Help with measuring my cab newbie grower

[hestah]

Hello everyone, I'm new here at ICMAG and I plan to start my first indoor stealth cab grow. I am only in the planning phase yet and would appreciate some feedback. Not sure if this should be here or in the micro grow section though.

I have a drawer that fits perfectly with my other furniture and its quite big. It is also positioned in way so that it is hard for people to reach it.
The measurements are: 97 cm high (~38 inchces)), 71 cm wide (~28 inches) and 40 cm deep (~16 inches).

So I was thinking of going 6 plants in 6 liter pots, they will fit as they are 18x18x25 cm. But my question is how much space do I have to calculate for one scrogged plant with frame? I might have to change pot size or number of plants for them all to fit without being to cramped when they are at their largest size.

The reason I ask this is because I don't have any material except the box itself so I have to measure everything in advance.

I got inspired by this thread among others:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=124809
It seems the frame takes up about 5 or so cm extra at each side but I could be dead wrong.

Extra info, the height will most probably not be a problem, also I will be using PL-L light bulbs.

 

[hestah]

Here is a pic of how I am thinking about placing the pots. Not much room for a scrog screen at the long sides though. Do you think this will do?

 

[Tbonegrower]

I have been running pots of that size for a while. They easily produce plants that would over grow that space. I have 24" x 24" x 48" high for flower and with 6 7x7s I run into ventilation issues in the canopy. You definitely have enough height, as all my plants are on risers with 150 watts of HPS and 234 watts of CFL. You may want to look at a small oscillating tower fan or something to give you decent air movement. With something to give you leaf movement you could probably swing 7x7s, but you might have some dark spots in the back. I am generally fighting to keep them off the walls in my cab.


Best of luck! What strain/s are you thinking?

 

[hestah]

Thanks for the input Tbonegrower. I will definitely get some sort of oscillating fan for the plants.
Ok so space might be an issue. Perhaps starting out with 3 plants will be a better idea to avoid cramping. If all goes well it will still be enough.
I plan to grow some AK47s but may change my mind.

 

[hestah]

I had something like this in mind

http://i.imgur.com/ZSh7ZNX.png?1


where the upper left area is for the ballasts, power and exhaust. the rest of the upper area is for clones, and the larger under area is for veg and flowering.

 

[rives]

Depending on the media you use and the pot design, those pots and plant count will probably overgrow your area pretty quickly. I use 5 liter airpots and Botanicare ReadyGro Aeration mix, and pretty well fill up a 4'x4' tent with 5 plants, no scrog.

In my 30" x 30" tent, I frequently run a scrog and three plants is usually enough to fill it up from wall to wall.

This picture is from when I was still using 3 gallon air pots. I've had no problems growing bigger plants in 5 liter pots since then.

 

[hestah]

Thanks for the quick reply and beautiful pictures rives.
With your input I'm starting to think maybe 3 plants scrogged (or maybe just sog) in square pots will be a better choice. I saw someone elses thread and the plant really cramped up against the walls.

Anyway thanks for the input, it really helps for a newb like me to plan things. It's hard to visualize when you have never seen a full grown plant before.

 

[rives]

Glad it helped.

I am a strong advocate of the air pots/smart pots for their root-pruning capabilities. They enable you to use a much smaller pot than you would normally be able to without running into problems with becoming root bound. I started with smart pots, but the fabric doesn't give the media any structural support and if/when you move the plants around it will disturb the media and can disrupt the roots.

Small square pots work well for a sog with very small plants, but if you are going any other way, I would really suggest that you get something that root prunes. I grew a plant on my last run that had the largest yield that I've ever pulled from a single indoor plant (8.3 ozs), and it was in a 5 liter air pot that had actually been cut down about 1.5". I use the cut-down versions for my bonsai mom cabinet, and this plant had gotten way too big for that use. The long veg time was responsible for a lot of the yield, but it just goes to show what can be done with small self-pruning pots.

 

[hestah]

Wow I just watched a vid about the airpots it it looks fantastic. And by seeing your pictures I'm definitely sold. They seem to take up less space too. The 5 litre ones seems to be good size for my small cab.

If I happened to buy these, would you suggest transfering them just one, from clonetray to 5 litre pot?

And for your mother, do you mean a pot like this?
http://www.airpotgarden.com/store/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=catshow&ref=Propagation

Thanks /hestah

 

[rives]

I go straight from beer cups to the 5-liter pots, but I use blumats for watering so there is little danger of the media getting too wet for too long when the plants are small. If you are hand watering, I'd just be careful of the water volume for the first 2-3 weeks after transplanting. The easiest way to keep track of it is by weight - get your media pre-moistened to a good moisture content in a wash tub or something. If you get carried away, you can squeeze out the excess moisture. After you get your plant potted, weigh the plant on an accurate, low-reading scale and note the weight for each plant. After a few days, re-weigh the plant and add enough water at the base of the plant to bring the weight back to what it was originally. 1ml of water = 1 gram, so if your plant weighs 20 grams less than originally, add 20ml of water back to it. Amazon sells bulk syringes (no needles) cheap, and they are damn handy for this as well as measuring nutrients, etc.

My mom's use the same 5-liter pots as I flower in, I just cut about 1-1/2" off the bottom (the top has the holes plugged for the first two rows to form a reservoir when you water) before assembling them. My cabinet is pretty small and I used to use the 1-liter pots for the moms, but they have such a small diameter that it is difficult to fit a blumat in there without it watering over the side of the pot.

 

[hestah]

Ok thanks for answering again rives. That's a really neat little trick, weighing the plants like that to tell how much water you need to put in. I was planning on buying a scale anyway so it's all good.

I was thinking of hand watering yes, and use a mix of soil and perlite, maybe 70% soil 30% perlite. I might also use 3 liter pots instead because I think I have overestimated the size of my cab. Will be using floranova bloom/micro with lucas formula.

Syringes. check, i hadn't thought of that.