Hi I plan on making a grow room out of a semi-large closet. It is about 12 ft long 2.5 wide and about 9ft high. I used to have lizards and fish a while back and I have a bunch of high output lighting laying around. I have a 4 ft long exoterra 8.0 uvb bulb. Could I use that?I also have 2 18 inch repti-glo 10.0 uvb bulbs.Also 2 24 inch coralife lighting fixtures which are t-5's. And I also have a fluval reef and marine led light which was crazy expensive about 200 bucks for a small fixture. It puts out about 25,000k in a 18-24 inch fixture! Would that be okay for the plants of would it be too strong?Would it be okay to mix them all together in the grow room?Now I got a bathroom fan that I plan on installing into the ceiling so it would suck the air into the attic. Its rated at 60-70 cfm's. Would that be enought? I plan on growing about 7 indicas and maybe a sativa or two in there as well.Any input would be greatly appreciated as I'm a first time grower. I used to breed lizards so I don't thing a weed should be that hard!
lighting and ventilation
- Thread starter packman40
- Start date
Smash'n'Burn
New Member
Hey dude,
The UV-B bulbs are out, they don't really grow plants. There are some results which indicate that UV-B is good for resin production but that wouldn't be until the end of your grow.
The T5 fixture you have sounds acceptable to get your plants started with. The issue with T5 lighting is that the casting distance (how far away the bulbs can be from the plant) is pretty terrible. Growing anything over 14 inches tall won't work as the bottom growth won't get adequate light radiation to photosynthesize. If you keep your plants small, or short, then this will help. But to go along with that the area which you can grow in with that lamp is basically directly beneath it, limiting your effective growing space to basically 1 foot directly beneath the fixture.
The bathroom vent fan will be able to exchange all the air in your grow space every 4 minutes. This is typically inadequate for most growing situations but that depends on the ambient air temperature (intake) staying a few degrees beneath the ideal of around 75f to 78f. Using the fluorescent lighting will help keep the heat from getting out of control but it would be better to have a fan that can exhaust your room at least once every 2 minutes, if not twice per minute. The space has 270cuft total, so I would recommend at least a 135cfm exhaust. You can give your fan a go, it might work depending on the myriad of variables that come in to play with heat and ventilation.
Your plant count sounds off to me, especially with the lighting. I think you could do 2 plants without much hassle, maybe 3 or 4 plants if you kept the vegetative period short. Growing indicas and sativas side by side is an issue though as you'll need to control the height of the Sativa's to keep the canopy from running away on you. It would be better to have the same/similar genetics and an even canopy.
Growing plants is in no way shape or form similar to breeding lizards. You have quite a bit of reading in front of you to really get a handle on everything here. One of the best things to own for any new gardener is a book which describes how to garden indoors. Usually less than $20, the information they will contain is invaluable for a new grower. Save yourself the risk of getting bad info online (where'd you hear that? "The internet" He's a french model) and go straight to a good source you can read on the pot at home.
The UV-B bulbs are out, they don't really grow plants. There are some results which indicate that UV-B is good for resin production but that wouldn't be until the end of your grow.
The T5 fixture you have sounds acceptable to get your plants started with. The issue with T5 lighting is that the casting distance (how far away the bulbs can be from the plant) is pretty terrible. Growing anything over 14 inches tall won't work as the bottom growth won't get adequate light radiation to photosynthesize. If you keep your plants small, or short, then this will help. But to go along with that the area which you can grow in with that lamp is basically directly beneath it, limiting your effective growing space to basically 1 foot directly beneath the fixture.
The bathroom vent fan will be able to exchange all the air in your grow space every 4 minutes. This is typically inadequate for most growing situations but that depends on the ambient air temperature (intake) staying a few degrees beneath the ideal of around 75f to 78f. Using the fluorescent lighting will help keep the heat from getting out of control but it would be better to have a fan that can exhaust your room at least once every 2 minutes, if not twice per minute. The space has 270cuft total, so I would recommend at least a 135cfm exhaust. You can give your fan a go, it might work depending on the myriad of variables that come in to play with heat and ventilation.
Your plant count sounds off to me, especially with the lighting. I think you could do 2 plants without much hassle, maybe 3 or 4 plants if you kept the vegetative period short. Growing indicas and sativas side by side is an issue though as you'll need to control the height of the Sativa's to keep the canopy from running away on you. It would be better to have the same/similar genetics and an even canopy.
Growing plants is in no way shape or form similar to breeding lizards. You have quite a bit of reading in front of you to really get a handle on everything here. One of the best things to own for any new gardener is a book which describes how to garden indoors. Usually less than $20, the information they will contain is invaluable for a new grower. Save yourself the risk of getting bad info online (where'd you hear that? "The internet" He's a french model) and go straight to a good source you can read on the pot at home.
I think the two t5 coralife fixtures will go over one plant each. And how could you forget the led lights. They emit and span six colors (400nm purple, 420nm royal blue, 440nm deep blue, 460nm blue, 600nm red, and 15000K white) FULL SPECTRUM. Now as for the room I think I'm going to grow 5 Indicas which stay fairly small. I just dont have the width for a large plant. What other 4 ft flouescent bulb should i get to go with the 4 foor exoterra bulb
Smash'n'Burn
New Member
I like the GE StarCoat myself.
And I totally glazed over the LED in your first post, the language, punctuation, and formatting was a little difficult to navigate and I thought you were talking about the T5 fixtures.
LED's are in the same boat as Fluorescents. Great for starting smaller plants, fine when you have a lot of wattage, but for the most part the diodes are extremely low powered and just don't cast their radiation all that far. Small plants is the key to really getting the most effectiveness out of the time/money. You can make this happen, no doubt, you have grow lights and a space... But when it's all said and done and you have that growing bug you will want...
MORE POWER, oh oh oh oh oh!
-Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor
And I totally glazed over the LED in your first post, the language, punctuation, and formatting was a little difficult to navigate and I thought you were talking about the T5 fixtures.
LED's are in the same boat as Fluorescents. Great for starting smaller plants, fine when you have a lot of wattage, but for the most part the diodes are extremely low powered and just don't cast their radiation all that far. Small plants is the key to really getting the most effectiveness out of the time/money. You can make this happen, no doubt, you have grow lights and a space... But when it's all said and done and you have that growing bug you will want...
MORE POWER, oh oh oh oh oh!
-Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor