Need advice on my new grow. Advice on lights, size, fans, carbon filters, etc.

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chrishncolo

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Hello everyone. I am new to this site and come here looking for advice. I have read alot of posts and love the pictures. I just recently got my medicinal MJ license. I am wanting some advice on what size to make my grow room, kind of lights, etc.
A little about my place. I live in a apartment. Want to build a room for 12 plants. 6 at most flowering. That is the end goal for now. But for now I only want to grow half that... 6 total and 3 at most flowering. Any ideas on what size would be best for a grow room? Also what kind of lights are going to be best. I am trying not to spend a ton as I am living paycheck to paycheck right now. So I don't have a ton of money to buy a ton of those UFO's. What is best to keep the heat down. Right now my cupboard is really getting hot and I need to get these little guys moved and into a new place.
Do I need a O zone generator?
I really am new to this so ANY advice would be much welcome!
Thanks... and I lookforward to reading more.
Christine
 
I bet you live in the great state of Oregon ;)

Well, knowing that you're living paycheck to paycheck....and only wanting 3 flowering plants at a time...the question to you would be this
You live in an appartment, so you've got closets, probably bi-folding ones in yer bedroom. These could make an ideal grow area, if you have someone, or you yourself are a DIY person(do it yerself). O-zone generator...no, plants create their own ozone ;) lol.
As far as your grow room setup
So say you have one of those closets, you could partition it, so that half of the room is veg half is flower...Make sure you seal it light tight, whenever the doors are shut...This will require going inside, closing the doors, and making sure no light comes into your flower room when lights are out.
Veg room, and flower room should be painted flat white, or lined with Mylar. you can pick up mylar at walmart in the form of space blankets...they're like $3. You can easily fit 3 five gallon buckets/grow bags in that space. Make sure you line the floors with plastic. I reccomend painters plastic, 8mil black. This will also help partition your closet, as it's not transparent.
Lights: T5 setups are fairly easy to find at hydroponic stores. Depending on what part of the world youre in. You can find yourself a 36" (3 foot) t5 setup that produces 26000 lumens for about $130 at most of 'em, and that is perfect for your veg. If you are a handy DIY and don't want to spend $130, i suggest garage saling, and finding yourself some vanity lights, buying some CFL (compact flourescent lights) 26watt - 100 watt equivilant, 1750 lumen, and getting AS MANY as you can wired up without fire-hazard. You are shooting for the vacinity of 5000 lumens per square foot. You will never find a light source for flowering as good as a HPS (high pressured sodium). I reccomend a 400watt one for the size you'll need..air-cooled preferably, 120watt plug. You can find the links for these on the net, research...go shopping locally before you buy. Uhm....And as for ventilation, you're in an appartment. You can't modify the building at all. So you'll have to have 2 fans, not on high, not directly at the plants, to push in fresh air, and push out old air. Make sure they aucilate, so that you have moving air throughout, but not constantly directly on your plants. I also recomend vegging for no longer than 4 weeks, topping along the way, and then flowering. This way you don't outgrow your space. For the time being, get a 4" fan from wal-mart, and use it to push hot air AWAY from your plants, that should cool down the cupboard somewhat, and help yer plants from stressing. Anyway, hope some of these ideas helped, welcome to being legal :) keep it green and good luck!
 
homebox large (3.2x3.2x6.6), 600watt hps w/ 6" aircooled hood, 6"inline 424cfm fan.. add a 4" inline fan and matching 4"carbon filter for the tent..

thats my setup and its working great. check out my flower tent log below.
 
Thanks! Like I said I am new to this! I have done research but then am being told something else, so this is a way for me to help make the most important decisions. I don't live in OR I live in CO. Right now all I am using is a cheap ol grow light I got from Walmart. The two plants I have are just some seeds that I had from some stuff I got a while ago. So needless to say it was more for a trial to see what works best and what not to do. My lil gals are about 2.5 weeks old. I need to get them out of the cup and in a real space. I also need to look into nutrients... any ideas...???


SO I will look into the T5 and HPS... Thanks!
What about the carbon filter? yes? no? I know I am legal, but you know how that if word/smell gets out I might have some problems and hassels.

Thanks
Christine
 
Hi CnC...

You can transplant your small seedlings into a larger container. A 3 gal would be a good size to step up to. If you flower the plant small a 3 gal could suffice but many growers use larger 5,7,10 or even 20 gal pots and flower their plants bigger. As far as nutes go for this current grow, plants have all they need designed into the seed for the first several weeks of growth so your fine but should feed it before too long. I suggest that you try to find an indoor gardening/hydroponic store to get some quality mj friendly nutes. Do you live near Denver or a city that has a store like that? Even if it's a bit of a drive you could go to an indoor gardening store to pick up some nutes and do some window shopping to get ideas for your eventual grow setup.

Bio Biz makes a great organic nute line and Foxfarm makes some excellent products too. If you get Foxfarm Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom you'll be set. Regardless of brand, start by feeding 1/4 to 1/3 strength as manufacturers of nutes want to sell more nutes... If you don't see any signs of nute burn with a 1/4 strength dose then slowly increase the nute strength over time. I rarely go past 1/2 strength when I use nutes out of a bottle.

The quality of your soil has a lot to do with how much or how little you'll need to feed nutes too. Soils with time release fertilizers in them typically aren't good for mj growing. It's better to buy a soil or grow medium that has little nute value if you want to primarily feed it's needs from a bottle. If you use a high quality, organic soil that has lots of organic amendments like worm castings, bat guano, rock phosphates, etc. you won't have to feed your plants from the bottle much at all... if any. Most good indoor gardening stores have a very good soil called Foxfarm Ocean Forest that is a ready to use organic soil. If you use FFOF soil right out of the bag as is, you'll only need to feed your plants minimally and preferably with an organic nute like the Bio Biz. Foxfarm Grow Big and Big Bloom are organic and Tiger Bloom is organically based but technically not organic... but I think they're compatible with organic soil.

Carbon filters are the best solution for odor control. You'll want to buy one that's a little too big rather than get one too small and regret it when you smell skunky dankness in your pad. You can run one stand alone with it's own fan and constantly cycle the air through the carbon scrubber and then exhaust the scrubbed air back into the room or you can put in in line with your ventilation and pull hot air out of your room or off of air cooled HID lighting and exhaust the hot, scrubbed air through duct work into another space, ie attic, another room etc... or outside. I have a small closet grow 2x4x8 and I use a 40lb filter that's inline with my air cooled lights. I have a fan up in my attic that pulls air through the filter and then through the light and exhausts the hot scrubbed air into my attic. In some areas this can cause condensation issues in the attic but it's not a problem around here or I'd route it outside.

Happy Growing!:cool:
 
chrishncolo said:
Thanks! Like I said I am new to this! I have done research but then am being told something else, so this is a way for me to help make the most important decisions. I don't live in OR I live in CO. Right now all I am using is a cheap ol grow light I got from Walmart. The two plants I have are just some seeds that I had from some stuff I got a while ago. So needless to say it was more for a trial to see what works best and what not to do. My lil gals are about 2.5 weeks old. I need to get them out of the cup and in a real space. I also need to look into nutrients... any ideas...???


SO I will look into the T5 and HPS... Thanks!
What about the carbon filter? yes? no? I know I am legal, but you know how that if word/smell gets out I might have some problems and hassels.

Thanks
Christine

I used to live in the springs ;) mexican brick weed eh? ;) I suggest fox farm ocean forest for yer dirt, and fox farm's line of nutrients for your nutes, go to a hydro store...they'll have all the stuff you need. Oh one more thing, i also recomend using only 1/2 strength nutes on yer plants, and following a feeding schedule....good luck!
 
And sorry to digress with a non growing related Colorado subject...

Chrisncolo...

:eek: What's UP with our Broncos??? :eek:

Did Pat Bowlen lose his mind? I'm a Denver native and I'm NOT looking forward to this Bronco football season at all... First he cans the Wizard and then the new wunderkind coach screws up the Cutler situation... I hate to think what's next? At the end of last season all I was hoping for '09 was a better defense and now we're back to square one... I don't think I'll get the NFL satellite package this year... I can't bear to watch. :cry:

Geez Louise :confused:

BroncoHelmet.jpg
 
i remember was it 97 or 98 when they won the superbowl last.....There were idiots overturning bus stop benches, smashing windows, and generally rioting in the springs because of celebration ;)
 
greenthumberish said:
i remember was it 97 or 98 when they won the superbowl last.....There were idiots overturning bus stop benches, smashing windows, and generally rioting in the springs because of celebration ;)

Yup... Since Elway rode off into the sunset with two Superbowl rings I'm actually pretty satisfied and if they never won another one I could live with that but at least they could TRY to get better... oh well... The highlight of my fall could be cooler growing temps! :p

Peace!:cool:
 

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