Grow Room Planning Stages!Opinions!

So I want to run my potential setup across you guys.

My finger is hovering over the mouse to finalize my gear order, just wanted to get a few opinions before I finalize the deal!

This is a condo semi-stealth op ( I don't have folk coming into my place but don't want it incredibly obvious. (Don't use this opportunity to bash apartment/condo growing as I'm full aware of any risks involved in this particular case)

Now then I currently have two spare closets. The first closet will be for vegging and propagation.

First closet is 2'x8'x8'. It is very long and narrow obviously and has hinged draw doors (not sure what they are called) but I can open the room up to 6 feet of the total length of the room.

Now then on the far left of the closet utilizing a 2'x5'x'8 span will be a 400w MH and roughly 5-6 plants in 3 gallon containers chillin out veggin. The other half or 2'x3'x8' will be a 2ft T5 seed propagation setup for my clones and seedlings and what little bit of supplies I can fit in there with em (cloning hormone, etc)

The second closet is walkin and it sits at 6'x6'x8'. This is going to be strictly flower and I'll be using a 600w HPS and a Carbon scrubber sitting on a 4" inline.

The thing about this Op is that I do NOT have access to any ventilation inside or outside other than regular fans to move around the air, opening doors to air it out and replenish Co2, and the carbon scrubber for flower.

My main concern is heat and smell factor. Do you think I should get a carbon filter/scrubber system for the Veg/prop room also. Going to be alot of shit running in this place if I do. Especially if I'm vegging and flowering simultaneously.

Input and advice would be great, remember, NO VENTING accept into the bedrooms the closets belong to and I need to be able to control odor so people aren't getting knocked on there ass when they walk in my crib.

Thanks!!!!!!

dont grow in a place you will get in trouble for growing, condo, apt, home...etc

But if you must even with all those downfalls you mentioned, ventilation is the key, get the heat and smell out especially with that small of a place. Good Luck!!

do some remodel work and run your vent tubing to the bathroom vent, by code that vent must go to the outside.

Oh yeah and I have 10 White Widow seeds from my suppliers outdoor Widow that was harvested this year. She was a sexy slut, looking forward to raisin some of her kin'folk.

His shitz didn't smell bad but there were only 3 monsters and outdoors so I could only get the full aroma when my face was laying on it. I hear that growing this stuff indoors gets really danky!

I've spared no expense on the medium/and nutes, so if say I had them in an optimal condition how stanky stank are these gonna be in here?

jesus of Cannabis said:

dont grow in a place you will get in trouble for growing, condo, apt, home...etc

But if you must even with all those downfalls you mentioned, ventilation is the key, get the heat and smell out especially with that small of a place. Good Luck!!

do some remodel work and run your vent tubing to the bathroom vent, by code that vent must go to the outside.

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What about using several carbon scrubbers in place of outside vent?

Bash Bash!! Growing in Condo = Stupiiiiiid! Just kidding bro.... (couldn't help it) Good luck though.
My two cents include: obtain yourself a decent air filter unit that eliminates odors. Run carbon srubbers in your room and have them exhaust back in to your room to re-circulate everything.
My other penny to the pot- DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS. Especially since it appears you'll be using almost all primary closets in your condo quarters. Light incense all the time so when people show up and you have tons of incense masking the additional smell... they'll just start thinking that's how you roll. With a sh|t ton of incense burning all the time. ha ha! Your situation indicates you'll need every amount of odor control you get. You'll most likely need a couple methods working together to reduce your smell.

I'm not sure about this but I've also heard the less smelly your room is the less smelly your buds will be at harvest. Anyone that has info on this please chime in-

ya they will never suspect anything with a fog of incense in the condo.

Carbon scrubbers work well if you can get the room to be airtight.

GrowfaceKillah said:

Bash Bash!! Growing in Condo = Stupiiiiiid! Just kidding bro.... (couldn't help it) Good luck though.
My two cents include: obtain yourself a decent air filter unit that eliminates odors. Run carbon srubbers in your room and have them exhaust back in to your room to re-circulate everything.
My other penny to the pot- DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT THIS. Especially since it appears you'll be using almost all primary closets in your condo quarters. Light incense all the time so when people show up and you have tons of incense masking the additional smell... they'll just start thinking that's how you roll. With a sh|t ton of incense burning all the time. ha ha! Your situation indicates you'll need every amount of odor control you get. You'll most likely need a couple methods working together to reduce your smell.

I'm not sure about this but I've also heard the less smelly your room is the less smelly your buds will be at harvest. Anyone that has info on this please chime in-

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Yeah, I could reduce the amount of plants I'll be running and add the additional scrubbers. How loud is a typical 4' inline fan when running? Also I can vent into the flower room wall, but I'm not real sure if that will help, maybe if it's scrubbed air? Or I could down grade and only run 1 room with a dual HPS/MH system. (The big walk in closet is at the far end of the condo, long ass hallway and a couple doors away from the entrance to my spot. I have a ton of friends who enjoy quality smoke (especially when it's all American shit) I want to be able to grow enough for my habit and make a couple bucks to cover the cost of running this little operation.

jesus of Cannabis said:

ya they will never suspect anything with a fog of incense in the condo.

Carbon scrubbers work well if you can get the room to be airtight.

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The walk-in is pretty sealed up man. It's the other room that I was concerned about, hard to find info on Veg odor though. SOme people have alot of dankness in their veg and some don't. Your opinion lean towards a 1 room grow? I mean, you folks know what it smells like through all stages so seriously if it's going to be more feasible to have 1 room. If it would lower odor etc by a considerable amount.

odor isn't a problem in the Veg room. Your just going to have to worry about the flowering room.

jesus of Cannabis said:

ya they will never suspect anything with a fog of incense in the condo.
Carbon scrubbers work well if you can get the room to be airtight.

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Huh? Hey Jesus.... one stick of Nag Champa 20 minutes before a guest's visit will greatly reduce cannabis odor. You don't have to clam bake your house with incense do get rid of odors, that's not what I said.

813Hmgrwn said:

odor isn't a problem in the Veg room. Your just going to have to worry about the flowering room.

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813 in my personal experience cannabis in the veg stage can smell too; not as strong, but mine smell...

Mudslide9791 said:

.......Your opinion lean towards a 1 room grow? I mean, you folks know what it smells like through all stages so seriously if it's going to be more feasible to have 1 room. If it would lower odor etc by a considerable amount.

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Mudslide I have no idea how long you've grown but I'm assuming this would be your first op based on a few questions you've asked. No worries though bud, we all gotta start somewhere. The more confined you have your grow op the easier it will be to construct, work on and maintain... IF you choose to confine then I recommend splitting the room in two sides- one half veg, other half flower; you'll have two nice 3'x3'x8' spaces. Take the lower 2.5ft of one side and keep that for your clones and seedling "room" but leave about 1ft. of space below that for nutrient and material storage. Use the upper 4.5ft for your vegging "room" and use the other 3'x3'x8' side for strictly flowering; I'll leave the venting design up to you BUT to answer your question a typical 6" vortex will sound as loud as your hair dryer so it can be significant; I imagine a 4" will be similar in noise level. Simply design and build a muffling box though, they're easy. If you need ideas search google for "muffler box rollitup" and you'll find some links. IMO I would veg ONE plant.... yes one... until it's about 2ft tall; top it two or three times during it's beginning growth toward 2ft. While that's 3 weeks in to vegging drop more seeds or take more clones. Pick the best one and move it in to the veg room after it's growing or sprouted roots. Then get your 2foot girl and put her in the flower room. If you get in a repetition like this you'll get exactly what you want but your first 8-10 weeks will be brutal. You're just watching and waiting with no homegrown smoke... once the first harvest starts and you perpetuate the next plant in to flower it's a constant ear to ear smile. You can yield a QP every month from a space as small as yours. I've seen forum posts of people who yielded a pound in a space that small doing a sea of green or screen of green grow method.
JUST STUDY... PLAN IT, draw it out and do it right bro. Don't get too excited and rush it... that's how I botched my first grow; learn from my mistake. If you layout week by week what you want to do before you even start your op it will be much easier! You can always change as you move through perpetuation.
Good luck Mudslide-

the easiest way i find to grow in an apartment is in tents. these are great for many reasons. they are easy to set up and take down without ever knowing they were there. they create a air tight and light tight area which can go anywhere. you could set up two tents in the bigger closet, one for veg and one for flower and set up a mother tent for cloning in the smaller closet. tents also make heat management much easier, but if you use a tent or not you must vent the exhaust completely out of the room you are growing. from my experience, recirculating the hot air into the grow room is not a viable means of dissipating the heat created by the appropriately sized light. also i would get atleast a 6" fan for the flowering and a 4" for the veg. put a carbon filter and fan in both areas and you can use onna gel of ozeum to take care of the residual smell. oh and btw that incense bulshit does not only fail to fool anyone, but it pollutes the clean air which your plants will eventually be using and smoke is not good for plants. get a proper fan and scrubber for any area you grow in it is essential just like getting the correct light or medium of nutrients. dont neglect ventilation it could make or break your grow.

irieie said:

........oh and btw that incense bulshit does not only fail to fool anyone, but it pollutes the clean air which your plants will eventually be using and smoke is not good for plants. get a proper fan and scrubber for any area you grow in it is essential just like getting the correct light or medium of nutrients. dont neglect ventilation it could make or break your grow.

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Irieie- Why shouldn't someone burn incense if they want to? Or better yet, to cover up the smell of something else? Dog barf in the house, a crap your wife just took or even Cannabis smells can be reduced with incense! I'm not lighting incense in the same room as the f!king plants people holy sh|t... The air in my house does not enter my lab. If you have a room that's set up correctly the air should be recirculating; venting old and bringing in new air almost constantly. This eliminates buildup of said "pollution" issue. Ventilation, temperature and humidity are the most crucial obviously, but a scrubber is not. Just acquire less smelly strains; I'm sure there's plenty that don't skunk things up and still pack a punch. Personally though I've found the stinkier the plant, the better the smoke and medicinal therapy

BTW.... in my opinion tents are a fricking HUGE waste of money but if you're interested click here for one I just found quickly. Though, I question the air tightness integrity of this particular model. Some can run upward of $350!! Maybe those are more airtight?? Also, unless you vent outside the tent or have an AC unit inside you might have an initial battle with temperature issues using tents. Even the AC unit will generate heat... Though with that said.... MANY have successfully used tents for stealth. I don't think you need a tent i.m.o. but people regularly spend money on that sort of thing... I'd rather buy better nutes or a bigger light.

I appreciate the input guys for real. My gear is on the way and I just dropped $150 at Home depot on crap. Total bill is up to around $450. I have everything except the damn carbon filter system. Another $150 for the pewp 4' setup from HTG. I'm getting tight on funds now so the op is going to have to begin until my regular job can pay for the extra shit.

Growface, I expecially appreciate your info. The "Lab" is almost done. I've decided to hold off on using both closets and have set up a command station in the big walk- in closet. Half the room has been allocated for Veg/Flower the other half has a small shelf system. On it will be a grow-start T5 seedling/clone propagation setup. I have a 50 gallon plastic tote on this side with my Ocean Forest/Perlite mix, and a shelf to store my lab shit, Cloning Gel, razors, alcohol etc etc and anything else related to the operation. I also have a digital timer system to kick my veg light on and off. I've purchased Tomato screens (about 3 inch openings) approximately 2 ft in height to scrog the shit outa my plants since I'll only be using half the closet for FLower/Veg. After my first grow when I have my chemistry down I'll consider making a Veg room outside this closet. I'm at the point of no return now and I'm actually getting nervous. I've covered my bases other than the damn filter and have spared no expense for good soils/nutes etc. I've also scoured the internet for several weeks soaking up tons of information regarding every stage of Cannabis development.

I've got my 10 widows germinating now and I get excited just thinking about my little Widows in there about to pop open and see daddy for the first time!

I want to start a journal and take some pics of the setup but I don't have a working camera, which pisses me off cause this room looks clean guys, I mean very basic, but very organized and I'm utilizing the room space really efficiently.

ALso, Growface, if I were to split the room would I be better off with one tent just for flowering and the other side for veg without a tent? I'm not trying to spent anymore loot on this project other than a scrubber and a 600w hps for when I decide to veg and flower in separate spots. (this is assuming this grow's odor doesn't make me feel too uncomfortable and I scrap the operation (praying that doesn't happen)

ALso, here's a note I want to add. If I get over 5 females I'll be giving the excess to my buddy who supplied me the seeds. He's an outdoor grower but is building himself a winter personal grow setup and I offered any female over 5 kinda as a thank you gesture for hookin me up with the seeds out of one of his monsters from this harvest.

I was planning on topping and scrogging the 5 (hopefully) I get to maximize yield. I was thinking a veg until around 1 1/2 foot and then flower? Sound about right? I want to be able to keep me a little personal smoke stash and launch whats left over to my buddies to make up for the $ I've invested growing it.

SO I was pointed towards a really effective odor combat technique that I'm going to try instead of a loud carbon scrubber. I'm going to build two ONA buckets for my home. One for the room outside my grow and one near the entrance of my home. I don't get much company and those I do have over smoke with me so this sounds like a perfect way to keep the odor from leaking out into the condo entranceway and thus keeping my baby's safe =)

Mudslide9791 said:

If I get over 5 females I'll be giving the excess to my buddy who supplied me the seeds. He's an outdoor grower but is building himself a winter personal grow setup and I offered any female over 5 kinda as a thank you gesture for hookin me up with the seeds out of one of his monsters from this harvest.

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I have gifted over 20+ plants and other stuff, lights, nutes, soil...to those that needed it or got ripped off somehow and NEVER asked anything in return....MEGA + rep for returning the love Mudslide, Karma is a bitch but she is on your side.
GrowFace, you got some good knowledge as well +rep.

Thanks for the Reps man, right back at ya!

Mudslide9791 said:

SO I was pointed towards a really effective odor combat technique that I'm going to try instead of a loud carbon scrubber. I'm going to build two ONA buckets for my home. One for the room outside my grow and one near the entrance of my home. I don't get much company and those I do have over smoke with me so this sounds like a perfect way to keep the odor from leaking out into the condo entranceway and thus keeping my baby's safe =)

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Wicked sweet Mudslide. Things are sounding good. I think you should only worry about a grow tent if you find issues with odor problems. DO get yourself a scrubber though. If that doesn't work out then do some research on tents. I know absolutely nothing about them and I don't really need to. I have no need to purchase one for my setup so I've never researched their effectiveness. In my lab it would be a waste. I will say again that many use them quite successfully so maybe befriend yourself a fellow rollitup citizen who's a tent grower? I do think it would be a waste for your lab at this point but we'll see if you have odor issues and whether it would be logical to add a tent.

Keep your cool on scrapping the op because if you've done your research, continue to do your research and implement things correctly, you can pull this off. The ONA is something I'm actually considering myself. Where as I don't have an issue with odor concerning guests, It's always better to get stealthier. Is invisible possible in a grow op?....heh heh. Anyway, I was thinking more along the lines of a square box. You can go to wal-mart and buy those square air conditioning filters in hepa allergen and charcoal filters. I was thinking, "ok if I build a box, put slats in it, make the top in to a large hinged door with some airtight weather stripping or something, I can slide these filters in and out really easily on their sides"..... You could have say, two hepas and two charcoals? This my friend would really cost you more time to make than it may in materials but, sounds effective to me. I mean, in essence all we need is the air in the room to pass through the filters right? Next-

If you're going to grow 5 girls in your flower space then you should only have to top a couple times. You top anymore than that and you could run in to the TOO many colas if you can believe that. People have to remember during scrog that your leaves still need to see the light for photosynthesis. They're just thinking "how many times can I top to get the most colas blasting through my screen holes?" I've seen some with a sh|t ton of colas but they turn out airy and less dense because they trimmed too many leaves off and let the fruit take over to burst in the light; but, it does lower yield weight. Your fruit will be less dense if you do that... You don't want that. You want big, thick and juicy fruit! Sooo.... your plants need that light bro. Where do they soak up probably 90% of that light? In that badass chlorophyll they have racing through their greenies. BTW I just pulled that 90% outOFmyAss to illustrate how light absorption is done in chlorophyll; not so much the tomato of a plant or the colas on cannabis. That's why on seed packets of any type of fruit or vegetable they say to plant such and such a distance apart from one another so the leaves and plants can spread out to suck up more light. There's also chlorophyll in other parts of a plant, sure but... anyway I think you get my point.
But, to cover my ass I will say that you can get by just fine with too many colas... your quality may suffer. How much?... I have no idea; I've never done it.

On another note.... think about this- cloning from a top. Some people top a plant when the bit they're topping off is super tiny. This is ok, and makes it so it starts branches right away. But if you wait a little longer so that top hits 10 inches tall... THEN PULL a 4 inch top off of it... your girl will still grow those branches and more colas. This will bring your height back down to 6" and that may suck to visually see but you just got yourself a super damn healthy clone that will burst roots in 3 days in an aeroponics cloner. These are they type of clones that usually don't wilt and start roots right away because all the nutes were being packed into height stretching. Your fan leaves on the girls you topped will still spread out and do their thing; giving you 2-4 more colas while you've got what I call a "super healthy" top clone on the rise. As I said before, it may be a visual bummer to see her height drop but once that plant hits vigor in flower bro... You'll smile ear to ear.

Vegging until 1.5ft sounds good for a WW scrog to me. It may take longer to get to that 1.5ft. by topping this way but don't get discouraged my friend. I promise you will be happily surprised if you're patient.
Hope I've helped, until next time, Thanks for the props and chow my friends.

I've finished the lab, just waiting for a couple more things to come in. Everything is in route and has a scheduled delivery of early this week.

I've decided not to go the tent route as I really like my setup and think I can produce a good crop. I've allocated room for 6 plants in 3 gallon grow bags sitting 6 inches or so apart. I picked up 3 round metal support screens that sit roughly 2 feet above the plants. These screens will allow me to semi-scrog/train the plants while allowing me to keep my lighting 15" or so off the canopy the entire grow.

I like the idea about the hepa filter/charcoal box. I certainly have more time now than I do money so definately keep me posted on that project and I'll let you know how my ONA buckets work on my grow. I have plenty of time to get those built, I'm guessing roughly 4 weeks until it may become an issue.

Yeah my biggest fear is getting light/airy buds man, thats why I bought the plant supports, to keep the height manageable so I can always have all my girls in the light footprint.

On a high note, I have begun germinating my 10 Widows. I put them in paper towels Friday night and checked them this morning, still nothing =(

I'm going with a clean top soil and lightly fertilized perlite medium for the seedlings and will transplant them over to a 1 part clean top soil, 1 part Ocean Forest, 1/3 part perlite medium for veg. I didn't want the seedlings in the Ocean Forest medium to start to reduce the possibilities of the seedlings getting burned by the rich FF soil.