67goat
- 4
- 3
I am now entering the final stages of planning for my first grow. Initially, I was going to go smaller, but due to various decisions I made along the way, it ended up getting closer to the size I had planned for grow 3 or 4. I have not grown previously, but I have been trying to read extensively. I do not feel that I made all of the best decisions, however, they are the choices I have made. At this point, I am looking for any ideas those with experience can give me to maximize what I have.
I have a 4x8 tent and a 8x5gallon bucket DWC system. I plan to have one bucket per 2'x2'. I choose auto-flowers for the first few grows. I know that means I have less time to react to things, but I felt it would let me eliminate other variables. It will be a two strain grow of gorilla glue and white widow, staggered so that across and next to are different strains, this is intended to account for if one strain gets bigger than the other.
For the first few grows, I do not intend to do any training. I want to first get used to the plant, the grow system, and getting to know what the different parts of the plant I need to watch out for look like on a daily basis, and not just from looking at a few pictures from somebody else's grow. After I feel comfortable with that, I will do one more training free grow to get a baseline. Then I will either start adding training, or move to photos.
As for the hydroponics, I will probably alter the system to be RDWC by the third grow. However, the base price for an RDWC system was cost prohibitive. Even though I know I could have built a system cheaper and with a reservoir, I wanted to do the first grow with an off-the-shelf system that other people had success with. This was part of the eliminating variables part. I would rather not have to worry about whether I messed something up in the build. I can add the reservoir later (or even build something from the ground up).
I'm not that worried about water temps. The house is climate controlled, and I will be using Hydroguard. Nutes are GH FMB with a CalMag supplement. I have a 75 GPD RO system with a de-ionization attachment on the way. For ventilation, I have the intake attached to a 12"x12" furnace intake box using the cut-to-fit furnace filters, two wall mounted oscillating fans, and a 6 inch 440 CFM fan with a carbon filter. I will have several digital hygrometer/thermometers in the tent at different heights to make sure there are no dead spots (I bought one and several of the lights came with one, so why not).
As for lighting, well, that is a mix. Since all the lights are from China, I have no idea if they are what they are advertised as, but I have verified current draw and will "verify" the PPFD when I set the tent up. I put that in quotes, because I have no way to determine how (in)accurate the PAR meter I bought is. Also, it doesn't really matter what the individual lights do, it matters what the light rack I am putting together does as a unit.
That crude drawing is what my light setup looks like from the top/bottom. The black line represent PVC (I left it white, it is only black here so it shows up). That PVC frame will be hung from the tent structure and can be lifted/lowered as a unit. The lights are hanging from eyebolts through the frame and can be lifted/lowered individually as the plants need. There are 8 100w COB lights with passive heat sinks and 90 degree lenses. They are advertised as 3500K CXB3590s. Those are the circles with the yellow dot. They are placed in the center of each 2'x2' square in the tent. The purple boxes are 110W actual draw blurple lights. The blue bars are 4' 20W 6500K T5 lights. Their placement is currently based on assumptions, but will be determined on final testing with the PAR meter in the tent.
That gets me 1440 actual watts (minus the draw of the fans in the blurples) of LED lights in different spectrums: 800W 3500K, 440W blurple, 200W 6500K. Hopefully, I will be able to set them just tight to get the PPFD I am looking for. Initial testing has me hopeful, but we will see when I get in the tent. That puts me at the continuous load for a single 15 amp circuit. I haven't tested all of the outlets in that room to see if they are on the same circuit, otherwise I will need to pull power from another room for the fans.
I was planning on doing the seed in rockwool, and probably clay pebbles. The medium is the last thing I need (to start). Pocket microscope, trimming scissors, grow room glasses, nutes, propagation trays, LUX meter, PAR meter, PH balancer, digital PH meter, digital TDS/EC/Temp meter, outlet watt meter, outlet timer, seeds, and everything else I mentioned in this is already purchased and awaiting setup. I'm probably about 4k into this at this point. There is no budget for new lights, or big ticket items, but I am willing to listen to ideas about what I have (like remove the lenses, or but lenses of known provenance, etc...).
I'm not sure I will start an actual journal on here, but I will be keeping notes for future grows. I will post some pics as things move along, but I am currently waiting for the last few items and the room to be fully vacated before I start.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
I have a 4x8 tent and a 8x5gallon bucket DWC system. I plan to have one bucket per 2'x2'. I choose auto-flowers for the first few grows. I know that means I have less time to react to things, but I felt it would let me eliminate other variables. It will be a two strain grow of gorilla glue and white widow, staggered so that across and next to are different strains, this is intended to account for if one strain gets bigger than the other.
For the first few grows, I do not intend to do any training. I want to first get used to the plant, the grow system, and getting to know what the different parts of the plant I need to watch out for look like on a daily basis, and not just from looking at a few pictures from somebody else's grow. After I feel comfortable with that, I will do one more training free grow to get a baseline. Then I will either start adding training, or move to photos.
As for the hydroponics, I will probably alter the system to be RDWC by the third grow. However, the base price for an RDWC system was cost prohibitive. Even though I know I could have built a system cheaper and with a reservoir, I wanted to do the first grow with an off-the-shelf system that other people had success with. This was part of the eliminating variables part. I would rather not have to worry about whether I messed something up in the build. I can add the reservoir later (or even build something from the ground up).
I'm not that worried about water temps. The house is climate controlled, and I will be using Hydroguard. Nutes are GH FMB with a CalMag supplement. I have a 75 GPD RO system with a de-ionization attachment on the way. For ventilation, I have the intake attached to a 12"x12" furnace intake box using the cut-to-fit furnace filters, two wall mounted oscillating fans, and a 6 inch 440 CFM fan with a carbon filter. I will have several digital hygrometer/thermometers in the tent at different heights to make sure there are no dead spots (I bought one and several of the lights came with one, so why not).
As for lighting, well, that is a mix. Since all the lights are from China, I have no idea if they are what they are advertised as, but I have verified current draw and will "verify" the PPFD when I set the tent up. I put that in quotes, because I have no way to determine how (in)accurate the PAR meter I bought is. Also, it doesn't really matter what the individual lights do, it matters what the light rack I am putting together does as a unit.
That crude drawing is what my light setup looks like from the top/bottom. The black line represent PVC (I left it white, it is only black here so it shows up). That PVC frame will be hung from the tent structure and can be lifted/lowered as a unit. The lights are hanging from eyebolts through the frame and can be lifted/lowered individually as the plants need. There are 8 100w COB lights with passive heat sinks and 90 degree lenses. They are advertised as 3500K CXB3590s. Those are the circles with the yellow dot. They are placed in the center of each 2'x2' square in the tent. The purple boxes are 110W actual draw blurple lights. The blue bars are 4' 20W 6500K T5 lights. Their placement is currently based on assumptions, but will be determined on final testing with the PAR meter in the tent.
That gets me 1440 actual watts (minus the draw of the fans in the blurples) of LED lights in different spectrums: 800W 3500K, 440W blurple, 200W 6500K. Hopefully, I will be able to set them just tight to get the PPFD I am looking for. Initial testing has me hopeful, but we will see when I get in the tent. That puts me at the continuous load for a single 15 amp circuit. I haven't tested all of the outlets in that room to see if they are on the same circuit, otherwise I will need to pull power from another room for the fans.
I was planning on doing the seed in rockwool, and probably clay pebbles. The medium is the last thing I need (to start). Pocket microscope, trimming scissors, grow room glasses, nutes, propagation trays, LUX meter, PAR meter, PH balancer, digital PH meter, digital TDS/EC/Temp meter, outlet watt meter, outlet timer, seeds, and everything else I mentioned in this is already purchased and awaiting setup. I'm probably about 4k into this at this point. There is no budget for new lights, or big ticket items, but I am willing to listen to ideas about what I have (like remove the lenses, or but lenses of known provenance, etc...).
I'm not sure I will start an actual journal on here, but I will be keeping notes for future grows. I will post some pics as things move along, but I am currently waiting for the last few items and the room to be fully vacated before I start.
Thanks for taking the time to read.