First time grower looking for advice and help along the way

You have definitely been reading, it shows, great start.
As to your lighting question leave the bloom switch off, download a LUX app on your phone and take readings at your plants canopy. Your going to want 3500 lux while in veg mode (so for the first 4 weeks roughly but we will be watching your progress, search online for a LUX to pffd converter that shows the difference light choice the one I uses sells lights so I can’t link it)

Fimming is a great idea, it spreads your canopy out, that being said you have 5 plants in a 4x4 thats normally filled with 4 and you only have 2 lights so I woild say don’t FIM.

Back to k if hting your going to want more lighting come flower for that amount of plants.
Your 900w greengo is actually 190w 1.8A

The vivosun 600w is 270w, will cover a 1x1 area at 580 PPFD come flower. So basically one plant…
Start saving $ for lighting!!! In 4 weeks your gonna need new lights!

Put your temp/humidity sensor at canopy light, hang it with some string, adjust this throughout the grow to get accurate readings.

Your going to want to have your clip fan, hopefully you have more than the 1 see in the picture to save cash go to a second hand store and buy a tower fan or two that’s use or get them off FB, you want fans to give a light breeze so they get strong and build roots.

Good soil mix, did you add 30% perlite or Mykos? If not no sweat but make a note to do this next time.

Yes you will want a easy way to collect run off, at least you have some space @merlin44 has nice ones as do many other people, the idea is to rain the plants up just enough with a platform that drains through and yet you can slide a pan or dish in and our easily without having to move the platform some do wood and metal grates, some do pvc get creative.
Make an individual one for each plant it will be idea.

But first make some domes for those plants!
Easy quick way is cut the 2L pop bottles, but look for something tall and wide like a cake cover or a 4L clear jug or something. This will keep their humidity up.

Print the VPD chart and tape it to your outer tent wall as a reference it’s a very important factor, a inkbird duel humidity/temperature controller is an ideal purchase to help control your environment I wish I got one a year ago. Go google this asap.

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Cool…up and running, Best of luck Gromie! I’ll adjust that there switch to “watch” and expect to see a whole lot of pot here shortly. Let the therapy begin! Oh and welcom to the forum btw I don’t think we’ve chatted much.:sunglasses::woozy_face:

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Set to watch . Thank you for the tag . You’ve got some real smart people tagged in like @Nicky . Who actually know there stuff . Until I found this site , I would of said that I was a fair to middle growers . After reading just some of the journals , I’m more of a newbie . Not all things will work for you , and even sometimes the plants themselves will seem to want the complete opposite of what you’re doing .

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Lol thank you I try, there are some much more experienced gurus on here but I try to give back and learn. Some of them are already in here.

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@Nicky yes there are some real smart one’s already tagged in . I mentioned you personally because I’ve been seeing your name everywhere of late . And if you don’t know something you’ll say so , then you’ll tag in someone who more than likely will know .

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That is a wealth of knowledge and help @Nicky. Thank you everyone for all the help and support everyone. @Nicky as per your list I actually started looking for another fan or two last night. I didn’t think to make a platform for each individual pot. The lights had me worried from the beginning. I bought them before finding this forum. Maybe I can ditch these two and get one better one. I have been looking at the 3000w mars hydro. It’s still a little affordable and has the size needed for my tent? Light replacement is number one on my list. A really expensive light is not something I can buy now but any suggestions would be appreciated. The bottle idea is awesome! Was using plastic saucers as domes! This forum rocks!

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@Capt.Cola , you may want to hold on to those lights . They still can be useful for seedlings and clones .

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I’m out of likes sorry.

The new mars hydro’s the ones with yellow chips are better, I wouldn’t toss your vivosun light but if you can sell the other one on FB, craigslist or something like that it would be ideal to purchase something better.
Still building your own or an HLG is much advised they are honestly the best bang for your buck if you don’t build your own.

Each plant needs 500 PPFD over a 1x1 space (is that a good rough estimate @dbrn32?)
Ideally I would say 800-1000 PPFD over a 2x2 area when you can but I understand that out of the gate that’s a bit expensive for many

Ppfd average of 600-800 umols per second is what you want for flowering. That’s requires something like a ppf of 65-90 umols per ft²

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@Kan72 “useful for seedlings” Is that what I should try and use one of these for eventually just seeds and seedlings?

@Nicky would the Mars be too much for seeds and seedlings. Is that why @Kan72 says to keep? I’m good with trying to build one if it’s not gonna be too expensive. I know nothing about building lights so would need a lot of help.

Thanks @dbrn32 for the specs

I got a bunch of adjustments to make today.
Also looking to build a platform for pots. I think using pvc for a frame but what works well as a support(green fence)?Thanks again everyone

@Nicky do milk containers work or they not clear enough? Seeing what I have around the house haha

Milk containers are not clear enough you want clear not hazy.
Green fence doesn’t work I tried the plastic stuff doesn’t hold the weight, but home depo sells those racks for closets and will cut them to length could buy some of those and prop them up on some treated blocks or cedar. Normal wood will rott and cause issues/build up ideally stay away from wood to be honest maybe pvc is a better choice.

The burple lights are good for seedlings yeah, but again I would try and keep the vivosun and sell the go green. The mars hydro’s I don’t know much about but your much better off building your own vs buying mars hydro. @dbrn32 (Ps thanks for the stats clarification) has a thread in the lighting section called “let’s talk diy lights” go there.

Most people come to the realization that you are having, you need alot of lighting to grow cannabis properly and thus your normally limited by lighting not by space.
A HLG 260w v2 is 300$ that will grow 2 plants from seed to harvest, I bekive the v1 are on even more of a sale but I’ve never used them I’m sure they are still really good.
If you do go with them you want the 3000k option not the 4000k option. The Rspec is the be t but I know your on a budget and they arnt on sale.

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So if I get a better light @Nicky I would have to use different lights for different stages of plant growth? Or am I reading this wrong.
I read some of @dbrn32 diy journal there is a ton of information. @dbrn32 do you have any recommendations for parts or an approx price if I were to build one. I would like to do it correctly from the get go if I can afford to.
I am growing autos in a 4x4 if that helps.

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There’s a lot of different parts you could use. You can do cobs, strips, or boards, all of which would change up parts required some. For a 4x4 most would would end up in the $600-$900 range to build.

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@Nicky put me on to these A HLG 260w v2 is 300$

It looks like boards are the way to go @dbrn32?
Many people on here seem to like HLG. So many helpful comments I don’t know what is best on a limited budget. Lastly is one light better than 2 or is having two of the same better

Haha never the last thing just saw the 135’s also. How are they. Maybe I can get one new light at a time?

For a 4x4 you would want two of those, and I prefer the 260 xl as it has better coverage in that space.

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Its been almost 3 weeks! Wheres the pictures of yer dope! I wanna see some dope!

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@dbrn32 made a good point I forgot about the XL version would be better coverage. I was just focusing on the Wattage and what is affordable, as you could buy one 260w and keep your other two lights to split the cost. Then buy another 260w XL as soon as you can. Keep your vivo burple light so you can start plants while your other ones are finishing up.
If you can sell the burples great but if not you can use them for seedking/veg stage.
You don’t need different lights fo different stages but it helps to start plants while others are finishing cuts a month off let’s say per grow and that would get you basically an extra full harvest in a year’s time

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@dbrn32 is this another option for a home build. Are strips as good qb. Been looking at home build lights using QB but came across this also

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