Noob considering grow

Hi long time lurker looking to do first personal op,

Mediums:
The seeds I am planning to grow are Barneys Vanilla Kush
http://www.herbiesheadshop.com/barneys-vanilla-kush-feminised-seeds-2414
(I got World of seeds strawberry blue, hawaiian skunk haze and random barneys seed free).
The strain is an automatic and a dwarf at only 65cm height.
I'm planning on using soil as a medium.*

The potential setup:
300w dual spectrum cfl (about 19000 lumens?)*
Smallish/compact grow tent 1x intake and 1x carbon filter 4' fan.*
This is purely personal so don't want anymore than 3-5 plants.
* aren't purchased yet

The situation:
I live on a ground floor apartment - I've been living here a couple of years now and everyone seems nice and seem to keep to themselves most of the time. I know a couple are smokers/tolerant - not too many tenants. I have a wife and a kid and whilst wife used to smoke with me she quit when we had our kid, but is fine with me smoking and the whole cannabis stuff in general. When/before I moved in the guy who did inspections literally stated that the lounge was a good room to smoke herb in! (never told him I smoked) actual owner of this flat is miles away and does not really bother us - we're apparently pretty good tenants.

I've smoked some stinky stuff for years all around the place and had no trouble from neighbours or ppl on the street outside. I want to become independant of damn dealers, increasing prices, lower quantity and other downsides that comes with buying pot on the street.

I have gauged that my gf would not allow/want me to grow. (I have a kid in the house and her parents disapprove - yet never visit or if they do don't go poking around). I would not want to let her or anyone else find out anyway so I figure if I can be stealthy enough to not let her know I am doing things right. We don't have many friends visit and not regularly.

The location:
My spare room/storage/office (long/thin'ish room - window leads to a street can be busy at times) I am planning on moving my desk along towards the entrance and the grow tent/cabinet further towards the window (about three feet away).

My Questions:
Smell - I'm hoping the carbon filter with 4' fan in the unit will be enough to eliminate the odour so street dwellers don't notice. I think I could blame the smell in the room to my gf on simple smoking (although will avoid smoking in the room during grow). How effective is a carbon filter can you still smell the plant outside the tent from x distance?

Stealth - Whilst no-one goes poking around I obviously want to be as discrete as possible but I don't really have the materials or experience of making a grow box and really like what i've seen with grow tents. Anyone had any good ideas on disguising a grow tent? As it is a storage room with a ton of crap (christmas tree, broken big ass tv, broken monitors, old furniture, old games/boxes) I figure just being able to hide it under the mess - drape some old clothes and boxes over the top - don't want to end up collapsing the tent though). The smallest tent I found was around 140cm tall should/can I go smaller?

Sound - I think this will be my biggest enemy, while there is the hum of my computer and freezer my gf could instantly pick up on the noise of the fan if it is loud enough even though she generally avoids my man cave it is next door to the bedroom. Any of you got good soundproofing tips/suggestions?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing you guys opinions. I've been smoking pot for around 15 years now and it's always been around my life. I've planned grows meticulously before but now I think is the time.

The fans are loud, even with a muffler. Not annoying, but noticeable from outside the room. My son doesn't know what it is from but loves the white noise he gets from daddy's office next to his bedroom.

Yes, carbon filter works. I love my phresh. Buy a backup so that when one goes out and it starts to smell, you aren't to order one on line or anything.

For the window, Easy enough to block a window with a shade, blinds, etc. What you want is to make sure that it won't be obvious from outside that there is something bright in the room 20 hrs a day.

For lighting, use lots of small bulbs vs one large one. Challenge with cfl is that they need to be as a close as possible to as much of the plant as possible.

Damn dude sounds like quite an enterprise you're trying. Keeping your grow from your neighbors is tough in its own right but your own family sounds a bit more difficult.

Good luck but it definitely sounds like you're playing with fire doing it with a gf and kid....

If you value your relationship and the kid I would suggest that you should assume she's going to find out- which she will- and how to deal with it once that happens!

Good luck though.

I find that in a serious relationship, honesty is the best policy.

polo the don said:

I find that in a serious relationship, honesty is the best policy.

Click to expand...

This.

Do what you need to do, however, methinks you are in for some unnecessary grief / drama by attempting ( <--- KEY word here) to conceal your grow from your lady, and when it comes to weed, that grief / drama could involve a visit from your local law enforcement representatives. That's a LOT of potential bullshit you don't need.

Regardless, positive waves to you and best of luck.

If she's ok w/ smoking have a talk with her she's gonna find out just a matter of time and you wouldn't want to invest in a grow then her flip out cause you have been hiding it from her then having to scrap the plants youve worked so hard on imo justlet her know what precautions you will take to make it safe and the upside of growing your own personal stash (not interacting with dealers the money saved ect ect) this would save you a lot of headaches and not jepordize your relationship

Many thanks for all the replies guys! It has definitely given me something to think about.

I think you're all correct about informing my g/f to prevent an argument - she is pretty pro pot so I doubt i'd be shipped to the police or anything that severe but as you mentioned may have to end up abandoning the grow if everything is all of a sudden and she gets pissed - which would be a waste.

I think without showing/informing her the kind of setup and modern techniques I am thinking of she will instantly imagine 8ft tall plants out in the open, major odours, masses of vents/noise and police with FLIR - which are all things I am combatting via the equipments (low ryder strains, filter/ona, cfl/led).

I am also now building a stealth cabinet designed for mainly lowryder grows rather than blatant 5' tent (maybe a compact tent in the cab or something) it's coming along well and is very stealth.

I figure that if all fails with convincing my g/f (i'll plant some tomatoes or something and run it for a few days to see if she notices - then reveal it to her, she wont be able to flip too hard over tomatoes and legal grow equipment) it's certainly nothing she's going to leave me or do anything silly over. At least i'll enjoy putting it together and I'll get some pics once I get my bits and begin it.

Then I suppose if worse came to worse the kit would make a nice upcoming birthday gift for my propot relatives or simply wait til some form of legalisation or reform of the laws in this country and be all set to go (can only dream). Maybe grow some veg lol.
On another note got my seeds through. 'Random Barneys Farm seed' ended up being 'LSD' strain sounds tasty.

I will definitely look into getting multiple cfl and the tips provided inc filter backups very much appreciated Growingdad. Window will be no prob in a cabinet and I have shutters.

Many thanks again for taking the time guys!

schismfish said:

Many thanks for all the replies guys! It has definitely given me something to think about.

I think you're all correct about informing my g/f to prevent an argument - she is pretty pro pot so I doubt i'd be shipped to the police or anything that severe but as you mentioned may have to end up abandoning the grow if everything is all of a sudden and she gets pissed - which would be a waste.

I think without showing/informing her the kind of setup and modern techniques I am thinking of she will instantly imagine 8ft tall plants out in the open, major odours, masses of vents/noise and police with FLIR - which are all things I am combatting via the equipments (low ryder strains, filter/ona, cfl/led).

I am also now building a stealth cabinet designed for mainly lowryder grows rather than blatant 5' tent (maybe a compact tent in the cab or something) it's coming along well and is very stealth.

I figure that if all fails with convincing my g/f (i'll plant some tomatoes or something and run it for a few days to see if she notices - then reveal it to her, she wont be able to flip too hard over tomatoes and legal grow equipment) it's certainly nothing she's going to leave me or do anything silly over. At least i'll enjoy putting it together and I'll get some pics once I get my bits and begin it.

Then I suppose if worse came to worse the kit would make a nice upcoming birthday gift for my propot relatives or simply wait til some form of legalisation or reform of the laws in this country and be all set to go (can only dream). Maybe grow some veg lol.
On another note got my seeds through. 'Random Barneys Farm seed' ended



up being 'LSD' strain sounds tasty.

I will definitely look into getting multiple cfl and the tips provided inc filter backups very much appreciated Growingdad. Window will be no prob in a cabinet and I have shutters.

Many thanks again for taking the time guys!

Click to expand...

Hahahahaha best thread of the day, you just have to read from the top! Lol

There is no way to grow in an apartment without her knowing. Learn the laws of your state. In some it is still a major offense to get popped.

In my veg cab, I grow parsley, basil and and cilantro alongside my ganja. Why not start there?

Because when you really think about it, if her name is on the lease, you share a child, then it isn't right to do something illegal without her consent.

Your wife will find out. Your neighbors might too. Even if you executed your plan perfectly (and I like the planning so far) she will still find out. You need her on board to do this. She doesn't have to be enthusiastic but she has 'approve'. You know what will kill her? Not the grow, the fact that you tried to hide it from her. The deception.

Good luck, I hope you can do. Let us know.

get 2 carbon filters, 1 for tent and 1 for when harvesting plants. also get some air freshener plugins and turn them on high setting.

I think you would be better off with a 600w HPS. 95000 lumens for 2x the energy. 47250 / 19000 = 2.something. over twice as efficient. Electric bills really aren't that much depending where you live. only about 50 bucks per 1000 kwH. remember you are not buying bud off streets any more.. now you could could grow 4-8 months of year and have unlimited buds. You could expect at very least 100 grams in a 600w setup if you make it to harvest. Chances are if you do a little research you will hit closer to 200 or 300 grams. though its possible to hit over 500 grams with just 1 600w hps

the HPS and the 2 carbon scrubbers and fans should be around 500 bucks. Yeah buddy!

The biggest thing with cabinet grows is heat, especially if you're trying to vent the heat of an HPS or MH.

Example: Mid 90's
A 250w MH with 160w of T12 side lighting in a 30" x 60" closet (with no way to vent the heat outdoors) warmed up the adjacent 10'x10' room to a toasty mid 80's in mid-winter in the northern Midwest. It was nice to have the extra heat, but keeping the closet below 90 was a difficult. The door had to remain open a bit and that caused the room to reek, though not too bad.

The same closet with a 324 watt T5 proved about the same amount of heat to have to deal with but less of a fear of fire since the bulbs don't get nearly as hot as HID bulbs. The buds were not as dense with the T5 and the yield per plant was a bit lower, but plenty good for personal stash.

A grow cabinet experiment I was involved in had marginal success at first. It was built using a pair of 65w CFLs in a 32"w - 20"d - 36"h metal tool cabinet, venting the air into the room using a pair of DC computer fans. No filter. Inexperience, crappy lighting, and bagseed yielded about 3/4 oz of midgrade from two scraggly plants. Initially, a waste of money.

However after replacing the CFLs with a 4x24" T5 light, it has proven it's value by being a great starter/clone/mother box.

If I were to do the cab over again today, I'd use and array of the new low priced LED bulbs. 10 - 10 watters will put out 8000-9000 lumens, (more or less, for $50-60 (not including fixtures and wiring). It gives you the option of raising the wattage as the plants grow, and you can mix and match color temps. I'd also attach a small carbon filter on the outside of the cab.

Grow method is important in a small cabinet. Topping and training a small number of plants is a good way to go. Four plants topped twice each will give 16 colas. And it keeps the total number of plants down, which helps to keep the grow box from getting too crowded.