First time indoor soil grow

Looking for tips for what to stay away from and what works best for you. I like what I hear about Foxfarm products, but since I'm new to soil, I'd love to hear tips and suggestions.

I've grown about a 5 plants before using deep water culture and also grew clones (100% success rate) w/coconut choir, but unfortunately the crop got spoiled by a herm which seeded everything.

I'm making an 8'x7' plastic enclosed grow room, and plan on a single 600watt HPS (plus either some florescent HO T5's or LED's) for bud. I'll probably get another 600watt HPS next year after startup sticker-shock goes away. Perpetual harvest 2-4 plants at a time, but should keep 6-8 plants in bud room at all times.

Do I need to keep replacing the dirt? After how many grows? Can you do an organic grow with a soilless medium? If so, what's recommended for the medium? Suggest max pot size for this kind of grow?


Check out what's on order.

-White Castle (White Widow+Ice)
-Chrystal (WW+Northern Light)
-Jock Horror (Northern Light+Skunk+Haze)
-Master Kush (Hindu Kush+Skunk)

Any comments on the type of buzz effect of these strains?

Are any of these harder to spot males or are easier to turn hermaphrodite?

Looking forward to my first decent grow.

BluesRocker said:

Looking for tips for what to stay away from and what works best for you. I like what I hear about Foxfarm products, but since I'm new to soil, I'd love to hear tips and suggestions.

I've grown about a 5 plants before using deep water culture and also grew clones (100% success rate) w/coconut choir, but unfortunately the crop got spoiled by a herm which seeded everything.

I'm making an 8'x7' plastic enclosed grow room, and plan on a single 600watt HPS for bud. I'll probably get another 600watt HPS next year after saving for a while. Perpetual harvest 2-4 plants at a time, but should keep 6-8 plants in bud room at all times.

Do I need to keep replacing the dirt? After how many grows? Can you do an organic grow with a soilless medium? If so, what's recommended for the medium?

Suggest max pot size for this kind of grow?

The following are on order.

-Chrystal (WW+Northern Light)
-White Castle (WhiteWidow+ICE)
-Jock Horror (Northern Light+Skunk+Haze)
-Master Kush (Hindu Kush+Skunk)

Any comments on the type of buzz effect of these strains?

Are any of these harder to spot males or are easier to turn hermaphrodite?

Looking forward to my first decent grow!

Click to expand...

welcome! I my self have done my first indoor with 6 girls and i started out with a 600 MH and then added another 1000mh and now am using a 600 + 1000 hps! i used reg soil as well. you have to replant them as they get rootbound (roots have no more room to grow) i started out with rockwool cubes > half gal pot>3 gal pot> 15 gal and they are humongous. i have a journal that i started check it out! I also use fox farm products with great results!

Do you mean keep 6-8 plants in veg at all times? How long do you plan to veg? What type of lights?

First off, Never reuse soil. Always use fresh soil when growing or transplanting, as toxicity builds on in the soil...however I have heard that if you bake the soil at about 200 Degrees for an hour or two you can " sanitize" the soil once more, but it smells terrible and buying new soil is just faster and easier. As always, pot size depends on how long you plan to grow, rule of thumb, One Gallon for every foot of growth. Bigger the pot, bigger the plant. The site you purchased said seeds from should have a overview of the strain and its effects, I suggest going back, or if not google it!

The only true way to catch a hermie is to flower a clone and determine the sex from there. A female can be turned hermie if you stress her out, such as fooling with the light cycle, fluxuating temps too much, very acidic ph, and so on. Constant enviroment makes for happy females!

Also for that size grow, one hps of that size wont be enough..Personally, If go with some warm white cfls and place them around the crop.

Killface said:

Do you mean keep 6-8 plants in veg at all times? How long do you plan to veg? What type of lights?

First off, Never reuse soil. Always use fresh soil when growing or transplanting, as toxicity builds on in the soil...however I have heard that if you bake the soil at about 200 Degrees for an hour or two you can " sanitize" the soil once more, but it smells terrible and buying new soil is just faster and easier. As always, pot size depends on how long you plan to grow, rule of thumb, One Gallon for every foot of growth. Bigger the pot, bigger the plant. The site you purchased said seeds from should have a overview of the strain and its effects, I suggest going back, or if not google it!

The only true way to catch a hermie is to flower a clone and determine the sex from there. A female can be turned hermie if you stress her out, such as fooling with the light cycle, fluxuating temps too much, very acidic ph, and so on. Constant enviroment makes for happy females!

Also for that size grow, one hps of that size wont be enough..Personally, If go with some warm white cfls and place them around the crop.

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I was speaking about bud stage, not veg. I'll take a clone or two (w/identity tags) off each one before they go into bud so I wont loose track which clone came from which plant. If the plant goes male in bud stage, I also remove it's clone(s).

I have some T5 and CFL's for veg. Veg seems a bit easier for me, I'm more concerned about bloom lights and having enough space for the plants to bud well. I was afraid that it's not good to reuse soil. That makes me consider using a soil-less medium or mix with things like perlite, coco choir or similar.

Suggestions for a soil-less mix so you can reuse most of your medium? Can I grow organically with that medium? I'd probably be happy with fewer synthetically derived (chemical) nutes. I realize the site I bought the seeds from talk about it's effects. However, like most things in life, I would rather trust a fellow buyer/enthusiast than a sale's blurb.

I figured that one 600watt HPS will not be enough for 6-8 budding plants, that's why I plan on using some floro's to help. Next year after saving up, I'll either get another 600HPS or some LED's. I might be willing to spend a bit more on LED+other hybrid lighting so as to get rid of the heat produced from HPS lights!

I know about starting with smaller pots and then transplanting into larger pots after the roots get confined. I'd like to finish with about 4-5' tall plants. By your rule of thumb, I should target a maximum size of 4-5 gallons. Thanks

50%fox farm ocean forest /50% fox farm light warrior
cant go wrong..

HeLLa x GoOd said:

50%fox farm ocean forest /50% fox farm light warrior
cant go wrong..

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How long and how often did you use nutes/additives? On one hand I've heard they include additives and nutrients in their soil mix offerings. On the other hand I've heard that in addition to these mixes, you should also use their entire product line for soil, or else you are hampering the gro unnecessarily.

I don't understand how to figure out how many times a day or a week it's supposed to be watered and or feed with nutes. Consider those FF schedules posted earlier, how often am I supposed to supply those weekly amounts? It's simply not clear if it's scheduled for water or feed just once a week, or is it water or feed (the same total amount) several times a week?

Thanks much for the input. Can't wait to get the gro started.

BluesRocker said:

How long and how often did you use nutes/additives? On one hand I've heard they include additives and nutrients in their soil mix offerings. On the other hand I've heard that in addition to these mixes, you should also use their entire product line for soil, or else you are hampering the gro unnecessarily.

I don't understand how to figure out how many times a day or a week it's supposed to be watered and or feed with nutes. Consider those FF schedules posted earlier, how often am I supposed to supply those weekly amounts? It's simply not clear if it's scheduled for water or feed just once a week, or is it water or feed (the same total amount) several times a week?

Thanks much for the input. Can't wait to get the gro started.

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blues, when it comes to feeding and watering its all by eye basically. MY girls ususally drink up everything in 2-3 days for example today its going to be the 4th day but there super dry and i am going to "feed" them today with FoxFarm beastie budz and all my other custom food plan. The typical feeding schedule would be feed one watering heavily then the next watering feed a diluted mixture and next feeding heavy feeding again. I like to flush out the soil every 2 weeks which means giving them pure water until its basically coming out clear out the botto of the pot. Hence my girls are in 15 gal pots and each one drinks 5 gallons of water... its a pain in the a$$ lol.

oh an btw, im using soil i dont like that organic soil stuff lol

ref said:

oh an btw, im using soil i dont like that organic soil stuff lol

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Are you saying you don't like any organic growing, or is it that you don't like FoxFarm's organic soil "stuff" (stuff=nutes and amendments, or?). Because although you don't need to use organic nutes when using dirt, still I figure that soil is the most organic medium available.

Wow, I'm told to only use as many gallons container/pot for as many feet tall you'd like your plants to be. So I'm not going over 5gals.

Wow, 5 gals water/week per plant! That's a lot. Hopefully if I only use 1/3 as much soil as your 15 gal pots, and try for max 4-5 foot tall plants, then maybe I'd be closer to 3(?) gals water per plant per week. That's crazy.

Maybe I'll end up needing an RO unit...

i know someone who has used a 600w hps with sun soaker reflector fits 6 plants in 5 gallon pots all nice and bushy harvest about 1/2 lb. I use fox farm's happy frog soil. Your biggest concern will be heat from the hps if you don't have an AC in the room.

anygivenmonday said:

i know someone who has used a 600w hps with sun soaker reflector fits 6 plants in 5 gallon pots all nice and bushy harvest about 1/2 lb. I use fox farm's happy frog soil. Your biggest concern will be heat from the hps if you don't have an AC in the room.

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Thanks for the info. Ya, seems like if you don't have enough quality light, you just can't expect to get a large harvest. I wish to start out with two 600watt HPS's, that would totally rock, but since money is tight, I'll probably have to settle for a single 600-1000watt HPS, and then add a 600 later.

Fortunately we have AC. Seems like especially if I start out with just one light, then I need a good parabolic reflector to make the most out of it. I might even create some sort of light mover. Probably end up being DIY projects, but I figure it's worth the effort.


At some point I plan on creating something to collect sunlight and send it inside to the plants!

if you can find one of these 4x4 reflectors at your local hydro shop they work excellent they cost around 100$.

i've seen light rails at my local hydro that are only 119$ that you just mount in the ceiling, online they look a bit more pricey.

http://www.htgsupply.com/products.asp?categoryID=15&subcategoryID=89

anygivenmonday
I appreciate the solid tips! I'm currently unemployed and applying for disability so I'm low on cash. I'm also part time alternative energy R&D and backyard innovator hack. So with that in mind, I foresee myself doing some "DIY projects" in the near future. I like something like an upside down umbrella (mostly parabolic shape) look.


I just found a bunch of HPS lights including ballasts, HPS bulb, fixture, parabolic bowl reflector and rigging hooks. They are 400watt HPS which need it to be switched over to the 110 tap but he assures me they work fine on 110. The ballasts are attached to and are positioned directly over the light fixture. I realize that is not the best configuration, but I figure you always need to provide at least sufficient positive ventilation or ac cooling. So I would make certain the lights and ballasts stay as cool as possible.

He's selling them for waaaaay cheap (under 50/each)! I'm thinking of getting as much as I can afford since I only have a few CFL's and a single 2xHO T5 light.

However, who knows, perhaps there's something about these lights that I might not end up liking very well. Any ideas what to stay away from with something like this?

I always like to use a compost that is not that exspensive to buy this means that it has no added extra's that the retailer will have added.When you are makeing the mix of perlite and the compost 80/20perlite i always put the compost through a fishing riddle that fishermen use for riddleing ground bait and maggot i go fishing so i already have one but they are not exspensive to buy.Add the perlite once that you have riddled the compost this will get all the lumps out that have not decomposted yet old bits of wood and other plant materiel ext.When the plants are in flower the pots that i use are far smaller than the ones used in flowering any how so i put fresh mixed compost in the bottom and in goes the plant and all the soil used during the vegging of the plants.Then just add has much soil has you need to fill the tubs that the plants are going to be flowered in.Once this is done i like to then flush the plants with water set at 5.0/5.5 make sure that you give them a good flush till the run of goes a little clearer than it was.The following day add some flowering nutrients some will say will all this water do any damage the answer is no has long has when you do water you let the plants dry out and then re water.You only realy want to be watering at the same day once a week every week for the period of the plants flowering stage.But there is no need to go out and buy realy exspensive compost it is unnessessary and i think you can get more out of the cheeper brands.I always have nice crops and do not like useing anything that has any hidden feed in there.

tyke1973
Thanks much for the helpful hand! Very cool info. I've seen a show about using coconut stuff and sifting out worm castings from compost/dirt bedding because something about worms help convert bad things into beneficial things.

How about growing organic, but instead of using soil, use coco coir and perlite or something similar? See, I'm wondering if there's a way to reuse the grow medium after the harvest to help keep expenses down. Maybe it's better to dispose of the entire ball of roots and soil. Is it safe to reuse a portion of the soil that wasn't locked up with the roots?

I'm a medical marihuana patient (Michigan), so I may have a grow for decades to come. Wanna start out in the right direction. Fortunately we are expecting nice genetic seeds soon. Do you think I could do ok in an 8.5x12 spare bedroom? Found a great deal on some used 400 watt HPS lights at under 50 each(!), so I'm hoping to end up using 4 to start out with (two more for backup or expanding things). With so much wide spread coverage, I wont have to worry about getting too close to the plants, and should increase crop yield!

Luckily we have central air and window ac. Much prefer 4 used-400's than 2 new-750's. I might go for larger than 5 gal pots too...

anygivenmonday said:

i know someone who has used a 600w hps with sun soaker reflector fits 6 plants in 5 gallon pots all nice and bushy harvest about 1/2 lb. I use fox farm's happy frog soil. Your biggest concern will be heat from the hps if you don't have an AC in the room.

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About how tall would you say your associate grows em for that yield amount, compact/mid-size/full size?

Theoretically doing the same grow over again, would you agree that if you wanted to increase the yield by about 50% one might do the following.
-much more light (150-200%)
-significantly larger pots (60-75%)

-moderately more water/nutes (40%)

-slightly more ventilation/cooling (20%)
-slightly longer internode spacing (10-20%)
-slightly longer veg period (10-20%)
-slightly more personal upkeep (5-10%)

Can't say much about the lights, I grow for personal use and a 250w HPS keeps me in plenty of weed. I've been using FoxFarms for almost three years now. Ocean Forest with some perlite mixed in for seedlings/vegging and straight Ocean Forest when I transplant into the flower pots. I use all three liquid nutes (Grow Big, Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom) according to the feeding schedule they have on their site. Just started using their solubles for the first time with my current grow (see sig).

TechnoMage
If I'm only using a single 250w HPS, that's a serious light limitation that limits the amount of growth, so your yield is seriously restricted. I feel fortunate that I have room to grow a bit larger plants and have 4-5 used 400w HPS lights (checking on availability).

Please consider my suggestions to anygivenmonday in my last post for increasing yield. Would you agree or disagree? What would you do differently than what I suggested to get the best yield increase for the least amount of additional cost and labor?

The estimates seem reasonable enough. By far the thing that limits yield the most is light. A small pot may limit the plants size but the biggest pot in the world isn't going to help if you have a weak light.

That said, I've thought about moving to a 400w setup but just haven't had the need. Right now I'm smoking weed from two harvest ago and I'm halfway through another flower. That's while still giving away a little as presents to friends.

I know I average at least 6oz a harvest but I haven't done an actual weighing in a while now. I am going to weigh with the batch I've got in the flower cab now.

BluesRocker said:

TechnoMage
If I'm only using a single 250w HPS, that's a serious light limitation that limits the amount of growth, so your yield is seriously restricted. I feel fortunate that I have room to grow a bit larger plants and have 4-5 used 400w HPS lights (checking on availability).

Please consider my suggestions to anygivenmonday in my last post for increasing yield. Would you agree or disagree? What would you do differently than what I suggested to get the best yield increase for the least amount of additional cost and labor?

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OH man, what do I do? I've got my nice beans! Ready to start, but I don't know where I'm getting the soil and amendments. I want to go organic, so far I'm eyeing BMO, but where do I go to get good quality soil? And what about the medium for the first seedlings? They don't normally use soil do they? I've seen em use just perlite, but I don't know what's suggested for an organic soil grow.

I'm thinking about half perlite half soil/compost, maybe in a styrofoam cup or similar. Then transplant that into a medium container with more like 20% perlite 80% soil/compost, and finally transplant that into a 7 gal container with the same (or similar) ratio mix. I am trying to get the same basic feeding regimine for 2 different grows to help save on the cost of supplies, so I need to have things kinda standardized. Later on as time progresses, we'll be more into making my own compost piles and the like. So, I'm moving away from Fox Farms, and looking for a good source for soil and amendments.

I just inherited an extra 400watt HPS, I know they are better for budding, but I don't have much veg lights right now. If I used a 400watt HPS for 6 young 16"+ tall plants, how far away would you keep it from the plants? I'm thinking of waiting until they are starting to bush out, then use only the 400 watt HPS from about 2 foot away. Then next week go back to including several 2 foot T-5's and 45watt CFL's. Then next week lower the HPS to about 18 inches away and try to keep that distance. I'm hoping for moderate internode spacing. I don't want short and squat, but I also don't want tall and lanky.