Prospective first time grower looking for 2 cents

[Italixxx]

Hey good people of 420, first let me start by saying its great to finally be a member of something like this, ive been reading tons of forums lately trying learn up and finally decided to join the cause. These communities have always been so helpful to their members/ guests and there is honestly such an impressive wealth of information and experience that people are always so willing to share. Which for someone like myself, is proving to be an invaluable resource. So thanks in advance for that. Ive never grown before but ive been a fan of cannabis for over 10 years now, always so inexplicably drawn to the healing powers of the herb, in the face of constant ignorance and negative propaganda, something deep down always had me convinced that there was more to the weed issue than just black and white, and honestly i didnt care what people thought. So after seeing a few incredible documentaries recently, i was left with this feeling of intense vindication and disgust in the way the world has been "working" surrounding this beautiful plant. It opened my eyes in a way that only comes along every so often and it convinced me to grow my own. Something so liberating about the idea of it, not to mention rewarding! so i was hoping if i could get a little bit of feed back on my plans as a newb grower. I planned on having two grow tents, one for vegetative growth, and one for flowering. The flowering tent is 4x4x7 in which i plan on using a 6 inch carbon filter with a 6 inch inline cyclone fan, my light was going to be a 1000W HPS (with a digital dimmable ballast) inside an aircooled sunhood reflector. The vegetative tent is going to be a 2x4x6.5 in which i was thinking of having a shelf for clones and seedlings, and a shelf for a few select mothers perhaps. I have been humming and hawing about weather i would want to have a 400W MH in the veg tent, or if it would more cost effective to just deck it out with fluoros. Nothing comes close to personal experience, of which i have none. So i turn to this community to shed some light. Do fluoros offer up a sufficient amount of light to prepare these plants for flowering in the conditions of the veg tent i have described? will it hurt the over all yield to veg with fluoros? Have i missed anything or does any of this sound overkill or fall short in some way i have not considered? would it be worth it to go with the 400W MH? and lastly what do the good people of this forum think of the potential of this set up? Id love to hear what the people have to say. Any questions comments concerns are more than welcome. Thanks again for taking the time to read this, we all gotta start somewhere!

cheers!

 

[Robert Celt]

Welcome to Italixxx, you've joined a great forum.

I can't comment on the HPS or MH lights, I use LEDs, but fluorescent lights work well for vegging but HID or LED are better for flowering

 

[Pigeons420]

Hi Italixxx, welcome to 420!!

I just so happen to also run a 1000W air cooled HPS and I also run CFLs for veg. I think it's a great way to start the plants off under CFL because of the cost and effectiveness of them during veg. I do have MH but I prefer to run a cooler and less intense system for Veg. Maybe that will change when I have two designated rooms and not a closet area for veg.

I think in the tent, running the metal halide will result in temperature issues.

I wish you all the best and encourage you to take a look at some similar grow journals and get an idea of what would suite you best. Feel free to swing by my journal and take a peak and maybe meet some new friends

 

[Weaselcracker]

Welcome, Italixxx. I use a dimmable 300-600 MH in my veg room, and Hps in the flowering room. With every HID light setup, generally there has to come a vent fan cooling system. I have a six inch vent fan in the veg room, which is less than 4'x 4' in size. No heat problems, though the upper area of it may be a little on the warm side for cloning. I usually have it dimmed to 300 or 400. Sometimes I turn it up to 600. Generally the wattage setting relates to control of how fast or slow I want them to grow. Juggling a perpetual grow it's always a puzzle for me trying to walk the line of having a full flowering room. When I harvest plants, I want to have vegging replacement plants ready to go. At the same time I don't want the veg room overcrowded with too much growth if flowering takes longer than it should (which it always does for me). The dimmable light is also awesome if I have to be away for a week. I turn it right down- less water gets used and I don't come home to an overgrown jungle.
There was a member of 420- moved on now- who grows professionally- high end stuff for dispensaries, with a large and very expensive setup. He used only fluorescent lights for veg, which tells me that it's completely fine to use them, and probably a lot easier on the power bill than the MH.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

I veg and flower under t5 floros and my flowering suffers slightly because of it but for veg t5 or cfl are wonderful LOWER heat solution. I say LOWER because some people get the idea floro/cfl puts off no heat and that's not the case.

Other thing you didn't mention a carbon scrubber for the veg tent. If smell is a concern you need to have a carbon scrubber in both tents or have your system set up to pull through one tent into the other and then scrub before pulling out of the second tent. My girls in veg smell almost stronger than my ones in flower at times.

 

[Italixxx]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Super appreciated. Well, I pulled the trigger and I ordered the 4x4 1000w set up! And yeah it comes with the 6inch fan and carbon filter, so I'm good as far the flower tent goes. I also ordered a rockwool propagation kit, fox farms nutrient trio pack, a digital ph meter, ten white widow seeds, and ph up/down. I've yet to order the 2x4 veg tent, because I'm pricing out fluorescent fixtures. Probably set up a couple shelves and put four 2 bulb four foot fixtures over one of em for verging I suppose, and maybe a couple 2 foot ones for a clone shelf? Still workin that part out. One thing I'm curious about as I have read different things, is how well it works to keep the clones with the mothers in the same tent? As far as light scheduling goes. I've read 24 hours, or 18-6 and so on and so forth. Gets a little confusing. All I really want to know I guess is if there are any restrictions to keeping clones AND mothers happy in the same tent. And Ricky bobby thanks for the heads up man, I was not aware of the issue of clones smelling up the tent! I had just assumed they didn't smell till flowering, I did not consider that at all. I wonder if a six inch inline will be adequate for both tents, the 1000w and a 6 inch filter. Thanks again for the replies people.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

That sounds like an awesome set up! If my state passes legalization this year I want to do the same. Is noise an issue? Those fans get pretty loud. My 4in inlineat full blast sounds like a jet engine lol. little louder than my dryer but moving a lot of air. If you can run your 6 inch full blast you could probably put the fan outside your veg tent, ducting to the veg tent and carbon scrubber in there and then your intake to the veg tent could be ducted to the outlet of your flower tent that ducts to your cool tube that just draws air into the ducting from the inside of the tent and just have passive intake on the flower tent. That would pull air from your flower tent over the bulb to cool it and dump it in the veg tent and then pull air in the veg tent through the scrubber and out. Smell would probably be just fine there. My homemade scrubber is killer. No smell at all. But heat could rise in your veg tent. Worth trying before spending a ton more money. As far as clones and mom's in the same area that is fine. I actually have my mom's cover my clones a little since I don't use a humidity dome it helps keep them from drying too much. Clones don't need a ton of light to get rooted. I personally use 14/10 light on mothers and clones. Keeps them from going into flower and slow growth and save electricity. Gotta consider the about 30 bucks a month per 1000w bulb at least where I live.