New Grower All Advice Needed - First Auto Grow Setup

[ShapeShift]

Hi all,

New user to AFN and loving it!
I'm looking at starting my first auto grow, I have only ever grown bag seed before outdoors and have had a little luck but nothing special like I've seen when growing seeds from a seedbank.

I have a few options as where to grow them,
1 - Outdoors (not direct sun as trees shade my area)
2 - Indoors inside cabinet (60x60x100cm)
3 - Indoors in Mars Hydro Tent (3'3''x3'3"x5'11")
(Indoor temps seems to be about 26'C and humidity is about 60% on average)

And as for lighting I was looking at purchasing the Mars hydro Reflector Series 96x3 LED (although I hear they updated the series to (96x5).
Do you think this Mars LED will cover either number 2 or 3 of my growing area options ? If so for how many plants ?
I also have 2 x 130w Dual spectrum CFLs.

I will be growing in airpots unless you guys suggest something that is better and has worked for you, and I think I'm going to use coco for my grow medium.

Nutrients I have only flora a + b at the moment, but I'd say I need more for veg, and other micro mutes ect ? which nutes have you guys had succes with ?

As for seeds, I was looking at - Fast Buds Seeds, Mephisto Genetics, Royal Queen.
I'm looking for mainly something fast from seed to harest but not something that is to weak of a yield, also high thc.

Thanks in advance, would love any help or advice you can assist me with! Keep it cool, blaze up!

 

[Wile e Peyote]

Hi all,

New user to AFN and loving it!
I'm looking at starting my first auto grow, I have only ever grown bag seed before outdoors and have had a little luck but nothing special like I've seen when growing seeds from a seedbank.

I have a few options as where to grow them,
1 - Outdoors (not direct sun as trees shade my area)
2 - Indoors inside cabinet (60x60x100cm)
3 - Indoors in Mars Hydro Tent (3'3''x3'3"x5'11")
(Indoor temps seems to be about 26'C and humidity is about 60% on average)

And as for lighting I was looking at purchasing the Mars hydro Reflector Series 96x3 LED (although I hear they updated the series to (96x5).
Do you think this Mars LED will cover either number 2 or 3 of my growing area options ? If so for how many plants ?
I also have 2 x 130w Dual spectrum CFLs.

I will be growing in airpots unless you guys suggest something that is better and has worked for you, and I think I'm going to use coco for my grow medium.

Nutrients I have only flora a + b at the moment, but I'd say I need more for veg, and other micro mutes ect ? which nutes have you guys had succes with ?

As for seeds, I was looking at - Fast Buds Seeds, Mephisto Genetics, Royal Queen.
I'm looking for mainly something fast from seed to harest but not something that is to weak of a yield, also high thc.

Thanks in advance, would love any help or advice you can assist me with! Keep it cool, blaze up!

welcome to the wonderful world of afn tent wise it all depends on how many you want to grow to be honest the taller the better what about ventilation and odour control then theres fans to keep the air moving the mars hydro is a good light never used the 96x3 reflector but have used the 144x3 and loved it dont know what it is like with the 5 watt chips in but i do know they run slightly hotter than the 3 watt chips airpots love them grow in 10 litre airpots myself with coco and perlite 70%coco 30%perlite cant tell you about flora a+b i have used advanced nutes coco grow and bloom big bud and overdrive all good products but try to keep it simple my first grow i used canna coco A+B and big bud (using canna A+B on my current grow) as for seeds you really cant go wrong with mephisto ive only grown there Fantasamo Express not a great yeilder (3 ounces) but what a smoke 75 days from sprout to chop and a Triangle Kush nearly chop time for her just got some tyronne special they are ment to be fast check this link out might help you some im sure more people will pipe up soon
https://www.autoflower.org/index.ph...s-what-is-needed-and-why-come-contrbute.7445/
good luck with your grow dude

 

[woody]

Welcome to afn buddy
Your best results will happen in the tent unless youve got a great climate for outdoor grows. 1 metre vertical space doesnt leave much when you take away height of your pot and space for your light!

You cant go wrong with mephisto genetics, royal queen seeds are good too. Havent seen enough from fast buds to comment. But would also recommend dutch passion and dinafem autos

 

[ShapeShift]

Thank you both peyote and sanguine, I think I will have to go with the tent, instead of my cabinet. I also forgot to mention I have an exhaust fan with some ducting, it's a little noisey but shouldn't be a problem. Yeah I think I'll go with Mephisto for my first shot, as I heard some of there strains cope well with training lst and scrog.

And I'd be happy with approx 3oz per plant, do you think I could grow 2 plants with the Mars light source, I was even looking at the older model Mars 300w (white) and perhaps getting two of them, instead of the one single reflector series..
What's the better option ?

 

[Malevelo]

Hey there, welcome to AFN!

Reading this list, it sounds like you have most things covered already, certainly the foundations As you're looking at an outdoor grow for option one, I suppose you're in the southern hemisphere and just coming up to springtime (if you are looking at outdoors in the northern hemisphere however, unless you're somewhere that is going to be guaranteed great weather for the next 2.5 - 3 months, I'd say stay indoors).

There is a huge size difference between your options 2 and 3, a 60 x 60 space is perfect I'd say for a personal grow, I've got an even smaller 40 x 40 tent, which is doing me just fine for now, but it's a one girl only show so if you'd be looking at growing more than that at a time you might want to be going with the tent. The tent has some more benefits over a cabinet in that it's designed for this, in that there are already dedicated fan extraction ports and intake panels for example, as well as supports for hanging your hardware like the lights and a desk fan.

Lights wise, you're not going to need too much, one LED panel may well be more than enough, and then perhaps add in a few supplemental cfls if you want once your plant(s) have filled out nicely.

Airpots seem to work great, not had a chance to use any myself yet, but I do hope to give them a try sometime and I know they're very popular with many people here, sadly I can't give you any advice about the coco medium as I've only used soil, but there are plenty of guides on soilless mixes which'll make sure you get everything you need to know

For feed and nutrients, check out Tangs Feeding Schedule in my signature, it's the one that was recommended to me, you might not be able to get all the supplemental bottles on the list, but the basics you will need would be the grow and bloom formulas, and some calmag (LEDs cause plants to go through calmag like crazy apparently). After those, the others are used to enhance quality and quantity, but aren't essential to get a very decent herbal reward

Seeds wise, go with what you like the look and sound of, check out the forums, there are loads of grow journals, so I'd say have a read through what others are doing, and see if there is anything that catches your eye!

The only things you didn't mention are airflow and smell, in your space you will need a small inline fan preferably to exhaust air from the grow area, and if smell might in any way be an issue, you can vent this through a carbon filter, and you will also need a small clip on style desk fan to move the air inside around, the leaves need a constant supply of fresh air across them to be at their best, and the gentle movement it causes will strengthen your plants

Just take your time, and read as much as you can! There is so much great advice on this site, and elsewhere online of course, and make sure to read the stickies on the top of each forum section!

Best of luck mate!

 

[ShapeShift]

Thank you malevelo !!! All of your info was super helpful! I've heard a bit about tang on this site so I will check out his grow schedule
Smell isnt to much of a hassle thankfully

Does growing in soilless medium differ much from growing in soil ? Are there different techniques or things to add ect ? I've just noticed a lot of people saying they are growing in coco so I decided it sounded like an idea

 

[BayLee420]

Besides all the great advise from our AFN team and members. Please go to http://www.growweedeasy.com/ for any questions that we may not be able to answer. This is a must site for cannabis growers. They have a "Steal this article" policy.

 

[ShapeShift]

Thank you BayLee

 

[elsamurai]

Thank you both peyote and sanguine, I think I will have to go with the tent, instead of my cabinet. I also forgot to mention I have an exhaust fan with some ducting, it's a little noisey but shouldn't be a problem. Yeah I think I'll go with Mephisto for my first shot, as I heard some of there strains cope well with training lst and scrog.

And I'd be happy with approx 3oz per plant, do you think I could grow 2 plants with the Mars light source, I was even looking at the older model Mars 300w (white) and perhaps getting two of them, instead of the one single reflector series..
What's the better option ?

the 96x3 will work well for 2 or 3 plants alone. I have one and have done well with it. BUT if I had to do it all over, I would have got 2 of the 46x3 reflectors so I could angle them for better coverage on the sides. live and learn lol. and you cant go wrong with the Mephistos. good strong genetics. as far as the Fastbuds, I just spouted a LSD-25 so we'll see how they do. good luck with your growing.

 

[Malevelo]

Does growing in soilless medium differ much from growing in soil ? Are there different techniques or things to add ect ? I've just noticed a lot of people saying they are growing in coco so I decided it sounded like an idea

As far as I can tell, there's not an enormous difference between soil and soilless mediums once your grow is under way, essentially it comes down to nutrient management, soil comes preloaded with some nutrients to get the plant through the seedling stage and start rooting, however these may not be ideal for canna, whereas with soilless grows you're completely in control of what is in there, and can fine tune/dial in nutes depending on your preferences.

I started out with soil because it's something I don't need to micromanage right now, but that's my preference while I'm learning