Hi guys, girls fellow lurkers .Massive problems with my setup, any help would be most appreciated. After many months of reading, saving, schematics and doodles, I finally came up with my perfect grow area/setup and ordered all the stuff feeling quite proud and as excited as I had felt in years. Problem being, we were forced to move out from our tastey lil pad with dual basements and am now living in a pokey flat with no basement, no attic and no storage space at all. Now I would like to just plan a small closet grow but am stuck with a 600watt hps and the only possible space is a wardrobe measuring 164cm high, 90cm wide and 53cm deep (outside measurements) Is this possible without torching my babies or should I postpone for a few months till I can afford a descent 250 watt setup. Perhaps sell the 600? Previous grows were with borrowed 250watt setup which he promptly wanted back when he saw that it did work for growing bud and he was the plant killer. Basically temps in a large wardrobe then were high 80s and low 90s with lights on. I figure I don't even stand a chance now I only have a basic batwing/barn reflector that came with as it was a great deal when I had loads of height to play with at the time. 600 watt was the only choice if you look at the watt/lumen/dollar ratio. I could obviously go with the air cooled hood, ducting, carbon filter and vortex fan tried and tested route but funds are gone now for several months, plus noise is a massive issue now also. Cant even afford some consolation smoke. Will multiple sheets of glass installed horizontally keep the eat away? Perhaps layers with gaps in between and air cool those spaces. So sorry for all the tedious questions but there is just one more... Will perspex or other transparent clear plastic work instead of glass and how close before that stuff starts to melt, burn or brown? Any help from you seasoned pros or with a 600 watt in a daft space? Peace (passes dubey before realizing its still just a cig)
They are $89 at http://californiahydro.stores.yahoo.net/ht-reflectors.html your still going to want to get a fan to pull air through this, but it shouldnt be noisy your 600W is perfect, just keep the whole cab cool with this cool tube and your set for now you can start your grow with some floro.s and move to the HPS when you get the fan and cool tube. or hell, just grow iwth floro's till you can do it right. somethings better than nothing eh?
Thanks Mordgrow You are correct, something is way better than nothing. I sped through the registration form when I realised I couldn't actually post. I actually live in the UK, sorry. Cool Tubes aint quite so cheap here and then I need the fan and ducting etc. Great option, just not viable quite yet. I would be well up for making one but I don't get any options on wake n bake pyrex tubes either. Shipping/import charges were brutal last time I ordered stuff from the US. This is why I was considering perspex or similar, the more I think about it, the more daft it seems. Just wondered if anyone had tried as a last ditch effort? lol Would 4mm glass be an option for multiple layers of airtight channels, each with its own small fan system keeping the air flowing? This is one I plan to at least experiment on a small scale with as soon as I removed all the pictures I own from their frames
I also keep reading that I would b needing the 6" tube as my light is 600watt. http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/details.asp?productid=978&subcat=471&cat=182 Would I damage a 5" one? This is why I'm doubting even 4mm glass, would have to have smashed glass on my grow. Does anybody use heat shields of any kind? Found one here that would fit that would be easy to produce a home made version of: http://www.greenshorticulture.co.uk/details.asp?productid=932&subcat=287&cat=182 I think this is gonna be a combination of budged methods as a stop gap till 2008. Any more methods to help would be great. Series of heat shields and glass/air barriers has to work. Whether or not I would still get light to the plants would be the next hurdle. Okay so at least I haven't lost hope quite yet
Okay, got one plant looking healthy and a couple of good cutting taken and rooted. The daily growth i'm seeing and constantly pinning down to let my envirolite penetrate as much as possible is really suprising but nothing I read about flowering with them is all that impressive unless you have 4 or so. Heres where I need experienced opinions and not just my guesswork and poor maths. If I went for a cooltube, could I get away with large cpu fans just for the tube and other fans just for the smells or would I still need a ruck or similar? I work out, if i'm correct that I have 0.57 m3 so I should be looking at 11cfm? This seems way way too low when even puny fans kick that much out. Do you many users of cool tubes in similar size spaces manage to keep stable temps with anything but small fans and 600 watt hps? Can you touch the glass? How close can you get it before it burns after using a ruck and cooltube? I have looked at loads of cooltube grows, all I have found so far in my sort of space is lower wattage and/or unstealthy ruck types. I really don't mind spending the money in a few months but I need for guests to be able to walk past and not hear anything untoward. I realise its a whole bunch of annoying questions from a newbie but any help on the above would be gratefully received!
Many people will say this isn't any good but CFLs work fine for vegging. They even work ok for flowering, HPS would probably make a little bigger buds but CFLs do work. They are cheap, don't cause as much heat and don't require as much energy to run. Here in the states I get a clamp lamp for under $6 and 2 ea. 26 watt bulbs (100 watt equivalent for about $7.00. A single light per planyt will work fine for the first 2 weeks then all you need to do is add Y sockets to the clamp lamps and 2 more bulbs. I wind up using 4 bulbs in each socket and use 1 of these setups per plant. Each 4 bulb setup costs about $25.00 and 4 bulbs won't be needed for about a month in a hydro grow. You said you are pinning them down, I assume LST. That is perfect for CFLs. Light will be able to get to the buds better. Be sure and get the right color spectrum for the phase of growing, 6500K color temperature for vegging and 2700K for flowering. This will work for you until you get whatever other lights and cooling you decide on.
Hey Sneakers, I have two 200watt envirolites, one of each spectrum. Veging with just one at the mo buy plan to be using both for another weeks veg before flowering. Probably keep using a flat cfl and desklamp to improve light penetration a little also. How much yield do you get from a cfls on each plant in your garden and how long do you veg for? Also finding it difficult to locate those budget 105 watt cfls in th UK infact anything over 20watt that isn'y an envirolite, anyone have a supplier to hand? In general people seem to get around 1 - 1.5 0z from cfls and 4-8 from hps. Thanks for your input
I will be harvesting my first plant this week. A friend of mine seems to think I will get 2 lbs. from these 2 1/2 plants I am growing but I am thinking maybe 1 lb. but probably less. We will know in another week. I have 1 bud that is about 12" long and 3" in diameter at the widest point. Several others are trying to get that big. This particular bud had more light on it than did the others. I have a feeling that if I added 1 250 watt HPS for about 6 hours a day during the final month of flower the buds would all be like that. Those huge CFLs are great. The ones I use, I got from Walmart. There are many places online that sell them. There is a thread called Kael's CFL grow or something like that. It is a sticky. He mentions a place online they can be ordered. Here is an example of a grow using my 23 Watt CFLs. This pic is of 1 1/2 plants. A bushy plant and my experimental close. There is another bushy plant to the right in the closet. That one large bud in the top center is the one I was refering to. Notice how it is filled out more on one side than the other. With more lights I think both sides would have filled out more. Also notice the long bud on the left. She appears to want to get big and fat too but that was a clone I did just for experience. She never got as much light as the others until recently. Notice the bud on the far right. She too wanted to get big and fat but I think lack of light prevented it. Overall I am happy with this grow. Plenty of good bud that will last me until this next grow is complete. My next grow is going to be a SOG with many plants like the one on the left. I feel I can get more light to all of the bud than I can with a bushy plant. I should be able to fit up to 27 plants like the one on the left in this 2' X 6' X 8' closet. This was all done with 23 Watt CFLs. I said 26 watt bulbs in my last post but they are 23 Watts each. Right now I am using 12 bulbs on these 2 1/2 plants.
Great to see small cfls creating some bud but do you really mean 2lb Sneakers How long have you been in veg before flowering those? Is this bud as sweet as if it was grown under hps or does it keep same potency with smaller yields? I decided to put the flowering spectrum envirolite in my cab tonight, finally add mylar, extraction fan etc. All was good until the red envirolite slipped out of my hand. Only fell about an inch but onto a pair of pliars and the end bust right open. So gutted, angry as hell. Took me hours to calm down thinking of all that lost potential. At least the plants are happy, they got their first dose of ionic bloom instead of tap water and occasionally some super weak miracle grow. Flattened it out with some pretty brutal LST and at least my single envirolite can give her entire canopy some love. I have also been thinking like you Sneakers, with perhaps a 250watt security light addition. Just cant splash out on aircooled reflector and other bits required without knowing that it will actually cool my 600watt beast in the wardrobe. Cool tube feedback anyone?
