Just enough DIY small grow closet

So I have been reading and reading these forums and I can't seem to pinpoint my answers. Most are not going to be definitely found as they are probably a "feel" than fact. But with that said I think I am in the right place to ask and get my "feel".

I live in a small town in Canada. I am a recreational kinda guy. Only a few times a year really. I probably would do more if it weren't for how crappy the supply is.

One night I will smoke the whole bag and just wake up with a sore throat, next time I can feel it on the first hit but never really gets me right up there. I have had the odd really good high... few and far between.

Anyway. I am sick of relying on everyone and not getting what I want... so I am gathering some equipment to start a grow.

Here comes my main questions...

What do I need to do to get a good enough grow to get a god damn couch lock??? I wanna be high AF and wake up the next day and not feel like I burned my fuckin lungs out

I have decided to buy a wardrobe for a stealth-ish grow. The grow area will be about 2x2x6 and I will have enough room in a second compartment to clone and scrub.

I will drop the $$ for the right seeds and I just want to make sure I am not gonna make terrible weed.

What should I be aiming for to get "just enough"?

Yield isn't insanely important... quality is.

Do they go hand in hand?(yield and quality)

How much lighting is enough?

How big of a scrubber do I need? I want to be able to vent indoors with no smells.

I am pretty handy with a science backgound (no engineer like growmau5 but I know a thing or 2). I will DIY as much as I can if it is worth it.

I have been watching tons of videos from those that frequent the forums and I am willing to show my progress to help others like me when the time comes.

As you can tell I am on a budget. Cheapest would be best but I am committed to purchasing good seeds as a start (regardless of price). I want to see if I can do this for <$500 CAD.

Cost of electricity isn't a huge barrier so long as it isn't doubling my electric bill. I would eventually get into maximizing efficiency but I can skimp on the first few grows if I am not sacrificing quality.

I definitely want to go LED as I have other uses for them when my grow isn't happening.

Anyway, I hope to see some activity here to help me out.

Thanks for any information you all are willing to share.

MJCAN.

Heya, $500CAD will definitely be enough to achieve your goal. From reading your post I can't tell if your $500 budget included the grow chamber or not. If you haven't already bought the wardrobe think about a grow tent. One big enough for two lights( flower | veg/clone) for less than $150.

I'd stick with soil at first since it has a lower start up costs compared to hydro. Hydro has the additional cost of plumbing and pumps as well as the need for more precise metering equipment.

The main factor to quality buds are:

• Genetics
• Light Quality
• Air Quality
• Medium/Nutes Quality

Typical plant yield is measured by sq/meter because regardless of the plant count it can only yield a certain amount based on the aforementioned main factors. Expect to produce between 3/8gram - 3/4gram per watt. Pros can get 1gram per watt. A 400w HPS Light will cover a 1m x 1m space. If you really want to go LED the cost will go up per watt of light compared to HPS, even if you DIY one. Make sure the wattage it pulls from the wall is what you go by, you are still going to want 400w of LED at least.

Spending $100 on seeds will get you plenty of good genetics and variety for you to choose from. You can get 8-10 good seeds from Attitude if you play the deals correctly.

I wouldn't worry about cloning just yet because you will need two lights, one for the grow room and one for the mother/clone room. Unless you want to spend the extra money, a nice sized t5 fixture should be plenty for cloning. The large tents I was talking about will have room for two chambers.

• Seeds: $100
• Soil: $20
• Complete Line of good Nutes + pH down: $150
• 400w HPS Light + Ballast + Hood $200
• Inline fan + ducting: $100
• PPM Meter/pH Metter: $100
• Ed Rosenthal's Handbook (e-book): $12

Go flavor shopping for seeds and order the e-book. Read it while the seeds are shipping, should take about two weeks to do both.

As long as you read the book and get good seeds/lights/nutes and you meter everything correctly you will grow some heady buds. Should get at least a QP of quality bud your first time from 4 plants under 400w. Any issues with plants jsut ask here. Good Luck.

Wow. Thank you for the information.

I got the wardrope for $20 and got enough junk in the garage to light/air seal and compartment it all appropriately with a grow section 2x2x6, clone section 2x2x3 and another area for power sources and scrubbing etc. I figure if I can route airflow from grow to clone chamber then scrub and out of the wardrope it would work well.

Was only mentioning cloning cause the space was there but I will drop it with plants to add it in later which will save on initial cost.

If I can get the yield you mentioned I should be fine for a half a year... unless quality + access turns me chronic

With respect to lighting, the 2 reasons for LED was 1- temp issues that I wouldn't have to worry about, 2 - familiar...(background in computers and electrical etc). I guess I figured I could get a bit more efficiency without breaking the bank.

You didn't mention scrubbing at all. Out of all various "stealth" components, smell is fairly important. I got space in the house. Light leak and fan noise isn't a problem but smell will be if it can be smelt more than a room away consistently.

I appreciate any feedback from all.

Thanks!
MJCAN

DIY the LED if you want, just make sure it draws 400w at least from the wall when you are done. If you have the background it shouldn't be to hard to wire. Lots of places sell DIY kits that you wire/assemble. I figured heat wouldn't be too much of an issues cause you are in Canada, but im not familiar with its climate.

As far as smell, a few small plants shouldn't be a problem. They tend to only really smell when the light first comes on during late flower, if you jostle them late flower, or during harvest. I doubt anyone will smell them outside of the room they are in until harvest time.

At 2x2x6 you might be better off doing one plant SOG style at a time. While you might be able to fit in two plants in the wardrobe but it could get frustrating trying to care for the plants in such a small space. You will yield the same amount just slightly longer grow time.

Doing this you should be able to get 3-4oz every 4months.

I was definitely looking at SOG as quantity is not my main goal... a couple good nugs from one grow is enough.

That being said, I was also thinking of rejiggin the grow wardrobe to give me a bit more room in the "main" grow section. It's a 2x4x6 closet. It has a built in divider that looks like a T, left bottom is 3 shelves, top is all open, and bottom right is a single encloser. I can mod it and move the T down half way and have the entire top half(or more) of the wardrobe be grow area (2x4x4)... I could remove it completely, but didn't think I would need that much space for a single plant.

And for the DIY LED, main reason for that is, like I said, my background. I'm sitting on more CPU coolers than I know what to do with (perfect for LED active cooling). I have tons of PSUs that can run case fans(and those CPU cooler fans)... and tons of case fans(some as large as 140mm)... so I think I can do it for the cost of the LED(s) + drivers alone. That saves at least $15 CAD per COB + cost of powering them(12v power plugs are pretty cheap).

Not only that, I have extra LED chips from another project. These aren't the CREE or Veros, just some cheapo ones that I'd be adding for auxiliary photons ... just cause I got em.

I think, overall, I could have enough light for about $100-150(2-3 cobs + single driver). But is 2-3 cobs enough for 1 plant? Most DIY's start at 4 COBs and I'm not sure if I got that extra $50 to play with... as I am pushing it to go to 3 as is.


I definitely keep going back to the smell topic, as I honestly don't know what "a few small plants shouldn't be a problem" is relative to. If I'm in the next room, and the wardrobe is close(assume full flower), I don't want to smell it. If I'm in the same room... I'm ok with a very light smell, but that's about it. It cannot create a light smell across the entire house

I've been looking at the DIY scrubber thread, and I'm fairly certain I can create one for about $40 CAD all in. This would be equivalent to the $150 versions (4" ducting with enough surface area to equate to the 200CFM version, if my math is correct). Doing the duct caps + aluminum screen version... Anyway, I don't want to overkill it either, as that really is just wasting money for no reason.

I haven't purchased the seeds, but I'm pretty certain I know what I'm getting... and from where. Given the research I've done, definitely got the genetics...

I haven't looked at nutes/grow medium all too much yet. The numbers you posted actually shocked me a little bit($250 for nutes, ph down, and measuring tools... dang...). Is it consensus that we need to go to those lengths? I'm assuming yes because of my "quality over quantity" requirement... but want to ask to confirm.

Once again, thanks for the info, and thank you in advanced for anymore you offer OR anyone else for that matter.

Cheers!
MJCAN