First-time grower - Grow cabinet design and grow plan - Criticism requested

[fiddlefoops]

Hi,

I'm a new member and first-time grower getting ready for his first grow. I have designed a cabinet set-up and planned my grow. I hope to detail the design and plan in this looooong post and request criticism, advice, feedback, or comments from any and all readers with cannabis cultivation knowledge and experience who could help guide my first effort. To all who take the time to read this tome and respond, first let me say that I am not surprised by your altruism. Since joining the medical cannabis community recently and having dealt with many people in the legit and grey market cannabis industries after decades of knowing only the black market, I have learned that there is no better, more honest and honourable, more willing to lend a hand or impart knowledge, more exemplary in their business practices, or more downright friendly than the cannabis community whether they be recreational or medical users. Here's to us. We freakin' ROCK! And, second, that your help is GREATLY appreciated. Rest assured, I will one day pay it forward.

THE PLAN
My set-up will consist of 1 (one) 42"(wide) x 42"(deep) x 60"(high) veg/flower cabinet, 1 (one) 48"(w) x 30"(d) x 48"(h) mother plant cabinet, and 1 (one) 48"(w) x 30"(d) x 24"(h) clone propagation unit. The plants in the veg/flower cabinet will take up 12 sq. ft. of floor space - perfect for 1 (one) 600W HID HPS grow light.

The plan is to eventually grow a 4 plant per sq. ft. (single cola) SOG organically and in soil. I will start with feminized, photoperiod seeds. Perhaps you think going organic is ambitious for a first grow. If so, please make your case.

I will start by purchasing feminized Skunk and/or Northern Lights and/or Kush strains as they are widely considered the easiest, hardiest, least fussy plants for a first-timer. I will start with a handful of seeds (as many as I can afford). I will take all viable and healthy seedlings and place them in the veg/flower cabinet under either a 24/0 or an 18/6 light regimen (depending largely on your feedback). Obviously, this first grow will not be a full one.

Is it necessary to sex feminized seeds? Any advice, suggestions on sexing little plants? Blue light during veg? Cuttings? Other?

After a week (or when plants have reached 10" — 12" in height — again this decision will be based on your feedback), two plants will be removed from the veg/flower cabinet and placed in the mother plant cabinet while the rest will remain in the veg/flower cabinet and will, at this time, be switched to a 12/12 light regimen.

I would be grateful for advice or suggestions regarding lighting for 2 mother plants in a 48"(w) x 30"(d) x 48"(h) space. I will likely bonsai the mother plants.

Flowering plants will be carefully lollipopped and any suitable cuttings prepared and placed in the propagation chamber. I am hopeful this will give me enough clones for the second harvest so that the mother plants can continue to develop unmolested.

I will flower for [x] weeks and harvest. Here again I would be grateful for input. I have read people flowering SOGs for anywhere from a few weeks to two months to the time necessary for the plants to "reach their floral zenith". I am hopeful that a bountiful harvest will be achievable with only 4 weeks of flowering. Reasonbable?

I am using HPS lights for both veg and flower because Ed Rosenthal obliquely recommends it in his Marijuana Grower's Handbook.

"Gardeners often combine HPS and MH lamps because they think blue light from the MH keeps the stems stouter and shorter. But any benefit is likely to be far less than they would suppose. The red light from an HPS does NOT cause plants to stretch. Stretching is caused by FAR-RED LIGHT and HPS lamps do NOT emit light in those wavelengths. Confusion about this stems from how similar the light from incandescent lamps and HPS lamps LOOK [to the human eye]. Both emit visible light primarily in the yellow, orange, and red wavelengths, so gardeners confuse the spectrums of the two lamps. But [the truth is] incandescent lamps emit more far-red than visible light and HPS lamps don't"​​

Anyone disagree with this?

During flowering, I plan to use the HPS plus one or two CFL UVB reptile lights for 2 hours per cycle. This appears to be a relatively new, but demonstrably effective, way to increase the potency of cannabis. It appears that the plant uses THC as a sunscreen so when the plant is exposed to UVB during flowering, the trichomes create more THC to protect it from those rays! Anyone have any experience with UVB in their grow? I'd LOVE to use the new EYE Hortilux PowerVEG FS+UV T5 HO Fluorescents but I can't get 'em in Canada unless I buy the box of 20 (like $1000) so CFLs it must be.

I will use 1 (one) small Green Pad CO2 generator per week to increase CO2 ppm in the grow cabinet. Ed Rosenthal's book has convinced me that the earth's atmosphere contains the bare minimum for bud development and that one of these little CO2 sacs will increase density, frostiness, and yield of the nugs! Thoughts?

I will use a six inch cool hood reflector with a six inch blower to vent the light. I will vent the cabinet with a six inch sucker attached to a carbon filter. One or two small oscillating fans will circulate air from the bottom of the cabinet. The light's fan will be electronically regulated with a thermostat controller in an effort to keep the temperature as constant as possible. I don't believe there will be a need to electronically control the humidity but I will have a hygrometer in the cabinet and will monitor and, if necessary, remediate the humidity as necessary. Does this seem about right? Overkill? Not enough? for this size of cabinet as regards ventilation, temperature and humidity control?

I am requesting generous readers to assess my plan critically and respond with any and all criticism with special attention, if I may be so bold, to my questions. But please do not hesitate to provide any feedback you'd like.

THE DESIGN
Attached is an image of my veg/flower cabinet design. If I could further impose, you might give it a glance and provide further criticism.



I am extremely grateful to any and all who grace me with valuable criticism. Cheers to you all!

 

[steppedinds]

welcome to 420mag bro

i'm no expert, but a few suggestions i would have.

1. dont get your uvb from cfl's. use tubes.
- it seems like somewhere i read cfl's are too spot-lightish and can burn your plants. also, i think it wise to only use them the last few weeks of flowering with your hps. uvb breaks down dna, and as a defense the plants make more resin to reflect the rays. using alot of uvb during veg will slow growth, but what ive read from others you get the same final resin production by using it only the last 2-3 weeks.
2. dont go organic just because of the hoohaw.
- many double blind studies have been done on the forums here giving away free samples to locals with bud grown side by side organic/chemical and no1 can tell the difference. from the ones i read, most of them even got a little bit more product from the chemical, but i say go with what you can afford and what you are comfortable using.
3. get a co2 tank and regulator/solenoid
- those co2 bags have hit/miss reviews. the best reviews are from people who use more than one bag in a pretty small space. they are very difficult to regulate and i'm sure take time to get used to. with a cheap regulator and solenoid you can set your co2 tank to release a quick and precise amount of co2 that you measure for your grow space. this will ensure your plants get the maximum benefit without overdosing or wasting co2. i would strongly recommend this over the bags. i bought my 10lb tank for like $75 from my local distributor and costs ~$15 to refill every 2-4 weeks (depending on how strong im running it). they have smaller/larger tanks as well
4. no you should not have to sex fem seeds. you just have to be patient and wait for the balls/hairs to show to sex

 

[masonman]

Larger volumes of air are easier to control than smaller. If all the cabinets are going into the same room, I suggest controlling the environment of the room as opposed to each cabinet.

This is how I do it:

Spare bedroom has veg cabinet and a flower cabinet
Spare bedroom is kept at a constant 69F / 55%RH by a combination of AC, heater, dehumidifier, humidifier
Exhaust fans in cabinets run 24 hrs./day
Each cabinet relies on heat from the light to raise temps inside cabinet to optimal using a speed controller on the exhaust fan to keep it at optimal.

Here are the benefits:

One climate controller rules them all...
Easy to get a 10 degree day/night temp differential in all cabinets.
When lights go off in cabinet, exhaust fans are still running, keeping humidity same as bedroom. No lights off spikes in RH.
One CO2 generator to increase PPM in spare bedroom to be used by all cabinets.

Supplementing CO2 inside a cabinet is a waste. Your fan will constantly exhaust it. If your turn off the exhaust to let CO2 ppm rise, then so will temps and humidity.

 

[fiddlefoops]

Thanks for the info, guys (and/or gals).

CO2 for the room rather than the cab is a great idea. However, I have decided to let the CO2 take care of itself for the first grow and to dial it in later when I've gained more experience. My cabs are in a basement room with a furnace and a water heater so I'll get a little extra CO2 from the appliances anyway.

Looking into tubes versus compacts but the heat rating for the compacts seems reasonable. Prefer the spread from tubes though. I'll keep you posted on what I finally decide.

Thanks for commenting.

 

[Gaffle]

Go with 18/6. The power consumption of 24/0 and plant growth shows little improvement. Save some juice! Cabinet space sounds good, just remember that your light /hood can be tall. Check that out so you don't have a light hanging too low and plants growing too tall. I have 7ft of height in my room and the 400watt kit I bought took up a lot of space up top. I would say roll with your plans, jump in and adjust as time goes on. Make sure to run everything before putting plants in there.