High all, I'm hoping you can help me out. I grew a few plants outside over the last couple of years, but the paranoia is killing me and want to move indoors. I have a room in the basement that is about 13 x 6 that I can partition into 2 or 3 rooms if need be, preferrably just add 1 wall and make it 2 rooms. I plan on buying (2) 400w HPS/MH lights w/ Son Agro 430 bulbs and some mylar for the walls. My main question is, how big should i make the grow room? Is the theory 2500 lumens per sq. ft based on the size of the room, or the size of the Table or whatever you're growing on?? I know that's a dumbass question, but I don't know... I'm also curious about pot size. I've read that the less you transplant the better, and also one thing I read about allowing the root to grow deep makes it more likely to be female??? I don't know, but I do know that 5 out of 5 plants that i planted outside were female, that's why I'm even giving that theory a second thought. But what the hell do i know. I don't need a ton, just a couple oz's a month at most, It's more about the enjoyment of growing it now, after doing it outside with awesome results. I'm sure I'll have more questions in time, but I read everything I can find before I ask, so hopefully I won't be too much of a pain in the ass. I just want to get it right the first time or as close as possible anyway. Thanks in advance for any opinions. Any suggestions you throw at me will be appreciated
That's a great sized space -- what's your height? What can you do about ventilation? Only partition into two rooms if you want to maintain one as perpetual veg and the other as perpetual flower. If you did that you would want a MH for one room and HPS for the other, no need to get conversions as each fixture would have a dedicated purpose. Make the room(s) as big as you can handle and want to have in final product. Each 400w will cover about 9 sq ft (yes, that is the floor or table area), so two 400w lights is only enough to cover a small portion of your footprint. I say "only" in comparison to the room you have available, there is nothing wrong with building out a pair of 3x3 rooms/chambers and using the 400 watters. You could grow 8 nice plants in the each room. For pot size get the biggest you can fit -- the more soil the bigger the roots, and the bigger the roots the bigger the plant above the soil. Plant sex is determined by genetics -- it's already in the seed, soil depth has nothing to do with it. You will definitely need a lot of ventilation for this space, both a fan-driven exhaust and a plentiful supply of fresh intake that could be passive but for that size I advise fan-driven as well. Good luck!
Thanks for the quick reply.. The height is 9 ft, and as for the ventilation I have a few options I think. It's my own house so I'm pretty sure i can get a way with carbon filter and exhaust fan(s) in the upper part of the wall. I read about the PVC elbows painted black at the bottom for the intake. I'm guessing I can figure most of it out from other posts and pictures....... this is one hell of a place I got the switchable cuz I know that once I learn, I'll want to experiment with the different techniques, and also maybe use one for hydro and one for soil in the future, just for the hell of it. As long as I can get enough for my head, the rest is just a bonus. I figured on that female sex thing being determined from seed, that's why there's feminized seeds. I'm just a little gullable sometimes, plus all my outdoors were Fems and the roots were friggin long as hell. I'll definitly use large pots though, Thanks. Thanks Again Toasty, I appreciate the advice!
Babrich if your comfortable with growing, hydro is the only way to go inside. Also, just as a thought why not get 600s instead of the 400s, with your height you would have better coverage and the 600s have an even better light penetration.
Thanks for the advice. Hydro was my first thought, but I thought it was more difficult than soil. I'm comfortable in growing to the extent that I got 2 years of good yields from just seeds from bagweed and a few plants, but I'm not that advanced .....yet! If it wasn't for the outdoor growing forum I probably would have had much less success. I was planning on starting with soil to get more familiar. Is that necessary or is it relatively easy enough to jump right in? I'm going to do more research on the hydro, I see all of those complete setups on Ebay and other sites that have always caught my eye. As for the 600's, I am not looking to grow too much, just enough for me, that's why I was going to get the 400's, but I don't really know exactly what to expect yet. Any more and i might do something stupid so i figured to keep it small and simple. Thanks again for taking the time
I think that hydro is the only way to go, now that I know what I'm doing I'm pretty sure if you follow some easy advice your going to freak over how much smoke your going to get. Did you check out my link? Here it is incase you haven't. http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/111300-picts-dagirls-hopefully.html
Hell yeah I've read that thread, I just went & read the last few posts since I was here. That's an awesome looking grow man, you've definitely got your shit together. Waitin for next weeks pics... I've been doing alot of reading in the indoor & growroom forums since the paranoia started getting real bad about the plants I had outside. One of them was over 8' tall, towering over the fence at one point so i had to trim her down some, and ya still never know who may just look in at any point and see them. You're grow space is pretty close to the way i was thinking( as far as size) I wanted to use just 6 x 6 or maybe a little less, so i can have 5 or so plants and be able to manuever around in there and get to everything I need. I'm only familiar with indoor from reading but I imagine that i don't want to use a large area for only a few plants... cuz the lighting and mylar would not be as effective????? That's why I was asking first about room size. Like you, I'm only doing it for personal use so i don't need a ton of bud, couple z's per month is more than enough. With my 3 girls hanging right now, i have a while to get this all together. Fortunately for me, I haven't actually got started with everything just yet except for ordering the seeds so I am still open to any method. The bubble method does look very tempting. I've always had fish tanks and I'm familiar with keeping proper levels in water, and I have tons of air pumps and stones. I just need to do a little more research to get it all figured out. It does look pretty simple to set up from what I've read at this point. The upkeep is what I'm concerned with, but I guess, like everything else, once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy. Plus with forums like this that have so much info, and the help of kind people like yourself anything is do-able. I just want to keep it simple and potent, if that's possible. You may have made my mind up for me, I'm going to start concentrating on that method for my grow, your set up is definitely inspiring. Thanks again man, and props again on your grow that is a beautiful thing
I don't think the upkeep is going to bother you, your going to want to see your babies just to see how much she grew since the last time you looked. Growing indoors is not only away of providing myself with good smoke, but it is a great hobby. From what your saying I'd probably go with a 4X6 grow area. By the way, I'd kill to have 9ft of height, lucky you, I only got 7.5ft.
Yeah you're absolutely right, when I had them outside I couldn't keep my eyes off of em'. That's funny as hell that you say that. I used to sit with them all the time. I'd check em in the a.m. before work, then once i got home I'd go sit between em and check for rot, bugs and other crap, and talked to em about what I was going to do to em when they got older... lol. If anyone ever heard me they'd lock me up in an asylum. Does the height really matter? I see people growing in 4' boxes and on closet shelves, I give em all alot of credit, it must be alot of time and effort to learn those methods. I just figured that there were methods to indoor growing that kept your crop kinda short, and out of the 5 plants I grew outside, i only had one monster that was growing real tall, the others were 3 & 4' tall. I guess it depends on the strain. I'm going to start putting together a list of things I need to pick up. Could you help me out and let me know some of the more important things I'll need to start. I want to start with like 12 seeds and hope to get 5 or 6 females, I may do 15. If i get 7 or 8 I'm pretty sure I still have plenty of room. I mean like the meters, what kind of nutes to start with, and how to germinate for this method. It looks like the best bet is to use those large rubbermaid containers, but not clear ones, basic air pumps and stones, are those mesh pots or how does that work?? I saw your charts on your thread, but don't know what they mean yet either. I'm sure I will once I see the directions on the nutes. Or if you have a link where I can find all this in one area I'd really appreciate it. I'm going to get into more research when i get some time, but your room is very similar to what i had in mind...I've been studying your pics to get more familiar with the set up, and how to do it. Thanks again, I appreciate ya takin the time.
Wow I wish I had that much room. Everything that I would do has been mentioned. Make 2 rooms, one for vegging, one for flowering. Use a 400 to veg and a 600 to bud. Then you can make a little tiny mommy room and clone room off to the side in the extra space. That would be a bad ass set up.
Thanks for the feedback....Yeah, I guess I'm lucky to have a room to do this in, now let's just if I can make it worth while. The lightbulb came on Monday and all that I read finally made sense ...Finally, so i'm on my way, just waitin on the goods to arrive. Oh yeah, and the motivation to put up the 2 walls. I'll post picks when it's set up, but that may be a little while. Thanks Again
One thing that works very well for me in a basement is if you have access to a chimney you can attach the exhaust fans to the bottom. It does not affect the draft in the oil furnace.
Hey evilbutt... lol love the name, thanks for the tip. I was wondering about that. I have access to the flu for the furnace and hot water heater within like 10' of the room to be....I also have a 4" PVC drain line going thru the room to the septic. I wonder if anyone has vented their room into the septic tank. I just don't know how I'd keep odor from coming back in. I figure worst case I can break out the hammer drill and send a couple tubes outside under the deck and vent thru those. I think if i use a carbon filter the smell won't get out?? It's all new to me so it'll be an adventure.