My new Grow Box

Ive recently come in to possesion of an old bird cage that i thought would be big enough for a grow box, the ex-cage is: 38" High, 11" Deep and 15" Wide. Ive also got a 70W HPS floodlight which luckly fits perfectly and i intend to put 4 20W CFL's. I have 2 PC fans which im going use for intake (at the bottom) and exhaust (at the top).
Tomorrow im going to paint the inside matt white and make a door to stop light leaking out.
Im then going to buy a chain and some hooks to raise and lower the HPS and CFL's as the plant grows.

How many plants could I have I intend on having 1 plant. Do I need anything else and will the plant grow well-ish.

I would upload a pic but firefox wont let me at the moment.

Doesn't sound bad to me, bear in mind that a plant will double in size during flower, so taking into account the pot and the distance from the hps, you'll only have 20", maybe a bit more if you can cool the bulb, for the plant to grow in, so you'll have to flower at no more than 10" tall to make sure it doesn't grow into the light.
I would recommend this https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/56976-advanced-lst-old-school-bonsai.html method to train the plant to fill the space and keep it short.
You don't need an intake fan. Use both fans for exhaust at the top, just cut a hole at the bottom, slightly smaller than the total of your 2 fans, and cover it so air can get through but light cannot, and fresh air will fill the space as fast as the fans can pull it out. Example: 2x 4"fans, surface area of a 4" diameter hole = 12.5" sq, so 2 fans = 25" sq. So passive intake needs to be 5" diameter, approx. (sorry I never did get the hang of showing my working) for a pair of 4" fans.
You will also need soil, some nutrients, and a timer for the lights would help, as would a carbon filter if you're worried about smell, even one plant will stink to high heaven when it gets flowering.

Ive got almost all of it done now. I just need a door and to put the fans in. The 70W HPS is as bright as I thought it would be but as long as i get a big enough plant im happy

Here are before and after photos the box is still unfinished but i might start germinating the seed for it tonight.

Hell yeh, nice. +rep.

Would the HPS and CFLs be enough to grow the plant from start to finish? The CFLs are 6400k 20W x4 and the HPS I've been told is 2050k.

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/79506/Lighting-Lamps/Floodlights/Commercial-Floodlights/Trac-Trac-Pro-SON-70W-Asymmetric-Commercial-Floodlight

zognogin said:

Would the HPS and CFLs be enough to grow the plant from start to finish? The CFLs are 6400k 20W x4 and the HPS I've been told is 2050k.

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/79506/Lighting-Lamps/Floodlights/Commercial-Floodlights/Trac-Trac-Pro-SON-70W-Asymmetric-Commercial-Floodlight

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yea that should be fine but dont use the cfls during flowering

Well I'd better get started thank you for your relpies im gona go and start germinating

Good luck Zog.

Thank you Hydro. Where is the best place to keep the seed to keep it warm enough? Our house is quite cold at times. I just selotaped the fan to a low enough Amerage plug and works perfectly, Thank you GameBoy Colour lol.

The method i use for germination is boiling some water, pour the boiling water into a cup, soak up some boiling water with kitchen roll, hold side ways till no more water drips off, place this on a plate, the kitchen roll should be cold enough to put the seed(s) on so i do that next, then i do the same as before with the kitchen roll and put this (when cold enough) on top of the seed, then place a bowl on top of that, then wait.

At least this worked for me last time. Correct me if im wrong in that method at all please.

it would work! i`m running the same setup of light one 70w hps and 4 23w cfl in a 28 H x 24 W x 12 D box. my grow is at the beginning state also. lets see what happen.

as for the plants i`m going with SOG in small pots maybe 20oz bottles with a short veg time ( 1 week) an then to 12/12 so the plant would grow one single cola and hopefully will fit 15- 18 plants maybe more in there. and it would be a short crop to.

good luck with your grow!!

Thank you same to you omar. Im just pondering over what medium to use, how to attach the CFLs and how many fans to have.

i`m going with soil
mi 4 cfl i attached them with a bulb screw that plug into a wall receptacle. i bougth the receptacle and screw it into the box and then plug the bulbscrew/ plug with a splitter and then the 2 bulbs.

as for the fans i`m using one for colling the HPS with a cool tube and one more going out of the box and 3 of them going in to the box.
maybe i will ad some pasive intake along the way.

will be making a thread soon with pics of my project

Thanks for the reply, i think i might just have 1 or 2 if i can be bothered to go and get another one as an exhaust and a passive intake, and I think I might attach the CFLs with pendants so they can be raised and lowered. I think I will probably go with soil as well as it worked for my out door grow.

What have you got in the way of nutrients?

for nutrients i`m going cheap MG for bloom and some local one for veg.
my past and first grow was a outdor one and i use those nut with good results
i was thinking in changing the flower nut for another one because the taste of the buds wasnt the best.

what do you have or recomend for nuts?

Ive got some nutes i bought from woolworth before they shut for £0.97 i think. But im not really to good at guessing what to use, how much to use etc I know that a 20-20-20 solution slowly given to the plant is good then a fert with a high middle number is best when flowering. I think ill probably use the woolworths crap the entire grow just to see how it goes.

zognogin said:

Ive got some nutes i bought from woolworth before they shut for £0.97 i think. But im not really to good at guessing what to use, how much to use etc I know that a 20-20-20 solution slowly given to the plant is good then a fert with a high middle number is best when flowering. I think ill probably use the woolworths crap the entire grow just to see how it goes.

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Did you say Woolworth? Dude I aint seen one of those in a minute! lol

is a minute a long time?

zognogin said:

is a minute a long time?

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Yes, its slang where I live for "a while". Perhaps I should have jsut used proper English. lol Sorry dude!

Lol its ok, i should have just looked on urban dictionary. Woolworths shut down a month or 2 ago, but you dont live in England though do you.

I only need a couple more thing for my box and its all go but I need/want a 5mm thick piece of wood for the door, because its an old bird cage it has things to hold what was the wire front up which would work perfectly as a door lock. I also need to drill holes for the fans and holes for the wires. I have to wire 4 light pendants to a UK plug and fit them into the box.

Will a UK plug be ok with 4 CFLs coming off of it? and whats the best way to fit them. Theres pics of the box in its current state on page 1. Thanks.

zognogin said:

Lol its ok, i should have just looked on urban dictionary. Woolworths shut down a month or 2 ago, but you dont live in England though do you.

I only need a couple more thing for my box and its all go but I need/want a 5mm thick piece of wood for the door, because its an old bird cage it has things to hold what was the wire front up which would work perfectly as a door lock. I also need to drill holes for the fans and holes for the wires. I have to wire 4 light pendants to a UK plug and fit them into the box.

Will a UK plug be ok with 4 CFLs coming off of it? and whats the best way to fit them. Theres pics of the box in its current state on page 1. Thanks.

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Dude, I wouldn't have the slightest idea! I'm not even good with electrical stuff here in the states. lol But I'm sure it can't be too much different. Just splice 'em and see if its color coded like how ours is. Sorry!