Intermediate Grower with New 400W HPS, New House and a Few Problems: please help.

Hello everyone,
I have received most of my information about growing from this site and used the knowledge for a few very successful CFLs operations. I have now joined because I am I little stuck in my present situation; I have recently moved and was given some plants from a friend that I am trying to bud with a new 400W HPS light.

What I have/ know about the plants:
A walk in closet approx. 5'x6' (bigger, but part of the roof is slanted)
1 430W HPS, 4, 42W CFLs - the HPS has ballast and hood attached
A small fan
3 plants 1 month in veg, no knowledge about nutrients
regular potters soil. One strain has a purplish stem and broad
leavesgrowing from the leafs, the other two just have symetrical
leaves growing from each node.
The average temp. of room with HPS on is approx. 85 degrees.

I know I need more equip. etc, because I got this unexpectedly 2 days ago, I am sort of jumping off the cliff and biulding my wings on the way down. Please guide me in any way.

I am concered with:
Ventilation because the ballast and hood are attached, no areas to drill
holes in hood but there are some shingled air ducts, could I run an
air duct from these?
I rent so I cant do structural changes to door and such, but there is a
large circular hole in the back wall (suspicious? ha)
I want to make 3 chambers for a sea of green style operation, would it
be best/ easilier to split it horizontally of vertically if I veg plants for 1
month?
How high should I hang the HPS, because with CFLs I have them
practically touching, but this is clearly way too hot, but I dont think I
should go too, high.
Money! I have no savings but I am pretty crafty and have power tools.
Any DIY knowledge I would love.

LAST: The plants.

Since I have had them in my possession the leaves on the smaller 2 with only 2 broad leaves per node have been curling and shagging, I dont want to see wilting, but they are a healthy green with only minor spots from were I let them touch the CFLs, oops. I did notice some flying critters in the soil today, could this be an issue?

I know this is a lot but I really need some help because it appears they might not have that much time left and I have been struggling to find a solution because I am new to HPS lights.

THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP!

How tall are your plants? Do you have a pic of the HPS light and closet? Also do you have anyway of getting fresh air into your grow room? My reflector didnt have any cooling flanges either just some cooling louvres on the 2 sides and the top, but i made my own flanges out of cardboard, doublesided tape, some burgerking/mcdonalds large cups, and some caulk. works very well i might add. Also buy some sticky traps and place them around the base of the plant to help with pests. You dont want any bugs at ALL!!!

Yeah you dont want any bugs. First of all, let me tell you this. Since you are unexperienced (i still am unexperienced too but learned many lessons, MANY on my first grow), make SURE you don't over water your plants, over feed or anything of that sort. Basically just treat them with the LEAST amount of worry/questioning that you can.. because really I know that sounds weird but if I had done that it probably would have been just right.

My problem was I overanalyzed every aspect of the grow and that really damaged my plants at times. Just remember LESS IS MORE!

And to tell you the truth you are pretty set up for a first grow, the only thing you NEEEEEED (DONT SKIP IT!!!!) is a charcoal filter (aka carbon filter). This is what really fucked me over. You need to make 100% sure that NO ONE can smell your grow (you might already know that so sorry if that's the case. -.-) You can make one yourself though so don't worry too much about cost (they are expensive to buy but you can make a decent, very decent one by yourself. there's plenty of threads on how to do it and since you said you have tools and such it would be a good project.

Sorry I didn't address too many of your questions but i really hope this helps. here are a few more things you could THINK of getting eventually, just to give you some ideas.


Poly film (a reflective material that you line your grow room with, reflects light and also you can seal your grow room completely (always a good thing IMO)
Air Conditioner (excessive heat is always possible so if you run into temps over 85f, or around 27-28c, you may want to think about cooling)
Air conditioner controller - (i got mine at wal-mart. all it does is it is a little unit that plugs right into your AC, and from there you set the max temperature on the device - once this is done, the AC will turn on every time it reaches that temperature, until it drops several degrees. then it turns off, and repeats when necessary. it was a very nice investment really, 25$ Canadian and its probably cheaper in the USA, or dirt cheap online.)

You gotta get your temps down, either thru direct cooling with an AC or venting the hood heat out.
Definitely get some sort of carbon filtration for the air.
When it comes to nutes, use no more than half of recommended dosage.
If you have young plants in store bought potting soil, you wont need to feed for about 30 or so days. Most storebought soil has some nutes already in it, and feeding would only risk over feeding.
Definitely err on the dry side when it comes to watering. I let them dry pretty well between watering. Overwatering looks a lot like underwatering, symptom wise.
pH is CRUCIAL in soil. To high or too low will lock out certain nutes, and will appear as a nutrient deficiency. Adding more nutes at this point will kill you. You need to know the difference between lock out and a deficiency. Check pH FIRST!!!
You're about to learn a whole lot real quick.

Best of luck to ya.

Calijuana said:

Yeah you dont want any bugs. First of all, let me tell you this. Since you are unexperienced (i still am unexperienced too but learned many lessons, MANY on my first grow), make SURE you don't over water your plants, over feed or anything of that sort. Basically just treat them with the LEAST amount of worry/questioning that you can.. because really I know that sounds weird but if I had done that it probably would have been just right.

My problem was I overanalyzed every aspect of the grow and that really damaged my plants at times. Just remember LESS IS MORE!

And to tell you the truth you are pretty set up for a first grow, the only thing you NEEEEEED (DONT SKIP IT!!!!) is a charcoal filter (aka carbon filter). This is what really fucked me over. You need to make 100% sure that NO ONE can smell your grow (you might already know that so sorry if that's the case. -.-) You can make one yourself though so don't worry too much about cost (they are expensive to buy but you can make a decent, very decent one by yourself. there's plenty of threads on how to do it and since you said you have tools and such it would be a good project.

Sorry I didn't address too many of your questions but i really hope this helps. here are a few more things you could THINK of getting eventually, just to give you some ideas.


Poly film (a reflective material that you line your grow room with, reflects light and also you can seal your grow room completely (always a good thing IMO)
Air Conditioner (excessive heat is always possible so if you run into temps over 85f, or around 27-28c, you may want to think about cooling)
Air conditioner controller - (i got mine at wal-mart. all it does is it is a little unit that plugs right into your AC, and from there you set the max temperature on the device - once this is done, the AC will turn on every time it reaches that temperature, until it drops several degrees. then it turns off, and repeats when necessary. it was a very nice investment really, 25$ Canadian and its probably cheaper in the USA, or dirt cheap online.)

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