General Questions about first grow.

Hi

Type - White Widow
From - Seed
In - Gold Label Soil

I am on my first grow, and have a few queries that seem to differ from some people.

Should I bother checking the E.C and P.H levels when using biobizz? Some people say no as it is useless when using biobizz being organic.

Also I plan to grow 5 plants, vegging in a 1.2x1.2m tent under 1 400w hid light and flower under 2 600w hid lights in a 1.2x2.4m tent is this a good idea?

Lastly I have a propagator tank for the seedlings, I have purchased 2 desk lamps to sit over it for the first week or so, is this a good idea or should I just put them in the veg tent with the light up high?


Thanks

PH is the most important and should be checked all the time regardless of the product because the problem is tap water having too high pH. Sure they stabilize the water's pH but its usually not enough to get at pH 6.2 (at least for me). E.C is more important in hydro.
1400 and 2600w is probably overkill in a small tent but if dimmable its perfect for tall plants, just make sure to have overkill airflow because its like having a 1000 watt heater in there. Small lamps for perfect for seedlings causing low heat to prevent killing them but make sure the bulbs are CFL 6400k+.

AFAIK, measuring PPM/TDS/EC can be tricky (or impossible) with some organics. But pH is still a valid test. I recommend checking and setting the right pH of the water and nutrients going in.

agree, PH your water if its not between 6 and 7 (or collect rain water)

and yea make sure you have some good ventilations for them lights, maybe even some cool tube/hoods

and sure start em under the desk light, enough light for small seedlings, big HID light can be rough on them

Ooh yea and as a rule of thump, a 400W cover about 3x3 ft. and a 600W about 4x4 ft.

Sorry I wasn't clear with the wattage. It's one 400w and two 600w lights. So these will be fine?

Thanks for the replies, I'll forget the E.C. And just check the P.H.

I agree PH is important. But I personally didnt want to be bothered with it at all. I use walmart distilled water .88 cents per gallon. I have never checked ph my entire grow, and girls are looking fine. I am also using ocean forest soil mixed with 30 percent extra perlite.

Ph is pretty important. My first grow had issues of all kinds and my ladies only produced 9-10 grams per plant and I had 3 plants 18-24 inches tall. I did not check the ph at all and I think it was causing nute lock out, always using RO water. Pretty sad since it was an out door green house grow, quality was good smoked nice ,smelled nice and tasted good. But it was my first time and I learned a lot from it. Now I always ph my water to 6.3-6.5, I am doing an indoor all fluorescent grow, modified my nutes and changed soils. These things have added up to make a big difference. It is looking like I will have a pretty decent yield this time around.
Yes the lighting you have planned for your 3 stages will work just fine. Run a MH bulb for veg and HPS for flower and for seedlings and clones 6500k fluorescents work great. As for nutes and how much you will learn to read your plants and know how much of what they like. Mine cant take any veg nuts or they get burn but so far no issues with bloom nutes, they have taken all I have given them and I keep increasing each watering. Less is more though so go slow and watch your plants.

i was talking to the guy at my hydro shop yesterday and he told me that a good organic soil will balance its own ph so it isnt as important to correct the ph of in going water at the start unless the ph of the water is way way off. he went on to say that when i start adding nutrients or fertilizer it can start killing of the bacteria in the soil and thats when i should start closly monitoring the ph of my runoff and water going in. thats the advice i got so i thought id share

Ok thanks guys, I'll start to check the pH when I start feeding. It can't hurt to check I guess.

Soil doesn't balance anything. Soil is inert. Soil will buffer or absorb or both. But the buffering ability will change as nutrients are added. Adjusting your water pH is not a fool's errand. Normal tap water pH runs around 7.0-7.4. The plant can more readily take water and nutrients up when the water pH in soil goes in around 6.0. This doesn't require an expensive meter. Drop test kits work great. A few gallons of water and test them each. Calculate how pH Down it requires to make your tap water 6.0 (more or less) and from then on simply add that amount of pH Down your tests showed you need. Less than $5 and reap bigger yields of better bud.

yes buffer thats what i meant lol. I got the PH down and test kit anyways so that im ready for ph problems. im growing in SeaSoil container gardening mix (http://www.seasoil.com/container-gardening-mix.html) which has a natural ph of 6.5. and i did a couple tests on my tap water and it came in somewhere between 6.5and 7.0 i think lol. i havent actually planted yet as the farmers almanac says the best day this week for planting seeds is the 31st and im very superstitious