Just checking if my setup is OK?

B

blueneon007

Active Member
Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, but have read allot from here and based my setup roughly on what I've read here.

I've grown a few outdoor gardens which have yielded plenty, simple grows though, nothing professional, just chuck seeds in ground, water, nute, and wait sorta thing. Trouble with outdoor ofc is the "waiting", having no control over when to make them flower etc. So I decided to go indoor...

I have a small cupboard I'm using (just for the first grow / experiment).

My current setup:

Cupboard size: 1.8ft (W) x 1.8ft (L) x 2.3ft (H)

Reflection Lining: Entire cupboard is lined with those car wind-shield sun-visors, cut to size.

Lights: I'm using CFL's (for affordability and ease of heat control)
- 4 X 20w (1300lm each) installed in flood light housing (2 in each) for the built in downward reflection (to cover tops of plants)
- 2 X 45w (2500lm each) hanging from top of cupboard so they are next to the sides of the plants (to cover horizontal of plants)
- So that's a total of 10,200lm, on 18/6 and evenly spread around and about 2" from the plants/pots

Air Movement: I'm using two computer chassis fans (quite large ones), one pushing cold air in from the bottom and the other sucking warm air out from the top.

I have moved an already established outdoor seedling (roughly 5" tall atm) into the centre of the cupboard and have four small pots (soil) with 1 seed in each (hopefully they will germinate and pop-up in the next couple of days).

The existing plant has had a bit of pruning done, snipping the top and every second fan leaf in order to slightly shock into slower growth and to encourage bushing rather than stretching - its not a big deal if it doesnt make it, I just put in in there to see how it goes under CFL.

Right, so the temp is pretty much the same as outdoor temp, currently about 86F give or take. Though the humidity is very low, only about 11% (though again this is what I get when reading outside RH too). So it seems the cupboard is pretty much the same as outside now in terms of temp and RH.

Questions:
1. Is my lighting good enough considering this is a small cupboard (I know there are too many plants 1 seedling plus 4 coming, but naturally, they will be culled when I know which are males)?
2. I know that the temp is "OKish" (cud be slightly lower - but outside temps are the same right now and there is no A/C in the room so can't really get that down further), how about that 11% RH? Is that going to be a problem? I've tried the wet paper towel idea but it hasn't done anything to the RH o_O.
3. Basically is this setup gonna work or are there any suggestions?

Thanks guys! :)
 
1. Lights, could use more, but would do ok.

2. 86 is too hot, but not horrible. I would move the intake fan to the exhaust side. Pull air out, and air will flow in. I would add more exhaust.

3. Height is a big problem in your setup. Height of 27 inches... not enough after you add in the height of the pot, the lights......
 
PrairiePoet said:
1. Lights, could use more, but would do ok.

2. 86 is too hot, but not horrible. I would move the intake fan to the exhaust side. Pull air out, and air will flow in. I would add more exhaust.

3. Height is a big problem in your setup. Height of 27 inches... not enough after you add in the height of the pot, the lights......
Click to expand...

Hi PrairiePoet,

Thanks for your reply!

1. Ok, I'll see how the light goes, if the plants don't seem to be thriving I'll add another two 45w CFLs.

2. Temps have come down to about 80 today (its really hot outside, we're in summer here), RH is sitting at about 30% today. So I think that should be fine (RH will climb when the seedlings actually start growing, from what I hear anyway)

3. Yea I thought the height was going to be an issue :( though I thought of just using SCROG and LST ... do you think it would still be an issue regardless?

Cheers
 
blueneon007 said:
Hi PrairiePoet,

Thanks for your reply!

1. Ok, I'll see how the light goes, if the plants don't seem to be thriving I'll add another two 45w CFLs.

2. Temps have come down to about 80 today (its really hot outside, we're in summer here), RH is sitting at about 30% today. So I think that should be fine (RH will climb when the seedlings actually start growing, from what I hear anyway)

3. Yea I thought the height was going to be an issue :( though I thought of just using SCROG and LST ... do you think it would still be an issue regardless?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hey blue,

I would add 4 if you can. You have a little over 3 sq feet, and you are running 170 watts now. Doubling that would be very good. But that will also increase the heat in the grow.

If it is 80 outside, the grow should be below that (with 300 or more watts of lights). If it gets warmer outside, you really need to find a way to cool down the grow and keep it at 80.

On the height, you have 27 inches. your pots are how high? Let's say 6 inches. Your lights could be three to four inches if you worked at it. That leaves you with 18 inches of grow. It can be done.... Just not a good way for a first time indoor grow. Growing indoors I think takes a lot more time to make sure everything is going ok.
 
PrairiePoet said:
Hey blue,

I would add 4 if you can. You have a little over 3 sq feet, and you are running 170 watts now. Doubling that would be very good. But that will also increase the heat in the grow.

If it is 80 outside, the grow should be below that (with 300 or more watts of lights). If it gets warmer outside, you really need to find a way to cool down the grow and keep it at 80.

On the height, you have 27 inches. your pots are how high? Let's say 6 inches. Your lights could be three to four inches if you worked at it. That leaves you with 18 inches of grow. It can be done.... Just not a good way for a first time indoor grow. Growing indoors I think takes a lot more time to make sure everything is going ok.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. I will look into definitely getting more light and more exhaust as suggested. Height is'nt something I can change, this cupboard is all I can really used. I've heard of guys doing stealth PC grows etc, so this size should be "ok". The harvest is only for myself, no intentions whatsoever on mass productions or anything. :)
 
blueneon007 said:
Thanks man. I will look into definitely getting more light and more exhaust as suggested. Height is'nt something I can change, this cupboard is all I can really used. I've heard of guys doing stealth PC grows etc, so this size should be "ok". The harvest is only for myself, no intentions whatsoever on mass productions or anything. :)
Click to expand...

Quality over quantity. Are you planning on vegging at all, or going straight into flower?
 
Your limiting factor will be your height. Your pots and your lights are going to take away almost half your grow height.

Getting enough soil for the roots will be the key tradeoff. The less soil, the more you are going to have to be on knife edge when nuting. The less soil the more watering you are going to have to hit the timing perfect on. ...all challenges I have had to deal with in my cabinet grow.

Put a dish of water in your grow to assist with humidity. It helps. I have a fan blowing on my water then bouncing the air back up to the canopy in my cabinet.

LST keeps thing low and allows some flexibility. If I were to start a another grow with a cab your size all plants would be LST.
 
Thanks again for the replies guys!

I'll certainly be doing LST/SCROG to try keep the height to a bare minimum.

At the moment I have the lights on 18/6...

There is currently a baby plant on the go in there. It's about 5" tall but has little to no branches.. it was started outdoors and grew on its own from nowhere - in a patch of soil where last year's outdoor grow took place :). Anyway it was transplanted into a small pot and chucked into the cab just for shits and giggles. Then I have four seeds in soil mix, hoping they'll pop soon.

I have thought about just going straight into 12/12 so that the existing plant begins flower stage and the new seedlings just go straight into veg + flower in one go...

Though I'm not sure if the whole 12/12 thing is successful, nervous about doing it (thus being on 18/6)... having never done indoor before and reading the forums I don't see alot of peeps doing 12/12 from the start... Not sure if this is because most peeps simply want to veg for additional yield first, or simply because its not as successful (natrual) as the normal veg first, flower later method.

Do you guys think I should just pop the lights on 12/12 anyway to mitigate the height problem a bit more? What are the success rates / dangers of straight 12/12 from seed to bud?

Here is a pic of my current setup :)

DSC03626.JPG


(the four seeded pots will be raised to the lights as soon as they pop out and have two open leaves).

Though you cant really see 'under the hood' there are currently 2 X 45w CFLs + 4 X 20w CFLs crammed in there.
 
miwa said:
I read if you increase the number of lights....u don't increase the number of lumens ypur plant gets.....is that right
Click to expand...

Technically lumens is the measurement of human visible light. But more lumens = brighter light. So the more lumens the more light the plant is getting... how much of the light the plants are using is another matter... thats where color spectrum comes in (thus using HID is usually better when flowering cause of the more red rather than blue).. As far as I know anyway.
 
I just noticed the bblue LED exhaust fan. Do you turn off the fan with the timer? If not, come flowering, the LEDs could cause problems with the dark period. I plucked the LEDs from my fan and snipped the wires.
 
With 170 watts of CFLs in there I would be willing to bet that you are producing more heat than a 150-watt HPS. Well... at least a good quality one with a remote ballast. And less than the ~16,000 lumen that one would provide. I just thought I'd mention that.

The heat situation is not helped by the w/s reflector gizmos. After all, they're sold to folks who are trying to reflect heat away from the interiors of their vehicles; your heat source is on the inside of your "vehicle."

If your humidity is only 10%, set up a swamp cooler. Ordinarily I'd tell you to lose the intake fan since you are in no way getting the airflow of the combined rated CFM of both but at best only the airflow of the strongest rated fan. But... Set your intake fan up in such a fashion that it is above the floor of your cabinet. Place a dish of water on the floor next to it. Hang a towel or other cloth so that it the lower end is in the dish, the upper end is above the fan, and the airflow from the fan must blow through it (you'll most likely need to attach it so it stays in place). The cloth will wick up the water and stay wet. The fan will blow through it and evaporate the water. That will serve the dual purpose of raising the humidity and provide some cooling. Now... I don't really know if this will work. In theory, it should, of course. But your severely restricted space (in terms of size) forces you to do everything in miniature including making the bowl of water small enough that it won't take long to evaporate. But it might help enough to be worthwhile.

It would help a lot if you could increase the size of your space. Doubling the height would allow you to increase the size of your containers. Cannabis likes deep roots. Well... In terms of the containers that you would be likely to use inside that statement is true enough. Have you seen 420fied's current journal? If not, check the first few posts where he shows and explains his two-liter soda bottle hempy setup. I see no reason why something like that wouldn't be workable - if you had the headspace. Not working with clones would be a small complication, but your lack of strong light ought to be compatible with the lack of root space... Your plants are going to have to grow to maturity to begin flowering even if you start with 12/12 light schedule.

Oh, and if you want your plant to branch, tie the tip of it at or below the top of the pot.

I would suggest that you only grow one plant in that space - and if you can acquire a known female clone that would be a good idea - but conditions do not look likely to favorably influence the male:female ratio of your young ones, so I wouldn't care for the odds of any one particular seedling turning out to be female

The above... Is just me rambling, lol. Take it or leave it. Last night was not the first night that I failed to fall asleep or even the first out of the past several days and I am certainly not at my best. But I hope something in my post ends up being helpful.

Good luck with your grow!
 
Forgot to mention that if you could get a known female and increase the height of your cabinet that you could use a decent sized pot. If you can do neither, I would strongly consider going with a different medium than soil.

Or at least I think I forgot. Or forgot to think... Something.
 
Thanks again for the feedback guys...

I've made a couple of small changes:

1. I've decided that my seeds will be grown 12/12 from second leaf node development onward (right now lights are still on 18/6).

2. I've added another 2x20w 2700K's which are hanging from the top of the cab in order to light up the sides of plant (its not alot of extra light, but its something, they were just laying around the house).

3. I seem to have fixed the RH problem simply by adding a bowl of water with paper towel dunked into it (sticking out slightly to leech water from the bowl) and I put that in front of inlet fan. It has to be refilled each day but works pretty well, RH hovers around 30% now.

4. Removed the LED's from the fans (doh! this should have been done on day one!) and added one extra fan inside the cab, just for extra air circulation, this seems to have worked its magic, temps are now under control and plant has just enough "wind movement" over its leaves.

The existing plant that I thought would likely die from the massacre I did to it before putting it in the cab seems to have overcome its stress and is now showing good signs of small growth - so I guess if the cab can nurse a half gone plant back into growing it should work well for my seeds :)

Two of the four seeds I planted were duds and have been removed, the other two have cracked and should break the soil (hopefully) tomorrow. I have placed a DIY humidity dome (made from take-out plastic bowl type things) over each of the two remaining germinating seeds.

As for height, I know that I do not have enough, and wish I could do something about it, but I can't really, its the only spot I can use... so I'm just gonna have to LST/SCROG as required and I might get a grow something slighter bigger than those guys doing stealth PC grows. But thats OK.

End of the day its only for personal use and as a bit of a hobby really, so not too concerned by the fact that yields will be "small"... just obviously don't want yields to be so small that the whole thing is pointless o_O

Questions:

Since I've decided to go 12/12 on the seeds from start...

What nutes should I give and when should I start... Do I skip veg type nutes (3,2,1) and go right into flowering nutes (1,3,2) or do I make a mix? Do I start after one week or after second leaf node or...?

I was also going to add molasses to the nute mix... if flowering from seed at what stage would I start introducing the molasses, four weeks in or wait longer or at same time as other nutes are started?

Happy highs guys
 

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