First Grow Op: Med-Large Closet

Since this is my first time growing, I would greatly appreciate any and all comments or tips. I will try to post pictures on a weekly basis. This setup will be for my personal supply and education. This is something which I'm very passionate and excited about. I have spent many many hours researching and learning from various sources such as: books, dvd videos, articles posted on the internet and finally valuable forums! I feel I have a solid understanding of what I am suppose to do, I just haven't the experience (yet).

My closet's original size is 4' wide x 2' deep x 8' high. I decided to extend the depth to 4' which reduced the height to 6' due to the closet door frame. I built a wooden platform for the base 4' x 4'. It's a simple frame made with 2"x2" and the surface is covered with pine planks 1"x6" with about 1/4" gap between planks. Basically it looks like a palette (skid). Around the perimeter on the top I made another frame of the 2"x2" for which I'll use as a wall for the water. I'll be taping vapour barrier plastic to the top (3-4 layers) to the perimeter wood frame using tuck tape. This will provide a small basin for the excess water and make for easy cleanup. There is also a shelf at 5' off the ground which I will use for clones and seedlings.


For lighting I am using one 400 watt metal halide which I've suspended using chains. I will be getting a 3' parabolic hood for the light as it is a vertical bulb (looks like a flood light style). At the top of the closet (on the inside), I have mounted a 54 watt T5 flourescent bulb with 6500K colour. This light sits about 1.5' above the shelf.


Ventilation is something I'm somewhat concerned about and I'll explain why. First off, let me tell you my situation. I have installed a 6" duct through the top of the closet into my attic. At the end of the duct (inside the attic), there is a 6" duct booster fan. This fan plugs into an extension cord which I run down parallel to the duct into my bedroom. The cord plugs into a thermostat which is set to turn the fan on if the temperature gets hot (its an analog thermostat, no digital settings). Right now the duct is just facing downwards about 1' above the shelf inside the closet. My goal is to purchase a carbon filter before the flowering stage which will sit on the shelf and simple plug into the duct. I have two concerns, first being the strength of the fan I have for exhaust; Second issue concerns air intake for my room. There is no vents in my room, only the 1/2" crack under my door. Right now the stress on the fan is okay, but I'm not sure if this will be enough air movement for the plants. Another concern is the amount of resistance the carbon filter will add. I'm not sure if my little booster fan will be sufficient to pull enough. I may need to upgrade to an inline vortex fan. My fan is rated at 250 CFM and is 6" in diameter. The area for my growing is 4' x 4' x 8' (approx.) which yields about 130 cubic feet. My bedroom is about 550 cubic feet so combined its about 700. I read somewhere that said you should be able to move the volume of your room in 5 mins, which I have done.


I have purchased 100 sq.ft. of poly plastic (black and white sides) which I plan on using to surround the 2'x4'x8' extended out of the closet. I'm not sure how to go about hanging the plastic so that I can have ventilation with no light seeping in. I know its very important to have no light inside the growing area during sleeping hours of the flowering stage. I have a couple ideas, but nothing exceptionally exciting.

Growing medium will be soilless soil in pots ranging from 4" to 2 gallon. I am using Dutch Nutrient Forumla (DNF) for fertilizer, when the places have reached the vegetative stage. Clones will be inside a moisture dome (7" high) with 104 grow cubes (8 x 13) . I have a heating mat underneath the tray to keep the temp at 23°C. Humidity inside the dome is > 80% when it is on and around 50% when the dome is off. I have purchased a cheap analog hygrometer which I hang at 5' (or place it on the shelf, same height).


Disinfectant was used to clean the walls, shelf and any other surfaces around the area. After washing everything, I let the room dry naturally.

Seeds were bought at the Ontario Seed Bank. I purchased 10 seeds of three different strains: Afghani, Tutti-Fruity and XXX-420%. The XXX-420 is exclusive to OSB and to be honest I'm skeptical. All of these strains are mostly Indica and flower between 50 and 60 days. The Afghani was recommended because its a strong plant, great for indoors and beginners. The tutti-fruity was purchased for simliar reasons, also because I'm smoked it before . Finally the XXX-420 was featured in Skunk magazine (Volume 2, Issue 1), which also pointed out that it is great for newbs.

My Growing intentions are to start with less than half of the 30 seeds I have and hopefully grow them into vegetative where I will take (multiple?) clones off each one. I realize I won't know the sex until the 3rd week of flowering so once I do, I'll throw out the male clones. The reason I'm doing this is that I don't want to buy seeds again. My intention is to get at least one mother from each strain to constantly clone off of. Once I have a steady set of clones to work from, I hope to one day (hopefully in 6-8 months) have a Sea of Green.

Flowering challenge: I have only one grow light, and I will have plants in various stages of growth. I haven't figured out how I am going to have plants flowering and vegging at the same time using only one light. The only solution I've come up with is to isolate the light to the flowering plants after 12 hours. The challenge is that this requires daily manual work. Please feel free to post your ideas.

I wanted to test my atmospheric conditions to make sure it is ideal for germination. To do this, I selected only two seeds of each strain to germinate. On Jan 10, 2007 00:30, I started by placing the 6 seeds in water for 12 hours to soak. At 12:30 I had 5 of the 6 sunk to the bottom, implying they are viable. I took all six seeds and placed them inside the cubes, moist with warm water. I turned on the heating pad and left it to go. The temperature remained around 23°C and the humidity around 50%. The dome was not on the tray, as this would increase the temperature to 30°C and humidity to 90%.

2 days later at 13:00, I have the five viable seeds split and sprouting. The sixth seed is still in there, and I'll give it 7 days to germinate. Two of the seeds were upside down, so I gently removed them from the cubes and placed them right into 4" pots of moist soilless soil (miracle grow) right beside the seedling tray. These seeds had at least 1" of tap root. The other four seeds are still in the cubes. I am planning on leaving the three viable ones in the cubes until I see the roots pushing out (needing a transplant).

In another day I will start to germinate 2-4 more seeds of each strain. I feel comfortable with the germination so far. Does anyone know how long seedlings can be left on a heating mat before needing to be removed from the heat?

Today I woke up to a pleasent surprise; my first sprout. Here is a pic I took with my webcam:


I also noticed that the last seed finally cracked open and is starting to grow. This is great; I assumed it was not going to germinate because it didn't sink during the soaking. It's a good thing I gave it time to germinate anyways.

Later today I will place another 6 seeds in water for germination. I feel I should probably stick with 12 seedlings to start since my space will be limited if all these grow up to reach the flowering stage.

I've got a friend with a digital camera who will let me use it once a week to take high resolution pics. In the mean time I've posted some of these webcam pics just to give you an idea.

All of the seeds are fully germinated and sprouted. I've moved my T5 FL as close to the sprouts as possible (about 1 inch away). There are some very interesting results worth mentioning:The fluorescent bulb has had an affect on the sprouts because I've seen three of the strongest start to reach for the light. I am planning on having a week or two of this light then I will place it under my 400w HID MH bulb.

Humidity became a concern today when I found the RH% below 50! I'm not surprised its dry, I'm just surprised at how dry it is. The ironic thing is that I care more for my plans living environment than my own . To help solve this dilemma I wanted to purchase a humidifier, only to find out the cost can be upwards of $100. Instead I bought the cheapest thing I could get: a 4L warm-mist vaporizer from Canadian Tire for $17. After running the vaporizer for 1 hour, my RH (relative humidity) went up to 80% !!! I discovered I should put this on a timer to help conserve the water supply and to maintain a somewhat constant humidity.

Remember the seed that didn't germinate until day 3? It turns out that it sprouted and it was looking very weak. I also noticed the root wasn't taking hold inside the grow cube. No doubt this was part of the reason why the growth had been stunted. I felt the best thing to do was to place the small sprout into a 4" pot of moist soilless soil (Miracle Grow). I'll know by tomorrow if it helped.

Stress: I remember reading somewhere (probably in a cannabis magazine) that if a plant is exposed to stress during the early stages of growth, it will most likely turn into a male. I'm not sure if this is true since you're likely to get a 50/50 chance of getting a male from a seed. However, if this is true, then I believe the two sprouts of XXX-420 will be males based on the trials they've had already, and its only day 4!

In my last update I mentioned I was going to start germinating 6 more seeds. I decided against it as I want to devote most of my attention to this "test" batch. I'm hoping that if there are any lessons to be learned from this test batch, that I will be able to resolve the issues before continuing with the other seeds.

My exhaust fan has been on for about 1-2 hours a day. At the time, it's only manually triggered because it only goes on during excessive heat/humidity build up. Once I have the sprouts under the HID, I will put the fan on a thermostat.

Last night I had come up with an idea of how to solve my issue with the plastic. As stated before my platform is extended 2' outside the closet which means there is no isolation of air, and no way to isolate the light. My idea was to use some form of a curtin rod to attach my black/white poly plastic to and pull it across like a shower curtin. My only concern bout this is at the top of the ceiling there will be a small gap for the track/slider. This may cause light from my bedroom to leak into the grow room. I'm not sure if its anything to be concerned about since my bedroom light is a 25w CFL. The amount of light that comes out of it, is so dim its like a 40w incandescent bulb. Could someone please let me know if this amount of indirect light could affect my flowering plants in the future? Also, I still haven't figured out how I am going to manage plants in flowering and vegging at the same time... Please feel free to reply or message me.

I've moved the T5 FL back to its original place (about 1') from the shelf. I realize the sprouts could benefit from the additional lighting. I was trying to come up with a way I could suspend the light from the ceiling; looks like I'll need to buy some hooks.

So far the sprouts are doing well, they are increasing in height and leaves are starting to develop. I hope to have the seedlings well rooted in a week, at which time I'd like to put them under my HID.

The seedlings/sprouts are on a 24 hour light cycle. Since this light would interfeer with my own sleeping schedule, I've decided to hang up the plastic poly using only push pins and let it drape down. This turn out to be better than I expected. The light is very well contained, infact I did a test with my HID light on and it was so effective that I couldn't see any light through the plastic! I also did a test with my duct to ensure there would not be too much stress on the fan. Sure enough, all is good, the fan is working great. Last night I left the fan on all night and I noticed all that happened was the humidity went down to 30%. I was surprised that the temperature didn't drop below 70°F. The soil of my 4" pots could use some dry humidity to help dry out the soil. Its been about 3 days since water was provided and the soil is still moist.

When I am ready to use my HID light I will need to make changes to the way the plastic is draped because it could burn/melt the plastic. I've thought up a great idea: I'll make a frame from wood that is attached to the top of my closet frame. Once I have the frame in place, it'll be a joke to hang up the plastic and staple it down. I've even purchased a zipper for a doorway.

Now the fan is off, the humidity has reached 50% and I believe that should be dry enough for the soil to dry out. I'm a little concerned about the height of the seedlings. I know the length of the stem is a direct indication of the light it is receiving. My Afghani plants have the longest stem (about 2-3"). I believe if they were under an HID, the stem would be fatter and shorter. I'm not too concerned about it because I plan on putting them under the HID in a week or so, and I also know that this is only the first node, so there is no importance on its height.

The heating pad was turned off on Day 4. I forgot to mention this and I remembered today when I asked myself: "Why is the growth slowed down? and why has the average temperature gone down?". At first I just assumed it was because of the plastic I put up. Then I came to the conclusion that the heat and growth were going hand-in-hand. When I discovered this, my first instinct was the put the heating pad back on and get the growth going again. I decided against this because of the original reason of why I took the heat off in the first place. I took the heating pad off because I was worried the plants would be come too dependant on this heat and I also didn't know how much time I should give them heat. Since I saw all the seeds sprouted and well on their way to becoming well rooted seedlings, I realized there is no need for the heating pad. This also explained why the soil was not drying out as quickly as I had expected. Now that I am aware of this, I feel the seedlings in the 4" pots would benefit from HID light, whereas the sprouts in the grow cubes, should remain under the fluorescent light for a little longer. I've also noticed the seedlings in the Miracle Grow are growing faster than the grow cubes and no doubt its because of the nutrients in the soil. I've learned from this that I should germinate seeds and plant them into the soil as soon as possible instead of trying to grow them in the cubes. Obviously the cubes are best for clones. Due to the fact Miracle Grow comes with nutrients in its potting mix, I will not give any nutrients to the plants until they are in the vegetative stage.

Today I was at home hardware looking for a solution to my curtain idea. I found a bunch of curtain rods with various styles and sizes but nothing really exciting. The price was unreasonable since I didn't need it to look pretty or operate with industrial strength and integrity. Instead, I came up with the great idea of making the wooden frame (mentioned above). The interesting part is that I got the idea by looking at an awning with the fabric removed/destroyed where the alumninum frame was exposed. Some of the best ideas, come when you're stoned out of your tree .

need two seperate lights(MH/HPS), and two seperate rooms(veg/bloom)

Today there was a lot that happened. First off, its been exactly 1 week since I planted the seeds and I am very impressed with the results so far. All of the seeds germinated, sprouted and are well on their way to solid seedling status. Each of them have grown their own first set of true leaves and there is one which is starting to show signs of the next set of true leaves. I added a little water today to the grow cubes using a spray bottle to mist them.

TasteBuds: I want to thank you for being the first and only person to comment on my progress and to add a suggestion. Based on your recommendation, I will look into the cost of an HPS. I've still got to come up with a creative method of isolating the flowering section from ambient light at the same time allowing fresh air to circulate. I've been thinking about the horizontal reflectors which have exhaust duct connections on the sides.

Construction: Today I completed the construction needed for the awning idea I had. The poly plastic which I have draped over it still needs to be taped down into a more solid position because right now I've only got a few thumb tacks holding it in place. I plan on installing a zipper (which I've already bought) once I have finished sealing off the sides. I will not be sealing the bottom as that will be the air intake.

Awning wooden structure:


Plastic draped over the wooden structure:


I've also lined the bottom of the wooden platform with two layers of vapor barrier plastic and sealed the perimeter with tuck tape. I ran out of tape when taping the second layer of the vapor barrier. Once I have completed it, I will put the three 4" pots under the HID at a distance of 4' from the light. I expect rapid growth from the plants once they are under the HID.

I spent a few minutes today cleaning up the large extension cable I am running from the exhaust fan to my thermostat. I bought two connectors and cut the cord and installed the connectors. This now allows me to remove the excess 20ft. or so of cord, leaving my shelf looking neater. I'd like to run the cord along the corners of the wall and tape it down so its not using any shelf space for the cord. I've hooked up my ballast to a timer now and plugged the T5 FL (which was in the timer) into the socket directly leaving it on constantly. Tomorrow I plan on installing two hooks into the ceiling above the shelf to hang the T5 FL from. This will hopefully increase the growth of the seedlings still in the grow cubes.

I started off with installing the hooks for the T5 FL to suspend from. This will allow me to adjust the height of the light dynamically during growth by adjusting the strings. I can tell that I should have done this earlier since the seedlings have long and stretched out stems indicating they are stretching for light.

The wooden platform has been covered with two seperate layers of vapor barrier and sealed with tuck tape. I have not yet taped the perimeter around the grow room.

I've decided to put the three 4" pots under my HID starting at a distance of 4' from the light source. The seedlings in the pots are growing much better and faster than the ones in the cubes. I assume this is due to the nutrients in the miracle grow soilless soil. I misted all the plants before turning on the light. I've turned on the exhaust fan for constant airflow. I have a small 5" fan which I've put on the seedlings under the HID. I'm hoping this will increase stem strength and cool the plants enough so they don't cook under the HID. I'm also hoping the soil will dry out a little quicker since its been 5 days under the FL and they are still moist.

Tonight I will be getting my friends digital camera for high resolution pictures. I will post these pics sometime on the weekend. So far the Afghani is kicking ass in growth compared to the others. I'm also very satisfied with the results of the other two strains so far.

After a couple of hours under the HID I was alarmed by the sudden change in temperature and humidity. I've had the exhaust fan running constantly which may explain the low humidity and the temperature is understandable considering the amount of heat coming from the HID. The temperature was around 30°C/80°F and the humidty was at 25%.

Right after my post last night, I went out to play poker. When I returned at 5am, I found an alarming situation! First of all, the HID had turned off because it is on a timer. The first thing I noticed was the temperature and humidty. The temperature was around 73°F, which is acceptable and normal. The humidity was at 22%!! The reason for this, I soon found out.

After taking a look at my hygrometer, I next looked at the plants below the HID. The fan was still blowing on them gently and they were all looking okay except for one. One of the three pots, specifically the XXX-420 seedling, had its soil completely dried out and the true leaves were browning around the edges!!! Yikes! I immediatly gave it some water, misted it and placed it under the T5 FL again. The other two plants under the HID had amazing rapid leaf growth. I am so pleased with their results, that I am going to water them a little more and put them under the HID again. The massive loss in humidity was due to my growing cubes. They had completely dried out! I'm assuming the heat from the HID caused this to occur. When this happened I saw 2/3 seedlings do a face plant onto the cube next to it. When I noticed how dry it was, I fed it lots of water into the spongey cubes so that everyone would be quite moist. Sure enough 10 hours later, they have sprung up again facing the light. The third (Afghani) seedling in the grow cubes, remained strong through the whole experience! This is just one more example of amazingly strong the Afghani is! I'd really love to get these cubes into the soil to see what they can do under the HID, but they aren't ready yet. I am going to check up on my plants a lot more frequently now that I have the HID turned on. This is dramatically affecting the climate of my grow room. The amazing part is that the light was 4' away from the plants and everything still dried out!

thats why hydro waters a few times a day mate a HID'll do that and youll need to set out a seperate flower room not only to stop the light at night but also to get the correct spectrums to each, lookin good so far, youve just inspired me that my next grow'll be an afghani keep up the good work n happy smokin

Today I made up some signs for the plants. I've labelled the plants according to the discussion we had in this thread (Plant Number System). The three seedlings inside the grow cubes are labelled A1, T1 and X1. The ones in the 4" pots are labelled A2, T2 and X2. The codes are made up of the first letter of the strain and a number starting from 1 increasing each time there is a new one.

A2 and T2: I needed to water A2 and T2 today and they are doing very well. These seedlings have the largest leaves so far. I have decided to put these ones under my HID again since I just finished watering them. I can tell now that the first set of true leaves need to be larger than the original seed leaves before it is ready for the HID. Technically I could use the T5 FL for the whole seedling stage, but I feel the stems are stretching too much for light and I know the HID will help that issue. An alternate solution would be to get more T5 FLs.

Exhaust fan: When the temperature is above 25°C, I turn the exhaust fan on. At the moment, I'm having issues with the thermostat I bought. I'm having a challenge keeping the RH% up when the exhaust fan is on. Also, I've noticed a really annoying whistling noise coming from the exhaust duct. I suspect this is caused by not enough incoming air, so it is actually sucking. This is not surprising considering this was one of my concerns before I started. I have an idea of installing a vent grill in my floor. Under my room is a small 3' crawlspace. I also want to install another duct inside my bedroom going from the bottom of the plants (under the HID) to the top of my room outside the plastic poly. This will allow a more constant temperature in my grow room. Please feel free to post your comments.

Top shelf looking at exhaust



400W Metal Halide HID

I've been thinking about my grow room setup and reading the various feedback I've received regarding the issue of the flowering cycle. I've decided to keep it simple for the first round. I am going to germinate about 6 more seeds or so and have them grow up the vegetative stage along with the ones I already have. When I feel they are all ready for flowering, I will flower all my plants by setting the HID to 12 hours.

It is a whole lot easier for me to move my T5 FL and clones to another room than it is to create a flowering room. I will keep the clones under the T5 FL (and purchased more of them if I need to) while the mothers are in flowering stage. Hopefully by the time the mothers are done flowering, the clones will be ready for flowering and I will trade them with the mothers which I'll put back under the T5 FLs for vegging again.

Note: Idealy I'd like to have flowering and vegging in the same area. For this I assume it will cost money for wood and other construction materials. Also I would like to have an HPS for flowering and use my MH for vegging only. All this could cost up to $400, whereas an additional T5 FL would cost $50.

hmm your humidity problem is easily sorted 1. why dont you try putting a humidifier in front of your air inlet as air comes through it will be humid air.2 i like this method fill two litre pop bottles with water and place in your room close the door watch your humidity rise.good luck bruv.

I like the two ideas you've suggested. In the short term I will just place some water inside the grow area to evaporate. In the long term, I'd like to seal the bottom of the plasitc to the wooden platform and then connect a duct from the bottom of the plastic to the top of my bedroom. Inside my bedroom (outside the grow room) I have a vaporizer running which does keep the humidity high, and for some reason that humdity isn't be transferred to the grow room. I also know the door to my bedroom is closed most of the time because it's cold inside the house outside my room. I have thought about putting the vaporizer inside the grow room but I realized it could blow a bulb with the water droplets, and I can't afford to risk that.

The challenge with installing the duct for intake is money. I will need about 8' of ducting and a fan for the duct. If I purchase the same parts that I used for my exhaust, it should be less than $75. I believe the inline booster fan cost me $45 (Which is really high for homehardware, I think they're making more than 400% profit!). The ducting cost me something like $10, I really don't remember. However, before I install this intake duct, I will need to completely seal off the plastic around the bottom because that is where the air is currently being drawn in. I am going to see if I can borrow a staple gun from a friend to hold down the plastic and then reinforce it with packing tape for an air seal. I don't really need an air seal, but I know if I do that I won't have to worry about light pollution.

Germination: I picked six more seeds (2 of each strain) and placed them in water to soak for 12 hours. After the 12 hours all the seeds sank to the bottom, so they should all be viable. Applying the knowledge I gained from the previous six seeds, I will put all the seeds into their own 4" pot right away and place them under the HID.

The HID: I've put the HID about 4' away from the pots. I will be watching the plants under the HID very carefully so that they don't dry out too much. The timer is set to 18 on, 6 off. I've also syncronized the T5 FL to 18/6. Before, I had the T5 on 24 hours. Last night I turned off the T5 for 6 hours (using the timer) and I was surprised to find the noticable growth during the night. From my experience so far, I am able to say that the plant does grow faster during darkness and therefore using a 18/6 light cycle saves money and encourages growth.

Heat: When the HID is turned on, the amount of heat generated is incredible. With my exhaust fan on constantly, the temperature hovers around 30°C/82°F!! While the plants under the HID are safe from the heat, the seedlings on the shelf are not. I know that the idea temperature for plants to grow is 23°C. I'm not sure if this will slow or stop the growth, all I can do is watch carefully for results.

Attached you will find pictures of the plants, all except X2 which I can't seem to get a good close up pic. First are the seedlings in the grow cubes, X1, A1 and T1. Second are the two best seedlings A2 and T2 surrounded by the ones I've just started: A3, A4, X3, X4, T3, T4. Finally the third picture is a fruit salad I made a couple nights ago when I was really high. The impressive part is that my creativity increases significantly when I'm high. This kinda stuff doesn't happen often.

Hey brotha things are looking good for you. I have just started my first germination and things are going a bit slow for me. I got the chronic and afghani growing. But I hope I get the results with my afghani, and good luck to ya.PeaceSmokes UpSmokenchoke310

Thanks man, I wish you good luck as well. I can assure you the Afghani will be no trouble at all. I'm interested in your Chronic strain. If you've got a grow journal, I'll be sure to check it once in a while to see your progress .

Under the HID: I've been checking up on the plants under the HID every 4-6 hours. So far everything is okay. Each time I checked on them, I needed to mist them as the soil at the top 1/2" was dry. The small fan I put near the two seedlings A2 and T2 is helping strengthen the stems. After a good watering the plants no longer pull a face plant due to the heavy leaves. It's been over 24 hours now since I first planted the seeds and still nothing to see. I'm hoping by Saturady (3 more days) I'll have sprouts.

X2: I've been watching the soil conditions because I want to water this plant. Today it finally dried out so much that I was able to water it. I gave it a good soaking and let it drain out. I noticed today that a new set of leaves is starting to sprout out, let's hope these ones don't burn. I've put the X2 pot under the HID since I would like the water to dry out faster than last time and If these new leaves are exposed to the HID in an early phase, I feel it will adapt to the light.

Grow Cubes: These plants are still doing well under the T5 FL, but nothing really worth mentioning. I've noticed the edges of the leaves are starting to ripple. I remember seeing in a video that this means the plants are hot and they are trying to increase the surface area for extra cooling. I believe this as the temperature at that height in my closet is about 30°C. I've been misting them occassionally to help. I've also thought about putting the tray under the HID at a distance that will not hurt them. I'm hesitant about doing this due to what happened with X2. Perhaps I should relocate them in a different area.

Side Note: Today while trying to connect to the server rollitup.org, I was having DNS issues. It wasn't until I switched my dns to SHAW cable that I was able to access the site. I tried a couple of U.S.A. dns servers without any luck. No doubt the feds are causing shit. I also noticed in the Support forum the great administrators of this site have let us know about the changes coming about. It's always a good thing when you have more traffic than your site can handle and thus need an upgrade!