Preparation done, equipment obtained. Critique pls! Hmbx+400W+CMH&HPS

I started this thread as a final run-down (for myself to reference/bookmark, along with obtaining viewer opinions...with maybe 1 or 2 questions at the end) to receive, analyze, contemplate and implement any additional *positive advice for my setup that i've chosen (and when i say positive advice i mean please don't hijack the thread and say 'no, i wouldn't use that soil. and i would have gone MH not CMH. and yeah by the way homeboxes suck' yada yada.) Just analyze what i've chosen...advise me of what i can improve on and also, being that i'm a new grower (never tried growing anything except mushrooms,) LMK of common newbie mistakes that are made (aside from over feeding, over watering, PH issues, etc.)

Again...anything you see that i might be incorrect on, LMK ASAP! This project is literally launching in about a week, week and a half. Like for example if you see my homebox is 6.5 feet, that may help you send some advice my way when it comes to vegetative length & flowering time depending on the strains i chose..

Equipment:

Homebox L (Roughly 3ftx3ftx6.5ft)
Sun System 10; 400W HPS ballast
Yield Master II air-cooled hood
EYE Hortilux HPS bulb
Phillips CMH from advanced lighting (im pretty sure thats the name)

Medium: FF OF, Canna Coco & Perlitex;

Seedings/Starter % [6 inch pots]:

35 FFOF, 45 Coco, 20 Perlite.

1st Transplant (Possibly FINAL transplant due to size of growroom):

50 FFOF, 35 Coco, 15 perlite.

Schedule:

If i receive the genetics i ordered (Nirvana White Widow & White Rhino) i may go buy other's own personal vegetative timeframes, otherwise i may use bagseed and round it off at around 30-40 days. (Question 1: Bagseed from mid-grade marijuana...no idea of origination, but not dirt/schwag at all...anyway, it is VERY possible to take seeds from mid-grade weed...grow in optimum conditions...and still harvest chronic weed, as genetics do play a part but don't growing conditions and harvest technique (dry, cure, etc.) matter more?)

WW/WR:

(Input here!)
Veg: 30-50 days
Flower: 55-70 days
Dry: Hang upside down inside tent with indirect fresh airflow for 1-7 days until stems break with a 90deg snap
Cure: Place in sealed mason-like jars and burp 10-15 minutes once or twice a day for a week, then down to once a day for the 2nd week. From 3rd week on burp occasionally, depending on dryness of the bud, along with taste test.

Grow:

Start plants out with 400W CMH (already purchased, can't spend anymore which means no CFLs, CFL fixtures, etc.) - After a month or so, attempt to determine sex and when sex determined, transplant into final resting pot (Question 2: In 6 inch pots, is it possible to easily determine sex or must you be in a bigger pot/have more plant growth/have to during flowering? Or do they just show whenever they want to?)

Start them out under the CMH, 18/6 schedule (10PM on, 4PM off. - this way i run primarily during the cool night hours, and avoid possible detection also)

After veg, swap CMH for 400W HPS bulb. At same time, switch to 12/12 to trigger flowering.

I also have a wireless thermometer/humidity gadget, along with a humidifer and air conditioner ready at all times to get Temp/Humidity back to prime ranges (which, general consensus is 40-50% humidity, 70-75 deg with no more than 10deg drop for night hours)

Ventilation will be a CAN 33 Fan/Filter combo, around 265CFM pulling cab air, cooling hood, and exhausting out. Question 3: Noise is a concern, and i saw a contraption someone had on her about exhausing into a carboard box that is filled with egg cartons to dampen sound? Does this sound like a cheap way to diminish the sound coming from moving air in the ducting?

Question 4: Feeding. In the soil mix i have, (FFOF, Canna Coco, Perlite)... what kind of feeding schedule and nutrients have you guys had success with, and how can i implement molasses into my grow (is it even possible in the soil mix i have?) I'm new to growing ANYTHING...when it comes to feeding, whether it be nutrients or molasses, do you just mix in water and pour in i'm assuming? Please no recommendations for overpriced and overhyped nutrients like a lot of online retailers try to push. Tried and tested food only! lol

Question 5: I'm a daily smoker of 2+ years of low to mid quality overpriced weed. 1 gram blunts get me pretty high, and 2 blunts make me pass out easily. So, 1-2 grams of midquality bud gets me GOOD.. going from this to homegrown weed, especially if i get WW/WR genetics, how much should i prepare for the oncoming stone?

Question 6*(edited): I bought this PH analyzer (it was cheap): http://www.altgarden.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=429 - will this suffice to test PH in the soil? Also, where can i get dolomite lime online in case PH is high?

So if those if you with experience in Homebox/Growtents, CMH or just general small indoor soil grows see this, gimmie some advice!

Easy way to address the few questions i had (copy/paste)...

Question 1:
Question 2:
Question 3:
Question 4:
Question 5:
Question 6:

Thank you ahead of time for anyone who replies with good, detailed info - it's guys like you who spread the knowledge and let us get a few steps closer to overgrowing this dumbass government and society!

Question 7: If i start my plants out in 6"x6"x7.5" square pots, give or take, i'm guessing if i have 10 pots, i'll need around 1.5 cu ft of medium, correct?

.5x.5x.625 = .15625 x 10 = 1.5625

A big part of being successful with your type of setup is being a good manager of your grow. Good management entails (i) starting the proper number of seeds, (ii) picking a soil mix and nutrient line that is going to work well for you, and (iii) timing transplants and choosing veg times (they are related).

Question 2: You can start in smaller pots. Lots of credible people claim that plants pre-flower sooner when slight root constrained; I won't say bound because there are no ill-effects from the sort of constrained I'm referring to. Plants will show sex at between 3- and 5-weeks of veg. If you want to catch them early you need some sort of magnification; I recommend a jewelers' loop.

Starting in smaller pots provides a number of additional advantages;
(i) it is easier to figure out watering for young cannabis plants in small containers.
(ii) if gives you more transplant options later depending on the number of plants that you have to flower. For example, if you end up with 4 females you are going to want a long veg. If you start out in a small container you can do 3 transplants on a 7 week veg without ending up in a huge container. Because of the way cannabis grows roots in containers there is going to be a difference in rootmass (and potential) between a plant grown in a final container size X with 3 transplants versus just 1.

I personally start out in 16oz styro cups (available anywhere) which are easily good for 3-4 weeks of growth from seed; more if you don't mind watering everyday and feeding frequently (depending on the mix). Below is a SSH plant that has been a 16oz cup for 3-4 weeks. It showed sex a few days after the picture.



Question 4: A few things about FFOF that you should know:
(i) It already has a lot of big chunky perlite in it.
(ii) It already has oyster shells for PH buffering.
(iii) It works perfectly fine uncut for all stages of a plants development (including germination).
(iv) It is very forgiving and hard to mess up with. If you are growing with straight OF you won't need to feed your plants anything for at least 3-weeks from spout (and this is in 16oz cups) and I can almost guarantee you will not have to worry PH about unless you have some super acidic nutrients. My water PHs at 7.9, I don't do any PH adjustments, and my plants look great. I don't think this would work as well with the sort of mixture you plan to use.

You can cut it if you want (lots of people do), but you should have some idea of what you hope to gain by amending it, and what the cost are.

The potential benefits of cutting it are:
(i) you have a lighter, more porous, and better draining mix which might translate into faster growth.
(ii) you have more control over nutrients as you will be relying more on what you put in and less on what is in the mix.

The cost are:
(i) you have to water more.
(ii) you have to mix the stuff up which can be messy.
(iii) you have to feed more (including young plants which can be tricky)
(iv) you may have to worry about PH.

For me the cost of cutting outweigh the benefits. I end up thoroughly saturating flowering plants ever 2-4 days in 4-gallon pots depending on the weather and stage in flowering. If I were using a mix with mix that was only 50% FFOF I would be watering a lot more frequently.

Question 5: I've had success with BioBizz nutrients. You can buy all kinds of crap (even in this line), but I just use the BioGrow and BioBloom. Depending on your water-soil you might also need some CalMag or Epsom Salts.

How I use Grow: I find that as long as I keep supplying new soil in veg with by transplanting I don't really need to feed that often to keep my plants a healthy shade of deep green. I mostly use the Grow after a smaller plant has been in a container for a while, and then more frequently once plants start getting large. I use the Grow though the stretch stage of the flowering cycle and maybe longer at low dosages depending on the plants. FFOF supplies all younger plants need, but once you have big plants they might need more. Recently, I've been experimenting with mixing in some dry fertilizers into the soil mix when I transplant larger plants. This seems to work out well and reduces the need to feed liquid.

* With uncut OF you are going to feed more frequently that I do.

How I use Bloom: Starting at the end stage of the stretch period of flowering and extending to a week before chop. I don't really push this stuff as it is possible to overdo. I prefer to give a low concentration with every watering.

Picture: Plants that just got off the Grow and are now getting Bloom.


Question 6 I'm not going to advise you on a PH meter because I don't really know. I have Milwaukee PH meter which works well, but I don't really need it. It was expensive.

A couple of pieces of equipment that you should have though:
(i) a jewelers' loop
(ii) a small battery operated electronic microscope for tric inspection.

Schedule - Veg: With seeds the number of female plants is uncertain. If you want to make the most of your space you should tailor the veg times to the number of female plants you want to flower. Thus, if after sexing you only have 4 female plants, you probably want a 2-month veg. If you have 8 then you probably want to sex them, transplant, let them root a few days, and switch the timer.

Good luck. You seem to have really thought stuff out and prepared well which is a very good indication that you will be successful.

Pine

Looks good!

Cant wait to see it setup and running!

thx bud! i'll definitely have pictures up as soon as the seeds get here

i removed perlite from my mix, as pinecone mentioned... FFOF is very light soil, and coco helps aeration and root development apparently nayway, so...

i bought my CAN 33 Fan/filter combo... my god is the carbon filter huge! and the fan is loud as shit with no other ambient noise!

..on a side note, i went to the High Tech Gardening Supply's retail store - even though it took the guy like 5 minutes to find what i was looking for (he HAD to be stoned, lol) i still got what i came for and was in/out in 6 or 7 mins. they are seemed pretty laid back, i'll do some repeat business with them and see where it goes!

i'm still looking for some opinions on nutrients in this type of medium...and is it BAD to start the seeds in 6x6x7in pots?

KMK0420 said:

i'm still looking for some opinions on nutrients in this type of medium...and is it BAD to start the seeds in 6x6x7in pots?

Click to expand...

6*6*7 is at least one-gallon and is bigger than ideal. You can do it, but you would be far better off starting in something smaller and doing another transplant. For example, 16oz cups (3 weeks)-->6in*6in*7in inch pot (2-weeks) --> 3-gallon (a few days and flower) or (2-weeks)-->4-5-gallon (1 week and flower) would be ideal and gets to to roughly the same final container size in roughly the same amount of time.

To understand why consider the way cannabis grows roots. Cannabis roots out and swirl around the sides and bottom of containers leaving a relatively the middle of the container relative uncolonized. This has a number of implications.

First, when you water your young cannabis plant there is going to be a lot of the medium that doesn't contain many roots so it is going to stay wet.

Second, it means that how long a plant has been in a container has a big impact on when you need to transplant, irrespective of the size of the container (within reason). If you start in one-gallon containers you are probably going to want to do a transplant in 1-month anyway.

Third, you can build root mass by allowing the roots to swirl around the sides and bottom of a container and transplanting frequently (every 2-weeks after the first transplant). What is then achieved in the final container are multiple concentric circles of roots and medium which is more or less completely colonized with roots. This wouldn't happen if you just threw a seed in a 3- to 5-gallon pot.

Vegging cannabis is as much about building root mass as it is about what you see above the soil.

Pine

this is probably a dumb question but do you have to have holes in the bottom of the bucket for drainage? i've seen people use straight buckets but I thought it was bad to let water sit in the soil?

KMK0420 said:

this is probably a dumb question but do you have to have holes in the bottom of the bucket for drainage? i've seen people use straight buckets but I thought it was bad to let water sit in the soil?

Click to expand...

Most people have drainage holes. Some people don't. Another iteration has buckets or large beds with no drainage holes, but with hydration or perlite on the bottom and a piece of PVC pipe running from the bottom hydration or perlite to above the soil (Soma method). This allows for some of the excess moisture to escape.

If you don't use pots with drainage holes you better know what you're doing. You have a much bigger margin of error if your pots have holes. I always use containers with drainage holes.

Pine

KMK0420 said:

this is probably a dumb question but do you have to have holes in the bottom of the bucket for drainage? i've seen people use straight buckets but I thought it was bad to let water sit in the soil?

Click to expand...

I would highly suggest getting pots or growbags with holes.

It's good to see the drainage come out when you water/feed.

with a homebox type setup, how can i avoid water/dirty water seeping through and into the underlying carpet? IDK if the homebox accomodates drainage water..

Get short rubbermaid containers or plastic mat possibly.

This is what I got...

yeah i built the homebox frame...DAMN this is huge (homebox L)...

there's no way to disguise it, i have to cordon off that section of the room to hide it!

i'm trying to figure out how i would hang this dark comforter i have from my ceiling that way you can't even see that section of the room

will staples into drywall work or do i need to nail it to studs? if thats the case, i need a stud finder :\

Sight issues resolved!

Makes so much sense too...that section of my room is pointless, and there's a window there. i like to sleep in total darkness, and having that is an excuse to keep it dark...also to store stuff there and cover it up, not to mention to keep the cool A/C air in my section of the room, not over by the window escaping...

so, no more security worries! people in the room won't have the balls to go behind it if i tell them not to

best of luck to you man


i sure hope no one gets curious when you say "DONT LOOK BEHIND THERE!"






solution? dont bring people into your room...

DeJa said:

best of luck to you man


i sure hope no one gets curious when you say "DONT LOOK BEHIND THERE!"






solution? dont bring people into your room...

Click to expand...

lol, i have learned through my job how to take one thing, and make it another (social engineering)...so when someone says "What's behind there?" I'll make up an excuse that seems relevant at that time (IE, i store all my stuff back there, i keep it there to prevent the cold air from leaving the room, etc.) and if they do HAVE to look, or try to, they won't see anything but a big box and won't know whats in it (unless they are REALLY, REALLY smart and know me like the back of their hand, which many dont)

but thanks for the well wishes, i'll have it up and running (hopefully) in about a week. waiting on my CMH bulb, and some additional supplies...which should be here by the end of this week hopefully

Hola, your temps might be alittle high sitting in a corner by the window seperated by the blanket maybe? Pics of your box and setup? Are you exhausting the hot air out into the space around the box in that corner?

How's the tent coming along? :smile:

tent's up and running, kept the light (CMH) on to keep them warm, but i planted 12 seeds 48 hours ago, after soaking in water for 12 hours... 4 white widow, 4 white rhino, 4 mazar-i-sharif (freebies)

waiting for them to pop...as soon as i have something to show, i'll get some pix up.