Ventilation for veg/clone chamber in grow cab

[The Fonz]

I've built a grow cab that is 7x4x4 and have allocated 2ft of space for the veg/clone/mother section and 5ft for the flower.

I have a 600w hps with a cooltube and will use a 6 in inline fan expelling air throught the carbon scrubber. I was thinking about adding another 6in inline on the opposite side of the cab with an additional scrubber. is this overkill?

My main concern is getting fresh air into the whole cab. Any recommendations on how I do that considering the flower and veg chambers will be separated. Should I create a separate intake and exhaust for the veg chamber and one for the flower chamber? Or, can someone recommend a simple way to solve the venting issue for both chambers.

Thanks

[BlueBear]

Is the veg on top or bottom. I can help, but need to know that, also what CFM is the fan. I think you should be fine IMO. Don't trip.
Adieu

[907PokeSmot]

i have close to same setup. just cut like a 6"x6" passive intake in that and you should be fine. whats the cfm of the fan? thats probably the biggest concern.

the way i went about venting both veg and flower chamber is i got a 450ish cfm squirrel fan that pulled from both sides of the unit. i mounted it in veg chamber blowing out the side of the closet. drilled a 4" hole so one side of it could pull from the flower. and one side from the veg. then my cool tube has a separate 150 cfm fan exhausting air throe the chamber.. i have 8"x6" passive intake in both compartments with grills and filter on em. and small circulation fans in each chamber

[The Fonz]

The fan is a 6 in 440CFM inline fan. Should I get something to dial it down with? My veg/clone/mother chamber is at the bottom. It is very easy for me to move it to the top if that is more effective. Also I have 4 35W CFLs for the veg chamber. Is that enough for vegging, cloning and maintaining a mother?

[The Fonz]

907-that's an interesting way of venting. If you drilled a hole to pull air from the flower chamber wouldn't you cause a light leak between the veg and flower chamber?

[BlueBear]

Yes, that is enough light for mothers/clones/veg. I have used 6x23 watt cfl's and have no problems doing all 3. In your case I think that it is better that you have the veg cab on the bottom. Now, You are going to want the 6 in fan pulling from the top of the cab with your cool tube. On the shelf that separates the two chambers you are going to want to put about 4 to 5 2 1/2 inch holes if you have a 2 in or 3in hole bit that is fine to. At this point you are going to have those holes going from the veg chamber to the flower chamber so of coarse you will need to light proof them. You get black PVC piping if possible to fit the holes and get a 90 degree elbow for the fitting that will be in the bottom part of the cab. You get some black pantyhose and put it around both ends of the piping with tape or rubberbands. This is what happens, the black color of the PVC helps to smother the light reflection, and the elbow shuts down any more reflection trying to sneak threw and then finally the pantyhose tops it off with a dark fabric on both ends that will allow air in and yet smother more light.
In the bottom section of the cab, in the veg chamber you will do the same thing to the outside of the chamber. This will be the affect, your fan will be pulling the air out of the cab, from the holes coming from the bottom chamber, pulling that heat from the veg cab and also sucking in the fresh air from down in the holes you put in the veg cab up threw the top to the outside.
Hope that this isn't to confusing.
I think that the fan will be fine at full strength, the sound may annoy you, but I think you will need every CFM. Also, if the heat in the flower cab is still a little to high I would put an active intake fan in the flower chamber using a 90CFM Dayton fart fan, they only cost $30 and are nice just to have a few around.
Hope this helps
Adieu

[The Fonz]

For $30 I'll get the active intake regardless of heat. Couldn't hurt to keep things on the cooler side. Where would I install it? Does this fan vent out air or just circulate and cool the area above the canopy?

Also, I was thinking about installing two 8x8 darkroom louvers at the bottom of the veg chamber for the ventilation. Should I add a fan in the veg area as well or allow the blower from the flower cab to create a draft running upward from the vents in the veg cab.

[The Fonz]

Also, my veg chamber is currently set to 2 ft in height giving 5 ft for the flower chamber. Is 2 ft good space or should I lower it giving more room for the flower chamber.
Thanks

[BlueBear]

I think that you will need the 2ft in the veg chamber unless you can learn to train your mother plants to only grow about 8 inches high, I posted an article on it around here somewhere on Bonsai training for mothers I will try to find it, it was in the in door section I believe. If you can do that then you can take off about 6 or so inches off of your veg cab. Those fart fans can pull air in or push air out they are about as big as a bible, they are flat and do not have a big housing you mount them like a 6x9 speaker but smaller.
I think that you will have enough room with 5FT in the top, you are just going to have to know your strains. Remember when you establish a mother plant or 2 it will be allot easier because you can get much better results from a 2 or 3 ft flowered clone than a plant the same size grown from seed. A clone can have about 6 or 7 nodes and be only about 6 inches and a seedling may have only 4.
The dark room louvers are a great idea, just remember that they do restrict allot of air flow so get a bigger size than you may think will be suitable IMO.
Adieu

[The Fonz]

would you suggest that I put the fart fans next to the darkroom lourves at the bottom of the veg cab? Or place them over the 2.5 inch holes in the seperator of the flower and veg cab. I figure that might work best and keep it cool near the roots of the flower cab as well. I am going to put a fan to circulate air at the top of the canopy as well.

I've read a few posts where individuals put a few cfl's near the middle to bottom portion of the canopy to add light where is may be missing. I would use a red spectrum cfl of course.

I'll stay with the 2ft veg since I'll only gain 6 inches.

I was thinking about starting with grapefruit which is a sativa that does not grow as tall and either skywalker or white widow for my indicas. I like to have a mix to choose from. Any opinions on the strains? I would grow less plants and scog. At least that is what I think would provide the best results. I was thinking about a sog but thought I might get a larger yield with a scrog. Or just let them grow??? I have not yet ordered the seeds so I have a couple of weeks to decide.

[BlueBear]

I hate when the edit time runs out, oh well will re write this but make it short. I would place the fart fans, two of them over two 4 inch wholes between the two chambers and you will have to do less light proofing and it should draw in some nice air from the bottom holes or louvers. The WW is mostly sativa from what ai remember if you want a version that is mostly Indika then I would go with White Rhino, it is a WW cross. The Grape fruit is nice but it will still stretch when grown from seed and you would probably have to LST them if you want to fit them in that cab if you grew them from clone it would be a different story. If you do a SCROG you will need to do your sexing before you place them under the screen which some people do or get female seeds and hope for the best, if you do go to NL female seeds, they seem to be the best as far as not going hermy on you late into flower.
You really want a small fan in both chambers to help circulate the air, o2, co2 and bi products from the plants along with stem strengthening.
Adieu

[The Fonz]

sounds good. I think the WW is a 50/50 mix. As for the Grapefruit, I looked around and it's flowering height seems to be around 4 feet. I might give it a shot. Or at the very least create a mother to clone from.

Any thoughts on the Skywalker? Its a cross between blueberry and mazar.

[BlueBear]

IMO The BlueBarry and the Mazer especialy can be a little tricky, finicky more or less and you may want to take that into consideration when picking a strain. If you have temp problems, any light problems, I don't know anything then you may run into some problems where something like the grape fruit is a little more durable IMO. Just something to think about, also, I don't think that Skywalker will yield like the GF, but I am not def about that part.
I would try out the harder strains once you get your cab dialed in.
Adieu

[The Fonz]

From what I've read, the Mazar cross helps the Skywalker achieve high yields. I agree with your point. I'll stick with something more durable until I get my cab dialed in.

What do you typically reccomend for a starter strain. I've heard several reccomendation for ak-48, NL, and any Afgan strain. I'm looking for something potent with higher than average yields.

[The Fonz]

Thanks again for the help with my venting situation. I think I've got it figured out and will go to work this weekend. I'll put up some pics when I start the grow.

[BlueBear]

The AK's are nice and I think that the white rhino as well, but that grap friut will be a nice one, but I think that the Rhino is more potent.
Adieu and not a problem with the help, hope it all works out.

[The Fonz]

THe WW is a sativa/Indica mix and the White Rhino is a straight Indica...Correct?

I think I'm going to go with the Grapefruit and either the widow or rhino for the first grow. Now I have to straighten out my hydro system.

Considering that my flower space is 5 x4 x4 do you think it would be more practicle to space the plants one per sq ft and force flowering early in a SOG method or fewer plants and allow them to grow? I would like a high yield but don't want to sacrifice quality. I figure if I use less plants I could go with a DWC system but are not sure what works best for a SOG.

I saw some pics of dutch grow rooms using a sog method. A large bed of soil and hundreds of plants...beautiful. If I only had the space!!

[The Fonz]

I was looking at some other options for lights today in my veg/clone chamber. I was going to go with 6 23w cfls which are fairly inexpensive.

Any thoughts on the t5 flora tubes? Do they make much of a difference?

[DamianLucifer]

I'd go with bagseed unless you have some experiance. If you kill bagseed no big deal and I've used bagseed from some good mids and got better weed then it was originally

[BlueBear]

Sorry I didn't catch back up with this untill today. The ww is a mix, but so is the Rhino, The White Rhino is a mix of White Widow an an Afgani indica strain, being more indica.
For the veg chamber, The 6x23W CFL's will work I use to use only that, but the T5's will be better, but the CFL's are a nice place to start.
If you go with the CFL and grow from seed Hear Is what I would do on your first run. I would veg them under the CFL's for about 3 weeks and then veg them under the 600w for another week and then flip them into flower.
Well hope this helps.
Adieu And bear hugs from the Blue.

[The Fonz]

My 600W is an HPS. Isn't it better to use a white or blue type of light such as a CFL or MH?

[jamstigator]

Better, yes, but some folks grow all the way through using just an HPS light. If I have one to spare, I throw it on vegging plants too (along with some blue CFLs), and while the HPS light isn't optimal for veg, it still helps some. I've got 10 clones growing under eight blue CFLs plus a 400w HPS light at the moment, and they appreciate the extra lumens, even if it's redder than they need at the moment.

[The Fonz]

Sounds interesting. I was going to put up some cfl's in the flower area to give extra light during the flower stage. Guess I could move the plants up there for the last week of veg and get things going once more below.

[BlueBear]

Yep, blue spectrum is optimal, but the 6x23W's aren't going to compare to the 600W HPS no matter what light spectrum they are. I do it all the time.
Adieu

[crazywill]

Hey Fona,BlueBear,Jamstigator
I found this place to buy fans and things,it's called {www.SURPLUSCENTER.com}.
I got two 3"x3"x1" AC axis fans for air cirulation ,they are 25cfm's and queit too.They have been running now nonstop for 10weeks and only costed me $7.95 each.I ordered a 200cfm muffin fan for the light in a cab I'am building,the fan only costs $16.95 too.When it gets here I'll post on how well it works.It only has to move air about 4'feet through the light and out of the cab.I'll post more on that later.
Peace