First grow, lets talk, distancinggrowop

Hey guys, thank you for taking the time to read this, I've been smoking about 10 years now, and recently took up the hobby of growing, after finding a few seeds in my q. Also shout out to those on the front lines of the corona virus, hope all are well. These seeds came from a nice semi purple flower, super sticky, and smelt sort of cheeselike. Whatever the case may be, it's my trial run and I'm looking to learn.

Please, no flame, it was spur of the moment, I had germinated my seeds and really didn't think I was going to follow through with the idea but I'm hooked now

I am using miracle NO... organic performance container mix (black bag OMRI 3 month feed) with 25% or so perlite. 30qt/8qt.
I started veg with a feit 32w 3 spectrum bar, and just bought a mars hydro ts 600w.
They're grown in 5 Gallon buckets. Each with about 7.5qt soil and 2qt perlite mix. So around 4 gallons filled with growing medium. I'm on a 18 6 schedule. With a tower fan blowing like 18 hours on them. They're grown in my closet, 2.5ft deep, 4 feet wide, 5.5 feet high, then I have a board across to hold bins. Plants are about 3 weeks old. All of them same time. Any thoughts, constructive criticism, and advice? The one pictured is the biggest, I'm hoping it's a she, and the one in the corner has been stunted since day one. The other 2 are kid d of average I guess. They're all on 3 and budding 5s. Thanks in advance!

Good luck pal...

Im in the same boat, been smoking about 10 years and the damage to the wallet is unbearable! Started 1st grow a bit ago and on 8th week of flower. Only advice I’ve got at the minute is make sure you get topping and training done as it’s done wonders for me.

hope it goes well and These plants ain’t got no bollocks!

What's the brown stuff on top of your soil? You definitely need better light, those plants are pretty small for 3 weeks old. The Mars Hhydro TS600 is only suitable for flower in a 1.5' x 1.5' (2.25 sqft), and you have 2.5' x 4' (10 sqft), so you would need 5 of those lights to provide enough light to flower those plants. You would need 2-3 of those lights to provide enough light for the vegetation stage.

More light and good luck. Let us know how it goes

Bump

The comments just loaded, and alright, what am I looking at to buy light wise. I have around 250 budget. And I don't know how many are female yet, random seeds, the brown stuff is just the jiffy pit I started them in, I just ripped it up and let it lay on top to see how dry shit is getting, then when it's 100%dry I give the plants a light spray bottle misting.

If you go with inexpensive LEDs then you want 35-40 watts per square foot in your tent. Just make sure you look at the actual power draw of the lights and not the wattage in the name of the light.

I have a power draw of 100 for the mars hydro. So I mean I'm only planning on keeping 2 females, I hope. So let's play the scenario with 2 plants, because that's what my area wil support best

.....waiting for the HLG comments to start rolling in lol. You will need more light but you know that. What nobody else has mentioned is your plant height in the buckets. You don't want that big of a lip, or space to top of bucket. Creates dead air space and that's not good, they need that airflow.

So I'll wait for them to gain a little more height and fill the rest up? Should I use my medium or just top it with some moss or something

And as for the dead air space, does it still apply while I'm using a fan almost all the time?

Newbie518 said:

I have a power draw of 100 for the mars hydro. So I mean I'm only planning on keeping 2 females, I hope. So let's play the scenario with 2 plants, because that's what my area wil support best

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You don't go by number of plants, you go by the square footage of the canopy. Two plants will easily fill out that tent from wall to wall, anyways. So, for 10 sqft, you need 350W-400W of LED

Should've just went and used the 400w hps I was gonna do, so I'm gonna have to upgrade my light any suggestions for around 200usd

Newbie518 said:

And as for the dead air space, does it still apply while I'm using a fan almost all the time?

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Have some small fans blow are over the top of the buckets and it will help. Once the plants get more established, and taller, just add soil into them to about 1" from the top of the bucket.

Newbie518 said:

Should've just went and used the 400w hps I was gonna do, so I'm gonna have to upgrade my light any suggestions for around 200usd

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These are great lights for the money. I run two in a 4x4 tent, but 2 would be overkill in your tent because they draw 300W each. In order to get even coverage in a rectangular tent, while still using the light you have, you may have to get creative. If you aren't afraid to DIY, that would be your least expensive option. There are some great DIY LED build threads in the LED lighting forum here.

I'm down for diy. Thanks for the link too

Newbie518 said:

And as for the dead air space, does it still apply while I'm using a fan almost all the time?

Click to expand...

yes, the lip acts like a truck bed tailgate (which is why you get better gas mileage with it UP!). I start with my media level with the top and natural compaction over time I still have to add a little

Newbie518 said:

I'm down for diy. Thanks for the link too

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Dude, then go check out Cutter. A ton of options for lights. @welight can hook you up

Wow I thought diy like build angles in my tent to distribute light with reflect panels, I clicked the link and was sent into a while other dimension

Newbie518 said:

Wow I thought diy like build angles in my tent to distribute light with reflect panels, I clicked the link and was sent into a while other dimension

Click to expand...

Careful, building lights for your grow can get almost as addicting as your grow. Less than a year ago I had never even grown a single plant....now I have 1240W of light in a flower tent that i built most of