Preperation for my first grow.

Alright so im working on gathering all of the things i will need for my first grow. Since im completely new to this but have a few years of horticulture, floriculture and landscaping education im not new to growing other plants and flowers. I'm going to be using a 5' X 5' X 7' grow tent in the corner of one of the larger bedrooms in my place. My first grow will be in dirt and depending on how well it goes...i'll upgrade to a hydro system later. My first question is the lighting. Was thinking about using a 400W MH and 1000W HPS during Veg and then just use the 1000W hps during flowering. Any suggestions on that combo? Since it wouldnt make sense to vent out into the air since im in an apartment...and lots of heli's in the sky...were just going to vent into the room that the tent will be in...and keep the room itself cool with AC. Depending on how well the CO2 production is in my apartment...i will either just intake normal air...or maybe try to supplement the air with a CO2 tank from time to time. Biggest thing ive got to learn are what nutes to use...and a good watering schedule. Any input will be great and once i get the grow going ill start a journal on it.

Does this tent have two grow areas one for Veg and one for flower? or is it just wide open (5x5x7) 1000w HPS is alot of light for a 5x5 area, you could get by with a 600w HPS for that size. I would really try and vent the air outside, as its going to get stinky in your apt., carbin filters do a good job, but they dont remove 100% of the smell. As far as nutes and watering, there are endless options. Do you want to grow 100% organic? I use fox farms products for my soil and my nutes. Soil is a mixture of Ocean Forest, lite warrior and perlite. I use Fox farms grow big, big bloom and tiger bloom for nutes.

stlmatt

For right now its just going to be wide open. Its going to be one grow..maybe 3 or 4 plants...veg together...flower together...going to be the same type of plant. Eventually i'd like to have two tents...one for veg...one for flowering...that way i wont have to combine lights. I know 1000W is overkill for my first grow...but when the tent has 12-14 plants in it id rather buy once instead of twice. was thinking about maybe getting a ballast i can dim so i dont have to use the full 1000W for the first grow. From what i understand it will help to have the supplemental light from the MH furing the veg period to keep the plants from stretching so bad and to promote some really good veg growth.

Are you buying both the 400 watt and the 1000 watt or do you already have one or both? IMO I think you should just buy a 1000 watt mh/hps switchable ballast you get two bulbs (different lights) for the same price. And if you do mix lights during veg I would have the larger light as a MH anyway for less stretch...at least thats my two cents.

stlmatt said:

...I would really try and vent the air outside, as its going to get stinky in your apt., carbin filters do a good job, but they dont remove 100% of the smell.stlmatt

Click to expand...

Whats the best way to get rid of the smell or is there a way to prevent it?

The grow room is inside of a small trailor. How would you ventilate this?

I haven't made any purchases yet. I want to have a good gameplan before i start throwing the money out there. Buying the light with the switchable ballast does sound like a good idea. Will i have any issues with the girls stressing when switching straight from MH to HPS? Wanted to maybe include both during veg so when taking away one hopefully that will keep the stress down. Keep the advice coming you guys are extremely helpful.

Edit: Were going to get a really good carbon filter. Luckily the guys across from us have the entire apt smelling like bud 24/7 because of how much they smoke...and the whole apt is 420 friendly. No one will know what im doing...so if anyone has things to worry about its the people across from me. If the carbon filter doesnt do a stellar job we will get an ozone creator to run in the room outside of the tent.

I assume you are going to be using a vented/ air cooled hood.....as a 1000w HPS produces alot of heat. If you go with the 1000w setup, I would just get a ballast that will power a MH or HPs bulbs. You will have no issues switching from MH to HPS, my plants never seem to stress when I change from MH to HPS and I have never heard of anyone else having an issue doing so. Maybe my carbon filter isnt big enough, but I can say that the last few weeks of flowering if I go and smell where my exhaust is venting, I can smell the sweet stink of maryjane. Its not bad, but my carbon filter doesnt get all the stink out of the air. Sounds like you have a good plan. Something else to think about if you realy want to have two lights is to run 2 600w instead of one 1000w. You could even run two 400w in your sized area. The 600w light is the most effeciant, when compairing lumes to watts. . Hope this helps and good luck.

stlmatt

400w = 4x4 area
600w = 6x6 area
1000w = 10x10 area
correction made, sorry

only problem is the tent is 25 sq ft....lol. My first grow wont actually occupy near that amount of space though. By the time the second grow comes around ill have a 12'X14' bedroom to use...so im thinking either to big grow tents...or finding a way to split the room in half. Never will be growing more then 20 plants at a time tho...would like to pull atleast 3lb. per harvest.

opps, sorry I messed that all up....i will have to lay off the pipe while typing...LOL
400w = 4x4 area
600w = 6x6 area
1000w = 10x10 area
correction made, sorry

sounds like you got your shit together you dont need any more info sounds good to me

haha thanks. I wonder how well the penetration is on the 600W lights. I'm not going to be doing SOG at first untill i get the "green thumb". So i figure from 5 full grown plants i can atleast a decent yeild for the first go around. Just cant wait to get started.

Also don't forget about cfls they make great supplemental lighting...