My first grow cabinet using cfl lights and antique freezer

Hello to everyone. This is my third day since I have purchased the equipment needed to finally make my antique freezer/refrigerator into a grow cabinet. Currently I only have one bagseed from a lemony tasting bud I had a while back. I would say that the area I have to grow in is about 18" x 18" x 48". The way the fridge is set up there is a freezer on the left side and fridge on the right which is perfect for a grow room (and the antique wood on the outside makes it just THAT much cooler)!!! I have already germinated the seed and placed it into a small pot with some random potting soil I found around the house. I plan to put it into a better soil in the near future to ensure the proper nutes and environment to grow. With 4 26 watt 6500k and 2 26 watt 2700k CFL bulbs in the top about 4" from the plant it is absolutely perfect. I really wanted to use a hydroponic setup and I have 12 other seeds on the way including autoflowering females and regular females (some inside and some outside). This is my first time being able to setup in the house and I want the quality of the bud to come out superb.

What nutrients should I use for this grow?? Hydroponic or soil??? Do I have too much or too little light for the one plant right now?? Please let me know and I hope to post pictures of the grow cabinet really soon. Its a bad ass cabinet with a fish tank on top with turtles in it. lol. Keep ripping glass tubes and rolling the white owls...

bccrowley said:

Hello to everyone. This is my third day since I have purchased the equipment needed to finally make my antique freezer/refrigerator into a grow cabinet. Currently I only have one bagseed from a lemony tasting bud I had a while back. I would say that the area I have to grow in is about 18" x 18" x 48". The way the fridge is set up there is a freezer on the left side and fridge on the right which is perfect for a grow room (and the antique wood on the outside makes it just THAT much cooler)!!! I have already germinated the seed and placed it into a small pot with some random potting soil I found around the house. I plan to put it into a better soil in the near future to ensure the proper nutes and environment to grow. With 4 26 watt 6500k and 2 26 watt 2700k CFL bulbs in the top about 4" from the plant it is absolutely perfect. I really wanted to use a hydroponic setup and I have 12 other seeds on the way including autoflowering females and regular females (some inside and some outside). This is my first time being able to setup in the house and I want the quality of the bud to come out superb.

What nutrients should I use for this grow?? Hydroponic or soil??? Do I have too much or too little light for the one plant right now?? Please let me know and I hope to post pictures of the grow cabinet really soon. Its a bad ass cabinet with a fish tank on top with turtles in it. lol. Keep ripping glass tubes and rolling the white owls...

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I noticed now that it is later in the night and I have recently put more light to the plant that the leaves started to curl inward and up a lot and the stem started to cock sideways. I knew that it was just too much for the little girl to handle so I turned off a few bulbs only leaving 3 26 watt bulbs on. I figure this will be better to let them cool off during the 6 hrs of darkness and then tomorow will be better.

bccrowley said:

I noticed now that it is later in the night and I have recently put more light to the plant that the leaves started to curl inward and up a lot and the stem started to cock sideways. I knew that it was just too much for the little girl to handle so I turned off a few bulbs only leaving 3 26 watt bulbs on. I figure this will be better to let them cool off during the 6 hrs of darkness and then tomorow will be better.

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Hey man, this is my first post in well over a year. Saw your post and that no one has replied and thought maybe I can help. Firstly I use to grow in another country and have moved country, where I was I could grow in a big room lots of space.

Now I am in a country with tighter laws and I am living in a rental so I have to be carefull, so stealth is very important now.

Fristly to help you out a bit. The curling leaves are most probably over watering. Weed plants don't need nearly as much water as you may think. Heat damage in my experience would normally look slightly different and trust me it is not the strenghts of the lights.

Your first problem with the over watering is probably that "random" soil you used. You need to use good soil it is very important, but more important is that you mix in loads!!!!! or pearlite, I mean like 30% pearlite at least, the soil needs to run through your hands like sawdust when you are done mixing it. Then when you pick a soil you need to stick with it for the life of the plant. I made this mistake before when replanting. It you plant in one soil and then repot using the old soil around your roots and then into a new pot with say a hole to pot it in, the roots wont grow into the new soil. Yes it will a bit but not great.

Also dont grow the little ones in the sun one day and then into your room the next, start under fluro;s and stick with it.

When you grow under fluros it is great for veg and make sure you have at least 150 watts total in there but I would go 2 x 105 watts fluros. Dont spend allot, buy them cheap and put into normal light fittings. For the space you have it will work.

Your problem will begin at flower if you want to use HPS which I would recommend. But I would use a 250watt I only say this because of the heat. Your room is small and heat will be your enemy. Try and have the ballast outside the fridge if you can but it may not be possible for your stealth.

Anyway you sound new to the game, you could just go fluros all the way just to start learning, that will probably be best for you especialy in that space. But remember your yeilds will be 80% less and I am not kidding, HPS is king for flower!!!.

Here is a summary of things you MUST remember.

1. good soil - lots of pearlite.
2. minimise repotting
3. dont water to much.... (if you have lots of pearlite it will help you not to drown those angels)
4. watch the temps in your room, to hot and they die, to cold and they dont grow properly.
5. plants need air, make sure you vent them somehow, maybe a small fan with airholes somewhere.
6. fluro lights for veg and hps for flower.
7. 18 hours light and 6 hours dark in veg and 12 hours light and 12 hours dark to start flowering.
8. you must use a timer.
9 dont over water.
10. dont mess with them to much, if god needed you, every plant would have a man next to it try and think what would nature do and try and mimic it as close as possible.

What am I doing......

Well I have cuboard, my own free standing cuboard, looks just like a clothes cubboard. Very small compared to what I have done before. 2 small seedlings in there under one 105W fluro, another 105W fluro on the way. Lined on the inside with panda film not mylar.

Once they are bigger I will take 8 cuttings and grow them also, then get another cuboard put the cuttings in the under the fluros to veg, put 250watt hps over my two "mothers" and pray they are both or at least one female. Get rid of cuttings taken from male, if there is one.

Flower the sucker and smoke my first smoke in about 6 or 7 months by then. Because I know no one where I am and I do not have a contact to buy.... so the stakes are very high for me

Then the cycle begins.

If you want to see what I have grown before on almost zero budget look at my album.

Good luck.

Thanks for the in detail reply TheDude0007. I appreciate you explaining to me the light and watering situation. Even though the soil feels dry on top, it is still quite moist deeper down which is critical for an ideal rooting system. I did have the lights turned off 6 hrs last night and the plants seemed to be doing much better now. I feel that it gets a little warmer than needed so I did put a fan inside and the door has been open.

Im not necessarily looking for a stealth grow, and I would love to have seperate compartments for seedlings and veg/flowering. I still have to figure out how many plants I can theoretically plant in this setup so that I don't germinate too many seeds when they come in the mail. I plan to get a better soil and perlite really soon to ensure the proper watering that the plant needs as well as trying to find nutrients for when they need them. I will try to post pics of what I have within the next couple days

I hope that this is enough pictures for everyone to kinda see what I have going on. I took a few rips from my Tsunami and it got me going for the rest of the day so I decided to take a bunch of pictures. Thinking about other ideas I have seen online, and from the pics I have taken, I plan to install a 3 or 4 foot light bar (cheap from home depot) and install that on one of the side walls in the main growing area (right side compartment). If I can find a turntable that spins really slow, it would allow the plant to get the light from one side all around the plant and it would blow the leaves in a natural setting.

The way it is set up now, the planter is at the top on one of the metal screen shelves (oh I think they may be perfect for SOG!!!) by the lights. I plan to move the plants down as it grows (maybe??? i dont really know how I want it set up right now!!) So far so good with the little one. Seems to be growing like a champ. I know I will need more lights. I may get another power strip for the top and get y bulb joints to allow for 12 cfl's on the top and position the lamps where needed. Let me know what you think?

buddy

nice but i see a flaw......u have no venting as i can tell..................your baby needs cool fresh air with C02 and some way to remove the hot stale air


hydro vs soil .....first timer stick with soil it is forgivening rule of thumb with soil 1 gallon of soil equals one month of growth with out need of feeding

nutrients.......pick a line and use the stanard program they give ....start it off at 1/2 strenght and go up or down on the reactions of the plant ..........rem with soil u are just adding extra it is allready in there

with soil u want to go with the new areation bags u can get them in 1-10 and 20 gallon bags (incase u want it outside)

drop some of those lights that is way to much ...........u can work with just 3 5000k 6500k cfls for now or 2 of those and 1 2700k if it is auto

As far as the venting goes I'm not exactly sure how I want to go about doing this. since it is an old icebox, the sides are not cheap plastic or thin sheet metal but rather thick steel and metal sides. There may be a chance that I have to cut a hole in the back of the icebox just to turn it to a good grow cabinet even though it is antique. Not sure what size fans I should use. I know that computer fans seem to do pretty well but I have to keep this project to a budget so free is always better.

I will take a couple of the bulbs out as it seems to be too much for the plant to handle at the young stage. In about a week I will add a couple more lights and keep a careful eye on how they are doing. As far as air coming in and being pushed out, there is decent airflow from the air purifier on the floor which keeps it pretty cool for now but will need to be improvised soon as it will get hot and needs more fresh air.

Getting better soil is on my list of things to get next. Hopefully I can shop around and see what is available from the local nursery. There is always local potting soil made from the compost machine they have set up, and it is pretty cheap.

well u do not have to spend mad money on soil
my mix is
1 foot potting
1 foot organic
1/4 foot peat moss
2 foot local woodland/stream edge/marsh area (good soil and if anyone askes u are a local grower charge them more like do in markets)
5 cups of perlite

it is working good for the my little autos

i was thinking about this the ice box is designed for air flow ......u could take the door off the hinges and use a fan intake ....u can find fans in almost any shape/size i am guessing it is is 12box ...........for now untill u get the actual stuff (redneck jerry rigging) go and get yourself some wrapping papper ...u want the carborad tube...from there u line it alummiuan foroil.......now u have some ducting make the fan blow tho it to funnel the air in and then make a exhust route the same way .....spelling is not my thing

That is a pretty good idea. I didn't really think about taking the door off and putting an exhaust fan. I suppose I could definitely find a fan of similar size to keep the changing of the cabinet to a minimum. The mix of soil sounds to be a great idea and since I have 12 seeds coming in the mail it may be best to go ahead and stock on the good mix of soil for the grow I plan to do this year. There will be a mix of indoor and outdoor. As a matter of fact here is a list of seeds that I have coming:

2x Northern Lights Special- Regular seeds- by KC Brains
2x KC 36- Regular seeds- by KC Brains
1x Acapulco Gold- Feminized- by Barney's Farm
1x Vertigo Automatic- Autoflowering Feminized- by Paradise
1x Trans Siberian Automatic- Autoflowering Feminized- by Auto
1x White Widow Automatic- Autoflowering Feminized- by Vision
1x Auto Pounder- Autoflowering Feminized- by Auto
1x Sour Diesel- Feminized- by Royal Queen Seeds
1x Royal Bluematic- Autoflowering Feminized- by Royal Queen Seeds

I plan to keep a few seeds to mess around with and the regular seeds are all going outdoors.

Auto pounder ...........i am doing those next month that is a seed if i do 4 plants it is a years worth of smoke QP off each working with Berry ryder now

i like autos since they do there thing and only need 1/4 of nutrients compared to normal photo ......and sicne they are auto they love 24/0 and 20/4 so should make a OZ off each and will be happy

I like the box but venting is a must. Also at the seedling stage you can just put one CFL on the pot. As tiny as it is that's all it needs. NO need to run the others right now. Just extra heat. Noticed the power cord going in the front. Not very stealthy I would drill a hole in the back and run the cord out. Either tape up the hole or use a 2 inch hole saw, then get a 2 inch cloning plug, put your wire in it then plug the hole. That way you can get the cord out easy if need be and its cleaner and prettier.

You could use small computer fans for exhaust. Maybe make a small custom carbon filter. I like the set up. I built a box that isn't very stealthy looking. If I seen it in someones basement I would say yep, there's weed in there. I'd love to get a hold of a big old cabinet.

Oh yea, weather stripping is great for sealing the doors. If they already seal light tight then that is awesome..

well if u are going that method ..........go and get this ......this is tricky bit u will love it u need a band sawl u see where u screw it u need to cut in two 1 inch sections...it is just a outter frame but u can screw in from one side and on the other put a carbon mess pad (it will help keep air clean going in and out of the system allone with some stink and reduce the light leak out the back )

here



as for power cord..............go this method

u get a nice long 3 prong electical cord...drill a hole just big enouth for the line feed it tho and then add the outlet to the inside(u can go fancey 6 outlet) u pick the size of the power cord just keep it under 50 feet .....when u put it in make sure u put a surge protecting one and u ar golden........one outlet was for the fans one was for the power strip and cfls

For the time being, I bought a cheap honeywell turbo fan that blows air quite nice inside this little setup. In order to keep the cost of the project down, I am trying to make everything fairly simple. There is a drain pipe in the bottom that is about 1" diameter but too small to allow the extension cord end to go into and through. I want to run the cord through and am thinking of getting one of those cords that has the end which you have to manually put together, that way the cord is the only part which has to go through before connecting it to the wall. Where the cabinet is located, there is another outlet behind the cabinet which will save me a decent amount of work.

I am definetely thinking of turning off a couple of the lights since there really isnt a need for it at such a you age as the plant is currently. As I mentioned before. A better soil medium and nutrients are my next thing on my list.

ok buddy

rem to keep the air blowing on the plant at a minal ( wind burn and snapping stems )

a good lesson i learned is doing it cheap does not work u spend more money correctiing the mistakes for next time ........just a word from a old tinker/jerry rigging master

Lol. Thanks I appreciate it. The fan is at the bottom blowing on high speed upward towards the wall which bounces around and makes a lightly breezy atmosphere for the plant. Not too windy, just right. As the day goes on, I can definetely see that the plant is moving as far a growing speed goes. It is great to be able to see such a beautiful little plant turn to a gentle green flower over the course of a few months. With all of the strains that I have, hopefully I will be able to grow a few at a time. By the way, how many plants do you think I can fit into this setup?

In the near future, I really want to take over a small closet in the basement. It would be a great place to put the plants and a closet is just that much easier to work with especially when dealing with limited quantity of space

based on the size of that main chamber ........u re looking a one Phat plant (best bet)........possible 4 hydro 2 medium soil

rem autos are short and bushy if u get really lucky u can get like 3 main cola from branching (but that is super skilled mad stoner skills)

That sounds great to me. I was thinking of growing my biggest in the right chamber and growing smaller and/or germinating the seeds in the other lower small left side while keeping tools, extension cords, supplies in the upper left chamber. I have a few autoflowering plants on the way so they should definitely a good bet to keep growing indoors and keep me busy for a little while.

bccrowley said:

Thanks for the in detail reply TheDude0007. I appreciate you explaining to me the light and watering situation. Even though the soil feels dry on top, it is still quite moist deeper down which is critical for an ideal rooting system. I did have the lights turned off 6 hrs last night and the plants seemed to be doing much better now. I feel that it gets a little warmer than needed so I did put a fan inside and the door has been open.

Im not necessarily looking for a stealth grow, and I would love to have seperate compartments for seedlings and veg/flowering. I still have to figure out how many plants I can theoretically plant in this setup so that I don't germinate too many seeds when they come in the mail. I plan to get a better soil and perlite really soon to ensure the proper watering that the plant needs as well as trying to find nutrients for when they need them. I will try to post pics of what I have within the next couple days

Click to expand...

Hey man, your setup looks cool and that little seedling does not look like it is doing bad at all. I can't really see leaf curling to be honest I think the little one is still getting into her stride. With regards to the soil being moist deep down. What I do is not water when the soil is still moist deep down. I try to only water once a week, but everyone finds their own way so good luck and with experience you will find what works for you.

Like you pics and setup and that will continue to change also because you will always try and improve things.

Peace out....