Growdrobe - Pics of ongoing project to convert a wardrobe into a grow area

ish800

Well-Known Member
Here are some pictures of what I did and used to air/light tight that bitch.

I don't know what the strip of sealant is named but I found it at home depot, it works so good man. No light coming out the cracks of the doors.

IMG_20110105_114925.jpgIMG_20110105_114838.jpgIMG_20110105_114801.jpgIMG_20110105_114910.jpgIMG_20110105_114737.jpg
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
I used weatherseal foam around the doors, and rubber seals in between the doors to seal the lights from getting out or in the closet. Also to control the smell from leaking too much. The only concern of the smell is coming from the passive intake.
No smell issues at all unless the exhaust is off.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
yep ya need some bigger holes!
You are absolutely right. I cut more than just holes. I cut a long rectangular hole across the entire bottom. Light does not leak from one chamber to the other from the back. And there is a whole lot of air flow.

I just kept cutting untill I felt it was good enough, I mean till the pressure of the exhaust was still strong enough to pull air and the smell but not put too much pressure on the Fan. If you know what I mean.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
What happened to your first grow from May?
I scrogged the grow and broke the main stem on one of the plants. The main stem was completely broken, just hanging by a piece of skin from the stem. I taped her back together with Magic Tape, and she recovered. I can't believe she stuck back together like she did.

I used organic nutrients for my plants and they tasted great. BTW, it is a flood and drain, hydroponics. Tasted just like Soil Grown Herbs pulled right from the backyard.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Bonzi, I read Plants need a lot of oxygen in a DWC, the more bubble in that water the better. Go to a local pet store and get some rocks that make plenty of bubbles. Just some info if you need it.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
I was thinking so much on converting my medium to a bubbler like that, but after putting so much work and money on this project, I don't even want to reconstruct or spend any more money. I have so much hydroton rocks, and sure waste a lot of nutrients in that big reservoir. Your bubbler setup looks very cost-effective in terms of medium and nutrients.

How often do you change your water in the resevoir?

Do you think I should try the bubble setup in this wardrobe, or just stick to the flood & drain?

My goal is to spend less money on medium, and especially nutes. And spend less time moving that damn reservoir around every week.

Any advice is appreciated, but I totally understand if non is given. I am stumbled on all the the ideas I have to set up this wardrobe, and only time, trial and error will tell what's best. Unless the wardrobe breaks down. LOL
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
The light fixture is hanging with some chaines and s hooks for easily lowering or rising the fixture.

With this light fixture I can have up 10x 42 Watt CFL 6500K Spectrum for Vegetation stage.

Then I can change the lights to a 2700k Spectrum for Flowering. Eventually this wardrobe will have a Vegetation shelf on the right side.

*I have not made a hole for the exhaust because I am still thinking whether to make it in the back or the top of the wardrobe. I am thinking to make the whole on top, they say it's better that way.



It was hard to take pictures of the wardrobe after mylar was installed, the reflection puts everythin in the picture, sorry but Here are some pics of the progress, the best I can show.
View attachment 913124View attachment 913123View attachment 913127View attachment 913126View attachment 913125
The Spray Adhesive didn't work out that well in the long run. It started to just fall off slowly, it is still stuck on now with some tape.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Passive means no fans, active means fans actively pushing air.

So just some holes with a bug screen will work nicely!

I would vent out the top of the cabnet not side, this blows hot air up away from intakes at bottom.
Thanks Essex, the screen worked wonderful, I didn't even think of that. Thank You.

It proved to work. One day the exhaust Fan was turned off by accident. There is no screen on the exhaust and a couple of white flies got into the grow, through the exhaust duct.

I made 2 huge rectangular shapes in the bottom
The white flies laid some eggs and everything was getting fucked up man. There were larvae of the white flies everywhere in the reservoir, the flood tray, inside the pot of the plants. Every other day there would be a couple of white flies flying around, I killed every single one I saw flying around. It sucked having to monitor and kill those nasty flies.

I bought some goGNATS to put in the reservoir to kill them, but I never used it because it was too late into flowering, and i was already close to flushing. So, I continued killing them off throughout the rest of the grow, just about two weeks were left.

In addition to your advice, also find a way to put a screen on the exhaust. I will do that at some time, just lazy right now.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Thanks again, I understand passive now, after looking back at this post. DuH! How can passive have a fan. LOL I'm getting better though.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
my first grow was under cfl, It works great for flowering just dont get quite as big or strong buds as HPS

If ya only got 2' height ya will want to switch to 12/12 from rooted clone or seedling else they will get to big m8.

lookin forward to seeing some babys inside!
I decided to SCRoG the grow and not worry about the amount of height. SCRoG is good man. The grow was able to Veg for more than a month, It was taller than one feet, then i switched to Flower them. If I recall, there were three plants, the amount of space was just about right, Some bud sites were really close to each other, while others were far apart, that is the bud sites of the canopy. If I can just find a way to get them even all around, that would be great. Experience is definitely needed for properly training those plants, especially when the strain is unknown, or how it grows, whether it's Indica or Sativa.

I learned a few things about strain and how they cover the screen.

Sativa is good for SCRoG if you keep it short as possible. The bud sites can get so long that it defeats the purpose of the SCRoG, forcing to have to move the lights away from the plant because they get too long. That's my opinion, after experimenting. The buds were more fluffy than dense.

Indica is perfect for SCRoGing, the plants grow shorter, bushier. The bud sites grow lower and evenly across the screen. These buds were really dense. They felt almost like compressed marijuana. Before and after drying. I could barley squeeze them. I was surprised to see how dense the bud was after reading so many CFL hater's comments.

The sativa strain was not dense at all but there were much more buds sites on the sativa than the indica.

Although I cannot argue any differences between lights, I will be sticking to CFL for a while, the quality of Bud was better than any other Medical Marijuana I ever smoked. It tasted and felt so good. I was able to function, with a cerebral and body high. Most others I smoked just put me to lay down on the sofa, and stay stuck for a while. I want to feel good, but still needing to function normally throughout the day. I was able to accomplish this with great results.

Anyone know if Sativa Strain produce more bud sites, and are fluffier than the indica strains? [Keep in mind this grow is all CFL Spiral, about 500w (actual, not equivalent)] Or should i post this question somewhere else?
 

Bonzi Lighthouse

Well-Known Member
I was thinking so much on converting my medium to a bubbler like that, but after putting so much work and money on this project, I don't even want to reconstruct or spend any more money. I have so much hydroton rocks, and sure waste a lot of nutrients in that big reservoir. Your bubbler setup looks very cost-effective in terms of medium and nutrients.

How often do you change your water in the resevoir?

Do you think I should try the bubble setup in this wardrobe, or just stick to the flood & drain?

My goal is to spend less money on medium, and especially nutes. And spend less time moving that damn reservoir around every week.

Any advice is appreciated, but I totally understand if non is given. I am stumbled on all the the ideas I have to set up this wardrobe, and only time, trial and error will tell what's best. Unless the wardrobe breaks down. LOL
i change the res once every 2 weeks, The 3 part Hollands Secret was $42 total and it will last a couple of grows at least.

I love the DWC simple just an Air pump and a tub, I put a drain in the bottom so I don't have to even move it.

I would stick with what you have for this grow though.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I think I am.

I modified the vegging room, might have a perpetual grow with this.There is a spot for clones now. I will upload a pic soon.
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Just rewired the lights together, and screwed the fixtures onto the walls.

Also Added a cloning area, that is the container you see on top.

On the right, I plan to let the plants grow taller.

On the left below the clone container, I will keep the plants that short below the lights.

The clones coming from the top will be moved to the bottom left, then those plants in the bottom left will be move to the right, for extra growth.



IMG_20110108_060130.jpg
 

ish800

Well-Known Member
Really nice setup! I may have missed this skimming through, but why so many fans in there? =)
I like to keep it cool. I don't really know how to check the temperature. It gives me different readings all the time. Not sure if I can take the temperature while all the lights are on and so close to it, I think it's giving me false readings. It goes up to 92 degrees with the fans off, but it still seems cool when I open the door. I think I'm taking the temp wrong, the thermometer must be to close to the lights. I tried putting the thermometer in a cut open orange juice box, but it gave me the same temperature.
 
Top