New Grower with some ideas need advice!

[TheFarmer7]

Hi guys , Alright so im going for an inside grow room for like 4 plants , i was thinking about a room like 3 x 3 x 4 feet. For my soil , my plan was to go with sunshine mix #4 and add 1/5 perlite , I was wondering about the lights i should use. I was thinking about going with somes T5 grow light probably like thoses one : HTG Supply - 2 Foot 4 Lamp PL-55 Tek Lamp. What do you guys think about those lights? And should i add more stuff to my soil? I saw some guys talking about lime something but i dont get it. For the nutrients , i know i need some 20-10-10 and 10-20-20 or 30-15-15 and 15-30-30 but there is none at my Local garden center so do anyone have a great recipe?

Thanks in advance for your time guys.

TheFarmer

 

[cannasensei]

How much do u smoke? How much are u hoping to grow? What's your budget like?

 

[TheFarmer7]

I smoke a lots honestly , and i was expecting between 1-2 pound and i would say i have a 300$ but im going to build my own grow tent to save money since i have my electricity trade grade.

 

[cannasensei]

True pros in a dialed room can get just under a pound with a 400 w fixture per cycle. There is certainly a disconnect between what you need and what you have. I would start with a 600w setup aircooled in a 4x4 tent. Dialed in at a gpw (would take a while but can be done) you be.pulling 600 grams per cycle. Keep a second round vegging at all times and supply shouldn't be an issue

IMO u wanna go big enough to suffice ur supply need from the get gone growing is not cheap couple that with buying from others between crops and it can end.up.costing ya more in the end. Plus its torture getting nickel and dimed to death trying to upgrade a room to par over time. Do it right the first tike and dial it in from there.

Best of luck mate!

 

[TaylorMade420]

agreed with canna, you wont grow 1 - 2 pounds unless youve got a good sized room a good setup and plenty of experience, but once you get it dialled in, it wont cost you a lot per oz grown, cost me about 10 quid per oz grown now


good luck tho mate.... keep it green

 

[TheFarmer7]

Thanks guys for your time , what should i do to be able to grow more? only make a bigger grow space? 4x4x4 tent with a 400W T5 light i would be able to grow 400g with 4 plants? Do you think a 600W fixture would make a big differrence on my electricity bill? Because where i live i really need to watch my electricty bill , so because of that i am now thinking about trying it outside but i would rather do it inside since im in a new area that im not to familiar so i dont wanna put those plant anywhere haha

Thanks again guys , i really appreciate it

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Well 4' head height is not a great deal once you factor in plant pot size, light reflector size & hanging distance plus plant size also allowing for stretch in flowering !

Style of grow will be your biggest deciding factor.


Even tho people may use cfl/T5 etc for vegging & works great its kind of not really suitable for flowering as a HPS will out perform cfl/T5 yield wise...

Vegging lights are MH/metal halide or cfl/T5 around the 6500/6400 K/kelvin spectrum of light (blue)

Flowering HPS, dual spectrum HID, CMH/ceramic metal halide 2100k or cfl/T5 in 2700k/kelvin are used for flowering (red, orange light)


Whilst i myself grow in a tent of 3' by 3' by 6' of four plants only, i may yield nearly a pound of bud wet weight per grow... it certainly don't dry to that weight...

Yet only achieving some where between 5oz to 7oz for those four plants... as some 70% to 80% of the plant is water & when dryed/cured with stem removed you will recieve aprox 20% to 30% dry weight yield fact !


This ultimately leads to grow style & method used to increase yield... If growing in soil you may wish to look at.

SOG - sea of green many small plants/smaller yield but many more plants make up for greater yield, that can be any where up to 9 plants per square foot... thats like 79 plants in 3' by 3' area.

Lets just say that they achieve 5g dry weight each, thats nearly 400g dry weight just a few oz shy of lb... ball ache job watering by hand tho so an ebb & flood system might prove useful, gonna need mother plants to supply cuttings/clones & addittional area to keep them tho.

SCROG - screen of green plants trained via topping, lst work trained through a grid mesh of wire to increase canopy size to increase yield over area.



Electric bill can be worked out tho...

1000w = 1kw look at your elecrtic bill & that should tell the cost of a unit of electricity (1kw)

Work out total wattage used per day...

Lets say 400w in flowering, standard flowering time 12/12 thats 4.8 kw per day.

Example only - 1 unit of electric (1 kw) cost 10 cents, rounded up for an average 12/12 lighting regime thats 50 cents per day to run the 400w bulb.

Average month is 30 days 50 cents X 30 = $15


Monthly electric bill can be reduced also by using the GLR gas lantern routine (veg) & DLR diminshing light rountine (flowering) saves $$$



Compost & the art of dirt growing

I grow in compost but prefer organic methods...


Most good brand name composts etc should state PH value of the compost on the bag it self, this is the most single important aspect of growing in compost/dirt !

Optimal PH value of compost should be around PH 6.4 to 6.6 but any where between PH 6 & 7 is just fine

If you wish to blend your own compost then garden lime/dolomite lime maybe required to buffer PH value of growing medium... normally when applying either of the limes PH value is near PH 7, don't over do the lime tho...


When using organic nutrients you don't need to check PH value of nutrient feed/water its also very hard to measure EC/PPM with organics due to being organic... its also very hard to achieve nutrient burn with organic nutrients also

Chemical/synthetic nutrients you may well require to measure EC/PPM as to reduce any side effects of nutrient burn this mainly being due to the fact these nutrients are chelated & readly aviable for the plant to use ! as the plants grow bigger EC/PPM goes up to support plant growth... same can be said with organics ya just increase the feed.

Some may go as far as PH correcting nutrient feed with chemical/synthetic nutrients.


So in theory you start low with nutrients & increase with plant size plus phase of growth.




At the end of the day if you wish to achieve 1lb dry weight i would be temted to go for the 4' by 4' tent with 600w hps & be looking at 10 to 16 plants being more inclined for indica strains or indica dominate hybrids due to shorter growing height & normally larger yield.


Easy ain't it, don't include optionals such as fans etc

 

[TheFarmer7]

Thanks for your great answer , I think ill go for a 3x3x6 Tent with a 400W T5 Fixtures for four plants and im going to use soil. Its no big deal if i cant have 1 pounds , Ill do with ill get haha. This is my first grow so i wanna get some experience and im more doing this for my own pleasure. If i can have a half pound or more with this setup its would be awesome. For the soil like i said ill go with the sunshine mix and going to put some perlite and lime in it. I think its should work but if this is a complete fail please tell me haha.

Thanks again guys!

PS : Sorry if there somes mistakes , english is not my first language

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

I think you will find a large majority of sunshine compost mix's are already have dolomite lime applyed with it...

Over use of lime can be bad for plant health.


Here's Sunshine composts website - Sun Gro Horticulture | Products tells every thing you need to know about their compost and whats in any of their blends of compost from organic to proffessional compost

 

[TheFarmer7]

I was wondering , What kind of light are u using?? I was looking at a 4foot 4 bulb T5 lamp but its gonna be too big for my room. I was also really not sure about the nutrients , ive read that i should use 20-10-10 or 30-15-15 to start and switch to 10-20-20 or 15-30-30 but i cant find anything in the local shop i went, Do i need to order them?

Thanks again bud.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

I was wondering , What kind of light are u using?? I was looking at a 4foot 4 bulb T5 lamp but its gonna be too big for my room. I was also really not sure about the nutrients , ive read that i should use 20-10-10 or 30-15-15 to start and switch to 10-20-20 or 15-30-30 but i cant find anything in the local shop i went, Do i need to order them?

Thanks again bud.

I use a gaint 125w CFL 6400k for vegging covering an area of 60cm by 60cm.

In flowering i move over to a 400w HPS covering an area of 90cm by 90cm with a hanging height of 12" to 14" above the plants.


HPS will always provide a greater yield when compared to cfl/T5.



Ye nutrients like 20/10/10 etc etc thats pretty old school stuff !

Most modern day nutrients are far lower in NPK & quite suitable for growing... i would suggest having a browse through Sponsors : 420 MAGAZINE ® checking out some hydro shops nutrient collections


Ya gonna want your standard grow 'n' bloom nutrients i also suggest a good micro nutrient feed also

Some hydro shop sponsors which gets the fuzzy

Hydroponics | Grow Systems | Grow Tents | Medical Growers

Access Hydroponic - Grow Lights, Grow Tents, Indoor Garden Supplies, Hydroponic Systems

RVF Garden Supply - Indoor Hydroponics Gardening and Growing Supplies

 

[TheFarmer7]

Alright , i saw a pretty good deal on HTG supply so my choice is done ill grab a HPS and MH kit (400W). Its even cheaper than the T5. Thanks for your help , ill order my stuff really soon im now building my tent

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Most standard tents are around 180cm /200cm tall...

A 400w bulb will cover up to a 100cm by 100cm area, anything larger ya gonna need a bigger bulb for greater coverage !



Don't forget ventilation tho to remove excessive heat from the grow box & passive vent near base to draw new fresh air in

 

[TheFarmer7]

Great , that would be perfect for my room then , but the noise of the fan is probably gonna be a problem. Is there any way to have the proper cfm without some disturbing noise? If not i might go back to my initial plan with the T5 because with theses its doesnt take a big ventilation.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Acoustic ducting/muffled ducting helps reduce fan noise...

You can get silencers which fit onto inline fans followed by acoutic ducting this reduces noise even more, but silencer size maybe an issue in smaller grow rooms...

Once you factor in size of carbon filter fitted to inline fan fitted to silencer etc its can be some lenght & may well take some jigging about to make it all fit.



Some people may go as far as making a muffle box for the inlinbe fan it self !

Certainly no harm having inline fan/silencer on the out side of the tent either gives ya some ideas to play with

 

[dontdohome-]

Well 4' head height is not a great deal once you factor in plant pot size, light reflector size & hanging distance plus plant size also allowing for stretch in flowering !

Style of grow will be your biggest deciding factor.


Even tho people may use cfl/T5 etc for vegging & works great its kind of not really suitable for flowering as a HPS will out perform cfl/T5 yield wise...

Vegging lights are MH/metal halide or cfl/T5 around the 6500/6400 K/kelvin spectrum of light (blue)

Flowering HPS, dual spectrum HID, CMH/ceramic metal halide 2100k or cfl/T5 in 2700k/kelvin are used for flowering (red, orange light)


Whilst i myself grow in a tent of 3' by 3' by 6' of four plants only, i may yield nearly a pound of bud wet weight per grow... it certainly don't dry to that weight...

Yet only achieving some where between 5oz to 7oz for those four plants... as some 70% to 80% of the plant is water & when dryed/cured with stem removed you will recieve aprox 20% to 30% dry weight yield fact !


This ultimately leads to grow style & method used to increase yield... If growing in soil you may wish to look at.

SOG - sea of green many small plants/smaller yield but many more plants make up for greater yield, that can be any where up to 9 plants per square foot... thats like 79 plants in 3' by 3' area.

Lets just say that they achieve 5g dry weight each, thats nearly 400g dry weight just a few oz shy of lb... ball ache job watering by hand tho so an ebb & flood system might prove useful, gonna need mother plants to supply cuttings/clones & addittional area to keep them tho.

SCROG - screen of green plants trained via topping, lst work trained through a grid mesh of wire to increase canopy size to increase yield over area.



Electric bill can be worked out tho...

1000w = 1kw look at your elecrtic bill & that should tell the cost of a unit of electricity (1kw)

Work out total wattage used per day...

Lets say 400w in flowering, standard flowering time 12/12 thats 4.8 kw per day.

Example only - 1 unit of electric (1 kw) cost 10 cents, rounded up for an average 12/12 lighting regime thats 50 cents per day to run the 400w bulb.

Average month is 30 days 50 cents X 30 = $15


Monthly electric bill can be reduced also by using the GLR gas lantern routine (veg) & DLR diminshing light rountine (flowering) saves $$$



Compost & the art of dirt growing

I grow in compost but prefer organic methods...


Most good brand name composts etc should state PH value of the compost on the bag it self, this is the most single important aspect of growing in compost/dirt !

Optimal PH value of compost should be around PH 6.4 to 6.6 but any where between PH 6 & 7 is just fine

If you wish to blend your own compost then garden lime/dolomite lime maybe required to buffer PH value of growing medium... normally when applying either of the limes PH value is near PH 7, don't over do the lime tho...


When using organic nutrients you don't need to check PH value of nutrient feed/water its also very hard to measure EC/PPM with organics due to being organic... its also very hard to achieve nutrient burn with organic nutrients also

Chemical/synthetic nutrients you may well require to measure EC/PPM as to reduce any side effects of nutrient burn this mainly being due to the fact these nutrients are chelated & readly aviable for the plant to use ! as the plants grow bigger EC/PPM goes up to support plant growth... same can be said with organics ya just increase the feed.

Some may go as far as PH correcting nutrient feed with chemical/synthetic nutrients.


So in theory you start low with nutrients & increase with plant size plus phase of growth.




At the end of the day if you wish to achieve 1lb dry weight i would be temted to go for the 4' by 4' tent with 600w hps & be looking at 10 to 16 plants being more inclined for indica strains or indica dominate hybrids due to shorter growing height & normally larger yield.


Easy ain't it, don't include optionals such as fans etc

thx mate this helps me tho aloot