Looking for recommendations..

Hope this is the right area for this . Hi, I am MrMayhem1134 and I am looking for recommendations on things to help me get started growing. I am planning to get started in the next year or two and would like to start searching and researching equipment now.

My budget is $100-200 per piece of equipment for ventilation, lighting, fans, etc.. $50-100 on soil, needed tools, spray bottles, buckets, etc.. I am just ballparking, but max is around $200 on anything not including the costs of duplicate pieces of equipment. I am not looking for the "best" or most expensive equipment only safe and reliable equipment from trusted or tested manufacturers . I would like to focus more on quality over yield if that helps any XD. Also considering going organic, but this is not a definite yes unless the costs are lower. Plants will be grown in at least 1 bedroom so no need to worry about tents or that sort of thing and will be of a short-medium height. If you have any questions feel free to ask, also if you want to comment about something that may work better for me or that I havent considered please feel free to comment. Above all else try to stay on topic as much as possible and hopefully others can benefit from this as well!

Whatever your budget, expect 1.5 that at least, is my first thought for you. It usually always works out that way the first time.

Going organic can be tricky to get good results. You've got to know what you're doing and it is less forgiving because what is in the soil is in the soil, you can't on a whim just flush or change what is in the soil. Either you know exactly what you're doing, or dont do it.

I recommend using promix, and GH FloraNova, or GH 3part nutrient system for you first grow. simple and effective, no need for 23 bottles of anything, either of these nutrient lines, with straight promix, will give good results, and is simple to master.

(there are feed charts on general hydroponics website for both these nutrient lines to follow, by the way.)

Johnei said:

Whatever your budget, expect 1.5 that at least, is my first thought for you. It usually always works out that way the first time.

Going organic can be tricky to get good results. You've got to know what you're doing and it is less forgiving because what is in the soil is in the soil, you can't on a whim just flush or change what is in the soil. Either you know exactly what you're doing, or dont do it.

I recommend using promix, and GH FloraNova, or GH 3part nutrient system for you first grow. simple and effective, no need for 23 bottles of anything, either of these nutrient lines, with straight promix, will give good results, and is simple to master.

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Hello Johnei, I will definitely take a look at those nutrients. Thanks for the recommendation and the info on organic growing! I will wait on that and probably end up using some combination of light warrior, ocean forest, and happy frog for soil.

I hear FFOF can be a little hot for seedlings / clones , just an fyi

Lemoncandy said:

I hear FFOF can be a little hot for seedlings / clones , just an fyi

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Hello Lemoncandy, I forgot to think of that. Do you have any suggestion for a good seedling/cloning soil or would light warrior be okay?

promix

(I warn you about these FoxFarm soils, if you are completely new, must be careful, do your research first on them.)

Promix is basically inert. Good base for everything. seeds have no chance to fry in straight promix, and you have control what and when you want to feed using whatever nutrient line you choose. Foxfarm soils are 'preloaded' with organic fertilizers, in whatever amounts and ratios they deem, 'proper', and can fry little plants.

MrMayhem1134 said:

Hello Lemoncandy, I forgot to think of that. Do you have any suggestion for a good seedling/cloning soil or would light warrior be okay?

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I read a thread in here about a shop talking someone into this product at first watering run off was 8 .... Hearsay but enough for me to say no thanks young ones esp seedlings need only the bare min if not just water and inert medium until 3rd set of trues appear ... Trail n error but why start with error

Johnei said:

promix

(I warn you about these FoxFarm soils, if you are completely new, must be careful, do your research first on them.)

Promix is basically inert. Good base for everything. seeds have no chance to fry in straight promix, and you have control what and when you want to feed using whatever nutrient line you choose. Foxfarm soils are 'preloaded' with organic fertilizers, in whatever amounts and ratios they deem, 'proper', and can fry little plants.

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I thought promix was a nutrient so I apologize for that haha. I looked it up and it looks like I can find it al wal-mart. Is that the one? (Promix ultimate, promix bx, promix hp-cc)

Promix HP, has more perlite and it drains faster, and will dry out faster allowing to water/feed more often.

Promix BX has a little vermiculite added as well, and is a more water holding mix that won't dry out as quick as the HP.

Both work very well.

depends on your environment and what you want to do to pick which to use. Do you want more water holding and longer interval between waterings, or more light draining mix that will need to be watered more often, which is sometimes desired.
They are both very very similar.
Personally, I just go with what is available locally. Sometimes can only find one, and no point to order or drive hrs away. They are so similar.

the Promix ultimate i dont know.


Recomendation for you, stick to BX Promix.

Johnei said:

Promix HP, has more perlite and it drains faster, and will dry out faster allowing to water/feed more often.

Promix BX has a little vermiculite added as well, and is a more water holding mix that won't dry out as quick as the HP.

Both work very well.

depends on your environment and what you want to do to pick which to use. Do you want more water holding and longer interval between waterings, or more light draining mix that will need to be watered more often, which is sometimes desired.
They are both very very similar.
Personally, I just go with what is available locally. Sometimes can only find one, and no point to order or drive hrs away. They are so similar.

the Promix ultimate i dont know.


Recomendation for you, stick to BX Promix.

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Thank you, I found promix bx at a couple stores and also managed to find quite a few stores in the city I will be moving to that carry FloraNova grow and bloom and 1 out here that might have them.

My next question is about lighting. I have been reading that 400w MH for veg and 1000w HPS for flowering are pretty common. I have also seen some posts about blurple led panels and quite a bit about HID's, but I know very little of the HID and LED heat outputs and actual wattage. I am thinking of making my main lighting MH for veg and HPS for flowering and I will supplement those lights with either blurple led panels or another light source.

For grow pots I was thinking of using cloth instead of plastic pots, 3 and 7 gallon sizes.

Why 3 and 7 gal? 400mh will keep the nodes nice n tight n promote that jungle growth, whilst the HP's will give em legs during veg flower HP's all the way 600 min I recon. I use canna classic myself can't fault it ... On the LEDs I have a spider 432w and its great for keeping mums gets me real nice compact clones with 6+ nodes at 5 inch's tall the off to veg under 600 mh the to flower with 600 hps .... Lovely

3gal for after seedling stage after the first couple of nodes show, then 7gal for the rest of the time after they grow a few more nodes. Maybe this isn't correct for me, but again I would be using at least 1 room and I want to have enough room for the roots to grow.

Sounds like a plan bro, just whatch the watering when switching to large pots give em enough to drink with out drowning them .... Drainage drainage drainage lol

I use MH in veg, but if I could, I would go LED for veg.

In flower I will always stick with HPS lamp for the penetration and the overall lumen pOwer, at least until they make an equavilant LED that doesn't cost the same as a small car.

Good Growing.

Lemoncandy said:

Sounds like a plan bro, just whatch the watering when switching to large pots give em enough to drink with out drowning them .... Drainage drainage drainage lol

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I will definitely watch the water and nutrients and all that. Most likely I will make a grow journal when the time comes and just post a pic of everything I have and go from the very beginning, maybe even do a few videos as well. This forum seems very helpful so I am pretty confident with enough resrearch and this forum I should be okay. I am still a little worried until I dig in and get the first year of experience out of the way. Gonna have seeds on the way soon to start stocking up a little, then move to other small items and purchase them before the move. I will only be moving about 8-10 hours from where I am now so that's a plus.

Johnei said:

I use MH in veg, but if I could, I would go LED for veg.

In flower I will always stick with HPS lamp for the penetration and the overall lumen pOwer, at least until they make an equavilant LED that doesn't cost the same as a small car.

Good Growing.

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LED for veg doesn't sound like a bad idea, I have seen one brand of LED's suggest a lot lately (starts wuth a V?). In flowering have you tried HID's? I have seen posts of people switch from HPS to HID's because they were better. I am considering both types in flowering or LED's and HID's. Thoughts?

Personal note: Still saving and I am very hopeful for the future .

HID?
=
High Intensity Discharge

HPS and MH are HID lamps.
so you confused me what you just said.

Johnei said:

HID?
=
High Intensity Discharge

HPS and MH are HID lamps.
so you confused me what you just said.

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Okay, thank you for clearing that up . This is why I am saving lights for last as I need to learn more lol. Any recommendations on good fans to use?

I use Elicent, and Vortex fans. All my fans are very very old.. we're talking 10-15years, Elicent's been running for 15 years, vortex not so long. so I'm not up to speed on 'the best' these days. One of the Elicent's is dying though, finally..lol ...I guess you could say it's a great fan, considering how long been running without issue, but there may be better these days, I don't know.

(I always just go with Vortex, for friends grows etc. whenever I'm helping out and I need a new main fan for some reason.. the first one I just grab without question, is a Vortex, but that's just me.)