DETAILED Small Closet Grow! 250w digital ballast w/ 6" air-cooled reflector

[Sense I. Milla]

- Intake (8" 240-500 cpm in-line booster fan) and exhaust (6" fan 160 cpm)

- Lighting (250w digital ballast w/ 6" air-cooled reflector)

My growing space is about 2 ft. wide, 3 ft. long, and 6 ft. high... not much to work. I plan to grow 2 small plants (trained, topped, and prunned for sure). The hydroponic method I'm using is DWC because its inexpensive, low maintenance, and simple/reliable. The nutrient solution I picked is GH 3-Pack for the same reasons above.

So far so good.
I had some seeds from my last growing endeavor that I attempted to revive a couple days ago using the paper-towel method. Success, I only germinated 3 seeds keeping my fingers crossed that 2/3 are gonna be sensemilla, but I'm not keeping my hopes up. So, this morning I transplanted all three fragile seed-pods with equally delicate white tap-roots into pre-soaked rockwool cubes (ph 5-6). Now, I'm by no means an experienced cannabis farmer (2nd grow, first was purely experimental), so if you see an improvement to better optimize my grow space please do.

Next Post will have expenses vs. rewards and pictures of this little garden to be...

In the mean time, check these pics from my out of control 1st grow from last summer!

 

[ReadySetGrowD9]

Nice pics man cant wait to see the new stuff.... u should check out my LED grow im in almost the same amout of space as u...

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Some pics of CUTE SEEDLINGS! and some Q's for senior farmers.

Its hard watching my seedlings struggle to break the bonds of their seed-pods, almost reminds me of a baby chicken freeing itself from an eggshell... but 48 hrs after germination, my seedling finally won their bout against gravity...

I have some pics and Q's... BTW I haven't installed my 250w light w/ digital ballast and ventilation yet. And I plan on lining the walls w/ heavy duty plastic.. but other than that.. this is my little garden of eden (not!). And hopefully low budget/high yield!

COSTS so far:
-250w light w/ 6" aircooled reflector, digi ballast, MH and HPS bulb... about ... $300
-intake/exhaust ... $75
-Nutrients ... $50
-Misc... (dryer ducts, propagation tray, chains, air pumps, digi ph reader, thermometer, ect..) ... $150-200

not to mention electric but its not much about ($0.25 per day)

TOTAL= $550-$625

SO.. I'm betting $625 that one of these seedling is a female ready to mature and reward my investment! (1 OZ = about $300)

Right now as you can see I only have one cfl (3000k). This should be enough light for say 2 weeks growth, right? In their 3rd week I plan on turning on my 250w w/ MH bulb and continue veg. I want to scrog these but i'm not sure about the genetics... I'm def going to LST because I'm pretty sure that they're sativa dominant and don't want them growing 6ft. tall like my last grow....

Would love some advice from some farmers out there on how to better optimize my space!

OK here's the cute seedling pics I promised, that everybody loves!

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Little piece of Heaven... nothing special...

Here they are today! nothing special, but give them a chance will ya!

my next update will be in a couple weeks and more eventful.

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Updating this thread.......

Here they are as of yesterday....

I killed a stud of a sativa last week that was growing way too tall and kept the two smaller more indica dominant. I'm hand watering twice a day. Using the 3-pk GH flora series ml/gal is 9M-10B-18G (Mel Frank's Insider's Guide) http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/profiles.htm

ummm I haven't installed my HPS light or ventilation yet, but I will when i get a chance.. soo ya that's about that.

This thread might become misleading cause instead of running the 250w I'm planning on going even cheaper and just run a 150w and two 150w CFLs but I don't think anyone's even going to read this shit but whatever...:swear

 

[r2thizzl3]

nice looking ladies

 

[Oregonic]

Sweet pics, looks like they are off to a great start. Rock the 250 or even a 400 if you can, craigslist has used shit cheap, dude near my place had a 600 bulb ballast and hood for a buck fifty....

Sb'd and watching.........:bubblez:

 

[Sense I. Milla]

150w HPS vs 250w HPS scenario.

Sweet pics, looks like they are off to a great start. Rock the 250 or even a 400 if you can, craigslist has used shit cheap, dude near my place had a 600 bulb ballast and hood for a buck fifty....

Sb'd and watching.........:bubblez:

Thanx Oregonic for the advice and checking in on my little grow diary! I'm looking to get that 250w aircooled hps for flowering like i said in my earlier posts and I'd like to get a new one w/ warranty, but it's hard to motivate myself to spend more on this little operation... I know the extra light will be worth it in the end tho!

I still haven't wired and hooked up any intake/exhaust so I'm not going to use any more wattage until thats in place. So I have a little work ahead of me but not much... I also need to get my watering sched. on auto w/ a timer cause these two girls drink almost a half-gallon a day between the 2 of em!

Ah I need mix some nuts and feed these bitches, I mean ladies.......

Tho, I think I'll take a puff first! :rollj:

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Thanks r2thizzle, they're not to shabby looking...

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Pics Pics Pics.....

just some pics from today b4 watering...

 

[Tripsick]

Great start i cant wait to see how they turn out.:cool0019:

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Update, more pics!!!

Just trained em' again tonight and also gave them more light by adding my 150w HPS in addition to my 2 CFL's. Everything is looking good and I'm gonna veg them a little longer and try to create a nice even layer of secondary growth inter-nodes, then flower the hell out of them:character0103:. I still don't know if I'm gonna get a 250w but I might if I find a decently priced one... so here's the lates pics, The first are right after I trained em' then the next are an hour later.OK I'm tired:yawn.

 

[Sense I. Milla]

The last pic is my lighting (150w HPS, 2 CFL's 3000k each)

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Pre-flowers and pics

Great start i cant wait to see how they turn out.:cool0019:

Thanx Trip, I can hardly wait too!

These girls showed their pre-flowers to me a couple days ago! So I cut my lighting back to 12/12 and can't wait to see some calyx swelling :flower!! I don't even know what strain they are (maybe some wise grower will recognize them but I doubt it) but they're some indica/sativa hybrid.

I'm still hand watering them in hydro clay pellet medium and it's not as demanding as some would assume. Altho they could dry up if a miss a day of watering it's giving me a lot of control, which i like. My nute tea is still Mel Frank's mix (ml/gal 9M-10B-18G)

So my to do list is:
-ventilation (need to setup asap)
-250w HPS (maybe)
-water pump w/ drip lines (maybe)

and IF ANYONE READING THIS knows a good foliar spray please let me KNOW!!!

or if you just have q's/comments please I want to hear em' all good or bad...

These pics are from this morning b4 watering.... :friday:

 

[ReadySetGrowD9]

looking good bro i will def be watching :)

Happy growing
RSGD9

 

[Sense I. Milla]

THANX RSGD9 I'm watching yours too!

 

[frostedlove]

foliage spray

Very Nice trees and use of space!
Nice garden Bro.

I just started using liquid light and saturator from dutch master and so far so good, have nothing to report good or bad so That's better then all bad, but keep ya posted on how it goes.

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Thanx and attempted pre-flower pics

Very Nice trees and use of space!
Nice garden Bro.

Hey thx frostedlove, it's not close to what I had planned out originally. it's been an ongoing process and w/ limited space/cash I can't say I'm completely displeased but a little bummed that I can't follow through w/ my plans exactly.;(

w/ that said, here they are today!:character0053:

 

[Sense I. Milla]

Update w/ pics

Ok, so every thing's going properly except that I need to install my proper ventilation; I just have a couple fans keeping the air flowing...

I lowered my PH just a tad to ~5.4 and upped my nuts just a tad also... I think I'm gonna get a kelp based foliar spray today, its been too dry here and I know that will help growth...

My lighting is still pretty cheap and I should probably upgrade but my funds ran tight this month so it's still a big question mark. I have a little over 20,000 Lumens w/ my current setup which is doing the job, but I could always use more light.

Ummm, I think that's about that:thinking, but if anyone reading this has any ideas as to a good brand of foliar spray please let me know. Also I want to get my nute mix in line for a healthy transition from veg. to flower. My nutes are GH-3pk flora, so if anyone has a tip on a good transitional mix, please let me know.

These pics are from this morning just b4 lights on and hand-watering. It's day 3 of rocking 12/12 :rock.

 

[JoE_AnTiX77]

Im Digging the way your training those ladies ... Niccee