Newb closet 'on the cheap' setup. Advise?

I had my husband set this guest closet up for my first attempts on an indoor grow.
He installed 4 t8 cfl ballasts vertically on the interior walls, and another is set to be hung directly overhead on a chain so the height can be adjusted.

I will have 5 soft white (red spectrum) 32 watt bulbs (1 overhead) and 5 daylight (blue spectrum, 1 overhead) 32 watt blubs, for a total of 10 of these in the small space of this closet that measures 4'X2'.

I figure 2-3 plants in there ought to do it.
I still have to cover the carpet on the floor to prevent water damage, but other than hanging the last ballast overhead and that, I'm hoping it's ready to go.

Can those of you with small closet grows like this give me any advise? Are my lights gonna be ok? Not enough, too much, ok but small growth....whatever.

Also, during the daylight, closing the closet doors does not make it pitch dark inside. Is that going to be problematic when it comes to the 12/12 flowering stage?

And a kind of silly question. We don't have to worry about the smell really, just hubby and I live here and we own this house. But we are probably going to be putting it up for sale in a year or two and moving. Does the smell of the grow area get permeaited into the walls? I will not skimp on stink control if there's a chance I will have a hard time getting the smell out of that room/closet.
Thanks in advance for any advise.

Just bumpin......

Sharon your set up sounds fine to start with. You will prob want to get a bigger light to flower with. And with the added light comes heat, do you have any plans for a ventilation set up?
I guess the first question I should ask is how much herb do you and your husband consume a month? Once you know how much you need then we can figure out how many plants you need. I started out doing this for my wife and I. We smoke about a ounce a month.

Hi Sharon,

It appears you are doing your homework!! As far as odor, i also own my house with just me and my wife. But 1 thing i can promise you is the smell during flowering is intense. You will want some form of odor control as you will be able to smell it outside your front door. The mailman or ups man or meter reader will have no problems smelling it without a filter...NOT GOOD. Your lights will do fine for veg and you may want to consider something stronger for flower. I also am growing in a 4x2 area and am currently flowering 3 huge ladies in there. Good luck on your grow

Thanks ever so much dirtfree and dareifer, +R for both of you.

I will look into something stronger for the flowering stage for sure then.
My husband is superintendent of a union electrical business, the union does random tests so he won't smoke it until he retires. That's only a year or so down the road. (Lord willing and the creek don't rise, lol)

I smoke roughly an 8th a week, therabouts.

I will now also look into carbon filters. Any suggestions for an inexpensive unit? Only if you have a link handy, I will do more research into them when I get back from the Dr. today.
Do you think the smell seeps into the walls? Will it be hard to get rid of if there are no plants? See, when hubby retires, we have to sell this place in order to afford our new custom built place in north central Tenn. 5 1/2 acres of land in almost the middle of nowhere. Sure hope they vote in legal medical use there in November.

As for ventilation, I can grab a cheap occilating fan. I planned to do that anyway, but again, if you have suggestions handy I'm all eyes.

Thanks again

If your husband is in the electrical biz he should have no problem finding an old HPS flood light, also known as street lights.

As for smell, it will stink up your whole house durring flower unless you have a sealed room. But it should not leave a noticeable odor after you remove everything.

Ok so an 8th a week= 1oz per month. You can easily get 1-4 ozs off on plant when vegged for about a month. I have gotten 8 ozs off one plant but I vegged it for a long time and topped it. So lets say you get 1oz off your plant, you would need to have two plants going all the time, or four plants everyother two months. Because you need to always have two ozs as a back up untill your next harvest. The entire point in doing this is to make sure you dont run out right??? Right! So lets walk thru this real fast. You start five or so seeds grow them under your floro lights(18hrs on,6hrs off) untill they are about a foot tall, now you can take a cutting(called a clone) or you can just change the light cycle on those plants. So you you change the light cycle to 12on12off will tell the plants to show their sex. Now you will have to remove males. Hopefully you get 2 females. Let those two flower for two months. Now hopefuly you get 1 oz per plant giving you two ozs total, right? Ok so we know you need 2 ozs to last you the next two months. So quess what you need to start more plants, other wise you smoke all the herb and then you decide to start more plants and then you are out for another 4 months, and thats NO GOOD! SEE what im trying to say. You have to make sure you have enought to last you untill your next harvest. WOW that was alot! I hope this helps you.

Ventilation.....HTGsupply has a fan and filter combo for like 200 bucks. HTG has alot of stuff on the cheap. I got one 400w two years ago and its still kickin!

8th a week is only an oz evry 2 month
should be no problem with that grow space
good luk with yer grow

OH sorry hes right.

A thousand thank you's, dirtfree.

One more small question, if I may.
I can step into this closet and close the doors, but it doesn't make it totally dark. I can black out the window to the room, but will that be necessary for the flowering period?

Oh, and I'm sure hubby can snag a hps. If they don't have one laying around in a gangbox, at least he can get one at a reduced price I would think.

I'm setting up to grow some SLH and Easy Rider fem. Then I have single fem seeds of Sharksbreath, Rocklock and Coletrain.
And my 2 White Widows outdoor backyard is gonna be ready sometime soon.
Take a gander at these ladies. Just took their glamor shots this morning.

t8's work but are you poor? why not just go with t5's? better growth,less heat,etc etc etc...

your outdoor plants look beutiful and bushy

bumpin......

carokann said:

t8's work but are you poor? why not just go with t5's? better growth,less heat,etc etc etc...

Click to expand...

We just went with what was cheap and readily available.
Not exactly poor, but as long as growing suites me, and with a little more experience behind my belt, I can graduate to better lighting. Better than t5's

Like I said earlier, my husband is close to retirement, and within a year or so we will be moving to Tenn. That's where I will have the time and opportunity to do growing real justice.

what is better than a 4x4 t5 on 4 walls of a closet? thats 800 watts. id bet on that over a 1000 hps