1st grow - tell me if this sounds alright

hey guys. doing my first real grow and wondering if any of this sounds like a no-no or if it sounds alright - the details are:

grow space: 2'x4.5' closet (matte white walls) temp is perpetually about 70 in there and 50% humidity
lighting: quantum t5 badboy 6 bulb (54 watt per bulb = 324 watt, 4750 lumen per bulb = 28500 lumens)
seeds: a few feminized autoflower varieties from herbies
# of plants: thinking 3 plants is appropriate for this space - would 2 plants make more sense? could i fit 4? (they'll probably be smaller plants as their genetics suggest)
medium: soil - kind soil as a base and fox farm on top, plan to water with distilled water alone and add nutes only if deficient or to aid in flowering (i just want to keep it simple and have seen others have success doing this while using 'hot' soils).

to germinate i plan to just plant 1/4" under soil, keep it warm and moist and keep under the 6500k lamps through veg and swap out bulbs for the 2700k or 3000k bulbs (i forget which ones quantum makes for the fixture) in flower.

i guess some questions i have right away would be:

are normal plastic pots with drains in bottom good enough? or are airpots/smart pots much better?
am i correct to think 3 plants is best for this space? are more better? (they'd have about 9k lumens per plant at 3 plants, 7k lumens if 4 plants) is this space appropriate to try and scrog?

i have a ph test kit but are there electronic meters that are reliable? would much prefer one, but i know the cheap one i have is garbage.

the seeds shipped a week ago, not sure how long they'll take to get here - lights should be here tomorrow, everything else should be here soon. is there anything i need to watch out for based off of what i'd described above? or do i just need to dig in and then ask questions lol

thanks guys.

Hey man, what is your intake & exhaust plan? If the current temp is 70° the plants will cook once the T5 is up and your closet is closed. I'd rock 3 5G or 2 7G plants. I ran fabric smart-pots and liked them over plastic pots, they breath and drain very well however they aren't as convenient to move around. Your PH should be fine with those soils. I overcomplicated PH and ended up trying to adjust shit up and down without a fundamental knowledge of how soils (like the ones you've mentioned) naturally buffer whatever is introduced. I still have a ton to learn but my point is if those are the soils your running and your fairly confident that your input water isn't totally out of wack, I wouldn't worry about it. Adding nutes will change the water's PH but the soil will correct it in short order.

hey man thanks for the reply.

didn't have an exhaust or intake plan, is that necessary for such a small grow? i guess i'd heard that these t5's don't run overly hot and didn't know i'd more than a fan (i can leave this closet open a bit during the day if that helps, it's not a stealth operation). what would you recommend?

I'd run the lights before popping seeds to see how hot it gets.

The fabric pots work better because they prune the roots as they reach the outer edges causing them to branch back into the pot instead of wrapping around the outside of the dirt against the pot.

smart, yeah i'll do that for sure - and sounds good, guess i knew the advantage but didnt know if it made much difference. i'll go with fabric! thanks

Yeah get that light up and running as soon as it comes in so you can get a sense of how hot it's going to be. When testing temps, hang it from a string 24" directly below the light or set your t-stat on a box or something so that its positioning is under the light. If the t-stat is black, set a piece of paper over it because it will absorb more light/heat and read hotter than actual. I bet that light heats that space up to mid 90's after about 3 hours of running. Once that drywall and trim start holding heat, it will take forever too cool down even when night hits. You need an airflow plan, cracking the door won't help a thing if something isn't actively sucking cool air into that space. Beside heat management you'll need some fresh air coming in anyhow for the plants, that plus if you don't have intake/exhaust every time you water, your humidity is going to shoot through the roof for a day or two which is ok in veg but will screw you in flower with rot.

If I wasn't worried about stealth I'd cut a big hole in the bottom of the closet door to bring air in and then cut a 6" hole in the tippy top of the closet to mount a 6" inline duct fan blowing out of the closet. The hole at the bottom will be your passive intake. The fan at the top will naturally suck cool fresh air in from the bottom over the plants and hot light before blowing the hot air out the top.

yeah i'll test asap when they arrive, guess i wan't expecting that much of an increase in heat - i'll report back with what i find out.

Good deal man!

yeah everyone says t5 don't heat up. sure maybe the bulbs themselves but the balasts that run them heat up like a mother f,er. I have 2 8 bulb t5 in my room and heat was an issue. it's fixed now......almost 3 weeks from seed. you can see my thermostat. my room is 10' by 10' i have 2 800cfm fans one for in and one for out. this is my flower room I'm using it for veg right now.

I started running 3 autos in one of my 4x2 tents and it was too small. 2 good autos will be good

k stuff arrived n got it put together n tested - hung it up about a foot and a half off the ground (was home alone n was lucky to get it set up at all on my own tbh, very stoned), after a couple hours at about a foot under the corner of the light it gets to 77 I guess, heat was cranked in the house too for the first time this season which might have something to do with it too maybe, temp on home thermostat was set to 72 and there's a vent for the heating/cooling right outside the closet, I'll try and keep that closed in the future. assuming it stays under 80 think it would be alright? could keep closet cracked open with a fan going to help a little?

btw the fixture really didn't seem to be giving off monstrous heat or anything (tho it was just a few hours), just a very light warmth from the vent but otherwise not hot to the touch or anything

Very cool man, I'm pretty shocked that it stayed under 80°. In that case just leave the door cracked and make sure you have a fan blowing into the bottom of the crack so fresh air is coming in. It will be kind of a f'd up flow but ideally the fan blowing into the bottom of the cracked door will push the heat up and out through the top of the crack. You'll need an additional fan, something like a 6" clip-on from walmart to keep air moving over the canopy of the plants. This helps keep them cool but also strengthens the main stem. Good stuff man.

gold lion said:

k stuff arrived n got it put together n tested - hung it up about a foot and a half off the ground (was home alone n was lucky to get it set up at all on my own tbh, very stoned), after a couple hours at about a foot under the corner of the light it gets to 77 I guess, heat was cranked in the house too for the first time this season which might have something to do with it too maybe, temp on home thermostat was set to 72 and there's a vent for the heating/cooling right outside the closet, I'll try and keep that closed in the future. assuming it stays under 80 think it would be alright? could keep closet cracked open with a fan going to help a little?

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You still want to vent the whole room. You still will need to exchange dead air with fresh air, if not. plants can't absord anymore c02. Run 2 holes. a 6" at the top with ducting and a inline fan, at the bottom run a whole on the opposite side from the top with ducting and put another inline fan sucking air out. With the room sealed the fan will push air in with the bottom sucking it out but at the same time drawing on the fan at the bottom, so you get a nice strong continuous flow. It will get hotter with stagnant air too. If you do that. your temps should be steady at the temps you have now but your air exchange will be good.

Amazon has some 6' fans for about 20-25$ That is what i got, they work great, you dont need to invest hundreds into fans, I have fiqured that out over time.

Interested in seeing how it all turns out though, keep us posted bud!

well cool, good to know what I need to do lol. I guess I'll start with just some fans without ducting but can def set that up if plants seem stunted or deficient, just would be really hard to cut into the closet door and think I'd have at least 'ok' ventilation with keeping it open a small bit with some fans going. as soon as those seeds get here I can get it started - then I'll have a million new questions lol. thanks again guys

gold lion said:

well cool, good to know what I need to do lol. I guess I'll start with just some fans without ducting but can def set that up if plants seem stunted or deficient, just would be really hard to cut into the closet door and think I'd have at least 'ok' ventilation with keeping it open a small bit with some fans going. as soon as those seeds get here I can get it started - then I'll have a million new questions lol. thanks again guys

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Yeah buddy, run it without the ducting for now see how it goes. I don't blame you on not cutting the holes if you don't need too lol. Hope it all works out. Ever thought of a grow tent?

thought of a grow tent yeah but just don't have the room for one >< smaller house and all of the roomspace everywhere is pretty much used up already.