I've had great luck with the cheap CFL powered DIY grow-tent I put together this summer. It was a fun project, but I felt the need to upgrade. I was really running out of space finding it hard to keep 8 plants going in the small 19" x 28" footprint of the DIY tent. I plan to keep the old tent in operation to start new plants.
Now on to the new set-up. Found a good price on a Growlab tent. They call this the Clonelab, obviously for cloning hemp plants, but the size was perfect for the space I had. It can handle at least 8 medium sized plants. It's not super tall, so the plants need to be pruned to fit the space. The thing I really liked about the tent was that 54W T5 bulbs fit like a glove inside. This is a really high quality piece - I am very impressed every time I go in the room to check the plants.
The new tent is approx. 2ft x 4ft x 4ft. Has air intakes ports around the bottom 3/4 of the tent. Waterproof bottom catch mat (for watering right in the tent). Several cable access holes. Big exhaust port on the top. Also two big viewing windows. Heavy duty nylon outer and reflective inner. Industrial zippers and velcro seal it all up. It's sealed well- when it is all closed up the exhaust fan will pull the tent in tight with negative pressure. I have side intake port open covered with a HEPA filter. You can feel the airflow from outside of the tent.
I just finished building a DIY fixture for 8 T5 HO lamps. Here are some pictures (don't mind the sweet retro rug in my basement):
Right now I am experimenting with a range of bulbs. Running 2 x 2700k, 2 x 3000k, 2 x 4000k, 2 x 6500k
The bulbs are about $5 each shipped to my door, so changing up the combination is not too expensive. I'm using Phillips Master series at the moment.
Now on to the new set-up. Found a good price on a Growlab tent. They call this the Clonelab, obviously for cloning hemp plants, but the size was perfect for the space I had. It can handle at least 8 medium sized plants. It's not super tall, so the plants need to be pruned to fit the space. The thing I really liked about the tent was that 54W T5 bulbs fit like a glove inside. This is a really high quality piece - I am very impressed every time I go in the room to check the plants.
The new tent is approx. 2ft x 4ft x 4ft. Has air intakes ports around the bottom 3/4 of the tent. Waterproof bottom catch mat (for watering right in the tent). Several cable access holes. Big exhaust port on the top. Also two big viewing windows. Heavy duty nylon outer and reflective inner. Industrial zippers and velcro seal it all up. It's sealed well- when it is all closed up the exhaust fan will pull the tent in tight with negative pressure. I have side intake port open covered with a HEPA filter. You can feel the airflow from outside of the tent.
I just finished building a DIY fixture for 8 T5 HO lamps. Here are some pictures (don't mind the sweet retro rug in my basement):
Right now I am experimenting with a range of bulbs. Running 2 x 2700k, 2 x 3000k, 2 x 4000k, 2 x 6500k
The bulbs are about $5 each shipped to my door, so changing up the combination is not too expensive. I'm using Phillips Master series at the moment.
