Grow Box question

[Noobster]

hi guys,

i was thinking a pre made grow box. my partner found this one online....

Caddy

what do you guys think? is this a good buy? rip off?

i have zero experience growing and while i have started reading a lot of info on the subject online, i feel like it might be best for me to just get a pre-made ready to go, grow box. i want to start growing bc i feel that's the only way i will learn to do it. do you guys think this would be a good way to go?

thanks for all and any help guys!

Cheers.

 

[Lil Neutrino]

Really depends on how your self confidence in building something is AND how well you take constructive criticism along with dealing with failures. I don't really have the time to price out the components of that setup to see roughly how much you're paying for in labor and ease of use but it certainly looks nice! I would ignore the yield claims at the beginning (11-17 pounds per year or whatever) as that will be severely impacted by what strains you grow, what nutes you use, your experience as a grower, etc. I've seen cabinets very similar to that in the "Journals" forum, if you look around a little bit in there you can ask around and see what people spent on making theirs and how hard it was. Search around for Luxx's grow, he has a cabinet similar to that and has been working on tweaking it to get it right. Might be a good place to start

I'm a big fan of making my own stuff when possible but I'm used to working with my hands and tools. I also don't mind doing the research as I really believe it is a huge benefit to know exactly what you have in your grow up as well as how it all works together. I'm not saying you won't be able to do that though, just I find it better for ME to do it step by step.

Honestly man, growing weed is NOT hard at all IF you have any common sense. IT IS A WEED FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!! lol It's only as complicated as you make it, the hardest part about growing for me has been sealing my box from light leaks but the temperature battle has been fun as well. I have my cabinet in my bedroom and it does not ventilate outdoors so all the hot air pushed out the exhaust just builds up in the room and I have to rely on A/C and cool outdoor air temps to keep it manageable. But those are my problems, everyone's grow area has unique problems and not-so-unique problems...it's fun to problem solve

Maybe someone else can chime in on the cabinet...but if you're trying to make life easy for yourself I would caution you to do some extra research about hydro versus soil. Hydro can be done by a beginner, plenty do it here all the time, but I have heard it can be a lot more complicated than soil. Soil is pretty forgiving imho...

+rep for considering growing for yourself!

 

[Noobster]

hey Lil Neutrino,

thanks for the reply man. i was honestly thinking the same thing about soil vs hydro. i think i am going to get the box and just modify it for soil growth. right now i'm just reading as much as i can about growing. i have a lot of quesions though, and it frustrates me bc i wish i could just start a grow and then see what the things i'm reading about really look like. i'm trying to put together bits and pieces of info on stuff like nutes, pH, soil types, bugs, how to germinate etc etc. this forumn has been a godsend. i tried getting info from the hydroponics store guy that told me about the box. but the guy is way too advanced for me. 80 percent of what he sez is stuff i've never heard of. i'm also going to look for books tomorrow at BarnesNoble. i'm hoping they might carry a marijuana specific growers book.

looking at the grow box, how much plants do you think i should start off with assuming i am going with soil? the web page sez "11 plant capacity" but i dunno if that sounds right. maybe its too optomistic. i saw your first journal. nice job man! those looked liked some good nugs.

looking at the grow box im going with, how much weed in oz, do you think a complete noob like me might get per plant. assuming i continue to study everything i can get my hands on ie this forumn, youtube, books?

lastly, can you explain the sea of green to me? dude i read about it at a couple different sites and i still don't think i'm a hundred percent sure of what it is. do you know about it/use it?

sorry for all the questions man. if you don't have time i totally understand. i want you to know i appreciate you taking the time to reply to my first post. you helped me make up my mind to go with soil for sure. thanks again, and goodluck with your future grows!

cheers.

 

[Lil Neutrino]

hey Lil Neutrino,

thanks for the reply man. i was honestly thinking the same thing about soil vs hydro. i think i am going to get the box and just modify it for soil growth. right now i'm just reading as much as i can about growing. i have a lot of quesions though, and it frustrates me bc i wish i could just start a grow and then see what the things i'm reading about really look like. i'm trying to put together bits and pieces of info on stuff like nutes, pH, soil types, bugs, how to germinate etc etc. this forumn has been a godsend. i tried getting info from the hydroponics store guy that told me about the box. but the guy is way too advanced for me. 80 percent of what he sez is stuff i've never heard of. i'm also going to look for books tomorrow at BarnesNoble. i'm hoping they might carry a marijuana specific growers book.

You are welcome, any time dude. I'm on my way to bed but just saw you had replied so I'm gonna keep it relatively short again...by the time I get up tomorrow you may have more replies from other people

If you do find a book you like (Jorge Cervantes is the man from what I hear) be sure and pay for it in cash! Don't want Johnny Law to come knocking at your door even if you are legal...best to steer clear of them as much as possible.

Anyway, as I said it's only as complicated as you make it. I'm halfway through my second grow and had a little gardening experience before this (just some pepper plants, basil, and other herbs, nothing too hard) and I still get confused with some hydro stuff.

The good news is that you don't need to know it all at once or even to get started. Just read up on how to germinate your seedlings properly and what you need to veg (basically just some lights, ventilation, and some other stuff like a timer and power strips). Since you'll probably be vegging your plant for at least 2-3 weeks, probably more than four, you'll have lots of time to focus on researching the flowering period. Also since you'll actually have the plants growing anything you read about veg will begin to make more sense except what different nute deficiencies and pH lockouts look like. Honestly I still don't either but there's a great "Problem Solver" guide on this forum to help out plus all the experienced growers.

These plants really do pretty much grow themselves, if anything we as the growers are just helping them achieve better results (assuming everything goes well lol). Don't stress too much!

looking at the grow box, how much plants do you think i should start off with assuming i am going with soil? the web page sez "11 plant capacity" but i dunno if that sounds right. maybe its too optomistic. i saw your first journal. nice job man! those looked liked some good nugs.

Thanks, they were $1900 for that cabinet just seems unreasonable to me but I really don't know what all those components cost, especially the HID lights and the hydro stuff. If you're going to go with soil save your money, go to Home Depot or something, buy a similar cabinet, bring it home, sit down with a bowl and some paper and a pencil, and start brainstorming. Take it one thing at a time...lighting, ventilation, and sealing the cracks against light leaks is pretty much it. Nutrients don't need to be added for a few weeks after the seedlings sprout if you start with good soil so that makes life easier in the beginning too.

No way in heck are you going to fit eleven full size plants in that cabinet, it says it is 31" W X 23" D. My cabinet is 48" W X 24" D and I wouldn't want to put more than four, maybe five plants in there the size of my first grow and that was a SMALL plant! Maybe in a SOG-style grow but some strains are better suited for that than others.

looking at the grow box im going with, how much weed in oz, do you think a complete noob like me might get per plant. assuming i continue to study everything i can get my hands on ie this forumn, youtube, books?

I'm not the best person to answer that question as my experience really is quite limited. But if I had to take a guess and we assumed you just let the plants grow naturally, no LST'ing, maybe a bit of topping (if you've ever grown basil or something, it's the same thing as pinching the top growth off to make more branches develop), but otherwise just like Mother Nature would make them...I'd say with three plants you should be able to pull at least 2oz per plant and that's probably being conservative lol. I prefer to err on the side of "safety". But honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you could pull half a pound from three plants if they vegged long enough.

lastly, can you explain the sea of green to me? dude i read about it at a couple different sites and i still don't think i'm a hundred percent sure of what it is. do you know about it/use it?

Sea Of Green...SOG, pretty simple. Basically it's just a bunch, and I do mean a bunch, of plants that are trimmed and grown to focus all the plants energy on producing a top cola bud ONLY. No side buds. Usually the plants used in this method are grown from clones to reduce required height and some other stuff I don't recall right now. I don't use it but I've seen a few journals where people did.

SCROG is different in that it is a Screen Of Green, can be done with one plant or multiple plants if you have room. You lay a large mesh over the top of the plants once they get a certain height and you bend the main stem over so that it grows under the screen and trim off any growth below the screen. This is just a fancy form of LST'ing really. The lateral growth will cause new shoots to develop from the main stalk and all act as the "main" growth tip.

sorry for all the questions man. if you don't have time i totally understand. i want you to know i appreciate you taking the time to reply to my first post. you helped me make up my mind to go with soil for sure. thanks again, and goodluck with your future grows!

cheers.

No need to apologize, I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to answer questions!

 

[rnwy29erclr]

hi guys,

i was thinking a pre made grow box. my partner found this one online....

Caddy

what do you guys think? is this a good buy? rip off?

i have zero experience growing and while i have started reading a lot of info on the subject online, i feel like it might be best for me to just get a pre-made ready to go, grow box. i want to start growing bc i feel that's the only way i will learn to do it. do you guys think this would be a good way to go?

thanks for all and any help guys!

Cheers.

hey noobster welcome, like lil n said dont trip on it it is just a weed, just germ your seed put in solo cup and your off and running, i say this now because growing weed is a long process,so if you start today in about 3 months from now you will be happy, if you go soil thats what im using, im gonna tell you 2 things that to me imho matters most dont over water and dont over water, take kare
l8ter
rnwy29erclr

 

[Noobster]

hey noobster welcome, like lil n said dont trip on it it is just a weed, just germ your seed put in solo cup and your off and running, i say this now because growing weed is a long process,so if you start today in about 3 months from now you will be happy, if you go soil thats what im using, im gonna tell you 2 things that to me imho matters most dont over water and dont over water, take kare
l8ter
rnwy29erclr

Thanks for the advice rnwy. i can't wait to start my first grow man! it's all i think about. i went to a bookstore (barnes n' noble) today and looked for MJ specific growing books but alas no dice. i'll probably just get one online

hey bro do you know if there's a specific amount of time i have to veg for, and flower for? is there a rule of thumb or do i just kinda decide how big i want the plant to get b4 i start the flowering phase? also, how do you decide at what height you want to stop vegging the plant and start flowering. this is the grow box i'll be using = Caddy
i'm going with soil though, not hydro. how high should the plant get b4 i stop the vegetative phase and go into flowering?

also, how do you figure out how close you need the lamps to the plants?

sorry about all the questions bro. i'm just trying to learn.

thanks again for the kind words.

cheers

 

[Lil Neutrino]

hey bro do you know if there's a specific amount of time i have to veg for, and flower for? is there a rule of thumb or do i just kinda decide how big i want the plant to get b4 i start the flowering phase?

Pretty much at your discretion...the longer you veg the larger your yield though. And you can put a young plant in to a flowering light cycle right from seed but it will not flower until it reaches sexual maturity. Think of it like a drag racer holding their RPM's just shy of the launch point, when the time comes it's ready to rock'n'roll immediately. My first grow I only vegged my plant for two weeks...this time I vegged for eight, I fully anticipate at least 2oz dry if things go well as it is MUCH larger than the first one.

Keep in mind that it will stretch (grow) a BUNCH soon after going in to flowering finishing up anywhere from 2-3 times larger than when it went in to flower so plan accordingly with your height limitations in mind. Also do your final transplant before you go in to flower, you want as little stress as possible at that point.

also, how do you decide at what height you want to stop vegging the plant and start flowering. this is the grow box i'll be using = Caddy
i'm going with soil though, not hydro. how high should the plant get b4 i stop the vegetative phase and go into flowering?

See previous paragraph

also, how do you figure out how close you need the lamps to the plants?

sorry about all the questions bro. i'm just trying to learn.

thanks again for the kind words.

cheers

As close as you can while keeping the temperature at the top of the canopy within an acceptable range. I usually shoot for no higher than 82-83F max...preferably 80F or less. If you're using CFL's with good ventilation anywhere from 1-3" is good in my experience...3" is a bit far but if you've got 10-12 bulbs under a single reflector things can get a bit warm quite easily

No need to apologize...nobody is born knowing this afaik

 

[Euphorum]

Dude I invested a bit of money and built a cheap one out of a double doored cabinet (35$ at Walmart... Could have found cheaper or at like... Goodwill...), Three 40watt Cool White CFLs (For Blue Spectrum Veg), Three 40 Watt Soft White CFLs (For Red Spectrum Flowering- which is by no means good at all- Recommend a HID, but for a small personal hobby it will do the job fine and there are ways to tweak things using red filters)... Lighting costing about 60$ total, and some white non-gloss matte paint for the inside for fourteen dollars. Strung up the lights ghetto style (Ties) and got a timer and three input outlet for all three lights for about 10 dollars. I got two tiny four inch mini desk fans that work great costing eight dollars- kept them plugged in as incoming and outgoing air circulators that hung from the vent ports cut into the cardboard in the back. Found a thermometer and taped it inside. Used duct tape and made something of weather stripping to keep the light and smell from leaking (VERY EFFECTIVE). During flowering, you'll probably want some carbon filters for the exhaust and intake ports... The smell will be pumped into the room the box sits in otherwise and it smells like someone is smoking in said room without them. You can wait until there is a smell to purchase these if you're excited and in a hurry.

DON'T EVER USE FOIL, CHROME, FOIL TAPE, or CHROME TAPE! It will eff your plant up without any warning whatsoever. By the time you figure out its the hotspots in the growroom, it's too late to save them unless you're down with having a hermie after you stress the plant from changing up it's living space and lighting.

There were ways to do all this much cheaper, but the box- with everything I described new and the best (For what I was getting...) works and totaled about 130$. I get more than what I paid for out of it, and treat the plants well. Got a ph tester (Important for indoor growing), good soil, and some pots that were roomy. The cabinet could produce several plants from seeding... where I could keep more in the box and weed out the weak ones, and end up with two plants that could mature in a little over two and a half months and were a fairly decent height.

While growing, it's important to note growing space. There are more ways then I can list to make a plant fit into an even ridiculous space. My cabinet was three and a half feet tall and stored two mature plants. I had to of course make them fat rather than tall, and there are other threads in this forum that will teach you the method that will work for your box.

The yeild was great and though I ended up with some upper mids out of some higher grade seeds, I still produced something I was happy with.

You can make a box out of anything in this same kind of manner. My friends and I used filing cabinets with computer fans and even dressers with faulse drawers.

Let me know what you end up with!

 

[Bud stankalot]

I'm sure you've got your answer by now, but HELL NO don't get that box. $1899 is totally insane. Back in the day when I was a youngster me and a buddy built one out of plywood for about 30 bucks. Throw your light in there, cut some holes for vent fans, a couple flood trays, pumps, res, panda film and BAM same exact thing for 300 bones depending on the light you use. It will be even cheaper if you're going the soil route. It's a lot of fun building your own stuff and making it work how you need it to. We're growing bud afterall, not heirloom vegetables. Damn near anything will work. Forget all that premade bull S**t. Best of luck to you, Friend.