There is so much info on these forums and I honestly have no idea now where to start. So I'm really hoping for some input. I have never grown before but have been reading a lot and trying to establish a game plan so I can be ready. I guess it would be best to start with my circumstances and plans. The grow would be in a small closet. I live in a tiny apertment converted from an attic in a house in the country. Downstairs are two small apartments. One neighbor is not 420 friendly so smell is an issue. My ceilings are vaulted so the closet is 3feet wide by 6 feet deep. The back is around 3 feet high and the front is 7 feet high. There is only one wall receptacle for electricity in the closet. I am on an extremely tight budget and so I am concerned with the amount of money that will be spent on electricity at least through the first grow/harvest. In a perfect world I would use a 400 watt HPS setup but don't know what the cost monthly for electricity would be. The closet gets cold in winter and hot in summer but that is due to me not opening the door to allow heat or air conditioning inside. I would like to piece together what I can starting ASAP and use my income tax to buy more expensive items so that I can hopefully start my grow next spring or maybe sooner. I am interested in using a deep water bucket setup as they seem easy to construct. My first grow will take place entirely in the closet. It needs to be as cheap as is feasible and MUST BE STEALTH! I live in PA where our pastime is frowned upon and I have unsympathetic family who visit me periodically. After the first grow after some of my investment is returned I would like to get a small grow tent to use as well so I can veg and flower in seperate spots. But I need some help with setup info and ideas to get me through the first grow at least. I am hoping I could harvest 2 pounds but I'm not sure if that is unrealistic. Not sure if one large plant in a SCROG or 2 smaller would produce it. The sloped ceiling will be great for a veg room with a mother in the tall area and clones in the back where height is low but it will make flowering anything big hard to accomplish. Any input will be greatly appreciated! Like I said I have been reading and thinking and planning and I have reached information overload. I need to talk to people who have actually grown good plants and harvested them. HELP ME!
Also I should add that there are no hydroponics stores anywhere close to me so all items will need to either be ordered online or purchased from a lowes or something.
Good thing you're thinking this through beforehand instead of planting seeds and then asking for help. You've got a fair challenge on your hands. One: The closet. Are you planning on converting the closet into a grow space or are you trying to grow in a closet? Anything that shares space with your stinky ladies is going to smell like your stinky ladies. Two: Running HID in any enclosed space will accumulate too much heat for your plants to be happy. You will need forced ventilation of some sort to control heat and keep the air turned over, and a carbon filter in there to keep the smell under control. Three: DWC in an environment you don't have control over the temperature in can be disastrous. Excess heat causes lower dissolved O2 levels in your bath which can lead to pythium (root rot), and once your system is infected with pythium, getting rid of it is a PITA. Speaking from experience, I would make your first run in a coco medium in pots. Coco is not that expensive and neither are the pots you would need. You would feed it the same nutrients, essentially, as you would in your DWC system, but the medium would be much more forgiving as you adjust your grow space's outfit. Then, when you've got things under your belt, you could switch to your DWC on following grows and use the same nutes, adjusted for hydro instead of coco. Four: All that ventilation and pumps for DWC is going to make a bit of noise. More than you're imagining right now. And it will be running pretty much all day so your neighbors, and family, will have plenty of opportunities to catch an earful during quiet times of day. How thick/well insulated are your walls/floor? Five: Power. Cooling fan about 1A, 400W HID 4A, circulation fan .25A, pump .5A, ballpark. You're looking at about a minimum of 6 amps for your grow. Your outlet in your closet is probably on the same circuit as everything else in that room, and that circuit breaker and its wiring is likely a 15A circuit. What else is on that circuit and how much headspace will you have to run all that once 6-7 amps is taken up by your grow? If you want to know for sure, pick up a Kill-A-watt, about $30, plug everything you run on that circuit into it, record the amperage, add it up, and you'll know exactly where you stand. And considering that this sounds like an older structure, make sure you assess the soundness of your wiring and outlets before you start. Old, shitty wiring can get hot at connections and this is how people end up burning their house down. You're going to be putting some stress on your electrical system running a grow, don't overlook this. Six: Two pounds? Unlikely. Most heavy producing indoor strains are pushing 500-600g/m2 and that's under optimal conditions. The likelihood you will meet optimal conditions on your first grow is pretty minimal. If you're serious about growing for the duration, don't expect anything but learning out of this first grow. Anything you harvest is gravy. The second and third grows where you apply what you've learned on the first grow is when the big pay-off comes. Keep researching, keep mining these boards, and you'll be ready when the time to germinate arrives. Hope this didn't just add to your overload.
First, thank u for responding! Ill take all the help I can get. U gave me a lot to think about. And more questions. I was just reading about cfl bulbs and they seem to be an ok option but in winter and even now it is chilly in the closet. Would they make enough heat to keep my girls warm enough? Also everyone says cfl won't give u a good yield. I'm so lost now because there are so many options and I have no experience. I just want to grow enough to smoke for free and sell to some trusted friends who have the money to actually buy on a regular basis instead of growing. Maybe for once have my own smoke instead of only smoking when a kind soul offers...Maybe for once be able to have some extra money to get nice Christmas gifts for my kid and parents etc. And it seems like an unobtainable goal. I don't want to rent another apartment to grow in and at this point couldn't if I did want to. Can't grow outside... So I'm stuck with this closet and a dream. the closet will be the grow space. But this is an efficiency apartment so it's in my living room. Never thought about all the other things on the circuit... TV, DVD, aquarium pump and light, the ceiling light, and probably more I'm forgetting... Plus the noise factor. Wow. This is all really kinda discouraging.
Everything you need can always be found online, you just have to account for shipping if you go that route. Don't discount Home Depot, they've caught on. Go to their website and search for hydroponic. Well helloooo, nurse. Garden centers will have many of the things you need, maybe not the big name cannabis nute vendors, but with a little product research, you will be able to find equivalents.
Yeah I've been looking on lowes Walmart and homedepot web sites and I figured I could skirt around the shipping by having it delivered for pickup at the store or something and I would get a green dot card to pay online with so that I don't have the purchases on my bank statement. I've been reading about stealth micro grows in salvaged cabinets etc but how much yield could a person expect in something so small. I was really hoping for enough to have 1/8 every other day for personal and also enough to supplement income so I could try to get out of debt and out of this shirty apartment etc. I know that I'm gonna be treading in some kinda dangerous waters. Selling brings all kind of risk but I'm lucky enough to have a few good friends who buy large amounts periodically not a dime every day or whatever. But the whole "don't shit where u eat" thing keeps ringing in my head. I really hope this gets lots of suggestions and info that can help. Guess now I'm gonna do some reading about coco and cfl bulbs and try not to have a mind meltdown
^^ thats an excellent post. I would suggest you take each point one by one and think about how you can make it happen. Dont try to do everything all at once, it can be quite a bit of work. And dont germinate until youre properly setup. Get a carbon filter for the smell. Remember, youre thinking about growing a plant in an artificial environment. So you need to have complete control over all the different aspects. Oh and plan your setup with efficiency in mind. Work and ventilation wise. Youll need a work area to plant, prepare soil, prepare feeds, and keep tools. Keep your wires off the ground. Timers switches etc in one designated area etc etc.. And start small...1-2 plants. Go for femenised seeds, it can be a tedious, time consuming task for a first time grower to id males and females. Make the grow as easy for yourself as possible. I would actually recommend a good organic mix as your first medium instead of coco. Coco is a bitch with that salt flushing. Promix, foxfarms is good, cant go wrong with it. Good luck
I too am in PA, and surprising that it is frowned upon considering before the 1930s, 90% of Lancaster county was hemp farms!!! So, being a fellow PA puffer, im going to PM you and offer whatever assistance i can. May take a few minutes, but check your convo's.
Sorry if I hit you with a downer. I'm known in my circles as a bit of a pessimist. I call myself a realist I guess I'd rather imagine the worst and account for it ahead of time than hope for the best but then get slapped silly by the reality check down the road. (After you've spent the money usually.) I have no experience with CFLs, but yeah, everything I've read indicates your yields wont be phenomenal. Acceptable, but not phenomenal. In your case, acceptable may have to be what you run with. You'll save on your power bill and keep the noise down with CFLs. As far as heat, how cold does the closet get now? Even a bunch of CFLs running in an enclosed space will warm it up a bit. You need to stay above 65 to keep photosynthesis running at maximum efficiency. A space heater could be used to bump the heat a bit if necessary. You would need to manage your humidity with that option, but that's pretty easy. Maybe forget about selling to friends and just look at the savings from not having to buy your own, for now at least. You'll learn the plant in your current situation. Maybe in a year or two you move into new digs where you can build a proper grow, then apply what you've learned about the plant and overcoming obstacles in a non-optimal space, to turn out great smoke for you and your friends. Who knows, maybe by that time PA will have sensible laws on the books and you'll be golden. If you cant grow indoors, I'm not a fan of it and it's too late in the year for now, but guerrilla growing outdoors might be another option to keep yourself in smoke.
Been thinking about using some sheets of expanded polystyrene to insulate the floor and walls to help keep winter chills out and isolate the noise. Anyone know if this stuff works well to keep noise levels contained?
Thanks everyone for the input. Angry wiseman don't apologize I need to hear the truth whether its a downer or not.
I recommended the coco due to his originally stating that he wanted to run DWC. You could use the same liquid nutes for both, adjusting for the different system. I've not grown in soil or organic so don't know if/how he could transfer nute plans if he ended up wanting to DWC before the supply of nutrients he purchased had been fully consumed. As far as flushing coco goes, your better brands come flushed already these days. Or are you talking flushes during grow?
Just read the whole thing from start to now. Thanks for giving a noob hope that I can grow good bid without all the fancy equipment!
i would say crafting ones own soil is less time consuming, less costly and better quality medicine in the long run also diy cabinets with intake and out take filters for environmental control $.02
any type of hydro or coco entails proper measurement of nutes and regular adjusments. Additional space for reservoir, flushing. Coco flushing is a bitch. in the beginning and during growing. its added work that a new grower shouldnt deal with if he wants it easy. With a good organic soil mix, amended with bone, blood, feather meal etc etc, regulates its own pH, only requires watering, and the occasional supplement of epsom salt. It doesnt get easier than that.
So if you use soil u don't need the special nutes? If u use the blood none meal and all that do you still get the same yield?
Also I've read before that 100 wAtts per plant is recommended so would 2 150 watt HID lights be better than one 400? It would use less power obviously...