First Grow - Small/Indoors

Hiya,

I'm looking to start up a small grow preferably in my cupboard but we can find somewhere bigger if necessary. I am not bothered about how much we get, at least for the first few times, more interested in how to get it set up properly. I have been looking on this website, google and watching videos on it for some time and have got properly confused with all the information. So I just want some information on creating the most BASIC of grows.

Lights: Fluorescent for the Vegetation I get but what watt/power?
And then I got told a 400 Watt High Pressure Sodium Bulb for the flowering. Would this work in a space as small as mine?

I need some way to quell the smell of it. I heard about charcoal canisters but a google search told me they were fitted to cars. I just wondered how I would adapt them to work in my grow or if there were alternatives.

Watering I'm thinking about just using tap water that has been left for a day, and then just water whenever they begin to droop? But I'm going to pick up a PH tester and moisture tester if I can find some cheap ones.

Soil - On most I've found (Albeit I haven't gone to my store yet just Amazon and the similar) that I cannot get the Ph values and as such don't know which to buy. Will it matter that much and can I change it in any way?

Like I said, I'm just growing it in my cupboard for personal use. Any information about setting up a very small grow like mine will be appreciated, but keep in mind that I have never grown ANYTHING before and would like to keep it as simple as possible for the time being.

Is there anything else I'm missing here?

for a small grow like that id say just run cfls..theyre cheap and you can use them seed to harvest..i think a 400whps is a little overkill for a small grow like this and you could run into heat problems using this..you can use daylight(6500k) for veg and soft white(2700k) for flowering..and i would suggest ona gel, you can find it on amazon..same thing with soil..some soils like foxfarms ocean forest is too hot for seedlings, so they have a seedling mix called light warrior..and yeah getting a ph meter is essential.

How big is your closet? This is important when considering the size of the light.

A 400W mh or hps is a great choice. You should easily be able to get over 1/4lb. Experienced growers can get a whole pound from a light like that.

You dont need a separate light for vegging. A mh lamp is ideal. An hps will do very well. Keep it simple to start. You can embelish later

Get a good quality potting soil. Fox Farm Ocean Forest is a popular choice (its what I use) but it's very spendy. My advice is avoid Miracle Grow. People do use it for and get good results but it's kinda tricky. FF OF soil is at ph 6.5 or 6.8 cant remember which.

I am running a closet grow. You can see my setup here. I describe how I set mine up over several posts. It will give you an idea of what can be done.

Tap water is usually fine but you might have to adjust the ph.

Putting dolomite lime in your soil will stabilize the ph to around 7 and give you less to worry about.

Odor is usually managed with carbon filters which you can find at the online hydroponics stores or you can build for yourself easily and cheaply. There are several DIY threads for this on RIU.

A 400W lamp in a closet probably needs to be air cooled. Based on what you decide to do about that, you can design the airflow for your room. You will probably need an inline vortex fan. You also have to think about where you will exhaust the hot air. All this is very dependent on the size of your grow space so let's start with that.

I wish you good luck

Thanks for the quick replies.

The closet is around 2x3x7 ft, I'm literally only looking to grow a couple maybe even just one plant to begin with and then can expand once I understand the procedure better.

For lights with the Suggestion of CFL's would these do the job:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watt-Envirolite-2700K-Grow-Light/dp/B004X5TSKG/ref=sr_1_13?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1318115305&sr=1-13
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watt-Blue-Envirolite-6100K-Grow/dp/B004X5TSHY/ref=sr_1_12?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1318115305&sr=1-12

Other than that there is this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Budget-Quality-Pressure-Sodium-Starter/dp/B004X5U1IO/ref=sr_1_4?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1318115628&sr=1-4

In terms of soil Fox Farms isn't available in the UK, so instead I've heard good things from 420UK about Bat Mix which I think I'll be going with.

So on top of those lights and soil I'll need:
PH Meter
Humidity Meter
PH Adjusters
Carbon Filter of some description
Nutrients for the plants
and obviously pots, trays etc.

Then I'll be pretty much setup. Any problems or anything I've missed? And I'll be checking out your setup zvuv, thanks.

yeah those lights will work but you dont use a carbon filter unless youre running a whole air system like with intakes and exhausts and fans.. you can just use ona gel for the smell..since it will be a small grow i would go with ona. thats what i use.

A 2x3 ft floor space is perfect for a 250W MH or HPS. You could probably manage the heat just with an exhaust fan. I agree with Desr, carbon filter is probably overkill. It depends somewhat on the strain but even then you dont usually need it till later in the grow.

Price out the 250W MH before you make your final decision. Watt for watt HID lights produce more yield and I think you will find the cost is similar.

The UK growers would know the best soils available there, so that sounds good.

You also need:

Oscillating fan.
Exhaust fan.
Light proofing material
Light reflecting material
Jiffy or similar rooting plugs for seeds and clones
Small microscope for trichomes
Plant ties for training branches
One of those big plastic trays or some kind of shallow basin to set the pots in would be nice
Electrical tape (for when you break something off)
Soil moisture meter.