First grow - stealth wardrobe! Pictures and question...

Hello!

Let me first apologize for my origin and usage of metric units, I will try to add proper conversions when I remember!
Secondly, let me introduce myself. I am not and have never been a huge fan of cannabis, but I was in dire need of a hobby between semesters so I decided to start a small grow operation just for fun. I will of course have a taste of the final product but the majority I will give away to aficionados among friends.

So having a lot of free time on my hands, I decided to add a third wardrobe in my bedroom, but for other purposes than clothing storage. I spent half a week collecting the material I would need, but soon it was time to get to work:



Spent a full day with my limited set of tools to get the wardrobe in place:



When everything was in place, it was time to connect the electricity. I managed to bring darkness upon the whole first floor in the building during the first test run, but luckily I could locate the fuses and switch them back on before the neighbors emerged from their dens.



It was a simple error, and when corrected, all wiring could be hidden nicely:



Now I considered myself done, and conveniently I received a package with seeds and a propagator on the same day - so I planted three seeds of White Widow Automatic.



Today the first one came sprouting out of the soil, and for reasons unknown I decided for the first time at this point to test-run my wardrobe setup. Luckily it was light-proof and sufficiently sound-proof, but I am not satisfied with the temperatures.



I have four thermometers in the area, which has the dimensions 100 x 50 x 180 cm or 3,3 x 1,6 x 6 foot.

On the top, right next to the exhaust of the cool tube (400 watt metal halide), is a thermostat that controls the fan connected to the carbon filter. During light hours, the thermostat (unsurprisingly, due to its location) always shows 30+ degrees Celsius (86+ Fahrenheit).

In the middle, I have a standard outdoor thermometer hidden under some white plastic (to keep it out of light) and this measures between 25 and 29 degrees Celsius during light hours (77-84 Fahrenheit)

On the floor, I have an automatic humidifier with built in thermometer which usually shows somewhere between 24 and 27 (75-80) degrees.
I also have a tiny min/max thermometer on the floor which usually shows one degree less than on the humidifier (keep in mind that these are both under light).

I know that this is more or less fine temperatures, but I have all my fans on maximum speed which is something that I would like to avoid (and thought that I would be able to avoid).

I have a 300 m3/h (176 cfm) fan pulling air through the 15 cm (6") cool tube, and a 200 m3/h (117 cfm) fan pulling air out of the carbon filter. In addition I have a 30 x 12 cm (11" x 5") passive intake at the bottom, with two 180 m3/h (105 cfm) fans in front directing air upwards.

I believe this ought to keep low and consistent temperatures in the grow area (the intake air is around or slightly under 20 degrees Celsius (68 fahrenheit).

What could be the reason for those high and inconsistent temperatures? Should I do something about it?

I have a few ideas myself:
1) Expand the passive intake
2) Direct circulation fans more upwards
3) I have blocked the ventilation grills with a thin layer of universal carbon filter, to keep light out and sound down. I could remove those but I really don't think they are blocking the air flow, I could breathe through two layers without feeling much of a difference.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the huge wall of text.
I will continue uploading pictures in this thread while (if) the little girls grow up.

Best regards!

Good stuff sir. Looks like you're good to go! Looking forward to seeing some of that odd sounding dance weed.

Peculiar automatic humidifier, nice.

lmfao you have the power of shutting off neighbors fuses

Take out everything with a thermometer on it , and put it in your bathroom and close the door. Let them sit for ten minutes. Go back in bathroom, are they all reading the same temperature? This is how you see if your thermometers are all accurate, maybe one is off a few degrees. Why put a thermometer under plastic. You should be reading the temperature of what your plants are gonna feel. So put the thermometer in your growbag The only important thing is what the plant will feel, forget about everything else. Upgrade to a real fan if you need to..

looks good, you obviously did your homework! temperatures will drop when the space is filled with breathing plants...

undercoverfbi: Thank you! Yeah, I currently live in Eastern Europe, where both language and customs are less than comprehensive. It was a real pain in the ass trying to understand instructions for the programmable thermostat and so on....

_MrBelvedere_: I tried what you told me (with the exception of the thermostat) and they read more or less the same. The humidifier shows 0,5 degrees celsius less than the others, and is also the one I trust the least.

I put the "tip" of the outdoor thermometer under plastic as to not have it getting warmed up by radiant heat. As I have understood it, the girls can take a lot of radiant heat, but air temperature is what one should be interested in keeping comfortable for them.

Somehow I don't believe that I need more fan power for this setup. my space is not even one cubic meter, and I exchange 200 per hour, as well as 300 through the cool tube. I removed the carbon filter obstruction on my passive intake, and will see if that makes any difference during the next few hours. Also, do carbon filters significantly lower fan effectiveness? I don't feel a lot of air flow from the exhaust on the back of the wardrobe....

Observe & Report:Thanks a lot, Yes I hope so. I am currently keeping 45% RH to experiment with. Incoming air is around 30%. I am just afraid that breathing plants will raise the humidity significantly, especially during flowering, and I don't have any means to lower it.

Thanks for the input guys!

temp will definitely go down when filled with plants, all that water turning into water vapor takes a lot of energy, your exhaust should take care of humidity...

Allright! Thanks, feeling hopeful! Will just wait for the other seedlings to pop up now and see how they will do in the wardrobe Worst case scenario is after all not so bad - buying a new exhaust fan.

Observe & Report said:

temp will definitely go down when filled with plants, all that water turning into water vapor takes a lot of energy, your exhaust should take care of humidity...

Click to expand...

stuff plants in that cabinet the temp wont go down..... that's kinda dumb......if nothing else you got more stuff holding heat rather than an empty cabinet w the air just sucking thru.....but its the humidity that's gonna make the temp go up.....

you need a bigger exhaust fan........ measure temp at canopy level......... and you need more ducting so you can lower that light......

gonna need a screen in there to ever do any good....

lose the humidifier

Allrighty, thanks for the new input.

Regarding humidity, I have heard (read somewhere) that higher humidity can lower the temperature? Can't see why the temperature will go up BECAUSE of humidity, but the point that more mass keeping heat makes sense.

I have enough ducting to lower the lights to right above the pots.

Guess I will get a new fan installed in the weekend, before its time to transplant the seedlings.

And please explain what is meant by that I need a screen to ever do any good?

Lose the humidifier? Why? I think it's a good idea to be able to keep it at somewhat consistent levels. If RH is too high the humidifier will not start and thus not contribute to any damage.

Thanks again!

im not a scientist but im pretty sure wet air just feels cooler....about ten inches maybe a foot off the top of the plants w a four hundred...6in inline...... scrog ... its such a small space......humidifier is in the way and its just gonna make more heat .... you don't need it....

What you are saying is making sense. Thank you. I just bought a stronger fan for the exhaust, and I will move the humidifier out of the grow area. I have a large aquarium in the bedroom as well, together with the water in/around the plants it will probably bring more than sufficient humidity.

Will definitely consider the Scrog for my next grow. Got the automatic seeds as a gift and just trying them out now as a first attempt at gardening!

Thanks!

ya...... theres no reason to worry about humidity unless its too high......... you should be worried about temp that box is gonna get hot...... gonna really need to move air thru it to ever grow w a four hundred........ need a circulation fan too unless I missed it....

ive seen some really good cabinets around here its not something that cant be done ....... im gonna smoke some hash and drink some red bull try to remember who ..... maybe I can come up w a link ......

Would be great to see, if you could find those links!

This morning I saw that my little seedlings have reached to the ceiling of the propagator, so I decided it was time for a transplant.

Five minutes after the lights went on I heard noises from the new fan... So I opened up to have a look - and saw that the fan connected to the Cool Tube was broken as well (and has probably been all this time). Went to buy two new stronger fans and the thermostat didn't switch on the second fan all day. So now the cooling issue is out of the way, and I have ordered a 6" oscillating fan to blow on the ladies.

One seedling is hanging a bit after the transplant (I put them in Gold Label Special Mix for soil), but I think she will be fine again tomorrow after recovering from the shock.

Feeling hopeful again, it was a pain in the ass discovering two broken fans but it taught me the lesson to buy good stuff from the beginning on...

A little update. Things seem to be going OK in my tiny closet:

This photo was taken last Sunday:


And this was taken yesterday (8 days of growth):

Seems to be going pretty well still. Was still fighting with temperatures so invested $70 on a proper inline fan for the exhaust through the carbon filter. The thermostat has it running for about five minutes every hour, as opposed to all the time with the old booster fan. It has now been three weeks since the seeds were planted.

A little update. Plants are almost 6 weeks old and flowering nicely:



However, it seems like they are lacking something, my guess after reading around is calcium. Comments?


I also realized that that the plants will reach a lesser height than I expected, so I made room for two more for the next grow:


I also made a small veg area next door with some T5 6400K lights. I am currently bringing up two dance world (75% sativa) there which I will try to keep as bushy as possible


And a bonus pic of the hidden mess that is my electrical installation (certified electrician even though you can't tell):

thats a pretty sick setup i wish i could afford something this nice

heres my setup i wish i had better ventilation humidity gets up to 60's at night and day but temp stays 70-77