Possible grow cab, opinions?

SwaggerJacker

Well-Known Member
So I have been searching for a new and improved grow cab for my second grow.
I found this armoire. The dimensions are 30" wide and 62" tall. I am not sure how deep.
So I would be growing my auto's on the bottom and top depending how many I have. After the autos are done I would be left with my one/two mother plants. The armoire will be divided in half to have two growing areas that are 31" tall. (could make one larger or smaller to accommodate if needed) The auto's will definitely fit in that space even with the lights in there.
Is that enough room to house a mother on top and clones on the bottom you think?

Obviously I would be removing all but one of the shelves, maybe putting in a custom shelf or two to allow for adjustable lighting.
 

Sailor Jerry

Well-Known Member
what are you going to use for lights?

I'd remove all the shelves and hang a 400w hps in there. Id use the top shelf to store my ballast, and Id figure out a way to have a vent fan for your light rigged into some type of filter to cool your cab and filter the air at the same time and discretely blow the air out of the top.

Id rig some kind of stealth air intake system into the bottom of the cabinet to bring cool air inside without allowing light to exit.

Check out this thread for ideas on how to rig the lights.

https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/49801-homemade-cool-tube-cab.html

Its similarly sized to your cabinet.

I guess the best advice i can offer is to set it up and grow some plants in there. then take a shit load of pics and post them here and tell everyone how you did it.
 

fabfun

New Member
what are you going to use for lights?

I'd remove all the shelves and hang a 400w hps in there. Id use the top shelf to store my ballast, and Id figure out a way to have a vent fan for your light rigged into some type of filter to cool your cab and filter the air at the same time and discretely blow the air out of the top.

Id rig some kind of stealth air intake system into the bottom of the cabinet to bring cool air inside without allowing light to exit.

Check out this thread for ideas on how to rig the lights.

https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/49801-homemade-cool-tube-cab.html

Its similarly sized to your cabinet.

I guess the best advice i can offer is to set it up and grow some plants in there. then take a shit load of pics and post them here and tell everyone how you did it.

wow u got him all squared away great post now i dont need to post lol
 

SwaggerJacker

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the replies. The only difference is that I will still be using CFLs for my second grow. Everything else though was really helpful! Ill post something up when I have something up and running.
 

massah

Well-Known Member
When you mention having a mother and autos they don't really exist. Autos are from seed only as they will "automatically" go into flower, so you cant keep a mother of them. If you plan on converting from doing autos to a regular strain then yeah you'll be able to keep a mother up top, and using CFL's in this situation would severely reduce your heat footprint, but to get a good yield you are going to need quite a few of them.

With a cab this size you can definately use the top for a mom and cuttings then migrate the cuttings once they have rooted and grown up a bit to the flowering area down bottom. If you don't want to use LST/SCROG/ETC methods of training a plant into the space you have you can not give the cuttings much of a veg period and just throw them straight into 12/12 to start flowering soon and just keep the cycle going. You'll have smaller plants, and smaller yields, but a constant supply of a rotating crop from the mom.

Depending on how stealthy you need this to be you can monitor the temps in each cabinet and drill exhaust holes in the back and mount PC fans to extract the hot air at the top of each section if you end up having a heat issue. I would also line the inside of it with white plastic and create an overlap so when you close the doors in the front you don't have any light leaks. You will probably also have to put some sort of weather stripping or something on front of the middle board that sections off the top from the bottom to keep light from penetrating down from the veg area.

Good luck! I wish I had such a box to work with :D
 

SwaggerJacker

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the in depth response.
When you mention having a mother and autos they don't really exist
I see the confusion in what I said. I meant have photos and autos together. When the autos finish, keep the photos in veg and start cloning.

Definitely seems like a good cab the only problem I am wondering about is that I found out the depth is only 23.5 inches deep. Which means the max size pot I could probably use would be like 2 gallons maybe to fit my optimum number of plants.
 

ChairmanMaow

Active Member
Maybe you should look into my grow. I'm using a space pretty similar, managed 4 oz off of 7 plants last round, expecting to double it this time (more knowledge, better grow)
 

SwaggerJacker

Well-Known Member
So I am quickly approaching flowering time for my autos, in fact I have one confirmed female(early bloomers I guess).
I found a different grow cab I will most likely be buying on craigslist. I have some questions about air circulation though.
Would a bunch of small holes in the bottom of the cab, with a 20" box fan or maybe two 10" box fans blowing air out of the top or back be enough to circulate fresh air? I would probably have a mini fan or two inside the box as well?
 

fabfun

New Member
if mounted right should do it but depends on size of cabinet
always have fans at highest point
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Looking good - now you have to decide a couple of things.

BEFORE YOU START TO CRAFT THE CABINET INTO A GROW ROOM ASK YOURSELF THESE KEY QUESTIONS:

1. What are the dimensions of the closet? L-W-H
2. Is this going to be a veg AND flower cabinet or just one of the two?
3. Does the room the cabinet is in have sufficient ventilation to exhaust the smell? It WILL reak up your house eventually if not.
4. What kind of plants do you want? Do you want 1 or 2 giant 5-6 footers? Or would you like 4-6 lil 3 footers (using a dual shelf technique)

After you answer all of these questions and you have an idea of what and how you want to grow - check this out. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/472671-entertainment-center-stealth-scrog-journal.html

Same type of thing as you except mine was a 4x chamber entertainment system and I had to gut it out to make it 1 room.
 

TinyGrow

Active Member
Maybe you should look into my grow. I'm using a space pretty similar, managed 4 oz off of 7 plants last round, expecting to double it this time (more knowledge, better grow)

Word. Same here - I got an oz off of 1 3 foot plant grown with CFLs. Now I have 6 bad girls that look to be about an oz and a half each. The first grow always sucks harvest wise, but the second usually doubles the first :)
 

SwaggerJacker

Well-Known Member
Word. Same here - I got an oz off of 1 3 foot plant grown with CFLs. Now I have 6 bad girls that look to be about an oz and a half each. The first grow always sucks harvest wise, but the second usually doubles the first :)
Ill have to check out your grow, hopefully I can double mine!

I definitely want to evolve in to having a mother plant/clones one day but have been working with autos for now. Definitely been thinking about the 4 points you listed. I have two photos and 4 female autos as of right now. Still waiting to sex 4 more plants. The problem I am having now is that I am running out of time, have maybe 1/2 a week before they are too big for the tub they are in. Hopefully I will have something going asap, I will definitely post up what I make when its done!
 
Top