So this is my first time growing anything. I ordered a kit from online & from what I've already read I can tell I'll need to get some additions if I want to produce anything substantial. The problem is there's soooooo much information it's a bit overwhelming/confusing. I've attached some pictures of what I already have. There's 2 of the lights, but I'm not sure what kind of lamp to get to put them in. I'm going to wrap the bucket in black duct tape to keep the light out. I have the air pump & the air stone, but I'm not sure if I should have 2? It came with nutrients, but I'm not sure how good they are or when to add them in (from very start or after the leaves begin to grow?) I also have a few basic beginner questions that I'm sure are posted all the time, such as what should ph and humidity be at? How to go about topping off? Basically I just want to know if anyone has had experience growing with this kind of set up & what produced the best results for them. I'm waiting on seeds to arrive and hoping to get started when they get here (auto white berry & auto acid, paradise seeds, from attitude). Any help is greatly appreciated!!! )
as a beginner grower, you are really in for a rough ride if you are going with hydro first. I would suggest looking into obtaining a seed soil and direct sowing for best effect, then transplant to a well-rounded organic soil such as recommended in ITG's thread in the organic section, titled "InTheGarden's simple organic soil mix for beginners" Organic Growing - Grasscity.com Forums hth and good luck whichever route you select
hey there, acid is a great plant. its diesel, which is chemdawg x superskunk x northern lights. if you dont know about ph and humidity, i would not be trying hydro. with hydro, you must control everything good-great. ph should be from 5-6 in hydro, humidity 40-60% and temps 60-80f. its good for the plants to have a 5-10 degree cooler ambient temp at "night". how many watts is that led? how many plants do you want to run? you need to get an e.c. meter to measure your solution for the plants. to get the seeds to sprout, stick em in the rockwool, and keep it moist. when the plants are small, they will need nothing more than FILTERED tap water. regular tapwater has a medium concentration of e.c./ppm, which you dont want. a charcoal filter like a brita will work well.
This is the light I have, it came from the kit I ordered directly from the description on the site:: This is a TriBand Spectrum to provide the BEST spectrum for ALL STAGES OF PLANT GROWTH! Measures: 5.75" wide x 5" long BLUE SPECTRUM: 460-470 Nanometers BLUE LIGHT is important for the formation of chlorophyll, chloroplast development (chloroplasts are the little organs inside cells where photosynthesis takes place, more of them = more photosynthesis = more plant growth), also, photosynthesis circadian rhythm (knowing when lights are on and off – related to flowering too) and the production of some enzymes in plants is controlled by blue light. In land plants, a decrease in blue light also might signal to a leaf that it is a shade leaf… meaning it thinks it is not in good light, so it won’t make chloroplasts, which means no matter how many photons of light hit that leaf it will not produce the maximum amount of energy that it could. RED SPECTRUM: 645-655 Nanometers RED LIGHT stimulates phytochrome responses such as stem elongation, flowering, and other plant morphology changes. {HPS lights have more yellow/red which is why they lead to elongated stems, and great flowering} Red light can increase starch accumulation in some plants (that is like animals gaining fat, extra energy). You get the BEST of BOTH WORLDS, both BLUE and RED Light with this L.E.D. bulb! Add in the FULL Spectrum white LEDs to round fill in the trace amount of light needed from outside the RED and BLUE spectrums. The power use of one 168 piece LED GROW LIGHT bulb is approximately 13 watts each. I'm going to grow 4 plants to start out. Do you think they will all fit to full growth in the tub I have? I was planning on needing to split them into two containers once they start to grow big.
I don't know much about them, but I am a fast learner...its just so hard to find all the right information in one place because of just how many ways there are to grow. What does an ec meter measure & what should the measurements be. I have a thermometer that also keeps tabs on humidity, so I'll be able to keep that at the right level. Thanks for the tip about the night temp. I am growing auto flowers & was going to keep them on a 18/6 schedule.
im sorry, but i still cant figure out your true running watts. leds are great becuase they have a full spectrum, that blue and red light. typically we like to have 50-100 watts per plant. usually the wattage will determine how long to veg the plant, but since youre growing autos, it doesnt matter. figure out your running watts. if its not 50-100 watts per plant, invest in some fluroecents. this is convenient, but you can find 125 real watts for cheaper: Amazon.com: Hydrofarm FLCDG125D 125-Watt Compact Fluorescent Grow Light System with Dew Guard: Patio, Lawn & Garden here is a good feeding chart. remember to mix with flitered water becuase tap water has buffers and other solubles in it. good luck.
i would run like 300 ppm while theyre seedlings, and then i would run 700 while theyre vegging. when they start to flower, run 800-1000. towards the end you will want to gradully "flush" which means decrease the ppm till you reach next to zero. did you buy nutrients yet? try to go for organic for a less harsh smoke.
So for 4 plants 200-400 watts? The description says each light uses about 13watts but I'm not sure if that's the same as what it gives off.
it should cleary state what it gives off. how many bulbs? do that * 13, or link me to the website. im running a 150 watt hps and i throw in four cfls to make ~200 watts, and i run four plants. two flowering, and two vegging. im pushing it, but it works fine.
Nutrients came with the kit, but I'm not sure how much I trust them or not the only info that was given about them was that they are grow and bloom nutrients and to add 1/4 tbl spoon per gallon of water.
Any suggestions on a good ec meter? Looking for one that isn't going to break the budget but will still give me what I need.
lights do not give off power, they use it. generators give off power. your LED light uses 13 watts, which is more of a supplemental gimmick for a funky look... might be enough for one seedling for up to two weeks. the description about LEDs being awesome and super efficient and shit is bullshit, 1w of LED is no more efficient than 1w of HPS at best. use HPS if you got the money to also install good ventilation, a cooltube light fixture is optimal. if you dont have a lot of money and you dont want to deal with so much heat, use fluorescents. 100w for the first plant, 50 more for each additional plant. 6500k spectrum for veg, 2700k for flowering - get 3/4 of your lamps in 2700k and 1/4 in 6500k if you dont want to exchange them for flowering. CFLs always need to be kept close to the plants otherwise they stretch, 1-4 inches is good. you should indeed start with soil, hydro is waaaaaaay more complicated and easier to fuck up and I dont see how youre gonna pull it off if you dont even know the plants youre creating that artificial environment for. its best you check out the organics section for soil recipes and mix something liek that. then for the rest of the grow you can just lean back, dont need to add fertilizer (much less frequently and very different kinds if you want to) and dont need to flush. with chemical nutrients, you gotta monitor pH, measure nutrients, worry about salt buildup and all that shit all the time and still your end result wont be as tasty and not even bigger than with organics. in hydro plants do grow faster and bud bigger if you do everything right, but thats even more trouble. with hydro you rely on a lot more equipment and if it fails (or you fail at usign it), your plants can die within a day.
why would you need to email the company? it says 13w in the description (kinda hidden behind all the bullshit). they mean the entire fixture, there are no single LEDs that use even close to that much power. this is a very small LED grow light. I guess you chose it cuz by itself its not as fucking expensive as the big ones (which still arent big enough), but thats because its so small and weak. you could probably grow a decent plant with 6-8 of those things, but one alone wont do any better than a windowsill. LEDs in general are not worth the money they cost.
are you serious? all those leds produce 13 watts? your best bet is buying that fluro rig i posted in post #6, or buying a pack of cfls and making a rig.
wtf I told you before, LIGHTS DO NOT PRODUCE ENERGY! >_< actually nothing produces energy, but usually whats referred to as energy production is energy conversion into a more useful form, the highest of which is electricity and below it heat. lights convert electricity into heat and light, to see that as a conversion into more useful energy you would have to assume the perspective of the plant, which doesnt make a lot of sense cuz if you do stuff like that everything gets really fucking crazy. well conversion of mass into energy is possible I believe, but to my knowledge no manmade machine does that and its definitly not happening inside crappy LED lights. I agree, he should get fluorescents... Im currently using CFLs, but from what Ive read T5 lights might be better. just start doing some research before you buy stuff.
i understand that energy is only coverted and not created or destroyed..except during death..where does our energy go? does it merley contribute/convert to mother nature in the form of fertilizer? i would suggest cfl>t5. each t5 produces ~2000 lumens of light. a four bulb 2 ft fixture will give you ~8000 lumens for ~$100. you can get 6 pack of cfls that produce 1600-1750 lumens each for $13 (a total of 9600-10500 lumens) then you will need to buy ~$10 worth of fixtures and make a rig. its up to you. here is a t5 fixture: wow i acutally found one for $50..thats not bad at all T5 Grow Light 2 ft 4 Lamps DL824 Fluorescent Hydroponic Bloom VEG Daisy Chain | eBay
death is in no way an exception to the principle of energy conservation. what ever the fuck it is, life is not energy. the chemical and heat energy, the tiny little bit of electrical energy and all that stuff that we got in our bodies is recycled like any other body. a human body isnt fertilizer either, its food for maggots, bacteria and various other kinds of creatures people are disgusted by essentially for this reason. the matter goes through a couple of other organisms before something comes out that is used by plants. anyways, enough with the smartassing... I gotta sleep xD