Spare bedroom or under house, noise, smell and the UK climate

[fruitgrass9]

Total newbie here, although spent quite a bit of time looking through the forum and other resources so far. These are my intentions, perhaps you can provide some guidance:

- Personal use only
- Decided on an AK48 autoflower as my first attempt due to the ease of growing, low height and fast harvest

I have two optional growing locations:

Spare bedroom:
- well concealed - you could be stood in there and would not have direct line of sight due to the shape of the dormer bungalow
- smell and noise is of paramount importance
- consistent temperature
- max tent size, again single plant, 140cm height I'd say
- visiting family may go in that room, but it should be unlikely
- tent idea: https://www.hydrolab-grow-tents.co.uk/collections/grow-tent-sizes/products/mini-grow-tent-60cm OR [suggestions please!]

Under house
- colder for several months due to the climate
- dusty, spiders, would need a good clean - probably lay out a tarp to try and clean up the area preventing crap getting in the tent
- very well concealed, no one but me goes in there
- the joists above me are 120cm high, with gaps in between for items to sit on top of tent if needs be
- concrete floor
- hands and knees job
- can afford for slightly more noise and smell, but still a priority
- tent idea: https://www.hydrolab-grow-tents.co.uk/collections/grow-tent-sizes/products/short-grow-tent OR the above mentioned tent but manually trim the height down by 20cm OR [suggestions please!]
- Excuse the mess but as you can see, plenty of space, it just means I'm on my hands and knees and need to keep height to a minimum. Note that wooden flooring is some old stuff sat direct on concrete (no joists underneath)

Ventilation I'm completely perplexed by to be honest. I don't want anything loud or smelly, so I'm totally open to your suggestions here.

thanks

 

[Wizzlebiz]

I only read the 1st paragraph and rushed to reply.

Don't do auto flowers as your 1st plant. They have a internal time clock. Each mess up will hurt yield. Photo plants are more forgiving. You cant get time back from a auto flower and you will fuck up being a newbie.

Now I will go back and read the rest.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

K. Now to address the spaces.

The basement is going to be an issue. Generally dark dingy places can cause mold issues but the other thing I'm thinking of is the smell factor. You will need to exhaust somewhere. Carbon filter will help but getting fresh air into the tent will probably be an issue. Stagnant air in basements.

They sell low sound fans and air scrubbers. I think you are better off in the spare room personally

 

[fruitgrass9]

K. Now to address the spaces.

The basement is going to be an issue. Generally dark dingy places can cause mold issues but the other thing I'm thinking of is the smell factor. You will need to exhaust somewhere. Carbon filter will help but getting fresh air into the tent will probably be an issue. Stagnant air in basements.

They sell low sound fans and air scrubbers. I think you are better off in the spare room personally

Thanks, I should probably have said that the basement walls have vents leading right outside, so I can guarantee a fresh supply of air by placing the tent next to one of these vents - even run some ducting. But it'll be cold air and at this time of year, probably introducing the need to run heaters.

Understood re: autoflower. I was hoping they'd be good for a beginner but will roll with photos if that's generally better. I was just looking for a quick first yield!

 

[Wizzlebiz]

Thanks, I should probably have said that the basement walls have vents leading right outside, so I can guarantee a fresh supply of air by placing the tent next to one of these vents - even run some ducting. But it'll be cold air and at this time of year, probably introducing the need to run heaters.

Understood re: autoflower. I was hoping they'd be good for a beginner but will roll with photos if that's generally better. I was just looking for a quick first yield!

Photos can finish just as fast as an auto if you want it too.

Autos have a massive learning curve to them. So yea go photo 1st then do an auto if you want for the experience.

 

[ComfortCreator]

If people will come in the room that shouldn't, thats a NO, because you cannot truly hide it when in full flower.

Basement can and will work well imo. So you have a few environmental issues, we all do. The good part is basements tend to be cold. The lights will counter that. The only real issue eventually may be humidity esp in summer....a dehumidifier fixes that if needed.

Imo grow 2 or more plants, its more fun and more yield. Try 2 strains and have more fun.

The benefit of auto is you can setup one grow bag or pot and thats all you have to do...no transplants and faster finish. Nothing wrong with auto to start imo...just dont try to be a hero, let it grow and dont mess with it.

Plan ahead a little...if this is successful would you get a bigger tent? Would you get more or better lights? Do it well once vs dipping your toes first. Get the bigger tent and better lights if you see yourself doing this over and over.

 

[mysunnyboy]

In basement setup if you’ve got vents and say air in, remember there smell will go out.

 

[fruitgrass9]

If people will come in the room that shouldn't, thats a NO, because you cannot truly hide it when in full flower.

Basement can and will work well imo. So you have a few environmental issues, we all do. The good part is basements tend to be cold. The lights will counter that. The only real issue eventually may be humidity esp in summer....a dehumidifier fixes that if needed.

Imo grow 2 or more plants, its more fun and more yield. Try 2 strains and have more fun.

The benefit of auto is you can setup one grow bag or pot and thats all you have to do...no transplants and faster finish. Nothing wrong with auto to start imo...just dont try to be a hero, let it grow and dont mess with it.

Plan ahead a little...if this is successful would you get a bigger tent? Would you get more or better lights? Do it well once vs dipping your toes first. Get the bigger tent and better lights if you see yourself doing this over and over.

Appreciated thank you, this does however mean I'm restricted to a tent size of 100CM but that shouldn't be a problem if I'm growing low height autos?

Genuinely, I'm not interested in increasing the size of tent or lights. I have no interest in selling or scaling up any kind of operation. I simply want a discreet method to grow for myself. I'm not a big smoker. Just a couple bongs at the weekend is good enough for me.

Living on a small island the mail system is closely monitored and the local market is very expensive for low quality crap.

So the safer option is a small private grow.

 

[go go kid]

shame about the head height in the basement, spare bedroom, its good to have space to move around in and you dont have to worry about a strain that may grow taller as you haveall the hight you need

 

[fruitgrass9]

shame about the head height in the basement, spare bedroom, its good to have space to move around in and you dont have to worry about a strain that may grow taller as you haveall the hight you need

It certainly is, the spare bedroom would be idea. As you walk through the door you can see the entire room in front of you, but you can actually turn 180deg and walk down a 1.5m wide section (picture the down slope of a roof), so it'd be around 2 meters away from the door entry and in the opposite direction in the corner. The plan was to have a Rhino carbon with bathroom 4" face and controller. But the more I think about it the more risky it is.

Being in the UK climate I may have to insulate the tent if it was underneath the house? I'm also wondering if it'd be best to exhaust the air outside the wall vent and allow natural intake through bottom vents. May be slightly warmer.

Happy to be restricted to low height strains, plus I'm happy to experiment with LST to encourage wider grows.

It's a tough shout. I guess I can always go for the safer option first, see how stinky it is, All the equipment can be reused aside from switching to a different tent I guess...

Temp wise though, is it going to be an issue under the house?

 

[go go kid]

good point, dont want peeps coming round and smelling your crop. im lucky, my whole family knows what i get up too, so no worries there

 

[ComfortCreator]

Temps will only be cold in the beginning of veg, after that the lights in a small tent should be ok. A small space heater can do the job in a tent. Short tent is fine, it helps define what strains to grow and how to grow them. Im not sure on final tent size but the small oil filled heaters are safer and more economical. If you only grow one plant, enviro control should be easy.

Another thought is to insulate a small area in the basement (we call it a crawl space here) cheaply...not the tent. That would really solve it and i bet there are a few people here that have a design ready to go. Could you put some roll insulation in an area and then be able to better control temps.

I have tried insulating a tent...i.e. blankets etc, it has not worked ime.