I am making preparations for my first ever grow. I plan on growing 4-7 plants. I know the information I am about to ask for is probably readily available on google and here, but I have been looking and just can't find everything. 1. Most things I have read talk about creating a grow room. I am planning on growing in the downstairs of a house, is this necessary to create a room inside of the basement? or can I just set everything up in the open? 2. I understand there are 3 different types of lighting that can be used. Incandescent, HPS, MH. I understand that the HPS and MH are better or more efficent. But I don't know which to use for veg. and which to use for flowering. Also how many lights should I use for growing 4-7 plants and what Kelvin rating should they have? How much wattage? 3. I read it is better to use organic soil rather than non organic soil, is there any specific brand or is it all pretty much the same. 4. With a grow of 4-7 plants how big should my 'grow room' space be? would 5 foot by 10 foot by 7/1/2 foot tall be large enough? And if you could give me any tips/pointers insight it would be greatly appreciated.
Having a room where you control the conditions is always ideal, not to mention the stank of 4-7 plants in flower would easily smell up the house, a room or grow cab is a good way to control conditions and odor MH is generally used for vegetative stage as it contains the proper spectrum (around 6500K), and HPS are generally used in the flowering stage as it produces light around the 2700K range and mimics the harvest sun late in the growing season. I'm not that experienced with HID lights, but I think you'd want around a 600W with a good reflective hood for that number of plants, actually you could probably do with a 400W come to think of it edit: don't use incandescent for growing, CFL's (compact flourescent) is the proper choice Most growers on here use FoxFarms soil, mostly the "Ocean Forest" variety. It contains many organic products to help your plants. Some say it's too nutrient rich for seedlings, but I've never had an issue with it that sounds like plenty of space to me
Check out these 3 YouTube videos and you'll be glad you did. Click here and scroll about half way down... http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-g...ers-first-grow-journal-ww-seedsman-fem-9.html Props to John for finding them
1. Keep it in the basement with door locked, box isn't needed since basements typically are the best for climate control anyway... 2. For 4-7 plants I would veg. under a 400w MH depending on space and bloom under a 600w HPS, clones can deal w/ a p.o.s. CFL but I dont suggest it, 250w MH is better spectrum... 3. Organic produces better taste and less yield, non-organic produces better yield but not as good taste, but in my opinion the taste of non-organic can be just as good if done right... FOXFARM OCEAN FOREST FTMFW!!! 4. You could probably bloom 6 in that amount of space with great yields Just make sure you do it right and always measure ph and ppm of water and use a quality line of nutrients, I use botanicare products, power plant, liquid karma, and cal-mag for all my veg plants and mothers, aqua shield and power clone for cuttings, and power flower, liquid karma, cal-mag, and sweet for bloom. any more questions shoot me a pm Peace