Hello again, I am currently in the process of my 2nd grow and just got 100% germination with 8 bubble gum and 4 sweet dreams (anyone hear anything about this plant?) from marijuana-seeds.nl. Using some "germination soil" from the horticulture lab at my university, foxfarm: grow big liquid plant food and big bloom liquid plant food (havent actually used any yet because they arent even a week old yet) and 2 40 watt cool white 4 ft flouros and 2 smaller bluer almost purplish looking "grow lights" at 25 watts each. So Basically these are just in a different section of the house than where I plan on growing them right now but that is in use right now. That space is approximately 4 feet wide by 5 feet deep by 4.5 feet high. I have a 400 watt HPS in there right now and it gets relatively hot which is why i have to leave the door open while it is running. temps stay below 80 as of right now but I was seriously considering buying a coolable reflector and maybe installing an exhaust fan and put some exhause tubing connected to the fan to extract the air out and into a different room where no one goes and is shut off by this room. Right now I only have one plant in there and it seems to be doing fairly good the walls are mostly covered with mylar except the light is placed farther back and I dont really use the entire room. Anyways I was wondering if this is enough space to veg these 12 plants out until I can tell their sex and then I was also wondering how many plants should I end up keeping and flowering under this light and should I get the air cooled reflector and instal an exhaust system. Also I just recently purchased a metal halide conversion bulb for my 400 watt HPS system and was just kinda wondering what benefits this will have and really if it was even neccessary. Also just wondering How long I should wait until I move these guys under the 400 watt MH because I am totally fine with harvesting my currently flowering plant whenever I have to. I will get some pictures of the little ones tomorrow but heres some pics of the big one currently in flower I'm told I should wait another 2-3 weeks. As it stands it is in week 6. Thanks if you have read this far and are willing to help me out here. This plant in flower is actually one of my first plants, the other one didn't make it when I had to leave them for 10 days during winter break. First pic is of the entire grow room with the plant in flower, the next 4 are just different pics of this plant and different parts of it. The Last 4 pics are of the plant that died from my lack of care when I was away during christmas break.
so you are planning on vegging and flowering in that same room? or where there two different ones? if so, that should be enough room to veg till you determine sex. and you should think about getting a cool tube for that light, and most deffinantly get some exhaust going. it will keep the temps good and you will be able to get the plants closer, to take full advantage of the 4.5 feet. because considering pot height and reflector size, and distance from the plant you have to keep the light, you really dont have very much height for the plants to flower. sorry if my post doesnt make very much sense, its 4 in the morning and im a little drunk.
The plants will have to be vegged and flowered in the same room yes, but right now they are just under the flouros in a different room but i want to move them into the main room as soon as possible. I was wondering maybe the best way to set up my room so that i could use maximum light and not have heat problems the back wall you see covered in mylar is actually a board glued over a pretty big sized hole leading into a smaller little room with water heaters and full of spider webs. I was thinking of maybe making a flase back to put back there with a hole near the top to vent all of the hot air from the HPS/MH out of the grow room. I would also want to get an exhaust fan and some exhaust tubing or whatever you call it and purchase an air coolable reflector for my 400 watt system. How many fans would you recommend and what kind and how should I go about doing this? Any help will be appreciated.
Im willing to spend quite a bit. There is even a good hydroponics store right in town near me. thanks again for the help
Well as i promised here are the little ones veggin in different part of the house. The temps are kept above 70 while the lights are on and above 60 when they are off. I am starting to get a little paranoid because they arent really hidden that well and i want to move them into the main room as soon as I can. Just let me know what you guys think. Im really curious as to when I should move my little plants into the grow room and use my MH converter bulb and just harvest what Ive got now on my flowering plant taking up the grow room. Please help me out guys. Thanks
well if you want to spend quite a bit of money on ventilation, which is essential, go to the hydro store and get a "cool tube" for the light, and a decently high cfm inline fan, some flexible ducting, and install the cool tube, hook up one end of the flex ducting to the cool tube and the other end to the inline fan, preferably outside the grow box, and the put a carbon air scrubber on the other end of the inline fan. i'll try and draw a picture for you in a minute. but for a set up like that expect to pay upwards of 250 to 300, for a good vent system
heres a little sketch of what i think should work very well for your setup and you will be ablt to get the plants closer to the light, because there wont be as much heat. oh and i forgot to lable the air flow direction, which would be sucking air away from the light and pushing it out through the air scrubber. here is a cool tube, just incase you weren't clear on what i was talking about. http://www.4hydroponics.com/lighting/rsuntube.asp
Yah dude that is almost exactly what I am thinking of doing. except I will take out the back wall and replace it with a new wall wth a hole in the top for the ventilation to escape into a different part of the building.
that is exactly why you'll want flex ducting, so you can move the air to where ever you need it to go. but be careful because you want as few bends as possible, as to not restrict air flow. and as short of a distance as possible between the cool tube and the exhaust fan. hope this helps, happy growing
That is exactly the kind of stuff I want to use. If I can somehow switch my light so that it hangs rotated 90 degrees from the way it is now i will be able to use like 6 in of tubing and will just go straight to the wall no turns or curves. Just how much do you predict this coming out to be and what size of tubing , fan and reflector hole should I be looking at to cool a 400 watt HPS/MH light. I was thinking a 6 inch fan and maybe like 8 inch ducting or should i keep it with 6 and 6 or how should I do it because I am completely lost. Oh and one more thing I was wondering is what is the cfm of the fan I want to cool this light or does that not matter at all? anyways just hit me back so I can get this exhaust system set up and move my babies in to veg them 18/6.
well to make this easy lets just assume you buy the cool tube in the link i posted, seeing as it's a 6" tube, to make everything easy just get 6" flex ducting, and a 6" in line fan, and of course some duct tape. the cfm does matter. but with a room your size, the cfm doesnt have to be huge if you get a good fan. say i get a 500cfm duct booster from home depot, and a 250cfm name brand top quality in line fan, i can almost assure you that the 250cfm name brand fan will mover more air. to keep simple we will look at an inline fan from the same place as the "cool tube", http://www.4hydroponics.com/grow_room/ecoplus.asp im sure you could get away with using the 4" one because your room is only 90 cu ft. but im just gonna assume you choose the 6" to keep that hps real cool and get those plants real close too take full advantage of your space. so... fan $160 cool tube $120 flex ducting ~$5-15 depending on how much you need duct tape $3 so roughly 300 give or take a few, as i stated before. depending on what kinda prices you find, you might be able to keep it under that. and if smell is going to be a problem for you, make an air scrubber of sorts. it cost me 12 bucks, there are a couple guides on how to make them here on the boards.