starting with my new grow room

hey guys

without repeating myself with another introductory post I will just go right into it

I had a CFL grow that failed (my own stupidity) and now I will be attempting an HID grow on a budget (aren't we all). I'm an economist by qualification (some may argue born that way) so I wanted to maximise the lumens, minimise the temperature fluctuations and do it with as little money spent. The idea being on the next grow I would then be able to purchase better equipment with the harvest funds.

I used a larger cupboard in my CFL grow but I'm thinking the smaller cupboard will assist with containing lumens- I only intend to grow one plant.

The whole process started towards the end of last year and the first point of call was the ballasts. I managed to purchase three second hand High Beam lights for R450 (thats Rands, divide by 10 to get dollars or euros- yes my currency is weak!). I thought it was a good deal, came with three ballasts and three aluminium reflectors (which I will be using for other lighting requirements) and three MH bulbs.

Onto the reflector, given its a small area, 620mm x 550mm (2ft x 1.8ft maybe) I wanted to have a customised air cooled reflector since an off the shelf air cooled unit costs R3000- I wasn't prepaid to spend that much money, infact I would like to keep the total build cost well under that figure. Also at the risk of stating the obvious and air cooled reflector would assist with reducing temperature fluctuations. Moreover in my view the reflector is the most important bit of my grow cupboard, so I had to go about about it reasonably carefully and not rush to get it done.

The first component, the glass, was easy to source and I managed to get it for free, it was treated to handle the heat the HID bulbs will emit- that was the easy part.

After some brief incomplete research I decided to use stainless steel for the reflective bit. Having read a few posts the general feeling I got is that it is a good material to use but generally expensive.

I struggled to find professional fabricators but I managed to get a quote of around R1400 for a customised unit. Nothing terribly fancy but I couldn't find anyone to actually do it (service is extremely poor in this country). After struggling for three months I stumbled across a fabricator while driving to another one, stopped, asked the guy if he could make one and he said no problem, 20 minutes later and at a cost of R200 I was a happy customer with my new stainless steel reflector! The total cost to date for my aircooled reflector is now R200!

This is how it currently looks, the bulb is mounted with double sided tape and resting on the adaptor plug just for illustrative purposes. I will take other pics of the reflector but you can see the top is angled downwards so it has an upside down W shape. The reflector is not perfect and was a thumb suck but I'm hoping it will do the job well given that I spent very little on it.






And that is sort of where I am now with my grow room. The next stage is to make 6" holes on the sides and install a 6" extractor fan with the necessary ducting. It sounds simple but I live in an apartment complex, have no tools here and I wish to minimise the dust as it is literally in my bedroom. A 6" hole saw would be perfect but I don't think they make them that size, the biggest I can find is 3".

Some points to note at this stage

* I will not be using the bulb in the picture, I will be buying a clear tubular MH bulb (R350). I already bought a 400w HPS bulb for R80!
* The ballast is 10m away, the power cable cost R130! over half the cost of the reflector itself.
* I will be using new extractor fans, they cost about R300 each
* Ducting will pose some problems in terms of getting it out of my bedroom and still looking inconspicuous.
* Once done everything will be sealed with weather strips around the edges.
* Total cost of my build so far is R860.

The main stumbling block at this point is the cupboard wall on the right, as you can see it is cherry brown, the back wall is actually concrete so that may also assist with cooling (in winter). I do not want to paint it so I will have to cover it with some white hardboard (not sure what they call it elsewhere but its like very thin flexible processed wood).

But first things first.... I need to get the 6" holes to keep the reflector cool.

Hey dude great job! You could grow some great weed with 250w in that space, 400w will grow some awesome buds!

Hole saws do come in 6' so maybe try ebay.

Thanks man, the fabrication of the reflector was my main stumbling block but I think things should move faster now, its been six or so months just to get to this point.

I'm actually thinking I should first get the extractor fan before actually making any holes.

I'm considering this one

http://www.eurolux.co.za/fittingsproductdetail.php?fit_id=2266&opt_id=3535&tag_id=1

Just waiting for quotes to arrive but I'm expecting to pay around R300 ( $30) for a unit. Note this is specifically for the bulb itself and not for the grow area.

Another pic of the reflector and the ballasts I purchased for R450.

okay service where I live is extremely terrible but I made some more progress today

Over the past week I've been searching for a 6" hole saw but these things are extremely expensive, R550, this is more than the extractor fan I was wanting to buy at R300. I decided to then reduce the fan to 4" and save some money as this is a budget build.

As a result I bought this, a 4" extractor fan, 70m3/h. Note this is for the reflector and not the grow area. I paid R280 for it bringing my running total to R1200 for the entire build to date.

In the coming week I will get a hole saw and cut some holes and mount the extractor fan. Attached is a dry fit of it, I'm glad I bought the 4" actually as its a perfect fit.

I will probably get another 4" fan for the grow area and then run the exhaust ducting from the grow area into the intake of the reflector, I'm not sure if this is wise though but time will tell.

I started growing some bag seed, started with the germination process on the 31st May and 18 days later we are now here. I am currently using a 85w CFL on a 20 hour cycle until the end of the month then I will switch to a 400w MH. I think by the end of the month the third set of leaves would have started to appear. The one in the background I germinated a week later than the three in the foreground.

I'm hoping that out of the four I will have at least one female.

okay guys some comments will be appreciated and thanks in advance

this seedling is now approximately two weeks since germination, compared to the other seedlings which are a week older this one seems to be acting strangely, leaves are folded etc

this is bag seed

should I discard or give it some more time? its under a 85w CFL

okay day 22 since germination and I decided to take the plunge with the HID. Those with eagle eyes may note the bulb is a white coated metal halide. This is a bulb I got with the ballasts I purchased so I figured if I am losing intensity thats a good thing for now as the seedlings were under an 85w CFL before, in the week I will purchase a clear bulb and install it.

The nice thing about this cupboard is that because of the shelving mounting points, I can actually raise or lower the plants as opposed to moving the light, so at the moment they are about half way up the cupboard.

I am also venting straight back into the room, this is because the ambient temperature is well under 20 degrees, if it heats up I will just extend the ducting to my bathroom where there is another extractor. There is no intake yet, I am hoping to solve that together with my light issues, for now I am simply opening the doors every hour or so when I check the temperature inside.

The hole in the top is the exhaust for the grow area, I'll be purchasing the extractor fan in the week if required, otherwise I will simply put a flange there with ducting connect it straight into the intake of the reflector.

As you can see, tons of light leaks, but given that these are seedlings I still have a few weeks to address that. The problem seedling looks to be growing so maybe it will grow out of its problems but for now there is no harm in seeing what will happen before disposing of it.

At the moment I'm just hoping one of these plants is female.

Just be very careful you don't start a fire running mh or hps lights in that small of an area it's going to get unbelievably hot.... When I was first starting out a long time ago, I was living in a small apartment. I bought a very large fridge, gutted it put an adjustable 400 hps cool tube in the top intake and exhaust fans and a carbon filter... Used to pull 300 grams of primo out of that fridge every 2 and a half months was a bitch to keep cool though... Might be an idea for you...

Thanks for looking at my thread and posting the valuable comment.

Yeah I am very mindful of fires, the extractor fan I have installed is specifically to cool that bulb, at the moment temperatures in the grow area is around 24 degrees. If you are saying your cooltube posed problems with heating then I probably have to get another fan tomorrow. The glass is pretty hot and I think its because the elliptical bulb is hindering air flow so I will need to get a tubular bulb soon together with an extra fan.

I have to run a few errands tomorrow, purchase duct tap, bulb, another extractor fan, make flanges and get a thermometer to place in the reflector so I will probably let the CFL run for that period incase something were to happen.

In the few hours I have had this bulb on the plants they have reacted very well.

Sorry buddy I made a mistake I thought you said you were upgrading to a metal halide... Cfl should pose no problems heat wise and 24 degrees is fine... Sorry again...

yeah I did upgrade to the metal halide I was running the CFL for the first three weeks so far but will switch again when I leave the flat tomorrow just so that they have light, when I come back from my errands I will put the metal halide back on them.

I managed to get a clear tubular light this afternoon, the coated eliptical one I sensed was not really heat efficient.

Its now day four (day 25 from germination) that the plants are under the MH and they have responded well. The tubular bulb made no difference to the heating, infact it runs hotter but temps in the grow area is stable at around 27 degrees.

okay day 31

All seedlings are now in their final containers. I have also added an extractor fan to the grow area and connected it to the intake of the air cooled reflector. As you can see the plants are quite close to the 400 MH bulb and this is because the temps are not that high, at around 28 degrees. I will trim the ducting once I commit to the layout. The exhaust ducting of the reflector is going to my bathroom which has its own extractor leading to the building's ducting system.

So far I am confident of no fires breaking out suddenly, I've been running the MH bulb for a week and at this point I think I've been pretty careful with all the connections I've made, but in saying that I keep my excursions out of my flat to a minimum.

okay things are extremely slow

day 47 now but I've persisted with this grow since its just a test run.

For the past two weeks I've been giving them nutrients and they have reacted well, all the plants seem to be growing at about 1cm a day, or just under a half inch.

The two in the green pots I will most likely replace with two other seeds I've germinated since they are growing at a much slower rate than the two in the brown pots. Maybe the two in the green pots are female? Anyway I will make a decision in about two weeks, hopefully by then there will be signs of preflowering.

LOL, wow I just had to closest encounter ever

So I've been living in my single bed flat for three years, its an open plan living area with bathroom and bedroom.

For the three and a bit years I've been here no officials or any unwelcome people have invaded my privacy... until today!

So I started my grow two months back. And today I get a knock on the door. As usual I removed the ducting running into the bathroom and closed the bedroom door before I opened the door, this takes 10 seconds at most.

I open the door and it turns out to be the chairman of the building (I'm good friends with him) and an official from the local municipality! They are going to all the units to check if anyone is running businesses in the apartments (which are designated residential).

I show him the living area which one can see from the door and then he requests to see the bathroom. At this point I must say I just watered my plants and they were on the floor of my bedroom so my heart skips a beat because if he asks to see the bedroom I'm screwed! Anyway he looks at the bathroom and as I want to open the bedroom door in anticipation he responds "its fine" and they leave.

I suspect given my willingness to co-operate he assumed nothing would be happening in the bedroom although if I was him I would question why the bedroom door was closed but anyway I'm here to tell the tale which is the good thing out of this.

How hot does it get in there? Plants look really small could be heat stress..

thankz for the comment Mr moonshine, yes they are really small but its not hot, thermometer shows around 24 degrees. Where I stay its the middle of winter and the back wall of the cupboard is concrete, so I think the environment is pretty much controlled. I can place my hand on the reflector glass and it doesn't burn as well.

Its sort of day 48 now, initially they were growing very slowly, but after I started giving them nutrients at around day 30 and moved them closer to the light, they all of a sudden started shooting. The two largest plants are now growing at around 1cm (half an inch) a day, in fact the one grew by more than that in the past 24 hours.

The smaller plants developed much bigger leaves and are also starting to visibly grow, but I haven't measured their height yet.

okay day 53 and I think one plant is showing signs of entering preflowering. I think I see signs that its a female with two tentacles protruding to the left of the stem in the center.