First grow need some help

Hi guys I need a little bit of advice for lighting and for soil for my first grow.

My tent is super small that I'm making from pvc pipe. It's 5'3 inches tall and 2 feet by 2.5 feet.

I plan on doing 4 blue dreams just because my brother has 4 going that he just started last week.

I'm pretty noob and I'm a little lost on the soil situation. My original idea is to do all 4 plants in 5 gallon buckets using about 50% happy frog and about 50% ocean forest,
I don't know if that's a good mix ratio or not.

If not I've seen tga pre made super soil that I'm intested in but I'm not sure if it's a good Idea since I'm new to growing I don't want to bite off more then I can chew.

For my light I have a Apache at200.
I'm not sure if it's enough for the results I want to get.

1 plant is personal

The other three I'm trying to yield a half pound. I'm thinking about buying a Apache at120 for flowering add some weight.
Happy growing thanks

Nice!

First off, 4 plants maybe to much, lets lower the count to 2 and maybe even larger containers then 5 gallons.

ah yes soil, my true love in life.

Sure u can do a fox farm mix, but if you really want better results,

purchase a bag of worm casting, and a bag of peat and or coco, and a half bag of perlite/pumice/rice hulls. Mix toghther

all this can be sources either at lowes, Home Depot, hydro stores and local nursery for fairly cheap. And lets not forget u can make your own vermicompost at home.

that is a great ready to use base mix, that can be used over and over and will get better with age

you can add supplemental nutrient thru aact and enzyme teas.

And yes u can add more npks to the soil, however u would have to let it cook which u would have to add a couple months. But thats ok, u can do a rdy use mix, veg in there, and meanwhile soil would b cooking and rdy to use for flower..

any who

more info here
https://www.rollitup.org/organics/636057-recycled-organic-living-soil-rols.html

I recently saw the premade TGA SuperSoil products (expensive) and I don't have a good opinion of what I read as for ingredients (different from his posted recipe) and NPK ratios. It could be that not everything was listed but I am getting ready to mix a batch of my own using SubCool's recipe except I have Seabird Guano instead of bat and the humic acid I got was liquid. I do think that 4 plants will probably be excessive for a small tent like you intend to build because the SuperSoil mix is supposed to grow some impressive plants especially if it is mixed properly and of course the lights are a major factor for harvest quantity.

Also, the SuperSoil is supposed to be only used in 1/2 to 1/4 of the planter of ESTABLISHED plants...............not for seedlings and probably too strong for early vegging, use it in the bottom half of your transplant pots or buckets and top off with your preferred soil. If you blend your own you will probably have difficulty finding the worm poo also. Where I live in Wa. it is about $20 for a 2 kilo pail. I was able to find it for $37 for 30 pounds on the internet. Much better deal.

Listen to flyhigh, he's spot on.............Don't have to follow sub's recipe to a T, use what you can find locally(EWC is a must though IMO). Don't worry about burning seedlings unless you go very aggressive with guano/bloodmeal/feather meal in your mix(dislike using blood/feather completely)=== also can look at going mostly plant/rock based with almost zero chance of toxicity.

50/50 mix of ffof/ffhf is also fine as a staring base IMO.......just nothing but water for the first month(can add some coconut water/aloe/ss tea if you want to get freaky)

Can you even fit four 5 gallons in a 2x2.5?? seems very tight, also blue dream is vigorous and in your space I would have little to no veg time at all with 4 girls.

The at200 should cover that in flower no problem.......what spectrum do you have BTW???

good luck and be safe

Good Gawd, an AT200. You're very fortunate to have a top-notch lamp for your DIY grow tent!

I don't know what distance AT suggests from your plants, but I'll guess it's at least a foot. Probably more. 5 gallon buckets are roughly a foot tall. That means roughly half your vertical space is already gone. If your plants take off on you, you could easily run out of room.

You don't want that expensive panel jammed right up against the ceiling where it's stuck in a pool of its own heat. You could cut a hole in the top of the tent and let the exhaust blow out, but then you're dealing with light leakage around the new exhaust vent.

IMO you'll need to start reading up on methods to limit vertical growth. Once you get growing, measure the plant height vs. free space continuously and be ready with strategies. Once you flip them to flower, your options are limited. You don't want to pinch or top like you can in veg!

That's just a newb's opinion.

Thanks for all the great advice.
I thought 4 was a little to much.
I think I will ither do two plants in 5 gallon buckets or just one plant in a 7 gallon and let it get super big.
I'm not sure what kind of spectrum the at200 is but it's a combo of white and red.