1st grow, all flos, small space, a lot of learning...

[systrex]

Hello All... New member to the site, though I have been reading on here for a while now...

Im about to start my first grow, and figured I would start a grow log to share my experience, obtain some help if needed etc etc...

Well I have my grow spaced all picked out..

Its a cabinet that I am now longer using... it is 5'H x 28"W x 15"L which should give me total sqft of 2.91...

I have a idea of what lights im going to use and how to make them... I plan on using 18 26w 6500k compact flos... basically gonna wire up 9 (one every 3") standard bulb sockets then buy Y extenders for a total of 18 bulbs and build a hood around that...

Actual wattage of bulbs will be 468W for a total of 28k lumens which should put me at 160W per sqft and 9,621 lumens per sqft

as far as intake and exhaust I have 2 120mm, 4 80mm computer fans.. I plan on using 1 120mm and 2 80mm for the intake and vise versa for the exhaust.... The intake will be mounted on lower backside of the cabinet and the exhaust on the top front of the cabinet ..

I have a few other things to work out as of now, further ventilation in case of heat problems, odor control(though thats not a big big problem), size of pots I need, soil mix, and waiting on my seeds to get here

systrex Reviewed by systrex on 10-14-2007. 1st grow, all flos, small space, a lot of learning... Hello All... New member to the site, though I have been reading on here for a while now... Im about to start my first grow, and figured I would start a grow log to share my experience, obtain some help if needed etc etc... Well I have my grow spaced all picked out.. Its a cabinet that I am now longer using... it is 5'H x 28"W x 15"L which should give me total sqft of 2.91... I have a idea of what lights im going to use and how to make them... I plan on using 18 26w 6500k compact Rating: 5

[systrex]

Well here is the grow area... Looking to paint the inside today and hopefully get all the bulb sockets wired up/hung

[systrex]

Well today I got paint, new hinges, weather stripping to go around the doors to stop light, soil and some lighting stuff...


For the lights I planned on just wiring up the bulb sockets in parallel and being done with it..

ran into a few problems though, bought the wrong sockets ( I got 660w 250V) and im pretty sure I need 125v...

Also I got regular lamp wire which im pretty sure I need something a little thicker with a ground?

thats about it for today.

[systrex]

Well I ended up trying the fixtures I got cause I wasnt sure if they went they would only work on 250v or up to 250 v...


here is what I came up with...

[systrex]

One thing I guess im confused about is... I always thought there was a black, red, and green.....

with "lamp" wire there just both copper, no ground.... with the fixture I got it says the silver screw is "hot" black and the gold screw is red....

I at least made sure I connected all the same things together even though the wire did not have red/black...

here is a lil diagram of how I wired them I hope its ok..
Forgive the horrible drawing...

[systrex]

Todays update:

Got the inside and the doors of the cab painted white



Tomorrows goals are the weather stripping, moving the shelf to the top(to hold things like nutes, water, etc), and hopefully finishing the lights...

[systrex]

Figured I would give you guys an update....

As far as the grow space goes I still need to 100% light proof it, I found a few small cracks so I need to fix those.

Need to get a lock for it

Install the fans

and mount the lights/finish wiring

I ordered some joey weed Cinderella 99 still waiting for those to come.. hopefully with in the next week... and thats it for now.

[Skrappie]

I'm looking forward to seeing how your cab turns out, if everything pans out how you are planning, i'm sure you will have some happy plants

[trynagethigh]

i have that exact same cabinet, here is what mine looks like so far. I still have some more to finish just havent had the time lately. i used three ceiling fan light fixtures mounted to the shelf that came with it. i had an extension cord run through a small hole at the bottom of the cab and tacked up the side to the top with cable clips but will be taking it out and i will just use some old electrical conduit i have and do it a safer way. i was actually trying to figure out a way to make a cool tube for the cfl's some kind of way to really get the heat out of there.

[systrex]

@trynagethigh: Nice for my lights I was planning on getting a piece of wood mounting my fixtures to it then hanging the wood kind of like your shelf..

Couple more updates... Got all the light leaks sealed ended up just using black duct tape for a lot of the corners then im gonna cover it with white duct tape. also got a temp/humidity monitor today, got a timer, and finally ran an ext cord into the cab for power...

Tomorrows plans are to seal the hole around the ext cord, finish wiring up the lights, hopefully mount the lights.

Need to look for an adapter to wire up my fans, need to find more 6500k light bulbs(walmart was out today), still need to find a lock(trying to find one thats a key lock that will keep the door pressed tight), and still trying to find pots that will work...

Im looking for pots to maximize the floor space I have, round will waste space, the ones I found that would work were around 5 gallons which is to big.. I think at the most Im only going to need about 2 gallon pots....

and I think thats it, here is a pic...