Hey everyone, I am new here. I am starting my first grow journal ever. I am literally just beginning. So, I will attach pictures of: seeds/strains I am using, nutrient solutions, soils, and grow space. I adore knowledge from experienced growers. I am also here to share my experience with others seeking to have a discreet closet grow. Anywho, less talking, more pictures lol. Let's start with my grow space: 100 inches tall, so I am working with about 8 ft. About 2 1/2 feet up top and about 5 1/2 down below. I am painting it white with the Behr Interior Hi Gloss. My seed selections: I am looking forward to the White Widow. I have heard nice things. I chose Fruit Spirit because it is relatively quick and bushy. The Delahaze will be interesting in my closet grow lol seeing as from what I have read Sativa gets tall, not bushy. It was a freebie so no immense pain on a failure. Do you think a Sativa dominant will turn out okay lol? :lol: My temperature: I am trying to stay relatively simple in this area. It is snowing out, but I have chosen a simple heater to keep it buzzing around the mid/lowish 70's in here. I don't want to have a rain forest lol. I will pick up a fan to circulate air tomorrow. Thoughts and comments with your experience would be great on my temperature. My nutrients: Firstly, my soooil. I am assuming this will be okay within itself. Buuut, just in case things start going horribly wrong for some reason lmao. I have gotten the girls all of these. I don't plan on using them right away, as I don't want to over fertilize them. But, I guess the best I can do is go by eye. Study their stalks and leaves. Any advice on nutrient regimens that worked great for you on White Widow or Fruit Spirit would be awesome. They will get 5 gallons to grow. I figured with 5 1/2 feet Indica dominant shouldn't be limited to a small bucket. I could be wrong lol, we will see. :lol: Clones! I will be taking clones off of the White Widow. So I have went out and gotten this. This is such an iffy subject online. It is hard to find reliable information. But! The lovely man that owns the garden store tells me that clones hardly need nutrients. He suggested the CocoGro so I trust him. What he says made sense as far as my knowledge of plants goes. Advice from your experience with your clones would be ultra awesome. My lovely sources for setting up this project game from these awesome authors. Ed Rosenthal is my favorite, ever. And of course I can't do this without my love. She likes to nibble on leaves. Thanks for taking the time to read and help me. I am hoping to gain knowledge and some awesome people to stay with me in this. I figured updating once a week is good. Painting is first, lighting... I still can't decide lol. Next week the closet itself will be prepared and I will post that up. I am taking this slow so I don't miss anything.
I've just recently started my first journal and just got my ordered seeds to break soil, it will be interesting to compare grows.. I have read not to use gloss paint and that flat white is best!! Good luck and ill follow your journal! 😎
Slow and steady wins the race; it's a great feeling to know the problem soon as you encounter it. I just started my first grow journal too will love to have people drop by and say hi or give tips oh and subbed in! Auto mazar, think different auto grow http://forum.grasscity.com/unknown/1351711-3x-auto-mazar-2x-think-different-grow.html
Thanks guys I followed you both to stay updated on what you are doing. I was looking into the paint pufferman and people do seem to agree on flat. I also found a few people using gloss that said it is more durable and mold resistant. That is a tricky one lol. It must be exciting to have them break soil. It will be nice to compare grows because funnily I am in the same state. So our temperatures are probably pretty similar right now. That is very true Smokeilleus. I am taking my time since this is my first. I bet it is a nice feeling. I have read both books and I hope I can do the same. I will definitely drop in when I get notifications. I don't have any tips yet so I will be saying hi lol.
I have comments on 3 subjects. Paint, heater, and nutes. 1) Paint... lose the gloss. Flat white is the best for paint. 2) That heater will cost 3-4 times more to run than a 400 watt light and the 400 watt light would raise the temp just enough. 3) I am a fan of Aurora Innovations nutrients and soils. Looks like you bought their Master Pack. Just follow the 5ml feeding schedule and leave out the Surge and Hygrozyme that it calls for. Do some research on the dry nutrients before you add them. Some are more beneficial added to a top mulch ad some are better mixed with water. Definetely mix the Elemental with water and be ready to clean up afterwards.
Dude, a much as you are putting into this closet... why not get a legit HID light and inline ventilation?
I was about to give up on this because of not much interaction lol. This is a discreet grow. I have a house, but I do not own it and sometimes the landlord comes and goes to fix things. So, a legit hookup ventilating through the windows isn't an option right now. The closet in the pictures is just in my study. I cannot alter the house (drill holes, attach box to the window) as that will be suspicious and she will not like that. Right now I am just leaving the closet door open in the house and using a fan. I have portable air filters to reduce the smell as they grow. When the landlord comes I am just going to close the closet and lock it. She won't even come back here. I am a house wife and so is she so we just talk in the bedroom while her husband fixes things downstairs. She never looks around much because the house is sparkling clean lol. Lighting, I could get a lamp. In the book I was reading what I bought produces the same amount and was a lot cheaper. The lighting set I was looking at where I bought the Aurora was $300 and what I have just bought for lighting was $39. I guess I could invest... But if I can save the money I leaned more towards the cheaper for now. My husband and I are saving money to buy a house this year. Then I can do it up haha.
No offence, but a $39 light is highly unlikely to provide enough lumens to feed 4 plants in a closet in my opinion.....although on the bright side that should at least mean the sativa dominant plant isn't going to grow huge and therefore cause height issues. There are many companies out there that claim to sell lights that produce the equivalent lumens as say a 600 watt HPS, but in truth if they actually did then we would all be buying them huh? lol....the only current way around the whole being a tenant and not able to alter the property is a decent LED setup, but right now they are usually more expensive than the HPS, although the electricity costs are greatly reduced, so they do end up paying for themselves, providing you get a good one. Your first grow is always gonna be a learning curve anyway providing you are happy enough to just make it across the finishing line with a little bit of home grown weed for your first efforts, it's all good....2nd time around you will know a hell of a lot more, and can fix the things you did wrong to begin with, and believe me, you will do things wrong haha....anybody who says they grew perfectly from start to finish first time around is a liar! Best of luck
Lol that is ridiculous and shady on the company's part if what I just bought is not accurate, but it makes sense. I did some calculations in the store. I was doing 50w per cubic foot. Which came out to 2500w. The bottom portion of the closet is 2'3" x 5'9" x 5 so 51 in volume. This could be really wrong lol, but I will attach pictures of the book I am reading and used to convert. My husband and I were throwing numbers at each other in the kitchen for like 1 hour before we went out and bought it. But we could be wrong lol. Thank you for the opinion. I like to get other perspectives. It helps a lot in this process. I am looking forward to the second time around lol. There is a learning curve, trial and error ha. I will attach a picture of the bulbs.
Yes please attach a pic of the bulbs, I'm sure something is incorrect in either your calculations or my interpretation, because 2500w seems well off lol.
Ahh, these are cfl's, to be honest all 6 of those will produce less actual usable light for the plants than a 250w HPS truth is you won't be able to grow 4 plants with those lights in the space available....I mean you could, but the yield will be ridiculously low.....you would be better off only growing one, or possibly two, and getting some experience behind you, then when you can upgrade the equipment, pop the other seeds and you will see the difference! I'm not a big fan of cfl lights to be honest, I would only ever use them for seedlings, and maybe the first week or two of vegging, but looking at your situation, I would strongly advise considering an LED unit. They don't create much heat, so no need for extraction ducting, but probably enough to save you running a heater.....and the eventual yield from the plants will be at least 5 times the amount you will harvest from those cfl's. A friend of mine on here has been sponsored by an LED company to prove how good they are these days, even competing with HPS grows, I reckon he could probably swing you a discount should you decide to go down that route....I know spending extra money is never a happy thought lol, but I also know how much happier you would be come chopping day if you did!
Mmm, sounds like my calculations were wrong lol. I really like the sound of the LEDs. I have actually read on using them when I real about HPS and MH but went with CFL for price. I think this is a good guinea pig. When we buy a house I will have a whole basement to myself for this lol. Though, really... if it doesn't work I will have to get new lights anyway. Because I need my veggies to grow alright too along with the girls.
Yeah trust me, 6 cfl's really aren't going to cut it for 4 plants from seed to harvest....to be honest I would be surprised if they actually made it to harvest with those lights they might be okay for the first few weeks to get the plants acclimated to the lumens, but once they start growing, they need something a lot more substantial. A decent LED for your setup would probably set you back somewhere around $250-$300....but the difference in the results you will see is beyond measure!
I am reading up and on CFLs. For this small grow space, apparently they are actually the most practical. Once we get a mortgage then the more expensive things are recommended for a big space. Then it is practical for me to get the expensive setup. Some people actually prefer CFLs reading up more into the light spectrum in my books. High pressure sodium lamps apparently emit yellow light, a lot of which the plant cannot use. The section on LED is cool because it says they can emit a narrow spectrum for the plant. So, for now, I am going to do CFL and just add more as needed. Later this year when I am in the house I am swaying towards LED. For the fact that the light produced is actually more concentrated to the plant. I don't know how my measurements per watt were so incorrect lmao. Thanks for helping me realize it isn't enough. My husband installs solar panels and I used to work as a pharmacy technician and our math still sucks lmfao. But always an easy fix to go buy more and put them up. It took me only about 45 to do everything in the closet just now. So, I am germinating, planting, and actually getting started now.
I have been wanting to start my own grow op and I think I've decided to actually start. I've looked up all these directions on how to start your operation but I'm confused on a list of what I actually need to start. I'm wanting to just grow 2 maybe 3 plants, since it's my first time. I've decided to buy the SuperPonics 8 plant Hydroponic grow system and I know I'll have to buy CFL lights as well. other than me buying those two things and soil, I'm not sure what else I need to get to start. If anyone could come up with a list of things I need that I haven't said that would be greatly appreciated!
Yeah, HPS lights emit more of the spectrum required in the flowering stage....most people use MH lights for vegging, then switch to HPS a week or so into flower. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing things as cheaply as possible, but the thing is once your plants start growing, 3 are likely to become fairly bushy, and the sativa could end up being a hell of a lot taller than the others too.....the cfl's won't provide enough light penetration to get under the canopy, and in my opinion even adding another 6 won't really suffice, still means only 3 per plant, when realistically they would need pretty much 6 each to produce a half decent yield, but 24 cfl's in a closet isn't exactly practical lol. Best of luck with it anyway, but should you find yourself with a few $100 spare in the next couple months, I would definitely recommend grabbing an LED unit, and then using the cfl's as additional lighting to get lumens underneath the canopy to the popcorn buds.
Thank you for the information. It is really useful. I don't have to use 23w over and over, I can understand the impracticality in that. CFL goes up to 200w equal to about 60pw per bulb. I think buying bigger bulbs is adequate and staggering the little ones throughout the rows is sufficient. LED is less heat. If it ends up being the same price in wattage and less heat I will buy those. 200w = 600w per bulb*
The door stays open 90% of the time and gets closed when there are visitors. Almost completely undetectable at this point. Just need to figure out what to do with the extension cords, usually there aren't random cords just running into a closet. I am taking my time and shopping while the seeds "cook". I still have plenty of time before they start popping out. I will add reflectors today too.