3rd grow T5 HO fluorescents closet grow, getting it dialed in

Ok so for those of you that followed my last grow thread will be familiar with this and with me and my results last time. This time around I am taking all that I have learned from the last 2 grows and getting some help from a friend of mine that is a very good grower.
I have changed up the lighting a bit, added to it and re-positioned the lighting. I built a small shelf to get the plants off the floor, closer to the lights, to provide more air flow and to let the run off water drain down into tubes that can be easily removed and cleaned. No standing water will help a lot with the bug problems I have had, also going to had sticky traps up all the time. CO2 Exhale Bags are being used to increase growth. Aurora grow bags are being used this time instead of plastic pots to increase O2 to the roots. All soil is Happy Frog this time since the FFOF was too hot and my plants would burn if I fed veg nutes. I want to be able to feed these plants to boost growth. No tall growing sativas this time all indica plants but not sure which strain I got. My friend that I mentioned earlier gave me theses and he got the clones mixed up, I will know what they are once they flower. Going to top for multi tops and LST/tie down the plants for a type of SCROG grow. This will keep all the tops even and exposed to the most light which is key in a floro grow.
Now for some pics.

166 views and no comments

Ok I figured out one of the strains I have is God's Gift and the other one is either Master Kush or King's Kush cant remember which.

Why not get a 8 bulb t5 fixture?...

Owning an 8 bulb, I would opt for 2 @ 4 (much easier to change bulbs during grow) + 2 @ 2 to run certain bulbs at the end, like Wave point Coral Waves.

The next light I will be buying will be a HPS if I do get any more lighting.
Well something must be going right this grow. Week 2 and I can already feed 1/4 strength nutes to all the plants including veg nute. Last grow I couldnt feed veg nutes at all without burning the plants.

Yep I learned a lot from the last grow especially about growing with fluorescent lighting, pest control and the need to control temps. I was rolling a joint with the Agent Orange from my last grow and I found male sacks!! No wonder it did not turn out as well as others but still not as bad as the Banana Kush I blame poor genetics on that one. I think the temps in the upper 80's last grow is what hermi'd the plant. That said I have a 4" 175 cfm vent fan on order, I will be venting the hot air into the wall. The next thing I need to do is start ordering more 3000k flowering bulbs so I have them here for when I flower.
I topped the plants a few days ago and they responded really well, 4 nice tops coming in from the topping. Going to to top those 4 tops then tie down and flip to 12/12. As far as changes in nutes this time around I have added Botanicare Original Berry, Humboldt Honey, Cyco Potash and Cyco Swell to the mix. I hope to get 1 oz per plant from a SCROG style short plants and I think it will happen this time.

what do u mean your going to vent into the wall?

I cut a hole in the wall for the vent fan exhaust so the hot air gets blown into the space between the walls. Pics coming soon. I got the fan all mounted up just need some zip ties and deal with plugging it in, my power strip is full and need to expand my power supply.

intenseneal said:

I cut a hole in the wall for the vent fan exhaust so the hot air gets blown into the space between the walls. Pics coming soon. I got the fan all mounted up just need some zip ties and deal with plugging it in, my power strip is full and need to expand my power supply.

Click to expand...

ya thats a bad plan

Its already done. Why is that a bad plan?? It is pulling the hot air out of my closet. Dam fan is kind of loud though even with the rubber pads I mounted it on.

intenseneal said:

Its already done. Why is that a bad plan?? It is pulling the hot air out of my closet. Dam fan is kind of loud though even with the rubber pads I mounted it on.

Click to expand...

pumping humidity into your wall spaces is definitely a no no. The moisture will collect and mold will grow.

LOL thats funny humidity in the desert, sorry. No I will not have a humidity issue I live a hot dry place, my grow space humidity stays fairly low and central air/AC removes moisture from the air also. This just seemed like the best option.

ok.............so where does the air go?...........it doesnt .............

Into the wall, up into the attic space and out. See the ducting going to the wall. Do you have a fan in your bathroom? If so it works the same way, vents into the attic space and then out threw the attic vents. Since putting this in temps are staying 83 degrees with all the lights on and doors closed, so it is working. Without the vent fan temps go into 90's, even the room the closet is in is cooler now. Only draw back so far it the vent fan is a little loud, you can hear it in the other room humming away. Sorry if I sound rude. I thought this out pretty well and talked with a with other local grows and got their opinions on ways to vent the closet. This seems to be a pretty common way of doing it. If you live in a high humidity area and have high humidity in your grow space then I would not suggest doing it this way.
Oh there are also evaporative coolers that many people use to cool their homes and those pump in all kinds of humidity and mold is not a problem from that even in Long Island where I have lived and it is very humid there.

well i hope somebody comes along and helps to clear u up on all this........ i thought about it but its obvious u know way more about this than i do so i will just watch.....good luck to ya

Well if you have a better way to vent out the hot air then please share, I am open to all ideas. But like I said humidity is not an issue where I live. I could in fact stand to have a humidifier in the grow space to make the plants happier but I feel it is unnecessary. Humidity in my state never goes much above 50% and my grow space is lucky to get over 20%.

The space between your walls isn't just all interconnected. They are cavities, probably 2"x4" x 8'. I assume they are insulated as well. So you're pumping air into a relatively small, closed in area. You are not really "exhausting" anything.

A bathroom exhaust fan doesn't blow into the wall cavity. If it does blow into the attic, it goes through the ceiling between the joists. Venting a bathroom into an attic is a hack job. Any legit hvac tech would never do that.

A better way would be to actually exhaust the air into a separate space that is larger than your grow room. Like through the whole wall and into another room.

The space between the walls that I am venting into is a large area, the builders could have made it a walk in closet but instead they sealed it up. I get what you guys are saying but this method is working really well and is in fact dropping the temps close to 10 degrees so I am happy with it and humidity is a non issue. I will eventually be putting a small AC unit in there for the plants and keep the grow space at around 78 degrees. Here are a few new pics.. They are starting to take off with growth and responded well to the first topping.