New to growing, some questions?

J

Jdm Teg

New Member
Hey everyone, I'm rather new to growing and I am trying to figure out the best setup for around a total of 6 plants at once, all autoflowering, and in a closet grow box, I would be building.
I can't find any dimensions or anything about doors, hinges, and overall total size of the different pieces.

Also, I'm not sure about pot size, different ferts and nutes, etc.
I'd probably be using 1gallon buckets, the plastic kind...

As far as lighting for autos, it's just 18/6 the whole way, right?
But which light temp.would that be? and how many? >.<
I'd be using cfls, just to make sure I can get the hang of this.
Any and all help is extremely appreciated!!
 
Go check out some journals bro. That's your best bet. I'll try to answer some of your questions if I've actually been through them myself. I can recommend some stuff too. I'm in no way experienced. Only been growing since august. I have picked up a few things that helped me along so here goes:

- First advice, never take advice per word, try to find the meaning behind it. Everything applies differently everywhere. There's so many variables between people's grows it's just hilarious. There's a 100 ways to do this.

- The size of the plants you're planning to grow will dictate the size of your grow area. (Since you know you want to grow 6)

- The size of your grow area will dictate how much light and ventilation you need.

- Since you're using CFL's. I would recommend trying to cover the spectrum. Focus on 6500K during the first 4 weeks, then focus 2700K when you see proper flowering (usually after week 4). For example: If I'm running 10 CFL's in my area growing strictly autos, I would do 7-6500k's and 3-2700K's, then I'll flip to 7-2700K's and 3-6500K's for later flowering. I hope this is making sense.

- I highly recommend smart pots. Go with bigger than a gallon bro. At least 2-Gal pots. I've grown multiple autos in 2Gal smartpots and they came out great. You'll avoid over watering and root-bound stress. This is all opinion, of course.

- I highly recommend Blue Planet Nutrients. They work fantastic, excellent nutes, very affordable, great service, and very fast delivery. (at least in my experience with them) Anything I "recommend" is based on opinion bro.


That's some stuff to get you thinking for now. Cheers :grinjoint:
 
yeah I agree with thepost above. What I did is got to completed journal and did a sear on scrog. You should look up autoflowering. Most of those treads will teach you enough to have a idea ofwhat your doing. I wish I could answer smthing but most of my research has gone into feminised.
 
iSmokes said:
Go check out some journals bro. That's your best bet. I'll try to answer some of your questions if I've actually been through them myself. I can recommend some stuff too. I'm in no way experienced. Only been growing since august. I have picked up a few things that helped me along so here goes:

- First advice, never take advice per word, try to find the meaning behind it. Everything applies differently everywhere. There's so many variables between people's grows it's just hilarious. There's a 100 ways to do this.

- The size of the plants you're planning to grow will dictate the size of your grow area. (Since you know you want to grow 6)

- The size of your grow area will dictate how much light and ventilation you need.

- Since you're using CFL's. I would recommend trying to cover the spectrum. Focus on 6500K during the first 4 weeks, then focus 2700K when you see proper flowering (usually after week 4). For example: If I'm running 10 CFL's in my area growing strictly autos, I would do 7-6500k's and 3-2700K's, then I'll flip to 7-2700K's and 3-6500K's for later flowering. I hope this is making sense.

- I highly recommend smart pots. Go with bigger than a gallon bro. At least 2-Gal pots. I've grown multiple autos in 2Gal smartpots and they came out great. You'll avoid over watering and root-bound stress. This is all opinion, of course.

- I highly recommend Blue Planet Nutrients. They work fantastic, excellent nutes, very affordable, great service, and very fast delivery. (at least in my experience with them) Anything I "recommend" is based on opinion bro.


That's some stuff to get you thinking for now. Cheers :grinjoint:
Click to expand...
Hi Jdm Teg, welcome to 420 magazine =)

I think that iSmokes has litterally given the perfect advice.

i have a few tiny variables to consider.

Where iSmoke reccomends 4 weeks aprx to swap lights. with autos i dont look at the clock so to speak. i reccomend leaving blue lights on for 2 weeks after you see your first pistil.

air pots and smart pots really are the bees knees and their root pruning capabilities and over water protection are fact not just opinion. you can bank it ;)

for pot size i would normally say at least a litre for every week its expected to be alive, but a rule of thumb like that still needs to be dialled in right, its still just a guess atm.

and as for pot size and grow room dimensions. both answers are pretty much given to you by taking a long hard look at the strain data....18/6 is fine for all autos, some can handle upto 24-0 but there isnt much reason to do that unless your stuck without a timer ;)

and finally iSmokes appears to like a 33% light spectrum cross over where as i like 25% (round down). so for flower i would use 2 6500k and 8 2700k in the same example.

im in no way saying my variables are 'better' it just highlights what iSmokes says about there being a hundred different ways..

after a few grows you realise that 'all roads lead to rome' and some are just marginally better than others ;)
 
iSmokes said:
Go check out some journals bro. That's your best bet. I'll try to answer some of your questions if I've actually been through them myself. I can recommend some stuff too. I'm in no way experienced. Only been growing since august. I have picked up a few things that helped me along so here goes:

- First advice, never take advice per word, try to find the meaning behind it. Everything applies differently everywhere. There's so many variables between people's grows it's just hilarious. There's a 100 ways to do this.

- The size of the plants you're planning to grow will dictate the size of your grow area. (Since you know you want to grow 6)

- The size of your grow area will dictate how much light and ventilation you need.

- Since you're using CFL's. I would recommend trying to cover the spectrum. Focus on 6500K during the first 4 weeks, then focus 2700K when you see proper flowering (usually after week 4). For example: If I'm running 10 CFL's in my area growing strictly autos, I would do 7-6500k's and 3-2700K's, then I'll flip to 7-2700K's and 3-6500K's for later flowering. I hope this is making sense.

- I highly recommend smart pots. Go with bigger than a gallon bro. At least 2-Gal pots. I've grown multiple autos in 2Gal smartpots and they came out great. You'll avoid over watering and root-bound stress. This is all opinion, of course.

- I highly recommend Blue Planet Nutrients. They work fantastic, excellent nutes, very affordable, great service, and very fast delivery. (at least in my experience with them) Anything I "recommend" is based on opinion bro.


That's some stuff to get you thinking for now. Cheers :grinjoint:
Click to expand...


I appreciate that, man!
Now, as far as the box, how big would I want to go with 6 autos?
I was thinking maybe around 4foot long, around 2 foot deep, and 2.5foot high?
Is that not enough room, should I use more?
And how would I go about making doors for them, without light leaks?
And how would I vent air in and blow it out with a computer fan, without leaking light?

Sorry for the noob questions ://
 
Excellent post GiGa!

Jdm they really are noob questions :rofl: ... How big are your autos? You need to consider a lot of things if you're building your space around your plants. Usually people buy a tent/cabinet, then decide on number of plants etc... I had autos that grew 10 inches tall and yielded 12 grams, and some that grew 3 feet tall and yielded 70 grams. Sooo.. see where I'm going with this? There's absolutely no way to tell unless you know your strain and have grown the same pheno over and over.

- Autos don't care much for light leaks. Maybe you should consider a tent and save yourself the trouble of building a wardrobe.

- If you have 6 big plants flowering in your area and you care for odor control, then computer fans won't cut it.


There really is a lot to learn. Go over journals and check them out, go to the How To section on this website. It really had a wealth of info.
Best of luck. I'd love to answer specific questions but your strains are unknown, so many variables, I don't want to guide you in the wrong way.



How to Grow Marijuana Everything You Need to Know
 
I run into new growers *ALL* the time who wanna set up the best hydro setup possible. Wrong. lol. Use the "KISS" system...KeepItSimpleStupid.

My advice to you would be 3gallon Smart pots with Ocean Forrest Soil using organic based nutrients. Use a little dolomite lime as a buffer (1tsp per gal) and you'll be able to get away with watering your garden x2 or x3 per week and you'll only have to mix nutes every once in a while. This also allows a HUGE buffer against most "newbie" mistakes like necrosis and nutrient-burn and your plants will thank you for it! Whatever nutrient line you do use, make sure its a 2 or 3 part and that'll keep it simple for you. I like ROots Organics but I use everything under the sun in one form or another in one setup or another.

Get through this run, then you'll be able to decide what worked and what didn't...The fact of the matter is this: You ask 10 growers a question, and you'll get 10 different answers...gardening is mostly what you're comfortable with as well as what you're able to afford. If you want to try a "hybrid" style, you can go with a 50-50% mix of soil & Coco-Coir w/ synthetic nutrients...This is basically a mix of a hydro and soil based system.

Think of it like this: Hydro will feed your plant via the nutrient you put in your water. Organic Soil will feed your plant via microbes that eat organic material in the soil and produce nutrients the plants like. It took me along time to figure out what they meant when they said: "Feed the soil, not the plant".... Start simple and go from there. If you have any questions there are hundreds of worthy members here as well as myself, feel free to give me a shout if you need to!

CHEERS!
 
Yeah, I definitely wanna do soil, and maybe a little less than 6 plants, perhaps 3 or 4?

I want it to be in a cabinet, and I believe id be using Paradise auto vertigo..
Nothing but fox farms products.
 
2.5 feet high? I really don't see how you can grow in 2.5 feet. That could be a start box, but if you count the overall size, there's no chance 2.5 feet will work. I'm about 3 weeks in and my plants are about 19" NOT counting the bucket. I'm at about 28" with counting the pot.

You probably should count on about 4' tall

You also need to consider the room for the lights. If you look at my grow journal, you'll see that I have 4' T5s and a bunch of 100W CFL, both clip on and light bar, they take up room. 6 plants is probably going to need more room. If you want to go short and wide, you'll want good side lights, that takes more space.

You might want to check the grow journals for someone that starts flowering very soon, some people go for small short wide plants over tall large plants.

I can't speak about autos, but check if you have control over when they start flowering.
 
My first indoor grow was a 600watt HPS w/ x4 plants in 2gal plastic pots w/ RootsOrganic nutes. Fox-Farm is fine, every nute company makes pretty close to the same quality nutes, its just pretty packaging and cool slogans that make the difference to the consumer.

My Organic Soil Mix: 60%Ocean Forrest, 10%Happy-Frog, 15%CocoCoir, 15% Worm Castings. If you amend this mix with Dolomite lime it will last you up to 35 days without having to feed your plants any nutrients at all...in that regard it'll save alot of money as well as time.

PS. I switched from Fox-Farm to Cyco on my synthetic runs. Working unbelievable! Check it out if you haven't!

CHEERS!!!
 
Concrete Seed said:
every nute company makes pretty close to the same quality nutes, its just pretty packaging and cool slogans that make the difference to the consumer.
Click to expand...

This is simply not true

Concrete Seed said:
My Organic Soil Mix: 60%Ocean Forrest, 10%Happy-Frog, 15%CocoCoir, 15% Worm Castings. If you amend this mix with Dolomite lime it will last you up to 35 days without having to feed your plants any nutrients at all...in that regard it'll save alot of money as well as time.
Click to expand...

This is basically FFOF with extra castings and a dash of coco. I doubt your changes are making any difference. No disrespect. FFOF by itself lasts a good 35 days without feeding.
 
Jdm Teg said:
And about how many times would i be feeding my plants? Auto vertigo? Under 2700K warm white cfls?
Click to expand...

This depends on a lot of things like pot size, plant size, strain...

Start your grow and start a journal. You'll get help/advice as you go through your grow. You will learn so much it's ridiculous.

I'm not hating on fox farm's nutrients, but a few people (including myself) found them terrible for autos. (This is just opinion)

Again, best of luck Jdm. Let us know if you put up a journal. I'd like to follow and I'll pull some auto-growers your way too.
 
Concrete Seed said:
I run into new growers *ALL* the time
Click to expand...
welcome to 420 my friend
here we run into new helpers *all* the time.
as is often the case, here at 420 mag we pride ourselves on mythbusting. and even 'pro' growers that learned from lesser forums often have their education rocked like the rest of us.

i havnt met an 'expert' yet that doesnt learn something new on our forums =D
 
GiGaBaNE said:
then try to learn a bit more my friend =)

loads of autos out there that could in theory grow in a 2.5' if one is carfull with pot size and using tight noding from 6500k cfls and some LST work =)
Click to expand...

Actually it was me that thought the 2.5' wouldn't be enough. I might have spoke out of turn, I just thought 30" including lights/pots/etc... would be pretty tight.

That really doesn't sound like much room, but I am the noob.
 
What if i were to try a pc growbox?

Seems a lot less expensive, and im not out to grow to sell, just to support the household ^.^
It would be autoflowering, for sure.
I'd be using 4 2700k cfl's.
2 fans.
and I want to get 2 plants in there.
Can someone explain to me what to start out in? Do i start out in a square pot, then transplanting both of the sq pots into a big clear plastic tub?
If so, how big of sq pots should i use?(how tall and how long) and how do i go about transplanting?
Sorry, super new, trying to learn!!
 

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