Building First Closet - lighting question

Hello everyone - I'll try to keep it short and to the point haha.

I am currently in the designing and purchasing phase of building my first closet grow but I have a little spin on it. I will be growing vegetables as the majority of items ( peppers, beans, turnip greens, spinach, herbs, kale, blue berry, etc ) with a single ( maybe 2 ) marijuana plants also occupying this space. I have lighting for the other items, but want to make sure that I am giving this plant the best chance possible.

I am looking to 'do it right' so to speak - higher quality over higher production numbers. I have heard some talk about LED lighting and although it appears to be a power saver but have also read the yields are significantly lower with a % decrease in quality as well. CFL's appear to be great for smaller locations, but I feel I may have too large of an area to utilize CFL's to their max. I have heard MHL for veg and HPS for flower, is there a way to do one or the other that does both? - perhaps swapping out the bulb or maybe just getting one of those 'coated' bulbs? I have no idea - haha.

Here are the specifics - the closet is 6 1/2 feet long, 4 1/2 feet wide and 7 feet tall. The marijuana will be in a smartpot in the dead center ( or center back depending on how it all fills out ) and I think a MHL or HPS hanging from the center down would do the best. I have plans for an intake vent at the bottom, an exhaust vent with scrubber out, mylar and circulating fans within. Budget is under $1000 usd.

I am thinking one 600w HPS with an aircooled hood, use that vent to pull hot air off, pulling cold air in at bottom. I also had a friend recommend two 400w hps and have them in a 'line' if I ever decide to grow larger numbers of plants, using an exhaust fan to pull air across the bulbs and natural 'vacuum' to pull cold air in.

Long story short, I have no idea what to go after haha. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you all,
Hornchen

Well I will not claim to know the ins and outs of indoor vegetable gardening I would recommend that you use HID lighting (HPS, MH) and it sounds like you have the right start a 600w in the center would be a great start. You have all of the right ideas but some times passive intake wont be adequate you may need to have some kind of forced intake. Hope you put it together I have a closet myself I will be posting soon just have to finish up some more testing. Happy growing

The 600w will yield a lot of 'plant' if properly cooled and ventilated. They're also the most efficient as far as power to plant results.

You're just fine to run an HPS lamp for both veg and flower... been done for decades now.

I would look into getting a single 600w lamp with a decent reflector for now... upgrade to a second light later if you're interested. I've always run non-aircooled hoods and loved it.... the Adjust-a-Wing with light spreader has the best damn footprint I've ever seen.

Where are you drawing your cool air from? If you live in a place with cool night-time temps year round... you may get away without A/C. If not... I might be tempted to look into the air-cooled hoods.

Nice big carbon scrubber (if you need it). I prefer the single-pass ones that look like a car air-filter (the new cone type) as they're cheaper and re-usable. Probably need something like a 6" fan... depending on your passive intake air temps.

Stay Safe!

Digital ballast, both types bulb.

No sense repeating the previous posts, but they did forget to mention electronic ballasts in the $300 dollar range that run both metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs.

Hi everyone. Im a bit of a newb to growing and just needed some help. I've just finished a 9 plant grow but now want to us a IWS Flood and Drain System. However, the one Ive brought is a 12 pot set up and now I think one 600W HPS light isnt enough. I was thinking of getting two 400W? What does everyone think?

Two 600`s would be a plan that is the setup I run

I think you need to start your own thread and not jack someone elses.

Tewl said:

Hi everyone. Im a bit of a newb to growing and just needed some help. I've just finished a 9 plant grow but now want to us a IWS Flood and Drain System. However, the one Ive brought is a 12 pot set up and now I think one 600W HPS light isnt enough. I was thinking of getting two 400W? What does everyone think?

Click to expand...

LOL - thanks for the thread jack save!

The closet is in the basement so I will be pulling air from the next room which happens to be cement floors ( it 'feels' cooler in there than the rest of the house ) and our night time temps even in the summer are under 75-80. Last night it was in the mid 30's.

I will have the veggies on 3 to 4 shelves so the majority of the floor is fair game, location of pot speaking - but I still only have a little over 200 cubic feet to be working with - realistically do you think 600w is proper or do you think I should upgrade to a 1000W? Maybe a bit of overkill?

Thanks again everyone!
Hornchen