First Grow, 400W Closet Setup

Hello all! I've been lurking around here, reading quite a bit and figured it was time to post today.

This is my first marijuana grow but I have been growing plants of all kinds (houseplants, vegetables, fruit, flowers... you get the idea) pretty much since I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are helping my grandpa and father with their respective gardens/landscaping. The point? I have a pretty good knowledge of what it takes to keep plants in general healthy and happy, just not lots of the details (and there are lots of them!) related specifically to this plant. Anyway...

I have no idea what strain it is. It is bagseed that I decided to practice on, not wanting to drop even more cash for good seeds only to eff it up. My inexperienced eye says possibly something indica-leaning as I understand sativas have narrower leaves, but I really have no clue. Feel free to help me out there

For light I have a 400W ballast, switchable for MH or HPS. As of today they have been under the MH for 12 days on an 18/6 cycle. Before that they were sitting in a sunny window sill in my room for about 2 weeks. Some quick numbers games: I did some calculations on cost and efficiency for my light. I have a Kill-A-Watt that I used to check the power consumption on the ballast. Turns out my cheapo Chinese 400W ballast has an input power of 410-435 watts, depending on its temperature (a cool ballast is a happy ballast!), for efficiency of 92-97%. That is assuming 400W at the lamp. Pretty good for a cheapo ballast, if you ask me. Looking at my last few power bills, I calculated that best-case it is costing me $0.75/day whereas worst-case it is $2.47/day. I'm thinking it will ultimately fall somewhere in the high middle, maybe $1.75-2.00/day, which hits pretty close to my initial estimate a few weeks ago on monthly cost. Keep in mind that is for a veg cycle, with summer electricity prices. Flowering will be cheaper, and winter electricity prices will be a bit more. Enough of that? Ok

I germinated the seeds in Miracle Grow potting soil, waiting for me to get the rest of the equipment. Since transplanting, I have them in FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil. I have been giving them FoxFarm Grow Big and Hormex since the transplant. Watering/feeding has been taking place every 2-3 days. I have some Tiger Bloom ready and waiting for when the time comes. I read a couple threads that said to start that a week before switching over to 12/12, any opinions on that? I purchased a pH test kit and have been adding 2mL white vinegar per 1 gallon of water to get the pH where it should be. I just purchased some molasses today. I've read a bit about it, some people say it is OK to use in veg in smaller doses, others say only during the last 4-6 weeks of flowering. Any more input there? I also plan on purchasing some Final Phase when the time comes. If anyone has any suggestions on extra nutrients that won't break the bank (lots of them are $80-120 per quart or liter, not feasible for me right now) I'd love to hear about them. I also bought some yeast today, and will be mixing up a batch of yeast/water/sugar to place in my closet. I'm not sure it will do much, especially with the fan circulating air in there, but it can't hurt. I will also be putting together a homemade filter/fan combo in the next couple weeks.

Wow... lots of information there! So, right now I have 6 plants of unknown sex. They are from 8" to 10" tall, all topped. I'm planning on flowering them when they hit 15" or start showing signs of sex, whichever comes first. I'm hoping for at least 3 females, only time will tell. I already have ideas for what I want to try on the next grow, with a known strain. It won't involve topping.

Thanks for reading! This turned out quite a bit longer than I expected. Any input, comments, questions are encouraged and appreciated. I want to do this as well as I can and so far this site has been spectacular for helping me do that.

Damn dude. You have your shit together. I have the same basic setup as you. Except I bought clones from a dispensary. I would go ahead and say that yes they are indica but I couldn't tell you sex or anything. God Speed and I'll be watching. You'll get plenty of help here.

It's a nice indica w.e. it is
Keep doing what u doin and I will follow. Sounds Like a great setup. So many details bra

Two days ago I trimmed off 2 fan leaves off of each plant, one from each of the two main stalks of each plant, to open up the middle more and get those under branches some light. It seems to have worked, as they are all quite a bit bushier... it looks like I might have to trim more soon I also added some molasses to my nutrient mix this last feeding. It wasn't a measured amount, but was well below 1tsp/gallon... I'll be measuring it next time, as I had to add 2mL more vinegar to get the pH where it needs to be. All in all they seem to have liked it, they are all 10"-12" and growing happily. I think I'm going to continue the molasses in small doses for the veg. At this rate, I'll be starting 12/12 next Tues. or Wed.

This all seems to be coming along nicely... there is only one plant I'm not too happy with (the one in the bottom right) but it has always been the small scrawny one. I'm excited to find out how many of them are girls

Here are some pics for you, thanks for reading! (I should have started this in the journal section... mods, could you possibly move it?)

nice 400 watt closet grow bro, plants look reall healthy.

I think switching to 12/12 is going to be happening pretty quick. I have some Tiger Bloom here, and have read a couple threads that mentioned it was good to start that about a week before flowering. Does anyone know about that? Do I add that in addition to or instead of Grow Big?

Also, I was wrong before... I must have used the wrong little pipette for pH testing before, but adding molasses doesn't have any effect on my pH. If anything, it lowers the number.

Heres a link to fox farms site where they have a feeding schedule for your both hydro and soil. I follow the soil liquid nute chart with good results and no burn. hope this helps.
FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company

Nice, thanks! I didn't even think to check their website...

Hi, Dooby, this setup looks awesome, and I'm planning on running a 400w setup similar to this one myself. Would you happen to know how much your company is charging you per kWh?

Calijuana said:

Hi, Dooby, this setup looks awesome, and I'm planning on running a 400w setup similar to this one myself. Would you happen to know how much your company is charging you per kWh?

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At the low end it is about $0.07/kWh, at the high end about $0.32/kWh, but I'm sure that will change when they switch to "winter rates"

After evaluating the space I have available and seeing how bushy my plants are getting, I decided to start flowering today. I swapped out the MH for the HPS bulb and set the timer for 12/12. So begins the second half...

None of the plants are showing signs of sex yet, but that should change within the next week. I'm still hoping the runty one is a male, I've been wanting to chop it for some time now

I should also mention that my original goal with all of this was to get something set up that would let me consistently produce smoke, not just 3-4x/year. I had some ideas, and then I found Al B. Fuct's threads a few days ago and now have a plan. Once this grow is over, I'll be doing a scaled-down SOG, looking to get a harvest every 2 weeks.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for pics when the lights go on

Here it is, day 1 of flowering. One plant is almost 14", the rest are 11"-12". Started with the Tiger Bloom today, might still add a bit of Grow Big every 2nd or 3rd watering... we'll see. Sorry for the weird color, I need to either play with the settings on my camera or do more in photoshop. Maybe I'll get to the photoshopping once there is more to see than a bunch of leaves

I got excited because I thought I found a plant that had signs of being female... upon closer inspection, turns out it was just more baby leaves that looked very much like a bulb with two little hairs. D'oh!

Thanks for looking!

Plants are looking good as there bro! How come you got a seed you didn't know though? Wouldn't you be better off growing a plant you know about or at least want to be growin? Spose for practice that's not a bad idea. Keep it up man looking sweet!

Sedition said:

Plants are looking good as there bro! How come you got a seed you didn't know though? Wouldn't you be better off growing a plant you know about or at least want to be growin? Spose for practice that's not a bad idea. Keep it up man looking sweet!

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Thanks

I grew unknown seeds purely because I wanted the practice. I figured that as I went along I would learn more and ultimately figure out how to proceed and get what I wanted, which is consistent smoke. As I mentioned earlier, I found Al B. Fuct's SOG thread and I now have a solid idea of how to get what I want. I'll be picking up a dispensary clone or some seeds in the next couple weeks here, as well as a T5 (or similar) setup and vegging out a mother in preparation. Then the fun really begins

Nice healthy lookin bunch. Can't wait to get there again. I am dying to see my seedlings get there. Peace.

Looking very nice. Keep in mind when your plants get to the point where the buds are big and dense. To keep the humindy down below 50 percent at least during the on light time. When the lights are off the humidity will rise again so vent the space as soon as possible when the light comes back on.
Your plants look like your doing everything right, but you dont want mold getting on the plants or on the walls etc.
Humidity will build up quicker in a small closet grow.
Ive never had mold problems if the humidity was around 50 percent or less.
Good luck

johnny5fingers said:

Looking very nice. Keep in mind when your plants get to the point where the buds are big and dense. To keep the humindy down below 50 percent at least during the on light time. When the lights are off the humidity will rise again so vent the space as soon as possible when the light comes back on.
Your plants look like your doing everything right, but you dont want mold getting on the plants or on the walls etc.
Humidity will build up quicker in a small closet grow.
Ive never had mold problems if the humidity was around 50 percent or less.
Good luck

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Thanks for the tips! My humidity generally hovers in the 50-60% range. I have a little bit of ventilation running all the time and a min/max temp/humidity monitor so I should be ok, but I'll be sure to pay closer attention to that. I'll definitely be checking behind the mylar for mold once they are all done.

yes i just got my 400w in today and its pretty much better than x-mas...what kind of yield did you recieve with it?

wildfire97936 said:

yes i just got my 400w in today and its pretty much better than x-mas...what kind of yield did you recieve with it?

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Nothing yet, should know in about 8 weeks

ladies are lookin nice... i was thinking about doing a 400W closet grow. what r your dimensions of your closet. and like how far do u hang the light from the plants????