First Growroom Evaluation / Advice

Hey guys, just wanted to start a thread to get help on a few questions I had in regards to my first growbox:



As of right now, the box has dimensions of about 2x3x4.5

It has a 400w hps/mh light fixture suspended from the ceiling reducing the grow area to probably 2x3x3

It has a 120mm intake fan in the bottom corner and an exhaust fan in the top opposite corner up by the light

All of the walls and floor have Mylar coverings



My questions for RIU are:



The box has a running temperature from 85-90 degrees would better ventilation solve this or is my light too big for the room?

The box is in an old basement, could humidity/mold spores cause a problem and if so, how would I counteract this?

How much yield can I expect if I LST the plants and how many plants could I fit inside there?

My original plan was to grow organically, but now I heard that hydro was the easiest way to maintain for noobs like myself, should I go organic or hydro for my first grow?



Thanks in advance for your advice and critisims!

That's too much heat and I think a 400 will be hard to control in there. Plus what about pot or res space on the bottom? You need more vertical space.

With the light and the 2gallon pots I have there is still a safe 3foot gap for growth. And what if I made a heat guard with plexiglass?

please anyone else with information?

Aloha, brudda.

Personally I suggest you start with soil for your first grow, master it, then if you want something different, move to DWC.

What are you growin'? We can't tell you for sure how much you'll yield without knowing your strain of choice, and also the LST factor adds in another comprise for the yield.

Basement? Mold? Make sure your humidity isn't too high (bacteria and mold love this), too high would be entering the 65% through the 99%. So try to make sure your humidity is ideally between 40-60%, though a great grow can and has strived in the 20s.

And I have a GL60 (2by2by5) that has similar dimensions as your grow space, with a 400w in there. It is cooltubed (as I think it would be too tropic in there without it, I ran the bulb by itself as a test run, temps went above 90%) and sits at a nice 78-79 degrees when its 77 out here on the beautiful islands. On top of that, the heater and AC is in the same room as my tent, recirculating the air in the room. Thing is, that room is separate, and the door itself to the room is vented.

Here is my thread. Check it out.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/514122-first-grow-gl60-400w-og.html


Peace and love from Maui.

Pics?

But yeah you could control temps in there like illegal smile says it will be a battle but possible imo with some awesome ventilation, you want a good 4-5" Inline fan with a decent CFM rating and a cool tube will always help.

No-one can guess yield for any strain it's basically impossible because so much can go wrong or right things can change.

I'm on the other end of the spectrum of growing and stick to micro grows but I think I have a very efficient setup with the maximum amount of watts possible in my space. Check my sig if your interested

Stay Frosty!

Thanks for the post! i can make an air cooling chamber for the light thats not a problem and my choices are gonna be sharksbreath, trainwreck, and lemon cake. havent decided which but i can get sharks the quickest.

I'll try and upload some pics later, with the lights on in there it messes with my camera and creates these weird lines. I'll give it another go tomorrow and i'll probably turn this into an experimental grow journal.

You are going to want to pre-plan. Get the strain best for your work space. If you getting a agressive sativa, have you thought about how you will compensate with ceiling limitations? SCROG? LST? Both?

LST most likely.

With only six sq ft you can only lst one plant. I don't mean to be negative, but it seems to me the gyrations one has to go through to make these little boxes viable is hardly worth it for the minimal yields. If I were growing in a space that small, I would either do an autoflower dwarf, or go 12/12 from seed to keep plants small.

But (slap slap) I must correct myself. I like to say that the yield from a first grow should be what's learned not what's harvested.

Illegal Smile said:

But (slap slap) I must correct myself. I like to say that the yield from a first grow should be what's learned not what's harvested.

Click to expand...

Lol so true.
Check out my grow in a few weeks and we'll see about 'little boxes hardly worth the minimal yields' lol
That's a challenge to prove to myself and to prove others wrong

Stay Frosty!

So, if i make my light air cooled, and reduce the temperature to 75-80 we should be golden?
Monitor the humidity and LST my plants? Is that all?

basically, yeah there are other things but that's the point of your first grow, to learn!

Thanks a lot! I'm probably going to LST, the SCRog the clones anyways. Still just tryin to cool this bad lad down...

replace the 120mm fan with a 4in inline fan and put a 4inch ducting on the bottom of the box. cap the end with a bug screen. voila. heat issue will be solved and you might even be able to run the 400w

So I'm putting the 4" fan as exhaust and just having a passive intake?

yep. with a box that small passive is fine. in fact the 120mm on the bottom would burn out quickly because the 4" inline will suck so much air that the 120mm will spin faster than its designed to and eventually the bearings will give out. should cost you about $100. $125 if you want a speed controller on the fan which would be a nice touch. spend the money, its worth it. the grower who cuts corners cuts his yield

Grr ok. 100$ was a little more pricey than I was hoping for but I suppose it needs to be done. Would a hydroponics store supply inline fans you think or is this gonna be an online order?

every hydro store should carry them. ask for active air inline 4" fan.

any store should hook you up with 10% off. so it'll be about $100+tax and in return you'll never have heat problems and you'll be able to upgrade your light. get a speed controller if you want to be able to tone down the fan. its an extra $25. inline fans never break and have good resale value as such.