New Grower My first grow ever!

[Minmatar]

Day 0 is here at last! I have been slow getting this started and I am sure to annoy the snot out of all the new grow helpers! Feel free to chime in with any advice or assistance that you can offer to help make my first grow a success. I have my 4x4 tent set up with a 400w HPS in it. It is an enclosed hood with a 240cfm exhaust fan hooked up to it. I am not running a carbon filter at this time. I do have city water that will be in a covered barrel in my basement always sitting with an air stone in it. I am using Pro Mix BX in tall 4 gallon black plastic pots. I have fox farm trio nutes, cal-mag, blackstrap molasses, and some fox farm "don't bug me" pest stuff. I do have a digital ph meter and for the time being I will be doing the runoff testing. For seeds I have a 20 pack of assorted Short Stuff.

I have put soil in my pots and doused them all around with some pH water. I had heard that the pro mix gets a good start when you first saturate it with some water at 6.0. I am now waiting for the runoff to finish doing it's thing so I can test it and see what the pH of the soil is at. Be back in a bit to update about that, and thanks to everyone who follows along!

 

[glasgow grower]

good luck mate ill be popping in subbed up

 

[hereb4]

very nice set up...can't wait to see it up and running....Short Stuff Mix packs are soooo much fun to grow ....just like "forrest Gump's box of chocolates-you never know what you're gonna get".
Welcome...its great to have another grower on board.

 

[Minmatar]

The tent
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The lamp
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The pots
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If anyone could tell me the maths for testing runoff that would be great as I umm see to have lost it :faceplam:

My ingoing pH was 6.0. My runoff was 6.1. I feel like grade school again with the "Jack has 5 apples, Tom has 2 oranges, what kind of car does Jill drive?

I am planning on germinating the seeds directly in the pots. I have just given the mix it's initial saturation, should it get saturated again before I pop in a seed? When I am ready to put in a seed should I heavily water it that day or only lightly water it?

 

[Minmatar]

I was just going over some notes and bumped into another couple questions. If I am to keep the inside of my grow area around 75-78 degrees F, what should I try to keep the humidity at, and how to lower the humidity of the room? Would it be best to keep the exhaust fan running all the time or only while the light is on? I am using a 20-4 light schedule in my basement. The room the tent is in also has my furnace. With the light running in my tent the past couple days the temperature of my basement has been ranging from 70-73 degrees F. Light height question. I watched Dr. Autoflower's videos on youtube. In one video he goes over a variable height for 400w lights starting at three feet and going down to twelve inches by week two. I hate to question his info as he seems to know what he is doing, but I have to ask; Do other growers use this technique, and what do you think? Thanks for reading =)

 

[Hazy]

Yes i use this technique, with my 600w i start at 26" bringing it down to 18" and then keep an eye out for heat issues. Here is a table i use as a guide for light hieght Hazy

 

[GoTgReEn]

I also use same table..... Some strains i can have 400w 8" away!

 

[Minmatar]

Thanks for that chart Hazy it will give me something to work with when adjusting lights. I love charts and videos too. I am actually looking for more videos to <strike>watch</strike> digest. I have watched Jorge Cervantes ultimate grow videos, but as they pertain to photos, only part of the info will work for me. If anyone could recommend more videos that would be great!

I was thinking last night while collecting runoff to test, how long about would it take for the pots to fully runoff? I understand that there can be variables, but I am just trying to get an idea as to how long to leave before collecting the water so I do not over handle the pots or plants.

Thanks for following along!

 

[Minmatar]

gotgreen, I see that you have a dina ww auto in your sig, this will be good as I got a free one of them from attitude on my order! i will check that out and see how it went for you!

Edit: I see yours was a freebie as well, and the pics at the end are great. I will have to look into airpots I don't know much about them, but I hear they were good.

 

[GoTgReEn]

They are very good!