Advice on first indoor grow

[Hazeus]

Hello folks,

I hope to have a set up ready to go by the week of May 12th, but I have a few pressing concerns and I have come in search of wisdom.

I am planning on purchasing a 400 watt HPS ballast from a local electrical distributor next week. I have a buddy who's an electrician to do the hardwiring for me, but I will be without a reflector so I'm assuming I will have to vertically position the bulb over or between the plants. This will be a simple closet grow and an experiment above all else. The estimate on the ballast is $105.70 (no bulb, not assembled, no reflector, not sure if it comes with a socket for the light yet). I will be lining the walls with mylar to increase reflectivity and I may well purchase a reflector a month or so down the road. I know one of the golden rules is to never skimp out on proper lighting, but I'm confident I can set up an efficient, small scale grow room. I am willing, however, to change my mind if arguments arise.

For a closet with approximate dimensions 2.5 x 6 x 6 (l x w x h in feet), would 5 gallon pots be excessive? Considering I will be working with Silver Haze hybrids, I'm not sure yet whether I want to give them the root system to stretch too much, but I could always tie down or prune if necessary. I plan on attempting to fit 4 plants in the space if at all possible.

Finally, will I need to purchase a power inverter to safely power my ballast or do they make heavy duty surge protectors? I will be keeping an eye out for these items when I return to the electrical distributor this next week as well.

I will take photographs of the closet over the weekend to give you all a visual model. I might have read every grow book for indoor cultivation I could get my hands on, but application is the true test of knowledge and I'd like to hear from the pros. Thanks for the help and take it easy!

-Hazeus

[keeron]

ok, well ive got a few suggestions on the lighting, dont just get a hps with no reflector get a CFL light with a reflector and no ballast is needed because the ballast is built in the bulbs, ye hps are better but a CFL will do just as good with a reflector and its half the price i live in the u.k and the about £50 so thats around $90 but i think in the u.s you should be able to get some cheaper ones and look for the 200w or you can even get a two way reflector which lets you put two cfl bulbs in and dats equal to you hps bulb, but then a ballst is needed because the wattage is over 250w.

Or ye your electricity bill will be alot cheaper and if this is your first grow im suggesting your not looking on paying loads of money so a CFL would be good but its your choice. Or ye make sure you get some nutrients something like biobizz grow for the first few weeks, then biobizz bloom for the last 10 weeks or however long your groing them for, and get some super vit if you want this isnt vital though, just get any grow and any bloom, biobizz, growth technology theres loads get any of your choice its just that the ones what say grow and bloom are alot easier and never use miracle gro. you can grow a crop with using miracle grow put when you smoke it, it will taste like shit, give you headaches and its just got loadsa chemicals and shit in it...

Sorry if ive ranted on but you wanted advice, and i give u info on what nutrients to get jus incase you dint know ...

[hudson88]

Hey,

The general rule for pot sizes is 1 gallon per foot of plant. I'd say once you take off the height you'll lose from your pots and the space from the light to the top of the plants you'll be left with about 4 ft, so 5 gallon pots doesn't seem that excessive to me. The one thing i'd point out is that you want to keep the plants in a square pattern rather than a straight line so the plants are getting an even distribution of the lights. Can you get two 5 gallon pots side by side in the 2.5 foot width of your closet? If not i'd get some a little smaller that will fit in that configuration.

I need to correct Keerons lighting advice tho. Sorry keeron, you said "put two cfl bulbs in and dats equal to you hps bulb" and "your electricity bill will be a lot cheaper" 400w hps and 400w cfl are only equal in the amount of electricity that they use (400 watts) so your electricity bill would be the same for the lighting. The lights are not equal in the amount of lumens they give out, hps produces far more lumens per watt than cfl and lumens is what the plants interested in, not watts.

[grey1223]

I've found that 1/2 gallon per foot is plenty large enough. When I started I used 5 gal. pots and found that a 3 foot plant wasn't that rootbound and there was unused soil in the pot. I now use 3 gal. pots.