Hey guys, I'm new to the site. I have lurked for a while and done my research but I have a few questions. I am planning my own grow that will be started in a few weeks but I am a bit confused on a few things. For one, I will be running two boxes at one time, one for veg. and the other for flower. The flower room specs are 2 feet by 2 feet and 4 feet tall. Is that enough room to flower 4 plants in 3 gallon grow pots with an LST + Scrog style grow? I will be running two CFL light fixtures in the flower room grow box. Each one totals 184 watts, so that's 368 actual watts in total for the flower room. Also, I'm a bit confused on watering, since I will be growing in 3 gallon pots, exactly how much water should I use to water them? That's enough for now, thanks in advance!
For watering its easy. Pick up your pot if its heavy dont water, means its wet. Pick it up and its light it means its dry and you should be thinking about watering it soon. Let it dry inbetween. 2x2x4 is a little small to do 3 plants in 3 gallon buckets.
The 2x2x4 would be perfect for vegging 4 plants in 3 gal pots but you'll need more room for flower even if you train them. The growth has to go somewhere and there's not much room on the sides or top. 2x2x4 is perfect for scrogging one plant in a 7 or 10 gal smartpot, sativas give me the most trouble in that setup. Check out my 2x2 scrog rig link I made it so I can take the entire thing out of the box for maintenance, so much easier to take care of ...never did finish that grow How much water to use depends on everything. With organics you don't need to water till runoff, with chemicals you want 10% or more runoff every watering to rinse away excess salts. (and you want to be able to dispose of that runoff easily, in a sink or tub) Like rhapsody said though, your pots will feel significantly lighter when they need water. I use 3 gal fabric pots with organics so I let the runoff seep back in, they take about a half gallon. When you water, it takes a few minutes for the entire pot to soak it up, so when I used chems I added water in increments to let the soil get entirely wet before getting that final 10% runoff. Otherwise, you're just rinsing the parts of the soil that initially get soaked while salts build up in the parts of the dirt that were still dry. So, if using chemical nutrients, take about 10 minutes per plant for watering instead of just pouring till you get runoff.
Thanks for the help guys, still trying to figure things out before I even buy anything. I'd like atleast 4 plants in the flower room. I'll try and find more room.
Have you thought about investing in a grow tent if possible? You can get them on Ebay for like $150 or $180 tops. They have outtake holes and intake holes, walls lined with reflective mylar, room for you to mount HID lights or CFL's (I know you're thinking its your first grow you should just go with CFL's, but honestly growing with HID lighting really is easier).
Agreed. I started out with a 250 watt MH/HPS light. Its not very big, but any MH/HPS light will beat the crap out of a cfl light. Cfl lights just do not put out as much light per watt compared to MH or HPS. I think the 20 watt cfl bulbs do something like 1600 lumens. Compare that to a 250 watt HPS which does 33,000 lumens. Pretty much means it would take 20 cfl bulbs to compete with one 250 HPS. The cfls would also draw more power. The only issue with MH/HPS is heat. You must have a cool tube to use one. You don't have to if you can manage the heat, but they really help. I would only go with cfls if you think you can not afford a MH/HPS light if cfls are cheaper. Some of the tents on ebay also sell for as low as $80 if you are looking for a fairly small tent. There are also deals on decent MH/HPS lights on there for probably around $200. If you are looking to grow 4 plants, I would look at getting a 40" by 40" tent with a 600 watt light. I think you wanted to do a 2 x 2, but It would be hard to fit any more than one plant in that area. I'm growing 2 plants in a 36" by 20" area and they have used up the entire area while just starting to flower a couple of days ago. They bush out like crazy with the right light, soil and nutes.
When you realize how many CFL's you need to get you through the whole grow (different spectrums for cycles, realizing you need more than you thought) it'll start to add up to the price of a 250w HID. I got my 600w for $180 off ebay, I bet you could find a 250w much cheaper. Actually, here is one: 250 Watts Digital HPS+MH Grow Light Giant Hood Sun Lamp Reflector Ballast 250W | eBay only $120 and has everything, hanging kit, timer, bulbs, reflector. Inline fans are only like $30 too, and they'll help air out tremendously if you can get the money for a better grow.