Fresh newbie, 400W/1 Plant, indoor soil.

Have four plants now, White Widow, Hindu Kush, Master Bubba, and Desert Dream. All of them are doing well, hopefully will be transplanting them into 5 GAL pots in a week, and start flowering. I know it's early, but have to get finished by september 10th. so let's cross our fingers.

So, I just got a new system, for my first ever grow.. figured i'd buy it all in one go rather waiting forever to get this going. Spent a lot of time on these forums in the past month doing my research and went into a hydro-store and they had a package deal so I figured I would take advantage of it.
Got :
Secret Jardin Darkroom II Pro - 90, 36x36x72
Valuline 4" Inline Fan
6x4 Duct Reducers
4" Duct
Sunleaves Digi hydrometer
Hydrofarm dual timer
Rope Ratchet Light Hanger
400 W Hps plantmax bulb
Sunspot 6 air cooled reflector
Lumatek 400W digital ballast
400 W Metal halide plantmax bulb
+ some other basic goodies.
Any input or feedback or questions would be great :]

Looks good man. Wish I had a setup like such...

your cutting it fine for 3 months i personally dont think it will be done and one plant will not get you alot without along time vegging id veg it for 8 weeks topp and lst it to increse yeild but thats just me take a look on my journal pages 315-320 and hopefully it will help a bit its 28 days veg and its 5 weeks flower today...

Alright, i'll look into your journal, specially if you have 320 pages! Man, one day i'll have that many... one day.

When I got the clone, I was told to let it veg for another month, but I've also heard of people running a HPS bulb under like 100 seeds 12/12 and getting what they get.
Also, I'm running 18/6 straight as soon as I got this setup today, but I had the clone for roughly 2 days maybe a little less under a small flouro... should I not be giving it so much light all at once?

plant looks lonely

wayno30 said:

plant looks lonely

Click to expand...

I'm trying to fix that tomorrow! haha. But I heard one plant under this system would be big and tastey right?

take a while for one to get that big

as said above your pushing it with 1 plant, you will have to veg it for a while to pull some good ounces, i would throw at least another 1 probably 2 more in veg for 4 weeks and pull 2 0z(at least) off each plant, your using 400 watts worth of electric so you might as-well put more in with no extra cost! if your going to stick to 1 then like said above top it and lst and veg for 7-8 weeks and she will fill the tent, or do what i said above and just top and veg for 4 weeks, imo saves 4 weeks of electric, good luck.

also i flower at 18-20 inches and pull at least 2 0z off each plant, thats with 4 weeks veg so i would flick to 12/12 around that height, but your going to have to time it for moving so might have to flick abit smaller,

Wow, thank you all for taking time out of your day to view and reply to my thread I appreciate, and thank you for all the advice,
I also got my timer setup for my Air controlled reflector and my ballast and everything worked out perfect, only badside is I woke up a little after the light turned on and the temp was around 90 degrees in there by the time I opened it up to cool it down a little bit.

Any ideas?

y dont you try and remove the duct that youve got on the in of the light so your sucking through the light removing the heat from the bulb and also the same fan is sucking the heat out of the room? also try making your duct on the right of your light straighter so theres not like that s shape,

Wow I didn't even think of that, thanks rob thats a great idea. And yea i'll try to make it more straight rather the S shape right now.

-UPDATE-
Changed the pot to 1 GAL with 100% Ocean Forest and gave it a little water
Getting 2 more clones of different strains from the same person on weds, so I won't have a single child anyore :]
Got my timer working for 18/6 from 9 AM to 3 AM but I still make sure it comes on/goes off, any ideas if I should change it to another time for less of a bill?
Also, any nutrients I should be looking into purchasing?

your 400 wont eat up too much electricity ..and you need 18+ hours in veg of lights on .. For nutes there is TONS of options.. your girl wont really need much at all for about a month because of the OCean Forest soil.. I normally still feed very little just to get them used to it. If you notice your soil isnt draining well get some perlite and mix it in at 20-40 percent with the ocean forest when you do your transplant... it will help the soil drain and cut some of the cost out of it. Good luck looks like your on the right track!

How much should I be watering each time do you think? I don't think i'm watering enough for it to drain, but should I go pick up some perelite?... theres still perelite in the soil that came out of the solo cup and I transfered into the bigger pot, will that be enough?
And thank you, if i'm not tending to the plant i'm on here researching and reading everyones journal just to know I do this right the first time.
I'd be a fool to not take advantage of all the free knowledge on this website, and I appreciate everyones reponse and wouldn't be able to do all of this without you guys :]
Thanks.

-UPDATE-
I took off the duct that was having air pulled through it into my light from outside, and its helping a lot with cooling it down rather it staying a stable 85 degrees.
Thanks rob :]

Watering is kinda a art and you will learn what works for you .. I water till I see runoff.. make sure the soil is completely drenched.. then I dont water again till its dry .. atleast 2 inches in .. They seem to like the wet dry cycle as opposed to tons of small waterings.. also this insures that even the lower roots get moisture. You really cant water too much .. just too often. IF you find that it takes too long for the soil to dry out after you water.. then I add additional perlite.. Right now I water till I see some runoff .. then it takes about 2 sometimes 3 days till they need to be fed or watered again. I prefer to have soil that drains easily that way if i need to flush or do anything drastic .. they dont drown.. Just got to make sure not to forget to water em lol. Another thing is water right when your lights come one .. that way you dont have too much moisture hanging out at lights off around the bottem of your plant.. that invites powdery mildew. Make sure you have good air movement. Ok now im rambling. If its your first grow I would find some nutes that are proven .. then experiment with different ones once you have everything else under control.. TRIPLE check your tent for light leaks before you go to 12/12 .. if you check my journal .. I just had to cut down one of my ladies at 6 weeks because there was a small light leak and caused one branch to grow pollen sacs. Your doing it right though by reading and learning.. +rep for that ..

o btw if you pulled that duct from the other side of your light into the tent .. so you can have exhaust also with the same fan .. make sure when you get into flower you buy a carbon filter.. cus its gonna stink up the place

Bahaha, ok, so since I have just one duct connecting my light to my fan and then one duct coming off my fan, and out of my tent.. i'm using a longer duct to point at my ballast aswell to cool it so I don't need one extra fan running.
Winning.
All of that makes total sense, I usually keep my tent open and one of the windows open so I can see the humidity/temp from my bed ..
I get what you mean for watering, and happy to read that since when I woke up when the light + fan kicked on this morning I went straight and watered it, about maybe a fifth of a water bottle since I just switched it to a new pot aswell.
i've changed my initial plan to flower quickly, and am just going to veg this baby plus a few others i'm getting soon till they all look nice and purty cause I was informed it'd be a lot easier to transport rather them being in the flowering stage.
I also have my air conditioning running cause this things heatin up my apartment, and im in the desert which makes it worse, but no biggy.
I'm looking at maybe less than 20$ added on to my electric bill, is that about right?

-ALSO, is it fine to keep my temp at 85, or should I try to bring it down to 80, 78.. ect.

you need some kind of exhaust for your tent unless your running CO2.. the girls need fresh air to breath .. If running 1 fan you can go like this .... Carbon filter(when you get one. RIght now just open duct)------light ----fan--- exhaust out side of room. Here is a picture of what I mean .. obviously this is a bigger setup then yours but same concept .. 1 fan system. This is what I did till I bought my second fan .. now i have one for exhaust and one just for the lights.. I like my temps under 85.. mostly around 78 or so 85 is pushing it without CO2 especially when summer comes and it gets 10 degrees hotter if you live anywhere near me!

I must of confused you with all my rambling and run-on sentences haha.
I pretty much have that exact setup, the light.. then the duct.. then the fan.. then another duct out of my tent. thinking about grabbing another fan though for intake, just because if the timers kick on when im asleep and don't wake up, I don't want it baking in there from not having the tent opened up.

any cheap fix ideas?
anddd, i'm getting a PH Meter from my brother, for a good price.. and all the nutrients i'll need for my next grow when I do coco. :]

Steez another thing you can buy at walmart or lots of other places for 15 bucks or so .. is a temperature gauge that is remote.. I have one that shows outdoor temp and humidity .. i just put the sensor in my tent and have the display on my night stand so I can look at it anytime without disturbing the girls.. plus I like to monitor my humidity when the lights are off because thats when it is the highest..

Hey steez im still confused.. how are you getting the hot air out of your tent though? you need to pull the hot air from the top of the tent somehow.. this gets the hottest air out of the tent.. then if your tent has slits at the bottom those are passive intakes.. so when the air is being pulled out of the tent .. new fresh COOLER air can replace it. This eliminates the need for an intake fan.. and you get negative pressure in the tent so none of the smell escapes when they start to flower .. basically you always want the tent sides to be sucked in slightly.. I like to get it where my tent stays cool without opening or unzipping anything.. just incase some day you cant be home when the lights come on .. you know its all a OK