Hey guys I am brand new to growing, and have been doing some reasearch the past couple of weeks and wanted some help in choosing my equptment and basically everything lol. I will be buying one of the complete sets from ILGM, I have not decided if I will be doing autoflower or feminized seeds, but I do want to start with White Widow, I’ve some a lot of first time growers have success with this strain for their first grow! Based on my setup and goals I’m hoping you guys can help me decide.
I would like to harvest 2-4 pounds but 1-2 would be ideal. With autoflowering I was planning on doing 6-8 plants or feminized I would do 2-4 plants. What would you guys recommend? I have no idea about the tent Ill need so I just found the biggest one by VIVOSUN, Would this work out?
I want to try and keep this first grow as simple as possible (why I’m considering autoflowering seeds) but I will be using soil just not sure what to get. Also I am planning on planing the seeds in 5 gal buckets or bags and not doing only transfering or anything, will that be okay?
Also I have no idea about the fan setup I will need or anything else I will need, I figured I would make a post before buying all this stuff. Thanks guys
I started with the ILGM 10+10 white widow auto with the nute starter pack. I liked that I didn’t have to concern myself with light duration - I went 20/4 all the way through - or having to ID males. I grew them in two waves. It ended up being enough weed for my wife and I for 9 months. I never measured the final dry weight by it was more than a pound, as my wife and I are heavy smokers.
One thing I would note, go really easy on the nutes - 1/4 dose tops, perhaps even skipping nutes in early veg phase if you are in a good amended soil. Autos don’t need as much nutes as photos, and I really overnuted them before good folks on this site got me on the path.
Here’s my grow journal. I made ALOT of errors and tortured my plants, but they still thrived thanks to the quality of the white widow genes from ILGM.
I’m not familiar with ILGMs grow kit, but you will want a soil grower to help you with your soil mixture. For that I will tag @raustin for you. She can help you with the soil and nutrient part.
As far as airflow, you will want a fan that connects to a carbon filter to reduce smell and an intake fan to bring outside air into the tent. This size outake and an additional fan for the intake will work out great. It’s what I have.
VIVOSUN 6 Inch 440 CFM Inline Fan with Speed Controller, 6 Inch Carbon Filter and 8 Feet of Ducting Combo for Grow Tent Ventilation Amazon.com
Make sure you check the size of the port you are using to ensure ducting fits properly. The big tents you are looking at will have 6" ports in it so keep that in mind.
For lighting questions, talk to @dbrn32. He knows a bunch about lighting and growing so pick his brain.
Other than that, it is a lot of studying and asking questions along the way. Don’t shoot for poundage, just try to learn as much as you can through the process and try new things as you go. We are always here to support your grow.
If you’re decided on going with hps, two 600’s would be a lot more effective in that space than a single 1000. I would also expect it would take quite a bit of experience, but that setup capable of doing 2-3 pounds in the right hands.
Fox farms dirt for shur and put them seeds in a solo cup once the second or third set of leaves hit the outside edge of cup transplant in forever home preferably 5 gallon grow bags better than buckets
@Sixpackdad I actually scrolled through your grow the other day, why Im even considering autoflowers! I will have to go through it in more detail after work today and I may have a couple of questions for you. Thanks man!
@vexer I think I may go with the soil @Kwazzy recommended, I was reading the reviews and it seems to be a good choice for autoflowers, also to not use nutrients for the first month?
For the fan and carbon filter, I dont have anywhere to run the duct to the outside but smell isnt really an issue. Would I be able to get away with using a cheaper method for the airflow to start out with? Thanks for your help and tagging your friend
@dbrn32 I only went with HPS because I read it was the better choice and I dont want to purchase something else and have to upgrade later you know? Technically I can start with one 600 and get a second one later on as they grow?
I think that’s a highly opinionated statement. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hps, but I struggle to see where it’s the best at anything. In terms of spectral performance it’s the worst by just about any horticulture lighting study ever done. Cmh and good leds both top hps in efficacy too.
I think hps is going to be best bang for your buck if you’re looking at performance vs initial cost, but that’s about it.
Everything is well @dbrn32 I took a break after my last grow then had a streak of male plants but things are looking up now. Started my fifth grow about 6 weeks ago and it’s doing fairly well. Hope all is well with you.
Man I’m really not sure… I’ve seen so many different things when it comes to lighting… I cant say for sure led sucks… I just know that I can get some serious medicine with my hps… still want to tweak things a lil bit to really see what I can do…
Also I have decided to go with the auto seeds and will start with 4-6 plants depending on which light i get. Im going to follow @Vexer advice and just try and learn as much as possible, honestly if I manage to keep 1 out 4 plants healthy ill be happy lol
I’m glad, I would never say hps sucks lol. There are certainly some led fixtures that suck. A lot of that is because of bullshit advertising. There’s just some issues with comparing the two that people seem to miss a lot. There’s three real measurable results. Emitted light, efficacy, and real world results. I know that there is third party integrated sphere data to support most of the big names in led are superior to hps in the first two. The real world results kinda vary, but that’s going to happen with differences in growing style and abilities. I’ve seen people say led can’t grow big colas, members here have done that. People brag about hitting a gram per watt with hid, members here are doing over 1.5 with led. Some people seem to really like their hps lights, and others seem to really like their hps light lol.
