Hi. First time grower here. I've read through Jorge Cervantes' bible, and everything I could find on the internet. I've got 10 Nirvana Seeds AK48 in the mail. So I've got it down to this:
-I want a perpetual grow, so I'm going to have one grow tent thats 39.5"x39.5"x80" with a 400 watt MH conversion bulb setup for mothers, cloning, and vegging.
-I'll have another grow tent thats 56"x56"x80" for flowering. The tent company recommends a 600watt bulb for that tent, but its over 4'x4', so I'm thinking 1000 watt HPS? I can use a ducted reflector and pump air through it to keep the heat down if thats the issue of concern. I'm just thinking, the tent is over 4.5 ft x 4.5 ft and I'll probably have at least 16 plants flowering at the same time- from what I've read 600 watts wont cut it.
-I want to use hydroponics. I'm smart enough and when you really get into it, you start to realize that hydroponics arent that complicated. I've figured ebb and flow for the flowering room, unless someone can tell me why I should use another method, but for the vegging tent where I will have mothers, clones, and vegging plants that all require different amounts of nutrient solution, I should probably use a top feed drip system. Which is fine, from what I understand I can build it to be the same basic setup as an ebb and flow system, just the pump will run to drippers instead of flooding a tray.
As far as grow mediums, Jorge raves about rockwool for how easy it is, how its impossible to over-water your plants with it, etc. But then I've read a lot online about people who hate it. Apparently, from what I've read online, your PH will slowly creep up, and that you're supposed to flush rockwool every once in a while- does anyone know where detailed rockwool instructions are? How about coco coir, is it any easier to use? I'm looking for something forgiving to start my seedlings, clones, and vegges in.
So far, my plan is to start seedlings and clones in 1" rockwool plugs, stick them in 3" or 4" rockwool cubes for vegging, and then use hydroclay from there in the flowering room. In the flowering room, should I just fill the whole flood tray with hydroclay and stick the 4" rockwool cubes around in a grid pattern? Or should I pot the rockwool cubes in individual netted pots filled with hydroclay? If so, what size netted pots are we talking about? I don't really undertand the pros and cons of either option. I watched the video I Grow Chronic where the guy just fills his entire flood tray with hydroclay, but then I've seen a lot of pictures of ebb and flow SOG grow room setups where every plant has its own netted pot.
Also, I'm trying to grow as much as possible given my space limitations of those grow tents, and I'm also trying to keep this low maintenance, so I'm thinking a SOG setup in the flowering room. From what I understand, that just means starting the entire flowering room at the same time when the clones are only 6" to 8" tall and cramming all the plants in there so you're only really harvesting the tops. Is that correct? Also, some online resources I've found stated that each plant in a SOG should get 1 square foot, and that any less will result in less total bud. However, on this website I've seen pictures of HUGE SOG setups by people who obviously know what they're doing, and it looks like they just cram as many netted pots onto their ebb and flow table as they can. And it doesnt look like those pots are more than 8" in diameter. So whats the answer?
Please, help out a newb, any answers to my questions or critiques of my plans would be appreciated.
A couple more details:
-each grow tent will have its own carbon filter and its own inline fan to draw out air. I dont forsee a need to have any CO2 supplements because I've read that your fan should be able to completely exchaneg the air in your grow chamber in 5 minutes- my fans should be able to exchange the air in the tents in less than 1 minute.
-I want a perpetual grow, so I'm going to have one grow tent thats 39.5"x39.5"x80" with a 400 watt MH conversion bulb setup for mothers, cloning, and vegging.
-I'll have another grow tent thats 56"x56"x80" for flowering. The tent company recommends a 600watt bulb for that tent, but its over 4'x4', so I'm thinking 1000 watt HPS? I can use a ducted reflector and pump air through it to keep the heat down if thats the issue of concern. I'm just thinking, the tent is over 4.5 ft x 4.5 ft and I'll probably have at least 16 plants flowering at the same time- from what I've read 600 watts wont cut it.
-I want to use hydroponics. I'm smart enough and when you really get into it, you start to realize that hydroponics arent that complicated. I've figured ebb and flow for the flowering room, unless someone can tell me why I should use another method, but for the vegging tent where I will have mothers, clones, and vegging plants that all require different amounts of nutrient solution, I should probably use a top feed drip system. Which is fine, from what I understand I can build it to be the same basic setup as an ebb and flow system, just the pump will run to drippers instead of flooding a tray.
As far as grow mediums, Jorge raves about rockwool for how easy it is, how its impossible to over-water your plants with it, etc. But then I've read a lot online about people who hate it. Apparently, from what I've read online, your PH will slowly creep up, and that you're supposed to flush rockwool every once in a while- does anyone know where detailed rockwool instructions are? How about coco coir, is it any easier to use? I'm looking for something forgiving to start my seedlings, clones, and vegges in.
So far, my plan is to start seedlings and clones in 1" rockwool plugs, stick them in 3" or 4" rockwool cubes for vegging, and then use hydroclay from there in the flowering room. In the flowering room, should I just fill the whole flood tray with hydroclay and stick the 4" rockwool cubes around in a grid pattern? Or should I pot the rockwool cubes in individual netted pots filled with hydroclay? If so, what size netted pots are we talking about? I don't really undertand the pros and cons of either option. I watched the video I Grow Chronic where the guy just fills his entire flood tray with hydroclay, but then I've seen a lot of pictures of ebb and flow SOG grow room setups where every plant has its own netted pot.
Also, I'm trying to grow as much as possible given my space limitations of those grow tents, and I'm also trying to keep this low maintenance, so I'm thinking a SOG setup in the flowering room. From what I understand, that just means starting the entire flowering room at the same time when the clones are only 6" to 8" tall and cramming all the plants in there so you're only really harvesting the tops. Is that correct? Also, some online resources I've found stated that each plant in a SOG should get 1 square foot, and that any less will result in less total bud. However, on this website I've seen pictures of HUGE SOG setups by people who obviously know what they're doing, and it looks like they just cram as many netted pots onto their ebb and flow table as they can. And it doesnt look like those pots are more than 8" in diameter. So whats the answer?
Please, help out a newb, any answers to my questions or critiques of my plans would be appreciated.
A couple more details:
-each grow tent will have its own carbon filter and its own inline fan to draw out air. I dont forsee a need to have any CO2 supplements because I've read that your fan should be able to completely exchaneg the air in your grow chamber in 5 minutes- my fans should be able to exchange the air in the tents in less than 1 minute.
