Attention All Experienced Apartment Growers: Need help/info

Hey whats up Rollitup Community.

(Questions in bold)

This is my first thread so show me some slack if you can. I am a 21 year old college student who is a 3 year stoner. I spend roughly 70-80 bucks a week on weed which in this day and age, is entirely too much money; so I plan on giving growing a shot.

One month from now I move out of my shitty apartment and move into my nice ass single apartment. I figure this is a perfect venue to grow a few plants for personal consumption.

Knowing cultivating Cannabis can be pretty tough, I went to Borders and bought "Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible" by Jorge Cervantes and "Closet Cultivator: Growing Marijuana Indoors" by Ed Rosenthal and are almost done with both. I have learned much from these books but find myself still asking questions. What it did help me do was come up with a plan.

My plan is to construct two boxes: one Vegetative box and one Flowering box; in order to attempt a bi-monthly perpetual harvest. The measurements for my Veg box will be approximatley 1.5' wide by 1.5' long by 2' high and 2' wide by 2' long by 4.5' high for the Flowering Box. (Note: Measurements are not exact. Don't know exact measurements of new apartment closet and I am open to size suggestions but I'd like to keep it stealth.) The inside will be painted flat white and a hole in the back right corner will be cut for cords to be able to reach the outlet. I will also attatch hinges and a door to the front of the box for security and light leak protection.

As for lighting I plan to use two Y joint fixtures for 4 CFLs (wattage unknown and could use some suggestions, I think four 42 watts maybe?) mounted at the top of the Veg Box and a 150 watt HPS on chains in the Flower box. Yes I know the 150 watt is very small but I plan on only having 2 or 3 bushy Indica plants flowering at once. Not only do I have few plants, but I am also worried about the heat that comes with a 250 watt HPS and the small stature of this grow box. I am confident that this would be sufficent light for flowering. I know nothing of installing CFL fixtures or an hps light so I will be consulting my buddies and you the Community of course. The lighting schedule will be 19/5 for vegging and 12/12 for flowering.

As for a medium, I am undecided on whether to use soil or a DWC (Deep Water Culture). Soil is inexpensive and available while a hydro system is cleaner and produces bigger yields. I could use some help in this section. I am going to start with Rockwool cubles no matter which one i choose (BTW where do you get those?) After 2 to 3 weeks of Rockwool Cubes and just semi-daily to daily watering (and prob 24 hours of light to start), I have to make my choice. I need answers based on whats best suited for an APARTMENT grow. Which is easier, cleaner, and less detectable? Which one do you think would be overall better for stealth as well access to available tools (meters, gauges etc)?

Soil seems pretty easy. Go to a nursery and buy some good potting soil (not Miracle Grow apparently) and a electric pH meter (anybody got a cost on one of those?) or the pH strips. I plan on transplanting the 3 week old seedlings in the Rockwool cubes to 10'' wide/tall plastic pots with a tray under all three plants. The plants will be watered with pH balanced water (isn't that distilled water?) and the pots would be flushed every 2 weeks or so. As for nutrients, I am pretty clueless on the terms and applications of both the soil and hydroponic gardens. Hesi looks like a good brand and sells both Soil and Hyrdoponic nutrients. I do not know what people mean when they say 4th nutes and give strange looking ratios for their nutrients. Coming from a true newb, I could use some clarification in that area.

If I went the Hydroponic/DWC route, I would attempt to build my own DWC out of rubbermaid tubs for both my Veg and Flower rooms. I could use some help on this too. Are there any good threads on how to construct one of these? To my knowledge, you just cut 3 holes in the top of your rubbermaid tub, get three potting nets and some clay pellets or inert medium, buy an airsone and put it at the bottom of the tub and plug it in. I am prob forgetting alot (Like a pH meters, gauges etc) ] but thats what I know. Again, once the plants reach their third week I would take the Rockwool cube and insert it into the potting net with the clay pellets on the bottom and have the airstone splashing on the bottom third of the net. I would then use my Hesi hydro nutes throughout Veg and Flowering.

As for air circulation, each box would have two 6 inch computer fans; one to blow new air in and one to blow old hot air out. Both fans will be on the opposite sides and the IN fans will be closer to the bottom of the boxes while the OUT fans will be closer to the top near the lights. From what I understand these computer fans are cheap, easy to screw in, and run on a battery? Over each OUT fan I plan to make the carbon filter. I have bookmarked the thread where you take the Walmart Pencil holders and the fish tank carbon and make the filter. Thats a pretty ingenious idea. My question is how well does that filter protect against smell? Will I need an Ion Generator? The apartment people check the apartements 4 or 5 times a year to make sure the place isn't busted up and this is my main concern. Will two or three plants flowering in a grow box with a carbon filter be noticable to smell? If so, would a negative ion generator (electric air purifier) do the trick?


Any info would be great and I am completely open to suggestions. I move into my new place August 15th so I plan to start the boxes on the 27th of July. I will have saved up around $350- $400 by then and I was wondering if that would be enough?

Thanks

wow, you put it all out there nicely, unfortunatly im a newb as well. i just wana wish you luck. are situations are very similar. so let me say your not alone and hopefully some of these farmers will gve us some answers.

This is a double post. Same post was made in the newbie section. So I am just gunna copy+paste what I said in there, in here. In case a mod deletes the other one instead of this one.
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I had planned to keep my budget about $200. About $500 past that, I had my setup completed. Haha.

You will definitely have to go the CFL route for lights. Check eBay as I got a 6pack of good bulbs for about $25.

Not sure what size grow space you are wanting, but I got a 20x36x64 grow tent from HTG on eBay for $85. So far its been worth the money.

Got my fans from airboosterfans.com (on left click intake fans, then click intake fans again in the center of page). I got two 6" fans. With your budget, these would be really good to get. For $65 you could get two 6" intake fans with a 240 free air cfm. Actually purchased those from them on eBay too as they did combined shipping. Just seach for Aero Fans or something of the sort.

Im a newbie myself so dont know how well the DIY carbon filters work, but from what Ive read, they work perfectly. Ive made one myself but my plants havnt gotten to where they stink yet. For about $10 you could get all supplies needed to make the carbon filter.

Duct work cost about $20 for 25ft.

My CFL setup is pretty simple. Got some cheap-o power strips and some Y splitters. Each power strip has 5 lights on it(check my journal for a picture) and they appear to be working great. Altho I do plan to upgrade to a 250/400w HPS light in about a month.

There are SEVERAL threads for constructing hydro setups. Ive got absolutely no idea how to do it as Ive read soil is much better for beginners, and figured I would do hydro later on, but check the DIY (Do It Yourself) section and you will find exactly the things your looking for. Prob a good 20+ threads with different designs.

pH meteres cost about $10 for a cheap one, although Ive found out that they dont work all that great. The moisture meter on it works ok, the light meter is pointless really, and the pH meter on it never seems to be very accurate. I picked up a soil tester kit from Lowes for about $7. Comes with 10 tests, figured that is plenty for a couple harvests. Found this site the other day for water pH strips. 50pk for like $9. Wayyy better than the $12 25pks Ive been getting. http://www.indigo.com/test-strips/gp...aper-1-14.html


When they say pH balanced water, i THINK they are referring to water with a pH level adequit for growing pot. Water pH test strips will realllllly come in handy for that. My tap water is at about 7.0-7.5 pH level, which is too high so I picked up some pH down at Wal-mart (pool section) for $6. The bottle will last me forever as I only have to put about 1/10th of a tbsp in a 1gal jug to equal it out.


Wow. Im impressed with myself. Im pretty sure this is my first helpful post ever. Normally I am always asking questions haha. I guess a few weeks on these boards will teach you a couple things. Or so I hope I was helpful. Also by far my longest post. =D

Good luck to ya!

Oh, and be sure that you will be able to maintain a 70-75degree temp inside box with lights on.

definitely have 2 go with CFL's huh???that is of course if you want wispy,wirey buds.Go with either a 400 or 600 watt fixture and use soil before you jump into hydro.You gotta crawl b4 ya walk,son.While in the process of the grow,you need to troll around this site for information and other growers gardens so you can see maintenance involved,remember always keep it simple until you feel the need 2 challenge urself,good luck bud-e

Carrying bags of dirt inside of an apt is very suspicious unless your a old lady that grows flowers outside. If you want a ppm or ph meter then go here ... http://www.eseasongear.com/micdtdstemec.html this is the one that i bought... being a semi expert in growing in an apt i am going to start growing the lowrider strain which stays VERY short and harvests very fast

I would suggest going HPS or something if he had the money. He is working on a lower budget and needs to get everything. Getting a 400/600w will automatically take half of his spendings.

shit is too hot anyways

Tents are hard to conceal & have ducting and shit running all over the place. For stealth, check this out. I put the top part of a desk over it when people come over and bam, instant table area.

LOWNskater52 said:

Hey whats up Rollitup Community.

As for air circulation, each box would have two 6 inch computer fans; one to blow new air in and one to blow old hot air out. Both fans will be on the opposite sides and the IN fans will be closer to the bottom of the boxes while the OUT fans will be closer to the top near the lights. From what I understand these computer fans are cheap, easy to screw in, and run on a battery? Over each OUT fan I plan to make the carbon filter. I have bookmarked the thread where you take the Walmart Pencil holders and the fish tank carbon and make the filter. Thats a pretty ingenious idea. My question is how well does that filter protect against smell? Will I need an Ion Generator? The apartment people check the apartements 4 or 5 times a year to make sure the place isn't busted up and this is my main concern. Will two or three plants flowering in a grow box with a carbon filter be noticable to smell? If so, would a negative ion generator (electric air purifier) do the trick?

Click to expand...

You could just have 2 exhaust and have passive intake with a couple of PVC elbows at the bottom of the box, the neg pressure will pull air in. Just make a DIY carbon filter.

Skoad said:

I would suggest going HPS or something if he had the money. He is working on a lower budget and needs to get everything. Getting a 400/600w will automatically take half of his spendings.

Click to expand...

He cant really do HID lighting with a 2' height grow box..