Hi. I've been reading a shitton of information about growing and have been planning out/researching options for my first grow. I'm suffering from a bit of information overload though, so I'll lay out my plans and hopefully get some feedback on the viability of the plans... Seeds: just gonna buy 10 random feminized indica seeds from altitude seed bank and see where it takes me. in particular Blue OG and White Widow fertilizer/soil: fox farm ocean forest seems to be the best premade soil to use. As for fertilizers im completely lost, the guide on this site seems to be for hydroponics(definitely not gonna mess with that yet ). I'm not a total gardening noob, I understand NPK to an extent... is there anything else I really actually need to prepare for or worry about? There seems to be inconsistent info here... some say worry about it when deficiencies seem to happen and the guide seems to just throw em all at me . ph: do I need to care about this? The guide did say something about a digital PH meter that I would need to buy. My tap goes through a softener, carbon filter, and lime and probably comes out to around the neutral 7.4 space: i've been looking at this: http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Grow-Tent---Mother-Keeper-51.5-x-22.5-x-48.5---Silver-Lined.asp# growing tent, since I've got a rather limited amount of space. By my calcs 51.5 x 22.5 x 48.5 should be enough for 6 plants or so on the high end and at least 4. I don't quite understand why most tents are something like 80" tall, I dont see how my plants would ever grow that tall if I maintained them. lighting: I'll probably be putting a 4x4ft t5 flourescent light array and then get two individual 2ft 2000 lumen t5's to use as vertical light fixtures for additional lighting. My understanding is that 6500K is for vegitation and the 3000K t5 lamps are for fostering flowering on the 12/12 cycle? timing: i have no experience with timers, been looking at a digital timer to control the light/dark cycles. ventilation: seems like t5 lights dont produce too much heat so I was thinking about this: http://www.amazon.com/Soler-Palau-TD-100X-In-line-Exhaust/dp/B0027E3Q62 and just making one of those activated carbon filters from the carbon for fishtanks. Do I need a fan controller to keep temperatures at good levels? Room temperature is around 73-74F here. relative humidity: how exactly do I control this/do I need to control this given my growing area? the norm around here is 50-70% during warm seasons and 30-55% during the cold seasons training method: i'm thinking LST, seems to be the least complicated and have the highest yields for the least amount of plants. I have a pretty big budget as far as buying quality gear goes, and definitely want to commit to learning and becoming more experienced as a grower(not to mention enjoy dat home-grown bud ) Well, let's just say my total budget is $1000 to put a number out there, tho there is a point where I wouldn't spend more money if it doesn't really have too huge an effect on yields. I've got an HTG supply retailer nearby for whatever needs I have. Would really appreciate any tips or comments, I'm not trying to go crazy complicated, just want a mid-end setup that'll yield me a decent 6-8oz on a harvest, maybe more but the 51x22x48 is all the room I have to work with for now. If I have a lot of success I think I'll progress to two of them to simultaneously flower and veg plants and double my efficiency as a side question: how exactly does cloning work? I don't feel very comfortable constantly shipping myself seeds, so I'd like to know. Do I just take any cutting and put it in an aeroponic cloner and hope it roots? Does this "new" plant re-enter the vegetative state so I can just keep reusing the same plants over and over again? What are the drawbacks? Less yield?
its a good one too, op has some good questions that some of our more experienced users could answer if they chose to.
If you can get a taller tent I would reccommend it. You may want to upgrade your lights and the added height would be nice to have. Fox Farms also makes nutrients that go well with their soils. Cloning can be as simple as puting a cutting in a glass of water. I don't know of any drawbacks to cloning. It's all good.
A neutral pH is like 7 I think your babies will prefer a pH of around 6.5 so I'd adjust Sent from my Nexus 4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Read mine please its under help look at my sad little autos !! I need help Sent from my Nexus 4 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Gotta learn somewhere. Guess I'll break it up to subsections if the more advanced growers don't feel like reading. This is the Absolute Beginners subforum for a reason tho. On the subject of a taller tent... the taller tents are 79 inches tall. that is KIND OF excessive, no? 79 inches is nearly as high as my ceilings.
I agree with the information overload mate, It's hard to settle on one distinct path when every part of the set-up has so many options to chose from. Then it's trying to access some of this stuff locally, your lucky you have access to good soils and things like that. From what I've read 2700k is better then 3000k for flowering, if you can get T5's in that temp? Could be wrong. Good luck with it.