Counter height too short?

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balknuf

Active Member
Ok, so I am considering building a cabinet type setup under my kitchen counter (my first grow btw). I really have minimal space, so this is about the only place I can do it.

Will I have enough height under there?
I have maybe 24-28" of vertical space for EVERYTHING. I was thinking about doing a scrog setup, but still I guess I would be cutting it pretty close.

Anyway, I will probably only do one plant at a time, my main worry is the light(s). I dont think it would be a huge deal to get some florescent lights in there for the veg process, but it seems like everybody and their mommy swears by HPS bulbs for flowering. I wouldnt really have room for that would I?

Can you flower under florescents? If so, is it reasonable to expect a scrog setup to do well under florescents?

I guess my main question is can I pull it off with such a low vertical height restriction?

any links to people who have done it would be great.

thanks
 
cannabiscrusader

cannabiscrusader

Well-Known Member
if you got the right ventilation you can get away with hps, but with your height you prolly cant do anything more than 250w home made cool tube.
 
Tomogchi

Tomogchi

Well-Known Member
you can use CFL/flouro's for both flowering and veg. Many people including my self only do it that way. The reason you see people use HPS/MH is because of the light penetration. CFL's dont penetrate as much of HPS/Mh.

For your height - anything over 24 inches is okay to grow (can grow in smaller, but will have smaller yeild). Think about it this way. If your plants 60" tall, in a 24" cabinet, its not gonna work. But if you take the 60" plant and LST or sog/scrog it (before it gets to that size) it will grow horizontal, allowing you to fit the giant plant in a small space.

For Sog or Scog, you could/need more plants. The idea is to make the most of you light (which with CFL's will help). You can run 3 or 4 plants in a SOG/SCROG were you can only grow 1 plant because of vertical limitations. But with LST you can also make the most of your lights. you can train the plants to almost grow sideways.

As for your cabinet, how are you going to work the ventalation?? Need to pull air in, and push it out...
Also, what kind of Flouro's are you looking at? You could run a mixture of T5 and Cfls, and have a banging grow. (for instance) Place the t5 at the top of the cabinet, and place the cfls in random places. Maybe 4 or 5 cfls. You will be well lit (no worries about lumes, there not exactly accurate... nor are any other of the lights ratings).

But to answer in short, Yes its very possible. I've seen people grow a plant out of a double shot glass, out of dixie cups, in an old acoustic guitar, in a computer case (much more limited room than your cabinet), and even in a 10 gallon aquarium...
 
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balknuf

Active Member
I am pretty sure I can keep it ventilated, I am gonna run an exhaust fan thru a cutout on one side. But I am worried about how close I could come to a HPS light. I went and made a more accurate guesstimate (a piece of paper is 8.5x11 right?) I've got about 32" to work with. If I had a soil surface " off the ground, and 10" before my screen, then I have all my greenery at 18" plus a bit for growth, and a light that would hang down at least 8" if not more, I only have about 6" in between the light and the goods, thats waaaaay too close for a HPS bulb isnt it?

Will I be able to get a decent yield out of CFLs? How is your yield Tomo?

I considered doing an AG, since they seem kinda low maintenance, but I've never seen anyone get any decent yield off of it. I am not looking for monster buds, but if I grow a plant for several months and only pull an 1/8 off of it, I would definitely be disappointed.
 
Tomogchi

Tomogchi

Well-Known Member
T5 is a... hold on ill just link to one...http://www.rosemania.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/product245.html its basically a more powerful version of them white long "soft white" shop lights you see...
Hps/mh should be about 12-16 inches away from the plant, depending on how hot the top of the plant is.
Before i forget. My grandmas grows with an aerogarden. Blows my computer case OUT OF THE WATER. no pun intended, but ill average 30g out of my case, she'll get about 45 dry with 2 extra cfl's (one on each side). according to her its pretty low maintenance.
But with 4 Cfls (2 2700k 2 6500k, 23/24 watts respectively) i pulled 30G out of my case (24" long, 8 1/2" wide, 30"tall - its an old dell server) last grow with bag seeds (2 plants). Cfls are very easy, as you can put them almost anywhere, and they can be within 3" of the plant and not burn them! You can buy them anywhere like walmart or lowes. Did i menchion how cfl's dont rape your electricity like hps or mh does?!?
 
Tomogchi

Tomogchi

Well-Known Member
But if you put a t5 on the top of the cabinet, paint the inside off white (or use mylar or w/e), and place cfls around the box you will be set to grow (with the exception of ventalation, but it sounds like you know what you've gotta do there).
 
InsaneMJ

InsaneMJ

Well-Known Member
You can always bonzi it or tie it down... so it grows out to the left or to the right... then when it grows new colas then tie those down as well, you can get it very freakin bushy but not to big though because of the limited space
 
B

balknuf

Active Member
Tomogchi said:
But if you put a t5 on the top of the cabinet, paint the inside off white (or use mylar or w/e), and place cfls around the box you will be set to grow (with the exception of ventalation, but it sounds like you know what you've gotta do there).
Click to expand...
Goddang man, those t5's are crazy expensive. Are they really worth it?


InsaneMJ said:
You can always bonzi it or tie it down... so it grows out to the left or to the right... then when it grows new colas then tie those down as well, you can get it very freakin bushy but not to big though because of the limited space
Click to expand...
Isnt that basically what scrog is? U let it grow to the height of the screen then train it under?
 
shnkrmn

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
The website you linked to also has 2ft T5 fixtures with bulb included for 29.99. You could use about 4 of those. I don't know about that goofy odor-controlling bulb. It's expensive and probably doesn't have much output. And I'm highly skeptical about its power to control the stench of MJ (which is formidable).

balknuf said:
i am thinking about maybe going with CFLs to see how it works. I dont know if i have enough room for anything else... and the T5s that i could find where all 4' long, which is too long for my space.

anyone know about these?
http://www.bewellhydroponics.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1363

found em at my local hydro shop, do you think they're worth a damn?

odor is another concern for my space.
Click to expand...
 
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balknuf

Active Member
can anyone point me in the direction of someone who has been successful with an ubershort setup like i have using only CFLs and/or T5s?
 
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