~~~indoor grow cabinet... suggestions and questions~~~

alright..... good morning guys and girls!

i am now officially 8 1/2 weeks into my grow and very happy for several reasons...

1. i didn't think my plants would last this long
2. i didn't think I would last this long
3. all 3 of my babies that sprouted are still doing pretty good for my first grow..

so i'm a little excited.. but now.. the vegging stage is coming to a close and the flowering stage is here..

now i know that they will be needing a for sure 12/12 to go into the flowering stage and since the location of where i'm doing my grow is above my washer in the laundry room and i'm running out of grow space i decided to buy one of those things from homedepot

basically it's an indoor storage closet or whatever.. kinda like a bookshelf w/doors.. i'm getting the larger 48" long one so that i can have plenty of space..

right now i've got two cfl's one is 95 watt the other is 125 watt both on the 6500k or 6200k whatever it is... "true daylight blue spectrum" i plan on using these same two lights as well as 1 small 2 or 3 foot t5 light i've got too..

QUESTION 1:
i know that it's going to be getting a little warm in there so i will be needing an exhaust fan... is this right?? i've read here that a bunch of you are using computer fans for this.. my question is where can i get one and how easy is it to install?? do i just cut a hole, screw it in, then plug it up to the outlet? seems a little TOO easy in my head..

also if i get an exhaust fan should i get another one to bring air in as well???

QUESTION 2:
lights, are these two and a half (the t5 i count as half) going to be enough for my three children? and i've also heard a bunch of people saying you MUST use red spectrum when my local grow guy says that's ridiculous, and doesn't even recomend them because you'll need about 4 125 watt red spectrum to put out the same amount of light as 1 125watt blue... so he said to use the blue spectrum all the way thru..

note: i'm not going hps or mh i'm going to stick w/the cfl's (and they're not the walmart little ones they're the bigger ones)

QUESTION 3:
this thing isn't HUGE but it is big, and i'm going to be concerned about smell since i'm in an apartment. what is the easiest yet effeciant way to get rid of the smell i heard carbon filters but could someone please go into this subject for me w/a little detail size matters i need small, i've only got 3 (not big) plants, it's got to fit in this closet thing, it needs to work VERY well, and i'm not rich... but have a little money, just not 1k dollars to dump into a filter know what i mean??

QUESTION 4:
should i be putting any nutes in while flowering? <~clueless on this one!



PLEASE i would love ANY suggestions and tips... i'm almost to week 9 and invested a lot of money and time to this grow and i want to finish strong! you guys on this site have given me a lot of help and your advice is perfect! so please don't bite your tongue and say he'll figure it out... YOUR ADVICE IS MOST WANTED HERE!!

thanks to all you people!

More air flow the better.....

come on now... needing a little more info

i need to start buying/ordering things in order to get this built on schedule plz

Here's a possible answer to question No.3 - esp if you're on a budget

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/7074-easy-build-diy-carbon-filter.html

Question 1: Garden Knowm's right about the more ventilation the better. But if your closet is air conditioned and you want to save a little bit of money, ventilation for your three plants isn't essential. What temps is your growroom reaching with lights on and off? I've got a closet grow going on in my apartment and because I use flouros and my AC is usually on, I've never had to get a fan.

Question 2: Nope, probably not even close. Of course the more lights the better, but if I'm guessing correctly you've only got about 5,000-6,000 lumens on your plants. You should aim for at least 20,000. I guess you can technically "skimp" on the lights for veg, but I doubt any serious grower would recommend it. For flowering you will definitely need warm spectrum lights, or else you'll be seriously disappointed. I don't know how that guy (if he's a gardner) even came to give you that advice.

Question 3: Can't give you much advice there. I love the smell and have had no need to ever cover it up. Sorry.

Question 4: Yes, nutes with a high P content are desirable for flowering. Check out the GrowFAQ for more info.

Q1: With a good enough exhaust fan (on the top of your room) you should be able to get by with passive intake (just holes for ventilation) on the bottom of your room.
Q2: I dunno.....sorry
Q3: I have just put together a muffin fan (thanks to videoman) with odor controlling agent on the bottom. Approx $30 for parts. https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=290

I am still a newbie to indoor growing myself, but I hope this helps.

oh wow videoman comes thru again w/that thanks for that post locomonkey

.... so more lights huh??? i'm sure i can work that in the plan..

but those red spectrum put out less light right?? so why would that guy be wrong? i mean if the lights are supposed to be "true daylight" then why wouldn't it work??? <~ excuse my ignorance but both parties sound like they know what they're talkin about yet both say eachother don't know what the other is talkin about... quite confusing really...

pseudon i'm in a closet now but i'm going to buy a close type thing... it's actually more of a shelf or storage w/doors on it like a "grow closet" or something but self made....

so i'm gonna put that bucket at the bottom of the grow closet... 2 small vent fans one in one out. my two lights i've already got... now it's getting hard when it comes to the light.. if i need MORE light... and i go to the other bulbs and they produce less light then i need more of those red spectrum... lets just say 2 @ 250watt?? or 4 @ 125 watt... but then we're getting back to the space issue....

what if i use the two i've got blue spectrum true daylight... along w/maybe 6 or 8 of those little cfl's i see everyday at walmart w/some sort of fixture.. and put one or two more red spectrum... that should be enough light right??

Question 1: I have to agree more ventilation is the way to go. You can purchase CPU fans from your local electronic store or from any number of online retailers. You will also need to purchase a adapter in the same voltage as your fan. 9V fan = 9V adapter.

Once you have your fan and adapter, snip off the connector end of the fan and the adapter end of your power adapter. You should have two wires on each. One is the ground, typically black in color and the other is red. Match your ground from your adapter to the ground on the fan and secure with electrical tape. Do the same for the other set of wires.

CPU fans typically have four pre-drilled holes at the corners. Use these to secure your fan to your growbox. Be mindful of the direction of your airflow.

It is up to you if you want to use one or two fans. Some people use a passive intake, an open hole, at the bottom and place an out take fan at the top. (As heat rises.) I would also suggest that you create a cover for your fan, as light travels in straight lines, to block out any light that may seep in via your fan holes. Good Luck.

Question 3: You might want to look into ONA, which you can purchase from an online dealer like this one: Hydrofarm - Ona Products ON10051 Ona Block, 6 Ounces or maybe a local hydro store. It is an odor neutralizer, which can be quite effective at neutralizing the scent of small grows.

Question 4: You MUST use fertilizers during the flowering cycle. As your plants will be developing at a fairly rapid pace. However, there is debate as to whether or not one should feed nutes during the last two weeks of flowering. Some say yes, others say no. The argument against is that the nutes will affect the taste of the cured product as well as affect the way your weed burns when lit.

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Since you're using more of a box for growing than a larger closet, you'll definitely need fans.

As for the warm lights putting out less light, I'm pretty sure that's not true. I have a 4 bulb T5 system and whether I have warm or cool bulbs in it, they always produce about 15,000 lumens. Maybe he means that more visible light is produced by the cool bulbs? I don't know why he would say that though if he knew you were trying to grow with them. It's the type of light that's important. During veg your plants will use more of the blue spectrum for growth and during flowering your plants will use more of the red spectrum, that's why you need to switch from cool to warm (6500k to 2700-3000k) lights.

And I can't really tell you how well your newly proposed light setup would work. You would have to know how many lumens each bulb produces. I've seen little bulbs and Wal-Mart produce 900 lumens, so you probably don't want to waste your time with those. If you get the big ones that produce upwards of 2000 lumens each, then yeah you'll be in good shape until flowering. You'll always want to provide more light during flowering.