Help beginner with indoor hydroponics!

Glad you decided to grow your own...but I would change a few things if it were me. Personally Im not a fan of growing in cardboard boxes(fire hazard) Hot lights and cardboard would make me worry, not to mention the humidity would prob rot your cardboard box in no time. Better to use something else if possible. How big of a space are you trying to use? Tin foil is not good to use for reflective material, try to find mylar(emergency blankets work for this too) or panda film/or paint flat white.

Now I generally tell new growers to try soil first for a couple of grows, so they dont get frustrated and quite because something goes wrong in hydro(and it prob will, things can go bad fast in hydro and if you dont know what your looking for you may miss it...where as if you were growing in soil you have more time to correct any problems. Just something to consider since you said you have no experience growing yet. If your dead set on hydro, I would keep reading alot to make sure you fully understand it before starting.

Good luck,
_Numb_

 

I concur with _Numb_ on all points.

I've been reading and researching all I can on growing over the last 2 years and I'm just now starting to feel like I know what's going on after putting several grows under my belt. What I can say is that there is a lot of misinformation out there, but there is also just a lot to know and consider when growing indoors.

Outdoors is about as simple as plant, water, don't let bugs kill it, harvest. Sure, you can do some advanced techniques but this stuff has grown for thousands of years without human interaction and does just fine on its own. There are two reasons to bring the outdoors in, security and control.

Just to cover security really quick, don't tell anyone what you're doing. Even if it is legal, a friend of a friend finds out what you're doing and when you won't be home... let's just say that if you had a pile of gold in your basement you wouldn't want to post signs to let everyone know. Also with security in mind when these plants begin to mature they will begin to stink. Some strains REEK, like super skunk and blue cheese, while other strains like Big Bud and Afgoo might be easier to mask the scents. Those ion generators just aren't going to cut it and I've heard mixed results about the ions interfering with the grow.

Okay, so now that I've covered that we need to cover the basics. Light. Medium. Hydration. Atmosphere.

Lighting
The most technical part in my mind when it comes to growing is the lighting aspect. Plants reflect green light while absorbing the red and blue wavelengths of light so you should focus your lighting in these areas of the spectrum. Light wavelengths are measure in Kelvin (something to do with the light shining on a black surface and the temperature it reaches). Anything over 5000K is in the blue end of the spectrum while anything under 3000K is in the red end of the spectrum. Technically different types of chlorophyll use different wavelengths, so having a good spread and balance of light is what is important, and as a result there is another value to take into consideration called PAR. Agriculture bulbs may have a PAR value assigned to them which will give you an idea of how useful the light is to the plant. A higher wattage bulb could have a lower PAR because the light it is producing isn't dialed in just right. Many common bulbs use another value known as CRI which measures how close the light is to natural daylight with 100 being as good as it gets. Most common CFL lights carry about an 80 CRI while some might go into the 90's. But wait... there's more. Then you have your lumen values which is a kind of arbitrary assignment to the strength of the light based on Foot Candles. Sunlight comes in around 10,000 Lumens or so I've been led to believe, and plants don't really grow with less than 2,000 lumens. Simple light meters can let you know where your lumens are below 2000. Determining how many lumens are reaching your plant is a matter of mathematics. Let's say at "1" your light provides the number of lumens it is advertised to do (Lumens/1squared). Then at "2" you are getting 1/4 the lumens (Lumens/2 squared) and so on. HID lamps use about 6.75" from the lamp as "1." At 13.5" from the bulb we're getting 1/4 of the lumens but this is about as close as my plant can get to the lamp without burning. At 18" from a 50,000 lumen bulb we'll find a lumen value of just over 5,000. Ergo, the healthy growing area for a 400w HID system begins about 13" from the lamp and ends at about 20" from the lamp, offering a healthy canopy about 7" deep.

For the most part, when selecting a light, PAR and CRI won't be a topic of discussion but if you ever really want to max out your plants these areas need to be addressed. What you will be looking for is color temperature to determine what kind of light you're using, Lumens to determine the amount of light, and wattage to determine the penetration power. Vegetative plants benefit from the wavelengths between 5000K and 7000K; this will cause them to be bushy and look very healthy and green. Flowering plants benefit from the wavelengths between 3000K and about 1800K; this will help with stem growth and maturation hormones.

The "go to" vegetative system is the Metal Halide High Intensity Discharge lamp, but you can get great results from lower wattage Day Light Compact Fluorescents. The ideal flowering system is 600w enhanced spectrum High Pressure Sodium High Intensity Discharge lamp, but again you can get good results from lower wattage Soft White Compact Fluorescents.

How much light will you need? Well, this is a REALLY difficult question to answer accurately as many factors must be considered. The most important is the distance from the lamp to the canopy. A lower wattage and lower lumen bulb will need to be kept closer to plant to minimize waste, while a higher wattage bulb will be very hot and must be kept further from the plant to prevent scorching. As a very general rule you need to keep you lumens over 2,000 and up to 10,000 to all parts of the plant. By following the guidelines of 100w per plant, 40w per sqft, and 5,000 lumens per square foot you can pretty much fulfill your light needs without having to do any complicated math.

For you I suggest CFL bulbs. The highest wattages you can find!!! Nothing under 20 watts will be very useful. 1 bulb per seedling is fine in the beginning but you need to ramp it up to 100w per plant quickly thereafter. Mix wavelengths by using three 27w Day Light CFLs and one 46w Soft White CFL for each plant. Bulbs can be found at Walmart, Target, Kmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. I've used clamp light reflectors in the past but like the look of the "socket plug" and dual socket adapters lighting. Make sure you can adjust your lights as you need to keep CFL's within a few inches (1 to 5 and closer to 1) to get enough light out of them. A 1700 lumen CFL actually throws more than that many lumens VERY close to the bulb.

Medium
I grow in soil because I like organic, and because it is a little more forgiving. I'm interested in Hydro like you are, and I've done my homework but I don't have much real world experience to offer you, just hearsay. What I can say for sure is that there isn't room to mess up with Hydro, once you make your babies sick they will always resent you for it. Which means you need some expensive equipment to make sure you don't blow it, like a nice pH tester, and a EC or TDS meter to determine the strength of your solution.

As far as growing mediums go choices abound. You've got potting soils, coco fiber, rock wool, hydroton, peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite. I very much recommend Fox Farms and Black Gold potting soils, stay clear of Miracle Grow and Scotts or anything with time release fertilizers in them. Promix is a popular nonreactive medium which is a mostly Peat moss and Perlite mixture. In addition to the starting point, when growing in soil one could add sand, composted fertilizers, sea kelp, guanos, garden lime, and even non reactive hydroponic mediums like hydroton to increase drainage.

For every month of life your plant is going to need about a gallon sized planter. 3 Gallon planters are about as small as you'd want to go for a mature plant, and it should keep the height of the plant reasonable. I like working with 5 gallon planters because they don't easily become root bound and give me some flexibility at the end of the grow.

Hydro Systems:
DWC (bubbleponics): Deep Water Culture systems use air stones to oxygenate a nutrient solution which the root mass hangs into from an above net pot. These systems are inexpensive for 1 or 2 plant operations and have a proven successful track record (google some pictures of "dwc scrog").
Top Feed Drip: Drip systems use a nutrient reservoir and pump to deliver hydration at timed intervals or constantly to keep the roots moist. These are reliable, simple systems and very economic on larger scales.
Ebb & Flow: This system uses a large "pool" for the plants to sit in. The pool is periodically flooded allowing the growing medium to absorb water through capillary action while allowing dry periods for root respiration. Also a common and easy to construct system which is more economic on larger scales.
Aeroponics: These systems are a little newer and use spray nozzles to fog a nutrient solution into a chamber which the roots hang in. The availability of both air and moisture make this system very ideal, but also very temperamental. If a sprayer jams, the roots tangle with the sprayers, or if the mist is too sharp you could do a lot of damage very quickly.
NFT: Nutrient Film Technique is straight OG English Hydro from the 60's. Roots hang down into a nutrient solution that flows like a gentle stream down an declined tube chamber. Best large scale Hydro setup for commercial growers.
Manual Feed: Plants are placed in a non-reactive water retaining medium (Cocofiber, Rockwool, Peatmoss, Perlite/Vermiculite) and are fed with a nutrient solution by hand. This is similar to growing in soil except the medium contains nothing to help the plant grow. It offers the greatest buffer for messing up in the hydro family but care must still be taken.

For you I suggest to manually feed a Promix and perlite mixture (about 80/20) in 3 gallons planters and not an aeroponics machine.

Hydration:
Plants need a whole variety of molecular compounds to be successful though we can narrow it down to the fundamentals. H2O is used to keep ions of nutrients dissolved so they can be absorbed through the cell walls and electrons knocked off to generate energy for the plant to grow. The energy nutrients include Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, or NPK. This balance of nutrients is VERY important to get right as an imbalance can create a whole slough of issues like necrosis (leaves dying). In addition to the main nutrients you need Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, Iron, Sulfur, Boron, and a bunch of other trace elements for plant chemistry. All of these must be supplemented in a hydroponic setup, and care must be taken not to add too much or too little or you could lock out one nutrient with an over-abundance of another. Potassium is an often ignored nutrient that is vital to transpiration and the utilization of other nutrients. Many gardens suffer from K deficiencies, especially when the temperatures rise and the humidity falls. Keep this in mind and be ready to add just one nutrient at a time, requiring you to have a pretty decent selection of additives at home to tune your first grow.

Young plants need very little water. Amateur growers commonly make the mistake of overloving/overwatering their plants at a young age. A full flowered plant may use 1 to 2 litres of water a day, but a seedling may only need an ounce. If you choose a non-reactive growing medium you should get a cheap moisture meter from a garden store to get familiar with how long it takes for your system to get dry. It will be several days between waterings.

Atmosphere
Okay... This is taking me a long ass time... I need to make this short.
Vegging: 70 to 80 degrees F, ideally at 74 to 76 degrees. Humidity at 50% to 60%.
Flowering: Same temps, but you can drop night temps to the low 60's to induce natural purpling (like maple leaves in the fall when the weather gets cooler). Humidity at 40% to 50%

Plants need a very large amount of fresh air to succeed. What the plant really needs is the Carbon Dioxide, which is in a concentration of about 250ppm depending on where you live. Plants can live and flourish in concentrations up to 1500 ppm but don't benefit much from anything over 1200ppm. Higher CO2 concentrations require higher temperatures and offer greater transpiration rates (more water and K). Without a breeze though the amount of CO2 available to the plant is only what is in contact with the leaf surface and it can be used up very quickly.

Room atmosphere always seems to take a back seat to lighting though they are two peas in the same pod and both must be handled appropriately or you will suffer massive failure. Your plant needs a constant supply of fresh air from outside, it needs to be in those temperature and humidity ranges, and it needs that air blown over the leaves to increase contact (fluttering leaves).

If you cannot get fresh air into that room (door open or hole in the wall) all day long then you're going to need to supplement CO2. How you do that is up to you, but if your water heater uses a gas pilot light you might be in alright shape as this should give you what you need. All you'd have to handle is the heat.

If you can't get the temperatures reasonable you have to start exhausting air with force rather than just letting it vent off. I find that in my 1m x 1m x1m grow tent that I need to exchange all the air twice a minute (180cfm fan) to keep my 400w econowing HPS light from taking my temperature too high. Yet, I can only keep the room so cool, and that level is about 4 degrees warmer than the ambient intake air temperature.

Think of it like this. You have a closed closet and it's 80 degrees in there. Inside your closet you have a small grow tent with lights inside all producing heat. You use fans to circulate cool air into the tent and allow hot air to rise and vent out the top. Where does that hot air go though, just back into the closet. Eventually the heat in the closet builds up to a point where you're just cooking your plants in there. Plan your room being a few degrees warmer than the intake air temp, and always keep your intake below 80 to accommodate this. Also, you want to avoid major temperature swings of greater than 10 degrees. If your daytime high is 85, then you don't want your night time low to drop much beneath 75. It's okay if they do, but you'll notice a difference in stress and growth.

Conclusion
And finally we can address what you're doing and how I might do it if I were in your situation. A CFL Scrog is what I'd do to get the best bang for my buck.

First off is the room. I'm concerned about heat and ventilation with this room, but I'm going to just make the assumption that these things can be handled with a nice exhaust fan and a 6" hole in the wall. Even though I'll feel like heat has been handled I wouldn't get an HID light in an area that already contains a water heater.

The cardboard box isn't a horrible idea, but you can do better. I mean, where are you going to find a box that size in good condition? If you are planning on buying one you have some options. Grow tents can be purchased on EBAY for dirt cheap, like $100 after shipping for a tent that is already reflective, has air vents, a zipper door, and is light sealed tight. These are worth the $ I assure you as someone who has done everything from wood framing to 1/2" PVC tubing.

Once I got the tent set up I'd get my electrical wired. You should already know that water and electricity don't mix, and you've got a quite a few gallons not very far from a very big fire hazard of wires and power strips. Get all the electrical up, and in this situation I might want to keep it higher than 5 feet up to avoid any burst hose spraying or something like that. I might even consider a flood sensor kept on the floor to detect water and shut off the power to the room automatically in case I was at work when it happened or something horrible like that. Electrially speaking I'd want a blower fan as my exhaust and a lower cfm inline fan in some ducting pulling in fresh clean air. I would need an electrical timer, two or more power strips, and as many CFL bulbs as I could cram inside the tent without making it dangerous to move around in there.

Then I'd start my seedlings in rockwool cubes until 1 week old. I'd transplant to 1 gallon containers of a Promix/Perlite 80/20 and begin light feeding them with vegetative nutrients and SuperThrive to help the roots establish. After a month I would transplant my largest and best plants to 3 gallon planters and begin to scrog them. A few weeks later I'd switch my light cycle to 11.5/12.5 and switch my nutrients to a higher P and K for flowering. Working with feminized seeds is really important for this.

When it was all said and done I would hope to get 1 gram of bud for every 2 watts of actual CFL lighting (not the equivalents). So if I had 500w of CFLs I would expect about 250 grams, or about 8 ounces of dried buds.

Good God! I hope this helps, I think this is the longest post I've ever written. I'm also including some pictures from my current grow. Three LST/Scrogged Big Bud x G13 x Hashplant females about 1 week into flowering started under daylight CFLs (5 weeks) and now under a 400w HPS (3 weeks). Using Fox Farms Ocean Forest potting soil and perlite in a 50/50 ratio and supplementing with Fox Farms Grow Big during Veg and now using Fox Farms Tiger Bloom and Earth Juice Bloom. Later I will switch to Fox Farms Big Bloom with Humboldt's Gravity Flower Hardener to finish.

 

Yeah, it's horrible that even the completely abbreviated version of indoor growing is that long, but once you have this knowledge you'll really have a step up over where you'd be without it.

The picture really helps, thanks!

Okay, so what I'm thinking is that you should go to the harware store and get some of the reflective insulation stuff that looks like mylar glued to some bubble wrap. Wrap the heater with a few layers of the inuslation as this should even help on your energy bill

So it looks like you're total growing area is about 24" x 36" with a small area in the back which would be a good place for a fan leaving your with 6sqft. 1 gallon planters take up about 1/4sqft, 3 gallon planters take 3/4sqft, 5 gallon planters take up about 1 square foot.

A fully mature plant outdoors can range from 3 feet to 12 feet tall with a diameter between 18" and 6'. Indoors you have complete control over your plant. You can grow one massive plant bent and trained in all directions to fill the whole space. You could grow 12 smaller plants and create a sea of green.

Since you'll be using CFLs, and they don't cast light very far, having a nice even canopy is going to be important. Start as many plants as you can manage, up to 24 plants in 1 gallon planters for 4 weeks. Then decide on either nine 3 gallon planters for immediate flowering or six 5 gallon planters to do some training and allow another 4 weeks for vegatative growth.

Once you sex your plants you can expect to lose at least half of them to being males, and maybe another one as a hermaphrodite. Ultimately you'll probably wind up with two plants in 5 gallon planters or four plants in 3 gallon planters.

Ventilation is your only issue, you have to either leave the door open or cut a hole in something. I guess you could try without it but I know your plants are going to suffer.