Closet grow setup and ventilation questions

Ok my closet is about 3 ½ foot wide by 3 foot deep and about five or six feet tall. I'm going to build a box for the plant to be in, but I have a few questions.

First of all, the door will be closed to my closet most always. As long as I have a fan circulating the air in there should I be fine on that? Meaning the stale air wont hurt the plant? Or will my grow NEED to have a fresh air vent?

Second of all I'm gonna use cfl lights, but I don't know how many I should get watts, lumens, color, etc.

Third of all, if I have a soil mix with plenty of nutes in it, will I have to put nutes in the water?

And those automatic water dispensers, that work by the released oxygen goin in and water being pushed out, will those work?

Thanks.

You can use any fluorescents you want, doesn't matter, any color will work. Why build a box, why not just keep the plants directly in the closet and block the light? Yes the lack of ventilation is going to be a huge issue, a box would work if you have a very small plant in mind. How much weight are you trying to grow, how many lights, are you willing to cut holes in the door of the closet, or the ceiling of the closet?

I was gonna build a box large enough to hold about three plants in 8" pots set in a triangle and veg for about 2-3 weeks. Absolutely no idea how much weight that is. I cannot cut holes in my door, but I might be able to make a vent above the door into the closet, but even then that limits the air to my room, which is very small. Oh, and I was gonna do a box for the smell, this way I could put a Carbon filter on it. Once again, idk how many lights, that's why I asked about it. Does this answer your questions?

You cannot grow without fresh air coming into the room and the stale air being exhausted out. Period. Plants need air to live.

This sounds like the plan i was playing around with,but after some research i decide a complete grow kit tent would work better.

I'm a noob too but i have done a lot of research into growing and tents make prefect sense for beginners.

ds60 or dr60 would be a good investment if my two cents are worth anything.

The Stoner King said:

I was gonna build a box large enough to hold about three plants in 8" pots set in a triangle and veg for about 2-3 weeks. Absolutely no idea how much weight that is. I cannot cut holes in my door, but I might be able to make a vent above the door into the closet, but even then that limits the air to my room, which is very small. Oh, and I was gonna do a box for the smell, this way I could put a Carbon filter on it. Once again, idk how many lights, that's why I asked about it. Does this answer your questions?

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I personally hate soil, especially if you are indoors, but hearing the answers I would say that a box is the right way to go. Since modifying the closet probably isn't a possibility the box is the best bet to get all the features you want and need. So if you are going to have some relatively small plants vegging for a couple weeks, and then flipping 12/12, also you said you're going with CFL, so personally I would go with 3/105W bulbs that are about $20 a pop to start with and see how the heat treats you, and then add more as needed. They run off regular sockets and are super easy to position and change out.

I've done just a bit of research and found out some interesting info:

as we all know, CO2 is a major necessity for the plants to grow. And in an enclosed space it will be used up quickly.CO2 constitues about .03% or 300 parts per million of air in country areas and about .035 -.04% in industrialized regions. Photosynthesis and growth could go by at a much higher rate if the amount of CO2 available were incread to about .15% or 1500 parts per million instead of the .035 - .04% found in urban areas. Higher concentrations of CO2 can increase the growth rate up to 300%. And if they grow faster it takes less time to yield a bigger crop. Once CO2 is added, lighting is most likely gonna be the limiting factor of how much you get.

The most practical method is a CO2 tank with a regulator. A regulator controls the number of cubic feet of gas released into the grow room, and CO2 tanks are relatively inexpensive to refill. Places to refill will be listed under Bottled Gas or Industrial Gas in the Yellow Pages. The largest tanks you can get hold about 50 pounds of gas, but weigh about 170 pounds filled. A 20 pound tank is way smaller and weighs about 50 pounds when full. At room temperature there are 8.7 cubic feet in a pound of gas. This way if you have a closet grow (like me) you don't have to have a vent going outside somehow, you can keep it in your closet with the door closed.

You can figure out how much CO2 needs to be released into the room by finding the cubic feet there are in the grow space, (Length x Width x Height). For instance, My closet is big enough for me to hold two boxes with the dimensions 2x2x3.5 which is 14 cubic feet, and because there are two of them I multiply by two which is 28 cubic feet. Now back to our ppm, I want .15% so I multiply by .0015. 28 x .0015 = .042 cubic feet of gas to inject.

Now to find out how long a tank will last. 1 pound of CO2 is 8.7 cubic feet. And a small unventilated rooms need a full replenishment of CO2 every hour or two. Lets say my grow boxes are on 24/0 right now. I need fresh CO2 during photosynthesis, so 24 hours a day. My regulator will release .042 feet cubed of CO2 per hour. 24 x .042 = 1.008 so I would be using 1.008 feet of gas per day. a 20 pound tank would be 20 x 8.7= 174 feet cubed / 1.008 = 172.61 days worth. So I would only need one twenty pound tank to last me maybe two or three grows!

I will probably just have two regular grow boxes, with an intake fan and an outtake fan on each, and just fill my closet with the CO2 to make double sure I have enough in my closet, and won't have to worry about timers on the fans.

What do you guys think about that?

I like the idea, but I would do 1 run without the CO2 and then 1 run with the CO2 so you can determine if there is a rather large increase in not only yield, but as you said a shortening of flowering time.

Well the reason I would have the CO2 tank is because my closet door is gonna be closed nearly the entire time. Only exception is to water, take pictures, and transplant, or any maintenance required. If I do a run without the CO2 tank my plant will fall over dead before it reaches 4". I didn't exactly say it makes a larger yield, nor shorter flowering time. Let's say you have a plant without a CO2 tank growing in a room and you veg for 4-5 weeks, then flower for 8 weeks, and it grows to 3'6" and yields a pound. (idk if that could actually happen or not, it's an example, just bare with me) Now let's say that you grow the same type of plant in a room with a CO2 tank and same grow times, it might make it up to 4'+ and yield 1.25 pounds or so, so basically a CO2 tank just speeds up time. Is that a bit clearer?

And that would be something interesting for someone to test. Two separate identical grow boxes, but in separate rooms. One with a CO2 tank and one without. The growing process would be the exact same, the only thing different would be the CO2. Then the results would show the answer.

Also, is it a bad idea to take a seedling that is ready to be transplanted to a bigger pot from a 2" or a 3" pot and put it in a 5" or 6" right away? Or should I take baby steps with it and go an inch at a time?

Lol, I don't need you to explain to me what happens when you introduce CO2 into a closed grow room. It seems you are the one a bit confused since you seem to believe that you are "speeding up time" by introducing CO2. Carbon dioxide is converted into sugars by photosynthesis to be used for growth and repair. By introducing higher levels of CO2 you are allowing the plant more food, which means more and faster growth, which in turn means higher yields and a shorter flowering time. That is exactly what CO2 does even if you didn't say it, larger yield and shorter flowering time. I doubt your plant is going to die due to lack of CO2 from the door on the closet being closed.

I didn't suggest running without CO2 on your first grow because I didn't understand the design of your grow room. I suggested running without CO2 so you would be able to see if it was really worth the effort to try and run CO2 in your grow room, when that particular grow room doesn't have any successful grows. I will use the analogy that I am a top level athlete, I have been training my entire life and my physical peak is rather high. In order to exceed this rather high peak of endurance I need some assistance, called blood doping. Now for the average athlete blood doping is a frivolous pursuit, the average athlete hasn't reached their physical peak, they haven't been training for years, they would see absolutely minimal results from blood doping, yet they believe that is what is needed to win...when in reality the difference between the average athlete and the elite athlete is how much work they've both put in over the years.

Speeding up time was an analogy of my own too lol. Faster growth... Speeding up time... two peas from the same pod the way I see it.

Setting up the CO2 wouldn't be very hard at all, so why not start out with it? It'd only be about $30-$40 for everything needed on that.

I realize you are trying to help, and I'm sorry if I'm annoying you by being stupid about this. lol.

You're not annoying me, lol. The reason is the same as to why people suggest starting in dirt with bag seed and basic nutrients. Keeping things simple is the best way to dial in your grow room, if you want to add CO2 from the beginning by all means be my guest it is just nice to have something to compare to when you start changing things in your grow room. This is so you can tell whether or not it is even worth the $30-40 and hassle for the additional CO2.

I gotcha. But I do have a few other questions for you if you don't mind. If you grow in soil, what kind of mix do you use or can you suggest a good one with items I can get from Lowe's or Wal-Mart? Same for nutes. Also the size of the grow box (now boxes) has changed. I will have a pair of 2x2x3.5 grow boxes. Honestly idc what kind of light I use, CFL, LED, HID, I just want two different lights: Veg light, Flower light. Can you help on that too? Thanks for all the help you've been giving me btw. I really appreciate it.

No worries, I do this in case someone stumbles across these threads they can get some good information. I've literally read hundreds of thousands of posts that have so much misinformation in them that I want to set the virtual things on fire! Now as for your questions, Lowe's is going to be the best place for soil, I personally have always had trouble with MiracleGrow, always, I've always had trouble with it, lol. So I would go grab some organic soil, fox farms, or whatever organic soil they have for like $8 a bag. I don't personally grow in dirt, and there are endless amounts of soil recipes. As for the size of your grow boxes, I personally would start out with some 105W CFL. You can get them from 1000bulbs, and similar websites, they are between $17 - 20 a bulb, can be screwed into regular sized sockets and can scale up rather easily. Since you have boxes, heat will be easier to deal with and you can veg/flower with the same light. I would really just mix in a few different spectrums, 3500K 105W with two 6500K 105W CFLs or any number of bulbs in any combination you want, it isn't that big of a deal the plants will grow no matter what as long as you provide them with light.

I return to you a stoned man. As much as I'd just absolutely LOVE to spend $120 on lightbulbs, I just can't do it. If I could cut that down to maybe a third, then I'd be happy. Can you suggest some cheaper ones that will work pretty well?

Hey guys, I'm a first time grower and am setting up my own space. I don't want to hijack this thread but I have a similar question re: ventilation.

I am also doing a closet grow, it's pretty big @ roughly 2 X 5 X 8 feet. I have chosen to board up the closet behind the doors so I can completely seal any light coming in. I have a 240W LED light, it's probably actually 150W or so.

Anyways, my plan is to have a duct fan rigged up to pull air out of my box, would it suffice to vent this just into the room with the closet, or should I try to vent it to a neighbouring washroom which has it's own duct fan system I can leave on 24/7? If so, should I leave it on 24/7 and does anyone have any idea how efficient these fans typically are?

I would like to build this right, just looking for some thoughts on to what extent I should be venting the air. I guess the more fresh air the better, but winter is coming and it is cold where I live so any windows being open isn't really an option. So I am limited to recirculating air within the house.

Another point is that since it's the basement, it is cooler then the main floors, but If I run a heater (which I will be), should this warmer air eventually circulate to the upper floors, drawing in "fresh" air from upstairs?

Thanks for any advice

Sup Stoner King! Heres my 2 cents. If your going to run CO2 you really should do it in a sealed room. If you try to keep co2 levels at 1500ppm it will just leak out and cost you a ton! If you do seal the room you dont have to worry about vents or smell. I also agree with Dom that just get something growing first b4 moving into co2 and all that crap. Get your basics and you might find you dont even need or want it. A tip for your soil mix is to add in some perlite. It helps with drainage and getting o2 to the roots. You will have to water more but its better for the plant. As for your lights, CFL's are as cheap as it gets. If you cant afford those then you need a smaller grow and you can built up to what you want. Also check craigslist for people who might want to trade grow stuff. I just got a killer deal trading away my RC Slash and a few other little things for 7 400w tube lights, 8 electric ballast and 8 bulbs. The deals are out there. There are people who grow under T5 but I have never really seen anything good come from them.

Now for Blue Bear. You need to vent into a differnt room otheriwse the plant wont get any new air. You only need the fan on when the lights are on. Plants dont need air when they are sleeping. You didnt say what fan you are using so I have no idea how efficient you fan is. You need to figure out how many cubic feet are in your grow space. Then you get a fan that can change out the entire space with new air every 5 mins. I also live in a cold area but I bring in air using backdraft dampers so if the fan isnt on then the room is sealed. The lights keep the room warm then the room seals when the lights go out. Im sure the heat will help heat the rest of the house.


Hope this helps!

I really appreciate your input, but I have stated a few things in previous posts about answers to problrms you are trying to help with. First off, my closet will be sealed that's why I need the co2. When I open the door to the closet to take pictures or water or whatnot, the smell will flush out. So yes I will need a carbon filter for the smell. I didn't say I couldn't afford CFL's, I said I couldn't afford 120 bucks on lights. I will still have plent of lights but they wont be any higher than maybe 30w.

My two grow boxes will be made as following. 2x2x3.5 ft. On the inside the lights will be placed on a fixture which will be placed on a piece od wood. That piece of wood is removeable and can be moved like a shelf so I can adjust my lights. There will be two fans with ducting one in and one out. The out will have a carbon filter inside the ducting for the smell. Then there will be a oscillating fan inside to move the air around.

I'm planning on having two to three plants in 5" seperate square pots. Possibly a scrog. Any helpful suggestions?

I did a bit more research, and found out that my 30-40 bucks for the CO2 tank was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY underestimated. Turns out it is close to 400 dollars. But I have seen some things that make CO2 naturally, like putting water sugar and yeast in a milk jug and putting a tiny hole in the lid. Makes CO2, but as for how much it makes, how fast it makes it, how often I would need to replace the solution inside the jug, etc. That would be the iffy part of it. Any help or suggestions on this?

I can't say I read all of this, so maybe it was mentioned before...

If you need to vent a closet, but can't cut any holes in the wall, just buy a new closet door, hang it, cut holes in it, and your set... Time to move out? Just put the old door back up.