Attic setup

Check out photos of my starter trees in my gallery. I'm wanting to move up in the attic. My possible growspace is 3'W x 5'L x 3'-4'H. I'm wanting to keep as low of cost as possible. I have 4 plants 3 weeks old. Right now I have two Compact Flourecent Lights. Check out my photos for reference to those bulbs. Are there cheap ways to make a small growbox? Should I hang chains from the top to the lights? Budget is a big factor. I need more CFLs. Does anybody know plans to make a reflector with daisy chained wiring to a handful of CFL's? I saw in the forums one guy did this just wondering where to get a reflector like that.
Is the insulation safe? Is it necessary to remove the insulation? should i put in floorboards? Can I tap into the wiring to this closet's light to run electric in the attic to my new setup?


need to get electricity from the closet light to wire my new setup:



my current light in use:



bulb #2: is this useful to grow?

Those bulbs are a good start, you can make great reflectors out of half a soda, beer can and add it to each light bulb.

hey man im doing the same thing, im going to grow in my friends attic, only problem is that its dirty, has 2 open windows so it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter, also the ceiling is only about 6ft. tall. we are making ours into 2 rooms, 1 for veg and 1 for flowering so eventually while 1 crop is budding another will be ready to bud the second they get done so instead of 4 months in between harvests, it will only be 2 months. we plan to make a DIY hydroponics system. we went to lowes the other day with his moms credit card and bought $100 bucks worth of supplies to get off to a start, a lot of the items we needed we just grabbed from around the house. we intent to grow 4-8 plants and if u are looking for a cheap yet effective HPS light for flowering heres a link 400 watt HPS GROW LIGHT w BALLAST LAMP HOOD 400w Plant! - (eBay item 180150097460 end time Sep-14-07 18:00:00 PDT)
thats the best bang for the buck. we havent started growing yet but we plan to within a month. btw u should pry lay down some ply wood and paint it white if u want. if ur looking for a reflector just use the dull side of foil and some wire and some tape (ghetto) should get the job done. since u have 4 plants and only 2 lights i suggest u get more light and maybe a fixture if u dont have one already and put foil around the walls. oo my bad u need a cheap enclosure. right, measure and cut some boards and make a frame just good enough so u can staple black trash bags to them since its a cheap budget setup, make sure u have GREAT air flow, put a fan in there and use drying machine tubing and take a fan up to it and blow it out a window or something. u dont want MOLD. anyways back to the trash bags, make sure no light gets in during the dark periods or else u wont be able to flower that well. staple only the top of 1 side of the room and tape the rest so u can enter and leave when needed with ease. if u have any other questions either post on here or pm me. also this is the guide my friend and i are following http://youtube.com/watch?v=rjKsB23WBr0 . dont tell anyone, then if they help u in the smallest ways they will think they get a cut from each harvest, i told a few ppl and they gave me a ride to lowes and now they think they r entitled to a share of the harvest, and a big share, o and also police is an issue. good luck!

yeah that video is real good theres alot of info there

Kickflip thats not a very good deal at all.Thats old magnetic ballast and isnt even switchable. Maryland Hydroponics sells 400 watt digital switchabls for $99 and 600 watt dig switchables for $119 .www.htggardensupply.com is also better

yeah i guess not, can u give me a link to the $99 400w 1 please. cant find 1 for $99 bucks on there.

kizphilly said:

yeah that video is real good theres alot of info there

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i wish i had my own house and had that much space to grow. but i dont. good ideas from him though. wonder how much he spent on all that equipment? squirrel fan, lights, timers, two hydro systems, co2, nutes... i'm poor. going towards free to none budget

put them as thumbnails in the bottom of the post and I might. VV

How do I embed video from youtube on this site? it's a video clip of them growing.

VictorVIcious said:

put them as thumbnails in the bottom of the post and I might. VV

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All I need in order to setup in my attic is some 14/2 wire and wire nuts to allow me access to an electrical outlet. I have a grow box with dimensions: 2' wide, 1 'deep 3' tall. I picked up an outlet and outlet box. Also picked up a timer for my power strip. I have a heater for the nights that runs to a thermostat i can adjust from 65-85 degrees Fahrenheit. I will set that at 75 so if it gets colder than 75 in the dark phase it will kick on. My lights and fan are setup to a 12/12 timer for flowering now. plants are 41 days old.

Sound like a plan. Go advanced. Scroll to manage attachments. Then Manage them. VV

just powered up the attic and setup my grow box there with fan on during lighting and heater that kicks on if it goes below a certain temp. I set up the heater for 70 so it won't get below 70. what do you think of the work?

new Update on my grow for today

Picked up some nutes for the first time in the grow. It's been on flowering photoperiod since day 36. On day 60 I picked up my nutes from the store and applied them full recommended strength. The next day my plant definitely started flowering female. The white pistils are shooting up at every node. My only concern now is my 4 CFL's. They are all above the plant. What about the buds on the bottom? My plant is so bushy from pruning the light doesn't get through the leaves to the bottom so much anymore. And even if it did, it's too far away to do any good. Maybe I will get more and put the lights on the side of the plant to get into the bottom of the canopy. There are plenty of bud sites, but I'm concerned about light being a factor of bud size. When I start getting big buds, would it be more beneficial to keep the light closest to the buds, or the leaves? I don't know if the buds absorb light or if the leaves still do. If it's the leaves, I can throw two of the 4 bulbs I have now on the sides and the other two stay on top. any opinions? I'll post pictures soon so you can see my bud sites. It already smells of sweet skunk, when smelling the pistils directly. It's great and I'm glad it's female. I will probably keep flowering for about a month, right?

here's what my new setup with lights looks like: these photos are from day 51. I'm at 62 now, and just started budding. started flowering at 36 but didn't see any pistils until the day after I gave it nutes. Got the nutrients on day 60, day 61 it showed female that quickly. Highly recommend getting nutrients! I got the liquid that you add eyedropper drops into your watering solution and mix before watering. It was like 3 or 4 dollars, and well worth it. If you haven't gotten nutrients, do it now!