CookieMan
Passionado
High everybody! I am in southern California and am very excited about the passage of prop 64. I feel like this is such a huge victory and I want to be a part of the next step of the movement. I have done a couple stealth closet grows before, and figure I will want to do something similar for a personal grow I have planned in my apartment. I will have a spare bedroom to work with, and the only potential legal issues I will have to deal with are my apartment's rules, the 6 plant limit, nosy neighbors, and thieves. I want to stick within the legal limit of 6 plants. That has been decided and I want to do this 100% legit. This setup must also be safe and considerate to my neighbors. I also don't want to attract attention of any thieves. I am trying to maximize the production of my 6 plants over the next year. I am favoring a short growth cycle that I can get more harvests in the next year verses doing larger plants. This is open to negotiation though. I have some ideas for the setup, but I need some guidance. The number one goal though is quality, with efficiency a secondary consideration.
Since I only can have 6 plants, I want to start with clones. Veg state will likely be to a minimum. I am thinking about 6-8" of good dense leafy stalk should be good to switch to flowering. Then in flower it will likely take however long the strain will take. Would adding another couple weeks to top the plants, training them, establishing a few more main stalks at 6-8" tall, and then flowering be worth it compared to keeping the clones small. I will end up using a bit more space then, and will need a larger light to cover the larger space. Keeping in mind that I want to produce the highest quality herb I can, should I top and train or just go for a straight sea of green? I want to average at least 1 ounce per month. Perhaps a little bit more so I can start saving and doing nice slow cures of my finished herb.
If I do a sea of green using a 2'x3' growing area, I can have each plants stay small and use 1 sqft of growing space. I should be able to maintain good light coverage of the whole plant once it is in full flower with a 250 watt setup. This would allow the advantage of lower cost, lower heat, easier to control environment, light could be closer to the plants, and less smell. I would hope to harvest about 20-28 grams from these plants. That would be good for me for a few months, although I'm sure I would be gifting all my friends. Then again, they will likely be growing too.
Going with this wardrobe from Ikea I should be able to use 2 gallon pots in a 2x3 arrangement, the growing space will be about 20" x 36". I then will have about 3 feet of room for growth of the plants while maintaining good distance from the light and having room for the filter at the top. I don't see any air cooled 250 watt HID lights anywhere, but heat shouldn't be much of an issue. Also with the light not directly air cooled, it will be easier to put on chains to adjust the height. I will have at least two oscillating fans in the cabinet to circulate air and help regulate temperature. They will also serve to promote good hardy growth. I will probably use a 6" inline fan with a carbon filter and a speed controller for the fan. First I want to see what temps I maintain at full speed to make sure it is worth buying a speed controller. I expect temps will be quite low as I used a similar setup before with 400 watts and a cool tube. I am hoping that this is a case of less is more. Lower heat and easier to control environment resulting in better growth.
I'm thinking of the pots being on the floor of the large chamber with air intake coming through a filtered holes near the bottom. I think I will start with soil for the first round to keep it simple and focus on environmental control. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions for me? How much should I expect to pay for a $250 watt HPS setup? How about fans and a carbon filter? Are the lights that Home dePot sells any good? They seem to have nice prices on hydro supplies too.
I think I will go with the following list:
Sun Systems Digital 250/400 Watt light $176.21
DOMBÃ…S Wardrobe $129
Black Ops Carbon Filter 6 in x 16 in 400 CFM $95.96
Hurricane Inline Fan 6 in 435 CFM $97.46
Drill $30
Hole Saw $12
Mounting hardware $15
Pots and soil $30
Timer $20
Thermometer $15
bulb $20
total $640.64
Since I only can have 6 plants, I want to start with clones. Veg state will likely be to a minimum. I am thinking about 6-8" of good dense leafy stalk should be good to switch to flowering. Then in flower it will likely take however long the strain will take. Would adding another couple weeks to top the plants, training them, establishing a few more main stalks at 6-8" tall, and then flowering be worth it compared to keeping the clones small. I will end up using a bit more space then, and will need a larger light to cover the larger space. Keeping in mind that I want to produce the highest quality herb I can, should I top and train or just go for a straight sea of green? I want to average at least 1 ounce per month. Perhaps a little bit more so I can start saving and doing nice slow cures of my finished herb.
If I do a sea of green using a 2'x3' growing area, I can have each plants stay small and use 1 sqft of growing space. I should be able to maintain good light coverage of the whole plant once it is in full flower with a 250 watt setup. This would allow the advantage of lower cost, lower heat, easier to control environment, light could be closer to the plants, and less smell. I would hope to harvest about 20-28 grams from these plants. That would be good for me for a few months, although I'm sure I would be gifting all my friends. Then again, they will likely be growing too.
Going with this wardrobe from Ikea I should be able to use 2 gallon pots in a 2x3 arrangement, the growing space will be about 20" x 36". I then will have about 3 feet of room for growth of the plants while maintaining good distance from the light and having room for the filter at the top. I don't see any air cooled 250 watt HID lights anywhere, but heat shouldn't be much of an issue. Also with the light not directly air cooled, it will be easier to put on chains to adjust the height. I will have at least two oscillating fans in the cabinet to circulate air and help regulate temperature. They will also serve to promote good hardy growth. I will probably use a 6" inline fan with a carbon filter and a speed controller for the fan. First I want to see what temps I maintain at full speed to make sure it is worth buying a speed controller. I expect temps will be quite low as I used a similar setup before with 400 watts and a cool tube. I am hoping that this is a case of less is more. Lower heat and easier to control environment resulting in better growth.
I'm thinking of the pots being on the floor of the large chamber with air intake coming through a filtered holes near the bottom. I think I will start with soil for the first round to keep it simple and focus on environmental control. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions for me? How much should I expect to pay for a $250 watt HPS setup? How about fans and a carbon filter? Are the lights that Home dePot sells any good? They seem to have nice prices on hydro supplies too.
I think I will go with the following list:
Sun Systems Digital 250/400 Watt light $176.21
DOMBÃ…S Wardrobe $129
Black Ops Carbon Filter 6 in x 16 in 400 CFM $95.96
Hurricane Inline Fan 6 in 435 CFM $97.46
Drill $30
Hole Saw $12
Mounting hardware $15
Pots and soil $30
Timer $20
Thermometer $15
bulb $20
total $640.64
