First Time Grow - Setup Suggestions

Hey everyone!

In the past year or so I've been reading about growing and watching multiple grows and I really feel like it's time for me to start. My space is my little closet in my room (how cliche) and I have an idea of a lot of the items and how to setup everything. However, I need some help.

So to start here's what I plan on doing in the closet:

First, unscrew the door and hang an "Emergency Thermal Blanket" in the doorway, cutting a slit down the middle to walk through. Next is tocover the floor with a white or black plastic to make clean up easier. Then put my light fixtures up (won't need them until vegetative state) and also put up more Thermal Blankets around the walls for reflective properties.

After the basics are all done and ready I'm going to go ahead and germinate my seeds using a damp paper towel and a plastic bag (old school). Plant them in small planter cups after germination and wait for them to sprout.

Now I don't want to bore you with all of the details, I'm just telling y'all what I'm doing.

I plan on using 2x 40W CFLs per plant and then 1x 100W Blue (cool) CFL for encouraging female plants instead of males. I'm sort of lost after that.. I don't really know what nutrients to use and also if the bulbs are even close to what I need... I'm also going to be using Coco Coir as a growing medium. I like hydroponics a lot.

Thanks to everyone who helps and gives me some feedback.

Also remember, I haven't set this up yet so I don't have any pictures but I will be keeping a diary/log once I have everything figured out.

My strain of choice is: Bubblegum

Edit - I think I might have posted this in the wrong section, damn.

first of, welcome, and nice you did some "home work"

instead of worrying about light to encourages females buy Femi seed`s

worry about Kelvin for the different grow stages

emergency blankets works well



CFLs are nice and cheap but you will need a lot of em, and in the right Kelvin to have a chance to do good with em, and you need to keep em close (2-4 inch`s) so a grow technique like LST or a scrog is advisable IMO

I dont know the size of your closed or how much space or money you have to work with, but a HID or a LED fixture would also be sumthing to look in to IMO

but Im missing sumthing on your list, some kind of ventilation, it is as important as the light, with out it your plants wont get fresh air/co2 and you risk mold/mildew plus you will probably have a hard time with temperatures and once they flower you would also like to have the option to fit a active carbon filter on it unless you want to hole street to smell of fresh weed plants


coco is a nice choice, just remember to treat it like hydro, IMO you will need a quality PH/Ec pen and some extra Ca/Mg to add to what ever nutrients you choose to go with as coco don't contains any and have a tendency to lock in specially the Ca (Ca = calcium Mg = Magnesium) and I would also advice you to add some perlite to the mix, like 20% give or take

emergency blankets rock for cheap mylar, but its gonna be abit to flimsy for a curtain doorway (it wont completely block all light in/out and it will flap in any breeze), for wall covering they are great. a $2 tarp will serve better for a door curtain. you will need sum sort of ventilation, if you can ventilate some other way i would suggest leaving the door on to control your light better but being a closet you'r prolly lookin at the doorway for your air-flow, maybe 2 small fans one hi blowing out the door way and one lo on the floor bringin fresh air in. for lights it may be more efficient to put in a "shop light" (4' dual T8 rig, el cheapos at wallyworld) then suppliment as needed w the cfls, maybe dual vertical shop-lights w cfls hanging topside (canopy penetration is tricky w flouros). for hydro' your definitly gonna want some sorta meter to read your pH and PPM levels, when i built my hydro' setup the key pcs of gear i bought were: an HID light, a tri-meter, a pump, a bag-o-emergency blankets, everything else i found hangin around the house

IN MY OPINION YOU HAVE GOT ALL GOOD ADICE,( Im a organic soil grower, so im not giving any info on hydro Just FYI) I just thought I would add, closet grows are nitrous for HEAT and you are talking about putting up a shield that is just going to make it raise. That to me is the problem with closet (heat), but also it depend on what lights, Keep the upset, and buy Feminized seeds its worth it! Unless you just cant order I understand, How many plants are you wanting, I would think You are going to need more light, since you are going the CFL route, I don't have much more advice about lighting for you because I have not tried and don't give advice if im not sure, Your Temps stay nice in your closet area? ....Rotating Fans are inexpensive and help a lot, bring and take old air out, Anyway the more details you tell us the more we can help you regardless good luck, EVERYONE has to start somewhere! One Love!

Thank you all for the warm welcome and all of the great advice! I definitely will be taking from each of your posts in one way or another.

Beautiful plant Slipon, is she an Indica or a hybrid? I'm only guessing from the leaves.

Anyway,

I'm definitely going with CFLs just because of price range however, I might buy 1 HID for a top light or something along those lines. For a shop light, can I use any type of shop light or does it have to be in a specific range because I have one in my garage for the car. I want to setup my lights like this, 1 in the front and back of the plant, 2 on each side and 1 on top. Unless that is too much light.

My closet is actually pretty good at retaining heat or cold when the door is shut and when It's open, it usually takes on the temperature of the room. The room never goes below 70° and never above 85°. If I put fans blowing in and out hot and cold air with the lights, then it should be a nice warm 75-80.

The thermal blanket probably would have fallen or ripped so I'm sure I would have figured that one out on my own but I'm going to take tbird's advice and get a 2$ tarp.

Also thanks for the suggestions of filters, my mother actually told me to get a carbon filter before I posted

Does anyone have suggestions on accurate and cheap PH meters? And what about Ca and Mg, what should I buy that has that? Surely not pure forms. And also what range of Kelvin should my bulbs be in?

Thanks everyone, you're all so awesome.