So it’s legal for me grow up to 4 plants in VA. I have a 4x6 closet in the center of the house I was considering for a grow room. I would likely start out with only 1 or 2 plants at first, work out any bugs to avoid wasting seeds. I considered plopping a tent in there but doesn’t seem needed.
Cover the walls in Mylar, planned on pulling fresh air from the either the house or from the crawl space with exhaust through the attic. Not overly concerned with odor control more just getting rid of the extra heat.
I was thinking 3 gallon pots or bags would 5 gal be better?
Any feedback before I get buying stuff would be greatly appreciated. The lighting is a huge unknown for me. I have a 600w old school grow fixture but want to go the LED route.
Hi @anon74009880 welcome to the neighborhood. Sounds like a good plan especially starting small with just a couple plants, seeds are pretty pricey $129 is a great price for 200w (of course you can spend more for more and better) I think it would take 3 of them to completely cover your grow space but with two plants you could definitely start with 2 lights. As for pots it’s going to depend on what your plan is for media and food on what size pot I would go with
Welcome to the community @anon74009880 there are a lot of knowledgeable people here that can guide you on your journey. I will tag a couple for you. @oldmarine@kellydans@MidwestGuy@dbrn32 can y’all give some great advice here? Thank You
Welcome to the community ! I recommend pulling the fresh air from inside house and not the crawl space. Also nail down exact size space you would like to work with , an budget. Quality Light being most important for inside grow.
Lots of things you could potentially do here. A flat white paint will offer plenty of reflection, no need to really do the mylar. I also agree that you will probably want makeup air from inside your home instead of crawl space. And if you exhaust to outside will put your home under negative pressure, make sure to keep that in mind as it can significantly raise your heating and cooling costs.
Your will probably want to spend more on lights than what you linked above.
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to watts, there is a pretty big span in amount of light per watt from a “cheap” fixture to most of the higher end stuff.
If you build it right and run a successful grow you could get 6 ounces dry out of a 2x2 tent. The people that have their stuff together are usually 1-2 pounds per 4x4. Those are maybe unrealistic expectations for your first grow, but I would expect it fairly attainable a year or two down the road with the right equipment.
Is 6 zips your target? Is that also assuming that a grow will probably take 3-4 months start to finish, a week of dry time and most suggest 3-4 of curing prior to having your harvest ready for consumption?
If so, I see very little reason to build out an entire 6’x4’ grow space. I would setup ventilation for the space and buy a light to do about half of it. Run 2-3 plants with some mild training and expect 3 zips per plant. As you gain experience wouldn’t be difficult to get 4-6 ounces per plant. And you can always get another light and add more plants later if you want. I would check out hlg-350r from horticulture lighting group.
My goal for personal use is about 1 oz month with 4 month grow time. That’s how I came up with the number. Ideally I would like to be over that number. Plus down the road having 3-4 strain would be nice.
So starting out I will go with 4x2 space in 3 gallon bags 2 to start with. Thinking that will allow for up to 4 smaller plants and meet my harvest goals. If the growth is good I will likely take cuttings and clone them in another in another room to hedge my yields by a few weeks. It’s winter so I will use my 400W MH\HPS, my 600W ballast seems to be dead. Not planning on investing more in that tech.
For the second spring from seed harvest I will have save up for a 350W LED grow light. I will have more firsthand experience by then and round two from seeds should exceed whatever happens with the HPS with any luck at all
I plan on ordering the Hero Mix pack, similar grow times nice balance of strain types. That should be enough for a years worth of growing. FoxFarm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula: Big Bloom, Grow Big, Tiger Bloom. Grow soil will be something pre packaged to start out with that I can source locally.
Are you using the whole 4x6 closet for growspace? I have a 2x4x6 in back closet for vegging. Closet is 5x7.5. I keep my grow items in with it and a 3x3. Plenty room and having the tents just seems to keep it cleaner. Fabric pots i have grown auto seed to harvest in the 2x4. 3 at a time easily. 8-10 oz dry not working hard. Good airflow is key in that closet. Keep fans moving that air.
I’m in the Hampton Roads area and I got a 4’x6’ grow tent to do my growing…. This was last week…… I put in a net and changed bulbs and it’s growing and starting to flower now…… as long as you’re diligent nursing those girls they’ll grow like crazy inside , and you’ll get a whole lot more yield than an Oz/month if you so it right!!
Looking good! What size bags are those and what size light?
I did a lot wrong the last time I grew, basically had a Christmas tree in a much smaller space, yields were not great and most buds were really loose. Didn’t live up to the pedigree of the strains. Much better resources today and I’ve learned a lot more about growing plants in general. Plus I don’t have to hide what I’m doing.
Hey there, welcome to the group. I have a 4 x 6 closet that I turned into a grow room a few years ago. One thing I would definitely suggest is to do some prep work to make it easier to hang anything you need from the ceiling.
On the simpler side, you can just mark out your studs with lines. Any time you need to add some hooks you can just screw them in.
If you want to go to the next level, you can make some sort of grid. I used six pieces of 3/4" EMT mounted with closet rod hangers into studs. Then I use 1/2" EMT in various lengths on top of 3/4". It gives me the flexibility to hang anything I need from every inch of the ceiling.
During the grow it’s very handy to be able to move things around so easily when needed, but it becomes even more useful when I’m drying plants. I hang the full plants to dry, but I like to rotate their positions every day during drying. Otherwise the ones closest to the air intake or the exhaust point dry faster than the rest.
The entire ceiling set up is about $75 worth of stuff from Home Depot. It could definitely be considered overkill, lol, but it no doubt makes my life easier in the grow room.
400 w bulbs and ballast and the grow bags that came with the kit are 20qt I think- air and water can get through them…. I got the grow kit from GrowAce.com for $725 and everything was included except seeds and I got them here…
That’s nice, very nice will certainly save this to a word doc for future plans.
Just realized I have back up a 400W HPS grow light, it’s a fossil, must wight 30lbs old school ballast. Cleverly packed in a boatload of rockwool from when I moved last. Was looking for my extra bulbs and found them and more! Having a spare is nice even after I go to LED down the road.
$129 is a great price for 200w (of course you can spend more for more and better) I think it would take 3 of them to completely cover your grow space but with two plants you could definitely start with 2 lights. As for pots it’s going to depend on what your plan is for media and food on what size pot I would go with
