Designing my foot locker grow box

Hey all, time to design this little guy. My goal is to have two small plants going at a time. Anyway, I am currently germinating 8 seeds from a bag of lamp burned mids. Hopefully I can be a better parent. :D

Things To Consider:

The biggest thing to consider is this is a stealth grow, I cannot have my apartment mates know what's up, just don't want to deal with it.

I don't think I can fit more than two small plants into this box.

I will be running this box for about 9 months before getting rid of it (four harvests?). I want to keep my costs low and my yield high enough so that I save money in the long run.


What I Have Thus Far:

2' x 1.5' x 3.5' Foot Locker (on its side)
2x 42 Watt CFLs (Cool White - 2700k)
1 mm Mylar Wal-Mart Emergency Blanket (on all flat surfaces)
2x PC Case Fan (intake @ plants, exhaust @ lights, wired into 9v charger)

A 6 plug power strip ziptied to the box cieling
A 3 pin (AC + Ground) timer controlling power splitter


What I Need:

Nutrients
Growing Method (hard to choose!)
Lights for Flowering
Anything else you might think of


Nutrients:

I checked the local garden store, and they had some 1-4-2 and 1-3-2 organic plant food, they also had some other stuff (10-30-15 was one of several) that wasn't organic, but also wasn't Miracle Gro. (Gotta stay away from that stuff!) Ordering online isn't an option for me, so hopefully you can give me some insight on what I should be looking for.


Growing Method:

I am pretty much split even about this... Since I'm only going to be making a few runs with this box, I don't want it to cost more than it would be to buy what I'm growing. I watched Mr. Greens video "I Grow Chronic." Other than the fact that he has a really creepy soft voice, it had lots of good information. I thought perhaps an ebb and flow setup would be good, as it seems easier to do than a drip irrigation system.

I could grow in dirt, but I am told that growth rate is significantly slower. I have also heard that dirt grows require less attention to detail than a hydro system (pH, nutes, etc), but that they have a higher chance for pests. :(

Questions About Growing Methods:

What growing method would you use personally in my situation?
Would the yield be worth the cost and maintinence for an Ebb and Flow system versus just growing in dirt?


Lights for Flowering:

Okay, HPS and MH lights are damn expencive when you include the ballast as far as I can tell. I looked on 1000bulbs.com and put a Hortilux 400 watt HPS bulb + 400 watt balast in my shopping cart... $150. :eek: Also, the ballast is large and not that great for space in my situation. Perhaps I could use a non specialty 400 watt HPS bulb (2100k, 50,000 lumens) which costs $12, and would bring the total amount to around $80.

Still, I am curious, will these CFLs give me enough light to flower my two future small plants? I can easily run two more standard size lights in my box without problems. I can only find CFLs in "Cool White" color, 2700k, and I'm not sure if this is really a problem.

I don't want to go overboard, and this room will not be expanded. I only want to put in it what I need to have healthy plants. Another thing to consider about the HPS is it will be in a very small box...



Alright guys, thanks for taking a look and I hope to hear from fellow cannabis lovers! :smokin:

Strange I suppose I cannot edit my post.

I was eyeballing measurements before haha. I now realize how small this guy is.

9.5" x 16" x 30" with the door open...
12" x 16" x 30" with the door closed.

Maybe I should move the operation to my sports cabinet that I haven't opened in 10 years...

15" x 14.5" x 55" with the door closed... I could seperate into a veg and a clone / mother room.

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A 400w HPS would blow the temps sky high in that room.
Probably have to go flours. Someone who's good at flours will give you more info. Maybe you should check the flours thread at the top of the page.

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=61768
(You can only edit for a few minutes)

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Alright for the lights, 2700K are the types you want for flowering.. 6500K are the bulbs you want for Vegging..

Im going to be growing one plant with 3 CFL's around 100 watts. So you will want about that aswell.. Ill have 2 26 watt 6500K's and one 42 watt 2700 K for vegging and 2 42 watts (2700K) + 1 26 watt (6500K) for flowering..

Make sure your pc fans work hookem up and do the check.. so you don't have to worry about that.

Check this out, its a guide on LST something you might want to consider..
http://www.gardenscure.com/420/train...more-walk.html

As for nutrients, I still havent decided what im going with either.. But it will also be something from a garden store.. I was thinking shults 10-15-10 for veg to flower and i beleive it is organic..

Sweet guys, thanks a lot.

Yeah, low stress training might be a good idea. It seems to give good yeilds in a small area.

My current plan is to get the plants to about 75% of maximum size for the space, and switch to flowering stage.

It's strange, I looked up the kelvin light spectrum and it says Flourescent Cool Whites are 4500k... but GE's website says they are 2700k. I suppose I should believe the GE page.

I've got 8 seeds germinating right now... Is there any way to tell sex without cloning before they are too big? 8 plants will overcrowd this box very soon methinks, and i don't want to have to blindly take an axe to my crop.

Thanks all. :)

Quote:

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It's strange, I looked up the kelvin light spectrum and it says Flourescent Cool Whites are 4500k... but GE's website says they are 2700k. I suppose I should believe the GE page.

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Thats strange and wrong.
2 700K is warm, cool white is around 4 000, and 6 000 is blue. Any source will tell you that.
Theres no controvesry there, its common knowledge in these circles.

http://www.cameraguild.com/technology/kelvin.htm

To tell sex, you must see the pre-flowers.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by faithless

Thats strange and wrong.
2 700K is warm, cool white is around 4 000, and 6 000 is blue. Any source will tell you that.
Theres no controvesry there, its common knowledge in these circles.

http://www.cameraguild.com/technology/kelvin.htm

To tell sex, you must see the pre-flowers.

.

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It's definately strange, and one of them is wrong. I am assuming the mislabeled the lumens output (which is 2700) as color temp.

I'll search about pre-flowers. I thought that you needed to start the flowering process to know. :)

4000k you say? That seems to be a pretty useless color... since I have heard 6000s is good for veg and 2000s good for flowering...

4000 is just in between. Normal light. Its the same as a HID, roughly.

Quote:

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Okay, HPS and MH lights are damn expencive when you include the ballast as far as I can tell. I looked on 1000bulbs.com and put a Hortilux 400 watt HPS bulb + 400 watt balast in my shopping cart... $150. Also, the ballast is large and not that great for space in my situation. Perhaps I could use a non specialty 400 watt HPS bulb (2100k, 50,000 lumens) which costs $12, and would bring the total amount to around $80.

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I know wear you can get a full HPS kit 600 watt, bulb ,ballast and screws and chains to hang it and an adjustable reflecter for $119.00.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by faithless

4000 is just in between. Normal light. Its the same as a HID, roughly.

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So in that case, it should be good enough for both flowering and vegging? I sure hope so. :)

The box is 1.06 square feet. 42 + 42 = 84 watts, 79 watts/sqft. 5400 lumens, 5094 lumens/sqft. Good enough?

Well I got it all put together. The fans blow hard and quiet! I have it currently in my closet, you cannot hear it at all with the fans on, and when all the lights in the room are turned off there is no light leaking under the door.

Since this is a stealth grow, I got especially excited when I found this out...

There are no outlets inside the closet, but there is a 1.5" x 1.5" wooden door that is used to do maintinence on the bathtub... I can wire into the electrical system of the house because the main line comes right by my closet! I'm glad I know how to do house wiring. This means there are no cords coming out under the door!


Current problem though, is none of my seeds are germinating. I first put them between several paper towels and poured room temp tap water on them. (Maine water is very high quality where I am, it is impossible to taste any chlorine, but there is some nonetheless.) I let them sit for 24 hours... no movement. I then decided to drop them into a bowl of tap water that had been sitting out for about three days. They have been in the tap water for 24 hours.

So 48 hours without any real sign of germination. 4/8 seeds floated when I put them in the bowl, but now only 2/8 seeds float. I have since moved the ones that sank into paper towels again, wetting the paper towels with water from the bowl, and leaving the other two floating seeds to, well, float.

24 hours later (72 hours total) and still no progress. Getting worried.

They are in a 69-75 degree drawer with no light.

I've been thinking about my light setup and I think it is inadequate.

I'm mostly worried about spectrum... not amount of light. Amount of light is easy to fix, you just buy more lights.

I currently have 2x 42 watt (150w equiv.) "Cool White" CFLs.

I am thinking of making a 6 bulb assembly / reflector, and I want to know what those other four bulbs should be. The idea is to get a light setup that can veg and flower one or two plants in a 1 sq/ft area.