First grow! Just a few questions...

Hey all, I'm new to growing, but I'm jumping into it with both feet.
I'm planning on growing 5 different strains, not sure which ones and I'm down for any suggestions. My growing space will also be an entire room, Each strain will have it's own hydroponic ebb-and-flow "station" with a 4' x 4' area. I will have a space for the 5 beautiful mothers, and a cloning area with fluorescent lights (unless someone has a suggestion for better lights for clone bbies) and I will set it up so that I get a yield every 3 weeks or so from the entire room. I just have, a few questions...

• Each station will have a 600w HPS lights, for 22 hours out of the day, HOW WILL I VENTILATE THAT KIND OF HEAT? D:
• Advice on strains to grow would be greatly appreciated, there are so many that seem beautiful, I don't know which to pick! Personal opinions pleaseee
• For the mothers, what are techniques to keep them short so I can preserve them? :O
• What is a good, relatively cheap CO2 system? I want my babies to have plenty of co2
• Pretty much any advice on atmosphere control, like humidity control, and the controllers to do so, would be very nice too.
• Nutrient suggestions would be cool, ;D
• Anything else you feel I should know, all growers opinions welcome!

I don't know guys, I'm very excited about this, and it's going to be a very fun experiment for me. Peace and Pot

Also, I was most probably going to do SOG style, anyone have any specific strains that would be great with that technique? Or maybe, some tips and hints on SOG style?

Hey Newbie! Glad to be of service, but lets get down to business . To answer your first question about ventilation, lighting has come along way in the past few years offering people the possibility for commercial lighting solutions. One such advance is air cooled hoods which allow you to run multiple lights strung together, and barely any heat displacement on your plants! However, you will need a fan to run the air to your plants. A convenient option is to have air being pulled your carbon filter and then pushed through your lights.

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/daystar6with600wbulbextension.aspx

http://www.hydrogardencenter.com/6inchin-linefan400cfm.aspx

As for strains, what you should be looking for (especially in a compact garden) is uniformity and dense growth. This leads you to more indica based hybrids or near (if not) 100% indica. One of my favorites is the Church by greenhouse, or LSD by Barneys Farm. LSD has the incredible potency with medium yields, Church has the yield and growth.

With your mothers, it is a good idea to keep them short, but pinching them out may damage growth and stop clone production which is essential for any grow room. My advice is to take some of your clones from the mother and restart growing them so you can flower out your big mothers and have a purpose for them . Whichever method you choose i'm sure has its benefits but ask if you are unsure still!

If you are inexperienced I advice staying away from CO2 until you feel confident in the garden, but if you do keep your ppm around 1000 (as a low number) but I am no master on it and advice caution.

I am more than happy to suggest a nutrient regimen to you I just want to get an idea of how strong your background is in hydro because some feeding regimens can be advanced, and also any information regarding what systems you'll be using! Have a good one and hope to hear back!!!

Ohh I see, so, would I be able to run 5 400w HPS lights and a 250w MH light through the same tubing? How much air power would that require? Also, what is the sequence of the air? Does the fan blow air through the carbon filter, then to my lights, then out of the grow room? Or do I have a separate system that exhausts the air?

Well, each strain has it's own 4' x 4' x 3.5' area to be grown in. And I also went through all of Attitude Seed Bank and it all boiled down to these strains:

Barney's Farm G13 Haze
G13 Labs Purple Haze
Delicious Seeds Critical Kali Mist

Barney's Farm Vanilla Kush
DNA Genetics Kushberry (OG Kush + Blueberry)
Green House Seeds King's Kush (OG Kush + Grape Ape)
Reserva Privada Kandy Kush ( OG Kush + Trainwreck)

Green House Seeds White Widow
Kannabia Seeds La Blanca (White Widow + Snow White)
Serious Seeds White Russian (White Widow + AK47)

Barney's Farm LSD
Barney's Farm Red Diesel
Green House Seeds The Church

DNA Genetics Chocolope
Dutch Passion Strawberry Cough
Kannabia Seeds BCN Diesel
Green House Seeds Super Lemon Haze

I put spaces in between them because each one is a "group" fighting for
it's "position", in a way. Like a tournament! haha.
Personal experiences with any of those, and tips would be helpful.

You're right, the mothers would become weaker as the time went by. Would I be able to replace the mother with a clone of herself? Also, are there ways to prevent her from becoming weaker?

CO2 isn't that hard, I just have to co-ordinate it's timer with that of the vents, and then in a larger scale, in that of the lights.

My background in hydro isn't much. My general idea on it though, is very precise measurements that involve ratios "solution:water" and then, played in the larger scale of your resivour. I'll be using hydroponics ebb-and-flow system. And could you please describe "advanced" for me? If it just means paying more attention, or switching the nutrients more often during the cycles, I don't mind.
Thanks for all your help.

Well, as an update, I've decided on my 5 strains to grow.
Super Lemon Haze
Vanilla Kush
White Widow
G13 haze
LSD

I figure I could just have each station doing it's own thing,
relative to what is the best technique for the strain there.
I'll just experiment between them all, see what would be
optimal. I'm hoping SOG though, cause it seems like
less work than ScrOG. Although, there are many options
in between those two, like topping, FIMming, and LST,
that I will also have to test out6, :O

Also, I was wondering if anyone could direct me to cloning
techniques or maybe, some advice on it. Thanks all.