Hi all. I've been browsing this site for quite some time so I finally decided to sign up! 1st post here. I'm about light up for the first time. I have been smoking since a teenager and I have a natural affinity for plants so I figured it's time to grow my own medicine! I come from a long line of farmer/gardeners and have somewhat of a green thumb I would say. I have grown cannabis plants several times in the ultra low tech form just for fun and have had mediocre to great success growing house plants and aquatic aquarium plants. I was fortunate enough to receive a bunch of growing equipment from a friend for FREE! I was given a 600w interchangable MH/HPS and pretty much everything else needed even down to an expensive PH probe and an unused R/O unit. However the friend who gave me all this stuff insists that I do 2x600w. He feels that the work involved on a single 600w is not worth it and that I must run another 600w for a better sized crop with near the same amount of work. I'd like your thoughts and opinions please. So this leaves me with a few questions. 1) Should I run a 2nd 600w light or should I go ahead and just start with a single? 2) Can the RO unit be installed myself or do I need the assistance or service of a professional or handyman? This one is a bit more complicated. 3) Should I use a tent or build a room? The person who donated the equipment insists that I build a little room and that tents are a waste of money but I am really diggin the tents and have no problem paying for one(or 2). I would highly prefer not to build a room as I am renting and don't want to make any changes to the residence in itself as I am not permitted to do renovations. I am fortunate enough that my landlord lives on the opposite side of Canada and he has hired a rental company to deal with me. Needless to say they are your average rental company and prefer to never speak to me if possible. Reason for me wanting a tent is the ease of setup/tear down and it's transportability. I would like to be able to remove everything quickly and easily in the event I am required to do so. Also wanted to know the general opinion on using my water change aquarium water to water my plants. It is high in nitrate around 20-30ppm. I use it on my houseplants with great success but I understand that might not be the case for cannabis. Also kind of curious about making my own nute mixes with dried fertilizers. We do this for aquatic plants because it's 100x cheaper then buying premade mixes. what we use are Potassium Nitrate, Monopotassium Phosphate and a trace element mix. The n, p and k can be measured to the ~5pmm range with aquarium test kits. I know this is a lot but your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks trippinblacklady
I rent and built a few flimsy stud walls without making any permanent damage. It cost me less than 100 dollars to build. I lined my interior walls with emergency space blankets. Much cheaper than Mylar. I had to keep it cheap to avoid marital consequence. I, personally think the tents are unnecessary. More light is better, but no reason you can't work with what you have until you can work up to it. My grow partner routinely harvests well over 6oz per plant under 800watts, which really isn't much more than you have.