Small Closet Grow

Hello fellow farmers.
My newest project is a small closet grow and need some insight. This will be my first indoor grow and would like some sugestions on what lights to use in this small closet for maxiume growth also what kinda system to use. I have spent many months just reading fourms and watching videos on growing our beautiful plant and still can't deside what to use.
Also have no clue on what Nuts to use for great output. This closet is 2x6x8.

For vegging and maybe even flowering I'd suggest a 2' four bulb florescent T5 HO light. No heat issues, good light coverage, plants love 'em. As far as soil, you can't go wrong with Fox Farm Ocean Forest or Happy Frog. I can't tell, but if that's carpet on the floor, make sure you cover it with plastic.

I read your dimensions wrong.....go with a 4' 4 bulb T5 HO

I was actually wanting to use HID/HPS if possible, that is trazo (Spelling) a type of sub flooring like concrete but smooth. Also what do you think as far as spliting the space for Flowering/Veg I would like to get a yeild every 8 weeks if thats possible in such a small area and whats you thoughts on soil over hydroponic?

You'll be surprised on how much room a pot plant takes when in bloom. If you split the room, you should expect to be able to grow one plant on the bloom side at a time. Doing a SCROG will give you the best yield in a 2x3 space, but again with only one plant.

I'm using to stand-up cabinets for vegging that are approximately the same size (together) as your closet. Here's a pic:

https://www.rollitup.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=2683910&d=1370262823

This pic was taken at the beginning of the month, and the plant on the far left has now taken over the entire space and it's only on it's second week of flowering, and should almost double in size again before it's done.

The problem with HPS is heat. I've recently had to temporarily retire my HPS to finish a White Widow grow (check out my grow journal) due to it heating up my 4x6x7 grow room too much. HPS is the desired lighting for flowering (I HIGHLY recommend T5's for vegging...please refer to the pic above), but if you end up having to do a ton of gyrations to keep from cooking your plants, or cannot vent your closet outside (via carbon filter if you don't want the neighbors knowing what you're doing), going with T5's in flowering is a more sane solution. There's a ton of things you can do with T5's as you can get bulbs from aquarium shops that give amazing yields. We'll get into that more later.

Soil or hydro? It's a rule-of-thumb that anyone new to growing should start with soil first. Screw something up with hydro and bad things happen pretty quickly and you'll end up buying your weed from the guy on the corner again. Soil is more forgiving as mistakes (you'll make plenty) are easier to correct.

Back to splitting up your closet......I like having plants in various stages of growth. Considering that it takes about 4 months to go from seed to harvest, that's a long time between grows (I'm not a patient person). I'm still trying to get my timing down right, but if you start a new seed at the time you put your first plant in bloom, you'll have a harvest every eight weeks instead of 16....roughly 8 weeks of veg, eight weeks of bloom depending on strain.

If you want to grow multiple plants at the same time, you can probably put 3-4 in your closet and in four months harvest 'em. You will find the biggest thing you'll learn on your first grow.....is patience. The first grow fuckin' takes FOREVER! The plants I'm about to harvest were started Feb. 2nd.

The downside of T5's (as I'm told) is that the buds are more fluffy and supposedly the THC is less. If you're growing for your own needs and don't care about "bag-appeal", fluffy buds smoke just like dense ones. I will let ya know about the THC when I harvest that plant in the picture as it'll only see florescent lighting.

First off I would like to say thank you so much for all of your knowledge.
I am not a patient by any means at all, so I would love to have diffrent stages of growth for a yeild every 8 weeks. With the carbon filter I am definatly gonna have one because I hear that 1 plant cen coat a house with smell and I don't wanna do that considering i live with my grandfather. What else do you think I could do for a vegging area if I just leave this whole closet for flowering. The T5's I have never seen before (Your picture link wont allow me to see the picture, says notify the adminastrater) but beening as there flouresent that would lower you engry use too right?
If having the whole closet for flowering would it be wise to use 1 (600W Hps or 400W HPS) for the whole closet or would a couple T5's have a better yeild then 1 of the other lights. Likes I said before i don't think heat will be an issure if I get air cooled hoods and vent the room carfully (to stealth smell and heat) correct? Also how do you reccemend controlling Humidity in such a small area.

You can actually veg in a Rubbermaid bin with cfl's and a small pc van to vent excess heat. I currently have mine disassembled, but you can just search Rubbermaid grow. I turn the plastic bin upside down because It's easier to mount the lights on the bottom than the lid. You can go from seedling to around 8" topped before flowering. Of course, you can use a bigger bin to get bigger plants, but remember most cannabis varieties stretch up to 3 or more times their size in flowering. E.G. 6" plant in veg = 24" plant in flower is a 4X stretch. Usually the stretch is 2X the size and it occurs the first 21 days of flowering after switching to 12-12. So keep that in mind when planning your flower chamber. Definitely use a carbon filter and invest in a inline fan. They will save your ass by regulating temps. controlling odor, bringing in fresh air, etc.

Also, I would suggest a 400 watt switchable ballast with dimmer function. That would be an ideal light to get you started and something to "grow" into. With HID lights you'll definitely need proper ventilation from an inline fan. Ebay and Amazon are good places to look. Edit: about Humidity, what is your current humidity? Ideal ranges are 50-70% for veg and 50-60% for flowering. Obviously a dehumidifier will help, but once you get your lights running it may lower your humidity slightly. Damp-rid is effective at absorbing humidity in a closet, and if you keep the operation small to a few plants, I don't think it will be an issue. If your humidity is low, that will help prevent mold and mildew problems along with good air circulation.

I don't have current humidity ranges because I have not bought any equipment yet to check the results. I would like somthing a little bigger then a rubbermaid container somthing that doesen't standout in plain view of my room. Like a cabnit (SP) or somthing along those lines. I feel like a container like that would standout pretty fast lol. (my veg area isn't gonna be in the closet anymore so it's gotta be in my actual room.)

If you're going to be growing in your closet, let alone your room, it's going to be noticeable unless you build a custom cabinet. Then you have to scale down the wattage of HID or use T-5's. The Rubbermaid bin is a just a quick, easy, effective and inexpensive method of vegging a couple of plants. If you want to build a cabinet or buy a small tent for veg, go right ahead. I don't know what your budget is. Items I listed can easily add up to 350$ or more. A simple Rubbermaid bin with the lid on and vented isn't very loud and easily hides behind a bed or dresser. If you're worried about your Grandpa finding your weed, then you should reconsider growing in his house and get an apartment.

Ah.....the double super secret stealth grow. Please understand that we are not in your room, so many of our suggestions may not be in play. I personally question the viability of growing in grandpa's house as he has free access to everything.

Does grandpa have a basement? You may want to consider the tote idea there. Someone on here made a double BIG tote veg cabinet that looked pretty sweet.

Here's the deal, there's plenty of great ideas on stealth grows on here. Grow dressers, grow kitchen cabinets, grow file cabinets, and my not-so-favorite PC case grows. How big you want your plants to end up will be determined on how big you'll be able to grow them in veg. If you want a 4' plant to harvest, you'll need at least 30" (you have to include the height of the pot, and the space needed for lighting and venting).

As far as odor in veg....that's not as big of a problem as when they bud-up. If you look through my grow journal, someone posted 100's of strains with a "stink rating" that may help with odor through-out your grow. You WILL need air-flow entering and exiting both your veg cabinet and flower-room. It seems to me that many that attempt these small(ish) grows have a ton of issues with heat....mostly due to the use of CFL's. CFL's are great light sources, but will cook your grow if you don't have a ton of air-flow.

Air-flow has its own challenges....fan noise, light bleeding out and in through vent-holes are two. Not blowing the odor out while cooling is an entire industry.

I suggest googling "stealth cabinet grow" and look at what other's have done to get ideas. If they're on RIU, PM them and ask how theirs worked.

Here's the grow cabinets again:

Here is a quick idea i threw together, any insight?

I do not have such a problem with grandpah coming around anymore due to the fact he has a new girlfriend where he actually moved out of this house and is living with her. with that being said he still checks the mail here. I am not worried about him snooping in my closet or dressers or anything like that its just If I were to see a rubber made container with wires or light coming from (hard to hide the light from those im sure) it would look a little supishious (spelling). I just wanna be 100% sure I have every base covered. I wanna spend around 300-400$ for this I want good bud and alot of it.

Also, I do agree with you fan sound cen be a big tip off. What do you think about making a sound proof shield around the inline fan? any ideas on that or have you even heard of anybody sound proofing a inline fan?

i ran an air cooled 600 hps in a space almost exactly that size for a while, its not ideal but it worked fine. i used panda cloth to make a tent inside w/tarp zipper for a door. that let me controll airflow and light times. i used a 6 in inline for exhause and a box fan with a hepa furnace filter duct taped to it for the intake. you could scrog 2-3 plants or pack them in and flower when their still pretty small. if you dont use a light mover, you'll get @ a 3-4 ft area of good light.

oh lol, if you use a carbon filter the smell should be a non issue but the fan noise will be obvious. otoh it's not like he's not going to notice the electric bill. if it's his house you realy should get your own place b4 you start growing.

I pay all bill to the house, plus I just started staying here again so its like going from using no power to having a person here so he don't actully know what the bill will be exactly anyways lol. If the 600 was not Ideal would the T5s be better or a lower wattage HPS??

oh the 600 worked great its just the ideal footprint is like 3x3. you can build an insulated plywood box for the fan and hang the fan with bunge cords inside it. also can make a duct silencer.

I actually just made a makeshift silencer until I buy some acoustical foam. I used a double ply shipping box I got that was about 8"X24" and used the padding that goes underneath laminate flooring. I rolled up 2 pieces about 18"x36" and put them in the box and it helps to diffuse the sound of the passing air. I also have a speed control for my fan that helps with sound as well. But an actual duct muffler that you would purchase costs about 50$ and to make one costs about 25-35$ U.S. It's nothing more that a 4-6" or 6-8" hvac reducer attached to a loose piece of ductwork that has acoustical foam glued to the inside. It's then rolled up and and either another reducer is used to attach to more ducting or you can just end the ventilation line with it.