Grow Room Questions

[Dlaw90]

Hey guys,
Im starting my first grow. Im not very experienced when it comes to plants. However though i do have a couple buddies helping me out as well. My first concern is my room. Ill upload some pictures to show you guys what im working with. It is an attic above my garage. The attic is 22 foot long, 7 feet wide, and 5 ft tall(will this be a problem)? I have one 400w Light with a vent system. The system is nothing fancy but should work. I plan on getting a Hps/mh bulb for both cycles. I also have 4x t5 lights that i believe are 50w apiece. Is this going to be e space and lights for about 6-8 plants?

 

[Muttt]

WAaaaayyyyy to big of any area for a 400w light. You'll only have about 4 ft x 4 ft of coverage with a 400w. But, that's more than enough to grow several plants. Excellent area to build a grow room

 

[Dlaw90]

WAaaaayyyyy to big of any area for a 400w light. You'll only have about 4 ft x 4 ft of coverage with a 400w. But, that's more than enough to grow several plants. Excellent area to build a grow room

Ty for the quick response. Will the hiegth of the room be ok? Its only about 5 foot tall.

 

[Slye]

Depending on the weather where you live I would recommend enclosing your grow space. Otherwise it'll be nearly impossible to control temp and humidity for a handful of plants in a space that large. Given the slope on the ceiling I don't think you'll find a suitable tent. Slap up a few 2x4s to create a basic frame and use penguin plastic (spacing on the actual name ... imagine that... but it's black one side and white on the other) for walls. This nice thing about framing your own is that you can add a piece of plywood in there to mount your power, your fan, and your controls in the place of your choosing.

With low overhead height I think you'd do well to get a cool tube for your light -- your plants will be able to get closer to the bulb if you can reduce the heat it generates. I don't have much experience with growing under HID so someone else would be better suited to say just how close you could grow to the bulb with/without venting it. You'll definitely want to keep things low though ... either flower them early and take a light harvest, or use a lateral growing technique like scrogging and harvest a bounty.

 

[Dlaw90]

Depending on the weather where you live I would recommend enclosing your grow space. Otherwise it'll be nearly impossible to control temp and humidity for a handful of plants in a space that large. Given the slope on the ceiling I don't think you'll find a suitable tent. Slap up a few 2x4s to create a basic frame and use penguin plastic (spacing on the actual name ... imagine that... but it's black one side and white on the other) for walls. This nice thing about framing your own is that you can add a piece of plywood in there to mount your power, your fan, and your controls in the place of your choosing.

With low overhead height I think you'd do well to get a cool tube for your light -- your plants will be able to get closer to the bulb if you can reduce the heat it generates. I don't have much experience with growing under HID so someone else would be better suited to say just how close you could grow to the bulb with/without venting it. You'll definitely want to keep things low though ... either flower them early and take a light harvest, or use a lateral growing technique like scrogging and harvest a bounty.

I do plan on enclosing the area. How many plants will a 400w light support? Once again thanks alot for all the respones guys. Hopefully in about 3 to 4 months I got my own private stash.

 

[Slye]

As Muttt says, you'll have roughly 4'x4' of well lit floor space. It's hard to say how many plants you could grow in that space because it depends on how you decide to grow them. Maybe 4-6 mini trees, or 2 if scrogging. But don't get caught up on how many plants -- think about how much you want to yield, how long until you want to harvest, your experience, and how much work on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis you're willing to put in to it. Sometimes less is more.

 

[Amsterdam28]

wow! If I had a space like that I would need someone to keep me from going crazy and growing a damn forest, lol.

 

[Muttt]

5 ft should be plenty. You can top, FIM, LST, Scrog and other things to keep your tops from growing too tall. My grow box (pics on page 1 of my grow journal) is 3ft x 4 ft x 6 ft tall. But, once I put in a pallet for the pots to sit on, 14 inch tall pots, and the light itself takes up some of my space. The inside of my box probably only has 4 1/2 feet (tall) of usable space inside. And, there is plenty of room in there. Plus, you can always flip them to 12/12 and flower them earlier. That way, they won't stretch as much as they would if you vegged them till they were 2 feet tall, and then flower them.

 

[Dlaw90]

5 ft should be plenty. You can top, FIM, LST, Scrog and other things to keep your tops from growing too tall. My grow box (pics on page 1 of my grow journal) is 3ft x 4 ft x 6 ft tall. But, once I put in a pallet for the pots to sit on, 14 inch tall pots, and the light itself takes up some of my space. The inside of my box probably only has 4 1/2 feet (tall) of usable space inside. And, there is plenty of room in there. Plus, you can always flip them to 12/12 and flower them earlier. That way, they won't stretch as much as they would if you vegged them till they were 2 feet tall, and then flower them.

Awesome news! So I planned on buying 10 seeds and doing them all. Out of 10 what is the usual rate on how many grow to be female plants? What are some good strains that are easy and shorter. I was looking at carmelacious.

 

[JJ Bones]

I would SCROG in that space, in my experience a 4x4 is really best for a 3x3 area, so I'd stick to 4-8 plants.

Do you have windows or other ways to vent the attic? For now, I'd just get a grow tent or build the enclosure, and expand as you gain experience and funds.

 

[Amsterdam28]

So I planned on buying 10 seeds and doing them all. Out of 10 what is the usual rate on how many grow to be female plants?

50% on normal, non-feminized seeds

 

[Dlaw90]

Will the lights keep the grow room warm enough in the winter? Will the lights make it too hot in the summer? The attic gets very hot in the summer. Thanks a lot for the fast replies. How much yield does a plant produce. I know this number can very due to countless things. Im just asking in general.

 

[Muttt]

You'll probably need an A/C unit up there in the summer.

 

[WizHigh]

I use a T5 for veg and I fit 6 plants at 4 weeks under it. So if you have 4 of them youll do fine with that. How many 400w Mh/HPS lamps do you plan on having all together in there? Thats a huge space. Are you planning on splitting it up into a veg side and a flower side? As for the temps it looks very spacious in there so im pretty sure that will even the temps out. Is there any windows at all?

 

[Dlaw90]

6

I use a T5 for veg and I fit 6 plants at 4 weeks under it. So if you have 4 of them youll do fine with that. How many 400w Mh/HPS lamps do you plan on having all together in there? Thats a huge space. Are you planning on splitting it up into a veg side and a flower side? As for the temps it looks very spacious in there so im pretty sure that will even the temps out. Is there any windows at all?

I only planned on doing one room for my first grow. Its very cold here so I have to enclose some of it to help with heating. The attic its self runs about 55 degrees and its about 40 degrees outside now. Im thinking the lights will keep the room at a tempature that's suitable for the plant. As for the light I just plan on buying one from ebay. Its a 400w with tube cooling that's comes with a hps and a mh bulb. I planned on doing 5 plants at once now due to the limited light. I plan on backing that up with 1 or 2 cfgs. Do you reccomend using anything in particualr to seal the drywall or plywood for the grow room. Im thinking of making it 7ft by 7ft. Thanks alot for the questions. With your guys help maybe in no time I will harvesting my own crop.

 

[WizHigh]

Oh so your building one in your attic? I thought that you were using the attic as a whole for your grow room. My mistake lol. I would use that orange foam cock. I don't know what it's called but it will seal up dry wall pretty good. If I find the name of it I will post it here. But I think it's used for insulation. So insulation foam cock.

 

[Dlaw90]

Oh so your building one in your attic? I thought that you were using the attic as a whole for your grow room. My mistake lol. I would use that orange foam cock. I don't know what it's called but it will seal up dry wall pretty good. If I find the name of it I will post it here. But I think it's used for insulation. So insulation foam cock.

Haha yeah I wish I had the money, space, and time to turn my whole attic into a room. Wednesday ill be putting up the drywall. Ill keep posting pictures for people to see and for advice. Could anyone point me a a good direction to a good 400w light. I see the hps/mh tube cooled on ebay for 180. Is this a good price and efficient enough for 6 to 7 plants? Thanks alot for the advice wiz and others.

 

[WizHigh]

Yea, the 400w cool tube is great as long as your in a 4ftx4ft area its most effective. So when you build it make sure the inside is that measurement unless you plan on adding another light.

 

[Dlaw90]

Another question as well. What do you reccomend putting on the inside of the drywall to make the room more reflective. Would it be safe to make the room a little bigger than 4x4? I find it pretty hard that im going to be able to put.5 to. Plants in a 4x4 space. I planned on using cfgs to provide any extra light I might need.

 

[WizHigh]

Haha yeah I wish I had the money, space, and time to turn my whole attic into a room. Wednesday ill be putting up the drywall. Ill keep posting pictures for people to see and for advice. Could anyone point me a a good direction to a good 400w light. I see the hps/mh tube cooled on ebay for 180. Is this a good price and efficient enough for 6 to 7 plants? Thanks alot for the advice wiz and others.

Yea, the 400w cool tube is great as long as your in a 4ftx4ft area its most effective. So when you build it make sure the inside is that measurement unless you plan on adding another light.

Another question as well. What do you reccomend putting on the inside of the drywall to make the room more reflective.

Well I wouldnt, I would just go get the foam boards from home depot also. There pink now I think, just paint the one side white. But if you find white ones that will be great. I say use them because reflective foil can cause heat issues. As for the foam boards they will not add heat to your grow room. Also white doesnt attract heat but it reflects the same as using mylar foil.