First setup help

Hey all, I've recently joined these forums and it's just great! I've gathered so much information from this site alone, and from the members within it.

I'm about to buy all the equipment I need to start growing some bud indoors. I was wondering if anyone could advise me on the best equipment I can purchase with the budget of around £250 ($500). I'm not looking for the best of the best, obviously, I just want my first crop to be pretty successful.
Peace.

My advice is to focus on lights and ventilation first.

Find some decent/cheap/etc floroescents for seeds/clones/early vegging

HID lighting for flower. Figure 50 watts per sq ft of HID lighting (high pressure sodium) for yer bud area.

Buy a blower or inline fan...and figure out how to exhaust air from the space. Keep in mind that you will need to spend additional funds down the line for odor control/charcoal filteration..etc.

Use mylar or flat white paint for the walls for reflectivity.

Set it all up...fine tune your temperature (80F max) via adjustments to your ventilation...etc.

grow in soil for your first grow or two. Then if you desire more challenge and have had success there...give thought to hydro. (or not)

READ. READ. READ. All of the info is out there for you to tap....

good luck

bt dt

Hey man, thanks a lot for the fast reply.
The only real worry I have is the ventilation. Does this not come pretty pricey? I haven't really looked into ventilation much (will do now).
Thanks again for the quick response.

Why is everyone so infatuated with floros? If I had $500 to spend on a new setup it would look something like this:

$250 - Light. Get a 400w HPS. Good for veg and flower and for $250 you can get a good light with a hood and ventilation capabilities.

$250 - Inline 300+ CFM "Can-Fan". This fan should be adequate to cool your grow room without any problems. Obviously depends on the size of the room, but for a small room it will work fantastic.

-Grow in soil your first time. Everything happens a little slower and it's really much easier. Buy good foxfarms soil, costs like 10 bucks for a big bag and has all the nutes you will need until ~ 2 weeks into flowering.

Down the road once you hit flower you will need flowering nutes like FoxFarms Big Bloom or Tiger Bloom and you will need a carbon filter if smell is a concern after ~4 weeks of flowering. For me this is where I incurred the most cost, but only because I have a roommate that I don't want to know about the grow. If you can stand a little smell and you don't grow a skunky strain you should be fine with the odor removal machine ala Videoman.

Thanks laserbrn.

The smell isn't so much of a problem so I think I can hold off getting a carbon filter for now.

Hi-Tech Garden Supply 400w HPS w/ballast and reflector $120 + s&h
Hi-Tech Garden Supply - Timer $25
Hi-Tech Garden Supply - FoxFarm nutes $60
Other stuff you'll need you can probably find pretty easily locally, a good pH meter, some pots, good soil, pH up/down, 30x magnifier (for trichomes), molasses, mylar wrapping paper ($1 a roll here in the states at dollar stores) and you should be set probably with about $200 left to spend on making it into a perpetual harvest area if you want to, or you spend a little more and get a total dissolved solids meter and make a bubble bucket if you wanted to, but soil is easier.

Dude, those links were great. But I'm in the UK and I couldn't see anywhere on the site that they'd ship to the UK. I'll look around some more, but thanks a lot.

300 cfm will exchange a bedroom..thats a pretty spendy fan for a closet..sure a 90 to 100 cfm will do and probably save that much as well

wow laser you got a roomate and he dont know....your good,
Talk about tight lipped

Well, I'm going to be using my attic for growing. I'm gonna split it into two sections, 1 for veg and 1 for flowering. What kind of fan would i need for that? The rooms will be about 4ftx4ft and about 6-7ft tall.

Hi baked im in the uk too and i found some bits on ebay they seem to be a lot cheaper than grow shops are you doing it in a cupboard or room or what?
this can really determine what you do REALLY need just to get going and i would start in soil for the first try
sorry you must have posted as i was just seen you are doing it in an attic you are going to need some serious fans and cooling my mate has had terrible problems in the recent warm spell trying to keep his grow room cool as the attic is usually the hottest place in the house
cheers Bifter

Yeah, I thought the heat might be a bit of a problem. If it does cause problems on my first grow, I think i'll consider moving my equipment to my outside shed.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Outside shed is better i think as its easier to get fresh air in and stale air out and it will be naturally cooler as well

cheers Bifter

Major_Nuggz said:

300 cfm will exchange a bedroom..thats a pretty spendy fan for a closet..sure a 90 to 100 cfm will do and probably save that much as well

wow laser you got a roomate and he dont know....your good,
Talk about tight lipped

Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't like smells giving me away. I went a little overboard, but I got all my stuff by bartering services/trading product after my first grow. I also REALLY like going big with everything and knowing that I am doing the very best that I can with what I have.

Right now my grow room with the light on is 7 degrees warmer than the bedroom it is in.

I also have 5 60CFM fans as well, 2 for intake and 3 for exhaust. It's all about airflow when working with a stealth grow.

yes I'm all for flow as you can tell by a stealth grow(attachment) I did last year
Ive sinced moved into a climate controlled room

90cfm would be ok for a 4x4 area but attic is risk..need gable fans or a fan venting attic set on thermostats