help for a wicked noobie

Hi,

Been reading a lot about growing but not really "there" yet. Kinda scared since I'm famous for having a black thumb but getting desparate and desparate times call for desparate measures soooooooooooooo..


I hear that topping is a good way to increase your grow but I have yet to see a good simplified visual on where to top? Like do you just go immediately below the top growth and cut so that there is like about an inch of stem and below it the next growth or do you go inbetween the top growth or what?

For the carbon filter...............I read how to make your own, etc. but I think I'll buy one from ebay that I saw for around $70. The thing is.....what the heck do I do with it? Do I just keep it in the closet or do I have to like drill a hole and shove it in the hole?:confused: If I just have to put it in the room that would be just ducky since drilling anything scares the bejesus outta me!!!

Lights.....I know I need the bluish lights for vegging and reddish for flowering but will Home Depot look at me like I'm an idiot if I ask where the blue and red lights are? Like what exactly do I ask for?

Air input/output. I REALLY don't want to put holes in my walls/doors. Is it really really necessary to have input/output of air if I have a closet and not just a cabinet that I'm working with?


Thanks for any and all help I get you guys rock!!!!:hippy:

First of all I didn't know people from Mass. even said "ducky" so you learn something new everyday. :)

There will be three issues you will need to deal with in your closet once you start growing and adequate ventilation will address all three things....any of the three not being under control then your plants will grow poorly....if at all. Those three issues will be: heat, humidity, and fresh air. Your closet grow will depend upon you to make sure these things are not out of control.....or you'll only THINK you've known desperation. :D

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

First of all I didn't know people from Mass. even said "ducky" so you learn something new everyday. :)

There will be three issues you will need to deal with in your closet once you start growing and adequate ventilation will address all three things....any of the three not being under control then your plants will grow poorly....if at all. Those three issues will be: heat, humidity, and fresh air. Your closet grow will depend upon you to make sure these things are not out of control.....or you'll only THINK you've known desperation. :D

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hahahahhahahaha

ok so what you're tellin me is that I shoulda takin' shop in high school AND that I had best get a good excuse for why there's a hole blowin outta my basement closet when it's time to sell and my realtor's going through my house? lol.

UGH I shoulda married a carpenter!!!!!

I do have a wardrobe that the last owners left for me so conceivabley I could cut out the shelves and get a hole in that and put it in the cedar closet that's in my basement so that I don't damage the infastructure (sp after 3 glasses of merlot?????) but I was hoping to avoid that.

Wish I had a trustworthy handyman!!! :(:( (I'll be ok after the initial shock of realizing I have to find out how to work a saw)

Well if you're going to be into real "stealth" then yes but it just depends on how secret you need it to be. We have some plants in the corner of a spare bedroom (I have some dark drapes that I close over them for 12/12 and use the bedroom windows for my venting but everyone has their own necessary compromises. :cool:

If you aren't into building things you can buy just about anything you can think of as far as cabinets etc to grow in but of course the trade off is $$$$. :(

Ps....you could take the door off and hang some heavy curtains in its place for nighttiime.....just put it back before you show the place....:thumbsup:

But won't the curtains not solve the venting issue? The only stealth problem is that my 10 and 11 year old daughters might suddenly decide that the want to learn how to do the laundry and get REAL curious about why the closet in the spare bedroom has a fan blowin' out of it. If you have an excuse for that then I'm good to go since if I really wanna sell the house it won't be till the market looks up which will be in about four to five years tops and by then I'll find a regular dealer. lol

Ok so what about my other questions? Topping? Carbon filter? Lighting?

And yes some of us say ducky. The only thing we will NEVER say is "go Yankees!". (gag me with a spooooon!!!)

Talk ALOT in front of your daughters about how hard the laundry is....how long it takes....you have to walk uphill to the washer (both ways) in the snow etc etc....

Most of your heat issues will take place when you are in the lighting phase so I mentioned the curtain because you can open it during the day and most likely there will go your problems right there....heat, humidity AND fresh air will all most likely be controlled with the door being open. During the dark time if your curtain is cloth (mine is) air will still pass through freely BUT the humidity WILL rise during lights off and lots of us have to use a demhumidifier to keep the level down or the flowering buds can develop molds and/or fungus.

The carbon filters are made to go inside the ducting (I THINK....I don't use them so am not positive) and you put them at the end of your ducting to get rid of the smell of your wonderfully scented flowering plants as your ducting expels the old, hot air from your growroom to the outside (ducting is also almost always used to cool HID lighting for indoors.....the bulbs run HOT) That's pretty much all I know about them.

Topping is very, very simple and I'm sure I can find a photo or thread about it somewhere to link you to....let me look around.

Lighting....groan. Very, very individual...I use monster lighting myself so can't really help you on what would be good in the smaller stuff. There are so many different kinds that you really REALLY have to study whats good for what you want the plant to do....veg (grow) vs blooming (flowering) and both need different spectrums of light to do well. Lighting is an entire book on its own....

One idea....this is cheap and would be good to "veg" your plants with.....but not to flower them. I have it in an old thread of mine...... brb....

On page 7 of this old growlog of mine a good friend talked me through a nice cheap EASY lighting setup with cfls that if I can do...you can do too. Took one trip to home depot, an hour, and about $50. This will do you fine for a few seedlings in your closet until they are old enough to bloom.

http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...row-log-7.html

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Originally Posted by Weedhound

On page 7 of this old growlog of mine a good friend talked me through a nice cheap EASY lighting setup with cfls that if I can do...you can do too. Took one trip to home depot, an hour, and about $50. This will do you fine for a few seedlings in your closet until they are old enough to bloom.

http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...row-log-7.html

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Oh wow thanks! That looks like something even I could do!!!

I read through it a bit but didn't catch what you ended up hanging them from? I know you said a hanger didn't work since the set up was heavier but I didn't catch what you ended up using. My closet is about the same size as what you had there so those will be good. Thanks again!:thumbsup:

I went to Home Depot the other day and saw some Clamp lights(good since you can hang it on something and make light shine on your plant)

CFLs - cool white = red light, daylight = blue.

It says either daylight or cool white on the package, so its not hard to find. Just ask where are the light bulbs.

Clamp lights and cfls are cheap, really good for beginners.

Picture of a clamp light if you don't know what it is.
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/416C59KBG3L.gif

Just some string and a couple of hooks that I screwed into the ceiling....easy to take down when necessary.

Like John said....cool.....daylight....blue....for vegging. :thumbsup:

you could build a false wall inside the closet

it doesn't sound like you want do a lot of carpentry but all you have to do is buy a sheet of dry wall cut to the dimensions you want and make something simple to support it

it would solve your problem of cutting into the door for venting and when you sell your house you just throw the piece of dry wall away and no damage is left also if your kids don't know the closet dimensions just throw some clothes or boxes in front of it

Also if you have an attic you can vent into there it will still create a hole unless you have a light fixture in there if you do just take the fixture out and you have a hole to the attic

it would depend how your closet is set up but it would be relatively easy and might solve a few of your problems.

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Originally Posted by JohnHerer

I went to Home Depot the other day and saw some Clamp lights(good since you can hang it on something and make light shine on your plant)

CFLs - cool white = red light, daylight = blue.

It says either daylight or cool white on the package, so its not hard to find. Just ask where are the light bulbs.

Clamp lights and cfls are cheap, really good for beginners.

Picture of a clamp light if you don't know what it is.
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/416C59KBG3L.gif

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Oh I have one of those lights in my cellar already! The guy who owned the place before me left it here. For one plant can I just use that or should I get a couple of them? I'd say the closet is about 3 ft wide, 3 ft deep and I dunno maybe 7 feet tall. That's all a rough estimate.

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Originally Posted by revolutionary

you could build a false wall inside the closet

it doesn't sound like you want do a lot of carpentry but all you have to do is buy a sheet of dry wall cut to the dimensions you want and make something simple to support it

it would solve your problem of cutting into the door for venting and when you sell your house you just throw the piece of dry wall away and no damage is left also if your kids don't know the closet dimensions just throw some clothes or boxes in front of it

Also if you have an attic you can vent into there it will still create a hole unless you have a light fixture in there if you do just take the fixture out and you have a hole to the attic

it would depend how your closet is set up but it would be relatively easy and might solve a few of your problems.

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So what you're saying is kind of build a closet within a closet by putting a wall up, right? Hmmmm.......I'll have to think about that one. I would have to get two peices I guess...one for the side and one for the top.

the ceiling doesn't go to the attic since I'm talking about a basement closet. I think if I vented out the ceiling I'd be cutting into my bathroom above. lol. Gawd this is so confusing.

I'm gonna go do some laundry and get a better look at things. :)

hmmm........ok here's my options:

plan a) suck it up and cut two holes in closet, one for getting air in and one for blowin' it out. I found this fan online

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ineductfan.jpg

and I wouldn't feel bad if the hole was covered with the vent cover that this kit has:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...65/ductkit.jpg

This is one of the two closets that I'm considering:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/IMG_0063.jpg

and this is the other:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/IMG_0070.jpg

the first closet has an electrical outlet in it so it's kind of my favorite choice BUT the second closet has a lock on it. There is an outlet outside of the closet but that doesn't help me any unless I drill yet another hole in that one's wall to thread the wires through.

plan b) build a grow cabinet and put it in the first closet and install a lock in that closet since the cabinet does not lock.

here's the cabinet when closed

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/IMG_0066.jpg

and when open:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/IMG_0067.jpg

and the back of it:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/IMG_0073.jpg

I was trying to avoid using the cabinet 'cause the shelves that are in there are stuck with something. I don't see any nails so I guess I'd have to saw them off or something since they just don't budge at all. Why anyone would make shelves in a cabinet permanent like that is beyond me. :(


So that's the basics. Once I figure out what I am going to use I basically kinda sorta know what to do except the intake/outake is still confusing me especially how to position the carbon/kitty litter filter into that inline fan. That one has me stumped since one end of the filter has a cap on it so ain't no air getting through there. lol. I soooo wish I took shop instead of home ec!!!! I can however blow you all away in the kitchen!! lol.

I have tons of flowering pots, all different sizes that again the old owners left me.

as far as a carbon filter (which i havnt used yet) you can just attach it to a fan and leave it in the closet to remove odors. with a standard 4-6-8 in" filter a fan will come in those sizes too. your room will still need to be ventilated in some way, a door open during lights on or a small fan or passive ventilation(a place where air can come in the bottom and a hole near the top to exhaust hot air)
topping is really easy. if you just want to pinch off the very top set of leaves you can, or if you go a little lower and take off some growth you may be able to clone the top.(use scissors or razor blade for this) just find the right place on the stem to cut it. this is as simple as i can get.

Tell your daughters that you are just keeping the laundry fresh!

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Originally Posted by twoguysupnorth

as far as a carbon filter (which i havnt used yet) you can just attach it to a fan and leave it in the closet to remove odors. with a standard 4-6-8 in" filter a fan will come in those sizes too. your room will still need to be ventilated in some way, a door open during lights on or a small fan or passive ventilation(a place where air can come in the bottom and a hole near the top to exhaust hot air)
topping is really easy. if you just want to pinch off the very top set of leaves you can, or if you go a little lower and take off some growth you may be able to clone the top.(use scissors or razor blade for this) just find the right place on the stem to cut it. this is as simple as i can get.

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Thanks!!! I have two stupid fan questions:

1) I hear so much about how important it is to let NO light in at all during the lights off period...........so if I have these fans sticking out of the closet or cabinet...won't light shine through at some point?

2) I'm leaning towards doing the cabinet inside the closet (which I guess just solved #1 for me since it'll be dark in the closet lol) and so in that case I'd probably go with a pc fan since they're smaller. Here's my dumbass question...............all the pc fans that I see have these little holes in them on the thingie that you'd normally call a plug, instead of a plug that you'd plug into a power strip. What the heck do I do with all those holes? I don't get how I plug a pc fan into a power strip. Do I need a computer? I have an extra one that I was going to give my sister but I'm mad at her 'cause I KNOW she smokes but she isn't giving me any OR telling me who her dealer is. :mad: So if I need a computer to plug the pc fan in I have one. Just need to know how to do it.

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Originally Posted by RetiredFF

Tell your daughters that you are just keeping the laundry fresh!

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hahahaha. I actually told them today, since I kept going down there, that we have tons of spiders downstairs so now they're both petrified of going downstairs!!!:thumbsup:

I think computer fans are standard 110v. If this is the case, you can just cut off the end and connect a standard plug. If the fans are transformed to 12v, you could do the same thing but would need a 12v transformer.

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Originally Posted by RetiredFF

I think computer fans are standard 110v. If this is the case, you can just cut off the end and connect a standard plug. If the fans are transformed to 12v, you could do the same thing but would need a 12v transformer.

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How do you cut off the end and connect a standard plug?

Does anyone have a link with pictures that a kindergardner could follow? :D If all else fails I guess I could ask the guys at Radio Shack to help me.

Computer fans are 12v. Once you have an adapter to bring 110v down to 12v cut the ends off both then positive to positive and negative to negative.

:thumbsup: