My main question is how much yield do you think this little thing can get? I'm really considering getting one.
http://www.4eversun.com/pc_planter.htm
http://www.4eversun.com/pc_planter.htm
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Premade PC Planter Grow Box
- Thread starter Cobain192
- Start date
growinontario
Member
About a 1/2 oz max. They overcharge you huge for this unit. Go buy a 70w security light, rewire it...I did it and have no previous electrical experience. Go to ebay and buy a used server case. Buy some fans, have about 2 on intake 2 on output. Buy a space blanket from walmart, cost you about 4$. Put about 4 beer cups in there with 4 seeds and grow them to about 10 inches, than flower and remove males.
G
Guest
Should be able to get a comp case at a resale shop for dust. Just tear the guts out of an old pc.
Wouldn't a nice little cupboard or something similar work better?
Cheers,
SH
Wouldn't a nice little cupboard or something similar work better?
Cheers,
SH
Mr_Micro
Member
Lemme tell ya Cobain... I was fooled by these guys thinking that their design was a great one. I bought two of these suckers and I've regreted it ever since.
The idea is a good one, but the execution was totally flawed. First off, the website says they come with two 80cfm fans. Thats total crap... both of my PC Planters came with generic 25cfm fans.
Also, that 50 watt light just wasn't enough to keep my plants happy. You really need a 70 watt to get any decent yeild out of a computer case grow. The case is pretty small too compared to a lot of other PC cases. You'd be best off just trying to find a 26" tall or so server case and throwing a 70 watt HPS in it.
The "1 lb anually" thing is a load of bull too. I'd say you could probably pull an ounce and a half out off of two plants in the case every 3 months or so, assuming you went 12/12 straight from seed. So the best you could hope to get (after you mod the hell out of their design to make it work better) is six ounces a year. A little over 1/3 a pound.
For me thats cool because I only smoke about a gram every other week or so, giving me tons of good bud leftover from each grow cycle. But for the average smoker thats probably not going to be enough.
There are a few things they were truthful about in the product description though. The SWC hydro system works great (providing you don't mind re-balancing the PH every other day) and the reflective material on the walls seems to work quite nicely. Also, the temps will stay roughly 10 to 12* (F) above room temperature. Which made the cab pretty much useless for me since my ambient room temps rarely go below 78*.
So seriously, don't make the mistake I did. After dropping over a grand on these cases and having them turn out to be not worth crap I ended up having to spend several hundred more dollars just trying to make the cases useable for a decent grow.
Heres the full list of mods I did to try and actually make this thing work well...
1. Swap out the 25 cfm fans for 50 and 80 cfm fans
2. Change the active intake to a passive one and use the leftover fan for extra air circulation.
3. Swap out the 50 watt HPS light for a remote ballasted 70 watt HPS.
3. Add a tempered glass heat sheild underneath the light and install another 50 cfm exhaust fan and passive intake in the top section to cool the light.
4. Buy a second lid for the hydro system drilled to hold four 3" net cups so I'd be able to start 4 plants and reduce them to 2 when flowered.
5. Throw away those nutrients that came with kit, pick up some Pureblend Pro Blook, Cal-Mag Plus, and Hydroguard.
6. Build a little carbon filter for the lower chamber exhaust fan.
7. I also added a Nutrafin natural fermentation Co2 system that I rigged up to the air circulation fan for improve growth in the high heat enviroment, but thats purely optional.
And after all of that I still can't seem to get my temps to go below 15*F above room temperature when the light is on. Even with the light chamber with the seperate exhaust and 80cfm exhaust fans the 70 watt bulb still turns my box into an oven, and the ballast is outside of the case! So well over $1,500 later my PC cases are still unuseable. Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed.
I will stop back in later though and take some pics of my cases just so you can see what they look like after all the mods. So yeah, if your gonna do a PC case grow go ahead and buy a bigger 26" or so server case, it will be much easier to cool. You and your wallet will be glad you did.
The idea is a good one, but the execution was totally flawed. First off, the website says they come with two 80cfm fans. Thats total crap... both of my PC Planters came with generic 25cfm fans.
Also, that 50 watt light just wasn't enough to keep my plants happy. You really need a 70 watt to get any decent yeild out of a computer case grow. The case is pretty small too compared to a lot of other PC cases. You'd be best off just trying to find a 26" tall or so server case and throwing a 70 watt HPS in it.
The "1 lb anually" thing is a load of bull too. I'd say you could probably pull an ounce and a half out off of two plants in the case every 3 months or so, assuming you went 12/12 straight from seed. So the best you could hope to get (after you mod the hell out of their design to make it work better) is six ounces a year. A little over 1/3 a pound.
For me thats cool because I only smoke about a gram every other week or so, giving me tons of good bud leftover from each grow cycle. But for the average smoker thats probably not going to be enough.
There are a few things they were truthful about in the product description though. The SWC hydro system works great (providing you don't mind re-balancing the PH every other day) and the reflective material on the walls seems to work quite nicely. Also, the temps will stay roughly 10 to 12* (F) above room temperature. Which made the cab pretty much useless for me since my ambient room temps rarely go below 78*.
So seriously, don't make the mistake I did. After dropping over a grand on these cases and having them turn out to be not worth crap I ended up having to spend several hundred more dollars just trying to make the cases useable for a decent grow.
Heres the full list of mods I did to try and actually make this thing work well...
1. Swap out the 25 cfm fans for 50 and 80 cfm fans
2. Change the active intake to a passive one and use the leftover fan for extra air circulation.
3. Swap out the 50 watt HPS light for a remote ballasted 70 watt HPS.
3. Add a tempered glass heat sheild underneath the light and install another 50 cfm exhaust fan and passive intake in the top section to cool the light.
4. Buy a second lid for the hydro system drilled to hold four 3" net cups so I'd be able to start 4 plants and reduce them to 2 when flowered.
5. Throw away those nutrients that came with kit, pick up some Pureblend Pro Blook, Cal-Mag Plus, and Hydroguard.
6. Build a little carbon filter for the lower chamber exhaust fan.
7. I also added a Nutrafin natural fermentation Co2 system that I rigged up to the air circulation fan for improve growth in the high heat enviroment, but thats purely optional.
And after all of that I still can't seem to get my temps to go below 15*F above room temperature when the light is on. Even with the light chamber with the seperate exhaust and 80cfm exhaust fans the 70 watt bulb still turns my box into an oven, and the ballast is outside of the case! So well over $1,500 later my PC cases are still unuseable. Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed.
I will stop back in later though and take some pics of my cases just so you can see what they look like after all the mods. So yeah, if your gonna do a PC case grow go ahead and buy a bigger 26" or so server case, it will be much easier to cool. You and your wallet will be glad you did.
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I knew that PC planter looked too good to be true. Sounds like they didn't owe up to their promises and really screwed you over. Thats ashame but hopefully people will read your response and not make the same mistake. They almost fooled me. I'm just glad I consulted with yall first. Thanks for all the information.
suburbanhomeboy: Ya I used to know of a site that sold these cupboards that were stealth grow boxes but I can't remember the site. I remember it had like homestead in the url or somehting like that. I'll probably just end up building my own but wanted to check out my other options first.
Mr_Micro
Member
Yeah, hopefully anyone here intrested in those PC planters will be able to learn from my mistakes and just build a box themselves. Its a bit of work, but your better off saving the cash and time you'd spend re-building the PC planter to get it to work.
As far as that homestead site... I'm pretty sure you're talkin about the Tomato Pharm cabs at http://www.cabinet.homestead.com/ .
I was actually going to buy one of the Indigo cabs from them but I ended up not being able to get ahold of the them by email and their phone lines seem to be disconnected, so I ended up getting two PC Planters instead.
Its a damn shame they seem to have gone out of business... I would have much rather had one of those nice little stealth cabs.
As far as that homestead site... I'm pretty sure you're talkin about the Tomato Pharm cabs at http://www.cabinet.homestead.com/ .
I was actually going to buy one of the Indigo cabs from them but I ended up not being able to get ahold of the them by email and their phone lines seem to be disconnected, so I ended up getting two PC Planters instead.
Its a damn shame they seem to have gone out of business... I would have much rather had one of those nice little stealth cabs.
cobain , i picked up a used wooden display cabinet at the sally-ann . cost me 35.00. of course i had to do some work to it and buy HPS and cooling fans etc., etc., etc. but it was an interesting project and a real learning experience . walmart and home depot also have assorted new cabinets to choose from, but i gather that you want something nice and small and stealthy . have a look around, there are lots of people here working with pc cases and other micro-grows . good luck .
G
Guest
Don't forget about a nice old speaker cabinet you could pick up at a yard sale or a resale shop, tucked in the corner of your living room, pretending to be part of your sound system.
Cheers,
SH
Cheers,
SH
