[First Grow] General Questions (Non-retarded)

First timer here be gentle!

I'm about to start a grow with a 2x4x5 tent in an apartment.

How many plants should I grow?

I'm opting to go DIY LED and will get what will be the equivalent of roughly 800w - 1000w HPS

I'm also going DWC - so this begs the question: should I go for 2 plants or 4 plants?

I intend to meticulously do LST on the plants and setup a scrog. Becuase of the scrog and LST I'm just wondering when I get to the point of diminishing returns by having too many plants that just dont get enough light. I've seen guys crop out 2 massive trees with SCROG and LST however I'm just not sure what the "best bet" is.

The Lights (link): DIY LED panel: Eight CXB3950 COB LEDs
I'm pretty much set on the lights - you're not talking me into HPS.
Too loud, too much maintenance (bulbs) and that monthly bill!

The Genetics (link): Northern Lights by Vision Seeds or ???
For seeds I'm 100% open to feedback and generally confused what would be best for me setup. Should I get an auto?
Traits I'm looking for is huge crop and insane potency. Any feedback here would be great and really apreciated

The Grow: DWC in 2 home depot buckets, with a water pump in each bucket to shower these dirty bitches nonstop.
I'm flexible on the grow setup. I'm confused with this as far as what's best. 6 plants in a large tupperware? 4 plants in an interconnected RDWC? 2 home depot buckets and I'm good?

The ANTI SMELL/Exhaust:
This one is really important (so important that I actually want to have several redundancies in place in case a carbon filter/fan fails..) a failure here would mean I'm evicted, so no fucking games!

I like LED because of the lack for any massive fan exhaust system - however this leaves me not needing a large fan.. but all those big fans exhaust to even bigger carbon filters.. And I've heard you cant just slap a DIY carbon filter on a computer case fan unless you want it to fail within 2 months or less.
Am I fooling myself by thinking I don't need a noisy fan?

Any advice on anti-smell would be awesome.

Thanks guys!

Hi serious buds, I can give you a little feedback. I am sure others will chime in, but this is my personal opinion based of my most recent grow.

How many plants should you grow?
Well since your tent is only 2x4', i'd recommend two plants or SoG grow (For more info on SOG just google it). Two plants will fill up that space completely, it actually may over grow that area. My experiences are based on my current grow. The following picture is my single plant, I am growing in a 2x2.5x7' tent. Since you are wanting to Scrog/LST, the height of the tent doesn't matter as much as you won't get close to 5' if you have your Scrog net around 6-10" above the top of your DWC buckets.



Lights
I am currently using a Kind LED K300l, 220w actual. It does we'll, I wish I had a 600w led light, but I couldn't afford it. Also in the picture, you can see my 8 Gallon DWC bucket and my LED light. I built a little wooden stand for my bucket, you will want to do this too, as it will allow easy draining.



Genetics
I am currently growing a single super lemon haze (Greenhouse Seeds) sativa dominant, high THC content (claims to be 25%, but im sure it is +/- 5-7). Just remember Sativa dominant strains tend to stretch a lot more, while Indica strains are often short and bushy. I guess it depends on the effect your a looking for in your "high."



The Grow
I really enjoy DWC, even though most told me to stay away from it for my first grow due to difficulties, I wanted to take on the challenge. I would recommend that you get an oil funnel, yes, an oil funnel, it will allow you to refill your res. once you can no longer take the plant out due to the Scrog net. Also, I dialed in my grow first before starting. What I mean by this is I did a lot of stress testing to get my temperatures of both the tent, and my water temps over time. I don't use any sort of beneficial bacteria (hydroguard, ect) but i'd recommend you do so, unless you can 100% keep your water below 69 degrees. As for nutrients, since this is my first grow I didn't want to spend tons of money on all of these crazy products, I went with the basic Flora Trio from Amazon (Floramicro, grow, bloom). I will admit though, this one plant takes a ton of my time. Some days I just want to skip checking the pH, adding water, testing PPM, ect., but your ignorance could cost you the plant. Make sure your dedicated.

(See picture above for picture of UCDWC 8gal Solo bucket)

Carbon Filter
My tent is pretty small, smaller than most I'd say. I decided to go with a 4"x12" Phresh Filter, it is attached to a 4" Hurricane inline fan (Both were bought from hydrobuilder.com in case you wanted price). Later in the grow I decided I needed more airflow as my temps were a little high (83-84). So I bought a 6" Inline Hurricane filter. I must say, both the 4" and the 6" sound like a jet engine. Luckily, I don't have to worry about noise. If noise is a consideration for you, definitely check out a "muffler," or the DIY silencer box here on RIU. I would recommend you get at least a 6" inline fan, you can find packages at almost every hydro store online, and you may save a little more than buying each piece separately. Below is a picture of how I "had" my carbon filter, I have since moved it inside of my tent.





Hopefully this helps you out some. Good luck!

Do 3 plants and train them. my first grow is getting ready to harvest but yeh i got no real idea im having trouble atm it wont mature it seems I went with soil DWC just seems weak https://www.rollitup.org/t/noob-grower-lf-professional-input-first-grow.88083 and imo HPS lights work best and you should go for a 4x4 tent atleast

How many plants depends on how long / how big you want to veg the plants, also how much you want to harvest.

I would do either lst or scrog. No need to tie down branches when you have the screen to keep them down.

For dwc is usually air pump. The water pump will clog with roots once it gets growing.