Some Beginner questions about growing and strains :)

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by McClane420, Mar 19, 2015.

  1. Hello everyone!

    Im currently looking into building my first grow, and could use help and tips all the way!

    Starting off with small background on myself:
    I suffer from anxiety, adhd and sleep disorder (i have trouble sleeping, waking up in the night, no deep sleep, etc).
     
    Cannabis is the ONLY thing that actually makes me almost get rid of these problems, atleast it makes them more bareable, and in return, i get to function normally the day after, compared to the medications i've been on which made me a zombie and i was unable to function normally on the medications i got.

    I'll try keep it short, so to my questions:
    Is this closet big enough and can it be used for lets say, 2 plants?
     
    My setup would be this:

    1x HPS GiB 150w
    1x Ballast ETI 150w
    1x reflector, 40 x 47cm.
    1x Timer Omirex.
    1x Digital Hygro termometer
    3x 3,6L "buckets" for the plants
    1x Gold Label Soil A 1L
    1x Gold Label Soil B 1L
    - And a couple of CFL lamps for veggie phase.

    And the soil will be 
    Gold Label Special Mix Gold edition 50L
     
    The plan is to grow for myself for medicinal purposes of course, but i need to know if my setup would work with this closet or if i need to find myself a bigger closet or if there is any tips or tricks i could take advantage of , please share ! [​IMG]

    Also to my 2nd question: What strains would you guys recommend for me? i like getting really f*cking baked sometimes, so i def need a very potent strain, but not cause me any anxiety.

    Been looking into a crossbreed of AK-47 and white widow (called AK-47 xtrm) or afghani strain, any input on this?

    Kind regards /McClane
     

    Attached Files:

  2. That little dresser looking thing definitely wouldn't fit 2 fullsized plants, I don't even know about one.. also you would have to fit lights in there and shit too. Why not just use the whole room?
     
  3. I'd need floor dimensions on the closet...but here's some thumb rules:
    A plant needs a box 18 inches on a side for personal space (not a real box, just that space)
    Anything vegged for 8 weeks or more needs 5 gallon pots to avoid binding roots...big painter's or workman's buckets work fine, and are 12 inches diameter, and you fill them about 12 inches deep with soil.
    If you have at least 6 feet, floor to ceiling, if you SOG, SCROG, do a good job with LST...you'll do just fine for headroom. You could even free-grow in that space, with indicas and ONLY an 8 week veg.
    Speaking as a fanatic about grow energy, rule of thumb is 400-600 watts per sq meter of light (equivalency, so half that in "true wattage" from LEDs)...sometimes that can't be done...but your plants won't grow as fully or quickly without that. That's not saying that's what you have to have, just that that's minimum for ideal circumstances. Your 150 setup will do the job quite well, just not with maximum possible results.

    Advice beyond that...get a couple desert reptile UVA/UVB bulbs (23/100 or 46/200, both available as CFLs at most pet stores)...they help reduce how much effort is needed to avoid fungi and mites, and the plants actually have a lot of use for that band that's mostly ignore by indoor growers. Consider adding a couple (though these are expensive) LED UFOs or hanging spots...the boost to your PAR will help make up for the lower wattage of the HID, without creating a bunch more heat, yet the HID will produce the small amounts of bandwidths the plants use smaller amounts of, that the LEDs don't produce at all, as well as covering "gap bands".

    A hybrid light system is always better than a single-method light system. No human-made system will match the sun...but by using combinations of the systems we have come up with, we can cover many of the shortcomings of one with the strengths of the other, while making up for its shortcomings of the first.

    Watch cooling in that area, it's going to be interesting.
    Recoat the walls in a flat white latex paint, or use some sort of wall barrier...gypsum absorbs water, and WILL mold, if there's not a seal or barrier to keep it out.
    Pre-treat it with an anti-fungal and anti-pest spray after sealing it, if you can...there are several products that are not only non-damaging, but smell GOOD out there that can be used. This will also help prevent any mold developing from excess moisture, as well as reducing the chances of getting fungus, fungus gnats, or spider mites that affect your grow, not just your grow environment.

    Best I can do for "general rules of growing" and "designing/making the most of your grow area" I can give...some others will likely pop up and cover anything I missed...or disagree with some points, on the WAY you should handle the problems I brought up.
     
  4. #4 McClane420, Mar 20, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 20, 2015
     
     
  5. I would use my entire apartment if i could ;) but that just wont work in this country sadly...
     
  6. That light should work in that cabinet but I highly recommend cutting a hole in the top, with an inline fan to exhaust hot air... a carbon filter of some sort might be a good idea too, even if it's home made. Lots of DIY threads around here.
     
    That said, I wouldn't put more than one plant in that space... but you could make it a good one with the right conditions. Use a 5 gal pot.
     
  7. SOG, SCROG and LST are methods of growing more in an enclosed space. Sea of Green, Screen of Green, and Low Stress Training. Plenty of guides on doing all three on here. They allow you to grow lower plants, yet get more colas and more yield.

    "100 watts per plant" is referring to minimums for people growing with CFL...CFL grows, you put the lights much closer to the plants, so there is less fall-off...and even then, they don't perform as well. If you have HID or LED, you bought the equipment to do it right, so you try to provide as much as possible, while controlling other issues.
     
    Binding roots is where too much root mass occupies too small an area...they will tangle and choke one another, steal water from one another, steal nutrients from one another...it harms the plant's performance, and, in worst cases, can kill them. CAN, not WILL.
     
    For "wanting to pull 40 grams out of one plant"...ambitious for a first-timer. You won't do it. Might get close, if you're lucky, and make VERY few mistakes. Most are lucky to get a half to three-quarters an ounce (14-21 grams) per plant, first try. Once you have a bit of practice, generally, it's "one gram per watt of light per sq meter"...so if you have 4 plants each at 18 inches diameter, and 400 watts of light, a reasonable expectation would be 400 grams, total. 150 watts to cover the same, and 1 sq meter of plant mass, 150 grams is predictable neighborhood.

    More experience, you can outperform this...but this is a "norm" for experienced growers.
     
    50 cm on a side is barely enough for one plant...as I said, one plant NEEDS 18 inches on a side. But the nice thing about saying this is 1/2 meter on a side is a quarter sq meter...so you're delivering 600 watts per sq meter with your 150 watt HID...so with experience, your setup could reasonably be predicted to produce around 150 grams per crop. Not at first, but with experience.
     
    NO tinfoil. regardless of what low-budget growers tell you, it retains heat while having less reflection coefficient (despite appearances) of flat white paint. Mylar is DESIGNED to retain heat...if you have total control over heat issues, you can use mylar...but stretch it tight or use spray glue to put it SMOOTH on walls, so you don't get magnification or dispersal issues that are able, potentially, to cause burning or weak spots in lighting.

    Placing a fan inside simply moves hot moist air around. You need to be drawing the heat out....get an inline for it.
     
    Veg phase, anywhere from 18 on 6 off to 24 on, zero off. Flower phase, 12 on 12 off. Preferably with a "warm spectrum" bulb. You're actually better off using higher intensity during veg than flower. Makes the plant grow bigger and healthier, so it develops more colas and blooms. But better yet to use the HID all the way through...a "summer" bulb (MH) through veg, and a "fall" bulb (HPS) during flower....I call them by the seasons as that's the light quality they are trying to mimic, because that's what the plants get in nature at those times, so it's what they developed to do best under.
     
     
     
     
    And everybody was a noob once...asking questions is part of the best way to fix that.
     
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