Indoor First Grow - Afghan Kush Ryder in 2 Rubbermaid tubs /w CFL lighting (help appreciated!)

[Akaz]

Hi guys, this is my first post and first grow. I am pretty excited but nervous about the process. I have been reading up on the Internet, but I tend to forget some things. Anyways, I hope you guys can help me out here.

I'm in university in another city in Canada and now I am on my winter break so I am just planning for the grow when I get back in January 2012.

I have a basic idea and design for my micro grow: 2 Rubbermaid totes stacked on top of each other in my closet. Can I grow 2 or 3 plants in there?

Anyways, my design will be pretty similar to this: Red_Greenery's Rubbermaid Lodge.

I will take some good quality photos of the build and grow as I go. This build won’t begin until beginning of January, but I need time to plan and gather materials. I am trying to keep a budget of under 200 bucks for everything, if that is possible.

Here's the shopping list:
- World of Seeds Afghan Kush Ryder (& maybe Pakistan Ryder too, for a later grow) from Attitude Seeds
- 1 Emergency Blanket & 1 Emergency Bag (I accidentally bought the bag the first trip, so I bought the blanket later..figured I could always cut the bag, Canadian Tire & Wal-mart)
- 6 x 23W 2100K CFL lights (Rona)
- 2 x 26W 5600K CFL lights (found at home, plan on getting 4-6 more 5600K when I am back in town)
- 2 x 60L Rubbermaid tubs (Bought at Canadian Tire) – Do I need 2? The specs are approx. 23.9" L x 15.9" W x 16.5" H.
- Aluminum tape (Do I need this?)
- Double Sided Tape or Velcro? (plan on using this for sticking the emergency blanket to the inside of tubs)
- 1 Black and 1 White spray paint (need it to light proof the tubs)
- Power Bar (5 sockets I think, for light fixture)
- Fans: 1 x 80mm PC fan & 1 x 120mm PC fan
- 1 small Sterillite container
- 1 medium Sterillite container
- 4" aluminum ducting
- 3 x dryer adaptor draft blocker thing
- Acrylic glass (for light shielding)
- Activated charcoal
- pH test kit
- Soldering iron (to cut holes in plastic)
- 2 or 3 x 8” pots or 2 x 10” pots? (will there be enough space for 3 plants?)
- 1 indoor light timer
- 4 twin light adaptor (Y light adaptor)
- 4 plug-in light socket (into powerbar, for twin light adaptors)

Just so things are clear, this will be a 2 stage growbox design with 1 isolated light section which will be cooled by the fan AND 1 separate grow chamber which air is exhausted into the scrubber.

The light chamber is separated from the growchamber with a sheet of plexiglass and has a 5x5 intake on one end with a computer fan on the other end. The intake is covered by a kleenex box and the exhaust is ducted out through the top of the closet door.

Just below the plexiglass in the top box, there are two 4" holes with dryer ducts exhausting into the scrubber.

The lower box has two 4x4" holes for passive intakes, covered by kleenex boxes.

Maximizing yield method

Should I SCROG, LST, or top my plant (Afghan Kush Ryder) to maximize the yield? I want the most bang for my buck and would be great to yield some decent amounts in this first grow, if possible. I think I’ve heard that there’s no point in topping autoflowering plants and to just let it grow naturally, but I want some more insight from experienced growers.

 

[Akaz]

How many lights should I go for? I'm planning on using a powerbar and plugging in 4 of those light socket plugins and then 4 light Y-adaptors.. that would give me 8 light sockets.

For veg, should I put in 6 x 5600k CFL 23W lights and 2 x 2700k CFL 23W lights? And for the flowering, switch it to 6 x 2700k CFL 23W and 2 x 5600k CFL 23W?

I know more light the better, but hopefully the heat from the lights won't get too hot for the plants and that the light cooling fan does a good job with the acrylic glass.

Question: Should I use the 80mm or 120mm fan for the light cooling fan or the scrubber exhaust fan??

 

[Akaz]

I'm also thinking about creating some sort of pulley or just chain system with my closet wire shelf to pull the top tub up from the bottom so I can do check the plants, temperature, water, etc. without taking the whole thing off to the side as I do not have a lot of space in the closet.

 

[Akaz]

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

 

[xXSASquadXx]

so how does this thing open up? hah you should take a picture of the inside

 

[Akaz]

I am still working on it.. still waiting for the beans and a bunch of shit I got off ebay including the nutrients.. I ended up buying the Advanced Nutrients pH perfect Micro/Grow/Bloom 1 L set.. it comes with a free tripak which has 50g Carboload, 50g Big Bud, 40g Bud Blood. Hopefully that will make me yield some good bud.

I plan on opening the top tub via a pulley system or I could just take it off and put it on the side on the floor (I would jsut need to have enough slack on the aluminum ducting hose).

Here are some pics of just the shit I've gathered.

THis is how it will look like stacked + the hoses and fan and light traps

Dont worry, I put the bulbs back in the original box. Dont want that shit breaking on me.

Originally got a shoe mat for the inside of the tub, but I didn't measure the dimensions of the tub properly soooo I guess Ill just be using it for mixing station where I mix the soilless mix (in that crate I found randomly in the furnace room and I just added a reusuable grocery bag to it).

I can use those big water jugs that you see in offices.. I've been using that has a gravity bong haha but I can see a home for it with the nutrient mixing.

 

[Akaz]

so how does this thing open up? hah you should take a picture of the inside

Hi xXSASquadXx, thanks for dropping by! I kind of slacked off in updates on this forum because it seemed that I wasnt getting many followers and I have also been pretty busy with the start of school. I still need to spray paint the tubs a few layers of black and then white. I am still waiting on a lot of shit I ordered online!!

 

[xXSASquadXx]

nice, looks pretty complex. yeah i wouldn't top or lst autos because they have no veg period to recover.
i use cool blue cfls for veg, for the querkle i had red and blue though and it did great. i have a 250w hps for flowering which was pretty cheap, but you could always use a high powered red spectrum cfl.
where did you get those 100w cfls? they look like the perfect size

 

[Muddy]

What kind of water are you planning on using with the AN pH Perfect? I got some and planned to use it with rain water but I've found that the base pH of the rain water is too high, so the AN nutes won't automatically balance it.

Like your setup. It will be interesting to see how it works out for you.

 

[KindredSpirit]

Lookin forward to following your grow Akaz! I'm diggin the bin setup... Would love to set up a big closet with like 10 of those pods Cheers :smokebuds: