Trying to setup my new huge cabinet, need advice...

All, I'm about to attempt to become an indoor grower. I've been researching for weeks, and just stopped by one of the local Hydro stores to talk to someone in person.

I'm not the one to miss a detail usually, so when I say I'm researching, I mean I'm reading things like Marijuana Botany - the Propagation and Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis just to understand little things. I'm also reading every forum I can find. I'm not saying I understand it all, but I'm not just throwing a few bag seeds under some flouros either.


OK, so here is my situation... I am constructing a garage housed grow cabinet. The rough dimensions are 9.5' tall, 2.5' deep, 6.5' wide. I have it setup so that I can either use the entire space, .5' off of the floor to the ceiling, or I can separate the top 18inches from the bottom for a seperate ventilation/ballast/scrubbing space. To the left of my cabinet is another 6 foot tall closet section with an irregular shape. It's in sort of a triangle. 2x2x3 in an isosceles pattern. It *is* 6 foot high and will be enclosed. I haven't decided if I'm using the second space.

Fresh air will be delivered through a 4-6inch hole in the wall which leads to a under-stairs closet in the house. We usually keep the house around 75 degrees or so, and this is in central Texas, so the garage will be baking in the summer, and humidity should be okay from inside the house.

I can run 1000watt lights because our electricity is already through the roof (half a dozen computers and 2500sqft in TX will do that). I will run one or two, maybe with a light-mover if I have space, but that will be later.

I was originally considering going hydroponic using organic medium and nutrients, but the guy at the Hydro shop actually suggested using soil and organics. His thinking was that with that amount of space I could grow some signifigantly large plants. Maybe 4 pots? I know I could grow a SOG or ScrOG, but I'm not sure if that's the best way for me to grow right now. I'm more interested in quality than quantity, at this point. Maybe in the future I'll want to produce more.

I am aiming to be able to leave the setup unattended for at most 3 or 4 days, but more likely it will have daily attention.


OK, so experienced growers, help me out with my thinking here. I just need to know what *you* would do with this space, and about $1500-$2000 to spend on the equipment.

Oh, I was going to use distilled water too. :)

I'll think more and post again as well. In a hurry right now.

I don't get people... all of the starting indoor growers want to grow hydro, why is that?

good choice of starting out with soil, it's much easier to grow and makes beautifull plants. Scrogg is nice but I'm not sure it's the way to start out. If you really want to learn what the plant looks like and how it developes you may want to try putting a minimum amount of plants on a maximum of light without scrogging. What you could do is topping (squeesing the crown off) in your second week of 12/12.And you don't need distilled water.

Good luck and if you got any questions we'll be here for you waiting and hoping you'll share some of that fine fruit with us.

The only reason I was thinking distilled was because the water in my area is pretty mineral rich. I need to do an actual pH test on it, but I was thinking distilled would get me a clean start being at a stable 7 pH. I can just aerate some tap water though, too. :)

Maybe a better idea, Get some phosforic acid and get your PH too 6.0.

Nutes will lower the ph so there is no reason to ever ad acid to nutes. The top of the plant produces the largest cola and is where the plant has the highest consentration of growth horomones. Since you only have a limited space more plants with single colas will get the highest yields. I would make two cabinets if you can and grow smaller plants. If you grow a mother start your clones into bud at 4 inches. As far as scrogging goes I hope you like trimming tiny nugs but in my opinion I think it is a pain that diminishes yeilds. Co2 can be made with sugar yeast and water. If you can make it out of sheet metal it will stay cooler with a small space. Also will putting the ballasts on the outside of the cabinets. I would put in one 400w Mh and one 400Hps in each cabinet. end to end not side by side. Paint the insides white flat paint.
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c

Creating something for additional CO² is not neccesary IMO, if you have good ventilation the plant get all the CO² it will ever need. Just watch it with the odor.

The air i hear has 300ppm CO2. When the cannabis plant developed on earth there was 2500ppm CO2. CO2 is very benefical. if you can combat the heat seal her up and crank the co2.

Whats IMO?

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c

Yeah, I'll have to combat 100+ degree summer heat. The garage gets very toasty. I'm completely sealing this cabinet though, so the 70-78 degree air coming from inside the house (down low on the floor inside a closet) should provide enough cooling. I could generate CO2, but it would just cycle through too fast and I think it might be a waste.

I don't like the sound of trimming small buds. I was going to take each side of the cabinet and just grow some 4 or 5 foot plants. I figured I could tie them down to create other bud sites if I wanted, or just shoot for the main cola and keep 3 or 4 of them under each 1000watt light. That would be 6-8 5 foot plants with 2000watts of light. The only problem I would see with this method would be having to trim the plants around the sides since at most there would be like 1.5 sqft per plant to grow in.

Ugh, there are so many ways to do this stuff. :)

Any more ideas? Keep them coming. :)

big plants take longer to flower. and longer to veg meaning less bud per watt.

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I don't have to worry about electricity costs. (Well, moderate amounts anyway). What is the average grow time for an average 5-foot plant start to finish? Is it really 1/2 the time with hydro? I'm just wondering if growing lots of smaller plants will even out the quality of large plants grown for longer, assuming time means nothing.

Will the buds be more dense and potent with the larger plant, assuming I can light it enough and all conditions being perfect?

I'm not so interested in a commercial crop. If it gets to that point I'll rent a house. :)

smaller plants have more potent nugs and they finish faster.
One love
c

for your first grows, I suggest "keep it simple" ... the whole key to great bud is 'patience' ... lots of time spent waiting for the plants to 'finish', then more time drying and curing (in my humble opinion, the most important phase) ... it will grow by itself, thats the easy part (remember, its a WEED) ... the old joke rings true ... " if you water it, feed it, care for it, and it dies, it was a flower ... if you stomp on it, poison it, and burn it, and it still thrives, it was a WEED " ... :smokin:

I agree, I would keep it simple with soil. Try also to build your cabinet in three sections that can easily be disassembled for easy transporting. By all means do not rush this. I am a newby to this forum, but the one thing I have learned in my experiences with growing is you can not rush or hurry a grow cycle. Sometimes by vegging a couple weeks longer, will produce two fold results. If you build a cabinet that size and take your time with the grow, you should have enough bud for you to not ask about total time from start to finish again.

Good Luck

BHG

Yeah, I think I'm going to grow at most 8 plants right now. I'm either going to run 2 x 1000w hps or 1 x 1000w hps with a light mover (which would workout in my cabinet).

I'll probably just use 8 x 5-gallon square pots and grow soilless with a coco substrate. It seems that I may be able to control the levels a little easier while not having to deal with the hydroponics and still experience good growth rates. I'll just make sure and really babysit it when I can.

So, that seems to be a good balance between traditional methods and more advanced techniques. At least so far, and allows me to go organic.


My goal is 4-5 foot plants with the top colas being the primary interest. I will also attempt to train the plant when it makes sense to maximize the yield.

Maybe I'll have something to smoke by the end of summer. :)

Good luck, keep us posted

One love
c