Hey GC, So I just got the go ahead from my family to grow in the house (uni student btw). So now its a matter of outfitting my new grow space. I am familiar with using hydroponics and have a small salvia garden in my room setup. For thie grow I am most likely going to be using soil rather than hydro, just to get a feel for it. I have a couple questions about lighting and soil. Should I just use some regular potting soil? (I know not to use Miracle Gro) Or is there anything I should be adding to my mostly peatmoss and perlite potting soil? Can someone clear up that a gallon of pot equals a foot of height? Is that about right? Just need to know if i need a bigger pot. Now some light questions. I've heard that 50 watts per plant is a minimum, then I heard 100 was. So whats the deal? How much wattage do you allocate to each plant. I just want 2 plants going at once, So a 250 watt should be adequite right? Lastly, is HPS really the only way to go? I know that Metal Halide aren't really a good all-round grow light. But are CFLs really not intense enough to keep up with the HPS? They do have pretty good wattage and lumens and they are damn cost effective... Anyways thats all I can think of for now. Thanks in advance GC!
1. You can use Miracle Gro Potting Mix, and put some perlite in there. You just have to adjust the ph of the first few waterings to 7.4 since the miracle gro has a low ph os 5.1 and you need to correct that. 2. Not that easy, you can calculate the volume it can hold by using math... eyeball it. If you think it can fit around 3 milk cartons then your golden. 3. You dont want much less than 50w per plant or else you could have some issues. 4. Yes that should be fine, but if your looking for something easier and cheaper id just go with a couple CFLs per plant. 3 is good. 5. If you have the money then by all means go with hps its overall the best light you can use (besides the sun haha). but those can go into the hundreds. If you want to use something cheaper for your first grow id go with cfl. Each cfl costs $2 to use 24/7 for 730 hours (1 month).
I'm also doing my first indoor grow using CLFs. I have found all sorts of methods on different boards that seem to lead to the same results. So what I think much of this is personal preference. Remember what all of us are growing is just a weed. From what i've read,"The more light the better" and that makes sense to me. Lowes carries some bad boys that are 300 soft white florescent watts or 65 incandescent watts that produces 3600 lumes. They cost $16.95 ea. I've made a light bar that was over a vanity that has 5 light sockets. For now I'm using three of the 300s and two 150s. I keep the lights 3" above two plants and the girls are thriving. I hope this helps. GOOD LUCK & GOOD GROWING
Your setup sounds perfect for what I was hoping to do. How long are your lights? I mean how much coverage over the 2 plants do you get?
Keep in mind i've only got 2' L X 2' W X 3' H area to work with. Even-though your area may be larger I think it's safe to say you could grow 4 plants from start to finish. Here again keep in mind this is my first grow too with a lot of trial and error. I'm trying to do this the most inexpensive way I can. And I'm getting my grow information from boards and other informational areas on the net. As you research you are going to run across a lot of inconsistencies. My preference is to only use information from well written posts and papers. Hope this helps.
So you think I could do 4 plants under your setup? My only real concern is that I hear that fluorescent lights just don't have the umph that HPS can give you. The price sounds right on the fluoros, but I just have doubts on their strength.
I wanted to make sure what i shared was correct. I am not using florescent tubes. I'm using the screw in spiral bulbs. Alph
Oh ok, what do you use in the way of reflectors for those kinda lights? Do you mount them vertically or horizontally? Did you just rig up some extra regular light sockets or what? Lol I'm intruiged by this concept.
Get some pro-mix bx soil it holds moisture like a bitch and you dont have to add any nutes to it for about 2 or 3 weeks after you transplant. I started my first grow with some store bought soil and it almost killed my plants, i transplanted them to the promix and theyre lovin life i was about to throw them away as bad as they looked and about 2 weeks after the promix it was like a real grower left there shit at my house.
NBE, I don't mean to sound rude but I got into this to grow weed not spend money. My grow room is completely improvised. Imagine a 2" X 4" X 3' piece of wood and you are looking down at the 4" side. Mounted along that side imagine 5 screw in light sockets that will hold your bulbs. Now turn the 2" X 4" over and at each end install hooks so you can secure rope to the wood. Now hang your light receptical (board) with the rope in your grow area so it will raise and lower and install you lights. You may have to install a pulley for easy raising and lowering. Then use the reflective material that people put in windshields to reflect the sun. Cut it up, fashion a reflector, and attach it to the top side of the 2" X 4" X 3'. Now you have a fully functional grow light with 18,000 floro watts. Or you may wish to go buy one of the high dollar lights. Either way have a good grow.
