Super new here so pls excuse ignorance. I am germinating one seed each of auto gorilla glue#4 & wedding cake. I turned my head yesterday & couldn’t remember which was which so that’ll just have to be a surprise. Have a 4x2x6 tent,. Trying to figure out if I need led wattage lights to be 1000 or 2000w. I have Mother Earth soil but am waiting on some coco coir I’m using in my veggie beds that I can use for this grow if needed. Is this good soil and/or should I get different or amend this? What size pots is best to use, I have all sizes from gardening. I’m confused on the nutes…everything from when to start, best ones(I see ff not liked much by others here) to use ect. My plan was to put grow box in 4x6 walk in closet. Do I need to invest in stuff to vent or will a couple of small fans be enough. Can I unzip a bit & use fan w closet door closed or will my plants suffocate? My analytical brain is overthinking everything! As my therapist tells me, I mind**** myself to point of just shutting down lol. The struggle is real y’all. The more I read, the more confused I get so figured it best to get my advice from actual growers instead of articles & I love this forum already! TIA
Here’s some pros for you: @Tylersays @Graysin @SilvaBack203
First, welcome! You should know the difference of what you got going when you start flowering by the smell!
Next, you will want at least 400 TRUE watts, if you go with LEDs. HLG, KingBrite, Spider Farmer, just to name a few are good brands, with HLG being the more pricey. Most brands that advertise 1000w or 2500w are full of hot garbage and only pushing 10% of that.
If you decide to use the coco, be sure you wash it very well so that you can start at a base point, knowing what exactly you put in it for your grow. I really don’t know about Mother Earth soil, so apologies, I can’t help with that. I do grow in coco, though, and have grown in soil, and am loving growing in coco.
5 gallon is plenty for an auto. They are set to their own timeline and have short vegetative periods, so they don’t really need a ton of room for roots. If you have fabric bags, many growers prefer them, as it is easier to drain.
Highly suggest/recommended in a tent. AC Infinity is a great brand for exhaust fans. A 4" should work, but a 6" would probably be better in a 2x4. Along with a large carbon filter because they will get to smelling something strong fast! You can set it up outside of your tent to the ports as a vacuum to save space in the tent, as well. They need good circulation. A couple small fans in the tent as well to move the air to prevent mold or mildew.
Gonna happen! Just be sure to have patience, and if you have questions that you can’t find answers just ask and some of the great growers on this forum can help!
BIG TIP: if you haven’t already, invest in a quality pH meter. BlueLab and Apera make great ones. Don’t skimp there, if your pH is off it can cause major issues. You will need to know the pH going in, at the least every feed/watering.
For soil pH range is 6.2-.8
Coco is 5.8-6.0
You will need to know TDS also and those meters are cheap.
I hope some of this helps! Good luck and happy growing!!!
First timer here! But I’m in my 6th week of flowering. My advice would be settle down don’t over feed, water, or correct any issue you may have. Always check your water and medium PH levels. Most of my problems came from over watering and neglecting PH. I’m on well water so my first few pH readings were around 6.8 so I added about a quarter tsp of down got it to 6.4 and was happy but 2 weeks later I checked the water PH after showing deficiencies and the well water read 5.2 so obviously the quarter tsp of down was sending me below 5 so don’t assume. Here’s some pics of where I am now though.
LOL, I only really agree with one thing @Borderryan22 said which was about the pH meter. That’s probably why I’m not a pro and they are!. ha!! What I am is practical.
Some of what I see as just as important is you’ve got to balance your needs with your budget. If you are okay with 2 oz of weed per auto, you don’t need 400W for a 2x4 in my opinion. I have 210W in a 3x3 which is 12% bigger than yours and it works just fine for MY needs. Figure out what you really want out of this grow thing and what budget you have, then buy what you can.
If you’re goal is a huge harvest with top notch stuff and you can spring for all that and the money involved, then go for it.
The gg is a thirsty girl. She will take more than the other i bet and loves it. My primary medical is gg4 been cloning couple years.
I agree with @Borderryan22 - my amendment is around 320w of quality light will get you good results. 240w will do okay but best buds will come from better lighting.
Agreed. I have a few autos in 3gal
And a few in 5gal. Predictably the 5gal girls are bigger and more bountiful, but for two plants in a 4x2, you can probably do just fine in a 3gal pot and not stress it. Pot size is going to dictate how much and how often you water - the smaller the pot, the more you water. Of course, with coco you’re looking at 1x a day anyway.
Yes.
FF is hot garbage. Some folks use it with success but I’m a lazy grower so it’s more than I could bear. I use Jacks 3-2-1 by JR Peters. 25 pound bags of Part A and Part B would run about $120 on Amazon and will last you a year or more. I’m approaching six months with mine and haven’t dented it - I also grow about 12 plants every 3 months, so I’ve burned more than your average grower.
Closer to 3 years for a 4x4 double that for a 2x4 but yes with autos you can leave the flap fully open and put a box fan or short oscillating to blow fresh air in 24/7. Gorilla glue auto from ilgm is easily one of their best genetics , goes into flower at about 5 weeks and is HUGE ( left in pic)
Welcome to the community and don’t worry about the strain you will figure out probably by harvest or when smoking it. For a 2x4 you got some great options for light. It all depends on your budget and what you are looking for. Personally hlg 260w v2 rspect would be a great fit great costumer service use Code dude. Spiderfarm sf2000 or sf4000 would work out great also so would other brands.
Easy nutrition to run that alot of growers here use is Jack’s 321. It’s q 3 part nutrition that you can use from seedling to harvest.
Soil I personally only use coast of maine bar Harbor Blend.
Happy growing
I just st bought a new PH meter. Thanks ILGM contributors that has to be my x factor for my mistakes because I always check my pH but it’s kinda been inconsistent sometimes it starts high and then comes down and sometimes it starts low and comes up so I think you all are right about making sure you have good equipment. I’ll let you know the brand if it works well.
BTW what’s up Virginiagrowboy I’m in the 757! 2 up 2 down!
I used FF but I’m going to do much more research about other company’s I’m not saying they have a bad product but there schedules and proportions are max amounts because they want you to keep ordering more so go about half mass if you use the you can always add more but it’s a royal ass pain once you over do it.
Also using 2 Barina 200W leds. I’ve had success but I’m not sure if I would recommend. I feel like I could use more power but with the reflective surface I’ve been ok the buds are very dense and don’t have to much spring there pretty
hard
Go coco coir it’s reusable 2-3 times or you can do what i do and mix half old with half new every grow. I’ve only used about half of the 100$ of viagrow fluffed coco I got from home depot over half a year ago
That’s a good idea. I’m in soil so we can always reload with nutes but it also will be softer on seedlings. I didn’t transplant I just started straight from the 15 gal cloth pots. I think I will reuse even if I only reuse 25 percent.
Hey first things first take a deep breath and relax if you want a grow where u dont have to worry about to much then i would say go organics with Gaia Green products you can amend the soil you have already and the pot size i would say is five gallon fabric pots and when u are sprouting seeds i would use solo cups for ur seedlings until they are big enough to go in there final homes
Welcome to the community 
It does get confusing if you try to learn everything at once.
You’ve come to the right place for a lot of great info. I learned what to do by reading one subject at a time.
I have used FFtrio in ff soil in 3 gal fabric pots & sp2000/dimmable lights with great results.
Happy Growing!
And of course the best teacher in life… is experience. Learn as much as you can up front. But making mistakes and learning from those mistakes comes in at a close 2nd place.
Amen to that.
Best advice I can give is browse journals and pick a couple of growers you like - whether it’s their attitude or their plants or their yields, doesn’t matter. I follow a lot of the guidance from people who are either forgetful (like me) or away for long periods of time - they build self-sustaining set-ups (like @Nicky ) which is what I need to be able to grow successfully.
Other folks are very hands-on and maintain daily or multiple times a day.
It can get confusing if you get advice from totally opposite styles - no doubt about it.
Anyway, if you follow a select few, advice from all over the place is helpful but you can always lean on your “mentors” for the advice that will jive with what you’re running into. And you won’t know what that issue is til it happens.