Thoughts on my growing conditions?

[Doghouse]

2'x2'x2' grow area (converted doghouse) hence the name. Walls mylar lined 3x 4" fans one as an intake over a 2" hole in the grow floor. One at the ceiling drawing heat out and one behind the scenes pointing to the exit hole out the back. 7 cfl's 2 20 watters 1200 lumens each 6500k, 1 55 watt 3860 lumens 2700k, & 4 14 watters 900 lumens each 2700k as well for a total of 131 watts 9460 lumens. All but the 55 watter will be hung sideways, it will be hung straight down. All the lights are on a timer and will be used at all times unless otherwise instructed. All lights are adjustable height wise. My soil is store bought Composted forest, topsoil, sand, perlite, sphagnum peat moss, vermiculit,& an organic wetting agent. The fertilizer i will be using is (mg) 10-52-10.I will be growing in 16oz party cups 12/12 from seed six at a time. This is what I have to work with so it's what I'm doing. Please pick apart my grow with a fine tooth comb. I can't do any changes right now. Will be doing first round with what I have now but will take all advice and make changes along the way starting with the second round. Thanks for reading and picking it apart. I lift my bowl to y'all! Have a good evening. Hope to read comments soon.

[low_rdr]

I understand the need to keep things small. Here is my suggestion, if your using 16oz cups its because you don't have much floorspace - however, given the amount of room you have, your SEVERELY limiting the amount of space the roots have to grow, you'll hit 2' alright, well more like 18" because of the amount of space the cups take up, but... you can get much more bang for your buck if you use a 10 gallon rubbermaid storage container, its about the same height as the 16oz cups, but your roots will have SO MUCH horizontal room, which will make sturdier main stalks, hence making thicker buds.

As far as lighting, if your going straight into 12/12 (which I understand to keep them small) I would suggest replacing all 7 of your CFL's with 6 60 watters, 4 2700's and 2 6500's, this will give you 360 watts and roughly 25k lumens. All this for only about $70 total in lights and the rubbermaid basket.

You said you're leaving it alone for now, can you post some pics? I'd love to see it. As far as fans, I think you've gone on overkill unless the doghouse is outside.

Good luck! I've seen one solocup grow from 12/12 would LOVE to see yours :)

[Weezard]

That's good advice!

If you must grow low, grow wide!

If you grow wide. you need side room for the roots.
Even one 2' X 2' slide out, (hinge the side of the doghouse), tub would beat solo cups.
Lot easier to service as well, yah?

Shoulda hadda bigga dog. :D

Aloha,
Weeze

[Doghouse]

Thank you for the quick response low_rdr! I was given a $65 dollar budget and have already gotten all of my equipment and went over a little. This is the reason for waiting till my second round for changes. I will be upgrading the lighting at that time. My ? To you is if I put all 6 in one container won't the plants be competing for the nutes as well as root space. Also if all planted in one will I have to uproot all to cull the males or just cut them out and leave the roots to rot? Please don't think I'm questioning your knowledge just wondering about the technique. As far as pics this is my 2nd post also doing all this on my phone. Not very computer saavy. If I can post pics from phone then yes they will get posted at a later date. Also the doghouse is outside. Thanks again!!!

[Doghouse]

Wheeze, can't do a slide mylar is 1 piece and doghouse has to stay as natural looking on the outside as possible. Grand kids have way to many ?'s. The roof of doghouse is removable though. This is how I will be doing all the feeding and fine tuning as needed.

[low_rdr]

Tip: Use a transmission funnel (very very long funnel) for easier feeding. These can even be rigged to your nute bucket with a dowel rod and a little duct tape.

Root Sharing: The intermingled roots will share nutes, not fight for them. If your using different phenos and there is a dominate female, she will of course absorb more nutes, but that's just a dominate plant, the rest still have access to the nutes they can absorb. Not sure how much sense that makes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to drink.

Culling Males: Yup, plants die in nature all the time, the plants around them absorb their nutrients. That's why your eventually left with a bit of waste - Its not going to harm your other plants root system(s). Basically all the additional space your giving them, is going to make them much stronger than they would be in the solo cup, remember the soil is just a medium, you can grow in anything, and the plant is only limited by the regulations YOU give it - Even the fact that you can LST from the beginning even though your on 12/12 just because your giving your roots more grow space is worth any con (such as culling a male by cutting)

[Shovelhandle]

I love Red Solo cups, however, even for little seedlings the cups are very unstable with their tapered design. I like the idea of a tray with maximum horizontal room. Good Luck! Thumbs down on the mg though.

[low_rdr]

Well remember, just a short 1.5 years ago I was also an advocate of MG, we all start somewhere, he'll learn.

Doghouse: I've done all sorts of veggies and herbs in MG and it typically comes out great, with awesome results, like cherry tomatoes the size of your fist, or jalapenos the size of bananas - Been there, done that with MG, but growing marijuana isn't like growing veggies, and for some reason, MG nutes are always 'hot', I really think they're only meant for foiler feeding, aside from the pellets.

Anyway.... You'll learn :)

[Weezard]

And no worry about culling.

I cut them out.
Use a sharp knife and circumscribe the rejects.
If it root prunes the neighbors, they don't seem to notice.
You can back-fill with soil, or pop in a cutting.

Good luck with your "puppyweed" in your dogpatch.

Aloha,
Weeze

[Doghouse]

Thank you all for your responses!!! I have changed up no party cups
Haven't planted yet which is a good thing. I went out and fed
The cattle today molasses cubes it comes in a 1'1/2 ft round tub that is 2' tall I cut it down to 6".
Am going to be filling it 2/3's then once they pop soil surface I will fill the rest with soil.
As far as the (mg) its 10-52-10 I will be using it at a 1/2 rate per gallon of water. I bought
It specifically for flowering. So it's going to be used at least this first round. The rest of the ferts
around here are very high in N compared to this. Any suggestions on another relatively cheap fert
I will try to get it for the second round. Have a great evening and happy smoking!!!

On a side note Weeze the dog is 115lbs. LOL and refused to use the house I have lost 6" of the length
of it (where I keep supplies and power strips)

[low_rdr]

There is the liquid organic choice MG which is basically molasses and beet extract, it comes in a 2 qt bottle I think, but itll last forever, only need about 2 tbls per gallon.

As far as GOOD cheap ferts, a bottle of big bloom will run you about $12 and last several, several, several grows with your current setup

[Doghouse]

Thanks for the heades up low_rdr I will be on the look out for the big bloom and get some just don't tell the wife I have already gone over budget. LOL Y'all have a great day and happy smoking!

[low_rdr]

There is one thing I've noticed with going over budget and the wife. As long as she's happy with the product, she doesn't care about the overall cost. I can't exactly express how large I've gotten on a grow scale, but my original intention was to spend less than $100 and yield an ounce per month.

I'm currently in the pounds per month category, and the expense has far surpassed anything I ever intended. At one point I spent $1k on new AC units, and JUST before install I heard of a motel that was upgrading, so I purchased 4 Panasonic S12NKU-1's which are 12k BTU AC units for $1200. The bad news is I now have enough cooling power to maintain almost 3000sqft of grow space, and i currently only have about 500sqft of growspace, so I'm looking for another deal on ballasts to expand again. I originally started off growing in very small soil containers (4 gallon flat's) and now each plant is in a 5 gallon hydro system, which equals out to almost a 20 gallon soil bucket, lol...

Does the wife complain about the budget anymore? No.... Just about the amount of time I spend with the girls. If she'd learn to prune and FIM I wouldn't need to!

Anyway, best of luck bro, and we're here when you need help

[Doghouse]

Your words ring very true to this old dogs ears. Unfortunatley she is of the non smoking community which is not a problem with the exception of the financial end of things. She said yes to growing my own so I dont have to hassle with going out to get it or driving with it as well as the expence of buying it. Hence the reason for going through the 1st round with what I have and the bagseeds. Then after that "I need to upgrade to make a better product for myself";) I guess everyone works there jelly a little different depending on there circumstances. Been with the wife for 15 years and I ain't given her up. Thanks for your input low_rdr and trust me 2nd round the upgrades will be coming.:)