new and starting first grow. ANY ADVICE APPRECIATED

im starting my first hydro DWC grow and would appreciate any advice. i havent yet begin but heres what i think my setup will be. i have 10, 5 gallon DWC bubblers in a 3' x 5' x 8' closest. i plan on using a 1000watt switchable ballast light. MH for vegging and HPS for flowering. First, im planning on germing the seeds in rockwool starter cubes:
First, soaking the cubes in filtered water and squeezing out the little excess. Then, making a hole in the cube, place the seed in the cube and covering with additional rockwool and finally placing the cube in 24hrs of darkness until i see visible roots through the rockwool.
After germing, i will be placing the rockwool cubes in the 6 inch net pots with hydroton clay rocks built into the 5 gallon homemade bubbler (DWC system) i plan on using flora series as my nutes and keeping the ph around 5.8-6.2 using pH papers because i cant afford a meter or not any that i seen. ( any body know of cheap meters, prefarably around $20-$40)im going to be using a carbon dioxide boost bucket during flowering stage because i cant afford the carbon dioxide systems. im not planning on having any fans on the lights but i dont know if this is good or not. the closet i will be growing in is in an empty room and i was hoping that that would be enough air flow because the closet doesnt have a door. i was going to use mylar to reflect the light but i dont know if i should cover just the closet or the entire room because of the "no door" scenario. should i just paint the closet white or the entire room? well if my setup is okay then i plan on vegging my plants for 2wks. i read somewhere that vegging for longer in a dwc is not good. any advice on this matter? and after that i plan on flowering for about 8-10 wks depending on the strain, which i have yet to pick. im planning on growing for the highest yield but decent quality bud. anybody have any suggestions on that? and i think i will be ordering seeds from either attitude or dr. chronic. still not sure which one is best. well i think that wraps it up. if anybody have any questions about my grow or suggestion, especially SUGGESTIONS please comment because i need as much help as i can get. o, and i need advice about covering up odor since i am in an apartment and odor is easily detectable.

well my friend,you will need lots more gear.with a 1000 watter you will definitely need to vent the area.i would also vent the reflector.you also need some fresh air coming in.i use equal cfm blowers for intake and exhaust.this way i can keep my reflector almost touching my canopy.i will go back to pm with the rest of this reply.

While you have a good basic plan, you are really going to need to expand on this. Our set-ups are quite similar. And you are operating under a few misconceptions.

First of all, you are going to need ventilation. I too would recommend an air cooled hood.
I think that you could get by just fine with a 600W light--that is 6000 lumens per sq ft and is easier to cool.
You are going to need a ph meter. If you are using GH nutes, they color the water and make it impossible to use test strips to check pH
Ph should be kept between about 5.5 and 5.8 for DWC
I don't know where you heard the only veg 2 weeks in DWC thing, but it is way wrong. Ideally I like to veg my plants for 2 months or so.
I germ differently. Roots will not show through the rockwool in 24 hrs. It will probably take several days to a week. Seedlings need light as soon as they pop and they should have some air flow over them.
You will need to close off the closet somehow. When you get into flowering, your girls will need absolute darkness during their dark time.
I do not put my girls into the 6" net pots in the 5 gal buckets until they have a real good root system.

how would you suggest i vent the closet? i may be able to vent the entire room but the closet doesnt have a door. should i just keep the grow inside the room because i do have an entire empty room and about the door on the closet. could i just use a big piece of plywood or should i just light proof the entire empty room instead of using the closet. maybe the closet isnt a good idea since it doesnt have a door but since the room is empty and a far deal bigger than the closet would the closet need ventilation since the room should be fairly cool and without a door on the closet, wouldnt the closet stay cool as well??? i dont kno??? anybody???

tchashow said:

how would you suggest i vent the closet? i may be able to vent the entire room but the closet doesnt have a door. should i just keep the grow inside the room because i do have an entire empty room and about the door on the closet. could i just use a big piece of plywood or should i just light proof the entire empty room instead of using the closet. maybe the closet isnt a good idea since it doesnt have a door but since the room is empty and a far deal bigger than the closet would the closet need ventilation since the room should be fairly cool and without a door on the closet, wouldnt the closet stay cool as well??? i dont kno??? anybody???

Click to expand...

thats what i did, check out my grow.

welcome to MP

You really need a closed off space. I think that you should make some kind of door for the closet. If you move the grow into the main room or don't have a door on your closet, you lose light--your light disperses throughout the entire room. You at least need to be exchanging the air in your space 3-4 times a minute to provide the plants with enough CO2.

:ciao: an :welcome: come :joint: an :watchplant: with us

My grows are similar to your setup in that its in a closet in my bedroom and I have no direct ventilation in the closet.
I have a door on the closet but it must be opened and shut each day, without ventilation the closet will overheat in minutes.

Now even with the closet door open the room will overheat within hours.
So the trick to pullin it off is controlling the temps of the bedroom, you need to keep temps about 10 deg lower than you want in the closet. You also need fans to blow out at the top of the closet and one on the ground blowing in.

Dont bother with CO2 buckets as you dont have a sealed area to contain the CO2 but dont worry as CO2 buckets are just a waste of money anyway, just open a window for fresh air intake, this will also help with the control of temps but you MUST have a window AC unit in that room, as I stated it will overheat within hours or less.

If you grow in the closet or out it wont make any difference as the heat is going to build up and you need a way to close them off in total darkness once you flower them. I have a heavey blanket I drop each nite over the crappy closet door once the light is out.

It can be done you just have to overcompensate in the main room to control the envroment of the closet.