Decent setup?

Hi, this is my first complete grow and my first except for learning from my friend. Here's what I'm working with: I have a 250 MH ligh and a 150 light without a hood/hoods, four-sides of white sheets and a white floor with a regular fan pointed down from above. My questions are: is it acceptable to not have a hood? What should I put in my soil?- I have hyponex by itself for germinated seeds in dixie cups now. Should I mix in some perlite and if so how much? If I want to switch soils, should I during transplant?- or is the shock not worth it? Oh, and any guidence on a way to make a cheap hood would be awesome. It's a lot- any help will be much obliged.

Aluminum flashing makes great hoods get a 10' roll less than 10 US make a few hoods. Not fond of aluminum adhere some mylar to it, Yes a hood or reflector is a nessesity not just for cooling, but who wants to light the cieling of thier room you want to reflect as much of the light DOWN.

Dont put ANYTHING in the soil but slightly acidic water until you have a plant not a sprout.

IF you find that your sprouts die off consistantly, (was my problem at first) yes add pearlite to soil to allow the roots to get les moisture and more oxygen.

Why would you change soil in the middle unless you run out and can not find more.

DUring vege cycle high nitrogen plant food is usualy helpful but only every other watering. you need to flush out the nutes every now and then to avoid build up.

You are going to want to change that to a high K nutrient to promote stem and bud growth during flowering. I like to throw a table spoon of molasses per gallon of water in with the flowering nutes it promotes better bud growth (I think so at least and my buds even tasted sweet. OK that was my wishful thinking perhaps.


Otherwise 24 hours light for gremination and sprouts
18/6 on/off for Vege cycle let them growtill they are about 1/3 the height of your flowering room and then 12/12 till the buds come home.

Unless you have whack soil, over water, or over nute, TLC , LIght and Water isss all you should really need , (unless you are trying to master the art like some of these folks, ME I just wanna not have to go to a dealer for my bud and get the same quality and bang for the buck each time .

As for your transplant question, it will be fine to switch soil at transplant as long as you don't fiddle with the root ball much. I mix in 1/2 perlite with my soil mixture and it has been working great. You could probably get away with less than that. I have a friend who mixes in 1/3 perlite.

hey real good stuff...thanks a lot...

as for the reflecting hood- would a clean white sheet, stretched tight over top of everything work as a decent reflector in lue of a hood? jw.

all the hood does is focu the light downward toward the plants. if your in a small area, like closet, or a box no hood will be ok. but if your in room with some size to it then yes i recomend a hood.

cool...okay so laught at me if this is as silly as it could possibly be...but i just took a bong hit, and I looked out the window and saw my neighbor had an old metalish tobbagon like disk sled thing ya know...the kind chevy chase greases up and exlodes down the hill on in christmas vacation...what if i hung this from the ceiling, drilled some holes so the light chains could go through it, and mounted this tobaggon thing above my lights as a reflector hood? would this focus the light well...i know im envisioning this in my head being perfect, but i'm sure it's just funny. let me knw.

hell ya that would work great.i payed $145.00 for my 4ft reflector. if you can get it thats what you will be saveing.