Second Grow. New Stealth Armoire

This is my second grow attempt. My first was in a 2'x2'x4'(wxdxh) box with a 250 watt Hps and 3 bagseed plants that started off being lst'd then let go. I ended up with about 1.5 ounces dry of acceptable bud, while the rest went to butter. The buds weren't very dense, they were very fluffy. I figured it was the nutrients and genes and the fact that i let them grow so tall.

This time around I changed a few things. First off I got some Nirvana northern lights. I germed 4 and I'm hoping that at least 2 are females. I also got a new more stealth grow box. I picked up a computer armoire on craigslist for $50 with dimensions 28"x21"x60" . I gutted it, put a new back on it, and paint the inside white. I also ordered and installed an air cooled hood to help cool down my 250 watt hps to keep it closer to the plants. I still have to build the scrog and intake filter for the box and then the box will be done. My flowering light is a 250 watt Hps from htg supply. The hood is a CAP Lumesun reflector. I have a phresh carbon filter and 4 inch inline 171 cfm fan. They are currently setup as: carbon filter->hood->fan. I'm hoping the fan will be enough to keep everything cool. I also bought better nutrients. I got the Fox Farm trio plus beastie blooms. I'm also using Fox Farm ocean forest soil.

As for future plans for this grow, I may buy a ceramic metal halide for the grow or at least veg, I may purchase the cha ching and open sesame so I have the complete fox farms line up to use, and finally I may upgrade to a 400 watt with digital ballast(either lumatek or quantum) for flowering. I am worried that if I purchase the 400 watt I may have to upgrade my ventilation system to keep it cool. Any opinions on any of these?

Now on to the actual grow. I put the seeds in wet paper towels on 1-9-12. They popped and had roots on 1-10-12, I then put the seeds in to starter plugs. Then yesterday 1-11-12 they broke the surface of the plugs. And now we are here, two are close to an inch tall while the other two are still trying to lift up.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open for suggestions. And if anyone has any questions just ask. I'll try to keep this updated as much as possible.

I'm diggin the set up, bro. I've grown nirvana nl before and I think it will be perfect for you. It stays pretty short and won't stink. Actually ideal for your grow. Best of luck!

Thanks Unclejerk.
Just an update for today. Two of the seeds are really taking off, while one is slower, and the fourth may have died. Somehow the root or stem was exposed and that one starter plug dried out faster than the rest. I moved the 2 larger ones to red cups because they already had roots coming out of the bottom of the plugs. They are all under a 125 watt cfl now for veg.

nice. my friend wants me to help him build a stealth grow cabinet and i'm undecided on the light size\type. i'm curious on the temps in your cab with that set up. have you run it yet with a thermometer?

Unclejerk said:

nice. my friend wants me to help him build a stealth grow cabinet and i'm undecided on the light size\type. i'm curious on the temps in your cab with that set up. have you run it yet with a thermometer?

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I'm actually running it right now. And with the temperature outside the box at 72 and the thermometer directly in the light it's at 82. But that's with only the exhaust fan on and no other fans circulating air in the box. Last time the temps dropped dramatically after turning the fans on and adding an extra, small fan on the intake. I'm going to do a few tweaks to try and get the temps down more. I'm actually debating putting the reflector on it's own fan pulling air directly from outside right now. I'll let you know what all I do. But right off the bat, I could tell you that if I had the money I would have gone with a 6 inch inline fan and different reflector. With that, the temps wouldn't be an issue and you should have plenty of air flow for a 400 watt. I'll make sure to try and keep this updated with any changes I make so it'll help you out as much as possible.

Now onto the updates. I finished my scrog screen yesterday. Simply made out of 1x2's with 2 inch spaces in the screen. I also got the intake filter installed, a simple 12x12x1 home filter with 4 2.5 inch holes to pull through it. I'm pretty sure i'm going to add one more hole in it since I had 5 of them in my previous box. I'm strongly considering putting the reflector on it's own air circuit, I would just need another fan. I have a 6 inch axial fan I could use or I might try to use one of those duct booster fans. I can't really decide.
The plants are doing good. I have 3 of them in red party cups right now. They were under a 125 watt cfl but that broke literally like 5 mins ago. So now they are under some 26 watt cfl's until I can get a new light tomorrow.

My questions before I add the photos are:
1. Should I put the reflector on its own air circuit? If so, should I use the 6 inch axial fan or would a duct booster fan work all right?
2. Should I just purchase another 125 or 150 watt bulb or should I just spend the little bit extra and buy a t5 system?

this is just my opinion, but at least for now you can delete that carbon filter and this should really increase airflow. those northern lights will NOT put off any smells at all especially when vegging. and in my experience only stink in late flower when you physically disturb the buds. so i'd say try that at least before do any major changes. and about the veg lights, if its just 3 or 4 small plants like that, save the cash. you can always add another cfl or two if needed. not trying to be a know it all, hope i'm helping...

Unclejerk said:

this is just my opinion, but at least for now you can delete that carbon filter and this should really increase airflow. those northern lights will NOT put off any smells at all especially when vegging. and in my experience only stink in late flower when you physically disturb the buds. so i'd say try that at least before do any major changes. and about the veg lights, if its just 3 or 4 small plants like that, save the cash. you can always add another cfl or two if needed. not trying to be a know it all, hope i'm helping...

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I didn't think about removing the carbon filter for a while. That's a good idea, I'll have to try that. The main reason i was thinking about doing it's own air circuit on the reflector was because I plan on this being my permanent for a long while and I already have that 6 inch axial fan. I'm going to just keep it how I have it now and change if it's needed. Don't worry bout coming off as a know it all, it's a forum for people to exchange opinions, knowledge, and ideas. It helps getting other opinions especially when you start thinking about it too much like I do.

As for the plants, there are no real changes except the seed that I thought died has found new life. I'm still trying to find a way to quiet down my exhaust though. The majority of the noise is coming primarily from the air just coming out of the 4 inch hole. I saw a friend's box today that has a 4 inch vortex fan and on full blast it's extremely quiet, so I will definitely be picking one of those up for my next grow to replace my valueline fan

Time for an update.
I think I got the temperatures under control now. The armoire was getting 10 degrees hotter than the room it was in. I tried running it without the carbon filter attached and a fan on the intake and it didn't help. I then got a crazy idea to remove these two cover things in the reflector that covered the air intake and exhaust holes to reflect more and draw air in around the sides. After removing them the armoire runs much cooler now, about 3-5 degrees warmer than the room it's in. I don't know how much the those covers will effect the way the light reflects but the box is staying cool now which is all that matters to me right now. My box should be done now excluding the minor tweaks I will be doing throughout the grow. The plants in the cups are about 10 days after breaking soil surface and the 4th in the starter plug is about 2 days from breaking surface.

Just wanted to give a quick update.
I really wasn't happy with the increase of temperatures i was getting inside the armoire considering i had less than a 5 degree difference in my small box with the same setup minus the air cooled reflector. After comparing the two grow i realized the main difference was that i had the light ballast inside the armoire instead of outside like my last grow. I moved the ballast to the outside of the armoire for now and now the armoire only get's one degree hotter than the room it is in. This is perfect for me because now i don't have to keep my room super cool all the time. Plans for the next grow will be to find a way to get the ballast on the inside of the armoire with it's own cooling system as to not effect the grow space.
Thanks for reading and happy smoking

good thinking! i wonder if you could build a small enclosure for it with a little pc fan...nice job though with the 1 degree. + rep (if i figure out how that"s done. ha!)

Unclejerk said:

good thinking! i wonder if you could build a small enclosure for it with a little pc fan...nice job though with the 1 degree. + rep (if i figure out how that"s done. ha!)

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the small enclosure around it was exactly what i was thinking. but since i am doing a scrog grow i may just build an extra shelf right underneath the exhaust fan to build an enclosure inside the grow box to house all of the electronics up there and use the 6 inch axial fan i have to cool that whole space independently. But for now the ballast will just remain on the exterior of the armoire with its own fan facing directly on it to help keep it cooler. I should have some picture updates of the plants on here in an hour or so. Thanks for following this thread unclejerk

hey man, i like this thread. i miss my northern lights. just keep it up. it saddens me when people abandon their threads mid grow. hows everything going?

Unclejerk said:

hey man, i like this thread. i miss my northern lights. just keep it up. it saddens me when people abandon their threads mid grow. hows everything going?

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Hey sorry, I got really busy with some stuff and my internet went out for a bit. The grow is going well though. I have transplanted the plants to their bigger pots and my ceramic metal halide bulb came in today. I'm still unsure if i am going to use it for flowering also or not. If not I'm going to try to pick up a new hps bulb. I am hoping to take some cuttings soon to sex the plants here in the next week or so. Also I plan to start nutrients this week. Sorry for such a short update but there isn't much else new right now. Enjoy some pics for now.

The plants got their first round of nutrients today. The ceramic metal halide is great and he plants seem to really like it. I did take some cuttings that are trying to root right now so I can sex the plants. One of them seem to already being showing signs of female. I tried taking a picture but I dont have a camera that can take that close up of shots. Time for a quick pic

The ceramic metal halide is great this far. But i did have to get a socket extender for it so it would be better centered in the reflector. Without it most of the light was concentrated on one side of the box. 2 of the larger plants have shown signs of sex already. I didnt really expect that. One is for sure female and the other is male. Just waiting on the third one to show sex next. I think I am going to try getting a 250 watt hortilux for flowering with either 2 t5's or some cfl's for additional lighting around the edges. I also plan on putting the scrog screen in this weekend and if they keep growing how they are, I should be able to start flowering in in like 2 weeks. Thanks for following and let me know of any suggestions you may have

I've finally got the male out of the box and the scrog screen in. They seem to be filling it up pretty quickly at the rate i've been going, i'll prolly be switching to flowering in a week or so. Sorry for no pics on this update, i don't have my camera on me at the time being. I will try getting pics up as soon as possible

Ok the scrog screen has been in for about 4 days now. I think I put it too close to the pots, but it'll do for now. The reflector doesn't reflect all the way to the edges of the box right now since it is pretty close to the screen so I've been adding some cfl's to help. I've also been very strongly considering getting a 400 watt hps. I was thinking about going with a galaxy ballast and a digilux bulb for flowering to help get real dense buds and not airy like last time. Anyone have any suggestions on either of these products? The only thing stopping me from ordering them right now, is money. Any questions or comments feel free to speak up.

Looking good bro. Through my experience, I've had airy buds from heat issues and not from lack of lighting. In fact, I've grown the same strains under both hps and t5's and though I may have yielded less with floros, the nugs were just as dense as with the sodiums. So I'm thinking with your setup, with that few plants,a 250 will cover enough ground and you'll be able to keep the light closer also. If anything, I'd just get a larger reflector to spread the light a bit better. like the screen by the way.

Yeah I wish the reflector would spread more light out, it was the only one in my price range that would fit easily. Live and learn I guess. I do notice some slight smell coming out though, so I really need to seal up the reflector which I plan on doing when I put the hps bulb in. Think I might order a hortilux 250 real quick. Also some of the leaves seem to be losing color and almost bleaching out. Is it from the light or a nutrient deficiency? I"ve only done nutes like 3 times with regular water in between. There are also a few random leaves getting brown spots and randomly dying off. Any idea of what this could be also? Hopefully the pics will be good enough to help you see what i'm talking about. Just let me know.

hmmmm. yea, not sure. my first thought is nutrient imbalance... but i'm no expert. for sure not a light deficiency. i usually give a good flush first before anything. what nutrients are you using?