newb here. 1st grow. just looking for advice

so i will be starting my first grow in a few weeks when the rest of my equipment arrives. I am just looking for advice and any forewarnings that the RIU community has to offer a newb before i begin.

so i plan on mimicking scottyballs PE grow. (i think everyone on here knows of it) i have a 24x24x48 tent which i plan to use.

this is the ballast i ordered. has anyone on here used this? if so do you have a review?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019J42406/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i plan on using MH for veg. i plan on vegging for no more than 3 weeks as i have limited space.
and i plan on using HPS for flowering. (i hear hortilux bulbs are the best. that is what i will be using unless anyone points me in a different direction)

i would like to say i have a gist of how things go/need to be as far as lighting, ventilation etc.

the only real concerns i have are with the nutrients. like i said i plan on mimicking scottyballs PE grow and he uses one nutrient from start to finish (i believe off the top of my head it is GH floranova bloom) but i am mostly worried about adjusting/keeping the nutrients at the right level without burning/under feeding the plant

so prettty much if anyone could give me a rundown on how exactly i should feed my plant with the right amount of nutrients at the right PPM/EC as the plant grows that would be extremely helpful!!!

also as far as water goes i hear the gallons of deer park water are just right at a PH level of 6.0. any sugguestion/recommendations??

please feel free to drop any knowledge on me whether i asked for it or not

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!!!

follow the directions of any quality nutrient/fertilizer on one plant, and cut the nutrients in half on another. you be the judge, I bet both perform very well. thats what happened when I used bottled nutrients.

My advice is to stick to your plan, unless you have to alter it. Be relaxed. If you end up with a deficiency, do some research and ask questions, when you decide you best move take it and wait. Be patient. It's pretty difficult to kill a plant. And some deficiencies take about a week to recover, but most symptoms won't recover they just stop progressing.

How big of a grow space are you talking? Most strains aren't ready to flower after 3 weeks.. Be patient! If you flower too early you'll be awfully disappointed when you've watched over and cared for the plant for 2-3 months, and only end up pulling a half oz..

Throw out the constraints of time. Read her and let her tell you when she's ready.. If you initiate flowering before sexual maturity I promise you will be dissatisfied, trust me.. I've fucked up and done that a couple times, and I assure you it's not cost effective (after you add up everything you buy for the op, energy cost, and your efforts you might as well just buy it from some other guy). Refer to this article.. http://www.kindgreenbuds.com/cannabis-grow-bible/when-to-flower/

Tap water is a lot cheaper and less conspicuous than buying bottled water for the ladies, so long as your tap water is less than say 200ppm right out the faucet. I personally use collected rain water as often as possible, it requires no ph adjustment as well. The microbes love the carbonic acids. But if you have the resources then by all means use bottled water.

When it all comes down to it, you gotta ask yourself why you want to grow. Personal interest? Money? Or like me, did you just get tired of paying 20 a g for some decent bud? If it's just personal interest, then 3 week veg and bottled water will be fine. If you need money, or a cheap source of weed then you'll want to look at more of a 4-6 week veg and rain/tap water to cut cost and end up with enough product to make it worth while..

You definitely have the mindset to be an excellent grower. Just remember, keep an open mind, you'll never stop learning better ways to do it. If any one way was the best way then we'd all be doing it that way. But there's not and we don't! No 2 growers grow the same.. Eventually you'll be tweeking the plans you mimic because you're grow room isn't the same as his.

LASTLY, don't forget the #1 rule, have fun!

floragrow set on amazon. follow the directions, skimp a bit on your mix if your worried and feel it out.

keep ph between 6 and 7 post mix to avoid lockout.

lift test and check top inch of soil before watering.

youll be fine.

Hey dub, newbie here as well. On week 2 of flower of my first grow. I can tell you the little mistakes I made so far.
#1 too much light. I put my freshly sprouted seedlings under 600 watt MH. That's way too much for the little fellas. Regular fluorescent bulbs at 6400 are fine for seedlings. With the first true leaves, t5 is good, I just picked one up at home dept for $40, a single bulb 2 foot 24watt. Second set of true leaves, up the lighting to the next step, which in your case will be the MH. Ideally I'd like to use a 400 watt t5 with half the lights off for a few days then the full 400 and veg under that, that'll be my next grow...
Keep them at the max recommended effective distance from the light while they're so young. More light is not better. Especially after transplanting, they're stressed enough.

#2 nutrients too soon. The seeds naturally have food in them. They don't need to be fed as seedlings. I fed them right away, not good. Maybe someone more experienced can jump in on this, but I'm thinking no nutes till the second true leaves sprout. And even then keep it under 300 ppm.

I learned to get those lights away, and flushed with SLF 100 thoroughly. My girls (and boys that I just discovered) are looking quite healthy now.

I was going to the store and buying distilled or RO water when they were little. After transplanting a lot more water is used. I picked up a garden hose filter for about 60 bucks at the hydro store. I fill a few 5 gallon buckets about quarter of the way and let them sit for at least a day then use that water for nutrient mixing. Letting them sit hopefully lets any remaining chlorine or chloromines evaporate. PPM of the filtered tap is about the same as the tap (apparently the filter adds carbon, cleaner water + carbon = same ppm as unfiltered). The ppm you are aiming for is going to be Goal + beginning ppm. (first feed of 300 ppm will be starting ppm + 300).

I stole the following;

"Here is my basic PPM range for the life cycle of the plant.

Seedlings and clones: 300 ppm
Rapid vegetative growth: 500-700ppm
First 4 weeks of flower: 700-900ppm
Weeks 5 to Finish of flower: 800-1100ppm (adding 2ml/gal bloom booster will cause ppm to go up a bit)Last week of flower: ZERO ppm. Flush media VERY well with ZERO ppm water."

However, I've also read that your ppm should not go over the amount of wattage you're under. So if you're under a 600 watt bulb, don't go over 600 ppm. If you're using a light mover, add 100 and if using CO2 add another 100. I think that's thinking too much about it though.

- CraxCorn 1st post-

Feracon said:

floragrow set on amazon. follow the directions, skimp a bit on your mix if your worried and feel it out.

keep ph between 6 and 7 post mix to avoid lockout.

lift test and check top inch of soil before watering.

youll be fine.

Click to expand...

i will be using a waterfarm so no need to test the soil. i am going to use the recommended dosage on the bottle probably a little less just to be on the safe side. thank for your input!

ezonerrdub said:

i will be using a waterfarm so no need to test the soil. i am going to use the recommended dosage on the bottle probably a little less just to be on the safe side. thank for your input!

Click to expand...

Keep the ppms SUPER low until the cotyletons whither away. The cotyletons are the first leafs to emerge and they basically hold all the baby food the plant needs until the root system is capable of feeding the plant. First feed should be half strength or less, typically around week 2ish. Feeding too much too soon could easily kill a young seedling.

dtl420 said:

Keep the ppms SUPER low until the cotyletons whither away. The cotyletons are the first leafs to emerge and they basically hold all the baby food the plant needs until the root system is capable of feeding the plant. First feed should be half strength or less, typically around week 2ish. Feeding too much too soon could easily kill a young seedling.

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are you familiar with scottyballs PE grow? (if not google it. very interesting/informative)
i will be mimicking that grow to the best of my ability. and in that grow he does not feed the plant any nutes for the first ten days.
after the first ten days im planning on jumping the nutes up to 300ppm. maybe even 200 just to be on the safe side. id rather the plant be a bit underfed than burn it as i would assume its easier to add as needed rather than treat and flush from overfeeding/burning it!

thanks for your input!

I just noticed your tent size.
I may be wrong, as like stated I'm no pro, but I think with that tent you should change your lighting plan. 48" in height will not be enough clearance for HID lighting. The light will be too strong being that close and the plants will get to hot as they grow closer to it.

You're planning on buying a 400 watt system anyway, why not go with a T5? A 4 foot 8 lamp 400+watt fixture will work better with only 4 feet of height. You can customize the spectrum with different bulbs and start seedlings at 200 watts as most fixtures have switches to shut off half the bulbs. Instead of switching to HPS to flower, just change the tubes to the 3k range

Slightly lower cost to start and MUCH less cost to run. My electric bill was $36 dollars in September. Starting growing in October. My bill in November was $128. It more than tripled. Because of the grow light.

My tent is 80" tall. Only cost a hundred bucks. (4x4) I think I vegged too long...plants are already getting too close to the light, even at that height.

Keep It Super Simple. Kiss.

Less is more.

Don't over think or complicate it.

I'm subbed. You have my full support. My friend and I are getting ready to do a ScottyBallz grow. Just ordered the stuff.

Yea, Tap water would be good if it's acceptable PPM out of the tap. If not better use bottled,.

The Floranova will adjust PH for you. I just did some testing on my water to make sure.
My RO water is 75 PPM and around 7.0
The Floranova, no matter how much I add takes the PH down to 5.6-5.8 Zone. It stabilizes there after a little while. 15 mins or so.

As for PPM.. It will depend on the strain. Find out how much nutes it likes. Scotty took his up way too high and burned his plant.

Say you start 200 then go to 300 then 400 then 600 then 800 then 1000..
Floranova Bloom realllly shouldn't burn your plant though.. It's the N that burns and the Bloom doesn't have a ton of N.

I'm subbed. Keep a good journal

ezonerrdub said:

are you familiar with scottyballs PE grow? (if not google it. very interesting/informative)
i will be mimicking that grow to the best of my ability. and in that grow he does not feed the plant any nutes for the first ten days.
after the first ten days im planning on jumping the nutes up to 300ppm. maybe even 200 just to be on the safe side. id rather the plant be a bit underfed than burn it as i would assume its easier to add as needed rather than treat and flush from overfeeding/burning it!

thanks for your input!

Click to expand...

Seems to be working for him very well. I'll have to reference that when I decide to switch to hydro. And you are definitely right about the feeding. A little goes a long way. But in hydro it's a lot easier/cleaner to "flush" excess nutes. When I flush it requires a shop vac and lots of towels! Huge pain in the ass. I've recently started taking them to the bath tub to flush, but I'm not sure my back cares too much for that either..

Good luck on your first grow - it sounds like you've done your homework although as you will find out soon enough - practical experience is the best education. I have grown in waterfarms before so maybe I can give you advice. How many waterfarms are you going to use in your 2x2 area? How are you going to keep the nutrient solution cooled? In my waterfarm set up I would eliminate the drip ring after the roots reached the rez, add an airstone to the bottom rez and run it as a dwc - worked great and stopped the splashing on the top. I would consider a scrog or lst considering you only have 4' of height - the bucket will take up at least 10" to 12" and the light will take up space depending on what type of hood you are using, then there's the distance between the light and the canopy, doesn't leave a lot of room for plant growth if you don't keep them trained low. Depending on the strain a 3 week vegged plant can easily get 2' if it's not trained.

The nutrients you selected are excellent and will work well without using any nutrient additives, however you might want to consider adding silica to your solution, it grows sturdier stems and helps keep the plant safe if your conditions become too hot or cold, and it helps prevent pests. If you google Lucas formula you will find that one of the options is using 8ml of FloraNova Bloom per gallon of water for a full grown plant - you don't need to measure for the ppm - just follow the formula - start with 1/4 strength when you begin feeding, then increase gradually until full strength - pH to 5.8. Also I would use tap water - if you use r/o water you will probably need to supplement with cal-mag.

I forgot to mention that if your waterfarm is new - I would suggest that you drill larger holes in the bottom of the upper chamber to make sufficient room for the roots to grow into the bottom chamber.

Looking at Lucas Formula it says to use 8 ML per gallon all through the grow... That still seems high for a seedling..

I've been using lucas. 6mL micro, 9mL bloom "per gallon".. I thin it out to recommended ppm level for the stage of growth.

sunny747 said:

I'm subbed. You have my full support. My friend and I are getting ready to do a ScottyBallz grow. Just ordered the stuff.

Yea, Tap water would be good if it's acceptable PPM out of the tap. If not better use bottled,.

The Floranova will adjust PH for you. I just did some testing on my water to make sure.
My RO water is 75 PPM and around 7.0
The Floranova, no matter how much I add takes the PH down to 5.6-5.8 Zone. It stabilizes there after a little while. 15 mins or so.

As for PPM.. It will depend on the strain. Find out how much nutes it likes. Scotty took his up way too high and burned his plant.

Say you start 200 then go to 300 then 400 then 600 then 800 then 1000..
Floranova Bloom realllly shouldn't burn your plant though.. It's the N that burns and the Bloom doesn't have a ton of N.

I'm subbed. Keep a good journal

Click to expand...

Why is your RO water ppm so high? Either your system isn't filtering properly or your starting water is disgusting.

CraxCorn said:

Why is your RO water ppm so high? Either your system isn't filtering properly or your starting water is disgusting.

Click to expand...

My water is horrrrrible.. 480 ppm out of the tap. RO removes around 85 % of the crud. I'll check the PH again when I calibrate my meter again.

I'm in Cali and we're at the bottom of our reservoirs here so it's full of salts.

I just added 8 mm of bloom to a gallon of water.. Mannn it's super high ppm.. In the area of 900... I'd be afraid to start the girls on that.

What do you think?

Coming from lucasformula.com ;

Lucas Formula for seedlings/cuttings
For young plants (< 4 weeks old) or cuttings, which may not be able to handle a full strength feeding formula, may require that you dilute the nutrient solution before feeding. This is OK, just make sure you keep the correct ratio when mixing. For example, 50% strength would be 4ml Micro and 8ml Bloom, or 3.5g of dry Maxibloom per gallon.

I'm in coco. What I do use a 5 gallon bucket, filled about halfway. 1 tsp of epsom salt, 2mL calmag X 3, 6mL micor X3, 9mL bloom X3. Mix thoroughly after each ingredient. Then thin it out with more water until I reach ppm goal for that part of the growth cycle. For most of veg I ended up with 2 5 gallon buckets almost full to get it under 600 ppm (+100 as starting ppm with filtered tap so total of 700). At almost week 3 of flower, one bucket is less than 900 total.

Why are you guys hijacking his thread? If you have questions - start your own thread.