JackStafford's DIY stealth bonsai mother cupboard and flower cabinet

[JackStafford]

This is my attempt at a DIY bonsai mother/clone cupboard and veg cabinet.

A bit of background. I have been growing in a 80x80x40cm (HxWxD) tent. You can check out my easy ryder grow journal for the setup. Things can get a little cramped in there and having only one grow space is really limiting my options, so I wanted to have two grow spaces - one for clones and mothers and one for the big girls. Trouble is I live in a rental, so things need to be kept super stealthy. At the moment, the tent is in a lockable storage cupboard in the garage. The useable space inside is 165x80x40cm. The clone/mother cupboard will take up 60x80x40cm-(HxWxD) with the rest of the space for a flowering cabinet I plan to build in a few weeks.

I used some pine timber I had lying around for the frame and 12mm mdf for the walls and door. The mdf should also help to muffle the sound of the fans more than the tent does. I painted everything with two coats of a bathroom/kitchen primer which is supposed to resist mold. Then I spray painted the inside with a super glossy white and the outside with a flat black. I lined the bottom, back wall and door with panda film for extra moisture protection. Then i sealed all the edges with bathroom silicone. The door will be hinged at the top and I'll run a bead of silicone or something else around the frame to help seal the door from light and odor.

Lighting will come from a 4x 24w 2ft fluorescent fixture. Air circulation will be from a 10cm fan which will run while the lights are on and I'll have 3x 40mm pc fans for intake and 2x 80mm pc fan for exhaust. Dust filters on the intakes, diy super basic carbon filters on the exhaust.

Initially I will clone in a propagation house but I'll likely build a diy aero cloner later down the track since i predominantly grow using DWC.

This will have the cupboard using 120w max during lights on and only a couple watts when off.

I plan to keep a white widow, skunk #1, super lemon haze and pennywise bonsai mothers and a pennywise father for breeding. I want to breed these strains in the hope of increasing the cbd content and to keep the plants small and easily manageable.-

The veg cabinet will be 105x70x40cm (less wide to leave space to store nutes). It will be constructed in the same way as the clone cupboard except with barn doors.

Lighting will come from 1x 130w cfl and 2x 24w cfl. Air circulation will be from 2x 10cm fan which will run 24/7 and I'll have 3x 80mm pc fans for intake and 1x 100mm inline fan with proper carbon filter for exhaust. Dust filters on the intakes. I'll have air pump running 24/7 for the dwc and a tiny water pump running intermittently to circulate nute water.

I'll keep posting pics as I go.

Comments, questions, feedback are all welcome.

 

[JackStafford]

Sorry for not getting the pics up sooner. I got too many projects on the go.

 

[JackStafford]

So the 3x 40mm intake fans are pulling through a carbon pad and doing a pretty good job. These pads are meant for aquarium filters but I figure they should provide extra odor control. I used the same pads to cover the exhaust. I've checked the temps inside with all the lights on and they keep creeping up slowly. It seems like the exhaust fans are struggling to push air through the activated carbon I'm using. These carbon particles are super fine. They're normally used for filtering spirits. It may be overkill for what I'm going for, particularly since I don't ever plan to have flowering plants in this cupboard. So I'm going to remove the activated carbon and replace it with extra carbon pad. If I still don't get eniugh air exhausting to control temps , I'll add a third fan.

 

[JackStafford]

I should have the mother cupboard up and running in a few days. I got keen when I received my seeds from seedsman.com (good supplier fyi) and had to plant them straight away. But cos i still had my easy ryder grow going i had no room in the tent so i had to put them outside. Consequently germination was slow and they stretched like a motherfucker (its winter here). Now that my easy ryder finished i was able to move them inside.

Heres a group shot with my pineapple express auto and og auto in the background.

 

[JackStafford]

Finally got the cupboard set up. Its is still running a little hot and the fans are louder than i would have liked. Trying to figure out how to fix that. I have exhaust fans pushing through the carbon filter because i wanted the fans inside to reduce noise. Just doesn't seem to be working well enough though.
Here are some pics of my lovely little ladies. I'll be adding some Blue Blood in there asap when my seeds land thanks to digital. Saw the stats he post for this strain in his grow journal and couldnt resist adding one more the collection.

 

[JackStafford]

Blue blood has landed and been planted. Got some afghani seeds free too so thats another for the collection. So my list of mothers is now:
Blue blood - indica dom high thc and cbd, for medicinal purposes
Pennywise - indica dom crazy high cbd, medicinal
Skunk #1 - classic hybrid, fun
White widow - classic hybrid, for fun
Super lemon haze - sativa dom crazy high thc, for fun
Afghani - indica, for hash

Herbies sent me regular blueblood instead of feminized, which I'm not too upset by as long as i get at least one girl. And if i get a male, I'll keep it as a father for breeding along with the best male pennywise.

 

[JackStafford]

Well now I'm pissed about herbies mixup with the blueblood seeds. One never germinated, one barely had some deformed cotyledons poke through before dying and the third is alive and growing fast, in some what of a spiral though. I topped all the plants from my first planting. Things a going slow. I'm not used to soil. DWC plants would be atleast a foot tall by now. These are still only a few inches.