First grow.... In about 10 years!

Hi all,


Just signed up on here and about to get back into growing. I've got a small cupboard space (70cmx75cmx160cm) which I grew 1 nice plant in about 10 years ago. I was growing for about 10 months before I started flowering just using a 2' x 2' commercial ceiling light unit with four standard fluorescent 35w tubes. A long grow but the results were worth it for my needs. I've had a quick look around but thought I'd ask the question as I need to get up to speed. What would be the best solution for me with my space? Ventilation is a little limited so I'd like to keep the heat down. Don't really want to go overkill just to get a reasonably good yield from 1 or 2 plants in the space I have.



Thanks.

2x2' is quite small. if you can move into a larger space, even a little larger, you could buy a t-5 light or even a 250w-400w light.
keep in mind, the more light energy you put into your grow space, the more potential you have for yield.
Moving away from flourescent and LED light and upgrading to HID lighting (particularly HPS) will increase your yield by a sh*tload.

post again if you have more questions or can make adjustments.

hope this helps...

Thanks for the reply but I'm currently just limited to that space. I've got the walls and back of the door lined with Reflect-a-gro and I have a pulley system suspended from the top of the cupboard for the light fitting. Like I said, I don't really want to go overkill and want to keep the heat and running costs down to a reasonable level. I was thinking about rigging up 2 x 125w blue CFL bulbs side by side in the existing 2'x2' reflector I've got and then going to 2 x 125w Reds for flowering. Does that sound ok for the space? I was just going to go with one 125W but the lumens per sq ft is very minimal. I'd like to look at other set ups people have in the kind of space I've got if anybody can point me in the right direction?

The space I have to use, along with the old lighting which will be replaced. Anybody got any setup examples in this kind of space?

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it looks like ventilation is going to be your biggest problem...if you don't have proper ventilation you WILL have mold.

That was one of my concerns. I'll need to arrange to cut vents into the door or keep it ajar and create an extended frame with fan holes cut into it.

Hey,
I grow in a 90 x 90 x 150 space. Just a little bigger than yours.

If you have no ventilation in that space you will have to go LED and have some fans. But fresh air is necessary, very necessary...
Also, if you run an extractor you can also attach a carbon scrubber. I think your best option is to buy a small tent on ebay and a carbon scrubber.

Mine is in my bedroom, its in the corner with a blanket on it with empty cardboard boxes on it to make it look like a storage box.
Nobody pays it ant attention. The best place to hide something is under someones nose ;)

Inside the tent I have a Pro-Grow 260 LED light. I think it does the job just fine. I have some healthy nuggets at the moment.
I have 4 x 20w CFL in there too just to create some heat as the LED runs almost totally cool.
Also I have a good extractor fan and a Can9000 carbon scrubber. I have 6 plants in mid bloom and I can't smell a thing.
i have a regular fan in there too to keep the air moving every now and again.

A good set-up is essential to grow good weed. the entire system is only as good as its weakest link, soil, lighting, extraction, fans, nutrients, odour control, pot size etc etc...

You can see my grow here: LED Logger

I have it very well documented, even the mistakes I made along the way. I hope it can help you.

Take care

Thanks, I'll take a look

Attachment 281740 Does this light setup look ok?

I'm about to grow in a similar space, with similar ventilation issues. Maybe keeping a fan on and the door open a crack with the fan blowing in during daylight, and door shut at night would be ok? Any expert know?

When I grew in here all those years ago, I kept the door ajar most of the time and sometimes wide open during the dark period so there was plenty of air getting to the plant. I never used fans but there certainly wasn't a heat issue with just wimpy fluoro tubes. Medicaldelivery mentioned above that there could be mould issues but that wasn't the case. I've currently got just one of my blue CFL bulbs on above a couple of White Widow clones a friend gave me. One showing signs of root in the soil and the other still in some rock wool. Both showing new growth but I'm not getting my hopes up yet.

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A little more growth but still slow. Do you think these little guys will make it? Any advice or help much appreciated. They've been under the lamp (With the propagator lid on) nice and humid, fairly warm - 4 days so far. 18/6 light. I'll get a temp/hygro sorted out soon.

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They're coming along.. be patient and don't drown them.. moist, not soaking.

Peace,

Farmer Rich

Thanks, fingers crossed! :-)

I've got some Reflect-a-grow left. Do you think it would be a good idea to line the underside of the reflector with it? It's currently just like a white paint.

Is 18/6 light ok at this stage?

Your doin' great! 18/6 is gonna be fine!

Li'l update...

A bit more growth and both still looking quite healthy. I've also just planted a dozen Amnesia Haze seeds which I recently acquired...

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I've just lopped the two older leaves off of the one in the rock wool as well as they were looking a little yellow and possibly holding back the development of the new growth (?)

Good luck on the Amnesia Haze.. do you know how big they get? You probably over did it in a big way.. Every haze I grow tops out at 6'+ requiring at least 4 square feet of space. Good luck.. BTW, how are those clones doing?

The clones are pictured in my last post. Still growing but slowly. The seeds I've planted were just for the heck of it. I'll pass them on or leave them out in the wild.

Another little update and some advice needed if anybody could help? It's now almost two weeks since the clones have been planted. One of them (in the rockwool) doesn't look like it's getting very far. The other (in the all-mix) looks to have made better progress. I've got a couple of the Haze seedling sprouted now. My question is, should all of these still be in my propagator with a lid over them or can any of them be directly under the light now? I've got one 125w 6500k CFL running 18/6 and it's about 1' above the propagator lid, just close enough to keep them a little warm.

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By the way, I could see a little bit of root near the surface of the soil on the healthier looking clone so it's definitely taken to the soil but to what extent, I don't know.

Any ideas? I've moved the light to about 6" now and decided to remove the propagator lid. Please somebody tell me if this is a mistake.

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I decided that leaving the propagator lid off this early was probably not a good idea. Especially as it's cold and windy at the moment and my indoor temperature can get quite a bit lower at night (15-16c) Humidity is struggling to stay above 30% in my grow closet as well. The seedlings are looking ok but the clones appeared to have stopped in their tracks and started looking a little pale. I decided I'd try to do something as they were looking a little worse each day.
I've very gently uprooted the better looking clone from the soil (Biobiz All-Mix) possibly too much for the little clone to handle at this stage. As you can see in the picture, it's developed some nice little roots all round the stem immediately below the surface. I decided to spray off the excess soil with some 5.5 ph water and I've now soaked a new peat pellet in some plain 5.5 ph water and gently re-planted it. I've done the same for the clone which was in the rock wool. This didn't have as much root development but it had made some progress. I've either completely screwed them now or given them another chance. If they do take off now, they'll either be really tough little plants after what they've been through or they'll be totally screwed up! :) If anyone has anything to add or suggest please chime in. I could do with some encouragement :thumbsup:

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A little update... My seedlings are doing well and I've added another 2 Cheese to the grow as well. Thought I'd just post a pic of the largest 'Amnesia Haze' seedling... I'm not certain if it is AH as the source of these seeds may have been unreliable. I was under the impression that AH was a sativa dominant strain, the leaves on this look really broad and it's growing quite squat under my 125W CFL Rich, you've grown AH right? What do you think?

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An update on the WW clones... The one I replanted and looked the strongest didn't make it. The weaker looking one which looked like it had died has bounced back. I've transplanted this now and it's doing well. A month old and it's just starting to take off. I'm going to make a Mother of this one and hopefully do a SOG grow with as many clones as I can later in the year.

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Just over a month on so another update if anyone's interested...

That little WW clone recovered and took off nicely. It's become a nice healthy plant with three main tops instead of just one. I ended up with six plants I transplanted into 5 litre pots about 10 days ago now and switched to 12/12 on the 14th March. Of the six plants, I discovered just one Male which I pulled out yesterday. I now have 5 definite females all showing Pistils after just 8 days of 12/12 I have what I believe to be 1 x WW, 2 x Cheese and 2 x (Possibly) Amnesia Haze. I'm not familiar with the characteristics of each of these plants so I can't be certain (Other than the WW clone obviously) so any input from anyone else would be cool. It's getting a bit crowded in there with the 5 I only really wanted to have 2 or 3 max so I could make up a scrog within the first couple of weeks of flower. I might just pull out what I believe is supposed to be the AH ones as if they are AH, I don't want to be flowering for up to 13 weeks and apparently they can get massive. Here are a few pics...

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3 weeks into 12/12 today. I've added a makeshift scrog. A little late, I know but training the main tops over and to the side and rear of the grow space has let more light down to the lower nodes, some of them have hit the screen too and a few more should too in a few days so I can organise the tops a little more. I've also just added 2 20w CFL's to the front of the cupboard where there wasn't as much light. Makes a big difference and these little bulbs really pack a punch! The four plants have now been transplanted into an Atami Wilma 4 pot system with 11 litre pots. I wanted to go hydro eventually so I thought I'd buy this system early and just use it so I can water in place and let the water/solution drain into the base and then discard the run off. I've still just been feeding minimal amounts of nutes every other water. Any comments on that?
All going nicely so far! Let me know what you guys think.

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