First time grower.

As the title says I'm a virgin grower, yet to concur my first harvest. I have a small space inside my new house which I'm planning on turning into a small growing area, the measurements are 2ftx2ftx7ft.

I am on a pretty strict budget of 500NZD (about 420$ USD) With this I need to buy Lights, Grow Tent, Carbon Filter and Fans (Plus anything other ESSENTIALS you may think I need)
*Do you think it's possible to set up an efficient growing space with my budget?
*How many plants do you think I can fit in this space?
*With this amount of space how many DRY grams do you think I can get per harvest?

Any information is highly appreciated

Hey fellow New Zealander I haven't done indoors Im only on my first outdoor grow but just though Id say hey.
Check out the NZ outdoor thread theirs kiwis who do indoor who might be able to help: https://www.rollitup.org/outdoor-growing/749279-new-zealand-outdoor-thread-2013-a-32.html

Welcome, This is the place to get all of your answers, I am learning so much here everyday. I think you should spend most of that budget on a good LED Light. that will maximize your yield. One of the biggest things i have learned is patience. It takes a lot of patience and don't over think things. as far as amount of plants. in the space if you go big with lst i would say max of 2. If you trained your plant to be short and bushy in veg, you could have a beast that takes up the whole space when done with flower.
Hope this helps.

Hey mate, good to see anther kiwi on here.

I've got enough indoor and outdoor experience to get you on the right track bro, it's actually a lot easier than you think.
I highly recommend one of these http://www.easygrow.co.nz/grow-tent/619-homebox-grolab-60cm-x-60cm-x-160cm.html($12 160cm is enough height for your first grows, I got 4oz from a 20 inch auto flower strain.

Don't go to switched on gardener for setting up rooms, do you live in auckland by any chance? easy grow only has stores in manakau and west auckland in new lynn.
http://www.easygrow.co.nz/specials/612-special-kitset-600-watt-larger-shade.html here's a 600 hps for $195 but I would recommend getting a mh/hps bulb instead of the straight hps that it comes with, there's more all round use with the mh/hps bulbs and I've had real good results from them.

http://www.easygrow.co.nz/fans/162-100mm-fan-inline-.html you need one of these to bring fresh air into the room, those growlab tents have places for ducting to fit into.

We will worry about carbon filters later when you need to remove odour 4 weeks or so into flower(strain dependant), you might need to save up for a centrifugal fan to fit onto the carbon filter but that is still quite awhile away before you need to use one.

I think 2 plants would be best in that space, maybe more if they're autos. do you have any seeds or cuttings?. The yield depends on the strain but I'd say 6oz's at least for first time growers with a 600hps, could get close to an lb as you get better with your strains. I reckon you could get half a pound easy with the Think Different auto flowering strain - maybe an auto would be best for you're first grow. I got 4.4 ounces from a single auto plant under a 600 hps/mh light, it was under 2ft in height too


It's probably better to get a tent,light and a inline fan first before worrying about nutrients,mediums or carbon filter fans.

Easy grow is the cheapest, they always have sales.

hey hey nzstoner theres a few places on the net in australia well hydro shops here that do a complete setup what ur asking for very cheap 350aus dollers my mate just got ezy tent maylar 1 inline dutch fan no carbon tho but there a peace of piss to make we dont buy em here we make em bat wing shader 2 little fans some little plants holders 30ltr res with water pump and a 20 ltr bucket thing with clay balls think it ment for ebb flow we havent set it up yet and also he got a run of canna grow a,b flower a,b also 400watt hps and this big ass 6500kcfl for veg thinks she about a 200 watt cfl and these post to nz theres a few here were i am in s.a that do real good deals i also no of a joint in melbourne hit me up man

You have such a small area I really don't think you want to try and use a 600 it is overkill in my opinion. You could use a 400 effectively but exhaust is required. I also recommend a carbon filter setup for smell. Your budget is tight as the tent alone is going to cost $120 plus, Filter fan combo about the same, and light....that is the basics. I don't feel the fan recommended above is going to work well either. If you want to pull off 4 oz plus off a plant it will take that whole 2x2 area so one plant. Or a couple that produce half as much. Is this space a closet? Can this area be expanded I use a 2x3x5 tent (bought used $80) 4" 180 cfm inline fan (vortex $120), 400w HPS w/ducted hood ($225), Phresh Filter ($75). then of course all the misc little things you will need, pots, soil or medium, food, PH tester (or drops), PH up and down, misc fans inside tent, etc. In my area of 2x3 I grow between 2-4 plants. It really doesn't matter how many because we are working with limited space and depending on technique two plants will fill up that area just as much as 4 would and produce the same. If I had 4 plants I was getting a couple ounces each, if I am doing two I am getting around 4 oz per plant. I had issues controlling heat but I also live in a warmer place and this is in a spare room that is typically warmer. I ended up ditching the 400 and just got a LED light that covers this area 2x3 but that light was $500 on its own.

of course a 600 is an overkill, was just trying to find the cheapest options. A decent led would be recommended in that space but that would take up most of your budget.
Growing equipment is expensive over here, at switched on gardener you will be spending close to 1000 getting the most basic of setups.
I have a 180 watt led that's been getting awesome results mixed in with 2 600 hps.

You could yield quite a few zips with a Malawi, from ace seeds. you could only fit 1 plant just in that space lol.

Wow didn't expect such helpful responses! And yes CrazyKiwi I live in Auckland, Manukau. And I never even knew Easygrow existed until now, which is great seaming as there's not many stores in NZ at all that sell this type of equipment locally.

I CAN upsize the area a bit more, maybe 3x3x7 at most. It's more of a Really small garage, but I have other thing's to store in there as well, which is why I'm not using the full space ( I may fully dedicate the area fully once I've learnt the art of weed growing ), saying this I can easily cut a whole through the tin walls for exhaust holes etc. Also with the room being made from thin material will the cold weather affect my grow?

With the Carbon filter, I have two neighbor boundaries about Two meters from the back and the side. So I think it would be necessary, but you guys are the pros so I'll take leave that up to you to decide.

For the choice of Seeds, I'm not to sure right now. I've only just started looking into Auto-Flowering and they don't look to bad. My main focus is quality bud, yet as much yield as possible. If you have any more suggestion's of Seed that'd be greatly appreciated.

Yeah easy grow is pretty cheap compared to sog, but switched on have more cannabis focussed nutrients. I use sog for little things like nutrients or mediums, I grow in rockwool which is like insulation so it's easy to use for a first grow.

http://aceseeds.org/philosophy.php this seedbank is simply amazing, not many seedbanks are as dedicated to preserving the original genetics as this one.

Check out their Panama,Malawi and Orient Express in the gallery section. I'm growing their Panama and Malawi at the moment, they say Malawi is the most potent strain they've come across.
I reckon Orient Express would be good for you because it's their highest yielding strain and it's an asian sativa to top it off

You want to get land race based strains bro, too many people buy into the dutch americanised marketing side of cannabis with all these repetitive hyped up strains.
Definitely stay away from Green house seeds. My personal favourite 3 seedbanks are Ace,Cannabiogen and Mr nice seeds, They all have their own unique strains and are the hardest working breeders out there preserving the landrace.

are you growing in a small shed? yeah the temps will get hotter and colder in there. Are there neighbours around to see you going in and out with plants,nutrients,water etc.?
There's not as much security growing outside of your house.

Nar I'm pretty safe walking in and out of there without being seen. And I've already decided I'm putting locks on the garage etc

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yeah, i discovered Easy Grow about a month ago and from what i can see it looks really good and quite affordable. Never mind Switched on, they fully take advantage of the fact there are so little indoor gardening shops in nz, they mark up the price like crazy. i would suggest maybe having a look on trademe or ebay if you can afford the hassle of getting your things shipped. trademe is really good for fluorescent lights and shit for a veg/clone room. but hey, im in the same boat as you man, starting from the start.[/FONT]

EBAY not bad gumtree is better lol rate use are gunna spend in a nz hydro shop is crazy like i said u prob get it cheaper with postage from oz try looking at a joint called glandore hydro best grow shop ever and cheap

Yeah switched on is bullshit, $200 for a 5 litre of earth juice catalyst. I swear they at least triple the price.

Do you have a thermometer? maybe check what the temps are like before setting it up in a shed.

I do not.. would a cheap one off Trademe do?

What's the ideal temperature for a room to grow in?

You can pick them up pretty cheap in a shop bro, go to an Asian store or something, but in sure one off trademe would be fine if its accurate.

NzStonerr said:

What's the ideal temperature for a room to grow in?

Click to expand...

20-25 degrees. Much above will slow down growth and increase stretch and the flowers end up fluffy. Below and growth slows down and k gets locked out.

crazykiwi420 said:

Yeah switched on is bullshit, $200 for a 5 litre of earth juice catalyst. I swear they at least triple the price.

Click to expand...

Definitely crazy markup ay. Bunnings/Mitre 10 has almost everything you need imo