What do you think of my grow box?

AllenHaze

AllenHaze

Well-Known Member
Unit is an old play-skool outdoor toy bin approx 8 cubic feet. 14x 2700k cfl with a collective of about 24,000 lumens per sq/f. 14 separate holes drilled and filled on top of unit to allow for future movement of lights if needed. One 50cfm passive exhaust fan in back with carbon filter attached outside unit. Computer fan running at approx 10cfm intake as well as separate mounted xbox fan as intake at about 8 cfm. Pots are 2 gallon. One has soil I put together with baked, composted farm soil, sphagnum peat moss, perlite. The other has FFOF both seem to suit the plants very well and am seeing similar growth rates and healthy green leaves. Plants are raised and lowered by means of stacked drywall cutouts. Humidity is not being monitored currently however plants are misted regularly. Inside painted flat white. Unit was caulked to fill in any seams. Plants are males. I had 4 plants that all turned out to be males. I didn't want to kill them until my others grow a little bigger. Any suggestions on the design of this grow box? Thinking of building my own and selling them so an ideas would be awesome. Thanks!
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AllenHaze

AllenHaze

Well-Known Member
Yea good point! I have to remove the drywall slabs to remove the plants through the bottom door. What would you recommend? It is full of males right now (4 plants-ALL males! I gave one away before we knew) so I can just take them out to mod it. I know, get rid of the males and I plan to but right now they have a lot of good fan leaves that I feed my dog maybe two or three a day and my other plants are only 10 days tops into seedling stage so I figure I'll have some time to keep the dog snacks handy before the stamens open and dust my grow box - not to mention male pollen isn't very stable to begin with and degrades quickly without proper preparation or so I've heard. Thanks :)
 
lilroach

lilroach

Well-Known Member
If you ditch the 200 CLF's you got in there and opted for a 2' four-bulb T5HO you'd get more room and a shitload of less heat.
 
AllenHaze

AllenHaze

Well-Known Member
That's a good idea. I never looked into those. I didn't spend much time but the model I found however only produces 8,000 lumens. Are there more efficient models? Using 10 cfl d/l bulbs I was able to achieve excellent vegetative growth and stems 28days from sprout as thick as AA batteries and that was at only 16k lumens. My current setup puts out 22,400 lumens with 2700k. If you look further there is supporting evidence that 2700k cfl put out more orange and red spectrum than HID HPS which puts out much more yellow. My other plants growth was more vigorous than plants I had outside. There are two intakes and one 50cfm outtake keeping heat to a minimum. I'll clean it up just for you guys (fukin spandy)since you took the time to reply. :-P Don't worry I understand that penetration is diminished with cfls but this will do until I get some capital.
 
lilroach

lilroach

Well-Known Member
No doubt your current wattage is going to be higher than the T5. If you're not having heat issues, then you've got your cabinet dialed in.....but I was more pointing to the space savings of the T5. I have a 4' four-bulb, and two 2' four bulb T5HO I veg under (using 6000K). The plants love 'em and the relative lack of heat allows you to grow right up to the light w/o burning (if it touches the bulb, it'll burn). Since I have a flower room I only grow my plants to 20" under these lights. I know other growers that go full term under T5's only and have great grows....he flowers with 3000K bulbs. If you want to play with light-spectrum, there's some great T5's for aquariums that are supposed to aid in blooming.

Here's the 2 footer I have...and it comes with bulbs and free delivery:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/ViaVolt-2-ft-4-Bulb-T5-High-Output-Copper-Fluorescent-Grow-Light-Fixture-V24/202985194#specifications
 
AllenHaze

AllenHaze

Well-Known Member
The space saving aspect is very tempting. I'll be taking a look at those and keeping them in mind, if not for this one then maybe my next design. Thanks.
 
Scotty Pot Seed

Scotty Pot Seed

Active Member
Does light shine though the door handles? You might have an issue with light stress if that room they are in is not dark during its dark cycle.
 
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