Hello everyone! I have been doing some research here and there about growing and I am thinking about growing soon, but I want to make sure that I know what I'm doing first. Therefore, I've come to you guys to get some advice and suggestions. I plan on growing INDOORS, preferably INDICA plants (what POPULAR strains do you recommend for short growth cycles?). I plan on growing with soil in a 4 X 4 grow tent with 10 gallon buckets. How many plants can I realistically have with this? I want to grow with CFLs. I don't want to grow with MH or HPS lights. Although they produce more lumens and will yield more, I don't want the extra heat and electricity usage. What watt CFLs do you guys recommend? I was thinking of PURCHASING 4 85W CFLs, 2 CFLS with spectrums for vegetation (only using these during veg) and 2 CFLs with spectrums for flowering (only using these during flowering). Is that enough? It seems unrealistic to me right now, but I am hoping to get at least 2 dried ounces of smokeable bud per plant. Is that possible? Can I grow from seed to smokeable harvest in a period of 2-3 months? Is that realistic? If not, what is realistic, to what changes should I make to make this possible? Keep in mind that I want to be as STEALTHY and SAFE as possible.
Research is your best friend right now. Im not a big soil grower i prefer hydro there simple a fool proof so to speak. Now there are a few 9 week strains that from seed to harvest i dont like them they are small yielding and weak plants in my opinion. As for the yield your looking for there are way to many factors that determine your yield. My recommendations are grow two plants get a feel for what your doing log what you do and learn from it. If your comfortable spending more money on your grow then add a few items better lights fans filters grow systems fertilizers. Then add a few more plants. Pay attention to the smell and the questions people may ask that come over or neighbors when passing and make an educated decision on increasing the size of your grow. Dont think two plants small yield its not hard to get 8-12 ozs dried off a plant if you take your time and do it right.
What are the benefits of hydro over soil? Hydro seems kind of complicated, but I haven't really looked at it to make an educated decision. I think I might grow 4 plants in my grow tent. Would the lighting that I mentioned be enough? Should I get different wattage lights or different lights or more or less lights? I'm just trying to figure out what lighting would be optimal for a 4 plant STEALTHY and SAFE grow operation.
Just keep in mind more lights more bud. If your worried about heat and noise and cost look into some nice t5 lights. Personally i stand by HID lights. Cost is outrages either a 400w light should cover a 3x3 area 2x3 being perfect size for this 400w. If you chose to.use 4 85w cfl make sure they are now equivalent to 85w they are actually 85w. And use both spectrums all the time. That area id say you need more lights than that. As for hydro its simple if you wanna make your own look at some diy forums great stuff there. Or just pick up.some bubble buckets lowes carries these as do hydrostores. Get some gh flora series nutes and a liquid measuring dropper with the squeeze top on it.( clueless of what they are called) the nutes are a 3 part series but we usually use just the micro which is dark red and bloom which is pink. Veg formula is 8ml of micro 10 ml of bloom per gallon. Those bubble bucks use an air stone and thays it the roots grow down into the aerated water and drink its that simple really. You will add about a gallon every other day not to difficult. As for soil its easy to overwater and it easy to over nute cause the nutes stay in the soil and as you add new nutes it just adds up.
4x4 = 16 sq ft If you want say, 3,500 lumens per sq ft you'll need either (4) 250w cfls @ 14,000 lumens each, or (32) 26w cfls @ 1,750 lumens each for a total of 800w-1,000w of electric usage. (the bigger the cfl bulb, the less efficient it is. That's why you need 1kw of 250's to match the 800w from the 26's) If you use a 600w HPS @ 90,000 lumens you're only using 37.5 watts per sq ft and you're getting 5,625 lumens per sq ft. HPS can also be used in a cooltube or air-cooled hood, keeping your temps within a few degrees of ambient. Try keeping your tent a few degrees above room temp with a shitload of bare bulbs in there, you'd have to turn your tent into a wind tunnel. I just thought you should be aware that you can run a hps much cooler than a cfl, and they're more efficient meaning you don't have to run as many watts. I dismantled my 400w cfl array and replaced it with a 250w hps, lol. Guess which one is cheaper to run and produces more bud?
^^ he's bang on the money there. I don't understand how people got it into their heads that cfl's are cheaper to run than hps.
I think people get confused with all the information out there. It's pretty simple... determine how much dried pot you want, select an HID that can produce that weight, then match it up with a fan, filter, and tent. Some people start with the tent, or number of plants, then complicate it further with inadequate lighting and ventilation... without considering yield at all. IDK it just makes no sense to me, yield should be the first consideration when deciding on a setup especially when efficiency is a concern.
I go the other route. I have a perpetual harvest of 3 plants every 30 days and average at minimum 2.5 oz per plant. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=EuJLN4kGlDk
im a cfl organic grower and keep a perpetual garden. at times i have 28-30 bulbs in flower area for 4 girls 40,000 lumins min. usually 2-3 oz dry bud per girl. hps is in my future when i can deal with the additional heat
Well I have been doing 9 under each 1000 staggered monthly but now I'm switching to 16 under each one staggered bi-weekly with less veg time
Ive never grown with cfls other than to add a bit of light in the bottom of my girls. But id have to say these 2-3 oz dried stuff is just silly if thats the yield off.cfl trash that idea a 400w hps can easily give you 8-10 ozs per plant. A 1000 watt light can pop out like 12-14 a plant for 4-5 plants.