Hi everyone, first post, first grow, total virgin aha I've been lurking a lot, and reading tons! But I still feel like many things are Chinese for me, so I'm asking (begging!) for your help. I intend to start a journal (love reading them), and I'm sorry for errors (I'm not a native English speaker). So I bought the stuff I post below, but most things I really don't know.. Tent: Dark Street II 0.6 x 0.6 x 1.5m Agrolite gro&flo hps 250w, eti ballast, cooltube 120 One extractor, VENTS VK01 125 mm (190 m3/h) I'm thinking maybe 3, 4 plants..is it doable? Have I made some HUGE mistake and bought all the wrong things?
That's a solid set up mate. But I would recommend 2 plants. For two reasons. 1, two will fill that space pretty easily. 2, looking after two plants is half the work of looking after four, getting to the two at the rear can be a pain. For a beginner I would stick to two for now Everything else sounds great though, fan, light, and tent are all well matched
Thank you GoldGrower mate, I feel relieved that I didn't mess up anything important and everything fits! I definitely agree with your recommendations and understand the reasoning. My initial idea of probably 3 plants was based on the fact I'll probably mess up/would have one plant to experiment with lst, while leaving the others alone as much as possible.
You could have 3 or 4 in there and it would be faster as you will have to flower them a little earlier. It may be worth having more than 2. As long as you spread out the canopy so the area is evenly filled it won't matter how many plants you have in there
Thanks again for the invaluable insight! I'm going to start today with germination, and after your comment I'll probably try 4 plants! My goal was exactly that, trying scrog or some sort of LST to get an even canopy, though I'm a bit afraid that the lack of experience will make me mess up. To minimize the risk I've been reading like crazy, but some things you only learn by doing them
If you do 4 they will only have 1 square foot each so probably wouldn't be worth doing a ScrOG. Top a few times to give each one multiple leaders and they will fill the area in no time. When flowering you will probably find some plants stretch up much further than others. You can put things under some pots to bring the canopy up so they are all even. If you have a ScrOG screen this becomes impossible unless each plant has its own ScrOG screen, but that would be a lot of work
If I were you I would stick to 2 in that amount of space mate...I get the logic behind wanting 3 or 4, so that if something goes wrong with one or two, you still have a couple left, just in my mind there is a lot more chance of something going wrong if you overfill the tent and therefore leave them with no room to grow..... Plus, I reckon 2 plants in that setup will most likely yield the same if not more than 4, because unless you are running autos I don't think you will realize even half of the plants potential if it's confined to a sq foot of space.....at least with 2, as Gold said, they will have a bit of room to grow and be easier to maintain.
Oh, and English isn't your native language???.....Damn, respect bro, you type more understandably than a lot of people I know who were born here!! lol.
lol thank you, I write better than I speak OK, I've put 3 seeds in paper towels yesterday. When I have them potted and in the tent I'll post some pictures. I have to say, again, that just having people with experience giving me pointers puts my mind at ease so...THANKS! Now, I've had some natural hiccups, some doubt's assembling and wiring everything, but with some patience and reading I've managed to get everything in working order I have, however, some concerns: -the tent is not completely light proof (I'll make it better with some duct tape) -I was expecting the fan to suck air, not blow (I know this might be totally retarded thought lol) -the damn fan is sooooo loud. I don't think I'll be able to keep it in my bedroom. Probably move it to the only other place it'll fit, but there are problems there too. Some questions: -can I just point the fan outwards, is there any difference between sucking and blowing (LOL)? I'm thinking of hanging the fan, some ducting, blow through the cooltube, some more ducting out the vent hole on top. Could this work? Fan (blows this -> way) - ducting - cooltube - ducting - vent hole - with this setup are the passive vents enough? And which one should I use (there are 2, one is a circular vent hole, the other is a window with a removable Velcro flap)? And should I be worried about the light proofing of those passive intakes (I think so)? Sorry for the wall of text, its just that its all new to me, doubts arise everywhere
After much thought I came to the conclusion that I should mess with my first grow as little as possible, kind of like a control group, with less chance of messing up. Your comment is exactly what I was thinking, just a topping or two Oh, and that idea to level the pots, its so simple its brilliant! Thanks, I will definitely try that!
Mate I'm probably the least experienced guy that gives advice to folks like yourself here on GC, and even I can help you lol....you are in good hands my friend! Firstly though, you are better off sucking the warm air out of the cool tubes rather than blowing air through them....I have tried both methods, and I can at least vouch for that!....you say your fan just blows?, if it's an inline, it's surely sucking from one end and blowing out the other right?. I also had the exact same problem with a fan that sounds like a fucking jumbo jet is arriving lol....the way I fixed it was to build a box to house it in....simple MDF box, circular saw for the ducting, and stuffed it full of old blankets to muffle the noise....I could still hear it, but at least people in the next town couldn't! lol. The circular vents are the ones to go for bro, slide the ducting through there, and you should have draw strings to pull them tight to make them light proof?, if not, a bit of duct tape works wonders.
I was also looking at the silencer box. Perhaps I'll have to do both, move the tent and add a box, just because its really really close to my bed and unless its nearly silent I can't sleep Yeah, about the fan, funny thing is I experimented switching the wires just to see if it would reverse but it didn't.. Neither did it complain lol seems to be functioning properly. That's why I was saying I felt it was a dumb question lolol but it just didn't seem to suck enough tomorrow I'll hook it up and do some tests. Best way is to hang it with some wires right? I'll do it like that then: cooltube, ducting, fan pointing ->, ducting out the vent hole Edit: actually the fan will be blowing up ^, due to space constraints. No harm there right? Also, I have 1,5 gallon square pots (5.8 liters)..will these be too small? Will the plant get root bound?
I always position my fans before the light. The reason being is that if the hood leaks then you won't be sucking smelly air through the leak bypassing the filter. And also so you won't overheat your fan. As breezy said, the fan sucks in one end and blows out the other so I don't understand what you mean then you say your fan blows and doesn't suck. It has to do both or neither
It was a brain freeze aha when I first connected the fan it almost didn't seem to be getting any intake. Obviously that makes no sense The fan before the hood does seem to make more sense. It was actually the way I was planning on setting it up...the problem is I don't think the tent has enough space for it. It would require tubing on both sides of the hood, and it barely fits one 90 degree turn on one side only.. :/
In that case mate, do what I did....attach the ducting to the cooltube, pass it through the circular vent, and then attach it to the fan outside the tent to extract. Truth is you won't even need a filter until early to mid flowering, and when that time comes just attach the filter on the opposite side of the tent and connect the ducting to the other end of the cooltube. So you have bed - tent - fan....a silencer box is always a good way to go, but to be honest when I saw the price of them I couldn't justify it, so mdf and old blankets was the way to go lol. Acoustic ducting is also not bad either, a length of that between the fan and light and another running towards where you extract will probably reduce the noise considerably. Damn, just typing this is reminding me that I have all this shit to do again as soon as these beans pop.....ugh! lol
A friend of mine has the same set up as you and she has the cool tube corner to corner. This way you can get ducting to both ends of the cool tube I prefer to have it "filter - fan - cool tube - out" . But when fitting everything in such a small area you may have to have the fan after the cool tube. Both ways work
Diagonally? Wow, hadn't thought of that..ingenious again! I'm going to try some of these advices the next few days, hopefully be up and running in the weekend - will keep you guys posted, some pics too. Breezey I'm definitely going to try that diy muffler in the weekend, even if I do end up moving the tent (I have a spot in the kitchen where I'm thinking about rigging an opening to the outside. That plus a filter when the need arises will surely be safer - live in an apartment and don't need neighbors poking around)
I have my tents just exhausting out in to the room they are in. I have the window open a crack in the summer but closed in the winter. I don't have any problems. Although it can get a bit humid at times. I have two 4'x3' tents in there though