well, ello there. i wanted to say hello and ask for some advice before i buy my first setup.
well, a little about myself first, i dont actually smoke much, but i decided it could be fun to try and grow some plants. while i know that for someone who smokes 2 times a month, i could probably just buy the easiest, and most forgiving autoflower seeds i could find, put them in some dirt in two buckets, and let them grow in whatever light would reach them inside my apartment, i have a tendency to nerd everything im doing up.
so i looked around for a kit with everything i need, but still within my budget. i wanna start relatively simple, and then go a little more advanced for every grow i do, so i decided on a kit with: a 120x120x200cm tent (1.44 square meters/15.5 square feet), a 600 watt ballast and HPS bulb + screen, a 187 m3/h vent, a 225 m3/h carbon filter, some 4 inch aluflex hose, a timer, and some other various little bits.
i decided on growing 6 plants, of 3 different strains, in 3 different ways (this part could very well get changed up if im doing something very stupid, but i did some reading up, and i think this could work, so please read it through before you dismiss it completely.) because i want some variety. for the strains im going with 2 dark devil autoflowering from sweet seeds for something colourful and visually appealing to show off, 2 easy bud autoflowering from royal queen seeds for something small, fast, and impossible to fail, and 2 O.G. Kush from royal queen seeds for something taller and a bit more slow growing.
for pots ill be using 27 liter (7 gallons ish) smartpots for the two larger O.G. Kush plants, and plastic 3 gallon pots for the others. for soil ill be using a mix of ordinary flower soil from the local store, a little sand, kompost from my mothers farm (contains bird manure from chicken, geese, and ducks, and plant parts ranging from cut down bushes and grass, to cut off tops from vegetables. if there's something wrong with this, please let me know), and leca balls. and for fertilizer ill be using the bio-bizz grow and bloom, since its supposed to be organic.
i plan on starting all the plants inside the tent, and then moving the forgiving easy buds outside to finish in ordinary light once the plants start to need more room to grow. from there i wanna tie the two taller O.G. Kush plants to a net, and spread them out over either side of the tent, so they cover the walls in a way that will let them get a lot of light, without spreading too much into the center of the tent, and block the light from reaching the floor of the tent. and then i wanna fim the dark devils, and if possible train them to get as bushy as possible, and cover as much of the tents floor as they can, possibly try some training.
im not entirely sure about how long i need to veg the kush plants in order to get them tall enough to make this work, or if i should top/fim them to get a lot of side shoots i can use to cover the walls with. but i was thinking in the region of 4-6 weeks. i plan on vegging them under 18/6 light before i switch to 12/12 (power is a concern, running the light at 20/4 would end up costing 150$ a month, just for the light). as far as i understand, the dark devils will flower no matter what the light conditions, and wont get hurt by having the last 2-4 weeks of their lifespan under 12/12 light, except for maybe giving a slightly lower yield, since they are autoflowering. (part of the idea with the easy buds outside the tent is to make up for the lower yield by simply growing more plants, and the other part is to have some plants i cant kill even if i tried)
and now for the questions.
i know i should probably buy a digital thermometer for the tent, a smoke alarm to place inside or right above the tent, and a microscope to determine when each of the plants needs to get harvested, but is there anything else i need that im missing?
is it ok to grow the plants under a flowering light from start to finish? i plan on getting some lower power cfl lights for my next grow, for the veg stage, but there isnt enough room in the budget to get it right away. so do i absolutely need to buy an additional veg bulb?
is it reasonable to expect a combined dry yield of buds of around 3-400 grams from this setup and method?
is 4-6 weeks of veg for the kush a good idea? too much? not enough? how do i tell when its the right time to start flowering it?
am i picking the right strains for the plans i have, or do you have better suggestions? i really want something colourful for at least one of the strains.
is my grow plans so ridiculous that i should scratch the idea? is it somewhat ok, but should be adjusted? or is it a great idea for getting a mix between variety and yield?
im pretty stubborn, so you probably need to make a pretty logical and compelling argument to change my mind, otherwise ill probably prefer to make my own mistakes and learn from them. but im willing to listen to any and all suggestions, and i still have about 2 weeks to change up my plans before i go shopping.
thanks in advance, and ill try and see if i can get my act together and do a grow log or something once i get there.
well, a little about myself first, i dont actually smoke much, but i decided it could be fun to try and grow some plants. while i know that for someone who smokes 2 times a month, i could probably just buy the easiest, and most forgiving autoflower seeds i could find, put them in some dirt in two buckets, and let them grow in whatever light would reach them inside my apartment, i have a tendency to nerd everything im doing up.
so i looked around for a kit with everything i need, but still within my budget. i wanna start relatively simple, and then go a little more advanced for every grow i do, so i decided on a kit with: a 120x120x200cm tent (1.44 square meters/15.5 square feet), a 600 watt ballast and HPS bulb + screen, a 187 m3/h vent, a 225 m3/h carbon filter, some 4 inch aluflex hose, a timer, and some other various little bits.
i decided on growing 6 plants, of 3 different strains, in 3 different ways (this part could very well get changed up if im doing something very stupid, but i did some reading up, and i think this could work, so please read it through before you dismiss it completely.) because i want some variety. for the strains im going with 2 dark devil autoflowering from sweet seeds for something colourful and visually appealing to show off, 2 easy bud autoflowering from royal queen seeds for something small, fast, and impossible to fail, and 2 O.G. Kush from royal queen seeds for something taller and a bit more slow growing.
for pots ill be using 27 liter (7 gallons ish) smartpots for the two larger O.G. Kush plants, and plastic 3 gallon pots for the others. for soil ill be using a mix of ordinary flower soil from the local store, a little sand, kompost from my mothers farm (contains bird manure from chicken, geese, and ducks, and plant parts ranging from cut down bushes and grass, to cut off tops from vegetables. if there's something wrong with this, please let me know), and leca balls. and for fertilizer ill be using the bio-bizz grow and bloom, since its supposed to be organic.
i plan on starting all the plants inside the tent, and then moving the forgiving easy buds outside to finish in ordinary light once the plants start to need more room to grow. from there i wanna tie the two taller O.G. Kush plants to a net, and spread them out over either side of the tent, so they cover the walls in a way that will let them get a lot of light, without spreading too much into the center of the tent, and block the light from reaching the floor of the tent. and then i wanna fim the dark devils, and if possible train them to get as bushy as possible, and cover as much of the tents floor as they can, possibly try some training.
im not entirely sure about how long i need to veg the kush plants in order to get them tall enough to make this work, or if i should top/fim them to get a lot of side shoots i can use to cover the walls with. but i was thinking in the region of 4-6 weeks. i plan on vegging them under 18/6 light before i switch to 12/12 (power is a concern, running the light at 20/4 would end up costing 150$ a month, just for the light). as far as i understand, the dark devils will flower no matter what the light conditions, and wont get hurt by having the last 2-4 weeks of their lifespan under 12/12 light, except for maybe giving a slightly lower yield, since they are autoflowering. (part of the idea with the easy buds outside the tent is to make up for the lower yield by simply growing more plants, and the other part is to have some plants i cant kill even if i tried)
and now for the questions.
i know i should probably buy a digital thermometer for the tent, a smoke alarm to place inside or right above the tent, and a microscope to determine when each of the plants needs to get harvested, but is there anything else i need that im missing?
is it ok to grow the plants under a flowering light from start to finish? i plan on getting some lower power cfl lights for my next grow, for the veg stage, but there isnt enough room in the budget to get it right away. so do i absolutely need to buy an additional veg bulb?
is it reasonable to expect a combined dry yield of buds of around 3-400 grams from this setup and method?
is 4-6 weeks of veg for the kush a good idea? too much? not enough? how do i tell when its the right time to start flowering it?
am i picking the right strains for the plans i have, or do you have better suggestions? i really want something colourful for at least one of the strains.
is my grow plans so ridiculous that i should scratch the idea? is it somewhat ok, but should be adjusted? or is it a great idea for getting a mix between variety and yield?
im pretty stubborn, so you probably need to make a pretty logical and compelling argument to change my mind, otherwise ill probably prefer to make my own mistakes and learn from them. but im willing to listen to any and all suggestions, and i still have about 2 weeks to change up my plans before i go shopping.
thanks in advance, and ill try and see if i can get my act together and do a grow log or something once i get there.
