Hello all, n00b here, couple of ?'s

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dr. science

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So I am about to begin my first grow and have begun getting the closet I am using ready. I was reading through the "full guide" possted as a sticky up top and had a question..

I lined my walls with foil like mentioned in there, but since then I have read a lot of people saying it's worthless, so I was going to tear it down and spray flat white on them. Is that a good move? Also I need to read a little more on lighting. I bought a couple of sunlight CFL's at wally-mart and was thinking I would need more of those, or another light for the later months.

Any help is appreciated. I have attached a couple of pics of what I did thus far. The room is about 56" wide, 33" deep and 10' tall.

Thanks all! Great site by the way! I've been reading a lot on the net lately and it seems this might be a premiere place to be for this.

Entrance.JPG


Walls Etc.JPG


Lights.JPG
 
Welcome aboard Doc'. Save the foil for the BBQ, thats where it does work. Flat white paint is second only to Mylar for reflective qualities.
 
Yup, you'll need more lighting, 50 watts per Sq. Ft. is a good rule (on the low end) and you are talking almost three foot by almost five feet, call it fifteen, you would be looking for 750 watts or more if you are going to fill it up, how many girls are you lookin' to do and could you get an HPS?
 
Well, an HPS would be possible... I was just trying to stay within my already tight budget. I wasn't sure how many.. I was thinking 4, but what could I safely do in these quarters? I'm looking to have a turn around around 3 months or so.
 
Also those wal-mart florous can and should be a few inches away from the plant.
Throw some more florous in there. you'll want at least 3,000 Lumens per sq. ft. That would be ok for the first month of growth.

There are several places you can get an affordable HID system like Insidesun.com. This would be needed for flower to get a good yeild. for an area that big. bare minimum a 400W HPS and four plants would grow good (more if a SOG). IMO
 
yup, 400 would work, more would be better but we all have to work with what we can. The amount you can do in there will be dictated by the soil containers you are going to use, if you use 5 gallon buckets you could probably fit 6 staggered. If you did 6 with a 1000 and used lots of ventilation to control temps you would probably be happy.
 
The light you want is a 600-watt HPS, with an upgrade to a full-spectrum EYE bulb if you can afford it.

Do a search for >hydroponic growing supplies<, call the stores, ask about used equip. Also check e-bay.
A used 600-watt HPS would be ideal, since you're gonna want to replace the bulb anyway.
 
How many do you think he could fit in there GG?
 
if you can return the cfl light and there are these spiral lights the energy saver bulbs they are only 45wt bulbs get the ones that are 2900 lumens get two and a fixture and it shouldnt cost more then 50 bucks. this will take you all the way through your veg stage and is cheaper then the cfls to run. when you get to flowering stage and need an hps dont go to a hydro ponic store to get it call your local electrical or industrial light fixture store and you can find them for around 200- 250 for a nice 1000wt hps light and fixture. also i dont know what you have but you need lost of ventilation.
 
That's what CFl's are, the twisty guys. You dn't want an industrial one because they usually have the ballast built-in which will add heat to the area and they are not ventable.
 
Thanks for the input.

I was thinking of doing 4 plants in the pots you see stacked in the pics. They're about a foot tall and 11" across. I am going to paint the walls flat white for sure.

I will look into getting an HPS setup.. I may be able to borrow some money if I need to. I thought those CFL's might be ok for what I was doing... they had a rating of 6500k I believe, which I thought was good. Again, thanks for the input, any advice is greatly welcomed.
 
they had a rating of 6500k I believe, which I thought was good.
this does not have anything to do with the power or lumens emitted, this has to do only with the color of light the bulb produces.
 
You're gonna want bigger pots in the long run also.
 
That is a pretty good price, you'll need to really vent the area being an open hood but I am not sure how much heat 400s put out, I'm used to 1000s which get hotter than hell. Perhaps someone that runs 400s can give a little more input, not a bad price though and you can always change hoods later if you need to.
 

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