Great, appreciate the input. Ill be sticking to soil for now, and I dont mind a bit larger grow area it really doesn't need to be micro. 3' L x 4-6' H x 2' D would be fine ... it just cant smell.

How many plants should I tentatively look to use in that size area? Im guessing around 6 or so but not sure I guess, since its a 400 I wasnt planning on scrog, and would rather not do sog just because of the numbers of plants in case of trouble. I was thinking Ild just top a few times and use 5 gal. containers and let them go ??

So I guess I answered my question right there, if I should use 5 gal. containers the number of plants would of course be decided by how many 5 gal. containers I could fit in a 2'x3' floor area .. which is probably ... 4. Maybe scrog would be best ... Then again 3 gal. containers might work out better for just topping a few times and letting them go (other then pruning etc).

Whats the rule ... 1 gallon per 12" of final height? So the sweet spot would probably be shooting for a 36" final plant height and 3 gal. containers ... of which I could probably fit four or five in a 3'Lx2'D floor space (my 3 gal. containers flex so I can "squeeze" them together if need be.

If it's floor space you're worried about and vertical space is of less importance (if you're building a cabinet the dimensions are up to you right?), consider using smaller diameter pots and "double potting". Start your plants in 1.5 or 2 gal pots and once they get to 1' in height, cut the bottoms out of the original pots and fill up extra pots with your medium. Set the pots without bottoms on top of new pots full of the same medium. Just a thought, and this might cause vertical space to become an issue. I do hear it leads to stronger stems/more final yield though.

Topping could help you with the vertical space as well, providing you do it properly. Another technique to check out is Super cropping. Sort of difficult to explain in text, if you youtube "Supercropping" all will become clear.

These are just a couple thoughts, bear in mind that I probably have less experience than you do. Perhaps wait for one of the veteran farmers to sort you out.

Best luck

heres a link to a thread entitled the 400 watt club suppose in the 105 pages there u can get some good ideas.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/cabinet-closet-grow-room-setup/65884-grow-box-construction.html

chek out that link ozz. that guy uses a 400w hps in that box.

Dealing with the odor is the easy part. Charcoal scrubbers are simple to make, maintain and do an excellent job. Lots of information around for that. There is even commercial furnace filters that have activated charcoal in them that could be easily utilized. A 430 in that 6 foot cabinet would be very efficient.




With this plan you are going to need the headroom. Expect the plants to be at least 3 feet above the surface of the soil.




If you would think about going hydro you don't need that "rule". With some of the proprietary medium/nute systems out there now it's easy to have a 3 foot plant in less than a gallon of medium and still have really good gm/ft^2. With most of the simpler hydro setups you can use plastic bags instead of pots and get really good space usage.

Even a pop bottle SOG would be very good for that space and pretty easy to toss if you have to.

Peace...
Fred.

Guys ...... I really appreciate the input, Im going to check out those links now.

Thanks a ton! BTW my tomatoes are doing awesome! lol ...

thats good to hear ur tomatoes are thriving. and we are all very happy to help

Thanks again .... I think I have what I need as far as what type of cabinet to build. At this point Im a bit unsure as to how I will utilize it, scrog with less plants, less plants with larger containers, or as mentioned above a pop bottle sog.

At first I didnt consider sog because of the numbers of plants having to be used, but a good point was made that they should be easy to dispose of if need be since they are all smaller plants.

At this point I think Ill just build the cab, then figure out what to do with it ... lol. Im probably going to shoot for a 3' L x 2' D x 5-6' H cab.

Once again I appreciate the help guys ...

I grow with a 430W hps in a grow cab. The major key issue is ventilation. A must is a cool tube and a nice fan. If you want no smell get a carbon scrubber which can fit inside your box. Once you have your setup you can solely focus on growing and not have to worry if your room is going to screw you. Have a look at my cabinet,
http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1456009#Post1456009

The number of plants is pretty much up to you. In a confined place I see it hard to do scrog because you have to reach inside through your plants just to water or anything else you want to do with your plants. Ive grown 5 in my area and got like 8-9 ounces. I did one plant and got 5 ounces so its pretty much up to you and how you train your little bitches.