my first grow - need answers

[syncz]

hello,

i started my first grow 1week and a half ago, i read a bunch of info already but i still have some questions unanswered.

gona leave u with some details about my grow:

growroom: 60x60x140cm
lights: hps 150w - 20h/on and 4h/off cycle
soil: all mix 50L (can give full info if needed)
containers: 7L
ventilation: one 150 fan pulling air off (with a carbonfilter on it for the smell) on the top of the growroom, and another 150 putting air in from the bottom of the room
growroom temperature: between 25/29c
growroom humidity: between 30/50
strain: california dream

what i want to know:

how much water should i give to my plants and how often?
---- i'm giving them around 33cl of water and i wait 3/4 days between watering

how far should i keep the plants from the light?

do u think a carbon filter on my 150 fan is enough for my growroom space with 3 plants? the filter fits the fan.

when my plants reach 14/16days can i use some worm humus and veg fertilizer?

what is the best schedule for watering them and how much water and fertilizer should i use?

how long do u think i should veg my plant?


any other advice is welcome.

thanks for the time and help, if i remember any more questions i will post!

cumpz, and have a good night

 

[statusquo]

I would look up SoG (sea of green) or Scrog (screen of green). Basically higher plant numbers compacted into a smaller space. Your grow will also emphasize horizontal growth for better distribution of light to the upper bud sites (the cola). This will result in bigger/denser yield and will make your space most efficient with a horizontal setup.

150 watt HPS with no cooltube could probably be as close as 4 inches. Basically if your hand is too hot to hold there, your plants will feel the same. Do the math...Take your CFM and see if it moves the volume in your grow room. You want to move the air in your room completely once every 3-4 minutes.

Worms/humus are good anytime after the first few days IMO. As for veg ferts, unless your soil is completely devoid of nutrients I would wait until you just start to see first signs of yellowing.

Deep-root watering is most ideal. When the pot is about 20-50% dry (the younger the plant the more towards 50 you should be) you should water enough to get all the soil moist + ~10% runoff. Water does NOT mean feed. I would only veg a week if doing a S(c)rog.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

First off I am a new grower so I am speaking from a pretty limited knowledge base and you should take all info with a grain of salt and try to verify it from multiple sources. Read until your eyes bleed on IC and you will be off to a good start.

how much water should i give to my plants and how often?
---- i'm giving them around 33cl of water and i wait 3/4 days between watering

That sounds about right, best way I have found is to water the plant until you get a good amount of run off, a pint or so, and then let the plant go without water until the leaves just start to wilt a little bit. Lift the dry pot a few times to judge the weight dry. After future waterings lift the pots to judge weight and water based on when they are almost dry. It is pretty easy this way because water is so heavy.

how far should i keep the plants from the light?

The hand method posted above works well, you should be able to hold your hand at canopy height for 1 minute without discomfort.

do u think a carbon filter on my 150 fan is enough for my growroom space with 3 plants? the filter fits the fan.

Enough odor control or ventilation and what is the CFM of the fan?

when my plants reach 14/16days can i use some worm humus and veg fertilizer?

I do not have any experience with worm humus and I assume you want to know if the plants will be strong enough and I think at two weeks they will be past hungry. But of course this depends on what your soil is made up of and what nutes you already have in there.

Check out the Organic Soil sub-forum and read the stickies, a metric shit ton of info in there about soil.

what is the best schedule for watering them and how much water and fertilizer should i use?

The best schedule is to water and feed them when they need it
My answer above covers the watering part and the fertilizing depends on many factors with the soil make up being a big one.

how long do u think i should veg my plant?

I am not familiar with California Dream, I would search IC for info about it and see if you can find out about how much it stretches during flower. I believe a rule of thumb is the plant will double in size for Indica dominant strains and 2 to 4 times for Sativa dom strains.

any other advice is welcome.

As I said before, read, read, read and I have had better success when I alternate every other feeding with straight water. Best of luck.

 

[syncz]

thanks for the help guys!

gona leave you with the soil info: 20% "sphagnum peatmoss", 35%" garden peat", 10%" worm humus 30% perlite e 5% pre-mix

with this soil composition can i fertilize during veg and flower? would apreciate some advice on this subject

not sure what the cfm of the fan is, but i found this information on the website i bought the fan from: "extraction capacity: 305m 3/H" doesnt know if it helps tho..

would be nice to have some help on my strain, i googled it alot but i can't find that much information (growers reports would help alot), so if anyone ever used this strain and can give me some advice, it would be really nice

thanks for your time, keep on growing \o

cumpz,


edit: btw, post some good scrog tutorial videos if you know any!

 

[redneck shogun]

I assume you are talking about vermicompost or as we like to abbreviate EWC (earth worm castings). I've never heard of anything called garden peat but I guess peat is peat. Seems like a good mix you got there to use for about the first week then you are going to start having problems unless you up-pot them into a mix with some fertilizer. My expertise is in organics, if you want to go that way I'll advise further otherwise someone else can point you in the right direction.

 

[syncz]

I assume you are talking about vermicompost or as we like to abbreviate EWC (earth worm castings). I've never heard of anything called garden peat but I guess peat is peat. Seems like a good mix you got there to use for about the first week then you are going to start having problems unless you up-pot them into a mix with some fertilizer. My expertise is in organics, if you want to go that way I'll advise further otherwise someone else can point you in the right direction.

if im understanding correctly the best ideia in your opinion was to put them in another pot with some other prepared soil,

but do you think its fine staying this way and when the proper time comes (14/16days iguess?) use some worm-humus and veg fertilizer when watering? (biogrow between normal watering)

would that work for my plants or it isnt a proper way to grow them?

thanks for the help, any other advice is aprecciated!

cumpz,

 

[emerald city]

I would start with a good book on the basic's of gardening.learn some of the terms and common language. ..There are many ways that work.do some reasearch and find what works for you and your enviroment.

 

[syncz]

I would start with a good book on the basic's of gardening.learn some of the terms and common language. ..There are many ways that work.do some reasearch and find what works for you and your enviroment.

good advice. i know the best way to learn is reading the right things about the right stuff, but i was just asking for some opinions, gona start 'studying' and keep on my grow the best way i can

i'll keep reporting about my plants from time to time

cumz,

 

[redneck shogun]

I can't figure out what is actually in bio-grow so I can't say if it will get you through the veg cycle or not.

 

[HempAlchemist]

good idea to know when to water is to fill a contain with some of your dry mix and pick it up. remember how much it weighs. now water throughly till water runs out. now pick it up. you know know how much your containers weigh dry and watered. you want to water your plants before the get to that dry point. dont overwater error on the side of too dry than too wet

your light should be no farther then the lengh of your hand about 4-6 inchs. statusquo nailed it use the hand/heat test to figure out exactly how close u can get in your system.

look up the 150watt club you'll be amazed what you can do with a simple 150w

 

[AKDrifter]

My advice is to look here http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=171604

and especially read Kodiak's growers guide. That is the single most helpful thread I have read since I thought about popping my first seed. It is an excellent guide.

 

[Sensibowl]

good idea to know when to water is to fill a contain with some of your dry mix and pick it up. remember how much it weighs. now water throughly till water runs out. now pick it up. you know know how much your containers weigh dry and watered. you want to water your plants before the get to that dry point. dont overwater error on the side of too dry than too wet

your light should be no farther then the lengh of your hand about 4-6 inchs. statusquo nailed it use the hand/heat test to figure out exactly how close u can get in your system.

look up the 150watt club you'll be amazed what you can do with a simple 150w

Sounds like good advice - liking your groove HempAlchemist...

 

[AcroPhobic]

You should check out the 150watt hps club. See you there.

 

[syncz]

Hey, im back again \o

almost everything till now is fine with my plants, the only problem im having is heat.. i live in a hot region and my growroom is around 32/35c alot of the time but mostly in the hottest hours of the day, i can't even keep the lights at 30/45cm from the plants because it gets pretty hot, so the light is a bit far away..

i read its good to have the lights as close as possible, but i can't really do it because of the temps.. googled alot about how to lower the temperatures, but it seems the only ways are an ac(to expensive), insulation (do you think it will solve my problem?), or better ventilation, but i have already an intake and outake fan (the air being pulled in is pretty hot itself) and another one inside just blowing air around so dont know much more i can do, any ideias that might help me lowering my temperature?

i thought about putting one frozen 1,5L water bottle on the inside in front of the lower fan and another one outside at the lower fan entrance cooling the air that goes in, think this will work but just till the ice melts.. so it isnt that good of a solution imo..

any advice or opinion? help me out pls

even with the litle temp problems, the plants are good and green, gona try getting a camera and post some pictures!

cumpz, and thanks for posting!