Advise on building a 2 compartment wardrope

hi guys,

ok i am in the middle of constructing my wardrope into a grow room.

29.5 inches wide,
70 inches in height,
30 inches deep.

I have already cut out 6 holes (3 inches wide-each) at the bottom ride hand side of the wardrobe for fresh air to come in.

I have a hole cut out for 250cfm fan which is to go on the top of the wardrope (off set to the left side), I have done this with having the intention of having only one grow room (the whole cabinet).

Now..im starting to think it is best to have a veg section aswell as this will save more DIY in the future!!

My questions are...

do i need a extracter fan for the veg compartment as envolites (200watt) dont give of heat right?..and that having vent holes for intake of air will be sufficient?
Does this mean that i can get away without having a thermometre in the veg section?

Seeing as the 6 big holes are at the bottom of the wardrobe...do u think its best to have the flowering section at the bottom?

I think i will leave 25 inches for the veg section...is this reasonable?

Ohh shit....seing as the extracter fan is at the top..this will interfere with my veg section (if i were to go ahead and have the veg section at top of wardrobe) because if it is going directly down to the flowering room: theres a chance that light leakage may interfere with one another (i am using a light proof sheet aswell)

Any master DIY dudes or dudettes out there that can shed some light on this matter-it wud be most appreciated

please feel free to ask any questions that i havent made clear.

thanks all

mr t

ps setting up a grow cabinet is a MIGHTY BIG pain in the arse!!!

You can simplify things hugely by simply having a separate and much smaller cabinet for vegging. That simplifies your ventilation, your lightproofing, everything. And you will make use of the extra space in flowering, I guarantee you. If that's not an option, and you must have it all in one cabinet, then yeah, it's gonna be a pain in the ass.

Envirolights do give off heat, btw, so you'll need some ventilation for that, whether it's in the same or a different cabinet. If it's in a different cabinet, you can get by with computer fans and/or axial fans or fart fans, or whatever's easiest for you to get; you won't need a 'real' (centrifugal, squirrel) fan for that area.

I totally understand your desire for a one-cabinet solution; I wanted to do that too. But the more I thought about it, the worse it sounded, so I ultimately went with a separate smaller veg cab (and another for mothers too), and I am very glad I did it that way, no regrets whatsoever.

Jam is right, I have the same deal, I have a 1000W cabinet and a smaller one for moms and clones with 175MH and 6 23w CFL's.
Never the less, if you want to do it your way we are here to help. Pros and cons of flowering on top or bottom. Usually your flowering plants will be heavier do to bigger plants and pots, so some rather have them on the bottom so not to have a collapsing shelf, or so not to lift them down all the time for watering. With the fan there all ready it will be a little easier to keep that light cooler, but even when people split the cab they still place the fan up top even when the top is used for veg. If the veg was on top then you would place some3 IN, or 2 1/2 inch holes in that shelf and place black PVC pipes going down into the bottom compartment with 90 degree elbows facing the back of the cab or to the right and left, then you could place black pantyhose on the ends of the pvc piping, on each end. This combined with the blackness of the pipe that makes it more difficult to reflect light and with the elbow that makes a turn, killing more traveling light will give you the air flow between sections without light problems. Now remember this all sounds fine in theory, but when you do it, it can be a pane. Also you have to separate the sections for when you open the door, because you may want to check on clones or other veging plants and want to open the door, but the flowering plants are in their dark cycle so you have to separate the flowering section with something like Panda film and use a peal and stick zipper and hot glue the Panda film all around the edges.
Well any questions just ask.
Adieu

thanks for shedding light on envolite heat jamster....

i think i will actually be going with both ur advises as the 200 watt envolite lamp alone is 20 inches in length...can u believe that!!! that takes out alot of space....plus i have to minus space for trays, pots, grow space etc....plus i will need another sepaerate fan.PHEWWW....i think it is easier and wiser if i go for a sepaerate veg compartment......maybe i can make one up simply from bananna boxes...he he he.

anyway...im gonna go ahead and get the wires and switches for the centifugal fan...and then away i go. i cant wait!

and blue bear...thanks for letting me know that u guys are there too help. i love this society!!

any more questions i have i will surely ask.

cheers

mr t

If money's an issue (and isn't it always?) then you could do a search for some of those rubbermaid grows, and try that out for a cheap veg box. Some of those rubbermaid grows are really pretty impressive, but not sure how much of a MacGuyver you have to be with those. WalMart sells some little cabinets for like $40 or $50 (probably Lowe's and Home Depot do too), which are decent for vegging.

20" long, the bulb? Sheesh, but I'm not surprised. I have some 105-watt and 125-watt CFLs, and they're pretty big too (not 20 inches big though). They almost need a new term for those, because 'compact' they are not. ;)

hey jamstiagtor (do u mind if i call u jamster? :) )....
I revisted a link when i first came across this site and your grow cuboard...is AMAZING man...it looks the buisiness. how come u opted to use a 400watt bulb instead of 250watt bulb. You have 3 plants like 'moi'..well thats what im hoping for. Is it down to the fact that they will be stronger and bigger?

cheers
mr t
ps i will wait till i see some results before i embark on finding a smaller cuboard...i need to see some incentive...catch my drift...ha ha ha

More lights = more buds, that was pretty much my thinking. Heck, I'd have put a 600 in there if I thought I could handle the heat, but I thought 400 was a good compromise. As it turns out, I think I probably could use a 600 in there, but that's okay, as I have the 400 HPS and some sidelighting CFLs too -- that's probably pretty close to what a 600 would give me, since I have better control over the light on the edges of the rectangular area with the CFLs.

And you can call me anything you want, as long as you don't call me collect! ;)

nice one jamstor.

hey guys...im just thinkin ahead to my cycles (dark period) and i was wondering:

1) if it is ok for me to surround my cuboard on the inside with lightproof material (cant remeber the materials name) so that it has total darkness. thus meaning..that i cover the 6 in vent holes at the bottom.

2) and to turn off my fan (as this will no doubt keep me awake at nights). Fans dont need to be on 24/7..or do they?

lookin forward to the hearing ur experiences.

cheers

mr t

ok..ive got a feeling u guys are gonna tell me the plant needs to breath.
if that is the case and i have slits in the lightproof sheet to go over a rim above the 6 vent holes at the bottom..this means that my plants will NOT be getting total darkness for the 18/6 and 12/12 cycles.

any cool DIY ideas if u guys think it is disasterous that i cover my cuboard on the inside with light proof material,

thnx guys

Use PVC pipes for your intakes, with one 90 degree bend, spray paint the inside of the PVC black to absorb light, and rubberband some black pantyhose over the PVC intake opening to further absorb light, and that should do it.

You can turn off the fans and keep it sealed up, and the plants will likely be okay. That's not optimal, but they won't suffocate as long as you have the fans on half the day. They might end up somewhat smaller and less healthy than they would if they had fresh air supplied all the time though.

gracious o wise one!

I will look into the pvc intake thing but it will be difficult as i have already 6 huge holes to cover. Luv the instructions by the way.

if i still go for the slit in the light proof material and have a rim placed along/above the holes (so the sheet is kinda sitting like a cat flap over the holes-the rim will allow air to seep through ..the little light that is gonna leak in...will that destroy the dark cycle? im planning on haveing black tights/stockings on the outside of the holes to act as filter (may also lessen the amount of light going in)

i kno u gave ur answer as going for the pipes but any suggestions about my original idea?

cheers for ur help jamster

How about this:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

Can you just plywood over your current holes and use one of those darkroom louvres? They really work great, totally lightproof, and if you install it on the side, they take up no precious floor space. Ignore the part of the description where it says those are designed for particular fans or whatever; that doesn't matter. They work fine for passive intake. I'm using two of them on my flowering cabinet, and I'm quite happy with them, no regrets on those at all.

I read somewhere that going from 99 percent lightproof to 100 percent lightproof can result in 30 percent better yield. I don't actually know if that's true, but the mere fact that it *might* be true is enough to motivate me to go to pretty insane lengths to keep light out. But as long as you keep most light out, I think you'll be fine, however you decide to do it.

"LIKE IT!"

Now i understand the photo in one of ur earlier threads...its a doran vent!! Im beggining to understand more of this cabinet stuff.

The only probs about them is that it will be hard to locate a doran here in the UK..but ill see if that link u gave me ships overseas.

I want that 30 % extra yield!!!!

Inabit Dude

Mr T

Thanks once again Jamster...youve been a great help!

May ur Crops grow HUGE man....lol

Yours too, man, wish you the best of luck! ;)