ambr0sia's DIY 2x150W Mountaintop Medicine Cabinet

ambr0sia · Nov 5, 2008

Just wrapped up 95% of my cab construction this weekend, and thought that in honor of my first plant's flip to flower I'd share my progress with all the fine folks who made this possible. I'll just keep the rambling down and let the pictures speak for themselves - If you have any questions, just ask!

Special thanks to Pipedream, sugabear_II, Quazi, hoosierdaddy, Cozy Amnesia, Bulénath and the rest of the 150W crew!

(note: You'll notice there isn't much in the way of cooling for my 2x150W HPS in the flower side; Missing from the picture is the fan I've got mounted to the left side of the cab, blowing across them and the top of the plants; While this is sufficient to keep temperatures at 78F or so, a more permanent "cool box" solution is in the works)

A work in progress

(Mostly) completed, up and running!

RGD Pheno #1's first day in flower

Veggin' under 6x23W 6500k CFLs

The ventilation room; The Can33 is weatherstripped around the rim and held flush and tight against the Vortex 6" for a tight, duct-free seal.

Another veg shot

RGD Pheno #2; This is the one was my first shot at LST, which failed about as miserably as it could have; The main stem snapped about 4 nodes down, giving me an unintentionally super-topped plant. The shock kept it from growing much for about a week, but it's about as bushy as I could ever want. Still unsexed, though I hope the stress doesn't encourage it to grow balls.

RGD Pheno #2 closeup

The clone borne of my RGD Pheno #2 misadventure. All trimmed up and showing new growth!

Emma, my Purple Kush clone and only verified female; should be flipping in about a month

Another shot of Emma

ambr0sia · Nov 5, 2008

RGD Pheno #1, my most vigorous plant and first to flip.. Pleaseopleaseoplease be a girl!

Some LST porn on RGD Pheno #1 for y'all:

Quazi · Nov 5, 2008

BOUT TIME

BOUT TIME

Man, it's about time you got this thread started.

Nice to finally see this thing online. It's been a heck of a journey hasn't it?

Tagged, of course :wink:

You should get some pics of the cabinet, in it's entirety, with the doors open. The pics here don't do the size of it justice. Plants look amazing man.

:lurk:

-Q

colorfullyben · Nov 5, 2008

Neat!

By the way, does a single blower really keep the flowering room temperature around 78F?

ambr0sia · Nov 5, 2008

colorfullyben said:
Neat!

By the way, does a single blower really keep the flowering room temperature around 78F?

Not a blower but a 6" 449cfm Vortex inline fan; It manages to keep temperatures within 4 degrees of ambient at less than half power. My hope is this excess power will help me manage temperatures when it starts warming up a bit in spring and summer...

ambr0sia · Nov 9, 2008

Quick update sans pictures, which will be following shortly. RGD Pheno #1, my first to flower, turned out to be a bouncing baby boy; He's getting pulled here shortly, and in the meantime I've moved over RGD Pheno #2 (which I also have my doubts about since it's accidental super-topping; Is it true stress induces males?) and Emma the Purple Kush, my one and only verified girl. Clones were taken of both on their way in, which should be ready to rotate in in about a month. Emma was about 12" tall just before she flipped (what a stretcher!), so I went ahead and LST'd the tip down after transplanting to a bigger pot; Should be interesting to see how she responds!

Quazi · Nov 9, 2008

Sorry to hear about the nuts.

:badday:

I'm sending good vibes for the other RGD! Otherwise, you might have some breeding in your future :wink:

-Q :rasta:

ambr0sia · Nov 9, 2008

Quazi said:
I'm sending good vibes for the other RGD! Otherwise, you might have some breeding in your future :wink:

Thanks for the kind thoughts Quazi; Since RGD isn't available anymore and is in and of itself some pretty amazing genetics, I'm half-tempted to let this boy flower out long enough to pollinate the PK that's in there; I don't doubt that it'd make an excellent cross. I'm fine with the decreased yield that breeding would cause, but I'm sure there are other adverse effects I'm not thinking of.

I know it'd be smarter to grow the boy out in a separate area, collect the pollen, and apply it on a bud-by-bud basis, but I don't have the extra space, time, or cash to build up a whole new cab.

FreezerBoy · Nov 10, 2008

Quazi said:
You should get some pics of the cabinet, in it's entirety, with the doors open.

Cab Porn! We want Cab Porn!

Either you got some good advice or you just know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. That's a nice lookin' box. Happy plants, too! Way to go!

ambr0sia · Nov 17, 2008

And so it goes.... It seems RGD was never meant to be. Of the five seeds I purchased, 3 sprouted: 1 died off as a sproutling, and as of today not one both both of the remaining plants have been culled as males. I decided against keeping one around to pollinate the upcoming run of Ambrosia; No need to go complicating my first grow any more than it needs to be.

Onward with some freshy pics:

An exciting new addition to my genetic slurry - Afgooey!

Overflow PK clone from a friend's cab, freshly trained and headed directly into flower.

Two freshly LST'd Purple Kush gals on their 1st and 5th days of flower, respectively.

The utility room, by special request. It does look like quite a mess from this angle, but scout's honor everything electrical is strain-relieved and up off the ground and securely zip-tied up - Surprisingly, it's an incredible pain in the ass to get work in a tall, narrow space like this with the sort of tools you'd need to run the wires along the walls a bit more neatly. Something I'll certainly be re-considering in v2.

ambr0sia · Nov 24, 2008

Ladies and gentlemen... We have buds! :jump:

As you can see, Emma the Purple Kush has been busy this week - Who knew 7 days could make such a difference?
Emma also has another PK chamber-mate, but she's not pictured this time around as she looks about the same Emma did last week. More on her shortly

One quick peek in on the two PKs and fledgling Afgooey in veg to top off this week's update.

Quazi · Nov 24, 2008

Woot!

You're gonna have a cabinet full of frost in no time!

Plants look real nice man.

-Q :rasta:

ambr0sia · Nov 28, 2008

Quazi said:
You're gonna have a cabinet full of frost in no time!

Plants look real nice man.

Thanks Quazi - I've got a new update in the pipes, should be posted within the next day or two; I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised.. :smoke:

Bulénath · Nov 28, 2008

You are doing a great job!

Your plants look super healthy and beautiful! Not many people achieve such nice looking plants right off the bat!

Looking foward to following it :rasta:

BigBlack81 · Nov 28, 2008

Fine work sir. Proof that a good smart cab can be built for such a purpose. I'm thinking of mimicking your layout for making my cab from scratch so what would you change about the utility room if you had to do it again? Crudely drawn diagrams help a stoner/potential grower like me but your descriptions have been spot on so any help will be much obliged.

Looking forward to the bud porn. Cheers.

BL4ZE20 · Nov 28, 2008

Cab looks good man and Emma looks like she will be some nice smoke! Can't wait to see her fill out.
I'll be watching this grow.

ambr0sia · Nov 28, 2008

BigBlack81 said:
what would you change about the utility room if you had to do it again?

My original plan called for putting the utility room where I currently have ventilation and vice versa:

The only reason I didn't end up doing this is the combined problems of wider than spec'd Vortex 6" and mis-calculated vent room width. The only place I could even fit the fan / filter combo was in what I'd planned on being my utility room. I really like the ductless Filter > Fan joint the space inspired:

...but the overwhelming and consistent practical pain having a tall, narrow utility room creates makes me wish it'd worked out as intentionally planned.

BigBlack81 · Nov 29, 2008

More dumb questions and a lot more props!

1. Love your design schematic; it gives me the layout I want for mine with one exception. I'd keep the narrow utility room and adjust the width of the area by about 6-10 inches, allowing me more width to better space and route my cabes/boxes/dials/etc. How did you seal the joints on your panels and such in construction?

2. I'm planning on using a passive hydro system with small yet deep tubs for flowering and want to know if you could construct your lighting setup as in the schematic on light movers on both sides to setup a natural slant for the plants to grow as vertical as possible with a perpetual moving and shifting of the posts through the weeks of the cycle.

3. What would you change about the fan/filter combo if you did it over again in the fabrication phase? I see you like that can combo and I'm thinking for the way you have this box routed it's the easiest way to vent stealthily but I want to improve it and streamline the straight bends on the far side. I'd like to route it out the side of the utility space covered by a darkroom louver and reduced down by a duct. Any comments?

And again, for suffering my long windedness, I salute you. It's just that your cab is so well thought out that I want to mimic it and improve upon the basic idea.

aeburnside · Nov 29, 2008

great looking cab ambr0sia!!

Bulénath · Nov 30, 2008

BigBlack81 said:
More dumb questions and a lot more props!

1. Love your design schematic; it gives me the layout I want for mine with one exception. I'd keep the narrow utility room and adjust the width of the area by about 6-10 inches, allowing me more width to better space and route my cabes/boxes/dials/etc. How did you seal the joints on your panels and such in construction?

2. I'm planning on using a passive hydro system with small yet deep tubs for flowering and want to know if you could construct your lighting setup as in the schematic on light movers on both sides to setup a natural slant for the plants to grow as vertical as possible with a perpetual moving and shifting of the posts through the weeks of the cycle.

3. What would you change about the fan/filter combo if you did it over again in the fabrication phase? I see you like that can combo and I'm thinking for the way you have this box routed it's the easiest way to vent stealthily but I want to improve it and streamline the straight bends on the far side. I'd like to route it out the side of the utility space covered by a darkroom louver and reduced down by a duct. Any comments?

And again, for suffering my long windedness, I salute you. It's just that your cab is so well thought out that I want to mimic it and improve upon the basic idea.

1) White Caulk.

2) A light mover wouldn't fit in such a small grow...They are more for commercial use...
Infact, unless you are plainly growing in a room, not a box, there is little to no need for light movers.

3) Here is a Hint that may or may not help...You can also use 180 degrees of PVC under each hole in the floor to act as a light trap for the intake..

Although Ambrosia did a great job on cabinet construction, keep in mind light proofing each chamber from the next is a very hard task when you have two light cycles in one cabinet. You will need to put much thought and work into your cabinet design, and it must be quite a work of craftsmanship for it to work without makign the plants go Hermie, toward the end of what wil be the MOST dissapointing grow ever...
So I cannot stress Cabinet design enough in this case...
And the only reason why I am saying this, is because I can not picture myself being abe to construct a cabinet so perfectly desgind as Ambr0sia's, when I was a Newbie making many unforseen newbie mistakes, all while having to constantly redesign my cabinet because of these mistakes.

Ambr0sia's cabinet is quite the exception for (what I believe to be) one of his first, if not the first, indoor grow...

ambr0sia's DIY 2x150W Mountaintop Medicine Cabinet

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