Small Grow Box Design, First Time Grow

I didn't think that cfl's would get that hot, really. But they sure do! I knew there would be some heat but not that much. I am running 8-23wbulbs Right now. Will add the other four when the winter cold kicks in. My 8in. inline is on full blast right now and temp is right at 80. I usually use that same fan to cover 13sq.ft. It covers 4 right now... Couldn't be happier with the results of my box though. Besides the fan, it only cost around $50 to build including bulbs.

Yeah i figured out my original design would take way too many cfl bulbs to get a good light output. Im probably gonna scale mine down to a 2'x2' like you did. Im kind of leaning towards doing a 250W/400W hps right now, it seems to be a little more expensive than the cfl bulbs but not by much and seems like a good investment.

@tacomuybueno It seems like your only doing 3200 lumens persqfoot, and then with the 12 i would be 4800, the lumens per sqfoot output seems low for a grow

EwokGremilin said:

Yeah i figured out my original design would take way too many cfl bulbs to get a good light output. Im probably gonna scale mine down to a 2'x2' like you did. Im kind of leaning towards doing a 250W/400W hps right now, it seems to be a little more expensive than the cfl bulbs but not by much and seems like a good investment.

@tacomuybueno It seems like your only doing 3200 lumens persqfoot, and then with the 12 i would be 4800, the lumens per sqfoot output seems low for a grow

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If you have the money, def invest in a better light source. I'm very tight on money right now. I just made this box cuz I needed a small grow space for vegging and was cheap. My main flower room has 2 - 400w hps in 12-13sq.ft. It just takes so much extra time having only one grow room it seems. I want a perpetual grow. I'm not sure if I want to use my veg box for just starting seeds or trying to keep a mother plant and clones. Not sure if there is enough room for mother and clones. If not, I will make my own ceeds. That is something I'm def getting tired of, buying ceeds... Yeah, I only have almost half of what is optimal lumens/sq.ft. My seedlings are only 2 days old though and don't need too much right yet. Today, I am working on a plan to get my temps down so I can add more lights.

@EwokGremilin - Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. The different stages of growth require different amounts of lumens per sq.ft. Plants in the seedling and clone stage require about 400-500 lumens per sq.ft. In vegetative, about 2,500 lumens per sq.ft. And for flowering I've heard AT LEAST 7,000-7,500 lumens per sq.ft., but 10,000 per sq.ft is what to shoot for. And you NEED to learn the Inverse Square Law. This is so you can know how to judge the lights intensity(how many lumens you're getting)at different distances from your plants.

Sorry. I forget shit sometimes. So, I guess if I can't add many more lights, I'm where I need to be for vegging anyways. Another thing, too. If you want your plants to grow faster, do not give them any dark period during until flower. Just keep temps in check to reduce stress. Cannabis is a C3 plant and requires NO DARK PERIOD!(until flower). This will make ur plants grow 30% faster! With this being ur first grow, I figured that u might be anxious to get the ball rolling a lil faster.

Yeah thanks for all the helpful hints, i kinda generally had an idea about that all from reading all the forums but thanks for a good summary haha
I think ideally i would want a 250w hps because i dont really have a way to vent air out of my apartment room, but as i was looking at prices the 250w and the 400w are about the same, seems like it makes more sense to get a 400w one.
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Horticulture-GLK400LS24-Digital-Dimmable/dp/B005ECY4UQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1381956953&sr=8-4&keywords=apollo+400w

The thing i like about the link i put up is the fact that it has a dimmable ballast, it has "Dimmable Option: 50%, 75% & 100%" so i could theoretically turn it down to 200w or 300w depending on if it gets too hot

Get the 400 dimmable. The heat difference between a 250 and 400 is small.

Would just venting the air out of the closet into my room work well enough to keep it cool, ive read mixed reports on people having problems while others were just fine.
Would running the lights at night and have them off during the day help with keeping cool too?(my room is usually colder at night)

Is your intake and outtake in the same room? I'm assuming they are. This works fine, but yo need to keep some things in mind. Keep that room pretty durn cool and have some really good air movement inside grow closet. That is kinda how I'm doing it now and will be doing it soon. I keep my bedroom door open so it is kinda dumping into hall right now cuz it's still a lil hot during the day. I have my 8in. inline fan on a lil over half speed and temps are 75f-79f. It is starting to get chilly here at night so I just been leaving the window open a lil bit with box fan circulating room air. The reason I like growing this time of year is I get to use this new veg. box to heat my bedroom and my flower room to heat my living room all fall/winter long! Haha. Killing two birds with one stone! But if you are somewhere warmer, I suggest an air conditioner. Since you can't have your outtake go somewhere else, usually for security reasons, etc., have the best intake you can.. And yeah, lights on at night, off during day.

Also, I recommend getting at least a 4in. inline fan!

Or a couple of these. You can get them for like 10-20 bucks each at Lowe's or off the net.

On a smaller box though, you might only need one of those fans I suggested in my last post. Let's say for the outtake and maybe a smaller fan inside. There are quite a few variables and everyone's situation is different. That's why you've read conflicting info on this. Just experiment around and see what suits your needs best.

Once again thanks for all the posts!
Im actually completely rethinking my grow box right now, using half of my closet to grow in might be a better and cheaper option, im thinking about splitting the closet in half with some panda film and then doing a little touchups along the closet door to light proof it. There is already racks in the closet i can use to mount some of the stuff to. Now that i realized i should have the lights on at night i dont think i will really have a problem, the winters tend to be a bit chilly here and i think having a "heater" in my room will actually be kinda nice haha. Since im in college im actually thinking about getting everything completely figured out and built before i go home on winter break and then right when i get back pop some greens in and hopefully have a good harvest by 4/20 hahaha. Kinda sucks i really wont have time to do it before winter break (2 months from now) but school keeps me busy and putting together a good growspace will be a fun project to complete!

Hey so i looked at my school calendar and found out i have approximately 8 weeks from when i get back to school in January until spring break, which i will be leaving for around 10 days back home. So it just dawned on my that i dont want to leave my plants alone for that long. So now once again its back to the drawing board. My new idea is to build a box that could one day be repurposed as a mother/clone box. I dont mind spending money on setups as long as they can be used at some point in the future. Im looking at making something that could grow a plant from a seed for about 3.5 weeks while im gone in December, then ill put it in the bigger setup when i get back in January and hopefully be able to harvest before my spring break. Thinking about cloning over spring break again and then make one more harvest before school gets out. I know its not ideal to leave your plant unattended for that long but its seems like the only way im gonna be able to grow in college. My justification for this is the fact that the plants seem to not really grow too much in the first month and i might be able to contain them.

I got you, mang! Okay, you are going to want to do this first grow with some autoflowers. Go ahead and find you a good strain that finishes faster/fastest than others! Read breeders descriptions well because they can exaggerate times. It's a $$$ thang. So look around for other peoples reports to find the best to suit your needs. If you bought all the stuff you need now, I believe you could pull it off before your 10 day break, even. That 10 days could be your drying time. And when you get back, you can fire you one up! I would start them 1-1.5, (hell, maybe even 2)weeks earlier in party cups and carry them with you to get a jump start on it. They will be real small and will be easy to move/carry around. Put a cfl on each cup. Maybe a PC grow to start them, if you needed a disguise to move them around?! I like those lil PC fans. They are strong and can move some air! Then you can move them to your closet when you get to college. That will give you up to a total of 10 weeks of growth. And if they aren't done by the time you have to leave, you can chop them down a lil early and let dry. Or,(this is something I done last grow), you can maybe water one last time before you leave(if not wet already) and let the plant dry out and cure a lil while it is still in your pots. That will give you more time! Some things to ponder on for ya. Let me know your plans too for your grow medium and nutes. Might be able to simplify that for ya too... Oh yeah, here is the last auto I grew last year. My best one yet. Big Domina from Freedom of Seeds. Nearly 4 oz., 56 days start to finish! I usually get around 1.5-2 oz a plant and @70 days. Again, depends on strain.

Okay, that pic isn't trying to pop up on here for me. If you need a better look, go to google images and type in Big Domina! Should pop up. It is at autoflower.net under the name PoopsMcDoogle. Unfortunately didn't get to smoke much if her. She was good too. Had that diesel/weird chemical taste. Very complex. But I had got really sick with a stomach ulcer and quit smoking for like 8 months. Rough shit! I give most of this plant to a family member. She didn't have to buy for like 6 months. Ha. Sorry, I ramble ramble ramble sometimes. Turning into my old man! Ha

There are also drip system that would work for when you're away. But I don't want to overload you on your first grow.

They turned out alright, sadly 3 out of the 4 where males so I only finished 1. Keep in mind I had no idea what I was doing but I got about half an oz off of it, was about 14" tall at the end.

^^^ haha finally reply back to my post lol