MrNiceCream
Active Member
Hey everyone.
So this summer I did my very first grow out doors and the plants are comming along nice, I'll post some pictures closer to harvest time.
Now that winters comming and I've had so much fun farming, I've decided to set up a small grow area indoors and I'd very much appreciate some advice on lighting and efficient use of space.
The area will probably be 4'x5'x6.5' (4 feet wide, 5 feet long, 6.5 feet high). Idealy I'd like a partition for a mother/veg room and a flower room. So how should I alocate space to have room for, maybe, 3 mothers + some clones given the total area I have to work with? Should it be split 50/50 for 2.5'x4' each, or could I get away with 2'x4' for the veg area and 3'x4' for flower? Any other suggestions on how to manage my space? Going to be using soil (or an alternative) by the way.
Next, what lighting would you recommend for this setup?
Initially, I'd only like to get 1 HID lamp/balast, but I wasn't sure how I could easily set up flower and a veg room with just 1 light. So I was wondering, do T5 tubes need special light fixtures or if you can pop them into any old fluorescent fixture? Because I have two 4'x2' long light tray things that hold four fluorescent tubes each, but they've been sitting in my basement for 15 or 20 years so I have no idea if they would be compatable with T5 tubes. Would just one of these light trays with four x 4' long T5 tubes essentially acting as a floating celing over the 4'x2' veg area be good enough for vegging mothers and rasing clones/seedlings? (if so, which T5s would be best?) Theres a sticker inside both light racks with some numbers I don't really understand, but maybe it will help identify if it will work with T5s or not, they say: 440 RSTP 60 120 1.6 160 HP J87
If the 1 rack is not good enough, what would you suggest? Could I use 1 tray and suplement it with some CFL's? And will the regular CFL's I buy at Home Depot or Walmart (assuming I get the ones in the proper Kalvin range) be on par with the specialty grow CFL's which cost ~$90? or are the grow ones actually worth the crazy inflated price?
I plan to get an HID (in the 400-600w range I was thinking), but I don't know which kind. Some particular things I was wondering were:
-If I was using only 1 lamp for all stages of growth, which would be my best bet? Sunmaster Warm Deluxe MH, or AgroSun MH, or Regular MH or Regular HPS?
-And if I can run the veg area with the fluoros I mentioned above, which would be best for the flowering area? HPS?
-If I set up some sort of retractable divider between the 2 areas, would say, a 400w HPS work well in conjuction with the fluoros sharing some of their reflected light? Or would
Any other tips, hints, suggestions, comments, or anything very much welcomed.
Thanks everyone!
Mr.NiceCream
So this summer I did my very first grow out doors and the plants are comming along nice, I'll post some pictures closer to harvest time.
Now that winters comming and I've had so much fun farming, I've decided to set up a small grow area indoors and I'd very much appreciate some advice on lighting and efficient use of space.
The area will probably be 4'x5'x6.5' (4 feet wide, 5 feet long, 6.5 feet high). Idealy I'd like a partition for a mother/veg room and a flower room. So how should I alocate space to have room for, maybe, 3 mothers + some clones given the total area I have to work with? Should it be split 50/50 for 2.5'x4' each, or could I get away with 2'x4' for the veg area and 3'x4' for flower? Any other suggestions on how to manage my space? Going to be using soil (or an alternative) by the way.
Next, what lighting would you recommend for this setup?
Initially, I'd only like to get 1 HID lamp/balast, but I wasn't sure how I could easily set up flower and a veg room with just 1 light. So I was wondering, do T5 tubes need special light fixtures or if you can pop them into any old fluorescent fixture? Because I have two 4'x2' long light tray things that hold four fluorescent tubes each, but they've been sitting in my basement for 15 or 20 years so I have no idea if they would be compatable with T5 tubes. Would just one of these light trays with four x 4' long T5 tubes essentially acting as a floating celing over the 4'x2' veg area be good enough for vegging mothers and rasing clones/seedlings? (if so, which T5s would be best?) Theres a sticker inside both light racks with some numbers I don't really understand, but maybe it will help identify if it will work with T5s or not, they say: 440 RSTP 60 120 1.6 160 HP J87
If the 1 rack is not good enough, what would you suggest? Could I use 1 tray and suplement it with some CFL's? And will the regular CFL's I buy at Home Depot or Walmart (assuming I get the ones in the proper Kalvin range) be on par with the specialty grow CFL's which cost ~$90? or are the grow ones actually worth the crazy inflated price?
I plan to get an HID (in the 400-600w range I was thinking), but I don't know which kind. Some particular things I was wondering were:
-If I was using only 1 lamp for all stages of growth, which would be my best bet? Sunmaster Warm Deluxe MH, or AgroSun MH, or Regular MH or Regular HPS?
-And if I can run the veg area with the fluoros I mentioned above, which would be best for the flowering area? HPS?
-If I set up some sort of retractable divider between the 2 areas, would say, a 400w HPS work well in conjuction with the fluoros sharing some of their reflected light? Or would
Any other tips, hints, suggestions, comments, or anything very much welcomed.
Thanks everyone!
Mr.NiceCream