Starting new grow, looking for pointers.

Hey everyone! New grower but have done a ton of reading here so far. Got most of my equipment ready, just need to get some fans and I'm ready to go. Looking for tips and criticism from anyone who knows more than me. Here's what I'm working with.
1000w MH/HPS dimmable ballast
1 of each bulb MH and HPS
2 wing reflector with the tube
2 4ft fluorescent fixtures with the wide range spectrum bulbs or whatever they are called
Mylar for walls
Timer
5 gallon pails for plants
A guy also gave me a dome for clones with a warming pad...
I still need to buy another ballast so I can have plants vegging and flowering at the same time but I've got a couple months to worry about it. Also need the intake exhaust system dealt with.

Grow room will be 3.5ft-4ft deep, 8ft wide and 7-8 ft tall unless I don't need it that tall. I will have a spot for mother plant/clones, below that the veg room, and then the other side will be flowering. Growing in soil, 5 gallon pots.

Seeds I ordered are Chemo strain from Jordan of the islands, non feminized.

Going to plant all 10 and get them to 20-24in tall, then flower. As soon as I can sex them, cut out males, select best female for mother. Now I'm not sure if I can clone mother right after taking out of flowering or if I have to wait for it to revert back to veg. If I can clone right away I do so and give them the 7-10 days to root then put right into veg. Now I've got myself a system! I'm sure I've got holes and faults that's why I laid my plan out here to get feedback. I'll be making a full journal once I get seeds going. Let me know what you think. Oh I plan on growing 4-6 at a time. Probably topping and or scrog.

One suggestion is clone them before you switch to flowering. That way you don't stress the plants going back to veg and you will have clones rooting while the others are flowering. You can just cull the clones from the male plants and also choose a mother from the other clones. Other than that, sounds like you'll have a pretty good start to growing. Good luck.

Joe Blows Trees said:

One suggestion is clone them before you switch to flowering. That way you don't stress the plants going back to veg and you will have clones rooting while the others are flowering. You can just cull the clones from the male plants and also choose a mother from the other clones. Other than that, sounds like you'll have a pretty good start to growing. Good luck.

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Thanks joe, guess I just have to label them and keep track of which is which!

So I'm going to get my soil mixture this week. What are your opinions on a good mixture? I know worm castings and bloodmeal are talked about. Like 25% each of those but what about the main soil? Anyone care to share their best mixtures they use?

Do you plan to allow it to "cook" for atleast 30 days or are you going to use it right away?

I won't have 30 days to allow it to cook. I didn't even realize that was a thing lol. So I looked up a bunch of options but every single grower uses their own different way. I really don't want to order anything off the net and I live in Canada so I don't have access to some of the same stuff you do in the states. I don't like the idea of those ones that have all the time release stuff in it.

If you're going to buy a soil, one suitable for most vegetables should work. Good idea to stay away from time release nutrients. I build my own soil now.

I have always used fox farms ocean forest. A lot of people use it since it has worm casings and trace nutrients alteady in. mix in some extra perlite or hydroton just for extra drainage and youre good to go.

Kind of a dumb question, I have a dimmable 1000w ballast and I will probably just run it on 600w for veg. Is it ok to run a 1000w bulb dimmed down or should I buy a 600w bulb. I imagine it's fine just wanted to make sure it wouldn't be hard on the bulb or ballast. Thanks guys

It should be fine.