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PLANTING INDOORS - Cannabis Growing Guide
A small indoor space should be found that can be used to germinate seeds; these
vegetative starts are placed outside to mature in the spring after last freezes
are over. The space can be a closet, a section of a bedroom, a basement area, an
attic or unused bathroom. Some people devote entire bedrooms to growing.
The space must be light leak proofed, so that no suspicious light is seen from
outside the house. This could invite fuzz or rip-offs.
The space should be vented. Opening the door of a closet can be enough
ventilation if the space is not lit by big lights that generate a lot of heat.
Separate exhaust and incoming air vents are best. One at the top of the room to
exhaust air into the attic or out the roof, and one to bring in air from an
outside wall or under-floor crawl space. Use fans from old computer cabinets,
available from electronic liquidators for $5 each. Dimmer swithes can be used to
regulate the speed/noise of the fans. Use silicon to secure the fans to
4-6" PVC pipe pushed thru a round hole cut in the floor and ceilings. Use
lots of silicon to damp the fans vibrations, so that the walls do not resonate
to the fans ocsilations.
Line the walls with aluminum foil, dull side out to diffuse the light and
prevent hot-spots, or paint the walls bright white to reflect light. Aluminized
mylar, 1 mil thick is best.($20 for 25 feet of a 4 wide roll.) Mirrors are not
good to use, since the glass eats light!
Line the floor with plastic in case of water spills, etc. Set up a voltage
interrupt socket and be sure the electrical wiring will handle the lamps your
going to use. Always place ballasts for HID lamps on a shelf, so they are above
floor level, in case of water spills. Spacers place on the floor under a ballast
will work too.
A shelf above the main grow area can be used to clone cuttings and germinate
seedlings. It will allow you to double the area of your grow space and is an
invaluable storage area for plant food, spray bottles and other gardening
supplies. This area stays very warm, and no germination warming pad will be
needed, so this arrangement saves you $.
Hang a light proof curtain to separate this shelf from the main area when used
for flowering. This will allow constant lights on the shelf and dark periods in
the main grow area. Velcro can be used to keep the curtain in place and ties can
be used to roll it up when tending the garden. Black vinyl with white backing
works best.
Now you need light. A couple of shop lights will be fine if you just want to
start plants inside and then take them outside to grow in a small greenhouse.
They can be purchased with bulbs for about $10 each, or without bulbs for around
$8. Try to find them on sale. Use one Cool White and one Warm Light type bulb in
each to get the best light spectrum possible for plant growth. Do not use
expensive Grow Lux type bulbs, as they do not put out as much light, and
therefor do not work as well in most situations (go figure). If Cool White is
all you can find, or afford, use them. They work fine, and are by far the
cheapest.(About $1-2 each.)
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