Thought's on new grow set up.......

progrockboy

Active Member
I have curtained off a 4ft X 4ft corner of a spare room.
A 250w HPS lamp is hung from the ceiling about 1 meter from the top of the soil.

The pots are set on a sheet polystyrene for upward reflection.

There is a gap at the top between the top of the curtain and the ceiling, and also between the bottom of the curtain and the floor. I am hoping this will go some way towards ventilation. I also have 12" fan in there.

I have a container of water that holds, at a guess, 6 or 7 gallons.

I haven't planted anything yet, but with the light on, the humidity stays around 50-60, and with the fan on the temp is around 80. (about 70-75 with the light off). I think this a little hot??

Im reluctant to use an extractor If It can be helped.

Planning to use White Widow.

Any feed back before I plant would be great. (Im planting from seeds so don't know how many females will be grown to harvest size, but at a massive guess I've planned this set up based on the assumption of getting 3 females.)
 
Your temp is OK. You will want the growing area to be as light proof as possible. Darkness during flowering is necessary.

Vi
 
I have the window boarded up too so when the lights are off the entire room is in pretty much complete darkness. What about the fan, enough for circulation/ventilation??

seeds will be here saturday, so as long as the set up is sound I'll be germinating at the weekend.
 
what kind of 12" fan are you talking about? a regular window/desk fan or an extraction-style fan? If an extraction style fan - a 12" will be awesome! if it is just a regular fan - that will be great for blowing air around the grow room (important) but you'll still need a way to get fresh air in and hot, possibly stinky air out.

You mention a container for water - but don't mention if you are growing hydro or soil.
The humidity is fine - the temp is also fine but 75 (lights on) and 68 (lights off) would be better if you can get it there and remember that your lights will be on at least 18 hours a day during vegetative growth so watch those temps. If they get past 85 F you'll have to consider ways of getting the room cooled off.
 
I have the window boarded up too so when the lights are off the entire room is in pretty much complete darkness. What about the fan, enough for circulation/ventilation??

seeds will be here saturday, so as long as the set up is sound I'll be germinating at the weekend.

I would strongly encourage you to make sure you have your system and room up and running for a few days before even thinking on germinating your seeds.

I would also recommend germinating only a few seeds in case something goes wrong. this is your first grow, correct?
 
Everything sounds OK, but you may want to ditch the curtains for something that will completely enclose the room, gaps can let light in and that = bad. If you do that though youre gonna need better ventillation. My temps are a little higher than yours, so Ive got 3 6" inline fans on the way from HTG to save the day. 1 is intake, 1 is exhaust and the other is for my 600w cooltube that is on its way also. Good luck with the grow dude!
 
The curtain business makes me nervous. You need to seal that grow area up tight. Not only for light protection, but you are going to have a house that smells exactly like you are growing marijuana if the area isn't sealed.

Have a gander at this video for an idea about sealing her up: YouTube - how to grow weed - part 1
 
should have said, its just a desk fan. And Im growing in soil.
I looked into extraction fans and I think a 4" would suffice. However I have been researching this for some time and it seems that there are plenty of people who get results without one.
I was thinking of ducting from the window to bring in fresh air. Maybe that wouldn't make a difference???

As I said I have the window boarded up so there's no light at all getting in there in the dark periods, and I don't use the room so Im not going in and out all of the time.
 
Cheers for the advice by the way!!!!!!!

P.S. This is my first grow and Im not looking for a huge yield or anything. Just want to do enough to grow a few plants and get the basic idea of it all then next time I can tweek and perfect as I go along. Of course whatever is absolutely necessary I will do.
 
are you planing on starting to flower when seeds sprout or veg a while.noticed you said you have a 250 watt hps and the hps bulbs are for flowering not veging
 
are you planing on starting to flower when seeds sprout or veg a while.noticed you said you have a 250 watt hps and the hps bulbs are for flowering not veging
HPS is actually fine for the plants entire life although MH is prefered for veg.

And as far as fans go, HTG sells some 6" inline duct fans (cant remember the cfm, 265 i think) for around $40. When I get mine Ill let ya know how they work.
 
sure the bulb would work in veg,may cause it to stretch a bit much.just if he is new was trying to explain the difference between hps and mh. i geusse it depends how much yield you expect.
 
you can flower as soon as you start getting the second set of leaves if you want to. you will get better light to the bottoms,less scrap
 
Ive used HPS for veg and never had problems with the plants strecthing. If your on a budget and can only use one bulb, HPS is the best choice.
 
vent tube fan. I have read that Mh is better for veg, but im just starting out Im taking the easy way for now!!

I actually originally bought a 400w hps but couldnt keep the temp down so i got the 250w. But Ive just found a "vent tube fan" online which is much much cheaper than the other extractors I had been looking at. Is this the same as the "inline duct fan" that you mentioned??

I would really consider buying it if it allowed me to use the 400w. Its much more within my price range.
 
ya that`s what i mean. does it have glass across the bottom. so it has intake and exhaust hole. the glass would help cool or move the light a bit farther away. an oscilating room fan would help at the tops of plants.
 
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