Advice needed first time grower.

kit6134

New Member
Hi i will be atempting my first grow this summer i have built a 4x4x8 elevated grow box from plywood 2x4's and 4x4's. this grow box is built inside of a 12x12x10 garage space. i have 4" dryer ducting with a 80 cfm inline duct fan pulling air in from outside to the bottom front left corner. there is also a 4" dryer ducting with a 80 cfm inline duct fan pushing air out the back right corner at the top of the grow room through a carbon filter into the garage ( out take flows to the interior of the garage but not back into the grow room because the intake is being pulled from outside the garage). i have wired 2 seperate 15 amp breakers to 2 separate outlets on a 120v circut. i am planning on doing 8 decent sized plants allowing 1.5 square feet of floor space per plant. i am also concidering doing smaller plants but more of them if somone could recommend a number of plants that would be awsome.

i want to install a single 600w hps setup but i dont know what equipment i need to run the light. i think i need a balast and a hood and the light if i am missing anything or i thats not right please let me know
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also do you think 600w hps will fill this area effectivly?
do you think i will need to put ONA scrubbers inside the garage to avoid alerting noisy neighbors?
how tall will i be able to get my plants with an 8 foot tall room alowing 6 inches for the hood i will have 7.5 feet for the plants to grow but how far do they need to be from the light?
will i have to cool this room or will my vents be enough?

I am currently located in iowa, if anyone has any special tips or advice for this climate please let me know

on another note does anyone have any ideas i can use to make the door light proof is there a rubber seal i can put on it or somthing to keep all outside light out?

i will be growing a few different strains: arjans haze #3 http://www.worldwide-marijuana-seeds.com/products/green-house-arjans-haze-3 ,
bubba kush http://www.worldwide-marijuana-seeds.com/products/green-house-bubba-kush , and G13 haze http://www.worldwide-marijuana-seeds.com/products/barneys-farm-g13-haze

i chose these plants because they all have the same height and are within 1 week of the same flowering period.

any tips on growing these specific strains is also greatly appritiated

also if anyone has used this website before to purchase seeds please give me a review.
 
Lots of questions. Lol. First off go with the 1000w. Get your seeds and try to grow them. See how they act. Go from there. Setup seems ok more cfm would prolly be better unless its cold where you are.
 
how many plants would you recommend with 1 1000w hps? and was i correct when i said that inorder to run an hps light all i need is a light bulb, balast, and hood? how close can the plants get to the light? iowa summers usualy stay around the 70-90s usualy staying around 80 degrees if that helps with the cfm calculations. i am hoping to become self sufficient and be able to pay for my setup and electric bills do you think that this will be possible with this setup?
 
It's not only temperature but the number of air changes for the plants.

You can get a cool tube or an enclosed hood and run its exhaust separately from the box. You're going to want to filter the air coming out of the box for odor.

You need a ballast, hood, and bulb. Make sure they are all compatible. Some ballasts and hoods use different cord ends. If you buy a package deal online you should be fine.

It might be a little more expensive but I think I would rather have multiple smaller lights than one big light. But I've never had anything but a tiny cab. This way the height can be adjusted if the plants don't all grow to the same height. You can also use one smaller light when they're all small and spread them out under additional lights as they grow. This is how my buddy grows with led lights.
 
You need to do more reading. In a 4x4 I would prolly do 16. You can do 9, 4 or just 1 big one. I have put 72 8" plants under one light (4x4 table). Its all up to you how you want to do it.
 
ok thats what i thought for the lights and what i need to get it working. and i was already concidering some supplementary CFL lighting around the HPS bulb i just want the dense buds everyone talks about from HPS lighting. and with an enclosed hood venting the heat out the top of the box how close to my lights will my plants be able to get? also i have read that i should veg until they are 1/3 the height i want them to be total how much truth is there to that? and still i would like an estimated number of plants i will be able to do?
 
You need to do more reading. In a 4x4 I would prolly do 16. You can do 9, 4 or just 1 big one. I have put 72 8" plants under one light (4x4 table). Its all up to you how you want to do it.
thank you this gives me a good idea of what i can do with that kind of space

i plan on starting my plants in 1/2 gallon compresed peatlight pots to avoid transplanting them and then moving them to 5 gallon pots.
i havent purchased any pots yet because i have not compleatly decided what i want to do yet.
 
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