New Grower 1st ever grow (blueprint). have some questions

[JbBurnin]

Hey, lookin to start 1st grow soon. Will be using auto fem seeds. Considering the AK47 and white Russian by lowlife seeds, as well as easyryder by joint doctor. As far as space goes I will be building a 3.5'x3'x5' enclosure for them out of plywood or mdf. I plan on covering the inside with reflective material, and cutting two holes for intake and exhaust ventilation. Ducting would mount to an exhaust fan affixed to the exhaust port hole. Intake fan will bring fresh air in and through the reflector, then out with the hot air through exhaust. Lighting, I was thinking about a 250w hps kit from htgsupply. That would cover flowering. I would hang some 6500k cfls on the sides of the plants to help veg. I was hoping to fit four 3gal pots and grow them from seed directly in the 3gals. Nutes I'm thinkin fox farm trio, soil I'm thinkin fox farm ocean forest or roots organic. Like I said, this will be my first grow ever. So I wanna keep it simple and focus on learning and maintaining healthy plants. Any tips, advice, or any words of encouragement would be great. Id love to hear some imput and suggestions.

 

[roadsidevendor1]

welcome!!

 

[JbBurnin]

Thanks. Any suggestions on my setup? I want to do it right the first time.

 

[Muddy]

Welcome to AFN. Looks like you've been doing some research before starting your grow. Always nice to see. However, I do see a couple things you may want to reconsider. First off, the size of your light doesn't match the size of your enclosure. Generally speaking, a minimum of 50 watts per sq. ft. of HPS lighting is needed to get the most from your plants. So for a 12.25 sq. ft. area, 600 watts would be needed. However, if you are only planning on growing 4 plants at a time, you won't need that big of an area. An area of say, 2 x 3 would be big enough for 4 plants and a 250 watt HPS would be sufficient. In a 3.5 x 3.5 area you could grow more plants, as many as 9 depending on the strain.

If you exhaust your hood directly as you have outlined, you will effectively remove the heat from the light, but you're also going to need to bring fresh air in for the plants. In a case like that, I would recommend two exhaust fans with passive intakes. One to exhaust the hood and another to exhaust the box. Intake fans won't be necessary, the exhaust fans will pull enough to keep the air flowing.

While HTG Supply does have some good prices, I think the quality of some of their products is lacking. I would go with a higher quality ballast and bulb. A good quality HPS bulb with an expanded blue spectrum will work for the whole grow, veg and flower, and eliminate the need for additional CFLs.

 

[JbBurnin]

Thanks for the info.. my enclosure is going to be 3.5ft wide, 3ft deep, 5ft tall.. so u would recommend a 600w hps ? Cost being the main deciding factor. . I wanted to keep costs lower being my first grow, I can always upgrade. U think I could fit 6 plants in 3gal pots.. will the 250 hps kit not sufficiently grow 4-6 plants in 3gal pots in a 42"x36"x60" enclosure?

 

[Muddy]

Yes, to cover that whole area you would need a 600 watt HPS. A 250 watt would be enough to cover 5 sq. ft., 2' x 2.5'. Depending on what strain you grow the maximum you could fit would be 3-4 plants. Any more than that and you will be getting beyond the foot print of a 250 watter and your yields will suffer.

 

[JbBurnin]

Say I run a 400 mh/hps kit in a 3x3x5 .. with 4 plants 3gal. Would I fare a little better as opposed to 250 hps 300 cfl ? Basically I don't wanna run a 600 hps, and I feel if I make the enclosure shorter than 5ft I will run into problems with heat , and limited vertical space for them to grow.

 

[Muddy]

Yes, a 400 watter would be okay in a 3 x 3 area and you could easily grow the 6 plants you are aiming for. Heat will still be a bit of an issue. I would suggest you use a cool tube type reflector and vent it directly as you described in your first post.

I have two grow areas, one is 2' x 2.5' x 7' and the other is 3' x 4' x 6'. I tried running a 400 watt hps in both areas. In the small area the heat was ridiculous, hitting as high as 105 degrees. I replaced it with a 240 watt GLH LED and no more heat issues. I then moved the 400 watter to the bigger area and while it worked much better, I still had issues controlling the heat. I've also switched that area to LED and am now running two of the Blackstar 240 watt LED. Again, no more heat issues. For a 3 x 3 area, two of the Blackstars would be perfect, although at about $275 each, they might be beyond your budget.

 

[HomieHogleg]

Say I run a 400 mh/hps kit in a 3x3x5 .. with 4 plants 3gal. Would I fare a little better as opposed to 250 hps 300 cfl ? Basically I don't wanna run a 600 hps, and I feel if I make the enclosure shorter than 5ft I will run into problems with heat , and limited vertical space for them to grow.

I am running a 32"X32"X72" Tent, with a 400 watt HPS. I am getting great coverage, on my photo plants, though I only have 3 plants. 2 full sized plants and one clone, flowered just after rooting. I could fit 4 autos in there. More if they were single cola phenotypes, rather than bush type phenos.


Muddy will not steer you wrong.
Have a great week.

HomieHogleg

 

[BuddyLove]

hey jb. great to have you here, and growin with everybody. seems like "more" of everything is always better...except when it comes to nutes. but more light, oxygen, co2 adds up to more buds. happy growing.