The stink factor

[ReactiveLlama]

Hello,

A while ago I lurked here because I planned on starting a grow. Had to sort out some domestic issues, some months passed. Now here in my new place I'm ready to take up this consuming passion to start growing.

I have a space. A closet. In my home office. This is the only place I can come up with and since I don't need to produce pounds per crop I'm okay with that. I plan to build a cabinet and put that in the closet rather than make any mods to the building.

Size, grow method, ect, all stuff I've done a lot of research on but the thing that can kill me is the odour. 90% of the time no one but me will be in my home office. However the other 10% of the time that simply isn't so. Some of the people who may be in from time to time include a former military type who's death on drugs, a cop and lastly a devout christian. All very nice people, all people I must deal with to make a living, anyone of who will rat me out if they even suspect.

So can a carbon filter really reduce the odour of flowering plants enough that people, mere feet away from a closet who's door may or may not be cracked (depending on ventilation requirements) will have no idea? Even those who know what to smell for? Can it be done that discretely in a confined area like that or will I need uber equipment and fans that will drown out jet engines?

This may seem like a silly inquiry, but for me it's the 'go' or 'no go' point. Opinions and advice please.

Thanks!

 

[Hightide805]

mere feet away from a closet who's door may or may not be cracked (depending on ventilation requirements) will have no idea?

feet away.. thats pretty close,
you would need some good carbon filters and maybe some strong deodorizer on a fan

If the door was cracked open its more likely to smell I would think.

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

I'd add an ionizer blowing in to the closet... the ionized air will react with the the particles that smell and neutralize them. That's all I use, and the smell is barely there... add a couple of ferns in the room plus a carbon filter and I think you'd be good to go.

But... I'm not sure it'd be an enjoyable expericence with THAT group coming over to visit...

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

Id look at the pros and cons before attempting this because on one side yes you have your own space and only 10 percent of the time people will be there at your place. but if you look at the cons you know a person in the military who dislikes drugs, and even a cop. Im pretty if the cop was to find out he would start an investigation on you and things might not looks so good in the longrun but i guess think about it good or find a place where you know they will not enter

 

[PFlynn]

I'd advise not to grow only a few feet away from a cop. If the place is yours do you have another room to use? Even in your bedroom you could use a grow tent if you don't have closet space. You can use any other space you have with at least a door that you could put a lock on the handle of. Look into the grow tents, you can put them anywhere. Also different strains have different strengths of oder, so take that into consideration when you grow too. Good luck.

 

[ReactiveLlama]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I shall provide a few more details to give you an idea of what's what..

Since this is in my home office the hours people are in here are restricted and they're only in and out for minutes at a time. I'm a heavy smoker (weed) but to control that smell I smoke in the OTHER room, I have a free standing 8in fan with a carbon filter and to top it off I only smoke water cured weed. With these precautions I have managed to keep the smoking a secret when others in the building are being found out and fined. Most of that odour control though I attribute to the water curing.

Back to the home office. With only a small 2-4 hour window per day when someone MAY be in here and with the plants producing most of their smell during flowering I can adjust the day/night of my box to meet my stealth needs (if that's any help). I'm also more than happy to use any and every means of masking. I was already planning on adding one of those desktop air cleaner ioniser things. The sound of that running I was hoping would mask any muffled fan sounds coming from inside the closet and cabinet (remember a closed and sealed cabinet IN the closet). I have a glade plug-in in here already...

I know the venture is risky, but I can't keep shelling out a couple grand a year to dealers to get mostly generic 'weed' with no idea of the strain or strength.. and I'm a heavy user, both for my entertainment and for minor medical ailments (no, not a licensed medical user, my ailments don't count). The improvement weed has made to the quality of my life is just so undeniable at this point I can't/won't give it up.. so growing my own is a passion I will not give up on easily.

So.. Help!

Thanks!!

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

I wouldnt give up either on growing but when i know a cop and people that dont like drugs im gonna take my chances and have to say big no no, id rather do that than sit in hail being investigated by a fellow cop

Hi,

The improvement weed has made to the quality of my life is just so undeniable at this point I can't/won't give it up.. so growing my own is a passion I will not give up on easily.

So.. Help!

Thanks!!

 

[Stix]

Carbon filters are less effective with high humidity. Nothing is full proof when it comes to growing MJ. I most definately advise against growing in your situation. Especially due to the fact that your a beginner. You really have no room for mistakes. Think about what you will loose if something does go wrong. Just something to think about.

 

[Ms.Fox]

You may want to think about the paranoia factor here. I would be sweatin balls (lol if I had any) having a grow that anyone but me and my significant other knew about. Your friends may mean well, but "loose lips sink ships". ;-) Just be careful.

 

[L8tNightSkunk]

Stix, and Ms.Fox i agree with yall 100% i couldnt have said it better my self yall are both right

 

[TorturedSoul]

Since you're planning on building a cabinet anyway, why not put it in your BEDROOM instead of your office? Is there no room in there?

I once read about someone who had room but was so paranoid that there would be a heat signature (lived on the top floor of the building) that he build a STURDY cabinet and then added a bed on top of it. Other than having a ladder (like a bunk-bed) he didn't have any real issues. Well, until the day he got serious about the woman he'd been sleeping with and she decided to put a few outfits in his "under-bed wardrobe," but I would call that an issue of trust more than one of growing.

 

[ReactiveLlama]

Well it's certainly food for thought. The reason I wanted to use the office closet is because it's unused. I can close the doors to the closet and no one would have any idea a cabinet was in there. I can even lock them. The doors are closed all the time anyway so my thought was that people see the doors closed just like normal they'd never ever have reason to think "I bet he's growing dope in there!" unless of course someone can smell something.

The bedroom has space, but not in the closet (ironic that the master bedroom ended up with the more useless closet). So to put the cabinet in the bedroom would mean having it in plain sight. True, far fewer people have cause to go into the bedroom but should someone meander in there the cabinet would have to look harmless or like it had some other purpose than growing dope. This would mean camouflage I guess. A grow tent looks like.. well a grow tent.

Now IF I switched to a disguised cabinet in the bedroom there is still the issue of odour getting out and now the extra sound associated with the ventilation. Some of this I guess can be tempered by adjusting the day/night schedule of the grow to give me a better chance of keeping things hidden but I normally keep the bedroom door open. Thankfully the place I'd put the cab is 100% out of sight of the open door, in fact you'd have to take several steps right into the room because of way the wall juts in the room a little. I'd hate to have odour leaking out of the bedroom. In the normal course of things no one would come within 8 feet of the bedroom door but anyone taking any alternate route to the front door has the option of passing right by it, or near enough.. Still a good 6 feet from the proposed cabinet location.

Ya know, if I switch to the bedroom I'm gonna have to start a whole new thread.. "How do I disguise this grow cabinet?" I have a full bedroom set, a large box is just going to look so out of place..

 

[TorturedSoul]

Well it's certainly food for thought. The reason I wanted to use the office closet is because it's unused. I can close the doors to the closet and no one would have any idea a cabinet was in there.

Unless they smell it or hear the fans.

True, far fewer people have cause to go into the bedroom but should someone meander in there the cabinet would have to look harmless or like it had some other purpose than growing dope. This would mean camouflage I guess. A grow tent looks like.. well a grow tent.

Why buy a grow tent? I have seen ads for cabs disguised as wardrobes and dressers. Or you could just buy an old dresser from a junk store, take the drawers apart, glue the drawer fronts onto the dresser, and put a locking door on the back (which would be out of sight). If someone wonders why when they were snooping they were unable to open your drawers, you can then clean their clock for snooping (maybe let them know that it has a trick catch because you had trouble with people snooping at a prior residence and to GtF out of your home). Or just get a wardrobe and stick a lock on it. If you're unable to come up with a reasonable explanation for a locked wardrobe, buy a gun or two - a lot of folks keep them locked up.

Now IF I switched to a disguised cabinet in the bedroom there is still the issue of odour getting out and now the extra sound associated with the ventilation.

You are worried about the unlikely event of a person wandering into your bedroom and smelling/hearing something and yet you were going to put your setup in your office where you KNOW there will be people coming in? I'm confused.

Are you sure you ought to be doing this? You're starting to get ME worried.

 

[TorturedSoul]

By the way:

people who may be in from time to time include a former military type who's death on drugs, a cop and lastly a devout christian. All very nice people, all people I must deal with to make a living, anyone of who will rat me out if they even suspect.

I don't know about the military man - I guess it's as possible for people in the service to be ignorant as any other folks - but the policeman just might have a better attitude, especially if she/he has ever had to cover a DUI with fatality or even just doesn't like seeing money going to dealers (since he MUST be aware that people are going to tend to consume the herb whether they grow their own or go buy it somewhere). And as for the devout Christian... Since I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the Bible (can't remember the Hebrew word for it), they sound "a little" bit of a hypocrite to me.

Maybe you could start casually educating/enlightening these people for down the road. I know, easier said then done lol but at least you didn't describe them as politicians, pharmaceutical reps, petrochemical CEOs, or owners of large-scale breweries/distilleries, so there might be hope.

Good luck!

 

[rugdoc]

ok for a carbon filter you will need a fan, fans are loud. Lets look at all options: can you grow in a basement? or maybe a outdoor gorilla grow? As for your original set up I would try to only grow two plants at a time and make the grow cabinet out of 35gal storage bins stacked mouth to mouth and then use 6-8 CFLs and a home bathroom fan to vent the air in the enclosure. The key to this system is that it is a quite as the fan you get and you can build it cheap >$100. But I would try to place it in a place that can be vented outside in a stealth manor. I hope this helps, and always remember "there is always a way"!

 

[tricome]

Here's an idea. Hang your clothes in the office closet and use the bedroom closet to grow.
You will still definitely need carbon filter and sound dampening.

 

[ReactiveLlama]

Here's an idea. Hang your clothes in the office closet and use the bedroom closet to grow.
You will still definitely need carbon filter and sound dampening.

I thought about that, the closet in the bedroom is not a very good option. However I spent a few hours at the local hardware store looking at handles and hinges and wood. TorturedSoul mentioned adapting and old dresser or wardrobe and put in the bedroom. I like this idea more and more but instead of modifying an existing one I think I can build something that won't look like high art but will look like something one could easily get at Ikea. I can sleep through just about anything so having the 'day' on at night and only needing enough fan to keep the ventilation happy for the 'night' means the sound isn't as big an issue. For times when I do have company in the evening either no one goes in my bedroom (and the door can then be closed most of the way), or those who do are 420 friendly although I'd prefer if even my 420 friendly friends didn't know I was growing.

All in all a plan is starting to take form.. The construction costs might be higher but I've always been willing to wait and spend a little more than rush and f*ck things up. That's why I'm here! So those who are more experienced and smarter can say "Dude, that's crazy!" and then offer helpful suggestions.

I also thought that I may be able to grow enough to keep me going in 1 or 2 crops a year and the rest of the time it would be a total non-issue. However other people have told me that growing is like an addiction, even sitting on a pound of good stuff the empty grow cab will call!