Setting up a grow room-need advice

From a fellow grower: I have a growing room that measures 4’ 11" x 3’ 8" floor space. Could you tell me

a. What size pots should I use
b. How many plants would comfortably grow in that area using one pot size rather than the other
c. Would the pot size have an effect on the height of the plants.

Lighting will be the single most determining factor of how many plants you can grow in that space. You can grow 20 small ones, or you could grow 1 big one. It’s growers preference/style.
If you don’t have adequate lighting in any space it limits you’re capabilities in that space. Invest heavily in quality LED lighting, you’ll spend it up front, but will be returned in quality medicine, and energy savings.
Would love to have you on the forum, we’ll give you a hand from seed to harvest. Happy growing. :seedling:

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Personally 5 gallon fabric pot is a good all-around size pot to use inside. Yes bigger pot size bigger root system, larger plant. As far as height you can control that buy topping plant. Good luck with your grow.

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Once you solve the lighting, you want to figure out a plan for regulating temperature, fresh air supply, and humidity.

Your home environment is probably not comfortable for a cannabis plant in terms of temperature and humidity. So you’ll likely enclose your grow space fairly tightly to contain your warm, humid air and to keep out light as well (more on that later).

Most growers here will use a tent, a ducted fan/filter to exhaust stale air and reduce the smell, a humidifier (or dehumidifier), and a space heater or air conditioner. The necessities vary seasonally. It’s important to remember that these things will take up space in your grow.

A denser grow means that the space will generate more humidity. If you pack a closet full, the plants will put moisture into the air through a process called transpiration.

I strongly recommend starting out with 2 photosensitive plants. I’d go with a rich bagged soil in 5-10 gallon pots. I’d set three goals:

  • Train both plants using low stress training to create a fairly level canopy.
  • Track many data points in a journal (photographs too)
  • Aim to harvest 1 ounce or dried flower per square foot.

I would avoid starting with an autoflowering plant. They have their advantages, but it’s much harder (impossible, frankly) to predict how large or small they will grow. Learning light cycle discipline is an important skill, but not a complicated one. Jump in. Go photo. You will need to create absolute dark for the dark period though. If you’re in a closet, light deprivation can be a challenge. Doubling up with an inner tent can be useful.

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Thanks for the suggestion Covertgrower. I bought a 1200W Led grow lite that covers the area perfectly but the recommended distance between lite and plant concerns me. The room height is 7’ and the recommended distance at certain grow times is 2’ leaving a max growth size of 5’. I believe the container size could determine the height of the plant. That’s the reason for my question. Help!!!

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Welcome Dannor!

Could you detail which specific light you purchased? The problem we see again and again is that growers are misled by these LED importers. They assemble a lamp from 120 10watt LED chips, but run them at 1 watt each. If they ran them at 10w the chips would quickly burn out. At 1 watt, they last for many years, but you can’t treat them like a 1000w HID light. That doesn’t mean you cannot grow quality cannabis flowers with an inexpensive light, but they aren’t terribly efficient and they cover about 1 square foot per 50 watts.

Higher quality import and domestic lights cover about 1sqft per 25 watts in flower.

With most LED lights, IMO, a level canopy is ideal. They don’t seem to have light penetration like the sun or even a typical HID. COB lights seem to have better penetration, and are better suited to a “Christmas tree” shape. Container size won’t really determine plant height. Training is more important in shaping the plant.

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Thanks for your reply. I have a Model EXE-1200TW LED Grow light manufactured by Exlence in China. I hope it’s adequate for my needs.

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It’s really hard to find info on that light, but they seem to claim it draws 235w from the wall. We’re really after the output, but watts drawn is a reasonable measure for estimation without expensive meters.

I’d estimate 4sqft of coverage when both spectrums are on. Quite a bit short of the area you hope to cover.

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@dannor4
I am going to comment on your question dannor4. I personally would go with two seven gallon pots, plastic or cloth, with pans to collect runoff. You have about 16 sq. ft. in grow space. If you veg with your current light it should do ok, but not optimum. After approximately 8 weeks I would build a screen/ net over the two plants. At this point I would have hopefully saved enough money to purchase an HLG 550 rspec led fixture, this will be more than adequate to flower a 4.5’x4.5’ footprint, cause the light you currently have ain’t gonna cut it, then would remove your current light fixture and hang the new HLG.
If you tuck and weave all the growth on your plants thru the screen, feed them the proper nutes, ph your water, check your ppm in and out. You should, depending on the strain of seeds you decided to grow, harvest 12 to 16 ounces of dried and cured product.

@dannor4
Excuse me, per plant.

I appreciate your recommendations and will follow them regarding pot size and will certainly consider your suggestion regarding the screen. I don’t understand what that is and will get back to you about it at a latter date. The HLG 550 sounds great but the price is a bit to much for me.

Thank you for considering my question and your prompt reply. You folks have been great to work with.

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I want to welcome you @dannor4 and hope you stay with us.
I would like to say that in my 4x5 room last winter, at the peak growth period, my plants were easily consuming 5 gallons of solution every 2 days! Thats a paint bucket full. So being able to get that out of the room is mucho importante’! As for buckets… depends on what style of growing you wish to do? Hydro? Dutch buckets? Soil/soiless? Aeroponics? Probably the easiest is to do what is most common in this forum so that others can assist you along the way. If it was me I would aim for 5 to 7 gallon smart type pots X 2 and Fox Farms stuff, it seems to be really popular and available, more importantly it takes somenof the fertilizing out of the picture for a while. If you choose to go this route I implore you to get advice first on how to proceed, there are many here that use that product / line.
Most importantly! And this cannot be overstressed… lights and proper ventilation is a must! The rest the others have already pointed out. Have fun!

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Thanks Cannabian
I must tell you that I’m becoming over whelmed with information. I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m capable to take this project on. I know 1 thing, I’m going to ask questions every step of the way. Thanks again
dannor4

Your light will be fine for 1 plant in a 3 gallon container of rich soil, as long as you flip to flower as early as possible and train it like I mentioned. Keep it simple, have a successful first run, and tweak your setup based on what you learn and with the money you save by not buying flowers.

Also, if you own/buy/borrow a Kill A Watt meter, You can see how many watts your light actually pulls. The description I found claims the 1500w and 1200w both pull 235 from the wall, and I’m extremely doubtful of that information.

The others have you covered. I’m just dropping by to say welcome to ILMG! :v:

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I will disagree with the size of the container could determines the height of the plant. Why do I disagree? Simple… I have plants reaching over 6’6” tall while in a 5 gallon bucket that isn’t even 1/2 full of soil.

I’ve been growing monsters since day 1. My average height for each plant is over 6 feet tall. For me it comes down to the genetics and the quality of the lights.

Your suggestion to limit the number of plants to 1 is a good one to start with. The acronym KISS ( keep it simple stupid ) is certainly appropriate here. I need to know more about pruning the plant to keep it in check, but that’s for a later date. Thanks much.

dannor4

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Nice of you elheffe. You folks have been great and I thank you for that.

You might want to check out this article, if you haven’t already.
https://www.growweedeasy.com/simple-cannabis-plant-training-guide

I would ignore tip number 7.

Great read. Have printed the whole article and plan to study it closely. Can’t thank you enough for helping me out.

dannor4

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