High tech grow.

So i'm a pretty high tech guy starting my first grow in a closet. I really dig what you guys do here so i'm gonna put up my activities here. What i'm looking for is pointers and feedback. So i'll try to be as precise as i can with pictures and methods and what-have-you.

So lemme bring you guys in at step one. at this point, all i have done is put in shelves and a locking doorknob on this thing. Working in a small space, precisely 28" deep, 23" wide, and 96" (8 feet) tall. So... what now?

I've attached an image of my growing space with a magazine in for scale. Use your own copy for reference. The shelves are two 23" x 11" x 3/4" planks set on the rails on the side, they're movable, and the rails set at 39", 55", and 71" high, with the lowest rail having a bar for hanging clothes under the shelf where you can't see it. The door is louvered but i will cover the open panels with cardboard before i set mylar on all surfaces inside.

So the mission I'm on is to set something up where i can have this thing run itself. Not that I don't wanna enjoy my first one, but just so i can be sure i'm precise. Anything you can recommend that gathers information, automates, or enhances my little closet here would be great.

Where I'm at now... I've basically been reading these forums for months and picked a strain and located clones. I've got a four foot single bulb fixture laying around, in addition to the 250w HPS & ballast w/o reflector i bought just for this. I haven't wired power into it yet but will soon, as well as rout a 4" diameter vent pipe into the top with a fan venting to the outside via a rooftop vent. Here's another pic of the shelves.

Cool! I have faith in you. Subscribed.

Here's a list of my questions.

A. Any ideas about light placement? I have no intention of making a veg area at the moment, so every bit of this space will be for flowering once the kids are ready.

B. Should i use the four foot fixture even though i don't have space to hang it horizontally? Thinking i could get two more and set them vertically on each wall. More light is better, right?

C. Just pointing out that I have BOTH 120v and 240v AC power within feet of this closet that I can use. Not sure if that is of any consequence but I figured it might spark an idea.


I'll also point out that I'm using clones of AK48.

gritsgrav said:

Here's a list of my questions.

A. Any ideas about light placement? I have no intention of making a veg area at the moment, so every bit of this space will be for flowering once the kids are ready.

B. Should i use the four foot fixture even though i don't have space to hang it horizontally? Thinking i could get two more and set them vertically on each wall. More light is better, right?

C. Just pointing out that I have BOTH 120v and 240v AC power within feet of this closet that I can use. Not sure if that is of any consequence but I figured it might spark an idea.


I'll also point out that I'm using clones of AK48.

Click to expand...

bro fold your clothes and put them there!

Filla Kinex said:

bro fold your clothes and put them there!

Click to expand...

lulz

Agreed, though first initial problem is your gonna have massive light leakage from that vented door. Anyone coming into that room that has a brain is going to know whats going on.

If your going to use that spot all for flowering remove the shelves and just hang a 400W hps with a refelector in there.

The venting sounds good, if you want it to be self sufficient I would say figure out some kind of Hydro DWC setup possibly.

Your on the right track, dont give up

It is a pretty small space your gonna have to be pretty creative

gritsgrav said:

Here's a list of my questions.

A. Any ideas about light placement? I have no intention of making a veg area at the moment, so every bit of this space will be for flowering once the kids are ready.

B. Should i use the four foot fixture even though i don't have space to hang it horizontally? Thinking i could get two more and set them vertically on each wall. More light is better, right?

C. Just pointing out that I have BOTH 120v and 240v AC power within feet of this closet that I can use. Not sure if that is of any consequence but I figured it might spark an idea.


I'll also point out that I'm using clones of AK48.

Click to expand...

get the lights as close as you can without burning the plants and yes the more light is better... 240 is a little cheaper to run and the ak-48 i got grew kinda lanky so beware of the height of those things especially in that small a space

gonna need some good air flow runnin that light in that small of a space, i got a 250 watt mh/hps system that i run in a space similar to that and we had to cut a hole in the hood to vent the heat out of the box...a vented reflector would be great, or better yet a cooltube ! but you did say you had a ac unit in the same room...anyways ever considered LST? shit works great for small spaces!!!

OHIghgrOw said:

lulz

Agreed, though first initial problem is your gonna have massive light leakage from that vented door. Anyone coming into that room that has a brain is going to know whats going on.

Click to expand...

Yeah i mentioned i was gonna cover that up with cardboard before i set mylar over it.

Any thoughts on a topping method?

Filla Kinex said:

bro fold your clothes and put them there!

Click to expand...

mmm... i like it. I'll tell your mother to put them away as soon as she wakes up. SUCCESSFUL GROW!!

Dude,

You need to do a whole lot more homework.

You picked the wrong strain. Thats gonna
reek like a motherfucker!

You should of bought some Northern Lights #5..virtually no odor.

That small space would be ok for flowering, but you'll have to remove the shelves.

Also, when the flowering cycle begins, that space has got to be 100% light proof.

Might make a neat dwc bubbler grow.. If ya done it up right.

Good luck

News-
Got just about everything i need to wire up power and ventilation. I'll take pictures of the wiring i'm bringing in from the next room. I decided to bring in the 120v line since i don't know much i can use the 240v for on such a small grow. So my plan is to hard wire my HPS and leave enough wire for me to move it up and down as the plants grow. I'll wire in a 120v outlet on the wall to power a fan and ultrasonic humidifier separate from the timer i'm hard wiring for the lights.

So today i wired up all the power and switches i needed. i decided to make the light fixtures plug into an outlet instead of hard wiring them so i could move them if i ever needed to. Learned a bit today. My wiring in the closet is good. It works exactly like it should, but not exactly like i expected.
View the pictures i attached. This is the box i wired up to hold two outlets and a timer/switch. It's a basic light timer, built by intermatic, that you can buy from lowes.I didnt believe the packaging that you could only use it with hard wired incandescent fixtures.

Here's the problem. This piece of shit is run off of both battery and hard wired electric. For it to run off the hard wire, it needs to let a little trickle of power through the circuit. So when the switch is off, its actually only MOSTLY off. Basically this means that anything with a ballast will still run partially when the lights are supposed to be off. I'm so disappointed. The fluorescent fixture i wired up with a plug today flickers when the switch is off, and the same will happen with the HPS i'm putting in. So I'm starting to look around for switches that are completely battery or mechanical powered. Not thrilled about the external dial type timers, simply because i can't hard wire them and make it look neat, but i suppose i can't rule them out at this point. still trying to think of a way to make this work though.

Anyway, if it helps anyone, here's the specs on that power box. I picked up the end of the circuit in my bathroom and ran the line through the wall. The switch i used will work with two- or three-way setups, but since i only wanted to use the one switch all the time, i went two-way. All four outlets on the box are wired with the neutral wire through the switch (always a good idea) and the red lead off the switch i just capped. Like I said, the switch is useless for any circuit with low power appliances or lights with ballasts, as the small amount of power moving through the circuit when off will tear up ballasts and cause lights to flicker slightly when off. So basically, they know what they're talking about when they say "Plain based incandescent fixtures only."

Whatever, some of us just have to learn the hard way.

So I'm on the road at the moment but before i left i did manage to fix the issue with that switch. basically i just hard wired another fixture onto the circuit and put an ordinary incandescent bulb in there. worked like a charm. no more flickering on any of the lights plugged into that. i sealed up that louvered door with cardboard and now im ready to wire up my main light and measure the temps in there when the lights are on. In a few days I expect to have plants around so I'm gonna be working more on the room than this thread, but I will take pictures.

I took some pictures of the setup so far, but since I'm traveling, I'll wait until i get back to put them up.

So i just finished wiring in my HPS and now all the wiring is complete. i've got a picture of the wiring i did to fix the timer problem attached, but no picture yet of the finished room since i still need to clean it up. should be growing in there before the week is out.

Its fucking beautiful.