Getting ready to gear up for an indoor grow, and looking for advice on seed selection. Am I better off with auto’s, or photo’s? I want to harvest within a 12-16 week window from start to finish. I would guess photo’s switching to flower at 12"-14" will yield more than auto’s, or will it be roughly the same?
Also, better in coco, or FF? I have only grown one plant to this point, outdoors, and don’t have any equipment yet for indoor. Looking at either an LED setup, or HPS. What would be economical and recommended wattage for growing 2-plants?
Do you have a budget, both comfortable and ceiling? You should prepare to spend $500 at a bare minimum, and much more than that for a efficient setup. I advise that you consider what you’re paying per month right now, and how much flower that buys you. That’s your baseline, in my mind. It also tells us how much flower you need to produce, which it more important than plant count (in this case.)
I don’t need a lot really, I am a 3-4x/week, 2-3 hitter. I also make tincture for the wife, which I sometimes do with her instead of smoking. She outright refuses to smoke whatsoever, so tincture she loves 1-2x/week. All in all, I could probably go a year with 6-8oz in total. I do however, as most of you all do, have been hooked on growing after the first time. Extremely fun hobby. Not looking to spend a lot since my needs are so minimal, could in reality get away with 1 plant at a time, but will plant 2 in case of a male/herm. If both are female, will finish them both, so 2-plants at a time max for now. I spend $250-$300 oz when I buy.
I just wanna point that out. If you spend that much once, you’ll never need to buy $250 ounces again.
Two other points: Feminized seeds eliminate almost all concern over sex. You will get female plants 999/1000 times. Also, you can start 10 seeds and cull them as they grow. A seedling doesn’t need much space, so it’s kinda a waste to only grow 1-2 in a tent meant to flower 2 mature plants.
You still need to set a budget. Happy to help you pick gear, but I need to know how much you can spend. Also, is there a firm 12 week per year window, or was that kinda arbitrary? Like, you don’t wanna be chained to the grow yearround?
I plan on one or two indoor grows in the off season, and outdoors in the summer. $$ is really tight at the moment, my business is suffering hard from covid since March, making about 25% of normal for the year. Wish my bills were also 25% of normal, but that is not the case. Budget is an understatement at the moment, just want to get something started for the winter, harvest in Jan, and maybe do 1 more indoor again before starting the outdoor summer grow. That will hopefully supply me until Sep/Oct harvest.
The absolute necessities are light and seeds. If you look at several of @Familyman 's journals you can see how he accomplishes really bare-bones grows using good lights and autoflowering seeds.
I’m going to recommend you look at the best HLG 3k temperature LED you can afford. The kits are easy to assemble, and very economical to buy and run. An HLG 100 V2 3k can flower 2’x2’ and costs $150. That’s enough for a large auto plant. You should average 4 ounces per harvest if your 2’x2’ is optimal.
You can use tri-fold poster boards ($1.50) to reflect light back onto the plants and save money on a tent.
Odor is an issue. Let’s not get into your concerns about smell, but filters aren’t cheap… or at least you tend to get what you pay for. The cheapest setup for a fan and filter is about $60, and that’s questionable.
I realize you’re open to HID lighting. I’m recommending LED over that because you can cover your needs for 90 watts of good LED versus 250w of HPS, which isn’t even very good. If electricity isn’t a factor, a 600w HPS kit can be around the same price as that HLG 100 v2, although more likely a little higher.
Thanks, I am not too concerned about smell, the plant I grew this summer was basically a hemp CBD plant, found some seeds in flower that was sent to me, I grew it out of curiosity and had a blast. My teens knew from beginning it was CBD since we use a lot of oil in the family. I can always cover that these are CBD too. I realllllly like the cerebral strains, sativa dominant, was thinking about trying out LSD strain for the effects. I don’t see LSD in auto from ILGM, only photo, unless there is another suggestion for a similar auto.
Also, what would you suggest between coco and FFOF for best results in this situation?
There’s Jack Herer Auto, as well as Amnesia Haze Auto.
FFOF has been running acidic lately. I add dolomite lime to it as a precautionary buffer. It’s not the biggest issue. Just something to be aware of.
Coco coir is an entirely different method. You’d be committing to using fertigation. I think ProMix HP is an easier route; some principles, but you don’t need to water as often. Don’t get me wrong, since I think coir is probably the optimal medium, but you’d want to automate your fertigation since you’re watering 4-5 times a day.
Last question; which will yield best between an auto, or switching a photo over to flower at say 14"? Was thinking I could veg a photo at 18/6, and switch to 12/12, giving me far more choices in strains. Aside from LSD, was also eyeballing blue dream, and maui wowie. I obviously want the best yield I can achieve within the time range I am shooting for.
A scotoperiod-sensitive plant (commonly known as a photoperiod) is a better-yielding option indoors in most scenarios.
My preference is to have a vegetative stable of mother plants and their rooting clones, along with a flowering tent full of rooted clones. When you do this, you can truly maximize output, since the clones are sexually mature, ready to flower, and genetically identical.
A photo plant needs absolute darkness during the dark periods; this is the thing that causes the most trouble to new indoor growers, and it’s why people buy tents. Even with a tent, you need to check for light leaks.
Autoflowering plants don’t care about light leaks. They also seem to hit sexual maturity sooner. And sometimes they go squirrelly and do their own thing. Agriculture is unpredictable in small sample sizes.
Thanks for the tag guys. My set up is pretty simple in the scheme of things. I do however spend on good lights. Also, i tylically grow photo plants. If you happened to see an auto in my journal, it was either a strain that only came that way or i had some to use up.
I started with autos if I could do it all over I would have just gotten photos and run them from start to finish on a 12/12 like @MrPeat but I bought alot so autos for a while.