New grower, good funds

cube-n

New Member
Hi I am completely new to the growing of marijuana but I have smoked a great deal of it. Well we have the means now so we are gonna start a nice operation.

We have a fairly large office we will be using. Dimensions will come soon if truly needed. There's a built in AC, and the room should be big enough for oxygen replenishment rather that using carbon filters. We are doing a hydro system, not soil.

First question. I do not want to go the LED route. I want to use HPS. However I have been reading HPS are only good in the flowering stage. I have seen their our the dual lights with MH for veg and HPS for flowering. Is this the best way to do it? Or should I get 1 pure HPS and 1 pure MH?

We will start with 6 plants and work our way up from there. How many Watts should my light be? I have seen 1000 watt HPS but is that too much?

And I am trying to do this as legit and perfect as possible, anyone have an opinion on the different hydro systems? I have read into eb n flow which seems pretty simple. Any other options? I am looking for decent yield but most importantly extremely potent meds.

I have not really decided on a strain to grow yet either, any recommendations?
 
I have been a reader on here for about a year, I signed up today for the first time to post a reply to you.

I started up clueless, BUT never asked a question here once, because all the info you need has already been posted by other people. People don't like to have to re-post stuff for every single new member who doesn't take the time to find and read the information that is already here.....

You need to read up, all the info is on this site in the different forums. Read the sticky threads.

Use the search tab.........

People who could answer your questions who frequent this internet forum will most likely not cater to answering all your questions, when they see you as being too lazy to search for the information yourself.

Good luck with your grow,,,,,,AND READ the threads. Make it your main hobby for the next few weeks to learn all the ins and outs ....... that's the best advice I have for you.
 
Welcome! Great to see a new grower testing the waters!
It sounds like you want to "do it right" and that is the best way to get a good harvest. There is nothing worse that doing it half ass'd and then giving up because it failed, do it right and reap the rewards. In my opinion use a HPS for flowering. I still have a MH that I bought for veg but I do not use it anymore as I found for veg that florecence work great and use less power and produce less heat. As far as your space, you said an office.... sounds big. Build a bloom room and a seperate veg room. Use black and white poly or mylar and make sure the bloom room has no light leaks. Set up is very important, it is hard to re hang lights or build walls once the plants are deep in flower.
I look forward to seeing your posts and pics. Good luck!

I want to also welcome "and 43" - props for making such a great 1st post! Best advice ever.

Jonny
 
cube-n, while I concur that you need to read a lot in order to avoid costly mistakes (especially true if you go for a big grow), I can shed light on one aspect of your grow:

Buy switchable ballasts that are capable of using both MH and HPS bulbs. Alternatively, there are conversion bulbs that can be used in the same fixtures while offering their individual advantages, see What is a Conversion Bulb? .
 
cube-n, while I concur that you need to read a lot in order to avoid costly mistakes (especially true if you go for a big grow), I can shed light on one aspect of your grow:

Buy switchable ballasts that are capable of using both MH and HPS bulbs. Alternatively, there are conversion bulbs that can be used in the same fixtures while offering their individual advantages, see What is a Conversion Bulb? .

Yeah, don't be like me and go buy a MH ballast, only to find that means you can never run an HPS bulb on it lol.

Buy an HPS ballast, and if you feel comfortable shelling out the ridic costs for conversion bulbs then just do that. Otherwise I would just buy a second ballast, and either just have both lights going, or MH for veg, switch to HPS for flower *shrug*.

HPS is known to work very well during both the veg cycle and bloom cycle though, so many people don't even bother with the MH.

There are also many cheap routes you can go to give your plants additional short wavelength light (blue light, thats what makes the MH differ from HPS, its 'light signature' includes more light in the blue spectrum, whereas the HPS has more in the red/orange).

These include LEDs, T5 fluros, or CFL lighting. I'm not talking about using these as your main lighting, but rather as a supplementary light source, say from the side.

Heres a good tutorial on CFL lighting:

CFL Light Tutorial

I made one of those CFL PVC assemblies for less then $50, and though I will be using it as my main source of lighting, you could use something like that to light your plants from the side (just use 5700K bulbs as these are the 'blue' bulbs).

If you want to keep it simple though stick to just HPS, it works fine in both veg and bloom.

The wattage depends on the dimensions of the room, so no one will be able to give you any accurate answers until you give us your dimensions (sure you could base it on the # of plants, but ultimately its the lumens reaching the plant, which is related to the lights output, and the space its going into).

For hydro setup, DWC seems to be the way to go, which direction you choose to go from here is ... up to your imagination :)

Strain depends on many many factors, do you need your plants to have a low profile (eg be short?), indica strains are the choice for shorter plants. Speaking of that do you want indica, sativa, mix (and what ratio)? Do you want yield, speed (of veg or flower), hardiness (that is plants that you can abuse and they will still survive), etc.?

Good luck
 
Yes I apologize for not reading through everything and I definitely missed some very important stickies. So I have been reading more and more, but thanks Hi-Tech Hate for being a little more specific to my questions.

The room is 200 square feet 10x20

Strain - I want to say Indica, but Hybrids are fine as well. Eventually I will want to do multiple strains but for now I want to master just one. I enjoy Kushes. High yield is of course a plus, I have read on seed bank sites some are easier to grow than others? What makes this true?

DWC - Deep Water Culture, ive done little research and will be doing more, the eb n flow system i refereed to earlier is a DWC system correct?

I still need to do more lighting research and will do later tonight. HPS is a definite, but I think I want to use more lights. How much will CFLs on the sides of the plants increase plant growth?


And I am not really trying to be simple, I am trying to be the best. I want my medicine to beat the top shelf dispensary medicine. Yes I have heard it takes years of experience and lots of knowledge and funds, but I have the means, motivation and funds. So I am continuing to read through all of your experiences to try and fill my void.
 
I keep reading this. "Simple is better." How does this make sense? If I had 1 HPS over my plants and then CFLs surrounding them on all sides would this not give me better results than just having my 1 HPS at the top?

The 1 light is more simple, but how can that be better than having CFLs everywhere on top of the 1 HPS.
 
I keep reading this. "Simple is better." How does this make sense? If I had 1 HPS over my plants and then CFLs surrounding them on all sides would this not give me better results than just having my 1 HPS at the top?

The 1 light is more simple, but how can that be better than having CFLs everywhere on top of the 1 HPS.

You are right, just saying "simple is best" doesn't cover exactly what simple is......

Two lights are better than one, IMNSHO. The reason I think so is backup. If you have one light and it goes out.... Or do you keep a spare around? Same thing with fans, pumps......

Of course, the simpler it is, the less that can go wrong. Simple is always a good place to start.

Prairie
 
I keep reading this. "Simple is better." How does this make sense? If I had 1 HPS over my plants and then CFLs surrounding them on all sides would this not give me better results than just having my 1 HPS at the top?

The 1 light is more simple, but how can that be better than having CFLs everywhere on top of the 1 HPS.

I told you simple was best because you said you are brand new to gardening. I've seen, and been victim myself to adding this, and then that, and then more and more.

Finally when I ran into a problem (that typically had nothing to do with all these new things I installed), it was very difficult to troubleshoot because there were so many things that could be the cause, and since I was a new grower I didn't spot the things that a seasoned grower would see right away.

I'm still a new grower as I have 2 failed grows under my belt and 0 successes. Did I mention I have a Ph.d in life AND physical sciences, specifically Biophysics, wherein my specialty is/was using NMR to study Structural Biochemistry, my B.Sc. was in Biochemistry. My point being I have a very strong knowledge base in life, biology, metabolism, biochemistry, but this knowledge makes NO SHIT of a difference when trying to grow for real. Experience is the only real knowledge, as i've come to learn the hard way.

You say you want a harvest that beats the top shelf dispensary, but really as a new grower you should be saying "I want A harvest .. period" lol

Also consider that me (and a few others) are basically spoon feeding you here, for which you are incredibly lucky, because most people on these forums expect you to find these answers yourself as most have been answered 10 times already. I for eg. have 2 threads posted of which I have not received a single reply, perhaps my questions sound like stuff already answered, but I assure anyone thinking that that I have read thousands of pages of grow bibles, forums, etc.

Anyways, all i'm saying is to be grateful that I took the time to try and help you lol !
 
Welcome mate. I wish may you you get healthier grow. follow guide, get suggestion from experienced growers and take care of your plants.

Wish your good luck.
 
Hi I am completely new to the growing of marijuana but I have smoked a great deal of it. Well we have the means now so we are gonna start a nice operation.

We have a fairly large office we will be using. Dimensions will come soon if truly needed. There's a built in AC, and the room should be big enough for oxygen replenishment rather that using carbon filters. We are doing a hydro system, not soil.

First question. I do not want to go the LED route. I want to use HPS. However I have been reading HPS are only good in the flowering stage. I have seen their our the dual lights with MH for veg and HPS for flowering. Is this the best way to do it? Or should I get 1 pure HPS and 1 pure MH?

We will start with 6 plants and work our way up from there. How many Watts should my light be? I have seen 1000 watt HPS but is that too much?

And I am trying to do this as legit and perfect as possible, anyone have an opinion on the different hydro systems? I have read into eb n flow which seems pretty simple. Any other options? I am looking for decent yield but most importantly extremely potent meds.

I have not really decided on a strain to grow yet either, any recommendations?

Love hydro.

Strain just depends on what you can find. WHile good genetics is a good thing, get the best you can for what you can afford.

As for yoru lighting, High Pressure Sodium or HPS lamps emit a pink or amber light. They are used for lighting parking lots and other areas where the color of the light is not important. HPS units are much more efficient than MH ones, producing more light and less heat per watt of energy consumed. They are often used alone with no detrimental effect on the plants, and will promote faster plant growth than MH lamps during both vegetative growth and flowering.

Combinations of bulbs are NOT required, as the HPS lamp does produce all of the light spectrums necessary for healthy growth.
 
Re-reading the thread, I fear the biggest single point of failure is the mention of "we" instead of "I" - period.

Knowing full-well the effects of "loose lips sink ships" (though not firsthand, but rather through a friend of mine who learned the hard way), most such partnerships are destined to fail. There's always a lazy guy, or someone who would rather party than work, or just someone who gets busted for some minor infraction and rats out the rest.

If you're not growing legally, grow alone. Let no-one know. If you're happily married, it's probably better to tell your wife and no-one else.

As said friend of mine put it: "Your looking inside other people's brains usually stops at their skin".
Okay, it loses in translation. ;)
 
Back
Top Bottom