Back At It Again

[NY Grower]

Hey guys! First post here. I've read a bunch and learned much. Now I think is the time to ask this wonderful crowd some questions.

Little about my grow history. Was a caretaker for 2 different Hydro set ups using a variety of nutes. Both people I worked with did SOG technique. I mostly did watering, cloning, harvesting and the general plant and equipment maintenance. A few years have passed as I was the unlucky target of a rat. Rusty to the whole thing again, especially with what I plan to do. So I have a few questions pertaining to cloning, using dirt instead of Hydro and safety.

First, I'm starting with a closet of 3.5ft x 6 ft x 5 ft area. This lower area will be divided into 2 grow times so I have a harvest every 4-6 weeks. Above I have an area of 3.5ft x 6 ft x 2 ft. In this upper area I plan to hold clones under an array of 4 T5 2 ft tubes for 2 weeks. Next to that I plan to use another of the same mount to veg those clones for another 2 weeks in 1/2 gallon pots. So my first question is, will these 2 weeks in a clone medium and 2 weeks in soil be long enough? Should I do 4 weeks in veg for a total of 6 weeks?

On top of this question. I don't have the room for a mother. Would be taking clones off these 4 or 6 week old plants be a viable stock for clones? As in before I throw these plants into flower, I take at least 5 of each strain as I need 6 to fill that cycle. If not, I will need to change my plans. I plan to pursue a SCROG technique for this area with Mazar from Dutch Passion and either Northern Lights or Vanilla Kush from Sensi Seeds and Barney's Farm respectively, all 3 strains are heavy Indicas. So ideally I'd have this set to give me returns every 4-6 weeks depending on responses to my questions.

Next, would be running a total of 8 T5 2 ft bulbs, 2 300 MH bulbs and 6 small fans to move air off a single 220 line be safe? I never dealt with this side of a room as I was just a caretaker. Don't want to burn my place down when I'm at work. Also, do they make plug and go mounts for 300 watt MH bulbs or do I need to deal with a ballast and such?

Some additional details. I plan to get the biggest yield possible per plant - Hopefully 2 Oz per plant at least. That is why I have gone with a SCROG plan and decided to invest in 2 300 MH bulbs. (Over the 50 watt / Sqft)

Few other questions.

1. I've never tested my waters PH, but will letting it stand for 24 hours remove chlorine and change PH or does that not change unless I alter it myself?

2. As I'm sleeping in the same room as the grow, is there a better or non smelling method for Co2 generation?

3. Am I crazy for thinking this idea will work?

4. I got a bit lazy these last couple days reading. I've read about rockwool cloning and it seems a bit touchy. Is there a better method to clone without aeroponics or hydro?

Thanks for reading and I hope to have some good responses.

 

[TheGoodGrower]

Ok you asked a lot... I'll try to go through these briefly and if you want do discuss things further I'll be happy to give further advice.

As far as your clones go... that is going to depend on the strain. I'd say generally, 2 weeks in a cloning chamber and 2 weeks veg will be fine. I've seen guys get over a gram per watt with clones by going straight to flowering. Me personally, I think it mostly depends on how much room you have. If you only have 5ft (minus the height of the lamps and the hight of the containers... that doesn't give you a lot of room for final harvest. Its something you'll have to experiment with. If you can get them flowering asap, they wont grow as tall, and if room is an issue, its something you'll have to play with. Ideally, if space wasn't an option, you'd let them veg for as long as you can. Remember, just cause you switch the lights to flowering, doesn't mean they stop growing. So prepare for that.


As far as taking clones from a 4-6 week old plant... provided you got good lighting and good nutrients, then that should be fine. My plants grow fast enough to accommodate something like that... although I have a designated mother so dont have to.

 

[TheGoodGrower]

Your lighting, is what concerns me. Do your MH 300's have a shield on them with a built in fan? If not, your garden is going to get super hot. It can still be done but the excess heat will prohibit some growth. If you can get some kind of shield to cover the bulb with a fan to suck out the heat... that would be ideal. All the 300 watt lamps I've used have required a ballast. Be sure to keep that on something non flammable as they can get very hot. May not start a fire but might damage the carpet or floor.

To answer your last few questions the best I can...

Once your water has sat, I doubt it will change much on its own. pH is sooooo important in growing. if your pH is off the nutrients wont get absorbed into the roots. so a meter is worth investing in.

I cant tell you about the co2 odors... I know if you use the sugar water/ yeast method your closet will smell like beer.

No you're not crazy for thinking this will work. Sounds doable to me (provided you get some lights that wont turn your room into death valley).

Rockwool cloning is great. Thats what i use. Was using these Rooter plugs which are my favorite, but I had some extra rockwool and started using those and they work fine. I use a small aquarium and with about a half inch of my own mild solution of liquid seaweed, b vitamins, and water).

Hopefully some of this can help you in some way. Good luck with your garden! Let us know how it goes or if you have more questions.

 

[GOD HERE]

The MH's with the fans will be fine, but I would recommend you get an HPS for better results.

 

[ArCaned]

That was my thought also, MH to flower? nonono.

 

[Jamesfredette]

lets see what happens after this thing to them, hope everytghing gets fine

 

[NY Grower]

Ok you asked a lot... I'll try to go through these briefly and if you want do discuss things further I'll be happy to give further advice.

As far as your clones go... that is going to depend on the strain. I'd say generally, 2 weeks in a cloning chamber and 2 weeks veg will be fine. I've seen guys get over a gram per watt with clones by going straight to flowering. Me personally, I think it mostly depends on how much room you have. If you only have 5ft (minus the height of the lamps and the hight of the containers... that doesn't give you a lot of room for final harvest. Its something you'll have to experiment with. If you can get them flowering asap, they wont grow as tall, and if room is an issue, its something you'll have to play with. Ideally, if space wasn't an option, you'd let them veg for as long as you can. Remember, just cause you switch the lights to flowering, doesn't mean they stop growing. So prepare for that.


As far as taking clones from a 4-6 week old plant... provided you got good lighting and good nutrients, then that should be fine. My plants grow fast enough to accommodate something like that... although I have a designated mother so dont have to.

Alright. Thank you for the insight. So a shorter veg time may be in my favor for this size of an area. So I'll have a 4 week veg, 8 week flower. Allowing me to do a harvest every 4 weeks. I know 12/12 won't fully stop stretching but using a SCROG method will be on my side.

Your lighting, is what concerns me. Do your MH 300's have a shield on them with a built in fan? If not, your garden is going to get super hot. It can still be done but the excess heat will prohibit some growth. If you can get some kind of shield to cover the bulb with a fan to suck out the heat... that would be ideal. All the 300 watt lamps I've used have required a ballast. Be sure to keep that on something non flammable as they can get very hot. May not start a fire but might damage the carpet or floor.

To answer your last few questions the best I can...

Once your water has sat, I doubt it will change much on its own. pH is sooooo important in growing. if your pH is off the nutrients wont get absorbed into the roots. so a meter is worth investing in.

I cant tell you about the co2 odors... I know if you use the sugar water/ yeast method your closet will smell like beer.

No you're not crazy for thinking this will work. Sounds doable to me (provided you get some lights that wont turn your room into death valley).

Rockwool cloning is great. Thats what i use. Was using these Rooter plugs which are my favorite, but I had some extra rockwool and started using those and they work fine. I use a small aquarium and with about a half inch of my own mild solution of liquid seaweed, b vitamins, and water).

Hopefully some of this can help you in some way. Good luck with your garden! Let us know how it goes or if you have more questions.

Alright. I will be looking into some HPS lights with shields then. The only room I have to vent into is my bedroom at the moment. The reason its a closest grow is I have a few room mates. Smell of the plants isn't an issue, but people messing with my stuff is. So I'll have to tinker with the heat when this is finally up and going. And yeah I forgot to add the smell part is from yeast for Co2. I know one of former partners used a propane burner for Co2 so I may look into that. Only reason I don't want to is it took up 2 sqft of floor space. Thank you for the info.

I've used a PH balance for my pool so is it something similar to get my tap water to 5-6 for plant use? Also, do you have a link to the method of rock wool cloning you used or is from experimenting on your own?

The MH's with the fans will be fine, but I would recommend you get an HPS for better results.

Alright I'll look into HPS. Only reason I was looking at MH's is it looked like they could use a plug and go mount system instead of a ballast. Would anyone mind sharing their knowledge to installing a ballast? I've never tinkered with electricity so I'm a bit hesitant.

That was my thought also, MH to flower? nonono.

Got it! On my way to finding a 300-350 watt HPS with shield. The other reason I thought MHs to be okay was one of my partners used 4 MHs, and 4 HPS during his grow. He said it was something to do with the spectrum of light so I took his word for it. Never really looked too deeply into it. Do HPS just provide a better spectrum overall or is it complete nonsense?

Btw, I don't have anything put together yet. So all proposed modifications of my plan are welcomed. I can't even tell you how many hours and plants I and my partners lost re-doing rooms and such. I plan to go buying the materials in a couple weeks after I get all my research done. And definitely, I'll be getting a journal going to share my experience as I've learned a lot from reading other users journals on here.

I've also got a question about Miracle Grow Organic soil as I have the possibility of getting over 150 bags of it for free. I've read bad things saying regular MG is hot in that it has too many nutes for a young plant, often resulting in stunted growth or complete failure. Having organic buds isn't too much of an issue to me as I smoked hydro for years. Proper flushing can do wonders for smell and smoke. I plan to flush these for dirt plants for 2 weeks before harvest so does anyone have some suggestions for soil? I know the FFOF is recommended but the few places I've called do not carry it.