216W 4FT 4Lamp HOT5 65K/3K 20000 Lumen Cabinet Grow.

I'm going to try the HOT5s. Grow-log will start as soon as my T5 arrives and I get everything finalized.

The Cabinet:

∙ 4ft tall X 4ft wide X 2.5ft in depth.
∙ It will be painted flat white first and lined with mylar on ALL sides.
∙ Ventilation will be passive.

HOT5 Specs:

∙ 216 watt 4-ft 95% reflective High-Output T5 fixture with textured charcoal gray powder coated steel housing and 12FT power cord.
∙ Two - 6500 Kelvin & Two - 3000 Kelvin Fluorescent lamps for all purpose growth.
∙ Lumen Output: 20,000 lumens
∙ Fixture dimensions: 47"Lx10"Wx2.5"
∙ Growing Area: 4ft x 2.5ft
∙ 120V Solid state electronic ballasts

I figured this setup would suit the whole life of the plants perfectly from seedling to harvest.

I will be growing two plants. For best efficiency I will be setting up a SOG type grow.

Much more to come!

If anyone has any recommendations on soil, potting and nutrients feel free to post your thoughts! :thumbsup:

My lighting will most likely be put on 24hrs for a while (not quite sure how long yet) to ensure I get the most efficiency possible out of these T5s. Then I will bring it down to 18/6.

Hey GRB,

I'm going to be watching this thread very closely. I'm going to be getting a move on with a SOG fluoro micro-grow in the near future, which from the sounds of things will have a lot of similarities with what you're doing here - right down to the amount of space I plan on using (though in my case I may be going a little smaller - 2' x 3').

However, if you're going to be doing SOG (Sea of Green), you really should be doing more than two plants - at least one per square foot, if not even more than this. The goal after all is to keep 'em short, forget about lower plant bud development, and concentrate on coming as close as possible to forming an entire canopy filled with big top colas (a dream to be sure...<<sigh>>)

In any case, perhaps you meant SCROG (Screen of Green), where you start with a low number of plants and grow them out by training them with a screen of chicken wire or tight netting, and try to achieve a carpet of bud that way? That would be a good use of the light, but IMHO isn't the best use of your time. You can potentially harvest more (relative to the amount of growing time, energy used, etc.) by doing a Sea-of-Green set up instead. The only real downside of SOG is that you have to be good about cloning, and the possible legal ramifications - most dumb-shit prohibition laws in North America revolve around the number of plants they find in your possession, not how many were actually viable or what their actual yielding power was in the context within which they were being grown. IOW. you could catch a lot more shit for having a mother plant and thirty clones (of which only the healthiest fifteen or so were actually going to be grown out... because you should generally make more clones than you plan on needing), than two big final flowering stage plants with a few ounces of dripping buds between them. So I guess it depends on how one chooses to deal with the risks involved, I suppose.

Oh, another thing I just thought of...unless you are working with female clones, whether you're doing SCROG or SOG, plan on planting double the amount seeds than you plan on needing, because chances are at least half are going to be boys. And should you get exceptionally lucky and get more females than you need, just pick the healthiest, most vigorous ones and "throw out" the rest.

Thanks for the advice sharer. Much appreciated.

I'de like to do it right and use some clones it would be very nice! Just so happens a guy I know is supposedly going to have his hands on a NL female. I'de like to take a clipping of it before it goes into flowering but he's going to charge me an arm and a leg for two clips of it.

I'm thinking I'm going to end up germinating some seeds. I've saved a lot of seeds over the past few years, grows and what not. I have some BBcush, BC BigBud, some unknown strains that are FIRE and some regular bagseed.

BigBud works VERY well for SOGin'...

*sigh* Decisions decisions...:jointsmile:

Legal issues aren't of big concern to me. The methods I use are extremely discreet. I have a little experience under my belt with outdoor cultivating. Indoors is SO much easier it's not even funny.

Well I am 100% sure I can get my hands on a couple clones. The only downfall is I have to wait until the plant (clone) that the person I know has gets large and healthy enough to take the two clippings from it.

The grow space is being setup slowly, no pictures yet. Once it's all setup and operable I will show some pictures.

1.5ft x 4ft x [Adjustable Hieght]

By adjustable hieght I mean the whole cieling area, not just the light, can be lowered and raised.

Because of the way these plants will be grown (SOG) it will be MUCH easier to just move the cieling/fixture up as needed. Because of that I also chose to do it this way because this also eliminates that small amount of light that escapes behind the fixture and reflects off the cieling.

It's basically a rectangle with a 4ft fixture at the top. The fixture fits perfectly around the edges and even has a custom add-on small crafty, removeable reflector that sticks out on the sides to cover any gap and believe it or not they let VERY little light through on the edges. Mylar is a must. The bottom is just as adjustable if and when the time calls for it and also cleverly rigged with mylar...

I was thinking after my first grow with the HOT5, IF need be and when I get the money I will also be purchasing a 150-200watt HPS system. I was thinkin a cooled tube with a seperate ballast. That should help utilize the space more efficiently. Or two small 100 Watters...hmm..

GRB out...

PROJECT DELAYED.

Will resume soon. Some schematics might change as well.

I see the width of your cab and the width of the fixture are pretty dang close. I'd try to make it at least 2-3 inches of free space on either side of the fixture. Don't know if you checked to see where the plug for it will be coming out, that might add another inch or so if it came out either side.

Good luck!

Actually it would have fit perfectly.

But the actual location of the project has changed entirely. The environment in which I was going to do it in at first is completely unstable. (Friends house)