Garage Box

[nhtoker]

I am planning on building a grow box in the back of the garage. My only concern at this point is how to get the box fresh air without freezing the girls. It gets cold up here in the NE durring Winter. Heck , its cold here most of the time .I am thinking a simple passive system. Fresh air would come in low through an adjustable intake. The stale air would exit high through adjustable vent. Both intake and exhaust would need to be adjustable so they can be dampered down when it gets cold and opened when the outside temp is warmer. Now I am only talking a 3x3x6 box holding 1 to 4 plants. The box will probably not be in use much in Jan, Feb & March. I now have a 400 watt mh/hps light w/ electronic dimable ballast, cool tube, 190 cfm fan and carb filter. I doubt smell wil be an issue due to location and an almost constant breeze ( think lots of woods and inbetween two mountains ). So any thoughts would be appreciated. Please post so I can reply and get my post count up past 50

 

[jinn]

If its THAT cold, seriously just have the cold air duct to your cooling tube light,then,duct the other end towards to floor of your box.that way the warmer, fresh air gets to mingle with your girls before being exhausted out as it rises.

 

[armoire grow]

I would recommend to make the box out of wood, that way outside room temperature won't penetrate as it would on a metal cab.

 

[nhtoker]

I like that idea jinn. May have to add a damper to maintain proper temps. The box will be plywood and insulated AG. I read your armoire grow and am impressed. Lots of incentive for the cabinet growers. I definitly need to keep records like you did.

 

[jinn]

It's good to keep records for yourself anyway =p
That way you can experiment a bit with your nutrients, temps, etc... and instead of any of it being a mistake, its all SCIENCE!
But seriously, keeping a log of ph/temps/yield/feedings and things of that nature, will very quickly, add up to a gold mine of information and almost a step by step how to, on improving your methods and next crop.

 

[Garage Grower]

I built mine in my garage, also in the NE, just a different state than you
I JUST started a grow, about 8 days since she broke ground. I'm currently running about 270w of CFLs for veg, and will be upping to about 360w when I flip to 12/12. Right now, I'm running near the upper limit of temp during the day, but at night it's been dropping into the 40s. during the day I just leave the cab door slightly propped open and have a pedestal fan in the garage to help circulation a bit. for night lows, I bought a TINY electric ceramic heater at Wally's for about $10-15 and have it set to kick on when temp drops below 68-70. seems to be working great so far. Given I just popped the seed, I won't be flowering til somewhere around new years, so we'll really get to test it out.

I made my cabinet on top of a work bench, roughly 3' wide, 2' deep and 3' tall, so it's a fairly small space for that little heater. I don't think the cold should be a problem other than maybe the heater running more frequently. My box is made of plywood, and at first I lined it with emergency blankets (thin mylar) but that stuff tore too easily, so I went to Homers and got a roll of an insulation material called Reflectix... which looks like a mylar bubble-wrap. the mylar is really tough, and it also helps with insulation. It's more expensive than just roll mylar or flat white paint, but I think it has better reflective properties than white paint... and it's still a whole lot cheaper than Panda Film.

With the light you have, I would give it a trial run for a week or so... if temps are too low, try removing the cool tube and see if that helps raise temps enough, at least during lights-on time. you may have to supplement with a small heater during dark though.

Good luck

 

[nhtoker]

You both have some good advice. I am starting to keep at least some records. I am also buying proper equipment as time goes by. Now I have to find some time to get this thing built. Thanks for the tip on Reflectix Gragage Grower. Are you sure you want to veg your plants 12 weeks ? Wont it get too big for the box?

 

[Garage Grower]

LOL my error in phrasing... I SHOULD have said that I won't be HARVESTING til somewhere around New Year. I'm thinking in the range of 6 to 8 wks for veg (with FIMming & LST) then flower til done