First Time! pls help

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AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
GrowBeyond said:
I'll grab a picture of what's in the electrical box, but I have no clue how to read it.
What kind of lights are those?? I've never heard of them. I'm looking at craigslist for air conditioners, so with 1134 sq feet in my room, and 4 HID lights, I guess I'd need 6000 CFM? I'm finding those for around $50, 14,000 CFM for about $250. There's also a 10k portable one, but it's missing a hose, whatever that means. Those are probably pretty big overkill. Normally I'd say heat isn't much of an issue in the summer, but hey, climate change. I also realized that I don't know I'm going to ventilate the room during the winter. I was interested in using yeast to supplement C02 but apparently that barely does anything.
Apparently just putting a box fan in each window should be plenty to cover air flow, but not enough to remove excess heat from weather or lights. But they're not as wide as the window, so I'd have light leakage both ways. Could cover that in cardboard. Plus I'd be worried about running those when it's cold. So I guess the answer is lots of lights to produce enough heat to warm the cold air coming from the fans, or a c02 generator and dehumidifier? I read something about lung rooms, no idea what they are.
I just saw stinkbud's tutorial on aeroponic systems, and that looks great but I'm worried I'd kill my plants. I figure I'll also need a PVC frame to hold each of the lights. Am I off base with the "soil" mediums I'm using? I found that pure peat moss takes at least a week to dry out.
If ran a room full of autos, (which appeal to me because I want to stop paying for herb ASAP) could I just provide 20 hours of light to the entire room and create shade for the younger plants? OTOH, if I can grow the same amount with fewer plants, that's definitely better. And I have a fondness for jack herer, (sannie's seeds) but I'm scared I'll kill them all all

I'm now planning on using air pots (7 gallon) with promix. I plan to start them in my germination tray, then move to dixie cups, then milk jugs, then 7 gallon air pots. The autos I would start in the air pots. I'd soak for 24 hours, then plant directly in the soil, tip up, with a pinch of soil on top to cover it.

I'm trying to follow the nutrient schedule for soil with the fox farms liquid nutrient trio. Is that all I need? I started getting what looked like a calmag deficiency early on. That could also be because I was using distilled water, which I basically have to have shipped to me. Is tap alright?

Are any of my plans less than ideal? Please correct the heck out of me
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Holy hell, I don't even know where to start. I got halfway through second paragraph and couldn't take any more.
I don't mean to sound rude tho. Sorry if I do.
First issue is going to be power. You're entire panel can handle 150 amps, but using MRS you shouldn't go over 80% of any single circuit or it'll pop from heat. Most of your major circuits into the panel have breakers that can handle 20 amps. Its listed on the individual circuit breakers in the panel. RMS of 20 amps is about 16. You're living area circuits are 15 amp breakers. So not more than 12 amps can go to those. Also, you must take I to consideration that other lights or items in the room will add to that total amps on the circuit. You will not be able to run 4 cmh lights on one 15 amp circuit. You're going to need to use extension cords from other circuits running into your grow area. Put power strips with circuit breakers in them on the extension cord (probably be good to run it from the bathroom circuit. That one isn't used a whole lot). DO NOT RUN POWER STRIPS OFF OF OTHER POWER STRIPS EVER.
The guys here are very helpful, and if you need faster answers to questions, I'm off for the weekend and can answer whatever questions I can. If you need my number, just ask.
GrowBeyond said:
Hi everyone! First time using this site, and first time growing. I have so many questions! To start off with, what should I buy? I have a 13*10 room with an eight foot ceiling that I'd like to deck out. It has two windows and a large closet. I also have a lot of 18 gallon bins from walmart, a bestVA 1000w led from amazon,and the fox farms nutrient trio. I'm looking for maximum yield in the shortest amount of time, on a budget of $1000 max. It gets hot here in the summer (third floor) and cold in the winter, which lasts a good long while. I don't pay for heat, but I do for AC. I've tried growing a couple plants recently, but have found that an unventilated closet during a heat wave is far from ideal. I have 3 plants (High Density Auto by Heavyweight) that are super tiny growing in 18 gallon bins (2 in 1) with a layer of perlite at the bottom, then 50/50 peat moss and perlite, then a layer of peat moss on top.

So basically, what do I need to do to take my disaster of a closet grow and switch it to a full sized grow room?
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And don't use plastic buckets unless you're doing hydro. If you want breathability, go for fabric pots that are non woven variety. I use root pouch brand. For a 3 gallon bag I pay 1.18$ a piece. They work amazing with Coco, which is the most forgiving medium I've found. Bug resistant, very hard to overwater, and give the benefits of hydro for the most part, without the experience needed for hydro. My entire setup was less than 1000, and I got most from Amazon prime. Gotta love free shipping even to here in alaska
 
A

AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
GrowBeyond said:
I'll grab a picture of what's in the electrical box, but I have no clue how to read it.
What kind of lights are those?? I've never heard of them. I'm looking at craigslist for air conditioners, so with 1134 sq feet in my room, and 4 HID lights, I guess I'd need 6000 CFM? I'm finding those for around $50, 14,000 CFM for about $250. There's also a 10k portable one, but it's missing a hose, whatever that means. Those are probably pretty big overkill. Normally I'd say heat isn't much of an issue in the summer, but hey, climate change. I also realized that I don't know I'm going to ventilate the room during the winter. I was interested in using yeast to supplement C02 but apparently that barely does anything.
Apparently just putting a box fan in each window should be plenty to cover air flow, but not enough to remove excess heat from weather or lights. But they're not as wide as the window, so I'd have light leakage both ways. Could cover that in cardboard. Plus I'd be worried about running those when it's cold. So I guess the answer is lots of lights to produce enough heat to warm the cold air coming from the fans, or a c02 generator and dehumidifier? I read something about lung rooms, no idea what they are.
I just saw stinkbud's tutorial on aeroponic systems, and that looks great but I'm worried I'd kill my plants. I figure I'll also need a PVC frame to hold each of the lights. Am I off base with the "soil" mediums I'm using? I found that pure peat moss takes at least a week to dry out.
If ran a room full of autos, (which appeal to me because I want to stop paying for herb ASAP) could I just provide 20 hours of light to the entire room and create shade for the younger plants? OTOH, if I can grow the same amount with fewer plants, that's definitely better. And I have a fondness for jack herer, (sannie's seeds) but I'm scared I'll kill them all all

I'm now planning on using air pots (7 gallon) with promix. I plan to start them in my germination tray, then move to dixie cups, then milk jugs, then 7 gallon air pots. The autos I would start in the air pots. I'd soak for 24 hours, then plant directly in the soil, tip up, with a pinch of soil on top to cover it.

I'm trying to follow the nutrient schedule for soil with the fox farms liquid nutrient trio. Is that all I need? I started getting what looked like a calmag deficiency early on. That could also be because I was using distilled water, which I basically have to have shipped to me. Is tap alright?

Are any of my plans less than ideal? Please correct the heck out of me
Click to expand...
Don't need AC necessarily, or at least not at first. Also, most nutrient companies will give you amounts for nutrient schedules that are more based on how much money they'll make by having you use more. I've found that by using slightly less, the plants do better and I save some cash for other goodies. You don't want to use co2 unless the room is completely sealed, otherwise you're literally tossing money out the window. And yes, yeast can never supply enough co2 to do any real difference to your yields.
As for tap water....tap water has good minerals and is generally good enough to use if you can drink it also yourself. Just have to adjust PH to permisable levels. 6.5 would be a good place to start.
 
A

AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
hotrodharley said:
T8 is virtually useless except for starting seedlings and young plants. The lights will work fine.

Each switch in the breaker box should have a number. If there's only one or two you probably have GFCI outlets. Use surge suppresors on each outlet. Real surge suppressors not just multiplug strips with a cheap breaker.

Those 315CMH produce. Might take a wee bit longer to finish flower but you'll have a lot more. Until LED improves and becomes more affordable CMH and HPS rock.
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Club 315w is the place to go for cmh questions. TintEastwood and the other guys will be a ton of help.
 
A

AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
GrowBeyond said:
Awesome! I'd love to build lights someday, but I'm already trying to dive headfirst as it is haha. Thanks so much for the help. Here's my current revised plan.

4x8 PVC Grow tent. I probably won't cover it in panda film for a while, but the frame will hold the light. It's going to be right next to a window with an air conditioner in it. If that's not enough, I'll get an inline fan to pump the air from the tent out the window. I'm going to have those two CMH lights. In there I'll grow 10-20 plants in 7 gallon air pots with cheap all purpose pro mix and 20% perlite. I'll soak that mixture in blackstrap molasses to help the rooty bois and lower the ph. If it's not down to 6 by that point, I'll add 1 cup dolomite per 2 cubic ft of soil. Should I use sulfur instead? I'll use blue planet calmag, fox farms liquid trio using the hydro schedule, and root magic. Then it comes down to strain choice. I want something that grows quickly, is hard to kill, and yields a lot. I have 5 High Density seeds from Heavyweight left. The other slots were going to go to sannie's jack, but I'd like to find something less adventurous and easier to work with.

So in closing. Should I use dolomite or sulfur to lower ph when prepping soil?
What are the best genetics for durable, fast growing, high yielding strains?
Do I need one surge protector per light?
How can I calculate my power usage, in case I decide to get something more power intensive like an HPS?
I already have a bag of vermiculite, but making sure my pots actually dry out is my top priority, thus the premade mix. However, the ingredients themselves are cheaper. Should I go with my promix/perlite plan or switch it up?
What if I got a 630 CMH instead of 2 315s? They seem to be a bit cheaper, and just have two bulbs,
Should I get 4200 bulbs instead of 3100?
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Good strains for big yields and new to the scene: check out Grandaddy Purple, Northern Lights, and such. Search online for big producing marijuana strains for new growers and you'll find a good amount of info
 
A

AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
GrowBeyond said:
Thanks guys! Would there be anything wrong with running more devices off the breaker in my living room? I've been able to ID what goes to what pretty easily. I ask because I did a bunch of load calculating (lol) and my veg equipment plus the four CMH lights and a single box/inline fan leave it 9 watts under the max of 1650 watts on a 15a circuit (assuming only the lit bulbs in my t8 draw power). Is that okay? I'd also like to be able to tweak things a little bit to get a single 600W HPS. Would that be silly? I've heard the extra red is good, but for double the wattage idk.


I'm definitely scaling back (thanks, I can get a bit ahead of myself). That being said, I do want to have a final plan in mind so I don't buy more crap I don't need. I'm thinking a 10kbtu AC, 2 standing fans, 2 box fans. I can't find *any* cheap soil online, so I think I'm gonna grow in Happy Frog/Ocean Forest with 40% added perlite, from a local store. If any of that stupid, please slap me
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You overthoought the whole thing. Lol
I have PTSD tho, and I get it. I did the same, but before buying I was able to weed out most of the extras that would be really nice but unnecessary to start with. The biggest thing you'll need is what you'll never be able to buy......experience. DO a couple grows, and you'll be surprised at the vast amount of info you'll learn that'll make you better each time. The biggest thing you'll learn is that no one person knows the "best method of all mrthods". There is no such thing. You need to find what works best for your own situation, experience, how much you want involved in each aspect of your grow, time available, and technical level.
 
A

AlaskaRob

Well-Known Member
Plugins aren't meant to be daisy chained. Its not only a potential fire hazard, but creates more breaks in the power stream. Each connection causes a touch of extra heat and point of failure.
 
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