quick question

[warzone]

hey guys/girl its been a looooooooooooooooong time since ive posted. hope your al fine, and high as hell. heres my question. im planing on growing a plant. i ordered feminized seeds. i only plan on growing one plant right now in a very nice closet about 3x3 8ft tall i have the basic set up but i have a couple newb questions.

1. im only growing one plant so im not looking for a huge light set up but i want to make sure it gets the right light. can i use the same light through all 3 stages? if so what kind would you recommend? in not what types would you recommend?

2. nutrients/cleansing. has anybody tried the solitabs etc... from nirvana shop? if s how did they work.
also ive hear that you need to flush out your plat every once and a while. true if so how oftne and how should i do it.

that should be it thanks in advance for your time

 

[Hushpuppy]

Hi, welcome back. A 3x3 will make a nice closet grow for 1 plant at a time. I would get a 400w electronic ballast kit that has both the metal halide and hps bulbs with it. And at the same time get a nice, vented(not giant) hood so that you can hook it up on the one end with some 4" flex hose and pipe the heated air out through the top of the closet into the attic if possible. Here is a good kit. I have many of these in 600 and 1kw versions that I bought here: hxxp://www.hpsgrowlightstore.com/hps1510/best-grow-light-systems/400-watt-grow-light-sets/ipower-grow-light-400w-hps-mh-dimmable-air-cool-hood-set.html

Being in a small closet, you could do a nice DWC/hydro setup rather than soil, or you can go all organic. Either will serve you. The hydro systems have to be flushed but the organic setups do not have to be flushed, but I only flush mine once through the entire grow and that is at week 3 of flower, but then I run reduced nutrients(almost straight water) during the last 2 weeks before harvest. There are several nice nute brands for both organic and hydro. I have seen those solitabs but I don't think I would trust them JMPO. I use Advanced Nutrients Jungle Juice in coco coiur with great success, but there are many here who like GH3part for chem/hydro grows. I also grow some plants in organic and have had good results from making nutrient teas from Iguana juice mixed with manure compost in a 5gal bucket. I mix up some organic soil with a few ammendments like guano, bone meal, garden tone, and dolomite lime. for setting the plants in then water with the nute tea that has the microbes for helping with processing the nutrients.

You will also need a small exaust fan for pulling the stale, hot air out of the grow space, and to pull fresh air in. you can get 4" centrifugal fans fairly cheap to do your ventilation. You do not need a fan to push air into the grow space, just the exaust fan connected to the light fixture to suck out the hot air, and for the cool air, just make 2 small vent holes in the door and use black 2.5"PVC with 2 elbos to allow the air to come in while blocking the light from coming in or out.

 

[Locked]

Good luck and green mojo...just remember the amount of lumens needed has nothing to do with how many plants, and everything to do with how big your grow space is. 3000 lumens a sqr foot in veg and 5000 lumens a sqr foot in flower. Those are the min numbers you want.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yep and those are truely minimums. For a 3x3 you need a minimum of 27,000 lumens during veg, and a minimum of 45,000 during flower. The 400w metal halide will give you about 36,000 lumens (in the 6500K spectrum)for vegging and when you flower you can switch to the HPS bulb without moving anything and get 50,000 lumens(in the 2500K spectrum), which is 5555 lumens per sqft.

You will also need to make sure your walls are either painted flat white, or covered with reflective film like mylar, panda, reflectix. This is to give all of the light to the plant without some of its energy being absorbed by the wall. Don't use aluminum foil, it actually reflects heat rather than light. It looks shiny but that is only to our eyes, that is because aluminum foil only reflects certain wavelengths of light but absorbing other wavelengths. It so happens that the wavelengths that are important to growing are the ones absorbed by the aluminum and converted to heat and the wavelengths that we see and are useless to the plants are the ones reflected.

Hope this all helps you

 

[ShOrTbUs]

well they pretty much covered it all so i will just :48: and green mojo for your grow

 

[warzone]

thanks alot that all really help. but i live in an apartment so i cant vent into the attic but the guy upstairs it a stoner too so im not worried about the smell lol. i was thinking of using cpfls. any thoughts?

 

[ShOrTbUs]

cfl's dont put out as many lumens per watt. so u'll end up spending more money on cfl's then MH/HPS. not only that, but from experience with cfl's in flowering. you're looking at 1/4-1/8 the weight a mh/hps setup will get you. so hypothetically if you would have pulled 1LB from the mh/hps setup. you're looking at 2-4oz from cfl's

 

[warzone]

i checked out that light setup. very very nice. but my money is short at the moment. could i use the cpfl for germ/veg or until i get the money to get that set up

 

[ShOrTbUs]

yes, cfl's work very well for seedlings & veg

 

[Hushpuppy]

I'm afraid that I don't know what CPFL is, (I know CFL) but a big key to yield is through light energy. The more you have the better you are(to a point). If they put out a lot of lumens in the 6500K range then use them if that is all you can afford. Then get some 3000K CPFLs to add in when they go to flower. You will want to double the light when you go to flower. Then when you have used them for a harvest or two and can afford the HID kit switch over. In the mean time, green mojo to ya.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I forgot to answer your first question: you can use the same light for both phases of growth. However, most of us have found that the plants do better to our liking when using the 6500K light of T5HO which is florescent or the Metal halide in 6500K for vegging and then switch to the yellow 2000-3000K light of the HPS for flowering. There are some who use only MH for everything and some that use only HPS for both phases, and some that grow with only CFL or LED, so yes it can be done

 

[warzone]

thanks alot i really appreciate it. what soil would u recommend? also has anybody tried the flower tabs and solitabs from nirvana shop?

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

How much do you have to spend on this project? This is a hobby that does take a certain amount of money. There are certain parameters that have to be met if you want to get anything out of this in the 4 months or so that it takes a plant to come to maturity. The biggest of these is your lighting.

It is a common misconception to believe that CFLs are cheaper, but they simply are not. Our lighting needs are based on lumens. CFLs put out the least amount of lumens per watt, so this means that they cost twice as much to run every single month. In addition when you get as many as you need they put out a lot of heat, and they produce substantially less bud. For instance a 23W CFL puts out about 1500 lumens. So for a space 3 x 3 you would need 27,000 lumens for vegging, which is 18 23W CFLs. For flowering you would need 30 of these along with sockets, cords and reflectors. In addition you would be burning over 400W in veg and almost 700 in flowering.

Ventilation is essential. Plants require a continual supply of fresh air all the time the lights are on for proper photosynthesis. You are also going to have to with the heat, regardless of what kind of lighting you use. And your stoner neighbor upstairs is not the only one you have to worry about smelling it. The odor can permeate an entire building.

I would really recommend that you do a bunch more reading and see if you are going to be able to afford to set up a space and if you are going to be able to deal with the heat and odors. And keep it stealth enough in your apartment. Apartment growing is always scary. I am not trying to discourage you, however, it is heartbreaking to spend 4 months growing something to get virtually nothing in the end. It is worse to end up in jail because of odor problems or because your landlord had to enter your apartment for an emergency.

 

[buddogmutt]

cfl's dont put out as many lumens per watt. so u'll end up spending more money on cfl's then MH/HPS. not only that, but from experience with cfl's in flowering. you're looking at 1/4-1/8 the weight a mh/hps setup will get you. so hypothetically if you would have pulled 1LB from the mh/hps setup. you're looking at 2-4oz from cfl's

Damn...really?