Probably Dumb Questions

First thing, you MUST use a carbon filter to exhaust grow room air to mask smell. Depending on the strains, 4-6 plants, even one, could not only smell up your house but your whole neighborhood. You must use a negative pressure room. Meaning, either a passive intake(a hole or vent located low to the ground to bring in air) or a forced intake(a fan low to the ground to bring in air). Then you must have a carbon filter that matches your rooms CFM which is the measurement used to figure out your correct fan power. [W x L x (H x 1.2)] So if your room is 6x4x7 high you would need an exhaust fan that can exhaust at least 202 CFMs(cubic feet per minute).

Go here for CFM calculator


ACF Greenhouse Exhaust Fans & CFM Calculator

The intake CAN NEVER exceed the exhaust in CFMs. Meaning, you would want about 100-150 CFMs coming in if you had a fan/filter exhaust that exhausted out the 202 needed for a 6x4x7 high room. Exhaust must ALWAYS exceed the intake to keep a negative pressure. Negative pressure with a carbon filter can mask the stinkiest strains there are. Without this set-up you will have serious security issues.

Each plant needs about a 2x2 space to grow minimum once past 3-4 weeks veg. You say you have a about 5 foot by 2 foot by 5 feet high. Your height will be an issue unless you top and/or lst. With 5x2 feet for area you would only have maybe room for 3 plants unless you do sea of green technique. If you veg only for 2-3 weeks you can maybe get 4 in there. You need to browse the cabinet/closet section to get some ideas.

You are really restricting growth in that small of space. Maybe an oz per plant?

Forget watts, measure by lumens per square foot. Example: Most 400 watt hps bulbs have around 50,000-60,000. Lets say 50,000. A plant in veg needs at least 3,000 lumens per square foot, 6,000 max. So going minimum in your room with a 400 hps you'd have 5,000. More than enough. Flower you would want 5,000-10,000. MH is better for veg but provides less lumens, a 400 watt MH would be around 40,000, so your room would have 4,000, again more than enough. You basically take your length and width, 5 foot x 2 foot and get 10. You take that 10 and divide into the 40,000 or the total lumens of bulb/s. It's basic but it works. Don't go by watts, both are inaccurate measurements but lumens works better. And 50 watts per square foot is hardly bare minimum. I know people who grow very well with less.

Don't worry about your bill attracting attention, you'd need to be pumping 2,000 watts more than usual to even get a glance your way. Best idea is to use as much power as you can before, during veg begin to go green by using cfls around the house, then during flower or higher wattage use times quit using the dryer, dish washer, turn water heater down ect. Basically try to gradually raise use and establish a steady use after your first harvest. As long as you pay your bill on time and don't triple your bill you are OK.

Do soil. FoxFarm Ocean Forest will get you through all of veg without a drop of nutrients. The basic Fox Farms nute line-up or any other "almost organic" line-up is fine for flower. Avoid hydro unless you wish to try it in the future when you get some experience. The ONLY advantage of hydro is a little quicker veg time. It is much more hands on then soil, much more time needed to dedicate and hydro uses much more nutes. In soil one can correct an issue easily and slowly where in hydro if one little thing goes bad it's toast. I'm not a fan of hydro, but if you wish to do it you MUST research bigtime.

It's almost impossible to have a complete air-tight room, this is why you want negative pressure like I talked about earlier.
If you wish to have a sealed room you will be spending bigtime buck on an environmental system, for little to no advantage.

NEGATIVE PRESSURE

Expect to spend 200 on a reflector and bulb, 150 on a filter, 50-75 per fan and another 200 on seeds and accessories. It's too hard to estimate. I would seal your closet assuming that's what the room is, by making a door out of panda film with the film and velcro. But to cut this short finally, expect 500 bucks to started. I'd think about going bigger, use an actual room. Build a wood frame inside the room, two frames if possible, one for veg one for flower, and seal rooms with panda film and make door with film and velcro. My friend did this and he not only had much more control over the rooms, he had more space then his original idea of using the closet so he could do more plants, AND after the cycle gets going you basically have a half-ass perpetual grow. One veg is done they go in flower, about 3 weeks later you start veg up again and by the time your flower is done you have more plants ready for flower the moment your first flower ends. BUT, a person would then nee dto build or have a small area for a dry room being you don't wanna waste 1 week drying in your flower room when you have a bunch of plants ready to get into it. I could go on, hope I gave you some ideas. I'm on coffee, that's why this is so long. Peace

 

Yes it will stink up the house badly. Sometimes not but sometimes just one plant can make the whole room smell. Buy a inline fan with carbon filter attached.

Yield is impossible to predict as there are to many variables.

You cant run out of oxygen we live in a pressurized atmosphere.

Grows can go from cheap to thousands all depends on you. Everyones grow is different.

 

You dont want tin foil. Believe it or not about the best reflective material you can use is flat white paint. If thats not a option you can buy a roll of mylar for 20 bucks.

A MH or HPS light requires a ballast of appropriate wattage to run it. You cant plug it into a normal socket. A tank would not be advisable as MH/HPS aka HID lights run very hot and tanks are pretty small. Usually when you run a HID light you will require a inline fan to keep it cool...they get hot enough to burn you in alot of cases.

As to the 24/7 exhaust yes and no. Yes when the lights are on some people turn the fan off when the lights are off but what a fan does is alot more then cool a light. It helps wisp away heat from the cannopy of the plant, airflow. No airflow you can get mold or other nasties and that will that for your grow.

Weeds is really not a good reference for anything. Youtube videos would provide you with better advice. I suggest you read all the stickies at the top of the forums google some grow guides and perhaps pick up Cannabis Grow Bible...great reading.

Its best to be patient suck in knowledge. It takes months to grow Cannabis and you can kill it in less then a week or so and that would suck.

 

I misread thought you said you were using a aquarium lol. Those make terrible grow areas. Why I said that.

If you clone it its the same as the plant you took it from even its age.

A carbon scrubber will eliminate 99% of the smell. Cant say 100% since that would be probably impossible. A quick example is on my last grow never smelled a thing outside my tent. I would water in my bathtub and even my bathroom fan could not handle the odor smelled like jet fuel. So that being said the carbon filter was eliminating all odor. They last quite a while as well. Over a year usually and usually longer then that. One of my filters is about 13 14 months old still chugging along...air suckage is less though so I will replace it eventually.

There is really no dumb question So ask away its why this place exists. I do suggest googling some grow guides though. Waaay back when I got into it this was the first site I found and it helped alot.

Marijuana Grow Guide | Growing Marijuana | Home

 

To lazy to read what has already been answered, but I am going to keep it short for ya.

I once had three plants and it made my room smell, six plants would def make your house have a lingering odor so get a filter.

Yield is impossible to determine, but based on your grow space, when you are looking at strains, take the yield per square meter and multiply it by .85 and that should get you close.

The Minimum is 100W for your first plant and 50 there after, but remember more light is more yield.

You can't run out of oxygen

Go With soil

Lastly it all depends on your grow, I have priced out a grow this size and got it under $500.

 

NO. You would need a reflector which the MH bulb would connect to, then that connects a ballast which controls the electricity, the newer digital ones are for both mh/hps bulbs. AND you need the correct wattage bulb.

As Rhap said, tinfoil is very bad, it doesn't really help, hardly no true reflective value and hot spots all over the place.

Yes, exhaust needs to be going 24/7 during lights on and off, so would the intake if you choose the forced option.

I don't grow anymore but I did for many years in Canada and California, I like to help people when I have some free internet time. Peace

 

Flat white paint is great for a grow room. Panda is better but flat white works damn good.

Yes, a clone taken from a female plant will be female 100% of the time. It could hermie meaning both male and female sex organs but that is usually genetic and you would see this on the original female if she was already showing her sex. You can also stress a feminized seed plant and her clones in a hermie, but you would have to stress them very bad. Just once you get to the sex showing part you look long and hard and make sure they are fully females. Look at all the node site areas for those distinctive female pair of legs.

A carbon filter will kill 99.99% or whatever. Basically yes, it will kill the entire smell that is being exhausted out that filter. Now when you have to open the door to the room, or the door to the room inside a room, smell will escape, but, as long as that door is not open for too long that smell will only linger and most high strength air fresheners like Freebreez X2 will keep that under control. Ona gel works well to. You may think you smell it sometimes outside of the room because when you were in the room your clothes or parts of them maybe touched the leaves or budsites. That smell will stay with you so throw clothes in hamper and change if going out. Wash hands well to. If you become use to smelling like plants you won't be able to notice as easily when or if a smell leak from the grow room occurs.

But yes, Carbon Filters are GOLD. As long as you calculate the correct grow room size and get the correct cfm fan and filter, which isn't hard to figure out.

Do not scrub, exhaust. Scrubbing means recirculating the air inside the room by running grow room air constantly through the filter, this technique is mostly used in completely sealed rooms that have a environmental system and co2, you must exhaust with the filter in a regular grow room.

Northern Lights is a great choice, both regular and #5. Most Ice strains are ok for odor. Durban Poison is good and I've heard certain strains of Bubblegum are ok. But honestly, don't chose your stains based on odor, just avoid the real stinky ones like any type of skunk, kush, haze. Pick stains based on potency, strength and yield. With a carbon filter and negative pressure and some air deodorizers you are good to go.

When you first learn the questions are endless, sometimes you get help sometimes you don't. There is usually always a good vet or stranger like me to at least point you in the needed direction. Peace

 

I suggest Attitude Seedbank, Herbiesheadshop is good to. I have friends that order from them weekly that live all over the states and have yet to hear of a lost or confiscated shipment. Avoid anything directly from Holland. There is some good legit ones, but resent law changes over there and here forces their mail to go threw a much stricter and longer sorting process both in Europe and once it gets to the NY sorting facility. You can choose a Holland one, but in most cases it will take 3-4 weeks or more instead of the 1-2 weeks from the two places I listed.

If you only have one room, or even a separate veg and flower, try to get strains that are alike or close in height and flower times.

I went from student to teacher so when I'm online here or the other forums I enjoy helping, I'm more than happy to talk at length as you can see. Peace

 

Never. But it's an option. If security is a top concern due to the closeness of other homes or if you are in an apartment, a manufactured filter is the only way to go. If you do the DIY route make two, because most likely it will quit working properly much quicker than a manufactured one. Most manufactured filters can easily go 1 to 1 1/2 years fro average grows who don't have extremely hot and humid rooms. A DIY may only last a month or two, if built well maybe 6 months tops.

Nothing wrong with sounding cheap, or actually being cheap. Not everyone has the cash to go crazy with it, I never did in the early days. And when I went to work for large grow ops in Canada I was amazed at the amount and cost of equipment many had. Most of it is not necessary, but even the basics like a good bulb and a quality filter can be pricey.

Most people I knew including myself used basic florescents long ago in the early stages, nowadays the T5 lights are a must. The light/ballast set-ups are fairly cheap. From seed in soil to first transplant(about 2-3 weeks) the T5s will keep the plants tight and healthy.
T5s in 2 foot are 24 watts with 2,000 lumens the 4 foots are 54 watt at 5,000 lumens both are 6500k blue light spectrum but you can get em in 3000k red spectrum but they are no good for veg growth unless you mix em with the blue 6500ks at a 50/50 or less ratio.

I've seen 6 -12 seedlings under four 2' 24 watt bulbs with a reflector so that's 8,000 lumens in 6500k spectrum in a very small area. T5 must be right on the plants as they lose lumens very quickly with distance. A single 2' 24 watt T5 bulb with ballast is around 20. Per plant wattage and lumens is debatable and hard to be accurate. Go by square foot. Minimum in early veg is 1500-3000, so two 2 foot T5s with some type of reflector would take care of a group of seedlings for 2-3 weeks.

Here is a four 2 foot setup

Amazon.com: Hydrofarm FLT24 2-Foot Four Tube T5 Fluorescent Grow Light System: Patio, Lawn & Garden

NO CLUE. Lumens for a 400 watt HPS can range between 45-65. I have no idea what brand bulb that is. The cost of a quality bulb is about the same price as that entire system. For a first light system I guess it's ok, but I can't say "go for it" because I'm a Lumatek ballast fan and only have experience with digilux, hortilux and a few old school brands. If the money is tight that's a good price for a light system. Peace