MY FIRST GROW (hydro closet setup)

[Dr Shakalu]

Hey everyone Here is what i have to work with....

My closet is 5 ft long x 2ft wide x 8 1/2ft tall....

At this point i have my seedlings under fluoro lights (40 watts in each bulb)

My dilemma is weather i should use t5 of HPS with cool tubes??
Any suggestions?????
I am def leaning toward the HPS (1000watts)
By this friday i need to decide because that is when i can afford to get my new light set up... Here as some pics of what i have going so far.

Seeds broke ground 5 days ago. Except the one that is visably larger than the others its a little bit ahead of the others. Long Story....

 

[Erysichthon]

nice start. id go with the hps all the way. they outdo t5's. hope everything keeps going smoothly.

Ery

 

[Dr Shakalu]

Hmmm the only prob is i only have 40watt fluoro bulbs and those are not good as far as i have seen idk though, what do you think of maybe keepin the light very high up? less lumens? im thinking the about a natural situation adn they survive under hot ass sun and i can control my closet and the heat of the light?? how much water ect..???? maybe just slowly lower the light to the plants????

 

[Dr Shakalu]

okay that didn't make sense.... i meant to say that the HPS might eat up the seedlings but my only other option is the fluorescents and i have heard that they area not very good for anything. Should i take the HPS and slowly lower it to the plants as they mature and can handle all that light??? (i will have a cool tube) I guess the question is can a seedling get too much light??

 

[Butthead08]

fluorescents will do fine for veg, just make sure they are close enough to the plants. Defiantly use the hps for flowering.
Good luck!

 

[Dr Shakalu]

they are not t5, just reg shop style with the daylight and sunshine bulbs

 

[StealthPanda]

Those shop lights will gorw those plants quite well for about a month, then its growth will slow down a little, looking for more light when maturing(not just floweing) Then you can look into hps, and hey, nobody said your cant flower with fourecents, they just dont produce such as great yeilds as do HPS. Hope this helps bro later.
Looks great so far man good luck.

 

[Dr Shakalu]

Thx man, I'm looking for max yield in my small amount of area, how young is too young for hps???

 

[StealthPanda]

I say switch to hps after the 5th or 6th node. It will apreciate it man. Just for the life of you keep the temp down. Its the only real negetive thing about HPS, other than their massive power consumption.

 

[Dr Shakalu]

lol so basically i can put them under the light now if i am VERY VERY VERY careful about heat??????

 

[reefcouple]

if u haven't chosen yet, i would very strongly urge you to buy 1 400 watt HPS (u can add another at a later date) for your bloom.... I use a HO T5 for veg and it works great, but it didnt work at all for the bloom, budz were small and fluffy and the plants stretched forever.......

So i purchased a 1000 HPS, now i wish i bought the 400 so i could get another 400 and use a swing arm for better area coverage...... It seems ya cant go wrong with 1 400, or maybe in your case 1 600 if you plan to stay in the closet lol

 

[Dr Shakalu]

I would LOVE to have more space but my dad wants it very small . . .

Would you recommend the 400 for the ability to move the light around????

I shouldn't have too much trouble with light coverage considering I'm going to be topping my plants to keep em small.

Basically it comes down to heat then right?? if i can keep a 1000w one cool will it be the best choice (i would go with 2 400w, or 2 600w if i had more room to work with, but i want the most bang for my amount of area, with controlled heat 1000w would be ideal right? best densest and most scrumptious buds ???

 

[reefcouple]

if you only have room for 1 light in a closet i would go with 1 600 watt HPS/HALIDE type that can convert from halide to hps with just a simple change of bulb... a 1000 would probably get way too hot in that small of a space and may be over kill... but a 600 for a 1 light system in a closet would be perfect.......

 

[Dr Shakalu]

New pics of
Day 6

Added the little dome for some extra moisture, the leaf on the center plant is a little crispy looking on the edge, I'm not too worried about it at this point but i will be keeping an eye on it, the humidity should help i am thinking!

 

[reefcouple]

they look great!!!!

i am interested in your ideas on how you plan to go from that plug to your hydro set up and what kind of system will u use? ebb and flow? drip? wick? I ask because i am soon to be experiencing a similar situation (jiffy to aero then to ebb and flow)

Thanks and congrats so far!!!

 

[reefcouple]

oh and BTW check out ebay for your light, theres many lights in there for a reasonable price if vost is an issue

 

[Dr Shakalu]

Thanks man i appreciate the support, keeps me going and the fact that i will be smoking my own herb (grown from seed)

The cost is not a super big deal just that I am going paycheck to paycheck.

This current system me and my older brother threw together at our local lowes, Its a reg ebb and flow system...

but i plan on building my own aeroponics system for my next grow, the results i have seen with that in seemorebuds vol 1-3 are so nice, very very fast growth with lots of roots !!

I am convinced that aero is the way to go if you dont have power outages in your area, if you get power loss ofter you may end up with dead plants, its almost impossible to recreate BY HAND what aero does, if you were in a blackout.

Sorry for the rambling, im smoking some shwag right now wishing my babies were done

 

[reefcouple]

i actually use both, aero and ebb and flow..... your right the aero is aweome.. 1 down fall to my aero garden is that there no way to view the water level in the system, so i ran it low/empty twice and lost a few plants.....

i do like the ebb and flow tho too... i flood my system every other hour for 15 minutes around the clock....

yep, soon you will give the shwag away and enjoy the fruits of your labor

 

[Dr Shakalu]

lol i should take a pick of the terrible regs im smoking.... Not really.... its hard worth smoking let alone a photo shoot!

Yeah i cannot wait to taste the fruits! i have been dreaming of this day for a very long time now, and its finally on its way!!

i had cool idea so that you could look inside your aero grow (i will be adding this to mine)

step #1
take your reservoir, cut a big rectangle or oval hole (users prefrance)

step #2
purchase a clear lid for a rubbermade container from your local wally world along with some clear water safe epoxy(probably want some sort of non toxic aquarium style shit)

step #3
cut the rubbermade lid to size with your reservoir and fasten them together

and now you have a little view hole!
(most likely will need a handy light of some sort to make it useful)

as long as there is no light getting to the roots i think this would be ok. if your reservoir was where your roots are this would not be a good idea at all

 

[Dr Shakalu]

Okay! i have some new additions to my plants, they are showing a little roots so im going to plant them, and i just spent 500$ to get my lights set up, after tax and a little grow media... Ouch.....

HPS is a little too much for my closet but is KEY for my future grows when i get more room.

For media i am using Coco Coir and Perlite for some air.

Lights are t5 fluorescent with half cool and half warm bulbs, this is what i will be doing from veg to flower since i am so limited on room, the downfal will be less dense buds and most likely a much lower yield, but hey this is my first grow and i dont want to worry about heat, i live in a desert i already have to worry about it enough, so this should be ok.

More pics to come once i get these things in pots!