first grow, 5x5 veg and 10x10 flower

bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
So my girlfriend and I have decided to tackle our first grow. We have talked about it for years but we finally decided to put our words into action.

We decided that we want to veg in a 5x5 tent and flower in a 10x10.
I know that sounds like a lot but we decided to take our time purchasing quality
equipment and do this right and this is what we have so far:

10x10 grow tent
5x5 grow tent

Lights:
1 - Black Dog PhytoMax-2 400
1 - Bloom Boss True Sun 5x5
2 - Mars 144 Reflector 800w
2 - Hydro Crunch 600w
4 - Bloom Boss Power Panels

Intake/Exhaust:
2 - Cloudline T6 by AC Infinity
1 - Cloudline T8 by AC infinity
4 inch inline booster fan (came with 5x5 kit)
3 - 6 inch desk clip fans
Dehumidifier
1- 6 inch black charcoal filter
1- 4 inch black charcoal filter

Nutrients are Bloom City Organics

Happy Frog Potting soil
Pro Mix HP is enroute

I have about 200 seeds from different seeds banks in the UK and CO

So we plan to use the 5x5 to veg and as of right now it has the 4 inch fan exhausting and one T6 as an intake. We plan on using the other T6 and T8 fans in the 10x10...not sure which to use as exhaust vs intake. We haven't completely decided our light set up but the 2 hydro crunch lights came with a kit so we were going to veg with those and set all the other lights up in the 10x10. We were considering separating our grows by 4 weeks so we can get a monthly harvest.

any improvements or suggestions? Keep the bs out of here please. We are aware we have a lot to learn and are looking forward to this community helping us with our first grow!
 
Merlin1147

Merlin1147

Well-Known Member
Wow! Go big or go home right out of the gate. I think you’re going to need more light in the bloom tent. To grow quality bud with LED you need at LEAST 30 watts per sqft of quality LED.
The true watts of what you have to put in there are
Black Dog 400
2 Mars 350 each so 700
Bloom boss true sun 5x5 500
Bloom boss panels 32 each 128
So that’s 1700 watts of led. Their quality I don’t know but they’re not great. Maybe take a look at California lighting company or a lot of people say good things about the HLG quantum boards.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
Merlin1147 said:
Wow! Go big or go home right out of the gate. I think you’re going to need more light in the bloom tent. To grow quality bud with LED you need at LEAST 30 watts per sqft of quality LED.
The true watts of what you have to put in there are
Black Dog 400
2 Mars 350 each so 700
Bloom boss true sun 5x5 500
Bloom boss panels 32 each 128
So that’s 1700 watts of led. Their quality I don’t know but they’re not great. Maybe take a look at California lighting company or a lot of people say good things about the HLG quantum boards.
Click to expand...
Yeah we finally are in a legal state and out of the service so I can pursue this dream of mine. I figured I would be on the low end for lighting and that we would need to add atleast 1-2 more. I will definitely check out those companies and lights you recommend. Thank you for your reply man. it means a lot.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
Merlin1147 said:
Wow! Go big or go home right out of the gate. I think you’re going to need more light in the bloom tent. To grow quality bud with LED you need at LEAST 30 watts per sqft of quality LED.
The true watts of what you have to put in there are
Black Dog 400
2 Mars 350 each so 700
Bloom boss true sun 5x5 500
Bloom boss panels 32 each 128
So that’s 1700 watts of led. Their quality I don’t know but they’re not great. Maybe take a look at California lighting company or a lot of people say good things about the HLG quantum boards.
Click to expand...
How many watts do you recommend I add at a minimum? Any suggestion here? May be able to purchase another light for the help if its a must
 
hellmutt bones

hellmutt bones

Well-Known Member
Wow going commercial right off the bat! Only concern would be Led and how that equates to actual lumens psf. And experience of course. Good luck noobbongsmilie
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
What if I only use 8x8 of the tent leaving 2 feet all the way around to maneuver? That would be 64 square feet. Any advice on me calculating my watts per square foot like that?
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
So I decided to purchase 2 philzon 2000w (450 actual watts) to add 900 watts. This brings my total to 2600 and I plan to leave 2 feet all the way around and concentrate on the center 8x8. Over an 8x8 canopy with 2600 watts i'm close to 41 watts per square foot. Seems much better than the 17 I started this thread with. Let me know what you guys think about the addition. Had to come up with something quick with a shrinking budget and seeds germinating as we speak.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
I'm returning the 4 Bloom Boss Panels and going to use the money refunded to add another philzon to get me over 3k watts too.
 
Merlin1147

Merlin1147

Well-Known Member
bammer_101 said:
What if I only use 8x8 of the tent leaving 2 feet all the way around to maneuver? That would be 64 square feet. Any advice on me calculating my watts per square foot like that?
Click to expand...
Roger that. I guess in a 10 x 10 I would plan on a walkway down the middle with 4x10 grow areas on either side probably a little less to make room for AC/dehumidifier. Seeing as your just starting out you can run part of the bloom tent with the light you have gain experience (read as make mistakes) and expand into the rest. Probably best to do it that way. I didn’t see mention of enviro controllers. What are you using to control light schedule, temperature (daytime,nighttime) and RH (day and night).
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
Merlin1147 said:
Roger that. I guess in a 10 x 10 I would plan on a walkway down the middle with 4x10 grow areas on either side probably a little less to make room for AC/dehumidifier. Seeing as your just starting out you can run part of the bloom tent with the light you have gain experience (read as make mistakes) and expand into the rest. Probably best to do it that way. I didn’t see mention of enviro controllers. What are you using to control light schedule, temperature (daytime,nighttime) and RH (day and night).
Click to expand...
Talking to her now about the walk way down the middle and it actually just makes way more sense. Thank you for that tip, it seems much more functional. I know mistakes will be made and those will be the best lessons, just trying to keep them at a minimum lol. So for the lights we have some timers but they're really big and knobby so we didn't hook them up yet. This is day two and we have done it by hand both nights.

Right now we are sitting at about 51 humidity which is a little low. We plan to pick up a humidifier today to get the levels up to 60 ish. Our temp is sitting 70 degrees right now and yesterday was up around 77 yesterday.

The AC infinity fans have a cool display that monitors humidity and temperature and lets you set boundaries and will alarm you if the temp or humidity falls above or below what you set them at. You raised some good questions though...do you feel i'm lacking here? @Merlin1147​
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Its not as easy as just saying 30w per square foot for flowering with LED because there are many LEDs and cheap ones you may be looking more like 50w per square foot. High efficient ones you can use 30w per square foot, some folks use 25w psf and have great results.

Some of your lighting if not all is on the low end of the efficiency scale.

Best thing to do is use what you have now and work to the higher end (watts per square foot) and use the area you can light up.
You can always add more later but do a bit more research on LEDs before spending more money. Use forums not amazon reviews and try to take youtube with a pinch of salt and avoid sites named "best LED grow light 20xx" because most of them are just amazon traffic generators.

You will find your current lighting will veg really well, but you need to set a space limit or you will fill your space and fall short on lighting in flower and end up been disappointed.

Your going to make mistakes but like you say it is the best way to learn, hopefully its not a costly lesson. You will get there though and improve as time goes on.
 
Merlin1147

Merlin1147

Well-Known Member
I Use a wireless temp and RH data logger to track the environment. Mine is by SensorPush but inkbird and other make them too. They link to your phone and give a real time graph of what’s going on. Very addictive. So your turning lights on and off manually? In the veg tent? Most people run 18 hours on 6 off in veg. At least temporarily you could get some plug in timers to make life easier. I know it’s a long way off but since your in the planning and set up stage. Drying and curing is as important at every other stage. It took me a long time to get that squared away. I use a separate tent with full enviro controls. As long as you don’t put a light in it, like I did, you won’t be tempted to grow in it.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
coreywebster said:
Its not as easy as just saying 30w per square foot for flowering with LED because there are many LEDs and cheap ones you may be looking more like 50w per square foot. High efficient ones you can use 30w per square foot, some folks use 25w psf and have great results.

Some of your lighting if not all is on the low end of the efficiency scale.

Best thing to do is use what you have now and work to the higher end (watts per square foot) and use the area you can light up.
You can always add more later but do a bit more research on LEDs before spending more money. Use forums not amazon reviews and try to take youtube with a pinch of salt and avoid sites named "best LED grow light 20xx" because most of them are just amazon traffic generators.

You will find your current lighting will veg really well, but you need to set a space limit or you will fill your space and fall short on lighting in flower and end up been disappointed.

Your going to make mistakes but like you say it is the best way to learn, hopefully its not a costly lesson. You will get there though and improve as time goes on.
Click to expand...
Yeah I tried to get the best I could for now and plan to start upgrading to better stuff as the harvests come. thanks for taking the time to drop these useful tips, they are much appreciated and give me a lot to think about.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
Merlin1147 said:
I Use a wireless temp and RH data logger to track the environment. Mine is by SensorPush but inkbird and other make them too. They link to your phone and give a real time graph of what’s going on. Very addictive. So your turning lights on and off manually? In the veg tent? Most people run 18 hours on 6 off in veg. At least temporarily you could get some plug in timers to make life easier. I know it’s a long way off but since your in the planning and set up stage. Drying and curing is as important at every other stage. It took me a long time to get that squared away. I use a separate tent with full enviro controls. As long as you don’t put a light in it, like I did, you won’t be tempted to grow in it.
Click to expand...
I actually have that on my to do list because I wasn't exactly sure where to hang/cure. I guess that answers my question and i'll get a tent and will avoid putting a light in it because I know that I would try to grow in it too. The rest of my lights will get here in the next two days and I will post some pics of the set up and how things are looking.
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
coreywebster said:
Its not as easy as just saying 30w per square foot for flowering with LED because there are many LEDs and cheap ones you may be looking more like 50w per square foot. High efficient ones you can use 30w per square foot, some folks use 25w psf and have great results.

Some of your lighting if not all is on the low end of the efficiency scale.

Best thing to do is use what you have now and work to the higher end (watts per square foot) and use the area you can light up.
You can always add more later but do a bit more research on LEDs before spending more money. Use forums not amazon reviews and try to take youtube with a pinch of salt and avoid sites named "best LED grow light 20xx" because most of them are just amazon traffic generators.

You will find your current lighting will veg really well, but you need to set a space limit or you will fill your space and fall short on lighting in flower and end up been disappointed.

Your going to make mistakes but like you say it is the best way to learn, hopefully its not a costly lesson. You will get there though and improve as time goes on.
Click to expand...
what do you mean by a space limit? could you elaborate on that a little bit for me? Thanks again
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
Merlin1147 said:
I Use a wireless temp and RH data logger to track the environment. Mine is by SensorPush but inkbird and other make them too. They link to your phone and give a real time graph of what’s going on. Very addictive. So your turning lights on and off manually? In the veg tent? Most people run 18 hours on 6 off in veg. At least temporarily you could get some plug in timers to make life easier. I know it’s a long way off but since your in the planning and set up stage. Drying and curing is as important at every other stage. It took me a long time to get that squared away. I use a separate tent with full enviro controls. As long as you don’t put a light in it, like I did, you won’t be tempted to grow in it.
Click to expand...
I just placed an order for some timers. Checked that box! Thanks merlin!
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
bammer_101 said:
what do you mean by a space limit? could you elaborate on that a little bit for me? Thanks again
Click to expand...
I mean work out your wattage at the wall and work from a worst case point of view of around 40-50 true watts per square foot and from that figure out how much of your 10x10 you can afford to flower in and stick to that footprint.

If you were to use best case scenario of 30w per square foot with those lights of unknown efficiency (low efficiency) then you will end up been disappointed when your buds don't fill out as they should.

Basically don't fill your whole space because you can in veg and regret it in flower, condense your canopy to what your lights should cover in flower. :bigjoint:
 
bammer_101

bammer_101

Member
coreywebster said:
I mean work out your wattage at the wall and work from a worst case point of view of around 40-50 true watts per square foot and from that figure out how much of your 10x10 you can afford to flower in and stick to that footprint.

If you were to use best case scenario of 30w per square foot with those lights of unknown efficiency (low efficiency) then you will end up been disappointed when your buds don't fill out as they should.

Basically don't fill your whole space because you can in veg and regret it in flower, condense your canopy to what your lights should cover in flower. :bigjoint:
Click to expand...
ahhhhhhhhh, I got ya! Thanks for clarifying man. I will get this going in the next couple days and have updates for you. thanks corey!
 
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