Hey grasscity, im new to the growing world and i have created a grow box for a couple plants for private use and i was wondering if someone would put together a list of everything i should have or any new grower shoukd have in their growbox before they begin. any help is grately appreciated-G
Knowledge. Lights: Including HID, LED, CFL, T5 to T12, Reflectors, Cords, Bulbs Containers: Hydroponic or Soil/less containers Ventilation: Intake, Exhaust, and Circulation fans Environment Monitors: Temperature, Humidity, and CO2 if you want it. Environment Control: Air Conditioning, Heating, De/Humidifing, Thermostats Medium: Soil, Coco, Sphagnum, Rockwool, Perlite, Hydroton, GrowStones, Lava Rock, Sure2Gro, etc... Nutrient Additives: Nitrogen, Calcium, and Chelated Iron; Phosphorus and Potassium; Magnesium and Sulfur; Silicon is great; Organic Chelates, Kelp extracts, Etc... pH Adjusters: pH Down Phosphoric Acid or Fulvic Acid. pH Up Potassium Bicarbonate or Potassium Silicate. Solution Container: Tea Brewers, 5gallon buckets, empty milk jugs, whatever you can find. Solution Testers pH/EC/Temp: Important for beginners, especially in hydroponics or when troubleshooting. Clean Water: RO filters, Brita filters, Water delivery, Non-Municipal or Reclaimed. Runoff Water Management: Trays, tubes, water pumps (hand aquarium is good). Electrical timers: For Lighting, Pumps, Environment Controllers Trimming/Gardening Tools: Sharp scissors, Twine, Stakes Extra Towels: Terry, funky bath Duct Tape: Ducty, Awesome Vacuum/Dustbuster: Because you a dirty mf'er and you know it.
I don't think a spray bottle is a necessity, I've never used one. Otherwise, SCMC got it all about right including the vacuum.
do you think that im better off doing soil since this will be my first grow? or are the hydroponics easy? also what do you think about flouros? Can i use something like this http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=11794 or am i better off using MHs
Definitely go soil or soil-less (Pro Mix) for your first grow. Hydro has a higher learning curve and is not as forgiving if you fuck up.
toasty i know there are other lists on the forum and list that one says the question will never not be asked haha.... Noobs like myself will always ask question so that we can learn and get better.... Its people like you that we try and learn from
I think that neither is overly difficult but there is a knowledge base for each that is required for success. If you follow "the rules" rather than understanding the theory then it doesn't much matter which method is picked as it is just a matter of staying inside a number of variables. Soil/less mixes allow a grower to be less attentive, or responsible to, the solution they use. For the most part, dirt and plain water is all a person really needs to grow something. Most people don't find dipping a probe into a solution and understanding the readings to be all that tough. The thing about hydroponics is that they require a lot more moving parts and electronics which increases startup and recurring costs, although, the harvest payout is generally larger which offsets this. Personally, I think that Coco Hempy Buckets are a fantastic idea. I also like the idea of using organics in coco. There is a specific knowledge base for coco, like all media, but once you figure the stuff out all you have to do is water/feed once per day and collect some runoff. I like CFL bulbs for small and young plants. The issue with low-wattage lights like those is that the casting distance is pretty miserable and the lumens drop sharply after 5-6" from the light source. I use the daylight spectrum CFL bulbs when my plants are in the first 2 weeks of life and get wonderful results with them. Once the plants are several inches tall it would take more CFL bulbs to keep the entire plant fully lit so that's when I switch to the MH bulb and the higher wattage system. The nice thing about low wattage CFL bulbs is that they produce very little heat and can be place as close as 2cm from the top of your plants. I always have my bulbs around 1" from the top of my plants. The cost of that CFL bulb is rediculous. I get two of those bulbs for $6 at Home De Pot. Don't put all your money into any one place. Make sure that you accommodate the need for some expensive ventilation equipment in addition to your lighting. Plants need light AND air, so make sure you don't underestimate the need. If I were you I would budget about $100 to $150 just on the ventilation. If you wanted a carbon filter you could double that number. And if you're going to drop $80 on an exhaust fan, $20 on a circulation fan, plus some ducting, maybe a few clamps or tape, you might as well just do it right the first time and save yourself the hassle of cooking your plants with a light that is too strong and a fan that is too weak. Look around online and you can find a complete 400w lighting setup for around $100 or so (budget/used, but possible). I think one thing people don't plan on, or understand, is that the startup costs are pretty high if you want to grow indoors. $800 is EASY to spend on even a small setup. The great part about it all is that an $800 setup could produce as much as 16 ounces of bud, which would save me nearly $4,000 from having to purchase it elsewhere. Absorbing startup costs (when you still have to buy bud) takes a little budgeting, but if you plan in advance and save about $50 per week in a Grow Room Fund you can piece together a pretty killer setup in just 2 months, then, over the next 2 months of growing you can keep adding things here and there. If a person were to keep this up for an entire year they could dedicate more than $2,500 into a grow room. This could include thousands of watts in lighting, complete environment control, and harvesting pounds of buds 4 or 5 times the next year. Spend your money on quality equipment that will last and you'll see a 10x return on that investment, easily.
SCMC i appreciate your post. Im not in a position to start growing since im not done with my grow box but im trying to plan out everything so that i can buy along the way. Do i need 400watt light system if i only plan on growin two plants? I read that i need 100 w for the first plant and 50w for every plant After that. For the filter ama zon has some pretty decent deals. Like a fikter and a fan for around 125. Which from what i hear is good. I plan to run 3 or 4 small fans for the grow box along with the fan on the filter. And another fan for the curing process. Im trying to keep my energy consumption LOW What about like two 125w mh lights? Would that be enough light for two plants or nah
Lights cover space. Not plants. You need to determine how large you want your plants. A person could use 400w to grow 1 plant, or 9 plants. But no matter how many plants a grower has the 400w is always going to illuminate the same space. Here's what I do. I figure out how many grams per day I need. Let's say it's 1 gram. Then I figure out how long it will take me from the end of my first harvest to the point when my next grow is ready to smoke, let's say 120 days. So, if I don't want to buy any weed then I need at least 120 grams of buds. If I figure I can get about 0.5grams per watt then I would want a 250w grow lamp and I would try to get 60 grams (about 2 ounces) from each plant under that light. The lamp would light an area of about 2'x2' if used horizontally in a reflector and you would want to employ a little training, at least topping if not also LST, to fill the area and get a good even canopy. At 400w and under there is the option of using a very superior bulb called a Phillips TruColor Ceramic Metal Halide. These bulbs run on magnetic HPS ballasts only (not digital and not MH) and they offer a tremendous amount of Photosynthetically Active Radiation, or PAR, which is light the chlorophyll can turn into energy for growth. Soft white florescent lights operate at 2700K (which is a color temperature that corresponds to a wavelength between red and orange) and this is just outside of the ideal PAR range for plants in the Red side of the light spectrum. As a result, a lot of the energy provided by 2700K light sources is wasted. If you do choose a single lamp then I would suggest you get either a 2100K HPS bulb. The Blue side of the light spectrum is much more useful to a plant for converting to energy and as a result any Metal Halide lamp from 5000K to 8000K is going to provide a great deal more useful radiation. If you are in the hunt for a very small grow box, as it appears you are, then you need to consider getting the most efficiency you can out of your lighting. Though the CMH bulb might cost you an extra $20 or $30 over a standard HPS bulb, the payoff will be a heavier harvest. Hopefully you can break 0.5 grams per watt and have a little extra around to share with the homies. So... Whatever people have been saying about "X watts for the first plant and x more watts for the next plants" doesn't know what they are talking about. If you want to learn about lighting do a little googling on PAR, PPFD, and the Inverse Square Law. These subjects will allow you to get a much firmer grasp on what you are getting out of each kind of light, and at variable wattages. Lumens are just the beginning my friend.
SCMC you just blew my mind thanks....... Im gonna look into what you said for sure. Yeah i plan a small grow just for personal use like two plants nothing serious but i definitely want the most out of my grows
I mist my plants often, I think a spray bottle is necessary but that's just my take and me trying to give help.
A microwave to sterilize your seedling's soil! This will prevent "damping off" which kills millions of seedlings!
Could you please explain what you mean stormcrow I'm really interested but have no idea what that means haha