New Grower beginnger here :) wud love help

[Nima_orange]

Hey well decided to give it a go. Do a few plants or so just for some medicinal smoke. I have been planning this for a while and for me a box/tent would be ideal. for my first time I shall be constructing my own box made of wood. My friend is going to supply me with one 400w HID and I have heard these get very warm so i may be making my own cooltube ( Just ducting through the light, to take hot air out... Do i need to do anything else with this? ). Also half of my soil will be using the usual soil mixes with the normal fertz but the other half will be organic. I was just wonderinh how many would go be fine under a 400w and would i have to get a reflector? I will be installing mylar in the box for good reflectivity. how far would my 400 w lights have to be from the plant? I might be using just cheap CFL's for seedlings and is it right to keep CFL 1 inch away and HID 1.5 foot away? When is the exact time i should change them to HID? From start I am going to be using an 18/6 cycle and veg it for as long as i can then gradually lessen the light to 17 to 15 and then 12/12. I will make my soil mix 1.5 weeks prior to using and before using i know to make it slightly moist but how moist? And can anyone reccomend me a nice and easy soil mix which prevents mould and all the other nasties.... With watering i shal be using tap water but i will leave the tap water out for a few days to lower the PH. How much should you exactly water from the start to the end? The intake at the bottom does a fan+ducting need to be there because i have seen just fans used here. Iv got a little plan below how i will be constructing my box but how would i get "Fresh-air" in from? Will using an exhaust and an intake fan be enough for plants to breathe or do i need to bring in extra air from outside? Or if i cant vent air from outside will I need to use co2 and how much co2? I was thinking about getting a tank of co2 but I dont know how much co2 to use and when. What extra precautions should i take for this not to be a fail? things like temp , humidity etc....... Thanks!

 

[spellbound]

Well 1st off welcome to AFN. Sounds to me like your doing a plan before you even start which is great. All these questions are good questions and all of them are answered with-in this forum. If you go to the live search at the top right of the page it will will help you find answers, and the sticky's in the new growers forum has lots of info, as for all the topics too. Spend a few more hours/ days reading and note taking and youll have the basics to get started. Just from experience, PH is a BIG DEAL and a meter is a must along with other tools of the trade. But all-n-all keep it simple to start and dont over do things and youll be off on a good start. Good luck and happy growing.

 

[jayp]

Hello Nima and :styles rasta: to the AFN Family Hop digity All of the info you need is here within this great site so sit back and :stylez rasta smoke: and enjoy the site

 

[wwwillie]

Hey and welcome!!
I am brand new too, been at it all of 4-5 weeks. Unlike yourself I did not start with much of a plane except what was in my head!!
Here are some of my thoughts though, or peruse my journal there is a link in my sig.
I was going to build a room / grow box but adding it all up I discovered a tent was less expensive and easier.
Get a pH meter right off the bat, don't bother with the color/drop thing. At least I could not read it right! And this is important
Invest in an inexpensive aquarium air pump and air stones, use this to aerate your tap water, you plants will love it and it will insure chlorine evaporation.

There's plenty more to go but these are a few things I learned along the way so far. This IS the place to be, lots of folks to help you out with your grow.
Peace and happy growing, glad you are here!:karma Cloud:

 

[Nima_orange]

Thankss guys! Yeh i just had trouble finding the answers to these particular questions i asked did a lot of reading now i thought it wud be time for asking! After i have these questions answered i guess i am ready to start yeh I definately need to get a PH reader. can you get a RH reader? or co2 reader?

 

[Nima_orange]

gonner have a look at ur journal

 

[wwwillie]

Rh is easy, you can get a temp and rh combo almost anywhere for $10-12.00. I got mine at Wally World.
co2, honestly I would not worry about that at this point... I too was thinking a lot about it, I even have 90% of the gear for it from my fish tank days, but once I started my grow it was the last thing on my mind. I just needed to get my girls growing and co2 was not going to help with that.
With autos you don't need a 12/12 light cycle, that's why they're called autos. They flower regardless. I am planning on sticking to my 18/6 cycle for the entire grow.
For soil... That's where I had an issue, but have since seen ways around it. Plant directly into the pot it will spend it's life in. Autos generally don't like re-potting (I have read). The last two I started, I soaked in warm pH'd water for 16 hours and put right into the soil. They look great now at 4 days out of the soil. If I were to do anything different I would have scooped about a cup or so of my grow mix soil out and put some nutrient free seedling mix in that spot and planted my soaked seed there. Oh and my grow mix soil is 2 parts Happy Frog and two parts Pro Mix and one part perlite. I filled my pot and ran about two gallons of water through it, let is sit for a week and planted my beans.
Temps and RH. I strive for high 70's and not to go over 85. RH I would like it higher than the 38% or so, but not worrying about it over much at this point.
I use CFL and LED. Keep the CFLs about 4 in and the LED at 22. HID is a bit different but I have no experience, all I have read says if your hand feels hot at the canopy the light is too close.

Hope that answers some for you.
Peace and have a bit more karma my friend!:karma Cloud:

 

[Nima_orange]

reading alot of soil mixes and most of them seem the same to me or i cant differentiate between organic and normal. I am going to be making a mix of the usual stuff like 50 % peat moss 25 % worm casting and 25 percent of perlite. Now with this i am going to add 20 lb kelp , 20 lb dolomite lime , 20 lb dried bone meal , 10 lb rock phospate and 25 lb of calcium chips 5 lb blood meal 5 lb bat guano 5 lb fish bone meal.Is my soil overkill or will that be enough..? Then i will mix all together and moisten and let it sit for 3 weeks. Now the problem i have is What is the difference between organic and normal? is it the soil mix or is it the ferts that u use? Also when you feed them with nutes every other watering Is it the ferts u use to feed now makes it either organic or chemicalized? I am planning to do an organic one but I am also going to do a few chemicals one to see if i can see the difference in taste between them. I may be use a 2 part A+B nutes which i have heard is good for organic and not too over complicated. If i used another "chemical" fert it would change my plant from an organic to a normal one right???? Are teas helpful? And wud using an ozone generator + a carbon scrubber help with odour or having just a carbon scrubber is neccesary. I know all of my Q are not Soil related so sorry!

Btw i am going to use Normal everyday soil to start them off and at What day/stage should i move them from basic soil and cheap 30 w CFL to my very own soil mix and a 400 w hid? Or should i layer the pot from basic soil at top then few inches below start with my own mix?

and thanks for the help

 

[Kaiju]

When you say basic? could you elaborate?

And in regards on what pH to use for organic/chemical i think its based on the medium so if mediums organic then use organic pH even with chemical nutes

But using organic nutes in a hydro setting you would use the hydro pH as its the way it uptakes the water which is different

Could someone back me up?

Also that is overkill if your starting seedlings in it? but should be good for well developed vegetative plants

Haha and you make me laugh make up your mind lol :karma Cloud:

 

[Nima_orange]

also how many cud i put under a 400 w led or 400 w hid? its going to be winter and the lights wud help heat up room or wud i need additional heating and how wud this additional heat be added? heater in the room? What light wud u reccomend and how many could you put under that light? Thanks! this would really help.