I've got a small attic that I'd like to use as my first grow room, but I've got a couple of questions before I start to set it up. Here's the layout: it's about 5 feet wide, 10 feet long, and almost exactly 4 feet tall. Because it's located between stories, the ceiling is flat, not at an angle like a lot of attics, so basically it's like a big box.

The ladder access pretty much splits it in half down the narrow part. Looking at the floor, it looks like this (sorry for the ASCII):

So the two floor spaces on either side of the ladder opening are about 4' by 5' by 4' high. I'm thinking of putting up make-shift walls on both sides of the ladder access to have two growing areas, one for vegging and one for flowering, like this:

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I have two concerns. One is that the ceiling is so low, only 4 feet, so I may have to offset the lights so they're not directly over the plants. What's the best way to handle this? By "training" for some horizontal growth, or with a SCROG setup? Or is the ceiling just too low?

My other concern is the heat. Without any lights in there, during the afternoon that space gets to about 90+ degrees every day for about 7 months straight. Ventilation will probably help with this, but A/C is out of the question. I plan on using a couple of EIKO full-spectrum 105-watt CFLs, which are 500w equivalents. I'm sure they will add to the heat some, but since they're CFLs hopefully not too much. Will this space be too hot for the plants? Of course during the winter (which is coming up soon I guess) this is not a problem.


Any suggestions are appreciated. I can't wait to get started!

when you say you have only 4 foot, you have to account for lite then allow 1 foot for space between plants and lites. then a foot for your pot that only leaves 1 1/2 for plant growth.

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Use 8" tall pots,6" wide to save height.
Grow with the scrog method.
Use some oscillating fans and vent some of the heat with a whisper quiet extractor fan,cfls dont need to be a foot away from the plants and you should be fine.
Only veg light cycle them for 2 weeks and you should have 24"-36" sticks of bud.
Dont try to grow sativas in this small space unless you intend to lst.

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