Well, I finally did it - a year after starting my first grow with info from here, I am now into my second - this time in compost, but my growing location wasn't ideal - and was pretty obvious to anyone who visited - soooooo cometh the Growdrobe!


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Basic Ingredients:

Argos Double Wardrobe
400w HPS Lamp
RVK125 - A1 Extraction Fan
Carbon Filter
Ducting
Homebase 3 corner shelf set (cheap)
Reflectagrow
Thermometer/Hygrometer
Smoke Detector
Anti-Bacterial Oven Hood Filter
Bungee Cords
Aluminium Tape
A bit of Polstyrene
Passive Intakes (at the mo)
Spare Carpet from my new bedroom carpet!
Lots of screws, hooks, no-more-nails and patience

Stage 1: Put up the Wardrobe - not as easy as it sounds when you have a back condition. Took me 2 days and killed like hell!!!

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Step 2 - Aluminium Tape all the edges at the back to stop light leaking through the edges

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Step 3 - coat the growing chamber with reflectagrow - this stuff is awesome, heavy weight, easy to apply and about 20% more reflective than mylar apparently.

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Step 4 - Kneel in Growing Chamber and smash floor - repair as best u can with filler!

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Step 5 - drill hole in upper shelf and fit carbon filter - it's fitted right up against the hole and i put a corner shelf below it to hold the weight. I was amazed at how large this thing was - it's a disposable as finances didn't allow for a refillable!

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Step 6 - fit ducting to air filter and install Extractor Fan

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Step 7 - Install HPS lamp

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Try it out....

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cant knock a good drobe grow... nice one church... good luck wi yer plants..

Step 8 - Saw hole in roof of drobe and run cables and ducting from fan through it

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nice work church .. shame about the floor dude....

look forward 2 c the crop



da~arse

nice job their m8, stealthy.

smoke alarm is a nice touch..

BA.

Step 9 - Saw passive intakes into side and bottom of drobe, cover with oven hood filter and cover (on side). I am aware I don't have enough intake at this stage, but couldn't be drilling and sawing after 6 cos of the nice old lady downstairs!!!

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I broke the anti-fly grill off the cover as it was restricting airtake, and I already have a much finer filter underneath....

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Step 10 - Add Thermometer/Hygrometer, Smoke Alarm and Fan

The Thermo has an inside/outside temperature reading so the probe is positioned next to one of the plants to indicate the temperature on them...

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Step 11 - Add reflectagrow to doors, and fill light leaks

I tried 2 methods here - first of all cutting a strip of reflectagrow to length and attaching a length of carpet underlay I had lying around down the middle to weight the reflectagrow.

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Then in an effort to keep temperatures down, I removed this to allow airflow through the door, but attached a strip of aluminium tape down the edge of the left door - when the doors are closed, this covers the gap in the centre....

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Here it is in the light.... just another wardrobe really, except for the chimney at the top!

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And here it is in the dark - reflectagrow doesn't entirely stop the light leaking out - I am going to use something a little more substantial than tape to stop the leak through the centre - a strip of hardboard probably... when they fix the cutting service at Homebase anyway!!!

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good conversion Church

The (almost) completed drobe - switched off

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and switched on

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I am so chuffed with my new growing area - taken me the best part of 5 days cos I can only do 5 mins at a time til I'm in agony with my back, so have to do it in quick shifts...

And don't forget - SAFETY FIRST!!!!

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It's a powder extinguisher - whatever u do, don't get a water one!!!

So that's it nearly done - I need to get the temperatures down more, so will be increasing the size/number of intakes, perhaps even fitting a PC fan or two blowing at the light....

I also have to pick up my fan controller from the PO tomorrow - stoopid meds makin me sleep through the postie ringing my doorbell Sat morning!

Am so pleased with myself - havent done anything physical for over a year, and despite the pain I've seen it through to the end - I see this very much as an investment rather than an expense, and despite budgetting £250 to it have spent somewhere in the region of £475 building it. Almost half of this was on the 400w HPS and the RVK Fan and Carbon Filter though....

Given my living situation, it's a necessity really in order to remain stealthy! That reminds me - stealth locks to go on tomorrow too!

I'm also gonna get a couple of clip-on fans to get the air blowing about (thanks to PGT for lettin me know about Staples havin em) cos my de-ioniser/fan isn't upto it, and the 12in Fan I have in there right now is too big!!!

What you can see in there plantwise is 6 Bubblelicious, 4 Blue Mystics and 1 Unknown!

well chuch
what can i say !!
apart from the fact that looks well impressive ...and worth the extra fork out (a fistfull of a few dollars more )

those ladies will love the light

"keep on truckin"

nice work dude

Woohooo, thanks Bartman - just ordered a light spreader, so temps should be more bearable in a day or two...

Thats a smashing growdrobe Church m8.

Only a matter of time till its filled with sticky fat buds!!

Hats of to you m8, top notch!

Nice one Church

Quick update - the super spreader arrived, and has allowed me to minimise the distance between the light and the plants

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The plants are now some 15in from the bulb, with no heat problems. This has now allowed me increased room for the HPS when the plants stretch in flower - prior to this I only had another 8 to 10in available to move the lamp up....

Also, lightproofing - you could see from my earlier work that I hadn't really found a most effective way of blocking light leak though the doors - the aluminium tape I was using tends to crack after a few opens & closes of the door....

So yesterday I trotted down to Homebase and got me some velcro...

I put velcro hooks around the entrance to the growchamber, and then the corresponding eyes were attached to a sheet of reflectagrow cut to size (note if I were to do this again, I might have allowed another cm on the length of the sheet).

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This has created a seal between the grow and the doors, which combined with a reflectagrow cover for the doors - especially the inner edges - has now created a lightproof seal. When the doors are closed, light is no longer visible through the cracks... Yay!!!

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Although I'm sure I'll keep tinkering, the growdrobe is now pretty much complete. The plants growing within look very healthy, and I'm sure me n the drobe are gonna have some great adventures in growing together!!!

Just as a little aside, here's my fan controller - pretty none standard!

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Handy though, didn't have to wire it in - it just plugged straight in!

cracking job mate !!

monty

amazing mate, quality work put in there

cheers for that pic mate

quality job church

u da man, nice1 m8, inspiration to us all. keep it up.

Real neat looking thread Church.....
Keep up the good work m8, loads of phat buds coming soon
Cracking grodrobe as well....Where'd you get the fan controller from?? (just had to ask)
plus what strains u got ? , as i canna remember if you said earlier.
Best 'o luck dude.

peace & time.

looking mighty fine dude..

looks nice mate!

hi m8.

top tip there on the velcro, that tape is naff ive also tried,

i had to fit a lined curtian and rail accross mine..(did the trick).

ive also pinched the smoke alarm idea (sleep a tad easyer now).

love it.

BA.

Where was the fan controller from old bean?

Can't tell ya dude sorry, against site rules

whys that ?

read the rules and ye shall know!

Nice job church
How are the girls doing?

told ya they work


top growdrode church

bartman

Lookin good prawn - click on 'the second sermon' in my sig to see progress

looking good there church, few questions, what hieght is the inside of the wardrobe, what size will the babies be when they grow up and how quiet is it? Could it be in a spare bedroom and the occasional guest stay in the room and not know?

The grow chamber is 54in high... I'm having problems with plant height cos I have let them grow to maturity (8 weeks) from seed to take clones at a good stage of growth. I won't have the same problems growing the clones, as they 'are 8 weeks old' from the start...

Have a look at my second grow link in my sig to see how I'm gettin on!

Noisewise, if you turn the fan down low it's not that big a problem - I can sleep in the room with it happily. The noise of air moving is pretty noticable though if not sleep-preventing.

is that 54 inch from top of soil to bottom of lamp or from floor to roof?
thanks

Floor to top of growing compartment. If you can get a taller drobe do... I'll do that if I build another. I've been training the plants to limit their height, which has worked well.

same height as my attic, i've a choice of three places to grow in, attic (bit low) shed (neighbours and airborne pests) and spare bedroom (occasional visitors) judging by your pics it seems attic is the way to go just keep them low.

You could also try a 250w HPS or Enviros, so you could get them closer to the plants without burning...

ive already got 400 hps + 400 mh. whats the crack with the super spreader thing you are using, I've never seen on of them

It sits under the bulb, thus absorbing a lot of the heat, but it's also prismatic and reflects the light off the reflector giving a more even spread without the usual hotspot directly under the lamp.

Very handy. I think Joolz can get em if u ask him...

are you still taking the plants out to water them or are you doing it in place?

I take em out... there's no waterproofing at the bottom of the drobe, and I just got new carpet!!!

I think I will go for the attic grow room and just keep the ladies small its about 160cm tall at the peak probably allowing me about 60cm safe height for a full grown plant, not a lot of room like yourself I'll sprout 16 seeds, flower at 30cm regardless of age and hope for the best, I've decided to grow on rockwool with auto drip feeding, I can keep the resevoir in the top the cupboard where the hot water tank is and just drill holes to run up the pipes.

When you're growing from seed, you won't get the best out of your plants unless you veg em to maturity... and any subsequent clones will be immature too...