Light Suggestion Help

[morgan0]

First time grower, Im reading up a bit and I am a little confused with lights. In a closet about 5 feet length, 2 feet width and 10 feet high with a bench about 7 feet high. Should lights be placed above or below the bench? Are Fluorescents installable in a closet? Any recommendations what kind and where?

[Roughrider]

You've got a bench that's seven feet high? Confusing. If it's what it sounds like, unless you're planning on growing some seriously big ass plants, I'd put the lights below the bench.

Really, you need to give a little more info. You can install pretty much any kind of light, anywhere. In a closet that's 5' x 2', you've got 10 sq. ft. of floor space. That's a lot. Because it's an irregular shape, you might be better off with 2 150w HPS/MH. To light space that big, you're going to need a ton of CFLs...at least twenty of the 23 to 26 w bulbs. If you're determined to use flouros, I suggest getting a 4 bulb 4' t5 setup. You should post how many plants you want to flower, if you want or need to use the whole closet, ventilation, etc., to get better answers

[morgan0]

Thanks for the info, With the bench yep its placed up 7ft in the closest so either 3 feet or 7 bigger feet. I have about 20 seeds and hoping to get at least 10 plants females for starts. I can use just about all the space and i do have a fan or two laying around and a bunch of electrical outlets to help. :thumbsup: I'm just stumped by what kind of lighting setup would work. Halides or Flouros ? I'm opening to imput.

[Roughrider]

Just my opinion, but if it's your first grow. I'd seriously consider using only a part of your closet and growing fewer seeds. You could do a CFL grow with 4-6 seeds, and get 2 plants. It would be cheap, and you'd learn a ton about watering, using fertilizer, transplanting, and flowering. Put it this way...get four 10.5" reflector dishes at Home Depot or Wal-Mart for $10-12 a pop. Get 4 Y-adaptors at Wal-Mart for $1.50 each. Get 8 23-26 watt Warm White (2600k) and 8 23-26 watt Cool White/Daylight (5000-6500k) for about $30-40. That's less than $100 for enough light to grow two good plants in a small (14" x 28") area. You're much better off making mistakes and learning about how to do things and what works well in your closet with 5 or 6 plants than with 20.

If you've got that much height, you'll probably be able to use up to 250w of HPS or MH with minimal ventilation (an occasionally open door and a couple of fans might do it). There's a lot of room for heat to dissipate and that's good. But a 250 covers around 5-6 sq. ft. .... a little more than half of your space. Like I said, you might want to look into T5 lights. I've never used them, personally, but I've heard some good things. A four bulb set up with 4' tubes would be a perfect fit in your room. I'd search and see what others have to say.

Still, I'd really think about starting out smaller. Don't blow all your seeds on your first grow! Good luck!