Noob is overwhelmed! Your insight plz.

Hey people,

As the title says, I'm finding the learning curve concerning all this indoor horticulture stuff to be fairly overwhelming. I mean there are so many options to consider when setting up a space that I'm having a rough time getting started. Any guidance you can help with would be much appreciated.

I've a 2x6x8 foot closet space that I'd like to grow in. The closet is in an empty bedroom with a single window to the outside and is located just below the attic. Both the bedroom door and the closet door can have locks installed and if I need to, vents throught the ceiling or walls can be cut.

My first consideration , since I live in a severely canniphobic region, is avoiding legal difficulties. My second goal is a high yield and quality product. I've purchased some white widow seeds and am hopeing they'll actually arrive.

I'm such a noob that I have no idea what is appropriate for this closet. Or even what to expect in terms of yield from this closet. My first instinct is to roughly split the closet into upper and lower sections. One chamber will get a 400 watt hps with an electronic balast and cool tube (a cool tube is a setup that allows the light to be air cooled, correct?) for flowering. The other will get either a 400 watt metal halide with cool tube or be lit with CFL's for vegetative growth. Or should I used 600 watters? I will probabally set up some kind of chamber for clones that will sit outside the closet.

I'm thinking SCROG and would like to feed the plants hydroponically but don't really know what hydro tek would work best. I would like to build them modularly with the screen affixed to the hydro setup but this means that I'd like to avoid moving reservoirs as much as possible so DWC might be out.

So, at this point , I REALLY need the wisdom of your experience! What lights should I use? What hydro setup? What can I expect as a noob willing to "do it right" in terms of yield from this closet? I know most people get caught by talking too much , neighbors smelling plants or seeing indoor horticulture supplies, stealing power, fires from faulty wireing, infrared detection and unrelated events such as domestic disputes. Are there other avenues to worry about such as buying from indoor horticulture supply stores?

Please help with your wise suggestions, comments, etc.

For your size closet I'd go with a 400 watt system. And yes the cool tube can accept 2 6" exhaust fans. You'll also what a carbon air filter or scrubber. Hydro is expensive to start off with and it takes alot more up keep and knowledge. I'd start with soil and work your way up. I hear that soil makes for better tasting bud, but I couldn't actually tell you yes or no. As far as hydro though I hear alot of people have good luck with an ebb and flow system, also drip system say to work really well. Your best bet is go to your local hydro dealer tell him your setup and what you trying to do(growing tomatoes) Those guys want your money and want you to come back so they'll help you out. hope that helps you some

I said i would stop writing on the forums but i am bored and you seem to have a done some research of what you want so i will give you my 2 cents.

First of all you want to keep this very simple and i assuming you have the money to do this right you will have 700 to 1000 into this if its done right. And keep in mind HYDRO will kick your ass in a heartbeat if you don't do your homework. I started without any hydro experience but i spent about 6 to 8 hours a day for 2 months doing nothing but studying this and i still made mistakes. I would know what you want when you buy your gear the shops only want your money know what you want and ask questions then research what they recommend and then purchase if you please don't just take their word for it. Remember this is YOUR grow you have to take care of it and tend to it. Build it with your own knowledge and you will be happy with the outcome.

I would use an ebb & flow system you could buy 2 2x4 trays and one large reservoir to feed both eliminating the need for lots of tubs to change. Split the area into 2 sections with the lower as small as you can get figuring your tub will be about 14 to 18 inches high and the light being 12in or so you would have to attach the light to the top of your top shelf to maximize your space so you have including the top light which you will also attached to the top of the ceiling. you have burned about 2.6 feet of space leaving you 5.6 to play with splitting that into 2 leaving not much room there. You can do a veg and a flower area with 2 of everything pumps trays lights and tubs if you really really wanted to and your space would be limited.

OR You could do a simple perpetual https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/6592-get-harvest-every-2-weeks.htmlusing your space without a veg area using 1 tub and tray you can get about 8 to 10 plants in your space have more head room 6.6ft and have 2 plants every 2 weeks. Doing it this way allows you to gear up slowly as your plants mature they go into your process allowing you to make mistakes YOU WILL MAKE THEM !!! and you don't kill 10 plants only 2 or 4 and its easier to take care of a few plants at first trust me.
i would not want to take care of what i have now out of the gate,

I would use a 1000 w HPS for the whole thing with maybe a small 150 or 250 HPS over the smaller plants for the first 2 or 3 weeks just until they get up higher to the 1000W i would try it without just to see if you really needed it. Set up a mother and clone area outside your closet and since you only need 2 clones every 2 weeks you could get by with a 250 MH for both the clones and mother with of course an areo cloner homemade 6 spot and set up for the mother and they could stay in the same area and i would use hydroton as a medium.

I would vent out into the attic using a charcoal filter and smell good and vent into from outside in. You have to figure out how air will circulate and keep temps in check but that's one you can work on. keep the nutes simple and get good testing equipment. don't worry about yield just quite yet lets get you out of a first harvest and then you can worry about yield.

I am sure i am missing something but lets go from there there are a billion ways to do this just research and read this to death.

This is one i will keep track of

i'd second the idea of using soil for your first grow - keep it simple. also, i'd start with a single 400 hps for a test grow of 2 -4 plants. there is plenty to be learned about how the plants grow that you can learn before you try something like a perpetual grow with two lights. you can get 4 - 8 ounces from two female plants that should tide you over until you expand your grow for your second try.

Read this book.
Everything you need to know is in this book.
After you read this, you'll be more educated on how
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Thanks for the great suggestions.

It certainly seems the devil is in the details of the thing. Sparkafire, I think that the 1000 watt perpetual is what I'm looking for. Thanks for breaking it down with real world experience. I didn't quite understand what you meant by :

"I would vent out into the attic using a charcoal filter and smell good and vent into from outside in."


Also, reguarding soil vs solution , my thinking for going the hydro route (with decent meters), and perhaps I'm wrong about this, is that although the initial setup is more expensive and technically demanding, I am under the impression that The needs of the plant can be met with greater precision and less guesswork? I must also admit that I find projects like this to be an absolute blast so the added complexity of going hydroponic is somewhat appealing in and of itself.

Well best luck to your hydro adventure, but dont be suprised if it gets overwhelming and some of your babies die.

Heyoka said:

Thanks for the great suggestions.

It certainly seems the devil is in the details of the thing. Sparkafire, I think that the 1000 watt perpetual is what I'm looking for. Thanks for breaking it down with real world experience. I didn't quite understand what you meant by :

"I would vent out into the attic using a charcoal filter and smell good and vent into from outside in."


Also, reguarding soil vs solution , my thinking for going the hydro route (with decent meters), and perhaps I'm wrong about this, is that although the initial setup is more expensive and technically demanding, I am under the impression that The needs of the plant can be met with greater precision and less guesswork? I must also admit that I find projects like this to be an absolute blast so the added complexity of going hydroponic is somewhat appealing in and of itself.

Click to expand...

I wrote that not really knowing what you wanted to accomplish with your grow.

Yes hydro can be addictive and very expensive but if you decide to grow that way its a blast!! If you do decide to go that way I will do what i can to help you.

You have to read the harvest every 2 weeks so you get a better understanding for the concept and then you can start building your grow.

What i said about the venting was to vent out into the attic using a filter it should not cause a problem that way. You want to vent into the room using outside air if possible its fresh which is better. I live where its never freezing so i said that not thinking. you have to work that part out.

The best part of building it slowly is that you dont have to buy it all at once. you start by building your mother and clone area get some clones going them move them into your grow. If you have to start from seed get them started as soon as you know your going forward you will have about 45 days before you will be able to clone giving you lots of time to build the rest.