A girl creating a grow space!! opinions? feedback? :-)

Welcome to gc your setup is kinda like the setup that I'm in the process of building.... I was looking at your specs and your only giving yourself 27 inches of height for each compartment? I'm pretty new to the grow game myself but from everything I have learned and read so far it seems like you might be cutting your plants short...... In my opinion you might be better off knocking out all the shelves except for maybe the bottom one for support... This way you can let your plants grow more and provide a better yield when it's all said and done.... Also it would be cheaper since you would need half the lights( electricity bill) and would get a better product..... Also make sure that you light proof the box and perhaps put down Mylar on the sides or make sure you paint it white

BUT AGAIN IM NEW TO ALL THIS SO TAKE IT WITH A GRAIN ON SALT... There are people on here who are much more knowledgable than I

 

Would you use on 150w cfl for veggin? And one 250w for flowering? Again I'm not an expert but I would imagine you would be better off using multiple cfls that add up to the 150w and the 250w marks your trying to hit...... Cfls are so cheap and the light equivalency it great

What I mean by light equivalency is..... Most cfl are low wattage as I'm sure you know but they have an energy output which is greater than what they use..... So for example with my set up I'm going to be running a 6 bulb set up for both veg and flower..... But my energy consumption at any given point will be around 200w (most likely a little less, I'm guestimating) but those 200watts have the energy output equivalency of let's say 500w so I'm getting more power without paying for it in my electric bill......

Now there is a large debate amongst people about if cfl equivalents are actually legit and although I have yet to grow, from the pictures I've seen and in talking to people it works well...... You might not get a yield reflecting a 500w system but your gonna get a bigger yield than your 150/250 system.....

Not back to the entire point I was trying to make...... I think you would be better off using multiple cfls who's wattage adds up to what ever you want, you'll get a higher equivalency but more important you will spread the light!!! Once you start to build up a canopy that's gonna be huge..... It's important to let as much light hit the plant as possible since the plant grows towards the light, if you only have one light your likely to not have enough light hit the rest of your plant as opposed to the top of the plant...... Imsorry I know it took me far to long to get to the point but i just woke up maybe 10min ago and my brain is a little foggy haha

Also make sure that you use 6500k lights for vegging and 2700k lights for flowering.... Some people advise to throw a 2700k light in there during veggin to push along the sex of the flower earlier and some say to put a 6500k light in durin flower to help it get another part of the spectrum during its grow.... If you need help finding the lights in cfls pm me I have links saved on my laptop

EDIT: when you put the light in make sure you hang it horizontally as opposed to vertically like a normal light would hang.... The reason is cfls emit light from all parts of the bulb so if you hang them horizontally they will get the most lit energy on your plants

AGAIN take it with a grain of salt I'm not an expert just merely passing along what I have been told by people who are experts here on gc

 

I dont see any problem making it into two diff grow cabnits since you will be using cfl's which don't use much energy at all but the light cant penatrait to deep so there really is no need to tryin grow them to tall so it should be enough space as long as you start flowering around 8 inchs more or less depending on the strain

And as far as your pic goes looks good to me just one thing you dont need a intake fan just cut a hole where the intake would be and light proof by puting some pvc pipe with a couple elbow that the inside is spray painted black so light wont bounce through it hop i was any help

 

my recommendation and again this is just me, drag that cabinet outback and set it on fire. when you come back inside log onto ebay and buy a 2x4x5 grow tent for $80. it's light proof, it has a vent holes, a child could set it up. and you are on your way........

 

I've always been told that you need 100w for the first plant and 50w for each other plant.... So goin by that number you would need 150w throughout the whole process... Also from the research I've done here on gc you should use 6500k lights instead of the 5500k ur thinking about...... I've found 35 and 45watt cfls that are 6500k which from what I'm told is ideal.... Go to this site 1000 bulbs . Com it's got everything you could ever need and pretty cheap.... I would look at the 45w cfls at 6500k and they are like 150w equivalents or something like that and they are mad cheap like 4 5 bucks a bulb.... But why would you use different size bulbs for your flowering period... You said you would use 42w 2700s during veg and 55w 2700s durin flower, why not just leave the 55 in the whole time? Or use the 42s the whole time and get more of them so u can use them for flower as well.... The longer you let you plants flower the bigger your yield will be and the lights will help

As far as the grow tent is concerned why shell out 80 bucks when you don't have to? Not to mention it will look blatantly obvious, not sure if thats an issue but for me it is haha..... And the holes are easy, your from Oklahoma people have drills there ask some dude you know to borrow a drill with a 4 or 6 inch circle bore and drill it out yourself... Takes ten min and it's free!! I'm not sure about the grow tents but from the pics I have seen its just a tent and you still have to mount everything in it..... I know it's easy to mount things to wood, drills baby drills but idk how easy it would be to mount in the tent

But like I said before I'm not expert haha just passin along what I've learned and been told lol

 

You go from veg to flower with every plant even if it's just bag seed... The only difference is you already know the sex unlike me haha... Normally you would find out the sex at like 2 to 3 weeks into flower stage I'm told

 

You need to use 2700k lights when you switch to flower.... Something about the light spectrum idk the technical reason for it.... The 6500k are for veg along with one 2700k just to get another part of the spectrum into the grow and than when you go to veg you switch to 2700k bulbs and maybe leave one 6500k in there just for difference

Let's say you have 5 light holder things, yank the things you put the lights in Ida what they are called

During veg 4 would be filled with 6500k lights and one would be filled with a 2700k light
During flower it would be the opposite 4 2700k and one 6500k

I'm sure you could use the 6500k all the way through but everything I have been told says to switch during veg.. ... I hope that helped and didn't just confuse you more

 

well like i said earlier im building my set up and after i describe it your prob gonna call me crazy haha... its gonna be a trap door set up revealing a 4 foot tall 3 foot wide and 2 foot deep grow box....The reason its a trap door is that if you look at the front of my box you see a normal door which opens and reveals a 4 foot tall 3 foot wide and 1 foot deep closet, but on the sides of the box is 2 turn keys which when unlocked allow the front cab to swing open revealing my grow box (i need super stealth to hide from my mother lol).... its made entirely out of wood (2x4s) and its gonna be covered in ply wood to seal up any light cracks and than the ply will be covered in really thing diamond plating or something similar to make it look like a big tool box safe type thing..... im gonna make a blog about it once i get a little further along

but im gonna drill 4 holes in the floor and put pvc in them for my fresh air in, than im gonna get two small computer fans and put them on top of two of the holes (i figure for 2 to 3 plants two holes is enough)

im gonna run all cfls like you, im not exactly sure what wattage im gonna use but im gonna set it up so i can use 8 bulbs if need be (4 on top and 4 on the sides) but im prob only gonna use 6 for my first grow (my cousin is an electrician and he is handling all the wiring for me)

Im gonna have a 4inch carbon filter fan combo to help cool the box as well as get rid of the tasty smells...

im covering the box in mylar so that i get the reflective aspect for my girls....

im putting some sort of shelving aspect on the inside of the box so i can raise and lower my plants as they grow along with being able to scrog

i will be doing lst for my grows so that i can maximize my yields

and thats basically it in a nutshell

alot of work cause i feel like being bob the builder but all in all its only gonna cost me around 300 to make it all.... the after market parts (fans, filter etc are costing me like 250) but its gonna guarantee nobody finds it haha and thats my goal, plus i cant grow til january (going on a 2 week vacation and cant leave the plants unattended)

like i said your gonna need to see pictures cause its sounds crazy

 

oh and im not buying seeds for this grow... im using bag seeds i have a sht load of them from bags ive gotten... But if u wanna buy seeds theres a thread on gc that has all the seed banks that will ship to the us

EDIT: for the venting, you could use fans and open the door but if you get ona gel you wont even need to open the door, the whole room will smell fresh and not like bud

 

Why don't you go with this:Sun System HPS 150 Grow Light Fixture 150 Watt HPS - COMES WITH BULB
It cheap and will defiantly give you better results than same wattage CFL...

 

Won't it get too hot? She's not really doin any vent system and won't it effect her yield having only one light as opposed to many lights spread out, more light hitting the plants producing a better plant

I'm not saying that hps or mh aren't better they absolutely are but for the set up she is looking to do cfls are the easiest for sure

 

well that lil 150 would prolly be the easiest, less moving and adjusting of lights, with cfl you gotta moove em constantly to get them in the right area and to keep em from burning/ being grown into, that lil 150, shes a 1 stop shot, more lumens that acheivable with cfl, better penetration, plus you wont have much adjusting after finding your temperature sweetspot and all that, except with the obvious increase of growth. im runnin 2 in a 2X1.5 cab and temps arent an issue with proper venting. id get that 150 and use those cfl for side lighting, especially if ur using a grow tent.

 

and about yeild, 150's always do better than a few cfl from what ive seen, youll never get MORE light no matter how many cfl you stack up, from my understanding lumens do not add up like that, pluss the use of HID early will help her learn about them and will weed out any future troubles when upgrading, like temps, light burn, cooling and so on.