Muttt
New Member
I initially posted this over on the FAQ area. Some one suggested I start a Journal ...... so, I copied it over to here. Where, I can keep updating it as I go. I picked up these three young ladies from two of the local collectives. Then, I took clones from them. That is, once I finally got the go ahead (a while back) from the wife to grow my own meds (medical marijuana .... legal grow) and set out to build a box specifically for cloning. So, here is the little box I built. It uses 2 dual 2' long T5's. Just wanted something simple.
My buddy had an old vent fan in his garage that I aquired. I use it to move the air in the clone box. I drilled a bunch of 3/8 inch holes along the top and put the fan over them. I then drilled a series of holes in the bottom to let fresh air in. It works fairly well for moving the air. The temp inside stays at 80 degrees and the humidity stays at 50%. I'm only running the fan on 30%.
I decided to build a box that is 4' x 3' x 6' tall. Initially, I was going to go with 2 ft x 4 ft. But, once I saw how narrow it would be, I made it a little bigger. I used 2x4's to make two squares. One for the top and one of the bottom. I then covered three sides in 1/2 inch plywood. Made a top and bottom. I drilled 25 holes in the bottom and 5 holes on each side of the box. When the size of all the holes are added together, they equal twice the area of the 4 inch exhaust hole. You can see the holes along the bottom of the box.
I then framed the rest of the inside using 2x2's. After which, I painted the whole thing flat white with water based paint. I got a great deal on a 6 inch fan and carbon filter. I decided to go with a cool tube and hooked them all together. Works really well. I had to get a rheostat for the fan since it was moving 500 cfm. I couldn't keep the temps high enough since it's getting cold here now. So I have the fan running at 1/3 speed and it keeps the temps right at 75 degrees and the humidity stay right at 40%. I use two temp/humidity sesors. One at plant level and one at light level.
I decided to go with a 600w ballast/light. I got a good deal on a kit that included the ballast, light bulb, cool tube, pulleys and timer. It's not top of the line, but it works great. Here you can see the clone box next to the big grow box. The ballast is mounted outside the grow box.
Since I only have a small area to grow in, I decided to try SCROG my first time out. I built a removable frame and used standard 550 cord to make a net. If I change my mind about scrogging, I can always remove the screen before next grow. I am using an organic soil mix and 5 gallon cloth pots. Here's my very young ladies stretching thier leggs in the BIG light. They are so happy to be out from under the T5's. I only have three in there right now (taking it easy first time out). But, there is enough room for 6 (comfortably) or 8-10 if crammed in there. I also built a pallet that gets the pots up off the bottom. The pots were covering alot of the air intake holes. It gets much better circulation this way. Plus, the air goes in cool at the bottom and has to move up through the plants/leaves as it travels up to the exhaust fan.
Any suggestions are appreciated. I tried to plan this thing out as best I could and read as much as I could. My intent was to try and get the setup right the first time around and not have to keep spending more money to upgrade to what I actually need. I waited before I ran out and bought equipment (even though I was chomping at the bit). I wanted to research as much as I could first.
Oh, now is probably a good time to say what kind of dirt I'm using.
I found a really nice local soil mix called Earthgro. It's an all organic mix that contains .....
- Peat
- composted forest products
- sand
I also found Black Forest Compost on sale. It looks to be another all organic mix that contains .....
- compost
- forest humus
- worm castings
- Chicken poop
- bat guano
- kelp meal
- oyster shell
- dolomite
- lime
- mycorrhizae
I used 2 cubic feet of the dirt and mixed it with 1.5 cubic feet of the black forest compost. Then, I added about 1 cubic feet of perlite to help break it up a little. I mixed it all up in my wheel barrel and put it into a plastic garbage can (with no lid) to use as needed. I am potting them in 5 gallon cloth pots. When I initially potted them in the big pots, I pour about a gallon of water in each pot. About an inch of water ran out into the saucers underneath. So, I left it sit there and it was all soaked back in by morning.
I started my clones the last week of September and I planted my three ladies in the big box on 4 October.
Well, hopefully my ladies will do well ..... only time will tell.
My buddy had an old vent fan in his garage that I aquired. I use it to move the air in the clone box. I drilled a bunch of 3/8 inch holes along the top and put the fan over them. I then drilled a series of holes in the bottom to let fresh air in. It works fairly well for moving the air. The temp inside stays at 80 degrees and the humidity stays at 50%. I'm only running the fan on 30%.
I decided to build a box that is 4' x 3' x 6' tall. Initially, I was going to go with 2 ft x 4 ft. But, once I saw how narrow it would be, I made it a little bigger. I used 2x4's to make two squares. One for the top and one of the bottom. I then covered three sides in 1/2 inch plywood. Made a top and bottom. I drilled 25 holes in the bottom and 5 holes on each side of the box. When the size of all the holes are added together, they equal twice the area of the 4 inch exhaust hole. You can see the holes along the bottom of the box.
I then framed the rest of the inside using 2x2's. After which, I painted the whole thing flat white with water based paint. I got a great deal on a 6 inch fan and carbon filter. I decided to go with a cool tube and hooked them all together. Works really well. I had to get a rheostat for the fan since it was moving 500 cfm. I couldn't keep the temps high enough since it's getting cold here now. So I have the fan running at 1/3 speed and it keeps the temps right at 75 degrees and the humidity stay right at 40%. I use two temp/humidity sesors. One at plant level and one at light level.
I decided to go with a 600w ballast/light. I got a good deal on a kit that included the ballast, light bulb, cool tube, pulleys and timer. It's not top of the line, but it works great. Here you can see the clone box next to the big grow box. The ballast is mounted outside the grow box.
Since I only have a small area to grow in, I decided to try SCROG my first time out. I built a removable frame and used standard 550 cord to make a net. If I change my mind about scrogging, I can always remove the screen before next grow. I am using an organic soil mix and 5 gallon cloth pots. Here's my very young ladies stretching thier leggs in the BIG light. They are so happy to be out from under the T5's. I only have three in there right now (taking it easy first time out). But, there is enough room for 6 (comfortably) or 8-10 if crammed in there. I also built a pallet that gets the pots up off the bottom. The pots were covering alot of the air intake holes. It gets much better circulation this way. Plus, the air goes in cool at the bottom and has to move up through the plants/leaves as it travels up to the exhaust fan.
Any suggestions are appreciated. I tried to plan this thing out as best I could and read as much as I could. My intent was to try and get the setup right the first time around and not have to keep spending more money to upgrade to what I actually need. I waited before I ran out and bought equipment (even though I was chomping at the bit). I wanted to research as much as I could first.
Oh, now is probably a good time to say what kind of dirt I'm using.
I found a really nice local soil mix called Earthgro. It's an all organic mix that contains .....
- Peat
- composted forest products
- sand
I also found Black Forest Compost on sale. It looks to be another all organic mix that contains .....
- compost
- forest humus
- worm castings
- Chicken poop
- bat guano
- kelp meal
- oyster shell
- dolomite
- lime
- mycorrhizae
I used 2 cubic feet of the dirt and mixed it with 1.5 cubic feet of the black forest compost. Then, I added about 1 cubic feet of perlite to help break it up a little. I mixed it all up in my wheel barrel and put it into a plastic garbage can (with no lid) to use as needed. I am potting them in 5 gallon cloth pots. When I initially potted them in the big pots, I pour about a gallon of water in each pot. About an inch of water ran out into the saucers underneath. So, I left it sit there and it was all soaked back in by morning.
I started my clones the last week of September and I planted my three ladies in the big box on 4 October.
Well, hopefully my ladies will do well ..... only time will tell.
