(( LoKey's 1020 tray, 161w cfl micro closet cab ))

(Latest run starts on page 9)


hi y'all, been lurking for awhile, sucking up all the information on this site like a sponge with a grain of salt here and there of course.

But figured it was time to post something of my own, the title more or less say's it all.

This is oh about my sixth iteration of some form of grow cab over the last year or so (6 you say yeah obviously some of them never got a grow in them due to various reasons) but hey i like to build also might be a bit crazy but who isnt.

I came to this design after having a couple big cabs that were obviously way to huge for my needs, to the last box which was more or less a NGB style box, which worked awesome, but i wanted something even smaller, but a bit bigger than a standard pc just cause i find multiple really small plants can be a pain to maintain.

My requirements were it needed to be stealth, (quite, little smell, and not blazing obvious), able to be tucked away in a closet in a certain way, and used a standard 1020 nursery tray as its main flower holder (as there are a plethora of pre-made containers out there that are designed to fit them)

As for yield really doesn't matter with me as im the occasional smoker/edible consumer, and i mean like maybe once a month (really Mabey once a month if that) but i love the growing aspect behind the hobby of nurturing and caring for something through its life cycle (Just to chop it off at its ankles and dry it out like a mummy )

But this is what i came up with.

Its outside dimensions are 22"wide x 12" thick x 42" tall and was made out of a full 4x8 sheet of crappy 1/2" plywood.






Its sectioned into three compartments just like a NGB box just different layout, we have the main flowering chamber on the bottom which very snugly fits a 1020 tray (had to fold down the corners to fit it length wise) but its dimensions are right around 11"x21" with 24" from the bottom of the tray to the lexan so looking a about 1.6sqft but only 1.3sqft due to the usable space of the tray (so might be able to throw pics into the 1sqft challenge thread, would love too as i wanted to be 1.5sqft and under just for that purpose, but needed the extra 1/2" to fit the tray better)

Its lighted by 7 23w cfl's, right now i have a mix spectrum as i just feel it grows heather plants (note i said feel not know) but whatever, all the lights are behind lexan in more or less a self made cool hood and are exhausted by a 92mm pc fan (zalman zm-f2) reason i did this was because in the past just having un hooded/tubed bulbs it typically cause my temps to be a bit more than my liking so opted for the cool tube setup this time.




Next we have the mother/seed starter/clone section, it measures 11"x13"x13" tall which if you were counting (i know you weren't but that would make the cool tube 3" thick) and will conveniently fit one of those jiffy half trays if i wanted but it has a single socket in it (use to have three) but i figured it was definitely over-kill with the amount of light there could be in it vs the passive cooling, so i bumped it down to one socket and currently have just a single 13w 6500k bulb in there, which should be enough as everything is within 12" (furthest corner) or under from the light, and if not ill just throw a 23watter in there.



Eventually ill make my own LED array ala knna style and will do the mother chamber first, but thats down the road.

Finally we have the utility room its house's all the electronics, fans, and carbonfilter, so it has a power bar with two timers and and a wall wart hidden behind the carbon filter for the fans.
But anyways the farback corner is made into a chimney with some 1/8" plywood, and the cool tube fan is mounted right to the roof with in the "chimney", due to its whole thermodynamic chimney effect of hot air rising from the cool tube it actually passively circulates its own air without the fan on, enough so that you can feel the air going into the intake but i have a fan there just to make it run even cooler. right beside it i have a second 92mm fan which draws air through a scrubber and out the top.
And right near the front on the left side i have a mini chimney that comes from the flower chamber which is only there to allow air passage from the flower chamber up into the utility box so it can be scrubbed while bypassing the "cool tube"


But other than all that, i have outfitted the flower chamber with some mylar from some $1.50 safety blanket using some spray adhesive (im not worried about the wrinkles), and a keyed lock, as for light traps and its intake, the flower chambers intake is two plastic 12"x6" heating duct exhaust covers which the inside was spray painted flat black and were screw on the out and inside with the angle of the vents facing the same direction thus creating a V airpath and some loose air filter material in between also painted black (not the paper air filter stuff but the cheap stranded fiberglass stuff), the cool tube has 2 2.5" 90 degree pvc elbows and the mother chamber has one 2" elbow with another 2" elbow going through the wall to the utility section inside the cab.

Its not completely light proof but after i throw some black nylon on the elbows and with the closet door open only 2" it covers direct eye contact with the intakes anyways, so unless someone is fumbling around in the room with the lights off and the lights in the cab are on (which they run during the day anyways so it only visible later in the evening) then they wont even notice.

pheww long winded

but if you made it this far the first run in this cab will be mainly for seeds as then i have plenty of backups later if i need/want to shut it down, But i currently have 3 mandala safari mix going (freebies, which i don't really care about getting seeds from unless something special comes out of them) there in the orange containers on the left, in the center i popped 4 mandala #1, and on the side i have 4 more Jamil Sayyida by Karma Genetics (yes i know its and outdoor strain but i had to get some because i like ebse work alot and it was the only seeds at the time i could get with some of his work mixed in not to mention karma produces some great stuff to boot, also its a perfect strain for my latitude as well if/when i want to do some outdoor plants).


But i plan on updating weekly, and will running a small micro sog setup so stay tuned.

....


edit: (instead of doing attachments i went the album route)

Nice clean setup LoKey.. tagged!

Looks great. Just one question. Where did you get that lock? That's the kind I've been hunting.

Looks good, but youll def want more light in the mother/clone/seedling room maybe 2 23w bulbs. Oh and if you have a cool tube in the flowering chamber why not go to 42w cfls? or maybe everyother one a 42w. You definetaly need more light as you also cant lower the light down to the plants. With cfls you want them withing 2-4in away, 6 at most, as after that the light deminishes very fast.

bob - you can pick them up easily at any hardware store (casa de pot)

king - im gonna see how the 13w handles as in the past i have always had more than enough light in my mother sections so worst come to worst i get some lanky slower growing plants (even though on average they will only be in there for a max of about 2 weeks) as for the 42w i had a bunch of 23w kicking around so i used them and i would have to redo the socket mounting to fit the 42's (which isnt a problem) but have grown fine on 23watters in the past in similar configuration so it will be fine, plus i can always raise the plants closer to the light when there starting out in flower.

Im more of an efficiency nut than a power nut, as i would rather get the most i can from the least amount of watts than to just throw in more light/wattage than needed, thus why ill be going LED in the future.

Right now my cab consumes (well if i had the flowering section on) approximately 2.4kWh per day (light, fans, everything) and i will eventually be doing a perpetual sog with about 8-10 plants, my achievable goal just to throw a number out there (which im not expecting to do so, as it really doesnt matter, cause anything grown is a bonus in my mind, and is something you didnt have before or would of needed to pay money for it anyways) But it is to achieve 1gram per 1kWh used which would work out to be about 72g a month, but like i said if i hit it eventually then sweet, if i don't oh well, im here for the experience and knowledge gained with the bonus of having a little something something that i can smoke or eat in the end

Well here is an updated pic of the little ones

Ill call this Week 1 - Day 7



for a recap as i moved some things around, but we have some mandala safari mix's in the orange 3.25" pots beside some Jamil Sayyida in the smaller 2.5" square pots, with some mandala #1 in the black 3.25" pots, im gonna leave them for another week and probably throw them into flower, but we will see, so far the single 13w is doing pretty good

Now i might as well talk about my medium and plan.

My medium is basically a LC soiless mix which in mine is composed of peat, ewc, perlite, local compost, and amended with some dolomite lime, kelp granules, bone meal, and alfalfa for nitrogen.

The plan is to have a pre-fertilized organic soil for the length of the grow where ill only have to water, now im slightly expecting some deficiencies later on just because this mix isn't very strict on ratios just cause i had some pre mixed lc mix kicking around that was a bit on the hot side but i added in alot of peat for a seedling starter mix for the garden, so right now i have an unknown ratio of the components, but we will see how this does, and ill make a better mix later.

A note to mention is the tap water around here is typically between 7.9-8.3pH, and i have run into problems in the past due to not knowing that and using small containers that weren't amended with lime.


So effectively im just trying to have a super easy K.I.S.S. method about this, instead of worrying about pH, ppm, Lucas formulas, ect ect. So at most i might make up a compost/ewc tea now and then.


For containers ill be using 10 2liter soda bottles, the reason for them instead of say your standard 5"x5" square nursery pot, is i can fit 2 more "pots" into my cab/1020 tray, and they hold the same volume of soil, just with about 2" more height, plus there easily available (the 5" square pots are actually hard to find locally unless im buying bulk or buying plants that come in one).

Now i can fit 24 710ml bottles in there ala dr.bud style, and have done so in the past (different cab), but have gone to the bigger containers for the fact that i wont have to water the plants everyday, and the buffer zone for not watering/ph issues ect is a bit bigger for when those mistakes/problems come along.

So i might initially be dealing with height problems due to the soil volume being 4 times the size as the smaller bottles but im pretty sure ill get it dialed in over time, plus have grown in 2liter bottles before just not to completion

Well ended up transplanting them all into bigger containers monday (all are in 2 liters except for the safari mix's which are in 24oz bottles) also put them into the flowering chamber under 12/12, there slowly getting bigger but i expect them to start increasing their pace soon as there roots are just starting to take hold again due to how they were transplanted.

But ill take a photo sunday just so the picture sequence flows at regular intervals, plus its night time for them right now anyways

Good work, well build cab man!

hgl said:

Good work, well build cab man!

Click to expand...

thanks




also took a better shot of the full cab so you can see the utility room, pardon the crappy sealing/taping job on the carbon filter, not alot of room in there.

But i just replaced the pic in the first post for the better one

good luck man and ima keep watch

Well now were at day 14, but first week of 12/12

haven't done anything to them this week other than transplanting and giving them one light watering right at the beginning, but they really started to take off the last 2 days, as the roots are now taking over, alot of them have already hit the bottom in the 2liters, and are just branching out now

here is a shot of all of them in the cab, i raised them all up closer to the lights and they will remain there for about another week then ill drop them to the floor, but anyways the Mandala #1 are the far left 4, middle 4 is the jamil sayyida, and the three on the right in the cut down 24oz bottles are the mandala safari mix's

good job on that cab, hope it serves you well. I had to shut down my grow since we are selling our house and getting ready to move. But once we do get moved I plan on getting a perpetual SOG going and this cab is pretty much exactly what I am going to build. Hope that Mandala 1 work for you, that is one the strains I am looking at getting. Happy gardneing!

lookin good bro. keep up the work and cant wait to see wat the buds look like

thanks TexMex & ninjacorey, im sure this cab will serve me well, and im also interested in how the mandala 1 will turn out, as i wanted some plants with a good portion of sativa in them, cause i rather be up and about then being glued to a chair/couch like the heavy indica's cause, but also when you harvest does play a big part as well

LoKey said:

thanks TexMex & ninjacorey, im sure this cab will serve me well, and im also interested in how the mandala 1 will turn out, as i wanted some plants with a good portion of sativa in them, cause i rather be up and about then being glued to a chair/couch like the heavy indica's cause, but also when you harvest does play a big part as well

Click to expand...

its all about thee harvest. u can have the best weed ever grown but u fuck up the harvest ( drying and curing ) and the shitest weed could beat it lol

I cant wate to see how this turns out in the end. cuz I was planning on trying a sog grow for my next grow and will be watching this one for sure.

so what hight do u plan on fliping then to 12-12.

1bc.

OOOO I just notest that they r at day 14 of 12-12.

Very Nice setup. Have fun

#1cheesebuds said:

OOOO I just notest that they r at day 14 of 12-12.

Click to expand...

actually only 7days, so far, they had a week under 13w cfl in the mother chamber

also decided to throw them down on the floor of the cab today (should probably wait till next week but whatever), but did it to start inducing a bit of stretch cause there growing pretty compact (well so far, plus i know its a little early for all that anyways as there just trying to make roots still)

Plus this run is just mainly for seeds (will be doing target pollination for the majority of the lower buds) and finding some good mothers, the plan is to let them grow and probably at about 3 weeks ill be able to grab a couple axial shoots from lower down to use as clones, and ill be revegging all the ladies at the end as well, and after giving some of top unpollinated buds some cure time ill decide on what to keep and what to grow out but not keep or have a mother plant for, as by the time i have a good cure they will have probably be revegged and thrown back into the flower chamber