FNG's first grow supply list, what am I missing?

Hey hows it going, im getting ready to pull the trigger and buy the supplies for my first grow. I want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to this site, the wealth of information available is incredible!! I live in a place that still isnt grass friendly, so finding rollitup was better than the time Al Gore found the internet.

I have been researching this for years, but please forgive me if I ask questions that have been answered. Did yall know some of these threads are hundreds of pages?! I think I read 38 pages about FFoF last night. Jokes aside, the amount of sub threads and topics is amazing, this place is like the Green Google.

So here is what I'm thinking. 30"x30"x6' cabinet, organic living soil, single plant scrog, running 4 HLG QB 120 V2's. The driver I'm looking at is the HLG-320H-C2800A. From what I understand, the max for each QB120 is 70 watts, so I'm thinking 60-65 at most during flowering. I'm going to run the driver @240 volts. I'll be running 2 new circuits for the grow cabinet, a 15 amp 240 for the driver, and a 15 amp 110 for fans and whatever else I might need. I'm looking at the Intermatic HB112 for my light timer. For the soil, I'm gonna try to keep it simple. Start the seedling in a jiffy puck, then move to a jiffy pot 5 with HF, and finally transplant to a 15 gallon smart pot for lst. In the 15 gallon I'll have a 60/40 of HF and FFoF, 4 quarts of worm castings, and 1 quart of perlite. I'm getting 8 quarts of black gold wc's, I'm thinking I'll reserve the extra 4 quarts and make some tea 5 or 6 weeks in if the nutrients seem to be dropping off.

Looking at DC Seed exchange for the seeds, everyone seems to have great things to say about them. Trying to Decide between Dracarys or Sour Bubba.

For the cabinet, I'm thinking about building a void into a corner that's 48"x48" inside. Make it appear as a closet from the outside. Then I'll weld up a 16 gauge steel box that is 30"x30"x6'. This will allow me to weld tracks to the walls for a light rack, and a really smooth surface for flat white paint. I have an idea that I would appreciate some input on. I'd like to make a metal pan, 4" deep and 28" square out of the same 16ga sheet. I could fabricate mounts for the scrog net support, and put the pan on some nice ball bearing drawer sliders. This would allow the whole plant and net to be pulled out for easier access during training. I would think once it was growing nugs I would have to leave it alone so the foliage against the walls wouldn't fall down and get damaged when sliding it back in. Does this sound like something useful, or a lot of work for a little convienance? I also need advice for the filter. I want to weld in a flat sheet of steel in the top of the cabinet, 3" from the top. I'll split that down the middle with a divider, and place a fan on each side of the divider. Then fill the 2 3"x30" sections with activated charcoal pellets. I'll cut a slit in the lower section about an inch wide, and 24" long, and place a screen over it for the pellets. The remaining two fans could be used as intake fans, one placed 6" off the ground, the other 24 inches off the ground to be clear of an 18" pot. I have 4 fans that I got off an MRI machine that was being scrapped. They're about 4" in diameter and mounted in this big nice piece of stainless. I'm gonna cut it into 4 equal parts and wire them back up together after placing them. . Should I wire the intake and exhaust on separate switches, both intakes on a separate switch and the exhaust fans on a 3rd? A simple steel door with magnets and a gasket will keep things tight and sealed up. I'll build a couple small simple filters for the air intake that I can swap out easily.

For the actual grow, 18/6 during veg, adjusting light brightness with height, then 60-65 watts per board for flower on a 12-12?

For watering, I'm planning on a 5 gallon bucket, with a 3/8" line plumbed out of the bottom, to a drip ring of the same diameter, that will sit on top of the soil, but under a small amount of mulch. Any suggestions on mulch type? I'll install a quick connect fitting through the side of the box if I put the bottom tray on drawer sliders.

Does anyone see any glaring problems with my setup or plan? I'm trying to keep it simple. My goal right now is to complete a grow, and get some decent smoke. I'm going to try to follow LBH's famous Scrog tutorial as closely as possible and see what I can learn. Does anyone have a spreadsheet that they use to record important information during their grows? Thanks again for all the great information I've gotten up to this point, I'm stoked to sprout some seeds

Well that is the most elaborate set up plan I have ever seen lol

most cases it’s more along the lines of “bro let’s grow some plants, we can hang a light here pump the air out there and get the water from the sink”lmao

but I’m all seriousness, from what I read you seem to be on the right tracks, where do you plan to exhaust your hot smelly air too?

I am in the middle of building something very similar in size right now, but its a veg cabinet with 2 shelfs. I am also upcycling an old armoire tv cabinet instead of building from scratch. But the size is almost the same, a little wider, a little less deep and shorter, slightly less sf.

I think your plan for lighting is good although I think 280W of QBs is probably going to be too much for that small of a cabinet. I think a 240H-C2100 would probably be fine and you probably will need to dim that down still. Will save you a few bucks and be a little more efficient if you are going to run them at 60W each anyway.

I wouldn't bother with the sliding mechanism. I am actually in the process of ripping out a similar sliding track that was used to let the doors recess into the cabinet. I am pulling them out because they provide a place for grime and dirt to build up which is opposite of what you want for your grow space. I am just mounting the doors to a frame that will wrap around the inside of the cabinet and help block light from escaping. I also think you are going to want flexibility in the height, you might wind up needing a few inches more for certain strains and if that is at a fixed height it will be a pain to adjust it in the middle of flower. If you really want to do something like this I would build it so that it sets inside of the cabinet, but you can easily remove it when its time to clean. If you can make it so that you can easily adjust the height, even better.

The rest of your plan is very well thought out. Only thing I will say is fan placement, light height, etc is take it slow. You are going to want and need to make adjustments once you run a few cycles. You probably don't even need an intake fan for a box that small, especially if you are going to have 4 exhaust fans (am I reading that right)? If you do have one active intake it should be plenty. I would recommend getting some type of remotely monitorable environmental control. I use a combo of the AC Infinity T series controllers, and also have a SensorPush that I rotate between my veg and drying tent depending what I need to keep an eye on.

Last thing to say is living organic soil might be a lot to bite off on your first round. I have been growing organically on and off for 20 years, last 3 years consistently and I still don't think I have the skills or time to really pull off a proper notill/living organic soil grow. Definitely admirable but I would suggest starting with FFOF or some other ammended organic soil for veg, and then for flower transplant make a mix of 2 parts base soil, 1 part compost/EWC, 1 part perlite. Then water in compost teas or Recharge once a week. That's my easy mix that gives me consistent easy yields. If needed you can top dress other ammendments or water in liquid nutes to supplement. You can dial it in and change inputs as you go but I tell people the first challenge in growing a plant is just getting in the discipline of taking care of it from flower to cure. Once you get your environment dialed in then take on the challenge of doing living organic soil, and you can even recycle all those ingredients into your mix.

Good luck and hope to see this thing full of big colas soon!

Lol, if I was somewhere it was legal my grow room would look like a space age junkyard. I live so far out in the woods, that I usually only have a handful of visitors out here a year. As long as no one can smell it outside I'm not worried. People around here are more likely to steal my stash and setup than they are to call the law. Hot smelly air will exhaust into the 48"x48" room, and then through a vent placed in between the wall to my bedroom and the grow room. 1 vent high for exhaust and one vent low for intake. I'm hoping the carbon filter will take care of a majority of the smell. I guess I could always add another carbon filter outside the cabinet if necessary?

Thanks for the advice reggae!! I like simple. I'm planning on a scrog grow, so would you suggest your mixture in the 15 gallon and feeding once a week, after transplanting from the small jiffy pot? The 4 fansI was planning 2 for intake, 2 for exhaust. I figure if the canopy gets to thick, it would help keep air flowing underneath.

What about Holy Cow potting soil for the 15 gallon pot, with weekly feedings as you suggested? Or is there a base soil you like to use? I'd like to find something available locally, I got quoted $110 to ship $80 worth of soil today. Amazon is the only place I can find free shipping, but the price of the soil seems pretty bloated to make up for it. I can get the holy cow for $10/cu ft

No problem, can't wait to see you get it up and running!

2 exhaust fans should be totally fine and I doubt you will need an intake although it will help with down low airflow like you said. Just make sure that your exhausts are running at a higher speed than the intake.

In the quest for simplicity, I would also suggest not trying the scrog at first. I have a few reasons for this. First, the extra veg time needed to train your plant through a scrog net, is a few more weeks during which something can go wrong, whether an issue with nutrients, environment etc. You want to get your first flower round as quick as possible so you can feel that pride of harvesting your first plants. The other reason is, I kind of think is good for new growers to see how a plant grows naturally once or twice. Different strains and even different phenos of the same strain have slightly different structure, and based on your gained knowledge you might decide to train slightly differently if that makes sense. Maybe the next round you try topping/fimming it, and then go on to more agressive training like LST and Scrog. I honestly prefer just growing more small plants and not doing anything. Its a lot easier to trim them that way and since I grow for personal use, getting a few huge colas is pretty cool to me. The biggest reason though, is not worrying about training the first round just so there is less to worry about. Just get the seeds popped, veg it til its a decent size, and flower it. Learning how much it stretches in flower will also impact how big you will want to let it get in a scrog setup.

The Holy Cow Garden Mix and/or Survive & Thrive look pretty good. I have never heard of them to be honest but you can probably email them and ask for a soil test results sheet so you can make sure all the numbers look good. FFOF = Fox Farm Ocean Forest has been my base mix for a long time. It's pretty battle tested although some people love it and some hate it. I do think a 15 gal pot is definitely took big for that space. I would go from Jiffy pot > 1 or 2 gal w base mix in veg and at most a 5 gal with the 2nd mix in flower. Don't worry about yields or filling the entire space at first. It's going to take some time and patience and a few cycles til you are ready for that.

Also I have $20 that says you will have built out and be using the whole 4x4 space with seperate veg and flower chambers this time next year, or once the grow bug has fully taken hold. So don't make anything too permanent

Excellent advice, I want to walk before I run. How many plants should I start out with for my first run? I'll try to find the FFOF soil, somebody around here has to have it.
This is why I waited to pull the trigger. I'll take the 15 gallon out and put a few 5 gallons in my cart. Better bet more than $20!

After thinking about it, I would even go smaller on the pot size for the first round if you can handle watering once a day. I would just go from the 3in Jiffy pot and let it veg for say 2 weeks til it gets to like 8-10" tall and then transplant into a 2 gallon pot and flower it. The reason for this is that sometimes with bigger pots, simple things like overwatering or worse a nutrient deficiency take longer to correct if you have to wait a few days to water the plant again if that make sense. Like say you water on Monday but then notice a cal/mag issue on Tuesday but the pot is still too wet to address it, then you have 2 more days of waiting til its ready to water it until you can address the deficiency. If you have smaller pots they will dry out faster and you can top dress or add nutes to your water and deal with it within a day or so. Hope that make sense.

I was assuming you were only going to do 1 plant. I grew in a 2x2x5' tent for a year or so, under an HLG135W diy kit. I tried once to fit 3 plants in there in 2 gallon pots, but even with only a 2 week veg it was a jungle in there and I have to defoliate multiple times. If you want to hedge your bets your can try 2, but I definitely wouldn't use bigger than 2 gal pots and do a max of 3 weeks of veg. Also if you are growing from seed, 2 plants even of the same strain might grow at different rates, so consider that too.

That's what I'll do then, ill run 2 plants, in final pot sizes of 2 gallons. Any strains you recommend? GG4 is my all time favorite, but I didnt have much luck finding any feminized seeds here in America. Dracarys was the closest I could find.

GrassBurner said:

That's what I'll do then, ill run 2 plants, in final pot sizes of 2 gallons. Any strains you recommend? GG4 is my all time favorite, but I didnt have much luck finding any feminized seeds here in America. Dracarys was the closest I could find.

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Hmm strains is so personal it's really hard to say. GG4 is great, I love anything with Sour Dubb in it. I

You have a decent height to work with and are using QBs without heatsinks so you don't have to worry so much about short strains or anything. I would just say try to find stable solid proven genetics instead of any hype flavor of the month stuff that is a lot of inbred F1 pollen chucking imho. There will be more variance in the phenos, as well as higher chance of them herming.

I would say maybe try something super stable and worked like DJ Short Blueberry or Flo? I love both of those. Or BOG's Sour Bubble (one of sour dubb's parents) is a nice quick strain and supposed to be easy to grow (although supposed to be a slow vegger). I don't think I ever read a bad grow journal or strain review of that. He is on IG and you can order direct from him. Not sure if he has fems but the strain is definitely stable and worked. I actually have 3 little Sour Bubble x GDP F3's a friend of mine made that are about 6" tall now.

I also just finished some growing some Lemon Lime Punch fems from In House Genetics. They came out really nice, found one keeper out of 3 beans I popped. There is an IHG thread on here you could ask for advice on whats the best fit for you. I don't normally grow fems I just popped those bc someone gave me a pack for free.

Regardless of what strain you choose, I bet another $20 its the best herb you've ever smoked!

Everything has been ordered Looks like shipping times have been effected pretty heavily, but should have everything by the end of the month. Went with Katsu Sour Bubba, and got 3 free Dracarys (all feminized). Time to start getting this cabinet put together. Thanks again for all the advice

LOVE Sketchup! I used it to plan my grow room too!

I think you've got all the right stuff there. I'll be following along! Start a grow journal so we can watch and help as you progress!

Very nice diagram!

SketchUp is the way to go I will definitely start a journal as soon as everything shows up Thanks for the compliments and words of encouragement.

I had an idea for a slightly modified plan for your cabinet. Have to focus on some stuff for work for a bit but I will do a quick drawing when I get a few mins.

Awesome!! I'm thinking with all of this social distancing madness going on, I'm going to try to use the materials I have on hand. I've got a bunch of scrap metal and lumber out here. Interested to see your design suggestions.

My apologies. I got a hold of some wedding cake last weekend, and it has been very detrimental to my planning I have an 8x12 loft with a ceiling height of 6'6 at the back, and 6' at the front. What I didnt properly account for, was how big the windows in the room are. Here is an actual drawing of my loft to scale with dimensions. Maybe I should post a thread in the grow cabinet design area.

Maybe something along these lines. My driver, wiring, and water supply could be orientated in the small cabinet to the left, maybe even sneak in a clone room down low. The box to the left measures 2' wide, 4' long, and 4' tall.