First real grow FINALLY!!! all advice welcome

Anyway, hey Rasta. Im in a similar situation. i have tried growing a few times but never really went all out and got the right equipment.

here it is a few years later and i have just recently been working on my garden thats in my attic (i live in a house with tall ass ceilings) and im for sure going to have my a/c and 6" carbon filter full on. flowering in a 3.5 x 3.5 area with a 400watt hps.

i know you have spent a lot of money but im telling you man a/c and carbon filter are going to be a must, even in veg. i have 3 bag seed veggin in the closet, and my house smells like living weed everywhere. it got this way about their 8th week.

also im using the same soil as you right now, and ill be using general organics here very soon (same deal on amazon i believe). ill let you know how they work once i get my setup finished, which should be no less than a week.

but one thing i will say about ocean forest is that shit does have a lot of nutes in it man. i found out its better to just let them cruise right through more than a month of veg just on water. im using distilled

good luck man, hope you get it figured out

lamopa said:

You have 9 sq. ft. (3 x 3), and 600w, so you are well past the wattage to square foot ratio which is about 50:1.

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Your giving good Good advice in general lamopa but i hate this quote. I'm not trying to be rude but to be frank wattage per/sqft is complete crap. Your lumens can vary even within 600 watt MH or HPS, bulbs degnerate at different rates etc etc. That's not even getting into the different lights or even bulbs within one system. Even bulbs within one system like LED, MH, Floros can put out different PAR lumens per watt (which is what counts). let alone light loss due to a variety of reasons or other factors unique to each situation.

To rastalove91 it can be better to run a T5HO if your heat is too high. Stress = lower yield. I'm not saying you should, but if your plants aren't happy in the higher heat than lower lumens but cooler environment may result in larger yields/better smoke for you. One thing to consider is CO2. CO2 in general can increase the temp at which your plants can thrive. do a quick search on this site i've seen at least 4 or 5 threads about it. There are some DIY methods but i would suggest buying something with solid reviews. If your going to use CO2 to run higher temps it better work all the time or, personally, i don't think its worth it.

RastaLove91 said:

As far as strains I will be starting with bag seed I would really like to order some feminized indica dominants but im still debating.

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I've seen some of the best bud start in a bag i loved, but i will never buy a feminized seed. The way you produce a fem seed is to stress a female until is herms, harvest some pollen and put the pollen on another plant. (im not a breeder but most i've looked at use a clone of the original female to keep the desired traits) This results in a seed that produces many more females than normal but also will usually herm much easier as well.

BTW im subbed so post it here if you make a separate grow journal I'd like to watch.

Thanks for the heads up man I also noticed the nutes I have are pretty low in npk should I get something with higher levels? One specific for veg and bloom

Thank you so much for the advice Bro I might just have to put an AC in the room i can barely afford anything else if not I'll get a co2 generator. I believe the some of the seeds I got were from some type of kush that maybe had some hermie traits idk but as far as the ffof I will definately try what youre saying. Ive been on this site forever and im using it from my phone but im still tryna figure out how to operate efficently once I get everything.in order I will start a journal

They were wired in my home without it and removed a couple years ago.

dude i would totally get a carbon filter set up before co2. you could get a duct fan pushing air in ($25.00 from home depot) while a carbon filter and inline fan ($200) pulls it out (away from your grow area completely). i promise this would be the best thing for you to do. and far more simple than co2, i would think.

or

leave your door open on the tent (if possible) for a few weeks. this way you can start your seedlings (while they dont stink), keep your area cool, and have time to save up for the rest of your equipment. could you drop 300 in 2 weeks?

and you if you could put an exit for hot air out of the top, the duct fan from lowes could help a lot on its own. just make sure to put it low. you always want ventilation to come up from the bottom of the plants and go up

you would need only a 4'' fan for your carbon filter. they vary around 200cfm, which should be ample for your room. and if you can get your hot air out of the room entirely then your heat problem may very well vanish without the help of an a/c

No advice for you, but I have a 400 watt Lumatek in a dr90, and very short from harvesting, and I already envy you with the 600watts. Prepare for some monsters! Been running 2 plants myself, hempy buckets (10ltr) but could have probably had 1-2 more, but I let them grow how they wanted. Next time might do some Scrog or Sog. Actually took some thread and made a scrog last week, just to keep them from falling over and dying from the weight on their shoulders

That's awesome my dude what kind of yeild you shooting for on those babies?/what you growing? I wana do a scrog too but il start off with topping/fimming

I have a 6in carbon filter I just rememeberd I have two flourescent lamps from my old fish tanks ived started seedlings and got some plants a good size with them in the past maybe.i.can change the bulbs to t5s and start vegging? Im supposed to be putting a small a/c in there soon if my ppls can get it for me (free from their job) but I would love to avoid the extra cost of ac as im a young father with plenty of costs already lol so I might use those tank fixtures as well as get that fan from home depot. Thanks dude

Bagseed! Where I live you won`t easily come by seeds as they are illegal. So shooting for whatever they will yield. But it looks to be enough to last a while. Maybe I will upload a pic in the future, but not sure. I would love to show of those top buds, as they are gigantic! Haha..

Yea bro!! Good shit man I wish you an overflow of good buds

Ayyyye I just hit the learning how to roll mark after fuckin with this site for 5 years lol

I've decided to put an ac in the room cus I got it free so I'm gonna put a duct for intake directly from the ac into the tent. Also let me know if this is a good idea, I cleaned up a 4ft tank hood light I had and put it in there with some kind of fluorescent light that I've used before I put 6 red cups with 3 well germinated seeds in each one so a total of 18 seeds my plan is to watch if they sprout and let them rock for a while and gather the strongest healthiest looking ones and dropping them in 3 gal when everything is in order. I hope this is ok

RastaLove91 said:

I have two flourescent lamps from my old fish tanks ived started seedlings and got some plants a good size with them in the past maybe.i.can change the bulbs to t5s and start vegging?

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i dont believe that will work, they run on ballast which are made for certain types of bulbs. i wish i could throw t5's in my old fixtures but it dont work. t5 are alot smaller then t8, or t12's

So far

Every seed I planted sprouted I planted 3 per cup shoulp I separate them or just pluck the ones I dont need??

hey rasta, hows it going?

so what did you end up doing? did you keep all the seedlings? i hope you did man, the more pheno's to pick from the better.

and yeah i would for sure separate them into their own cups.

is that the ffoc?

fogo4life said:

hey rasta, hows it going?

so what did you end up doing? did you keep all the seedlings? i hope you did man, the more pheno's to pick from the better.

and yeah i would for sure separate them into their own cups.

is that the ffoc?

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Yea I plucked a few some still are 3 in a cup I'm planning to put only 5 3 gallon pots in there to flower or should I get 2 gallon ones and put 6 or 8??? I'm shooting for 2oz plants 3oz Hopefuly and its ff ocean forest

RastaLove91 said:

Hey everyone, this gonna be my first official grow. I have been a member of this site since like 2008 and have attempted grows before but failed due to wrong timing. Since then I have only gotten my knowledge up until the time was right and now it is.
My set up is a secret jardin dr90 3x3x6 im gonna run 600w mh&hps I have a lumatek digital adjustable ballast 300 400 600w and super lumen output pretty cool. I also have a 6in vortex 400+cfm inline fan and a 6in air coolable hood. I plan on using the vortex as an exhaust at the top of my tent and ducting to the hood to pull air through it for ventilation and maybe 2 clip on fans for circulation.
As far as strains I will be starting with bag seed I would really like to order some feminized indica dominants but im still debating.
Im starting with FFOF and general organics nutrients go box.
Anyway I will be posting pics (still gotta figure out how) and updating. Please any advice would be highly appreciated!

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whats up bro. your set up sounds very similar to mine. 3x3x6 jardin, cool tube reflector. im working with a 400w mh/hps tho, so your shits a little stronger- respect. i also fuck with FFOF, use their light warrior seed starter & nutes too. if you use nutes dont forget to get something to flush with. FF makes sledgehammer, that helps during flush.

i read the thread so far and i have a question. you said you have 1 inline fan. you got that pulling air over your cool tube i assume? then your temp problem may be that you need another fan to pull air out of the tent. not necessarily connected to your carbon filter (which i totally understand not running until it smells). but if your fan is pulling air through ducting from the outside your tent, through the ducting and over the bulb, then through the ducting on the other side of your reflector and out the tent(thats how mine is set up) then it does nothing to change the air inside your tent. also if you have ducting on one side of your reflector hooked up to your sleeve at the top of your tent, then the air goes in one sleeve/ducting from outside, over your cool tube, into the ducting on the other side and out the top of your tent. this also does not change the air in your tent. id suggest a centrifugal fan to hook up to your carbon filter, and use the inline fan to cool your bulb. this will drop your temp down quite a bit, especially if you have your oscilating fans at canopy level as a kind of extra cool tube fan...kinda.

plus the jardin has velcro patches you can remove for passive intake as well. im super high right now and just popped in, so if i misinterpreted something and im giving you tips you already solved, then my bad. i will however be checking in to see whats up seeing how we have similar set-ups. subbed.

Thanks for comm