Fridge grow log, first timer

Ok, yes, I am a first time grower. Because my Sheriff is a butthead, I have decided to try to grow indoors. I have gutted an old fridge and am building literally from the ground up. I have some bag seed that I am germinating right now. I have some pics of the fridge as it is right now.
I need help though.
I will be growing in soil so any soil suggestions are great.
I will probably be growing with LED. This is where I have the greatest questions. I was thinking 4 bulbs would suffice, two white grow bulbs, and a red and a blue. Or should I just do two red and two blue since these are the specturms that photosynthesis uses the most efficiently?
Heat is a problem as well, not too much, but too little as the fridge is in my garage and I live in Zone 6 of thehardiness zone. It will get cold in my garage so I need to know how to keep the temp in the fridge steady while the lights and such are off. I was thinking of a little space heater, maybe ceramic. Any suggestions?
I will be putting the vent in the bottom of the fridge to draw in air, CO shouldn't be an issue as it is in the garage. I will be putting a vent fan in the top. Over each vent hole I have cut out tent fabric that will flap down over the hole when not running.
Here is the caveat: I am on a budget so suggesting $100 heating elements is out of the question. This is a shoestring op designed to get me some sticky punch. Nothing fancy. Also, no hard wiring, must be able to be plugged in. Thanks for any help I get. Keep track of my progress and enjoy. Try not to laugh to hard!
:rastasmoke:

I'm not laughing at all. I'd really like to see this progress. I am a little worried that you are trying to get any kind of meaningful yield using LED lights. Sure you can veg with these, but unless every inch of surface area is plasterd in LEDs, and that would be real expensive, you'll get maybe probably sort of a tenth of the yield you could with HID lights. I would do a scrog or sog (search) with 2-4 plants. Fluorescents for clone and veg, and 250 watt HPS for flower. Whatever you choose you are going to have to cut at least two holes in the fridge for ventilation. You certainly would not have to worry about things being to cold with HID lighting, and probably not with fluorescents. Normally the problem, especially with sealed grows, is temps being too high. Make room for a mother section so you can use clones; way better than seeds.

Good luck. Please send pictures.

What about the LED and CFL's? The problem is, the HID will drain a lot of electric right? Also, I am not good with wiring and start up costs are an issue. I would put a nice HID in there if I had the money and knowledge but it seems complicated. Can I flower with a 100 watt (not equivalent, but actual 100 watt cfl in there?

I guess the thing is, money! I got low start up funds for this so any guidance as to how to do this cheap would be great.

Thanks so much!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travisgrn

Can I flower with a 100 watt (not equivalent, but actual 100 watt cfl in there?

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Yes, you can. But you'll be disappointed.
You need at least 50W per square foot.
And even then, the difference between CFL and HID is huge.

Is there an HID package that plugs into a wall outlet? I cannot hard wire from the fridge in the garage.
Thanks

im thinking you may want to watch out for mold, so keep an eye on your humidity level. ive personally never seen a fridge grow before, im excited to watch this progress.

good luck!

For our purposes, nearly all HID lights are sold with a ballast that you plug into the wall. From the ballast is a cord to the light. There are also ballasts attached to the light, but since the ballast can represent a major portion of your heat build up, it is best not to have it in with the plants. Outside the fridge somewhere would be even better. No wiring.

The problem with HID's is not how to get light, but how to get rid of the heat. Also is stealth an issue? Kind of a dumb question considering your sherrif, but you will need to grow a non smelly weed, or use some kind of odor control, preferably a carbon filter. I and most people are not going to tell you how to build your set up from scratch. You'll need to research this forum and perhaps other web sites. Try to figure things (especially the basics) out for yourself, then post specific questions. Look at other peoples grows and grow logs. There is even a grow log section of this forum.

You are correct about sucking in air from the bottom. Heat rises so you'll want your intake near the floor to get cool air. I know you said you're on a tight budget, but Zandor, a former mod said if you go cheap you'll grow cheap, and that hit the nail on the head. Try to get a digital ballast for just a little more money. It has many advantages, including paying for itself within a year as opposed to a traditional ballast.

Also I really would like to see you do hydro. You'll get much more weed that way for your effort. A simple DWC Deep Water Culture is extremely easy. Search the web and/or this forum for Emily's Garden. That's how I started and it is real simple, about like soil. I was used to growing leaves as big as my hand in soil. When I switched to an emily's garden my leaves were as big as my head. Also you can build an Emily's garden for around $35. Just copy what they have and get your parts from Home Depot.

I know you're right about all these things, I have been researching this for months. In a perfect world I would love to get HPS lights, hydroponic system and carbon air scrubbers and humidifier/dehumidifier setups. But now we are up to $500 just to set up the grow closet, and with hydroponics, and lighting and fans etc, I am greatly increasing my electric usage. As I said, my sheriff has a hard-on for weed and illegals. Since Sancho isn't hiding at my house, my concern is weed. I would not be surprised at all if he did not blanket monitor electric usage for the rural parts of the county. The man had 3 helicopters at one time!
My intention was to start small and add components over time. This was more fiscally viable and would also show a graudal increase in electric usage. Also, I have one grounded electrical outlett to do all this on. Smell is not an issue as it is in my garage and I am hundreds of feet off the road. My only concern about detection would be the stray neighbor ( which I don't get) or the heat plume in my garage that they could see with FLIR.
I think I have decided this:
HPS system, 250 wtt with reflector etc. Ballast atop the fridge.
One medium sized fan at tthe top of the fridge to vent the heat
One lower vent
each vent will need flaps to keep heat in when light is off. When light on, temp should be fine in there if I vent, when light is off, the plants are in a fridge with three holes cutin it in my garage, it will get cold in there.
I need a little ceramic heater for when my light is off durng flowering.
And I am going to go with soil for now. Will go hydro next grow when the funds build back up.
What do you all think?
Thanks guys.
PS-Is ebay safe to purchase lights?

Sounds good, but I'm not sure you'll need a heater. I think the daytime temps could be kept reasonably close to the same at night in a sealed system. Ebay is fine, but I'd pay attention to the sellers feedback rating. Sometimes people get screwed, but I never have, except once when the seller said a used product was new.

i have loved that idea ever since i saw it on here like 3 months ago it really is the best way (for a hiding standpoint) just through a lock on it and people will think its just alot or beer

Oh I know. Very stealthy, just don't set the ballast right on top of the fridge. People will ask about it.

you can mount the ballast on the back of the fridge so its also out of view :thumbsup:

good idea.

HPS or MH?
I think I want to go HPS.
I have germinated the seeds, and have thme planted in my pots, we'll see if they want to come forth and greet the world. I will post pics later today I hope.
Also, having trouble finding a little personal size fan for the venting. I want to get a little fan, one I can mount tat the top. I do not think I will be putting in two vents. I will put one in at the top of the fridge, and an intake at the very bottom. Being that this fridge is in the garage and temps will get low, I will need only one fan, right atop the light to vent. What do you guys think? Again, my concern is the more holes I put in this fridge, the more cold air can seep in when the light and fan are off during 12/12. 12/12 will be occurring in the dea dof winter and it gets cold here.
Thanks

Any help on where to get small fans, and hps lighting system? I found good one on ebay, but would rather go on foot to get that.

Search the web for hydroponic supplies. There's lots of them. Where to go on foot in Canada isn't for me to say. If you are only choosing one light then get HPS. It will work for both veg and bloom, but during veg, throw some blue spectrum fluoros in with it for better growth.

I'm in Ohio, I just didn't want to admit that I live in a country so backwards and hypocritical thatr they keep alcohol legal, tax it, profit from addiction, and then say THC is dangerous. Ohio is an eastern bloc state that just doesn't get it. I hate it here!!!!!! Bunch of backward ass conservatives thinking they know what is best for me and falling for stigmas and false propaganda about THC. I know, I am ranting but I am so angry that my sheriff goes and buys a brand new helicopter, FLIR, the works for what? TO catch innocent, law abiding flks who want to have a handful of plants for persoanl consumption in their own homes. He tries to take their houses under asset forfeiture for as little as three or four plants. The guy is a dickweed and I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't crooked. Nobody has that big of hard-on for Pot unless it is personal. I used to be a deputy in a western state until we had to move home and boy was I shocked going from the free west, to the eastern bloc. Most cops I know could care less about weed, unless you have a huge grow operation and you are selling. That is how it should be, punish pushers, leave personal stashes alone. Makes me sick. Sorry for the rant but got started and couldn't stop.

I think the sheriff here actually has his hand in Pot sales, and his hard-on for the local grower is to eliminate competition. This is a hunch but it just seems logical as the guy never seems to nail meth labs, of which we have a ton out here, or any other criminal enterprises. He just seems to make huge pot bust after huge pot bust. I am thinking of writing a local reporter and seeing what they think, but really do not want to attract attention to myself right now.

ok i seriously doubt you will have any cold issues bare in mind your fridge is very well insulated, IT WILL KEEP THE HEAT IN the prob you will have is getting the heat out remember the bulbs stay hot for a fair while after their off. i prefer my favorite soil is canna cocoa i use this for indoor with Canna A and canna B feed (you have you use both). this soil has achieved best results for me. i think your best bet would be to perminantly fix your light to the fridge top and use the shelves that where in there before to change height.

Any ideas for seed? Something dummy proof, very hardy, for inddor grow, and not too expensive?

I'm sorry to hear about your sherrif. I'm guessing about half of law enforcement is crooked. I just saw this thing about New Orleans cops, and how they had a sting on crooked cops. They had no problem finding recruits to guard and transport and provide protection for cocaine shippments. All while they're on the clock. So why should I follow the law if law enforcement doesn't? You can't go wrong with AK-47. It is really powerful, and real easy to grow. Check out Marijuana Seeds (cannabis, pot) shipped worldwide

New Orleans is notoriously crooked. Thanks for all the help. Looks like you have become my mentor. You are my official grow mentor. I put my seeds in soil the other day after germinating and they are taking their time breaking the soil. I think I may have waited too long before germination to planting. They were trying to root in the papertowel. We'll see. If they ever do come up I have an excellent little stealth starter area. It is under a desk, lit up with two 100 watt Cfl daylight bulbs. I will get some pics soon. Waiting for the sprouts to sprout before I make the official pics.

here look at this fridge grow from youtube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=K3H-ujl9PGY

i saw that grow on you tube before, it is what gave me my idea to use my old fridge. Thing is, I noticed I have a good deal more height and room than his fridge. I have a lot more room because I tore out the freezer. My height is about 4' with 2'X2'W and H. Also, I plan on using a 250 watt HPS and scrog system so I am thinking I will have a little better yield than that, if I ever get started. I figure I'll scrog two plants possibly, get em spread out and get em under the HPS and let em soak in the sun.

I think you are off to a great start. That's look like the appropriate amount of space needed but you have to increase your light output. Of course this is really just echoing what others are already saying. Anyhow, good luck with your project. Keep us posted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SmokeyTokey

you have to increase your light output.

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I think that a 250 watt HPS is perfect, but that's just for bloom. Extremely wise choice on SOG, but of course you will need at least one more light vegging, which of course is going on at the same time. Due to the small space you will be really fighting heat if you use another HID light for veg. I would go with blue wavelength fluoro(s) totalling 2 or 3 hundred replacement watts. I think a 300 watt replacement bulb is actually 65 watts. I also wouldn't feel bad if you wanted to lose some expense (actually a bunch of expense) and went with red wavelength fluoros for budding. You won't have to buy nearly the ventilation this way, and it will cut down on electricity costs. In fact, the more I think about it the more I am leaning toward all fluoros in a fridge, but either way is good. Both have there pros and cons. With fluoros I would probably double the wattage in the bloom area of what is in the veg area.

How are the babies doing at this point? Well I hope.

Yutts:
Now I'm confused. I was initially going to just throw up a 250 watt HPS and be done with it but you are saying I need flouros for veg while budding? I would rather do flouros all around for the expense and heat and energy so tell me, what do I need to do that? I found a light that has a MH and HPS bulb in the same fixture, but that would seem like a lot of heat for that fridge. I would love to just set up three or four cfls and a couple of tubes on the sides. What exactly do I need for this fridge? Can you help me set it up if I were to use just HPS?
If I were to go with a 250 watt hps light and reflector atop the fridge what else do I need and where and how do I do it? Do I also need flouros? I thought I would just get them started with my cfls, then switch to hps when they got big enough and keep the hps on them at 20/4 then cut back the hps to 12/12 when they got some size? First time grow so I need detail.
If I went all flouro, what would that entail? Shoplight tubes at the tops and sides? and would that cover flowering and veg? I thought the HPS did flowering and veg!
One of my babies has emerged to see the world, very early. I have a 100 watt daylight cfl hovering just above it. I will prolly not end up sticking with these seeds. They were from a bag of not-so-good, and this weekend I am expecting to come into contact with some "really good", and will prolly take the seeds form that. If I can't get this growing thing figured out, It won't matter anyway.
I guess I need help with the whole set-up, and through stages. I thought once I got the plants started with the cfl's, I would just put them in the fridge with the hps. Was I worng?

OK, here we go:

For purposes of our discussion, it is important that you know the following. You probably already know all or most, but just incase:

- CFL = Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- HID = High Intensity Discharge
- MH = Metal Halide
- HPS = High Pressure Sodium
- Both MH and HPS are HID lighting
- MH color of light is more bluish, and considered by most to be the best available light for vegetative growth.
- HPS color of light is more reddish, and considered by most to be the best available light for promoting bud growth.
- In general, MH promotes nodes or branches and makes plants fill in better and grow bushy and wider, and HPS makes plants grow taller, more skinny and with less undergrowth.
- You can veg your plants with almost any light. Incandescent (normal old bulbs) will do the worst, but at least they will sustain life. When it is time to bud however, itâ??s a different story. To see any kind of reward for all your time and effort, budding plants must have a good red wavelength light. The more the better, since of course more light = more weed.
- SOG = Sea Of Green. This grow method is supposed to resemble a sea. Like waves, constantly rolling and moving, waves of plants are never ending. Everything is happening at once, and continues to repeat. While mothers are recovering from the cuttings that were taken, those cuttings are being rooted and turning into clones. In addition, the plants in the veg section are finishing their time and getting ready to be moved into the flowering section. Additionally, the plants in the flower section are in their last few days, and nearly ready for harvest. You can harvest at least twice as often using this method as opposed to conventional methods. Note: In both the SOG and SCROG methods, some people like to skip the veg stage, and start with slightly larger clones.
- SCROG = SCreen Of Green. Very similar to SOG, but screen(s) are utilized to train the plants to take up all the available space. With this method, growth is usually altered to reduce the height of the plant, and promote branching and sideways growth. Some methods utilized are topping, LST and FIM. When using HID lighting a stadium scrog should be implemented to avoid the Christmas tree grow effect. Without a stadium screen plants will grow much faster and taller in the middle, and be the shortest on the outer edges of the grow. Here's some more info and a picture of one of my earlier stadium grows: http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...questions.html
CFM = Cubic Feet per Minute. A measurement for determining how much air a fan will blow (amongst other things).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travisgrn

I would love to just set up three or four cfls and a couple of tubes on the sidesâ?¦ Can you help me set it up if I were to use just HPS?

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I guess you are saying that you prefer to go with CFL, but you would like advice on HID as well since you are still not quite sure. OK, I will try.

I am going to assume that you are dedicated to making this grow happen. I donâ??t think youâ??ve done your homework on a few basic things here. Regardless I will still attempt to give you some of your needed knowledge at this point. I am not going to write a step-by-step guide, so you will still have to do a little reading. The internet is the worldâ??s biggest library in the comfort of your own home. One of the best resources is this siteâ??s search engine, and I highly encourage you to use the advanced search if you want to search titles or authors only. Search anything you donâ??t understand in this reply. Not that I am a master by any means, but I do have some information stored in this tired noggin of mine. Now keep in mind this is only what I would do. There are many ways of doing things and Iâ??m sure others will have additional ideas, and possibly insist their way is better. Thatâ??s fine with me, and actually one of the things that I love about this forum. So many ideas and ways of doing things, and you get to figure out which ones are best suited to adapt to your situation.

My thoughts concerning this refrigerator grow are derived not only from years of experience, but of observation and research, and trying to learn from the experiences and knowledge of others. I want to see this grow progress through harvest, and I want it to be a worthwhile experience not only for you, but also for myself and anyone else who is interested in participating, or even just observing. Soâ?¦ I guess Iâ??m saying that I hope you are as excited about this unique grow as I am, and will attempt to give it your all, or at least your upper half. And by the way, please keep any pertinent pictures coming.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travisgrn

Now I'm confused. I was initially going to just throw up a 250 watt HPS and be done with it but you are saying I need flouros for veg while budding?

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Well, you said you wanted to do scrog, so yes you will need lights for both veg and bloom, and unfortunately you canâ??t just throw up an HPS. First of all, I donâ??t know how you would get one into your stomach. HA, sorry Iâ??ve been smoking and taking some prescribed opiates. Woke up with a damn migraine, but itâ??s getting much better now. If you donâ??t mind some extra work and spending some extra money, the optimum set up would be to use solely HID lighting except for the mother and clone section (see system 1). The major portion of the work involved to make this happen is in the initial set up, but thatâ??s not all. Typically, there will be some more work involved during your 1st and possibly 2nd and 3rd grow, and maybe even more, to get things dialed in just right. On the other hand, if you do things just right you may not have to do much tweaking at all. Once everything is set, you will be amazed at how simple the process is and how much it will yield as opposed to choice 2. Of course, whatever you do will most likely take some dialing in, but the more complex systems generally require more dialing in, give or take. If I was not greatly concerned with money, and I liked projects and had a little time to work on them, I would definitely go with system 1. It would by far give you not only the biggest yield, but in the shortest amount of time as well. However, being a beginner on a tight budget, Iâ??m guessing youâ??d feel more comfortably going with system 2.

System 1:
Assume we are buying the best of these items unless I specify otherwise. The top 40% of the fridge will be for budding. Youâ??ll want the majority of your grow to be for budding because once plants start to bloom they will double or triple in size. I would use a 250 watt HPS lamp with a digital ballast, which is mounted on the back of the fridge. Digital ballasts shortly pay for themselves in electricity costs, and they are cooler and quieter. The light will have a dedicated cooling system complete with its own carbon scrubber, fan (at least 200 CFM, or less if no carbon scrubber is used), and adjustable height cool tube. I'm not sure at this point if I would use a reflector. Probably. The scrubber and tube could be homemade using plans from the FAQ section. Youâ??ll want a cool tube in this small space so that the buds can grow right up next to the light. It is also much better at keeping the environment cool, which will be an issue. This section should have a stadium-style screen so that in despite of the ball-shaped light intensity you can maintain uniform growth in all areas.

The middle 25 or 30% of the fridge will be used for vegging. I would use a 100 watt MH lamp and cool tube, but this light would not need its ventilation pumped from the outside as the top light does; it could blow the air from the veg chamber over the light and out the fridge. Again, digital ballast mounted on the back of the fridge. This section has a flat screen to begin training the plants. It wonâ??t matter too much at this point if the plants grow faster in the middle, you can aim these branches to the outside, and put these plants on the outside when you put them in the flower section to help make up for it.

The remainder of the fridge will be to hold a couple mothers, and for a section to root cuttings (a cloning section). It would be nice if you could mount these on heavy-duty drawer guides (Home Depot, etc). It will save a lot of backache. Both of these would have a couple blue LED light bars, hopefully about 430 nm in color. The mother section would also sport a red light bar or bulb configuration, hopefully about 675 nm in color. Iâ??ve been researching. LEDâ??s are actually viable at this point, but in real small quantities where not a lot of light is needed, like mothering and cloning. Like a digital ballast, they seem expensive at first, but once you compare their life expentancy and small amount of wattage used, you'll notice they too will pay for themselves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travisgrn

I would rather do flouros all around for the expense and heat and energyâ?¦ I would love to just set up three or four cfls and a couple of tubes on the sidesâ?¦ If I went all flouro, what would that entail? Shoplight tubes at the tops and sides? and would that cover flowering and veg?

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So I guess youâ??re saying you would rather do cfl. OK

System 2:
This is mostly the same as system 1, but all lights are fluoros, and there are a few other differences. Weâ??ll need much less ventilation with this system, and weâ??ll have to worry much less about overall heat build up. Both screens for this system will be flat, since the light intensity is not shaped like a ball as with HID. On veg and bloom sections try to make a flat even light layer. With scrog, you pick off the bottom branches and concentrate on the upper canopy. You donâ??t need side lighting in this small space. Keep in mind your buds will not be as tall as with a conventional grow, but the idea is to have much more of them and larger yield since space is better utilized. For the bud chamber, I would try to put in 100-150 real watts of fluoros. For the veg chamber, 65-100 real watts would be fine. For mothers, probably about 40 watts, and 10 or 15 watts for cloning. Red wavelength for budding, blue for everything else (see below). Be sure to utilize one of the advantages of clf, and make the light height adjustable so you can constantly have the plants just a couple inches from it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travisgrn

I thought once I got the plants started with the cfl's, I would just put them in the fridge with the hps. Was I worng?

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Well I was assuming we were using the fridge for all phases of the grow; a sort of self-contained scrog system. Iâ??m not sure what you mean by getting the plants started. If you are using the fridge for veg and bloom, but not mothers and cloning, then of course you could increase the space used for each. Something like 33% for veg and 67% for bud. If you are using it only for budding I would have a top and bottom section which would pretty much be identical, or check into vertical growing, which I am less familiar with. Also if you increase the size of the grow area, increase the amount of lighting and ventilation as well.

For both systems:
- I would probably use mostly 3â?� duct, but fittings may be harder to find than 4â?�. Whenever possible use actual metal duct, not the coiled dryer duct, and make any turns as gentle as possible. You will get much better airflow that way.

- I would probably have one big (8â?�?) opening and fan (275 cfm?) at the bottom of the fridge to feed air to all levels. As the ducting gets closer to the top, I would progressively decrease the size. Each section of the fridge should be relatively air tight, with the shelves meeting the door to seal. The budding cool tube would have a hole cut in the back of the fridge and its own fan near the intake, or perhaps on the back of the fridge. Bud and veg levels have independent exhaust at the top of each section blowing air out. I would have the mother and cloning compartments sharing one small exhaust fan at the top of their compartment, maybe 50 cfm, give or take. The mothers and clones require only a slight bit of ventilation. In all compartments have the intake and the exhaust at opposite ends of the chamber, with intake at the bottom and exhaust near the top. That way the air will be exchanged the most efficiently, and it will create a breeze that will gently rustle the plants, which is kinda important. If your system does not end up making the plants move gently, then you will need to add an oscillating fan.

- There are airflow calculators on the web to help figure out exactly how much cfm youâ??ll want, duct size, etc. For example, did you know that a 90 degree bend in a 4" duct line has the same drag as about 7 feet of straight duct? Or you can just kind of wing it using my numbers as a starting point. Maybe others have different suggestions on cfm numbers, or any other numbers for that matter.

- No shop lights! Unlessâ?¦â?¦. We want lights that are as close as possible to the 430 and 675 nm colors mentioned above. This corresponds to peak chlorophyll activity of plants, therefore the most efficient colors for veg and bloom lights respectively. In Kelvin (K) this is 5500 or 6000 (not between) for vegetative growth, preferably 5500, and 2200 or 2700 (not between) for blooming, preferably 2200. No matter what kind of light you are using, always look for those numbers. Many shop lights and household lights are in between the red and blue wavelength we are looking for. Theyâ??re somewhere between 3100 and 4200, which is the dead zone in which chlorophyll activity is at its least. If the numbers were not given on the packaging, I would not buy any lights before calling the manufacturer, or looking up a data sheet or something. Unlike ventilation where I suggested you could just wing it, lighting must be of the proper wavelength for certain stages of growth or nothing will happen. Also, I am positive my color numbers are correct, but look them up if you want.

My wife is flipping me crap about spending so much time on this so I hope at least one person appreciates it.

Anyway, keep us posted.

OP

OPIE YUTTS i read it and found it amazing.

You are a fountain of knowledge

Thank you, I try. But I still have so much to learn. Actually I'm kind of suprised you read the whole thing, but I'm glad you did. At least my time wasn't completly wasted. it does contain a whole bunch of good info for begginers. I just hope travisgrn reads it and is serious about the fridge grow.

Awesome amount of info and thank you so much for taking the time to post it. I see now what is needed for this to work and I guess where I was having trouble was seeing past this being a one time grow. I never thought that I would need to be vegging my next batch, while my first batch was flowering. This is for personal consump so I figured I'd do a grow at a time but that would be stupid since we are talking about a lot of time.
There is no way I can implement the steps you have discussed to that level. Carbon scrubbers and all the hoses etc. Right now the best I can do is a 250 watt HPS light at the top, scrog, with the bottom 1/3 devoted to vegging on maybe a flouro grow lamp. I will need to find a low heat (cool) light with good vegging qualities. There is no way I am running two ballasts for electricity reasons. My sheriff monitors electric around here. I will seal off the top from the bottom using a polysynthetic material that will have some slack at the end for the door. I may only do one grow at a time though and do my clones in another place. I think I may just clone and veg in another location and then transfer to the fridge for flowering. I just think the veg/flower op in that small of space will be very difficult. So I need two ventilation methods, one for the bottom 1/3, and one for the top 2/3. I wil try to figure it out using one fan, but I figure I will need two. Again, I am on a budget, and I cannot spike my electricity. The 250 watt hps worries me enough. I know I sound paranoid but I assure, my sheriff is a real cannabihater. A cooling tube and all the other items suggested are simply out of the question. I do not have the money, expertise or even place to get the items needed for this. God this got complicated as hell.
Can I get away with no cooling tube?
by placing a fan at the top of the fridge, blowing air out, while pulling air in from the bottom of the chamber (remember, that is going to be sub freezing air in some cases {Garage}) Will the chamber be cool enough?
Can I run some sort of cool veg op in the lower chamber?
Can I run a fan blowing out one side of the lower chamber pulling air in from the other? Basically cross breeze to cool?
Check out my schematics when I post them and see what you think
Thanks again for all the effort and help. Sorry I do not have the expertise or budget to do this right, but as time goes on, I can implement these things.

here is my drawing and plan, what do you suggest?
Also, is it safe to post pics from your comp on here?

Well crap, It looks like I overwhelmed you. I promise it is much less complicated than it all sounds. The very hardest part is taking that step and plunging in. Once it all gets going for the first time it's such a wonderful feeling, and you suddenly realize what an easy process it is (not that it won't take a little work). At least I didn't scare you off and it looks like you're still planning to go forward. Great. I am glad.

Your scetch looks very reasonable. It is even more complex than most people might reccomend for a beginner, but I would dissagree. With the proper attitude and knowledge, one could build a system that was any degree of complexity. I think you have a better idea now of what needs to happen, but you still need to read a little more about anything you feel that you don't fully understand.

I don't have any more time right now, but I want some time to think about it anyway. I will reply back as soon as I can, hopefully with some more ideas geared to your desired direction. Good job so far. I'll try and answer some or all of your questions soon.

I've been thinking about your design and I have a couple suggestions.

- I would put all intakes and exhausts at the back of the fridge. Otherwise the fridge will not be very stealthy with a bunch of vents in the sides.
- Put intake low and exhaust high, at opposite sides of the back, and a small, inexpensive computer-type fan at each opening. Perhaps just one blowing out might suffice in the bottom chamber.
- You'll want a bigger fan for the top exhaust, maybe 150-200 cfm.
- It would be pretty easy to mount the top fan on the outside, and a small carbon scrubber on the inside wall, basically attaching the two together. Your weed will smell very strong when it gets into flowering, maybe so strong people standing outside your garage could smell it. But you could always try a grow without a scrubber and see how bad the smell is, and mount it later if needed. There are also jars of gel that you can put in there that is supposed to work for smell, but I have my doubts how well they work compared to a scrubber.
- If you try the setup as mentioned and it gets too hot in the flower chamber, a quick fix is to mount or place a small fan on the center of your screen. Have it blow straight up at your light. This should solve any heat issues. You might want to just plan for it, because the light and fan combo as mentioned will likely be too hot. Also increasing the size of the exhaust fan and/or intake fans could solve the problem.
- Since the screen would make it difficult to move plants up and down, make sure you can move your light. There are professional-looking things to make this happen, or you can have all four of the chains you show hook onto a small nylon chord. It goes up and over a pulley and straight across the ceiling to the front right, over another pulley then down where you can easily reach it, and wrap it a few times around the tie-down hardware you put there.
- I'm not sure about the polystyrene sheet you mention for the shelf, but it needs to be completely opaque. I know light will shine through colored plexiglass, and this is not acceptable.
- Be sure to get some trays to set at the bottom of each chamber to catch run-off from watering, or you can just pour the water into the tray and they will soak it up.
- Otherwise everything looks good, and I think this can work. I hope you are still planning on making it happen.
- The things I say here are from years of experience, but I have been known to make mistakes from time to time. Please read other things and use your best judgment. In other words, don't come crying to me if something doesn't work out. Ultimately you are the one responsible for the results of your own actions.

I was thinking of doing a cool tube for the light and venting the air from the seedling/veg chamber up into the flower chamber and on out. This will give the flower chamber some needed heat when the light is off during 12/12. It will need it as the temp here is already in the 40's at night and with vents in the sides and backs of the frdge, it will get cold in that flower chamber.
So cool tube for HPS light, intake vent at bottom of veg chamber, another outtake vent at top of flower chamber, should work. I will put a fan in top of veg chamber to pull out the flouros heat and put it into the flower chamber when the light is off. I have made a homemade darkroom louvre to keep light out of the flower chamber. I think this is an ingenius way of dealing with the heat from the light (cool tube) seperately, and using the heat from the veg chamber to keep the flower chamber at steady temp. I have noticed that two or three unvented flouros make a space the size of the veg chamber about 90 degrees or so. A small fan at the top of that chamber, pulling in cold air from the bottom vent, should maintain a cool nice temp in there and still keep flower chamber cool. If not, I can always add another vent at the base of the flower chamber.
By the way, I have a few little seedlngs going strong under one 100 watt cfl. It is slow going but I am not in a hurry right now.

I wouldn't vent the veg chamber into the flower chamber. I would find some other way of keeping things warm. I tried this once and it was a disaster. With HID lighting heat is a constant issue, and I would not intentionally add heat to any chamber. There are other ways of keeping things warm at night, like a heat pad, thermal blanket, or plant heat mat. You can also have some true green lights at night to keep things warm. If you buy the right ones, the ones that are made for this purpose, the light is nonexistent to plants, and a couple would warm up that little space nicely.

Just my 2 cents worth. If you decide to go ahead anyway, just make sure you've got some big-ass fan for the top section. Glad you chose a cool tube.

Looking forward to actual groundbreaking day.

Oh yeah, they also sell small electric heaters for that purpose.

Oh, and yes it is safe to upload pictures from your computer. I've been doing it for years, but then agian I have internet security.

I am now gathering the items needed for my fridge grow. I am still going to vent into the flower chamber, but will add bigger fan to vent flower chamber. Reasoning is, the veg chamber lights will be on 24/7, and that heat will keep the flower chamber, room temp during daylight when I am at 12/12, and will not be enough to really affect it when I am on since I am going with a cool tube. The theory is, most of the heat from the HID will be pumped out. That's theory. If I need to, I can easily seal off the veg to flower vent. We'll see but it got down below freezing last night out in my garage and it is only OCT. I will do 12 on during night hours like 9pm-9am and use the warmer daylight hours for my dark period.
My question is this. I am all set, I know what I need equipment wise and have been collecting it. I am cutting a board to fit the fridge for the base of the flower chamber. The seams will be caulked to keep light from the veg chamber out. My problem is the door. What can I use to seal the seam between the fridge door and the base of the flower chamber?
I thought of getting a block of foam and fastening it to the inside of the fridge door so that when it is closed, the foam pushes up to the board, making a groove of sorts. how do other cabinet systems do it? Do I need to take the inner shell off the fridge maybe? This is my last hurdle as I have the plan, the equipment etc to start.
Thanks
P.S. I am considering running the flower chamber vent straight up into the attic of the garage. Would this take care of the odor? I can hide the vent behind junk in the garage.