General help and recommendations please.

[spase]

I'm in my first grow. I've had some issues - light intensity and aphids so far...

I am growing in soil. I have 4 bag seed plants in a room about 3x4x7. I've got a 225W light from hlg - I've got a 500W AC Infinity light coming this week. I'm using RO PHed about 6.5. I just lollipoped and flipped.
I plan on adding some nutes(Fox Farm trio)for 2 of the plants next watering, the rest probably the watering after(they're higher ppm run off). I'm thinking I should start at about 25%(following the schedule) at this point? Move up from there?
The aphids are being tough to get rid of. I'm assuming I can do one more neem/soap treatment before the flowers start showing. I've got DE on the top of the soil. I will start bringing the light power up.
Anything else I need to watch?

 

[Phyto]

I'm in my first grow. I've had some issues - light intensity and aphids so far...

I am growing in soil. I have 4 bag seed plants in a room about 3x4x7. I've got a 225W light from hlg - I've got a 500W AC Infinity light coming this week. I'm using RO PHed about 6.5. I just lollipoped and flipped.
I plan on adding some nutes(Fox Farm trio)for 2 of the plants next watering, the rest probably the watering after(they're higher ppm run off). I'm thinking I should start at about 25%(following the schedule) at this point? Move up from there?
The aphids are being tough to get rid of. I'm assuming I can do one more neem/soap treatment before the flowers start showing. I've, got DE on the top of the soil. I will start bringing the light power up.
Anything else I need to watch?

Hopefully you are using calmag, since R/O water is devoid of minerals. 25% is a good starting point, see how the plants react and adjust acordingly. IMHO, we brutally overfertilize our plants, I'm convinced that more than half of the "deficencies" are actually toxicities or lockouts due to poor fertilization practices/ratios! The DE may not be very effective on aphids (other than root aphids) since most do not have a stage that lives in the soil. Your current light will be fine for veg and the AC infinity will more than take care of flowering. BTW what media are you growing in? I ask because chasing runnoff in a soil grow usually causes more problems than it solves.

 

[KolaKing]

I'm in my first grow. I've had some issues - light intensity and aphids so far...

I am growing in soil. I have 4 bag seed plants in a room about 3x4x7. I've got a 225W light from hlg - I've got a 500W AC Infinity light coming this week. I'm using RO PHed about 6.5. I just lollipoped and flipped.

Rule of thumb I use to size a light to a tent is L x W x 30. In your case you have a 3 x 4 so 12 sq/ft x 30 = 360w.

Why RO? Not bad but if your tap water is good use it. My tap has a high concentration of calcium so I can skip the cal/mag.

6.5 is good.

I plan on adding some nutes(Fox Farm trio)for 2 of the plants next watering, the rest probably the watering after(they're higher ppm run off). I'm thinking I should start at about 25%(following the schedule) at this point? Move up from there?

So it sounds like it's been water only up until now? What week of veg are your plants in? That should dictate the fert strength you are going to apply. What media are you in?

The aphids are being tough to get rid of. I'm assuming I can do one more neem/soap treatment before the flowers start showing. I've got DE on the top of the soil. I will start bringing the light power up.
Anything else I need to watch?

I like to use a product called Azamax for pests. It is OMRI certified organic, doesn't leave the oily film Neem does and is a Neem derivative. It can take care of a host of different bugs so no need to be using different pesticides for different pests. You can also use it up to 10 days before harvest but I would play it safe and only use it 30 days prior to harvest to make sure it all breaks down.

 

[spase]

As I'm in soil(coco loco), I have not been adding anything yet. I have calmag on hand if I need it.
I decided to use the RO as my water is softened. It's probably ok without the RO - it goes from about 200ppm to 10ish.
I'll look into the Azamax.

 

[shadazzle]

Ok need help . autoflower 63 days old from seed says its a 80 day run, 675 par, light 18 inches away, heat day 79,night 71, humidity 55% ,ffof, ff GB,BB,TB , cal mag, ff Open S, Beast B, Cha C everything at 1/2 strength , except last 3 i mentioned 1/4 tsp of those .Its in 3 gallon pot but only is 2/3 full of dirt used last of the bag so didnt fill pot. Everything was going great but now I have bad leave curl up into tacos . does it have nute lock . i always let at least 1/4 gall water run off into drip tray and suck it out . any help would be great thanks .

 

[Smokey_LaFleur]

I also use the coco loco. If my experiences are any indicator, even using tap water, you will need some calmag.

 

[KolaKing]

From what I can gather it looks like Coco Loco is similar to the media I use, Roots Organic Original, with one very important difference. I'm also guessing that since the ingredient label lists "aged forest products" as its top ingredient they are using wood chips rather than peat moss which is what ROO uses. I say wood chips because Fox Farms claims that the mix will hold water better than most potting mixes. If Coco Coir were more dominant in the mix they wouldn't be saying that understanding how coco doesn't hold moisture very well. I tried to run a wood chip potting mix I bought at the local hardware to see if it could perform like ROO. It held onto water a bit too well as the wood chips tend to break down into a sort of silt which reduces root aeration. I had done a 30% perlite mix into it but it wasn't enough. I should have gone at least 60% perlite. The growth was super slow.

@Smokey_LaFleur

You're probably right. The cultivar I currently have in the tent is starting to show signs of cal/mg deficiency. The last run I did I could run it off the cal the tap was providing but I probably will still need to supplement some for these genetics.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Rule of thumb I use to size a light to a tent is L x W x 30. In your case you have a 3 x 4 so 12 sq/ft x 30 = 360w.

This rule of thumb listed by @KolaKing is an excellent starting point for lighting. Another tip when it comes to lighting is be sure your lights have a dimmer so the light intensity can be adjusted. You might need 360 watts to completely light your 3 x 4 area during peak flower ... but you won't need that kind of intensity earlier on. So yes, 360-400 watt light would be more than adequate for your space provided you're able to adjust the light intensity to fit the different grow stages. I'd hate to only be able to adjust my light intensity by raising the light. It's not enough control of the lighting in many instances

If I were to list the 3 most common mistakes a new grower makes it would be these 3 in any particular order:

1) Over-lighting - believe it or not, more light isn't always better. There's such a thing as too much light even in an indoor grow.

2) Over-watering - This one gets confusing for people because when a new grower hears this they want to water lightly "to be sure they get it right." That's not what over-watering means. It means watering too frequently and not allowing enough time for the soil dry back.
A) It's very difficult to give a plant more water than it can handle during one watering.
B) It's very easy to water too often. A young plant still establishing its root system can go quite a while before it needs to be watered again.

3) Over-feeding - more is almost never better. Frequently less is the right amount. You mentioned 25% of what is recommended on the nutrient feed chart. That's probably "ball-park" to start.

Enjoy your grow!

 

[spase]

Thank you. I got the light for a 4x4 room. Mines a touch bigger than what I stated (about 49x40x80) so I'm figuring that's about perfect. I've got their controller. I did have an issue with, probably, too much light(had a weirdly colored leaf). I've been running my smaller light at 2 or 3.
I've been watching the pots and letting the plants tell me when they need water - between dry top soil and light pots, I'm watching pretty closely when they're getting dry. I water until I get a little run off.
I'm going to add some nutes now that they're flowering. I'll start easy on the girls...

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Thank you. I got the light for a 4x4 room. Mines a touch bigger than what I stated (about 49x40x80) so I'm figuring that's about perfect. I've got their controller. I did have an issue with, probably, too much light(had a weirdly colored leaf). I've been running my smaller light at 2 or 3.
I've been watching the pots and letting the plants tell me when they need water - between dry top soil and light pots, I'm watching pretty closely when they're getting dry. I water until I get a little run off.
I'm going to add some nutes now that they're flowering. I'll start easy on the girls...

If you can stick to that approach, you should be fine. When questions arise, make a post in your thread. You'll get help sorting it out.

 

[Week4Bytch]

Any pics?

 

[spase]

Here's a few. The one looks very Indica. The others hybrid or sativa.

 

[spase]

I've got more of the scrog coming. I've been trying to train. The Indica looking plant wanted to keep tight.

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

I've got more of the scrog coming. I've been trying to train. The Indica looking plant wanted to keep tight.

You're off to a great start!

One word of warning ... this hobby is addictive so look out. lol

 

[KolaKing]

If you can stick to that approach, you should be fine. When questions arise, make a post in your thread. You'll get help sorting it out.

I agree his approach is a good one but once he gets close to mid flower the frequency pretty much stays the same.

As far as feed volume, that can be finalized almost immediately as it'll take the same volume of water to wet the entire media every time you feed. The only difference will be in the frequency you need to apply that volume of water depending on the uptake of your plants and the environmental conditions affecting humidity and evaporation. Nutrient strength will also change depending on the stage of your plants and their nutritional needs if you are bottle feeding.

In my case, I like to run 7 gal cloth pots with a coco/peat/perlite mix. Feed volume is a little over a gallon a pot. This will wet the entire media with around 5% runoff that I let soak back into the bag. I feed this volume from the start of watering that size pot to the end. The only difference is how many times a week I need to apply that volume to keep the soil moist.

I know most like to run 5 gals and there is nothing wrong with that size pot but, anectdotally, I'm thinking that the larger pot I use allows for a longer dryback period meaning more time in the maximum root O² exchange window meaning faster growth. One of the things I took away from working at grow ops is that the more O² available to roots the faster growth rates you'll see. Obviously methods like fogponics will yield you the fastest growth but even in soil medias, coco is the fastest of them and has the highest air ratio of all the soil medias.

People try and raise the O² availability by oxygenating their feed water but I've found this to be subpar in getting more O² to your roots. Most of the ways I've seen are to lower the temperature of the water(cooler water holds more oxygen than warmer water), agitate the water in a tank to raise the O² levels of the water or add some Hydrogen Peroxide to the water. The problem I see with these methods is that the oxygenation process is short lived as the air pressure in the air will pull oxygen from the water in its attempt to equalize the pressure.

 

[spase]

You're off to a great start!

One word of warning ... this hobby is addictive so look out. lol

Lol... I'm good at avoiding addiction, but if this works out for me, I may have a problem... I mean less problems...

 

[spase]

I've been thinking about getting an aerator for my buckets of PHed water.
I'll probably go hydro or aero or something soon anyways, then I'll need em.

 

[brendog]

I'm in my first grow. I've had some issues - light intensity and aphids so far...

I am growing in soil. I have 4 bag seed plants in a room about 3x4x7. I've got a 225W light from hlg - I've got a 500W AC Infinity light coming this week. I'm using RO PHed about 6.5. I just lollipoped and flipped.
I plan on adding some nutes(Fox Farm trio)for 2 of the plants next watering, the rest probably the watering after(they're higher ppm run off). I'm thinking I should start at about 25%(following the schedule) at this point? Move up from there?
The aphids are being tough to get rid of. I'm assuming I can do one more neem/soap treatment before the flowers start showing. I've got DE on the top of the soil. I will start bringing the light power up.
Anything else I need to watch?

With aphids chester boones at 4 oz/g will do it they are almost impossible to get rid of in flower, 6.5 is pretty high I do 6.1 and that allows more variance without getting above or below their zone, check runoff and adjust accordingly

 

[KolaKing]

Ok need help . autoflower 63 days old from seed says its a 80 day run, 675 par, light 18 inches away, heat day 79,night 71, humidity 55% ,ffof, ff GB,BB,TB , cal mag, ff Open S, Beast B, Cha C everything at 1/2 strength , except last 3 i mentioned 1/4 tsp of those .Its in 3 gallon pot but only is 2/3 full of dirt used last of the bag so didnt fill pot. Everything was going great but now I have bad leave curl up into tacos . does it have nute lock . i always let at least 1/4 gall water run off into drip tray and suck it out . any help would be great thanks .

Sounds like you're on the right track. The low soil level doesn't help either.

 

[spase]

I got the additional scrog yesterday and the new light today. The girls are looking great. No signs of aphids for the last few days. I'll post pics if anything interesting happens. So probably a few weeks if it's smooth.