First time grower...Opinions and suggestions welcome and wanted.

Hello everybody,

Let me start off by saying I'm a total NOOB and could use some advice and suggestions please.

I haven't grown any kind of plant since i was a child.I've spent many hrs reading Rollitup's forum and am currently reading "Marijuana Horticulture Medical Growers Guide" to educate myself.
I'm starting this grow because my wife suffers from R.S.D (a neurological pain disorder)that causes her to be in pain almost 24 hrs a day for the last 4 yrs.She also has very bad side effects (vomiting several times a day) from her meds shes taking (Morphine-Methadone-Oxycontin-etc.). Marijuana seems to be the only thing that controls her vomiting and some of her pain management.Its been getting very costly buying it so we decided to try and grow it.

I'm sure we'll have a ton of questions.We appriciate any help provided.

I'd like to thank all the peeps who have shared sooo much information in their threads.(I've read alot of them)



Here is a list of our setup so far:


Grow Lab GL80 Tent-Factory specs. 2'7" x 2'7" x 5'11" tall. Actaul size (width and depth of inside tent measure 2'10" x 2'10")

Lumatek 400 watt dimmable digital ballast

Sunsystem yield master 6

2-Duct reducers 6" to 4" (for the 6" ports on the reflector)

400 Watt Hortilux eye bulb

400 Watt Philips metal halide bulb (not sure if I will use this.Was told by shop to use the Hortilux for whole grow)

4" inline fan (170cfm) (exhaust)

4" Carbon filter

6"Clip on fan (ventalation)

2-4' Chains w/ S hooks

Ecoplus digital thermometer & Hygrometer

Ecoplus digital dual timer

Moisture meter

Ph tester (basic)

4-3 Gallon Gro pots (fabric bags)


Fox Farm products:

Ocean Forest soil

Grow Big

Big Bloom

Tiger Bloom

General Organics: Bio Bud Bloom Booster (shop owner said to use this in place of solubles.Using Fox Farm Chart)


Seeds:From Nirvana

Master kush (feminized)

White Castle (feminized)

Bubbalicious (feminized - auto flowering)

Received my seeds in 5 days from Nirvana.Germinated them for 36hrs.4 out 4 cracked and sprouted (2-Bubbalicious , 1-White Castle , 1-Master Kush)
(7/8/10)Planted seedlings in 16oz cups of FFOF soil.Placed sandwich bags over cups for humidity.


Here are a few questions.

How many plants will I be able to grow in our smallish tent? (setup for 4 at the moment)

I know there are many ways to grow.Which would work best with the size of tent I'm using? (LST-Topping-FIM-Scrog-Sog) I think I'll have to keep them short and bushy.

When measuring the temperature in my tent.Do I take the reading above, near top of tent? Or below, near plants under the lamp?



Thanx for any help given and to Rollitup for this great forum.

Low

Your room sounds great! Im sorry that I can't anwser any of your qestions, I just wanted to say that it's great what your doing for your wife and I hope she gets better!!! Happy farming from Norway

sounds to me like you did your home work,I also have that book,its a decent book but experience is the best,I grew outdoors for years until some nosey neighbors moved in next door.now I grow indoors with hydro. dwc and I bought things that didnt work out for differant reasons. my grow tent is alot bigger than yours but if you got the space you may as well use it was my thery,mine is 50"wide x7' long and 8'6" high I have a 400 watt air cooled light with a 250 cfm duct fan.the only thing I had a problem with was ventilation and that will most likely be your biggest concern,you may be fine with what you have but until you run it and see what you get for temps in there its anybodys guess,my first hydr grow isnt finished yet but when it is Im going to try SOG to see how that is,400 watt light is good but if your plants are to tall the lower buds dont get the light they need to get fat and tight so the SOG will use more light better hope your wife gets better and best of luck on you grow you can get all the help you need here and from that book peace and grow on

Thanx Malenius...good luck with your future grows.

Thanx Snocat for the advice.I am a lil worried about the temps getting to hot in the tent.But like you mentioned,I won't know until I have it running.Its been in the high 90's (outdoors) this week too.My temp gauge reads high 80's inside the top of the tent and i haven't even turned the lamp on yet.Crossing my fingas.

I'm also thinking of starting a grow journal.

If anyone else has any advice or suggestions for me...I'd love to hear them.

first off, i hope your wife feels/gets better! you have alot of great supplies! take the temp anywhere in the grow room, its looks to me you can grow about 4 plants max in your tent. make sure you put a small fan in the grow room & also have a fan blowing in towards the grow tent, so fresh air gets in.

private message me for any questions you may have in the future. keep in touch with your grow!

heat may be a prob, but idk. don't have exp. w/ that size bulb (400). i know someone who had a grow box that was approx. that size. used flouro's in it and did fine starting plants, and growing them up to the top of the box, then they went outside. cause once they get up to the top, and they will quick!, you'll have to eventually start l.s.t.ing em' or move on out. this dude eventually made a cheap closet out of particle board that was the same width and length as the box, but the height increased to 7 ft.! u seem to really be on top of everything as far as soil, and equipment and wat not, and w/ the ventilation.....good luck w/ ur grow
one last thing tho, please, if u can, help ur wife stop taking oxy's. i can say from personal experience that those fucking pills are one of the worst things mankind has ever created!!!!! i have known at least five ppl who have overdosed and died. and twice that many willing to sell their souls for their next one! your on the right track, getting the good gear, all the right equip., researching, soon you'll have all the dank she'll need to medicate herself. maybe it'll help her beat her disorder! but take it from a former pill head, weed is the only drug that truly helps me w/ pain, stress, watevr..... w/o life altering side effects! i hope the best for both of ya!

raw225 said:

first off, i hope your wife feels/gets better! you have alot of great supplies! take the temp anywhere in the grow room, its looks to me you can grow about 4 plants max in your tent. make sure you put a small fan in the grow room & also have a fan blowing in towards the grow tent, so fresh air gets in.

private message me for any questions you may have in the future. keep in touch with your grow!

Click to expand...

Already have a 6" clip on fan for inside the tent and plan on picking up a small fan to put in front of 1 of the passive intake vents at the bottom of tent.

Thanx Raw for the help....much appreciated

doowmd said:

heat may be a prob, but idk. don't have exp. w/ that size bulb (400). i know someone who had a grow box that was approx. that size. used flouro's in it and did fine starting plants, and growing them up to the top of the box, then they went outside. cause once they get up to the top, and they will quick!, you'll have to eventually start l.s.t.ing em' or move on out. this dude eventually made a cheap closet out of particle board that was the same width and length as the box, but the height increased to 7 ft.! u seem to really be on top of everything as far as soil, and equipment and wat not, and w/ the ventilation.....good luck w/ ur grow
one last thing tho, please, if u can, help ur wife stop taking oxy's. i can say from personal experience that those fucking pills are one of the worst things mankind has ever created!!!!! i have known at least five ppl who have overdosed and died. and twice that many willing to sell their souls for their next one! your on the right track, getting the good gear, all the right equip., researching, soon you'll have all the dank she'll need to medicate herself. maybe it'll help her beat her disorder! but take it from a former pill head, weed is the only drug that truly helps me w/ pain, stress, watevr..... w/o life altering side effects! i hope the best for both of ya!

Click to expand...

Thanx Doowmd for the advice and concern for my wife's health.She's currently not on the oxy's,hasn't been for over a yr.Shes on morphine and methadone right now plus tons of other meds including anti nausea pills that suck.They have her on some kind of opiate cycle with the pain killers.

Thought I add this to keep a journal of sorts in here.

Germination:

7/6/10

Placed seeds in folded up wet paper towel and put into plastic bags.
Placed bags in a warm dark closet.

Planted:

7/8/10

Planted seedlings in 16oz cups w/drainage slits into fox farm ocean forest soil (moistened).Topped them with sandwich bags for humidity.

7/9/10

Sprouts all broke surface today and look ok.

I'll add some pix soon.

Thanx for the friendly welcome.

Low

2 things to remember

Vent the hot air out of the room you are growing in and make sure the ambient temps going into your tent are cooler than inside the tent.

I grow inside a closet in a spare room and vent into my attic space but i pull cooler ambient air in from the bedroom at approx 22C

J

How many plants will I be able to grow in our smallish tent? (setup for 4 at the moment)
I think 4 is perfect. You might want a 5th to be a guinea pig (test repotting, LST, topping)

I know there are many ways to grow.Which would work best with the size of tent I'm using? (LST-Topping-FIM-Scrog-Sog) I think I'll have to keep them short and bushy.
Let them just grow the first time, you're going to have your hands full as it is. Start 12/12 @ 9-12"

When measuring the temperature in my tent.Do I take the reading above, near top of tent? Or below, near plants under the lamp?
Reccomended is at the top of the canopy. I use a remote sensor when they are little, in the shade, and move it to the side wall at canopy top when they get big.

All right bro im here m gonna chill on dis 1 i promise. 1 st off i would advise u 2 trust ur insticts most of all, most of these ppl on here have never grown a bud in there life so be carefull who u listen 2.ur reading good books trust that bro and urself. Now bro noob mistake u have ur air cooled reflector sucking air from the room thats a NO NO have it sucking from out side da grow tent and back out again so that air NEVER touches the grow room, I dont know ur temps but i no u can crack da glass of the reflector like dat ( Did it my self so i no) it actually makes the grow room hottter. HOT AIR 2 HOT LAMP=HOTTER LAMP = HOTTER AIR and so on, so u c u need cool air. Nxt bro u need to seal off all the air holes of the tent SO U CONTROL the air in THERE. Remember U R GOD TO THESE PLANTS U MUST CONTROL EVERYTHING. If u have air from out side comming u get the pests too. Thats y these guys are all crying coz they dont know wats wrong with there plants. If u can afford a CO2 burner buy 1 if not ill tell u how too brew ur own. u must INTRODUCE CO2. If u dont u will never grow pounds of dry cured buds. If u do thing the right way u will be swimming in bud and if u dont u will be pickin buds off ur nxt trees like a kid at christmas. Dude i hate 2 sound like a cock but u r doing a good thing u will get buds but i want u 2 get FAT JUICY THICK MOFOS. Tell me wat u think ( if any of this makes sense ) then we'll talk about ur nutes, ppm, UR WATER ( VERY IMPORTANT) PS bro i hate FF i use AN ONLY but i wont hold it against u some ppl get good results from them DUDE remind me 2 go over beneficial bacteria ( if ur growing organically ) OH remember ppl if u cant afford things remember that its 1 month and a bit of veg so u can get ur fert stuff later. . ............. MY SET UP IM USIN A 600w dual spectrum Sunmaster hps 5in cool tube 5in extractor fan for da tube 5in duckting Cool air from da floor of my house hot air being blown to the roof window. Carbon filter (SUCKING)100m extractor fan for dat, 3 oslil fans 1 humidfer home brew CO2 growing 21 plants 1/2 of them autos in 3 and 1gal pots. Nutes (ALL AN)Tarantula Piranhna Carbo load iguana juice and organic b

Sorry I could not resist.


[video=youtube;4XPUcJGABXI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XPUcJGABXI[/video]

Dude i think you have some good things to say but I can't get past the first sentance or 2.

Yeah bro never listen to these shop keepers mh bulbs good for veg hps for flowering. the mh bulbs cant flower good hps can do the whole cycle. i couldn't afford both ballasts so i use da hps dual spec( can digi ballasts do both hps and mh?) . After this harvest i will buy da conversion bulb from ARGOSUN 1000W ( 400w mh 600w hps) cant wait its like $120 JUST 4 DA BULB, Breaks easy 2 but da results are meant 2 b insane

Bonzi is LOCO Man

WOW just looked into digital ballasts and yeah they can do both mh and hps. But theres so much confusion on wether they are better than other ballasts my god. Bro tell me how u get on with urs?

Hey Bro, god blees you and your wife. I'm a first time grower (check out my profile) I never grew anything until i came here, I'm loving it!! When they say....anyone can do it, their right BUT you must read, and read some more, and as ou said, do your home work, it will pay off in the end when your harvesting great Bud(for your wife). The best leason i've learned here is... Take your time!! Dont rush it and most of all DONT OVER FERT. Your plants will tell you what they need, dont just give them water or ferts. just because you "Think" they need it, They'll tell you if you spend time with them and get to know their habbits (feeding, watering) That may sound wierd but the better you know your plants the better you'll be able to care for them. You look like you have all the "right" stuff. FF, Lights, Tent, and most of all knowalage. Happy growing.

^^^ Its true they tell u every thing. i got 10 60 day wonders and only 1 of them is showing lack of magnesium so i gotta get some cal mag for dat 1

All you need now is TIME. Looks like you did all your homework, and all thats left is real world trial and error. All i can say is that your grows will keep getting better, and you'll keep amassing equipment to fit ur needs perfectly. Its awesome what your doing, and a shame some countries disagree!! For my soil, I used Earth juice. For my hydro (man i love how clean it is), i use advanced nutes. As a noob, take some clones to try out. Plant an extra to top and LST like was metioned earlier. Enjoy your journey, the fun is in the learning curve. Trust me, after one grow, the curve is hella steep!! Best of luck to ya, keep those temps under 85deg, dont overwater.

o, btw. More plants DOES NOT mean more yield. Ive found that enough plants is what you want. Plants will take all the room they can get.the mroe you have, the more they'll crowd in. Just dont assume that more plants in there would increse yield. Looks to me like four is good. Mostly its up to you and how long you let those four veg. I prefer more, smaller plants to aid in light penetration indoors. That, and less eggs in 1 basket. Happy growing to you!!

jondamon said:

2 things to remember

Vent the hot air out of the room you are growing in and make sure the ambient temps going into your tent are cooler than inside the tent.

I grow inside a closet in a spare room and vent into my attic space but i pull cooler ambient air in from the bedroom at approx 22C

J

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I'm trying to keep this a stealth grow.That's one of the reasons why I placed my exhaust fan on the inside of my tent.The other

reason is that the tent is located in a bedroom that will be used during growing and I would like to try and keep it as quiet as possible. I understand

though if I can't get the temps I want that I'll have to move it to the outside of the tent. I do have two windows open with fans blowing in/out as needed.

Also I have a small fan to place next to my passive intake on the bottom of the tent to blow in cooler air from the floor.

Thanx for the advice, stop by any time. The help is much appreciated.


Peace

Low

Bonzi Lighthouse said:

How many plants will I be able to grow in our smallish tent? (setup for 4 at the moment)
I think 4 is perfect. You might want a 5th to be a guinea pig (test repotting, LST, topping)

I know there are many ways to grow.Which would work best with the size of tent I'm using? (LST-Topping-FIM-Scrog-Sog) I think I'll have to keep them short

and bushy.
Let them just grow the first time, you're going to have your hands full as it is. Start 12/12 @ 9-12"

When measuring the temperature in my tent.Do I take the reading above, near top of tent? Or below, near plants under the lamp?
Reccomended is at the top of the canopy. I use a remote sensor when they are little, in the shade, and move it to the side wall at canopy

top when they get big.

Click to expand...

Thanx for answering my questions.
I was thinking the same thing about the fifth pot but, think I'll try that on our next grow.

Peace

Low

stillblack said:

Yeah bro never listen to these shop keepers mh bulbs good for veg hps for flowering. the mh bulbs cant flower good hps can do the

whole cycle. i couldn't afford both ballasts so i use da hps dual spec( can digi ballasts do both hps and mh?) . After this harvest i will buy da conversion

bulb from ARGOSUN 1000W ( 400w mh 600w hps) cant wait its like $120 JUST 4 DA BULB, Breaks easy 2 but da results are meant 2 b insane

Click to expand...

After second thinking it, and seeing how many people use a MH bulb for the veg state I've decided to use it too. Thanx for coming by and for the advice.

Peace

Low

robside said:

Hey Bro, god blees you and your wife. I'm a first time grower (check out my profile) I never grew anything until i came here, I'm

loving it!! When they say....anyone can do it, their right BUT you must read, and read some more, and as ou said, do your home work, it will pay off in the

end when your harvesting great Bud(for your wife). The best leason i've learned here is... Take your time!! Dont rush it and most of all DONT OVER FERT. Your

plants will tell you what they need, dont just give them water or ferts. just because you "Think" they need it, They'll tell you if you spend time with them

and get to know their habbits (feeding, watering) That may sound wierd but the better you know your plants the better you'll be able to care for them. You

look like you have all the "right" stuff. FF, Lights, Tent, and most of all knowalage. Happy growing.

Click to expand...

I've been trying to read as much as I can...there's so much good info on this forum.
As far as nutes go, I've read that you're not supposed to use them the first few weeks when using FF Ocean Forest soil because it has nutrients already in it. Is this true?

Thanks for the great advice. Please stop back and visit.

Peace

Low

Shanus said:

All you need now is TIME. Looks like you did all your homework, and all thats left is real world trial and error. All i can say is that

your grows will keep getting better, and you'll keep amassing equipment to fit ur needs perfectly. Its awesome what your doing, and a shame some countries

disagree!! For my soil, I used Earth juice. For my hydro (man i love how clean it is), i use advanced nutes. As a noob, take some clones to try out. Plant an

extra to top and LST like was metioned earlier. Enjoy your journey, the fun is in the learning curve. Trust me, after one grow, the curve is hella steep!!

Best of luck to ya, keep those temps under 85deg, dont overwater.

o, btw. More plants DOES NOT mean more yield. Ive found that enough plants is what you want. Plants will take all the room they can get.the mroe you have,

the more they'll crowd in. Just dont assume that more plants in there would increse yield. Looks to me like four is good. Mostly its up to you and how long

you let those four veg. I prefer more, smaller plants to aid in light penetration indoors. That, and less eggs in 1 basket. Happy growing to you!!

Click to expand...

I realize that I'm going to have to learn by doing and that I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm glad to have access to knowledgable people like yourself and the

others on this forum. Thanx for your help.

Peace

Low