Extremely new to growing - Few grow questions

[Theals]

Hello, first I would like to start this by saying thank you to everyone who will help me in this post.

So I am extremely new to growing haven't even received my grow closet in the mail yet.
1) okay first I am looking for a dwarf or just simply short feminized but not auto flower g strain that will thrive in a 3 gallon 6 pot hydroponic system in a 2.5 foot wide by 4 foot height grow closet with a 400w light.
2) I am wondering on the best nute system to use. I am leaning toward fox farms but I am honestly not sure what to get. (PLEASE ONLY EXPERIENCED HYDRO GROWERS ANSWER THIS)
3) last but not least what would the best light cycle be for short feminized hydros be?
Thanks a bunch everyone!

 

[jojo677]

Sounds like you're ready to grow! I'll try to knock these off in order:

1. It really doesn't matter. If you have a height restriction (sounds like you may) you can train them to stay short. If this is your first grow, probably stick with LST (low stress training) and just flower them early. In general, indica dominant strains tend to stay shorter than sativa dominant. So if this fits you, try for an indica. Also consider things like smell, air exchange, etc.

On the number of plants, that container is not big enough for 6 plants. If you only have 3 gallons, you may only want to do one plant, two at a max. Maybe consider a bigger container? Even a cheap plastic storage bin is a few dollars.

2. You can't really go wrong with nutes. If this is your first hydro grow, I would recommend picking a general 2 or 3 part nute line. If you have a hydro store you can visit, they probably carry several lines. There are big brands like Fox Farms, Bontanicare, General Hydroponics, Dyna-Gro, etc. Any of them will treat you about the same for your first grow. I use GH, but I plan to try Dyna-Gro in the future because its a 2-part and I'm lazy.

Make sure that you get a pH meter too. This is one of the more important instruments, especially for hydro. You may also consider a PPM/EC meter which is helpful if the budget allows.

3. Most people grow them in their vegetative state on a 18/6 hours on/hours off schedule. When you are ready to flower the plants, most people put them on a 12/12 schedule.

This sticky should help clear up some worries too:
How to Grow Cannabis - Everything You Need to Know!

 

[Hybrid Garden]

If you haven't selected your strain yet, jump onto Herbies website and filter the strain search to "short" . That will give you a list of strains that the breeder claims is short. If you aren't confident with LST as JoJo suggested, if they look like growing into the light just tip the main cola's.

You didn't mention what your growing medium is? I grow in Coco and use the Hy-Gen line of coco-nutes. You can grow big plants in relation to pot size with coco. For example I grow pure sativa full term in pots that are only 2.5 in x 2.5 in x 7 in deep. This is mainly to keep them under control. 13/11 from seed and 1 week in switch to 11/13 then 10/14 for the last 6 weeks of flower.

For Indica start on 20/4 for a couple of weeks then flip to 12/12 as you have a height restriction.

Whenever you grow a new strain in hydro the first crop is choppy as you'll need to "dial it in" because each strain has different feeding requirements. Hence PH meter and EC/PPM meter is essential. If you don't know how much you are feeding you are flying blind. I recommend Blue Lab as they have a 5 yr guarantee and aren't that dear to buy.

What type of lights do you have? If LED someone else can chime in as i don't use them.

If they are HID a 400w light is going to give you heat issues. I'd recommend a split ventilation system using one fan to cool your light with either a ventilated hood or cool tube, and a small fan to ventilate your tent.

Formula for cooling a HID light to keep temperature at 5 degrees above ambient is watts*.3 = cfm

so, 400 x .3 = 120 cfm. That is the size of fan you are looking for. Use a hepa filter on your intake to keep the glass from getting dirty real quickly.

For ventilating your tent you want a maximum of 1 MPA (minutes per air change) and a minimum of 5 MPA. Anything more than 1 MPA is going to give you excessive transpiration = you use more nutes and costs more to run + it stresses the plants. Any less than 5 MPA and you end up with VPD problems.

To work out the size of fan you need to find out the volume of your tent. as you only supplied two measurements it makes it hard, but no matter.

You said 2.5' wide by 4' high, I'd assume the tent is 4' wide. Lets use that as example.

4 x 4 x 2.5 = 40 cubic feet, so the biggest fan you'd want is 40 cfm for 1 MPA and the smallest 8 cfm for 5MPA (40 / 5)

You didn't say whether you will run a carbon scrubber or not. Generally the scrubbers have a static pressure of .5 so if using one buy the smallest you can get and double the fan size.

Hope that helps

 

[Theals]

Thanks both of you. I will be using coco medium. The same you use. My local hydro store does have one. And I have been reading into lst and I'm pretty confident it should be pretty easy I'm a fairly quick learner. And my box is 4 foot high 2.5 foot wide and 2.5 foot deep and I will be using a carbon scrubber and two 3inchx3inch fans. And I will be usinG led lights. An led strip of blue lights for night time and a ufo led light for daytime. Thanks both for the amazing response. I am thinking of using a low amount of nutes at first so I don't kill the first crop.