New comer

Hey guys, I'm a new grower; but just a history, I owned, and operated a successful nursery from 81 to 2007

I've got the green thumb, but this growing is a beast of its own.

My first few questions I have before I even begin growing.

I have a 5x10 office at my house (use to be a wash room) then converted into a office where ill be doing the grow.

I intend to purchase a 2x4x6.5 grow tent & start off basic with 4 to 8 plants...

But I need to know how bad the Odor will be, this is a deal breaker if the odor isn't controllable. I don't want any odor at all, and using the tent & scubber I am hoping its possible... Ill be sending all the air from the tent out side through the dryer vent...

What can I do to make sure I am good against odor?

This is the set up I am buying
http://www.hydrowholesale.com/viagrow-organic-grow-room-2-x-4-x-65-5428


Secondly, what can I do to protect my self against the choppers with heat sensors?

Once I can over come the odor question ill get into questions about growing

if you are putting the exhaust through the carbon filter, you should be fine with odor.

Are you saying you will be scrubbing the room as in re-circulating the grow room air through a carbon filter? If so this is specifically intended for "sealed" rooms I believe. You would want negative pressure so a simple passive or forced intake and a carbon filter hooked up to a exhaust fan(up and out your dryer vent) will take care of all odors except of course when grow room door is open.

HOLY HANNA! $600? Do you have a power drill, saw and staple gun? If so forget about buying a grow tent and build one. For less then 100 bucks one can build a grow room the size of your office. If you want more info on that let me know.

You don't have to worry about choppers, unless you are using 2,000+ watt in grow lights you don't even need to think about it.

A carbon filter will remove 95% of the smell in my experience - and I deliberately chose those strains regarded as the stinkiest in the world. I have always bought budget versions. The sellers claim that the quality is equal to more expensive ones, with just the lifespan being different. I would imagine the higher quality ones to be more efficient too though. If you picked low odour strains I am confident that you will be able to remove 99.9% of suspicious smells. You might get a very tiny amount of smell at lights off, but it will be a 'green' smell, like fresh cut grass (the other grass lol), not cannabis. If you also used some Ona gel (not used it myself) I think you could also totally remove that.

As for the chopper with heat sensor problem. It's not one I worry about. Unless your grow room is in an attic and the attic is not used regularly then I feel it's an overhyped problem. If you still feel it will worry you though, then I'm sure many others on here will be able to offer quality advice.

Red, The best recommendation you will get here is to buy a book. The book recommendation I have is "Marijuana Horticulture" by Jorge Cervantes to start; there are others. Greg Green's "The Cannabis Grow Bible" is another.

There are knowledgeable, well meaning people here but yahoos too. Why trust random people's opinion on the internet?

Otherwise "Google" your questions. Read the published literature. Try "Youtube" for visuals...FWIW...Good luck

Here is the small little issue I have, I don't smoke the bud I'm growing, matter a fact I might be the one grower here who's never smoked pot or anything before...

So when it comes down to odor, I can't have ANY odor in the house, what do I need to do to prevent any odors?

Also with the rig that I have posted, do you think ill need to cool the light down?

Ill go into my organic furtilizers that I was raised on...

I have a 200gal fresh water fish tank with a 2 14' oscars in the tank, they are about 7-8lbs each so they can get the water dirty quickly but I like to use the water I change to water my garden, I also take compost tea to fertilize & I often times would take egg shells, put them in the oven for 5mins at 300 degree get them crispy an I'd put them in a blender and crush them till they are powder. I'd take all the powder and put it in a 5 gal bucket along with 2 cups of Epsom salt...

But I understand there are other products on the market to specialize faster and large blooms so i am interested in how my method worked when growing a regular garden compared to this...

A friend I use to hunt with once said when he use to grow 5+ years ago all he ever used was fish emulsion & each of his plants were yielding half lbs - 1lbs each so when I told him I read on here, that no one is getting that on average he was rather shocked so is it because its in a tent?

Natural Gas said:

Red, The best recommendation you will get here is to buy a book. The book recommendation I have is "Marijuana Horticulture" by Jorge Cervantes to start; there are others. Greg Green's "The Cannabis Grow Bible" is another.

There are knowledgeable, well meaning people here but yahoos too. Why trust random people's opinion on the internet?

Otherwise "Google" your questions. Read the published literature. Try "Youtube" for visuals...FWIW...Good luck

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^ that's good advice.

This is a good video to start with;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWT9JKqwgIk&list=PL9988DAA5BC249847

Although I'm sure being an experienced gardener you will be able to discriminate between those offering good advice and poor advice.

I've done enough research for the last few weeks to know now its time to ask questions. I read more info, and right now all the info is slowly sinking in and the thing is, it never hurts to talk about methods that work because my first grow will be starting soon once the room is all set up. I wanted to first start with a hydro set up but I figured I will wait to do hydro until I've been come established, and the fear has ran out of my system.

I just like to be super safe. This means, I want to go above and beyond when trying to get rid of the odors. Doesn't hurt to go over and beyond. I like to over kill situations...

That is why I wanted to know what I can put on top of my grow tent to prevent heat from the choppers, I also wanted to know what I could use to prevent odor too.

the carbon filter that comes with your tent should be enough odor control... the suction of the carbon filter/in-line fan will create negative pressure thereby sucking in fresh air through the vents in your tent. With that negative pressure all the stink should be directly filtered through your carbon filter.
as far as for heat... the 400watt light that comes with your tent, I'm told only makes about as much of a heat signature as a hot water heater. Could this be detected? yes. Would it be enough for law enforcement to think you have a mega-grow and think you're worthy of a 4a.m. raid? I doubt it.

RedzoneFL said:

I've done enough research for the last few weeks to know now its time to ask questions. I read more info, and right now all the info is slowly sinking in and the thing is, it never hurts to talk about methods that work because my first grow will be starting soon once the room is all set up. I wanted to first start with a hydro set up but I figured I will wait to do hydro until I've been come established, and the fear has ran out of my system.

I just like to be super safe. This means, I want to go above and beyond when trying to get rid of the odors. Doesn't hurt to go over and beyond. I like to over kill situations...

That is why I wanted to know what I can put on top of my grow tent to prevent heat from the choppers, I also wanted to know what I could use to prevent odor too.

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Red, I, too, was in the ornamental horticulture biz in Apopka, assume you know Apopka...As a former nurseryman you MUST, also, know that every indoor space is different and must be dialed in...Temp, light, humidity, circulation (to include gas exchange) control...Then dialed in again for the genus then the species you are growing...nutes, water cycle, etc...Then, as a nurseryman, you grow the same plant over and over and over until you get propagation and production controlled. Duplication, then, becomes piece work and you show other folks how you do it while you make money...So let me reiterate; you are wasting time, brain cells and bandwidth asking obvious noobie questions that have been answered on RIU countless times before...You are, after all, a nurseryman. Pull out the Cervantes book I recommended above, see INTRODUCTION page xxvii, to answer your questions about security and odor control or pull out the horticulture books you MUST already own and follow the instructions. Don't pretend...It is better to learn and be good than it is to appear and sound good...Now, where did I put that joint I fired up ten minutes ago??? FWIW

Most say they get half pound to pound per plant, only some of us can actually do it. I'm also always wary of people who say "I use to grow".

Yield is more about light and knowledge, properly preparing a plant throughout veg for flower is everything. One can't just say they fed fish emulsion and boom pounder plants unless he was using a supersoil, I doubt a NPK of 5-1-1 or so would be doable throughout a grow. And talk about stink, use all fish emulsion's and see what kind of stink you will have.

LOL I had no clue that grow room came with everything. Never seen that before. Talk about lazy shopping.

First off, having a tent just makes things hotter. I would not use a tent unless it was for other things like light control.

If you want to be totally anal about smell you can run two filters. One just slowly recirculates the are in the room through the filter and the other filters before blowing out.
You may need a fan switch to slow the fans down. Running air too fast through a filter won't give the filter enough time to work. Filters are rated for air flow. Keep it well
below the rating and change every grow or other grow.

There are three kinds of indoor growers. Growers who have heat problems, growers who have AC bills and growers who live above the artic circle.

If you're growing indoors you won't get a pound a plant unless you have about 1000 watts per plant. Indoor grows ususally use more small plants to reduce veg time.

It sounds like you're doing soil. Soil doesn't use much water. You have maybe 5% runoff if you don't go crazy on the additives. I typically have my 4x4 table filled
fully with 6 plants in coco which uses more water than coco. I add no more than two pints of water a day. If you're mixing additives to your water you only need
to do it maybe once a week. If you are doing it constantly in soil it will build up. Plants need less nutrients than you think. Number one reason for fucking up a
grow is adding too much shit. Make some good soil, supplement infrequently.

Most of the shit they try to sell you is unnecessary. Even so, expect to spend money.

Plants need more light than you think. There are idiots here that think a 1000 watt light covers an 8x8 area. It doesn't It covers 3x3 to 4x4 depending on quality of reflector.
A 400 watt light is good for about one plant, maybe 300 grams on a very good day if you are experienced.

I would recommend you also buy a 4x4 table and 2 600 watt lights and use that tent to vege babies in unless you're just growing for yourself and a friend or two.


As far a choppers go, a .50 cal barret rifle will take care of most of them. If they are large and black, that is not a good idea since they may be armed.

What is the ideal soil that I should look into, I just ordered my books now but I read someone say one way to yield alot is to use great soil....

Of course you can get a half pound plant - if you veg and train it for three months and then give it a whole tent and flower it under 1000W

RedzoneFL said:

What is the ideal soil that I should look into, I just ordered my books now but I read someone say one way to yield alot is to use great soil....

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That's kind of inaccurate. If you want to yield a lot you grow hydro. Even coco yields on average more than a good soil.

I prefer soil, organic soil, because the finished herb is tastier. I would recommend 'BioBizz ALL MIX' and 'Canna Terra Professional' - both exceptionally good quality.

But if yield is the major factor then consider coco - your previous experience should equip you with the skill to exploit it.

Kervork said:

If you want to be totally anal about smell you can run two filters. One just slowly recirculates the are in the room through the filter and the other filters before blowing out.

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That's what I ended up doing - sorted it right out. But then I do love anal.

I'm not aware of what coco is, please explain that, thanks

Thought you'd done your research

It's a growing medium made from the rusk of coconut shells. It has no nutritional value, but behaves somewhat like soil. It is sort of a bridge between hydro and soil growing. As a medium it dries out more quickly (I assume due to the plant absorbing more quickly - but this is just an assumption). One thing is for certain, many growers increase their yield by switching from soil to coco.

https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/48979-idiots-guide-coco-coir.html

Don't you need a drip system for this to work?