Some questions about lighting, temp GROWING etc...

kszap1 · Sep 14, 2009

First of all, i've been reading a bunch of threads about lighting and it seems like everyone uses something different. For 8 plants, I need to know the best affordable lighting. I've read FL tubes are good, but can they be used to fully grow the plants?

Next, how important is venting the room? The grow room i'll be using is about 6x10 and 3/4 walls are concrete with one wooden wall. Its also in a basement, im not sure how much the plants will smell and if odor will really be a problem. If I really needed a ventilation system I could just cut a hole in the wooden wall for it... but is this necessary? I live in a house if that makes any difference.

Next, my friend, who grew, told me that growing the plants in a little pot or whatever and then moving them to a bigger pot once theyve grown is unnecessary. Will it make a difference if I just grow them in the 1gallon pots to start off with?

Finally!!! I hadnt took into consideration this winter and how it does get pretty cold in my basement, how is it that I could keep that 6x10 room warm? Without keeping a heater in there wasting electricity. Remember 3/4 walls are solid concrete and retain what little heat there is. AND how warm do I need to keep the temperature of the room on a daily basis?
If you guys could answer these that would be AWESOME.
Thanks

kszap1 · Sep 14, 2009

even one answer would do me good...

grow1620 · Sep 14, 2009

best affordable lighting: it all depends on how big you plan on growing those 8 plants and how much you expect to harvest of them and how often..in a small grow cfls can be very efficient if used properly. for a larger grow, ie larger plants, larger yields you'll definately want hps or cmh lighting.

venting/exhaust: this is dependant on how much room you plan on taking up with plants vs the actual size of the room...like if you have smaller plants in the corner and using less watts..therefore producing less heat, then the ambient air/temp should be enough to balance out the rest of the room with a small oscilating fan...but if you plant to grow a bunch of "trees" in there then you will run into temperature problems as well as humidity and stagnant air. if you plan on running something on a larger scale like this your only real option is creating an exhaust vent, or even vent into your central heating/cooling vents and then rerouting it somewhere before it gets back to your heater or AC unit (which is really only an option if you can easily tap into the duct somewhere before it gets to the heating/cooling unit and the airflow can be directed elsewhere so you don't have any back pressure on those units. DO NOT pump air back into these units as it is very unsafe. I just used it as an example/alternative to cutting a hole in yer wall. i hope that all made sense.

transplanting: upgrading to larger containers later in the grow can help to develop a more broad root area...like if you sprout/veg in a small container, the roots will mostly collect on the bottom of the container as it gets larger...then when you transplant you will have that rootmass expanding into the new container, where if you planted originally in the larger container the roots never would have massed in that area because they would have grown straight past that point searching for wter or the bottom of the pot. also if you plan on growing from seed consider the fact that you will get males..starting what could end up to be a male in a large pot is a huge and unnecessary waste of space, as well as soil (imo)

temperatures: first of, to reduce stress on the plants and to minimise stretch you want to keep day/night temps close to 10 degrees (F) max...78/68 would be optimum i think...when you get into the 80/60 range ti will stress out your plants either slowing grow or creating major stretch. with winter comming yer faceing some pretty cold temps right? well you have a few options...depending on how the temps are going to be day vs night...you could run the majority of your lights at night to help balance temps out...you could create 2 staggered light cycles to keep the other warm..such as splitting the room in 2 and having 1 side for veg,clone,sprouting...and the other side of the room for flowering...just set up your light cycles so that the lights will never be off at the same time, and one side is always on when the other is off..and the heat produced from one side/area will warm the other when the lights are off.

hope this helps a lil. :-P

kszap1 · Sep 14, 2009

grow1620 said:
best affordable lighting: it all depends on how big you plan on growing those 8 plants and how much you expect to harvest of them and how often..in a small grow cfls can be very efficient if used properly. for a larger grow, ie larger plants, larger yields you'll definately want hps or cmh lighting.

venting/exhaust: this is dependant on how much room you plan on taking up with plants vs the actual size of the room...like if you have smaller plants in the corner and using less watts..therefore producing less heat, then the ambient air/temp should be enough to balance out the rest of the room with a small oscilating fan...but if you plant to grow a bunch of "trees" in there then you will run into temperature problems as well as humidity and stagnant air. if you plan on running something on a larger scale like this your only real option is creating an exhaust vent, or even vent into your central heating/cooling vents and then rerouting it somewhere before it gets back to your heater or AC unit (which is really only an option if you can easily tap into the duct somewhere before it gets to the heating/cooling unit and the airflow can be directed elsewhere so you don't have any back pressure on those units. DO NOT pump air back into these units as it is very unsafe. I just used it as an example/alternative to cutting a hole in yer wall. i hope that all made sense.

transplanting: upgrading to larger containers later in the grow can help to develop a more broad root area...like if you sprout/veg in a small container, the roots will mostly collect on the bottom of the container as it gets larger...then when you transplant you will have that rootmass expanding into the new container, where if you planted originally in the larger container the roots never would have massed in that area because they would have grown straight past that point searching for wter or the bottom of the pot. also if you plan on growing from seed consider the fact that you will get males..starting what could end up to be a male in a large pot is a huge and unnecessary waste of space, as well as soil (imo)

temperatures: first of, to reduce stress on the plants and to minimise stretch you want to keep day/night temps close to 10 degrees (F) max...78/68 would be optimum i think...when you get into the 80/60 range ti will stress out your plants either slowing grow or creating major stretch. with winter comming yer faceing some pretty cold temps right? well you have a few options...depending on how the temps are going to be day vs night...you could run the majority of your lights at night to help balance temps out...you could create 2 staggered light cycles to keep the other warm..such as splitting the room in 2 and having 1 side for veg,clone,sprouting...and the other side of the room for flowering...just set up your light cycles so that the lights will never be off at the same time, and one side is always on when the other is off..and the heat produced from one side/area will warm the other when the lights are off.

hope this helps a lil.

thanks alot this does really help alot and i like the idea of dividing the room in half. im still wondering if the lights will be a sufficient heat source cuz it gets to be like 20 damn degrees down there lol. Im not sure how large im going to grow the plants because i dont know how much actual bud, say a 3 foot plant will produce.(?) Ill have talk to my dad about some of the things you said, you see its a father son project lol.
thanks again :peace:

Some questions about lighting, temp GROWING etc...

kszap1

New Member

kszap1

New Member

grow1620

Well-Known Member

kszap1

New Member