Giant plant in 5 x 6 x 10 indoor closet

My girlfriend and I are legal mmj patients, and we have decided to grow some meds for ourselves, and the only space that we have available to grow in is a 5 x 6 closet that is around 10 feet tall (slanted ceiling - 10 feet at lowest, 11.5 at highest). Originally I was going to grow a small sea of green setup, buying clones, however a friend of mine has agreed to let me have a larger bush, so I am rethinking my grow. Now I am planning on growing one or two huge plants in soilless mix 30 gallon pots instead. I am going to have a friend veg some clones until they are small bushes and then I am going to transfer them in to my setup and will grow them as tall as possible before flowering.


I am disabled and don't have much money, so I am doing this on the cheap, but I want to do it right. I am going to use one 1000 watt light, with the walls of the closet painted flat white. I am going to get a magnetic ballast to cut the cost and plan on venting the closet with a 4" hole directed outside, and I am going to get a phatfilter and place it inline with a vented hood to reduce heat and smell. I was considering some side fill with t5's to get light to the lower branches, but am not sure this is needed.


I am also going to mount 2 small fans on the wall, and also plan on adding another small cheap carbon filter by taking a a standard household box fan and then duct taping a 2" carbon furnace filter to the back of the fan, so air gets pulled through it (not pushed through). I may also add another homemade Odor Neutralizing Machine (5 gallon bucket, fan, odor neutralizing agent. and soilmoist - you can find plans for it on google).

I am considering adding worm castings or bat guano to the soiless mix so I won't have to add as many nutrients and micronutrients later on, but am still undecided about this part.

Any ideas, help or input with this project from anyone who has gone this route would be much appreciated. I will keep this thread updated as I progress along, but right now all I have is an empty closet with a 4 inch vent hole near the ceiling painted flat white, with a tarp on the floor, wood on top of the tarp, and another tarp on top of the wood. I am going to build a small platform to put the 30 gallon grow bag on, but haven't built that yet.

Start by reading this information about grow room design.


http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2010/07/planning-your-grow



J

Thanks for the link I have looked at many similar sites and watched many videos but that site did have some solid good info for sure.

I have figured out using the info on that site that for that sized closet that I need an active intake fan with 250 CFM and and an extractor fan with phatfilter that is around 500 m3/hr

Ok so you have

5x6x10 room which equals 300cubic feet.

+20% for your filter restriction 360CFM

+15% for using a non air cooled reflector 405CFM.

IMO you could opt for a 500CFM fan and filter combo.

As long as you had 2x8" vents going into the closet and the exhaust fan directing air away from the grow closet then passive vents would work without issue for you.

If you plan to grow 1 plant that's huge then you need to veg that plant for at least 10weeks with training such as "topping" and "LST" to utilise the 5x5 footprint of the 1000w.

Depending upon your disability, you may want to take a look at hydroponics and see if there are any that would suit you better.

Moving water around from faucet to grow room can be a problem. Especially if you grow 1 huge plant as you could be watering with 10gallons.


J

I have my plant in a 18 gal vegging under 500 watts and i topped it after the second set of nodes to keep it shorrt then i tied her down.to stetch the.branchs out i.plan on veggin for another month ...shes about 2 months old so shed be about 3 or 4 feet my guess and i lollipoped her last night so i get more production up top

I am planning on using an air cooled reflector, sorry if I didn't make that clear. I am only able to have 4" vent holes out of the closet (on the outside wall) due to our location, etc., but I can drill 2 of them, and I am hoping that this is enough - because of this I don't think I can use passive intake. I got a great deal on a 600 watt digi ballast, so I am going to use that, and if that isn't enough then I will use T5's as side fill. SO 300 square feet x 1.25 for extractor = 375 cfm on the extractor to vent and 300 cfm on the intake fan to maintain the negative pressure in the room. Does this sound correct?

Sounds about right.

600w is good for at max 4x4 footprint.


You may struggle to get a 4" fan capable of moving that amount of air though.

In which case you'd then need to look at reducers to reduce the fan down to 4" which also restricts airflow.




J

I don't think a 4" fan will be enough to adequately cool a 1000watt light to be honest.

medicalgrowman said:

I don't think a 4" fan will be enough to adequately cool a 1000watt light to be honest.

Click to expand...

Depends on the temp of the air hes pulling through it...

It should be De-He-ecent(bubbles reference)

I think if you used a 6" fan reduced down to 4" it would probably be just fine. 600w is great, but if you plan on growing a tree it is not. I just moved in with some new grow partners right at the end of a neglected grow of theirs. They have super boss equipment and genetics, but this last grow happened in some turmoil I guess, which is why I moved in. Either which way, 4.5 - 6' trees under 600w lamps is no bueno. you have to lolitop like a mother fucker, and your plants end up top heavy and the buds fall over unless you stake them up or support them otherwise. The top buds are great of course, and the lower buds get to at least a trimmable size, but they are fluffy. I just harvested/dried/cured some amazing blue dreams, smokes great, but it's just kind of fluffy.

For the most part, I am primarily a 600w farmer. But I've used damn near everything. If you use 600w you would have to scrog real good, which means lolipopping lower growth and scrogging soft new growth up top. I've done it, with blue dream actually, and it worked great. I would split up the room into two rooms if at all possible, one for a mother plant, one for a 600w flowering room. Just the minimums, maybe in the future for you, though.

EDIT:
As stated above, intake temp means a lot. I know someone that used 1000w with a mag ballast and a 4" exhaust for a long time, and the plants were always happy, the buds were always great. Ambient and canopy temps just need more attention if you can get away with it.

I am sorry that I wasn't clearer - I have 4" holes cut in the walls, no exhaust fans bought yet - I was planning on using a 6" fan to a 4" reducer. I am also planning on using a few T5 lights as side fill to the right and the left to help with the light fill-in and to help with the tree-ing

bimple said:

I am sorry that I wasn't clearer - I have 4" holes cut in the walls, no exhaust fans bought yet - I was planning on using a 6" fan to a 4" reducer. I am also planning on using a few T5 lights as side fill to the right and the left to help with the light fill-in and to help with the tree-ing

Click to expand...

How about this???

How much do you need to harvest in order to sustain you and your GF?

Under 600w without any extra lighting its EASY to accomplish 300G of bud.

As your skills progress this number can increase up to 400-700g depending upon your strain choice etc.


I would recommend 4-6 plants under the 600w with a final finishing height of 3ft. This is roughly how much penetration power the 600w can handle.

This way each plant should have at the very least 2oz.

From seed you could veg for approx 3weeks then flip to flower for 10weeks.

Taking your total time from seed to harvest of no more than 14 weeks.

Would 300g of bud last you 14 weeks?


J

Jondamon - thanks for the advice - exactly what I needed to hear. As far as producing all of our own meds - right now I am producing none, so as I look at it ANYTHING is better than what I am doing now haha - 300g for 14 weeks would be a minimum for the two of us I think however trips to the dispensary can supplement any growing that I am doing, although it would be nice to pull ourselves from that teat once and for all. There is no need for me to grow from seed since I have many friends that are growers and I can also get clones at the dispensary, so that will cut some of the time. So now thanks to you I am rethinking my grow a bit... I was going to grow in a 30 gallon pot so the roots wouldn't be inhibited... if I were to grow 4 to 6 plants in that size room what do you think would be a good healthy pot size that will allow the roots to grow sufficeintly without breaking the nute bank?

It depends on your medium (soil) choice.


Soiless mixes can use smaller pots.


Soil needs larger pots.


For instance.

Coco - soiless - could be done in 2-3gallon pots.


Soil - 5-7gallon pots.

By getting your hands on clones you can eliminate almost 2 weeks veg time depending upon how big they are when you get them and whether they already have roots etc.



J

I am definitely going soiless - I used to grow indoors years ago and had great results with a soiless mix. I want the plants to be able to grow as big of a root ball as they need so if I go with many shorter plants then I think I will go with 5-7 gallon pots.

Why not try a pair of mothers, different strains, and then clone them? If you do a perpetual harvest every two weeks, you should be fine.

do you think I can maintain 2 viable and separate grow areas in a 5 X 6 X 10 closet? If so, what would the layout and setup be for something like that?

2 or 3 clones in veg on one side, and 3 in flower. Or, one mother in veg, and 2 or 3 clones in flower.

yes, I understand the theory, however 5 foot by 6 foot divided in two doesn't seem very workable to me - that would mean that each side would be 2.5 feet by 6 foot - that makes room for the plants but how would I get around in ther to water and maintainthem? that's why I decided to go without a veg area and do it all in one spot from start to finish

Aren't you worried about running out? Another thing to consider, if you get hit with mold, or mites, or some other catastrophe, you lose the entire crop.

Space is an issue for me as well. Right now, Im trying to make a proper room. Things are screwed up because the best place to set up was the bedroom, but the lights come on at 6am, and I spent the last couple hours finishing my sleep in the bathroom on a camping mat. Only place in the house dark enough, because the spare bedroom is blacked out 12 hours a day for the flowers.