My Grow Cabinet

First off, let me say what an amazing wealth of knowledge this site is! I have learned so much from all of you here. Hope I can give something useful back.

Some of the stuff I made might be "cheating" (I have access to a metal shop) but I'm using what I have around me. I didn't want to spend much cash so I've been collecting parts for this since Dec.

Here goes....


The cabinet was from a shop neighbor, he was moving and giving it away. It was the perfect size. I lined the back with some plywood to reinforce it a bit, and cut holes for ventilation.

After deciding I didn't want to have my lights hanging, I designed a rail for the light to slide up and down on. This was all from stainless scrap I had in the shop. The Mogul light box is a capped piece of tube, wired with recycled 14ga cords from old grinders. The knobs and cable retainers are .50$ hardware store items. The hoods are also scrap stainless. I made a pattern and tack welded it together.... I know, cheating. (mogul bases were $6 each)

I'm doing a aeroponic/dwc, and found very cool buckets that fit my cab perfect. From -ReallyUsefulBoxes- . They are very sturdy(no flex at all) and 100% opaque. They have all kinds of shapes and sizes. I painted them white with a spray paint for plastic and used a rubber seal to keep them from leaking at the lid. Worked very well.

This is my cloner. Bucket and air stones. Simple. (I cut some begonia's and ivy as a test, they rooted in a few days.) I have a cover for it now shown in later pics to come

Here is the veg-cab with some "flashgrow" on the walls. Bought a 25 ft roll for $24. An amazing difference! I also found some mirror-finish aluminum formica laminate(from the same neighbor) and lined the floor and ceiling. I'm using x2 125w CFL's.


Found a heavy duty power strip. I had to rewire it with a longer cord anyway, so I painted it white.

The veg-cab is operational. It is now the ultimate power in the univer.... o'wait,..wrong meeting.
The exhaust fan is a 120mm 105cfm computer fan w/ a speed control, quiet!($12.99). I'm also using a 80mm fan on the plants(the ugly orange one mounted above the power strip) I will be replacing that with a nice whisper white one. The shelf allows for some travel on the intake, houses the cords and air pump, and raises the clones. Temp stays 78-82F. Works very well so far.

Here are the orphans I rescued from some friends. They were sad looking on arrival and we lost one of 5 yesterday.
Grape Ape & Grandaddy


5 Days later. All have come to life and are thriving! (even the begonia's are kickin ass!)

Flower Cabinet in the works!
More to come soon!

Comments and suggestions are welcome!!

Amazing what a few days in the right environment will do. Also a pic of the small fan for the plants

Bump.....no comments......nothing?

Wow man this is amazing, very nice. I'm still a n00b but it looks like you have everything covered...hydro, lights, fans, healthy plants and gauges. It's designed very nicely bro. I've been looking at tons of these stealth cabinets all over the net and yours is by far the best I've come across. The stainless makes it so much cleaner and it took some skill to put that together so I don't see it as cheating. Also it looks a lot better than the ones you can buy, definitely and A+++++ dude. Great work dude

hey wassup, i'm also a newbie, and i'm wondering if anyone around the new york city area is looking to sell a grow box? i'm looking for some type of dresser size or closet sized one, anyone looking to sell or help find me a store to buy the equipments? my e-mail is roby12587@yahoo.com, please e-mail me if you have any good suggestions, thank you

Thanks for the props- I have been alone in doing this project (can't really show everyone now can I) so it's nice to have some feedback!

11 days total. Seems so fast! You can almost watch them grow! Everything works pretty well so far. Close to flower time!

woa those plants are growing fast dude!!

keep the god job

peace

roby12587 said:

hey wassup, i'm also a newbie, and i'm wondering if anyone around the new york city area is looking to sell a grow box? i'm looking for some type of dresser size or closet sized one, anyone looking to sell or help find me a store to buy the equipments? my e-mail is roby12587@yahoo.com, please e-mail me if you have any good suggestions, thank you

Click to expand...

Try home depot or Ikea for the cabinet, they have lots of size options at a good price. Then piece it together from all the info on this site. CFL's are the way to go for veg if in a cabinet!

Last days in veg! Taking clones now for the next cycle.

First off, great job on the grow box construction.

I grow in DWC and bubbleponics. I am lazy and went with two grow tents for my grow op.

One issue you are going to face that i noticed is your plants are going to get cramped and crowded. I can already see it happening in your latest picture on day 13.
It's a problem that I ran into as well. I had 6 plants growing in a 10gal tub and 2 plants got crowded out and had stunted growth. To resolve that issue I bought another complete tent and transplanted them over to the new tent. Just heads up. Other than that you have a badass grow box.

Peace and positive energy to you.

nailz92002 said:

First off, great job on the grow box construction.

I grow in DWC and bubbleponics. I am lazy and went with two grow tents for my grow op.

One issue you are going to face that i noticed is your plants are going to get cramped and crowded. I can already see it happening in your latest picture on day 13.
It's a problem that I ran into as well. I had 6 plants growing in a 10gal tub and 2 plants got crowded out and had stunted growth. To resolve that issue I bought another complete tent and transplanted them over to the new tent. Just heads up. Other than that you have a badass grow box.

Peace and positive energy to you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the praise and advise. Really loving this. I did grew once before about 10 yrs ago,... but it was laughable compared. Didn't even Ph'd my water.

The cabinet in the pics is the veg only cab. This is almost the largest any plants will get in this cab, with smaller ones staged behind them. The flower cabinet (pics to come soon) is a bit bigger than this one, -250w hps. I am cycling(harvest) 2 plants every 2 weeks.
So at any one time I'll have 4-6 clones and choose the best one's / 4-6 in veg at various stages / and 8 flowering in 2 weeks stages. That gives me x2 (18"-24") plants every 2 weeks.
Does that make sense?
What do you think the yields will be?

bmanbotb said:

Thanks for the praise and advise. Really loving this. I did grew once before about 10 yrs ago,... but it was laughable compared. Didn't even Ph'd my water.

The cabinet in the pics is the veg only cab. This is almost the largest any plants will get in this cab, with smaller ones staged behind them. The flower cabinet (pics to come soon) is a bit bigger than this one, -250w hps. I am cycling(harvest) 2 plants every 2 weeks.
So at any one time I'll have 4-6 clones and choose the best one's / 4-6 in veg at various stages / and 8 flowering in 2 weeks stages. That gives me x2 (18"-24") plants every 2 weeks.
Does that make sense?
What do you think the yields will be?

Click to expand...

Your setting up to have a harvest about every 2 weeks. If that's your veg box, then it should be ok. Mother plants tend to get big over time. 250w HPS lights are great. I was growing exclusively with CFL lights and T5 and up until now have got small yields. I was getting for the most part "small,whispy, popcorn buds" but I have been working on a limited budget. I had to save up money to buy a decent light system. Finally got it and its going into operation next grow. I got a 600w HPS.

If I had to make an educated guess I would say that you are looking at anywhere between 2 to 4 ounces of dry bud every 2 weeks! That's basically what I will be doing too. I have one tent that will house my mother plants and clones and another seperate tent that will be my flowering tent. They will be going in the flowering tent in 2 week intervals and I will have 2 to 3 plants every two weeks to harvest. I am really excited and already got my seeds cracking. White Widow and Blackberry Kush.

Peace and Positive energy to you.