4x4 closet w/ 400W MH/HPS adj

Yeah, I see what you're saying for sure.

I plan on keeping the veg/clone space just 2-3' tall to give the flowering space as much vertical space as I need. At the same time, I plan on flowering relatively young plants, so even though they will grow through flowering, they won't become huge plants before they are done.

Thanks for the input!

It's been three weeks and two days since I started germination, and almost three weeks since I planted them in the soil.

Yesterday, I transplanted them into 5 gal buckets. But I realized these buckets were more space than they needed individually ( I read a rule of 1 gal per foot of growth). I intend to put these into flowering kind of early, so I don't expect them to become 5 ft plants, prob no more than 30in or so. So, I put two in two buckets and three in one. Also, remember that these are bagseeds, so some are going to be males and get cut once I start flowering. So, we'll just see how this works out, haha.

They seem to be doing fine since the transplant though. It looked like they had nice root development too, but this is my first grow that i've transplanted in, so I have nothing to compare.

As you can see in the pics, there has been some sort of issues with the lower leaves turning yellow and now dying. So far, only the first set of real leaves (the singles) are affected bad enough to kill them. The next set is either fine or slightly yellow. Hopefully whatever was wrong will not come back up any more though.

I realized I had used only miracle grow seed starter soil, not the time released stuff, but now they are in a mix of MG moisture control with the time released feed and perlite. So I hope they don't get too much or too little nutrients as a result. Trying to keep it simple and avoid using nutrients until later in the grow.

Got to finalize my plans to enhance my grow room to include an inline fan and carbon filter, to help with heat and smell (as they are finally starting to smell a little, and it will only increase).

Bad idea putting more than one plant in a pot...I would fix that ASAP. Otherwise as they grow, they will compete for root space and the dominant plants will suffocate and kill the weaker ones. Maybe go with some smaller pots?

Thanks for the input. I hope to get them into flowering before they grow big enough to really need all the space or really start to fight, then some will be killed because they will be males, so that will free up the pots. If I get two females in one pot, i can always transplant if I REALLY need to, but like I said, I want to keep these pretty small so I don't expect them to be fighting too hard for space. I guess we'll see though. As long as I get to where I can take some clones from a female, I will be happy and hopefully get some bud from some of them too.

So the next step in my grow room is installing a carbon filter & exhaust system.

I plan on getting a good one for the size of my closet and a nice size filter to really take care of the smell. Even though they are still small, they are starting to smell and I need to snip that in the bud (haha).

So my plan is to rig the fan & filter up near the top to draw out heat out and use the cracks in the room as passive intakes. I can always add an intake hole if I need one, but I think air will move through the room nicely without a real hole. Heat hasn't been a huge issue (temps ranging from 67-87, min-max). So I'm not too worried about that either.

In a few weeks, I will rig my room the rest of the way. I'm considering essentially building a table-like surface about three feet off the ground, rigging a T5 2-ft 4-bulb fixture for clones/vegging and having a clone box for baby clones under there. From the table I will hang down reflective material of some sort to block the light from getting to the flowering plants above. I have seen small grow tents, but have not found the exact size I want yet.

Any suggestions on any of this?
Let me hear from you

First off, nice upgrade from the CFL's, im sure you will see the difference! The seeds always take a little while to get settled in, but you should see tremendous growth increase with that light after two or three sets of sprouts! I know a lot of people say that alternating MH/HPS is good for vegging/flowering, but I noticed that there is just as much, if not a better response from the HPS throughout!!!

the HPS is hotter than the MH, so if you are rigging something to get the heat out, I'd recommend using the HPS to see how much heat is generated, so that when you make the switch you won't have to mess around too much. If you can't install an exhaust or anything yet, try creating an airflow under the crack of the closet door. Aim two fans out, one fan in. I realize its a small crack, but any air flow is better than none. You shouldn't have any problems with smell for a little while. An optimum quick fix would be to cut out a 4"x4" square at the bottom of your door, cover it with a mildly thin cloth and put a fan blowing out right on it. That will get the hot air out.... 4x4 square is just big enough to use wood glue when you put the square back lol

is it a hallow core door? what i did was on the inside of the door i cut a 4x4 square only on the inside half (bottom). then i cut out the middle of the bottom 1x2 creating a opening to the bottom crack. and i mounted an intake fan to the inside of the door and blocked off the small crack at the bottom on the inside. creating a damn good air passage. how ever that was in my last closet. not usen that method now. but it worked damn good. from the outside no one could tell a damn thing.

Foolieo said:

is it a hallow core door? what i did was on the inside of the door i cut a 4x4 square only on the inside half (bottom). then i cut out the middle of the bottom 1x2 creating a opening to the bottom crack. and i mounted an intake fan to the inside of the door and blocked off the small crack at the bottom on the inside. creating a damn good air passage. how ever that was in my last closet. not usen that method now. but it worked damn good. from the outside no one could tell a damn thing.

Click to expand...

That's a cool idea. From what I can tell this door is solid at the bottom with some boards. In the long run I may change out the whole door/frame to make the seal better and opening and closing it easier (it sticks right now). But it's not a priority right now.

If I'm sucking the air out, I know fresh air will find it's way in because the room is in no way air tight. Those little holes add up to be like one big hole if you think about it.

I plan on getting a fan with plenty of CFM, technically I only need 25-50 to clear the air in less than five minutes, so if I get one with way more than that and put the carbon filter on it I think it will clear the air nicely.

So it looks like I will do the 4" TD inline fan and a carbon filter to match with insulated tubing (can I get good tubing like this at like lowe or home depot?).

I want the insulated kind to muffle noise as much as possible.

I will be updating tomorrow or the next day. They've started growing faster, which I'm glad to see. Plan on going into flowering right around new years. Might stagger it and go from 18/6 (now), to 16/8, to 14/10 to 12/12 over the next few weeks. Can't decide. I like this because it would mimic nature, but might just slow growth and not do any good.

the 4", 10' thermal tubing is like $12 at HD. If you want to muffle the noise even more, get the thermal insulator that you can wrap around the tubing. The stuff is thick enough so that you should get virtually no sound or vibration.

From research I believe that the flowering stage occurs due to the change in light cycle. So if you slowly adjusted the light cycling allowing the plant to become more accustomed to less light, then it would take longer for it to realize it should be flowering? Just a hypothesis in reasoning, in actuality your idea may work better... Give it a try and lets see if it works!

On my way to the store!

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jakethetank said:

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Click to expand...

Great to have you Jake. Let me know what you think as it goes...it's getting exciting now...about to update with pics! Loading them in now

So I was starting to wonder if they would ever grow...and then they did.

They all look really healthy/happy right now. Putting on leaves crazy fast and the leaves are starting to grow bigger too, both good signs. All of them are developing either their 5th or 6th nodes right now.

This sudden quick growth makes me have to re-think the next few weeks and what I want to do. First off, I'd be happy to switch them to flowering right now, I'm just not ready to do the next things I want to do yet. Mainly, I want to shell out the cash and get a 25 spot clone machine. I don't need 25 spots, but that's the smallest my store carries. Anybody have some smaller clone machines they'd recommend from online sources? My store sells the 25 spot one for $199.

On top of that, I will need/want a fluorescent fixture. I was thinking of a 2ft 4bulb T5 fixture with a propagation box, but the propagation box isn't going to make the cut. Now I want to try a four ft 4 bulb fixture with the clone machine on one half and the vegging pants on the rest. This will keep me happy and busy!

At my store, this will cost $199 for the clone machine and $180 for the fixture, making it about $400 more, plus I have to pick up some low level nutrients and new pots. So we're talking getting up around $450 more! This is getting expensive for what I thought would be a small hobby...but I love it. Plus, once I get the equipment, I'll just have to pay for replacement or upgrading and that will be more spread out.

My room would look like this up to down (no depth, I'm not that advanced, haha)

_________________________
TD-100 4" Inline fan and 2600 Carbon filter can
400wHPS


Flowering Plants
__________________
4ft 4 bulb t5 fixture

Vegging plants>>>Clone Machine


My plan to keep light from the bottom away from the top is simply to build a simple plywood & 2x4 box. Then I will vent this box with a small fan inside and a CPU fan on the side, which will be venting into the flowering space. I bought the inline fan & carbon filter today ($196, with the foliar feed I picked up).

4x4tent fanclub. try adding some t5's as supplemental light.

So, like I said just above, I have gotten the exhaust fan and carbon filter. This will move filtered air out and suck fresh air in through the cracks in the door and around the boards all over. This isn't a closet that is drywalled and sealed up like some closets would be, so air will seep through.

So here's the next phases to upgrade and finish setting up my grow space.

Phase 1
Get some ply wood up on the side walls, use a jigsaw to cut nice holes for the exhaust tubing, and rig up the filter/fan combo. This is first because smell is becoming an issue and I hope it will reduce a little heat even though my temps are maxing out at 30C/86F right now. It's actually cooling off to 19C/66F at night.

Phase 2
Build the box for the clones and vegging plants. The flowering plants will sit on top of it. Not sure how I will make this box both light-tight and accessible. I'm thinking it will involve some panda film at first but I'll have to brainstorm a more permanent fix. I'm relatively new to the whole DIY type work, but I enjoy figuring out how to do it.

This phase has to include shelling out the cash for the new fixture and clone machine too. I'll line the whole thing with either mylar or panda film, too.

Lots of details to sort out. Lots of fun too.

Let me hear what you think.

So I just got another idea....

Since I'm not ready to start flowering if I can't take clones as soon as the females show, what if I top and try to clone the tops just for practice? I could increase the number of plants and increase the colas I'll get if they turn out to be females.

I might end up doing this if they continue to grow like they are and I think I have time before I can afford the rest of the materials I want before proceeding.

I'm going to be doing the fan/filter today...kind of taking my room apart and putting it back together. So I'll have to see how it goes!

Update later

Just now got everything put back together....at least the way it will be for now. Got the fan/filter combo up...it's really moving air out of my closet. So I expect temps to be constant (except when the light is off vs. on of course). But it still won't change much if the light never has the chance to heat the room.

Still have a lot I want to do to make the room perfect for my needs. Anyways, I will update probably tomorrow with pics...busy night tonight.

later,
- LGA

So not much has changed, but I figured I would update with pics to show any progress.

One plant has a little leaf curling downward action...others look good though.

I'm starting to figure out how to be ready to take clones with the time comes. From reading, it sounds like it can be a very difficult thing to do right. I would like to get a small clone machine, just enough to get a few clones each cycle (like 6). The daisy cloner seems perfect except that most people say it doesn't work for them. Any tips on how to make it work for me if I got something like that? Cloning in soil seems very difficult to do right, but I'm sure I could learn. Just sounds tedious and tricky.