Grow room setup advice...please!

Hey guys, due to the global econmic shit I have finally decided to grow my own! ive been doing a good bit of internet research over the past few weeks but im still unclear on a few things. I have started construction of a grow room in my attic, its 4ft wide, 5ft long and 6ft high - 98cuft volume and 20sqft growing area. I could really do with some advice on a few questions if anyone can help!

1) I am considering getting two HPS 400W grow lights with ballast and reflectors. From my understanding HPS is deficient in blue light. To counteract this I was looking at getting 2-4 LED panels with 225 LEDs on each. Do you think this will create a better all round spectrum? If not, what would you suggest I do? Also, is this a bit excessive for the area of my grow room?

2) With regard to ventilation, I am looking at a 125mm fan which can move up to 190 cubic meters per hour. Is this sufficient? Can I draw the air from inside the attic into the growroom and then vent it outside the house?

3) For my growing medium I have decided to use soil instead of hydroponics. I have bought Peat free compost, Perlite and Vermiculite. What mixture ratio would you suggest I use? Should I get some fertiliser/supplements?

4) The inside of the room is lined with 10mm white corrigated plastic. Is this sufficient to radiate the light or do I have to do something else?

Any advice or opinions would be a great help and much appreciated!

Thanks!

P

Wish I had the money for all that... sucks being a teen with no job trying to grow with CFL's... haha all around... it sounds damn good... but thats just me...

hay there, sounds good, few segestions tho... if you are going that direction with lights, forget the led's and get 2 x 600w'rs with reflectors, 400W is fine but a 600W is more efficient and has almost twice the light at only half the power increase. But it also adds a lot more heat too so you have to look at that as well.

with that said, you need way bigger fans for an attic grow, all your household heat goes there member, and 400's or what not make big heat too. get a good 6" inline exaughst fan and run it for the exaust, make vents in the room so the exaust fan can such in the fresh air while it works (200 to 500 cfm).

as for the medium... mixing those 3 things, 1 part of each to a mix will work great, even go less with the perlite but not the other 2, i would mix 1 part per evenly myself.

and the plastic on the walls.... how shinny is it, i think i know the stuff you are talkin about and it would work good, or just get a roll of mylar and wrap it too, but the plastic should work, i'm just a HUGE fan of mylar.

hope this helps, only my own opions

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I certainly have learned alot from the forums but I recommend watching Mr. Green video's on youtube for a nice overview on building a really nice grow setup... there's also other video links through the grow faq's but they weren't working when went to check them out.

1) How many plants do you want to be able to grow/yield your looking for? Lights... I would veg/mother/clones under sets of CFLs/T-5s which you can get in cool blue and cool white.

2) How hot is it in your attic? (you want fresher cooler air if your attic is hot, the HPS can get pretty hot especially 2.

3) Soil wise, go to the grow faq's or organic forum and you will see a good recipe for organic soil loaded with goodies including what you already bought... you will want to add bat guano and some other things to make a super mixture.

4) If you want to spend the money you can got to high tech garden supply and order a roll of mylar... I think white plastic is 88% reflective and mylar is 95+ but others might want to weigh in on that one.

I don't know about the fan... I have three total one 4" at the top pushing air out the duct, one 4" at the bottom pulling cool basement air in and one offset of the plants keeping air circulating up creating a vortex which keeps air flowing on the plants.

Always fun to be building your first big grow room I'm working on my second

heres some advice buddy get a timer, hps, cfls or tubes, new desent soil, seeds and air circulation and thats the basics plant one seed per container and put under cfls or tubes on 18/6 or 24 wait a couple weeks remember keep moist when lookin good put them under a hps(150w or more) on 12 hours on 12 hours off untill they show sex kill the males put females in bigger containers and feed some basic nutes and there u go
get your lights here www.insidesun.com
some important things to keep in mind and the most impotant of course
1.a timer 2. a hps 3. soil 4. seeds 5. fresh air 6. knowledge
peace out and good luck