To all you ScrOG gurus: 50cm tall grow space

[temran]

Fellow greenthumbs!
I've come to present you a challenge concerning my forecoming growth. My grow space will be only 50cm tall, meaning its pushing the limit of impossible. This is my first grow ever so Im not entirely sure if this can even be done. However, I've made myself familiar with pretty much all info I've could concerning growing. So, heres what I've come up with:

Grow space is 50cm * 110cm * 55cm (H*L*D), with additional 50*55*55 cabin next to it. I plan to install lamp ballast, air pump and ventilating fan there and making the cabin sound proof after that, adding more stealth. There also additional fans in grow chamber to move the air between the plants. All things are on scale except filter and fans:

Grow medium is going to be water, two home made bubbler containers with 8 liters of water on each. Plants are grown to net, with help of LST (and probably supercropping too, thanks to stratlogic's wonderful grow example). Lamp is going to be 250W HPS inside Cooltube, ventilated by 160m3 fan. My biggest worries here are the hydro reserve size, lamp heat and growth space. Is 8l of solution enough for plant to fill 50*50cm net? Are the buds too close to lamp and most importantly, is it even possible to grow plant to net with this little amount of space available? Comments, critics and suggestions are more than welcome!

Here's bit improved net setup, leaving more space between lamp and buds:

 

[Stix]

Get rid of the 250 W HPS and go with fluroescents and you stand a chance. Go straight to 12/12. No veg time at all.

 

[temran]

Get rid of the 250 W HPS and go with fluroescents and you stand a chance. Go straight to 12/12. No veg time at all.

My fan moves 160m3 of air per hour and my closet is ~0,3m3 big, meaning that air will be replaced almost nine times every minute, more exactly once in every 7 seconds. You sure that 250W will be too much heat, especially with ballast on separate chamber and with another fan cooling the plants?

And why instant veg? Shouldnt I wait for screens to be filled 40% to 60%? Or do you think that plant can fill 50x50cm screen with instant flower?

Oh, and by the way, that ball on chamber two is my ventilation fan. I noticed that I didnt add legend for it.

 

[Stix]

Is it possible to turn the light on now and put a thermometer in there to test it out? A 250 watt HPS normally should be around 12" away from the top of your plants. With all the extra ventilation you may be able to get it closer. As far as autoflowering. Yes, you are correct, under normal circumstances you would want 50 - 70% of your screen to fill up before you start flowering. However, your growing situation is not "normal". Your dealing with an extremely limited space. you have to keep in mind that once you start flowering your plants will double sometimes triple in size. I don't think your box can handle that. I don't think you can generate an "ideal" scrog in that limited amount of space. I would maybe veg for a week at the most then go to flower. If you find after the first grow that you had plenty of room I would increase the veg next grow and so on. It would definately be something that alot of people here would love to watch. I hope you start a journal on it. Good Luck!

 

[temran]

Is it possible to turn the light on now and put a thermometer in there to test it out? A 250 watt HPS normally should be around 12" away from the top of your plants. With all the extra ventilation you may be able to get it closer. As far as autoflowering. Yes, you are correct, under normal circumstances you would want 50 - 70% of your screen to fill up before you start flowering. However, your growing situation is not "normal". Your dealing with an extremely limited space. you have to keep in mind that once you start flowering your plants will double sometimes triple in size. I don't think your box can handle that. I don't think you can generate an "ideal" scrog in that limited amount of space. I would maybe veg for a week at the most then go to flower. If you find after the first grow that you had plenty of room I would increase the veg next grow and so on. It would definately be something that alot of people here would love to watch. I hope you start a journal on it. Good Luck!

I dont have the lamp yet, however, I'll be sure to test it for temperature before installing it in the system. If it doesnt work, I'll have to figure something else. I agree with being unable to create ideal scrog - with 20cm more vertical space the situation would be fully different. I dont know about journal, things are pretty heated up here so I dont know whether its good to add any extra risk by creating a journal. However, Im a bit egoistic fella, meaning if I manage to make this setup work, I'll be most likely giving you some sample pics.

Thanks for constructive feedback, appreciate it.

 

[30hz]

Hey again guys, its temran here. Forgot my pw so had make new account.

Today I came up with version 3.0 of my cabinet:

Since there was just too little space there, I decided to put reserve under the cabinet and cut hole for plant to fit through. I'll be using 35l or 50l reserve system, havent decided yet. Having it on separate space also helps the fluid to stay cooler, I believe it wont raise much over room temperature. Im going to plant only one plant there to fill up the whole 90cm x 50cm screen. Theres now 15cm space under the net and 22cm on top of it. Also, the bulb is 3cm away from the glass so there's totally 25cm before the bulb on top of the net. Might be irrelevant, but I like to take everything into account.

So, fellow stoners! Do you think this is any more closer to reality than my previous plan, or were the changes just too minor? Personally I think that this improved my cabinet's potential a lot.

 

[stratlogic]

There's only one way to find out...

 

[30hz]

After studying effects of UVB, I picked up four of these (26W) from local store:
Hagen "Repti Glo 10.0" Kompakt-lechtstoffröhre

I hope they add atleast some potency
Thrilled to start my grow, only one week til my gear arrives and two weeks before I can start building my box! I hope the lamp isnt too close, othewise I have to do my plans all over. Im still bit paranoid about submitting pictures of it because of recents busts around here, but dont know yet.

 

[zolar]

in a space that small you might be better off using a metal halide or ceramic metal halide bulb the bluer spectrum will give you more compact plants i am sure that you can find folks on here that have used halide bulbs for flowering cycle also the CMH bulbs
come in smaller wattages [designed for display cases ?] and have a more balanced spectrum

i wonder if LED panels and CFLs would work better for your space and give you more canopy area for your buds i currently use CFLs in a converted old fridge 14in x 21 in x30 in high
with training in a soil grow i regularly get 8-12 inch tall plants witha top canopy 12- 15 inches square

 

[30hz]

The stuff is already on its way, so Im givin this cabin a shot with it. I'll measure the temps on bud level before I even start growin to minimize nasty surprises. Biggest concern at the moment are those stretchy buds, I think I'll tie them to 45 degree angle facing away from the lamp so nearest buds will be 15-20cm away from the lamp.

Few other problems also:

1. Where should I place the ballast? My thoughts were on fan cabin but since its going to be sound-, and thus airproof, I realized this might not be possible. This is my first grow so I dont know how much heat ballast pumps up, but I assume I cant place it on sealed container? Next option would be growing cabin, but I got air moisturizer to keep the air at optium moisture levels and thus this might not be a good idea either. Last one is the reserve chamber, but Im more than bit paranoid of placing ballast on same space with my water container. So, any thoughts?

2. Same problem with air pump. I dont have slightest clue how much heat these create, could someone inform? My thoughts here were also on the soundproof chamber but if it also airproof, its kinda stupid place an air pump over there If I cut small 1cm x 1cm hole for air intake, will it be enough for air pump?

 

[stratlogic]

Biggest concern at the moment are those stretchy buds, I think I'll tie them to 45 degree angle facing away from the lamp so nearest buds will be 15-20cm away from the lamp.

Why not tie them at a 90 degree angle instead to maximize the space you don't have? Just a suggestion.

 

[30hz]

Why not tie them at a 90 degree angle instead to maximize the space you don't have? Just a suggestion.

True that.. but I'd imagine that buds facing down wont receive much light then, or can 250W HPS light penetrate that much? Oh well, maybe I just gotta do this to see how it turns out and act by that. I'll tie them down someway for sure

 

[stratlogic]

True that.. but I'd imagine that buds facing down wont receive much light then, or can 250W HPS light penetrate that much? Oh well, maybe I just gotta do this to see how it turns out and act by that. I'll tie them down someway for sure

I wouldn't worry too much about light penetration in such a small space since you won't be growing a giant in there. And buds will always try to grow towards the light like this one. This is going to be an interesting grow whatever you do.

Have you thought of supercropping or FIMing or anything like that?

 

[30hz]

I wouldn't worry too much about light penetration in such a small space since you won't be growing a giant in there. And buds will always try to grow towards the light like this one. This is going to be an interesting grow whatever you do.

Have you thought of supercropping or FIMing or anything like that?

Yeah, I've had FIM and LST in my mind from the beginning and after I saw your supercropping results, I decided to try that aswell. Seems to fatten the buds quite notably.

Only one week to go!