I just signed up on the site. I used the site a long time ago and mainly lurked on the forum. I remember using the guide about how to rewire a Lowes HPS security light to use indoors which worked great. I’ve had some successful grows 10+ years ago, including ones with CFLs, but never got back into it due to places where I was at which didn’t have the best conditions.
I rent my current place and have been here almost a year. Landlord is always on vacation or out of town. I have not seen him in person in 2018 since I signed the lease last summer and got my keys then gave him the deposit. Maintenance man does everything, including collecting rent, and landlord says if anything breaks just get it fixed then give him a bill or deal with the maintenance man who is kinda shady. I only see him on the 4th of the month if rent isn’t paid so I try to catch him early and plan on paying in advance.
I just fix small stuff to avoid dealing with him. I have a security system up which monitors my outside and I get alerts due to it being a somewhat shady neighborhood sometimes, usually late afternoon or when its dark. So I know if the maintenance man is mowing or I get a package delivery because I get an alert on my phone. This makes me feel more comfortable in a closet grow. Nobody comes by unannounced.
Setup:
I have a 2’ D x 5’ W x 9’ H closet that I’m planning to grow 2 or 3 plants in doing screen of green.
The closet has a shelf about 6’ tall that I’m thinking I’ll leave the shelf and grow cuttings/clones when the grow is almost done to keep my personal supply going constantly. The plan is to keep the door to the room with a lock on it and have blinds plus heavy curtains to keep light from leaking out.
I haven’t bought a light yet but I’ve been following LEDs. I think I’ll order a 600 watt LED setup from overseas for about $80 that uses about 120 watts of power and seems more than enough lights. I’ll probably use it a grow or two then upgrade to 1000 watt LED. 10 years ago, the LEDs were expensive and the grow lights needed a lot of ventilation which had me interest in microgrows. I’m trying to keep this as minimal as possible and have done my research on lights. The room has excellent A/C and it stays 74 - 76 without a problem. My place has shade from trees outside so it helps keep the room naturally cooler.
My seeds are 15 bag seeds. My old stash was destroyed by a shitty ex-landlord who threw away all my stuff after saying storing my stuff for a week was OK. I brought back 20 seeds from Jamaica which she threw out with my stuff. I was so pissed but I can ask around and probably score some seeds however that kinda messes with my plan on keeping this as secret as possible.
I like sativas or sativa dominants to smoke before work and indicas to knock me out when I get home. I suspect most of the bag seeds are indica/indica dom.
I plan on making the screen from PVC. I’m not 100% sure on the screen material but I can probably find something at work or will find something searching on the forum. I plan on getting my light over the next 2-3 weeks.
Welcome aboard @AlLeppo. You will probably want more LED tag just 100-watts, but I understand budgets and all. You going to do soil, soiless, or hydro?
wow was i confused! @Uncle_Al looks like you’ve got a twinsy!
@AlLeppo honestly m80 the only number that matters is true wattage or PPFD/lumen output … a 120w fixture will probably not be able to flower a 2x5 area, it’s only 12w/sqf which is really low. you’d be better off buying a used 250 or 400w HPS for now or something, or for under $200 you could get 350w of high efficiency white light LEDs which would be best bet imo… you could always start your seeds in the windowsill or under screw in LED bulbs for now and you have a 4-8 weeks to get a bit more money together to buy a good fixture for flowering… just my 2c i look forward to following along anyways!
But as others said you will need more light for your space, figure about 35 actual watts per sqft of space for leds.
Lots of good cheaper options out there “sol strips and the likes” but If you handy and are on a real budget, store bought screw in led bulbs are always an option withe domes popped off for better output, the 14w Philips bulbs (100w equivalent) would be more ideal for a bigger space but the 8w (60w) bulbs would probably cost you about $70 for 40 bulbs and light sockets are about $2 a piece, for around $110-130 all said and done, for a basic setup.
they actually work pretty good, better than a bunch of cheap Chinese “grow lamps”, but again budget and what your looking to achieve.
Also how much are you looking to grow as you may not need all the space, and could potentially stick a small tent in the closet, which would help for your light leak issues.
I’m looking at CXB3590s as an option as the idea of using the grow LEDs was just a thought and consideration for experimenting. I’m not one to just go somewhere, see people posting things and just immediately repeat that information as fact as humans have a tendency of not being detailed oriented and leaving something out which may not exactly duplicate the same results.
I’m a lab technician so tutorials lacking details aggravates the hell out of me because if you’re going to document something and take the time, do it 100% and not just minimal effort. This gives me easy access to pH testing equipment and other higher end equipment.
I know a guy using flood lights, like outdoor flood lights people use in the backyard, and getting respectable results for as little effort as he’s putting into it. Granted the plants seem stretched but he’ll have him a respectable amount of personal stash with the satisfaction of that he did everything from start to finish in an outside “enclosed” setup.
The 100 watt, 5000K CXB3590s LEDs on their own fanless heatsink and power supply for $80-130 are interesting to me because I want to avoid wiring as much as possible. They seem to have comparable spectrum to HPS and I’m trying to make this as efficient as possible for energy consumption and heat with consideration of money invested but don’t want to throw so much money at it that it’s better off as a commercial grow.
Welcome @AlLeppo! I’m in the process myself of getting together a cab a bit smaller than yours and also am looking into whats best for my budget… like it says by the name… ima frugal fuck. lol
They are good led’s especially when underdriven for efficiency but something i would consider looking into is sol strips https://solstrip.com/en/ , bang for the buck they are one of the better options spec wise out there, personally i have some coming in the mail for a new build, but have yet to run them but have run Bridgelux vero 18’s and some of the smaller 18 and 13mm crees in the past.
One issue i have with the bigger cobs is it’s a singular point source of light and heat. Due to that the plants can’t get as close to the light because they will bleach from the light and or burn from heat. Also singular light sources i find create dark spots or corners in one’s grow space where your plants all angle towards that one point, which when a top bud shades all the lowers the rest are hunting for light.
That is mitigated by running multiple cobs so you have multiple sources, but id rather have light coming from as many sources as practical vs one or two brighter ones that will create dark zones.
But again, what are you looking to achieve yield wise, as that will dictate how much light you need, and less so how little space you can get away with, as your 10sqft you could comfortably grow 350-500+ grams in a pass, with enough light.
since youre detail oriented heres the data sheets for samsung LM561C diodes which are the diode used in most (almost all) popular PCB fixtures (solstrip, quantum board, chilled, photon fantom, etc). when it comes to LED your 2 best options are COB (cree, vero, citizen) or LM561C. PCBs require a lot less wiring than COBs, basically just connecting the driver to the board
i’d recommend 3500k or maybe 4000k if you want an all around light for veg and flower, 5000k if you’re using it for veg only
Been busy with work. 4/20 was OK. Had to go through some extra hoops to get something decent. Hopefully next year (or very soon) that I won’t have to rely on the street for my supply.
I found this 45 gallon storage container at my place from when I moved. I’m going to clean it up and might trim it down but its a perfect size for the closet. I’m going to get some buckets anyways and could change my mind about this container because I plan on doing scrog so the ability to move a bucket around while training this closet full of plants might be advantageous for me to maximize the screen. Or does it matter?
The next few months at work are going to be busy with a bunch of overtime so I’m about to spend the money on lights once I save all of that up. I’m definitely going CREE CXB 3590 3500K 300 watt panel and going to put two together since that’s the most room I’d have in the closet. The closet is for me to refine everything while I get more to do a tent setup in the same room as the closet.
I’ve got a way to get seeds delivered to me so I’m excited about that. I’ll order those about the same time I get the lights ordered. They’re not going to the same destination. I’ll maybe time it where I start germinating and by the time the light gets here, it’s ready. Scrog tutorials say sativa so I’m thinking Sour Diesel, Blue Dream and Cinderella 99 until I get a tent up and going for the indicas I want. I need sativas for the day to keep me level headed while pain-free and indicas to knock me out at night to keep me asleep.
Still moving forward. Light will be ordered in the next week or two. Got into a small financial hole the past week or two so digging out of that.
I’ve got some business I finished up to conceal my identity as much as possible to insulate myself because this isn’t necessarily a “legal” operation (nor am I a commercial/black market grow). Basically, they go for whatever is in your name and I’ve been getting things out of my name, changed over and establishing new places/services in new identities.
I’m looking at options such as a larger space for half residence/half grow which is a little bit more private than my current plans. I’m a man who wants to grow the best quality medicine for his own personal consumption and those in my similar situation. In some “legal” areas, I’d be called a caregiver if I begged and bribed the crown for permission to do what I should be able to do safely with my own time and resources.
