SBG's First Grow Cabinet Under CFLs (Wish Me Luck)

[armoire grow]

Nice! looking good. I keep em short and top around the 3rd set of leaves up & them LST once I get some stretch. I veg up to 13" but I top a few times during this time focusing on only leaving 3 or 4 top by the time I flip. on my 1st run with no experience what so ever, no understanding of how, what,where to do with this plant and to top it off " I'm growing in a closet" (sounds like a R . Kelly song) I ended up with a 15" and 28g dry out of the original two beans that set me in this path of growing my own. The 2nd run I'm in week 5@16" and in my 3rd run in w 3@ 20". something that I'm doing on transplant is trim off the bottom and buried it deeper into the soil. I keep em in 1 gallon tried to play with a 2 gal. but it's a pain at this time.

 

[SBG]

Hey Armoire and followers question for yah. what did you make your air filter out of and whats in it. The one I made is raising the temps to much for my liking. Since I'm in Veg mode right now not needed, but the time is creeping up on me and I'm not sure how smelly it's going to get.

 

[Antics]

Filter:

Table top fan + Stolen tights from my girlfriend + 3lbs activated carbon + some cardboard and duct tape + zip tie

It's simple, and has decent air flow through it. I just have to wait until it starts smelling stronger to test it.

 

[armoire grow]

I use a metal mesh pencil cup, cut out the inside of a pc fan guard, wrapped it with a carbon charcoal mesh and mounted it on the fan. for the flw chamber I have a bigger exhaust and for this one I built a box and made it light proof. In the intake I have a piece of a/c filter to clean the incoming air. Also I use Ona block inside the flowering chamber for odor control.

 

[armoire grow]

Also something that I noticed is that I have better results with pulling air through the charcoal filter instead of pushing it out. It was causing heat buildup in the exhaust area.

 

[SBG]

Thanks, at present I'm pushing it through and it seems to be slowing it down and heating it up. Will investigate doing one up like yours.

 

[SBG]

thanks for the link you sent to me Armoire but the link was broken. It would be great if you could send it again. Thanks.

 

[armoire grow]

Google diy-ez-walmart-carbon-filter-for-micro-grows

 

[Antics]

Question for you Cabinet growers. when did you start LST on your plants and at what point did you switch to flowering.How much more height do they get when they start to flower. I've always grown outside and height has not been that big of a deal (somewhat).

I don't go by age, I go by length of stems to start training. Usually 3-5" is long enough to start training them to grow where you want. Adjustments can be made daily to the LST.
I switched to flower at 6 weeks and 5 weeks old. Additional height in flower? No idea lol Mine grow sideways. So far I've gained about 1-2" in height on each in the last couple days, but it will vary depending on if you top it or not.

I use a metal mesh pencil cup, cut out the inside of a pc fan guard, wrapped it with a carbon charcoal mesh and mounted it on the fan. for the flw chamber I have a bigger exhaust and for this one I built a box and made it light proof. In the intake I have a piece of a/c filter to clean the incoming air. Also I use Ona block inside the flowering chamber for odor control.

That filter is great man. Cheap, simple and effective. Nothing beats that. Using Ona inside the flowering area, aren't you concerned about the Cannabis absorbing the odor of the Ona? That stuff is wicked strong. I bought some myself but once I smelled it, there was no way in hell I was putting that with my plants lol

 

[SBG]

found it Armoire, Thanks again that is a pretty cool little carbon filter i thinks I'll try that but instead of duct tape I'll add your little retaining ring that you made. It's all coming together.

thanks for the tips Antics, all info is good info. (recieve it and assimilate it)

I have got to stop over thinking these things. I've been growing on my deck for several years now with no problems. I look at them to much and think something is wrong with them. I should just let them grow up, it's the father in me I can't help it.

 

[armoire grow]

That filter is great man. Cheap, simple and effective. Nothing beats that. Using Ona inside the flowering area, aren't you concerned about the Cannabis absorbing the odor of the Ona? That stuff is wicked strong. I bought some myself but once I smelled it, there was no way in hell I was putting that with my plants lol

The same crossed my mind, but as I looked into it more came to make sense. It's plants safe and it's a neutralizer, which is not masking the odor just absorbing it.

 

[SBG]

Quick update. Well Armoire I built the Carbon filter from the link you sent me and it's installed.

the temps have gone up though, I am back up to around 28c/83f. just leave it or keep tinkering with it to see if I can lower the temps more? Not sure what else to do other then a bigger fan.

Also fixed up the light leak from Veg side to flowering side by using your suggestion of the pipe insulation but instead of wraping it around the shelf which was not going to be thick enough i screwed it onto the shelf through the slit works like a charm.

 

[armoire grow]

I screwed my also gave it add some thickness and cushion when closing the doors. on the temperature is 83 your max and in what chamber. cold air is heavy so your bottom chamber would intake cooler air. something that I plan to do once I relocated is to place the armoire under a a/c exhaust, out side room temperature plays a role in it.
83 is my max in my flw chamber. my exhaust fan is twice in cfm than my intake fan. the exhaust fan are outside the box and only the filter is coming in. think about it every electrical equipment is producing heat and rotating fan bearing are heating up. so you want to keep that heat out of the chamber to start. 2nd is air circulation,
having a oscillating fan is helping me out a lot. 3rd is air travel, I have my intake fan inside the light trap that is stretch to come out the southwest corner and the exhaust fliter is on the northeast corner, so I can can get cold air to travel through the chamber and not just run up the wall.

 

[SBG]

Thanks for the info Armoire, I think I need to go ponder my next move. Again thanks.

 

[SBG]

Well I took Armoire advice and moved all the fans outside the box and converted my old carbon filter (minus the filter bits) with a bathroom fan 70cfm to a intake fan the box it is in sits on the floor and blows cool air into the flower chamber which is the top chamber we will see how this goes.

 

[armoire grow]

Let me know how's it going

 

[SBG]

Had to take off the new carbon filter an hour after all the adjustments temps rose to 31c. I just don't think a 110 cfm fan is going to cut it for the flowering chamber.

 

[armoire grow]

Had to take off the new carbon filter an hour after all the adjustments temps rose to 31c. I just don't think a 110 cfm fan is going to cut it for the flowering chamber.

I had to do the same thing and have a "EcoPlus 6-Inch Axial Fan for Greenhouses, 235CFM" in the exhaust. quick questions when you had the fan inside the box you had better temp.

what's the temperature in the room you have the armoire? In my room during lights on 73° room temp and 79 by the intake. also I run my lights @ night.

 

[SBG]

Yeah the lower temps I had with the fans inside were due to the fact the lower cabinet lights were off. Bad me not use to putting all the info out there. the temps as of now seem to be maxed out at 28c/82f. I think I will have to move up to a bigger fan, did moving up to that 6" fan help your heat problems? The only other option is to see how smelly they get.

 

[Antics]

A bigger fan will always help, providing it actually moves more air.

If you use a 4" fan that moves 200 CFM, and then upgrade to an 8" fan that moves 160CFM, on paper it's not going to improve anything. So try to find the CFM rating of any fan you plan to buy.

If you're crafty, you can rig an actual tabletop fan to work, and usually they move a lot more air, but it's extremely difficult finding the CFM rating for some.