Newbie Noob here

mr_red

mr_red

Member
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to drop a little line here for my grow. I am pretty new to the grow game. I recently just harvested my first harvest. I have lots of questions and like I said I'm new so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Current set up is:
60x60x80 grow Tent Apollo
2x 600W HPS/MH Apollo
General Hydroponics GH4720 Farm Controller, Terra Cotta.
Full line of Canna Nutrients
Full line of General Hydroponics Nutrients
Blue Lab PH Tester
Hydrometer/Temp
PPM Meter
Inline Fan, vent exhaust
Fan inside to keep canopy cool

Want to add:
Co2
Water Cooler
Five 1000W

Unsure of Grow Medium
Maybe Smart pots w/COCO Perlite

So that's all I have I'm looking at expanding and adding five 1000W ballasts and lights once I can get really good and controlling my grow and getting great results in my 60x60 tent. My first crop almost everything that could go wrong went wrong from temperatures getting to high in the budding phase witch caused some of plants to get light airy buds, to spider mites. I also didn't know you should switch back to the MH bulb towards the end of the budding cycle when you are cleansing the plant.

1.So far with the General hydroponics system I have noticed that plants always grow at different rates, yes they are all the same strain. First time I grew all 8 sites with seedlings strain was Lemon Diesel. Long story short 1 plant grew to be 4ft tall and the others were a range from 1ft to 4ft. I ended the life of some of the smaller plants when I went into budding to save space. During my second Grow I purchased some clones from a retailer, needless to say I'm doing four sites and 3 out of the 4 are doing very well and 1 is the same size as the day I transplanted it. I should fill you guys in on the medium I'm using for the hydro drip system is COCO and perlite. I am not running a water cooler either but temps range from 64-72 degrees F.

2. When I expand my setup I'm looking at preventing spider mites, I was thinking about using predator mites, and other bugs to control them. I have been reading some mixed reviews about this. Some people say yes and some people so no so I'm asking what's working I guess. Right now I'm using Green Clean for powdery mildew mold, and spider mites. Now keep in mind Green Clean is advertised you can use it through budding, but when my plants were in flower, it really dried out the fan leaves and turn my pistols on my plants red faster. Thoughts?

When I add the 1000w lights I'm going to do a 4x4 footprint per light.

Supplies are readily available, input is much appreciated again and sorry for bad grammar and wrong terminology .
 
Last edited:
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
High mr red.

When you say 60x60 what units of measurement are you talking about? Inches I assume. I gather you are going to have a larger area for the 1000Wers.

The best way to prevent mites is don't let them get near your plants. I have all the air going into my room filtered and change clothes if I've been outside in the yard before going down there. No pets and buddies can look in the door and that's it. Winter is best as there's not a lot of bugs crawling around in the snow. :)

1.So far with the General hydroponics system I have noticed that plants always grow at different rates, yes they are all the same strain.
Click to expand...
That's GH for you. Now that they are owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro/Monsanto/Bayer you can toss that out and get some decent nutes like AN's pH Perfect. Toss the pH pen while you're at it as you won't need it anymore. :)

Your plan to get good in the space you have now is a wise one. I've seen a lot of book learned enthusiastic newbies come into a forum with thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads only to end up with egg on their face when it all goes sideways. They tend to fade away fast. Nothing like hands on experience with a lot of book learning and reading the forums to help smooth the way.

You got decent gear and that's half the battle.

Good luck!

:peace:
 
mr_red

mr_red

Member
OldMedUser said:
High mr red.

When you say 60x60 what units of measurement are you talking about? Inches I assume. I gather you are going to have a larger area for the 1000Wers.

The best way to prevent mites is don't let them get near your plants. I have all the air going into my room filtered and change clothes if I've been outside in the yard before going down there. No pets and buddies can look in the door and that's it. Winter is best as there's not a lot of bugs crawling around in the snow. :)



That's GH for you. Now that they are owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro/Monsanto/Bayer you can toss that out and get some decent nutes like AN's pH Perfect. Toss the pH pen while you're at it as you won't need it anymore. :)

Your plan to get good in the space you have now is a wise one. I've seen a lot of book learned enthusiastic newbies come into a forum with thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads only to end up with egg on their face when it all goes sideways. They tend to fade away fast. Nothing like hands on experience with a lot of book learning and reading the forums to help smooth the way.

You got decent gear and that's half the battle.

Good luck!

:peace:
Click to expand...

60x60 is in inches. Yes ultimately I am using my attached garage of my house to grow. The tent is stationed in the garage now. When the 1000W expansion happens I plan on using the tent as a clone room and using some old CFLs I have laying around.

My biggest concern is I don't have the luxury of the filters, and totally making my grow room a clean room also. I am in eastern WA I'm still pretty new here but as far as I know we don't much snow lol. And I have realized that sugar plums dancing around my head quickly changed into its time to research and just try stuff out.

I've heard of PH perfect but not ANs ill have to look into it. Like I said I just recently coughed up about 1000 bucks for the Canna line. Keep in mind I did buy the 3L jugs as well. From the research I've done Canna is great no one has any complaints about it besides the cost of the BOOST.

Any idea why I'm getting different growth rates with the system using the same strain and clones from the same plant?
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I should have put AN's as in Advanced Nutrients' pH Perfect nutes. I just got gallon jugs of the 3-part and a big jar of Big Bud. Love that BB and won't grow without it. Getting a 250ml jug of the Bud Ignitor to do a test run with. Feed it to two of the four plants I'm about to flip with BB and just BB for the other two.

Canna line is supposed to be good stuff but I've never tried it. I like to use the KISS principle, (keep it simple stoner), for my growing and not having to dick around with pH has me down almost as simple as I can get it but have my eyes open for an easier path yet. :)

Never spent much time in E WA but hopped across the border all the time since I was a baby. Uncle had cabins at Pt. Roberts just south of Tsawwassen, BC where the ferry terminal is. When I got older we'd go down there to the Breakers bar for rocking good times and real cheap beer. :) 1970 era.

Couple reasons for the different growth rates with clones might be root problems with just the one plant. Drip feed not being equal in all lines or hitting a spot where it pissed right thru and the plant wasn't getting enough. I do DWC or soilless in pots with the same nutes and haven't ever used drip feeding.

With seeds it can be all over the place but shouldn't be so much different that you get 1 and 4 footers out of the same batch unless they were old, poorly stored or weren't quite ripe when harvested.

$1000 for nutes? You buy everything in their line? I use just the base nutes with Big Bud, Rhino Skin,(potassium silicate by AN), bit of off-brand CalMag and just yesterday some epsom salts to correct a sulfur deficiency in my two hi-CBD plants. The other four of a different strain are not affected. All are in 2gal pots with ProMix blends and the same feed.

For filters I use those anti-static cloths you get to wipe your computer stuff down. Great airflow and fine filtering. Tried HEPA filters but they are too restrictive. All my intakes are passive with a 6" inline running half speed for exhaust when my RH/temp controller turns it on. I'm installing an 8x4 tent that will feed it's exhaust into the existing grow room and it's intakes will be covered with those filters too. Nice cool basement tho so heat shouldn't be an issue with about 2K HID running max. 1 - 1000W EYE Hortilux on a 6' light mover for the tent and 400W HPS for the grow room. I got 3 of those and a 400W MH for upstairs in the spare bedroom for moms and the veg area.

Are you using the whole garage for a grow space or building a grow room inside it? If a grow room you should be able to filter it easy.

TTUL. Got to do an update on my journal before hitting the sack.

:peace:
 
mr_red

mr_red

Member
OldMedUser said:
High mr red.

When you say 60x60 what units of measurement are you talking about? Inches I assume. I gather you are going to have a larger area for the 1000Wers.

The best way to prevent mites is don't let them get near your plants. I have all the air going into my room filtered and change clothes if I've been outside in the yard before going down there. No pets and buddies can look in the door and that's it. Winter is best as there's not a lot of bugs crawling around in the snow. :)



That's GH for you. Now that they are owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro/Monsanto/Bayer you can toss that out and get some decent nutes like AN's pH Perfect. Toss the pH pen while you're at it as you won't need it anymore. :)

Your plan to get good in the space you have now is a wise one. I've seen a lot of book learned enthusiastic newbies come into a forum with thoughts of sugar plums dancing in their heads only to end up with egg on their face when it all goes sideways. They tend to fade away fast. Nothing like hands on experience with a lot of book learning and reading the forums to help smooth the way.

You got decent gear and that's half the battle.

Good luck!

:peace:
Click to expand...

Also I was referring to the grow sites, or containers they are growing in.
http://hydrobuilder.com/waterfarm-8-pack-kit-of-8-farms-controller.html
I posted a link to it. Still trying to figure out what the issue of the plants growing at different rates. This time around I only used 4 of the pots and left 4 out, and switched from GH nutrient line to the Canna line. still getting plants growing faster then others.

I'm looking at adding another system in the next couple weeks either http://hydrobuilder.com/eco-grower-drip-hydroponic-system.html or the GH areoponics system. open to suggestions lol
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I know both those systems from many other users on many other forums and the do work but can be a real PITA when they don't.

The Eco-grower one is a waste of time. Way to small at the base to do 6 decent sized plants, crappy air pump that fails all the time. I have a 5 gal pail full of those POS pumps but also have 4 repair kits in my recent $800 order for grow stuff just to fix a few old ones so I can use them for non-critical things like aerating my RO water. 3 repair kits for my better Maxima dual-outlet pumps that will be used for future DWC tubs. When running two tubs I have a hose from each dual Maxima running to each tub with both on different electrical circuits so if one goes down there is one 12" airstone working in each tub and that's all a tub needs to work fine. 24 hours without air and tubs die.

The other one is better but still a PITA. There is no real need for top feeding of nutes and those damn drip rings plug up and with the top of the media wet with nute water there is almost always algae all over them until the plants grow big enough that the canopy shades the grow pots and blocks the light.

Look into a RDWC system that is much the same as the water farm but doesn't top feed. Pumps the nutes in at the top of the buckets and it feeds back to the rez just the same. Once the roots are down into the buckets top feed is just something else to go wrong. Need a lot of space to run something like that too and lots of lights so you got that happening.

If out of the box is your thing then go for the water farm setup. I'm not sure what other systems like RDWC are available but you should be able to find out with our good friend Google. I use StartPage for a search engine as it uses Google but doesn't record your IP or track you like an obsessed ex-girlfriend like Google does. ;)

If you compare systems to fine dining then the water farm is the McDonalds of systems. Enough to get you through a grow or two but not a long-term plan in my estimation. I'm sure there are users of that system that get good results so I'm not saying it's not worth the money. I tend to get the best I can afford even when I can't afford it. Dropped $1500 since Aug on grow goodies and wish I had more. Mom always said, "You got champagne tastes with a beer budget." :lol:

:peace:
 
mr_red

mr_red

Member
OldMedUser said:
I should have put AN's as in Advanced Nutrients' pH Perfect nutes. I just got gallon jugs of the 3-part and a big jar of Big Bud. Love that BB and won't grow without it. Getting a 250ml jug of the Bud Ignitor to do a test run with. Feed it to two of the four plants I'm about to flip with BB and just BB for the other two.

Canna line is supposed to be good stuff but I've never tried it. I like to use the KISS principle, (keep it simple stoner), for my growing and not having to dick around with pH has me down almost as simple as I can get it but have my eyes open for an easier path yet. :)

Never spent much time in E WA but hopped across the border all the time since I was a baby. Uncle had cabins at Pt. Roberts just south of Tsawwassen, BC where the ferry terminal is. When I got older we'd go down there to the Breakers bar for rocking good times and real cheap beer. :) 1970 era.

Couple reasons for the different growth rates with clones might be root problems with just the one plant. Drip feed not being equal in all lines or hitting a spot where it pissed right thru and the plant wasn't getting enough. I do DWC or soilless in pots with the same nutes and haven't ever used drip feeding.

With seeds it can be all over the place but shouldn't be so much different that you get 1 and 4 footers out of the same batch unless they were old, poorly stored or weren't quite ripe when harvested.

$1000 for nutes? You buy everything in their line? I use just the base nutes with Big Bud, Rhino Skin,(potassium silicate by AN), bit of off-brand CalMag and just yesterday some epsom salts to correct a sulfur deficiency in my two hi-CBD plants. The other four of a different strain are not affected. All are in 2gal pots with ProMix blends and the same feed.

For filters I use those anti-static cloths you get to wipe your computer stuff down. Great airflow and fine filtering. Tried HEPA filters but they are too restrictive. All my intakes are passive with a 6" inline running half speed for exhaust when my RH/temp controller turns it on. I'm installing an 8x4 tent that will feed it's exhaust into the existing grow room and it's intakes will be covered with those filters too. Nice cool basement tho so heat shouldn't be an issue with about 2K HID running max. 1 - 1000W EYE Hortilux on a 6' light mover for the tent and 400W HPS for the grow room. I got 3 of those and a 400W MH for upstairs in the spare bedroom for moms and the veg area.

Are you using the whole garage for a grow space or building a grow room inside it? If a grow room you should be able to filter it easy.

TTUL. Got to do an update on my journal before hitting the sack.

:peace:
Click to expand...

From what I hear the An line is more expensive. This is whats included in the canna line
http://www.cannagardening.com/growguide

I'm actually using the COCO and the AQUA
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
The base nutes are about the same as the rest and if you don't buy everything they sell it doesn't cost that much. Doing things like changing your nutes every week uses them up way faster and that's why all the nute makers say to do it that way and the suckers fall for it. :)

They're just so damn easy to use and I'm a lazy old fart so they fit right in. :lol:

I just get an error from that link of yours. I'm using TOR browser and some websites won't work with it. Tried their main page and same thing. Their loss. :)

All stocked up with ProMix for a couple years now. :)

:peace:
 
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