I will be heading to Home Depot today to pick up some supplies for my very first grow. I would really appreciate some feedback before I go. I was wondering what I would need if I were to use this grow tent(not sure if it's a good one but in open to suggestions)-- GrowLab GL60 Portable Grow Room Now I was wondering what I would need as far as air circulation and carbon filters. I wanted to know if I could obtain these things at Home Depot or not. I am also open to suggestions for grow lights as I know this is very important. I'm looking for something on the energy efficient side as well. Let me also mention that the seeds I am using are auto flowering and I only wish to grow 3 plants max at one time. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
For 3 i'd go for a 3x3 or 4x4 and at least a 400 watt light with 200+cfm exhaust fan and a carbon filter. Couple small fans blowing on the plants. Obviously if your not worried about odors you don't need a carbon filter. i use HID lighting and love it, can't speak for other lights.
Thanks for the info! And I may run just one plant to start honestly it's just for the personal stash. can I get the carbon filter and ductwork and lights all at Home Depot tho? My worry is in going to get everything I need and have no clue on how to set any of it up
If you don't mind me posting a couple pics on your thread i can show you how mine is setup. As you can see here the air flow starts by coming in passive intakes at the bottom where the cool air is, it sucks it through the carbon filter at the top of the box where the hot air is and blows it through the light fixture and out of the box then out of the room. I just got this gorilla tent, it's fantastic.
You might need to go to your local hydro store for good lights, i have no idea about home depot. I ordered mine from amazon. i use this 600 watt apollo light . I use an apollo carbon filter from them too.
it costed me more than 350 for sure, you might want to look into a 400 watt hid or maybe led/cfls. You shouldn't need as much cooling with led/cfls and will make for a cheaper setup but probably not quite the yield.
My expectations are low for my first grow. Maybe looking to yield a little over an ounce if possible.
Yeah that tent looks pretty good, a nice height for a small tent. It's only big enough for 1 plant though. You would want a couple of cheap 6" or 7" clip on or desk fans to circulate the air. These are very important. You will need a good quality 4" exhaust fan and filter to match. Don't buy cheap versions of either of these because they won't work. I would have a 250w HPS in there. HPS are about as energy efficient as lights get, except possibly for some high end LEDs, but they cost a fortune so not worth it in my opinion. You could have a 400w HPS if you get a dimmable one. A ballast that switches between 200w/300w/400w would be ideal because in the summer you can drop it down to 200w if needed, and in winter you may be able to crank it up to 400w. I don't know what they sell at home depot, do they sell grow equipment? Unless they have a hydro section they won't sell a suitable carbon filter, but possibly the exhaust fan If you don't have a grow store near you then ordering off eBay is straightforward. When you have it all in front of you it's obvious what needs to go where. But if you do have trouble, there will always be someone on here happy to help
If you only want an oz then a 200w CFL will give you that. Much cheaper to buy. But not energy or cost efficient at all, but it's a cheap start
I mean if I could yield more off of one plant then that would be ideal. I also just found out there is a hydroponics store not too far from me but the problem is that's all retail price. I could get the tent online and then the hardware there but I feel like that would be a waste of money
Hydro stores are expensive, if your ordering a tent i'd order the lights too. Brand doesn't matter all that much as long as it's got a warranty. I learned the hard way not to buy crap with no warranty lol.
Yes I think I'll steer clear of the hydro store and do everything online but do you guys have any links on a decent light that would fit that tent as well as filters and fans? Don't wanna ask too much I just want to make sure I'm thorough
You can never ask too much here bro, that's why we're here lol. As far as lights, I will share my experience and leave it at that. I started on a shit ton of CFLs and a homemade box and it worked. The thing is, as humans we are never really satisfied so I found myself investing in bigger better lights soon after, being that I started at the bottom of the barrel and I quickly found how important lighting is. My advice to you is if you're going to go cheap on anything do NOT go cheap on your lights. No heat issues? HID/HPS combo like gold said, for a small grow that's the creme de la crème. Worried about heat (like me)? LEDs are probably the way to go. They're great for personal grows and will get you decent yields. Plus low power consumption which may allow you to go up in wattage. I won't knock CFLs. I've seen amazing bud grown with CFLs. I will say that it will take more time, and as we all know time is of the essence. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Awesome info man. I want to get a good light and my father is an electrician and when I used to live with him he would rave about led lights and basically replaced every bulb in our house with led lights. I wonder if he could get me them cheap. The ones he used to use took a while to reach their peak brightness when you would turn them on ( I used to hate them because when you turned the light on it was just as dark for about a minute or two)
Are you looking to do something super simple just to test the waters of growing? Or are you trying to grow some amazing bud?
Lol yea man those are a different breed. You'll need plant grow lights of a certain light wave spectrum. Normal house lights contain only a certain amount of light the plants actually use for growth although with the right info provided (2700k or 6500k) they could still work. LEDs seem to pinpoint the specific red and blue spectrum and only use those color LEDs to make up the light. They have made great progressions since using only red and blue spectrum lights but that's beyond me so I won't speak on it. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk