Hey all, Nice community here. A bit of background on myself; I moved to a certain Asian country a little over a year ago. I've been clean for about that time I'm happy for the most part, but I could be a lot happier The other day, I realized that the only people that have been in my house are my gf and me, so I think it might be time to give a small grow op a shot. I've got a couple indo soil grows under my belt, but nothing like what I'm about to attempt, so I need some help. Like I mentioned before, I'm in Asia, so supplies are limited. I live on the top floor of a 5 story apartment building. I plan to do a complete cfl hempy bucket grow. I've got feminized auto-flower blue mystic and that fox farm multi pack en route. Simplicity is key, as I have limited tools available, and I'm not a particularly 'handy' dude anyways. SO, here are the spaces I have available. Option 1: small space above my hood. Approx 350x270x400 cm. pretty small, but there's electricity AND ventilation built into that puppy. Also, I dig the idea of a stealth cabinet ready to go. My concerns are of course, space (is it even possible to flower in such a small area?), and smell (I have no idea where the outtake to that hose is. For all I know I could be pumping herb smell into my neighbors place.) Option 2: Water heater cabinet. Way bigger. Around 470x600x1200 cm. Also has an outlet, as well as a vent tube coming out of the water heater. Concerns: The water heater is the only thing in my apartment that might need to be serviced. I'd hate to have to move/hide my whole setup outta there. Furthermore, I have no idea how to tap into that tube, so I foresee temperature and air circulation issues. Anyways, that's my situation. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to get all the pertinent info out there. Nothing too technical or hardcore, please. Practicality and simplicity over style. I'm not looking to do a perpetual harvest or have a separate veg/flower cab or anything. I'm not greedy and wanna keep it low key. I figure one (or two^^) harvests could hold me for a while. Ugh, I can't figure out how to upload pics so here's an album: boobs - Imgur
Check and make sure the penalty isn't death or something like that if you get caught man. Hmm.. So with stealth being your priority I think a carbon filter will be the most important thing for you. If you invest in a good quiet fan, a controller for said fan, and a good carbon unit, that will be an excellent starting point. Also there are strains that have less odor. I do not have any experience with them so idk if they are totally odorless or what.
I've been growing with fluorescents a bit now, and I would HIGHLY recommend going with T5s instead of CFLs. Buy an empty fixture of some sort (ie whatever size you want). I recommend buying multiple fixtures and arranging them around the plants. You should also keep the lights VERY close. No reason not to with the heat output being so low. The reason why you're buying empty fixtures is that you don't want to waste money on bulbs made for humans. You want bulbs for plants. Luckily, philips and a few other lighting companies make pure red/blue T5s. You have to dig a little to find them and may have to special order them at your local hydro store or aquarium supply store that deals with specialty lighting for coral grows and such. Buy enough red bulbs to fill your fixtures, and half as many blue bulbs. Mix blue/red in veg and preflower. Once the plants are clearly not vegetatively growing (just budding), switch to all red. Usually 2-3 weeks into flower is when I switch. You should see better results than an equivalent wattage HID system. CFLs are VERY hard to find in red/blue at the higher wattages. The 6500k/2700k is OK, but T5s are just really a better option.
I have this, yeah, I'm looking into making a carbon scrubber, but the initial growroom setup comes first. Bullet, T5's sound great, but availability might be a problem. Not a lot of aquarium stores around here. Please keep in mind that I'm in Asia and have limited language ability. Any clues as to where I might look? What are some of the normal applications of the T5? I don't wanna attract unnecessary attention.
For the fixtures, you can get them at hardware stores. They also have the bulbs, but probably won't stock the blue/red ones. Your best bet for those is a specialty lighting store or the internet. Might have to get some place to special order them for you... I know you said language is a problem, but just look up the part numbers of the bulbs you want and bring it in to somewhere that deals with that kind of lighting. You should be able to communicate things with that I'd imagine.
http://www.1000bulbs.com/images/PDF/philips-t5-catalog-2009.pdf there's a link to philips' catalog. The colored T5s are near the bottom.