ok so i got scotts potting soil, thank you home depot gave me 50% off becuase the bag was open
. no i am not a medical user but a just another smoker looking to grow for my own needs and maybe small sales. i am getting 3 60 watt cfls, thts a alot of lumens thinking a mix between maybe 2 soft and one day light. i have 5 seeds germinating. no they are not feminized they are bag seeds. and the van working either way will essentially do the same thing due to diffusion from high to low.
3 60 watt equivalents or 60 watt actual? Also the fan is better sucking out like the former poster said. But if you dont want to listen or think he is wrong, suit yourself
ok i will reverse the fan only problem is tht the fan is towards the bottom and i dnt want to butchar the box to much. good i keep the fan on the bottom and just reverse the direction. and actual 60 watt. not equivalents. right now i just have a single 20 watt to hold me off
and i cnt get my hands on plastic cups atm. wht other items could be used as containers cause i spent what little money i had on potting soil for the moment. wht i have available to me are alot of clear water bottle ( which i heard you shouldnt use any type of clear containers ) and those cardboard like coffee cups tht are laminated on the inside from my cafe
The Laminated cups work, plants wont be in them for long anyways.
As for lighting, you will greatly benefit from more light since you're limited on space, I suggest you get 23w (equivalent to 120-150 actual watts) so that's around 450 actual total for light.
This will generate considerable heat for that small a space, which brings me to my next point:You need to rethink your ventilation entirely, forget what you think you know and just trust us on this one (or don't if it suits you so).
Pushing the air into the chamber will create a positive pressure build-up, thus forcing the air to escape from the chamber from anywhere it can. Once your plants start to stink, the odor will be unmanageable and you will then have to redo your box to address this stealth issue. You want the fan sucking the air out from the exhaust where the filter is mounted, this way you make sure that all the smelly air is getting filtered through. Even if you have an opening from where the air pressure could bleed out and vent the air, it will still go out from anywhere it can, unless you have a completely airtight box which is a lot of unnecessary hard work to achieve.
You idea about diffusion from high to low is flawed, that's not how air flows into the chamber when you have an intake at the bottom.
It's not a coincidence that growers put their exhaust fans at the top and the passive intakes at the bottom. Hot air mixed with humidity rise to the top of the chamber, while cold and dry air stays low, this is because hot air is lighter. Putting your exhaust at the top is more efficient because this is the fastest way you can get rid of the heat and humidity. Cold/dry air will enter from the passive intake at the bottom and be sucked up towards the top of the chamber, mixing with the warmer air, cooling the plants and the lights, as the air gets hotter it will start to rise and is irremediably exhausted from the top.
Doing this in the reverse sense like you want to do will make your room stay warm for longer, because your hottest air, which is at the top will have to travel all the way down again to be pulled through the bottom exhaust.
help! newbie face palm