I am growing 6 plants in soil under one 600 watt HPS and I need to know a good brand of nutrients and soil to buy.
Foxfarm all the way , sup whitehouse =) Ocean Forest for the win. I've used advanced nutrients carboload ,big bud and bud blood hand in hand with foxfarms... i'm not sure if I saw much of a difference ,but some people swear by it. GH product are pretty good , google the Lucas Formula... the nutes listed are pretty much the most common known and used nutes here on GC ( and no you don't need ALL of them ) GL K+
Thankyou very much sir! very informative I was thinking fox farm in the back of my mind and you just confirmed it for me. I had no idea on which way to go for the nutes so im just gonna take your word for it. Peace Brother.
Also if I decided to cut the crop down to 4 plants under a 600 watt bulb does that mean im gonna have 4 really kickass plants? or am I totally wasting 200 watts of light?
OK, Personally I agree but can u explain why? see this is my first time so I was thinking 6 might be a little much to keep up with maybe... prolly not but maybe.
search button, i answer this question about 20 times a week.. FF ocean forest, the only AN nutes i recommend are their organic ones.. (iguana juice, mother tea, etc)
I tend to disagree.. each plants growth depends greatly on how much light is available to it. Growing four may yield larger plants as crowding can occur and lower your yield. Four plants will grow great in a 600W setup.. I'd grow six plants if I had a larger grow area, but you are working with 4x4 feet right? Leaving one square foot for each plant, thats good. Putting six ina 4x4 might actually hurt your overall yield. If you had a 6x6 grow area, then yeah, I'd grow six. If I were you, I'd grow four plants and use a SCRoG setup to maximize the light hitting the bud sites. You won't regret it. Oh and on the soil.. yeah, Ocean Forest all the way. My nearest distributor is four hours away so I get mine on eBay.. $36 for 1.5^3 feet delivered. Maybe you can get it locally. Take Care ~Experimentalist
The area is 3.5 ft by 4.9 ft. and isnt SCRoG kinda hard to do? cause this is my first time. (I bet I could do it but I also dont want to destroy the crop) and what can i expect to yield if I did use scrog? and what would I get if didnt use it.
oh you never gave any area numbers, but ill break it down the best i can. if you can provide each plant with 100w of light, you will be doing great, less will suffice, a little more would be even better, but 100w per plant is great. therefore 6 plants x100 = your light HOWEVER you want to give each plant at least 1 sq ft. so after seeing your numbers i would say 4 plants.
FoxFarms Ocean Forest soil and though I haven't used these particular nutes yet, though they are sitting downstairs, the FoxFarm Grow Big forumula for vegetative growth and FoxFarm Tiger Bloom for budding. I have heard that if you want to take extra steps their 3 part system of the Open Sesame, Beastie Blooms and Cha Ching are the way to go. ... In the past I used general hydroponics solutions in my hydro system. I'm taking a more organic approach these days.
You said I should use one soil for vegging and a different one for budding? that means I have to switch pots when I move to the flowering room?
I would say your own custom mix would be better than Fox Farm, but Fox Farm makes an incredible ready to go mix... As far as their nutrients go, I think their are better brands than FF out there; I personally don't like their N-P-K ratios and several of their fertilizers are not organic. I would go with Alaska Fish Fertilizer by Lilly Miller (5-1-1) for vegging. It is full of fish emulsion and beneficial microbes. I also really like the Pura Vida Organics Bloom (2-6-6). This is what I will be using for 2009 and what I am using now for an experimental grow.
No.. sorry. The FoxFarm Ocean Forest is soil. You don't need to change the soil. During vegetative growth you would use the FoxFarms Gro Big nutrients and then you'd switch to the Tiger Bloom nutes when it's time to bud. There are additional additives you can use that are supposed to help with taste, density etc.. I haven't used any yet. I know some who used Bud Blood and loved it. I've also heard that molasses is great during budding for improving taste. It's actually a "secret" ingredient in many of the "carbohydrate load" products you can buy in the store. :-D Just remember.. Always grow with love.
Wow these responses were amazing! thankyou so much everyone. One more question. since ive decided to grow 6 plants, possibly using the SCRoG method, what am looking at as far as yields from each plant?
Don't count your yield before harvest... Depending on your lighting, soil, ferts, and feeding schedule, anywhere from 2-5 ounces? I don't know too much about indoor yields, but that seems reasonable. Make sure you get appropriate lighting for six plants. This will be the biggest determinant for the size of your yield.
i have the setup that you are inquiring about....and only one plant is not getting sufficient light (1 of 6 isnt horrible, ill just let it flower longer...) i use fox farm ocean, tiger bloom and the secret is...... wait for it.... molasses
Finishing up a grow with Pro-Mix BX with a couple ammendments added to the soil. I think Im sold on this soil, its the easiest thing to grow with. It has no extra nutrients in it so its like impossible to burn a seedling, then you can't basically burn your plants in veg unless you give them too much and since Im a believer in less is more and dont use much nutes really compared to other people, its great. Also, it has dolomite lime in it and let me tell you my ph never moved from 6.6 all the way from seedling until like a week ago. I stopped checking it on the regular and my Jock Horror plant just got a little out of whack on the ph last week, its late into flowering, so on my next grow I plan to add a little more lime on my last transplant, I think it may be used up(the lime). As for nutrients, I like Fox Farm stuff. And some SuperSwell guano(0-7-0) added to the soil and make a couple teas late in flowering. Probably gonna be looking at adding molasses to my feedings for late in flowering for an extra boost of Potassium(K). http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-jou...sman-indoor-outdoor-2008-a-5.html#post3199144