my mini grow cab for six plants.

hi everybody im new to cannabis.com i used to belong to overgrow but they got shut down:( im starting this thread to help people to design and build a small apartment friendly grow box, that can flower six 1 foot tall plants.


I have been growing in my apartment closet for 3 years but recently i decided to move, the landlord in my new building is a nosy bastard,so i cant grow in my closet any more, so i decided to build a stealth grow box for under 200$.

the dimensions of the box are as follows
height 36 inches
width 25 inches
depth 18 inches SEE PIC.www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=140847439 6669964&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442204551&ASSORT MENT%3C%3East_id=1408474396670271&bmUID=1144391257 715&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

i bought the box at candian tire for 79,99$ fot those not from canada, home depot has a similar product made by rubbermaid, the box is made of a polypropelen plastic material. it weighs
just 24 pounds. without the guts. i found plastic lasts longer and is easier to clean and wont rot like particle board.

materials list

1.plastic cabinet 79,99$
2.1 70 watt hps/1 70 watt mh
u can get these lights free, just go to where a building is bieng demolished and talk to the contractor, some time you will get them for free, sometimes you have to pay like 20$, Ive gotten all my grow lights over the last 3 years from demo sites.
3. 2 120mm computer cooling fans 12,99
4. 6 cubic feet of mylar
5. 2 flat square carbon filters 9.99. SEE PIC www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=140847439 6669887&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441893963&ASSORT MENT%3C%3East_id=1408474396670271&bmUID=1144390535 499&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true
6. 4 rolls of aluminum tape
7. 2 power bars/to plug stuff into.
8. 1 timer
9.box 0f 2inch long wood screws

the construction is very simple it only took me 2 days with common house tools. i will post pics and the rest of the construction prosses within the next week:rasta:

i just noticed that the beggining of my thread is very similar to bonghitboy420
its just a coincedence i dont know bonghitboy420, but looks like both him and i used to belong to overgrow,this is quite a coincedence i did not even read his thead before i wrote this

Um you want to grow in a box that's only 36 inches high? That box is too small to even grow in at all, let alone putting a light big enough to grow 6 plants in it.

Looks pretty good, that carbon filter looks nice. I'm interested to know how well it works.

I think you should be fine with 36in height if you do a SCROG grow; for full plants you will want at least 5 ft of height. 6 plants sounds like way to much for 18" x 25" but it sounds like you already have some experience - I would grow 2-3 in that size box.

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Originally Posted by tadaa

Um you want to grow in a box that's only 36 inches high? That box is too small to even grow in at all, let alone putting a light big enough to grow 6 plants in it.

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you should not give advice when you don't know what you are talking about!!!

this was my stealth scrog cab before i dismantled it for security reasons. it was only 42inches tall and i could have cut of almost a foot of that height without changing the yeild a bit! have you ever heard of scrog?

i just went back over my old plans and realized that tv stand was only 36" high, and as i said it could could have been shorter without a problem!! i just helped my brother build a cab that is only 28" high and that is plenty for scroggin' . i agree about 6 plants being to many. i usually only did 1 plant at a time but somitimes i did 2. in my 400hps scrog cab i used to flower only 2 plants as well and would get 5-6.5oz per plant! sometimes i would flower 4 at a time and would get 2.5-3oz per plant. it's not the number of plants it's the amount of veg time and training that help increase the yeild, at least that is the case with stealth growing imo.

there a grow box made by suncell systems, its only 2 feet high and 4 feet long, it can flower 16 plants of a short strain like afghani. here's a link

http://www.suncellsystems.com/

also check out www.pottv.com and watch (so you want to grow pot #10)the guy in the video has 15 boxes going at once. he has boxes for ,veg ,clones ,mothers,and flowering boxes with 16 plants inside, its pretty cool check it out- http://www.pottv.com/archive/shows/p...owse-2023.html

the boxes are way to expensive for me, so i decided to build my own for way cheaper, pics and plans too come soon.

in reply to the posts, yes i do grow scrog i use chicken wire it works perfect.
i've seen some people built heir own grid patern using pvc and rope, i found chiken wire works just as good if not better, its the only way to get maximum yield in a very small space, SCROG IS THE WAY TO GO!

Yep yep yep! Not me, but I will say I like yer methods :) Only prob (for me anyway) is to true SCRoG, you need clones. My cab is more like....... a transformer. It adapts and changes around the life of the plant. I germ in the same place I flower -- all from seed. My plants grow into the HPS when I make the final transformation. (and i can modify and experiment w/ what im giving the plants the entire time along the way. :P )

Cabinets in disguise! Tranfsormers!

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Originally Posted by BongHitBoy420

Only prob (for me anyway) is to true SCRoG, you need clones.

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the only reason they say to use clones for scrog is so you don't train a male under the screen. i sometimes used to scrog with seed plants when i got a new strain. as long as you let them show sex before you put the screen on you will be fine.


potman, what size holes in the chicken wire? i started with 2"x3" holes in the screen and yeilded about 8-10 oz per harvest with my 400hps. i switched to 1" screen and not only was it much easier to train the plants, my yeilds jumped to 11-14 oz per harvest. with smaller holes you have alot more options when training branches very precisely to get the most evenly spaced canopy as possible. look at the pics for an example. the 1st pic is 2"x3" screen at week 2 and the second is the same strain(cloned from the same mother) under 1" screen at day 19. see the difference? the second pic shows 150+ tops spaced pretty evenly over the entire 2"x4' canopy! btw, that is the same space just different angles in the pics. damn! i wish i still had a grow!

pics!
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[attachment=o59001]here's some pics of my plants, from the previous year, i will post some pics of the plants flowering in the box within a month:rasta:

I tried using one of those plastic cabinets and the plastic does fracture easily, I broke it a good amount with a heavy duty stapler, but screws seem to be OK with the material. Its lightweightness makes it unstable for heavy equipment though. I've found that it's actually less expensive to use thin sheets of Handipanel, that's that really cheap brownish compressed sawdust wood. Get wood trim that can be used for where the corners meet, and hand screw everything together using glue where the panels meet the trim. No predrilling is needed, and the Handipanel comes in 2x4 and 2x2 panels.

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Originally Posted by Crispyfried

I tried using one of those plastic cabinets and the plastic does fracture easily, I broke it a good amount with a heavy duty stapler, but screws seem to be OK with the material. Its lightweightness makes it unstable for heavy equipment though. I've found that it's actually less expensive to use thin sheets of Handipanel, that's that really cheap brownish compressed sawdust wood. Get wood trim that can be used for where the corners meet, and hand screw everything together using glue where the panels meet the trim. No predrilling is needed, and the Handipanel comes in 2x4 and 2x2 panels.

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i haven't tried using a stapler:stoned: , but small sheet metal screws work good, as for the fracturing problem, when you cut holes it's best to dill a 1/2 inch pilot hole then cut the rest out with tin snips, you have to be patient and cut slowly, also dont cut anything, unless you are 100% sure thats where you want to cut, as for the weight issue both my ballasts and the rest of my electronics weigh only 15 pounds, the top shelf where its located is rated for 40 pounds, witch is ridiculous, it can hold 25-30 pound max, if you are using one of these plastic cabinets, it's best to go with a 150w hps, cause the 150 ballast weighs less than my 70w MH and 70w HPS ballasts combined

i used 1x12 #2 pine for my tv stand cabinet and stained it fruitwood so it would look good in my bedroom. i also lined the floor to about 8" up the walls with heavy plastic so the runoff didn't cause the wood to rot over time. i routed tongue and groove type connections so all the joints would be light tight. the plastic storage closets are nice to use but if you build something that looks like a nice piece of furniture it's alot less conspicuous. when i had mine running my father would come over to babysit and he would be 10ft away from it watching tv for hours and never suspect it was anything more than a tvstand with storage underneath!

i forgot to say that those plants look really good potman! so does the set-up, great work!

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Originally Posted by justaseed

i forgot to say that those plants look really good potman! so does the set-up, great work!

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thank s dude, your cab look's awesome:thumbsup: are you using a 400w hps?
and the answer to your previous question, i use the same 1 inch chicken wire
you have on your last pic, i find the smaller the holes the easier it is to train the plants, the result is you get a nice even canopy, that will absorb more light , giving you a bigger yield:D

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Originally Posted by potman420

thank s dude, your cab look's awesome:thumbsup: are you using a 400w hps?

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unfortunately, i'm not using anything currently, but the tv stand had a 150hps and 4 42watt cfls on the left side and a 125watt vitalume cfl(2700k), 65watt aquarium strip cfl(6800k) and 4 42watt cfls on the right side.

nice plants man. I LOVE YOUR CABINET...it is so bad ass. How did u do that bootleg(not calling it bad,thats just how i say it:D ) light system in post #12. I would like to do that so i dont have to use just cfl for flowering. Also my box is 4'x2'x2' what wattage of hps would you recommend. And also do you think a 265cfm dayton blower would be enough to cool it.
thanks....much love....nasty

for a 4x2x2 cab you could use a 250hps and supplimental cfl's . my main flower chamber was 4x2x6 and i used a 400hps and 4 42watt cfl's. it's gonna be tight with only 2' of height because the pot is gonna probably take up close to half the height leaving only 12-16" for the plant and lights. it's definetely possible you're just gonna have to find the shortest pot's with the largest volume possible. my brother has a cab that's only 26" tall so we cut a hole in the bottom for the pot to sit in so it doesn't take up any of the height. be creative!

i havent been able to update this thread, because ive been busy moving to my new place, i've also been tending my outdoor grow,so i haven't had time to go on the computer, i've made some improvements to the box, i added 2 60w cfls on both sides, rebuilt the carbon scrubber,and added a third 120mm computer fan to blow air across the lights, now the box runs at 75 degrees,perfect temp. i ran the box for 5 days without opening it,18/6. it stayed nice and cool, it's also very quiet, sounds like an old PC. has a quiet humming noise.

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Originally Posted by HungryMcNasty

nice plants man. I LOVE YOUR CABINET...it is so bad ass. How did u do that bootleg(not calling it bad,thats just how i say it:D ) light system in post #12. I would like to do that so i dont have to use just cfl for flowering. Also my box is 4'x2'x2' what wattage of hps would you recommend. And also do you think a 265cfm dayton blower would be enough to cool it.
thanks....much love....nasty

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the light system is two old 70w HIDs, 1hps,1mh, mounted parallel to each other, the reflector is the one that came with the metal halide,i did some slight modification to it:stoned: ,the reason it looks bootleg, is because i like to use materials i find around the apartment, i dont like to go and spend big$$$ on stuff i can build myself, i have a small backround in mechanical engineering, im also a full time motorcycle repair technician, so building things from scrap comes naturally, when building the cab, i tried to spend as little money as possible, .

i will post updated pics in 7 days

why wait so long?

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Originally Posted by FOXBIRD

why wait so long?

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im having problems with my digi cam, when i sort it out i'll update!

well i still cant't get my camera to work so im going to borrow my buddy's camera to post the pics,, i've recently killed 22 afghani clones, witch i had rooting in the cupboard, these were the clones for my outdoor crop:( on 420 day a good friend that has a licence to grow medically,gave me 35 blueberry seeds and 35 white rhino seeds, i geminated 6 from each bag,one of the white rhino's turned out a trifoliate/ 3 cottolydeons/3 normal leafs,also known as a triploid, just yesterday i ran into an old friend who i havent seen for 5 years,we went over to his place to smoke some dank and look at his plants,he has a very nice NL SCROG 6 plants in a 7 foot tall 4 1/2 feet wide
and 4 feet deep closet, i told him my story about my afghani clones,
then he suddenly got up and left the room. he came back 1 minute later with a sandwitch baggy stuffed with seed 5000 plus. and gave it to me saying i have more use for this than him, i almost shit my pants, i asked him where he got them , he said he got them 3 years ago from his old boss, i asked him if it's hemp seed? he said he doesnt know, he never tried germinating them for the three years he owened them,he said he is dedicated to his NORTHERN LIGHTS, so i took the seed not knowing if it's ganga seed or hemp seed, i threw about 40 into a cup of disstiled water, to my surprise 32 germinated over night in less than 24 hours, so i planted them in soil, the should sprout by tommorow, i looked through the seeds and found big seeds, small seeds,
tiger striped seeds, dark green seeds, red seeds, brown seeds, and all of them seem to be germinating, so im waiting to see if i got the shitty industrial sativa hemp, or if there might be some good genetics after all, i got he seed for free so i dont care, tonight i will post the picture of my bag of seed, it would be nice to know if i have hemp seed or lots of bag seed, here are some pics of the one last last plant i grew in my old closet.

Nice plant, the middle pic.

I saw the bike on the background, and just went like "WOW!!!"... then I looked closer, and realized it's one of those mini-bikes. :) Nice optical illusion... ;)

The plant looks nice. :)

finally pics! pic#1 finished cab/pic#2 trifoliate seedling/pic#3and 4 afghani male used for breeding,6 seedlings 3 WR 3 BB,

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sorry for the double post

more pics pic#1 and 2 free seed i got from a friend/pic#3 cab electronics.pic 4 nice male indica,pic#5seed germination. [attachment=o62647]

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Hey postMan...
Very cool plant. I like the top shot... it has perfect symmetry. And the side shot is also very cool... big, healthy fan leaves.

Hey dude, I noticed something... you UK dudes need to start smoking US cigarettes.

My cigarettes state that they can kill me.... but yours state that they "can make you impotent"
:eek: :what:

the ventilation system works very well on this scale, i only open the cab when i have to water the plants, with both lights are working it does not go over 85 degrees, seems to work fine. the main air intake fan is a 75 CFM 12v dc, the osilating fan is also a 75 CFM dc, but the exhaust fan is a 135 CFM 120v ac, it would have worked to use a third 75 cfm fan, but without a carbon filter, it needs the extra power to push the air through a six layer carbon filter sandwich, sorry i didnt bother to take a picture of the filter.

im from vancouver canada not the uk:rasta:

regarding the bulk seed, the seed seems to have a 98% germination rate, i still dont know if it's industrial hemp or if someone just didnt kill all their males,
i germinated 75 plants just for the hell of it, they will be planted outside in two weeks, in a diffrent area away from my white rhinos,

if anybody here is from vancouver, and you want some free seed to experiment, or use for breeding, or just planting them and seeing what grows,
let me know!

could u flower one plant under a 400 hps just want to know

yes

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Originally Posted by potman420

more pics pic#1 and 2 free seed i got from a friend

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Holy shit, look at all those seeds!

Apparently, you are planning on sowing a couple hundred acres this summer...

:rasta:

hey everyone, iv'e been away on vacation for the last 2 weeks,i went to saltspring island B.C,to visit a sick friend, so i haven't uptated this thread,on vacation i bought a jar of norhern light's seeds from a well known local grower, for 40$ cad. it took me 4 hours of sifting and separating and counting,to separate the good seed from the green imature seed,the final count was 1693 NL seeds for 40$ bucks, good deal huh?:D my 75 outdoor plants were planted may 4th and should finish in early october, i'll be back in august to kill the males, my grow cab plants are doing exellent,3blueberry 3 white rhino, they are about 12 inches tall and will go into flowering may 16th,i will post updated pics when i can, cause in april my digi cam bit the dust, so i have to borrow one from somebody i know.