NEWBIE needs help with hydroponic grow room

DetroitDiesel said:

i am doing 12 plants in 3 gallon buckets. i have 3 m.h. lights that i will be running.. (400w). i will be using mega bloom (i think) nutrients from start to finish (suggestions of a friend, open to other suggestions), and will be running 24hrs straight light for 6 weeks of veg and 12/12 for 8-10 weeks of flower, and would like to net 2lbs. i have a 12" oscalating fan, and a 6" inline fan with filter as well...

my questions are:

when checking pH do i check the water that the nutes are in, dipping the ph stick in the resovior?

how long should i veg/flower?

how often and how long do i water?

if i build a tent, how do i get fresh air in while the fan pushes air out?

what nutes would you guys suggest? i will be starting a grow journal this week as i am waiting til friday to pick up my clones from a dispensary.

if i have other questions i plan on posting here. thanks guys

-313
​

Click to expand...

1. You should check the Ph of both your res. and the runoff 5.8 - 6.1 is ideal

2. The length you veg depends on a number of things, but with 400w lights, I wouldn't veg beyond 2' or so before switching to flowering as you will lose out due to poor penetration. On my first grow I vegged to about 4' (under a 400) and ended up with popcorn that I wouldn't even show my friends.

3. Your watering schedule depends on your medium - I watered 2x daily when I was growing in rockwool, in aero I water once every 6 minutes. I can't speak to feeding schedules for other mediums.

4. You need an intake of some sort for your ventilation, whether it's passive (without a fan) or otherwise. Your intake needs to be big enough to accomodate a volume of air equal to that being exhausted.

5. Thus far I have only used Botanicare and Holland's Secret nutes. I move from Botanicare because I no longer wanted organics (for reasons of pathogen control). I've noticed fewer deficiencies - Mg in particular - since using HS, and it's reasonably priced so... I imagine I'll be using AN next time around to see if there's any substance to the hype.

Good luck.