Do you use the red solo cup method? I bought some clear ones and want to get the transition correct when the time comes. Is it germination i.e. tail pokes out to solo cup filled with premium medium 1/2 inch depth then under low or medium flourescent lighting til second set of leaves show up then set in optimum light for veg and transplanting when becoming “root bound”?
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Pretty much spot on…leave some room at the top so you can add more soil if your seedlings get to talk and lanky…I stay away from clear cups, roots don’t like light!!
good point. Thank you for that. That could cause you to start scratching your head part of the way through the grow.
a thought just accord to me that you could plant them in clear and then keep them in a dark one and just check from time to time.
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O that works lovelylike. The clear inside a red cup to check root progress 
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Ya I’ve seen a couple of ppl do exactly that…i just never really needed to see the outside 2mm of roots that make it to the edge of the cup…I don’t know how much that could help… regardless I’ve seen it done a couple times…
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It allows u to monitor rootboundness before it actually becomes bound. I use foliage amount pretty accurately as well. But nothing like looking dirtly at it. Id highly recommend it for autos and new growers
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Hey @HTCMG Lighting can make or break your grow. I think a talk with @dbrn32 about your lighting issues will be great thing for you. He is the resident lighting guru. I justvtahmgfed him. Hell see this and get back to you. Good luck, great grow.
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Thank you. I’m off to get soil. WooHoo! I hope his suggestions don’t include thousands of dollars in additions. I’m about tapped out financially. But I was thinking of some supplemental LED’s to increase the light spectrum, but I am a novice at best when it comes to the lighting spectrum. I have seen a couple of articles but have yet to take the time to read them thoroughly. Only so many hours in the day. @stretchgfw.1957
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Hey man @HTCMG. He will give you several options depending on your situation lighting/cash. @dbrn32 is THE light man. He should see this. He is tagged. He is a great guy. He will walk you thru this man. Good luck. Ill be watching…
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The people working closely with lighting aren’t stepping outside of McCree action spectrum much and suggesting pat more attention to photon density than small differences in light spectrum.
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That being said, do you have any recommendations for me? @dbrn32 Not sure if you read the setup I plan to use. two 600 watt MH and HPS. Would you run these at a lower power. The ones I have are adjustable.
I wouldn’t purposely run them at lower power. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. It would take pretty solid investment to beat them with leds
I figured as much @dbrn32 with the season changing and heat provided by natural gas, I wont see much of a difference in electric bill. I would like to conserv energy for the young ones as much as possible, I’ll get LED’s as my stuff poops out and as the technology gets cheaper. I’m putting in a 25 amp circuit to run it all tomorrow or next day.
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Does anyone know how much of the super soil recipe I should make to fill half of sixteen 5 gallon pots. It would be quite a bit more after all of the additives? I read that 1 1.5 cubic ft bag would "fill two and a half 5 gallon pots. Just thought one of you would have some experience in this. I’m going to mix it up once all the additives show up. I’ll take a photo of what I plan to use as they come in so someone can stop me if I’m going to put the wrong thing in the mix.
That’s a solid plan. The 600’s perform pretty well if you can run them. If and when time comes, happy to help.
Cubic ft of soil in a 5 gall by pothead (internet) standards is .67… x3 = around 2 cubic feet of dirt. So… yea i trust ur earlier judgement. Who measures soil n 
when cooking… we country. A dab of this… a pinch of that… plus the ever famous handful… u want 16? Buy 10-12 cubic feet and ur amendments should do the rest 
Disclaimer: dont listen to im sayin…
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Yeah, try to get close and then see what happens. I have 12 but was wanting to use some of it for starting seeds. So, I could use 10 for the mix and 2 for the starts or 1. I had to spell could 3 times. Whew.
Haha thats been happening to me all night! Happy its not just my phone apparently.
Really? Cheap topsoil n perlite is MILES cheaper then supersoil. Save half a gall for some starter cups. And a bit around the rim when transplants come. I wish i would baked all my soil when i did. Which would u rather happen? Running outta super soil in 2 months? Or running outta seedling soil in two weeks?
Just don’t trust the bigbox store to not use additives. Whats your preferred “cheap topsoil” I’m all about saving money but not at the cost of good healthy plants. Store I was at today had huge bags of perlite.