First grow room setup all input welcome.

First Grow

• Humboldt Seed Organization Blue Dream Feminized x3
• Royal Queen Seeds White Widow Feminized x1
• GrandDaddy Purple Seeds Bay Dream Non Feminized x2

Hi all I suppose I should start out with some basic info about myself being my first real post. I've never grown before but im in the process of doing massive amounts of research. I've been preparing to purchase equipment for my first grow room. I believe the items on this list will work for what I plan to do. I'm trying to grow 6 plants in a 3'Wx4'Lx7'h Closet. The plants will be arranged in two rows of 3 in 5 Gallon Pots from start to finish. The exhaust system will have the carbon filter/inline fan pushing air over the light to cool it taking the air out the other side and into the attic to disperse. The passive intake will be a 6" hole cut in the door near the top to help cool the closet while bringing in fresh air. The Oscillating fan will be on the back wall. I attached pictures sorry about the poor drawing skills but the idea gets across. Please point out anything I may have overlooked or intend to do wrong. Tips,Tricks and the like are most defiantly welcome as well. I look forward to any and all reply's.




Total Cost $614

" I'm trying to grow 6 plants in a 3'Wx4'Lx7'h Closet"

Hey dude, I'm about to go blaze so I'll post more in a bit but this caught my eye... I am currently doing the exact same thing in the exact same spase pretty much. I vegged for an extra two weeks(5 total) while waiting for one of the girls to come back from a nute def. My shit has become kinda packed as a result:





Also while I'm here, consider an orbital style fan, same thing as you have only blows air in a rectangle, I have one in the top of my closet and it's perfect.

For now here is my out of date grow blog if you care to look: http://needmodro.wordpress.com

That looks great that isn't your first grow ever is it? Did you use any stress training or anything to get it packed in like that even with the extra two week veg? Ill look in to that orbital fan but im gonna go pass out I stayed up all night researching. Thanks for the quick reply.

"The passive intake will be a 6" hole cut in the door, near the top...."

Unless a high hole helps to suck air in from a cool place it's best to have the intake close to the bottom.
Heat rises so the cool air won't make it down to your plants before it's warmed and gone stale (Like a fart in an elevator).

Pumping air in from a MUCH cooler place is also not good.
An arctic blast of freezing air may feel nice to us, when we're hot, sticky and uncomfortable, but it shocks plants.
They like a constant comfortable room temperature.

So I tried to edit this into my last post but for some reason its all fucked up, lol...

Other shit I might suggest...

Heavy duty staples and double sided duct tape. Both invaluable for mounting that panda film.

Consider a smaller fan, this is the one I have and it moves PLENTY of air. http://www.amazon.com/Sunleaves-DuraBreeze-Orbital-Wall-Fan/dp/B00AB2YIKU

600W seems like overkill for that space but if its cooled and high enough above the canopy why not right? Also, if your gonna get that e-ballast, it is compatible with 600W MH conversion lamps. Consider vegging under that. I want to try the new Hortilux 600w Blue myself.

You fan set up for the hood... I would pull the air thru it instead of push. You are not trying to "cool" the bulb so much as remove hot air.

I don't see a T5 or CFLs on your list. What light are you planning on using for the seedlings/young clones?

5 gal pots seem a bit large for that space. Also you'll want to use smaller pots for sprouting and early on.

You seem to like FF. I have a plant I started in str8 FFOF. Gave it no nutes for like the first 2-3 weeks and it still outgrew my other plants. However after this the soil nutes were gone and I had to rapidly bring it up to speed with the others' liquid feeding. Only thing I wish on that plant was that I gave it more room to grow in and that I had mixed in prob 30% perlite for drainage and some dolomite to buffer the PH, as the runoff is very low. Although I PH every time I feed/water and allow for 10-20% run off so medium PH isn't that much of a concern.

On the subject of PH. Get yourself a GOOD PH meter and all the calibration/cleaning/storage solutions for it. And calibrate it once per week minium. I use the 7.0 buffer to test mine regullary as well.


AND this is the most important advice I can give you I think, and sorry if my explanation is a bit convoluted...
Your closit is going to get very cramped and to a point where you wont be able to, or really want to move the plants.

First, place your pots in some kind of runoff trays. I use these $3 propigation trays from the hydro store. You can use these for run off and makes it easy to test the ph of the run off. After letting them fully drain(my air pots drain alot) I use a shop vac to suck out the water. Which btw BE CAREFUL WITH. Lol... I sucked some branches into the vacuum a few times.

Second, I went and got myself a 3gal pump sprayer. The kind they use for spraying insecticide around the yard. I removed the pressure tip from the sprayer wand. I mix nutes up in this. Pump it a few times, and use the wand to gently and evenly water my pots. It is fucking amazing. It even has liters marked on the side so I know how much I give them.

I have a bluedream said:

That looks great that isn't your first grow ever is it? Did you use any stress training or anything to get it packed in like that even with the extra two week veg? Ill look in to that orbital fan but im gonna go pass out I stayed up all night researching. Thanks for the quick reply.

Click to expand...

Its MY first grow yes. Not the first one I've helped set up tho.

Oh cool, you're going with Royal Queen Seeds. I am growing their OG Kush right now!

Your space is almost the same as my tent, horizontally. My flowering tent is 4' x 2' x 5'. Your space has a foot more room width-wise. How will you be spacing apart your veg and flowering rooms or will they be in separate places altogether?

Right now I have four plants in 2.5-3 gallon pots in for flowering, and one 1-gallon pot in there on the edge catching the "extra" light. With a small fan and a side lamp, I have literally no more room for any more plants unless in very small pots. If you are planning on growing six plants, you will have more vertical space than you will horizontal space when your plants start to grow outward, especially if you plan on doing training such as LST. I'm only in week three of flowering now and my plants are exploding outward. Hopefully they are done growing out though..lol.

Could you start with maybe four plants and square pots to see if you have much more room to work with once your plants have begun to flower? If you want to run a perpetual grow and use clones, as I am doing, you will need room to move clones in to flower before your mother plants come out of flower, so you can always keep a grow going--if that's what you plan. You can easily construct a "cloning bucket" such as the one I use for about $20 (the grow in my signature), using a 5-gallon bucket with lid, a PC fan (80mm), a light socket, small surge protector, a 6500K CFL, duct tape and an AC cord. My clones just recently rooted within 1-2 weeks! And you wouldn't have to put that in your closet, so your plants can have more space.

Also, you could probably get a nice inline fan for quite a bit less, between $70-$120. And there are some good ideas on here for DIY carbon filters, if you're interested in that. At least you could change the carbon out when needed instead of having to buy a new filter, which might be the case with retail carbon filters.

I'll sub to your grow when you get going!

NorthofEngland said:

An arctic blast of freezing air may feel nice to us, when we're hot, sticky and uncomfortable, but it shocks plants.
They like a constant comfortable room temperature.

Click to expand...

Ok thanks for the info that makes sense. Ill move the hole to about 8" off the bottom of the door.

I think 600 watts is going to work well in that space. It won't be the limiting factor in your grow. I would definitely work on some training during veg. Maybe a scrog. Beginners don't leave themselves enough vertical height and your height is a little limited. Keep them low and wide and start flowering once the screen is 3/4 full. Make sure you plan out how you are going to water them when they fill up all available space.

robnarley1111 said:

Oh cool, you're going with Royal Queen Seeds. I am growing their OG Kush right now!

How will you be spacing apart your veg and flowering rooms or will they be in separate places altogether?

Right now I have four plants in 2.5-3 gallon pots in for flowering, and one 1-gallon pot in there on the edge catching the "extra" light. With a small fan and a side lamp, I have literally no more room for any more plants unless in very small pots. If you are planning on growing six plants, you will have more vertical space than you will horizontal space when your plants start to grow outward, especially if you plan on doing training such as LST. I'm only in week three of flowering now and my plants are exploding outward. Hopefully they are done growing out though..lol.

Could you start with maybe four plants and square pots to see if you have much more room to work with once your plants have begun to flower? If you want to run a perpetual grow and use clones, as I am doing, you will need room to move clones in to flower before your mother plants come out of flower, so you can always keep a grow going--if that's what you plan. You can easily construct a "cloning bucket" such as the one I use for about $20 (the grow in my signature), using a 5-gallon bucket with lid, a PC fan (80mm), a light socket, small surge protector, a 6500K CFL, duct tape and an AC cord. My clones just recently rooted within 1-2 weeks! And you wouldn't have to put that in your closet, so your plants can have more space.

Click to expand...

Essentially this is the worlds largest stealth grow since no one who lives with me is going to know about it at all. So I only have the one space to work with so I'm going to veg then flower. I had planned on using the one light set up for both using a conversion bulb.

I think four plants started out in 1 gals then moved to 3 gals is sounding like a better plan the squeezing all six in at once. I'd planned on using square pots to help save space. Sadly its going to have to be a grow finish grow finish approach due to only having the one closet space.

Ill stick with fan scrubber combo out of convenience for now but i might make one myself in the future.

I'd appreciate that it'd probably drive me even more. I'm definitely going to sub to yours. The Northern Lights grow has my interest peaked for sure I was original going to grow that.

AlGore said:

Heavy duty staples and double sided duct tape. Both invaluable for mounting that panda film.

Consider a smaller fan, this is the one I have and it moves PLENTY of air. http://www.amazon.com/Sunleaves-DuraBreeze-Orbital-Wall-Fan/dp/B00AB2YIKU

600W seems like overkill for that space but if its cooled and high enough above the canopy why not right? Also, if your gonna get that e-ballast, it is compatible with 600W MH conversion lamps. Consider vegging under that. I want to try the new Hortilux 600w Blue myself.

You fan set up for the hood... I would pull the air thru it instead of push. You are not trying to "cool" the bulb so much as remove hot air.

I don't see a T5 or CFLs on your list. What light are you planning on using for the seedlings/young clones?

5 gal pots seem a bit large for that space. Also you'll want to use smaller pots for sprouting and early on.

You seem to like FF. I have a plant I started in str8 FFOF. Gave it no nutes for like the first 2-3 weeks and it still outgrew my other plants. However after this the soil nutes were gone and I had to rapidly bring it up to speed with the others' liquid feeding. Only thing I wish on that plant was that I gave it more room to grow in and that I had mixed in prob 30% perlite for drainage and some dolomite to buffer the PH, as the runoff is very low. Although I PH every time I feed/water and allow for 10-20% run off so medium PH isn't that much of a concern.

On the subject of PH. Get yourself a GOOD PH meter and all the calibration/cleaning/storage solutions for it. And calibrate it once per week minium. I use the 7.0 buffer to test mine regullary as well.


First, place your pots in some kind of runoff trays. I use these $3 propigation trays from the hydro store. You can use these for run off and makes it easy to test the ph of the run off. After letting them fully drain(my air pots drain alot) I use a shop vac to suck out the water.

Second, I went and got myself a 3gal pump sprayer. The kind they use for spraying insecticide around the yard. I removed the pressure tip from the sprayer wand. I mix nutes up in this. Pump it a few times, and use the wand to gently and evenly water my pots. It is fucking amazing. It even has liters marked on the side so I know how much I give them.

Click to expand...

I've got the mats to put up the panda poly up covered. Thanks to supplys from the garage and work.

I'll take a look at a few different fans and pick one anything that takes up less space and works is a win.

I was just going to use the 600 watt light on the seedlings as well. Would that not work well?

I'm going to start them out in 1 gals and move them to 3 gal square pots. Im probably only going to do four do to the lack of space. Good idea? Bad idea?

The general consensus seems to be add nutrients to FFOF after three weeks so that's what i'll do. I'll look in to the dolomite adding it to the ever growing list of research I need to do lol.

The runoff idea and spraying the nutrients are great ideas thanks for sharing them ill definitely utilize both of those for sure.

I know literally nothing about ph that's actually next on my list of research to do. What ph meter would you recommend/use?

I have a bluedream said:

I've got the mats to put up the panda poly up covered. Thanks to supplys from the garage and work.

I'll take a look at a few different fans and pick one anything that takes up less space and works is a win.

I was just going to use the 600 watt light on the seedlings as well. Would that not work well?

I'm going to start them out in 1 gals and move them to 3 gal square pots. Im probably only going to do four do to the lack of space. Good idea? Bad idea?

The general consensus seems to be add nutrients to FFOF after three weeks so that's what i'll do. I'll look in to the dolomite adding it to the ever growing list of research I need to do lol.

The runoff idea and spraying the nutrients are great ideas thanks for sharing them ill definitely utilize both of those for sure.

I know literally nothing about ph that's actually next on my list of research to do. What ph meter would you recommend/use?

Click to expand...

I don't have pics to show you with the actual plants in them but if I were you, I'd sprout in something like this: http://needmodro.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/20130911_231721.jpg
Using the peat pellets. (I have the JumpStart brand)

So, sprout your seeds using some method(last seed grower I helped soaked them in a glass of distilled water overnight then put them in the jump-start pellets inside the humidity dome with a seeding heat-mat and temp probe.
You wanna leave them in the dark for like a day till they sprout up. Then you'll want to put them under a T5 for about a week or until they are big enough to transplant safely. Something like this: http://needmodro.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/20130923_165029.jpg

For transplanting what you can do so you don't have to go from the seeding tray to a 1 gal to a 3 gal is this.... Take your 3 gal pots, fill them up part way with your final grow medium. Then take a cup or glass or w/e, place it in the center a fill around it with your grow medium, lightly packing it so you create a crater in the shape of the cup. Take some "light" seeding mix, something the roots will have to trouble spreading thru, and fill the "crater" with that. Transplant your seedlings into this lighter mix in the center. This will allow you to give the seedling water, with out having to fill the entire pot. Give it a a few days to a week of this (depending on growth, what you see above the soil is a good indicator of how the roots are growing). Then you can start to feed the entire pot as normal.

I would then put your 600w (MH?) as high up as you can above them, and slowly over a few days, lower it to about 18" above the "canopy".

The thing about the sprayer, you don't want to spray or mist your nute solution. But if you take the pressure tip out of the wand. It becomes an nice gentle flow of water out the end of it. So awesome. Lol.

For PH. This can be a controversial subject, lol. In soil/soil-less systems, if the medium ph gets off, there is not a whole lot you can do, that is what the dolomite would be for, to help buffer and stabilize the medium PH.
HOWEVER, many say that if you make sure to PH the solution/water every time, allow for run off, and give fresh PH'd water every 2-3 feedings. Then you don't really have to worry about the PH of the medium itself as the nute solution will remain available. I have found this to be true on my FFOF plant. The run off is like 2 points lower than what it goes in as. Yet that plant is the biggest and frostiest. hehe.

My meter is a $60 Oakton 3 point calibration PH only meter. Its actually a lil cheaper than what I would like to use but I had a $230 Hanna one(that did tds and ec as well) that I paid for and was stolen before I ever got the chance to use it and decided to just order this $60 one for this current grow. Seems to work out ok but the calibration gets off easily, that is why I test it with the buffer even more often that calibrating it.

And again, don't worry so much about run off testing(still a good idea) but properly PH'ing the solution/water that goes into the pots is far more important.

Also, consider temp and humidity control. Digital high-low temp/rh meters are a must. I also have a humidifier, a dehumidifier, a small forced air heater, etc. Seedling and clones like around 80% RH. Vegging 60-70%. And Flowering 40-60%. 72 deg is ideal, stay within 65-85 at the most.

On the subject of space or number of plants to grow etc. It really depends on the strains. My shit is super bushed out because that is the nature of Blueberry. Generally speaking indica is more bushy, sativa is taller. Also depends on how long you plan to veg. If I had switched at 3 weeks vs 5 I'd prob be better off overall. Right now I have amazing top bud, but under the canopy, not so much.

And they also grow a lot during transition, although not as much as others have indicated. Under HID's kept at the right height, you can minimize the stretch(and want to so you have dense nugs).

Keep that in mind when taking advise from other growers as well, a lot of the cats aren't using HID on these smaller grows so their advice/experience is a lil different from what you'll see.

Another controversial topic is training/pruning/stressing/etc. As this was my first grow, I decided to take the advice from 3 separate books I have that say only cut away at your plant if what you are cutting is more than 50% damaged.
I also wanted to keep it simple and see how the plant grows "naturally" so I have done no training or stressing or "lolly popping". I may start experimenting with some of this on my next grow. However, intentially "stressing" the plant for any reason is generally considered a bad idea.

Have you already purchased your light setup? If not I was going to suggest going to amazon and looking at the apollo 600 watt kits. There are a great deal and a great product I've been using mine for over 2 years and still going strong plus they give you both bulbs a hood a timer digital ballast and hanger for right around $150

Ill get back to you guys just to sick to move much for now thanks for all the help ill get back to you when i can