Closet / First Grow Proposed Setup

I am in the process of getting a closet grow room started. I will list the components I have purchased and how I plan to set them up. Any and all suggestions are welcome as this will be my first grow.

Dimensions of Closet:
32" x 32" x 8'

Hypothetical Strains that might be grown here:
Nirvana - Bubbleicious
Nirvana - Cali Orange
Unknown - Misc Mexibrick bagseed

Components:

Mylar covering all surfaces

Bottom Section (~2ft vertical)
This will be the germ / seedling / clone section
Plan to use fairly low wattage / cheap CFLs for this section

Main grow section
1 - 400w MH / HPS light (bought the system that takes both)
2 - Horizontal mounted T5 flourescent lights

I am very interested in the SCROG method as it seems that this would take advantage of the limited space I have. I only plan to fully grow 3-6 plants in this area (if this is too high or too low please advise :) )

Air Circulation
This is the area I am having problems with, the exhaust should not be a problem as I can cut a hole through the ceiling into the attic and vent with computer fans.

I am at a loss as far as intake though, I don't want to cut a hole through the door unless I have to or cut holes through any of the other walls.

Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated :stoned:

Anyone? this sound like a good foundation for a solid grow or am i missing something obvious?

1. you should be fine with a passive intake (holes) and see if you can get a little oscillating fan in the main grow area? if you can manage to put an oscialler inside on top of a lot of passive intake holes, that'll do

2. i'd guess that computer fans aren't gonna cut it for exhaust. you're going to need to move a lot of air out of there to cool that hps, and your plants will thank you with less humidity and more co2



you seem like you know what you're doing and you'll be fine. you'll have to adjust as you go just like anyone else, but i think you've got a good plan; just keep track of temp. PH, and humidity if you can; take it easy and you'll be fine; you'll always have to adapt

sounds like a good start would probably suggest making your clone veg area a little taller as 2 ft really isnt very tall if you ever wanted to keep a couple of mother plants you will probably need a little more room might increase it to 3 ft. that would still leave you 5 ft to flower in wich is plenty of room for using a 400 for scrog and you would still have room to use other growing methods if you decided not to do scrog.
would probably pick up a decent fan and not bother with computer fans as I dont think they will do the job would suggest 6 inch inline with a speed control so you can turn it down as its a little big for what your need, hook it up to an air cooled reflector on the 400 and exhuasting in the attic.
you will have to monitor your temps and see how they do but most rooms are far from sealed so they will be pulling in some air from around the door but if the temps remain high you may have to make an intake to keep the temps down rather than cutting your door just remove it and replace it with some 1/2 to 3/4 plywood that you can easily cut an intake in and make a disposable door that can be tosssed and the original door put back on if ever needed to.

thanks for the tips, i especially like the one about the fake door, that thought didn't even cross my mind. I'll be sure and post some pics once i get the equipment in.

thanks again and good growing to ya'll. :smokin:

Well finally got all the equipment in and setup. Here is a detailed list of purchases so far and their costs:

Seeds : $74.00 (Nirvana)
400W MH / MPS Grow Light Kit / Mylar : $205.27 (HTGsupply)
2- 4in. Inline duct fans : $67.58 (Home Depot)

1st set of Pots, cfl fixtures, mounting hooks, cfl tubes, misc equipment : $89.84 (Walmart)

20' Flexible Ducting and keyhole saw : $23.48 (Home Depot)

Scotts Premium Potting Mix (best i could find locally :( ) $~10.00

for a total cost up till now of $470.17

Also started germination of 8 seeds (4 bubbleicious, 4 Cali Orange) today so more pics to follow once they pop and get planted.


Pics:

Pic 1 - Overall view of growspace with bottom cfls on

Pic 2 - Seedling Area with two 1600 lumen grow spectrum cfls

Pic 3 - Main grow area (you can just make out the bottom of the main grow light in the upper part of the pic) the vent hose you see to the left is running from the ceiling where it goes to separate room with a window open to provide fresh air. This intake has a 4" inline duct fan in the ceiling which provides constant 40CFM of cool, fresh air to the main grow area.

Pic 4 - Upper level of the grow room with misc storage and the ballast for the lights. Also pictured is the 4" air intake running down the left side of the picture and the 4" exhaust line placed above the ballast to remove waste heat. Both of these ducts have 4" inline 40CFM fans in the ceiling running them.

Pic 5 - Pic of the grow room with the door closed - stealth mode

Any comments or suggestions? :jointsmile:

hi there nice projeckt i think its goin as it should
im still a novice in idoor growing so my thaughts dont really count....but still tjek out my setup on the EU closet. i wented the intake just by drilling a cupple holes in the bottom and works fin with a small fan inside shifting the air from side to side.
hope to see your final solution.
R-L-B

So all 8 of my seeds have succesfully germed and sprouted. I'm running them under 2 100W 6500k CFLs on a 18/6 timer.

They appear to be shooting up fast, possibly too fast, I think they may be strechting out too much, even though my lights are only about 8"-10" above the tops of the pots.

Here are a few pics of the lil girls(hopefully). Can someone comment as to whether they look stretched out or if I need to add more soil?

As always, thanks for the comments and suggestions. :jointsmile:

would try to get the lights a little closer like around 2-3 inches and yes you can add more soil up to just below the leaves but they dont look to bad.

First set of real leaves are coming in nicely. I took some advice from the above posts and moved the plants closer to the lights and added soil to just about an inch or so under the first set of leaves.

Pics 1-3: Some nice closeups of 3 of my Cali Orange seedlings

Pic 4 : Bubbleicious

Pic 5: Overall Setup pic including the current temp. and humidity reading

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions and good growing to all of you. :jointsmile:

So do you have an actual log going? I'd be very interested in seeing a day to day break down of your little slice of heaven. Take care Mate and DONT GET CAUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would probably be a good idea to turn on your lights for several hours and check the temps in your grow room before you need it. I just got a 4" inline fan just like yours and I'm real disappointed at 40cfm amounts to. It's ok for an active intake in a small area, but it sucks for exhaust. I'm running about 410 (true) watts of cfls in a 16 cu.ft. box and the 40cfm didn't do squat as an exhaust fan. You'll have more heat and a bigger area to vent, once you fire up the HPS, so you'll probably find that you need a better exhaust fan.

I'm on my first grow too, a few steps ahead of you, and the first lesson I've learned the hard way so far is that these people are serious when they talk about the importance of good ventilation. I hope I'm wrong and that the fans you have work, but it's best to test them now while there are no plants in the grow area and you have time to take remedial measures.

Nice setup , props to you for taking the time and getting all the equip beforehand ;your gonna have alot of fun with it. Did you get a ph test kit yet? (i didnt see it mentioned in your supplies) If not check either lowes/home depot has cheap soil ph test kits or soil ph probes. Also bghydro has a nice cheap soil ph test kit with ph-up/down included for like $15 bucks.

I would add 2 more of those cfl's to that veg area (since it is a decent sized area) It will give your plants better growth.

Other then that your grow is starting out on point.! props.

wow quick replies tonight!

Pharma: this is the one thing that I am still worried about, the intake is pulling from an air conditioned room that has access to fresh air so the intake air is ~70F The exhaust is placed right above the ballast of the light and seems to be pulling a decent amount of air out, I did test it before I put the plants in and temps got up to about 90F but that was with the thermometer in direct light and without the oscillating fan going. I will do some additional testing on this but luckily the exhaust is easy to modify (in the attic) so if I need to drop a bigger fan in it shouldn't be a problem.

root- yes I have one of those ph probes from lowes, its reading right about 7.5 now, I plan on doing some further reading and such to see about getting this down a little lower, what is a good ph to shoot for?

thanks for the quick and informative replies :jointsmile:

P.S. I have started a dedicated grow log over here

Try to get it around 7.0 ph in soil, yes he is right hps lamps put out lotsss of heat im gonna be ordering a vortex fan soon to deal with all the heat mixed with summer weather my hps puts out.

I seem to be unable to post pics in my other thread in the grow log forum, anyone know why?

Some areas take a certain number of post to be able to put photos up. 50 post if i remember correctly...

thanks for the heads up root, I guess I'll just keep posting the updates in here then.

hrmm... *wanders off to post compliments on other grows*

nice grow my closet is simmular to keep as much light/air leaks out of the grow u can get some of that foam weatherstripping found at wallmart or a hardware store and go around the top, and sides.....for the bottom i used a peice of some insulation shit that was like bubblewrap covered in alum. foil worked good hat it bent ina ) shape and was light proofed

Nice, I like your setup, I might be doing the same with a closet of mine...I might use your same setup? Do ya mind? Lol.

Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been super busy with work. I'll catch up to today with the next few posts.

Lot of pics from today: all of the following posts show each plant from on top and from a side view

1st - Cali Orange top View

2nd - Cali Orange Side View

3rd - Bubbleicious Top View

4th - Bubbleicious Side View

More pics,


1st - Cali Orange top View

2nd - Cali Orange Side View

3rd - Bubbleicious Top View

4th - Bubbleicious Side View

1st - Cali Orange top View

2nd - Cali Orange Side View

3rd - Bubbleicious Top View

1st - Cali Orange top View

2nd - Cali Orange Side View

3rd - Bubbleicious Top View

4th - Bubbleicious Side View

Its been a very busy couple weeks for the girls, I remembered to take a few pics today after we watered them and put on the bondage equipment. (LST)

EDIT: Welcome Page 2 :jointsmile: /EDIT

Finally got my Supernova air-cooled reflector today so I was able to finally get temps stable between 80-83F and move the girls under the big light in the main grow room. I also received the Cal-Mag (since I am using RO water) I ordered some of this as well.

1 - Overall shot of the grow room without the oscillating fan

2 - Overall shot including fan and new reflector hood (you can barely make out the exhaust tube running from the left side of the light)

3,4,5 - Random Pics

Everything seems to be going very well.

I have one plant with a burn spot where it grew into the CFL and one with some mysterious down curling of the leaves and yellowing.

2 Plants got knocked around a little bit today while transferring to the main grow room but thanks to the good root ball and the strings from LST'ing them I think they will pull through just fine.

I think it is important to track all the charges on this grow so here is the up to date list of the money spent on the project so far.

Seeds - $74.00
Grow Lights / Mylar - $205.27
Duct Fans - $67.58
Misc. Pots, fixtures, hooks, cfl lights etc - $89.84
Duct and Saw - $23.48
soil - $10.00
Misc. Electrical stuff - $10.87
Bigger Pots, Vent Hood, fan, cloning gel $202.23

Total spent so far: - $683.27

One more thing I wanted to add, I am currently using the following nutes:
Fox Farms - Grow Big (using at half strength)
Fox Farms - Big Bloom (using at half strength)
CalMag+

As always any comments, questions or suggestions are welcome.

Text only update today (note to self: Remember to charge camera batteries)

Made the move to the final 10 inch pots today, plants are looking very good and preflowers are definitely coming in.

I will take some updated pics tomorrow. :jointsmile:

hello mate first of very nice well done they look happy,but get the creases out of the mylar or you will get hot spots on your plants,i always fix my mylar to hard board and then slide the hardboard in place around the plants,if you use mylar right it will nearly double your light good luck but please sort that out:thumbsup::thumbsup:

thanks for the tip haze, I will get working on that when I get off of work.
:jointsmile:

Mixed emotions about today, I was able to sex all 4 of my Cali Orange plants.

I'm happy to have one confirmed female and mad that the rest of the set were males.

The remaining four plants are my Bubbleicious strain, none of which are showing any signs of preflowers at the moment.

Pic 1 - Overall pic of the grow room with the 3 males removed. The female is the one in the middle. Note the CFLs I added to the floor to catch all those bud sites that are developing. Also you can see some of the lst work I have been doing.

Pic 2 - A crappy shot of my confirmed female, I won't be able to take a proper picture of the female hairs without a tripod or something to steady my hand.

Here's to hoping that all four of my remaining unknowns will be some hot chicks.

After looking through the board for some nice up close LST shots and not finding too many that I could make out I decided to take some of my own.

All the pots you see in the pics are 10inch pots from kmart to give you an idea of scale

Pic 1 - Lot of nice exposed budsites on this one now

Pic 2 - check the 90 degree turn from the soil, also the CFLs on the bottom to ensure that no place is left without light

Pic 3 - this is my one confirmed female so far. it was hard to find a good angle since she is so thick (gotta love the bubbleicious)

Pic 4 - I really hope this is a female since it has been my most vigourous grower and has a nice spread on the fan leaves which let those budsites soak up the light

Pic 5 - I think this one will end up female under magnification I can almost make out some hairs poking from one of the growths on its upper nodes


I am thinking of going to 12/12 within a week or two, any comments on that?



As always thanks for the good info

:jointsmile:

Thats some good dope boys.

hehe thanks cyber, Trailer Park Boys quote for the win :jointsmile:

Sorry for the lack of updates, been super busy at work.

Pics 1-5

Various pictures of the current canopy (as of 6/17/07)

and some up clost shots of the twisted LST stems

keep this date in mind for a few posts down to compare the size of canopy in just a few days

:D

some nice misc. shots of the ladies today.

Pic 1 - Overall shot of canopy (6/21/07)

Pic 2 - LST bend on stem

Pic 3 - the secret weapon, CO2 system with timer

growth has been incredible since I added co2 to the grow room, the pictures from day 44 will show the awesome canopy coverage I have in the grow closet.

Wow, the plants have been growing at an astonishing rate!

Pic 1 - Current canopy (as of 6/22/07) compare this with the shots from 6/17/07

Pic 2 - Internodes growing everywhere

Pic 3 - Look at the main stem under 3 or 4 levels of branches

Pic 4 - Rainforests of weed :D

Pic 5 - Another shot of the coverage

I am feeling really good about this grow. The plants are looking great and I should be changing over to a flowering bulb within a few days.

dammm dude. you do have a jungle.

they look real good.

Today was a great day. Our internode growths from the main stem are so big and bulky that we had to LST them as well as the main stem.

Pic 1 - The certified female is in the front middle of this shot, notice the nice bud sites everywhere

Pic 2 - The colas are staring you down

Pic 3 - A shot of the wall to wall plants in the grow room

Pic 4 - another overall shot

Grow is really exciting right now, the plants are responding great to everything, can't wait to start flowering. :jointsmile: