3x3x5.5 ft Closet Grow

Whats up fellas?!?!? First time posting I'm getting ready to set up my closet grow and I'm trying to decide on a couple of things and I would like everyones Opinion.

I'm thinking of going with a 3x3x5.5 (I haven't quite measured the space i have yet) Plywood and 2x4 box painted flat white inside. I'm gonna caulk the inside as well(is that needed) I'm using a 400w HPS light.

I am putting a door in and a raisable lighting system. I'm also going to be running an exhuast fan from a port on the Light outside of the box, and a oscialting (sp?) fan inside.

Is this about the right lighting for this size box? Also do you guys think I can put 4 baby girls in there?

Also will it work to vent heat and also smell if I run a duct from my light to the outside of the box?? My light looks kinda like this /__\ with a hole in the bottom left corner about 4 inches in diameter... also the light does not have glass in front of it is this going to be ok? Thanks in advance guys

soil all day

look this over https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/167842-air-handling-4x4x8-430watt-flower.html

Soil first time, it's much more forgiving than hydro techniques. I've got friends who run hydro which gives great results, as long as they can keep their ph and ppms in check. I've not tried it myself, the hassle I've seen them having doing res changes and mixing up gallons of sauce at a time have put me off. Soil might not yield as much but it's far simpler from what I've seen.
A 400w is pretty much on the money for a 3x3, so long as you can keep it ventilated. 4 plants will fit in there, but don't wait too long to start them flowering. They will double to triple in size by the time they are ready to harvest, so make sure to allow for space taken up by pots, the light and the distance the light has to be away from the plants to avoid burning them. If you have a 5'6" high box, say 6-8" for pots, 6" or so for the light, and 12" gap from bulb to plants, that leaves about 3'6" to work with, so I'd be flowering at 12-14" tall, at least the first time round, so you get an idea how big they'll get. If you end up with room to spare, leave the next ones a bit longer. My ceiling is about 5' and I tend to flower at a foot or so, growing cheese which is quite a short, bushy plant.
You are right in thinking that you can extract air from the light hood, and it doesn't necessarily need to have glass below the bulb, that's only if you want to cool the light separately from the room.
Just make sure the hot air from the box ends up out of the room that the box is in, or it'll just draw warm air back in and be a bugger to cool.

Thanks guys for the reassurance. Also I'm going to be going strictly off of clones at first until I find a way to get seeds without sending them to my home address. If I want to grow 4 plants how many clones should I try to root?

I had planned on flowering them at about a foot maybe alittle taller we will see.

It looks like i'm gonna be doing soil. I'm gonna be building the box this weekend and getting my light this weekend maybe next not sure.

Should I do a small CFL setup to do the clones or could I do them in my original box?

My ac unit is in the closet I'm gonna be doing my grow in... Maybe I can tie into that and have my fans blow into the ac ducts and spread the heat out in there?

There's a really good cloning method here https://www.rollitup.org/1189507-post15.html from a thread I started a while back. I've never had a clone die yet using this method, out of maybe 30 (havn't grown them all, I usually take twice as many as I want to use, and keep the best half).
Imo it's best to have a separate space for growing mothers and clones, then you can have more clones as often as you want, meaning you can have a harvest as often as you want.
Simply decide how often you want a harvest, say every two weeks, divide the flower period of the strain you are growing by that, say eight weeks, giving four. Divide 1 by this number, giving 1/4 in this example, then fill your growroom by this fraction every two weeks.
So to clarify, if your growroom holds eight plants, you can harvest 2 plants with an 8 week flowering period, every 2 weeks. After harvesting, replace with more plants so the grow room is always full.
It's not a bad idea to keep a diary of when you take cuttings, harvest etc so you can keep everything in synch.
If you mean the ac unit has exhaust ducts to carry it's heat out of the house, then you should be able to use that to get rid of the heat from the growroom. It might not be the most effective way, if the ac's ducting is long or restrictive, there might be an easier path for it to take but you'll have to see for yourself.

Alright So now I'm having a dilema.... I finally got around to measuring my space that i actually have and it is more like 2'4"x2'6" with basically up to 8 feet height. Will I still be able to get 4 Plants in there?

I talked to a friend who was growing before and he suggested that I do my box the original 5'6" and then place my light on top of it so there is less heat in my box.. Is this a valid solution? If this works then I can just run a couple fans on the light up top and my Oscilating fan inside and an intake hole correct? Do I need to exhaust the box still even though the light isn't really gonna be in the box?

I bought a 250 W halogen work light for clones.... Will this be sufficent lighting for my babies?

This whole new idea of thowing the light on top completely redesigns my box basically and now i'm almost lost again....

Also my dad as a mini air conditioning unit.... should I try to incorporate that into my box?

Thanks in advance guys!!!

Halogen lights arent good.

Mysticlown150 said:

Halogen lights arent good.

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even just for cloning? It was only 8 bucks i can take it back and change it out and get a CFL light to take care of it if it wont work with the halogen....

For cloning I doubt it you can always try it out though. I just use huge 150 watt equivalent CFL's for my clones. Halogen lights I believe don't put out the correct light for clones. They put out a yellow-red. You want the cool white-blue spectrum for your clones.

Mysticlown150 said:

For cloning I doubt it you can always try it out though. I just use huge 150 watt equivalent CFL's for my clones. Halogen lights I believe don't put out the correct light for clones. They put out a yellow-red. You want the cool white-blue spectrum for your clones.

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Very Well looks like i'm going back to Home Depot to be opting for the CFL lights for my clone babies