My new cabinet

[aceofspades]

Ok its been a long time since I have grown, but I recently moved into the right spot which would allow me to do so again. It has been about 5 years since my last harvest.

What I am working with:
cabinet that is H 72"xW 48"xD 24"
I have a 400w HPS with a brand new solarmax bulb
a Vortex 4 inch 172 CFM High Power Inline Fan
and I made a DIY carbon scrubber that is about 10.5 inches tall

I plan to do an organic grow, using soil. My previous experience was soil with organic nutes, and i will probably follow that again, I used the fox farm line of nutrients.

I have not decided on which size containers to use, I have the space for 8 square 4 gal. containers, but I do not know if my 400w will grow that many plants.

Heres a few pics:

cabinet all set up

the fan

and the inside of the cabinet

Ok I have a few questions for you guys.
1. my temps have been sitting around 86-87 degrees, with the humidity at 57%. I have 5x1" holes on the right side of the cabinet near the bottom, then 5x1" holes in the cabinet to create a passive intake. I plan on drilling a few more if it will help decrease my temperatures any.

2. What size pots should I use? Should I go with maybe 6x4.gal containers, or something smaller? How many plants with the dimensions of the cabinet that I have will a 400watt take care of?

3. And before I start growing, what suggestions or remarks do you have about this cabinet, how can I possible make it more proficient using the equipment that I have?

I appreciate any help and or advice!
ACE

 

[aceofspades]

a few shots from back in the day

condoleezza

ultimate moonshine

thats all for now, help me get ready to get some new stuff under my belt!
ACE

 

[ceilingbeds]

what's up buddy...

first questions.. cooling and ventillating.. if its inside of a room that is hooked up to the homes central ac...keep that room at your desired temp. and just circulate air through that cabinet as much as possible, bring in the cold air at the bottom with some intake fans, and suck out the air at the top with an exhaust fan. only sacrifice two holes in the whole gig so you can keep your reflective material to a maximum.

#2: how many plants will grow? no idea...i mean 400w what? hps, t5, mh? check the lumen output on your light.. try to find out how many lumens/sq. ft. it outputs...that's the only thing that matters. outdoors on a sunny summer day the sun is putting out 10,000 lumens/sq. ft. so try to get close to that... but y ou def. don't need anywhere near that much... but it always helps.

#3: no suggestions really, if heat is a concern in that room use like a white pvc tape instead of mylar... mylar is aluminum so it conducts heat...

 

[ceilingbeds]

have you ever heard of the sea of green growing method. its a personal fav. for restricted spaces. but how legal are you? how worried about being legal are you. someone once told me they grew like 150 plants on a 4x8 ft. table. but each plant is only going to give you like half an ounce...max probably. but you harvest every three months... you only veg for like two weeks. might be an option vs. having only 3 or 4 big girls in there having to worry aobut manicuring, and trimming all while trying to get the as big as possible and get as much harvest in throughout the year as possible.

 

[sackoweed]

ace
howzit..?? Nice lil setup should have you hooked up with nugsz year round... Ill bbl to peep out what yer throwing in there.. peace.

sack

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Unless you're an air engineer, keep it simple with passive intakes.

The area of a 4" hole is 12.56 sq inches.
The average rule of thumb for passive intakes is 2x exhaust.
The area of a 1" hole is 0.785 sq inches. You'll need 32 1" holes to get 2x passive. You could also cut two 4" holes and be done with it.

Your light distribution is best when the element is parallel with the short wall. Great looking cab. Wish I had 400w.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Unless you're an air engineer, keep it simple with passive intakes.

Bingo. Punch three 4" holes. Two at the bottom, one at the top for the fan. The end. You might want to consider a larger fan.

 

[aceofspades]

ok well the ventilation information will help a lot! I appreciate it.

Looking farther down the road, such as my next grow ( once I figure out clones and mothers) I would love to put a cool tube in there, should I go with 2x400watt, or should I upgrade to a 1000? or maybe a 600?) I dont have a huge area, but it will give me great buds year round!.

I am still getting into it again, but I want to make this cabinet work the most efficiently that I can.

I have some great genetics coming, but the first few runs will be with the 20 free beans I got from a certain company, when I ordered my genetics of course...

Should I build another cab? I am thinking I want a mother/clone cabinet. What should I use for light? I have no experience witht he CFL's, but the look more efficient than T5's..

So many questions...I have trouble navigating this site, I am used to or was used to OG when it was up and growing. That site busted my ganja cherry, and I loved it, but unfortunately......

Do you guys think I should just go with 4 plants in 4gal buckets for my first run? I am leary about it because I want to be the most efficient that I can be, but a 400 isn't looking like it will provide efficient light to everything. OR should I be patient, grow out some moms, clone, sex, then do a sog?

once again, thanks for any input.

little karma from the OG page that I have saved forever..hopefully its ok

 

[geopolitical]

Big piece of advice for smaller cabinets. If you seperate the cool tube venting from the cabinet venting (as in, your cool tube draws air from outside the cabinet before it's exhausted outside the cabinet) you can lower temps dramatically with only a very tiny fan exhausting the cabinet itself. Remember, the cooler the air hitting the bulb, the more efficiently it will absorb heat and carry it away.

I run a 400w HPS in a cabinet similar with less fans (in fact, with axial fans with jack diddly for power rating) that averages only 1-2c higher than the room itself. If you're trying to suck air through the cabinet, through the cool tube and then out, you're doing a lot of work. If you directly cool the light with outside air, the light stays cooler, you only have to worry about a much smaller quantity of air to scrub and because your light is getting cooled with air that hasn't had a chance to heat up at all, the cooling is more efficient. Also air leaks, even very minor ones, can make a major difference in efficiency of ventilation. If the hot air has a chance to leak back into the cabinet, it can lower your efficiency dramatically. That being said, the larger vents are a necessity. I have four 4" ducts leading into the cabinet, a bank of three 120mm 60cfm fans exhausting the cabinet itself and the cool tube is a run of 6" ducting with a 130mm 90cfm fan exhausting it. Keep in mind that these are axial fans, and under pressure of the duct runs and in the case of the 120mm, the carbon, they are probably pulling only a fraction of their rated open air CFM.

I went with axial fans because I used to repair computers for a living and I'm still sitting on a few cases of "whisper quiet" fans which means in operation the cabinet is quite literally whisper quiet. A 600 with appropriate fans will work well in that space. I went with a 400 because it lets me run completely silent. 1000 would probably require one hell of a ventilation system in a cabinet that small.

Another cabinet is a great idea, if you're going to use it for mothers/clones you don't need a huge one either. I have a 150w HPS in a smaller cabinet that is used to regularly feed sacrifices to the 400w and 250w cabinets. If I actually had a budget and wasn't using salvaged parts I probably would have gone with one of the 150w compact fluorescents in the small cabinet. I'm growing some peppers under one and I'm very impressed both by the price point ($32 online) and the quality of build. I also have a 125w (actual wattage in both cases) CFL that's been working great. I really like the intensity and penetration you can achieve with the higher wattage CFL bulbs. I haven't yet gotten up the nerve to purchase the 250w I saw recently, but based on price I may be replacing the 250w cabinet with it soon.

As far as the plants, a SOG style works very well with a 400 in that space, you don't need the penetration a higher wattage would give you quite so much. Personally I'd plant them all, weed out the males and plan on revegging the best female of the lot. Just because it's "crap" genetics doesn't mean you can't get a diamond in the rough.

 

[aceofspades]

I appreciate it peeps!

I have always let my plants go all natural, wish I had realized the SOG method earlier is much more efficient. Since starting fresh, I will grow a FEW larger sized plants, and clone, then sex, then go SOG, depending on the amount of clones I recieve from one plant. I plan in the future to go 2x 400 watt, cool tubes, cooling both with an alternate method rather than the CF of course. But for the time being I am more concerned with the size pots I should be using for a SOG grow.
IF I do grab some females, I will grow them out to clone.....possibly, depending on patience, I will scrog a female to just get me started, while the other fems....bush out.

So lets say 1 plant per sq. foot. So i have a 4x2 space, thats 8 plants. Would a 400 watt be ok for that plan, or should I go smaller?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

... but a 400 isn't looking like it will provide efficient light to everything...

It will if you'll orient the bulb parallel with the short wall (depth). Trust me, it will make a big difference.

 

[geopolitical]

^
This is exactly how I have mine set up. Always orient the bulb to the space.

 

[aceofspades]

so parallel, isnt that how my hood is hung already? or do I need to rotate it 90 degrees? I have no idea why I am having such a hard time picturing this in my mind, and im not even stoned....NO pot til this cabinet produces some! So help me out, help the confused guy out!

ACE

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Sorry ace, rotate 90 degrees. Much better way to put it.

 

[aceofspades]

appreciate it DiscoBiscuit! I suppose that would make more sense, since the reflectore is at the moment reflecting to the front doors and the back of the cabinet. So if I rotate it, it will be reflecting the width of the cabinet. I will try it out and see if it fits.

Does anyone think that 1 plant per sq. ft. in this cabinet is too much? I can fit 4 4gal containers in there, but that maybe overkill for the light I have. Any more suggestions?

 

[aceofspades]

Ok just went and tried to move the light 90 degrees, unfortunately it wont fit. So I suppose I am going to see what I can get out of the setup I have, and then continue saving money and maybe I will get a cool tube or two.

Is a 600 watt an extreme step up? I was thinking of another 400 watt, and have 2x400watt in cool tubes eventually, or should I just go for a 1000k?

Too many options, but for right now I will just focus on getting what I can out of the 400w setup I have at the moment.

 

[Outportgrower]

Ok just went and tried to move the light 90 degrees, unfortunately it wont fit. So I suppose I am going to see what I can get out of the setup I have, and then continue saving money and maybe I will get a cool tube or two.

Is a 600 watt an extreme step up? I was thinking of another 400 watt, and have 2x400watt in cool tubes eventually, or should I just go for a 1000k?

Too many options, but for right now I will just focus on getting what I can out of the 400w setup I have at the moment.

Looks like you and I have the exact same cab and reflector running a 400 watt HPS at the moment off a digi ballast located out of the cab. I have a 6" vortex fan inside, but can not for the life of me get my temps below 84f at the base of the plants. I have more than doubled the passive intakes on the bottom, but I think 99% of my issue is room temp. Once the lights go out, it drops down to 77 which is room temp.

Guess I really need to add a air conditioner to the room, or try to suck in cooler outside air to the room. I know it can be done since I have done it before, just not at this location.

 

[walmatt23]

Nice cab Ace! I've been looking for one with those specs- particularly 24" in depth. I have 2 gh rainforest 66 units that I would love to put in a cab, but its been hell finding a cab with at least 22" in depth. Did you make yours or did you find it pre-fab? If so where??

 

[K.J]

Ok just went and tried to move the light 90 degrees, unfortunately it wont fit. So I suppose I am going to see what I can get out of the setup I have, and then continue saving money and maybe I will get a cool tube or two.

Have you tried turning it as far towards 90 degrees as possible? I too couldn't turn my 250 all the way parallel to the short (side) walls, so I turned it diagonally as much as possible.

 

[BudToaster]

you could divide the cab in half, with flower on one side and veg in the other. use a separate light, fan and carbon filter for each side. and hang the lights vertically. a 2'x2'x4' flower space with 250w HPS vertical can produce 1.5 oz every 2 weeks. once you get the mother/clone process worked out.