Lots of questions, need insight

[a2zunknown]

So as i have posted before, I am starting my first grow room. I'm sure many think its probably a bad idea for a first timer but i am going big. I have a carport i am converting top to bottom to this dedicated grow room. I intend to have 24 plants and do an SOG. The room is 10x19' Sloped cieling from 8' down to 6.5'.I have done tons of research and i am a fairly intelligent dude. I also have an 8 year experienced grower to lend insight on occasion. But they grow outdoors. So I am here looking for advice from indoor experts.

Anyhow, I have purchased exhaust items, carbon filter, inline fan, etc. I am looking at getting an HID 1000w MH/HPS Auto-timer set up. Possibly 3 total. I am aware they produce mass amounts of heat, but we are going into winter where it will drop as low as 0 degrees F. Thats frickin cold!! So i am probably a little optimistic, but i feel this will actually help for the winter. In the spring i will purchase air-cooled hoods. I am also going to have a through the wall a/c and supplemental heater unit to help heat in winter and to cool down in summer. (It gets 100+ degrees here in the summer.)

The watering system i plan to use will be made by yours truly. I am quite handy as well. I will have 30 gallon rubbermade tubs with lids as reservoirs. A sump pump (hopefully on an auto timer) to pump to (8) 5 gallon buckets with net pot lids, drip rings and hydroton medium. a drain valve i will install on each bucket will return the ph balanced solution back to the reservoirs for re-use. I will also have a reverse osmosis system in the room to treat all the water i use in the reservoirs.

Other things in the room will be a fresh air inlet with an inline fan to bring fresh air into the room. Oscillating wall fans to move air and plants around to strengthen roots and colas. Air stones in the reservoirs for oxygen in the water. Oh, and i will keep the floors dirt. I feel it will make them feel a little more at home with some dust in the air.

MY QUESTIONS:

First, am i missing anything?

Second, I purchased autoflowering, femised seeds. I will be growing 3-5 different strains at the same time. Will i need to separate these strains and have each one under different lighting or watering systems??? I did get all short plants. I know alot of that will be up to me to maintain keeping them that way. I was planning on separating the strains into sections, if i have to, with thermal heat blankets. They are almost a tin foil looking blanket so i figured it would reflect the light and help keep warm or cool. But if i can keep the whole room open and have all the strains on the same lighting and watering that would be fantastic. Any suggestions???

Third, how big of net pots should i use, 6", 8" or 10"??

Lastly, How big should i let these babies be before i take them from the germination cups to the net pots?

Sorry if you feel i should know all this before deciding to do a room of this magnitude but thats just me. lol. I know there is a chance of catastrophic failure but i will wait until i am fully confident to be up and running and will have a plan start to finish. i will post a journal and keep you guys all updated. Please help! Thank you!!

-Mr. ?

 

[Light Addict]

Wow you really are going all in, my advice is only really related to your plants and their segregation. Autos are a funny thing, they have ttheir own little personalities per strain. Some will eat nutes like crazy others not so much. Seperate them into groups and you can treat them more by group, just listen to what each type is telling you. light wind and other environmentals can be treated as norm(one way for all) and one style.
Hope this helps a little

 

[donpaul.p]

autos can be a bit random, some autos yield very well like big bang auto hits 4oz per plant, but then ive had other autos that yield around 7g dry at harvest, so their a bit hit and miss so its best to grow some first so you know what strains to go with,

for a sog style grow you would be better off growing a mother plant and using clones so you can control the height and growth of the plant, with autos you have very little control as the grow and flower on their own without you changing the light schedule, so if you had autos and they grew big then you would be pretty crowded and run out of space quick, but then their is autos that yield very poor and you wont have any problems,

ive been growing autos for a while now along with photo period plants, the kc45 autos i been growing produced around 1/4oz under 24-0 and 20-4, but then i grew them under 12-12 from seed to harvest and i ended up with 2oz per plant, ive got 3 autos growing at the minute, i got a kc45 auto, a northern lights auto and auto bubble, all fem but im producing me own seeds as im working on my own strains so these 3 autos will be turned to seed, ive pollenated the one all ready so got the other 2 to do when they start flowering,

if you do go with autos then check the yields on the breeders sites or seed banks site and go with something that is suited for sog, but the problem is autos are not that stable so if it says it gives a low yield then you need to consider it might do much better and get much bigger, if i was going to go with a sog style grow then i would grow a mother plant of a strain i liked and take a load of clones then give a week or 2 of veg after rooting then flip 12-12 till harvest, with sog you dont want big yields as you dont have the room for big plants,

so if you go with autos try and find out about them and check if anyone has grown any so you can see how well they did, but to me autos seem a bit hit and miss and thats why im working on my own, ive had autos from the same stain that grow totally different to each other, one would stay small and short and produce very little then the other would reach 2ft and yield plenty,

 

[a2zunknown]

Ok, Definitely got some key questions answered. Also after a little reading in The Cannabis Grow Bible I decided to use 6“ net pots. Great news Light Addict, glad I don't need to separate the room with blankets or anything. Lol. About the feeding tips tho... I was planning on going with a watering schedule of 15 mins 3 to 4 times a day. After they are transplanted into the hydroton of course. Should I put the nutes directly into the water in the reservoirs? That was my original plan.

Also, for anyone out there, should I allow the water in the bottom of my buckets to run back into the reservoirs or pump it back in, or should I close the valve and let it sit in there until the next watering? I read that the roots will actually thrive if they are left over the water and will grow towards it.

 

[a2zunknown]

Donpaul, key info. Thank you!!! I will have to wait til next grow to use ur info tho, as my seeds are already on the way. But def will use ur advice on taking the best strain and making clones for the next grow.

 

[donpaul.p]

i cant really help with the hydro questions but if your watering every 15min then you wont need to leave the water sitting around, i think the best option would be to pump it back to the res so it can be pumped back around each time its watered.

the nutrients need to be mixed with the water before feeding the plants, so you would fill your res with water then add each of the nutrients at the stated dose, then mix it all up so its well mixed before you feed the plants, with hydro its always best to have a ph pen and a ec or ppm tester, you need to keep the ph in the correct range by adjusting the nutrient mix with ph up or ph down, you also need to keep the ppm or parts per million in the correct range so you know your feeding the plants enough,

hopefully a hydro grower will jump in and offer some advice, if not ill post a help link in my journal and someone will come over and give some advice, or if you like click on my journal and post the question their and you should then get all the help you need, i only really grow in soil and do the odd 2ltr dwc so i dont have much to do with ppm or ph as ive not needed to maintain a big res

 

[a2zunknown]

Great input. Thank you. But, I am not watering every 15 mins, but every 3-4 hours for 15 mins. And thanks for posting the help link. Much appreciated. One Q about different strains... I have 5 different strains, all auto, feminized. Think I can get away with growing them all together? My feelings tell me they will all flower at separate times. Thus meaning I will have some plants on 12/12 and some still on 18/6... is that correct?

 

[Chalkoutline]

With autos there is no need to flip to 12 12 lighting schedule.

 

[vyserage]

Autos grow and flower automatically regardless of light schedule so majority of people go 18 on 6 off, or 20/4. People that have done 24/0 have basically reported no difference so it's just a waste of electricity. You could do 12/12 but i've never really come across people growing auto's that ran 12/12, most do the 18/6 the entire 3 months that the auto's usually take.

so your roots will only get wet for 15 minutes every 3-4 hours? I dont think thats a good idea, you dont want the roots to ever get dry from what i've read time and time again. That being said, ive seen people use watering systems like yours but it was somewhere along the lines of every 15 or 30 minutes the pump would kick on for 3 to 5 minutes to fully wet the roots.

I run RDWC so my roots are always submerged in water with the air stones in each bucket for each plant ( i have 2 air pumps running to 6 five gallon buckets).

You can grow all 5 strains together in the same system no problem, if 1 gets too tall you can do some light bending to slow it down. This isnt usually done to auto's tho, mostly to photo's. You may run into 1 plant being a bit more hungry than others but its just about finding a middle ground to where all plants are mostly happy with nutrient amounts. I ran 3 different strains in my RDWC system no problem. The biggest thing you want to look out for is sativa plants vs. indca plants. Sativa's stretch a lot, Indica's stay much shorter and very tight node length (the space between a set of nodes). Never grow a sativa with indica or vice versa unless you have seperate lights that you can adjust for the different size plants. In my last grow my sativa's took over the space of my single indica plant and i ended up throwing it away since it was horrid results due to lack of light cause the sativa took over the space and blocked light down to the indica.

If you are going to be using RO water, you need to order some Calimagic or any other calmag supplement, non negotiable. RO water is missing out on many of the trace elements thats in tap water so you need to add that back in. If your tap water is below 170ppm its perfectly safe to use with more than acceptable results.

Tip: Once you start seeing budlets form, try to do as little bending or training as possible as that can affect your yields by lowering them since the plant has to stop growing to repair damage to wherever you bent it (stop growing to some degree, the other limbs will continue growing and catch up to the canopy). You can use that to your advantage to help control plants that are getting too tall.