Would love to get any advice I can on my 1st grow

Hello everyone, I am getting ready to start my first Indoor grow. Any advice on if I should use fabric aeration pots? Raised trays Vs aeriater square? Also need advice on potting soil. Is Fox farm good?

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Hi and welcome!

The single most important bit of advice is that light is the most important component of any grow. If you’re providing artificial light, regardless of how efficient or inefficient it may be, make sure you understand the canopy coverage in flower, and don’t exceed that.

The other stuff if mostly personal preference. Fox Farm Happy Frog will work for seedlings, and Ocean Forest will be great once they’re a little more mature.

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Welcome…I switched to fabric pots. I have two plastic 5 gallon buckets being used right now. Once these plants are done…bye bye buckets. The fabric pots allow more oxygen to penetrate to the roots. :+1::+1::+1:

I use only Fox Farm products. Pass on the FFOF as its very hot for need seedlings and purchase the Fox Farms Happy Frog soil. :+1:

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Thank you for the quick reply. OK I’m getting ready to purchase lights today online. I’m pretty set on LED. Is their any reason I shouldn’t use LED? My tent arrived today, it’s 8ft X 4ft X 6.5ft. I was wanting to put 8 Gorilla glue’s in there. Is that possible? How many ,size, and strength of lights do you recommend?

Don’t get cheap blurple LEDs, you’ll regret it.

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Gonna be very expensive to light up a 8x4 with good led lights. 4 HLG 260 XL specs would do you good, 4 HLG 320 XL, even better coverage.

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@dbrn32 is the Light Guru. He will get you on the right path. You need to know your budget because lights is what will make or break a good crop.

I use HLG lights which is costly upfront but if you need to smoke everyday for health reasons like I do, HLG Lights all the way. I loved getting 27 oz dried, cured and no stems. Before my HLG’s, i never made it past 3.32 oz dried, cured and no stems.

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As long as they’re GOOD LED’s you’ll be fine. That said; if you cheap out on lights you won’t get the yields or growth you hope for. I’m gonna go on record and say just about every light available on Amazon is a ripoff. Do NOT buy a blurple light box.

If it isn’t either d.i.y. it should say: Horticulture lighting Group or CHILled Logic or Spider Farmer or Pacific Lighting Concepts. HLG is the leader in lights but not cheap.

Light drives every process including your electric bill so get smart before spending. You need 50 watts per square foot with anything other than high-end LED’s. If using them it’s more like 30 watts per.

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I feared that. How many lights? What’s my invoice gonna look like for those?

$1400 for 4 HLG 260 XL kits that you put together. Closer to $2000 for 4 320’s.

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Hi, pardon my ignorance, but what does HLG mean?

Horticulture Lighting Group, a USA company that makes great LED lights and kits. Check out their website.

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Cool, thank you for steering me away from Amazon, cause I sure would have looked there. What does the 260 and 320 mean?

I used to use the same sized tent.
1000watts of high efficacy lighting is what you’ll need.

Or
1600watts of blurple leds, hps, cmh etc.

The hlg r spec lights are great. 2 of the 550 or 4 of the 260 should do it.

There are other plug n play options depending on budget. Fluence is one.

There are also diy less expensive options.

The first option will cost more upfront, but will be much cheaper to run.

Fox farms ocean forest is a great soil for established plants. It will give you approx 4-5 weeks of needing nothing but pH’d water (mostly).

Be sure to budget money for
decent pH and ppm/tds meters.

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They are model numbers and close to the watts they are set at from the factory, though they are dimmable and can go a bit higher than that, but best to run these LED lights just a little dimmed for less heat and longevity.

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Lighting is #1

#2 (IMO) is PH levels in grow medium

Has majority of responsibility for plant deficiencies

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I was wondering about those PH and ppm meters. What do you recommend? What do I do with the Info it gives me?

If building lights from kits is not your thing, amazon does some have some of the HLG commercial models as well, 2 of these would light up your 8x4 just fine.

https://www.amazon.com/Horticulture-Lighting-Group-Full-Spectrum-High-Efficiency/dp/B07R5C4CKR/ref=sr_1_5?crid=24IN5QTJO2FY3&dchild=1&keywords=hlg+550+v2+rspec&qid=1589222463&sprefix=hlg+%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-5

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Let’s step back a second @JCruz

How much do you want to spend? How many ounces do you expect/need every 4 months (or pick your cycle)?

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Cannabis requires it’s growing medium to be within certain parameters of pH. The pH meter will allow you to test the soil, nutrients, water etc. in order to monitor them and change inputs to keep the plant happy.

Ppm/tds Meters will allow you to monitor the total dissolved solids in you soil/nutes/water. You’ll know how much to feed and when.

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