Hey Guys, first time posting and starting my first grow. I live in Australia, NSW so growing is illegal and will be doing it in my apartment so requires stealth with limited size. I'm going to build my own box from plywood 2ft x 3ft x 5ft to house ideally around 5 plants of 3-4ft height. Their placement in the box will be: X X X X X 2ft x 3ft x 5ft box w/ Mylar interior 600w HPS Light w/ reflector ballast 8" Inline Centrifugal Fan + 8" Carbon Scrubber connected to ducting to lead somewhere 2 x 8" holes at corner w/ metal grate for air intake 6-8" low volt desk fan for circulation & strengthening digital hygro/temp meter non slow release tomato soil from Bunnings + perlite (30% ratio) + fast acting tomato nutes. for seeds i will be ordering a seed pack from marijuana-seeds.nl as they ship to Australia and are relatively cheap compared to the others I've seen. 10 x big buds 10 x northern lights 10 x bubblegum all regular seeds. aiming for at least 4 females per strain. germination will be with 8 wet paper towels till the seed cracks a stem then transferring just below soil with light 1ft away at 24/7 light till roots fill then move to 12" plastic plant pot with 18/6 cycle *thinking of trying to FIM the plants when their babies for increased yield? this continues through vegetation state till plant are around 15-20" tall then switch to 12/12 cycle for flowering. allow buds to continue growing for a week after optimal harvest to mature/denser (is this good?) Harvest Goal- 5 plants x 3-4oz = 15-20oz per harvest (7-8 weeks seed to harvest) *** is this achievable? Grow Box conditions: Humidity: 40-60% Temperature: 20-29 Celsius also going to have a mother plant in its own 1ft x 2ft x 3ft box at about 2.5ft height, grown under the hps then moved to a 130w cfl to maintain + fans and a cheap bathroom fan exhaust & desk fan. this allows me to have a sustainable cycle for plants, i can simply clone them and put them in a humidity dome under the 130w for two weeks before moving it back under the 600w. could i please have an experienced grower or anybody with similar setups to help me out with anything I'm missing or could go wrong's? I'm open to criticism as well as everything helps Thanks
Sure in fantasy land! 8 weeks? sure you can get a few grams of leaf with some tiny buds. 5 plants? why 5?. First run you might get 8 ounces with the 600 and you get lucky and dont fuck up. try working with a square 4,9,16,25,36,49 you get the idea. make the room square. The problem I see is the tiny little box. you would not need huge fans if you were not sticking a light into a box like a large oven. Go 4 X 4 or 5 X 5 or bigger.
8 weeks is short? i was only going off seed genetics that i had read + the fact mine will be smaller.. how long would you do it for? and 5 plants because NSW law is split into different charges, 'small quantity' of marijuana plants ends at 5, after that i'm being trialed for commercial growing which i would rather not have, after a few grows though i might kick it up to 10-15 depending on how risky it is. as for the fans, are you talking about the desk fan or exhaust? exhaust is mainly for hiding the smell, and i wouldnt go any lower than 4" and the price between 4-8" isnt that great so figured i may aswell spend a bit of extra $ for double the size of exhaust. and the square box i understand for light coverage whatever, although would it really make such a bigger difference if it was only a foot longer in length?
5 plants seed to 8 weeks might give you a hand full of bud if you are lucky. the time frame is a biggie. That figure is just so far from reality. yes , you will be kicking yourself in a couple months for making a tiny box to grow in. going "WTF was i thinking!" If you are wanting small just get an old refrigerator.
Easy answer - No You'll have to add 6-8 weeks from sprout for veg. growth + some plant training to achieve the per-plant you're wanting. 2' X 3' is only gonna give you room for 2 of that size without overcrowding them. And 5' headroom? Minus pot size - 1', and subtract 12 - 18" for your light. Bumpin' up your footprint to 3' X 3' would let you double your count. If this is your first grow ever, You might want to consider running a single strain - different genetics can vary ALOT in their likes/dislikes & chasing multiple problems 'til ya kill one is a real fuqin bummer - been there done that, ya know? Best wishes for a successful harvest from "up here", you're fixin' to get started with the coolest hobby ever. Overgrow!
okay, yeah i have read forums and seen pictures of other growers into day 70-90 just in veg; after let's say 8 weeks, wouldn't my plant be massive? I've read that the plants will double/triple in size whilst flowering? i may not be able to exceed a 6ft box, as i said its going in a bedroom closet or something like that i would go with 3' x 3', that's manageable as anything bigger isn't really going to fit in a closet, although i like the idea of an old fridge, i can hide that in the laundry without it being to suspicious. explain to me how it will double my count though? i'm going from 2x3 = 6' sq to 3x3 = 9' sq? also i was already planning on running single strains at a time, i just get 3 different ones in the pack - as long as growing conditions don't alter majorly between strains??
330mm/15L plastic pots (not sure what size in gallons) is 9" in height. and for a light i would guess around 9" aswell. so in my predictions i'm subtracting just over a foot from the box height
Veg at least 30 days and do a scrog. Leave a foot between the screen and light and you can utilize every bud site with an even canopy. 7-8 weeks with an autoflower maybe. Imo it's not even worth growing if you don't get at least 45 days of veg but thats just my opinion. 30 days to 60 days veg could easily double your yield. Turning 3 oz a plant into 6. Build your box, scrog it and flip the lights when the time comes not by any set date. Dates are almost useless in growing if you haven't grown the strain before. I pulled 13 oz off of two plants recently in a 6x3 and my light was maybe 5 feet if that. It's all about the veg time dude. I had to learn the hard way. Ubless you have dozens of plants you are keeping really small and doing a sog it's ok to veg a short amount of time so everything stays small, thats the point. Any other growing method needs some veg time. I would have something like 50 plants in a 3x3 sog so if you have the seeds go for it. If not you can clone what you have now and do it that way. I still reccomend the scrog until the screen is 80-90% full.
^ Good advise right there Slim, the One thing you're gonna HAVE TO learn (IF you want to enjoy any measure of success) is patience. Good luck and best wishes for your sprouts.
yeahh you're gonna have to be patient. and for a first timer I'd say 600w with ac reflector. carbon scrubber, 3x3 for the 600w footprint. same strain, two plants tops. learn to train, and don't ruin a bunch of seeds by overwhelming yourself the first time around. if you want 15 oz your first grow, you'll be vegging for about 6 weeks. and jeez, try to get some decent soil and nutrients, or you wont have any smokeable weed and your 15oz goal will end up being 0 oz real quick. but you might get a good few grams of hash!
@[member="SupaaBaked"] I really like the sound of that supaa, ill research scrog but one question; does that require more plants or can I do something somewhat smaller with less, let's say max 10? I'm still unsure about how risky it is so can't really set my goals on a commercial/industrial grow in eyes of the law (if that makes sense kinda high)
No idea man, I'll look into it though and get one that does. What does air cooled mean and do? Never even heard of it edit* ah i just need to use better air circulation without air-cooled hoods, thats fine
Ok so i did some research but i still have some questions like how exactly to bend the stems without breaking them, which leaves to snip off, certain patterns that are good to fill up the screen with? any pictures or diagrams or something would be really nice. also on the internet i read that with a 600w hps, best light coverage is in a 3.45' x 3.45' box. which is somewhat easy to maintain stealthily in my apartment. is this alright? : - screen placed 12-18" from soil. - screen has at least 2x2" squares - secured with screws on the sides
Slim That 8 weeks is just the flower period. U have to grow the plant first veg it out like 4 weeks or 8 weeks before you flower so 3-4 months Unless u are flowering from seed Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Grasscity Forum mobile app
My box is 2'x3'x6'. I harvested four plants from it last grow using a 400 watt light. It was crowded. This grow I'm only going to harvest three plants. They will only be about 36" tall when I cut them. I think 600 watts is too much for a small box.