First indoor grow- Newb in learning

Hi everyone! This is my first indoor grow and i'd like to thank you for this informative forum.
I planted 5 seeds from a seed bag 3 days ago in seedling-raising mix and all have sprouted nicely. I used a heat blanket to speed up the process. I only plan on keeping three once I know if they're females.
My grow closet comprises of four 24 watt CFL's and one 36 watt, a total of 132 watts.
All lights are 6700 kelvin daylights.
There is a small personal fan in there at the moment.
I plan on adding a 400 watt HPS once the plants have been transplanted into 30gallon pots, probably two weeks from now.
The mix i'll be using is 25% vermiculite, 25% Perlite 50% organic potting soil and 1 handful of dolmite lime per pot.
I'm very new to indoor growing and eager to get started so there are probably many things I have missed. Any advice/ feedback would be fantastic.

Pics coming after Christmas!

Cheers

I forgot to add the dimentions:
Height- 170cm/ 3.9 feet
Width- 55cm/ 1.8 feet
Length 170com/ 5.5 feet

Hey Buttery-

Good job on your first grow. A learning experience is the making.

So far, so good if they've sprouted nicely.

A single 400w HID will be plenty for your three plants.
30 gallon pots? Holy Smokes! A bit of overkill there? hahaha

You can use a 3 gallon pot per plant and do just as well (not to mention the time, money and space you save).

Everyone has their own formula for growing soil. As long as your plants get the proper nutrition, you're good to go.

If you have specific questions feel free to PM. If not, Merry Christmas.

-Seemysig

Thx for the encouragement Hydro. This is so much fun. Lol i'm not too good with the US metric system, I meant three gallon . Merry Christmas So the seedlings are going well, as far as I can tell. They've begun sprouting their second set of real leaves, good color, stalks look strong. I decided to add a 4ft T5 3X 21watt, 10,000 Kelvin acquarium fixture for vegetative growth and save the HPS for flowering. I'm having some issues with heat though. The average temp in there is about 30degrees C (86F) but can get up to 40 degrees C (104F) at the suns peak. I don't think there's much I can do about this on my bedget but others might have some make-shift ideas. I added the mix to larger pots in preperation for transplanting the seedlings. It went well until I checked the PH level. Beyond the roof! I mean litterally can't be read by the metre! So i'm going to let in sit for a few days, flush it with water a couple of times and prehaps later on, if all else fails, add some PH down. What is the best stage to transplant my girls?

*Bump* The party cups I'm growing are clear and I can see a fair bit of mildew in between the soil and the plastic, is this normal? Will it cause root rot?

I've decided to go with the 250watt system, which should be coming in the next couple of days. The plants have suffered a bit because of the heat. I'm trying to keep them small so the CFL's are like an inch and a half from the plants. I'm using miracle grow 3 in 1.

Here's a pic of one of the seedlings at 18 days:

Pics????? I love new grows lol so much promis and potential lol good luck mate>>>>>>>>

I transplanted them into the potting mix about a day ago: 25% Perlite, 25% Vermiculite, handful of dolomite lime and 50% potting soil.

loooking nice an healthy

Pics????? I love new grows lol so much promis and potential lol good luck mate>>>>>>>>

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Thx bro. Yeah I know what you mean especially cos it's from a random mix of seeds that I've been collecting over the past few years and I've had sum pretty good stuff so fingers crossed

mr west said:

loooking nice an healthy

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Thx

So my housemates tape measure is confusing, turns out I have four square feet of space.

The lighting in there consists of:
1 250watt HPS
2 45watt 6500K CFL's
3x3foot T5 fluorescent tubes

Will this be sufficient lighting? The HPS is 2700 Kelvin and produces the large majority of Lumen...what effect will this have on vegetative growth?

buttery420 said:

So my housemates tape measure is confusing, turns out I have four square feet of space.

The lighting in there consists of:
1 250watt HPS
2 45watt 6500K CFL's
3x3foot T5 fluorescent tubes

Will this be sufficient lighting? The HPS is 2700 Kelvin and produces the large majority of Lumen...what effect will this have on vegetative growth?

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Yea, thats a nice amount of light for your grow,use the fluros and cfls to veg, then use the hps to flower w/ the cfls aux. lighting from the sides.
Are you gonna scrog this plant? lst?

Yea, thats a nice amount of light for your grow,use the fluros and cfls to veg, then use the hps to flower w/ the cfls aux.

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Cool, good to know, thx But why can't I use the HPS for vegg? It just gives out so much Lumen and I'd really like to utilize the light as much as possible cos I've decided to vegg six plants...I don't have very good luck and I want to see dem ladies

lighting from the sides.

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The HPS is hanging from the roof of the closet atm. Why is it better to have it on the side?

Are you gonna scrog this plant? lst?

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Not sure yet, I like the idea of lst-ing but as a first try I think I'll just keep them as they are.

Your plants look amazing BTW! I really like what you have going on there.

You can use hps in your veg but its not advised as your plants can stretch also it is important for plants to have the lkue spectrem whilst veggin as this promotes female hormones. Like i said b4 you can use hps but most ppl would advise againsts it

You can use hps in your veg but its not advised as your plants can stretch

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The HPS is fairly close to the plants though. If I were to use HPS throughout would it help to LST them?

also it is important for plants to have the lkue spectrem whilst veggin as this promotes female hormones.

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Hmmm this is interesting, do you have any more info about this or can anyone else elaborate.
It's just there are a few people out there who do use HPS full cycle and that sounds like a really bad idea if what you say is in fact the case.

Sorry to go on about it but using the HPS seems much easier, in terms of adjusting the lights/ moving cables around in the small space I have.

You can only put you hps so close with burning which wont be close enough to stop stretching where as you can put you fl,s inchs away but your cfl,s are a bit hotter so they have to go a few more inches away this will prevent any stretching where your hps has to ve about a foot away and your girls will defo stretch.

As far as my statement on the blue spectrum promoting female hormone, well i just read that in a few different places when i started a few years ago i cant give you the scienxe on that one. But wot i can tell you is that when plants veg out in the wild its during the summer months when the sun is at its highest this is when the spectrum of the sun light is blue/white these are the colours that your plant will turn into N which is wot gives your plant its lush green foliage and keeping the plant compact which you are looking for during veg. Warm spectrums such as orange and red is when the sun is lower in the sky and this wot triggers of the flowering or fruit process. So effectively all your doin tricking your plant into thinking it changing season..

Your cfls and your floures are fine for veggin my friend I would use them along side your hps during flowering awell

sorry for the spelling i am stoned outa my mind at the mo haha

I'd Leave the HPS out until you bud, Just keep your fluros close and they will get plenty of light. Growing indoors chances are your max veg time will be a month or less. The fluros will provide plenty of light for this period.