Hi guys, need some advice on how to start please

[Fluorobuds]

Hey Stonergirl, hope you are making your way through all the info on here, I was in the same boat a few months ago before starting my little closet.

I agree with Freezerboy about the 250, I use CFLs and they even make my closet pretty toasty. Do you have any pics of the closet? Maybe we can throw around some more ideas once we see what you are workin with. Best of luck and don't worry, it's not as hard as you might think, I can't even keep a simple house plant alive but I can keep these things healthy somehow.......

 

[pinecone]

You need:
- A light. 250w seems like a good choice
- A way to exhaust your space. The usual way to do this in a small space is with a passive ventilation system. In this type of setup you have an inline fan that sucks the hot air out of the top of your space and replaces it with new air that enters through a lightproof vent at the bottom of your space.
- Some plan for odor control. The best choice would probably be a carbon filter that the exhaust air moves through.
- A plan for light proofing. You can't have any light entering your space during the lights off period of the flowering cycle.

I grow in my closet using a 400w lamp. Rather than have the light setup directly in the closet which poses a number of problems with ventilation, light proofing, ect, the light is housed in a large wardrobe cabinet that sits in my closet. The cabinet has a darkroom vent on the bottom to let cool air in. Hot air is exhausted into my attic (through a carbon filter) via a 6" fan that is housed outside of the cabinet. This setup works very well, but it was somewhat costly (over $1,000) and required a bit of construction (cutting holes in the cab, dealing with ducting, and cutting holes in my ceiling).

If this all sounds like too much for you then you might try growing with fluorescent which are much cooler and do not require as much ventilation. If you just stick an HID light in a closet you are not going to have results.

Good luck!

Pinecone

 

[stonergirl]

Ok guys, it seems like the 250 is the way to go for now. How loud are those carbon filter thingies? My closet is like 2 feet deep with 2 of those slider doors on it. I'm renting a little house-coud I put a fan in the space under the roof?? Idont know how to get in there cuz theres no crawl space. wouud one of those fans take care of the heeat too???
thanks soooo much for everyones suggestions here,
Jessica

 

[stonergirl]

Do flourecents really work? I thought they were like wayy sloww and diddnt work well...

 

[pinecone]

Ok guys, it seems like the 250 is the way to go for now. How loud are those carbon filter thingies? My closet is like 2 feet deep with 2 of those slider doors on it. I'm renting a little house-coud I put a fan in the space under the roof?? Idont know how to get in there cuz theres no crawl space. wouud one of those fans take care of the heeat too???
thanks soooo much for everyones suggestions here,
Jessica

Like I said you have to exhaust the heat. You do this via an exhaust fan. There are essentially two types of exhaust fans: squirrel cage fans and in-line fans. Squirrel cage fans are louder and don't move as much air. In-line fans are a better option. The exhaust fan will either suck air through a carbon filter or push air through a carbon filter. Given that you cannot access the area between your ceiling and the roof it is probably a better option to suck air through the carbon filter located in your grow space.

Carbon filters aren't noisy, but exhaust fans can be.

In-line fan http://www.maxgrower.com/vortex-4-inch-powerfan-1724172.html

Do flourecents really work? I thought they were like wayy sloww and diddnt work well...

I have never used them. I'm sure they don't work any where near as well as HIDs properly set up, but HIDs don't work if you can't set them up properly (with proper ventilation). There is a microgrowing forum where you can check out some fluorescent grows.

Pinecone

 

[Moterreal]

Do flourecents really work? I thought they were like wayy sloww and diddnt work well...

Floros work wonderful! I'm vegging right now with 150 watts of daylight CFLs, the plant growth is constantly making me have to move the light up. Depending on your grow room, T5 lighting could prove to be very useful for you, use less electricity, easier to cool (imo) and not as much noise as a HID ballast. I bought a cheapo $90 400w HPS and the ballast can be heard through 2 doors.

 

[LolaGal]

Get a 250 and a regular fan. I doubt you will need a carbon scrubber, etc., at this point.

Get your feet wet with a small grow and then buy more equipment as you deem fit.

It would be much better to have thousands of dollar setup, but not necessary for first grow.

Light, water, plants, fan, you should be good to go. Start small. Work your way up to big!

3 plants and 1 light a good place to start. good luck & have fun!

 

[pinecone]

I doubt you will need a carbon scrubber, etc., at this point.

You don't need odor control if you don't mind your house reeking of weed during the 30 or so days that constitute the last half of the flower cycle.

I tried to go without one (with only 4 plants) and the exhaust going to a vented attic crawl space and it got too stinky. I ended up installing a carbon scrubber in the attic and it completely solved the smell problem.

As for the T5s - they might be a good option. Check this thread out.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=116633

Pinecone

 

[stonergirl]

ok -some of this stuff is starrting to sink in-its taking a while though...
heres my plan-mission impossible music starting inside my head.. da na .. d....d...da na....

inside my closet theres a 24inch by 22inch space on the side that I can cover up with a shoe rack so the space will disapear inside the closet. on the bottom Ill ge one of those darkroom air vents to bring air in. on the top i'll put one of those 20 inch walmart fans to suck the hot air out of the space for the plants-the space is about 5 feeet talll here the closet hanger is. I can attach the light to the closet hanger. Now for the light I'm thinking of iether a digital greenhouse 250 cuz its suposed to be quiet, anyone out there have one? isit quiet??? or maybe some of those flourecent thingy lights. I could put the ballast on top of the shelf which is on top of the closet rod. cover the top of the shelf with some more shoe racks and put another darkroom vent at the very top for the heat to escape. Would that work??? Lola gal says i wont need the carbon thingy for now. I dont how bad the smell gets wtih 2 or 3 plants.
Sooo-250 light or flouro light???
carbon thingy and ducct fan necessaryy or cheeeep walmart fan for ventilation heat ????
I thoght this wuz gonna be like soooo much eeezier.

Jessica

 

[jwm]

Has anyone recommended a smaller grow tent? Pretty inconspicuous and maybe less work/hassle...And I agree, the best advice you've recieved is, read, read, and then read some more....

 

[Moterreal]

I would suggest building a carbon filter. You really dont know how much smell the plants are going to give off unless you're familiar with the strain. Plus its better safe than sorry, don't need a cop knocking on your door for some reason and smelling even a wiff of anything. To build a DIY scrubber all you need is a foot of 4" or so piping 2 panty hose and a few pounds of activated carbon all hooked to some dryer hose and an inline blower. Theres a link around here on the forums, I can try to find it for you.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=39506&highlight=DIY+carbon+filter - heres a thread, same basic idea just different way of doing it.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

hi everyone!
I feel a little nervous cuz I want to start growing and dont know what Im doing. I want to grow a few plants in a closet and was thing about getting a digi greenouse 250 from htg. Would that work for a few plants? I dont want to waste any money but im sick of buying weed that sucks and is way tooo expensive. If anyone could help with a little advice I'd really appreciate it.
thanks,
Jessica

For a slightly different perspective, a bit daoism, if you will...

The first step to wisdom, is to know that you know nothing. - Lao Tse

Saw Michael J. Fox on Oprah the other day and he said that someone told him, "Happiness is directly correlated to acceptance and inversely proportional to expectation." In other words, accept the notion that you will, in all likelihood, make mistakes and a reduced amount of expectation will free you to make those mistakes. Most will tell you that they learned more from screwing-up than they did from anything else.

Keep it simple and complicate as needed. (I first read this in Sumo's posts, an ICMag member, but don't know if he is the originator)

The rest is just my own personal opinions and I would advise anyone to take anything I have to say, with a large grain of salt.

Soil is probably the easiest method to learn on.

Start with bagseed and save your primo seeds for later as you gain experience and confidence. It is better to learn from seeds you care little about, than to worry constantly over seeds that cost you hard-earned money.

If possible, get the turn-key set-up from HTG that includes the scrubber. Odor will become a problem sooner or later, and you do not want to have to scramble to find a solution. Even then, you don't have to connect the scrubber until it does start to become a problem, to save on it's life expectancy.

Finally, No tell! No smell! No sell! Although, these are certainly not inviolate, it is better to try and keep them as close to heart as you can.

There is a wealth of information and experience here to draw from and most are happy to share what they know. Keep things in perspective, it isn't rocket science or a life and death struggle. Just take your time, be easy on yourself, and before long you will be helping another who is just as unsure of theirself as you are of yourself now.

Good luck Stonergirl!

The worst I ever grew, was better than the best I ever bought. - me

Namaste, mess

 

[pinecone]

It has been my observation that nearly everyone that tries to grow pot like a stoner fails. Somethings you just can't do on the cheap or without making a significant investment.

HID lights create a lot of heat and you need an effective means of dispersing this heat. In a closet environment dispersing this heats means exhausting the hot air to another room via a duct fan (either the squirrel cage or inline) - or at a minimum having a cab or grow tent inside the closet that is exhausted inside the closet (via a duct fan) and leaving the closet door open when the lights are on (else the heat builds up and you just recycle hot air through your grow cab or grow tent).

You do need to have a plan for odor control IMO. It might not be a huge problem, but if it is what are you going to do? You might not need to implement something right away, but you need to have a plan if it is a problem.

If you don't want to be bothered dealing with the heat created by HID lighting, then grow with fluorescent lighting.

Below is a picture of my grow cab (which sits in a closet). On the outside of the cab attached to the ducting on the left side of the light is an inline fan. When the cab is closed this fan sucks air through the darkroom vent a the bottom left of the cap (behind the bag of trim), through the light, and pushes it through a carbon filter located in an attic crawl space. The ballast for the light sits on top of the cab. This system works very well because it effectively disperses the heat created by the HID away from my plants. If you are going to use an HID light effectively you need to so something similar.


http://www.icmag.com/ic/photo_popup...prod=photopost&ins=link_thumb_2_orig&alb=all#

 

[stonergirl]

namaste mess-don't woryy I plan on making a lot of mistakes-sooner or later I'll get it right. Everyones suggestions so far are saving a lot aggravation already.
thanks pinecone- I didn't quite think about the hot air going back into the room-duhh...
Iguess I could try to cut a hole in the sheetrock and see if I could vent the air into the crawl space.
thanks again everyone
Jessy

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

stonergirl, cutting through sheet rock is a breeze, it only takes a rock saw. Some folks do it with a heavy duty box knife.

Cutting through something else behind the sheet rock could be a minor disaster. Walls are usually sealed construction and won't vent anyway. Going through the ceiling and into the attic is highly functional but you have to be somewhat industrious to figure out where to cut and how to attach a collar/air duct to the ceiling. Figuring out where to cut usually requires a trip to the attic, above your grow area. Some houses don't have floorboards in the attic and you have to walk on ceiling joists. Step on the insulation between the joists and you could fall through the ceiling.

I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm just suggesting there are easier as well as more complicated ways to do this. If you're able to get us a pic or two of your grow space I'm sure something worth doing will be clearer to judge.

Somebody already mentioned grow tents. These things are outfitted with passive intakes, light hangers and exhaust vents that hold a fan/scrubber in place. They come in various sizes and I'm sure you could find one to fit in the closet. As long as nobody goes poking around in your privates it could end up being pretty stealthy. With a 250 HPS, the heat might be little enough to vent into the room the closet is in, avoiding cutting any sheet rock. I have a 150 HPS and 78 watts of CFLs in a cab and they don't overheat the room the cab is in. The cab intake is at the bottom and heat rises to the ceiling. This means the cab takes in the coolest air in the room, at the floor. Grow tents work the same way so exhausting directly into the closet will cause heat problems. You'd have to run an air duct from the exhaust port of the tent and into the larger room. The closet won't heat up as bad this way. This would be extremely easy to do all by yourself as the engineering has already been taken care of for you.

Can you sleep alright with sound similar to a window ac unit that close? Most indoor grows require compromises of one sort or the other. It's kind of like living with your bad uncle hehe. Depending on your house and the best setup you can manage, that bad uncle might be worth the living with after all.

 

[stonergirl]

thanks disco-
I just found a tent today thats 2feet by 2feet by five that would fit into my clost space perfectly. Its about 130 and might make things real easy to start off with.
thanks again,
Jessica

 

[manwithnoname]

hey welcome stonergirl. i to am in a pot unfriendly place. sucks big time. like everyone has said, do research, smell should be close to #1 on your list if you rent. if you get a 250w HID light you probably wont notice a large increase in your electric bill.

also i saw they are making 200w compact fluorescent bulbs now. probably have them at home depot if u have one in your area. this would be really friendly on the electric bill and still produce a lot of good light. heat would be less also.

sensi star is A+ stuff, depending on what type of high u like.

if you are uneasy about doing the whole adding nutrients and monitoring ph thing, i would suggest doing your first grow using miracle grow potting soil. you will see a lot of people talk shit about miracle grow soil, but i used it when i first started growing and got good results. i didnt add nutrients the whole way through veg or flower. a good flush and that is that. this is obviously not a great way to do it if you want to be super efficient, but it worked for me and it would for you too, just to get started.

good luck!

 

[stonergirl]

Thanks mr. noname-tee hee,
How did the sensie star work out for you. I want something thats going to be good for pain-sometimes I get crampa and headaches-i also want something thats fun but not too trippy. The Sensi Star won a lot of awards and stuff so I can't wait to get started!
Jessy

 

[Hammerhead]

Sensi Star is a great plant to start with. I just harvest 2

 

[GMT]

Hi, I've done a couple of threads especially for the new grower. The first was this one but since doing it I have cleaned up my gallery which has left a lot of holes early in the thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=35636 , but there may be one or two pieces of info usefull for you. The lastest is this one http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=104908 which has its pics still intact but im not sure how much info i included. Anyway they'l take time to read through, esp with the other threads peeps have linked you to, but at least now you have all the info you need to set up and start growing. You just need to read up now.