I am considering putting a grow area in the top of my garage for growing around 4 auto-flowering plants at a time. The area above my garage ceiling is 4' high and slopes down. I plan to build a 4'X6' area with walls for reflection. The wife never goes up here, but she would be very ticked if she knew I was doing this. 1, Will the noise from the ballast of a 250W HID light be noticeable to someone in the garage? Recommendations for quieter brands? 2. Does one 250W HID sound adequate for this setup? 3. It gets pretty warm up there in the summer. Will the noise from an exhaust fan be noticeable? Recommendations for quieter brands? 4. Do I need to check my plants more than twice a week, as this may be as often as I will be able to? Other comments/suggestions welcome.
There are a few things tough and somewhat wrong about growing in an attic area, however it is doable to an extent. 1. The noise from the ballast will not be an issue, and the light will only be noticeable if the area is not 100% light proof and you have the opening to your attic open. I highly recommend looking into a grow tent which come in all different sizes, just figure out the dimensions of your available area, then google grow tent + (your dimensions) 2. Depending on how many plants 250 watt HID can be okay, but you might want to consider a 400w or a 600w. General rule of thumb is around 100watts per plant. 3. Yes, the noise will be noticable with any fan worth it's salt.. lol There are plenty of ways that people make custom silencers for their outtake and carbon scrubbers for the outtake smell. You WILL be battling the elements constantly either with an AC unit or a space heater. It becomes a massive pain in the nuts. 4. You should be checking up daily, sometimes multiple times a day, ESPECIALLY when the plants are very young aka seedling stages and early veg. Even once they are bigger, you should be popping your head in once a day, which can become tricky especially if you are a normal person and keep your vehicles in your garage, then again some people do not. I do not mean to sound discouraging, it is doable but generally not advised. Also you will have to be pulling some strings to get all the power run to your tent/area of operation in the attic. Yes they make light bulb socket converters to outlets which then require many extension cords then you need multiple multi taps, and run the risk of melting your light bulb sockets which are channeling the power to your area. It is doable, however I highly recommend looking into growtents and starting with a smaller tent and an unused closet to drop the tent in, or an extra bed room or something. Personal closet grows in your bed room are very safe, very easy to manage and you are generally the only one with access. Anyone in your immediate family and or house guests has the chance to be right near your garage attic operation. I hope this helps man!
Is this really worth doing behind your wife's back? You should at least talk to her about it! But anywho, if you can construct the room with out her noticing and you get maybe a 4" fan? It should be quite enough. I suggest getting a digital ballast because they are quiter than normal ballasts. Hope this helps!
I am quite handy and could build a small 'room', but I'm not sure how to make the door lightproof (double door?). I will consider a grow tent. We don't use the garage during the summer months, it turns into my wood workshop. I would try to get two crops in during the warmer months. I just need enough for personal use. I plan to run a dedicated electric line. I can do wiring and have a nearby sub-panel with empty slots.. The wife has a "I don't want to know about it" attitude about my smoking. A grow room would be a no go.
Ohh I see my girl is like that too I feel you. An easy way to make a door light proof is to just use panda film to cover the entire door and buy a tarp zipper and boom. Light proof. You might want to put an extra sheet over your zipper entrance since zippers can leak light.
Oh and also, if you can only grow in the summer you should really sway away from autoflowers. stick with a good indica or think about SCROGing. Auto flowers tend to yield a lot less. Yielding more on this one season occasion will make your stash last thought the year( hopefully!)
Organic gardening requires the least amount of maintenance. Some of the guys are also having excellent luck with what they are calling "SIPs" - self irrigating planters. I don't think they are having to top off the (clear, straight) water more than once a week - perhaps less. An organic homemade soil already has all of the nutrition in it, so for the most part these are "water only" grows, and once you add the "SIPs" into the picture maintenance is as minimal as it gets. I do know that smell can be an issue - especially to your wife's nose. That is unfortunate indeed. You will need to vent the hell out of this attic - I know firsthand how ridiculously hot an attic can get. Too hot oftentimes. Trimming takes time - hours. Can you do this? Drying buds smell to hell. Tough call. Good luck with this one. J
SIPs sounds like a great idea for my situation. Luckily, my wife has almost no sense of smell. Plus, I plan to set up a carbon filter.
I will also back the tent/small area grow it is a lot easier to control a tents environment and get what you want to do dialed in faster if not having to worry about light leaks, smell etc just easier to tent or small sealed room.