Do you have an assigned mentor through the course? If they are a member here I can link you with them.
There’s a lot of different ways to successfully grow weed, and if you get too much different feedback it can be confusing and counterproductive. So I would be hesitant to get a really big circle of help if you’re just starting.
@dbrn32 I don’t have an assigned mentor through the course but @Growdoc has helped me a bunch with my questions (I was able to connect via insta w/ him before ya slapped me 
).
The course gave a pretty basic list of materials, nothing fancy. I have looked around on the forums but it’s really hard to weed (no pun intended) through the lighting information even when I use the search option. Mainly because I’m so green that a lot of the jargon and information about lighting is a little lost on me right now. I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately but I wouldn’t be able to tell you if X light is better than Y light (and I know Amazon reviews are not exactly reliable).
I guess I was hoping someone with a very similar setup to mine knows more or was able to understand what would be good with my setup.
No problem. You have a 2x4 tent and the most significant concern is that you have a fixture that produces enough light to hit peak photosynthesis rates over the size of your canopy. For this, you want to look at total output of light and shape of fixture to somewhat match the shape of your canopy. So in ideal situation you would want to look for a rectangular shaped light with a ppf around 600 umols/s. The rectangular shape will provide a more balanced light pattern, and I determined the amount of light by using size of canopy (about .75m²) by a target ppfd average of 800 umols/s (the estimated point of diminishing returns on ambient co²).
So you know about what you should be looking for from above. From here it’s just a matter of manufacturer as several make lights that will do what you need. I like to think light manufacturers are in about 3 categories. Your high end lights will cost the most but usually come with guaranteed performance verified by third party testing and the best warranty and/or customer service. Your middle of the road lights will cost less and probably do what you need, but you’ll rely heavily on reports from users and probably won’t have rapid or easy warranty process. Then your no name very inexpensive lights. They make a bunch of promises and claims they use the same stuff as everyone else but don’t really provide anything other than claims to support this. If you need customer support you will most likely be dealing with someone in China. Responses are often slow and unfulfilling, and warranty work may require you to send to China.
My advice is to usually check with Horticulture Lighting Group. You will get cutting edge technology from a tried and true manufacturer located in US. You shouldn’t have any issues with products from them, but there’s dozens of documented instances here where they will overnight parts next business day or even send out free upgrades in certain scenarios, even years from original purchase.
I ordered some other lights recommended by @Growdoc and they will be here Tuesday.
Got my tent put together and everything unboxed. I’ll get pictures of everything when the lights get installed. A few more questions if anyone can assist with any:
1.) Does anyone use UVA supplemental lighting? Is it worth adding?
2.) Right now I have FF Happy Frog soil and course perlite for my medium (not mixed up yet). I’ve read I should rinse the perlite before I use it… is there anything else I should add before I plant in it?
3.) I have the Flora Trio and CalMag - but that’s just nutrients we add around week 5 or so, correct? Am I missing any other important supplements?
You all are truly amazing
You might want to do a slurry of the HF soil just to check ph before you plant. You want 6.5 or close in soil. I’ll check the lights you ordered, mine have uv built in them, but they are the 620 and 840. I’ll check on that.
Git back in time to edit, the 400 doesn’t come with uv, you could add supplemental uv in flower if you want.
You’re so quick! Awesome, I’ll throw one of those in the ole cart too, thanks @Growdoc
That green is badass 
Supposed to be even better tonight they say 
Really?? Oooo now I’m excited 
Get us some more sweet pics 
I’ll probably be asleep 
So I read I’m supposed to rinse perlite… and I had a lot. I found somewhere that someone did this and I thought it was smart:
A mainstays (Walmart) two way pop-up mesh laundry hamper that fully zips close.
Dumped it in and gave it a shower. 
Thought it was a neat idea for anyone interested.
Nice tip! Thanks for the share 
Now this is something that can be very helpful. Sorry for the Late Welcome to the forum. I will tag you to my journal. 
Looking forward to it @Dforce 
Welcome @Krista , from another Minnesnowtan. Sounds like our first measurable will be Tuesday.
I have a couple juvenile Sleepy Joe plants I would happily gift you if you feel like you want to jump right in.
Lovely to meet you @OldNailPounder 
Omg that is soooooo generous! Where abouts are you located (if you’re ok saying openly or feel free to be vague and say miles away from me)? I’m between Kimball and Dassel.
I’m moving into a new house (2 miles away) next month so I might wait until then if that’s ok? I’m already kinda worried about having to move the seeds I’m going to drop next week 
luckily it’s only two miles and if I put them IN my heated truck I should be ok 
(she says hoping).
You keep up the good work and preparations on your end, and I’ll still have them when you are ready.
I Love the pictures of the Northern Lights.. Beautiful!!! Thank you for posting those pictures
Does anyone use FoxFarm Happy Frog and perlite for their medium?
So that’s what I had bought prior to joining the forums. I also got a cheap pH/EC/ppm meter not really knowing better but I think it’s still working ok. I just really don’t know how to read it (ie. what numbers I’m trying to get, if I’m not there, how to get there)… I have pH up and down, I’m sure I can figure that one out… but the rest I’m not really sure about and I don’t have the brain power to dig right now… so here’s the numbers I got:
I use a ZeroWater filter - this is my filtered water:
This is a slurry I ran with the above filtered water:
This is in the 4.0 calibration solution (mixed with the filtered water):
Let me know if this seems right? I think I remember reading the slurry might need to sit a bit before testing so I can check it again too (I have it in a container still).
Thanks in advance for any help 
