First Grow Planning Assistance

Hello and thanks for taking time to read. I will try and keep this short and simple. ... I am planning a first grow, however im not one that jumps head first. I tend to do a lot of research and planning before hand. That is to say, im not planning a low tec/in the dirt windowsill grow. At the same time im not a hardcore user and neither a seller, however im looking for a glorious grow. Eh what can i say it strokes my yolk. Once i get rolling i will start a Journal on prorgress. For help i am looking for help and suggestions in my problems planning, and your expert advice.
1. I am planning for a indoor/stealth grow. I plan on using a large cabinet purchased from a local surplus store. right now its a toss up between a unit that is 26" wide x 24"Deep x 33" high and another unit that is the same but 66" tall. The taller version costs twice as much. They are both commercial end quality metal cabinets. Personally i would prefer the smaller cabinet for space reasons however do not know enough about growing to unerstand how the height of the cabinet could affect a grow or how limited i could be by trying different strains. help on this would be appreciated.

2. I was planning on using a hyrdrophonics setup. I have not decided yet if it should be a Aerophonic setup or a Drip setup. Pros/Cons?

3. Phonic basket size setup... i dont know enough about the root structure of the plants to know what size basket to use on a hydro setup. are 3" baskets acceptable? Just as important is how deep should my resevoir be? i dont know what size to go with (Debth) or what happens when the roots come in contact with the Resevoir water... i assume this is a no no but im a newb.
I also am a bit in the dark as to spacing of the plants on a hyrdro system. i dont want to plant too close to each other, yet dont want to waste precious space either. This info would be especially helpful. All the books i have read give the basics, but specifics like this are not in the material.

4. Im reading a lot on lighting. I have been looking at a lot of Ebay posts for LED lighting. Looks great. im just sceptical.. or more over not sure how to calculate light for my application. I know Flourescent and LED wattage doesnt = true. Any advice on what lighting would be best for the cabinets i mentioned above?

5. I also plan on using a 4" exhaust and carbon filter on the system to help with odor. I was also thinking of adding a organic co2 generator to it, which should be simple enough. My only thought on that was i would have to time my fans to give the co2 a chance to be absrobed before being exhausted.... thoughts?

6. What do i want to grow? To be honest .... whatever i can grow well that will fit my planned grow system size. Obviously i cant grow a 6' plant. At the same time i dont want to be restricted to plants mostly found in a PC grow box. I dont know enough about the different plants to say what i really really like. I suppose what i am looking for is to create a set up that will give me some wiggle room yet still produce nice results so i can experiment a bit.

I am very knowledgable in electricity, controls, and fabrication, so making this happen has my full attention. it is the planning and experience on details i lack. i hope you dont mind me asking these questions. Once i have a finalized battleplan i look forward to sharing my progress.

Hi Lugs ,,,welcome to the site... it sounds like you'll have fun with your first grow... I can only offer my opinion which on the first point is the bigger the better,spend the extra cash,,I'm sure you wont regret it
on your next point I dont really have enough experience in either system...my first indoor grow was in dirt my 2nd was in coir (awesome stuff) with a double pot running into a res for drainage but it was a very labour intensive approach which taught me loads but was hard work....the one I have now on my 3rd indoor grow is an autopot system which virtually runs itself ....I have a 3m x 4m room so I have had/do have plenty of space to experiment with...
If I were you I would go for the system that takes up the least amount of space because you'll want every spare inch to go to plant height
I use LEDS for my mothers and for veging...they work great and in a confined area they are very safe lights to use.... I'm not fully convinced about flowering with them and I use HID's for that
good luck with that :^)

thanks for your reply. As for size of cabint (height) i just wonder how big a deal it really is ... esp. if im cycling clones in/out. was reading the sea of green columns and it looks tempting. on my interests it would be very very limited though. as in one small harvest at a time. I have read a lot about the autopot system. it looks awesome however dont think it sould work so good in my cabinet application. The bubble technique seems to be very popular and i have read about it however i am having a hard time understanding how it works and how to maintiain it. For lighting... im attracted to the LED/s however dont want the bother of swaping lighting sources... i would prefer to stick with one or the other. i have been reading more and more.. one thing i have having a hard time of grasping is the size of baskets and spacing between them for any given strain of grow. i have seen some on this site shown on a 13 gal tub with a dozen plants in it. and other with much less. I suppose i just have to jump in the water and find out. ... or prune like a bitch and top em. im still trying to put my pieces together. but thanks for your advice.

I have a cabinet set up and I'll tell you what I know so far.

I'd advise you to grow in dirt until you have a better grasp. Hydro is a messy set up and you will get great results by using good dirt. (personally I have no desire for hydro growing)

In regards to lighting I've seen some pics of REALLY nice grows using LEDs. The big problem with stealthy cabinet grows(or any indoor grow for that matter) is the heat. You want air temp under 85 F. LEDs emit virtually no heat, but lack penetrating power. Its a give and take. LEDs are fairly new to the mainstream grow culture and are quite a bit more expensive than a traditional Metal Halide/HPS system.

Invest in a jig saw because you'll need to cut a few vent holes in those metal cabinets, even if you use LEDs, for air exchange. (think twice, do once)


That smaller cabinet size you mentioned might be too small to do anything with, except getting clones started. You're really going to need about 4 ft between the bottom of the cabinet up to the light to grow most strains into maturity.

But if you want to get those leds I say go for it...you wont be worrying about heat.

Also, side note, most of the "nice LED grows" I've seen used more than one LED board. You may have to invest in 2 or 3 boards to have the effective lighting needed.

Get the big cabinet and a 400W HPS with a Cool Tube. You'll need somewhere to vent the heat like another room or ceiling. You'll also need a decent extraction fan. Since you want stealth, a carbon filter will probably be needed too.

Soil or hydro, it's up to you, whatever you're most comfortable with. I think bubbleponics is the way to go, though I run a different type of system, ebb & flow. Bubbleponics gives you a lot of bang for your buck and all you have to do is read up on some successful grows and you should get the hang of it. If you don't want to build your own setup, there are some relatively cheap package deals on ebay.

I say you stick to no more than 3-6 plants. Let them bush out and shape into an even canopy by bending or tying down or maybe supercropping. Topping wouldn't hurt either. A nice canopy wth multiple colas under a 400W HPS will give some very nice fat nugz.

At least that's what I would do. It's good to see that you're up for doing your research. I don't mean to completely dismiss LED's, it's just that they're largely unproven. The only successful LED grows I've seen used really expensive lights like the SmartLamp 600($1.4K!) which I believe is 300 watts.

I just don't think the cheaper LED's can produce the same dense nugz that a good HID light can, the only trade-off is heat. I think LED's are best suited for veging plants only, not so much flowering. I look forward to the time when I'm proven wrong because I would love to ditch my HID and run the AC a lot less.

But I digress, best of luck with your grow and welcome to RIU.

P.S. - I happen to really like feminized seeds, something you might consider.