Planning for closet grow

I will be moving into a new home later this year. When i viewed the home and saw my closet i thought. Cool! Room for a flower box, veg area, and clone area. Perpetual grow. Closet space is 2.5ft deep. 8feet wide 8 feet tall.
I want to do everything using CFLs. The area i will be living in is gonna get hot and i don't want the A/C running all the time. Lighting will be reflected using B/W poly.

Veg area plan is for 2 or 3 mother plans

• purchase a 4ft fluoro shop lights for top light
• two 26-watt CFL (cool white) in between plants and on the border.

Flower box plan

• Build a new box when funds or supplies are available (preferably 3ft wide x 2ft deep x 2.5 ft tall)
• Space the CFLs better than what i have now. Hopefully at least 6 40watt SW and two 40 Cool White

clone area-humidity dome

• 2-26 watt CW cfl.

To separate the areas with no light leaks will be my biggest obstacle. To run the wirings, the closet door will have to be cracked open. With that in mind, i plan to use that side of the closet for my Mothers and clone dome. lol--sound funny. On the opposite side i will have the Poly sorrounding the flower box to a point where it is almost enclosed. the difficulty with that is i have a hard time keeping my temps low during lights on, with a veg area close by light leak and ventilation will be slight issues.
This is only a rough draft of what i have planned. Any input, thoughts, or suggestions will be greatly appreciated and analyzed to see if it can be done. If it isn't obvious already, DIY is the key to this along with efficiency and low maintanance.

have a nice day,
kailiwela44

i would use several more cfls in the flower box, mine is similar in size and i use 17 cfls. i get pretty good results. good luck.

slowmo77 said:

i would use several more cfls in the flower box, mine is similar in size and i use 17 cfls. i get pretty good results. good luck.

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Damn, 17 Cfls. Thats a lot. But, if its working for ya then good luck!

17 CFLs...are you using the 26watts? its hard to imagine 17 40 watt cfls in the size of a box i have

To be a little more specific. I plan to do a perpetual grow. I would like to get at least one or two ounces a month...anything more i can get rid. The strains i have are all from Nirvana-shop. Aurora Indica, Top 44, and Citral. I hope to get one mother from each of these strains so that i may have some variety and in the future grow my own seeds and create a nice humbling strain. Questions i have are....

1. Veg
   1. how big of pots do i need for my mother plants
   2. what type of fluoro lighting i need to keep her producing
   3. size of the area i need---height and width (depth wise two feet max)
2. clone
   1. i have a humidity dome can i use a 26w cool white CFL for rooting my clones.
   2. would 4" square pots work, if not i'll be using 20oz soda bottles
3. Flower
   1. I will construct a box about 3feet wide 2feet deep, but how tall if i plan to use CFLs3
4. Supplies i may need?

I am pretty sure i can wing together a perpetual grow closet, but since i have little experience i look to the people who know more than me. I can do most of the DIY things, except hydro. that will go with it--wiring, box construction, light rigging, minor ventilation, etc.

With the space you have, I would divide the closet into a 2.5 x 2.5 x 8 vegging/mom space and a 2.5 x 5.5 x 8 flowering space. I would divide the vegging mom space into 2 sections, each 2.5 x 2.5 x 4--one for moms and one for vegging.

I would encourage you to consider a HPS for flowering. The difference in yield is substantial. You can run the lights at night when flowering to help with the heat. I also think that you will find that a large bank of cfls will put out a lot of heat. Check into T5s for vegging.

man buying all those cfls will add up to a 250 or spend a lil estra and get a 400 hps. might need more fans but im stuck in a rut as all my moneys spent in cfls and i wanna switch to 600 hps but that wont hapen for a lil so just my 2 cents i already coulda bought at least a 250 hps...

I was looking into the T5 for both vegging and mother. Do i need to seperate the veg area from the mother? Or am i able to have it layed out as one big row with 2 T5 fixtures-Do i need the 4 bulb or is the two bulb minimum?
Has anyone seen any posts on flowering using T5 Fluoros?

kailiwela44 said:

I was looking into the T5 for both vegging and mother. Do i need to seperate the veg area from the mother? Or am i able to have it layed out as one big row with 2 T5 fixtures-Do i need the 4 bulb or is the two bulb minimum?
Has anyone seen any posts on flowering using T5 Fluoros?

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Splitting your closet as you proposed in your first post is not the best idea. You need more vertical space. The layout I mentioned is the best use of your space. T5s are great for vegging, but IMO, suck for flowering--the only thing to get for flowering is a HPS.

I dont know what kind of grow you are doing, but if space is a problem, and the height is going to a problem, search up the LST HST threads in this fourm, I am going to try and do that with my plants only because I cant go that High and im trying to get the most out of my plants good luck

My main goal is to do a perpetual grow where i can pull at least one or two ounces per month--a quarter to half per week or two weeks. After researching for materials...

Vegetation/mother chamber will be one box at 3'x2'x3'. When i take cuttings, i plan to take about two to four cutting per week from each mother--2 or 3 mums. From those cuttings, i will veg only one cutting from each mum and send the reast into flowering when the roots have grown. As for the lights, i will be using 12-26wat cool whites (about $5 for two @ wal-mart w/ 1600L per bulb) for the canopy. I would like to add a Fluorescent strip (2ft) , other than T5, on the widths to add side lighting (any ideas on which one from home depot or Lowes?)

Flower box will be 2'x2'x3'. I will be using a 150W Hps from HTG (Floralux). In the flower box will consist of cuttings, and eventually old mums which were replaced.

The problems i face are mainly ventilation situations. For both boxes i would like to have passive intakes, two 4"fans from Mother/Veg for circulation and one for the flower box, and a carbon scrubber exhaust--don't know how many exhaust vents or cfms to use for exhaust. For the flower box, the HPS light i will use has its own flange for forced cooling.

gotta go, luch break,
kailiwela44

The Hemp Goddess said:

Your initial post indicated that you had a closet 2.5 x 8 x 8 to grow in...Why are you trying to grow in such small spaces? A 2x2x3 flowering room is really small.

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After much sober and stoned thinking, I want to be able to have half the closet for my girlfriend if she may need it. She is helping sponsor my special project, even though her bills i pay costs more, and i know that if i take over the entire closet it'll take me a while to break even with my savings. If i were to go ahead and build my mother veg area the cost would be give or take $50. If i were to build my Flower box according to what i have, it will cost me roughly $300--most being for the 150HPS light.

As far as the flower box goes, do you think i should just make my flower box the same size as my Mother/veg? I know the 2x2x3 space is rather small, but i'm not trying to get into commercial development, one or two oz a month, and i plan to only use 150Watt HPS. I wanted to try using 20oz soda bottles cut into 16oz for pots...have you heard of DRGreenbuds on ICmag or from Roll it up? His boxes are why i wanted to try using CFLs for flowering, but i like your idea of using HPS for better yields. If the bottle don't work i'll have to do some research on what to use. After i can do side by side comparison

I currently have a box about two cubic feet (~23"x14"x24") with 6 CFLs--experiment before i really invest. It was made using an old Waikiki hotel nightstand, but i'm gonna get rid of it once i move. The box is pretty cramped having only two plants in one gallon containers flowering (one is LST for experiment also), a 4"walmart fan, and occasionally a 1.5L bottle for CO2. ("pictureless grow...where's your imagination") The non-LST plant's, #2, diameter spans the depth of the box. I thought that this size would be ideal assuming and hopnig i can get at least an 1/8 oz per cutting for the given area.

There are many pros and cons of building my own perpetual growing area. So far the pros are that i have most of the supplies for my Mother/Veg from my current box, i am getting positive and good constructive criticism (not like RIU), and a diversed responses from other growers--from more CFLs to using HPS. Cons are that it can be wasteful without proper planning, so many good ideas which one i should use, comparing the good ideas, paying for smoke till my project gets underway, and trying to figure out what supplies are going to be needed in anticipation of my flower box--mainly ventilation and what type of fluro lighting i should use for the sides.

Thank you,
kailiwela44

U seem to be inside my head. I have had alot of these ideas. A local grow shop has a 125 watt cfl (500 watt equivilent) made for flowering. I am going to get it(when i have the money) and see where it gets me. I have a feeling i can get a good yield from two fo those cfl's but who knows. From what i have started to gather is i can use LST on a mother for a long time till i decide to take a clone and use it for the same purpose. make the mother and tie it in order to make a sort of circle from the main branch(we will see when i build a box if it works). I wouldnt worry too much about adding a side light. What you could do is throw a light(cfl or otherwise) up in a top corner to the box and throw in a makeshift reflector. Idk i have ALOT of experimental ideas and i cant wait to try out some of them...

IMHO, if you go with the dimensions you are planning, you are going to be disappointed. A 2x2x3 just isn't big enough to do much. I originally had a 3x2.5x3 for a mother/vegging room and it was not nearly large enough. I later scrapped the whole thing and rebuilt a 2x4x4 that is adequate, but just barely. The 4' height restriction irritates me sometimes. Since plants can double or triple in size during flowering, I think a flowering room twice as large as the vegging room is smart.

You want 1-2 ozs of a product that generally "retails" for $300-400 an oz...what are you willing to do to achieve this "goal"?

If i get my Med card (should have looked into this earlier:hitchair: ), i am legally able to have 4 immature (veg) and three mature (flowering) plants w/one ounce on each plant--can easily be overlooked . When my gf and i went to look at our potential home the closet measured to 94"x24"x94".
veging box/mother
i now hope to use 2gallon pots for two mother plants and have the rest of the space available for cuttings in 1 gallon pots (if i have extra cutting which has rooted and no room in the flower box)...so i imagine my box should be something like 3'x2'x4' (similar to what Hemp Goddess recommended earlier)
Flower box
1 gallon pots--for cuttings only. If i flower the mothers i'll leave them in the 2 gallon pots then use a cutting/clone to replace her....I imagine something like 3'x2'x5'(about three feet of height room for grow space--about one foot pots and one foot for the light)--The reason my squared area is small is because 150 HPS is only able to cover 6ft sq and i don't want to go bigger.
Could this work?

That sounds alot better really. I dunno about your citral's but mine in a 3 gallon bag are already over 2 feet counting soil and only a week into flowering. This is under an 400w HPS tho so some stretching is going on.

Man o man, looks like you have been doing your home work. Sounds great man. I am just starting to plan and design a grow room of my own with about the same dimension. Only difference would be i am making the whole grow room one big flowering room. Going to be trying out some of the auto flowering strains. This will allow me to start growing asap and start saving for the future room split to one veg/mother/cloning room and one flowering room. Don't want to be limited to only auto flowering strains, would like to try out a few other strains as well. Good luck man hope to hear more about the room.

exhaust
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5384374

Lighting
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewoption.asp?ID=968

http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=53025

Grow shed
http://www.globalindustrial.com/gcs...ltNumKey=&infoParam.picGroupKey=4369#navPanel

reflective
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=52089

I will use passive intakes. I am wondering since the hood is air coolable, would i be able to exhaust the air via hood and flange to4"duct to Stanley blower to outside the box?

Wow, i was just pondering the idea of cleaning out my closet and trying to get an indoor set-up going...I have almost the exact space as you...It sounds like i'm wantin' about the same as you...Just a small set-up but not too much cash to work with ...I believe this thread's gonna help me a lot...Best of luck w/ the grow Kailiwela ...