first grow setup, any help

so here is my setup for my first grow any help or advice would be sweet, space is 4foot by 4foot by 8 foot high, room is covered in mylar, my lights are 400 watt mh for growth and 400whps for bloom, unfortunately no fluoro??
goin organic with biobizz soil and nutrients, will be fed manually for the whole cycle. goin with the usual 18 on 6 off then 12 on 12 off for bloom, goin with some dp super skunk and 3 plants in the space provided, any help or useful tips would be helpful, the biggest question is whether i have to buy a fluoro for the seedling stage or will the mh be ok?? cheers all.p

Pglcfc said:

so here is my setup for my first grow any help or advice would be sweet, space is 4foot by 4foot by 8 foot high, room is covered in mylar, my lights are 400 watt mh for growth and 400whps for bloom, unfortunately no fluoro??
goin organic with biobizz soil and nutrients, will be fed manually for the whole cycle. goin with the usual 18 on 6 off then 12 on 12 off for bloom, goin with some dp super skunk and 3 plants in the space provided, any help or useful tips would be helpful, the biggest question is whether i have to buy a fluoro for the seedling stage or will the mh be ok?? cheers all.p

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Yer good bud! But A few CFL's are good for your seedling stage. MH Can be used but keep the distance far, or use a light diffuser for a bit.

Oh and how you venting that? your gunna need a half decent exhaust system for that closet.

yeh defo CFL would be best for seedling stage.
I used one 45w cfl for the first part of the growth of my 8 girls. It worked pretty well.
No point wasting electricity with an MH when ya cant use it to its full potential at the early stages of the grow

Also look at ventallation as the 400w lamp and ballast will get hot and the room will also quickly get very warm.

Hope this helps.
good luck with your grow.

yea still trying to figure that 1 out?? the cupboard is way indoors with no potential outlet other than a fan leading to my kitchen so not really sure what to do there?? was just gonna see how the air was for the first couple of weeks and then try to remedy it after that?? any ideas? although i have no outlet the cupboard onlly leads to my kitchen and no option of making holes?? was just gonna use a small fan and hope theres enough ventilation under the door??? probably not a good idea? ,im also in the uk so heat will be no prroblem! i hope!!! so if ii should defo get a flouro does anyone know a decent retailer i can pick one up cheap to suit 2-3 plants??? cheers for all the help, rep added to u all

Pglcfc said:

yea still trying to figure that 1 out?? the cupboard is way indoors with no potential outlet other than a fan leading to my kitchen so not really sure what to do there?? was just gonna see how the air was for the first couple of weeks and then try to remedy it after that?? any ideas? although i have no outlet the cupboard onlly leads to my kitchen and no option of making holes?? was just gonna use a small fan and hope theres enough ventilation under the door??? probably not a good idea? ,im also in the uk so heat will be no prroblem! i hope!!! so if ii should defo get a flouro does anyone know a decent retailer i can pick one up cheap to suit 2-3 plants??? cheers for all the help, rep added to u all

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Here are some Essentials to try and follow.

1. Ventalation - A small fan to circulate air within the grow is a MUST for strong stems. IF YOU CANNOT provide fresh intake air and exhaust the heat you must purge the room of it's air twice daily. DO NOT LET your plants sustain heat of 90 deg or more.

2. Hard Wire an electrical outlet into the cupboard from your line feeding the kitchen fan. Maybe use an old extention cord, or vaccuum cord.

3. Floro's - Get yourself a few 42w CFL lights. You want your spectrum to be 6500k ALSO known as DAYLIGHT. Use these for your VEGITATIVE phase, if you plan on flowering with CFL's too then buy a second set but with a 2700k color temp. ALSO known as Soft white,

OOPS I FORGOT> Yea man if you are going to plan on using that 400W HPS....then YOU MUST have a way to get rid of the heat. 4x4x8 will reach over 110F with no exhaust and a light of that calibur.

Sly does not lie, you will get way too hot with an HID without cooling. Happened to me. My closet is a lil bigger with a 600 in it, believe me venting can be nightmarish but worth it once its done. If you really need to save money and your ballast has a dimmer, you could easily put the light at the top of the closet, set to 50%, and step it up by lowering the light and increasing brightness as your plants grow.

Yo Pglcfc, where abouts are you in the UK are you from?
Im from Yorkshire.

I know what ya saying about temps not being to much of a problem cos its coming to winter now
but If you get your venting problem sorted before you start the grow it would save you alot of hassle
once you start.

I made the mistake of thinking my grow room wouldnt get too hot with a 250w MH. I was just venting
out of the grow tent into the room the tent was in. the high temps I was getting was un-expected and
I had started my grow so my prority was to sort out the ventalation ASAP!

Best advice for you is to test run everything all in good time before you start your grow. then you can mess
around with your set up till you get it close to its sweet spot.

I had to make a hole to sort mine out or my plants would probably be slow roasted now and be close to death! lol

cheers all for the help, now gonna have to rethink the whole grow cos making vent holes is not an option oh well maybe cfls are the way to go for less heat, time to have a rethink, cheers all

Pglcfc said:

cheers all for the help, now gonna have to rethink the whole grow cos making vent holes is not an option oh well maybe cfls are the way to go for less heat, time to have a rethink, cheers all

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CFL's are FOR sure a good solution to venting issues. If you say you have 3 plants, then i would buy a MINIMUM of 2 - 42Watt CFL's per plant. These light bulbs are most effective if you're able to move them frequently. And Mount them at 45 Degree Angle. Keeping a distence from the plants of like 2" inches throughout their entire grow. Best thing I found is make a reflective shade for the CLF's and use "Y" splitter light sockets. Allowing 2 bulbs to hang at 45 Deg giving great light coverage. Here's a picture of what my old setup looked like.