How does this sound (for a lightweight noob like me)...?

[BlueDevil]

I'm in the process of my first real grow. So far I've been using 4ft Wally world specials but I realize I need more wattage/lumens. Only have 6 girls going, and they're a bit on the lame side due to my noobiness.

Anyway, I've done some investing and here's how it's panning out:

Grow area is roughly 5'x5', and coated in a mix of alum foil and (almost) mirror like insulation board. Got a 400W Lumatek digital ballast, Hortilux HPS bulb (Sunmaster MH isn't here yet, will use on the next grow) and a Hydrofarm ValueBright Reflector. Growing in 2gal. pots with a mix of organic fert and perlite, feeding with Earth Juice Grow and Bloom. Have a bag of lime on standby in case the pH starts to go nutty on me.

Sound about right for a small grow project by an amateur? Should I bother with rooting stimulants or finishing nutes? Any tips for cloning?

thanks guys, you all rawk... :thumbsup:

[jamstigator]

I have the same ballast and bulb, used in a cooltube. So, let me make some recommendations:

1) Your grow area is too large for the light; it's too large for a 1000-watt light actually. So if you haven't already, be sure to put up some flat white painted cardboard or panels or something, to get your grow area down to 4'x2' or 3'x3'. In other words, 8 or 9 square feet, around there.

2) You won't need six females. Two or three is great for that size light (and fewer is better if it's illegal where you are, which it probably is, else why would you be growing inside anyway, heh). Unless you're doing a SOG grow, it's not so much the number of plants that matter to your yield, but your lighting, temps, ventilation, nutes, genetics, etc.

3) 2-gallon pots aren't bad at all. That's what I used my first grow, and despite everything I did wrong, I still got 5 ounces of buds and an ounce of leaf off two plants. However, when I used 4-gallon pots, the plants got much larger, and I was able to get around 12 ounces of bud plus 4 ounces of leaf, and that's about normal these days when I use the 4-gallon pots. (I'm probably going to grow two females this next time, and may try 5-gallon pots.)

4) I highly recommend a SCroG grow, as a 400-watt light doesn't really have much canopy penetration. You can build a decent-sized SCroG screen for $15 or $20 tops, and it's very worthwhile.

5) For cloning, I use cloning gel and an EZ-Cloner (30-site, the smallest one they sell). You can clone just fine without any kind of cloning machine, but the EZ-Cloner really does work quite well and pretty much takes any guesswork or unreliability out of the equation. The downside: they aren't particularly cheap, couple or three hundred bucks. The upsides: they work very well, and you only have to buy one.

[BlueDevil]

Much appreciated Jams, good info! I think with your input on the area, I'm going to trim down the number of the next grow, but use larger capacity pots. The six girls are what I have now though. Two of them are going to be culled early as they are slightly older/larger. I hear you about the larger pots - I've read larger root room translates to a larger plant and yeild. Have a couple large ones laying around somewhere, guess I'll break'em out. Probably going to use my old flourescents in tandem with the new bulb as well, supplemental lighting can't hurt, right?


Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a Scrog grow? I also have never heard of a cloning machine (damn I feel lame!), I was under the impression that cloning constituted taking a cut, dipping it in a gel, and then sticking that in a cube of medium. Yikes, I need to hit the books again. Do you think it's worth me trying to clone given my inexperience and desire to not spend any more money?

I get the impression your setup is site to behold; what strains do you grow?

[brookerosebud]

if you are already using 48'' fl's, go to lowes and get the 40w GEdaylight bulbs.

perfect color(6500k), 3050 lum ea. (you need 4 for 6 plants) aslo consider cfl's

love, brooke

[jamstigator]

SCroG stands for 'screen of green'. As the plant grows, you train it under a screen, then a couple of weeks into flowering you let the plants grow past the screen, resulting in hopefully a field of buds that are all bathed in the light, which maximizes your light, as you don't have to worry much about light penetration. You have to be careful not to veg too long though, or you can run into difficulties keeping the plants beneath the screen.

You have the essence of cloning down. The EZ-Cloner is nice because it has a bunch of nozzles that mist the roots of the clones (which is why it works good with cloning gels, as a gel doesn't get misted away easily).

Here's a picture of my flower cabinet from last grow (which was two White Rhino plants and one AK-48 plant). As you can see, I *did* veg too long, and my SCroG screen got totally swamped, and I had to let them grow past it. That's not the normal SCroG plan, but I had no choice, as I had to leave town for a bit and didn't want to flower until I got back home. I ended up fighting to keep those plants from burning on the lights. No complaints though, as I eventually got about a pound out of that. I'm gonna try Blue Mystic this next time, and not veg the plants nearly so long. Heh.

[BlueDevil]

Hells bells, I was right! Nice setup Jam! :thumbsup: Pardon my drool... What are you using for reflective lining? That looks almost to be too shiny for Mylar, but maybe it's just really good quality?

Using this screen method, how long should seedlings stay at 24hr light? Is a period of 20/4 light advisable before putting them into 12/12 flower mode?

And thank you Brooke, I was indeed thinking about replacing my current tubes as they only crank out a paltry 1900 lumens I believe. I'm sure they're cheaper than the Agrosun variety and nearly as bright. Good enough for me, trying not to go over-budget here.

[jamstigator]

From what I have read, the only reason to use anything other than 24/0 during veg is to slow down the growth a bit, or because your ventilation/temps aren't good enough to run the lights 24 hours a day. As an experiment (I have two other smaller cabs too), I vegged once at 24/0 in one cab and 18/6 in another, and the 24/0 plants definitely grew faster...so I use 24/0 all the time now for veg. Whether you choose 24/0 or 18/6, stick to it. If you start at 24/0, stay with 24/0, so you don't increase your odds of hermies.

How long to veg for, well...that kinda depends on everything else: lighting, pot size, growth of the plants, strains, that stuff. But the idea is to train the plants under the screen until the screen has about one bud site per 4 square inches, then go to 12/12 and induce flowering. Then keep training the stuff under the screen while it's flowering, for the first 10 days or so of flowering, then let the buds pop through the screen, so that above the screen it is just buds.

That's 2 mil Mylar in there. I wanted to use flat white paint, but I had probs getting paint to stick to the laminate surface of the cabinet, so I went with Mylar. Mylar is a little more reflective than flat white paint (not much more), but paint seems like it'd be easier to deal with...if you can make the paint stick okay. I guess I could have taken a sander to the surface and roughed it up some to help it hold paint better, but I was lazy, and don't have a sander. ;)

[BlueDevil]

I can't get over how thick those stems look. Very nice, I think I'm going to have to follow your recommendation on the scrog mrthod. By 'train,' I take it you mean physically bend the stems and leaves so that they stay under the screen? How long did you veg for those in the pic?

And one last question, do you think white paint is more effective than the shiny side of alum foil?

You're quite a help Jams, if I'm ever in your neighborhood or vice versa, drinks are on me! :)

[jamstigator]

Trying to remember how long I vegged those for. I think it was like two months, maybe ten weeks, around there. I didn't want them flowering until I got back from Bonnaroo, so I just let 'em keep growing until then, and when I put them in flowering, boom, they exploded into giant bushes.

And yes, pull them under the screen whenever you see leaves or buds trying to stick through it. If you're gentle, you won't snap any stems or anything; I never have.

I do think white paint is better than aluminum foil. Aluminum foil in conjunction with powerful lights can cause hotspots and burn your plants or, even worse, start a fire. I wouldn't mess with aluminum foil, not when a can of paint costs like 10 bucks or something. Better safe than sorry! My home burned down last year (totally unrelated, old wiring, old house) and trust me, you don't want to wake up at 5:30 AM in the morning with your home burning down, because, well, it sucks! But that reminds me: keep a fire extinguisher handy, just in case. Wally World sells some cheap ones. I guess now that my house *has* burned down before, I'm a little paranoid about that now. ;)

[DaBoyWeb]

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=13353-56291-ST16025&lpage=none this is a great reflective material its a little expensive but highly effective its like reflective bubble wrap. good luck on your grow