Need a little help *development stages*

Hey fellas,so ive started to build a stealth cabinet,for 4 plants.


So i will be growing 4 strains:
Purple Kush
BlueBerry Bomb
Afghan Kush Ryder
Candy Kush

All of these seeds that i have selected are auto flowering and feminized, to make it a bit easier on my second grow.So i have constructed a Wooden Box,(with the dimensions of 5ft x 15" x 3ft

My first order of buisness is...will 15" wide provide my plants with enoph space to grow outwards,and is 5ft in length good enoph space wise for the plants aswell?

Now that the acctually dimension of the box are over with,onto airflow/filtration.

So i was intending to order a carbon filter,with an inline fan most likely a 4",any suggestions on where i can get them for fairly cheap,other them ebay?

And with the box being made Of 1/2" plywood,and it being spray paints,and lined with mylar on the inside...will the carbon filter be enoph to eliminate that bad(good) smell.

In growing 4 plants,for my second grow,i have cheaped out and decided to not get LED's,and i stuck to CFL's

The CFL's that a buddy of mine gave me are 150W 6500k cfl grow lights

I am assuming that if i have one of those per plant that it will be a sufficient amount of light to let my babies grow nice and strong.

and since im using autoflowering strains...i should not have to change the bulbs out from veg to flowering stage correct?


a couple of grow journals that i have read and followed regarding stealth grows,i have seen a couple people using those hydro bubblers where the roots are just being floated in the water...

I value this communities opinion very much, and i would like to know..what are the advantages VS the disadvantages to using those hydro bubblers or soil.

when i see the hydro bubblers in stealth grows,they sit alot lower to the ground,giving the plant quite a bit more room to grow upwards towards the lights.

And since i use a RO system,the water would be perfect and i would be able to dose all 4 plants at one i presume


If someone would not mind possibly giving me a link to how these things work?Or do you fellas recommend soil?

Quick question. Are the CFLs actually 150w or are they 150w equivalent? If they are real 150w then you should be okay with 1 per plant, but you will need to do a little maneuvering with reflectors to make full use of the light. As for swapping bulbs for flower, Autoflowering strains don't need a switch to 12/12 cycle but they still benefit from a change in spectrum. It would be helpful to add a few 2700K lights, but you could probably get away without it as the 6500K still puts out a decent amount of red spectrum (All CFLs have very wide spectrums) and the extra UV-B that the 6500K puts out will keep them extra frosty. I can't comment on the benefits of hydro as I've only ever grown in soil (Cannabis, flowers, fruits and veggies) but in terms of stealth soil has the benefit of not requiring a pump which can cause a good deal of sound depending on the quality (I'm sure if you're willing to pay for it you can get pretty silent ones, but cheap pumps are usually loud if my fish tank experience holds true) and since you will already have fans running the sounds can definitely add up. As long as your carbon filter is properly maintained and the humidity isn't too high, it should take care of the smell. Sorry I answered questions in a weird order and didn't answer all of them, but I don't like to answer unless I am pretty confident about it, don't want to mess you up with guesswork haha

Ace Yonder said:

Quick question. Are the CFLs actually 150w or are they 150w equivalent? If they are real 150w then you should be okay with 1 per plant, but you will need to do a little maneuvering with reflectors to make full use of the light. As for swapping bulbs for flower, Autoflowering strains don't need a switch to 12/12 cycle but they still benefit from a change in spectrum. It would be helpful to add a few 2700K lights, but you could probably get away without it as the 6500K still puts out a decent amount of red spectrum (All CFLs have very wide spectrums) and the extra UV-B that the 6500K puts out will keep them extra frosty. I can't comment on the benefits of hydro as I've only ever grown in soil (Cannabis, flowers, fruits and veggies) but in terms of stealth soil has the benefit of not requiring a pump which can cause a good deal of sound depending on the quality (I'm sure if you're willing to pay for it you can get pretty silent ones, but cheap pumps are usually loud if my fish tank experience holds true) and since you will already have fans running the sounds can definitely add up. As long as your carbon filter is properly maintained and the humidity isn't too high, it should take care of the smell. Sorry I answered questions in a weird order and didn't answer all of them, but I don't like to answer unless I am pretty confident about it, don't want to mess you up with guesswork haha

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your reply.So yes,the 150wcfl are acctually 150,not 150w equivalent.

Now that i think about it,yes soil does have the benifit sound wise,but since i was intending to grow in a max of about 3-3.5ft in height,i think the 5gal pot will reduce that grow room alot,so i wasnt to sure,but i think i will stick to soil.


So i acctually just ordered a 4" Carbon filter,with a 4" inline fan...it is a can filter,the filters length is about 10" and about 6" wide

Do you have any suggestions as of where i place my intake and exhaust??

Should i put them on either side of the box?or should i just put one like 6" above the other on?

FYI i will have an oscillating fan running in there.

you always want to suck the air (exhaust) from top .(heat rises) 2500 lumes per square for or 50 watts per sq ft is sufficient .im a soil grower although i have done bubbleponics the growth rate is much faster, but you have to learn about hydro growing in general as far as ph levels ppms, you will need meters to measure ph, n ppms, soil is much more forgiving if you mess up no big deal with hydro you mess up enough and your crop is DONE so do your homework on it!

if you train your plants , in 2 gal pots your results will be good. i say ATLEAST 14-24 grams per plant, you should look into scrogging , scrog will get you alot more better yields and is very well suited for stealth grows, just saw there auto s , i dont think you can scrog autos cuz it requires some veg time, and you will need to swap those blue spec lights for some red spec lights for flower, like 2400ks

Yea,i went for the auto's because i figured that it would be a good idea to take a little bit of work off my back,i will most likely add 4-6 100w 2700k bulbs scattered throught the box.

Soil wise,what would you suggest? I have a brick of that coco coir stuff,will i need to mix it with anything??Suggestions?

im not sure have used straight coco but you can mix coco and soil together , when it all comes down to it , its all about personal preference, If it were me id do soil , but some1 who likes hydro will tell you the opposite, try 3 soil since your not too exp. itll give you breathing room just incase of errors and 1 in coco or 2 and 2 and see what you prefer, as for the lights , that would be good enough

I like siol cuz you dont gotta do all that mumbo jumbo stuff with Ro water ph all that headache stuff lol i just get a good premium soil add some dolomite lime(ph buffer)if not already in the soil ,feed and watch em grow

Alrighty,thanks for all the help so far!

Since these are auto plants...will i have to change my lighting schedule,i was recomended to run the lights 18-20 hours a day,with a 4-6 hour dark period.

Will i keep this schedule throught the entire veg and flowering stages?or should i change out to a 12/12 or something,but isnt that the point of auto?

once again thanks to everyone for the help

some 1 with exp on autos would have a better answer,Ive never grown autos but no you dont have to switch to 12/12 because no matter the light scheadule they will flower thats y there call autos . If it were me idk id do like 14/10 for flower more light more production, ive also heard 18/6 the whole grow , regardless of light shceadule they WILL grow and flower

alright,just confirming what i have heard...One last thing

For atleast two of the plants im intending to do a 75% coco coir,and 25% perlite.and the other 2 in soil

ive been reccomended by friends to use 5 gal pots,but you said i would be fine off with a 2 gallon,Have you used the 2 gal with good success?

From searching the web, it looks like there is no need to change the light schedule with auto flowering plants.

Yeah for little grow to where im only going to veg for 2 weeks i keep em in 2 gal and pull close to or over a zip depending on strain, since your using seed and auto you would be good in 3 gal but if you wanted to do 5 gal if you wanted too. and thats a good idea stay experimenting thats the only way youll really know what work and what doesnt.. I once did 12 5 gallon gallon plants and 4 3 gallon plants the same time and noticed No increase of yield , i only vegged for 3 weeks tho if i would have vegged longer maybe the 5 gallon would have yielded more

Yeah for little grow to where im only going to veg for 2 weeks i keep em in 2 gal and pull close to or over a zip depending on strain, since your using seed and auto you would be good in 3 gal but if you wanted to do 5 gal if you wanted too. and thats a good idea stay experimenting thats the only way youll really know what work and what doesnt.. I once did 12 5 gallon gallon plants and 4 3 gallon plants the same time and noticed No increase of yield , i only vegged for 3 weeks tho if i would have vegged longer maybe the 5 gallon would have yielded more

well i think that im going to go right dead center,and use a 4gal pot,not to big and not to small

When i install this carbon filter,inline fan...In you opinions will i need any other type of odor control...the box will be 100% sealed,besides the intake and exhaust(inline 4" with carbon filter) and the door will be 100% sealed aswell.

if you dont think it will be enoph,any suggestions on other methods?

3 gallon spartpots or geopots are also good options (I have mine in a 3 gallon geopot, plant is about 2' tall, plant and pot together are just shy of 30". 4 gallon would probably be great too, just when I got mine they only had 3 and 5). I don't have a sealed growbox or any kind of air filtration as I don't need to worry about the smell (my grow is legal and I rather enjoy the aroma), but as per my understanding that should be enough. If you are really worried you can put like a little dish of baking soda in there, I use it to keep my fridge from smelling and it works great, don't see any reason why it wouldn't do the same thing with the plants' smell. Won't eliminate it, but it might lower the workload of the carbon filter a lil bit.

every time ive used a carbon filter ive never had any issues with the smell, and ive never grown in a sealed room. and lol and 4 gallon seems good . like i said tho try 1 in a 5 gal and see if theres a diff if not then atleast you know for sure . never hurts to find out

Thanks for your help STL,i should be getting the fan,carbon filter in this week,and i will begin to build this stealth box within the next two weeks.

Ive decided for odour control,to run the carb filter,inline fan all nicely sealed with silicone or duct seal,and ill throw an "ona block" in there for fun...i also picked up 1 of those air purifiers,it just has active bamboo charcol in it,the first grow i will do it with,the second i will do it without and see how it goes...

I hope to see you subscribed once this box is up and running,i will start a new thread for that tho,i will definetly need your help along the way

yea bro no prob just post a link on here when you get it up and going

Will do,i will be building single pieces at a time,and eventually i will put them all together hopefully a weekend from now.Fans,filters,lights,soil,nutes,will all be here within this week,so itl hopefully turn out great