Hi, so what i know so far is that its going to be4’x2’ or 5’x2’, specifically wanting to grow “La Orange” strain sativa, if not that as close as i can find in terpene profile to it. Im looking to grow between 3 to 4 using dwc, i understand that # of plants i can grow depends a lot on experience so ill probably start with 2 on my first 2 grows.
my budget is $1000 at most so i would like to build a system instead of kit if possible. i have been looking at vivosun primaraly because thats the only 5x2 i could find, but i dont want junk either. so suggestons on tents, lights, fans, filters, controlers and dwc. the other opinions im looking for are relating to hydro vs dirt, im extremely detail oriented and while a lost crop due to learning curve would suck, i could live with once. twice no, so im specifically looking for advice on is that setting myself to fail? and finnaly, 3 dogs, 4 cats, im isolatingthe best i can but will i need additional screening around the grow room, or can the tent filter inflow well enough i wont need to?
thankyou in advance, im almost compuslive about details so i plan to throw myself at mercy so to speak, a pleasant day to all.
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Welcome to the community!
You’re going to need a pretty decent exhaust, and fresh air intake. Also a way to manage humidity, and light leaks. I’d definitely take any measures necessary to keep your animals outside of the area, that includes their hair.
Welcome Someguy63. I am a vivosun fan myself. I would suggest to go with the vivosun kit. I would recommend buying the 200 watt aerolight and add a 100 watt to daisy chain or 2 of the 200 watt aerolight as they fold out to spread the light. Buy the Control Hub, aerolight, exuast fan that links with the control hub. If you are doing dwc then you will not have to do anything but track your grow and add you nutrients as needed. The control hub will keep your environment where it needs to be. I had everything from Vivosun for a couple of years, went out and bought the control hub them next thing you know I replaced almost everything so it could all be on the automated system. You will spend far less. Now are there better lights and other things, yes of course. They are also pricey. The setup works well and you will accomplish you task, all while not have to inspect your environment 3-4 times a day. All you will have to do is open your phone. If down the line you want to add a different light the control hub will work with all brands so long as the equipment itself is able to be linked to a hub. If the tent doesn’t have the new hub as part of the combo buy the tent separately then the controller, exuast fan, lights, and circulation fan separately. I do recommend getting an humidifier that shuts itself off and on. That way it will hold the environment and all you would need to do is add water. Also this thing has helped me not waste so much electricity. Because it keeps the environment stable, so fans don’t run all day when not needed.
Welcome to the community,
Welcome to the community 
Welcome!! 
Welcome to the neighborhood. Happy Growing 
I will say this though. If as growers we are chasing VPD then theres no way to do this without a controlled environment. I always went off of if it’s at a certain stage do this mentality. Well I was wrong about a lot of things. For one during flower to keep my VPD at a .8 to a 1.5 my humidity got as low as 40% and as high as 67% depending on time of day, for light setting. I let the Control hub do the work, but it was freaking me out to see it that high during flower because I was always told that was bad. Even now in veg it dropps to 47% up to 69 balanced. Stay close to 1.0 is the rule from what I hear.
For VPD this is a good guide to shoot for. I normally start at .6 for seedlings than work my way up from there to 1.4 in late flower.
Also minimizing your vpd swings to less than .2 can help increase yield by a small percentage.
Yup, and without anything to physically tell you what it is. I don’t think there’s a way that a person can actually monitor that one hundred percent to accuracy. They would be chasing it and drive themselves crazy. I’ll just throw all the needed components in there. Humidifier, dehumidifier fans, hub and zipped it up. It’s on its own. Holding steady a 1.0. The only fluctuations I get is when the light goes out and it cools off and there. It drops to .8 in darkness.
I would suggest biggest part of your budget should be the light. Everything else you can go medium quality for fist 2 or 3 rounds. NOT the light. The light is a 5 year investment. Typical lifespan of leds is 50k hours. Newer stuff can go as far as 80k. VPD is a chase very few of us more experienced growers like to run. Hard to control. Nature doesnt do it. It is something to chase in a PERFECT world with very much a closed system. Co2 the same. 1k budget…500 light. I use an inkbird on fan. Have a meter for temp/rh. Fan out. Circulating fan inside and thats it. Basics. Living soil.
Just my thoughts.
I can say with all the ACI equipment I have vpd is actually fairly easy to maintain. Being able to adjust the leaf surface temp and set the humidifier on a vpd trigger makes it all automated. But definitely agree that this is second or more, lighting is probably your most important purchase.
Can’t speak to hydro, but I am self-taught from reading and experience and grow autos simplistically in a 2x4 with a 300w LED (that never really gets adjusted above 75% power), in decent organic bag soil only, don’t own anything to test ppm, and could consistently grow a QP+ per plant every ~100 days, and better quality than what I could buy at dispensaries…not sure of your flower needs, ymmv.
That energy may be best spent focusing on ongoing environment and related details…Temp, RH, Watering, PPFD/DLI, Airflow, Pruning, Training, Drying, Curing, etc.
Running your numbers through a calculator, & your controller looks like it’s set to somewhere around zero degrees offset, so in other words it’s going to be displaying & targeting your air/room VPD number. VPD target numbers are Leaf VPD numbers. Instead you’re trying to hit Leaf VPD target numbers by adjusting your Room/Air VPD number. If you measure & set your actual offset, & then try to hit Leaf VPD target numbers by adjusting your Leaf VPD number instead of your air/room VPD number, then things should start to tighten up & make more sense.
Leaf Temperature Offset calculation:
Leaf Temp - Air Temp = Leaf Temperature Offset
I run with the presets, it measures outside air temp and humidity. It also measures inside to adjust. I keep my sensor amongst the leaves to get the best reading instead of having it hang high around the light. I am resolving myself to run factory presets instead of adjusting what I think it should be. From the research I have done over the last few days it says that in chasing vpd you can have readings as high as 70% during flower depending on temp and airflow. I’ll have to trust the equipment this time around and see the results. Yes it makes me nervous to feel the leaves and think man they sure feel crispy… Lol But at the same time I am amazed at how they are all growing at the same rate depending on pot size and the fan leaves are fricking huge on all the plants. Never had that happen before. Just like I would never set my lights on 80% during veg. But for the autoflowers tgat is what popped up. So I did a test on my other tent and put it on photo period and that one set to 60% during veg. Since each grow seems to have it’s own preset, the most I can do is report on it as they grow!
You did have me pull out my surface thermometer though. Out of curiosity, which was pointless because there’s not enough height or blockage to have that much of a difference from ambient temp and leaf temperature. But as they grow and crowd maybe. I use one of my exhaust fans attached to a vent hose to draw cold air into the tent below the leaves I can drop it as low as 60 degrees which means without lighs on average temps can get as low as 52 at night and high as 69 all day if I like. This also keeps fresh air all the time. I can keep the room on the outside perfect which is causing minimum fluctuations, the only time it does now is with lights on or off transition.
Setup idea from Vivosun.
I still have the exuast systems setup inside the rent too, loke normal. The fan just pulls in the cold. Once they get taller I drop the tent to the floor and lower one of my circulation fans.
The leaves transpire moisture when their stomatas are open, & that moisture carries away leaf temperature, & you should see them measuring cooler than the surrounding air temp when they are transpiring. Find your hottest leaves at the top of the canopy & that’s where I’d try putting the controller sensors. Then calculate your offset & plug that into the controller. If your leaves are the same temps as the surrounding air, then that could mean that they aren’t transpiring much or at all, so that could be caused by lights-off, needs more water, a lot of UV (outdoors or MH or enhanced HPS etc), high RH, dead leaves, etc…
Cold air is going to slow the plant down, maybe check into ideal leaf temperature ranges & go from there. But if you have a leaf temperature offset other than zero, & the controller is set to zero offset, its room vpd calculations will be right on the money, but its leaf temperature calculations are going to be less & less accurate the wider the offset actually is, regardless of the target. (Remember VPD target numbers are Leaf VPD target numbers.) Then you see things like the controller trying to hit 70%RH during deep flower, & you think that doesn’t seem right, but hey the controller knows what to do & you let it go, but you were actually right to doubt it.
Invest in good light, good genetics, and test equipment.
Soil vs coco/hydro
Over a year ago, our first grow, we wanted simple.
Hall of Fame growers journal we found here, grew for years in soils and other mediums.
Heard about how easy jacks 321 and coco was and tried it.
3 weeks in, he said he would never go back, the growth is unmatched. Coco/hydro is 5.5 to 6.2 with 5.8 being its happy zone p H zone.
No mixing soils, no using 9 plus ingredients like some nutes require.
No overwatering in coco easy to flush if needed, then, re-feed.
Soil, flushing could flush good stuff out.
Coco is reusable