Help on possible grow box

Hey all, new to this site and new to growing. Will try my best to explain my situation and open to any ideas anyone has.

Basically ill be growing in a 2x2x4 cabinet can extend to 6ft in height if needed as its an old cupboard from the kitchen. Was thinking for lights running 1x VIPARSPECTRA Dimmable 300W LED Grow Light 12 Band Full Spectrum VEG BLOOM Dimmer for $148 plus 2x 60w 27000k CFLs when it starts to flower.

Not too sure if ill need ventilation but everything ive read seems to say it certainly won't hurt if i have it. So i was considering 1 or 2 140mm computer fans for both an exhaust and intake with a possible diy pvc pipe air flow system within the cupboard its self. Will be using Mylar to line the inside as well

Im only considering growing 1 at max 2 plants but later on possibly converting a small fridge into a grow box for seedlings and clones to have a cycle going but thats later on.

If theres more information anyone needs to know ill do my best to let you know, as im pretty keen on this diy project plus growing my own personal supply.

Open to all ideas and or theorys, keep in mind i dont have the biggest budget and i do need to keep some what stealth grow for security.

Thanks

Is it possible to get any info on the led lights if anyone has used them in the past or currently using them? And is a 2x2 box too small???

BigBobber said:

Hey all, new to this site and new to growing. Will try my best to explain my situation and open to any ideas anyone has.

Basically ill be growing in a 2x2x4 cabinet can extend to 6ft in height if needed as its an old cupboard from the kitchen. Was thinking for lights running 1x VIPARSPECTRA Dimmable 300W LED Grow Light 12 Band Full Spectrum VEG BLOOM Dimmer for $148 plus 2x 60w 27000k CFLs when it starts to flower.

Not too sure if ill need ventilation but everything ive read seems to say it certainly won't hurt if i have it. So i was considering 1 or 2 140mm computer fans for both an exhaust and intake with a possible diy pvc pipe air flow system within the cupboard its self. Will be using Mylar to line the inside as well

Im only considering growing 1 at max 2 plants but later on possibly converting a small fridge into a grow box for seedlings and clones to have a cycle going but thats later on.

If theres more information anyone needs to know ill do my best to let you know, as im pretty keen on this diy project plus growing my own personal supply.

Open to all ideas and or theorys, keep in mind i dont have the biggest budget and i do need to keep some what stealth grow for security.

Thanks

Click to expand...

welcome to the world of underground growing

1 air flow is hugly important
a. it controlls the temp in the grow room
b. it brings the plant what it wants (lights on wants Co2 lights off it wants Oxygen)
c. since u are using air flow to do this stuff and need to stay hidden u also need a carbon air filter to remove the smell of the growing plants (yes weed has a smell to it in veggie but even more so in flower ) so u are going to need something

sorry took pill head is shutting down i hav to re read and type rest in morning /afternoon

justugh said:

welcome to the world of underground growing

1 air flow is hugly important
a. it controlls the temp in the grow room
b. it brings the plant what it wants (lights on wants Co2 lights off it wants Oxygen)
c. since u are using air flow to do this stuff and need to stay hidden u also need a carbon air filter to remove the smell of the growing plants (yes weed has a smell to it in veggie but even more so in flower ) so u are going to need something

sorry took pill head is shutting down i hav to re read and type rest in morning /afternoon

Click to expand...

Hey mate thanks for the reply ill look into possibly trying to wire up the computer fans to a controll switch so i can adjust the airflow and yeah too easy mate have a good one

I have a Viparspectra 450w light that I use for seedlings and clones that has done me well especially for the price but it's still only a Chinese LED Light at the end of the day. It will work but there is better lights out there but at a higher price.

Literally just knocked this scrog up. Would fit perfectly in your room. It's designed as 1 of 4 to go in a 1.2 x 1.2 x 2.0m tent. And you wouldn't really need to go any higher

Dimensions are 600mm x 500mm x 600mm (the 200mm at the front of the 4 is so I can rig up a feeder system otherwise I would go 600mm x 600mm x 600mm for one plant)

Hey akgrow & colanos copy, thanks both for the reply. Akgrow would you recommend i just stick to the CFLs and just get as many as i can/need? Colanos copy that looks Iike a great idea, as im new to this im still coming across all these different techniques so I suppose its all in trail and error and than what works best. I havent read to far into scroging as i thought it may of been an advanced method of growing. But ill be sure to do some more homework on it from now. Looks like you pieced it all together nicely, good job and thanks again Akgrow and colanos copy

BigBobber said:

Hey akgrow & colanos copy, thanks both for the reply. Akgrow would you recommend i just stick to the CFLs and just get as many as i can/need? Colanos copy that looks Iike a great idea, as im new to this im still coming across all these different techniques so I suppose its all in trail and error and than what works best. I havent read to far into scroging as i thought it may of been an advanced method of growing. But ill be sure to do some more homework on it from now. Looks like you pieced it all together nicely, good job and thanks again Akgrow and colanos copy

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Just thought I'd pipe up with my opinion. If you're going one plant and have height limits scrog is definitely the way to go. If you have any disposable funds available maybe upgrade to an air cooled hood. Then you will have a cracking little stealth grow

Colanoscopy said:

Just thought I'd pipe up with my opinion. If you're going one plant and have height limits scrog is definitely the way to go. If you have any disposable funds available maybe upgrade to an air cooled hood. Then you will have a cracking little stealth grow

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Yeah awesome i have some spare time now so ill look into it for sure. Aand yeah and no unfortunately for the spare funds. Its half the reason i wanna start growing so i can have some spare funds haha

BigBobber said:

Yeah awesome i have some spare time now so ill look into it for sure. Aand yeah and no unfortunately for the spare funds. Its half the reason i wanna start growing so i can have some spare funds haha

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My funds were minimal too. I paid 45 gbp for the cool tube and got a 400w dual spectrum hps with ballast for under 40 gbp. (I have upgraded to a 600w now but when I was starting up just tucked little bits of cash away for stuff I needed) I smoke a lot of green but there was the odd day I'd stretch my bud out longer and use the savings to improve my setup. It's still not the best setup by any stretch but it's better than the CFLs in a wardrobe I started with. You get out what you put in

If you can afford to spend on a vipar spectra which is a poor quality LED light (although at the better end of poor)
You can afford to build yourself a COB light.

4x Citi 1212s COBs @ $10-11 each
4x 120mm Heatsinks @ $9.50 each
1 x HLG 120h-c700b @$41 each or a HLG120h-c1050 same price (dimmable so you can turn it down in summer or up in winter)

That would come to a 100w or 148w light and do better than the light you linked, plus with less watts your not going to have as many issues with heat and cheaper to run.

COB lights are more efficient and give a better spectrum than cheap LED panels and will last you 10 years not one grow like a cheap panel might.

You would need some aluminium to frame it, some wire and a soldering iron. Its pretty easy to do. Even though it might seem daunting.

If you want to learn more about them I would recommend going on youtube and looking for growmau5s vids, especially his early ones. He has a 7 part tutorial. If you want to see someone with a small cab doing something similar do a member search on here for @Will Thayer, I havnt seen him on here in a loooong time but he has a few threads with small cabinet grows. Top bloke.

Anyhow that's what I would do in a small space these days. I have built grow cabs many years ago and I struggled with temps even running 200w of cfl in bigger cupboards than your talking about. I had 16 pc fans in one and it still got hot in there.

If any of this is of interest I will link somewhere who sells the parts needed for the prices mentioned.

Good luck which ever direction you go in grower! Welcome to RIU

I think you would be fine either way as far as CFL or the LED, I have never grown with CFLs so I can't really compare but I have fiends that have done complete grows with both and get adequate results.

CFLs
suck donkey balls for growing
the light they make is use able with about 12 inches of room ....as the plant gets bigger u add to cover dead spots the heat just increases exponentiation
then u have to increase your cooling and air movement to combat that increasing the power u need
CFLs are a trap

LED rock
depending on the lens the LED uses u are getting 30 to 36 inches of depth into the plant .....drawl back on the LED is the over all area of coverage they do a small footprint compared to HIDs

as for cob no practical grows with them under my belt but if the lens on them are correct they should work just fine ......cob is use a a chip with several diodes on it so it makes building easier ...personally i like the LED diodes ......50k hours with no light wave flux or drop the amount of money made off the light vs the cost of the light it sell is so off set it is not funny

I have grown with CFLs and they do work. a T5 would be a better option http://www.ebay.com/itm/322070695253?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT more light less heat if you want to try DIY LEDs these may be an option https://www.digikey.com/products/en/optoelectronics/led-lighting-cobs-engines-modules/111?k=&pkeyword=&pv46=37435&FV=ffecd831,fffc03d0&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25 8 strips should give you plenty of light. you can wire them in series and use a single driver to power all of them.I you plan to grow with LEDs you may need to ad CAL/MAG supplements. I have grown with Chinese LEDs as well as these white strip lights but still prefer my T5s. YMMV

For your grow box , you can look into quantum boards. These are High Efficient , Low Heat options for indoor.

I personally use these in ALL my grows. They are superior to common BLURPLE panels such as Mars , Vipar , Relandro and others . They are actually MORE efficient than most current COBS . There is various threads / grows on RIU .

@robincnn and @Stephenj37826 will guide you into the right direction. For the cost of the cheap chinese panels , you can have a light system that you will not outgrow , only expand on.

Look at QUANTUM BOARDS - https://horticulturelightinggroup.com

The 3000k spectrum has the ( 3500k cree spectrum ) and will grow from seed to veg to flower by itself. Quantums can be dimmed for more efficiency. NO MORE BLUE / PINK OR PURPLE lights .
My panels run 78° all day long .



I have grown with Mars and Vipar BUT with these i havent looked back.

MARS :


VIPAR 600 :

Budzbuddha said:

For your grow box , you can look into quantum boards. These are High Efficient , Low Heat options for indoor.

I personally use these in ALL my grows. They are superior to common BLURPLE panels such as Mars , Vipar , Relandro and others . They are actually MORE efficient than most current COBS . There is various threads / grows on RIU .

@robincnn and @Stephenj37826 will guide you into the right direction. For the cost of the cheap chinese panels , you can have a light system that you will not outgrow , only expand on.

Look at QUANTUM BOARDS - https://horticulturelightinggroup.com

The 3000k spectrum has the ( 3500k cree spectrum ) and will grow from seed to veg to flower by itself. Quantums can be dimmed for more efficiency. NO MORE BLUE / PINK OR PURPLE lights .
My panels run 78° all day long .

View attachment 3929059 View attachment 3929060

I have grown with Mars and Vipar BUT with these i havent looked back.

MARS :
View attachment 3929061

VIPAR 600 :

View attachment 3929063

Click to expand...

Listen to the wild man with the crazy Golden Death Mask. The dude makes some crazy good light builds with QBs. He is a guru like GrowMau5.

Ah nice @Budzbuddha, I have seen a few QB grows but a lot of them are in a scrog or scrog style canopys, been wanting to see them over plants of a size and shape I usually grow. Now I know where to look.

Hey guys sorry its taken me a while to reply back had no data on my phone. Yous have all given such great advice, so thank you for the time you guys are giving. I think i will be giving it a shot at building my scrog up to size to fit the grow box. I was wondering tho with the dimensions of the box only being 2x2 but than 6ft in height will it be wide enough to fully take adventage of the hight? Im guessing with the scrog and some limited stress training, i may be able to overcome or at very best work with the area of the grow? If that makes sense?

Im currently looking at all the lighting options thats been presented as well from the T5s and cobs to the Quantum Boards now

Budzbuddha said:

For your grow box , you can look into quantum boards. These are High Efficient , Low Heat options for indoor.

I personally use these in ALL my grows. They are superior to common BLURPLE panels such as Mars , Vipar , Relandro and others . They are actually MORE efficient than most current COBS . There is various threads / grows on RIU .

@robincnn and @Stephenj37826 will guide you into the right direction. For the cost of the cheap chinese panels , you can have a light system that you will not outgrow , only expand on.

Look at QUANTUM BOARDS

The 3000k spectrum has the ( 3500k cree spectrum ) and will grow from seed to veg to flower by itself. Quantums can be dimmed for more efficiency. NO MORE BLUE / PINK OR PURPLE lights .
My panels run 78° all day long .

View attachment 3929059 View attachment 3929060

I have grown with Mars and Vipar BUT with these i havent looked back.

MARS :
View attachment 3929061

VIPAR 600 :

View attachment 3929063

Click to expand...

I think the 135w QB LED kit will fit the best plus it can have the power cable converted to 240v which works well for where i am. Only thing i cant see are the actual dimensions of the unit it self. But the running temps look great. Plus im taking it if i run into any trouble putting it all together, i could simply youtube/google it and look up on RIU about it as well. You would also recommend the 3000k over the 4000k yeah?