About to start my first grow, could use a few pointers from anyone experienced!

[Phyzix]

Finally (almost) ready to start my first grow. Plan on picking up 6 girls in the morning.

My setup is in a shed, 10' long, 3' wide and 4' high separated into two equal 5'x3'x4' sections. Built with 2x4s, plywood and the right chamber is lined with drywall painted flat white:

Sorry for the low quality pictures, but hopefully they will give you a decent idea. The right chamber is the one my clones will go in, currently it has 4x 4' Flouros with 2 bulbs each, so 32' of actual lighting. 4 cool white bulbs, 2 sunshine (2250 lumens, 40w, 5000K) and 2 plant lights (1900 lumens, 40W and unsure of the exact K but I believe it is around 2000K). This should be more than enough light for the clones (6 of them) for veg I think - but let me know if I should add anything. I plan on keeping the bulbs about 2 - 3 inches from the plants.

Currently the left chamber only houses a ghetto carbon filter I rigged up:

Hopefully that actually works, it's just an oscillating fan on the inside pulling air through the filters and through a vent outside. Also I have an intake fan on the right chamber, so theoretically air will be pulled into the right chamber from outside, be circulated through the right chamber with another oscillating fan, and then stale air should be sucked out of the filter and pushed outside (there is a vent between the two sides).

Currently I am not doing anything with the left chamber, but maybe I will put a mother there, or maybe have a veg and a flower room if everything works out well.

Another blurry picture of the right chamber with the lights on. I have 4 flouros that will sit directly above the clones, and two will hang sideways on each side facing them (the plants will be in a straight line) I think this will maximize light, but let me know if you can think of a better way to get the girls bushy.

Here would be a side view, and there would be 5 more plants directly behind that one extending the length of the 4' flouros. Yes I know I'm great with paint.

I will start with 18 hours a day until I'm ready to flower after a few weeks, and then swap to 12/12 - Is that right???

I only want the plants to be about 8-10 inches tall when I flower them so they dont get over 2' tall total - I don't want to use anything but floros if possibly (in college and money is an issue) but I may switch to a 400W hps to flower if necessary to get good bud.

I will be using a large tub or water and letting it sit for a few days before watering to remove some of the contaminates, and for soil right now I have MG organics and some scott top soil, I have heard mixed things about both of these, should I add compost or anything like that before transplanting? 1 gallon pots to start with.

If you see any flaws with my design or plan please let me know! Also, any words of advice for a newbie will be of great assistance. Thanks for checking this out and wish me luck.

 

[riddleme]

Looks like your off to a good start, hope it all works once you fire it up

I invite you to check out my NooB Advice thread, everything about soil growing you need to know is there

 

[Phyzix]

Looks like your off to a good start, hope it all works once you fire it up

I invite you to check out my NooB Advice thread, everything about soil growing you need to know is there

There is some good stuff in there, makes me feel better about the first grow. Thanks.

 

[Kriegs]

Looks like a decent plan. Here's a few things to consider:

How's your temperatures in there? That's a key thing in small spaces; you'll be surprised how hot it gets in there. Also, the temp outside the chamber will have a huge influence; ten degrees warmer in the shed can mean 25-30 degrees warmer or more in the chamber. Is there any insulation or temp control in the shed?

Don't use anything called "top soil" or "garden soil" in pots; only "potting soil" or, when you get the hang of this, your own soil mix (that's for another day). These things are for outdoor use and settle really heavy in pots; sorry - it's useless for indoor. The MG Organic is good, but you need to get some perlite and mix it in 5 parts soil to 1 part perlite. MGO is also heavy as potting soils go; though it's still much better than the Scotts. Don't get perlite mixed up with "vermiculite" -- they're virtually opposite things. Also, get a bag of dolomite and add 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of soil. Be sure to mix all that thoroughly.

Don't blow the dough on the 400W unless you can open your grow space up to something bigger; no way you could have it in that chamber. Maybe a 150W could be managed temp-wise, and it will make a diff in your bud.

Unless you have experience gardening other plants, I would encourage you to keep things as simple as possible. Just give light, water, and nutrition and observe closely how they grow and react to diff things. Speaking of nutrition, you will likely need some starting around 2-4 weeks. MGO doesn't have a real heavy charge in it. I use Dyna Gro stuff (dynagro.com). There's lots of good ones; look for something with no urea in it. Study the label.

 

[MsHemiPlants]

just keep an eye on temp, and you'll be all set.

 

[Phyzix]

Looks like a decent plan. Here's a few things to consider:

How's your temperatures in there? That's a key thing in small spaces; you'll be surprised how hot it gets in there. Also, the temp outside the chamber will have a huge influence; ten degrees warmer in the shed can mean 25-30 degrees warmer or more in the chamber. Is there any insulation or temp control in the shed?

Don't use anything called "top soil" or "garden soil" in pots; only "potting soil" or, when you get the hang of this, your own soil mix (that's for another day). These things are for outdoor use and settle really heavy in pots; sorry - it's useless for indoor. The MG Organic is good, but you need to get some perlite and mix it in 5 parts soil to 1 part perlite. MGO is also heavy as potting soils go; though it's still much better than the Scotts. Don't get perlite mixed up with "vermiculite" -- they're virtually opposite things. Also, get a bag of dolomite and add 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of soil. Be sure to mix all that thoroughly.

Don't blow the dough on the 400W unless you can open your grow space up to something bigger; no way you could have it in that chamber. Maybe a 150W could be managed temp-wise, and it will make a diff in your bud.

Unless you have experience gardening other plants, I would encourage you to keep things as simple as possible. Just give light, water, and nutrition and observe closely how they grow and react to diff things. Speaking of nutrition, you will likely need some starting around 2-4 weeks. MGO doesn't have a real heavy charge in it. I use Dyna Gro stuff (dynagro.com). There's lots of good ones; look for something with no urea in it. Study the label.

Thanks for the soil tips, I will save that scotts crap and get some perlite for tomorrow.

As for temperatures, I have an 8" fan blowing outside air directly into the chamber, a 12" blowing air (expelling) out another vent, and a 10" oscillating in the actual room itself. So far with only the 32' of florescent bulbs the temperature has raised less than 5 degrees inside the chamber. The box itself is airtight when the doors are sealed, and although I'm unsure of cfm for the fans, the exhaust vent feels like putting your hand in front of a house fan. Is that still not enough airflow for a 400W? I just assumed it would be, but you're probably more knowledgeable than myself. Thanks a lot.

TL;DR: 32' of flouro = 5 degree increase w/ outside temp of 55 degrees F

 

[johnny12r]

before you put them in soil look into a hempy bucket. there very cheap and a lot easier.. from walmart a 3 gallon plastic mop bucket is $2 and a bag of perlite fills it perfect for $4 i use 100% perlite and just did 2 soil grow and will never do that again hempy bucket is better in every way ..

http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=3010

here are a few pics of my grow just so you can see it works very well..if you have any questions i'll be happy to answer.

 

[Kriegs]

Thanks for the soil tips, I will save that scotts crap and get some perlite for tomorrow.

As for temperatures, I have an 8" fan blowing outside air directly into the chamber, a 12" blowing air (expelling) out another vent, and a 10" oscillating in the actual room itself. So far with only the 32' of florescent bulbs the temperature has raised less than 5 degrees inside the chamber. The box itself is airtight when the doors are sealed, and although I'm unsure of cfm for the fans, the exhaust vent feels like putting your hand in front of a house fan. Is that still not enough airflow for a 400W? I just assumed it would be, but you're probably more knowledgeable than myself. Thanks a lot.

TL;DR: 32' of flouro = 5 degree increase w/ outside temp of 55 degrees F

Cool; sounds like your temps should be good. Maybe a 400W with inline exhaust could work in there. I had one in a 5x8x9 closet once, no proper exhaust.. just a fan, and it'd get high 80's in there; not ideal but workable. With real exhaust, you might do better than that.

 

[Phyzix]

Got the clones today. 5 Jack the Rippers, not sure about the quality of the genetics but they are from Northstar in Sacramento, supposed to be pretty good. Some of the clones they had were upward of $40, supposedly elite/rare or something. I paid $15 each for these, a bit more than I wanted to pay but they look really healthy to me.

I hope they live! They are in one gallon buckets of Fox Farms Ocean Forest.

 

[Kriegs]

Ahh, you clone growers. That just isn't fair.

Just kiddin' ya man -- and oh, they'll live alright! They do look really healthy. You're off and running - good luck!