My first setup - need advice / constructive criticism

Hello all. I have been coming to this site for some time, and just never signed up. I've read (for months), and finally feel that I'm ready to try for my first grow. I'm a member on the Shroomery.org, and cultivated shrooms without any problems. I just want a new hobby.

Now, I don't have a shit ton of money to throw around. So, my initial grow is going to be pretty basic / cheap. I'm going to go through most of the stuff I'm going to buy, and how its going to be set up - in return, I'm asking for feedback of how you think it will go, and areas of improvement ($$ considered). I know I can spend a few hundred and get HPS, MH, Carbon Filters, and all that high end stuff, just can't fund it now.

I know a lot of people aren't necessarily AGAINST fluorescent lighting, but I've read that a lot of people that don't support the idea of the entire grow being lit by the fluorescent lights. But since I'm very tight for cash, I'm really limited to using them for the entire grow.

Now, I have a room thats 18ft x 7ft, with a slanted ceiling (angled roof messed with room's ceiling). I'm going to line the longest wall (18ft) with 25 3 gallon nursery pots. I found these pots for $1 a piece at a local plant nursery. They aren't the highest quality - but I think they will last a few grows.

I'm going to take 4 fluorescent lighting fixtures that can hold 2 40watt bulbs each. One bulb is going to be just a cheap fluorescent bulb, and the other is going to be an aquarium bulb from Aubachon's Hardware - they are going to be hooked up parallel with the long wall above the plants. They will be on chains, so they will constantly being adjusted. (as the plant grows, they will be lifted higher). I've read that if you NEED to grow with the fluorescent, that the 2 different bulbs will be sufficient.

I'm going to be doing a 18 on / 6 off cycle for the first few weeks, then probably go to a 12/12.

In addition of these 4 fluorescent fixtures, I'm going to have 4 mini fluorescent bulbs, that are rated @ 10.0 UVB. They are reptile lights, but I've read that they can be VERY beneficial, and have also seen people grow using ONLY these.

I'm going to be using Fox Farm Ocean Forest Organic Potting Soil for the seedlings, and ONLY for the seedlings. I don't have the money to fill 25 - 3 gallon pots with that stuff. I'm going to start the seedlings in 16oz party cups, and transplant when they are the same height as the cup. I'm only going to be transplanting once, I've read a lot of places that it's recommended to keep upgrading by doubling the size of the current pot size. (Transplanting from a 16oz, to a 32 - 1 gal to a 2 gal - etc.)

I'm not sure what kind of soil I'm going to be using for the permanent home, but I know what fertilizer I'm going to be using. Its the Fox Farm Treo. It has Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom fertilizers. So I'm assuming even if I do use cheap soil, I can still make it a helluva lot better using those nutes. I'm probably going to do a soil mixture along the lines of 75% soil, 20% perlite, and 5% vermiculite.

I don't think I will have a problem keeping the room at good temperatures, It's not really a room, it's a nice walk-in closet. So it should revolve around the house temperatures. We keep the heat at 65-70 for winter.

In addition to all the main hardware, there will be power strips, a timer, fans, ya know all the basic stuff.

Once I start saving money because I wont be buying bud anymore, I will probably be buying something along the lines of:

High Tech Garden Supply

I know I will need more than one for the area I'm going to be covering. Like I said, with each grow, the hardware in the room will improve.

But, what do you guys (and gals) think? Should it work? If not - why? If so - what could I improve(keeping $$ in mind)? I'm probably going to be using ' Citral ' seeds found on:

Buy Citral marijuana cannabis seeds from Holland.

Sounds like you've done your homework and you have a pretty solid plan in place. I did a grow using flouro tubes like yours. Check it out. Link in signature. Lots of good info in there.
Those 40W tubes work really really good for vegging....untill your plants outgrow them. You can keep those tubes RIGHT ON the plants. (keep within an inch if you can) The lights will have to be raised EVERY day.
But....You will definately want some regular spiral CFL's for flowering ( or HID). The tubes are just too weak for that
Heres the thing. I have a light meter. From within an inch those tubes put out real good light. But from about 6 inches or more away its like they arent even there. And so you just cant keep the entire plant close enough.
I used 5 fixtures ( 2 bulbs ea. 40W) for ten plants. If you're growing all 25 of your pots you are going to need WAY more lights. If you can get to my picture gallery there are like 100 pictures in there I'm sure would help give you an idea......
Oh...and I think a higher % of perlite/vermiculite would be helpful. You want your medium as light and airy as you can get it so the roots are happy and can thrive.
Good luck! Happy growing!

If there was a way that I could get 25 CFL's (yeah, one for each plant) Would that be efficient?

40 Watt Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb

Something like that? Also - I see that those are standard bulbs that can be put into ANY kind of regular lamp. Would there be a way to just wire them all together? I'll start with 15 plants. Could I just go buy a bunch of cheap light fixtures (just the piece that the bulb screws into) and wire them to one outlet?

It would be ~600 watts. my computer has a 750 watt power supply. I would just start shutting my computer off so there wont be any real electricity fluctuation.

Would that be more benneficial for each plant though? If I could find a way to have each plant have their own CFL? Instead of even buying the long 48in fluorescent tubes?

some advice........

well oregonmeds(i think thats it) put a link up yesterday that was showing were to buy 150 watt hps for 20 bucks...look threw the pages and find the link...wanting to do that many plants you would be better off with those..and yes i mean cost wise also...

so i would do this if i were you
section off your area...grow mothers and clones in one area with fluros...have your second area for budding with the cheap hps lights...you could get 2 or 3 and be STRIGHT trust me. bring in a new set of clones into the flowering room every 2 weeks and you will have a pound or so every 2 weeks...Make sure you pay close attetion to ventilation and air circulation to prevent mold and shit like that...get MYLAR to reflect the light. Keep your PH right and if you feel cocky try to induce some co2......good luck..

ZaVe said:

If there was a way that I could get 25 CFL's (yeah, one for each plant) Would that be efficient?

40 Watt Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb

Something like that? Also - I see that those are standard bulbs that can be put into ANY kind of regular lamp. Would there be a way to just wire them all together? I'll start with 15 plants. Could I just go buy a bunch of cheap light fixtures (just the piece that the bulb screws into) and wire them to one outlet?

It would be ~600 watts. my computer has a 750 watt power supply. I would just start shutting my computer off so there wont be any real electricity fluctuation.

Would that be more benneficial for each plant though? If I could find a way to have each plant have their own CFL? Instead of even buying the long 48in fluorescent tubes?

Click to expand...

Yes Yes and yes. But use the CFL's in addition to the tubes not instead of. It really depends on how long you wish to veg your plants. The tubes are great when the plants are small (1st few weeks). Pay attention to the color of your lights too. Use cool blue for veg (4100K) which is what most tubes are and red spectrum (2700K) for flowering. Most CFL's are 2700K.

What Alphamale says makes sense too. There are many many ways to go.

AlphaMale706 said:

some advice........

well oregonmeds(i think thats it) put a link up yesterday that was showing were to buy 150 watt hps for 20 bucks...look threw the pages and find the link...wanting to do that many plants you would be better off with those..and yes i mean cost wise also...

Click to expand...

What about the fixture? I can't afford the fixture.. the bulb is only $20? - but how much is the ballast?

so i would do this if i were you section off your area...grow mothers and clones in one area with fluros...have your second area for budding with the cheap hps lights...you could get 2 or 3 and be STRIGHT trust me. bring in a new set of clones into the flowering room every 2 weeks and you will have a pound or so every 2 weeks...Make sure you pay close attetion to ventilation and air circulation to prevent mold and shit like that...get MYLAR to reflect the light. Keep your PH right and if you feel cocky try to induce some co2......good luck..[/quote said:

I'm growing on soil. I've read if it's your first grow, just to do things by the book, stay basic. Cloning is something I have no read much of. I'm literally NEW to this. My dad used to grow back in 94, got caught with 150 plants.
He knows all about cloning and shit, he grew with rock wool and stuff. I'm sticking with soil.

About introducing the Co2. I've read that if you go into your grow room for 20 minutes at a time, thats more than enough co2 for them to munch on (or whatever it is that they do to it).

I did a quick search of his name, I found his posts, but didn't really see much about a $20 HPS anything..
I'm an AVID forum poster, and I know how much people hate when others ask for things... and expect things to be handed to them. But I really am interested in the 20$ HPS, more information would be cool. Link to his post would be better. I apologize for asking, and I too- hate when people just ask for shit.

I'm probably just going to duct a fan out a window close by to the closet. I would think it would be enough air circulation. Getting a big box fan, just attaching some kind of sleeving / Ducting around the diameter, and have it suck directly from the room - out the window. sucking from the top of the room, and have one at the bottom of the door blowing in.

Click to expand...

Here's a few of my opinions. #1 if you're on a budget then I would say instead of trying to fill up that very large space w/ pots plants lighting & soil.... section a smaller bit off & get yourself a 600W ballast & light. That will produce more than enough to make it profitable for you & then you can expand & get into making extra chambers. #2 make sure you can handle the juice for all the electricity if you're trying to fill that space up. If your'e running off 1 breaker then it very well may be a 15 amp breaker. for example i believe you were talking about 25 40W cfl's (1 for each plant). Well that's 1000 watts. That's about 8.5 amps right there. That's not counting fans, timers, & other things in your room like your computer etc. Maybe you can run off 2 circuits or maybe you have a 30 amp breaker. anyway, it's something to consider. As far as CO2 goes I would say forget it for now. You've obviously been putting plenty of thought into this & you're on your way. But the experts will tell ya to get down the basics b4 you start messing with things like CO2 or fancy hydroponic set-ups. You're on the right track sticking w/ soil & keeping it simple. The exception (IMO) would be the cloning thing. Cloning is a wonderful thing as it can guarentee the sex of your plants. If you grow from seed every time then you have to scrap 1/2 the crop at the beginning of flower time. So that means you've wasted all that light, time & space on vegging useless males. You seem to be a good learner. Just read up on cloning. Again keep it simple, you don't need to spend much $$ @ all. I would recommend getting a humidity dome, but that is very cheap. Other than that you just need rooting hormone. & perferably some superthrive but chances are good you will be using that in your regular nutes anyway. You will likely quickly master how to clone & then you have guarenteed females (the rare exception being when you shock them to the point they go hermaphrodite on you).

Ok, anyway in summary my advice is keep it simple. Consider cloning. And my best advice IMO is to get a quality light & cut down your space. I think the best thing when you can't afford everything @ once is cut down the scope of your operation to a size that you can afford to do & do it RIGHT! Chances are that if you wanna stick with this you are not going to want to have one big long 18'x3' grow room when you're done but a few smaller grow chambers that will have plants in different stages of maturity in them so that you will have a more steady supply.

For example... imagine if you will 3 different chambers that are 6' x 3'. #1 chamber could be a veg chamber. #2 & #3 flower chambers. That way you could veg plants for 4 weeks. then move them to chamber #2. Start new plants in #1 while plants in #2 start flowering. after 8 weeks you put plants from #1 into #3 and start new ones in #1. at 12 weeks you have buds in #2 that should be ready for harvest (8 weeks of flower), so you harvest those & put plants from #1 into #2 and start new ones again in #1. So on & so forth. you get the idea. The point is you get a harvest every 4 weeks and from a 6'x3' area you will get a very nice haul. Now i didn't take into account your mothers but since the small vegging plants that will be in chamber 1 will not be taking up as much space as the bigger plants that are in flowering stages (chambers #2 & #3) then you could possibly squeeze them into there. So lemme know what ya think. I just think if you want to do an area that size then you don't wanna do it half-assed. Start w/ 1 chamber & add to it when you can.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

first off....https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/113223-skip-cfls-20-150w-complete.html

theres your link and its everything you need that and an cord with a plug and your golden....


now let me break it down for you....

1.)first of all...cloneing is VERY EASY go to youtube and look up "I GROW CHRONIC" he shows you step by step. There is also many thred on here.Dont be scared to clone its VERY simple. You can clone with soil....
2.)you would never need 3 rooms or "chambers" because you could flower all your plants in one area just put them in at diffrent times.To make 2 or more flowering chambers would be a waste of money and time.
3.)mothers and clones can be grown off of cheap cfl lighting.Well you can do everything with cfls but lets just stick to the plan...So you have your mothers and babies under cfls in veg stage.
4.)get the 20$ hps bulb lets just say 3 thats 45klumens in your flower room.
5.)With 3 mother plants you could get 25 clones EASY!!! Let them get about a foot tall. and put them in flowering. THen cut everything but the fan leaves and the main cola.

The Result...Probbly 2ounces of DANK ass buds per plant All one bud it will be lovely...

also..a 600 watt light is out of his budget at the moment...

lets do a run down...3x20=60 for hps lets say 25 for cfl and spliters and shit 10 for mylar you got cheap pots already so thats 95BUCK!!!! just get your soil and your nutes and your looiking GREAT..

Well, after reading more, and swallowing my pride- I've decided to only do 15 plants first grow. I'm probably going to buy 2 of those $20 HPS setups.

How do you get a mother plant? Do I just plant a few seeds, take care of them, let them grow until I can tell if it's female, and then clone from that?

What's a cheap but effective way to veg the plants? If I have 15 plants, would it be more effective to go with CFL's over fluorescent tubes? How many CFL's would I need for 15 plants? I would assume, the more the better..but what would be required?

5.)With 3 mother plants you could get 25 clones EASY!!! Let them get about a foot tall. and put them in flowering. THen cut everything but the fan leaves and the main cola.

The Result...Probbly 2ounces of DANK ass buds per plant All one bud it will be lovely...

Click to expand...

only a foot tall? I have 17ft long by 6.5 feet wide, and 7 feet high. I would assume I could let them get ALOT bigger.. I'm in NO rush, I plan to let them veg. for a while.

Are MH's used for Veg? What's the real benefit / difference between HPS and MH? They also have cheap MH lights on that site.

well just get ready for them to get atlesat twice the size....you gotta think 15 monsters you will need a bigger light....u can go 2 feet if you want that would put u at 4 feet tall...and to make a mother u just dont ever flower her..keep her in the veggi room and take cuttings from her..that way you know you always got girls and it makes it much eaiser....if your in no rush to get bud then i would also veg with the hps...just add some cfls in there 2 to prevent streching....just keep your 3 mothers under 4 or 6 cfls..thats 2 or 3 plugins with spliters...they dont take much to keep alive there really easy

If I get 2 of those $20 HPS's, would that be enough for 15 plants?

just keep your 3 mothers under 4 or 6 cfls..thats 2 or 3 plugins with spliters

Click to expand...

I don't get what that line is talking about.. 2 or 3 plug ins with splitters? explain?

How long does it take to grow a female to the point where she can be cloned? (I know time will be different per setup, but average?)

i mean...u can get 3 outlets...for 6 lights...they sell splitters to plug 2 bulbs were you would normaly have 1. understand? Mothers are just plants ready to flower that you dont flower...once she is a foot tall you can hit her up easy.Its just about the side shoots and how well they are coming in. i would say 3 lights for 5 plants per...and not to big

Alright. Well I'm glad I came here, after my FIRST post, my grow room is going to be completely different now. Less plants, different lights, now that I have those lights- different location that the plants will be in the closet... EVERYTHING..hah

Anyone know any decent soils at walmart / lowes / home depot? I'm going to be modifying them- so even if they are shitty soil, I'm going to be using 70% soil, 10% perlite, 10% vermiculite. (the only reason I have Vermiculite on hand is from when I grew shroomies) had to go like 40 miles to get that shit. evidently it causes cancer or some bullshit.. so it's like OUT of my state..hah

I'm going to be adding the Fox Farm Treo. It has Big Bloom, Grow Big, and Tiger Bloom fertilizers. This will hopefully enrich the hell outta the soil. Enough to make shitty soil - decent.

Bump. Anyone?

Anyone know any decent soils at walmart / lowes / home depot? I'm going to be modifying them- so even if they are shitty soil, I'm going to be using 70% soil, 10% perlite, 10% vermiculite. (the only reason I have Vermiculite on hand is from when I grew shroomies) had to go like 40 miles to get that shit. evidently it causes cancer or some bullshit.. so it's like OUT of my state..hah

Click to expand...