doing my research

[jimmy21]

I'm wanting to help mybuddy with his grow. His first go around had very mixed results. He has a bedroom dedicated to this. It thingbuilding a cabinet would help with a lot of his problems. First of all how big shoulwe make this. I'm thinking like 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep. I'm wanting to use cfls for this. How manyshould we be looking at? What should we line it with? White paint? Foil? Would mirrors work? How many plants could we keep in this?

jimmy21 Reviewed by jimmy21 on 06-25-2009. doing my research I'm wanting to help mybuddy with his grow. His first go around had very mixed results. He has a bedroom dedicated to this. It thingbuilding a cabinet would help with a lot of his problems. First of all how big shoulwe make this. I'm thinking like 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep. I'm wanting to use cfls for this. How manyshould we be looking at? What should we line it with? White paint? Foil? Would mirrors work? How many plants could we keep in this? Rating: 5

[headshake]

getting others to answer your questions is not research.

you fail to mention how tall you want to build your cabinet.

why would you want to decrease your space (other than using CFLs)?


-shake

[jimmy21]

Sorry my last post was so short, it was on my phone and its hard to type with. What i meant by doing my research is that im in the process of doing my research..... but i also have specific questions. As basic as they may be. I've never done this before, but i have been reading these forums for the past few days. And while looking at other peoples setups, its hard to get specifics about what exactly we want to/should do.

I wanted to make a thread about the cabinet we are going to build. I guess i should have been more specific about what we are trying to accomplish. The reason for the cabinet inside the room, is to try to better control temp and humidity to the plants. And to try to decrease the humidity inside the bedroom and limit the mess. Mold was starting to grow on the walls of his bedroom, along with dirt and water getting all over the carpet.

anyway, this is a maybe a 10x10 bedroom. Im thinking we could build a cabinet that is about 6'x2 and about 6' tall. We could go a little bigger if need be. Im planning on painting the walls with flat white primer because thats what everyone seems to do on here. As far as how many lights to use, ive seen very mixed things on here. Some people only use 2 26w cfl and ive seen people on here that have as many as 12 on here.


also, how many adult flowering plants can we fit in a 6x2 space? i guess that would be the determining factor for how many cfls we need



thanks for the help, and rest assured, i am reading as much as i can on here

[headshake]

2 CFLs won't be near enough to finish your plants with any type of satisfaction.

you want a minimum of 5000 lumens per sq ft.

with that setup, you can get one, maybe two plants depending on what size you let them get.

if you are gonna use CFLs then i'd suggest building a shorter, wider cab. CFLs don't have great canopy penetration so it would be better to have more small plants than a few big ones.

you might want to invest in a cheap 400W or 600W HPS light. you're gonna keep buying CFLs and keep buying CFLs to get better and better results and then you'll have spent more than a HPS light that will run more efficiently and produce by far superior buds.

flat white paint will work the best unless you go mylar or panda plastic. i used some aluminized auto sunshades that i got from the $.99 store that work great.

put plastic on the floor as if it gets wet it can support mold and bacteria both of which can harm your ladies.

also, unelss you are running co2 you want to exhaust the oxygen filled, stale air and replace it with co2 rich, fresh air. you want the air to be exchanged at least every 5 minutes, preferrebly every 1 or 2.

keep on reading, it only get's more fun.


-shake

[syde00]

you might want to invest in a cheap 400W or 600W HPS light. you're gonna keep buying CFLs and keep buying CFLs to get better and better results and then you'll have spent more than a HPS light

this is so true... there is a small part of me that wishes i had gone MH/HPS, but I am also pretty happy at the same time knowing i can re-use my CFLs around the house later as house bulbs. I'd personally say that CFLs are an excelent way to get started simply because of this fact... if you decide growing is not for you, its not like you have really wasted much money, you can reuse those bulbs for other purposes.

ps. shake... i swear i am not stalking you!

[headshake]

lol @ syde!

what he says is true!


-shake

[jimmy21]

you think we could only get a couple plants in box that size? i measured his room and i think the cab would be 8 feed wide and 2.5 or 3 feet deep. That seems like a lot of room to me. I was looking at one thread that the cabinet looked to be about 2.5x1.5 and it looked like he had like 4 plants.

sq foot to lumens is based on how much room your plants take up, right? You wouldnt need that many lumens if you plants only took up a quarter of your cabinet.

What do you guys do for ventilation, we have a window we can vent out, but i don't want some obvious ductwork hanging out the window that the neighbor can see. Also we need a way to keep they window open, but not have anyone break in and rob the place


how much does a hps cost? Aren't they a few hundred? You can buy a lot of $1 cfl for a few hundred dollars

[headshake]

my bad. i miss read your box dimensions. you'd have 12 sq ft if you go 6' x 2'. 1 plant per 2 sq feet would be good. you could bet by with 1 per sq foot if you don't let em get too big.

yes on the sq ft to lumens question. however if your plants are only taking up 1/4 of your space and you only have lights over them you need something to block off the rest of the cab or you're gonna be loosing a bunch of lumens. and even then, when using the entire space the amount of CFLs needed and othe equpment for the CFLs you mine as well have bought the HPS.

i'm just telling you from my experineces.

as far as cooling, with that size of space you'll probably wanna go with an inline fan. one that will move the required amount of air. it's rated in Cubic Foot per Minute (CFM). to find your cubic feet, multiply l x w x h (i think).


you should be able to figure it out from there.

HPS, yeah, somewhere around there.

-shake

[jimmy21]

does the intake and exhaust need to come from the window. or only the intake?


Also, did you read what i said about the window? How do we duct out the window without drawing attention, and or getting robbed from having the window open?

[headshake]

neither need to come from the window, although you can use it. exhaust would be better if there aren't any neighbors nearby.

there are ways to do it, that's why it's called research and not "hey you on the forum, answer my questions!".


-shake