Okay, so I finally have my own place and I'm gonna start growing sometime next week, since thats when all my stuff is getting here. I'll give you guys an idea of the materials I have and a general idea of what I'm trying to do. I've bought a 4x2x7 Lighthouse Hydro grow tent that I plan to grow 2-3 plants in at a time. For lighting, I have decided to go with CFLs for this grow since its my first and I don't have enough money for an HPS and proper ventilation. Maybe after a couple of grows. Anyway, I have 10x 42W CFLs, each at around 3,800 lumens, that I plan to suspend using Y splitters and a power strip as a fixture. Each power strip will hold 4x bulbs, and each plant will get a power strip. Assuming 2x plants, then I will have 2x extra bulbs to use as peripheral lighting, and I may be getting more bulbs as well. I will have a small rotating fan in the tent for air circulation. I will be using 5 gallon pots and a coco/perlite mix (ReadyGro). I have Canna Coco Nutes A+B, Canna Rhizotonic, and CalMag. I plan on hand watering and I would like some suggestions from any of you who have had similar setups using these nutes and medium on feeding and watering schedules and amounts. Should I pretreat the coco/perlite with the CalMag? Do I start adding Rhizotonic right away, or once I get a couple leaves? How much Rhizotonic do I use and which stages? When do I increase A+B? I plan on putting the germinated seeds straight into the coco/perlite in the final 5-gallon pot, and sprouting them from there. Anything I should know about doing this? Special watering? As for the seeds, I have gotten one seed of Advanced Seeds Auto Jack Herer, Ministry of Cannabis Northern Lights Fem, Dinafem White Widow Auto, and a Cali Connection Grape Kush, each. Any suggestions for what I've said so far? Better configurations with what I've got? I'm planning on putting the two autos in first and doing those to start. Then messing around with training and topping and all that on the photoperiod seeds. Here's a picture of what I have now, I'm still waiting on 6 bulbs, my pH control kit, more Y splitters, the grow tent, and seeds. All that should be here in the next 5 days. Give me ANY AND ALL suggestions before it all gets here
Looks like you've done your research. I grow similar to you but instead of coco I use peat. Considering switching to coco in the future for environmental purposes. I have no experience with your nutes though as I use completely different stuff. Personally, I'd step down from 5 to 3 gallon pots. 5 is unnecessary unless your plants will be vegged for over 1 month under MH's in which case the photo's may outgrow your tent. Since I use R/O water, I dosed full strength calmag for the first 2 weeks. I'm still trying to figure out the dosages of everything myself. Cheers! Just curious, how much did you spend on all of your lighting equipment? Bulbs, power strips, splitters etc? I'm curious about doing a micro grow cfl.
You have the right idea. the only thing is i don't think the cfl will do. I have a 4x2x6.5 sun hut big easy as well as a 4x4 When I first got my 4x2 I ran a 150hps with built in ballast and 4 cfls on each side. It's just wasn't enough. Also heat is going to be an issue you will need to keep cfls very close for effective lighting and they get kinda hot I know mine did not crazy hot but they get warm. I run a 400watt sun systems digital Mh/hps And it's just perfect I could run a 600. For a little extra but there's no need I would greatly recommend starting plants with cfls and getting a 400 watt light with air cooled hood and decent magnetic ballast. They are relatively reasonable As well as getting a 6in fan I run 6in hurricane inline fan 435 cfms it's relatively inexpensive and a great fan very reliable. I wish I could tell you cfls will do great but I wouldn't be telling the truth. You have the right idea and you seem to be doing it right. I would love to see you succeed on your first grow and for it to be fun and rewarding for you. It's going to be kinda hard to hang those cfls and it's going to be a lot of cordage. You can grow with them it's just going to be a bit of a hassle. I don't think you will get a substantial yield. And you will have to keep plant somewhat small I started with a homemade 2x2 grow box tons of computer fans and 10cfls and tried to grow 2 decent size plants it's just wasn't enough that's when I upped to the 150 hps And the plants took off I soon flowered and got my 4x2 then the 150 just wasn't cutting it. I ended up with 4 oz dry my first grow under the 400. Veg to a long time under cfls but speed up a lot with 150 hps in the 2x2 then moving to the 4x2 realized the 150 wasn't cutting it so I got the 400 and flowered and it was just enough. I think your better with a 400watt light And you will not be disappointed. You will not be dis
Yeah, I've tried to get as much information from as many reliable sources as I can, but its been a bit of an information overload. So many things to consider! And damn, I already bought the 5-gallon ones, but maybe ill just use less coco? As for my current setup, on bulbs, adapters, splitters, and power strips, I've spent a total of approximately $140, but thats only cuz I chose to use all 42w bulbs. I'm excited to get started! Question: what is RO water exactly? and How do you water this way?
I don't think the 5 gal is a big problem, just a bit overkill. RO stands for reverse osmosis. It's a fancy filter to get nearly everything out of the water.
It's not necessary man. You might not need or want to use one. My city tap water is just the farthest thing that is good to grow cannabis.