Upgrading vertical CFL cab - 14ft³ melamine veg/flower

JGibs420

New Member
Thank you for reading my post and helping out in any way you possibly can.

I've got a cabinet that I've been using to veg and flower my plants in for my first grow, however on the next grow I would like to be able to veg and flower simultaneously for a constant production for myself and wife.

This is my current setup. (Lights have been changed to 2700K)
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So what I want to do is possibly the following
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The veg cab will essentially be the same, without the CFL floodlight, just using 4x 23watt 6500K bulbs.
Both cabs have adjustable racks that I'll be using to adjust light distance, thus the placement of fans as shown in pic.
Power supply to power fans
Maybe 2x t5 tubes on the front, but I cant find any decent wattage that would fit in my top cab, even less that are 2700K for flowering

Any advice appreciated. Unfortunately my light situation has to be CFL.. haven't found a way around that. But I actually quite enjoy CFL it's very Adjustable.

Thanks
 
It could be done, but personally I would rather have a separate box for a number of reasons (I started in similar cabinets, and still use them though I have my shed converted so a bigger space). Are you using just CFL due to cost? Some folks make them work but IMHO you aren't achieving full potential of the plant with just CFL (many folks use them for supplemental lighting on the sides). Advantages to CFL are lower heat and the light is able to be closer to the plant so you don' lose all that space in your cabinet, which would be a problem if you made it into two sections with any other kind of lighting. Wander around in my Anti Journal Journal thread (first link in my sig) and you can see setup I started with (three different boxes after starting with one) and the results I have had over the last year (as I started last July on this whole growing thing), and you can see my results growing/flowering with a cheap LED.

Potential problems would be:

If a height adjustable rack (and I"m guessing just one door) light leaks will be a problem as they will both be on separate light cycles. Light leaks can cause the plants to Hermie on you.

No ventilation in bottom half if you had it sealed to prevent above, or at least by your diagram I see no ventilation in bottom half. So if you put extra fans in you might as well have a 2nd box if your space allows it.
 
Sorry the picture wasn't explained well...

There's a door over both parts separately, top door covering te flower cab and control center were most of the power source for fans will be (operated externally via timers), bottom door covers just the veg cab.

Control center has a bottom and top (which will be fastened permanently inside and light prooffed - this will double as the separation of flower and veg cab. Top part will in turn be the floor of flower and the bottom will be ceiling of veg.

Doors are already light prooffed, no leakage.

The veg cab I didn't draw in mostly for the purpose that it would mimic the flower cab 100% just down-scaled. Will also have extract and intake fans as shown in first pic which is the veg cab (moving everything up to flower cab essentially)

The adjustable racks are extra seperators that I have with the cabinet, thus the placement of the fans for max lift of the rack with enough space down to move down inch at a time as the plant stretches. (Minimum height flower cab = max height in veg cab)

Hope this explains it a bit better.


Using CFL for cost reasons as well as in my country LED and HID are very expensive as well as almost never available in higher wattages (even getting 100W CFL is difficult and only avail in 6500k)
 
Those were the only issues I could see anyway, sounds like you have it covered so it should work for you. Sometimes you have to do with what you can get if importing lights is an issue or cost is too much, seen folks journals where they just use CFL and you can get results with it but just not as optimal as one could get out of the same plants IMHO. You should start a journal once you get it up and running so others can learn from it and see your results, as I'm sure lots of other folks in same/similar situations.
 
Had a bit of a late start today, but I'm making progress, so far I've got the extraction pc fan installed, and my lights have been fittes temporary till tomorrow when I can continue.

This is the full cabinet, empty before I started, unfortunately the top bit is wasted space.. can't do anything there because of the door hinges.. difficult to make that part light prooff. I'm using the middle part as storage space for my equipment instead of power supply, I've instead decided to hook up my pc fans directly to a 12V adapter.
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My small LST plants on top of adjusting rack, I'm hoping on my next grow I can do just 1 bigger plant.
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So installed all my lights that I would use currently, extract fan is in.. everything is light-prooff.
Mission for today is getting my intake fans ready, last night with just the extraction temps got a bit above 30C which I dont want.

Basically have cluster of lights right at the top, gave the back and front lights some extra slack on wire so they can be moved down/around as needed by plant.

The pc fan also has a backing which allows no light leaking in. Little bit of DIY with some cardboard and duct tape. Basically just a box over the hole with air ventilation going down.
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Full cab as it is right now. Any input or advice going further, anyone? I would appreciate the help, or feedback. Any problems someone has encountered with similar grow situation as mine?
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Flowering cab 90% done!

All it needs is more lights which would be added as the plants get taller and the adjustable rack moves down (on my next grow) a small oscillating fan and maybe another extract and intake fan if needed as the climate gets hotter.

Veg cab I've got the lights installed, fans are still missing, but seeds are still germinating so I'm chilled.
Actually found two 45w CFLs in 6400K for this cab for pretty cheap, unfortunately this was the last two in stock and they're not ordering more.. apparently.

Anyway so here's my full cab side by side images of setups (max and min size capacity)

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:goodjob:

That looks pretty good. If you decide to add a carbon filter it looks like you have room in that top, but there will always be little things to store in there. Be careful with water, it looks like you've sealed the edges pretty well and you probably know that some melamine does not perform well in wet conditions. The surface is fine, but water and humidity will cause the mdf layers to peel and separate. It should be fine in your application.
 
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