Our First Grow

Hey everyone,

This journal will follow me and my colleague's first ever grow operation. This is a small scale oeration, and its goal is to be as discreet and quick as possible. It will be carried out in my home in a very tiny, musty, dark storage hole off the side of my house.
In our attempt to keep our operation as discreet as possible, our maximum initial startup cost will be under $300. Also, electricity bills have to be kept to a bare minimum (under 200 watts for lights). That also means that we're going to use bagseeds this round.
There's no hydro or grow shop anywhere near, so all materials are coming from local garden stores and Home Depot.
I'm planning on using an insulated 2'x2'x4' cardboard grow box and camouflaging it with other random boxes in the room. That also means that noise is going to be an issue.
We're planning on 3 plants, but we might fit 4.

This journal is going from base planning to end harvest (if it works)
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated
I'll post pics as soon as there are pics to post!
Stay posted!

The discussion thread --> https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journal-discussion/288498-our-first-grow-little-discreet.html

Please post questions/comments/input there instead of here

We're actually thinking about using Mercury Vapor lights just for for germination and veg. It seems to have enough output, and seems to be really cost and energy efficient. Has anyone tried this? Does it work?

We've decided to go with a 150 watt hps bulb
But.. for some reason- ITS NOT WORKING!!
I don't think I'm using the right socket
I went and bought a closet clamp lamp which says it works for up to 150 watts
And, the bulb fits fine into the clamp lamp, but i'm feeling i need to buy a legit ballast
I don't know what's wrong cuz i went and spent a fortune on this bulb
Here's a pic of the bulb w/ the socket

Ditched the hps- goin with a 250 watt mh for this round
I think ive got mostly everything worked out on paper, in theory- and ive been working on buying everything
Also tryin not to look suspicious walking around with slabs of plywoods and 50 feet of PVC piping

The frame design is pretty much worked out. Its 2x3x5.5 ft. The frame is made out of PVC piping, and the walls are styrofoam and tarp. Everything's pretty much worked out- but I need some circulation advice. Is it better to have an active entrance fan or exhaust? I can only do one.