Ive decided to set up a small grow cabinet. My eventual goal is to have 2 maybe 4 plants. 1 always flowering 1 mother and perhaps a few clones. I want to make this setup as hands free as possible without sacrificing quality. My dual chambers are just about right for a single mature flowering plant. Iam just starting so for now I have a single 5inch plant. Its coming along nicely with a nice green color and 15 seemingly healthy leaves. The growth has been slow so far (getting familiar with the plants needs for water) iam maybe 3-4 weeks in. Iam using straight water from a local reverse osmosis source. Iam growing the mother in a small pot mixed with small rocks to increase air flow and reduce soil needed. The soil is a miracle grow soil. Ive choosen this method to give the mother plant a stronger less tempermental medium to grow in. However, I plan to used a hydroponics method (havent decided which) for the flowering chamber. My question is concerning the flowering chamber what is the lowest wattage I can use in this small chamber. Ive seen that Hps bulbs come in a wide range of wattage. Iam confident I wont need more then 200 but could I get away with say a 50 watt bulb? I came across a formula elsewhere that said that you need 50 watts per square foot. My chamber is maybe 2 foot square in a rectangular space so the floor is 2 feet deep and 1 foot wide. Iam trying to find a design for single plant hydro system with minimum vertical space usage. I also wonder how much I can produce(under perfect circumstances) and what sort of time frame am I looking at for a clone to mature to a flowering harvestable plant? Will this setup keep a casual smoker in quality bud and maybe the occasion toke session with friends? Any serious advice is welcome from the mother plant to the clones to the flowering.
That is alot of info to answer so I am sorry to say but try searching for a bit of it and piece together different information you find. To get nice dense buds, for two flowering plants I wouldn't go with less than 150Watts and even then adding more wouldn't hurt. Usually you want 1 plant per square foot so I would just make sure you have a female and use one plant with at least 100watts to make sure it grows in nice and full. 2 feet high is not much to work with. An LST would be your best bet and if you want to go hydro, a space like that wouldn't need anything sophisticated so give a hempy bucket a try. I hope I answered some of your questions but a lot of it will be doing some good ol fashion searching.
I plan on having only a single plant flowering at any one time(hoping to minimize odor) with a clone coming along in the veg chamber for a sustainable harvesting cycle, and a mother plant vegging to take clones from to cut down on the turn around time. The the flowering chamber is 1ft wide by 2ft deep by 3-4ft tall. Sorry if i wasnt to clear on the dimensions.
There may be a redesign in order Ive found a rather large container I plan to use as a bubble bucket. unfortunately, it blocks the intake of my clone chamber. Air flow has been my worry from day one so Iam considering a different container aswell. I thought maybe one of those styrephome coolers they sell at gas stations. Are there as negative side effects of storing a nut solution in this type of material? Btw my mother plant has really shot up id say its gained 2 inches atleast in the last few days. Obviously, it wasnt getting the water it needed so ill be more diligent with that in the future.
Oh a side note I thought I would share the material I used to line the walls. I used one of those survival blankets you can find in the camping section. While it resembles mylar iam not sure that it is and iam wondering if it does more to insulate the chamber rather the reclaiming wasted light. What are peoples thoughts on that? The way this post is shaping up it may become a newbs grow journal so please post and post often. Ill keep anyone who cares to follow this post updated wish me luck.
Iam thinking ahead to flowering again are there an equivalent to hps bulbs that I could use that would produce nearly the same results. Although, I havent looked for hps bulbs I have a feeling my medium small town wont have any. I want to make this op as efficient as possible.
well Ive decided on a cfl build but walmart doesnt seem to stock daylight 5700k bulbs or the packaging isnt labeled well. oh well ill find them somewhere. My mother is really smelling good really skunky guess we know the strain now huh?
Hey man, for beginners, I would read every sticky in the growing sections. Its quite obvious that you havent, because the majority of your questions are answered in those stickies. Anyways, to try and answer your question, the lowest wattage you should ever grow with on 1 plant, imo, should be 100 watts per plant. You can achieve a great plant using 2 65 watt 6500k daylight cfl's. Home depot sells them for like 18.95 a piece. Thats just for veggy state tho. For flowering, you'll need bulbs with a 2700k spectrum. Also available in 65 watts, also at home depot. I dont really understand your grow setup at all. Pics were confusing to me. Why not get some 3 gallon pots, start your seed in a cup, and transplant to the pots? Rockwool cubes are also great mediums to grow in. As I keep telling everyone, and I have only learned recently, focus on solid light setup/schedule, ventilation/humidity/temp, and watering cycle. Go to barnes and nobles and buy, "SEEMOREBUDS book, "Marijuana Buds for Less: Grow 8 oz. of Bud for Less Than $100". I think that would be a good start for you. I think if you maybe read the stickies, there might be somewhere you can download it for free. Anyways, thats all i got time for now. Just take your time man, everyone wants to rush straight to harvest. Growing should be just as fun and enjoyable when the plants a week old, as it is when you harvest. SO have fun with it, take your time, and the more you read, the easier it gets.
You are right I have answered most of my own questions just reading stickies on Gc. The Op I guess was just a place to organize my thoughts. Thanks for the tip on the book I would definatly pick it up but sadly I dont a B&N near me. Ill do some google searches maybe I can find the cliff notes = ). My design is still changing ive recently removed the air chamber (which I envisioned serving as a air scrubbing chamber but didnt have anything really flushed out). Iam also trying to push the mother closer and closer to the right wall. Bah these cfls are getting to be as expensive as Hps. Instead of 1 or 2 higher watt bulbs Iam thinking of getting 4 or 5 20watt bulbs so I can surround my flowering plant. I suppose thats not relavent we were talking about the 5700k bulbs but the same could to apply to those too more bulbs = I can surround my plant. At the same time this may not be nesseary because Iam just vegging with them. I was thinking 2 5700k bulbs for the veg chamber so I can have them at different heights for my clones. I wasted 20 bucks on a submersable water pump. The thing really pumps I think even having it on for 1 minute would drown my plants. unfortunatly, thats the lowest amount to time I can set it for. Iam expierementing with different ways to reduce the flow and comtemplating if its possible to turn it into a mister. That would be fantastic if i could because i was originally planning to use aeroponics.
I just purchased a "Reveal 65w enhanced color spectrum bulb" will this bulb be ok for vegetative growth?
Thanks for the offer but i just got Jorge Cervantes's Cannabis bible(this title isnt exact but search his name and you will find info). He has been writing about it since 1983 and writes for hightimes. He also has a couple of movies out on dvd. I got the first but have yet to watch it. The problem with finding these lights is the strange naming schemes the companies use. I found out just today that ge uses the word reveal instead of daylight to label their bulbs but yet there are no kelvin numbers to be found on the box. This bulb is an indoor floodlight but it gives of a orange hue kinda like sunset and claims to be a "enhanced spectrum" bulb. right next to the bulb i just got were clearly labeled 6500k bulbs but at 20watts apeice I thought this would work better. I have also gotten a 65 watt cfl that clearly states its 6500k but has a mogul socket and i cant find a converter locally. If you are interested in that book I think I found it on demonoid a torrent tracking site. Upload was real fast
No worries bro, sorry I don't have any advice for you at this stage, I'm fairly new to the game myself. Best of luck with everything.
I should have just about everything I need now( I hope ) to clone and flower. Ive had a few set backs worst of which my light fell right onto my plant and crushed it for who knows how long but she is springing back. A few of the lower leaves wilted and fell of but the upper ones are still strong and a nice green color. I know ive stunted her a few times along the process because iam now almost a month in roughly and she still is saddly only 5-6inchs tall.
Well thats good to hear guess patience will be the first thing i learn in this grow = ). Turns out the bulb is a lower spectrum then the soft white ive been using its around 3k. screw Ge and their creative labels on their box. Looks like it would be better for flowering so theres a bit of good news for me wont need to buy more soft white bulbs. Also, like i said there were 6.5k cfl bulbs right next to the one i bought so I have a source for what i really need now. Ill have to do some creative light placement because they were only 20watts, but with a few y adapters which i also found today and another fixture or 2 ill be fine. All said and done i figure ill be spending around 60$ on the entire build not bad not bad at all. If only i hadnt wasted 30$ on a water pump and a bulb i cant use.
My god she is loving that new light Id bet Ive gotten over an inch of growth since putting in the new lights or I am fooling myself but she is defiantly loving her new light.