First time grower, a few question

[rainbows]

Hello everyone For the moment, this is just in theory, but in the near future I want to grow for the first time. I've been reading a lot, but I still have a few questions and with so many opinions out there, I thought it might be better to ask the experienced people out here

I might have 2 options, 1.5 x 1.5 x 2m tent, 1000w HPS or 2.4 x 1.2 x 2m tent, 1600w HPS. Can I use just a cool tube with a reflector for such wattage, or do I really need to hook them up with air cooled reflectors? Do I need an air extractor just for cooling the lamps, or I can use two IN/OUT PC fans?

Yield is obviously important, but as a total begginner I know that probably everything over 0.5g/w is a huge bonus, right? What would you advise me for that matter? I was thinking to pick between OG Kush, AK 47, White Widow, Amnesia Haze, what would be the better way to do it as a beginner, SOG or ScrOG and how many plants for my tents and lights?

If I'll use 1000/1600w HPS for flowering, how many watts do I need for the vegetative state, CFL or MH?

Hope it's not too much to ask, could really use some help right now Thanks a lot and happy growing!

 

[Antics]

You'll definitely need a cool tube on those inside a tent, and you will definitely need an in line exhaust fan.

If the fan is rated high enough, you won't need additional fans, but a passive intake would be helpful. Make sure you have no light leaks on the intake. Omitting the exhaust fan and using two PC fans will not be enough circulation for a lamp of that size.
In addition, an oscillating fan inside the tent will help promote circulation, and can help prevent problems like mold on soil, and powdery mildew on leaves.

Whether it's your first grow, or 100th grow, if you focus on QUALITY, meaning giving the plant what it needs, providing ideal growing conditions, good growing medium, plenty of container space, watering and feeding properly, not stressing the plant, etc.. yield will just come naturally.

For a beginner I personally recommend topping and LST. SOG/SCROG are optional if you want to do them. Which one to do? Not sure.. I haven't used either.

Those tents are pretty big, for a first grow I'd suggest growing only 1 or 2 plants until you get the hang of it. If you overwhelm yourself right out of the gate, you can easily lose the fun and enjoyment that comes along with growing. And to compound things, if you run into problems, you'll have far more problems to deal with on multiple plants.

For what you're going to pay for that HPS setup, you might want to consider going LED. You'll produce far less heat, you won't need as much ventilation, and LED lights have been proven to grow on par or better than HID systems.

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[Tead]

IMHO.... Way IMHO.

The very first and most important words anyone can give to a new grower... "K.I.S.S.". Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Not meaning to insult... it's a very common concept. Keep things as simple as possible. Get a simple growing routine going and modify from that base.
We (the 420Mag community) have seen it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. We've mostly all done it ourselves. New growers so often jump in with grand ideas and plans only to discover that the smallest of problems they don't fully understand bring their grows crashing to the ground.
I, myself, started off spending a bunch for a fancy tent, light, and hydro system, and seeds only to have it all fail under just a bit of heat. I sure wish I had started with a few household CFLs and a box.
Trust me and the rest of the 420Mag community when we tell you "K.I.S.S.".

Human beings are funny animals. We have all this fancy brain power going, but still need to learn lessons in the hardest of ways. There will be many lessons you will learn as a new grower. When you have a complicated system in place, it's MUCH harder to understand those lessons.

On a functional note... it seems like even with a cool tube in place, you might have some extreme heat issues running that much wattage in a tent. I can't even imagine running 1600W in my tent. I use a 250W CFL and 2 50W LEDs for veg and a 400W HID in a cool tube for bloom.

I might suggest White Widow as it seems like a forgiving strain for a new grower.

 

[Antics]

I absolutely agree with you there. Keeping it simple helps A LOT.

And it leads to successful grows

 

[labexperiment]

I agree with K.I.S.S. as well, but if you are going to buy the equipment anyway, you should learn on the equipment you plan on using anyway. I do agree to start with only one strain as well.

 

[rainbows]

Great, thank you for the answers ;D I'll most likely start small, but what's the optimum for my tents/lights, 10 to 16 plants for the 1000w HPS and a max. of 25 plants under the 1600w HPS? Are the 18L pots good enough?

So where's the blue circle, I'll use a powerful vents extractor.

And for the red circles, should I use something smaller for the tubes? Do I use two of those, one at each end of the tube? Just one + one PC fan, or what?

Thanks a lot for your help, really appreciate it ;D

 

[rainbows]

And one more thing, the fans and the extractors must work 24/7 for at least 90 days, right?

 

[Antics]

I run my exhaust and circulation fan 24/7. Exhaust for heat, circulation to move air around the plants. When they start to flower, I connect the filter.

As for the optimums for your tent/lights, I'm not sure, I'm a CFL grower, and making the switch to LED next.

 

[rainbows]

thanks, what I was wondering was how many watts of CFL lights I need for the vegetative state for like 10 plants, between 400-600w should be enough?

 

[Tead]

I would imagine that 400-600W would be just fine.
I'm running about 300W in a 2.5x2.5x6 tent growing 4 plants vegging in 5Gal buckets with great results.