Cab planning for my first grow

First things first, greetings to all! this site has been a wealth of information and i am now a hell of a lot wiser than i was when i first decided 'fuck paying that anymore, ill grow my own'

but on that note, evejn tho im more wiser the more i read the more questions i have, the more i read into the answers, the more bogged down by all the information there is and my head now really hurts

Soooo to start things off i have always lived by 1 simple rule...KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. but it looks to me that growing some of your own nugs aint that simple, even when you are trying to keep it simple. thers all these lights and what kind to use and when, temps, humidity, Neuts, PH..........................

Now im not after reacord breaking yeilds, but i would like to be able to get the best bang for my buck without going all out green fingerd.

Here is my scenario............

I have a space that is 2'x2'x3' (might be able to push that to 2x2x4), im planning to build the cab myself and i have plenty of wood kickin about.

So the first couple of questions are.........

In this small a space, is it viable squeeze 4 ladies in there? i have been eying up Nuggbuckets mainline thread quite a bit and not sure if i should just stick to growing a short strain, let it grow how it grows and get what im given, or to pick a high yeailding strain and have a whirl at mainlining on my first grow with teh 4 ladies to try get a better yeild first time round (im quite an ambitious person)

Secondly, lights and this one is really baffeling me as there is so much info about, i can lay my hands on a 400w HPS floodlight for £30 new plus the cost of a new bulb so say around £45, would this be to powerfull for this size of space* and would i be better spending this on some CFLs as for the £45 i can get hold of 15 30w (true wattage) bulbs and i dont thing i would need that same amount of cooling as i would from the 400w hps

*if not what sort of cooling specs would i be looking at, this alone is like the dark arts.

So am i over thinking and planning my setup for such a smal space?

Im this close to just building my box, picking up the 400w hps and a 4" 62cfm inline fan + scrubber, all the other little bits and just seeing what happens, but then im worried that ill suck real bad and be so disappointed with my result that ill make my first grow my last and go back to paying silly money for some fecker else to grow the crap that i been smoking, thus im looking for some soothing words of wisdom.

I really like where you are going with everything. I was where you are about 2 years ago and I have encountered every problem in the book. I'm not an expert in the field but I have learned a lot through trial and error and I can say that I'm a pretty damn good gardener now. Your space sounds like it could work with a 400w but it may be a bit much in terms of heat since your cab isn't super tall. You could always go for a 250w using the scrog method. There are so many things you could do with very little space. May I recommend Phresh Filters for your scrubber and also using a T5 setup for your veg stage will help keep temps down. Hydrofarm makes some pretty great things for folks like yourself that aren't trying to spend a fortune but want to do everything correctly. One last thing, make sure your cab is airtight (no air leaks and no light leaks) but try to add in a source of fresh incoming air (cpu fan in an area where no light is beaming through). I could go on for days. Good luck with everything.

you could easily grow 4 plants in a 2x2 i grow in a much smaller cab
A 400 watt hps is going to be very hot in that box
LEDs aren't near as hot and that box is the perfect size for a LED light ( maybe 2)
maybe something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/240w-Led-Hydroponic-UFO-Grow-Light-3W-for-Indoor-plant-melon-Veg-Flower-Panel-/271286170260?pt=US_Hydroponics&hash=item3f29ea7294

to keep it simple i would grow in soil
maybe just one or two plants to start
get a ph meter or even the ph paper strips (gotta check ph)
read read read there are lots of great examples of what not to do out here might as well learn from them

Thanks guys, one thing i know for certian is im gunna be going organic and iv already chosen coco as my medium, go a grow shop nr me that sells it so no probs there.

Brownies you really had to throw that little spanner in the works!! im a bit of a wiz with LEDs.....cut a long story short i build custom motorcycle lights with thems, mainly for the cruiser and bobber style market (and only through word of mouth atm, trying to build a good portfolio so that i can make a name for myself), just about to finish a fully LED headlight using an awsome LED called the sst-90, you should check out what the flashlight loving freaks can do with them with just batterys, and im using a constant 12v-14v supply!!!

That LED light you have show i could probs build for myself for around £16 as i have a lot of the parts sitting there, just need to but the correct spectrum LEDS.

The place i can get the 400w hps from i can also get a 250w hps flood from, problem is the cheeky fecker whats to charge the same price

Im gunna stay away from scrog for now untill i can get the basics of growing, need to get that under my belt first, the only reason i even concidered the mainlining thing is that so many people have made it look so easy.

Any help on the ventilation side of things, i remember reading somwhere that to get the air ventialtion displacement was some thing like wxdxh / 3.

Taking that into concideration with a 2x2x4 space i should be displacing 5.33cfm is this correct, seems a little low and ver easy to acheive with pc fans? to confuse things even more another thing to throw into this mix is i brew my own mash (water,sugar + yeast) in a 5 gallon keg, and plan to somehow get the co2 that it puts out into my cab

It sounds like you're on the right track with everything and doing a lot of research. Keep reading and keep asking questions.

Theweeddemon said:

Thanks guys, one thing i know for certian is im gunna be going organic and iv already chosen coco as my medium, go a grow shop nr me that sells it so no probs there.

Brownies you really had to throw that little spanner in the works!! im a bit of a wiz with LEDs.....cut a long story short i build custom motorcycle lights with thems, mainly for the cruiser and bobber style market (and only through word of mouth atm, trying to build a good portfolio so that i can make a name for myself), just about to finish a fully LED headlight using an awsome LED called the sst-90, you should check out what the flashlight loving freaks can do with them with just batterys, and im using a constant 12v-14v supply!!!

That LED light you have show i could probs build for myself for around £16 as i have a lot of the parts sitting there, just need to but the correct spectrum LEDS.

The place i can get the 400w hps from i can also get a 250w hps flood from, problem is the cheeky fecker whats to charge the same price

Im gunna stay away from scrog for now untill i can get the basics of growing, need to get that under my belt first, the only reason i even concidered the mainlining thing is that so many people have made it look so easy.

Any help on the ventilation side of things, i remember reading somwhere that to get the air ventialtion displacement was some thing like wxdxh / 3.

Taking that into concideration with a 2x2x4 space i should be displacing 5.33cfm is this correct, seems a little low and ver easy to acheive with pc fans? to confuse things even more another thing to throw into this mix is i brew my own mash (water,sugar + yeast) in a 5 gallon keg, and plan to somehow get the co2 that it puts out into my cab

Click to expand...

very cool on the LED wizardry you can build your own lights pretty easy .... but it might just be easier to buy them
Blue: 430-440nm, 450-460nm, Red: 620-630nm, 650-660nm IR 730nm White 3500K 6500K UV? you be the judge i use those for my top light 3watt leds ~100watts per square foot
and I recently adopted a "semi vertical" approach with 3 halo's of 5050 6500k led strips (triple bright) it's working great (i should take some pics)

for the co2 have it enter the box at the top opposite side from the exhaust hopefully you'll have a small fan inside the cabinet
happy growing