help for a wicked noobie

[deadhead65]

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? 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:

deadhead65 Reviewed by deadhead65 on 08-29-2007. 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 Rating: 5

[deadhead65]

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.

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.

[deadhead65]

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

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.

[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.

[deadhead65]

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



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



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.

[RetiredFF]

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

[deadhead65]

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

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:

[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

[Weedhound]

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....

[deadhead65]

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!!!)