First Time Grower - Grow Cabinets

I am a long time medical marijuana patient in the great state of California, and I am sick to death of paying so much for my medication! Between myself, and my elderly grandma who also uses cannabis, we go through about a half-ounce a week. At current prices in California, that is almost $400 a month on my meds! I estimate over the past 3 years I have spent over $15,000 on flower alone!

I would like to start growing my own medication for myself and my grandma. I want to cut our costs of course, but I am a bit of a flower-snob and prefer the connoisseur quality smoke, so quality is a big factor for me. I've never really grown before, not even a house-plant. Nor am I particularly handy or have access to a bunch of specialty tools.

Ideally, I would like to harvest a QP or more every cycle. I don't have genetics picked out yet, but I already know I will be picking an Indica. Probably something in the Purps family, as GDP is my favorite strain!

I have a rather small area set aside for growing, only about 3 feet wide, and 2.5 feet deep.

I am looking for a pre-built growing cabinet, ideally something where I can veg and flower in the same place. As I said, I've never even grown a house-plant before, so I need something without a bunch of unknowns and risk-factors. I am aiming for a QP every 2 months, and I still do plan to visit the dispensary for occasional treats!

So here I am, reaching out to the community! Do any of you have experience with pre-built grow boxes? Do you have any recommendations?

So far I'm leaning towards one of these:

http://www.cabinetgr...r-max-soil-led/

http://supercloset.c...r-led-grow-box/

http://www.bcnorther...com/the-roomate
(No pricing on the above unit, which scares me!)

If price is a problem I presume you want to get the cheaper one. You will need a ph tester if its not included. Welcome to the amazing world of growing by the way. It can be a challenge Though. Its not like set it and forget it. Lol. Myself loves every aspect of growing. I hate to say it but choose wisely on who you get advice from on here. Keep your grow low key to the people you invite in your home. Any way back to business. You want your ph on point always. Dont over water and or over feed them. I believe plants need love. The light cycle for flowering is 12 on 12 off. You will need premium nutes while flowering. Now the flush and drying and curing is where most of your flavor comes in. Thats for another day.

Dude honestly you will save a lot more money and have better results setting something up your self versus buying one of these. Even setting a tent up would be better imo

707 right on that one unless your disabled and cannot build somthing.

also how tall is your area.

you can probably get the amont you want after a grow or 2 .

or if you can follow directions the first time.

also your biggest enemy with a room this size vs the quantity you want will be HEAT.

if you can keeps your temps under wrap I see no reason you couldn't grow a 4 once plant at least with a dwc (easiest for noobs imo).

edit haloma had SOUND advice as well

I have been to the Cabinet Grow showroom. The guys were cool and to see the cabs was interesting. Is it worth the money? Not really. They are well designed, but using 3 watt LED's is probably not the greatest and with 5 watts you may not have the height.. I don't know what chips they use, but most LED manufacturers are totally full of shit. I also don't know the quality of their filters. They looked cheap to me.

All in all I'd love to have one and they have covered every detail. Even the duct muffler is a nice touch. The price is just too high.

Think of the alternative
Cabinet
6 ft tall cabinet from thrift store $20
or 3x2 tent for $80

Light
400w Mars Hydro II 5w light $189
or 400w HPS with air cooled hood, ballast and bulb. Maybe $200?

Air
4 inch hurricane fan and phresh filter $150 or so

Pots $3
Nutes $30
Soil $16


If money is no object then I guess go to the showroom and plop down your money, but I wouldn't. They're cool, but not worth it. The risk is that you end up wanting to upgrade and then you have this useless cabinet. By going with a tent you can upgrade each piece individually.

If you are in Orange County PM me and I'll help get you started.

Two more things. Welcome to the forum and definitely learn to grow your own and make your own edibles. It's very rewarding. Everything you need to know is on here and youtube. A good hydro store is an excellent source of knowledge also if the owner is cool.

The more I look at Cabinet Grow website the more I want to laugh out loud.
http://www.cabinetgrow.com/earth-cab-pro-soil-hid/

$2899 for this unit. It's a steel cab plus a $200 light and a filter/fan combo. You could get the light for $100 on craigslist or used at the hydro store. What really gets me is the nutrient upgrade for $259. A bottle of General hydro Floranova is maybe $20 and it will last a small grower several years. Also the LED sidelight upgrade for $379???? These lights cost $25 on Amazon and there is a lot of debate whether they are even effective.

These guys are taking advantage of people. I don't want to see you get ripped off.

Also, consider heat and noise and security factors. Do you rent or own? Where will you pump the heat to? It has to go somewhere and a 400 w light will heat a 12x12 room up a lot. Will the noise from the fan keep you awake at night or disturb you while you work? These babies are very noisy... So many factors.. I also don't see fitting 8 plants in that space as shown. It'd be so crowded. I figure I need 2ft x 2ft for small plants in 3 gallon pots. Also, no way that is enough height under the HPS. you'll burn the heck out of our plants.

Lol yup hes right like I said heat will usually always be the negative factor in any mini grow.
but if you can find a lil more room .
I could easily get over a pound outa a small 4.5x4.5 x5 room lol

747,

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I'm still sold on buying a pre-built unit, but really want to make the right decision on what company to go with. As I said before, I don't really have access to the tools and experience I would need to build my own cabinet, and I'm not really keen on a tent right now, simply for aesthetics and noise.

I am concerned with cost, but I have to factor in the fact that I can really only dedicate a few hours on the weekends to this project. My grandma will be tending to the plants day-to-day, but I need to get her setup and growing. I figure it would take me about $200 in tools, and an entire weekend to build the cabinet, and it probably wont be nearly as well thought out and polished as a pre-built cabinet. Is this unrealistic?

You said the first company has a showroom? I might go check that out, although from what you have said I may explore the other two options on the list instead.

I found a different Supercloset model that is 24x24 just like the grow cabinet yielder model. It is 2000 vs 1700 for the grow cabinet model. It looks like the Supercloset uses 3W LEDs as well, is a 5W LED that much better?

Here is the box I am looking at now:
http://supercloset.com/product/grow-boxes/superstar-led-stealth-grow-boxes/

It's cool that Grandma is part of this. Growing is so rewarding.

I'd stay away from hydro. I have been growing for over a year and still haven't gotten my soil methods down. Soil is much more forgiving when you make mistakes. Also, the weed you grow won't be like the top shelf, rock hard, sticky nugs you are used to from the dispensary. Maybe after a few runs. It takes years to learn to grow and to perfect your system. A lot of us read this forum every day and study. Then we experiment. You'll run into so many challenges and it all takes time to get sorted out. In other words, it's no simple task to produce 4 ounces of quality bud.

For example here are issues that almost every newbie encounters.
Seeds are expensive and can take time to get. Sometimes they die or don't sprout. Why did they die or not sprout? A seed is around $10-$15..
Power outages
Nute burn
CalMag problems
Bugs and mites that destroy your crop
Plants that grow out of control
Plants that hardly grow
Mold on your buds
Buds dried too fast and now they smell like hay
You buy a 3 pack of indica seeds and 2 of them have sativa phenotypes and the smoke makes you paranoid
You had a light leak and several of your plants turned hermie and now your whole crop has seed.
Your water company changes sources and the high amount of dissolved solids is wrecking your plants.
PH issues..

Actually, now that I think about it. If you buy the cabinet then Grandma should join up here, Then she will be able to receive all the help and knowledge then pass it on to you.

My thoughts on LED.. LED can be good. It's a rapidly developing industry. A light that you buy today will be ancient in one year. Good LED lights cost a lot. Cheap LED's grow crappy weed. Yes 5w LED's would be better than 3w, but you need to keep them further above the plants. You need height in the cab or your plants will grow into the LED and it will burn or bleach your buds. I'd stay away from LED unless I was totally committed to experimentation. Repeat this mantra when reading LED websites "Most LED manufacturers are Full of crap and make false claims".. You won't necessarily save on electricity or heat with LED. You may, but it's no guarantee.. HID lighting is tried and true and very affordable.

I watched the whole video on supercloset. yes, it is packaged nicely, but it's just unrealistic. That's a 150w High Pressure Sodium Lamp. I have two that I'll sell you for $30. They're ok, but they produce a lot of heat and the light doesn't penetrate deeply. A 150w HPS will flower only 2 sqft. A 250w with an air cooled hood would be better.

They're all just packaging something that is smoke and mirrors in my very humble opinion. I think they're very cool and recently built something similar. I was able to produce just one plant in my 16x16 cabinet and it yielded .3/4 oz.. Pretty disappointing. This was done with LED. I've had better grows for sure. But look at that 2x2 space.. If you had a 250w HPs and one plant with 5ft of clearance you may get 4 oz if you're really good at what you do.



So here is my final suggestion.

2 x 3 tent
400w adjustable HPS with air cooled hood. You can run it at 250w for veg.
2 plants in 3 gallon or 3 plants in 2 gallon.
an expensive vortex fan since they make quieter fans now but they cost more.

If you live near me I'll come over and help setup. The cabinet Grow guys are in Irvine. Totally worth a trip to the showroom..

Lol I was in the same boat as u little over a year ago.. I built a 3x2 cabnet.

Did one grow in the cabnet and threw it in the garbage lol.. bought a 5x5 flowring room 3x3 veg room and a small clone box..

The cabnet was just too small for me and the number of plants I wanted. Figure out what works best for you, andif there is any chance you would want more space, do it right away
Best of luck

dabhe4d said:

Lol I was in the same boat as u little over a year ago.. I built a 3x2 cabnet.

Did one grow in the cabnet and threw it in the garbage lol.. bought a 5x5 flowring room 3x3 veg room and a small clone box..

The cabnet was just too small for me and the number of plants I wanted. Figure out what works best for you, andif there is any chance you would want more space, do it right away
Best of luck

Click to expand...

Yea, first I built a 2x1 grow cab for CFL. Cost me about $200 to put together. Then I immediately went and bought a 150w hps. Then the temps were uncontrollable so I built a 4x2 tent. Then I needed another 150w hps. Then the temps were out of control again.. Then I bought LED and built a 16x16 tent. That sucked. LED was garbage... Then I bought a sweet 400w HPS setup, but couldn't fit it anywhere.. I FINALLY have a 3x3 tent with 400w HPS + fan and filter and I am pumping the heat through a window in a stealth way.. It's taken 15 months to get to this point, but I think I'll get it right this time.

Here is one for ya.. What a joke.. a cardboard box, the bulbs from my bathroom, a kitty litter bin and the fan from my PC would do the same thing, but for less than $50..

http://www.dealzer.com/cash-crop.html

sunny747 said:

Here is one for ya.. What a joke.. a cardboard box, the bulbs from my bathroom, a kitty litter bin and the fan from my PC would do the same thing, but for less than $50..

http://www.dealzer.com/cash-crop.html

Click to expand...

LMAO
i was 1 click away from buying that piece of shit 2 years ago hahahaha. thank god i did a little more research hahah
that thing is such a rip off.

dabhe4d said:

LMAO
i was 1 click away from buying that piece of shit 2 years ago hahahaha. thank god i did a little more research hahah
that thing is such a rip off.

Click to expand...

Yea, it takes time, trial and error to realize what it takes to grow good weed.

sunny747 said:

Yea, first I built a 2x1 grow cab for CFL. Cost me about $200 to put together. Then I immediately went and bought a 150w hps. Then the temps were uncontrollable so I built a 4x2 tent. Then I needed another 150w hps. Then the temps were out of control again.. Then I bought LED and built a 16x16 tent. That sucked. LED was garbage... Then I bought a sweet 400w HPS setup, but couldn't fit it anywhere.. I FINALLY have a 3x3 tent with 400w HPS + fan and filter and I am pumping the heat through a window in a stealth way.. It's taken 15 months to get to this point, but I think I'll get it right this time.

Click to expand...

dabhe4d said:

Did one grow in the cabnet and threw it in the garbage lol.. bought a 5x5 flowring room 3x3 veg room and a small clone box..

The cabnet was just too small for me and the number of plants I wanted. Figure out what works best for you

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I want to try and avoid by going with a reputable builder of grow-cabinets. I'm looking for something that is going to alleviate the trial and error that I'm sure goes into building / setting up my first grow. You guys seem to have gone through the same learning process.

It seems like you are paying a bit more for a pre-built solution like what I am looking for. But if it even saves me a cycle or two in ramp-up time that would pay off, not even taking into account how long it would take me to build one myself.

sunny747 said:

Here is one for ya.. What a joke.. a cardboard box, the bulbs from my bathroom, a kitty litter bin and the fan from my PC would do the same thing, but for less than $50..

http://www.dealzer.com/cash-crop.html

Click to expand...

LOL, yeah. I am looking for something a bit better built / reputable than that thing!

I'm currently leaning towards Cabinet Grow, I watched the videos of both units, and it just looks like the cabinet grow one is a bit more thought out. The duct-muffler looks cool, I'm wondering how well it actually works. The intake filter on the yielder max is also something I didnt see included in the design of the SuperStar. Also, I may be a new grower, but what is the point of having two carbon filters as opposed to a single higher-capacity one? It's not like they are daisy chained together to provide two pass filtering. It seems like that was just to improve the 'cool' factor than serve any purpose.. Am I wrong here? Is there a good reason to use two smaller filters rather than just one larger one?

Also, I noticed that the Cabinet Grow uses a 5W LED compared to the 3W on the Super Closet. However the Super Closet one includes some T5's on the side-walls that the CG one doesnt.

The cabinet grow box is also a bit cheaper, at 1700 vs 2000.

sunny747 said:

The cabinet Grow guys are in Irvine. Totally worth a trip to the showroom..

Click to expand...

I might do that, it is a bit of a drive for me. But would be cool to check out the product. I think I will plan a trip this week on may days off! This is turning into quite the project now, and I will probably just keep documenting the process for anyone else following this thread. I'll see if the guys in Irvine let me take some pics, and I'll post em here.. I wonder if the Super Closet guys have a showroom or demos setup somewhere as well.

I built this for about $150. I run 200 watts of CFL 6500k for vegging. Around 400 watts CFL 2700k. I had some of the stuff laying around the house. The best method I found for my box is to Scrog. It works well for me. I also have a portable a/c blowing cool air right into the intake fan. I only have to use the a/c when flowering. I grow outdoors when weather permits it and use the cabinet to get my plants over a foot tall before I put outside. It's 2' X 4'. Got everything from Lowe's and dollar general.

The duct muffler works well. You could build one for $20. The issue though is where do you direct the heat to? It's best to pump your heat into an attic or outside. A dryer vent works well for this or even a bathroom vent. An open window can be used, but it's not very stealthy. You'll just have to experiment. It's pretty crazy how much heat a few hundred watts of like can create. It just builds up in a room. Last winter I ran 300w of HPS in a closet and just vented into my 12x12 bedroom. I just left the window open with a fan blowing cool air in. My room was annoyingly warm.


I'm not sure why there are two carbon filters. I am guessing it's to maximize the space. Instead of running one large filter they run two smaller. They may also be using axial (computer fans) fans to draw the air out and with a traditional filter the fan would not have enough draw and would likely burn up. I tried this. The filter is their own design. On some of the large boxes they use hurricane vortex fans. These are ok, but not near the best fans. Very noisy.

Skip the LED side light strips and their nutrients and soil, Total rip off. Tell them you already have these and don't need them or something. A good line of nutrients doesn't cost much at all.. Don't let them sell you an RO system either. For a grow this size you can use half bottled water and half tap water.

Go for the soil setup. Once you get though a few soil grows you can try hydro or DWC. One small error in hydro and you lose your grow. One small error in soil and you flush the soil and get it right.

LED is cool, but HID is tried and true. You won't likely save on electricity or heat according to what I have experienced and read (Unless the LED is top notch) This will not be a top notch light although they will tell you it is. Excellent LED lighting for this space would cost around $800. This is likely a re-branded Mars Hydro light worth around $200.

hitekhik said:

I built this for about $150. I run 200 watts of CFL 6500k for vegging. Around 400 watts CFL 2700k. I had some of the stuff laying around the house. The best method I found for my box is to Scrog. It works well for me. I also have a portable a/c blowing cool air right into the intake fan. I only have to use the a/c when flowering. I grow outdoors when weather permits it and use the cabinet to get my plants over a foot tall before I put outside. It's 2' X 4'. Got everything from Lowe's and dollar general.

Click to expand...

Nice work on the CFL light. Very nice.

sunny747 said:

Nice work on the CFL light. Very nice.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm working on a 1000 watt CFL light using 55 watt bulbs and a 2' X 4' t12 light hood. I'll post some pics when I get home. I love using pvc! I'm an electrical tech by trade, so I'm always tweaking in my lights.