Sup GC, So I'm planning on growing bud for various reasons, but not to sell or distribute. I'm going to do it in my room with a grow box (2'x2'x7'). As you can see its not going to be a big operation, just enough to satisfy my needs (2 or 3 plants max) So here are my questions for you experienced growers. 1. What's the best hydroponics system for my set-up/experience? 2. can you use soil with a grow box, or just hydroponics? 3. Can you use a grow box for vegetative and flowering stages? (1 specific strain of course, but multiple plants) 4. Exactly how many plants do you think i can fit in the grow box with the given dimensions? (how many sativa plants, indica plants, hybrids being indica or sativa dominant) I plan on growing some White Widow Hybrid seeds. Anyone have experience with these...how was the end result? (yield, plant size, smell etc.) Thanks In Advance for all replies GC...
Soil Yes Yes. I use different bulbs for veg and flowering That depends on how tall you planning on growing them. I would think 2 even then that will get crowded if grow several feet tall. Other people can fill in question 4 better.I don't past 2.5 feet
I hope you don't take offence but from your questioning you seem very new to growing, if this is the case grow in soil. growing in soil will give you enough to learn on your first grow without all the extra headach hydro will bring you. get hydro right and you will win, but just get one or two things wrong and you can completely blow it. plants grown in soil is far simpler, you will need to learn far less and they are far tougher in soil, they bounce back well from major cock ups 1, covered above. 2, yes, please do 3, you can use one box for any amount of plants and any strain. a change of bulb is often recommended but certainly not a necessity 4, it depends on what lights you use to how big you need the plants to be. to use an extreme example if you were to use many low wattage cfls you would want to flower when the plants are still small. so if you finished each plant in a 6" square pot you could fit in up to 16 plants providing you light adequately covers the whole area. if your using bigger lights such as a 400w hps then I would suggest 4 plants in 12" pots. veg time being much longer in the latter but it will be worth it
if you used a 250w hps I would recommend 9 plants each in an 8" pot I'm currently growing white widow, the link is in my signature. they are only 9 days old though so it's not going to show you much lol
@Jetski Thanks for your input, and your WW plants look awesome. I plan on using an LED broad spectrum light by the way. I wanted to use the EBB and flow system due to its simplicity and "low maintenance" (((working student...Sometimes gone most of the day))) Does the lighting (18/6, 12/12 etc.) work the same for soil as it does for hydro when growing indoors? Not sure whether i want to do hydro or soil now...Damn! Oh, I don't plan on growing more than 2 plants at once...just enough bud for me and my dad haha. I want to grow in my room, which is big enough for a small operating grow box in the corner next to outlet for power & next to the window for ventilation of the great scents to come. Ideal???
yeah the lighting is the same for soil but needs less maintenance. I grow soil and I don't even look at my plants for sometimes 3 days running. it's often best to just leave them alone anyway or you can get itchy fingers and start dicking about with them haha. with beginners this is a recipe for disaster. don't get me wrong hydro has its advantages but maintenance I do not believe is one of them the size of the box your describing isn't really that small. you have plenty of head room for a 250w hps. you could get a nice crop from a 2x2 with a 250 hps. I seriously wouldn't bother with LEDs unless you use more than 300watts but seeing as your head room is so big the LEDs just don't offer any advantage you will need the grow area to be light proof to flower properly so you will need forced ventilation. it's not just about getting rid of the heat but moisture and spent air too otherwise you will suffocate the plants and their metabolism will slow having an extractor fan sucking air out of your grow area and blowing it in to the general room and having the rooms window open now and then will work just fine. in the winter you will not need to open the window very often at all
Good shit guys, I started my first one yesterday actually, but im just growing in my closet with the door open. Keep posting tips for growing hydro please, I didn't know it would be a more fragile plant and I don't want to fuck this one up, so any advice would be awesome.
Thanks again for the info @Jetski, The box sounds pretty small, dont know how much smaller they can get without having to bend the plant. Using LED lighting sounded really convenient when compared to HPS or MH lighting. I read you can leave LED lighting on the plant from start to finish with great results, whereas MH lighting is recommended during vegetation phase and HPS during flowering phase blah blah blah...LED SOUNDS EASIER. I do plan on using a ventilation system for the box too...also, I've decided to go with the soil technique, your right...its the right move for a beginner. @Minnimarine Cool man and good luck. What hydro system you use? I decided to go with indoor soil growing...just sounds easier.
@Minnimarine Also, just keep reading threads on hydroponic techniques, set-up etc. There are like millions of threads out there. Some with useful info and others with just vague info and random pics of bud (advertising). good luck.
as long as the system is running optimally there won't be anything fragile about the plants, they thrive in hydro. more so than soil IF everything is correct. but hydro does require you to learn a lot more and if you don't get it spot on the plants really suffer. with soil. you can make a few mistakes and the plant won't get quite as affected. I don't want to put anyone off hydro but im a firm believer in learning to walk before you have a crack at running
they can get much smaller, you could have a descent set up there. however using LEDs your going to have to get high wattage. in my opinion you need at least 300watts per square foot. they are so expensive to buy I don't see them being a viable alternative to cfls and certainly don't match up to hps. you don't have to swap bulbs when using hps. it's just most modern ballasts allow you to use both mh and hps but you can use just hps if you want, it works great.
After reading the thread I have decided to go with soil, im glad you guys set me straight on that. I was really gonna half ass it anyways with a white trash hydro setup. What's the best soil? I was thinking some kind of miracle grow high yield potting mix or something.
if your in America don't use miracle grow. people have so much trouble with it. the nutrient content is too high and it fucks seedlings up. if your in the UK it's ok, we seem to have a better quality version over here. if your anywhere else I have no idea
Miracle grow is the "WORST". It will make ur plants taste like shat in the end. They shoot up like twigs long length. I would recomend fox farm ocean forest it has 30day supply has perlite in it, drains well its $15 a bag 1.5 CU FT approx 12gals depending where u at. chill & smoke some bud!
i concur w 42K. I'm currently on my first grow and Fox farm ocean forest is what im using. Couldn't be happier w the results so far and the plant has responded well to it.
