First Closet Grow Made Easy

Reading through all the advice on how to grow cannabis can make it seem like a daunting task.

As you know the list is endless. Where does one begin? Contrary to what you might think, once you have a little experience growing cannabis indoors it can be extraordinarily easy. Just put a seed in soil, add water and light, wait a few months, and voila! It’s ready!

Well, OK. There might be a bit more to it than that, but I promise you it can be simple.

Learn to walk before you try to run a marathon.

This guide is to help you test if growing indoors is something you will want to continue to do. The goal is to make it to harvest without setbacks, on a budget, and without permanent changes to the home. At the end of the test run, you should have enough experience to know if you want to continue growing and an idea of what method(s) you’ll use going forward. You'll have a decent harvest and should break even with just the first grow.

What this guide purposely tries to avoid:

Important considerations:

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide if personal growing is even for you. Start by considering your privacy and security. At any time over the next 6 months, will you need to prevent someone from having access to your plant(s)? Will you want to keep your activity secret from any unannounced guests (parents, co-workers, neighbors)? A spare room with a lockable door may work, but perhaps not. After all, a locked room will arouse suspicion. Also keep in mind that towards the end of this process you will have a strong pot odor throughout the house all day long, and you won’t be able to hide it very well (if at all).

Lighting is another concern. When the lights are on, they will be bright. Even though the grow space is closed off, while in the same room you won’t be able to ignore it. They may also be on for many hours a day, often times while you are trying to sleep. The opposite is also true. There will be times during the day that you won’t be able use the room because it needs to remain pretty dark.

What about upkeep and maintenance? Will a trip/vacation lasting a week or more prevent you from attending to the plants? Do you have easy access to an electrical outlet? Easy access to water is also a must. For the next 6 months you’ll be hand watering at least a couple of time a week, and at the end possibly as often as every day. One last consideration is that you’ll almost certainly want at least 5 feet of headroom for the plants to grow.

All of these conditions can usually be met by using a closet in a spare room. As an example, for the past 20 years I’ve used the closet in my exercise room. I still get to use the room every day, and only need to worry about a 12 hour daily blackout period during the flowering cycle (which I schedule around my exercise routine).

What should you grow?

You’ll need to decide if you want to start with seeds or clones. If you live in a place where cannabis use is legal (or have friends who grow), you may be able to obtain clones. Clones have some strong advantages over seeds. You get to bypass the sprouting phase which can be challenging for the new grower. They also have a head start in growth, which can easily save you weeks of grow time. You’ll also know the exact characteristics of the plant.

Seeds also have advantages of their own. First, there are more seed options than clones and you may be able to find some with characteristics that better suit your needs. You also don’t have to worry about bringing bugs into your room (we’ll get into the importance of a bug free environment later in this guide). At this point, don’t attempt to grow seeds you find in your buds (bag seed). Since this is your first grow, you don’t want to have to worry about genetics. If you use bag seed and the plant has problems, you likely won’t really know why.

Here’s my suggestion for the first-time grower starting from seed: go to Nirvanashop and get their feminized Northern Light and an AutoFem selection of your choice. Northern Light is a tried-and-true strain that produces well, stays compact, and has very few problems. Today’s auto-flowering strains are quite respectable and very, very easy to grow. It's possible to grow both of these at the same time and in the same grow room. Just focus on the requirements for the Northern Light and let the auto do its thing. Seriously, leave it alone.

Your heart may race the first time you purchase from a seedbank. But it’s commonplace, hundreds of people do it each day, and no one in the U.S. gets in trouble anymore. Really. Just use your real name, your own credit card, have it delivered to your real address, and use the stealthiest option available (such as being removed from the original breeder packs). There is a very small chance that customs will find the seeds. The worst that will happen is they keep the seeds, add a letter to your package saying so, and then send it on its way to you. I’ve had a few of my deliveries intercepted over the years and never once have had a problem. They really couldn’t care less about seeds (especially in today’s environment). If the seeds are confiscated, just contact the seedbank to let them know what happened and they’ll quickly seed your replacements.

Now we need to collect the items you’ll need for the grow space.

You’ll want to protect the flooring around the grow space from things like spills, dirt, and dead leaves. Go to a home improvement store and get a cheap piece of plywood. If you don’t have the tools to cut it to the dimensions of the closet, ask the store to do it for you. Most will happily do this without a charge. Use the remaining wood to create a makeshift wall to shorten the length of the grow area inside the closet to help contain the light.



Home improvement stores also carry a few other items you’ll need. Pick up 3 “hanging socket pendants” and “light socket adapters”. You’ll also need some regular socket “daylight” LED bulbs. You’ll want them to be as powerful as you can find (minimum of 100 watt equivalent). You can find more powerful bulbs online. Six light bulbs will do just fine for now.



You’ll also need a plug-in timer to control the lights, a surge protector with a cord long enough to reach the closet, and a pack of “cup hooks”.



While you’re out and about, you may want to consider getting two planters which are 14”-16” wide (with a saucer to capture any water overflow). For an indoor closet grow, I find that an 14” wide planter works well. But the wider it is, the more medium it has to grow in and the happier it will be. Speaking of medium, you’ll need some organic potting soil. Although very expensive, I strongly suggest you find a store/nursery that sells FoxFarm Ocean Forrest Potting Soil. It’s very high quality and, if necessary, the nutrients will last throughout the grow (assuming a 14” container and a somewhat short plant).

So, what’s the total cost for this setup? Plywood $15, 3 hanging socket pendants $30-$45, three double light socket adapters $9, light timer $5, cup hooks $2, surge protector $20, 6 light bulbs $30, 2 planters $20, FoxFarm potting soil $25. Not including the seeds/clones, if you have to buy everything it will run about $200.

Let’s start to put it all together.

Once the plywood is cut, this may only take an hour or so.

Make sure you’ve covered the grow space floor with a protective barrier. Plywood is a great option, but you could also use a sheet of plastic, or both. I promise you, if you don’t do this you will regret it. I have no doubt that there will be a time when you overwater and it will run out the bottom of the planter. After cutting the plywood for the floor, I use the remaining portion to create a makeshift wall which keeps the light in a smaller space, maximizing the light available for use. As the number of plants (or plant size) changes, this wall can move left or right as needed.



To Mylar or not? For your first grow, white walls are all that’s necessary and you’ll still get decent results. However, adding Mylar to the walls (and floor) will help out quite a bit. The LED lights you’re using are not all that powerful and the Mylar will also help maximize the amount of light available for the plants to use. An easy and convenient source of Mylar is an emergency blanket from the camping section of Walmart or similar store. Two should be enough. Just simply cut to size and tape it to the walls and flooring. Don’t go overboard at this point.



Set up the lights. You’ll be hanging the lights from above. Position the cup hooks over your plants and use them to help adjust the height of the bulbs. As the plants grow taller, you’ll be able to raise the lighting as necessary. As the position of the plants change, just add another cup hook to move the lights over (leave the original for future use). Again, you’re not using powerful lighting, so keep the grow area as small as possible and keep the lights within a few inches of the plants. Another good thing about the lights your using is that they don’t get hot and therefore won’t burn your growing plants if you forget to raise them in time.



Set the timer for the desired amount of time and plug it into the wall outlet. Connect the extension cord/surge protector to the timer, and the lights to the surge protector.

Now you’re ready to go! At this point I’d like to take a moment to talk about grow area hygiene. One of the most disappointing day’s you’ll have growing cannabis indoors is when you discover you have bugs attacking your plants. If you’re weeks into the flowering stage, there is little you can do without rendering the buds useless. However, even in the vegetative stage getting rid of them can be very difficult. It’s almost impossible to kill all the whiteflies and spider mites without using chemicals. Leaving just one breading pair when you switch to flowering will haunt you as they continue to multiply. To avoid this, never, ever take your plants outside. Never bring any outside plans (including cut flowers) anywhere near your grow area. If buying clones, I suggest using a temporary quarantine area until you know there are no bugs tagging along. While I think most advice we read online goes overboard, this is one mistake you never want to make.

Further advice for the first-time indoor grower.

Relax and keep it simple. If left alone, cannabis grows like a weed. They’ve grown perfectly well without human intervention for thousands of years. In nature they grow anywhere the seed lands – including full sun and partial shade. And no matter how much you’ve read/studied online, you’re not YET smarter than Mother Nature.

• Make your first grow the most enjoyable by not harming your plants. Your worst problem should be your own lack of patience. Put the seed in the soil, add water and light, and let them grow.
• The soil should appear dry most of the time. If you can feel moisture when you stick your finger in the soil, you probably don’t need to water yet. Too much "love" by watering kills.
• For this grow don’t alter the plants by topping, trimming, or otherwise altering its growth structure. Feel free to do that on your next grow.
• If you’re using a great organic potting soil, you may want to add a high-quality flowering nutrient ONCE, after about 3 weeks of flowering. Overfeeding runs rampant among many marijuana enthusiasts. Please wait to experiment with more nutrients until after your first grow. You used a quality potting soil to start with. Just relax. Your plants will be just fine. At the end of the plant’s life cycle, the leaves are going to turn yellow no matter what you do. For your first grow, don’t worry about any of this.
• During the vegetative stage, use a long light cycle. Again, you don’t really have a whole lot of light, so the longer cycle will provide more energy for the plants to grow. For this setup, it’s not a bad idea to keep the lights on all day long.
• For your first grow, the daylight LED bulbs you’re using will work in the flowering stage too. However, if you’ve had success during the vegetative stage I would definitely consider investing in “soft white” LED bulbs for the flowering phase. If you didn’t have good results in the vegetative stage but your plants are still alive, just keep using the bulbs you already have and continue to learn as much as possible about getting your plants through the flowering stage and all the way to harvest (for experience more than anything else). You may also want to add a couple more bulbs (more light) as the plants grow.
• During the flowering phase, don’t get carried away about darkness. Yes, even a few seconds of bright light can break the night cycle. As long as it’s rare, it won’t impact the plants. It also doesn’t have to be pitch black. Keep in mind that outdoor grows are subject to a bit of light, and the moon itself provides enough light to allow you to see where you’re walking. Yes, keep it dark but don't stress.
• Large plants mean more opportunity for problems. Don’t get me wrong, you probably do want to maximize the height of your plants to the grow space. But practice makes perfect. If it grows too tall during the flowering phase, you may have to tie down the main cola. That’s a skill that a lot of people have problems with, and the cola often times crimps. Also, the larger the plant, the longer the branches. Many of today’s plants are bred for traits other than strong branches. There is a good possibility you’ll need to support them as the buds get heavy.
• Here’s one possible way to determine when it's time to switch to the night cycle. Put your lights as high up as possible. Measure from the top of the soil to the bottom of the lights. Multiply by 2 and then divide by 5. This is a good starting estimate. Better to be safe until you know how much the plants will stretch. The shelf in my closet is about 5.5 feet and depending on the genetics I start to flower around 18 inches.
• You don’t need to flush your potted plants before harvest. If for no other reason, the branches are probably VERY flimsy. The more you move the plants around, the more likely you are to cause damage. It’s very easy for branches to fall over and crimp or break off. Save flushing for future grows and do it at your peril.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to give it a try? Following this method without deviation will yield good results and give you your best chance to be successful.

After you’ve completed your first grow

It’s time to decide if you’ll want to continue. If not, just take everything down and call it a $200 learning lesson. Except for a few small holes from the cup hooks, there should be no way to tell you ever did anything. Re-purpose the items around the house. You now have energy efficient light bulbs, a surge protector and extension cord.

If you want to continue to grow and get even better results, now’s the time to tinker with the process. With each new grow, you’ll learn more and more about what works for you. But trust me - only make one or two changes with each new grow. For example, I highly suggest that you improve your lighting. Adding more of the same bulbs is a simple and safe way to do this. Depending on what works for you, you could add another line or you could switch to 3 or 4 socket adapters (or a combination of both). If your 100w equivalent bulbs use 15 watts each, there’s no fear of electrical issues. It will take more than 60 of these bulbs to even get close to the upper limit. A good goal is to have between 3,000 and 4,000 lumens per square foot.

Perhaps you want to go all out and get an actual LED grow light. If you do, then make that your only change for the next grow. You may be surprised at the problems lighting can cause. If some LED grow lights come within a foot of the plant, it might burn them. If you’ve also started making other changes, you won’t really know which change caused the problem. I have an LED grow light just lying around because it burned them even three feet above the plants (which also wasn’t a good fit with a limited height closet).

If you absolutely loved growing indoors, you know you’re going to do it for years to come and have the money to spend, you may want to consider an all-in-one grow tent. These include an enclosed grow space, HID/HPS lighting, forced ventilation, and odor control. They are very nice, but the ones equipped with everything start at about $1,000 on the low end. Because I’m just growing enough to supply two people, I’ve found that my closet has worked perfectly fine over the past 20 years.

I have no doubt that some people reviewing this guide are yelling “you’re not using nearly enough light”, “you’re using the wrong lighting”, “you’re not going to get a large harvest”, “you’re not using enough nutrients”, etc… Let me once again remind everyone that this guide is meant to help someone have a successful first indoor grow without a large initial $ commitment and as few complications as possible. With a successful grow under you belt, there are an endless number of improvements you can make. Learn how to walk before you try to run your first 5K marathon.

Enjoy growing!

Somehow I get the sense you are not a normal Noob.

Nice summary and good advice. I also use my real information when getting seeds. Nirvana is good, but I prefer to stick with stateside seedbanks.

What's the average yield with a closet grow?

medtoker said:

What's the average yield with a closet grow?

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About

medtoker said:

What's the average yield with a closet grow?

Click to expand...

Actually that will greatly depend on many variables.

medtoker said:

What's the average yield with a closet grow?

Click to expand...

Under ideal conditions, maybe 1.5 oz. A successful first try might be about an oz.

lokie said:

Actually that will greatly depend on many variables.

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So very true. Many, many variables. This is probably a good start for a personal grow. There are many ways to get a better harvest.

Nice post!

My first closet grow want some opinions

Easy way to build a closet for 1 plant. And cheap.
https://www.migrolight.com/stealth-grow-closet-build-manual/