1st Grow - Pineapple Express - DWC - CFL - Auto in a Custom Built Grow Box

doktorkush

New Member
After months of working on it, a little at a time, I am finally almost done and ready to start growing in the coming week. For me, the decision to start growing was multifaceted. Buying weed can be expensive (and I do smoke quite a lot) and the quality is never the same but also I enjoy growing plants and building things. When I started reading about growing weed indoors the idea instantly appealed to me but instead of just buying a grow tent I decided to build my own. But not just any makeshift box, I wanted to go all out and build a proper, hermetically sealed (airtight), efficient, solid growing environment. I wanted to waste no light or space and grow the best weed that I can with the little space that I had. I ended up building the grow box you see below from scratch. Drawing a line it cost me way more than it would have by buying a grow tent but it is incredibly rewarding looking at what I created with my own two hands. Here are the results:

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It measures 49cm x 49cm x 122cm (1.6 ft x 1.6 ft x 4 ft). I started by building a solid wood frame onto which I attached plywood panels and sealed all the corners with silicone making sure it is air-tight. I didn't have any proper blueprints, I just designed while I built. I did all this in the spare time I had during weekends, which is why it took so long. Around half of the wood use is wood that other people threw away, but I managed to save it from rotting in the rain and put it to good use :)

I'd like to give you a rundown of the rig starting from the top part which houses the light, carbon filter and exhaust fan.

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At the top I have a 25cm (10") by 12,5cm (5") carbon filter attached to a 125mm (5") exhaust fan capable of moving 185m3/h (100 cu ft/min). I think this is definitely overkill considering the size of the enclosure but I really don't want any smells escaping. Immediately below it I have my 125 watt CFL light bulb with a "custom" reflector above it. By custom I mean that I had to cut it in order to fit. 125 watt is admittedly not much but being unsure about the amount of heat they let off I really didn't want to risk it. I might upgrade to 250W CFL if it doesn't get too hot. I only have one cable going into the box and two sockets, one at the bottom and one at the top. Working with such small spaces was difficult and frustrating at times but in the end I used every last inch the best I could.

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The effective growing space is 46cm x 46cm x 60 cm (1.5 ft x 1.5 ft x 2 ft) with all surrounding surfaces being covered in reflective foil. I have used a spray-on glue which initially failed miserably, hence the air bubbles, but in the end I managed to get it to stick. The piece of plywood at the bottom is also covered in reflective foil to make the most of the little amount of light that I have.

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I also built the door from scratch using some wood that somebody threw away. I put rubber gaskets around the edge to make sure the only air coming in is through the intake hole at the bottom and I covered it with reflective foil. Installing the hinges and making sure it closes properly was a challenge but I am really happy with the results.

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Choosing hydroponics for my first grow might not be the best option but as I mentioned earlier, I want to get the best yield I can possibly get considering the space. On the positive I went for arguably the easiest hydro system which is the DWC. I have a 15 liter or 4 gallon tank sitting at the bottom which has a 4 watt, 3.5l/minute air pump putting oxygen into the water. I also bought a small water pump in case I need it.


I did a test run to check the temperatures and while the mighty exhaust fan is excellent at keeping the temperatures down it is too damn noisy. Therefore I decided to cut out another exhaust hole at the top and mount a 12cm PC fan to do the "exhausting" because I read that you cannot really smell the plant unless it is in the flowering phase so I am thinking about only turning on the carbon filter+noisy fan if needed.

On my to do list before I start the actual grow:

1. Install the 12cm PC fan at the top and temporarily cover the current exhaust hole.
2. Seal the gap around the exhaust duct
3. Connect an air duct to the intake hole
4. Add a power socket at the bottom
5. Do a final dry run with everything in place to check the temperatures.

As soon as I complete doing those things (today or tomorrow), I shall start the germination process. I will of course post as many photos as I can and I will also ask as many questions as I can, hehe.

Thank you for taking the time to read, feel free to comment and I hope you will enjoy! :thanks:
 
I installed a PC fan at the top and connected it to a fan controller. It is way quieter than the inline and does a terrific job at keeping everything cool inside.

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Now that the grow box is 100% I started the germination process for my seed. The strain is Pineapple Express, going to keep it at 12/12 for the duration of the grow and will feed it with some GHE nutes.
 
Update - the seed sprouted and I got myself a little seedling :) It came out yesterday on the 8th and i have been keping it under 20W of CFL but i felt that it was starting to stretch so I moved it into the grow box but i still have it covered to maintain the high humidity and temp. I have some questions though:

1. The water level in the tank hits the bottom of the (big) net pots and I'm wondering if it's too low considering the small size of the rockwool cube. Check photo number three
2. When should I start giving it nutes? I read that two weeks in is considered the start of the vegetative phase but what about the first two weeks? This relates somewhat to the water level question posed above. What if the plant won't reach the water two weeks from now?


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Update time! Jimmy's doing fine (I named him) but not great unfortunately. He seems to be underdeveloped for being 4 days old but I am sure this is due to me constantly changing his growing environment while trying to achieve the right temperature and humidity. He is still under the "dome" because I read that it's best to keep seedlings under higher humidity for a week to promote root growth. But the good news is that I finally figured out how to maintain a a nice and cozy 27-29 degrees Celsius (or 80-84 Fahrenheit for my American friends :) ) and a RH of between 50% and 60%.

Lesson 1: soak rock wool cubes in PH'ed water for 24 hours before planting, something which I didn't do
Lesson 2: once it sprouts maintain a steady growing environment and don't stress the plant.

P.S. Thanks to whichever admin edited the first post on this thread and made the photos bigger :thumb:

Here are some photos:

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Hi Medicus, zeppelina, thanks to you both :)

I'm going to use one 125W CFL bulb but I am seriously considering either switching to 250W CFL or adding some extra 30W CFLs. Settling on the wattage or type took me a while because I didn't want to have any problems with high temps. I couldn't fit a cooltube inside so I opted for CFLs.

Small update on Jimmy: he's doing fine but still not growing as fast as he should be. The roots are starting to come out of the rock wool cube. I will raise the water level so it is just under the rock wool cube. This will hopefully allow little ol' Jimmy to drink as much water as he wants because I feel that with the high humidity and temps of his "dome" he might be a little dehydrated during the day.
 
Nice to see I'm not the only one who will flower with CFLs :)

I thought the temps wont be a problem with CFLs but it's not what I thought, currently I have 12x24w and 2x85w and the temps dont get below 28-30 I know it's not that bad but still its not that good either, my space is also bigger and with two exhausts, just wanted to prepare you for later :)

Im building and AC with a portable refregirator and will let you know if that works...

Salute,
Medicus
 
Update time!

But first I'm gonna reply to you Medicus. I had a lot of trouble deciding between a 150/250 HID or one 125W CFL and I went with the CFL because I needed to make sure the temps are alright. The thing that makes me shy away from HID is that you cannot really get the plants close to the light, which in my situation is a disadvantage.

For the flowering stage I have two options at the moment. Either keep the 125W 2700K CFL and supplement with another 4/6 20W CFL's which would give me 200-250watts OR get a 250W HID and step up the ventilation. Unfortunately, a cool tube doesn't fit in my rig so that is off the table. However, I have been looking at LED more and more. They are the most efficient use of energy and by design, all of the light is shinning one way, and that is DOWN and not circularly like with a CFL or HID bulb.

Now, regarding the update itself I know I haven't been posting a lot but that because I've been busy. So here's a status report:

Overall state: Good, I see nothing out of the ordinary
Nutes: I started in week 2 with 1/4 strength and at the beginning of week 3 I gave Jimmy half strength nutes. In about 7 days or so I will jump to full strength nutrients when hopefully it will show the first signs of flowering and I will switch to 2700K.
Mistakes: as shown in the last photo, I forgot to paint the piece of plywood that sits on top of the water tank.... Lesson 3 I believe :)

Photos day 26:
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Hey doctorkush! Love the cabinet, I'm a huge fan of people doing this! I do have a question... Why 12/12 light schedule? From my experience autos love to get more light than 12/12 and sometimes will even revert back to a vegetative state when only given that amount of light. Just curious really and good luck with the grow!!
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
Sorry for not updating the grow journal but I didn't have the time. Everything went okay and I ended up with 620 grams WET. Unfortunately I did find some mold on the top cola and I had to break it apart during trimming and throw away what was bad. At some point the plant also got too big for the cabinet and I had to do some LST well into flowering. I will add photos of that later but for now here are photos of my first grow's yield :)
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