Starting a small grow closet. Need suggestions 4' x 8.5' (SOIL GROW)

Hi guys, I have a closet thats about 2 feet wide x 4.5 feet long (so about 8-9 sq ft) and about 8ft high. I want to start a grow in this closet hopefully fitting 3-5 plants max. I plan on trying to grow feminized white widow and i want a good amount of yield (hopefully anywhere between 4-16oz). I plan on using a 600W HPS/MH combo (i thought bout getting 1000W but i wanna avoid a super high electric bill.

1. I plan on lining the walls with mylar (is that a good reflective material to use?)
2 I plan on starting my seedlings under the HPS at a very far distance of 3 or more ft away because I really dont wanna have to buy CFL lights. but i dont wanna burn my seedlings
3. Do you guys think i could fit up to 5 plants in here using 5 gallon buckets
4. Im probably going to use ocean forest soil since i keep hearing a lot about it...its just EXTREMELY expensive.
5. I want to try and veg these plants for awhile, probably 2 or more months because I want them to get about 4 or 5 feet tall. is that possible in an indoors closet?


I put the wrong dimensions in the title sorry guys
do you guys have any suggestions for me? will a 600W HPS/MH be enough to get me that yield of 4-16oz in this closet from 3-5 plants?

most importantly what kind of light reflector would u guys recommend for a closet that size? (air cooled, wing w/o cooling,..etc)

You guys could be a great help to me. Thanks and i look forward to being a part of the community

All sounds pretty good, although you might run out of space with 5 plants 5 feet tall in that size closet. Otherwise it all sounds doable.

with that kinda light you definitely need some air though. If you don't want to design a whole cooling system for air flow you can get a free standing A/C unit and put it in there.

if you veg them to 5ft,how much taller do you think they will get in flower?
if you want them to end at 5ft,then possibly start flowering at 2-3ft depending on strain.

can your closet support a plant taller then 5ft without touching the light?

will your 600w light be able to penetrate 3-5 5ft tall plants that will get bigger in flower?
you'll have a bunch of bottom whispy buds i assume.

if i was you,id scrog and possibly top the plants,nice lil bushes for your 600w light to penetrate all of the tops of it.

well from the size of what you said you can probably only fit 3-4 5 gallon buckets in there I would suggest going with possibly 3 gallon pots and fit a few more in there. Mylar works well, as well as white paint. Hps bulbs are supposed to be quite a height away from the plants,they put off a lot of heat and can burn plants fast. It is nice to start seedlings under florescents first, that big bulb may be to much for very small plants. You can buy lots of cheaper brands of potting soil that works just as well. I would go with some water soluble fertilizer, usually blue powder that mixes in with water, then given to plants every 2-4 weeks. You said feminized white widow, So I assume your growing from seed? Vegging for 2 months could be possible before inducing flowering. Instead of going for height, 4-5 feet you could go with a scrog, training your plants, it gives you more yield for smaller areas, uses all of the space, theres lots of info here on riu on scrog. As far as yeild goes, its hard to guesstimate, Its like guessing how many cookies a fat kid can eat. I would try to aim for at least one ounce per plant. Your Also going to have to look into venting and fans, having a good air circulation is key. I hope that helps a bit.

1. Mylar will work
2. I would go with cfl's for first week or so. Sprouts dont need/use that much light at beginning.
3. 5 buckets would be a tight fit but a 6 inch fan connected to 6inch ducting connected to light hood to cool that 600 watter, IS going to be tighter. Let alone the carbon filter!?!?
4. Ocean forest is good.
5. It is possible to veg to 4 feet but with so little space, forget about having dense buds the plants would crowd each other out and fight each other for light.

Figure if your setup is decent you will get about .5 grams a watt. So 600 watts yield roughly 300 grams = 10.5 ozs. Only if your plants stay happy. I would go with smaller pots maybe 3 gallons. I would mix perlite with the ocean forrest. I would go with less plants in that space. I would only veg till they get about 1.5 to 2 feet tops! they will double in height and width when flowering.
More plants dont always mean more buds in a small space like that. You ideally want an even canopy without the plants leaves touching another. cooltube

Definitely get some air flow going in there. In that small a space with a 600 watt hps that's gonna get a little hot without an air-cooled light.

Definitely thanks for that tip! didnt know how much larger they would start growing in flower. so that helped me a lot in the planning process

I will most likely take it down to 3 plants in 5 gal buckets and then veg them to around 2-3 feet or so. Im wondering about getting smaller buckets, will the plants still be able to grow as high? because if i can more out of 5 plants in 3 gal buckets, than 3 great plants in 5 gal buckets I might just get smaller buckets.

Also about soil. Anyone have a cheap alternative soil that is great and doesnt have too many long lasting nutes in the soil that will lead to healthy plants. I want to be able to track my nutes and use them myself without any harm..

well..also looks like ill be getting CFC's for seedlings then. I just have to find good sized cfc lamps. I want them to be a good height so I can stand them on the floor and have them looking over the seedlings. anyone know any?

I might get a water cooled light to save space and help with heat because I heard cooltubes have an impact on growth Anybody have experience with one?

d4money1 said:

Definitely thanks for that tip! didnt know how much larger they would start growing in flower. so that helped me a lot in the planning process

I will most likely take it down to 3 plants in 5 gal buckets and then veg them to around 2-3 feet or so. Im wondering about getting smaller buckets, will the plants still be able to grow as high? because if i can more out of 5 plants in 3 gal buckets, than 3 great plants in 5 gal buckets I might just get smaller buckets.

Also about soil. Anyone have a cheap alternative soil that is great and doesnt have too many long lasting nutes in the soil that will lead to healthy plants. I want to be able to track my nutes and use them myself without any harm..

well..also looks like ill be getting CFC's for seedlings then. I just have to find good sized cfc lamps. I want them to be a good height so I can stand them on the floor and have them looking over the seedlings. anyone know any?

I might get a water cooled light to save space and help with heat because I heard cooltubes have an impact on growth Anybody have experience with one?

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To answer this perticular question, I use a cool tube and I did not find it had much of a negative impact. I keep the glass as clean as possible as I know any stains and dust particules will reduce light emission.

But to answer your previous questions, with your space and set-up, I would suggest a whole different approach.

Get CFLs for sure for vegging, they will pay for themselves in energy cost.

Unless it makes a legal difference to have 6 rather than 3, I would grow more smaller plants, like six 3ft tall plants in 3 gallons containers. I find you get a better yearly yield and a better cost/benefit ratio per square foot.

Rule of thumb for container vs size: 1gal per feet.

That said, if number of plants is a legal issue like it may be pretty soon in Canada, to stay under 6 total plants I would keep a mother, clone 2 at a time, and then scrog the hell out of 2 plants at a time and veg two clones near the end of the flower cycle to keep a continuous flow with never more than 5 plants total.

One thing is sure, you won't be able to grow more than 3 big plants with your space and set-up. Maybe 6 plants is even much... 4-5 small-medium sized plants would be more like it.

When switching to flower, your plant will stretch for about two weeks. Depending on the genetics of the plant it may double in size or only gain a few inches and get bushier. I find that "white" strains do not stretch all that much compared to others.

As far as soil is concerned, I don't bother with that headache no more... I always use a soil less mix with lots of perlite and have full control over nutes...

Matte white paint will be just as good as mylar. Relecting lights off walls is not as important as it may seem. We do it because it does help a little and is so easy and cheap. People will want plastic on their surfaces for many other reasons than reflectivity (water, bugs, smell, easy to clean, etc...). But if your going to put plastic (or paint) it is so much more logical to choose white. One thing to remember, the main loss of light will be the upwards rays. Wheter the bulb is horizontal or vertical, you loose half the light going upwards. Therefore, a good reflector hood is much more important than the walls. The light that makes a difference is the intense one coming directly from the bulb/hood, close to the top of the plants. The reflected light is very minimal but does help those smaller surrounding branches that does not receive much light to start with.

hope this helps

cheers

i dont really have space to put an exhaust fan on the reflector, plus i dont really have a way to get the air our because I cant drill an hole in the wall or door for the fan because its an apartment that i dont own or anything. I really want to keep the closet door closed so no one can see inside, So do you guys think i would be ok with just putting 2 or 3 fans inside the room and keeping the door closed instead of having the 6" reflector fan. Can i just use like 3 fans in the room or would i have to get a standing Air conditioning unit? This is my biggest concern because everything else should set up fine

Thanks, ive included pics of my messy closet (until i start the project) for better reference lol

bump, sorry for the large pics

Hella risky growing in an apartment but I have done it before. Smell, sight and sound should be your main issues with planning. You will absolutely need a carbon filter for the smell. Your apartment (and your neighbors) will reek without it. A 6 inch fan exhausting air out of the closet is a must. I dont see a way around that. Your 600 watt light will shine bright through the edges of your closet. You will need to move a lot of air for a 600 watt in an apartment ambient temps. 3 fans around the room will not cut it for the type of heat a 600 watt puts out. Do you have space for a tent?

Looks to me like you have a case of micro grow or CFL grow... I'm not a fan of them methods but you won't fit many plants in there in the first place and YOU NEED to exhaust heat and circulate the air with a 600w HPS...

I had another idea guys...What if i open the door and just hang a curtain lined with mylar on the inside in place of the door. That way i can run the exhaust fan w/ carbon filter through a small opening in the curtain and i can close it for light control. What do u guys think?

That might be ok for veg eventhough your light will still shine through a bit, but you need to seal it the light out for flower,

If you are planning on using a 600W you NEED a Cooltube. I would build a cab into the closet, or at least make a "wall" so when you open the closet doors it just a wall. Then just make a door in that wall. Also, with the wall you can run all your ducting in/out. It's gonna be tough if you can't cut holes in the walls/ceiling because you are going to have to exhaust all that hot air somewhere. If you can't cut the walls/ceiling the hot air cold come out though the front, but you might need to leave those doors cracked. I have a cab in a closet setup and have to leave the door cracked otherwise my babies can't breath. Use baffles to block light on your intake/exhaust.

CourageToGrow said:

That might be ok for veg eventhough your light will still shine through a bit, but you need to seal it the light out for flower,

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I planned on solving that problem by having the back of the curtain lined with layers of black garbage bags, not exactly practical but i think it should work

but if push comes to shove i think ill just throw down another $100 and get a 2x4x7 grow tent and build it inside the closet. problem solved

Im in the same boat with OP. Live off campus in an apartment. Have a big closet...but dont know how to vent air in and out without making holes closets 3 feet wide. like 6 feet long. and 8 feet tall

omar924 said:

Im in the same boat with OP. Live off campus in an apartment. Have a big closet...but dont know how to vent air in and out without making holes closets 3 feet wide. like 6 feet long. and 8 feet tall

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yeah i think imma just grab a grow tent big enough and build it inside the closet and keep the closet door open and the tent closed