Newbie growbox diary.

Hey, so I though I might aswell document my growbox build. I tried doing a rubbermaid cfl grow but its just to small and I wanted to do a 600w grow eventually so hey, why not now?

Anyway I went shopping and here's what I bought....


Lighting
1 x 600w luka Grow lamp
1 x 600w HPS & MH Electronic Ballast (lumatek)
1 x Small Shade (900mm x 800mm)
1 x Lamp holder
1 x Chain & Hooks pack


Filtration
1 x 100mm Centrafugal Fan
- 2300 RPM, 250 Cubic Metres per Hour (69 Litres per Second)
1 x 100mm x 4000mm Activated Carbon Filter

Intake
Fan 150mm Axial-Inline 120 LPS Spectrum

Thats the main stuff.....

The grow room is 1.2 x .6 x .6 built from scratch with mdf, covered in panda film.

Originally I was planing on having everything inside the room to keep it as stealth as possible but due to the small size of the room and the large size of the all the crap I gotta use I decided to fit as much stuff on the outside as possible.

I will update as I progress with growbox/grow.

Looks good man, keep up the good work and picture updates. If you have any questions post em here and I'll try to give ya help if you need it. Good luck

Tom

How did the rubbermaid work out for you? What if any problems did you have other than size? I am only asking because i have a rubbermaid set-up for my first grow. Good luck man!

It was actually pretty good, I just ended up killing the plants from my own stupidity.

I had 4 x 42watt cfl daylight lights along with 2 pc fan's, one sucking / one blowing, temps were around 28.

It can be a good, cheap way to start off growing but the thing is, for me it started eating up a bit of cash, cash that could go towards a bigger setup. Also the rubbermaid option ended up being what's best for stealth rather than whats best for grow (for me anyway).

But if you have a clear idea on what you want from your grow and a smaller grow would match that idea its definitely a good option.

I'ld say, the more you plan the more successful you will be.
Best of luck

I agree, it was supposed to be a cheap project, however I put a lot more money into it than I originally thought I would. It is cool to see you have upgraded, it seems like a lot of people on here have started out with a rubbermaid and moved into bigger and better things. Anything beats buying off the streets though!

What are you plans for your grow now? I was gonna strip my rubbermaid apart for parts but it might still be usefully for mother plants / clones.

Decided to do a bit more work tonight, just roughly screwed on ballast to the outside of the growbox. Will finish the lighting off in the morning..

Rubbermaids are very Good Cloners! Sounds Like a Neat Stealth Project you got goin! Keep us updated with progress and pics! What do you plan on starting with? Clones? Seeds? and what types?

I am on day 7 of flowering, just some bagseed, but I am learning a lot. I think I have a hermie though. But I plan on getting things right before I order any expensive seeds. Since I am only growing for myself quantity is not that important, I would however like a little quality. I almost can say for sure I probably smoke the most bunk nasty weed of anyone on here. I already have plans for a different box though, because I cannot get the heat issues right with the rubbermaid.

Hey galo, thanks for your rubbermaid cloner tip, if all goes well I'll need a cloning bin in the future. I plan on starting with some seeds that are germanting as we speak, hope to have them in the soil either tommowor or the day after. Just random bag seed.

HOLLY SHIT, I just checked out your grow, man look at all your strains. Aw man thats awsome. I wanna buy some different types and kinds but dont want to risk getting caught by airport customs. Good luck with your grow.

ChillCat, that sounds like the smart way to do it. How much do you think you will get off the plant? Also, any ideas on how to resolve the heat issue? extra fans maybe?
I had my small pc fan connected to some ducting that ran to that small grill you can see in some of my pictures. Kept it down to around, 79F, without the fans it would shoot up to 100F.

I have 2 120 mm fans at the top with some duct work homemade of course! But where I live it is so hot. I think the plants are doing ok though since I added fan #2. The max temp is 82 and the lowest is 74. They look nice but I am having trouble determining sex, maybe too early. By the way I can't wait to see what you pull out of that set-up!

Thanks man, its gonna be a while but it should be worth it! Here's some pics for yah from my first attempt, using the rubbermaid. A long story short on why they died...

1) Something started attacking them (as seen in pics)
2) Sprayed with neem oil, with the lights still on....
3) Came back to find them absoluty fryed..
4) BUT THEY SPRANG BACK TO LIFE!
5) 2 weeks later, looking good. Thought the could use some CO2 so I used the suger/yeast method.
6) Turned the fans off and went to bed.
7) Woke up to find the plants crispy at 100F... they honestly turned to crumbs in my hands.

(That was quite a long story regardless really...)

Pics are before I used neem....

I wish I had a camera. I am using Miracle Grow Organic, which now I know is a big no-no, but after flushing it the plants seem to love it. There does not seem to be enough of the white stuff, I think perlite? I am a noob forgive me. I just cannot tell if budsites are forming, but I guess once you see it, you always know hehe. I also had to do some major LST due to the sativa nature of these plants. I was worried at first but they took to it like champs.

Honestly those plants look better than mine. Bushier for sure, and a darker green. Of course I am sure you probably had better smoke/seeds than me.

Yep its called perlite, and as for you being a noob it sounds like your doing very well with your grow and learning alot of usefull info along the way

I bought 100ltrs of perlite for about 30 bucks(US). We dont have Miracle grow in nz but I have read alot about it. My soil mix im using is

50% Perlite
45% Potting mix
5% Worm casting

The seeds were just random bagseed. Honestly, I think the best thing I did with those plants(RIP) is not putting any fert on em.
Besides that I think I was just lucky (Beside em dying).
Any chance of getting pics of yours up?

From what I read on here, MG is bad. I burned a few seedlings before flushing the soil. Ya I just want to get things right and maybe order an indica strain because you cannot get that down here. Or at least I cannot get it. I may have missed it what what are you growing. A strain or bagseed?

Sorry I mean your new grow as far as the strain. Yes as soon as I get a camera I will have pics and tons of question for the pros here!

Bagseed. You said "you cannot get that down here", where are you from? Just out of interest.

I am in Houston, and we get the sorriest excuses for weed here. It's black, or really dark brown. I always hear about people here talking about the 'mids' and the 'beasters' I wish! I would rather quit than deal with the thugs that push it or smoke anymore crap. Of course there is always the 'hydro' unknown strain for 30-50 a gram. Yay. It looks worse than the bagseed grows on here. Hence my new hobby!