Low Budget First Grow! (Cfl Closet Setup)

Been lurking here and many other sources, as well as reviewing info all over the net/books. And I think I am ready to set up my first grow space and would greatly appreciate any help.
First off, as pictured below, the space is small closet in a storage room.
Please keep in mind this grow must be as low budget as possible but of course, like everyone I would love to have nice yield. And some good smoke too! Now for pics of the grow to be!!! Just got done cleaning with some clorox disinfectant hence the moisture on the wood. (Also due to the style of the doors pics are painful angles. Try to bear with me!)





^Excuse the carpet. Needs cleaning kinda nasty





Now for some details. Feel free (Please!) critique me.
First grow in the space is going to be bag seed.
Lights will be these Walmart.com - Always Low Prices! One pack per plant. Attached to ghetto tin baking pan "hoods" (156w)
Walls and floor are going to be covered with tin foil for max reflectivity.
Soil will be dollar store organic potting soil with Perlite.

Now what I would appreciate from you all to help me out with is:

A.) # Of Plants & Corresponding Pot size.
B.) What to mix in with my soil for nutes. (As low cost as possible.)

Well, thats a start. Getting burned out and tired so crits & questions please! More details will be easier once I hear your questions!

Paint your closet with a flat white (non glossy) paint, it will reflect more light.

For a hood you can construct one with cardboard and line it with an emergency blanket or paint it with the same white paint.

I fit 12, 2gal pots, wall to wall in my 2X3 closet

so i would just get some 2 gal posts and findout how many i could fit, but then u gotta think about flowering cuz they will get twice that size so u dont want some 6ft monsters goin, not enough room, and when u add lights, ive heard that those red cfls they have help with veg. The more Lumens the better.

have fun......

try to get a used flourescent light on craisglist or a classified ad they can be found used for cheap if not free at times..flat white paint as sumone already said for the space..aluminum will cause hot spots and not reflect maximum..you can sometimes find pieces of thin scrap or sheet metal in the trash or for free and bend them into a reflector hood for your lights paint flat white. and presto low budget god luck on your grow

Here's my little CFL set-up.
Its my first try with CFLs, I'm surprised, never thought they could do.

Well painting the space is kinda out of the question since it's an apartment..

Hmm... whats some other options?

Also would a 12 inch box fan be good for keeping the air moving.

Ducting is also kinda out of the question since it would mean permanent alterations. What about opening the doors and letting air move in for a few hours a day? Otherwise we will have to think about weighing the pros and cons of choppin some holes! heh. Maybe an intake and exhaust through the top? (there is two separate cabinets like above the main space of the closet each with sliding doors.) I would also need to keep ducting or w.e relatively stealthy. (Landlord grrrr) But if possible I would like to avoid having to pay for this later. But hey, if yall think its necessary I will go for it.

Thanks for the encouragement so far!!!

dude im with you how far along are you? i just started germinating.

welcome to roll it up...well you can use maylar rather then paint.. your going to need so kind of venting going on i whould cut the holes..u can use cfl's or a 150watt hps...maybe a nice scrog..what do i know?? anyways good luck and peace

Well First thing you should do is clean the hell out of it!!!!! Its better to prevent bug from happening than to deal with it later.

Roll of black/white poly is like $40, poly the inside, white side facing out (obviously).

In reality you should see how many 11L pots will fit becasue they will be much much better for flowering in the end, I would use a shelf up top for the smaller plants.

Depending on your budget, 4ft fluorecent light ballast is like 10-20 and easy as hell to wire, But I would invest on some CFL bulbs, dont skimp out, get the big $12 bulbs, find the max wattage and Lumen output, you can also get sockets, and Y adapters that plug directly into any socket, so you can hang a set up CFLs off an extension chord, 4 CFLs hanging on a chord with 2 socket adapters and 2 Y adapters works great.

I cant really say how to deal with exhaust or smell issues because I dont know the layout of the room, building, etc.

My #1 recommendation is do some research, all the answers you need are here in the forums.

Good luck

id throw a few bubble buckets in there, use lucas formula w/ gh nutes, light it with either shop lights + cfls or the $20 150w hps lights from econolight + cfs, put a fan in there, and white the walls with somethig cheap like white trash bags or white paper. That would be a a sweet low budget grow with pretty good yeild

Also new to this, but the setup I've ordered seems to be pretty low cost. $129 T5 lighting setup which includes the hydroponics kit for 8 plants, and I'm growing LR2 X AK57, so no vege phase. 8 wks from seed to bud. Cool setup for a low budget... Good Luck!

TetraHyC said:

Here's my little CFL set-up.
Its my first try with CFLs, I'm surprised, never thought they could do.

Click to expand...

nice set-up, and thanks for the idea.

Could you build a false wall that would fit over the front? that way you could have a small vent with a light trap in the bottom and a exhaust fan with carbon scrubber at the top? I did something similar years ago in a rented space, the false wall was held on to the real doorway with those rolls of magnets you can buy at the hardware store. Worked pretty slick, no light leaks, cooled off temps by 15 degrees F and noone, even folks standing right next to it had any idea there were 4 foot tall plants flowering a foot away. just an idea.