Need lighting help!! Closet grow

whats up guys, im a newbie to this and have some questions about what hps to buy. Right now i have three girls in veg now for 6 weeks with cfls i have taking clones and sexed and am almost positive i have all females left. im wanting to get a hps was first thinking about a 150watt, but then starting reading and i think i wanna go biggier. my plan is to flower these three plants with the hps was planing on not using and exhaust do to being a renter and dont wanna cut holes in my closet for one grow because i wanna flower once in there then plan on buying a 3x3x6 tent or around that size. so my questions are. IS A 400watt hps gonna be to hot in a closet with no exhaust i plan on leaving door open during light on and closing and night to keep light out. OR should i go with a 250watt hps for less heat and from what i read it will cover a 3x3 area but dont wanna cut myself short and the 400watt is only like 5 bucks more. Keep in mind i plan on doing it right next time with a tent, filter , blower all that stuff just need some smoke to save the cash to get more equipment. I took some pics to give you guys a better look at what Im talking about. I hope that wasnt to confusing i just wake and baked so might be a little wordy.


1st pic is of: kushy looking two both seeds came outta same bud, but two kinda diff looking plants
2nd pic: sativa shes stretching so much, thin fan leaves
3rd pic: what im growing in now. clones in middle taking yesterday
4th pic: my fav plant of all shes so bushy been topped and tied down
5th pic: side view of bushy one
6th pic: just another of my fav
7th pic: second kushy looking plant slow starter and def not as full as other one
8th pic: trying to give you guys a view of the same i plan on covering with the hps this time
9th pic: overhead shot

Edited by skinnybigbuds, 15 April 2012 - 04:33 PM.
naming pics

I would get the 400w light and put a small fan pointed under the light blowing the hot heat coming off of it. This way you can have your light closer to your girls and the heat issue won't be a problem with you blowing the heat out your open door when the lights are on....Hope that helps!! Keep growin Keep smokin!!

First thing, great looking start for a new grower. You do realize the growing is addictive? lol

I use Flouro for cuttings and clones till good roots established,(maybe 3 wks) then transfer to cups and into 250 MH for veg around 6weeks. I'll take cuttings and move the girls to flower. I've changed flowering set up so I can pull (harvest every three to four weeks). I run 2 250 HPS at different heights and don't need to adjust lights too often, just move plants after a pull and add new girls to the low end.

For your situation a 250hps will do a good job as long as ya don't crowd the area. Now remember you will at some future date be upgrading your grow.( believe me it will happen) Just plan your purchase with this in mind.

Keep up the Good work

Me

Thanks man i've been trying my best to keep em looking good. This is my second grow if you count the one plant under a lamp back in high school but been around good trees awhile now and do a lot of reading on forums and such. So with what you said you think a 250 would work well but with thinking of the future you'd probably go with a the 400 hps like dubshepp said?
My whole thing is it reaches 83 in there now door closed with 400watts or so of cfls but thats without my ac on it just hasnt been hot enough to crank it on yet. but right now i avergage 1 to 2 degrees hotter in the closet then room temp with cfls. once summer really hits ill turn the ac down to around 70 so temp should drop?

My temps get to 85 on occasion with lights on, down to 71 lights out. I'm fortunate that I've got low humidity (35% to 38%) most times, today it's 48% but we're expecting rain today. I do have a lot of moving air in the room, after adding 2nd 250 temps reached 87-90, I added blower to intake to handle extra heat, temps may get to that 85 I mentioned an hour before lights out so I'm not really worried. With the extra blower my room is slightly positive pressure. It maybe the low humidity that allows the slightly higher temps, it works for me. Every grow has gotten better, yield, taste, smell and last but not least potentcy. I do have better luck with sativa dominant strains but this round of Indica strain is holding their own. ( bigger, more buds, just healthier)

Well enough rambling

Me

so i went with the 400 watt hps from htg should be here mid week. turned lights to 12/12 on 420. plan on building a scrog and getting some more pics when light arrives. plants are still looking good took off like crazy this last week. i think the like there new pots better more root room.

Yeah you better have a way of getting heat out of the closet if you're going with the 400w.

I did a couple closet grows and realized that even if the heat is out of the tent, it will just recirculate in the closet if there's nowhere else to go, building up the temperature over time.

I would have suggested a dimmable ballast. Mine can do 200, 300, or 400w with a switch.

Either way, HPS are bad ass and you will be pumped about the fat nugs they produce. Happy growing!

i plan on have closet door open with fan blowing out when lights are on and during dark ill close the door and keep circulation fans running. Im hoping this will keep me in the right range. if i have to ill cut a vent hole in the ceiling and put a vent cover over it with a fan attached to that blowing heat into my attic but not really trying to do that if i dont have to.

I can almost guarantee the 400w would cause too much heat. Even though you are blowing air out of the closet, it's going into your room then recirculating and increasing the temp in both your room and the closet. Cutting a hole in your ceiling to vent into the attic would be the way to go. It's very easy to do and fill back in when you're done. I was running a 250w MH/HPS in my bathroom and I had to run the AC 18 hours a day! It's been my experience anything over 85° gave me airy buds.

Hey guys 400 hps should be here wed so i built my scrog and would like some opinions on screen size and just overall scrog. and i took some pics of the girls day 2 of 12/12

should i cut the screen holes bigger? anyone have any advise on my screen after reading around im seeing 2"x2" screen holes are best mine are 1"x1"1/4???? would love to hear any input on this asap before i put the screen in the closet to prevent having to cut once place in.

Screen size is somewhat of personal preference but I think it just has to be practical.

2" by 2" is often chosen because it will allow you to twist your plants through without damaging them. You'll probably want to go with something like this (bigger holes than now), since your plants are looking pretty mature

Your screen will work but it is going to take an extra effort on your part...

When your plants are getting to the point where they want to stick up over the net... You simply tuck the stalk under like 3 squares or so, so the stalk is now lying horizontal pretty much.

Having smaller squares will help you with filling your whole canopy with more tops but as they get older and the stems fill out you might have trouble fitting bigger budded tops through....So keep up on your game while the plants are still small and easier to manipulate. Then your canopy should be even over time and all you will have to do is SuperCrop them if one or more plants try growing taller than the rest..

Good luck on your grow!

yeah i thought my screen would be too small so i cut some out and made the squares 2x 1"3/4 hoping this is big enough cause with the garden fence i have i cant really cut bigger than this. 400watt hps was supposed to be here yesterday and ups couldnt find the address but i hopefully i got that all taken care of and the light should be here sometime today so they say. once its here ill see it up and move scrog in closet and take more pics.

Thanks to everyone for the advise and suggestions i really appropriate it. its helps me a lot being a newbie like i am, so keep it coming.

If you cut the hole through the sheetrock only and save the circle, you can patch it back easily when you move. Patch kits from hardware stores are cheap, too. Think about it if your door opening plan doesn't work.

ok, first thing temps did rise a lot to 85 after about 4 hours. so im gonna have to figure out how im gonna get the heat out and into the attic.My sativa isnt taking to the heat well at all leaves feel dry and wilty looking. Also i think i have a male or herm but me being so new im not sure just yet i posted some pics hoping someone could help me out on that and my heat prob.(not the best pics i know but all i can get right now)

ok so im up this sunday morn trying to figure out the best way to vent/cool my closet.#1 Ill let you guys know my options theres a closet right behind the one the grow is in and i could get a room to room fan and blow cool air from that closet to the grow. #2 i was thinking about trying this one, get a inline duct fan and some duct and hang the inline fan end inside closet and take the other end of the duct as far away from the closet as possible to get the heat out. #3 i take the same inline duct fan and ducting and cut a hole in the celing going to the attic and has the inline fan blowing heat into the attic. the only prob i have with this is that will mean blowing the smell up to vent out of my roof also. i dont know what will work best yet just kinda running things over in my head but im gonna have to do something soon one of the plants looks likes its dying in this heat. Could it be the fact that i went from cfl to hps that is make the tallest one look burnt and droopy? i have the light at 28inch about screen started at 20 inch and noticed wilting but only on one plant but i moved it up anyway and still seems really unhealthy. Any ideas on what going on or on what to do with the heat will be greatly appropriated!!!

Hmmm....

You have to not only figure out how to get the heat out of the closet you need to find a source of cooler air to replace it. Probably the best way is to vent THROUGH the attic - NOT into it. The moist air from your grow can do some real damage. Run your vent ducting all the way up to a roof jack to get the moist air out of the attic. If the air in your house is cool enough that can be your replacement air.

The other option is to add air conditioning somehow into the works. I actually use a small window air conditioner in my flower room that vents into my work area. Go my air conditioner at a pawn shop for cheap. They also make inline duct coolers for your lights. A heat exchanger is installed into your vent ducts for your lights and lines from that are run to a cooler.

There are a couple of products out there like this:

6" Heat-X-Tractor - Best Coast Growers

Good luck!

So i went to home depot today and got a 4 inch inline duct fan and some flex duct, my plan was to try to get the air out of the closet and into the room and see if that would cool it enough. well didnt work still 86 degrees in there so tom i will cut hole and run the in-line fan into that and up and out the roof vent. Now should i put the in-line fan sucking heat from near the light or top or room or what ? Right now i just have it hanging directly above the light its for sure sucking air as i can feel warm air coming outta the other end i have place by the door to the hall way hoping to get it out in into the main part of the house. The other two plant seem to be fine in the 85 degree heat seem to be stretching to the screen . Still not sure if the ones male or female though if anyone can check those pics and let me know if you can tell yet. Not sure if it just hasn't started flowering yet or if those are sacks forming.

I like to have my cool air vent into my room from below and pull the hot air out of the room from the top. Fans are more efficient if they are pulling the air so you will want to suck it out of the room.

If you have a problem with smell you can make an effective and inexpensive carbon odor filter from HD parts also.