Hi everyone. Just made an account here and decided to post.
I ordered a few White Widow Auto. seeds from ilgm and they should be arriving any day now. The set-up I have planned is as follows:
-Tent: 2'x4'x5'
-Lights: 6 t5s at 6500k equaling 17,400 lumens
6 23 watt CFl's at 6500k equaling 9,600 lumens.
Total of 27,000 lumens with the 2700k watt with equivalent Lumens for flowering.
-Fan/Filter: 440 CFM 6" inline fan with equivalent Carbon filter.
-Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Forest In 3 gallon smart pots.
I have 3 main concerns.
1.) How many of the WWA can i comfortably fit in a 2x4 tent? I was think maybe only 2 since i will be using LST methods to attempt higher yields.
2.) is 27000 Lumens sufficient for 2-3 plants?
3.) I’ve read that autos needless nutrients. If i use the FFOF to plant in, what other nutrients will need to be supplied once the feeding period of the soil is over?
@zachwils95 Welcome to the forum. And hope you get your seeds soon. Sounds like you have a good setup. Similar in size to my first tent. cept mine was 72 inches high. And I use LED lights mainly. That foxfarm ocean forest is great and in the 3 gallon smart pots. Cept for this first grow I mixed my own dirt which was a mistake but too late. Other plants I have in the foxfarm dirt.
I would recommend just the 2 plants, maybe 3. I started 4 and it was a crowd in just a few weeks. So had to get a larger tent. Now have the two tents. My first grow is now in a 36x48x72 tent. Not alot bigger but it makes a difference. Now just mainly 3 plants in there and starting into flower. And its going to be crowded as heck. But I think you are looking good with 2 and you could maybe have 3 since you are going to be growing autoflowers. They dont normally get the size of regular or feminized from what I have seen in the posts here on the forum. I am still a newbie for the most part. Only been here for a couple of months. I am sure others are goinna chime in. Folks with alot more experience. Good luck on your grow. wanted to add. At first you dont want to add any nutes. Not for a couple of weeks. The foxfarm dirt will have enough stuff to grow your plants till they are into veg.
Hi Zach and welcome to the forum. There are lots of experienced growers here that a willing to help you along. I too am on my first grow and my setup looks similar to yours so I thought I’d weigh in.
For your tent size, 2 autos should be fine. I have 3 photos in a 32"x32" and it’s going to get tight. I’m only 40ish days from sprout and the FFOF has my girls exploding.
On recommendation from this forum, the FFOF maybe a little “hot” for your seedlings and I used a seed starting mix for the first month. I transplanted into the FF about 10 days ago and they love it!
I have not had to use any nutrients yet, aside from a little RapidStart root enhancer and Cal/Mag one time prior to transplant. I’m using FloraDuo nutrients from General Hydroponics and chose them mainly because of price point, when I get to that point. I anticipate not needing them for a few more weeks as the OF is good stuff.
As far as lighting goes, I’ll let the pros help you with that. I’m using 2 Chinese “300w” Leds and am already looking to upgrade for flowering.
I hope this helps a little and more folks will be along to help out. Best of luck!
Welcome to the forum. I am growing AHA right now and 3 should fit in there fine in 3 Gallon pots.
I went with the 3x3 tent becasue I wanted the 6 foot height so I’d have room for lights. Those 2x4 tents are designed more as veg tents, but they will work with autos
AHA flower quickly at about 4 weeks and LST doesn’t really agree with them. They will be fine without the LST.
Depending on your budget GH makes a good product and is pretty much the least expensive. I use the big 3 from Fox farms myself with good results! The AHA will need nutes at week four when they start to bloom.
Hope this helps you out! Good Luck with your grow and i encourage you to do a grow journal so you can share your process with us and we can help you get and stay on track!
Make sure you get a pH meter and pH Up and Down and 7.0 calibration fluid. pH is the biggest issue we see with new growers.
All water and nutes need to be pH to 6.5 to keep them happy!
Also consider Cal-Mag given at one month and once a month there after, basically 2-3 times per grow. Autos seem to always come up a little deficient and the cal-mag will keep them growing well.
You can definitely grow weed with fluorescent, but it’s usually the least desirable type of lighting for flowering plants. Especially if you are yield minded, they just don’t create the bud density that you’ll find with other grow lights. That being said, what are the biggest factors that pointed you towards fluorescent?
A lot of the 4’ wide tents don’t fit 4’ t5 fixtures very well, and cfl’s can be great but they often leave a mess of wiring when implemented. Just a couple things to keep in mind. By the time you get all that set and purchase your flowering bulbs, you may be able to get into a couple of small led panels for about the same cost. If yield is important to you, that’s probably the way to go in a 2x4. If you decide to go with a different sized tent, it may open up a few other options as well.
@zachwils95 for your first grow you might look at either a Mars, Viparspectra or Meizhi in 300 watt led . A single one will start you off very nicely and you can add to that as your plants grow.
WWA is a great first choice! Before starting your seeds, tag one of us with the at sign like this @bob31 and we will help you with your seed starting right.
@dbrn32 is our lighting expert and if you really want to build a killer setup he’s the guy to help.
Thanks everyone for all of the replies. @dbrn32 - I completely wanted to go with an LED set-up, however i happen to have 3 T5 fixtures already from an old shop with 6500k bulbs. I am not a wasteful person and I can’t seem to justify buying a whole new fixture. I am not obsessed with a huge yield as It is for personal use and i dont require much. I am more concerned of the health of my plants. There is someone locally who sells 1000 watt HPS fixtures including the bulb, ballast and hood for $35. not sure how he manages to sell them so cheap, but im considering getting one of these for the flowering stage of the plants. What are your opinions on this? and again, thank you very much for your help!
Plants actually really like fluorescent bulbs. As long as you can fit them in your tent, and you’re not overly concerned with a little lower yield potential, run with them. Buds just tend to be a little more fluffy under fluorescent, so they don’t have the weight you will typically get under more intense lighting. That’s not entirely bad though, less chance for things like mold and bud rot to occur if you run into environmental issues.
1000 watt hps system does sound too good to be true. Most of the time when things seem like that, they usually are. They may work, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are old recycled warehouse lighting or something along those lines. Even if it’s just the bulbs and ballasts, those are the parts that typically need replaced. Plus, you’ll need a fan for the hood correct? Not to mention 1000 watt hid is way too much for a 2x4.
You are absolutely correct. I think i will pass on that hps. Do you think 27000 lumens from florescents will be sufficient for 3 plants, or should i stick with 2?
I’m a little rusty on my fluorescent lumen to par conversions, but as long as you’re running the t5 high output bulbs you should be ok. The amount of plants doesn’t really matter so much. What you’ll want to do is keep the plants opened up a little with some training. The fluoro’s won’t have much intensity beyond the top of the canopy, so you try to create a bunch of tops and keep your fixture really close. Something like a scrog would be ideal, and you’ll probably end up like 4" or so above it.
So depending on how you decide to manage your canopy, and the footprint of your light at low height, should determine roughly how many plants to run. If you’re unsure, I would go with 2. You can always veg them a bit longer to fill the space if need be.
I am planning of using the scrog method. I will also be using Autoflowers, so i dont think space will be much of an issue. As you stated before, the biggest problem will be fitting those lights. I am sure I will manage something. I will have the tent this Friday.
Thanks for the reply.
I am aware of what Kelvin, lumens, and watts are.
i realized that i have been saying t5, My fixtures are actually t8’s
6 bulbs, 32 watts apiece at 6500k, and they produce 2900 lumens per bulb.
I also have 6 CFL 23 watt bulbs at 6500k and 1600 lumens each.
That puts me at 330 watts and 27000 lumens
I’m glad you had good results from a similar setup. Since I already have these fixture, I plan to use them. Hopefully the fan I have is strong enough to keep it cool. If not, I may have to add an intake fan down the road.
I used 600 watts of CFL when I was in veg. It worked great. I have 10 plants and 7 grew 5 to 6 feet in my 5 x 5 room. I am a low budget grower and can’t afford to deal with high heat. I had to build my own fixture and got very lucky to find sunblaster 4ft t5s for $25 a piece on Amazon and I found 85 watt studio CFLs for $17, so I bought 4 of them. You can skip the 23watt cfls unless you can get them right on top of the plants. I tried that and they wanted to stretch big time.
It’s a pretty crappy looking thing, but got me through until I got a little money and found 2 pretty good 600w LEDs on Amazon for $118 each. They are 275 true watts. You might want to consider them for flower.
I don’t like to be a downer, but if they are t8’s you’re probably not going to be as happy with the outcome.
In terms easiest to explain, a 6 bulb t5 ho fixture should provide something like 30,000 lumens by itself in 2700k. The par levels provided from t8 to t5 are actually going to be an even bigger difference. Something to do with less phosphor in the smaller bulb I believe. So despite it only appearing slightly brighter to the human eye or devices that measure such, it means quite a bit more to plants.
I’ve never personally seen a grow from t8’s, but that’s mainly because just about everywhere you look people will tell you not to bother. So while I won’t say that they won’t grow, you’re probably going to want to explore other options. My apologies, I probably should’ve covered that with you.
