Closet Growbox CFL Grow

Hey guys,

This is my second attempt at growing but I scrapped my last one after only 10 days. Even in that time I learned a great deal and diagnosed some problems that I hope to neutralize this time.

The grow will take place in a growbox that I built. The growbox is in my closet so it only has decent at best ventilation. The box is also mostly sealed to keep the light in, minus a few computer fans.

I am using CFL's the entire time. I will be using the daylight (blueish) ones for veg, and the warmer ones for flowering. Each of all the bulbs will be 42 watts and around 2500+ lumens. I will be using 4 of the appropriate color bulbs at a time. The box is 1.5 ft. wide x 1.5 ft. deep x 4 ft tall... so... 2.25 sq. ft. and nearly 5k lumens per sq. ft. I plan to germinate anywhere from 3-5 seeds and grow them until sexing. Once sexed I will only keep one plant to flower, the others I'll give to a friend or something.

I still need to figure out exactly what fans I want to use and where, etc. Also need to figure out what seeds I want to grow. Lastly, I need to decide on what soil/ferts, and perhaps most importantly how I will neutralize the smell as that's really important for me. Any help with those problems would rock.

The box cost me about $100 to build, buying parts from Lowes. That includes the wood, light fixtures (not bulbs), caulk, etc. Basically what you see...

I still need to buy the bulbs, fans, ferts, soil, seeds, timer, and thermometer.

Ok enough typing for now, here are pics of the growbox.

My first concept sketch:


The finished product:


Latch/hinges:




Inside the box:


I will be using pegs to support the light structure that I'm fabbing:




Sort of what the light-board will look like when it's done:


All nestled in my closet :



Well I guess that's it for now but I'll keep in touch... comments/questions please!

Ok well sorry but for some reason the pics aren't showing up. Are they working for you? I will try to fix it when I have time, not sure what the problem is.

Nope...nothing

Ok fixt finally. As you can see the point of my box is so that I can easily raise the lights as the plants grow, and also keep as much light in the smallest possible area while doing so. This way it is impossible for any light to even leak up except for tiny amount around the edges of the light fixture thingy. There is no top to the box other than the lights, and there will be at least one 120mm computer fan mounted on the light board drawing hot air up. I still need to figure out where I want to put the other fans.

how about cut a hole between all the lights and have a fan pulling air up above the lights as that will be where most heat will be. maybe put a hole on the bottom of the door to draw air in and angle a fan up towards the plants

Heh funny you said that but that's basically exactly what I was thinking. The only thing I was wondering though is if only 2 fans total will be enough? I guess it seems that way... I was thinking like 5 lol...

not much room for it/them 2 grow how many u plannin

I'm planning on starting maybe 3 to 5 but only growing one fully in this box.

i think you should fire up 3 or 4. veg them for 3-4 weeks when they start touching leaves in there flower them and keep you best female in there and give the other ones to a buddy or whatever

Ok well I finally got my bulbs locally from a bulb store. Next step is to order some fans online then after that get my final supplies including soil and pots.

The bulbs I am using for vegetation are TCP brand, 5100K cool white color, 42 watts and 2800 lumens each. This will make for a total of 11,200 lumens in a 2.25 sq. ft. space which means I'll have almost exactly 5000 lumens per sq. ft. They cost me $50 total after tax for all 4.

Nice setup man!!!

I am looking forward to watching this grow. Best of luck to ya.

Thanks for the kind words! =) I too am looking forward to watching the grow I can't wait to actually get started!

All in Good Time my friend the Out come will be Awarding!!

I really like this set up ... I might use it in my next CFL grow .. nice job

Man thanks guys! I just hope it turns out to work well and not just look pretty hah. Oh and to anyone who thinks they want to do something similar... some cash could easily be saved by just buying some basic sockets and mounting them under the light board, and hard wiring them yourself to a cord. I just went with this method because it was payday and money was burning a hole in my pocket lol.

Looks nice man..lets see what you grow together!

I know it's been a while since my last update... sorry about that. I finally got some more of the parts together for the grow... almost there! I picked up soil, perlite, some pots, and a thermometer/humidity meter from Walmart; and I ordered some computer fans online.

Once the fans get in I can finally install them and get everything going. I'm still deciding on what strain to buy but I decided that I'm going to germinate/grow 2 bag seeds and 2 bought seeds when I grow.

Ookkkk, time to post again. It's been a while but I've been really busy so I haven't had time to finish the box. Today I finally got it all pretty much done. My fans came in and I like them a lot. They were just what I expected. I paid about $40 for 3 of them shipped so they were a little pricey, but they're very quiet and still move a lot of air (16 dBA, 62.2 CFM) which was important to me. I also like how they're white. They are bigger than I had imagined too so I'm quite confident they'll move plenty of air. I installed 2 on the side of the box, and cut the light board so that it will hold the lights and 1 fan. Now I just need to get some good pots, spray paint the light fixture board white, and figure out a way to mount the light housings to the light board (probably liquid nails... I hope it can stand the heat). All in all I'm very happy with it.

Now for some pics!















Cheers!