Fridge grow log, first timer

[Opie Yutts]

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.

[travisgrn]

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.

[travisgrn]

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

[Opie Yutts]

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.

[Opie Yutts]

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.

[travisgrn]

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.

[Opie Yutts]

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.

[Opie Yutts]

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

[Opie Yutts]

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.

[travisgrn]

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.