I want to start my First Indoor Hydro Grow...What do I need?

Allright,

I am a somewhat experienced outdoor grower. I have experienced over 10 guerilla grows. I used to post here regularly under a different handle and I actually posted my first outdoor grow (since I was scripted and legal...:wtf:) back in 2002.

My first documented grow was AK-47 and white widow. There were 20 clones that I picked up at the local club. I lost three of them almost immediately. And after the first week I was down to 8. 2 more ended up not making the cut (never developed strong roots and died off). And I was left with 6 plants. 5 AK-47's and 1 White widow.

I planted them in March in move able Glad storage bins. So I could put them in the most sunny area of my yard during the day...and put them away at night. This was soil grow.

I had them 2 plants per glad storage unit until I found that they were competing for space. I then transplanted them into their own bins and they flourished. I would check the Ph regularly and I would feed them bat guano fertilizer.

I ended up grog'ing the plants about a month into the veg stage and tied them all down. I had roughly 20 strong colas each and they were all damn even when it came time to flower. And damn, these things got huge.

They were so damn big that by the end of the summer they were well over our 8 ft. backyard fence and my neighbors would poke their heads over into our yard just to admire the foliage (they were all cool with it...they just wanted to smoke a little for staying quiet...ha ha ha!)

The first week of November they were done flowering and these 6 little clones that survived (once manicured, cut, and dried) yielded me over 15 pounds. They stood over 8 feet tall and I was required to stretch them multiple times. Most of my work in this whole process was simply keep the plants size down. I was not expecting the plants to love their environment that much.


So here is my current situation:

I am now doing this legally:jointsmile: and I am fully scripted and I am also another person's caregiver.

I want to start a indoor grow but, I want to hear from others what is the best way to go about this?

Should I consider these turnkey systems that I am seeing being sold? For example: [URL="http://www.sunlightsheds.com"]

Or would you recommend building your own system? If so, what is the easiest way to start an indoor grow (soil, hydro)?

Hit me up...And when I start with my seedlings...I will for sure start a thread to learn from the masters that post here and to also give you guys tons of porn to look at.


PEACE and mad buds for everyone!

I didn't even know how to germinate a seed 2 months ago..check out my thread if u want, its pretty much play by play noob growing...i am learning as i go thanks to this message board and its members..Its actually been pretty smooth so far..just enduced flowering a day or so ago so hopefully the rest of the grow will be as smooth..anyway good luck! Read a lot and as a lot of questions...

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...lp-friend.html

I didn't even know how to germinate a seed 2 months ago..check out my thread if u want, its pretty much play by play noob growing...i am learning as i go thanks to this message board and its members..Its actually been pretty smooth so far..just enduced flowering a day or so ago so hopefully the rest of the grow will be as smooth..anyway good luck! Read a lot and as a lot of questions...

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...lp-friend.html

I highly recommend beginning hydro growers, at least with their first grow, start with a simple DWC. You can't beat it for ease of operation and fantastic results. Look at Emily's Garden in a search engine. You can buy one for like $85 or build one for like $35. That's how I started and I am using them right now in a temporary grow. (http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...-training.html)

If you want to jump to the advanced stage and want as high yields as possible, then search FFT (Fog Feed Technique).

Anything you can buy preassembled you can make for about half the cost usually. I like to build for fun and to make everything exactly the way I want it, but that takes time.

Okay...I just came across this video on You-tube. Awesome information and a great beginners guide for Hydroponics...especially for Indoor Beginners.
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Opie, thanks for the information. I am looking into the systems right now actually. I have a couple questions about it though....

How many plants do you put into one of these systems? Can they support all 6 mature plants? Would you use this system during VEG and Flowering? Or both?

Here is what I am up to currently. I am thinking of purchasing a Turn-key system...but, I am cheap...and I don't want to spend $2k if I do not have to. I currently have tons of space in my house (thank you divorce lawyer):D

I am basically wanting to use two bedrooms in my house for growing. One for VEG and One for Flower. But, I do not think I need to use this much space (unless I want to have like 30 pounds in a matter of 6 months). Any thought on this? Should I utilize one room and separate it into VEG and Flower areas? Or go fucking crazy and literally be growing 10 pounds every 2 months?:pimp:

I guess you could say I am in the design stage right now...and I want to keep it simple, Easy to manage, and I want my yield to be potent. Not just for me, but for my sick fiance' as well.

Anyways. Lemme know what thoughts hit you based upon my rambling...I will provide a layout later of what I decide to build and then start the process with pictures.

Every 1000 watt light you buy will light approximately 20 sq. ft. - each 1k lamp (ballast, bulbs, air-cooled reflector, power cords, etc.) will cost $500 - $600. You need to vent the lights, so the fan etc. for the first light will cost you around $200 - $300, then for the second light, around $10 to vent it in-line with the first. The third light you need another $200 - $300 for venting, then light number four +$10 ... and so on. You'll also need another $200 - $300 for fans and stuff for each flowering area. (There's a gazillion ways to veg, and none of them take up that much room, so you really need to decide how you want to veg and what kind of lights you want to use, then find a place/space to do it.)

So, figure out how much you want to spend and work from there to figure out how much grow area you need. You might want to start with one or two 1k's, learn to grow indoors and trick out your techniques and your grow op. You can divide your room with Panda film to make your grow an optimal size. For your second grow, upgrade your grow op and put in a light mover. With the yield from your second grow, you could easily get the gear you need for a second grow op in the other half of your room.

You should check out ScrOGs too. I just finished my first ScrOG and, even though it was screwed up from the git-go, I got 2.5 lbs. from four plants/1,400 watts. Now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing, I can increase that yield significantly. I'm just getting two more ScrOGs going right now - six plants per screen. ScrOGs are particularly suited for here in California where plant numbers are so severely restricted, due to the high per plant yield.

Good luck with your project! :thumbsup:

PC :smokin:

Emily's garden or other DWC setups can be used throughout the entire grow. That's what I'm doing in that link I posted.

As for what to do with 2 rooms and no worries? wow. Let me think about that a little. If I forget to come back, just do what PC says. He won't steer you wrong.