My first grow

So here I begin, this is my first grow and I'm not exactly in the greatest of locations, in a condo (first floor), one bedroom, and in this bedroom there is decent closet. I have no more than five feet tall w/o my light, 2 deep and I can stretch it to almost 4 is need be. Anyways there is the background of the space. I'm total nube as I accumulated 2 clones from a sage/sour dsl female. No nothing but what I have read, so I got a 150 w hps is this sufficient enough for a bedroom secret if not what kind of light and how high of the plants and if so how high of the plants??? They are about 4 weeks in veg right now. Like I said total nube at this and it is a super fun hobby to have. Money is not really to big of an issue either if I need to get something else. Thanks guys.

T

Good luck! It's fun isn't it? My first thoughts are is your closet light proof? Can you get some ventilation in there? It's going to get hot. Are the walls flat white? you can LST and bend and tie down your plants to keep them short and bushy. I can keep mine right around 3 feet. Smell might be an issue in a condo as well.

I did make it for the most part light proof and as far as the ventilation done nothing yet had a tiny light on it waiting for my 150 watt. I also have a 125 watt fluorescent comin in Friday. Which I thought might be slightly less Hot. My idea is I don't need this crazy great grow my first roll at it, so if can get a good foundation I can sculpt what I learn Into a total routine. And in a house haha!

That's kinda the way I started out as well. I just wanted to give it go and see what happened and it actually worked! I think your 150W HPS is going to have way more lumins than your 125W CFL but either way you'll have to deal with the heat. What color/spectrum is your CFL? Good luck!

I was told to get blue so that's what I got. What I basically did was construct out of card board box a little 2 wall shell to put against the other 2 walls to cap it off however they don't quite touch the walls. I tin foiled the inside of the 4 walls and hung the light down the middle maybe 2 feet off the top of the plant. I have shit covering the top and drapes towels around it to almost cut out the light. How's this sound? Decent enough for a first home grow? Also I went with the sensi grow/ bloom a and b with pretty much all nutes twelve to be exact. Lastly I tied down the stems that are taller to bush it out a little, I don't want a tall ass plant, not now anyway. This sound alright so far??

get rid of the tin foil first. flat white paint is better. or just order a roll of mylar online. it's cheap. blue (6500k) is good for veg and yellow (2700K) is good for flower. yes good that you are tieing them down if you are concerned about space. how big are your containers and what kind of soil do you have?

if you are 4 weeks into veg how tall are they? you might want to think about flowering soon considering your space.

If you go CFL, you will want to put some lights on the sides of the plants in the middle( a couple clamp lights work well) so the light will penetrate the buds a bit better. I did a closet grow in a 3rd floor apt. with 4 42W in a homemade hood reflector and 2 23W on the sides and got a pretty good yield for 2 plants. I was concerned about them stretching too tall so I only vegged them for about 2 weeks (which still ended up being about 2 feet by the end of it). The closet I used had sliding doors, so for ventilation I just left it cracked a little and had a fan blowing up towards the lights to keep them cool. I've had CFLs torch a plant before, so I made sure it wasn't going to happen again. I mean really, you are growing in a closet in a condo. You can only do so much and fit so much in there. It really isn't worth trying to hook up a ventilation system and all that. Now, if you get a house, you have A LOT more options. I've set up some pretty good gardens.hehe. It is a lot of fun.

U think it will be better to stick with the 150 watt hps its not a blue spectrum but ur sayin it won't "burn them" like a flourescent could if you not careful? And as far as the tin foil just ditch it all together? That's a pretty much a myth or what??

HPS is going to get way more hot than a CFL. I've had a number of high watt CFLs and they get hot for sure but not like a HPS. you can grow from start to finish with a HPS light. Dink is right, it's easy to get 42W CFLs and use them in addition to your big CFL. BUt all things said you're better off using the HPS if you can deal with the heat.

Tin foil sucks, it's not very reflective and it tends to have hot spots. Better to just grab a can of flat white spray paint, or get some mylar.

Best way to deal with heat in a closet like that. Is it worth it to get a small vent system hooked up(small 6" fan and duct work). Or is my small oscillating fan enough?? If my hand is on top of the highest part, ican feel warmth but its not like hot or anything like that?? Also how often should I water if I have like a pot the size is probably about a foot in diameter and a foot or so tall

i think you need to keep an eye on the temps and adjust accordingly. an oscillating fan is good but air exchange is important. remember a plant takes in CO2 and gives off oxygen. I'd go with the 6" inline fan.

everybody has different ideas about watering. i have 5 gallon buckets and water every 2 or 3 days and just enough to get a tiny little bit of run off out the bottom. you'll know when they are dry because they will look dry. better dry than over watered, but in between is best.

Any other tricks I could use? I use adv. nutes sensi grow/bloom a+b plus their extras anything u prefer one to the other or have ever use adv. before? I know to each is own but I know some prefer one with soil or vice versa with dwc? Any thoughts?

If you go HPS, yes do the duct work. CFL I think you would be fine with just a fan. As far as the watering, usually once a week during veg and they tend to consume more during flowering, so sometimes twice a week, but best way to tell is stick your finger into the soil about 3/4 to an inch, if it's still pretty wet under the top soil, you should be good. Also another great way is to pick the whole plant up when you first water it and remember how heavy it is. Check it once a week and If it's pretty light give it a drink. You don't want to over water though, it won't give a chance for the root system to really develop.