Sacred Seeds Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 My friend and I already started germinating some bag seed at his house so that we can get some practice. We will leave it in Veg state for at least 4 weeks before we start flowering. The whole idea is just to play around and make our mistakes and then learn as much as we can once my grow room is sorted. His wife has found his "stealth" grow in the garage and she has given him till the end of June to remove the plants. I have spoken to my wife and she agreed on condition that I convince her that I will be able to set up a grow room without anybody finding out. I'm renting a small 2 bedroom house and there is no space indoors. Most of the yard space is in front which is unused. There is no garage but there is a 5 x 2.5m wendy house at the back that we use for some storage and I use it to light up without getting noticed. Problem is I have to always make a fire (for smoke) so that the smell is not obvious. The vibracrete wall is 2.4m high right around the backyard and I only have neighbours on either side, there is an open veld behind my back wall. I will have at least half of the wendy house to utilize. This is an old wendy house so there are small gaps in-between the horizontal wooden slats and there is no ceiling. So my question is how do I make this wendy house a viable stealth grow area? Is it even possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Your Wendy house sounds like the perfect place for a stealth grow, provided you can determine a few things: Can the neighbors see you moving around the wendyhouse? Does the planking have any rot? Gaps can be sorted. Will you have unexpected visits from anybody, landlord etc. Is there foot traffic in the veld behind the back wall? Is your yard secure? Does it have power, and what capacity? You will need at least 15 A. Do you have water nearby? The closer the better. Do you have the skills and tools to build what needs to be built? Do you have a budget? If the answer to the majority of these questions is positive, the first thing you need to do is get rat traps/ poison, and install around the back yard area. You'll have to smoke bomb the interior of the wendyhouse, twice, follow manufacturers instructions. Let us know if you wish to proceed, and I'll add my bit to help get you there. Later Can the neighbors see you moving around the wendyhouse? NO Does the planking have any rot? Gaps can be sorted. NO ROT Will you have unexpected visits from anybody, landlord etc. NO, NOBODY VISITS ME EXCEPT MY BROTHER WHO SMOKES WITH ME ONCE A WEEK Is there foot traffic in the veld behind the back wall? Is your yard secure? YARD IS SECURE, THERE IS LITTLE OR NO FOOT TRAFFIC BEHIND BACK WALL Does it have power, and what capacity? You will need at least 15 A. - NO POWER, ITS NOT FAR FROM THE BACK OF THE HOUSE (5 METERS) Do you have water nearby? The closer the better. YES THERE IS A TAP NEARBY Do you have the skills and tools to build what needs to be built? I HAVE SOME BASIC TOOLS AND MY BRO CAN HELP WITH THE SKILL Do you have a budget? NOT MUCH A few people in the area have wendy houses in their backyards but its for extra accommodation, so it shouldn't be a problem to make it look and sound like someone is living there. Just in case someone tries to look over the high wall. I can setup a pc in the wendy house with a webcam to record outdoor activity on the other side of the back wall. I also have an old chest freezer that I'm considering for a grow box. I also have two 150w CFL's for Veg & Flowering. I have 2 old 100mm Eurolux bathroom fans, I have another 200mm ceiling fan that's nice and quiet. I also have a very powerful and noisy Elicent 500 Chef fan. These are most stuff that I'm storing in the wendy house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 OK, the chest freezer is both perfect, and terrible. You'll have to either stand it on its side, or make new doors for it (something I would rather not attempt). If you're REALLY up to it, you could use it with the door on top, but I wouldn't. Let's assume you stand the freezer on its side, and use the door as is. Get rubber door stops ( round ones) to use as feet. Obviously, remove the compressor- get advice before doing so, refrigerants may be harmful to your health. The two eurolux fans are all you need for ventilation power. Use both to suck air out. Wire in parallel. Look at my filter box thread for the filters I used, and make a passive intake using two of them. You can construct a carbon filter, or buy one, the smallest available will do. Place carbon filter inside the box so the fans suck through it. You'll need to fabricate a manifold, place fans side by side. Use drywall screws - 16 mm, black ones, phillips head, to attach anything inside the cab. Be careful, you cannot insert and remove the screws multiple times, as the insulation won't hold up. You can use the original power cord from the freezer, if it's in good condition. Leave the earth connection where it is, and try to wire any other appliances earths to the same spot. Don't recall you saying what method you will use for growing, hydro or soil? If hydro, I'd do DWC, using the freezer compressor ( cleaned, oiled, and filtered) for air. YouTube fridge compressor uses. You can do this yourself, assuming tools and skills. That should get the gears turning! Ask if you're unsure, photos are essential, I'll try to help. Cheers Ok it seems I have most of the material needed. The freezer is 1.4m length x 0.600 width x0.800 deep. If I put the chest freezer upright then I will have very little floor space to work with. If its standing as normal then height may be a bit of an issue. The compressor packed up so I cannot use it. I don't want to damage the freezer in any way so that I can replace the compressor and have a working chest freezer again. The solution might be to leave it standing normal but to build a wooden box that fits neatly on top of the chest freezer to give the plants room to grow. I plan on removing the freezer door and making a new one out of wood, then I can fit the extraction fans and the DIY Carbon scrubber on the inside of the door. I plan on trying my hand at DWC and Passive Hydroponics. I have 2 Autoflower seeds that I bought but I wont be planting them until I have the confidence not to screw it up. Hence the reason why I started with bag seed. In fact I might not have a problem with height if I use the autoflowers in the Chest Freezer Grow Box as its shouldn't grow bigger than 50cm. How do I mask the sound of the 2 Eurolux fans? I will get started and ask my bro to start helping me asap. Thanks for all the advice thus far.:thumbups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 I found this picture online. This is what I will try and mimic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Your back is gonna cry, but if you're up to it, go ahead. Maybe it's just my age talking though. Keep us posted. My back is already buggered, it doesn't get better after 40 I guess! When I'm done with new door then I will consider putting it upright. I've already cut the board with the holes for ventilation. I'm not sure if I should use 1 or cut another 2 passive intakes. I glued backing material over the passive intake to keep dust out. I've given my brother my design for a wooden carbon scrubber which I will attach on the inside. The door will most probably be very heavy but I will be mounting it on the existing freezer door hinges which is solid. (It's looking more likely that the Chest Freezer would be standing up right) I'm already worried about the amount of heat the 2 CFL's will make when the door is closed and also how to control humidity. Temperature inside the Wendy house is currently at 16 degrees Celsius, so I'm hoping that the cold air that is pulled in via the passive intake would keep the temperature low. As I only have 1 current E40 fitting, I'm going to have to test 1 CFL with a closed door with the fans on to see what the minimum and maximum temperatures would be overnight inside the grow cab. I currently have the cheap chemical PH kit as I cannot afford a digital one yet. Considering that I'll be using a mini 2 pot DWC kit and one 15L Autopot with separate reservoir. How I'm going to fit it all in the grow box is another issue. How important is an EC Meter and is there an alternative way of checking EC readings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 The I've found that air moving in and out of a small cab gets humidity down faster than I thought. Too fast actually, now that its winter. I wouldn't worry about it. Winter is good for keeping temps down though, and you'll need to make a plan come summer. The good thing about your chest freezer is its insulation, which will make managing temps a little easier. Rule of thumb is twice the size of the exhaust for the intake. Take the area of your exhaust, and multiply by 2 to get the area of your intake. The lost area of the impellers will cancel out the pressure drop of your filter, approximately. The best thing about wiring two fans in parallel, is that you can put a switch on each, and as long as you can block one off, you can run the other one, and have some control of airflow- something I have learned is very helpful. Check out the powder feed product from HydroHerb. If you stick to the chart, you'll be OK without an EC meter, or so I'm told. Later Ok, so I think I would make one extra passive intake and if needed I can always make another one. I like the idea of the parallel connection to add separate switches. I will check out the powder feed product from Hydroherb. It's been a long ass day! I'm out! :thumbups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 UPDATE: DIY Carbon Scrubber completed and mounted on new door that will be fitted on the chest freezer soon. I have to give credit to my elder bro who did most of the hard work. I'm getting there one baby step at a time! Patience is a virtue. I still have two weeks left before the young plants will be transferred. They are looking better after we got some powder nutrients last week Thursday from Hydroponic.co.za (Thanks for the advice Cocopeat!) I've told my buddy to take pics from the beginning so I will soon post a Bag Seed grow journal. I will be able to give better updates once the plants are by me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted June 16, 2015 Author Share Posted June 16, 2015 Looking lekke SSA! Keep us posted! Will do! :thumbups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted August 20, 2015 Author Share Posted August 20, 2015 Hey SSA How's this project coming along? All I can say is that I'm a procrastinator by nature. LOL! I decided not to do my first grow with the seeds that I bought. So I used 12 "bag" seeds as a test run. I had so many issues, I don't have the time to list it all but some of the issues was temperature range from 15 deg - 29 deg. over-watering, under-watering, lack of nutrients, too much nutrients, wind burn, plants have weak root growth and grows slowly etc etc. So far no issues with bugs or insects (yet) #HoldingThumbs I am in the process of re-doing the "grow area" to solve the temperature issues. Lack of funds has been a huge burden and I've decided to wait till I can improve every aspect of my grow room and the equipment before I have a second attempt. Anyway the point of the exercise was to learn as much as I can on a limited budget and I've been doing nothing but learning. So at least it hasn't been in vain. I have made a few notes and took some pictures from the very beginning. When I get a chance I will upload it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heisenberg Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 This is such a cool idea...Stealth Freezer-in-the-Wendy Grow! Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacred Seeds Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 I have decided to abort the chest freezer idea until I can come up with a better cooling solution. I have removed the DIY Carbon Scrubber from the makeshift door that fitted on top of the chest freezer. I will now be mounting it in my new grow area still within the wendy house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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