First Grow, Need Help using this Space Efficiently

What's up all?
I'm looking to start my first grow (after about 17-18 years of smoking). Moved half way across the country and don't have a hookup anymore and I need smoke as family is stressing me out. Also I finally have a place to grow unlike other homes I occupied.
It'll actually take me a bit to come up with the funds for my first grow, so trying to plan everything out in advance.

I have an extra closet in my room that I plan on turning into my grow room, except it's under the stairs (in the basement, so temps stay fairly stable, fairly being the key word) so it has a slanted ceiling.


I also have made a model of it in GoogleSketchup that I've uploaded in a .zip if anyone wants to check that out (Google Sketchup is free btw).
View attachment Closet GoogleSketchup.zip

My problem is the tallest area in the room is where I enter through. So I can't really use that part to grow in.
My entrance door is only about 30" tall so I was thinking of building a shelf above door to use for vegging or drying if possible.
I plan on only growing maybe 4 plants (max, only for personal), so I plan on using a 400W HPS. I'm just not sure if there's enough height in the slanted area to be able to raise the light high enough to not burn the plants. I did plan on doing SCROG though since I was limited for room. I plan on buying or building a cool tube though to help with heat issues.

I'd also eventually like to make a vegging area in there, but again not sure how to use that closet space efficiently. I'll also need to do my drying/curing in there.
From my rough calculations I think I have about 90 sqft in there.
I also am only able to intake from my basement, not outside (which is ideal). I'm also only able to Exhaust to basement (in a different room than intake, which again isn't ideal, but all I can do)

Could I get by with a 4" inline fan or any other fan with about 250 CFM? I plan on having a carbon filter (a 4" if that'd work for my purpose, otherwise a 6").
I'm figuring I'd use 3 gallon pots (do they make 4 gallon?, I've only seen 3 and 5 at the places I've looked).
Was going to maybe do NL or Super Skunk from Nirvana as I've heard they are good beginner plants. Would like to do WW, AK 48, Bubblelicious, Blue Mystic sometime also.

So does anyone have any help or advice on how to setup my grow room or what you would do with it?
Thank you much.

it would be tough to section that off for 2 areas,1 to veg & 1 to flower.could you cut an access panel on the side to have a veg area where the stairs are lower? have you considered autoflowering plants? or 1 area to do a grow from start to finish from seeds? if so think femmed seeds or start many more than you need.
a carbon filter will put a strain on an inline fan,you may need a bigger fan.

Cool Thanks for the input.
I'm not sure I know what you mean about cut an access panel on the side for veg area.
I have looked into autoflower, which I was thinking about doing at same time as regular seeds, just to get some smoke faster.
I want to beable to clone though, so auto's are out of the question for that reason.
I don't want to mess with Femmed seeds as I've read they can turn hermie's fairly easy. I just planned on starting all 10 from pack and whatever females I get (whether it be 5 or 1) that's what I'll grow/finish and I was going to clone the best looking female out of that bunch.
From a Exhaust Fan CFM Calculator I found for my size of room (without angled ceiling, just sq ft of normal room with my dimensions) it says 36 CFM to exchange air every 5 mins and 180 CFM to exchange air every 1 min. So I figure with my angled ceiling it'd be half that.
So I figured a 4" inline fan would suffice. If I have to do a 6" inline then I'll get a 6". Just trying to save some cash though.
Would a 4" Carbon Filter (DIY probably) be enough for the few plants I plan on growing?
Thanks for the advice and input. Much appreciated.

Here are pics of closet front view and side view as done in Sketchup


**Or Not have a shelf and put Pots in taller area and just move them when I enter/leave, but wasn't sure if they'd be too bushy to have right by door**

BTW those are 10" wide x 10" deep pots (Everything in room and including room are to Scale)

Is that do able?

Slow2Grow said:

.....I'm not sure I know what you mean about cut an access panel on the side for veg area.....

Click to expand...

from your orignal picts, I thought your door was on the end not the side. I was thinking of another door/access panel down the wall from when the door is.
for the size of the area you have, I would not make it a walk in closet but use the whole space for growing and make the highest 3-4 feet for flower, devide the next 3-4 feet for mothers, veg & clones. you will need to make a light proof wall between the 2 sections.

Slow2Grow said:

...I don't want to mess with Femmed seeds as I've read they can turn hermie's fairly easy....

Click to expand...

it can happen but its not that easy. when I first started,I worried about shit like that but I have a small closet w/ 150 hps that I use for keeping a male or to isolate clones,ect. just to see what happens,I have stressed the shit out of a plant a few times - drought till bad wilt followed by flooding while messing w/ the light cycle. while the plants(& yeild) suffered, never got a hermie.

Slow2Grow said:

...Would a 4" Carbon Filter (DIY probably) be enough for the few plants I plan on growing?.....

Click to expand...

it should. the only way to tell is to try it.

Thank you much for reply.

Well from what I've read I would need only about 46.5 CFM Fan to exchange air every 3 mins. in my room.
Like I said from Exhaust fan Calculator with my room dimensions I'd need about 46.5 CFM Fan to exchange air every 3 mins. Then I added 5% for air cooled hood and the 20% for carbon filter. So it comes up to about 46.5 CFM total. Seems kinda low, but that's what I've come up with given the calculations. But then again my room is only about 111.75 sq ft.
Does that sound right to anyone else? If not can you explain why and what I calculated wrong. Like I said I'm just going by a Calculator I found online and an Airflow formula I found in the "Fans Thread!...?" here.
Although I'd probably get a fan rated at about 70-90 CFM is that'll work.

I'm not sure about filling up room with Plants and clones. I really don't want to have excess smoke laying around (I'm not planning on selling ANY). Just enough to get me from one harvest to the next. I'm figuring I'd probably go through a zip or two a month (I really have no idea and probably won't take much at first since I haven't smoked in months).
I was originally just going to do 2 plants and hope I got about 5-6 oz off them. I think that would last me a good 3-4 months. But again I have no idea.

Figuring I'd need about 1' x 2' for a clone area (I need to add that to my Sketchup Model).

I'll still probably just get reg. seeds. Cheaper that way and I only need a couple females.

I do plan on covering entire room in Panda Poly and I can make a divider with some also.

I'm going to have to get back to messing with Sketchup, but having problems making a model of a cooltube and getting it centered where I plan on using it.
Still learning with the program, but alot of fun to mess with.

Thanks again mrmadcow. Your replies are much appreciated.

Also besides my other questions. About how far apart should I have the Pots from the wall and from each other? Or Plant stems from wall or each other? Could I have 10" pots touching each other?
I've tried searching how far apart, but just find a bunch of random posts. That way I can figure out where to put plants to have enough room.
About how far away should I keep a 400W cool tube keep from plants. That way I know how deep in closet I can place plants.

Another question. If I used Panda Poly to divide the room. What would be the best way to ventilate both chambers with keeping each chamber light proof?

Hey man, good to hear you're going to start growing! It's extremely fun in my opinion and wildly addictive! Anyways, when I went to get an in-line fan I remember the 6" fan was like 2.5x the CFM and only like $7 more (could be different now), but I was really glad i got the 6 inch when I got home. (I have a small area as well). As far as the pots, you could have them touch each other for a while, it gives them 5 inches for each plant to grow toward each other. As for position, if temperature isn't an issue, I'd say 5-6 inches away.

Cool thank for the help man.
Glad atleast 2 of you (out of 136 views) decided to chime in and help with a couple of my questions.

Well I got about $150 of cash to spend (for starters) for starting my grow.
What should be the first items I purchase?
Do I buy a 400W hps system? Do I buy some CFL's, Seeds, Panda Poly and Soil?
Or should I just save the money till I have a bit more extra cash?
I really would like to get started ASAP cause I need some smoke ASAP, but I don't want to be stupid about it either.
I'm afraid if I do the CFL's the plants will grow too big before I have extra cash to buy HPS light, Fan and Carbon Filter.

Also with the HPS lights, should I really get a cool tube? Or could I modify a reflector into a cool tube.
Just asking cause of course normal reflectors are cheaper and I've seen 600W HPS digital system (Normal wing reflector) for $165 and wasn't sure if that was a good deal. Or should I pay $165 for a 400W cool tube?

If you have 150 dollars you definitely need to wait bro!! build that bankroll up if your trying to do a legitimate grow. Keep doin a bit more research man, you don't wanna waste any money from the start buying inferior equipment and products. You want to be efficiently and fiscally responsible when build this grow area!

Alright then, thanks for the reply. I might get some Poly though to atleast line/enclose my closet space. Is $28.50 a good deal for a 10' x 25' roll (6 mil). Found that online on ebay.
I'm only going to be able to spend $500 on this grow though. So I am limited to the quality I can buy right now.
I wish I could spend more, but I won't beable to. I won't be selling any of it, so I'll be eating any cost I put into this.
Thanks again.

Think I'm going to have to join more forums as people here seem partial to answering questions. 250 views and only had 3 different people reply. Thought this was a community for getting help to grow, guess I was wrong.