First grow advice

Hello all! Long time reader first post here! I'be been reading about growing for quite sometime now but have really upped my interest/studying in the last month or two. I think I've more or less settled on my set up and just wanted to get some experienced feed back start spending the money
Next week.

I plan to use an old TV armoire not for sure of the size as I haven't picked it up yet but I think it's somewhere around 3×2.5 abs probably about 4ft height.
The stains I think I've decided on are going to be white widow, northern lights, blue venom, and blue dream (3 of each) in 1.5-2 gallon square pots depending on what I can fit.
For ventilation I planned on two computer fans for the intake and two with a carbon filter. I know there's a lot of controversy on computer fans but many seem to do just fine as long as is a smaller grow and I'm on a budget atm and have decided to put the extra money in good led system rather than a cheap one from China. I plan to upgrade bit by bit st reet my first harvest and I stay saving money on my smoke but for now this is what I've got lol. That being said I was thinking of have two spate intakes w one fan each and one exhaust powered by the two fans to make sure it pushes through the filter.

For lighting I plan on getting a g8 240 watt led and just before flowering hopefully be able to afford a second. I will of course have the cabinet lined with mylar for maximum reflection of those precious lumens.

I've read different views on whether to germ in a moist paper towel vs planting straight in the ground. My understanding is as long as there from a dependable seed bank they will likely be fresh and if higher quality than just randomly picking from some schwagg. With these I understand it's usually fine and can even be better to plant directly in soil. Just curious what everyone's input on this is.
The plan is to veg until they are 8-10 in then flip them I will also likely be lollipoping but Im not positive in that yet hopefully weeks before harvest I cab buy I final led so I can set up a small cloning room but I'll worry about that more when the time comes! Anyways that's my master plan so any advice is greatly appreciated lol

Sounds good for the most part. I would not use Mylar though. Use panda film, you will be better temps that way and it's just as reflective. You can buy some heavy duty spray adhesive that makes lining it super easy. As for fans, go with 120mm fans, but on the specs, look for the highest airflow CFM, you can get. I have 103 CFM in mine which is pretty good. Buy a $10 fam controller to control the speeds when needed.

Also, make sure you fans are square. Anything else will be fucking hard to cut a hole to shape. Cutting sqaure holes in the middle of a piece of wood is real easy, just google. If you have problems find a good way, let me know and I can find the video.

As for lollipopping, not sure you get much value out of that since you are not going to veg that long. I would seriously consider topping or fimming and LST'ing to maximize yeild.

And did you say you were doing 12 plants? If so that's gonna be way too much in that space. I guess we'd need accurate measurements to know for sure.

Far too many plants for that space, particularly if you're growing White Widow; that strain grows outwards and upwards.

I'd stick with just a couple of Northern Lights plants. They are easy for a newbie to grow, and very hard to hurt in a testing type environment which you have.

A good LED will suit you well, but do your research. I personally veg with Lighthouse Blackstar LED. PC fans will have a difficult time sucking air through a carbon filter, but your mileage may vary. I'd start out with fans blowing outward housed at the top of the box, with passive intake holes cut into the bottom of the box.

Worry about buying a carbon filter (and better fan) after a few weeks, so you have some idea of how the airflow in your cab works. There won't be much if any smell until a ways into flower anyways. If you're on a budget, don't buy things until you absolutely need them.

Welcome to (your first postings on) RIU, happy growing!

-spek

I'll have to read up on fimming Honolulu only seen that term recently and haven't gotten around to reseaeching it yet...as far as lst'ING goes I thought that would turn more into a Scrog setup? I would like to get to that after a couple successful harvest just didn't wanna overload myself with to much from the start I have high standards n realize I'm not gonna get the product of someone with lots of experience but I'm damn sure gonna shoot for the stars n try lol what is the difference between mylar and panda film? Is the panda film worth the little bit extra? I thought I had read about people growing 20+ plants in similar sizes tho in much smaller pots and much less product per plant did I read into that wrong? I originally planned on 9 and then discovered blue venom and couldn't take my eyes off of her. I can nix one of the strains if need be 9 is more than plenty for a personal setup imo...would you say 1-1.5 Oz per plant is reasonable? I know this is a question asked all the time and it can be hard to predict but I feel it's important to set goals so you can build upon your skill sets for future growth

Thanks spek! That's actually the reason northern lights is one of the strains but blue dream has always been my absolut favorite so anattempt is a must but I have the northern lights for backup in case something goes wrong and that's kinda how I'm doing it w the budget thing is just to unrealistic to drop a grand all at once unless I gave up smoking for a month which isn't happening lol

The only goal you should be setting for a first ever grow is simply gaining experience. Anything above that is quite lofty.

You really should consider scaling back your operation to a single (maybe two) strains, and keep things between one and three plants. More than that, or too many strains on a first grow will have you troubleshooting things across all plants that often are only limited to a specific strain. For instance, I have six strains right now... four are pretty similar, but two are off-the-wall difficult. If you bite too much off, it'll be difficult to learn how the plants 'communicate' with you.

Your harvest goals are lofty as well; with three plants in that space, you *could* pull 1.5oz dry off of each plant, but put 9-12 in there, and there's no way unless you have vast experience.

Keep it simple for the first grow, and learn from it.

-spek

Just for comparison, 4 plants inside a fridge.
I will probably do only 3 next run.

I've read a lot about the importance of being able to communicate with your plants so I'll definitely take your advice on that and go with the two strains for now like I said I have high standards and would rather have the quality and improve on quantity as I learn more...thanks for the visual comparison fishnet looks a little crowded but not to bad they really do that we'll under that single light?? I know that thing is easily twice the size ofa mini fridge if not closer to three I'll try to go get those dimensions for you guys tonight...what is the plants per space you recommend for sog spek?

I have a 400W HPS up above, that curly lite is my Lizzard bulb, UVB rays.
It is all in a full sized fridge.

O wow maybe it's just the angle didn't realize it was full size and glad to know you have grow light I would think iv missed a lot of shot n start all over with my research of you could actually grow a crop with just that...so what's all this mess with people taking about 1-4 per sqr ft for sog? I thought I was actually being on the lower end of what should be done and didn't understand how you could get that many plants to grow a worthy size crop also any opinion on germing in in a paper towel vs planting in the soil from the start when you working with quality seeds?

vostok said:

My advice to all new growers is ..
to always keep your options open
you just never know whats around the corner
keep it open like a pc
open as in architecture
​

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Possibly the best advice ever whether for growing or just life in general!

munchie messiah said:

I'll have to read up on fimming Honolulu only seen that term recently and haven't gotten around to reseaeching it yet...as far as lst'ING goes I thought that would turn more into a Scrog setup? I would like to get to that after a couple successful harvest just didn't wanna overload myself with to much from the start I have high standards n realize I'm not gonna get the product of someone with lots of experience but I'm damn sure gonna shoot for the stars n try lol what is the difference between mylar and panda film? Is the panda film worth the little bit extra? I thought I had read about people growing 20+ plants in similar sizes tho in much smaller pots and much less product per plant did I read into that wrong? I originally planned on 9 and then discovered blue venom and couldn't take my eyes off of her. I can nix one of the strains if need be 9 is more than plenty for a personal setup imo...would you say 1-1.5 Oz per plant is reasonable? I know this is a question asked all the time and it can be hard to predict but I feel it's important to set goals so you can build upon your skill sets for future growth

Click to expand...

I agree with the rest. Keep it simple and 3 plants max. As far as panda film vs Mylar, I think panda film is worth it. It's white on one side black on the other. Light cannot leak through it. It's pliable and easy to work with. When lining your area overlap the film over the edges, corners...etc. that ensures no light leaks. It's 90% reflective and it won't give you high temp problems.