Looking for some feedback

Here are a few pictures of my grow closet that I put together this past weekend. This will be my first time growing and I'm just hoping to get suggestions and advice from those of you with experience.

I have two 4.5 gallon buckets with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom. I filled each bucket with 2/3 Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil and 1/3 perlite.



I covered the walls and inside doors with mylar and the floor with white plastic. I am using a 400 watt MH/HPS light with a digital timer. I also have an osculating fan to keep the air moving in the closet. I don't think you can see it in the picture, but I have a digital thermometer that gives me the high and low temps as well as the high and low humidity.



In the attic that is right beside the closet, I have installed an inline fan and air ducting into the closet.



Close up of the fan.



I made an air filter with activated carbon strips that will eventually be attached to my fan.



I bought a small bucket of Jack's Classic All Purpose 20-20-20 and Jack's Classic Blossom Booster 10-30-20 for my nutrients.





By the way, these are the seeds I purchased:

Northern Lights x Skunk
Afghan Kush x White Widow
New York 47
Northern Lights x Big Bud

I decided to start with one Afghan Kush x White Widow and one Northern Lights x Skunk, both of which are germinating in some rockwool cubes right now.

My two main questions are:

1. The one thing that I haven't done yet is figure out what I want to do for a passive intake. Is my only real option to cut a big hole in one of my closet doors? My wife will not be pleased if that is the case!
2. Can anyone tell me how much I should use of my nutrients pictured above when it's time to start adding them (which I have read is around the 2-3 week mark)?

Thanks in advance!

hi if you cut the door it should be about twice the size of the out, so if your out is 6 inch just cut 2 3 inch holes in the bottom of door and place some sort of grill over it so its not an eye sore, with the nutes just start off at quarter strengh then half untill you get upto full strengh, good luck

ROBSTERB said:

hi if you cut the door it should be about twice the size of the out, so if your out is 6 inch just cut 2 3 inch holes in the bottom of door and place some sort of grill over it so its not an eye sore, with the nutes just start off at quarter strengh then half untill you get upto full strengh, good luck

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Thanks! You said the intake should be twice the size of the outtake, so since my outtake hole is 6", does that mean my intake should be 12"?

in theory yes but i would just drill 3x 3inch holes in bottom of door and put the grill over, i said 2 x 3inch holes above but meant 3! you could do 4 x 3 inch if your putting a grill over it!

ROBSTERB said:

in theory yes but i would just drill 3x 3inch holes in bottom of door and put the grill over, i said 2 x 3inch holes above but meant 3! you could do 4 x 3 inch if your putting a grill over it!

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OK, well that's what I'll do then. Thanks for your help!

So I had to send back my exhaust fan yesterday because they sent me one with a 250v plug instead of the US 110v plug. Anyways, I decided to do a heat test with my 400 watt MH light on and no exhuast fan and within an hour or two, the temperature went from 73 to 90. Will the exhaust fan really make that big of a difference with keeping the temperature down? I also still need to cut out my passive intake holes, so I am assuming that could help keep the temperature down as well. My replacement should be here next week, so I'll just have to figure out something else in the mean time.

yes the fan will make a huge difference whats the cfm of the fan? and size of the room,

ROBSTERB said:

yes the fan will make a huge difference whats the cfm of the fan? and size of the room,

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That's what I figured, but that jump in temperature in such a short amount of time had me a bit worried. The exhaust fan is rated at 206 cfm, but a lot off the reviewers said this seems to be a low number as they think it is pulling in even more than that, probably closer to 300 cfm. As for the size of the closet, I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm at work right now. You can get a general idea in the first picture.

So I ran over to Lowes on my lunch break and bought a 2.5" hole saw. I'm going to start off with just two holes and see how it does. Since I couldn't find any vent covers for this size hole, can anyone suggest another way to light proof them while still ensuring that I get good air flow? I was thinking about taping an air filter over each one, but I don't know if that will keep enough light out or let enough air in. My main problem is getting these passive intakes taken care of without completely destroying the closet door. I was thinking about drilling the two holes where the two door knobs are because then I could just cover the holes with the door knobs if I ever had to close up shop quickly. If I do this, the holes won't be at the bottom of the closet, which I know is preferable for the intakes. Could I take some tubing and run it from the holes to the bottom of the closet? This would let the cool air start at the bottom while also blocking light.

yes the tubing would work, alot of people use plumbing fittings, like putting 2 90 degree bends together which makes it light proof! you could also just shave say an inch and half off the bottom of your door so the air will be sucked under the bottom of door, also that fan looks more than enough to cool that size room

Awesome, then that's what I'll do. Thanks for taking the time to help me!

no probs, happy to answer what i can! good luck

Tips:
1) Be sure to make the exhaust port at the highest point available in your box and the intake at the lowest point preferably in opposite sides (front back or left right)
2) For maximum growth i always start my seedlings with CFL lights instead of hps/mh because they produce alot less heat, use less power and you are able to drop the lights to within an inch of the top of the plant.
3)Make sure you have good airflow, You want the entire box's air supply to be refilled atleast every 10 seconds. Its also a good idea to keep a small fan on the newly born seedlings to keep the leaves and stem moving (NOT ON HIGH!) this is makes the plant todder a bit and builds the stem girth and increase growth and nute uptake.
4)It's always a good idea when working with new strains (or first grow in this case) to minimize nute use until tolerance has been established, Too much nutes is way worse then a little yellowing.
5)My space is about the same size as yours so i veg for two weeks then start flowering, I find this technic allows me to grow maxium sized plants and produced the most buds for the space.

thats about it, good luck.

scrapdizle said:

Tips:
1) Be sure to make the exhaust port at the highest point available in your box and the intake at the lowest point preferably in opposite sides (front back or left right)
2) For maximum growth i always start my seedlings with CFL lights instead of hps/mh because they produce alot less heat, use less power and you are able to drop the lights to within an inch of the top of the plant.
3)Make sure you have good airflow, You want the entire box's air supply to be refilled atleast every 10 seconds. Its also a good idea to keep a small fan on the newly born seedlings to keep the leaves and stem moving (NOT ON HIGH!) this is makes the plant todder a bit and builds the stem girth and increase growth and nute uptake.
4)It's always a good idea when working with new strains (or first grow in this case) to minimize nute use until tolerance has been established, Too much nutes is way worse then a little yellowing.
5)My space is about the same size as yours so i veg for two weeks then start flowering, I find this technic allows me to grow maxium sized plants and produced the most buds for the space.

thats about it, good luck.

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Thanks for all the great advice. I thought I was vegging for a lot longer than two weeks, so I'm glad you pointed that out. When does the vegging period actually start? My seeds are still in their rockwool cubes, but both of them popped their heads through the tops yesterday and one even has a single root that is coming out the bottom of the cube. Will the two weeks start once I plant them in my soil?

you want them to be at least 8-10 inches when you flower! what height you got considering the light space and distance from light plus pot size? i would veg till just under half of this space to allow for you plant to double in size in flower!

I'll have to measure how much space I have between my pots and the light with it raised all the way up. Does the strain matter when it comes to decided when to start flowering?

yes strain matters if its a indica it wont grow no where near as big as a satvia, satvias can grow 9 foot tan but the average indica is about 3-4 foot, i flower my white rhinos at 18-20 inches and they finish at 28-30 inches, so about a 10 inch stretch all threw flower, if your strain is indica i would allow for it to double in size during flower so like i said above switch to flower when they've grew to just under half your space, if at the end you've still got some more grow space then you know that on your next grow you can veg them longer,

Northern Lights grows 60-80 cm
AFGHAN KUSH 100-140 cm

White Widow 35-60 cm
New York 47 upto 75cm


Northern Light x Big Bud upto 75 cm

thats the information i could find out about you strains

I was just reading my Marijuana Growers Bible book and it said clones are only in vegetative stage for 1-2 weeks, but it seems to imply that plants started from seeds will take much longer in the vegetative stage. Is this correct?

yes my rhino clones only take about 3-4 weeks to get to 20 inches, with seeds you carnt count the first 2-3 weeks as veging in reality your vegging your seeds for atleast 8 weeks to get to the same height, with clones what ever the age of the plant you take the clone off is the age of your clone< so as soon as your clones root there already mature and can be flowered straight away if wanted, with seeds you have to wait till there mature b4 even thinking of flowering, if your going to keep the same strains going then i would take a couple of cuttings off each plant either just b4 flowering or 1st week of flower, also clones are always female and will grow and look just about identical to the mother it was taken from, so if you have a great looking plant in your grow take cuttings from this and they will be great plants, aslong as you dont abuse them

once a clone has rooted if you veg it for 2 weeks it will be atleast 10 inches tall under a hps light

I just checked my seeds and they have officially popped up out of the rockwool and one even has a root showing in the bottom. Is it time for me to put them in soil now?

Here are pictures: