Lighting First Serious Auto Grow - Lights

[th1986]

Short introduction , not new to the world of basement horticulture , but given my lack of passion and outside distractions I've never really reached the potential i assume I could had i worked harder.

I decided since I really enjoy various flavors , but tend to stick to 1 or 2 strains for my perpetual big grow I'd like to run a separate small autoflower grow.

I'll be doing a lot of research or have already for questions I'm not asking here. As of this moment this is my biggest deciding factor.



Lights in consideration

-4ft 4bulb T5HO

-400watt digital , switchable ballast (mh/hps switchable) I'll have a choice from a medium sized air coolable hood or a winged reflector


out of my options is this the best route?



So i guess these are my options I'm consiering


A)
T5 - seedling for 2ish weeks
MH - until budding begins
HPS - the rest of the way out

B)
MH - start from seedling
HPS - once budding stars flip it over to hps for remainder

C)
T5 - for the entire cycle.


As of now i wanted to go with 3 gallon buckets (planting the germinated seed directly into the 3 gal , no transplants!)

So about that I'm wondering if that's IDEAL , and how many should I put under a 400w HPS (option of using a medium sized air cool-able hood or metal wing reflector)

Strains being used in this project will be

3x Sweet Seeds Auto Dark Devil
1x World Of Seeds Pakistan Ryder
1x Dinafem Seeds Critical Plus
1x Dinafem Seeds Original Amnesia

Finish times/Sizes aren't going to all line up I'm sure , So I'll build small platforms for those falling behind.

Def plan to make a log/blog about the AUTO's as those are top priority. I've done 1 before that came free but i did zero research and it spent it's entire life under a T5 cramped up in a Solo Cup. I think i yielded 10g which in retrospect doesn't seem to bad considering i was clueless. I'm hoping I can get somewhere in the 1oz range with the 6 auto's i plan to do. Either way I'm not going to sweat it as this is a secondary grow to put unused equipment to work , and better yet to hopefully get a nice collection of flavors going.

Also ordered (non auto)
-Delicious Seeds Critical Super Silver Haze
-Serious Seeds Chronic
-Dr Underground Seeds U-pink chronic
-Dinafem Seeds California Cash Plant
-DinaFem Seeds California Hash Plant

Will also try and blog about the other seeds I ordered as they , like my auto flower project ,which will be used to experiment with (isolating desirable strains to keep around , finding the prefereed pheno of said strains) , I'll likely flower 4 at a time under a 400w hps separate from my larger perpetual grow. Plan is 4 plans in 5 gallons under 400w. But first I'll be focusing on the auto-flowers.

Thanks for any help. I'm just ordering the seeds today so it's going to be a week or so before I'll start any kind of log or general but in the meantime I'll continue my research on the auto's.


TLDR Cliff notes
-6 Auto's in soil 3gal pots entirety of life
-4 lamp T5 , 400w MH/HPS switchable ,
-Amount of 3 gallon pots under a 400w HPS

Which combination to use

1 T5----->MH---->HPS
2 MH----->HPS
3 T5 for the full

 

[th1986]

I'm also a bit up in the air about medium.

I'm thinking Roots Organic or Happy Frog , but will this be to hot for them? i've read that lighter , looser , mediums are preferred but I've always used high end soil So I'm not sure if by lighter and looser is referring to Soil-less mix or maybe some kind of coco n perlite combination.

Very excited for my first Autoflower grow and even more excited to reap the benefits of having multiple strains at my dispose ! Seems this past year has just been same two strains and it gets old! I've tried doing the seeds thing before but i overwhelmed myself by ordering to many , or furthermore having to germinate , plant , and grow them all at the same time , which led to major confusion , loss of some beautiful genetics. I have a fairly solid plan going forward though and i don't think I'll have an issue this time around.

 

[namvet25]

Welcome to AFN.Looks like you have things ready to go and have a nice choice of Autos.Every thing looks good but I didn't see any chioice for nutes.Jf you have any questions just let us no.:karma Cloud:

 

[th1986]

Thanks for the quick response!


Well main question was how to go about the lighting?

Incorporate them all somehow like

seedling t5 for a couple weeks

mh until buds are showing

hps for final stage?

Or would that be uncalled for and just roll with MH/HPS the whole cycle.

Or what i think is likely the least favorable , run the whole cycle with T5.

Think I'll run like 20/4 throughout as far as light schedule



As far as nutes I'm not really decided. I figured if i can use roots organic or happy frog like i use to before switching to hydro that'd save me from needing to add much nutes until come flower time , but I'm not sure what route to go. Should i use a lighter mix , some kind of coco n moss (im clueless to those) , perlite. I read it needs lighter more fluffy i guess you'd say medium.

I know i want to nute very light and not until about 2 weeks in , and even when i see bud formation I still wanna bloom nute them until they stop growing (not stating this as fact but as what im under the impression of)

I have quite the slew of nutes to choose from. Recently pushed my dad to start a grow after years of letting my mom make that decision and he bought a killer package deal from a friend , which came with easily $1,000 worth of nutriants , as well as everything else you need to start a room (huge hood , digital ballast , lights , fans , thermostats , the list goes on) .

So for nutes , my big set up , in water really just get's lucas (friend is teaching me and he swears by it but im starting to believe he's just cheap) , and before switching my main grow from soil to water i kind of bounced around line to line , but settled with roots organic at the end.

Any suggestions on nutes would be highly appreciated . i do understand your nute schedule should be dialed down by a lot compared to how much you'd feed non auto plants , so while I hate dishing out tons of $ on expensive nutes if theres something none to really give the trick , that's not a problem considering how long it will last and how little i will need!

I'm placing the order this morning , so once they arrive I'll get a journal going. I'll pre warn since this is just a side grow It's going to be pretty dull , just in a small spare room with an inline fan and my 400w. Can't justify doing much more at the moment , this is mainly to experiment and if i can get good results I'll gladly continue doing it on the side just for the awesome fact that i can have tons of different strains available to smoke at any time and don't have to butcher my big grow.. Took a lot of time , headache and wasted money to finally get down to a couple main strains to run with , so while I like new smoke I don't like the headache of having 8-10 strains in a room all different flowering times , sizes , canopies etc , and it leaves you with only a little understanding of each and i feel getting a greater understanding of only a few will reap more benefits in the future!


sorry i ramble , been awhile since ive been on a forum so feel's nice to be back , when us doj pulled the plug on pokerstars my forum days ended , as well as the ease of making a living doing something you love. now i just need to transfer that passion i had for poker to this and things should look up. Just a bummer after doing this so long I'm so far behind my potential , but hey i can sit and complain and do nothing or i can start making things happen.

Are grow journals only for auto strands? Because i have numerous grows im involved in. My own personal main grow , my autoflower experiment , which will be a back and forth thing as i plan to slowly check out the non auto seeds i ordered , but in a more organized fashion then i have in the past so 2 strains at a time as it's not just for new flavors (although it's a perk) , but i wouldn't mind finding a couple gems

seeeeee there i go , don't mind me , in time my posts will be less drawn out and more to the point

thanks for reading though

 

[namvet25]

I would go with either t5 or MH for veg then HPS for flower.Roots organic would be a good choice for the mix and also Roots organic that I jus bought for your nutes.

 

[th1986]

Gotcha so basically choose one or the other , either veg with T5 or MH for the entirety then switch it to HPS for the rest . I think I'll just go ahead and go with the MH as I've never tested it out , bought T5's from the get go and never really consider doing anything different. That will leave me the 4 bulb to veg some of the other beans I got to a decent size before they get thrown in the 400.

That being said my dad vegg'd 4 plants under 600w MH over the last month and boy did they grow fast , 2 different strains (forget which) , 1 of which stretched a bit but not to bad and the other stayed pretty tight. If he'd of pinched/topped , etc i think they would of bushed out a bit more but either way they were some monster plants for the amount of time in veg , just not as many tops as I'd prefer , but def eye opening since I always wondered why T5 has been the go to veg light since I got into the scene , whereas *i think* a lot of older heads swear by MH .

Back to the auto's , from what I'm reading there's a lot of different things said as to lighting schedule. Some swear by 24/0 saying the longer there's light on them the more they can grow while others swear by giving them a dark period and there defense is the dark period is WHEN they grow. Likely won't get a answer to sway me either way but i think I'll stick to something like 18/6 or 20/4 , until i come across some compelling argument swaying me otherwise


Anyone think I should go with lower amount of plants under the 400w? Was told on another forum 3 plants.. I don't see why 6 3 gallons would be to much , or maybe lower the pot size to 2 gallons. Or if i was to do only 3 than jump to a 5 gallon if actually has enough time to make use of that much more space , but with most strands it seems like 1-3 gallon suits them fine. I'm hoping for close to 1 oz a plant , and unless lowering the amount i put under the 400watt hps will even itself out , a 3oz harvest off 400w is pretty disappointing. Was hoping for a minimum of 5 and that was me trying to low ball myself so i don't get bummed. Oh well , i have no clue really if you can see numbers anything like you would in a non auto grow. Even i i can't , it's not gonna deter me from it. I'm really digging the fact that every few months i can grab like 6 strains run them , n have various flavors for whatever it is I'm craving , all with equipment that'd otherwise be sitting collecting dust

I've came up with a goal to take like 1/4 of any new strain I come across and putting it away and see what kind of collection I've amassed in a year.

 

[pop22]

Although I'm a total noob, i've read that with the right strains and techniques such as LST and/or a SCROG net, .8grams/watt is a realistic goal. I'm exploring this myself in my first growing that I'm starting so I'll be following yours to see where you take this!