Need advice and help - Ricky here

[Eyes4grandpa]

I have decided to take on the challenge. I am blind. & I want to do my first, official grow. To avoid rushing around, and the stress that it causes, I want to have everything set up and ready to go before I even start with the plants. I have a good soil recipe, that is simple and that I can make myself.
With that taken care of, Now I turned to the lighting. I am in a situation that, unfortunately, does not allow me to do much in the line of ventilation. I will be doing the old school grow in the clothes closet. Yes... I'm legal. But it's the only place I have to grow. The measurements for this closet 8 ft. X 3 ft. X 8 ft.
Due to the lack of ventilation, I am assuming that I will need to use CFL or LED or a combination of both. I know nothing about any of this. So, I am turning to the experts for each phase of this project. So, I have some questions...

1. Do you prefer CFL or LED or a combination of the two, and why?
2. How much wattage do you reccomend per square foot or for the entire growing space?
3. How and exactly where do you recommend the placement of the lights?

I am sure that many more questions will crop up as I go along. But I believe that this information will help me to get properly started and the closet set up for my girls.
Of course, any other recommendations or suggestions that you may have are always welcome. Thank you all in advance for your help... May God bless.

trying to learn to grow flowers organically.

 

[Stinky Snid]

Sorry you didn't get a response to your questions, as a first attempt I'd go with cfls, they're cheap and effective. If you do decide LEDs they will give you better and denser flowers. But cfls will do the job.

Placement will depend on the structure of your plants and how many. The need to be within 6 inches of foliage to be used to their fill potential. For LEDs start them out at 30" or more then bring them closer as they mature. Most manufacturers will have specifications on how big the footprints are for their Led lights. They make it easy to figure what you'll need for your space.

Wattage to start is just a couple cfls per plant, then it becomes growers prerogative to how many you'll add during flower. Sky is the limit. As for LEDs be sure to use the actual wall watts rather than the maximum output when comparing to an Hid lamp.

Hope you've gotten things started and not given up, again sorry for the late response and lack of of others responses

KiG cheers

 

[Mcjoint]

You have a nice size grow spot. You will need to figure out something for ventilation, that is extremely important. All lights create heat and it need to be removed or you will have problems. Also you need to be able to control humidity, well keep it down or you could run into pest or mold problems. It doesn't matter if you are pump the air back into you house, as long as you are to remove heat from the grow space. The plants also need air circulation, so u will need some type of osolating fan or any little fan; you just want to push air around in the room, enough that you are shaking the plants leaves a little. Make sure your grow space is completely light sealed. If you can get a mini ac unit that would be ideal for your closet, but you need to make sure the heat the condensor creates is pushed out of the grow room. As far as wattage is concerned, the rule of thumb is you want at least 30- 50 (true) watts per sqft minimum, more is better. I believe optimum is about 100 watts per sqft. Light position depends on the coverage area of the particular light you decide to you. I would probably go with leds over CFL, well in fact I use leds. I have a much, much, smaller grow space lol. If you want to use the best lighting I would probably use a combination of hps and led. I would probably run like two 600 watt hps and like 3 150/200 watt full spectrum leds. If you are looking at leds make sure you go based off how much wattage the light actually pulls and not how much wattage it is equivalent to. Make sure your walls are flat white, that way you reflect as much light as you can back to your plants.

 

[Curly Beaver]

Hi Gramps.

I lost track of you for awhile, let me tell you about my grow area and lighting, as it sounds very similar to yours. I am actually growing in a small closet that is next to the area under a stairway. The total area is 8 feet by 3.5 feet, the closet itself measures exactly 3.5 X 3.5 so under the stairs is 5.5 x 3.5.

So, doing the math for the 8 foot length:

1.) I don't use the shortest 2 feet under the stairs, I just put a couple cactus plants back there that I can more or less forget about.

2.) For the 3.5 X 3.5 closet area, I have one Mars Hydro 96X5 light, I use this part for vegging.

3.) For the slopping 3.5 X 3.5 area in the middle I have a Mars Hydro 192X5 for flowering that covers the remainder and still helps to illuminate both ends, the closet and the spot where the cacti are.

I hope you can understand what I'm trying to describe, but if it's not clear, ask away and I'll try again

Also, I see on other threads you are going to try to grow organically by building your own soil. While I can't help you there, I'm wondering if you wouldn't be better off to get some decent soil, such as Fox Farms Ocean Forrest that would take you though the veg cycle before you have to think about adding nutrients when they go into flower. I have been using Mills Nutrients which is the easiest system I've come across so far, it seems to balance the pH by itself so you wouldn't have to worry about checking that. To me this is about as easy as it gets, but keep in mind I have never built up my own soil.... I can see and it still scares me

Give me a shout if I can help you.

Beav

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

I think I understand what you're saying, Beav. Unfortunately the code that you use to describe your lights are Chinese to me. Thank you for your help, nonetheless.
Snid... for a lot for that amount of information! I will try to decipher all of this again as soon as I can. Thank you both again and God bless.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using 420

 

[Curly Beaver]

I think I understand what you're saying, Beav. Unfortunately the code that you use to describe your lights are Chinese to me. Thank you for your help, nonetheless.
Snid... for a lot for that amount of information! I will try to decipher all of this again as soon as I can. Thank you both again and God bless.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using 420

MarsHydro is the name of the company, and yes, it's Chinese

The L.E.D. 96X5 Refractor light is simply 96 small lights that are 5 watts each.

The L.E.D. 192X5 Refractor light is 192 small lights, 5 watts each.

Hope that helps.

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

Thanks for deciphering that for me, Beav. Can I assume that they are sold as a kit, basically all ready to go? And, I am assuming that Mars Hydro has a website. Or are they available at any retail locations here in the states?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using 420

 

[Curly Beaver]

Yes, they come ready to hang up and plug in right out of the box.
They are a sponsor for 420Magazine.
Here is a 1600+ page link if you want to poke around. They have a rep, SmokeSara, that can answer any questions you may have.
WebSite - here is a link for the Reflector series: Reflector series

 

[Eyes4grandpa]

Awesome! I'll try to find that link in your post too so that I can check it out. Now... I have to find something to do the grilling in. I originally had a closet to do it, but my wife, being all woman, filled up the closet I was going to use with storage. Lol!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using 420

 

[Curly Beaver]

Awesome! I'll try to find that link in your post too so that I can check it out. Now... I have to find something to do the grilling in. I originally had a closet to do it, but my wife, being all woman, filled up the closet I was going to use with storage. Lol!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using 420

Sorry, forgot to add that one. Here it is: Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion