The Back 56"X5.5" Area (Shown only in top Down Drawing) will be the light trap
The cabinet is designed to fit my available area for the project, and could be made taller but there is little room for length or depth adjustments. The cabinet is also designed for stealth, a carbon scrubber will be installed on the exhaust, all seams will be completely sealed and the fan will be hung in the equipment area to avoid vibrations. The cabinet will be supported by a 2"X2" frame and finished with 1/2 inch plywood/project board, the interior of the grow chambers will be painted white for light reflection.
The light trap area on the back will be open at the bottom with some type of filter or screen to keep out the pests and painted matte black on the inside. This should effectively eliminate light leak from the outside area, while light leak between chambers will be reduced with vent covers (the type used on outdoor dryer vents painted black) to keep the light cycles isolated.
The fan I'm looking at is a 6 Inch inline fan in the 300 to 400 cfm range, there are multiple products that seem appealing so any advice would be greatly appreciated. With 6inch ducting this should produce a 28.26 sq. in. output. Which brings us to the passive intakes...
The passive intake venting is either going to be 4" or 6" round vents or long thin rectangular vents. I'm having a hard time deciding which so both are currently on the print but only one or the other will be on the final product (I'm leaning toward the rectangular vents so that's what i will describe here), also the airflow is currently combined through the 2 chambers. A 16"X2" passive intake from the light trap into the veg area, and an equal sized vent from the veg to flower chamber, as well as a 32"X1" vent from the light trap along the back of the flower chamber. By my calculations it should produce an area of sq. in. of passive intake for the 28.26 sq. in. output provided by the fan.
With the combined internal area of the flower and veg cabinets being roughly 73.5 sq. Ft. I'm thinking a a 300cfm fan will do the trick even with the carbon scrubber and filtered intakes.
However I have also read that the venting should be kept separate for the 2 areas due to veg needing a higher humidity than flower in which case i would need to get a T-Fitting for the vent. I was hoping to not have to do this but if it will boost my results i will. Again any input would be greatly appreciated ::
As for lighting I will be going the LED route for flower to save on power and keep the cabinet as stealth as possible. I believe the light I'm looking at is a site sponsor but I'm not clear on the rules for posting about lights so I'll just give specs for now. It is rated at 700W though the actual draw is only 300-380W, 5W chips and a footprint of 3'4" square from 3' above. The light has been showcased on this forum before with solid results. The veg chamber will have either cfls or two 2' t5 fluorescent, I'm not sure which to go with or if its gonna make much of a difference.
The medium will probably be soil to start, maybe go to hydro at some point if the vertical space will allow it. I have been looking into a product called 'sea soil' as I'm from Canada and don't have access to many of the staple soils mentioned by users. This soil can be nutrient 'hot' from what i have read around the web so it will probably need to be cut with organic compost/amendments to keep it reasonable for the plants. If anyone has any experience with this particular soil or recommendations for another type that is available in western Canada I'm all ears.
The soil will be supplemented with nutrients, synthetic or organic doesn't matter too much to me as long as the results are good. I'm still doing my research on this topic though as I don't know what I have access to locally.
Finally the strains Ive been looking at are hardier types that will forgive my inexperienced hands. There is such a wealth of information out there that I'm having a hard time nailing down a choice haha probably a northen lights cross or afgan cross as they seem fairly tough but I'm open to ideas. I would also like to try the SCROG method at some point and will probably try to clone the plant for the first couple of grows to keep seed costs down.
Think that's about it, I'm open to any recommendations or reworking of the design so please don't hesitate to call it if I'm being a rookie with something