1st closet grow - Indica - 400w HPS

Hey, new here, first time grower (unless you count 4 seedlings that were in my backyard that went missing a few summers ago). So, I got the seeds (Chemo) and light (400w HPS kit w/ Gavita enhanced spectrum bulb). The closet is a linen closet which will be painted flat white soon, the floor measures 21.5"x29", height is all the way to the ceiling if needed, but preferably will be no more than 68". I have germinated and spouted 5 of the seeds in a mix of vermiculite, perlite and sphagnum pete moss under 2 20w 2ft fluorescent tubes and they are now on day 10. I am hoping to get a female I can clone or two females would be great, we'll see...I was thinking only two plants would really be possible for the size closet I have. I am going to put them under the HPS as soon as I get everything set up in the linen closet. I need to buy a new door, put weatherstripping to keep the light out/in and put the ventilation (2 fans and a carbon scrubber) in the door, so I can just swap the door if anyone comes over or if I move. Also have a 6 inch oscillating fan to blow on the plants.

About the socket (pictured below) for the hps that goes to the ballast...I have figured that the brass is live, the other is neutral but where is the ground, is there one?

Any idea how much I will yeild per plant?

I'll keep everyone up to date as time goes on.

Any suggestions, comments, ideas are welcome.

Also, there is a plastic peice in the bottom of the socket at the end, below where the bulb screws in so it sandwiches...is this supposed to stay or do you take this out?

hey dude-
I have a similar grow going in a closet a little bigger than yours (roughly 24" x 38"), I have a 400W HPS like you as well. I am on my second grow. Let me tell you that the first grow was disaster/learning experience to say the least. It is very very hard to grow in such a small space with so much light. This was not something I would have thought of and I am sure you have yet to realize it as well, but 400W HPS puts out an incredible amount of heat. Especially with white walls unless you plan to leave the door to the closet open constantly you will essentially be trying to grow your babies in an oven.

My problem was that the temps. got so high that the soil actually began to get baked by the 400W HPS light. This totally inhibitted root growth and I could not get my girl to grow more than 2 sets of leaves and no more than 3 inches tall. The only way to keep the soil cool enough was to provide so much water that it drowned the plant, leading to mold growth on the stem (damping-off), and overwatering which eventually killed it.

Even with the 2 fans circulating air, you will get to a point where you are only blowing around 95-100 degree air... which doesnt help. Because it is a closet I doubt there would be a way to easily/cost effectively have a ventilation system to bring in outside cooler air and expel the hot air from within. This leaves you (as it left me) with only one option: You are going to need to plan on leaving the door to the closet open 24/7 if you want any chance of a sucessful grow. With your 2 fans (assuming they are strong enough) you may be able to set them up so a fan above the HPS light expels the hot air as it rises and a fan at plant level blows in fresh air across the top of the plant maintaining a lower temp.

Fortunately for me, the door to my closet is in the corner of a room. On the adjoining wall is a large window about 20" away. I realized I could use a large bed sheet to isolate the window and the door to my closet. I am now able to blow in COOL autumn air from the window and have it go directly into my closet, while blowing out the heated air that eventually leaves out the top of the window which i leave open a few inches. If you happen to be lucky enough to have a window near your cloest door I would HIGHLY recomend figuring out a way to use that to get a source of cool air.

If you have any questions or need further clarification/advise let me know on this thread and I'll be more than happy to help you out.

-JPG

I just started my grow room yesterday, I have a 600 watt setup. My closet is 7 1\2 ft. tall but the closet its self is 2 ft. wide and 7 ft. long, my walls are also white, it got extremly hot in there i woke up in the morning and my soil was dry to the crisp..my lamp NOW sits 2 1/2 feet from the bottom of the soil do you think this is still to low ? ..I planted my seed yesterday ..do you think it damaged it? Also what do you think would be the best ht. for my light? i dont want to damage my soil ...

I had a friend who grew
in a tiny closet the size of a pew

he used a 1000 watt hps...
he used a squirrel fan shaped like an S

he took off the door knob and in its place
he put the squirrel fan, what an ace

the closet air was pumped out into the room
lowering the temperature, ending the gloom

the room had a smell it really stank
a sweet skunk, the super dank


I love you

Thanks for the reply man. Alright, well, I just turned it on and damn is it bright...it doesnt seem too hot with the oscilating fan, but I need to go get a thermometer. The door is also completely off the closet right now, but it cannot stay that way, it makes the house too bright, so it would have to stay shut or I would have to find a way to shield the light from coming out. There is a bathroom right next to it with a small window, maybe I can rig up something so the intake fan will suck air in from there, like a long tube going across the cieling or something.

It is actually pretty cool in there and its been on for about an hour and a half now. That might just be because there is no door though. When I put my hand above the light, I cannot feel very much warmth due to the built in reflector, but underneath it is pretty hot up until about 12" away, so I put the light about 20 or 21 inches away from the plants.

Hmm...not sure what to do, I also have a cat, so it definitly needs a door or something of some sort...I'm gonna go get a thermometer right now so I can see where i'm at...I'll update once i'm back.

day 11 pics - in the new closet...

Thats a cool poem...gives me some hope. Anyways, the temp. in there is about 81 with the door wide open and about 85 with the door open just a crack, so i'm thinking with the fans, it should be fine. The soil isnt drying up and its been quite a few hours and the fan in the pic is the only one in there right now.

For the intake/exhaust, what type of fans should I get?

Has anyone here grown/smoked this strain I got? How is it? Any up close (or any) pics of a flowering chemo plant?

Ok sounds like if the temps stay as they are it could work. I would try to find a way to utilize the bathroom somehow. Goodluck.

Hmm...wierd...I woke up this morn at about 9 and notice just a blue glow coming from the closet...I called the hydro store, they ended up fixing it under warrantee while the plants were back under the fluorescents...he said "they" blew the capacitor, but I dont know what was wrong before that. It was working at 4:30 in the morn when I got up for a few mins and the temp was around the same...about 86. At that point it had been on for at least 12 hours. Its strange, with the built in reflector, the top of the room is the coolest part and I have the ballast up there. Anyways, its fixed now so we'll see what happens.

I was looking at those vortex fans, but damn are they expensive...about 160 for a 4 inch 175 cfm. Anyone know of anything cheaper/similar and where? There was a squirl type fan for $120, but thats still kinda high for me right now.

Is the distance for the light alright? (21" or so)

Day 12...

Well, the temp went up to 90 during the day, so I put a spare peice of glass from a side coffee table in between the light and the plants...the temp immediatly dropped to 85 again. Now I really need to get that door going with the fans since the top of the room will probably get pretty hot now.

Wow...this has almost been stressful so far...I hope its all worth it.

Is the glass going to effect the light intensity? Do I have to move the light closer?