Sativa Box Design

[Dr Seuss]

I'm going to have some heat issues when spring rolls around, so I'm going to try and make a decent CFL box that could grow sativa hybrids 12/12 from seed/clone.

I was wondering if anyone else has a box that has Flouros and/or a 250hps, and how well it does with pure/hybrid sativas?
Do 250hps raise the ambient temp >5 degrees F with adequate ventilation?(My 400 raises it about 8).
Could a box 15"x24"x36" hold 3-4 cropped and trained plants, or more like 2/3?
Would it even be worth making a box?!

I also plan on having a mother box, so that it could be a perpetual Flouro SOG. I was going to build a 2nd CFL flowering box for Indica dominant girls, so I'm not worried too much about yield. As long as I can pull 1.5-3oz every 3/4 months from the sativa box I'll be happy.

 

[rah]

mmm spring rolls.

If your set on sativas i wouldnt build a box, your gonna want as much head room as possible.

15"x24"x36" is very small aswell...

2'X3'X6' is the smallest id go with.... The bigger the better though right?

here is a cab i built a couple years ago
250hps
4-32w T8 Floros
Cool tube
Cooled hydro res

took around 30(slack) days and less than 500 dollars to build.




Iv never had anykind of heat issues

 

[Guest]

you're being pretty vague, but IMHO, the simple answer is that it probably could work. If you have a small space but are bent on a pure sat or heavily sat leaning hybrid, i'd recommend that you either be ready to do a ton of training or look into SCRoG techniques.

you have to remember that your medium, plant, and light need vertical space, and the space they take up needs to be approrpiately balanced.

15x24x36 is incredibly small IMHO for a 250w hps. I couldn't keep mine cool in a 16x28x28"H grow space(there was a utility section too with fan, power, etc). my 250 was cooltubed with a 60cfm fan pulling fresh air in and pushing fresh air out, with a separate 80cfm panasonic whisper venting the smelly air. I had to drop back down to 150w to keep it cool........and im in the north.

a taller box will alleviate some, but not all heat issues.

adquate ventialation...........well what's adequate to you? for a 250 hps in that small of a space, assuming you have 80* ambient temps, you're going to need 250-300cfm pulling through that small of a space, at least in my opinion.

there's a chart on cfm requirements for different lighting, ill see if i can dig it up tonight.

try searching 'cfm chart' or something
i would, but im on my way out.

sorry, but with a pure sat, you're looking at 2-3ft tall colas in a SOG, and a 250 just isn't gonna penetrate more than 1 ft of that, leaving you with lots of popcorn and overall worse yields than if you trained colas to the sma elevel by doing lots of topping and training.

 

[Dr Seuss]

I'm not set on a hps, I have another box with a 400 already(I can only run it about half the year without running my a/c 24/7.)

I was thinking about making it big enough to flower 2 clones straight from 12/12, along with cropping them. I thought about loading each opposing side with 4 2' T12s, along with 45watt CFLs on top. I have a 6" Can Fan HO that I can use to vent it, or buy a small blower, since that's a little much.


Does anyone have a box with just Flouros that successfully flowers sativas?

 

[Guest]

i like that second setup idea with the tubes up the side/cfl on top and using the big fan. You won't have ANY heat issues like that........well, as long as you didn't run tooooo many cfls.
The tubes up the side will give you good lower bud development along those strechy sativa buds.
the 6" fan should be great, especially if you have a speed controller to keep down the noice. if you're doing 12/12 from clone you can probably get away with nearly a pure sativa in that space......still a little training needed probably, but not too much work.

Remember that the key with tall sativas is canaopy penetration, and by spreading out the light vertically with tubes, you can get away fro mthe limits of having one light on top trying t get down through the whole canopy.