Taking the plunge! First time grower gathering all equipment needed for 400W indoor!

[Stri67]

I've been lurking in these forums for a few days now and I'm already hooked! Tons of great advice that I can't wait to apply to this hobby. I've taken the past few weeks to decide where I think the most secure place to grow will be and what the best equipment for my -current- needs are. I am only looking to grow for personal use more so for quality than anything. So far I've decided that a 400W HPS ScrOG grow will best suit my goals. The equipment I've already purchased (being delivered tomorrow) consists of the following:

1x GrowLab 80 Tent 2.7'x2.7'x5.5'
1 x Digilux 400W HPS Grow Bulb Enhanced Blue Spectrum --- I may purchase a MH for vegging as I hear they really enjoy being subjected to differing light spectrum's
1 x Sunlight Cool Sun 6 Air Cool Horizontal Reflector w.Glass Lens - Some may say 6" venting is overkill for this size tent, but hey it can't hurt! Plus it gives me a viable upgrade path to follow down the road if I want to say -- expand?
1 x Lumatek 400W 120/240V Dimmable Electronic Ballast --I plan on running the light @ 250W using the dimming feature for the first few weeks of veg.
1 x Phresh® Filter 6in x 24in Virgin Carbon -- This is probably the most overkill part of my gear set. I DO NOT WANT ANY SMELLS AT ALL, PERIOD. I live in a townhome and am going to be exhausting this back into my unfinished part of my basement. My theater is on the other side which gets a lot of use -- and visitors! Plus the extra sufrace area should really help scrub any unwanted smells. Ona gel is on the -to do- list as well!
1 x Perma Duct Premium Air Ducting 6"x25'
1 x Active Air 6" 400 CFM In-line Duct Fan -- Again, 400CFM is overkill for my setup, but I'd like to only buy key pieces once! My goal was to get an inline fan with 400CFM and a Filter with 500+.


At this point I have most of the gear needed for a solid first grow attempt. I am still lacking a few important items such as Nutes (considering FoxFarm?) and various meters etc. Anything else I am lacking?


I went ahead in my eagerness to get a jump on this hobby and placed an order for quality strains before doing a lot of research on them. Can any of you shed some light on basic grow charateristics for the below strains? I am looking for a ScrOG grow that may consist of one topping very early. Very similar to what Verde did here (https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/515810-growlab-80-g13-pineapple-express.html). Which two seeds would you grow first?

I am also expecting a seed order from Attitude which consists of the following:
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]
Product: Finest Medicinal Seeds Northern Lights 5 Haze

Product: Nirvana Seeds Ice

Product: Nirvana Seeds Bubblelicious

Product: G13 Labs White Widow

Product: Barneys Farm Critical Kush

Product: FEMINIZED UFO #1 Delicious Seeds Critical Sensi Star

Product: FEMINIZED UFO #2 G13 Labs Raw Diesel
[/FONT]

 

[Villa]

Welcome to the wonderful world of growing.
I use fox farm nutes and soil and am very happy with it.Just don't overthink or overcomplicate it and you'll be fine. Also watch out for people giving advice who think there way is the only way to do it. I have found that what works for one person might not work for another.Good luck.

 

[hotrodharley]

If you're going soil save the money by not buying meters. Sounds like a pretty good setup with a lot of potential.

 

[althor]

I have tried quite a few different soils on the market and I am most pleased with Happy Frog. I add in some lime for ph balance, worm castings, and perlite and my plants seem to thrive on it.

I always recommend to first time growers to let it grow naturally. All the reading in the world doesnt add up to what you learn from 1 grow. 2nd grow I recommend topping 1 time. 3rd grow you have a handle on things. First two grows you will find yourself needing to tweak your grow room, sometimes quite abit.

 

[farmerjoe420]

if i were you i would definitely buy a fan speed controller. it would work perfect for your setup as you could run your fan on 1/2 or 1/3 the speed and still have enough cfm's while reducing noise significantly. i have a 6" 424 cfm fan, and at full speed, it sounds like a fucking jet engine. i would say its a necessity in a town house, believe me i know.

another suggestion i could give you is to add dolomite lime to your soil to stabalize the ph and use organic fertilizers to make things easy. if you add 1 cup of lime per cubic foot of organic soil, you will never have to worry about adjusting the ph of anything, ever. i use fish emulsion, big bloom and liquid seaweed for veg and fish emulsion and roots HPK for flower. very easy and effective. also wont break the bank. whatever approach you take just remember not to overthink it and keep things simple. good luck and welcome to rollitup.

 

[4 the love of ganja]

Welcome to the RIU family don't forget the little stuff thermometer/hygrometer and ph meter etc., i used fox farms line up (with 50/50 mix of ocean forest and light warrior) for about 2 years and i can tell that stuff will really mess with your ph if you don't monitor it, but works very well I enjoyed it. As for the fan i don't think it will be a big noise issue since you have a carbon filter and your gonna be exhausting to the basement i'm assuming with all kinds of twist and turns in the ducting witch will ultimately reduce noise and cfm's my fan is 300 something cfm and i sleep next to my grow room once you put ducting on both sides it doesn't sound so much like an airport. I have also used ona gel and love it works great just cant use too much its really strong stuff.

man i love these plants these are the best times so dont forget them and good look on your journey you will be so proud in the end your never gonna quit

 

[Stri67]

Thanks for the input, much appreciated =) The UPS guy was here today and it felt like Christmas morning! I have ran into one minor issue though.... My ballast and reflector have different plug styles so I need to buy the adapter. The 6" inline fan is not audible while in my unfinished part of my basement that will house the grow tent! I may still invest in a fan speed controller, it seems like this setup pulls a LOT of air! Filter is totally overkill as well, it will completely scrub my room of any after-toke smells within 15 minutes, I can't imagine what it'll do during the grow of 2 plants! I want a "NO SMELL" grow!

Still waiting delivery of my GL80, I am a bit worried I may not have enough space in this tent to house this large filter, hood, and fan. I may consider placing both fan and filter outside of the tent (attached to upper exhaust port) and drawing air out of the tent & hood and through the fan and finally filter. Fingers crossed I can manage to squeeze all of this in there!

I think I'm going to take the dive and get the FoxFarm trio (liquid for soil grows) for my first few grows. I've seen the results from a few grow journals on here and it seems like it works -- and fairly simple to administer as well. Also thinking of getting some sort of Kelp/Seaweed solution to aid in root growth. I have also heard Cal Mag is a must as well....

Next order I'm planning on getting all of the "little stuff" to fill out my grow!

Whats a good thermometer/hygrometer?
Good pH meeter? -- I have been thinking of using store bought distilled water, any idea what the pH would be? Worth while? I will eventually get an R/O setup if I grow into this hobby more - no pun =P
Potting containers? Anything work better than the trusted "old school" pots?
Gardening shears?
Good timer?

I feel like I'm missing a lot!

At this point I'm waiting for delivery of my Attitude seed order. I am able to track the package and it is en route overseas to the US. USPS is able to track the package, but has not gotten to customs yet. - Fingers Crossed -

I had a few bag seeds that I've been holding onto. I recently came across what I think is a Blue Dream seed (I found it in a bag of Blue Dream) which I have actually just germinated! It actually did VERY well in a wet napkin and in a tuperware container, root sprouted in less than 24 hours, 48 hours and the root was about .25" long! I have just migrated it into a small cup with moist pete moss. I am waiting deliver of my soil!!!!!

Along with this bag seed that I'm going to attempt to grow, which one of the following strains is best suited for a noob like me? They are all feminine seeds btw...

Finest Medicinal Seeds Northern Lights 5 Haze
Nirvana Seeds Ice
Nirvana Seeds Bubblelicious
G13 Labs White Widow
Barneys Farm Critical Kush
Delicious Seeds Critical Sensi Star
G13 Labs Raw Diesel

Again, I'm looking to use the ScrOG method and MAYBE top the plant once in the initial few weeks to help dispurse the canopy!

Thoughts? I feel like I'm on the right track, but also feel like I'm omitting something!

 

[Coho]

Get dolomite and perlite for whatever soil you get. Get pots or bags with good drainage. Buy a remote thermometer and a occilating fan(small). And have fun..

 

[Stri67]

G13 PE is on my wish list! Maybe next go around when I run out of the beans I've ordered...

 

[4 the love of ganja]

Thanks for the input, much appreciated =) The UPS guy was here today and it felt like Christmas morning! I have ran into one minor issue though.... My ballast and reflector have different plug styles so I need to buy the adapter. The 6" inline fan is not audible while in my unfinished part of my basement that will house the grow tent! I may still invest in a fan speed controller, it seems like this setup pulls a LOT of air! Filter is totally overkill as well, it will completely scrub my room of any after-toke smells within 15 minutes, I can't imagine what it'll do during the grow of 2 plants! I want a "NO SMELL" grow!

Still waiting delivery of my GL80, I am a bit worried I may not have enough space in this tent to house this large filter, hood, and fan. I may consider placing both fan and filter outside of the tent (attached to upper exhaust port) and drawing air out of the tent & hood and through the fan and finally filter. Fingers crossed I can manage to squeeze all of this in there!

I think I'm going to take the dive and get the FoxFarm trio (liquid for soil grows) for my first few grows. I've seen the results from a few grow journals on here and it seems like it works -- and fairly simple to administer as well. Also thinking of getting some sort of Kelp/Seaweed solution to aid in root growth. I have also heard Cal Mag is a must as well....

Next order I'm planning on getting all of the "little stuff" to fill out my grow!

Whats a good thermometer/hygrometer?
Good pH meeter? -- I have been thinking of using store bought distilled water, any idea what the pH would be? Worth while? I will eventually get an R/O setup if I grow into this hobby more - no pun =P
Potting containers? Anything work better than the trusted "old school" pots?
Gardening shears?
Good timer?

I feel like I'm missing a lot!

At this point I'm waiting for delivery of my Attitude seed order. I am able to track the package and it is en route overseas to the US. USPS is able to track the package, but has not gotten to customs yet. - Fingers Crossed -

I had a few bag seeds that I've been holding onto. I recently came across what I think is a Blue Dream seed (I found it in a bag of Blue Dream) which I have actually just germinated! It actually did VERY well in a wet napkin and in a tuperware container, root sprouted in less than 24 hours, 48 hours and the root was about .25" long! I have just migrated it into a small cup with moist pete moss. I am waiting deliver of my soil!!!!!

Along with this bag seed that I'm going to attempt to grow, which one of the following strains is best suited for a noob like me? They are all feminine seeds btw...

Finest Medicinal Seeds Northern Lights 5 Haze
Nirvana Seeds Ice
Nirvana Seeds Bubblelicious
G13 Labs White Widow
Barneys Farm Critical Kush
Delicious Seeds Critical Sensi Star
G13 Labs Raw Diesel

Again, I'm looking to use the ScrOG method and MAYBE top the plant once in the initial few weeks to help dispurse the canopy!

Thoughts? I feel like I'm on the right track, but also feel like I'm omitting something!

Exactly I have my fan outside of my tent pulling air through the cooltube causing a negative air pressure in the tent which is constantly pulling air through the bottom vents so i don't need an intake fan. In my case i have no need for covering up any odor i kind of like coming home and smelling the herbs.

As for the cal mag I use tap water so i don't need it but if your gonna use RO water or distilled water its a necessity, if i remember correctly the distilled water is at 6.5 ph but when you add FF nutes it should drastically change, I use a Blue lab ppm pen and HANNA ph meter its about 40 dollars and reliable i have had it for a couple years now, I could live without the ppm pen but i just had the extra money its not really important in my opinion, I guess any thermometer/hygrometer will work i have only used one and I forgot the brand it is.

For pots i use the black and white polyester bags they are really cheap and very easy to transplant when needed but i hear allot of great stuff about air pots and smart pots i have one that i got from a friend but haven't got around to using it. Yah a good timer will take allot of weight off your shoulders i would recommend it, when i started i didn't use one and i was constantly back and forth plugging and unplugging and sometimes forgetting so I would say its worth the money.
Just don't worry too much it might be overwhelming but it will all come together eventually I always tell people to get everything set up and ready before germinating seeds but that blue dream will be some good practice

And if your planning on doing a scrog just don't make my mistake and veg too long they overgrew the screen because those beauties can triple in size when you hit 12/12 depending on strain and i was in a 5x6 room
i think this was 2 weeks flower, they went out of control after that thank god i didn't get any mold or mildew

 

[jonnynobody]

Subbed for sure! I'm preparing for a very similar setup for my first medical grow using a Secret Jardin DR90 & a 400 so I'll be watching this thread closely. How much do ya figure the whole sha-bang will run? I'm budgeting myself for $500-$600 (shoestring budget, I know).

 

[Stri67]

After shipping probably around $800... Here is a breakdown of the items I currently own...

1 x Digilux 400W HPS Grow Bulb Enhanced Blue Spectrum (601044) = $49.90
1 x Sunlight Cool Sun 6 Air Cool Horizontal Reflector w.Glass Lens (201412) = $89.90
1 x Lumatek 400W 120/240V Dimmable Electronic Ballast (201576) = $118.90
Power Cord (Power Cord Option)
1 x Phresh® Filter 6in x 24in Virgin Carbon (199907.5) = $119.90
1 x Perma Duct Premium Air Ducting 6"x25' (200906.2) = $21.90
1 x Active Air 6" 400 CFM In-line Duct Fan (500509.2) = $80.90

Seed order was another $100, and I figure I'll spend another $150 or so on nutes, soil, pots, meters etc...

 

[Stri67]

Finally up and running! One major change to my plans was deciding to ditch the tent idea and use a closet that is located in a basement laundry room. The tent would have been located in an unfinished part of my basement, but too many risks of someone needing to access the area for one reason or another. I was able to add a locking door knob and seal the door 100% so there is no light or air leaks!

I had to do a few minor renovations to get the closet up to par. First being the ventilation and electrical. Running a box to the closet for electric was easy. I located the outlets above the wire mesh shelf that I installed. You can see the Presh carbon filter resting ontop along with the ballast. I wanted to keep the ballast close to the exhaust vent for cooling. I was able to also hang my light from the shelf setup, works out very nicely! You can see the intake vent on the bottom left of the far closet wall. I installed another vent in my finished part of the basement that pulls air into the closet. Works perfectly! With a 400CFM fan it is almost too much, but my goal was a "smell proof" grow!

My temps range from 75-78 with lights off/on. Humidity is at 45%, which I believe could be a bit higher? I am running my 400HPS (Digilux bulb) at the full 400W setting on my ballast which is also switchable to 250. At this point in the grow I would assume my seedling's would like as much light as possible as long as temps allow...

I've attached a few pic's of my bag seed which I'm assuming is Blue Dream, this is 5 days after starting to germinate the seed. I am a bit worried that the plant looks to be stretching quite a bit. I've already added another 1" of soil to the cup I'm using. The current light schedule consisted of 24/0 for the past two days. Going to 18/4 now until flower most likely.

I'm new to this game so how are things looking? Advise? Tips? I'm going to hold off on any watering or feeding until I re-pot the plants which should happen towards the end of next week.

As for details of the soil and nutes

Soil - Roots Forumla 707
Nutes - General Hydroponics - Biothrive Grow & Bloom
Suppliments - Bioweed

 

[SativaMe@420]

This is what I like to see, people doing things right, a very experienced grower told me that if your going to grow, do it right or don't do it at all. If your unprepared, uninformed and under equipped you will have problems and chances are a lot of them. Well it Looks to me like you did your homework, good work man, doing things right the first time will save you a lot of money, stress and time. If you don't have a grow guide I highly recommend Growing Elite Marijuana by Ryan Riley, hell even if you have a grow guide I'd probably still recommend Ryan Riley's, its the most comprehensive, well written guide Ive ever seen and Ive checked out a lot of them. The reason I recommend his is because most of the others are full of complicated scientific terminology that can be very confusing, especially to newbs, because they can overwhelm you with information that has no real step by step process to it that you can follow, so one is left with a mountain of information with no real guidance of how to use it. This is absolutely not the case with Growing Elite Marijuana, it practically walks you through every step so you know what to do and what not to do, greatly increasing your chances of success. Just FYI: I am in no way affiliated with Ryan Riley or his grow guide, I was simply very impressed with it and I like to share good things with good people. In regards to what strain you should start with I would recommend White Widow & Northern Lights out of the selection you have, everyone that Ive talked to about these strains say there easy to grow, produce a good yield and great quality. Looks like your off to a very good start, keep up the good work and keep us posted, sub-d and interested to see this progress.

 

[choop]

you look like you got a really solid start there my friend. i just started up a fresh 400w tent myself a month ago. 2 plants is perfect for that size. i have SIX in mine and its exploding already and my tent is a little bigger than yours. 20 inch x 36 inch x 5 ft

you can take the carbon filter off until you really start needing it. youre otherwise burning its lifespan for no reason. keep it on if youd prefer though.. i always just like to give my opinion and feed back. also, under-driving your bulbs can drastically shorten its life span. i would just use a cfl for the first few days and then switch to 400w hps. again, just me. your setup and equipment looks top-notch though, so props there. ill stick around.

 

[Stri67]

This is what I like to see, people doing things right, a very experienced grower told me that if your going to grow, do it right or don't do it at all. If your unprepared, uninformed and under equipped you will have problems and chances are a lot of them. Well it Looks to me like you did your homework, good work man, doing things right the first time will save you a lot of money, stress and time. If you don't have a grow guide I highly recommend Growing Elite Marijuana by Ryan Riley, hell even if you have a grow guide I'd probably still recommend Ryan Riley's, its the most comprehensive, well written guide Ive ever seen and Ive checked out a lot of them. The reason I recommend his is because most of the others are full of complicated scientific terminology that can be very confusing, especially to newbs, because they can overwhelm you with information that has no real step by step process to it that you can follow, so one is left with a mountain of information with no real guidance of how to use it. This is absolutely not the case with Growing Elite Marijuana, it practically walks you through every step so you know what to do and what not to do, greatly increasing your chances of success. Just FYI: I am in no way affiliated with Ryan Riley or his grow guide, I was simply very impressed with it and I like to share good things with good people. In regards to what strain you should start with I would recommend White Widow & Northern Lights out of the selection you have, everyone that Ive talked to about these strains say there easy to grow, produce a good yield and great quality. Looks like your off to a very good start, keep up the good work and keep us posted, sub-d and interested to see this progress.

Odd you mention this book, I have it and have been flipping through it casually. I need to sit down and read the entire thing cover to cover. Good advice on suggesting this book, TONS of great info here.

 

[Stri67]

you look like you got a really solid start there my friend. i just started up a fresh 400w tent myself a month ago. 2 plants is perfect for that size. i have SIX in mine and its exploding already and my tent is a little bigger than yours. 20 inch x 36 inch x 5 ft

you can take the carbon filter off until you really start needing it. youre otherwise burning its lifespan for no reason. keep it on if youd prefer though.. i always just like to give my opinion and feed back. also, under-driving your bulbs can drastically shorten its life span. i would just use a cfl for the first few days and then switch to 400w hps. again, just me. your setup and equipment looks top-notch though, so props there. ill stick around.

I actually ditched the tent idea and am now using a closet that is 3x5 roughly. I have also taken your advise and detached the carbon scrubber until it is actually needed.

Is my humidity OK? After letting the system run for a solid 24 hours it seems my humidity has finally stabilized around 37%. I have read that for Vegging plants like around 50% and 35-45 for flower. Any cheapo ways to increase the humidity? I REALLY dont want to go buy a humidifier!

 

[Coho]

A bucket of water with an airstone running.

 

[choop]

A bucket of water with an airstone running.

+rep to you, sir. good info

 

[Professor Marijuana]

I will add my two cents worth on the setup and perhaps some insight into grow theroy. After 40 plus years of growing I have a couple opinions on what works best for me anyway. The buds in my avatar were grown in a small environment with the plants themselves being no more than 2 1/2 to 3 feet tall at harvest, I'll let them speak for themself. Welcome to the family of cannabis cultivators, they are in my experience a pretty good group of people. Use caution when taking advice because there is plenty of incorrect advice out there. Not folks trying to mess you up(although there is some of that as well)but just people who have themself been misinformed and are simply passing it on. I much prefer a new student/client who has zero experience to one that has six months or a year. That being said here we go.
I'm not big on grow tents but we all must do what our environment allows for. 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 doesn't seem like a lot of room but you would probably be shocked at how much cannabis I can produce in a years time with that amount of space. Certainly far more than I could ever think about connsuming on my own. I'll make the big leap and assume you're going soil for now, hopefully we will change that. And seeing how you've already purchased the equipment "it is what it is." For others in your spot but who haven't spent your money already here is my thought. First I would buy a hood that matches your deminnsions as closely as possible. The Hydrofarm Magnum XXXL is probably damn near a perfect fit. You want to spread your light out as evenly as you can and todays domes are designed to do just that. When it comes to venting always buy the biggest vent you can get. The XXXL comes up to 8" I believe, and even better they put that in a hood that is only 9 inches thick. That's a huge factoe when we have a limited amount of ceiling height. Lighting is the single biggest factor you will have control over outside of the strain you select. The amount of light and your management of it can dramatically impact your yield. Having your light as close to the plants as you can makes venting an important factor. Every foot in distance you have between the light and the plant reduces the actually strength of the light by half. A 400 W light becomes 200W one foot away, and 100W at two feet, therefor every inch you can decrease the distance of your light to your plant becomes important. I prefer the max fan, the black cylendrical guys you see. They have been design specifically for our industry and they do a good job. Move as much of that hot air inside the hood away as you can. Make sure your hoods are sealed well, I almost always add a bit of insulating tape to my hoods and use a sealant around screw holes and seams. Feel around the outside of your hood with your hand when you set it up for drafts, no sense using those fans to blow hot air into your tent. Tape any holes that spring up also. I use motorcycle tiedowns on my hood instead of chains, makes raising and lowering your hoods easy and also safe. I adjust my hood hieght almost every day, being anal about your light management will pay off I promise. Last on venting, the majority of growers forget about booster fans on the backside. If you have more than about six feet of tubing on the backside of your lights you will start to produce backflo which makes a huge difference on the amount of air you're actually moving. It can reduce your flow by half and more. They are cheap to buy and worth every penny. I'm also not very big on adjustable ballast, there is only one setting I use for my lights and that is fullblast. LIGHT IS EVERYTHING. You can not put to much light on your plants. I'll use my avatar as an example again, 4' x 4' closet that had nine girls in it. Two hoods that each had 400w MH and 600w HPS for a total of 2,000. Today they would house 1000w HPS and skip on the MH, I don't veg any more, It's a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned. The only reason you would want to turn down your lights is to harden off girls coming from a cloning area and then under HID's and I can do that by raising the lights. Remember two feet away and that 400w is actually a 100w light, serves the same purpose. Just like in the movie Spinal Tap I would always have mine turned up to eleven. Going the other direction, turning your lights up to super max is a good way to burn out your bulb, they're rated for 400w not 440w.

No issues with filtration, do what you must to be safe. Will you recirculate or will you be blowing all your C02 out the window? Something to consieder. I didn't see anything for C02, that would be your next purchase. C02 will be important to you for several reasons. First is that you can grow in temps as much as ten degrees higher with 1400ppms than you could with the 350ppm that come free of charge from Mother Nature. The avatar room had an average high temp of 105, yup 105. 2,000w in 16 square feet generates an awful lot of heat. Second it will increase the density of your buds, as well as, shorten the time to mature. Third, and one that most growers don't think about. My grow rooms do not bring any air in from outside, none with the esception of when we enter the room and have to open the door. By providing all the C02 we can eleminate the need for outside air which has one huge plus, no mites. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a mite infestation. No outside air, no pets, no moving from one grow room to the other without washing hands. You may not find that possible if you have heat problems, hopfully the efforts spent on venting will prevent heat problems. A single 400w bulb might be managable even in that limited area.

I have been reading a lot of stuff on all the things people are doing with their soil. It doesn't have to be that hard. Just purchase bags of prepared soil that is called "Cactus Blend" that's it, you don't need to do a single thing to it, like the box says "just add water." Cannabis doesn't like wet feet, you want soil that drains well and a cactus blend will fill that need quite well. As far as nutes people get carried away, I see bottles and bottles of stuff used to increase yields by this much and that. If you saw my shelf while growing the avatar buds you would have seen a bottle of Botanicare Natures Blend Flower for soil, that's it, one bottle. One ounce natures blend for every gallon of water and that's it. You can buy a bunch of other stuff if you don't like your money. KISS, the golden rule when growing, particularly for newer growers. Growing in soil you really don't need any meters, test your ph once and unless your way out of wack you don't have to sweat it. Not until you get into hydro do you need to worry about your metering. Nothing wrong with Foxfarm, I use strickly House and Garden but I also grow exclusively in water.

As far as your strain selection is concerned, it all depends on your goals. As a first time grower I would go with your most stable strain. Hard to say with your selections, the more "fuity Tuity" the more problems you'll have. I do my growing in 45 days, 8 harvests a year but that is dependent on the strain. A pure indica will yield twice as much in half the time as a pure sativa, SCROGS work extremely well with pure indicas. With a thousand watt light I could yield 16 lbs a year in that amount of space, in my sleep. Perhaps twice that. Pick one strain, germinate, veg, clone, sex, and then grow a mother. Use that to produce the clones for your grow. Lots of reasons for using one strain, the main ones would be you won't have multiple needs as far as nutes are concerned, they'll all need the same thing. Each strain will have it's own little things that need to be addressed, one plant will make it easier for you until y ou gain the skills needed for more complex grows. A big one would also be that they will have a uniform height. That makes light management easier, you won't have a tall plant keeping your light farther away from a shorter strain. I'm telling you even four inches will make a profound difference in your yield. My thoughts on Fem seeds is that they are a waste of money. If you are under the impression that all your fem seeds will produce girls then I'm afraid I'm going to shatter that myth for you. Fem seeds will produce more girls then regular ones but only when germinated and raised under absolutely perfect conditions. My guess would be somewhere around 85% girls will be your results. You get 50/50 at half the price and sometimes much more buying good old seeds. Throwing ten seeds down when they're $40 is no big deal, much better then throwing $250 down for an extra three girls. All I need is one girl to get a whole gaggle of clones. Save that money and the money for all the nutes and buy a nice vaporizer or a bigger bulb.

The method you use to grow is a whole new matter. I know how I'd do it but I'm a bit different then the "old school" growers out there. I grow for yield, quality, and speed. The people that pay to attend my grow seminars walk away happy I can tell you and end up way out producing what they used to. I'll see if I can find a picture I've posted here in the past and show you. Had my damned computer crash and have to import my pictures all over, a real pain in the ass and I'm pretty busy.

I hope I have helped you out. Glad to help with grow questions if I can. Prof Mj