Starting out!!!

So it's going to be a few weeks before I start my 1st ever grow.. i have recently been online and watched litteraly hundreds of videos on Germinating, Vegitation, Cloning, Topping and numerous other methods of altering a plants structure.. Clips on Nutritin and other bits and pieces

So far I'm debating the Upstairs cupboard 3x4x8... or Loft 4x6.. however that has a slanted roof so lighting would be sat at around 4.5-5 feet.. I'm only starting out so have yet to learn a LOT!!
what's peopels grow size and amounts to begin with I'd be pretty comfortable with 3-5 plants but I'm still curious to what others done when in my position..

I already have a little knowledge on a few things bit I'm looking for pointers, tips and opinions..

Ideally room temperature wants to be between 22-29C during the day and can drop to around 20C at night however to much fluctuation in a plants temperature can impact on the whole operation, it'
to my understanding that Autos are a more hardy strain and can "make it" from 15-30C..
Rates of Humidity are applicable to the ranges of Temperatures above not always the same for Plant growth but it should always be high.
Clones at 80-95% (Dome)
Vegitation Phase 60-70%
Flowering at 45-55%
Drying and Harvest needs Temperatures of 18-24C and Humidity of 45-55%..

I am slowly coming to terms with the proses but would still like a few tips and pointers all feedback is welcome as it'
the 1st operation I'll have ever ran.. TIA guys

I'd stay out of the loft. Too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.

Read a book or three.

I found a great spot to download FREE POT BOOKS. I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as some are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.

I hadn't even considered weather in accordance to temp wise.. now it' been mentioned it makes sense lol I'll have to see how many to pot as the cupboard I have is a 3x4x8.. Thank you for the feedback I'll be sure to Follow

Jjlaw95 said:

I hadn't even considered weather in accordance to temp wise.. now it' been mentioned it makes sense lol I'll have to see how many to pot as the cupboard I have is a 3x4x8.. Thank you for the feedback I'll be sure to Follow

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I have a grow room in an underground concrete bunker. Actually a large, 10x25x7h' crawl space, where the previous owner built a cold room about 7x9' that I ripped the shelves out of to make it into a grow room. It's unheated down there and never gets over 64F so I have cool air to draw from to keep the grow room cool even in the hottest summer days. Need extra heat sometimes tho the 1000W HPS does a good job of keeping the room warm when it's on. A heater on a thermostat keeps temps from dropping too low when it's off. Never needed A/C so that's a bonus.

Will you be able to cut holes in your cupboard for ventilation? Fresh air is needed especially once plants get bigger as they quickly use up all the CO2 and once that's gone they just stop growing and go into limbo. I use an alcohol lamp to increase CO2 and it works great. Even a candle burning in a cupboard the size of yours will get the CO2 up over 1500ppm in a short time if a fan isn't sucking the air out all the time. My exhaust fan is on a Temp/RH controller and only comes on when needed to reduce one or the other. With just a 400W the fan may not come on at all so the burning lamp makes sure there is lots of CO2 for the plants.

Have you acquired any lights etc for your project yet? Lots to think about.

Good luck!

OldMedUser said:

I have a grow room in an underground concrete bunker. Actually a large, 10x25x7h' crawl space, where the previous owner built a cold room about 7x9' that I ripped the shelves out of to make it into a grow room. It's unheated down there and never gets over 64F so I have cool air to draw from to keep the grow room cool even in the hottest summer days. Need extra heat sometimes tho the 1000W HPS does a good job of keeping the room warm when it's on. A heater on a thermostat keeps temps from dropping too low when it's off. Never needed A/C so that's a bonus.

Will you be able to cut holes in your cupboard for ventilation? Fresh air is needed especially once plants get bigger as they quickly use up all the CO2 and once that's gone they just stop growing and go into limbo. I use an alcohol lamp to increase CO2 and it works great. Even a candle burning in a cupboard the size of yours will get the CO2 up over 1500ppm in a short time if a fan isn't sucking the air out all the time. My exhaust fan is on a Temp/RH controller and only comes on when needed to reduce one or the other. With just a 400W the fan may not come on at all so the burning lamp makes sure there is lots of CO2 for the plants.

Have you acquired any lights etc for your project yet? Lots to think about.

Good luck!

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I was thinking about cutting through the roof "into loft" for a carbon filter and ventilation fan.. it' a nice breeze up there at the minute so I think that will deffiabetly help. come summer time (If the UK even gets one this year ) I might get away with just a heater over night or if I can time the lighting just right heat off lamp will cover the task in hand... was thinking 4-7000 lumes 75/150WATT
for seedlings and then 600Watt for veg.. will 600WATT do for veg and flower?? still a lot to learn I know but hey we all start from somewhere right

OldMedUser said:

I have a grow room in an underground concrete bunker. Actually a large, 10x25x7h' crawl space, where the previous owner built a cold room about 7x9' that I ripped the shelves out of to make it into a grow room. It's unheated down there and never gets over 64F so I have cool air to draw from to keep the grow room cool even in the hottest summer days. Need extra heat sometimes tho the 1000W HPS does a good job of keeping the room warm when it's on. A heater on a thermostat keeps temps from dropping too low when it's off. Never needed A/C so that's a bonus.

Will you be able to cut holes in your cupboard for ventilation? Fresh air is needed especially once plants get bigger as they quickly use up all the CO2 and once that's gone they just stop growing and go into limbo. I use an alcohol lamp to increase CO2 and it works great. Even a candle burning in a cupboard the size of yours will get the CO2 up over 1500ppm in a short time if a fan isn't sucking the air out all the time. My exhaust fan is on a Temp/RH controller and only comes on when needed to reduce one or the other. With just a 400W the fan may not come on at all so the burning lamp makes sure there is lots of CO2 for the plants.

Have you acquired any lights etc for your project yet? Lots to think about.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Dude, if there is ever a Fallout I am getting your address.. underground bunker grow room, perfect.

Jjlaw95 said:

I was thinking about cutting through the roof "into loft" for a carbon filter and ventilation fan.. it' a nice breeze up there at the minute so I think that will deffiabetly help. come summer time (If the UK even gets one this year ) I might get away with just a heater over night or if I can time the lighting just right heat off lamp will cover the task in hand... was thinking 4-7000 lumes 75/150WATT
for seedlings and then 600Watt for veg.. will 600WATT do for veg and flower?? still a lot to learn I know but hey we all start from somewhere right

Click to expand...

You don't want to be venting warm, moist air into an unheated attic space. I did that in the garage I had at my old place years ago and once spring happened it was raining inside the garage as the ice that built up all winter in the attic began to melt. Hell of a mess. I had a 5x12' grow space I built inside the 20x24' garage that was just rented at the time so I was freaking out in case the landlord came by. So I bought the place then a year later we bought the place I'm in now. Much better being out in the country with no close neighbours. My exhaust vents outside under the shop so odor is still a concern but I have a brand new large carbon filter I'll be putting to use soon. Wife sells eggs so we have strangers dropping by all the time and in the winter the air just doesn't move out there and the whole yard reeks of pot. Amazed I haven't been busted after 16 years growing here.

Have you got another small space you could veg plants and just use the cupboard for flowering? Starting a couple plants every 6 - 8 weeks then moving them into the flower room would keep you in a steady supply of pot and the loft should be fine to veg in when growing in pots. I'm using an upstairs bedroom to veg in now so the basement grow room can be dedicated to flowering. My plants are all 4 - 5ft tall now but I'm going to be keeping them smaller from now on,

For that cupboard a 400W HPS should be big enough tho a 600 would really rock them and give almost twice the light for half the extra power. Extra heat tho too so if you can find the cash for decent LED lights you might be better off. Depends on whether you plan to do this long term or just want to get your feet wet with a cheap setup to see how it goes. Shit gets expensive to set up with all the bells and whistles and it's taken me almost 20 years to get all the stuff I have now. I have 4 - 400s and a couple 1000W HIDS and sometimes a 600 would be just right instead of using 2 - 400s or the 1000. Dropped $2000+ in the last couple years to get some of the things that have been on my wish-list for years. Loving my light rail and that was $300 alone. Can cover twice the area with the same light so it pays for itself real quick. It only uses 9W.

twagner23 said:

Dude, if there is ever a Fallout I am getting your address.. underground bunker grow room, perfect.

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It's 1313 ShitOutOfLuck St., BumFuck Alberta, H0H 0H0. Bring pussy.

Unfortunately I'm limited to the cupboard @OldMedUser 4 bedoom house but we have 3 children so it' going to be a quick cheap and cheerful start just to get a few funds for a shed.. then I can segregate it and run veg and flowers... by what you'e said everything is the same.. takes time, experience, patients and most of all money.. but like the old saying goes "you need money to make money".. what you have set up sounds great any old equipment feel free to shop over the pond happy growing guys

Jjlaw95 said:

Unfortunately I'm limited to the cupboard @OldMedUser 4 bedoom house but we have 3 children so it' going to be a quick cheap and cheerful start just to get a few funds for a shed.. then I can segregate it and run veg and flowers... by what you'e said everything is the same.. takes time, experience, patients and most of all money.. but like the old saying goes "you need money to make money".. what you have set up sounds great any old equipment feel free to shop over the pond happy growing guys

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With shipping costs to or from northern Alberta it would cost 10x more than it's worth to ship it over the pond. Cost me $25 to get a couple of liters of nutes sent up from Edmonton and that's only a 6 hour drive from where I'm at. Still cheaper than the gas to drive there and back tho.

How strict are they there about getting caught growing when you have kids in the house? I know of people here in the past who've had their children seized by the gov't when busted with a grow and had to fight to get them back. I doubt that happens now unless there are other factors like other drugs being sold out of the house or a history of gov't interventions.

They say practice makes perfect but I've had lots of practice and am still far from perfect. Never was much of a gardener and any house plant I got in the past died in short order. The last few years my enthusiasm for growing has waned to the point I do the minimum possible to grow my girls. Still got plenty of pot to keep me happy and that's all I need really. Bug spray day today to hopefully make sure the damn mites are finally gone. Beware of friends bearing clones as that's where my bugs came from. lol

I wish now that I'd had the garage from my old place moved down here. It was well insulated with a full sized house furnace in it for heat and already on skids so a couple thousand dollars would have got it here. Have a nice spot in the back yard it would have fit in nicely.

If it was a full room set up I.e15+ plants I think implications would definitely involve child services but I'd only ever stretch to 5-6 plants at most... keep it low key, quiet and not greedy... a friend of mine was caught with £20K worth and got cautioned with random spot checks to his houses by Police.. once your caught it's pretty much game over..
However the risk seems you've gotta make a bit of money from somewhere I could think of worse ways to do it

As long as you keep your lip zipped you shouldn't have any concerns. I've been growing here since we bought the place 16 years ago and moved plants in from the old place to set up here.

I have my medical and if I wanted to register with the gubberment could grow 39 plants legally indoors. Don't want to be on their hit list tho so I'll just keep it quiet and carry on as usual.

I don't grow for profit but have a few friends who eagerly await my next crop so they can make a "donation" to get some decent pot at half the price of what it goes for on the streets. Doesn't cover my electric costs but helps. Almost $90/mth to run my 1000W light 12 hours a day. It's on 18 now but soon flowering.

Yea same sort of situation here just a close friends and family sort of thing but I don't smoke it.. sort of a money making scheme what's going to hopefully help shape a decent future for us and the kids for college, deposit for house etc.. nothing to major. It' just a chance you have to take but its the most lenient penaltys in a way of breaking the law if you get what I mean

I couldn't imagine growing it and not using it myself. I smoke very little but make a lot of mine into cocobudder for eating. Much better.

Be careful then and don't base your future plans on just pot. Any number of things can throw a wrench into the works and drastically change your plans.

Best of luck!

I work full time in a forge so what ever comes off them is a little earner sort of thing.. never out all your eggs in one basket as my old man always said haha