grow set up help!!!

Hey everyone! im new to the site been reading through a few forums on here for the past couple weeks before I decided to finally post something. I have been slowly but surely collect parts to my grow set up.

last week i purchased two old shop lights that came out of an old catholic school. the guy sold them to me for only $20 a piece. they are holophane hids that use mercury vapor bulbs. after doing some research I have found that my ballast will support hps and metal halide. i plan to veg and clone under t5 or t8 fluro's. I currently work at a job that requires me to be gone from home a week at a time. However I cannot afford to pay for medicine from a dispensary all the time so i would like to know of some good idea's for water the plants while im away from home. i am going to frame in a room inside my garage to house the grow op. as far as nutrients im pretty sure I would like to run advanced nutrients because of some private studies done on the net by growers. another question i have is how easy would it be to make a hydroponic set up instead of buying a pre-fab one? Also what type of grow medium should I use. the dispensaries around here have stated that they will only buy from a source who uses organics, so it would be my desire to grow as close to organic as possible. I told the dispensary owner i would be using clay pellets for my grow medium and he frowned, said they would only by if its been grown in a organic medium. I am a new grower and this is my first time so any shop talk, ideas, advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

Branba
:rastasmoke:

I'd use large pots with soil and water well once a week. They will survive, and its easier to keep your nute schedule once every other week (watering). Heat and temps should be a major concern, etc. :twocents:

so you're saying that I should hand water the plants before I leave for work once a week. and do the nuts every other week? I know that it totally depends on the strain for how long you should veg the plants but what would you guys say would be a good amount of time to veg before I send the plants into the budding room? or is it more a matter of how tall and strong the lil ladies get before they get moved? lastly I am trying to build some of my own strains so I need male plants how would you recommend I pollinate the females. I have heard of growers before using a small paint brush and glazing the buds of the female plants with pollen from the male plant one is trying to cross. how would you advise someone to cross pollinate to build new strains? :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by branba88

so you're saying that I should hand water the plants before I leave for work once a week. and do the nuts every other week? I know that it totally depends on the strain for how long you should veg the plants but what would you guys say would be a good amount of time to veg before I send the plants into the budding room? or is it more a matter of how tall and strong the lil ladies get before they get moved? lastly I am trying to build some of my own strains so I need male plants how would you recommend I pollinate the females. I have heard of growers before using a small paint brush and glazing the buds of the female plants with pollen from the male plant one is trying to cross. how would you advise someone to cross pollinate to build new strains? :thumbsup:

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From seed, two months, from clones a month. You have to work with your plants and get a feel for the strain, or get one that you know someone is very good a growing a specific strain and can help you on your schedule. And the pollination technique is one method, but you have to keep the males isolated. :thumbsup:

I guess the only other question i have is how does one find out what bulb to buy for their socket a ballast. i just dont want to buy the wrong bulb offline as it would be very hard to send back if it were the wrong type.

Post in the lighting section in the grow forum. You will get an answer. :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by branba88

I guess the only other question i have is how does one find out what bulb to buy for their socket a ballast. i just dont want to buy the wrong bulb offline as it would be very hard to send back if it were the wrong type.

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"the dispensaries around here have stated that they will only buy from a source who uses organics"

And that's where you walk away.

Organics as used today is a marketing term to replace "All-natural" because "All-natural" wasn't working well enough to maintain unreasonable profit margins.

The only TRUE definition of "Organic" is "Contains Carbon."

Anybody saying anything else never took an organic chemistry class in their life.

Yeah its always been pretty much of a joke isn't it. If you buy your nutes in a bottle its not organic, no matter what the label says. It can't be. At a minimum it still has to have preservatives in it to stop it from rotting.

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Originally Posted by killerweed420

Yeah its always been pretty much of a joke isn't it. If you buy your nutes in a bottle its not organic, no matter what the label says. It can't be. At a minimum it still has to have preservatives in it to stop it from rotting.

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Exactly this. And as long as they don't have to tell you what's in the bottle you're guaranteed to not be getting what you're advertised.

Nitrates are nitrates. Phosphates are phosphates. It's all a chemical. That's one of the first things you learn in even basic high school chemistry. A chemical is a substance with a distinct molecular composition.

Water is dihydrogen monoxide. It is a chemical, and it can kill you in multiple ways, internally and externally.

Organics.... LOL

Its why I've always been against patents. People have a right to know what they are ingesting.