Preparations must be made: 1st Grow!

[jus-naturale]

Hi mates, my first post here at ICmag!

I'm preparing my very first grow and very excited!

Okay - The basic information - (I'm from Europe so bear with me when using square meters and liters instead of gallons/feet):

Setup:
Mother/Clone room - 1 square meter - Will contain 2-3 mothers (?) and 50 clones.
Vegetative / Flowering room - 2 square meters - Will contain X (look at my question later) plants, which will be vegged for 2 weeks, and flowered for 8 (more or less)
Growing style will be sea of green, with a maximum of 2 weeks in the vegetative state, meaning a lot of plants per square meter.

Growing medium will be:
- Classic dripping system for the mother plants
- An Aeroponic EZ-cloner - for clones(DIY) (inspiration from here )
- PVC pipe flood and drain for veg/flowering(Will be expanded to contain more)(inspiration from here )

Alright. lets get down to business! As I am about to go out on the wild shopping spree, buying all the gear I need to get started. However I thought it would be best to run it by you folks before, seeing as you guys probably have thousands of ways to make this cheaper/more efficient, thus saving me some $$$.

Here we go!
Mother/clone room:

• 4 Sylvania 36w GRO-LUX
  1 timer for lights
  1 timer for the pump for the dripping system
  1 pump m. tilhørende slanger (dripping system)
  1 timer for the pump for the Aeroponic EZ-cloner
  1 pump for the EZ-cloner
  1 can of rooting hormone
  1 bucket for the EZ-cloner
  X Pieces of PVC pipe for the EZ cloner
  12 Aeroponic Misters
  5 fem white widow seeds

Questions regarding mother / clone room:
- Is rooting hormone needed when using EZ-cloners?
- Is there any complications when transfering clones from the EZ-cloner to the ebb & flood system?
- Is it overkill to use Sylvania Grolux for the mothers and clones?
- How many mothers would I approx. need to give 50 clones every 2½ month?

Vegetative/Flowering state:
Lights:

• 400 W MH Bulb
  600 W MH Bulb
  400 W HPS Bulb
  600 W HPS Bulb
  400 W MH/HPS digi ballast
  600 W MH/HPS digi ballast
  4 heavy duty hangers
  2 timers for the lights
  2 cool tubes

Temperature/humidity

• 10 Meters of air duct
  1 In-line fan
  1 Carbon filter
  2 Fans for air circulation in the room
  1 timer for air circulation fans
  1 thermostat connected to the In-line fan
  1 dimmer connected to the in-line fan
  1 humidity controller
  2 thermometers

Questions regarding temperature and humidity:
- I've been looking at this humidity controller - Would it be a total waste of money?

Watering/reservoir/grow-medium:

• 1 PVC pipe system (g)
  1 300 L(atleast) non-transparent waterreservoir w. lid
  1 minimum 800 L/H pump w. hose connecting it to the PVC pipe system
  1 timer for the pump
  1 Waterheater
  1 Multi-parameter Water monitor (PH/EC/Temp)

Questions regarding watering, reservoir and grow-medium:
- With only 2 weeks of vegetative growth, how many plants would u suggest for a SoG on 2 square meters?

Nutrition og PH:

• 5 Liter Flora Grow
  5 Liter Flora Bloom
  5 Liter Flora Micro
  1 Liter PH Down
  1 Liter PH Up

Questions regarding nutrition and PH:
- In my country (Denmark) we have very hard water - what would you suggest that I do with the water (before adding nutrition?)

Drying / Curing:

1 Fan
1 Hygrometer
1 Box
​

Other stuff:

• 1 fine scissor
  1 scissor
  1 bottle alcohol for cleaning
  1 roll aluminiums duct tape.
  1 roll mylar
  1 magnifying glass
  20 strips

So there you have it, sorry it is a bit scrambled or hard to understand!

Can something be improved?
Is there something missing? - remember this is what I think is everything needed, if something is missing, I would probably be missing it later on aswell!
Is something unnecessary?
Is there something that have not been explained?

I can draw som sketches of to explain the setup, or write a closer explanation of the ebb&flood system if u want, however it is pretty basic stuff

Don't hesitate to point out flaws, I'm here to learn!

 

[Phychotron]

Mother/clone room:

• 4 Sylvania 36w GRO-LUX
  1 timer for lights
  1 timer for the pump for the dripping system
  1 pump m. tilhørende slanger (dripping system)
  1 timer for the pump for the Aeroponic EZ-cloner
  1 pump for the EZ-cloner
  1 can of rooting hormone
  1 bucket for the EZ-cloner
  X Pieces of PVC pipe for the EZ cloner
  12 Aeroponic Misters
  5 fem white widow seeds

Questions regarding mother / clone room:
- Is rooting hormone needed when using EZ-cloners?
- Is there any complications when transfering clones from the EZ-cloner to the ebb & flood system?
- Is it overkill to use Sylvania Grolux for the mothers and clones?
- How many mothers would I approx. need to give 50 clones every 2½ month?

you don't need rooting hormone with an aero cloner(unless you have a hard strain), i use a new x-acto blade and clean it with an alcohol prep (those small pads of alcohol for injections). i try and pull the node down 'like string cheese' to get that top layer off a bit of the stem. if that doesnt work, lightly drag the blade perpendicular to the stem to get a bit of the top layer off.

the 4 plants i did with an aero cloner were in the machine for 10 days, veg for 2 weeks, put in some AutoPots to flower and they gave me 7 1/4 oz (as an experiment, i did almost no care to this plant, except the very lowest stuff that just stays short and dies) under the ends of (2) 240w, (1) 500w blackstar LED and a T5 HO 4x4. The roots from the aerocloner is what did it though, as they started to grow roots they looked like a firework going off, that's how many were coming off in the first few days.

You could use just one mother plant if you grew it huge.
just be gentle when transferring those roots, they break off all too easy.

we don't all have the bulb wattages to fixtures loaded up in our head. a 36w gro-lux looks like a t5 bulb. I'd get a minimum of a T5 HO 4x8 (4 foot long, 8 bulbs, 54w bulbs) and put it as close to the canopy as possible (few inches, get another light for mothers) and you will have nice bushy growth. For portability you might want to get two 4x4 fixtures. pricewise though, ebay has them for $200/4x8 and $150/4x4 with bulb color of choice.

I bought almost everything for my garden on ebay, they saved me grips of cash.

Vegetative/Flowering state:
Lights:

• 400 W MH Bulb
  600 W MH Bulb
  400 W HPS Bulb
  600 W HPS Bulb
  400 W MH/HPS digi ballast
  600 W MH/HPS digi ballast
  4 heavy duty hangers
  2 timers for the lights
  2 cool tubes

Temperature/humidity

• 10 Meters of air duct
  1 In-line fan
  1 Carbon filter
  2 Fans for air circulation in the room
  1 timer for air circulation fans
  1 thermostat connected to the In-line fan
  1 dimmer connected to the in-line fan
  1 humidity controller
  2 thermometers

Questions regarding temperature and humidity:
- I've been looking at this humidity controller - Would it be a total waste of money?

That controller looks like you need to wire it up... somehow.... I have a C.A.P TMP-DNe temperature-fan speed control. when the humidity is up later in flower, I turn the temperature down to get the relative humidity lower, this works fine, but I would like to upgrade to a sensor that does both humidity/temp day/night on the same fan.

Me, i'd skip all that hassle with HID lighting and just go LED. The Blackstar (cheapest decent quality light on the market) is fine, but i'm currently backing AdvancedLED right now for their diamond series (only about %15 more $ for the led Wattage draw plus a 3 yr warranty). My brother has the Extreme Flower 740 that grows gigantic nugs. His first grow he had the light about 24" away and the tops turned all white. Then he did a sog with 8 plants and had nugs about 2' tall and about a 5' across. I see a lot of potential with this thing on a light mover.

Nutrition og PH:

• 5 Liter Flora Grow
  5 Liter Flora Bloom
  5 Liter Flora Micro
  1 Liter PH Down
  1 Liter PH Up

Questions regarding nutrition and PH:
- In my country (Denmark) we have very hard water - what would you suggest that I do with the water (before adding nutrition?)

it's called a RO filter. Reverse Osmosis leaves your water almost pure, you'll probably want to get cal/mag if you get one. Expect to waste 3x the water that you collect. Some stores sell RO water by the gallon, just gotta bring your own jug.

you might not need it. What is your EC/tds/ppm ? I read somewhere that it's not an issue until its around 400. Mine is 150, and leaves heavy white mineral deposits everywhere water evaporates, still works fine.

i bought a ph adjust kit, with up/down and liquid ph tester. never use the ph up (I just add water if I overshoot the pH down). The test kit is essential. If your going hydro you'll need a pH and tds meter. Don't go cheap on these either.

Currently using the ph down Powder from gen hydro. once you get the knack for using it you can eyeball it to perfection.

Drying / Curing:

1 Fan
1 Hygrometer
1 Box
​

Other stuff:

• 1 fine scissor
  1 scissor
  1 bottle alcohol for cleaning
  1 roll aluminiums duct tape.
  1 roll mylar
  1 magnifying glass
  20 strips

don't need a hygrometer, cept for the grow rooms. After hanging, get some paper bags and some plastic trash bags and move the paper bags in and out of the plastic bags until your nugs are ready. Jars are just too damn small for drying. The buds are ready when the stems are dry.



get a 40x jewelers loop on ebay, from hong kong for a few bucks.

do you really need the Aluminum duct tape? 20 strips of what?

So there you have it, sorry it is a bit scrambled or hard to understand!

Can something be improved?
Is there something missing? - remember this is what I think is everything needed, if something is missing, I would probably be missing it later on aswell!
Is something unnecessary?
Is there something that have not been explained?

I can draw som sketches of to explain the setup, or write a closer explanation of the ebb&flood system if u want, however it is pretty basic stuff

don't go cheap on your timers and equipment. It's best to find out what you will eventually need and work on getting that. It really sucks spending money on something and then only using it for a few weeks. Those things add up. sure, how bout you draw a schematic of your setup.

for air circulation, oscillating head fans take up a lot of space, look for the tall, round and skinny fans that oscillate.

 

[jus-naturale]

you don't need rooting hormone with an aero cloner(unless you have a hard strain), i use a new x-acto blade and clean it with an alcohol prep (those small pads of alcohol for injections). i try and pull the node down 'like string cheese' to get that top layer off a bit of the stem. if that doesnt work, lightly drag the blade perpendicular to the stem to get a bit of the top layer off.

Alright, great! Would a small addition of rooting hormone in the water solution used by the EZ-cloner increase the success-rate ?

the 4 plants i did with an aero cloner were in the machine for 10 days, veg for 2 weeks, put in some AutoPots to flower and they gave me 7 1/4 oz (as an experiment, i did almost no care to this plant, except the very lowest stuff that just stays short and dies) under the ends of (2) 240w, (1) 500w blackstar LED and a T5 HO 4x4. The roots from the aerocloner is what did it though, as they started to grow roots they looked like a firework going off, that's how many were coming off in the first few days.

You could use just one mother plant if you grew it huge.
just be gentle when transferring those roots, they break off all too easy.

Alright, I guess I will have to experiment a bit with the mothers - Don't want them too tall, so guess I'll need more than 1.

we don't all have the bulb wattages to fixtures loaded up in our head. a 36w gro-lux looks like a t5 bulb. I'd get a minimum of a T5 HO 4x8 (4 foot long, 8 bulbs, 54w bulbs) and put it as close to the canopy as possible (few inches, get another light for mothers) and you will have nice bushy growth. For portability you might want to get two 4x4 fixtures. pricewise though, ebay has them for $200/4x8 and $150/4x4 with bulb color of choice.

I bought almost everything for my garden on ebay, they saved me grips of cash.

If I understand you right, you want 8x 54 W bulbs on the clones and even more bulbs on the mothers - That sounds like way to much in my head, or is it just me?

That controller looks like you need to wire it up... somehow.... I have a C.A.P TMP-DNe temperature-fan speed control. when the humidity is up later in flower, I turn the temperature down to get the relative humidity lower, this works fine, but I would like to upgrade to a sensor that does both humidity/temp day/night on the same fan.

So you control your humidity based on the temperature? That sounds cool, so you have lower temperature in flowering than in vegetative?

Me, i'd skip all that hassle with HID lighting and just go LED. The Blackstar (cheapest decent quality light on the market) is fine, but i'm currently backing AdvancedLED right now for their diamond series (only about %15 more $ for the led Wattage draw plus a 3 yr warranty). My brother has the Extreme Flower 740 that grows gigantic nugs. His first grow he had the light about 24" away and the tops turned all white. Then he did a sog with 8 plants and had nugs about 2' tall and about a 5' across. I see a lot of potential with this thing on a light mover.

I think the LED are to expensive for me at the moment, but it will definently be a project for the future. However right now I think I will stick with MH and HPS

it's called a RO filter. Reverse Osmosis leaves your water almost pure, you'll probably want to get cal/mag if you get one. Expect to waste 3x the water that you collect. Some stores sell RO water by the gallon, just gotta bring your own jug.

you might not need it. What is your EC/tds/ppm ? I read somewhere that it's not an issue until its around 400. Mine is 150, and leaves heavy white mineral deposits everywhere water evaporates, still works fine.

Haven't any idea of the EC/TDS/PPM - havent purchased the gear for testing yet, however I know that it is hard - I've heard about the RO filter, however I was thinking of another solution like maybe PH adjusting the water before adding nutes?

i bought a ph adjust kit, with up/down and liquid ph tester. never use the ph up (I just add water if I overshoot the pH down). The test kit is essential. If your going hydro you'll need a pH and tds meter. Don't go cheap on these either.

Currently using the ph down Powder from gen hydro. once you get the knack for using it you can eyeball it to perfection.

I read somewhere that PH up could be usefull in late weeks of flowering, cant seem to find it at the moment though.
(Think you skipped this section:
Watering/reservoir/grow-medium:

• 1 PVC pipe system (g)
  1 300 L(atleast) non-transparent waterreservoir w. lid
  1 minimum 800 L/H pump w. hose connecting it to the PVC pipe system
  1 timer for the pump
  1 Waterheater
  1 Multi-parameter Water monitor (PH/EC/Temp)

Questions regarding watering, reservoir and grow-medium:
- With only 2 weeks of vegetative growth, how many plants would u suggest for a SoG on 2 square meters?)

here it says that I will get the multi parameter water monitor for PH/EC/Temp.

- What is TDS? is it another form of EC/ppm?

don't need a hygrometer, cept for the grow rooms. After hanging, get some paper bags and some plastic trash bags and move the paper bags in and out of the plastic bags until your nugs are ready. Jars are just too damn small for drying. The buds are ready when the stems are dry.

I read an "easy curing" guide here on ICmag where he used hygrometers to know when the buds where done drying & curing etc. That is why I would use the Hygrometer in the curing process

get a 40x jewelers loop on ebay, from hong kong for a few bucks.

do you really need the Aluminum duct tape? 20 strips of what?

Regarding magnifying glass - sounds great (& cheap)! I'll definently look into that.

Aluminium duct tape was more for repairing the air ducts if they got damaged along the way.

Strips = theese things - used to connect pumps with hoses etc.

don't go cheap on your timers and equipment. It's best to find out what you will eventually need and work on getting that. It really sucks spending money on something and then only using it for a few weeks. Those things add up. sure, how bout you draw a schematic of your setup.

About the timers - Some say digital timers are the best, others say some regular works just as good. What would you say?

for air circulation, oscillating head fans take up a lot of space, look for the tall, round and skinny fans that oscillate.

I'm not sure I follow you there, care to elaborate?

Regarding pictures of my setup - they will be in links, hope that is okay!
Link --> Ebb and flood system <-- Link - Drawn to my friend who is going to build it. Not done yet, since I am still not sure on how many plants to grow per square meter - If you dont understand the drawing, please have a look at the threat where I got inspiration from, that will definently make it understandable

Link --> Veg/Flower room <-- Link - Started to enjoy making it so spent like 1 hour on it

Let me hear what you think

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Sounds like you have been doing a good job with the first (most important) thing: spending lots of time here reading 'till your eyes bleed.

If you've not yet brought a plant to harvest, and you don't yet have your genetics, then that would be your first step. Read, read, read. Make your strain choices.

Start off with a soil run. Main objective would be to choose your mothers. Start simple. (Plenty of time to complicate things later).

Bring your first (mother search) run to harvest, and you'll learn a lot.

Cloning is an art in and of itself. That's why there are so many methods available; What works for 100% for one guy, the next kills everything. Can't say why, just how it is.

Good luck and never forget the most important rule: Loose lips sink ships. The only way 3 people can keep a secret is if 2 of them are dead.

Here's a shot of K+ to get ya started.

So I'm told.

 

[jus-naturale]

Sounds like you have been doing a good job with the first (most important) thing: spending lots of time here reading 'till your eyes bleed.

If you've not yet brought a plant to harvest, and you don't yet have your genetics, then that would be your first step. Read, read, read. Make your strain choices.

Start off with a soil run. Main objective would be to choose your mothers. Start simple. (Plenty of time to complicate things later).

Bring your first (mother search) run to harvest, and you'll learn a lot.

Cloning is an art in and of itself. That's why there are so many methods available; What works for 100% for one guy, the next kills everything. Can't say why, just how it is.

Good luck and never forget the most important rule: Loose lips sink ships. The only way 3 people can keep a secret is if 2 of them are dead.

Here's a shot of K+ to get ya started.

So I'm told.

Hi! Yeah I guess one can read as much as he wants, but it will never be the same as actual experience

However I wont go soil, since I find hydro much more appealing, and everything I read points towards hydro having faster root growth and/or higher yield in the long run.
Why take one step back?

Regarding strain - I've chosen White Widow, since I was looking for an indica type of strain. Also White widow is able to take beating which it probably will get since it is my first run !
A less important factor is the resin crawling down the top leaves which gets me drooling

Regarding the cloning - I was planing on running Aero EZ-cloning and the simple rockwool cube cloning, making both experiences at onces, seeing what works best for me

 

[Phychotron]

Alright, great! Would a small addition of rooting hormone in the water solution used by the EZ-cloner increase the success-rate ?

i've heard of some people doing it. for me it's usually an all or nothing type thing. Either most root, or something was a miss and almost none root. I have some Olivias rooting gel that i tried on a few, but they seemed to do worse in the cloner. The plant, depending on what state its in should have plenty of the hormones required for rooting. different plants clone differently, and you might find that some need it. I have the best success with the scrape method in the aero cloner, but if i try that with soil/root plug it will rot.

your best chance of success is through proper site selection, and knowing how to prepare the cut, making sure to get a node in the mist, and that its long enough, and cutting the 45 degree angle just below a node seems to give me the best results. the nodes are where all the magic is going on. also you'd want to prep your mother plant a few days before by taking off the nodes with a razor and letting them heal up a little. plus it will give you an opportunity to find out how many uniform clones you can take.

if for some reason your c

Alright, I guess I will have to experiment a bit with the mothers - Don't want them too tall, so guess I'll need more than 1.

i just have the one mother plant, but after it's been butchered and the thing get's a nice wide base with lots of growth tips i'll throw it into flower once i get rooted clones off it. some people say you degrade the quality by clone of a clone of a clone.. of a clone.. but I've read and noticed just the opposite. the plant is a clone, complete genetic replica. your suppose to regrow them or replant/trim roots once a year.

If I understand you right, you want 8x 54 W bulbs on the clones and even more bulbs on the mothers - That sounds like way to much in my head, or is it just me?

what i'm saying is a few things. First that T5's make kick ass veg lights. The closer the better. with a meter square you could get by with 4 instead of 8, but the 8 produces so much more light, not just by numbers, but by the shape of the fixture. An HID light will be a single point of light, each plant a differnt distance from the bulb (which is why you put your shorter plants in the center, taller on the outside.) With the t5 you would have a canopy of light, creating an equal-potential surface roughly 60cm x 120cm. now when that is directly over head, each plant will get the same amount of light from multiple directions (roughly, the edges might not get as much light, hence i recommend the 8 bulbs). Because there is such a broad area of light, you get good penetration, since a single point HID would have all the plants casting shadows on itself at different angles depending on it's location. but if the light is coming from the top, the left, the right, and every direction around it your shadowing will be cut down drastically. I have seen nothing but awesome growth from plants that were just a few inches away from the t5's. I originally had a 4x8 but it was too big for my closet. The guy who i traded it to had just spent a bunch of money rewiring his (old) house to run his MH in veg, but after using the t5 he didn't even bother hooking it up.

So you control your humidity based on the temperature? That sounds cool, so you have lower temperature in flowering than in vegetative?

relative humidity means that when the air is hotter it holds more water, keeping it at 75 degrees and 50% is much less moisture in the air than at 85. right now i have my veg tent sucking air through a pollen/dust/allergen filter at the top, blowing that into the flower room. havent checked the temp of the veg tent, but it's usually open in the daytime and hasn't been a problem yet. When summer comes around it's going to be a whole new battle to keep heat down. the fan between the two run constantly, and in the day time i have my scrubber hooked up to the speed control and it runs automatically. Until i get the humidity/temp controller for it, i will just leave the fan between them on so to not build up too much humidity at night. (your not suppose to use positive pressure, blows the bud smell out instead of through the scrubber)

I think the LED are to expensive for me at the moment, but it will definently be a project for the future. However right now I think I will stick with MH and HPS

just dont buy into the hype that LED can't stack up to HID. most of those opinions are outdated.

Haven't any idea of the EC/TDS/PPM - havent purchased the gear for testing yet, however I know that it is hard - I've heard about the RO filter, however I was thinking of another solution like maybe PH adjusting the water before adding nutes?

you generally add your nutes then pH adjust, regardless of the water source. nutrients bring the pH down, but usually not enough. You'll need a reliable meter for hydroponics. once you get that you can see how your water stacks up and if it even needs any treatment.

I read somewhere that PH up could be usefull in late weeks of flowering, cant seem to find it at the moment though.
(Think you skipped this section:
Watering/reservoir/grow-medium:

• 1 PVC pipe system (g)
  1 300 L(atleast) non-transparent waterreservoir w. lid
  1 minimum 800 L/H pump w. hose connecting it to the PVC pipe system
  1 timer for the pump
  1 Waterheater
  1 Multi-parameter Water monitor (PH/EC/Temp)

Questions regarding watering, reservoir and grow-medium:
- With only 2 weeks of vegetative growth, how many plants would u suggest for a SoG on 2 square meters?)

I'm not your typical hydro person, my stuff doesn't recirculate so I skipped a lot of the reading on it. you might want some ph up on hand if your going that route. don't go cheap on the timers or pump. not really sure with sog, i can only have 15 plants in any growth stage. you'll get it down eventually how close you can pack them and still get good results. depends on how bushy your strain is. LIke the dude said, get some soil and see how it is before you build your manifold. You might also consider making a small scale model for the first grow just to test.

here it says that I will get the multi parameter water monitor for PH/EC/Temp.

- What is TDS? is it another form of EC/ppm?

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids
EC = Electrical Conductivity
PPM = Parts Per Million

EC is the reading each one takes, some try to simplify the results for you by giving you what they think the PPM or TDS. EC is what you would want to get, since PPM and TDS can vary by location and brand.

if you want to spend the money, you can get a continuous read pH/EC/temp meter for your tank. I hear its the way to go.

I read an "easy curing" guide here on ICmag where he used hygrometers to know when the buds where done drying & curing etc. That is why I would use the Hygrometer in the curing process

yea i read that too, but after getting it down once you'll realize you don't need it. Smoke a bowl a day till its good, each day will usually be better than the last. I have a grinder that I use, when the buds grind and fall through the holes and not get all tangled up in the grinder portion, its ready. I leave my buds on the stems for a few days, then as it's getting close i will chop the buds off and put them in a jar and check them over the next few days, lid on/off depending.

Drying is a tug of war between the air, buds, water and stems. the air pulls the water out of the buds, they dry out, you put it in a container, the buds pull moisture from the stem and moisten back up. The stem is the main indicator on how ready your buds are.

Regarding magnifying glass - sounds great (& cheap)! I'll definently look into that.

Aluminium duct tape was more for repairing the air ducts if they got damaged along the way.

Strips = theese things - used to connect pumps with hoses etc.

the vent is a metallic plastic over a wire coil. packing tape would be more suitable, but my vents have tiny holes all over creation, i think they re just made that cheap.

those Strips are called Zip Ties

About the timers - Some say digital timers are the best, others say some regular works just as good. What would you say?

both work, just make sure the timer can handle the load. avoid Apollo timers, they're garbage to work with and break easily.

during a power outage, Electronic timers will keep your schedule, so if the power comes back on in your OFF time, it won't flip your lights on. rotary timers must always have power, so if you loose power they stop dead and resume normal function from whenever they lost power.

So for your lights, i'd go electronic, but if your just cycling other things where the exact time of day is not as important, or you need many on/off cycles then rotary will do it better. for your aero cloner you need it to cycle every 15 minutes, which you can't do with an electronic timer, they can only handle a couple programs. you can also get a cyclestat that has nobs for length of time on and off. you might consider that as your pump control. it's more precise than a dial timer that is confined to at best 15 on, 15 off.

24 hours on a rotary timer is not 24 hours either. say 23hours 59 minutes and 30 seconds... so after awhile you'll notice your lights slowly coming on at an earlier time. Electronics are the same way, not sure how accurate they make timers, but your quarts crystal wrist watch usually runs a minute fast after about 3 months.

I'm not sure I follow you there, care to elaborate?

this type of fan takes up no extra room, does not have a head that swings back and forth. Also, avoid electronic switch fans, as they don't work on timers, and if the power surges off for a split second they will not come back on.

Regarding pictures of my setup - they will be in links, hope that is okay!
Link --> Ebb and flood system <-- Link - Drawn to my friend who is going to build it. Not done yet, since I am still not sure on how many plants to grow per square meter - If you dont understand the drawing, please have a look at the threat where I got inspiration from, that will definently make it understandable

Link --> Veg/Flower room <-- Link - Started to enjoy making it so spent like 1 hour on it

Let me hear what you think

why don't you just go with 2 600w bulbs evenly spaced? a 600w bulb produces 2x the light as a 400w at only half the wattage increase. Plus you'd save some trouble with bulbs, like if your 600 goes out and you only have an old used 400 on hand...

if your going to veg in the same room as you flower, you probably don't need the t5's, you'd probably just want to use your pre existing fixtures. but a t5 4x4 would be good for a few mother plants.

oh, and make sure to select only the best one of the seeds to turn into a mother. Otherwise you'll have all different phenotypes. When your building and designing your room, figure out which of the seeds produces the most desirable traits by flowering a small batch of clones. Then once you figure the one you want to keep, take some new clones for mother plants and flower the seedlings out to get rid of them. (you could also flower the seedlings, and just make sure to have rooted clones of each before you do). i suggest you look up the super roots air pot for the mothers

as much as you want to do a 50 plant sog, that's a future goal, you need to ramp up production and get your mother plants up in full force ready to support that type of operation. You'll be in full production in about six months if you are patient. If you want to get as many clone sites as possible in the beginning you need to grow the seedlings tall and bushy, but that'd be tough if your doing a seed race. If you do it like i suggest you'll learn a lot of stuff you need to know in order to design your room efficiently.



a friend suggested this book and it was a lot of good valuable info. It's been around since 1988 and the ceventez book is somewhat mirrored after it. People on here will tell you that you don't need a book, cause this site has it all, but it is a good place to start. Even though you'll probably know almost all of the stuff in book by the time you read it, its still worth getting.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Hi! Yeah I guess one can read as much as he wants, but it will never be the same as actual experience

However I wont go soil, since I find hydro much more appealing, and everything I read points towards hydro having faster root growth and/or higher yield in the long run.
Why take one step back?

Regarding strain - I've chosen White Widow, since I was looking for an indica type of strain. Also White widow is able to take beating which it probably will get since it is my first run !
A less important factor is the resin crawling down the top leaves which gets me drooling

Regarding the cloning - I was planing on running Aero EZ-cloning and the simple rockwool cube cloning, making both experiences at onces, seeing what works best for me

Cool. Sounds like you got a plan, and you're getting some rock solid advice.

I remember back ar Overgrow, we had a guy that read 'till his eyes bled, ask a lot of good questions, got good advice, and had a pretty good grasp at what he was trying to do. It was painful to watch it take him until his 4th attempt to bring in a harvest.

There are a few advantages to running your first run in soil, then going into hydro. The main one is that it give you a chance to dial in your "above ground" enviorment.

Also, If you are starting from seed, it is easier to get them started in a cup of soil. Don't get me wrong, it ain't inposible to start them in a hydro system, you will just have a lower success rate (at least I do).

Good luck and stay safe!